Billos was the senior non-com among Dauntless’s Marines, and one of three who were old enough to remember the last war against the Union. Despite his caustic style, he was proud of the ship’s Marines—most of them, at least. But he never forgot that for all their training, few of them had seen real combat. And just as bad, Dauntless’s contingent was understrength. The ship had been designed to carry two full companies, but the deployment to the Union frontier had been an assignment unlikely to result in any kind of ground combat, so she’d shipped with a single company plus a few extra specialists. Dauntless had been scheduled to pick up a fresh batch of Marines to bring her complement to full strength, but they hadn’t arrived yet, and with the concern over activity on the frontier, the Archellian command had declined to spare any of its own garrison to supplement the skeletal contingent.

“C’mon, Sarge…we’ve been at it for two hours now.” The whole squad was staring back at the veteran platoon sergeant with various exhausted expressions, but Rodrigues was the only one with the guts to actually complain. Billos was going to hammer him for it…but he would also remember who’d had the balls to stand up to him, and who didn’t.

“I’m thrilled to see you can count to two, Rodrigues. But what do you say we try something new? Let’s pretend I’ve got the sergeant’s marks on my shoulders, and you’re a one-stripe puke barely out of boot camp.”

Billos heard the door behind him slide open, and he could see from the way the Marines looking back toward him jumped to attention that one of the officers had come in. He turned, snapping to himself, with greater precision than any of the others.

“Captain Rogan.” He saluted.

“At ease, Sergeant.” Rogan looked across the room. “All of you.”

The Marines started to relax, but then they saw a figure following Rogan, and they whipped back into rigid postures.

“Please…” Barron walked into the gym, gesturing with his hands for the Marines to relax. “I’m not here to interrupt your workout. I just stopped by to see Captain Rogan, and he invited me to come along for a chat.”