Do you think he was able to pass 20 wagons like that? - could. From the third car, he simply stopped distinguishing people in front of him - he walked, as if pushing through thickets or swam through some kind of viscous muck. This was not invented in any computer shooter. Three soldiers who were with him this march, having left the last car, collapsed exhausted into the mud. Ratmir came across a wooden pallet and lay down on it. An electric locomotive whistled ahead, Ratmir waved his hand, and 600 lucky evacuees slowly crawled eastward in a cheerful string of lights. Their savior got up from the pieces of wood to meet the next echelon, surprised that for some reason his lower jaw and eyes were tired the most. He didn't feel his arms or legs at all.

Yesterday, almost simultaneously with the air raid on Kaulnin, the Argunians went on the offensive with their ground units, surprisingly and shamefully easily, using the surprise factor, crushing the Horde troops covering the border. The Urga corps, moving from south to north, crushed the 20th division of the Horde, the Morabon corps did the same with the 21st division, moving from west to east. Of the 14 thousand Horde soldiers who entered the battle, about 5 thousand died. The rest were not even captured. They knocked out all the heavy weapons and simply pushed them out of the way. Frightened and lost, they now wandered through the forests and fields in dirty, ragged crowds, watching as columns of clean Argun tanks and armored vehicles drive past them on all roads to Kaulnin.

The Argun brigades from the south and from the west were rapidly moving towards Kaulnin. Now they have a hundred kilometers to the city. They will be here tonight. An order came from the capital to organize the evacuation of the civilian population - to take out of the city as many people as possible. The soldiers of the 22nd division, who covered the city, were transferred for the night to the governor's disposal to assist in organizing the evacuation. Probably, someone else would have done this job more gracefully, but Captain Ratmir's company, at least, coped with its task.

Ratmir thought so at about seven in the morning, when it began to get light. He was breathing heavily on a bunk in the conductor's compartment of a carriage set aside on the siding. The conductor girl in a clean, beautifully pressed uniform smiled and put sweets on his plate. He sipped the glass of tea she had brought and smoked. Suddenly, he felt like himself again - Ratmir, a cool guy, a brave warrior, a cocky 28-year-old male. He suddenly began to realize his greatness and coolness. Here he saved seventeen thousand people overnight, pushing them out of the city doomed to a meat grinder. As they say, it was not easy, but he, Ratmir, did it with his guys.

A conductor in a red tunic with bright gold buttonholes was spinning nearby, bent down to pick up a dazzling white napkin that had fallen on a bright blue carpet. In front of the captain's eyes was the "correct" model ass, tightly tucked into a red skirt. The officer put his hand on her, bending down to help pick up the napkin... She giggled, he laughed.

Then she, taking a glass in her hands and for some reason that snow-white napkin, left, sliding the compartment door behind her. Ratmir lay, feeling pain all over his body, fatigue and bruised elbows and shoulders. He listened to the morning silence and looked at the wall of the compartment, at the table with sweets in the morning twilight. There was still the taste of her lipstick in her mouth. His nose could still smell the lingering smell of her tightly pulled black hair in a ponytail. He understood - she believed that they would kill him today or tomorrow. She gave her type of duty to the country, the defender men and all that. He thought he liked it or not. Decided that he likes that it was at least this. And he also likes just such girls, with sparkling surprised eyes like hers, smiling narrow lips and, of course, with such thin hands with narrow palms, long fingers, painted with bright red claws, like hers.

His company had been given a few hours of rest, the soldiers now sleeping side by side, crammed into three wagons on the siding. At 10 a.m., line up and wait at the hangars of the locomotive depot. Cars will come, his company and others - the entire battalion that worked at this marshalling yard, will be taken to the southern outskirts of the city. There they will take up positions, get used to the evening, and will wait for the approach of units of the Urga corps of the Argunians. If there is time, until the morning it will be possible to gain a foothold and do it properly and be ready for any trouble. If a soldier is properly prepared, he himself can become a nuisance for the enemy. The 22nd division was going to rest its horns and fight in the city, for every quarter, for every house. The 5 millionth Kaulnin Khan, there will be no stone left unturned, but the division will be able to hold out here for a couple of weeks, or maybe a month.

1.2

So, the war has begun, and everything is going according to plan. I went to the agreed dating site, found the wonderful Maggie from Ikssha in the search, sent her a heart, and wrote that I want to see. My friend in Kaulnin will see this and understand that I am in place and ready. When the time comes, Maggie will answer me, say, come, and tell me how much she costs per hour - from this figure I will understand how much is at stake in the end and, most likely, I will decide to enter the game.

But it's still about a month before I go on stage. The ship is ready. All 20 batteries are charged. 3 is needed for a standard landing on a medium gravity planet. To fly to the desired distance, you need 3 more batteries per starting impulse. 2 batteries are needed for maneuvering engines to dodge obstacles and correct possible course errors. Another 3 need to be kept in reserve for a return takeoff, if for some reason it cannot be recharged there. 5 more in reserve for emergencies, short flights, accidents and more. Finally, 1 battery - NC for the rescue unit. And 3 batteries are consumed by life support systems, enough for six months. (One is electricity for onboard equipment and all systems, including lighting and communications. The other is spent on the production of water and air. The third is to simulate gravity inside the ship).

Someone will say that 3 batteries a year is a luxury, there are those who manage with one. They sit in the dark, breathe dust, drink their own purified urine, and wash themselves with it. I am an ascetic in many matters and can do without much. In the flight school, we were taught to endure hardships. And after spending 3 years at Mascala, I also learned in real life what hardships are. And then for 2 years I flew from this Mascala in a crowded transport, where a thousand people crowded, like in a barrel, on three-tiered bunks, fastened so as not to take off and not to stray at night in a dream in one smelly unwashed ball. But, damn it, now my glass is firmly on the table, and the table is on the floor, and I don’t fly like a fly around the cabin, but I walk. I breathe real "mountain" air and not cheap chemical bzd from cylinders from the Trench. And I wash myself with river water with a chemical composition, as in the springs of Uliad, I don't use chemically impregnated wipes. And my light burns with the brightness that I like, and I do not save on traffic, and on imitators.

Maybe my ship is too big for one of my snouts? May be. I remembered when I just took it with a ten-year installment plan, I thought that my normal life was about to begin. Here is my flying mink for two ... I spent money on a wide bed, wardrobes and bedside tables, soft chairs and armchairs. Linen, blankets, even laid carpets ... She flew off on her own course, the other did not hit my nest, and then everything started spinning like that ... My life turned out to be a solitary voyage. Women have been on this board, but whores are indifferent to carpets and ottomans. All this rubbish that was supposed to form comfort was either sold or donated, mostly thrown away.

For whores, and for me, the bathroom turned out to be more important. I spent on it. I have a huge bathtub where you can lie down, a normal, excuse me, toilet, shower. Everything is tiled, backlit. And I will not voluntarily save on this.

But to live like this, you have to work. Charging one battery costs 20 gold. There is still a month before the big game, and all this time the ship will be powered by batteries, which means that it is necessary to replenish the balance in order to recharge it. I had two current earnings and one of them was an electronic exchange.

I went to tradeservice, a galactic exchange resource, to my bank profile. I have a hundred gold pieces there. Gold is the unit to which, one way or another, all currencies in this galaxy are tied, approximately equal to the average price of 10 grams of gold. I activated my profile by sending a sign to my club that I was ready to play for a month. I am not on the worst account in the club and such a free broker as I have thrown another 400 gold from the general bank for the game. With a capital of 500 units, I will earn more - and the club will receive its 400 + 3% in a month.