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 Tau Metropolis

 

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

The army had gotten a lot of support in congress from their partisans. They had grown fat from all of the budget windfalls, spending a lot of the money on buying land for bases across the sector. It was no surprise, Taurens were known for their favoritism for the Army. They were supported by the New Texans though who also loved the ground pounding grunts.

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

The engineers were up to their necks in infrastructure projects all over the sector. Both units were highly popular and therefore shown in the media frequently. Their achievements won them gratitude and continued support in congress and with the public.

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

She had been surprised that Major Letterman had yet to be replaced. He was a likeable fellow according to her principle. He also worked well with Major Randy McCostney, his Marine counterpart. They hadn't gotten into any pissing contests, which was surprising.

Initially the Marines had settled on Lebynthos first. They had set up their training facilities 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.

The Marines were a pale shadow of what they were in Rho sector. Recruiting was still well off expectations. She understood why, the Marines were the premier combat unit. They had to train for both space and ground duty and their exacting standards drove a lot of recruits away. Most recruits were still struggling with a modern education and wanted to remain in the sector. An army career meant a chance at reservist postings in the sector. It also meant a college education for some, and a cushy job for most with the idea of banking a retirement fund over time.

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

~~{}~~

Lebynthos

 

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

“Requests or invites no. Demands yes,” Major McCostney stated. The Marine Neochimp didn't look pleased about the situation.

His army counterpart shook his head. “I have to admit, your people turned over a can of worms none of us were expecting.”

“I know. We're working on it.”

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

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

Lebynthos was an okay place to train for engineering and MASH, especially with their frequent hurricanes but not for everything that needed to be covered. With the plagues still a problem, the MASH units had to divide their time between learning basic operations and handling a pandemic.

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

“The same. 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 call the space stations more or less secured, though we can't be certain until someone checks every centimeter.”

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

“Divide and conquer might help.”

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

“Good in theory, question is, where do we get the units? I'm having a hell of a time just filling the ships the navy is turning out,” the Marine replied with a shake of his head. Despite starting earlier than the army recruiting, the Marines were getting out recruited by something like three to one. A lot of the people 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 a joint operation? Some of your veterans with my noobs? At least until I can get some wiser heads somehow? Right now Rho, Pi, and Sigma are drawing the best and brightest.”

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

“Right.”