One Good Soldier

teeth first.

'No, Colonel. I had no idea.' Tamara stood at attention and stared blankly ahead. 'On the staff sergeant's behalf, sir, I must say that he did take out a shitload of enemy combatants, sir.'

'Taking that into consideration, First Sergeant, is the only reason I haven't busted his balls further down. However, he did take out my entire platoon!' Colonel Roberts turned his attention from Tamara to Tommy. 'Well, Staff Sergeant Suez? Just what in the flying fuck makes you think you have the authority to self-destruct not just yourself but an entire platoon of marines? I mean, there I was all by myself with nothing but a bunch of damned Army pukes to help me retake and hold our objective. Do you realize how much money Uncle Sam has invested in a platoon of AEMs? Well?'

'Sir, I, uh, was pretty sure we were dead anyway, and our objective was to take that hill, sir,' Tommy replied nervously.

'Take it! Take it!' Roberts shouted. 'Take it, hell. You took it all right! You took it and blew it to fuck and gone. Had it been the real world and not a sim, you would have blown that hill halfway to the Oort Cloud. What if there was something special about that hill that we needed? A decision like that is above your pay grade, soldier. Hell, it's above my pay grade!'

'Had no intel on the hill, sir. Just that we were supposed to take it. So, rather than die to railgun rounds, I decided to go out taking as many of the enemy with me as I could, sir,' Tommy said, still standing stiff as a board and looking forward.

'Staff Sergeant.' Colonel Roberts paused and lowered the tone in his voice. 'Next time, try to come up with a less costly solution. You are dismissed. Go get some lunch and meet the dignitary if you can. From what I hear, she'll likely be hanging out with the mecha jocks. Now get. I've got to think on this situation more. And stay out of my sight for a little while or you might find that I lose my temper again.'

'Yes, sir!' Tommy spun on his heel and marched out of Roberts's office.

Once the younger SNCO had closed the door behind him, Ramy motioned to Tamara to have a seat. He sat down and could no longer contain himself; he burst into laughter. Tamara followed suit. They laughed for several minutes, until tears filled their eyes and their sides hurt.

'Goddamned if that wasn't the quickest damned exercise I'd ever been in.' Roberts pulled a bottle from his desk drawer along with two glasses. 'I mean, hell, why not just blow everybody up each time we get in a fight? Makes it all go by rather quickly.'

'Well, sir'—Tamara nodded in acceptance of the shot of brandy—'we'd kinda start running short on Marines after judicious use of that tactic, sir.'

'Goddamned right, Tammy.' He held up his glass and silently toasted with his first sergeant. 'So what are we gonna do about our staff sergeant, huh? That was amazingly quick-witted. When you saw all of those damned enemy AEMs pop into reality in front of you, what did you plan to do?'

'Mostly shit my suit, sir. Then I thought I could take one or two of them with me before I was killed. I was reaching for a grenade, but by the time I had thought of that, Tommy had killed all of us.' Tamara finished the shot of brandy and sat it back down on Ramy's desk.

'He's up for E-7. Been a while since we had a 'gunny' around the Robots—since Nicks took the job at the Island.' Roberts laughed out loud. 'I'd love to have seen the look on the Blair's ground boss when he had to tell Admiral Walker that she had just lost over two hundred of her marines about one second after they hit the ground. Goddamn, I'd love to've been a fly on that bulkhead.'

'Damn right. I'll keep on Suez about it. He's a damned fine marine, sir. You know that. Hell, I've thought so ever since we got him before the Battle of the Oort. I recall him sweatin' like a mother needing a chill pill more than any marine I ever saw. But Tommy wouldn't take the drugs. And then he did the damndest thing after we loaded our gear. He unwrapped a piece of Halloween candy with his e-suit gloves on. I've never seen such suit control before. And green as hell and on his first mission he managed to take out several enemy haulers with that commandeered Seppy mass driver. The kid has a gift at being an armored e-suit marine, sir.'

'Good. Let's don't razz him too much and give the poor kid a complex of some sort. And let's hope and pray that we ain't never stuck with him in a situation where we are instantly, amazingly outnumbered.' Roberts swiveled his desk chair and pulled a drawer open. He