Greenies

'That's why he don't like you. You've probably picked up on that, right?'

'I didn't think it was because of the way I dressed.'

'And did you know that Haggarty here is a cop?'

'Yeah, I knew that.'

'And do you, being vermin, have a great love for our men and women in blue?'

'No,' he said.

'In fact, you probably hate all fucking cops, don't you?'

'Yeah, actually I do.'

Jorgenson nodded. 'But you're willing to work with Haggarty here, aren't you? You were willing to put that aside and fly with him in the interests of killing some Earthlings, weren't you?'

'I was,' he said. 'I'm not sure about that now after that flight we just had.'

'Well, let's leave that alone for the moment to keep from detracting from my main point.' He shifted his gaze back to Brian. 'You told me that you don't trust him to navigate for you or to plot courses, right?'

'That's right.'

'Because he's vermin?'

'Yes. Because he's vermin.'

'But other than the fact that he's vermin, and that he used to be in the Capitalists, you don't know a damn thing about him, do you?'

'I know what vermin are like,' he said. 'I've been working the streets for ten years and I've seen ten thousand pieces of shit like him. I don't need to get to know him personally.'

'Well, Brian, in this case, you're wrong. You do need to get to know him personally because he's your goddamned sis. He's probably seen ten thousand cops in his life and knows what all cops are like, yet he's willing to work with you. He didn't come in this office bitching at me before he even talked to you. He strapped into a plane with you and let you fly him through the Sierra Madres Mountains at three hundred meters. He gave you a chance, you see, and I might add that you probably haven't changed his image on what assholes cops are. You, on the other hand, did not give him a chance. Instead, you risked his life and yours because you let your pre-conceived notions override your common sense. Didn't you?'

Brian opened his mouth to protest, but couldn't think of anything to support such a position. 'Yeah,' he finally muttered. 'I guess I did.'

'Now you two get your asses out there in that mission planning room and you start working on your next mission. And Brian, if you discover some concrete reason why Mendez shouldn't be in that aircraft navigating and shooting for you, than you come back and we'll talk. I'm talking about something real, not the piddling little mistakes that all the newbies make, and you know goddamn well what they are. You are to give this newbie a fair chance. That's a fucking order, do you understand?'

'I understand,' he said.

'Good. Now I don't expect you two to be bong-hit buddies or anything like that, but I do expect that you do your jobs. Now go do them, and there better not be any more aborted missions.'

The briefing room was about half filled with crews that were already in the midst of planning their second missions. They found a terminal at a desk near the back and sat down at it. Brian called up their next mission assignment, which was yet another hit and run attack on the column, although in a different part of the mountains. They both stared at the map for a while, neither of them talking, neither of them doing anything. Finally Matt made a hesitant first suggestion.

'How about initial entry in this sector?' he asked, pointing to one of the narrow valleys on the western side of the range. 'The bulk of the row of mountains here will block detection and we'll be able to stay at 400 AGL for most of the ride.'

Brian wanted to disregard the suggestion immediately, simply because the vermin had been the one to come up with it. He felt his mouth opening to say something acid, felt his hand wanting to reach up and twist the terminal away. But, heeding Jorgenson's words, he restrained himself. He took a deep breath and looked over that point on the map in relation to their target area. And even though he did find fault with the plan, he knew that it was not incompetence on Mendez' part that had formed the basis of it. 'I think that over here would be a better place,' he said, pointing to another gap about thirty kilometers to the north.

Matt's eyes flashed hostility again. He too wanted to say something acid. He too restrained himself. 'What's wrong with my spot?' he asked, his voice even and level.

'It's too damn obvious, that's what's wrong with it.'

'Too obvious?'

Goddammit, why do I have to explain things to this vermin? Brian's mind screamed at him in anger. Another part of his brain however, knew that what Mendez had suggested was a simple mistake of inexperience, something that any newbie would do. 'Look,' he said, putting his finger on the spot and tracing out a route, 'it's a good entry for a nice easy ride and for good cover from the main formation. That's what makes it too obvious. Any competent commander who knows he's going to be hit with Mosquitoes will send a scout team or two right into this valley in an APC. Those APC's will be equipped with passive infrared and twin anti-air laser cannons. If we come screaming up that valley heading for the IP at 400 AGL, they'll pot us right out of the sky. We need to stay away from that broad valley as much as we can. The ride will be a little bumpier, but we'll get there in one piece.'

'I didn't know they sent out scouts,' Matt said, not sure whether to believe him or not.

'Why in the hell would you know that? You're a goddamn newbie. You learn things by making mistakes. You haven't been here long enough to make any yet.'

Matt thought that over for a moment, trying to figure out if he was being insulted or not and finally concluding that he wasn't. 'Okay,' he said at last. 'I get you.'

'If we were hitting the actual Earthlings in this spot and if they hadn't dealt with our Mosquitoes yet, that's exactly where I'd head. But we're dealing with Colonel Chin today, and Chin is a veteran of our tactics and his goal in life is to make our jobs hard for us.'

'Shouldn't we be training for what the Earthlings are gonna be like instead of what our own commanders are gonna be like?'

'The Earthlings will learn fast once they land and we spank them a few times. They'll never be as competent as Chin at taking us down and predicting what we're going to do, but they'll also be using fully charged weapons instead of training charges. So don't you think its best to train for the worst case instead of for the best?'

'Yeah,' he said, nodding. 'I guess that makes sense.'

'So here's where we'll go in,' Brian said, pointing to his spot again. 'We scream in low, hang a hard right at this ridge here, and work our way through these smaller valleys on the west side of the range until we're almost directly across from the target area. We don't cross that valley until we absolutely have to. Hell, we don't even get within ten klicks of it if we can avoid it.'

'All right,' Matt said, leaning a little closer to the screen. 'Let's figure it out then.'

'Right,' Brian said, leaning a little closer himself. Soon, the both of them were tracing different routes through the western section of the mountains, zooming in on sections, and marking them down on their flight path. Before long both were completely absorbed in their task and almost forgot that they hated each other.

They made their second training flight two hours later. This time Matt was allowed to do his job. He called out course changes to Brian and kept him updated on his position. They only strayed off of their projected course twice and both times Matt was able to go to manual mode and quickly navigate them back onto it. When they reached the target area the initial attack run went flawlessly. They appeared over the travel corridor like an apparition and Matt identified a formation of APCs and hit two of them with the laser in less than four seconds. They disappeared back into the safety of the mountains a second later, long before any of Colonel Chin's men could lock an anti-aircraft laser onto them. Matt then switched back to manual mode and was able to guide them around two more times for follow up attacks, hitting two more APCs and a tank.

'Not bad, newbie,' Brian grunted at him as they made their egress from the area.

'Thanks,' Matt responded.

'Of course you still got a lot to learn.'

'Never said I didn't,' he said. 'But I think this mission went a little better than the last one, didn't it?'

'Yeah,' he said. 'I suppose it did. Now how about plotting us a course back? We still have one more mission