“No shooting, unless they shoot first. Whether we like them or not, the Ruhar on this planet are mostly farmers, and that includes women and children. The Kristang tell us not to expect much opposition, the Ruhar civvies should be happy to be alive and allowed to go home.” There was a lot of grumbling from Able Company. Teller didn’t flinch. “This is a test, in case you haven’t figured that out yet. So far, all the Kristang have seen from humans is us dying, without inflicting much damage on the Ruhar.” He paused, frowned, and continued. “In double-U double-U Two,” he pronounced the words precisely, “the US Army didn’t hit the Normandy beaches in their first battle. We landed in North Africa first, and those of you who know your history, know that’s a damned good thing. We were completely unready to take on the Germans in 1942, if we’d landed in Normandy first, we would have gotten our asses kicked back across the Channel. By fighting in North Africa, and Sicily, and Italy, we learned how to fight the Germans, learned what worked. The Kristang have given us a few shiny new toys to fight with, that doesn’t mean we know the best tactics to use them against the Ruhar in ground combat. The Kristang have trusted us with what should be a simple job, we can not screw this up. We take control of the planet, we move the Ruhar civvies to the space elevators and get their furry butts off the planet, and we secure the place, until the Kristang sort things out upstairs and can land their own troops. We are going to show the Kristang that the United Nations Expeditionary Forces are disciplined, competent, and ready to take on combat operations in the future. Platoon leaders, I want your squads ready for departure inspection at 1400 hours the day after tomorrow. Are there any more questions?”

I spoke up. “Sir, where are we going, and what can we expect for conditions?” I wanted to know as much as possible about what my new fireteam would be getting into.

“The short answer is we're going to Bum Fuck Neptune." The smile only lifted one side of his mouth. "Oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere, a bit more oxygen than we're used to. Gravity two percent heavier than Earth. The star is hotter than our Sun, but the planet is further away, so the climate is similar to Earth; hot at the equator, ice caps at the poles. It's mostly a farming colony, the Ruhar call the place Gehtanu, which translates roughly as New Grain Field, or something like that.” That drew a chuckle from the crowd. “The Kristang call it Pradassis. We're calling it Paradise. It’s got one big–ass continent, a couple island chains and big islands like Greenland size, the rest is ocean. Our PowerPoint Rangers put together a briefing deck, which your platoon leaders should have on tablets to distribute, it says the main continent is largely flat grasslands, like the US Great Plains, or the Russian steppes. Lots of big farms tended partly by robots, with the Ruhar clustered in villages. All the intel we have will be available on your notepads shortly, I need everyone to study up during the flight. The whole 10th Division, plus our British and French friends, will be loading on three transport ships, and the trip will take sixteen days. After we drop, the Kristang will keep a destroyer plus two frigates in orbit for fire support, but this is our show. General Meers has assured the Kristang that we can handle this, we are not going to prove him wrong.”