Tauren Invasion Snippet 2

 

Chapter 2

 

Lebynthos

 

Major Lettermannodded to himself as he watched the shuttle lift off. The shuttle was carryinga squad of Army Corps of Engineer students. They were headed out to a site inthe north to work on their wood cutting and managing skills.

He turned hisattention to the school and college campus. It was coming along, though theystill had some issues to deal with. Basic courses were still a problem.Eventually the level of education in the recruits should remedy that. Untilthen they had to educate their recruits. Sometimes the education went down tothe very basics of reading and writing, let along the advanced math needed byengineers.

He shook hishead.

He had justdispatched three scouting teams to scout for new army bases in the sector. Theyeach had a list of four worlds to explore. They had to approach itapolitically, though he knew some were favored over others. He had to get theprocessing started now even though he knew the decision might be made beforethe teams even arrived on the planet to do the actual survey. Things weremoving in that direction in the Federation Senate at the moment.

Focus in thesector was on the navy and plague relief. He knew that it was shifting thoughand with good reason. Certain parties had always considered Tau to be a bastionof army recruits. Taurens preferred ground operations over ships, and forcenturies their sector had been where to find good Tauren engineers and armygrunts.

They had beenflooded by refugees however, so the population had shifted over the past sevencenturies or so. He was seeing a mixed bag of recruits. Initially, they hadbeen human since most humans had been immune to the plagues. That was slowlychanging however.

He tucked hishands behind his back. He knew that the brass had anticipated a lot ofrecruiting initially before the plagues had been revealed. Those numbers wouldcome in time; it was just going to take longer than anticipated.

He had littlecall for line troops so he was focused on the engineers, MASH, and supports.The engineers were turning into the premier army unit at the moment now thatthe calls for MASH units had slowly begun to dry up. He was certain that theirskills would be put to good use on the many agricultural worlds across thesector and eventually, hopefully, in the galaxy at large.

He smiled ever soslightly to himself. To think that one of his students in the future may become a general on some far away world halfway across the galaxy… yeah, that was cool.

~~{}~~

Captain SeniorGrade Straus Hamilton strode across the tarmac and to the hangar nearby. Hethought of it as his basic stride though he'd been teasingly told it was more ofa liquid role, almost a stalking motion. The black Neopanther flicked his earsin passing to people going about their business. He didn't want or need them tocome to attention for him; he had places to be and didn't want to delay.

So far so good,the scouts were off, the engineer recruits were off under Lieutenant Scarback'seyes, and he didn't have an inbox of paperwork to do battle with. Life wasgood.

Now, if he couldwrap up the class he had to teach, he could maybe cut out early and find a nicehammock to take a nap in during the heat of the island day. Until then he'dhave to adjust to the air-conditioning in the school and the less humidconditions therein.

~~{}~~

Captain JuniorGrade Mya Halice saw Captain Hamilton striding across the tarmac and nodded toherself. She'd wanted to see the recruits off but she'd been delayed.Technically, she was the senior Army Corps of Engineers officer in the sector.Like Straus she was from Nuevo. They had known each other on their homeworldperipherally and had caught up a little when they had time out of stasis. Shewas grateful to see a familiar face.

Her mind turnedto the upcoming mission. It would be Lieutenant Scarback's first solo missionwith recruits. She hoped he got it right.