One Good Soldier

common courtesy of saluting seasoned veterans of the United States Marine Corps, Sir!' Tamara gave the second lieutenant her best drill-sergeant glare and half expected him to jump down her throat and go tattle to the colonel. But the young officer's facial expression changed in a way that she didn't expect. And he stopped walking toward the elevator.

'Thank you, First Sergeant McCandless for pointing that out to me,' he said and turned the other way in an even bigger hurry.

'Huh?' she said, surprised. What, no argument? That just takes all the fun out of this.

Maybe he's a good marine and just needed that lesson, her AIC added.

Well, his file looked good. And the colonel handpicked him out of his class.

Tamara followed him back down the corridor but stayed far enough back to not look like she was following him. She simply kept him in view. Then the young lieutenant did the damndest thing. He chased Gunnery Sergeant Tommy Suez down and apologized to him. Then he shook his hand. And then he saluted him as crisply as any marine could.

Oorah, she thought.

Indeed, her AIC added.

Better send a note to the colonel that the new lieutenant and I had a run-in so it doesn't blindside him if he complains.

Affirmative. Memo sent, First Sergeant. I bet he never brings it up. Might be too embarrassing for him. The colonel is talking to Colonel Warboys, and they have worked out a sketch of a battleplan. He says to get the Robots ready and to quit harassing his new officers. I'm DTMing you the battleplan now.

I see it. Looks awful familiar to me, Tamara thought.

Reminds me of six years ago when we took another QMT facility, the AIC said.

Yeah, and it was a meat grinder then.

'Again, thank you, First Sergeant. Feel free to keep those mentoring sessions coming.' The second lieutenant hurried back by her, and she saluted him as he passed. Second Lieutenant Zachary Nelms stopped and returned the salute.

Now we better get our asses in gear. Tamara hurried back in the direction of the hangar bay to catch up with Suez and the rest of the Robots.

'What was that all about?' Tommy asked her.

'Just breaking in the new LT,' she replied. 'Tommy, get the Robots on line and ready to drop with the Warlords. The colonel is talking to Colonel Warboys right now about our strategy, but we will be dropped on the QMT facility with them, and our mission is to take back that pad. Assuming all that goes well, then we'll most likely be teleported to the planet to hold or take some ground there. We go in hot and loaded with everything we can carry. Got it?'

'Got it.'

'All right, all right, let's listen up,' Lieutenant Colonel Caroline 'Deuce' Leeland shouted from the nose of her FM-12 mecha. She stood there above all the pilots assembled in the aft cat room. Marine and Navy mecha filled the room as far as the eye could see hundreds of meters in either direction and several mecha deep above them. The floor was filled with pilots surrounding her plane. Behind them techs and robots scurried about, loading planes with missiles and ammo and recharging or repairing some component at the last minute. 'We have about fifteen minutes before we deploy. Fish!'

'Hooyay!' Lieutenant Commander Karen 'Fish' Fisher— DeathRay's wingman—shouted.

'You have the Gods of War. Your mission is to protect the ball with the Madira in the center,' Deuce told Fish, meaning that the plan was for the Gods of War to protect a sphere around the supercarrier and keep enemy planes off the hull of the ship.

'Roger that, Deuce!' Fish shouted.

'Poser!'

'Hooyay!' the Navy commander shouted back.

'You take the Demon Dawgs to the bottom half of the ball and keep any resistance off the Utopian Saviors as we go to ground on the QMT facility. Keep those Seppie bastards in the ball and off the ground, got it?'

'Affirmative, Deuce!'

'Okay, Saviors, we are to create a bowl over the Warlords and protect those Army pukes. The Warlords are gonna take a squad of AEMs through enemy lines and take the control room of that facility. Make certain that those AEMs get there, got it?' Deuce shouted.

'Oorah!' was the response from the Marine mecha jocks of the Utopian