Kara Discovered: Episode 9, Rescues Mission Approved
Jeffries gets permission to go after his men.
“What the fuck happened, Jeffries?” said the man sitting behind the desk, his voice filled with anger.
Keeping his voice flat, even, and as all Legion officers learn in OCS, to the point, Jeffries replied, “Ambush, Sir. At least three sentient species. One legionnaire was dead when I escaped. More may have died while I came here. Request permission to lead a rescue. It will take my entire platoon.”
Colonel Lipton raised an eye at that and moderated his voice. “Do you have a real chance of getting them back?”
“We were being held less than three hundred meters out, so if I move now, yes. But I need to move now before they decide to move them further away.”
“And you believe you should lead it and not Major Wilson?” The man’s voice dripped with skepticism instead of the cold neutral it should have been.
“He doesn’t know my men well enough. None of the other platoons here can handle it. My men are hard trained in ways his are not and one of them died. Major Wilson himself would do well enough in combat with them, but not any of the other platoons.” The major was the only person on the station that routinely beat Jeffries’ ass on the challenge mat.
“I don’t like it, but you are right. The Major doesn’t know your men nearly as well as you do. His other three platoons are having teeth pulled now. There will be three platoons counting yours guarding the gate on that side from now on, with two more in reserve here. Get this rescue done quickly, before everything blows up in our face.”
Nothing about that made sense. It already had gone sideways big time. The Legion, for the first time, was fighting other sentients. Didn’t the law banning them on worlds with other sentients apply? Everyone should have been pulled back by now. But he had his permission to mount a rescue.
He saluted and said, “Thank you, Sir. I’ll get them back,” in that same even tone he always used, that hid any feeling he might have. Bringing his hand down, he about faced, and left that office.
His new fourth universe coveralls waited for him at the gate. He debated crossing, then putting it on, but showing up nude and dressing there would be bad for discipline.
The private held a new canteen, set of lances, and new pair of glasses when he stepped out dressed. “Dr. Artland made some improvements to the eye ware. Everyone over there already has them. You should now have just over ten meters clear vision and be able to make out general shapes up to thirty.”
“Thank the Doctor for me. These may have just saved some lives.” He slipped on both the javelin harness and the glasses, then stepped across the gate.
He could see his men formed up where he had entered the camp. It wouldn’t do, but finding Major Wilson only took him a moment.
He came to a stop before him and saluted. “Major, resuming command, my mission was approved. But I need something from you. Can you order your men to hand over their canteens to mine? I want double water for every man going out there and more for the people we are rescuing. Yours can get more canteens from the station while we are gone.”
The Major’s voice was stressed when he answered. “Can do. And get your people back, Lieutenant.”
As Wilson’s men began handing over canteens, Jeffries addressed his men, hardly believing the word he was saying as they exited his mouth. “Platoon, you are about to engage in lethal hand to hand combat with sentients. You can not hesitate to strike to kill. You have trained for it, but not one of you have killed another sentient creature. If you cannot, or even think you will hesitate, fall out. We cannot afford to take a single person with us that will hesitate to strike lethal blows.”
He paused, took a deep breath, and went on. “You will not be the first one to kill sentients here. There has already been a battle where one of us died, and roughly a dozen of them did too. I killed, so did other over your platoon mates.”
When not one man fell out, he yelled in his command voice, “Fall in!”
