Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks Page B

coming in now,’ Yalson said. She was up in the trees, too, along with Lamm, Jandraligeli and Neisin. According to the plan, all except Neisin and Jandraligeli would now start moving through the air on AG towards the temple. Although the anti-gravity units on their suits gave them an extra dimension to work with, they could be something of a mixed blessing; while a figure in the air tended to be harder to hit than one on the ground, it also tended to attract a lot more fire. The only other person in the Company with AG was Kraiklyn, but he said he preferred to use his for surprise or in emergencies, so he was still on the ground with the rest of them.
    ‘I’m at the walls!’ Horza thought it was Odraye’s voice. ‘This looks all right. The walls are really easy; the moss makes it - ‘
    Horza’s helmet speaker crackled. He wasn’t sure if there was something wrong with his communicator or if something had happened to Odraye.
    ‘ - ver me while I’m - ‘
    ‘ - on you useless - ‘ Voices clashed in Horza’s helmet. He kept wading through the cane grass, and thumped the side of his helmet.
    ‘ - asshole!’ The helmet speaker buzzed, then went silent. Horza swore and stopped, crouching down. He fumbled with the communicator controls at the side of the helmet, trying to coax the speaker back into life. His too-big gloves hindered him. The speaker stayed silent. He cursed again and got to his feet, pushing through the scrub and long grass to the temple wall.
    ‘ - rojectiles inside!’ a voice yelled suddenly. ‘This - . . . - cking simple!’ He couldn’t identify the voice, and the speaker went dead again immediately.
    He arrived at the base of the wall; it slanted out of the scrub at about forty degrees and was covered in moss. Further along, two of the Company were clambering up it, almost at the top, about seven metres above. Horza saw a flying figure weaving through the air and disappearing over the parapet. He started climbing. The clumsily large suit made it more difficult than it should have been, but he got to the top without falling and jumped down from the parapet onto a broad wall-walk. A similar moss-covered wall sloped up to the next storey. To Horza’s right the wall turned a corner beneath a stubby tower; to his left the wall-walk seemingly disappeared into a blank cross-wall. According to Kraiklyn’s plan Horza was supposed to head along that way. There ought to be a door there. Horza jogged along towards the blank wall.
    A helmet bobbed up from the side of the sloped wall. Horza started to duck and swerve, just in case, but first an arm waved from the same place, then both helmet and arm appeared, and he recognised the woman Gow.
    Horza threw back the visor on his helmet as he ran, getting a faceful of jungle-scented Marjoin air. He could hear some rattling projectile fire from inside the temple, and the distant thud of an exploding Microhowitzer round. He ran up to a narrow entrance cut in the sloped wall, half covered by streamers of mossy growth. Gow was kneeling, gun ready, on the splintered remains of a heavy wooden door which had blocked the passageway beyond. Horza knelt beside her and pointed at his helmet.
    ‘My communicator’s out. What’s been happening?’
    Gow touched a button on her wrist, and her suit PA said, ‘OK so far. No hurts. They on towers.’ She pointed up. ‘Them no fly go in. They enemy got projectile guns only, them fall back.’ She nodded and kept glancing round through the doorway and into the dark passageway beyond. Horza nodded too. Gow tapped his arm. ‘I tell Kraiklyn you go in, yes?’
    ‘Yeah, tell him my communicator’s out, OK?’
    ‘Yeah, sure. Zallin same trouble had. You be safe, OK?’
    ‘Yeah, you be safe, too,’ Horza said. He stood up and entered the temple, scuffing over splinters of wood and fragments of sandstone scattered over the moss by the door’s demolition. The dark corridor branched three ways. He turned back to Gow and