Even after his year in the ITF, taking cover under actual fire had caused Lipton to slip back into old patterns of reaching for his helmet and having calls for Easy on the tip of his tongue. But now, five days into this war over a world that wasn't his own, he'd acclimatized to fighting with ninjas and all the rest.

He pressed his back into the wall, down a ways from Sonya and using the greater shadow to limited advantage in hiding his bigger frame, but it benefited him in being out of the range of the metal blast. He'd had enough shrapnel lodged into him for one lifetime, that was sure.

When their opponents started to charge, Lipton moved up to lean against to the corner with his rifle up, near to Jax, sighting and shooting for their heads. He'd seen enough horses put out of their misery that way to feel it was somewhat appropriate, even if he hadn't seen enough boys shot through the forehead to know how fragile the skull could be to a bullet.

He dropped one, and in its flailing fall another tripped, prompting Lipton to reaim and finish off the one that was down.