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The conference room was almost full when Fargo walked in carrying a cup of coffee. “Okay, let’s get this started.” Everyone grabbed a seat and Fargo added, “Around the room as usual. Colonel Keads, Operations?”

Tall, lanky, with a full head of gray hair, retired colonel Keads stood. “Ops is busy right now. Ranges three, four, and five are in use today by tank testing on three, a new design plasma rifle on four, and prototype version seven of the armor on five. I may need to borrow your command lace later to test command recovery.”

Fargo nodded. “Do I get to come with the lace?” Folks around the table laughed at that as he said, “Anything else?”

Keads smiled. “A battalion of troops are coming in on GPS TANAKA on threeday. I’ve already coordinated that with Mac at the spaceport, and they will be doing various training evolutions over the next two weeks. I’ve scheduled a dozen of the new MK-7 suits for field testing during the OPFOR phase of their training. That’s it…so far.”

Fargo said, “Nial, logistics?”

Nial Thalpa stood languidly. “Logistics is handled. De Perez sent a new shipment of things we are still in the process of categorizing. We’re good on equipment both for the militia and the testing requirements. Grayson wants some more supplies for the hospital, and those are awaiting lift from wherever. We’re good on MREs and plenty of food for the schoolhouse, cafeteria, and hospital, thanks to local procurement. White Beach is whining about us needing to supply emergency food support for emergencies, but that ain’t in our contract. You need to sort that out with the damned leaders again!” He flopped back in his chair with a grumble.

“Get with me later, Nial, and we’ll figure out how to shut them off.” He turned to Grayson. “Next.”

Kelly Grayson got up slowly. “Damned knees. Hospital is good. Four people ensconced right now. One troop is critical but stable after losing a fight with a cliff and falling down it. Two more are stable, should be able to kick them out in a week. One Ghorka female waiting to have a baby that can’t make up its mind. She’s in the third round of contractions. NasTess is on its way to look at her, and will probably take the baby today or tomorrow. Good on supplies, good on nurses, three CNAs want to upgrade to nurses, so we’re starting another round of nursing school.”

Fargo nodded. “Boykin, flight test?”

TC Boykin stood and glanced around the room. “Flight test hasn’t broken anything yet this week. Stealth shuttle completed its 210-day inspection, and we upgraded her power plant, she will be returning to Hyderabad as soon as she returns. The latest upgrade to the assault shuttles is currently in stage one testing, expecting to complete that in a week. Militia shuttle Wizard is up and up, on standby to support ops as required. Quick Reaction Force company training will be done on fourday at ten. That’s it.”

Fargo said, “Horse?”

Warrant officer Naik Thakuri, nicknamed Horse, stood. “Nine hundred forty militia currently on rolls. Nine hundred thirty-nine ready for ops, minus the one in the hospital. Alpha company is currently handling region two, Bravo is in region three and part of region four. Delta is handling White Beach and the rest of region four. Charlie is the QRF for this cycle, and manning levels are such that militia is getting a week on, week off duty in the field. Our only problem area is down where the Aussies settled New Adelaide with some of the gold miners versus the union overseers. It hasn’t broken out in open warfare, but we’re watching it closely.”

“Thank you. CSM, training?”

Retired CSM Aphrodite, a hermaphrodite, stood, towering over everyone. “The battalion coming in for training is interesting. This is the first time we’ve seen a reserve battalion come through for training. It is the 324^th Infantry Battalion from the Epsilon Hegemony, House Yeager.”

Fargo cocked his head. “Why them? Do you know?”

Aphrodite smiled. “They are fulfilling a GalPat requirement for systems to provide troops to fill out battle groups. They do a one-year tour of duty either shipboard or at a particular location. We always did battlegroups. Some, like the Taurasians, provide sifters or doctors on long term duty, GalPat wide.”

“Understood. OneSvel was a long-term doctor to the GalScouts.” Turning to Becky he said, “Doctor Jones?”

Becky stood quietly and glanced at her wrist comp. “So far, I have identified eleven species who have been…changed, primarily a type of telepathy. Oddly, nine of them are predator types, and land species. The other two are your versions of dolphins and whales.” She looked up and added, “It is strictly a guess on my part, but I believe SierraSafari did that to make the predators harder to hunt. None of the local fauna have any extra capabilities that I’ve been able to discover. I have been working with MobyDineah, the Anadarko mated couple and their child to evaluate the capabilities of the animals. Their work has helped me to discover not languages per se, but that there are also interspecies communication capabilities, apparently something like thoughts, scents, and location descriptions. One thing I observed that is much different than the Earth versions of the species is that they will freely share kills in the wild.”

Fargo stood up. “Anybody else? I’ve got nothing, so let’s get to work. Meeting dismissed.”

***

By lunchtime, he and Nial had sorted out what Fargo thought was an acceptable answer to the politicians at White Beach about supplies. After all, de Perez had bought two million acres of Hunter for Camp Cronin, so it wasn’t about money per se. When Fargo went to White Beach for the quarterly meeting with GalPat, he would also meet with the politicians and present their answer. No way he was going to immediately rush to answer them.

Jiri knocked on the door frame. “Are you eating here again or going to the cafeteria?”

Fargo looked up just as his stomach growled. “I’ll go eat there. I’ve been sitting here since the morning meeting. I’m surprised I haven’t heard from Colonel Keads yet.”

Esha smiled. “He called and said not before fifteen at the earliest. The logistics of moving all the suits to the range has them backed up.”

“Okay. I’ll go eat and get with Horse on what we need for the militia.” Jiri waved a sheaf of paper.
“Oh, he already gave you a list?”

She snickered. “Yes, he did. He didn’t want to come argue with you, he said he never wins.”

Fargo laughed as he got up. “Put it on the desk, I’ll read it when I get back.”

Once he got to the cafeteria, he smelled the burgers on the grill and decided on a burger and fries, thinking back to being a child and grilling in the back yard. The beef came from Grant’s ranch and he knew the meat was good, since he routinely got half a cow from them for the cabin. As he ordered, Lal limped over, a salad on his tray. “Ekavir, join me for lunch?”

“Of course, pick a table and I’ll be there as soon as I get my burger.” He noted that Lal picked a table away from everyone else, and guessed this was going to be a working lunch.

When he got his tray, he carried it over to the table and proceeded to doctor his fries with salt and pepper, squeezed catsup on the plate, and leaned back with a sigh. “What did you want to talk about, Lal?” He picked up the burger, took a bite, and smiled to himself. Just like I remember. I’m glad the cafeteria put in a real grill for cooking!

Lal finished his bite of salad with a grimace. “Just rub it in, Ekavir. I don’t care… The reason I wanted to talk is I expect the militia to grow as soon as the new arrivals get here and find out we are the militia. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but only Ghorka are in the militia planet wide. You and Nicole are the only non-Ghorka who are members.”

“What about Grayson and Boykin?”

“They have never officially joined the militia. Yes, they support it, and always have, but they aren’t members. We are effectively the police force for the entire planet, and I’m not sure this is a good idea, but I don’t know how to get the public more involved. We’ve tried recruiting, but that was unsuccessful, because our requirements are too high, or so people said.”

“Do you want to lower the requirements?”

“No, I don’t. Our requirements are based on reality, not some dream. Adelaide has their own Aussies for a police force, and they are good, but none of them wanted to join the militia. They are up over ten thousand population now, and growing, especially with the gold field finds. That’s causing trouble, and we almost have to keep a full company down there. I’d like to expand our camp down there by at least twice, to give us enough room to billet the QRF if required. I’d also like to form another company and…”

By the time Fargo and Lal finished eating, they had a plan both could live with going forward for the militia. Thankfully, with the Ghorka, they were all fighters and leaders, and Lal had been working with all of the company commanders to get ideas, so Fargo was pretty sure there wouldn’t be any pushback. The expansions were more of a question, as getting the containerized living quarters were harder to come by, but Lal was going to work that issue.

Back in his office, he quickly reviewed what Horse had written and laughed. “If I didn’t know better…Horse you are one slick sumbitch. Leverage the GalPat for weapons, uniforms and equipment, and we outfit them with armor. That’d work, especially with the supposed cost of armor. And nothing limits us to current armor. We can build the advanced armor with the fabbers we have here, especially the new de Perez model.”

Fifteen segs before fourteen, Esha knocked on his door. “Ekavir, Lieutenant Colonel Santos is here with Ganju.”

“Send them in, and find some coffee, if you would, please.”

“Just made a fresh pot. I’ll bring it right in.”

Lieutenant Colonel Santos marched in and stood at attention in front of Fargo’s desk, like he was reporting, and Fargo looked up. “Oh, stop that, Cesar, sit, sit. I’m not your reporting senior. Hey Ganju, Laxmi actually let you out by yourself?”

Ganju laughed. “Oh, she came with, Ekavir. She’s updating the witches…er…women on how the restaurant is doing in White Beach, and how our investments are doing.”

Santos sat gingerly and said, “Marie sends her love to you and Nicole. She said to tell you Juanita wants to come back and play with the puppies.” He shuddered as he said that and mumbled, “Wolf puppies, for deity’s sake”.

Fargo laughed. “Funny, you’ve got a girl, I have a girl and a boy, Mac and Holly have a girl, and the Ghorka have a higher percentage of girls than are normal.”

Cesar smiled. “Marie did some research on that. According to records, males who are spacers, much like the old Earth aviators tended to having more girls than boys by about a seventy-five, twenty-five ratio. It’s supposed to be due to the amount of radiation males get compared to the planet bound males.”

“Interesting! You know you are always welcome to come up to the cabin. Now, we have a few things to discuss, both in terms of logistics and personnel.”

“Ganju and I have had a number of discussions. I understand you have another two hundred or so Ghorka families coming in?”

“That is correct. They are supposed to be here in a month. Lal believes most of them will want to join the militia. We’ll need to outfit them…”

“We can do that, except for armor. Hell, I had to pull teeth to get our Mark 5s updated.”

Fargo shrugged. “If it’s that bad, we can help unofficially, of course.”

Cesar laughed and rolled his eyes. “I can just see that. My folks with Mark 7s, when nobody else in the Fleet has them? Do you have any idea how much hate and discontent that would cause?”

Forty-five segs later, they had hashed out the logistics and support, and Ganju said, “Boss, we need to head back. I told Laxmi we would meet her at the shuttle at fifteen. It’s two hours home from here.”

Esha knocked on his door, stuck her head in, and said, “Excuse me, but you have a call from Colonel Keads, Ekavir. He’s ready to test.”

Fargo nodded. “Tell him I’ll be there in fifteen segs. I guess everybody’s timing is on today. If you come up with anything else, let us know. Ganju are you or Laxmi having any problems with the house we need to know about?”

Ganju shook his head. “No, we’re fine, and Sushma is doing more fill in as chief justicer than expected. We think she will end up taking over soon. And we only see each other at breakfast and sometimes dinner, if she’s not running late.”

***

Fargo climbed into the armor and booted the system to life, glancing around at the interior of the helmet, as he inhaled. The armor, notwithstanding the liberal use of ‘Stink be Gone’, smelled of sweat, fear, and miasma of electronics, metal, and hydraulics. Nothing looked different on his HUD as he waited for the AI to come up. When it did, he said, “Amy, run BIT please.” He felt his command lace connect and expand into combat command mode as the built-in test completed, and he keyed the radio. “Test director, armor is up and up, standing by for direction.”

“Ah, Colonel, the suits are all within five hundred yards. They are manned, with specific directions given to the users to simulate various yellow, red, and black conditions. Please follow the test plan steps for command recovery testing.”

Fargo brought up the test plan in his HUD and quickly reviewed the steps they wanted him to conduct, even as he called up the command menu. He identified all nine of the suits, wincing as he thought back to previous battles where the colors would have meant troops lost. Putting that aside, his command lace prioritized the armor recovery as if they were in contact, targeting the furthest suits first.

He selected the furthest yellow suit and initiated a command recall. <Amy, carat unit 019. Perform sequence on execute command. Command override. Anti-Grav on. Plank. Three-foot clearance over ground. Move to carat position. Execute.> He quickly dropped a carat 15 yards to his left as he saw the suit begin to move. He had successfully recalled six of the nine, executing kneel and open commands for each of them, when he got to the suit that was colored black. He gave Amy the same command sequence, but she replied, <Unable unit 009. No response.> Well, shit. Now what do I do? If the suit is totally dead, there is no…wait a minute, I’ve got two more units. He spotted units 06 and 08, both within fifteen yards of 09, and both were red. I wonder if I can do this. <Amy, carat units 006 and 008. Perform sequence on execute command. Command override. Anti-Grav on. Plank. Three-foot clearance over ground. Move to unit 009 position. Execute.> <Unable unit 009. No location available.>

Fargo wanted to hit something, but sighed. “Well, shit. Can I drop a carat on the position and get them there?” He dropped a carat on 009 and gave the command, <Amy, carat units 006 and 008. Perform sequence on execute command. Command override. Anti-Grav on. Plank. Three-foot clearance over ground. Move to carat position. Execute.> Both units floated over to 009 and hovered there. <Amy, carat units 006 and 008. Perform sequence on execute command. Command override. Anti-Grav off. Stand up. Stabilize. Execute.>

He got both units standing up next to 09, but there was nothing else he could think of to recover the unit. “Fuck!”

The test director came over the radio. “FINEX, FINEX, FINEX. We are done. Thanks, Colonel. Great job of executing the test!”

Fargo snarled, “I left one on the field. That…there has to be a way to recover a dark suit!” He strode angrily back to the staging area, knelt and climbed out as he thought, <Amy, shutdown sequence and thank you.> <Shutting down, Ethan.>

He climbed out and realized he was sweating. He shivered in the sudden chill as the test director walked up.
“Colonel, the only way we know of to recover a dead unit is with a recovery team. There simply isn’t any other option.”

Fargo grumbled, “Well, there should be.”

Cocking his head, the test director said, “Well, if you can come up with something, we’ll try it.”

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be pissed at you. You folks have done wonders with the recovery procedures. I just hate leaving anyone on the field of battle.”

“Understood, Colonel. We’ll take the armor back and put it away, I’m sure you’d like a shower.”

Fargo nodded as Ramesh pulled up in a runabout. “Need a ride, Colonel?”

“Sure do, Ramesh. Back to the office, please.”

(C) 2025 JL Curtis All Rights Reserved