Time Corps 12
At the base library, they own only one book on the Cape Gloucester campaign. It's checked out to someone, Col Khan I would guess. Still it's due in a week, no one else in line, I reserve it.
Searching for a reasonable substitute, I call up Guadalcanal. Only one book, available, I grab it.
It's a gripping story. The Navy upped anchor and left even before offloading all men and equipment, leaving the Marines to hang on by their fingernails, which they did, in spectacular fashion.
Talk about illness, oy! Of those who went the distance on Guadalcanal, 75% were hospitalized for malaria after evacuation, some having seen as much as 122 days of jungle combat. Add in the other illnesses and the people who didn't go the distance medically.
One paragraph alludes to Cape Gloucester. It makes my skin crawl. Cape Gloucester was a worse rain forest than Guadalcanal.
So, next logical question? Why not innoculate everyone with the same injection Time Corps gets? Whatever the reason is, it won't be monetary, these people have bags of money.
The real reason the Reserves are starved of equipment is not monetary, but training. Cannot afford to have half-trained people messing about with hi tech, damage it up.
So, why not just innoculate my entire platoon? I dig out the medical handout I got on arrival. At 388 pages of 8 1/2 by 11, I didn't get around to reading it all.
On page 362 I find out. I am immortal to all but violence or violent accident. Totally stops the effects of aging. I could live to be centuries old, frozen in appearance.
Even a stab wound or bullet better be good or it won't work. Frightening amount of coagulant floating around in my bloodstream.
No society on earth would wish to inject a whole army with that, much less a ticked-off draftee army.
I now start to understand Nilofar's talk on suicide. Wouldn't you? Would you wanna live to be 400 year old and still too young to go in a "smoking" coffee house?
As I stare out the window of my luxury "room" at the coming and going of jeeps, I find myself hoping this is the Big One. But then I feel shame for thinking this, what about my platoon? Presumably most have a life worth living. I have a duty to bring back alive as many as I can.
Next day at breakfast, Col Khan sits with me, "so let me guess, reading medical info."
"Yeah, page 362."
She sighs, "just no choice, could not be engineered out and still keep it viable. Been thinking bout Cape Gloucester?"
"Yeah."
"Forget it Indira, you won't buy the farm. Tribals love to kill each other, way too sensible to blow away a UN Lt. Plan on living a long time and bringing that platoon back. That is, if we go."
"So Col, you've taken the injection too?"
"I'm a good bit older than you'd ever believe. Want advice, just ask, anytime. Name the problem, I've seen it."
Searching for a reasonable substitute, I call up Guadalcanal. Only one book, available, I grab it.
It's a gripping story. The Navy upped anchor and left even before offloading all men and equipment, leaving the Marines to hang on by their fingernails, which they did, in spectacular fashion.
Talk about illness, oy! Of those who went the distance on Guadalcanal, 75% were hospitalized for malaria after evacuation, some having seen as much as 122 days of jungle combat. Add in the other illnesses and the people who didn't go the distance medically.
One paragraph alludes to Cape Gloucester. It makes my skin crawl. Cape Gloucester was a worse rain forest than Guadalcanal.
So, next logical question? Why not innoculate everyone with the same injection Time Corps gets? Whatever the reason is, it won't be monetary, these people have bags of money.
The real reason the Reserves are starved of equipment is not monetary, but training. Cannot afford to have half-trained people messing about with hi tech, damage it up.
So, why not just innoculate my entire platoon? I dig out the medical handout I got on arrival. At 388 pages of 8 1/2 by 11, I didn't get around to reading it all.
On page 362 I find out. I am immortal to all but violence or violent accident. Totally stops the effects of aging. I could live to be centuries old, frozen in appearance.
Even a stab wound or bullet better be good or it won't work. Frightening amount of coagulant floating around in my bloodstream.
No society on earth would wish to inject a whole army with that, much less a ticked-off draftee army.
I now start to understand Nilofar's talk on suicide. Wouldn't you? Would you wanna live to be 400 year old and still too young to go in a "smoking" coffee house?
As I stare out the window of my luxury "room" at the coming and going of jeeps, I find myself hoping this is the Big One. But then I feel shame for thinking this, what about my platoon? Presumably most have a life worth living. I have a duty to bring back alive as many as I can.
Next day at breakfast, Col Khan sits with me, "so let me guess, reading medical info."
"Yeah, page 362."
She sighs, "just no choice, could not be engineered out and still keep it viable. Been thinking bout Cape Gloucester?"
"Yeah."
"Forget it Indira, you won't buy the farm. Tribals love to kill each other, way too sensible to blow away a UN Lt. Plan on living a long time and bringing that platoon back. That is, if we go."
"So Col, you've taken the injection too?"
"I'm a good bit older than you'd ever believe. Want advice, just ask, anytime. Name the problem, I've seen it."
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