In Her Name

Reza could tell, and also touched with sadness. She did not want to leave him again.

Eustus came running back, weaving his way toward them through the throng of fellow Marines, some of whom were cheering at their orders, others groaning with dismay. He held them clutched in his hand, the slender plastic seal still unbroken.

“Well, dummy,” Jodi blurted, “where are you going?”

“I want to see what Reza’s say first,” Eustus panted excitedly. “I’ve been… well, kind of hoping we’d get assigned to the same unit.”

“Don’t hold your breath, bucko,” Jodi told him seriously. “The fleet’s a big place, and the Corps is spread all through it and on hundreds more planetary garrisons besides. The chances aren’t too good.”

“Yeah, but I figure that we’re probably going to be assigned to an orphan regiment, right? I mean, my homeworld never had any regiments of its own, and Reza technically doesn’t have a homeworld for regimental assignment. So that makes the chances of us being in the same orphan regiment that much greater, right?”

Jodi looked at him skeptically. “Orphan” regiments were so named because the homeworld that originally raised them and kept them supplied with recruits had either been decimated or destroyed by the Kreelans. When that happened, the regiment’s colors and organization remained intact, but it got whatever replacements could be sent to it, regardless of the source. Planets that did not have enough people to raise a complete regiment of its own and did not have an agreement with another world to supply replacement personnel had their Marines put into orphan regiments as replacements, fresh blood. While this was not a problem in most cases, in some it could be disastrous. In one case, an entire regiment had to be forcibly subdued after the military personnel – MILPO – office had unwittingly assigned a large block of replacement Marines to it, not realizing that the fresh troops, from a conservative Muslim colony, were likely to clash with the regiment’s indigenous Hindus. It took three other regiments to put down the resulting insurrection and mutiny.

“Well,” Jodi said, “I’ll give you an A-plus for imagination. But I still wouldn’t get your hopes up too high.”

Eustus looked to Nicole for support, but she only shrugged. She did not know either. She had asked, of course, but the MILPO officer had stonewalled her for some reason, and she suspected that Thorella probably had something to do with it. “I do not know, Eustus,” she said simply.

“Gard, Reza!” one of the NCOs shouted over the low din in the room.

“Hurry up, Reza,” Eustus said, anxious to find out if they would get their assignment together.

Reza made his way forward and came to stand at attention before Sergeant Major Aquino, who had taken Reza’s orders packet from the sergeant at the table and now held it in his hands. The older man looked up at him with his piercing black eyes.

“I am not surprised that you made it this far, Gard,” he said as he handed Reza his orders, “in light of what you went through before you came to us here. I hope you go far in the life you have chosen, and in the Corps.” He gestured to the sparkling new Marines around him and said quietly, “I wish all of them were half as good as you.” He stuck out his hand. “Good luck, Marine.”

Reza nodded as he shook the smaller man’s hand. He had always liked Aquino. “Thank you, sergeant major. I shall do my best.”

“That is all I ask. Carry on.”

Reza quickly walked back to where the others were waiting, the orders burning in his hand. He wanted to get out of this world of “discipline” and make believe combat and into the world where he belonged, where his sword would sing with honor to Her glory, even though She no longer saw him in Her heart. The thought depressed him until he saw Jodi, Nicole, and Eustus. They and the Corps were his family now, and he would do his best to bring honor to them all.

“Well?” Eustus asked. “What is it? Where are you going?”

Reza opened his orders and scanned them. “I have been posted to the 1st Battalion of the 12th Guards Regiment,” he told them.

“That’s the Red Legion, isn’t it?” Jodi said, shocked. Nicole’s mouth dropped open. The Red Legion was infamous throughout the Corps as being a dumping ground for every undesirable individual and bloody mission in the service. It was the High Command’s garbage disposal. “My God, Reza, that unit’s a meat grinder!”

Eustus tore his orders open. “Dear Father,” he whispered. He looked up at Jodi, then Reza. “What is it they say about not wishing for something, because you might get it?”

“You received the same assignment?” Nicole asked, aghast. “This is absurd! There must be some mistake–”

“There’s no mistake, commander,” a familiar voice spoke from behind. They all turned to find Thorella standing there, an angelic smile on his face. “Those orders came from on high, or so I hear. I hope you enjoy your duty stations, gentlemen. Now, if you’ll excuse me–”

“You fucking piece of shit,” Jodi snarled. “You know they don’t deserve that. Even you can’t hate them that much. The Red Legion isn’t anything more than a marching coffin.”

“My, my,” he said, shaking his head theatrically. “You Navy types do have a way with words. I know you won’t believe this, Mackenzie, but it actually wasn’t my idea. But you’re right: the Red Legion is a meat grinder, although it isn’t listed as such. But that makes it all the more fitting for a traitor and his sidekick.”

Eustus made to step forward, his fists clenched, but Reza held him back. “No, Eustus,” he said before turning to Thorella. He stepped close to the larger man, and was rewarded with the sharp tang of fear that suddenly erupted from his pores. “There will come a day of reckoning for you, Markus Thorella. And I pray I am there to witness it.”

Thorella snorted derisively, but Reza could tell he was still afraid. “Say your prayers for yourself, half-breed. You and your little buddy here will have your hands full as it is.” He looked at Eustus. “I was thinking of getting you a jar of petroleum jelly for when you get there, Camden. I hear the NCOs in the Red Legion don’t like their little boys dry.”

“That is enough, captain,” Nicole hissed. Her anger had called forth an unfamiliar burning sensation in her body, as if her blood was on fire. Her conscious mind was afraid that if Thorella did not shut up, she would find herself lunging for his throat. “Leave us. Now.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he sneered. He threw a mock salute, turned on his heel, and sauntered away through the crowd.

“Motherfucker,” Jodi called quietly after him.

Nicole turned to Reza and Eustus. “I will see if I cannot get in to see General Tsingai about this,” she said. “He may be able to–”

“No,” Reza said firmly. “At least, not for me. I thank you for your concern, Nicole, but I have received my orders, and I shall do my best to carry them out.” Jodi opened her mouth to protest, but Reza silenced her with his eyes before he spoke. “I do not do this purely out of respect for orders which, I suspect, are not entirely legal. But I have also heard of the Red Legion, and perhaps – for me – it is the best place. I believe that I probably would fit in better with a group of misfits than I would in a regular unit.” He held up a braid of his long hair to illustrate his point. He was the only Marine any of them had ever seen whose hair was not the regulation crew cut. And that was the least of his differences.

Jodi scowled furiously, the normally crystal smooth skin of her forehead wrinkled like aged parchment. “What about you, Eustus?” she asked.

“I’ll go with Reza,” he said decisively, pocketing his orders. “A Marine’s job is going to be tough no matter where he is. And I figure that sticking with Reza makes my chances of staying alive and doing my job well that much better.” He had glanced at Reza’s orders and compared them to his own. They were slated for the same company, and he could only hope that they would be assigned to the same platoon.

“Oui,” Nicole said resignedly, trying to keep the sadness from her voice. Not only was Reza leaving her again, he was probably going to be sacrificed as undesirable cannon fodder on some rock in space that had nothing more than a number for a name. “I guess that is that, then.”

They all stood there for a few minutes, as if not quite sure that the play they were acting out was real or only a bad dream.

It was Eustus who finally broke the spell. “Well,” he said, “I guess we’d better get packing. The transports start loading at fourteen-hundred, and we’ve got a long trip ahead of us.” The Red Legion was scattered over a sector of space nearly two months’ hyperlight travel from Quantico.

Nicole held back her tears as she walked with her friends toward the barracks, wondering if a year from now