"Bishop, we're not making you a first sergeant." The look on her face was impossible to read; I assumed she meant the Kristang wanted to make me a first sergeant, but UNEF wasn't going to do it, because I wasn't ready. A sentiment I agreed with completely, I still wasn't sure about the sergeant thing. Maybe Division had sent Perkins here to soften the blow, because we'd worked together before. "The Kristang promote almost entirely based on success in battle, there are political considerations, and rivalries within the clans, but in their system promotions are done on the basis of combat success, which they define as killing the enemy. Between those two Whales, and the casualties on the ground when the ammo aboard exploded, your actions killed well over a thousand Ruhar. The Kristang are impressed. They're pissed that most human units didn't do much while the Ruhar were here, never mind there wasn't much we could do while we're dirtside and the Ruhar could pound the entire planet from orbit. You killed a whole lot of Ruhar, while most of UNEF, especially senior officers, didn't do a damned thing, according to the Kristang." Senior officers included Major Perkins, it wasn't tough to see how she felt about that. "The Kristang want us to, oh, hell, here."

She took a small box out of a pocket, considered it distastefully, and abruptly snapped it open. Inside were a pair of silver insignia, an eagle clutching arrows and an olive branch in its claws, with the head of the eagle turned toward the arrows. The War Eagle insignia. The US Army hadn't issued those since WWII.

Those eagles were the insignia of a full colonel in the Army, Air Force and Marines, or a captain in the Navy. "Wow, ma'am, they're bumping you up two grades?" I was impressed, Perkins was a major, and the rank above major was lieutenant colonel. As far as I knew, nobody went straight from major to being a full bird colonel.

"No, Bishop, you dumbass." Perkins said with irritation. "You. They're for you. The Kristang want UNEF to make you a colonel."

"Holy shit."

"Yeah, holy shit is about right. Colonel is a rank below what the Kristang wanted, they expected UNEF to make you a general. A fucking general." She shook her head in disbelief. “Can you believe that shit?”

“Ma’am, I can’t believe they’d make me a colonel, forget about general.”

“Bishop, don’t let this go to your head. You’re a reasonably smart soldier, you’re flexible, you adapt to situations, and you’ve shown ability to take initiative on occasion. The fact is, you’re not any more smart or flexible or innovative than the Army expects of any soldier.”

“Yes, ma’am”, I agreed, because it was true.