"Hate to say it, Benji, but..." "Believe me now?" "Oh, my God." "Look at all those shiny new Mega-Mechs." "All waiting in line to gas up." "Rebel skitters were right, as usual." "If those Mechs top off their tanks, we're toast." "It's not just that group, either." "This plant makes all the fuel for all the Mechs and Beamers on the East Coast." "The Fishheads invade our planet, but they forget to bring enough fuel?" "What's that about?" "We can't worry about that." "Our problem right now is that the only road in is guarded by Mechs, and they're all powered up." "They'll pound us to road kill if we try to go that way." "Then we'll go where they won't expect us." "They're not defending that cliff." "Those tubes must contain the fuel." "Oh, my God." "You think it's the radiation?" "It could have been us." "Okay, let's go." "Ah, you're wrong, Pope." "The Volm are freedom fighters, like the Contras." "Tector, do you honestly think when this is all finished, they're just going to what...?" "Ride off into the sunset?" "No, they got plans for this place." "Think about it." "You got your Volm family." "They're cruising across the cosmos in their interstellar S.U.V." "They got to make a rest stop, right?" "Some refreshments." "No, no, I'm telling you, when this war is finished up, you, my friend, are going to be standing behind a counter serving hot dogs and super slurps to bubble heads in Hawaiian shirts." "Hey, Glamour Grunt, is that a love bite?" "What, this?" "It's a dueling scar." "A little hand-to-claw action with a Skitter." "You fought a cockroach barehanded?" "Oh, yeah." "Big fat one." "Jumped out of a tree, smack on my back." "Holy crap." "How did you survive?" "Ah, I just flipped him over my shoulder Lucha Libre style." "That's when one of his buddies charged me from behind." "He's lying." "When he told me that story, he fought off three Skitters and a Mech with a tire iron." "If you expect a girl to hop in the sack with you, you're going to have to do a whole lot better than that, Lars." "Well, if that girl was you, Mags," "I certainly would." "I would start with a bouquet of fresh-cut wildflowers, followed by dinner at Pope's Bar, a bottle of his best champagne." "And then..." "Hal, what are you doing here?" "I knew you were coming off the line." "I thought we could grab some breakfast." "Looks like you're busy." "Hal." "Hal!" "Lars and I are battle buddies." "You know what it's like." "We're always busting each other." "Yeah, hey, I know what it's like, with us, and where that led." "What, you seriously think I'm sleeping with Lars?" "Are you?" "Can't even believe you asked that after what we've been through the past seven months." "Maggie, I'm sorry." "You don't deserve that." "Yeah, you're damn right, I don't." "You're not trapped in that chair." "You know you can get up anytime you like." "I don't want to hear anything else about the mud on my boots, all right?" "I'm not walking in my sleep." "Then how did the mud get there, Hal?" "You know damn well how." "You think Dumbo's magic-feather trick is going to make me walk again?" "Look, I know Karen did something to you." "I don't know how, but she put you in that chair." "And now, for some reason, you don't want to get out of it." "You're holding something back, Hal." "I can see it every time I look in your eyes." "I know you think I'm lying to you," "I'm playing games with you." "You're the one who's keeping a secret from me." "I just wish the hell I knew why." "Okay." "We all know it's a tough nut to crack." "Dan's got the only plan that might get us by those Mech emplacements." "It's tactically unsound." "It's damn near insane." "On the other hand, it just might work." "I like the sound of it already." "The main entrance is heavily guarded by Mechs." "We'll never get through it." "Our only hope is to come through these dense woods, down this cliff." "Get them from behind." "But no matter how good the plan is, if our spy leaks it to the enemy, we'll be walking into an ambush." "But the Volm feel that this is an essential target to hit, and I'm inclined to agree with them." "These Mega-Mechs, they're part of the forces the Espheni want to use against Charleston." "We deny them their fuel, we knock these pieces off the board." "Will the Volm be joining us on this mission?" "No, they will not." "We can't leave the city unprotected." "You will take a small unit of our best fighters." "General Bressler's troops will stay on the perimeter, and the Volm will stay in Charleston to assist them." "Yes, sir." "We still haven't talked about the elephant in the room." "I can get a team close enough to destroy the reactor with one of Cochise's big guns." "But if we blow it up, we're going to spew radioactive fallout sky high." "It'll be a homegrown Chernobyl." "Depending on the winds, it could poison everything, even as far away as here." "Maybe these Volm have some kind of high-tech gizmo which can prevent that from happening." "Nope." "And they don't have anything that can help us contain a massive radiation leak." "Is there anybody in Charleston that has any expertise in nuclear reactors?" "Dr. Roger Kadar." "He runs our power grid." "Kadar taught nuclear engineering at the University of South Carolina before the war." "Have him meet me in my office." "Not going to happen." "Kadar is agoraphobic." "He never leaves the power plant beneath the city." "If you want to talk to him, we have to go to him." "Dr. Kadar is among the first people to arrive in Charleston." "Arthur Manchester struck a deal with him." "If Kadar would help provide power to the city," "Manchester would make sure he gets everything he needs, he wouldn't have to leave his power plant." "We've continued to honor that agreement." "We?" "You have enough on your plate, Tom." "No need to deal with Kadar until now." "Dr. Kadar?" "It's Marina Peralta..." "No, no, no!" "No, no, no, no!" "You'll contaminate the reaction system." "I've been trying to obtain this combustion efficiency for over a month!" "What the hell kind of contraption is that?" "This facility is off limits to unauthorized personnel." "What are they doing down here, Marina?" "This is Tom Mason." "The..." "The President." "I didn't vote for you." "I won't hold that against you." "Uh, this is, one of my top military aides." "This is Dan Weaver." "Hi." "Well, that's not the right ratio at all." "Mathematically, that's not..." "No, it's a chemical reaction." "I mean, the numbers shouldn't even be..." "Oh, come on." "This is a waste of time." "Yes, it is." "I have work to do." "Right." "Dr. Kadar, we understand you're the person we have to thank for all the electricity in Charleston." "That's right, and with this generator," "I'll be able to produce 10.5 kilowatt hours per day." "Your team has done an amazing job down here." "I..." "I don't..." "I don't have a team." "I've done this all myself." "Oh, no team?" "Well, then you're probably the only person who can help us." "Help you with what?" "We need to know if there's a way to safely destroy the Wakonda reactor." "By safely," "I assume you mean you do not want to rain radioactive waste over the state, leaving it uninhabitable for the next 24,100 years?" "That's right." "We'd like to avoid that if possible." "Well, that's..." "That's a bit of a poser." "That's a fun one." "I'll have something for you tomorrow." "Well, I guess the interview's over." "Yeah." "There you go, little girl." "All clean and warm." "I love you." "I love you." "You're so cute." "What are you looking at?" "You're just a week old." "You shouldn't be able to track like that." "Mama." "Alexis?" "Alexis?" "Oh, God." "What..." "Mama." "Mommy." "Sorry I'm late." "Is she still awake?" "Barely." "She just ate, so her eyes are getting heavy." "Here." "Oh, yeah." "Oh, I have been dying to get back to you all day." "She's a very different little girl." " Different?" " Yeah." "Different in what way?" "She's very advanced." "I don't follow." "Maybe it's just my imagination." "Anyways, I'm going to be late for my shift." " Milk's in the fridge." " All right." "Okay." "Oh, Lexie." "Oh, that's good." "Hello, Lexie." "It's your daddy." "I'll check in on you a little later." "Got to admit I'm envious." "Of what?" "Alexis." "Why is that?" "Because whenever new mothers bring their babies in for check-ups," "I look into the kid's eyes and realize they don't know." "A baby has no way of knowing there's been an apocalypse and that we're at war and people are out there dying every day." "To a baby, everything's new and wondrous." "And it thrills them just to be alive." "It must bring you so much joy having her." "Are you all right?" "Yeah." "I'm fine." "You seem..." "Is everything okay with Alexis?" "She's really good." "I'm going to go check on Ms. McManus." "Duct tape." "Math class started 10 minutes ago." "Oh, how I wish I could be there with Mr. Hooper and the gang learning all about trapezoids and parallelograms." "Stop!" "My head is going to explode from that." "Yeah, it's so stupid learning that crap." "How's math going to help us kick the aliens off this planet?" "Match." "Hey." "Do you think it'll make too big a bang?" "I mean, we could get in trouble, right?" "Relax." "It's only a half stick." "It'll just blow out the window." "Yeah, don't be such a wimp." "This is going to be killer." "That was totally epic." "Matt?" "Awesome." "Tick, tick..." "Boom!" "Yeah!" "Hold there!" "Got movement!" "Go, come on." "Run!" "Go!" "Matt?" "What the hell have you been up to?" "You're lucky you didn't blow yourself to pieces." "Do you know people heard the explosion and thought we were under attack?" "Did you stop to think about how that would scare them?" "Not really." "Why would you do something like this, Matt?" "I don't know." "Bored, I guess." "Is that why you haven't been going to school?" "Your teacher, Mr. Hooper, he stopped by a little while ago to say you haven't been to class in four days." "And you haven't done any of your homework for the past week." "So what?" "School's useless." "I'm not going back." "Yes, you are, Matt." "You can't tell me what to do." "You're not my mother!" "You're right, Matt." "I'm not your mother." "But as a concerned citizen," "I'm going to ask Anthony to escort you back to school." "School ended half an hour ago." "Not for you." "You have an extra two hours of detention for the next two weeks." "Anthony." "Anthony." "I've thought about your problem." "It's, uh..." "It's tricky." "If you demolish the reactor building, you destroy the cooling system, as well." "So the nuclear fuel overheats, and the steam..." "Would blow up the reactor and rain radioactive debris all over the countryside." "Right." "So you have to turn the reactor off before you blow it." "That would mean sending a team into the facility." "Yeah." "And that's just the first part." "Then you have to render the system inoperable without compromising the integrity of the reactor containment vessel." "That means destabilizing precise structural tipping points so the building's collapse will entomb the reactor without impairing its shielding." "I didn't understand a damn word of what you just said." "Just give it to us in laymen's terms." "If you put your detonation charges in exactly the right places, then, yes, you can destroy the building, you can wreck the system without leaking any radiation." "Can you show us where to put the charges?" "Sure, once I see the facility's plans, and elementary physics." "It'll be fun." "Well, the fun has just begun." "We don't have any plans." "You're going to have to come up and show our demolition team where to set those charges." "I never go topside." "And I can't." "I'm sorry." "Dr. Kadar, you are the man for this job." "Okay, goodbye." "Goodbye." "Dr. Kadar, you can do this." " I can't." " You can go." "Nothing good happens up there." "You can do this." "It's easy." " I can't." " You can." "I can't." "I can't." "I had a deal with Manchester." "I had a deal..." "I know." "That I would never have to go tops..." "I remember." "But things are different now." "All of our lives depend on this mission." "You can do this." "We don't want to lose any more children." "Proceed, General." "Yes, sir." "People, what we're about to discuss in this room is highly classified." "What that means is whatever's said in this room may not be repeated outside this room." "This is a need-to-know basis only." "Anybody involved in the mission is being told only what they need to know for their part of the operation." "All right, Dan." "Yes, sir." "The success of this mission rests upon surprise and speed." "If the Espheni get wind of it," "Mission failure is probable, death all but certain." "We're taking the risk because this operation can cripple the enemy war machine." "Understood?" "Anthony." "Ben." "Pope." "I will lead my core group of fighters north along Mill Highway." "We will then head east on 1081, secure our vehicles, travel by foot to this bluff overlooking the reactor." "We will then descend into this gorge and enter through the back end of the facility." "So you think we can just sneak in from behind and take the Espheni by surprise?" "Well, that's insane." "Which is exactly what the enemy thinks." "Which is why they have left the back end of the plant undefended." "Any more questions?" "Wish the hell they'd tell us where we're going." "Don't worry about it." "Tom told Pope our real target, and Pope told Tector." "Spill it, big man." "Fort Knox." "Turns out the Espheni came here for our gold." "Tector told you that?" "And you believe him?" "Okay, I'll prove it to you." "Hey, Benji." "Where we headed?" "You'll find out when we get there." "See what you started?" "Now everyone's calling me that." "Hey, Ben." "You guys stay close to each other." "Be careful out there." "Don't be a hero." "I know." "See you in the morning." "Don't worry, Mr. Mason." "I won't let anything happen to him." "A lot rides on this one, Torn." "It's a solid plan." "It's going to work." "They're all solid plans till the first bullet flies, and then they're as relevant as yesterday's racing forms." "Oh, you'll pull through." "You always do." "When I have you by my side." "To ask the hard questions." "Give you a swift kick in the butt if you need it." "Well." "You have your job to do now." "I have mine." "I guess that's the way it's got to be." "Hey, Dan." "Yeah?" "Stay frosty." "Like a winter in Buffalo." "People, stow the talk and your gear!" "We're moving out!" "They knew we were coming!" "We walked right into it!" "Shut up!" "We need more firepower!" "I thought you said this part of the reactor wasn't defended!" "It's working." "The Mechs are leaving the gate to attack Weaver's team." "You were right." "The mole leaked Colonel Weaver's plans to the enemy." "I'm using my own people as bait, and they're paying in blood for every second that we waste." "Refresh my memory, Cap!" "Was being massacred part of the plan?" "Weaver's team has bought us a window." "The road to the power plant's wide open." "We're going in." "Don't sweat it, Doc." "You can only die once." "Thanks, that thought will be a great comfort to me." "No matter what happens, you stay close to me, okay?" "I got your back." " How do you do it?" " What's that?" "All these people depending on you?" "How do you carry that load?" "I don't have much of a choice." "Let's go." "Thanks, Anthony." "Be careful." "Weaver's getting pounded out there." "I'll see you on the other side, okay?" " Be safe." " All right." "Come on, let's roll, Tec, we got people that need our help." "It's wide open." "Okay, let's go." "Take cover!" "Get down!" "Spoke too soon!" "Those are harnessed kids shooting at us." "Try not to kill them." " It doesn't matter!" " It does matter." "Forrester, you're up." "Try to push them back." "Cover him!" "All right, cease fire!" "Cease fire!" "Cease fire!" "Help me." "Please." "It hurts." "Please." "Mommy, please." "It hurts." "It's a child." "It's a harnessed soldier fighting for the Espheni." "A kid's a kid." "It's not his fault they slapped a parasite on his back." " No, it's a trap." " It hurts." "That's a chance we got to take." "Please!" "Help me, please." "It hurts." "Mommy." "Barely looks human." "The harness is in too deep." "Oh, no." "No, no, no, no, no." " Is he?" " Yeah." "He's gone." "His name was Scott." "Lars!" "I'm right here." "I'm right here, buddy." "I'm right with you, Lars." "Forrester, finish bandaging him up." "Get him to the rendezvous point." "We'll meet you there." "Let's go!" "We're..." "We're going to go back with him, right?" "Like hell we are." "We're going in." "Let's go now!" "Okay." "I'm going to see you soon, okay?" "You hang in there, you hear me?" " Let's go!" "Let's go!" " Wait, wait." "There could be more of them in there, a lot more." "Then we'll smoke them." "Lyle, two o'clock!" "Just keep down!" "Colonel Weaver, this way!" "The road's open!" "About time!" "Okay, if we're out of here in 15 minutes, we should be able to get home with a little nausea and no hair loss." "Let's get to it." "Where do we set these charges, Doc?" "There and there and there." "That could bring down the building without rupturing the containment vessel." ""Could"?" "We need to do a hell of a lot better than "could."" "Call it a high order of probability, then, if it makes you happy." "All right, Anthony, set the charges." "The control room should be that way." "Let's go turn the reactor off." "My glasses!" "They're broken!" "Get up!" "I can't see anything without my glasses." "What's wrong?" "They've re-routed everything." "If I only had my glasses." "You don't have your glasses, so figure it out." "We got people dying out there." "I can't..." "It's no use." "I can't see." "I can't see anything." "It's not going to work." "It's not going to work." "Okay." "Come on." "You can do this." "You can do this." "Tell me what to look for." "I'm looking for a button, uh, something that says "scram."" ""Scram"?" "Scram." " Got it." " Push it." "Push it." "All right." "Do you see anything that says "reactor power"?" "Reactor power, 93%." "Needle's not moving." "Open it." "There should be two wires sticking out coming out from under the switch." "What color are they?" "Red and orange." "Follow the orange wire." "It should lead to the control rod motor relay socket." "I got it." "It's been cut." "Hurry up in there!" "I can't hold them much longer!" "You got to run a wire from the red side of the switch to the orange side of the relay socket." "Red side to the orange side." "Reactor power, 63% and dropping." "She's shutting down." "Okay." "Let's go." "Been busy?" "Those charges set?" "Yeah, ready to blow this place to hell." "All right, let's go." "Start the ball, Anthony." "Why not?" "That's the last of us." "Nobody left behind." "Right." "For what it's worth, Colonel, it worked." "Your unit bought us the time we needed." "And the spy never learned the real plan." "Where's your father?" "He should have set the charges already." "He should be out anytime." "You see what our great allies, the Volm, are doing now?" "Using our own soldiers as sacrificial lambs?" "It's funny because I don't see any of them out here dying with us." "Put a sock in it and keep moving, Pope." "Sir." "What are you gaping at?" "Move your asses." " I want you to wash this down for me." " Lourdes." "Head injury." ".H6y" " H6y" "How's Lars?" "The bite of the harness kid introduced an extremely aggressive bacteria into his system." "It's releasing toxins that are destroying his internal organs." "I tried the most powerful antibiotic we've got." "It's had no effect." "What about that thing we did with Colonel Weaver where we take the blood out and heat it up?" "It's too late for that." "It's already in his liver and his lungs." "He's got a couple hours at most." "All we can do is make him as comfortable as possible until it's over." "But you performed courageously out there." "You can enter your house fully justified." "Thank you, sir." "He's right." "You did a hell of a job." "I wish I had a medal to give you." "Oh, I don't need a medal." "I'm honored that you took the time to see me, sir." "It's Tom." "And the honor is mine." "Get some rest." "Maggie." "Yeah?" "My dog tags." "Would you keep them for me?" "You're the only family I got." "Absolutely." "To Lars." "To all of them." "To all of them." "Good kids." "Good soldiers." "Good soldiers." "Well, we did it." "We fooled them all." "The Espheni only knew about my team, not yours." "It had an element of surprise." "I hope I never have to send you out on anything like that ever again." "That wasn't easy." "Yeah." "I never had any doubts." "No?" "Not even a little bit?" "I never had any doubts about you." "But the Volm, you still have your doubts about them, huh?" "What are we doing with these new allies of ours, Tom?" "I mean, we don't even know where they came from." "They pointed to a star." "They said, "That's our home."" "Why should we believe that?" "I don't know." "But everything that they have told us is consistent with everything that we do know." "I do not believe that they are these crusaders that are going around saving all the planets that the Espheni have conquered." "I don't believe that." "That's too good to be true." "And even if it's only partly true, there's no getting around the fact that since they showed up, the tide has turned." "If they ever finish that big weapon of theirs, we might win this war." "How do we know that's a big weapon they're building?" "They could be creating something entirely different." "We don't even have the slightest idea how that thing works." "That's a good point." "It's a good point." "Maybe Dr. Kadar can help us with that." "Come in." "Gentlemen, congratulations." "When my team first arrived on this planet," "I had doubts about our mission's chance of success, but, over the past seven months," "I have watched you hone your soldiers into a highly skilled force." "And after the way they acquitted themselves on this latest engagement," "I am certain you will prevail over the Espheni." "Don't need you to tell me that." "But thank you, Cochise." "We are very proud of the way our people conducted themselves." "And I guess we won't be hearing from the Espheni anytime soon." "On the contrary." "You can expect them to attack Charleston in force." "Really?" "It seems we knocked a lot of their assets out today, destroyed most of their fuel supply." "Most, but not all." "We have learned that they are bringing in every surviving Mech and Beamer in this region, consolidating whatever supplies they have left and will hit you hard to prove you have not weakened them." "So I advise you to keep your soldiers on the perimeter at high alert." "Dad, I guess you heard about me blowing a hole in that building." "Uh, yeah, I did." "I realize it was a stupid thing to do." "It scared a lot of people." "That's an understatement." "Did you know that that building was one that we were planning on refurbishing so families could move back into it?" "No." "I thought it was abandoned." "I figured as much." "Anyway, I signed you up for a work crew after school so you could help repair the damage." "That's okay." "I don't mind fixing what I blew up." "But I don't see the point of school." "You know, memorizing the names of dead people won't help us win this war." "Matt, one day, this war's going to be over." "And when it is, we're going to need some people with a lot of skill to rebuild this country." "I may not live to see that day, but you will." "That's why you're staying in school." "Even math class?" "Especially math class." "How come you're being so nice?" "I thought you'd be doing a lot more yelling." "Because this isn't entirely your fault." "I've been so busy with this job" "I haven't really paid you any attention." "That's going to change starting tomorrow." "I'm going to come home and help you with your homework." "Uh..." "I guess I like the sound of that." "Dad." "Can I talk to you about something else?" "Sure." "I..." "I did something really bad." "You mean worse than blowing a hole in the side of a building?" "Yeah." "I said something mean to Anne." "Really mean." "I'm not sure if she'll ever forgive me." "I don't know." "She's a pretty understanding person." "What should I do?" "You should talk to her." "I'm, uh, sorry about what I said." "I was mad, and I didn't mean it." "I know." "Thank you for saying so." "Would you mind..." "Mind what?" "If I, like called you mom?" "I wouldn't mind at all." "She's such a happy baby." "Have you noticed she never cries?" "It's true." "You and your brothers used to scream your heads off." "But she does, she seems quite content." "She's a very unique little girl." "Hal!" "Hal!" "Hal!" "Hal." "Hal." "Hal." "Hal." "Wake up." "Wake up." "What?" "What?" "What's going on?" "You're walking." "You're walking." "See?" "You're not paralyzed." "Okay?" "I'm walking." "I'm walking." "Come on." "Let's get you home."