Starship Troopers: Chronicles of a Mobile Infanterist

Chapter 5.2

Once we returned we had to accept the bitter truth. The OP was a total bust. We lost 29 000 Mobile Infanterists and more than 300 000 Naval personnel. We lost thirty-two destroyers, eighty-six Corvette transports, eighteen cruisers, twenty-one battlecruisers and seven battleships. The John A. Warden was the only surviving battlecruiser. The fleet admiral was on board of his battleship, the Mers el Kebir when it went down. The bugs apparently had hit the nuclear warhead bay. His refusal to withdraw the troops to fight another day caused thousands of Infanterists their lives. None of which could be replaced easily. And some of them were my friends. If the admiral had survived I'd twisted his goddamn head so much that it would have fallen of his head. F*** the court martial. Graham was the oldest surviving Infanterist in our unit. Out of fourty, including me, only eleven survived. Hydora was the most embarrassing defeat the Federation ever suffered. Of course we had to continue working and so we ascended the ranks until me and Chesa were both Seargents of the MI. After Hydora it was pretty clear:
That Titan bug had to die. There was no denying that. The consequences which the federation took after the disaster on Hydora were predictable to say the least. The losses of ships and war material could be replaced but not the hundreds of thousands of expertly trained personnel. And so the federation removed more than eighty percent of all their major forces and rallied them around the inner belt of their territories. The remaining forces was what we got. And that was less then enough. They were that desperate to put veterans who had been out of service for a decade back into service. We alone received twenty-two of those. The remaining free spots were filled with freshmeat, barely older than 18. I realized that there was a lot of work coming to me and Graham and the others.
You know what was even more frustrating, during this time of crisis homophobia against the Hybrids began to show. The first time I realized it was when I left the galley along with Crimson while the John A. Warden was in dock to receive repairs. We were just talking about schedule for the next deployment which was only two days away. There were these two really bulky Infanterists, both Privates but still older than me. When Crimson and I had just passed them one shouted at her with a groggy voice:
"Fucking Insect-b****, I bet you turned on our boys on Hydora. It'd be best if they just slaughter you like the animals you are!" Then they both laughed. Crimson made a gesture towards me to cut it but I wasn't ready to let such a disrespectful behaviour take root in the MI.
"Your names, soldiers?" I asked with a stern voice.
"Ranzon." said the one.
"Luric." said the other.
"Crimson, write their names down.", I was pissed, "I'll tell you this only once.", I took a deep breath," WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK GIVES YOU THE PERMISSION TO INSULT ONE OF YOUR COMRADES LIKE THAT? THEY BLED LIKE YOU. LIKE EVERY F'ING SOLDIER. IF YOU CAN'T EVEN SHOW PROPER RESPECT, HOW DID YOU MAKE IT TO THE MI TO BEGIN WITH?", My face was crimson red ,", You are very lucky that you are needed and that Crimson isn't one to keep grudges. Because otherwise you would be busy to scrape yourself off of the walls and floor. Do we understand each other?"
They looked ashamed and hurt.
"Yes Maam." they said simoultaniously.
"Good, then buzz off!" I ordered and they disappeared.
One looked back to see Crimson hissing at him. That very evening the Lt. had their requests for reassingnment on his table. Graham looked at me and said:
"Well, I guess you are to thank for that. I was thinking of getting rid of them as well. So, guess you gave me a reason to expell them."
Good riddance. We do not need scum like them in the Killjoys.