Hell, if you had any sort of support, I’d be speaking with Lt. Crow now, I suspect.”
“The lieutenant is in the Hood’s medical lab, sir,” she said woodenly. “His injuries likely won’t permit his return to service.”
Kane stopped for a moment, his face carved from stone. “I see. On your last mission?”
“Yes, sir.”
The general nodded quietly, then shook his head slightly. “Well, I would have preferred better news there. Crow handled himself well on Hayden during the last push.”
“He did at that, sir,” Sorilla confirmed.
“Still, my reasoning stands,” Kane said after a moment. “If you had support for what you’re so obviously here about, I would be speaking with an officer. So, Sergeant, wow me.”
“General, sir, you know as well as I do that if we leave them be, they’ll be a gun at our back when the enemy fleet returns,” she said, clearly not feeling any need to sugarcoat things. “Leaving a dangerous guerilla force on-world is reckless at best, suicidal at worst.”
“We don’t have the forces to dig them out, Sergeant. They’ve already showed that,” he said evenly. “We lost most of our patrols until we pulled them back within the beams. The fact is that the enemy has better jungle fighters than we do.”
“Not than Hayden’s pathfinders and I, sir,” she said, her tone vehement. “Give me Reed, a spotter, and artillery support, and we’ll weed them out.”
“Funny, Sergeant, you don’t look like John Wayne,” Kane told her dryly. “And even the Duke knew enough to take a team.”
“My team is due to stand down,” she said stiffly, “and they need the time. This isn’t a combat mission, sir. What we need on Hayden are forward observers, calling in fire from the heavens, not a strike team.”
“Your team aren’t the only ones due to stand down, Sergeant,” Kane told her. Honestly he liked the idea, and it played well into his own sensibilities, but he wasn’t about to make it easy on her now. Especially not since she’d jumped the chain of command in bringing it directly to him, but since she was assigned to OPCOM, the distinction was a technicality as her position was outside his direct chain of command.
Just as well for the master sergeant,
he supposed. He would have had her on report and tossed in the brig for a couple days if she had tried it while under his command.
That said, OPCOM was not only a separate chain of command, but in many ways those within it held higher authority than their ranks would indicate.
“I’ll consider it,” he said finally, eyes flicking to the door. “Dismissed.”
“Sir!” She went to attention again, saluting perfectly before pivoting on her heel and marching out.
****
Sorilla left the office with mixed feelings.
On the one hand, she hadn’t gotten the permission she’d been seeking, but honestly she knew that had been a longshot at best. In reality, she supposed she had achieved the best case scenario in that he had promised to consider the request. Decisions at that level took time, and hopefully this one would come down in her favor.
She left a message for Tara, putting off the get-together they’d planned for later that day. Instead, Sorilla hitched a ride on the next transfer capsule to the Hood and immediately made her way to the armory.
Her armor was powered down, the power systems tended to degrade over time when kept at a combat charge, and she knew that she would also need to re-flash the suit’s system memory with the latest operating system code. Again, leaving a suit’s software running over long periods tended to result in trash building up in the oddest of places, eventually compromising the armor’s effectiveness.
It had been wiped after the last mission, and so she started the power-up sequence and began re-flashing the systems one by one while the suit charged from ship’s stores. She was preparing, just in case, to be sure, but on the assumption that she’d be receiving new
“The lieutenant is in the Hood’s medical lab, sir,” she said woodenly. “His injuries likely won’t permit his return to service.”
Kane stopped for a moment, his face carved from stone. “I see. On your last mission?”
“Yes, sir.”
The general nodded quietly, then shook his head slightly. “Well, I would have preferred better news there. Crow handled himself well on Hayden during the last push.”
“He did at that, sir,” Sorilla confirmed.
“Still, my reasoning stands,” Kane said after a moment. “If you had support for what you’re so obviously here about, I would be speaking with an officer. So, Sergeant, wow me.”
“General, sir, you know as well as I do that if we leave them be, they’ll be a gun at our back when the enemy fleet returns,” she said, clearly not feeling any need to sugarcoat things. “Leaving a dangerous guerilla force on-world is reckless at best, suicidal at worst.”
“We don’t have the forces to dig them out, Sergeant. They’ve already showed that,” he said evenly. “We lost most of our patrols until we pulled them back within the beams. The fact is that the enemy has better jungle fighters than we do.”
“Not than Hayden’s pathfinders and I, sir,” she said, her tone vehement. “Give me Reed, a spotter, and artillery support, and we’ll weed them out.”
“Funny, Sergeant, you don’t look like John Wayne,” Kane told her dryly. “And even the Duke knew enough to take a team.”
“My team is due to stand down,” she said stiffly, “and they need the time. This isn’t a combat mission, sir. What we need on Hayden are forward observers, calling in fire from the heavens, not a strike team.”
“Your team aren’t the only ones due to stand down, Sergeant,” Kane told her. Honestly he liked the idea, and it played well into his own sensibilities, but he wasn’t about to make it easy on her now. Especially not since she’d jumped the chain of command in bringing it directly to him, but since she was assigned to OPCOM, the distinction was a technicality as her position was outside his direct chain of command.
Just as well for the master sergeant,
he supposed. He would have had her on report and tossed in the brig for a couple days if she had tried it while under his command.
That said, OPCOM was not only a separate chain of command, but in many ways those within it held higher authority than their ranks would indicate.
“I’ll consider it,” he said finally, eyes flicking to the door. “Dismissed.”
“Sir!” She went to attention again, saluting perfectly before pivoting on her heel and marching out.
****
Sorilla left the office with mixed feelings.
On the one hand, she hadn’t gotten the permission she’d been seeking, but honestly she knew that had been a longshot at best. In reality, she supposed she had achieved the best case scenario in that he had promised to consider the request. Decisions at that level took time, and hopefully this one would come down in her favor.
She left a message for Tara, putting off the get-together they’d planned for later that day. Instead, Sorilla hitched a ride on the next transfer capsule to the Hood and immediately made her way to the armory.
Her armor was powered down, the power systems tended to degrade over time when kept at a combat charge, and she knew that she would also need to re-flash the suit’s system memory with the latest operating system code. Again, leaving a suit’s software running over long periods tended to result in trash building up in the oddest of places, eventually compromising the armor’s effectiveness.
It had been wiped after the last mission, and so she started the power-up sequence and began re-flashing the systems one by one while the suit charged from ship’s stores. She was preparing, just in case, to be sure, but on the assumption that she’d be receiving new
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