Chapter 9

"Lieutenant Waters, what was your first impression as you entered the vessel?"

Waters thought about the question as he looked at the officer across from him. Slightly pudgy, a fine sheen of sweat over his face and constantly sipping from the glass he filled from the carafe on the briefing table.

"Sir, my first impression was one of emptiness." Waters answered as he observed the reaction.

The other man took a sip, nodded and traced his finger down the hand held unit to the next question. No name on the ill fitting uniform, shifting uneasily under Waters gaze, the man seemed out of his element. Waters already had the impression that this was a cursory debriefing. His report was finished the same day of the contact and submitted through the chain of command, now this debriefing was being done in case he might have overlooked anything. If this interrogator was Broderian Forces, then Waters was in the running for the Chancellorship. He casually glanced at his wrist chrono.

"Lieutenant, there are only as few more questions and you'll be on your way." The pudgy man said without looking up from his hand held. Waters feigned amazement and then put on the blank, wide-eyed young officer look that he had fine-tuned to a work of art.

"Oh, that's ok sir, I was just checking so that I wouldn't be late for pre-schoolers school." Waters mentioned off handedly to gauge the reaction. There was none. That answered the question that Waters had been running over for the last two hours.

"Sir. I am finished with this interview. You are not an officer in the Forces, so we can end this charade." He said as stood up from his chair. "If you're Intelligence, then you already know more than I would on this matter." He strode purposely to the hatchway. "I have a unit to attend to. Good day, Sir." He said with emphasis on 'sir'. He closed the hatchway behind him and walked to the troop berthing section on McAfee's main deck. As he entered the troop bay, the area was chaotic in activity. Squads and platoons forming, troopers moving back and forth, full squads moving to the hanger bay for transfer to other vessels. Amid the bustle, Sergeant Wilkes found him and guided him to a small corner out of the flow of traffic.

"Sergeant what's going on here?" he asked as he was jostled by a passing formation led by a serious looking officer enroute to the launch bay.

"Damnedest thing I ever saw." Wilkes said into his ear so as to be heard. "Admiral Greerson made an announcement followed by a major from operations and Captain Ryan himself. We're shipping out to the planet to reinforce our troops already there." He paused and pressed himself against the bulkhead as a platoon's heavy weapon section squeezed past.

"How's the platoon look?" Waters asked. Wilkes hugged the bulkhead again as an engineering group shouldered through. "Better than we will be if we don't relocate somewhere else." Wilkes said as he grabbed Waters upper arm and guided him through the maze of departing and preparing units. They reached their platoon prep area and took a breath to be out of the way of all the movements. Waters platoon was in various stages of unit prep. A few of the squads were already suited up and making final equipment checks while the rest were wandering about seemingly without purpose, attempting to gather gear and finish preparation for disembarkation. Waters started to address his men when his personal messenger beeped. He grabbed it off his waist and looked at it. Here we go, he thought as he replaced it into its pouch.

"Gentlemen, that was our status for boarding. Someone loves us upstairs." He paused as he looked around the squad bay. "We've been moved to the front, with the first deployment." Some of the men groaned and sat down while others leaned close to each other and whispered.