Tauren Invasion Snippet 1

 Sitrep: So, still smarting over the loss of Red. It is very quiet in the house, I miss having her. We've been looking into getting another pair of furballs but so far we've come up empty.

In other news, I am knee deep in the next book, Academy, which is turning into a short story book rather than the original book I'd planned on years ago. What can I say, adapt and evolve right? :) It is broken into 6 stories with 7 interludes. I started Tuesday and I've gotten the interludes done as well as 2 of the 6 stories are roughed out.

I sent Tauren Invasion (I've been sitting on it since last fall) to Rea Tuesday after snipping out a lot of stuff she's already edited. But, in working on Academy I was remiss in posting the snippets! She got the manuscript back to me Friday. I need to stitch it back together with the usual back material ...eventually.

 

Anyway, here is the first snippet!

Chapter 1

 

New TauMetropolis

 

LieutenantBoni checked the latest budgets and scanned them into memory. The AI noted thediscrepancy in funding and initiated an internal sigh. She knew it had beencoming, so had Admiral Logan but that didn't mean it wasn't disappointing.

Thearmy had gotten a lot of support in congress from their partisans. They hadgrown fat from all of the budget windfalls, spending a lot of the money onbuying land for bases across the sector. It was no surprise, Taurens were knownfor their favoritism for the Army. They were supported by the New Texans thoughwho also loved the ground pounding grunts.

Overthe past four and a half years they had built a big presence of army corps ofengineers and MASH units across the eastern reaches of the sector. They werewell seen and well used; the MASH units had been helpful in stopping the pirateplagues and turning other medical crisis's aside.

Theengineers were up to their necks in infrastructure projects all over thesector. Both units were highly popular and therefore shown in the mediafrequently. Their achievements won them gratitude and continued support incongress and with the public.

All 3branches of the military had recruiting offices scattered across the sector inFederation space as well as just outside it. The army had the most though, andthey enjoyed that success.

She hadbeen surprised that Major Letterman had yet to be replaced. He was a likeablefellow according to her principle. He also worked well with Major RandyMcCostney, his Marine counterpart. They hadn't gotten into any pissingcontests, which was surprising.

Initiallythe Marines had settled on Lebynthos first. They had set up their trainingfacilities on a chain of islands. When the Army had set up shop they had'borrowed' the marine base and facilities until their own had been established.

TheMarines were a pale shadow of what they were in Rho sector. Recruiting wasstill well off expectations. She understood why, the Marines were the premiercombat unit. They had to train for both space and ground duty and theirexacting standards drove a lot of recruits away. Most recruits were stillstruggling with a modern education and wanted to remain in the sector. An armycareer meant a chance at reservist postings in the sector. It also meant acollege education for some, and a cushy job for most with the idea of banking aretirement fund over time.

Shechecked the files and noted that Delos, Samos, and other star systems hadrequested inspections for Necrons. She passed the files and request on to theground forces after a cursory check of the files on each location.

~~{}~~

Lebynthos

 

MajorLetterman looked over to his counterpart. “You’re getting the requests forvisits too?” he asked, clearly nonplussed by the sudden attention.

“Requestsor invites no. Demands yes,” Major McCostney stated. The Marine Neochimp didn'tlook pleased about the situation.

Hisarmy counterpart shook his head. “I have to admit, your people turned over acan of worms none of us were expecting.”

“Iknow. We're working on it.”

“Goodfor you but my people are the true ground pounders. The problem is I don't havethe right people in the right places … yet.”

“Yeah,but that wasn't the priority you had before,” the Neochimp reminded him. Thearmy was set to do a lot of recruiting in Tau sector, but they were set up tocreate Engineering Corps and MASH units not full-on combat units. They werestill getting a handle on the training side of things.

Lebynthoswas an okay place to train for engineering and MASH, especially with theirfrequent hurricanes but not for everything that needed to be covered. With theplagues still a problem, the MASH units had to divide their time betweenlearning basic operations and handling a pandemic.

“Idon't have a lot of Recon teams in the sector,” the Neochimp mused. “And Idon't expect any from the SpecOps community anytime soon.”

“Thesame. So, we have to deal with what we've got in-house. Ideas?”

“Well,Lebynthos has been cleared; we've been all over this place. I think we can callthe space stations more or less secured, though we can't be certain untilsomeone checks every centimeter.”

MajorLetterman nodded. He wanted additional bases. No, he needed additional basesacross the sector. This Necron thing might help him with that. He might be ableto spin it into getting additional deployments on other worlds, if not a fullbase then at least some sort of supply and training base.

“Divideand conquer might help.”

“Delosand Samos have requested an inspection. At least they were nice aboutit,” Major Letterman drawled. “There has been no sign of anything when ourpeople were there before,” he said checking the records. “We didn't do athorough check of Samos though. How about I send a couple squads to them? Andwe set up a filter for any actual sightings while we place units in strategicplaces to respond?”

“Goodin theory, question is, where do we get the units? I'm having a hell of a timejust filling the ships the navy is turning out,” the Marine replied with ashake of his head. Despite starting earlier than the army recruiting, theMarines were getting out recruited by something like three to one. A lot of thepeople in Tau were grounders and wanted to stay that way.

“Ah,well, as to that, we have some grunts in the pipeline. Do you think we can do ajoint operation? Some of your veterans with my noobs? At least until I can getsome wiser heads somehow? Right now Rho, Pi, and Sigma are drawing the best andbrightest.”

“Tellme about it. We're sucking hind teat too,” the Neochimp said sourly. He gave achoppy nod. “Let me get back to you on that. It sounds good in practicethough.”

“Right.”