“Let’s keep that sorry ass moving, Thoms. That goes for the rest of you too. You all look like shit warmed over and dumped on a plate.” Clete Hargraves was running alongside the small column, taking delight in haranguing his Marines, just as any good platoon sergeant would do. “You’re all soft…what are you gonna do if we get shipped up to the front when the balloon goes up? I’ll tell you what. You’re gonna get your fat asses shot off by those Union FRs, that’s what.”

“Sarge, we done ten klicks already, and it’s gettin’ cold. My balls are frozen.” Joe Thoms looked the part of a Marine, a hulking kid who anyone would have guessed was at least twenty-five, although Hargraves knew damned well he was only twenty.

“Mine too,” added Janet Blocker, somewhat less literally.

Hargraves turned around, running backwards—and making it look effortless, though it wasn’t—as he faced his suffering group of Marines. “Yeah, try that with the Union FRs…maybe they won’t blow those frozen fucking balls off if you ask nicely. Problem with that is, you ain’t the only one who gets ganked. The rest of the Marines counting on your sorry ass get blasted too. So, let’s cut the whining and show some hustle. It’s just six klicks back to the barracks. If you pukes can keep up with me the rest of the way, I might even let you rest before chow.”

There were a few scattered groans, but the twenty-odd Marines kept running, following the platoon sergeant and, for the most part, keeping up with him. Finally, the column snaked its way through a small town, nothing more than a single dirt road with a dozen buildings on each side, and then up to a large, low structure.

“I knew you could do it, kiddies. And I’m nothin’ but a man of my word. So get a load off, rest those precious little bodies. You got an hour ’til chop.”

Hargraves turned and walked down to the end of the building, listening to the sounds behind him, mostly exhausted grunts of one kind or another. He continued to the last door and knocked.

“Come.”

He opened the door and stepped in, snapping to attention as soon as he was inside. “Sir!”

“At ease, Sergeant. And close the door…it’s cold enough every day on this forsaken planet, but I’d swear it feels like deep space out there today.”

Hargraves reached out, pushing the door shut. “I think first and second squads would agree with you, sir. They squalled like a bunch of baby birds, but they finished. They damned near even kept up with me…which goes to show just how much effort a Marine will make to get out of the cold.”