Lines of Departure Quotes

“Keep in mind that without the law, we’re not a military, just an armed gang that dresses alike.”
― Marko Kloos, Lines of Departure

“In truth, warfare has changed very little since our great-great-grandfathers killed each other at places like Gettysburg, the Somme, Normandy, or Baghdad. It’s still mostly about scared men with rifles charging into places defended by other scared men with rifles.”
― Marko Kloos, Lines of Departure

“The Commonwealth—humanity—is in deep shit, and we’re the people with the shovels.”
― Marko Kloos, Lines of Departure

“You’ve been in long enough, Grayson. Never assume malice if you can explain it with lack of planning.”
― Marko Kloos, Lines of Departure

“I fight because it’s the only way I have to control my destiny at least a little bit.”
― Marko Kloos, Lines of Departure

“Well, it was nice being all introspective, Andrew. Now let’s get back to shooting people.”
― Marko Kloos, Lines of Departure

“Astrophysics. 'It's a super-long shot' is practically the motto of our profession.”
― Marko Kloos, Lines of Departure

“You can choose to follow orders without question, or you can choose to follow the law. Keep in mind that without the law, we’re not a military, just an armed gang that dresses alike.”
― Marko Kloos, Lines of Departure

“That’s why I hate positions of authority. Everyone always bugs the shit out of you.”
― Marko Kloos, Lines of Departure

“The universe is falling apart around us, and we still have nothing smarter to do than to try and kill each other.”
― Marko Kloos, Lines of Departure

“I don’t suppose alcohol is allowed on military ships?” Dr. Stewart asks the colonel. “I could really go for a strong drink right now.” “No, it’s not allowed,” he replies. “And of course we have some.”
― Marko Kloos, Lines of Departure

“In truth, warfare has changed very little since our great-great-grandfathers killed each other at places like Gettysburg, the Somme, Normandy, or Baghdad. It’s still mostly about scared men with rifles charging into places defended by other scared men with rifles. There’s”
― Marko Kloos, Lines of Departure

“No more generational feuds, no more ancient grudges, no more pointless revenge carried out against people who inherited some old guilt from their great-grandparents.”
― Marko Kloos, Lines of Departure

“In a way, I am an angel of death as well, but the power I serve is even more vengeful and merciless than the god of Israel. I’m the one who marks the doorposts in the night, and we pass over none.”
― Marko Kloos, Lines of Departure

“Here we are, on the losing end of an interstellar war, with our world slowly falling apart around us, and I’m excited about going to see my girlfriend for a day or two. We may have gone from oar-powered galleys to half-kilometer starships in the span of two thousand years, but some things about humanity seem to be a universal constant, no matter the era.”
― Marko Kloos, Lines of Departure

“Science ... it works.”
― Marko Kloos, Lines of Departure

“Nobody's immune to physics. I don't care how big and tough they are.”
― Marko Kloos, Lines of Departure

“the Gordon’s skipper says his new boat is a piece of shit anyway, and he hopes it will make a better missile than a freighter.”
― Marko Kloos, Lines of Departure

“A weapon maintained at peak efficiency is all but ageless.”
― Marko Kloos, Lines of Departure

“Welcome to the end of the species,” I say. “At least we have ringside seats.”
― Marko Kloos, Lines of Departure

“If our time is up, at least we’ll be dying in fresh air,” I say. “With rifles in our hands and a hearty ‘fuck you’ on our lips.” “There are worse ways to go,” Sergeant Fallon agrees. “’Course, I want to explore every other option before we get to the ‘dying in fresh air’ part.”
― Marko Kloos, Lines of Departure

“After a few minutes, the tactical display looks like an air defense commander’s worst nightmare—swarms of missiles that streak into the atmosphere at thirty times the speed of sound, and then multiply their number twentyfold when the missiles release their nose cones and launch”
― Marko Kloos, Lines of Departure

“Earth is a shithole,” I say. “But it’s our shithole. And they can’t fucking have it.”
― Marko Kloos, Lines of Departure

“and all the plans we’re making right now feel a little bit like the battle strategies of cockroaches who see the boot coming down on them.”
― Marko Kloos, Lines of Departure

“This is some real recruiting-vid shit right here.”
― Marko Kloos, Lines of Departure

“Their hulls may be so tough you can’t crack them with shipboard weapons, but those creatures are living, organic beings. They can’t be immune to physics. I guarantee that if we hit one of those seed ships hard enough, it’ll kill every living thing inside.”
― Marko Kloos, Lines of Departure

“I think I love that man. I want to meet him.”
― Marko Kloos, Lines of Departure

“Sergeant Fallon shakes her head with a disbelieving grin and looks at me. “Did he just threaten to shoot nukes at one of our own ships?” “He did,” I confirm. “But he does have a history of that.”
― Marko Kloos, Lines of Departure

“I want to disagree with Mom, but part of me concurs that a Lanky invasion of Earth would be a mercy killing of our species. We’ve spent most of our history trying to exterminate each other anyway. This way, we’ll at least have some dispassionate outside referee settling all of humanity’s old scores permanently. No more generational feuds, no more ancient grudges, no more pointless revenge carried out against people who inherited some old guilt from their great-grandparents. We will all just go down the path on which we’ve sent so many species ourselves, and we’ll just be a note in someone else’s xenobiology textbooks, listed under the header “EXTINCT.”
― Marko Kloos, Lines of Departure

“Farewell, NACS Intrepid CV-1941. May you die of old age in the decommissioning docks thirty years from now.”
― Marko Kloos, Lines of Departure