“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.”

Shauna pinged me before I could contact her. "You hear? We're moving out!"

"Yeah, we're going to Paradise."

"Paradise!" She laughed. We hadn't been together since my promotion to sergeant, we'd both been too busy and I was way too tired. It hit me then that I might never see her again, once we left our base on Camp Alpha, we'd probably be on different transport ships, then assigned to different sites scattered across the surface of Paradise.

"Hey, uh, good luck on qualifying for infantry." I didn't want to call to end, and I didn't know what to say.

"Thanks, that'll have to wait until we get there." There were loud voices in the background. "Joe, I have to go, let's keep in touch?"

"Sure." And that was it. At least we'd be on the same planet.