I don't know but I've been told

[legacyofcain]

"This is not the military," she told the line of what she was thinking of as recruits, no matter their individual experience. It didn't matter any more, wasn't that what everyone kept saying about this place? "If this was the military, I or someone like me would have you all day, every day. So you might want to be glad this isn't the military."

Comments

[frakkup]

Ye gods. Kara sat her sweaty ass in the sand, rolling her eyes mightily towards the hot sun overhead the moment she landed. If Kendra Shaw had been a man, Kara would've looked for the boner, but as it was she only watched and waited. The woman wasn't likely to crack, was even less likely to crack in any noticeable way, but if there were signs of satisfaction to be had, Kara meant to smugly observe them.

[worth_killing]

Her face was familiar to Arthur. They had passed each other often enough, but he also remembered a conversation after Galahad had disappeared, something that stuck out sharply and painfully in his memory. He thought it best to begin to associate her with something else.

"Have you trained like this before?" he asked, friendly in his way for he was too tired bodily to hold to much formality.

[frakkup]

"Not since flight school," Kara grinned breathlessly. "Or maybe not even then." She jerked her head towards their new XO. "She's a hardass."

[worth_killing]

Arthur had never adopted such terms into his vocabulary, but he understood the meaning well enough. "As she should be. We're not her soldiers yet. But she does not breed resentment." No yet, at the least.

"Flight school?" he queried, turning to look Kara.

[frakkup]

"You know what planes are?" she asked, squinting her eyes at him through the sun. "Like Serenity, but smaller. I flew some called Vipers, just one-person-sized and built for aerial combat."

[worth_killing]

Understanding flashed in Arthur's eyes -- for yes he had read and heard mention of such things -- but as he had never seen a plane in flight, the image of them fighting was difficult to envision.

"Forgive me," he said, a frown on his face as he tried to process a thought. "I mean no disrespect. Any soldier who goes into combat, no matter what its form, is brave indeed. But if you are steering the machine, then why do you need to run and... sit up?"

[frakkup]

"'Cause planes crash," Kara said. "And battlestars get invaded, and idiots get themselves into shit they can't handle and need rescuing." She shrugged. "Takes a hell of a lot of force to keep a bird in the air, you want to make it turn, you're fighting a lot of g's." She tapped at her thigh with a grin. "That means muscles, right? But yeah, you're probably right about the running thing."

Her smile held, even as her memories went back to life aboard the Galactica. No running at all for years and years but for drills, and then in a matter of hours, she'd done nothing but run, herself and the rest of her people. She exhaled and shrugged at Arthur. "How else you gonna keep a couple hundred soldiers in line?"

[worth_killing]

It seemed obvious once she had said it, as if little portions of her daily life back home were being revealed from behind a curtain, bit by bit, and Arthur had been a fool to think there was all that much more mystery to it than his own life.

He smiled in a faint way and nodded. "Things are not so different in the future, in your world, as I thought. Some things always remain the same, don't they?"

[frakkup]

"Always a need for running and fighting and waving big sticks," Kara agreed. "Kind of depressing, isn't it?"

[worth_killing]

"Very," he agreed, with a slight smile as that sort of dark humor appealed to his sensibilities. "But at least we can take comfort in the quality of the people running with us and waving the big sticks. More than most, at least."

[frakkup]

Kara laughed and flopped back into the sand with a groan. "We're a rabble." Good men and women, the lot of them, but the sheer number of their differing backgrounds alone ensured there'd be a lot of chaos to work through. "Major Shaw will take care of that in a damn hurry, though."

[worth_killing]

Arthur chuckled softly and remained sitting upright, looking at the men and women of which they spoke. "None of us are green though," he said. All were tested warriors of a type; that could be seen simply in looking at hem. "And differences can make the whole stronger. In good hands, we shall do much."

[dumbassbastards]

"Someone needs to explain to me," says Rollie, slumping down next to her, "why the hell I thought this was going to be a good idea." He grins at her wearily, even though she won't get the reference. "I'm a doctor, not a soldier."

[frakkup]

"Now you're a nugget," Kara told him. "And I'm guessing you joined up for the same reason as the rest of us - blatant masochism and a desire to be driven further to drink."

[dumbassbastards]

"I'm too old for this shit," says Rollie, panting a little but still grinning all the same. "Well, you guys need someone out there patching you up if things go south."

[frakkup]

"And to laugh at while when run laps around them," said Kara, reaching over to poke at Rollie's paunch - non-existent though it might have been.