"Bishop." He said again, pointing to something I couldn't see on his tablet. "The Barney guy."

Shit, I was really get sick of that.

"I have your orders here," he continued, "and your personnel file. Lack of discipline seems to be a pattern for you. And acting rashly. We're not going to tolerate any of that here at Fort Arrow. You may think your fifteen minutes of fame entitles you to special treatment," I didn't bother to protest as he'd already made up his mind, "but that's a November Golf, you got that?"

"Yes, sir." Low profile, I told myself, Major Perkins, and through her UNEF HQ, wanted me to keep a low profile. Keeping my mouth shut was the first step.

A simple 'yes' from me wasn't good enough, apparently, Price had a chip on his shoulder and a soapbox to stand on, and he was going to take full advantage of having a captive audience. "You may have heard that Fort Arrow is a dumping ground for screwups and malcontents." Actually, I hadn't heard that, and I hadn't heard anyone use the word 'malcontent' since, like, elementary school. "UNEF HQ thinks that because the Ruhar need the Launcher to ship their grain offworld, Fort Arrow is safe from attack, and we don't need a significant security presence here." Ok, this wasn't about me, then, Price had a problem with UNEF HQ and I was a convenient target of his unhappiness. "They're wrong, the Launcher's importance means that it's the first place the Ruhar will try to capture if they ever try to retake the planet. This is an elite force." He tapped a finger twice on his desk for emphasis, what the gesture did for me was make me think the guy needed to trim his fingernails. "Elite. We at Fort Arrow need to show the Ruhar that we are so strong here, it's not worth them trying to take this site."

I nodded silently, silent because I didn't want to disagree with his flawed logic. If the Ruhar managed to get a powerful enough fleet into orbit to chase the Kristang away, then humans trapped on the surface would be a speed bump. The hamsters could sit in orbit and use precision strikes with railguns, masers and smart missiles to eliminate human resistance, no matter how strong a force was garrisoned at Fort Arrow.

"We don't have a place for you here, and you could use some help keeping out of trouble. I'm assigning you to convoy escort duty, you'll report to Staff Sergeant Lombard in the morning. Try to keep you nose clean, and-"

"Sir?" Price's aide called from outside the office, "Colonel Young is on his way here right now."