Rumor and innuendo

"I've heard a somewhat disconcerting rumor, Colonel. Care to shed some light on it for me?"

Colonel Silvermane was working on her second cappuccino, taking in the afternoon sun at a small cafe on Beaumonde. The site was't technically special, but it was yet another new venue. Each time we'd met it was in a different location, usually with several stops in between on our respective itineraries. It was probably more caution than we needed, but old habits die hard and some of the habits existed to make it harder to die.

"Which rumor would that be, Major? That I'm seeing a fighter pilot on the side, or that the Loyalists want me dead?"

I had to laugh. Neither of those were actually rumors, so much as obfuscated facts. The Loyalist faction still had her on their list of 'people to deal with when we gain more power,' and she had been spending some intimate time with one of the squadron commanders. But neither of those facts were especially disconcerting or even surprising.

"Neither of the above?" I answered over my own latte. "No, I was thinking about the one wherein you'd volunteered the 1st Marine Raiders to relieve the 9th Dragoons in Antioch's southern conflict."

Her features hardened for a moment before giving me a curt nod of acknowledgement. "Yes. That. Not a rumor, Sea. The 1st isn't cut out for the duty they have us on now. The 9th is almost ready to rotate out of the conflict zone and we're well suited to kind of operations they're running on Antioch. We're not military police. We're Marines. We kill people and break things. It's what we do best, and we're not doing a lot of it playing babysitter at some Gorram politician's behest."

She was right. The 1st Marine Raiders were a Marine unit. Space-mobile Light Assault Infantry, trained and intended for rapid deployment to take specific objectives then either evac or hand off to a conventional unit. The 'play policeman' patrols they were doing on several Rim colonies under Martial Law really weren't their forte. They hadn't even been especially well suited to 'show the flag' patrols. Marines, as Cory said, killed people and broke things. Parades weren't their specialty.

"Antioch though? The Southern Conflict has been going on since before the Unification War. Warlords fighting each other over terrain no one else would want, and High Command never committing enough forces to assert any kind of control. You really want to through the 1st into that mess?"

She didn't, I knew. No one would ever accuse Corrine Silvermane of being a coward, but she wasn't one of those commanders who treated their soldiers as expendable. Though Alliance ground force doctrine usually included 'throw more men at it,' some commanders shied away from human wave tactics in favor of, well, real tactics. Silvermane was one such, which was possibly one of the reasons the Loyalists didn't like her so much.

Her unit, on the other hand, seemed to appreciate the fact that they had a better Success/Casualty ratio than most other units.

"It'll be what it is, Sea. Whether the 1st rotates in or not is up to High Command. I put it out there. They can take it or leave it."

Take it leave it. That seemed to be a common thread weaving itself into my life right now. For better or worse, it was what it was.

Take it or leave it

Some things never seem to change

It is what it is