The platoon experiences its first encounter with the Taurans. Cortez orders everyone to take cover; an enemy ship is spotted overhead. The vessel, resembling “a broomstick surrounded by a dirty soap bubble” (63), carries a single Tauran, a creature whose physiology is strikingly non-human. It does not see them, however, and flies by without incident.

As they approach their objective, the enemy base, Captain Stott transmits an aerial image of the location to Cortez, who plans the attack with the platoon leaders. Nothing in the photograph suggests the presence of weapons, but they nevertheless assume they’re hidden in the base. “[Y]ou could hide a gigawatt laser in each of those huts” (65), Cortez warns. The plan is for the Earth’s Hope to detonate a fission bomb in the upper atmosphere to scramble the Taurans’s communications, after which the troops will begin the ground assault. Cortez reminds them to take one prisoner. When Potter corrects him—at least one—Cortez relieves her of her command position. As they prepare for the assault, Cortez informs them that if anyone has reservations about taking a Tauran life, “all of you have a post-hypnotic suggestion that I will trigger by a phrase, just before the battle.