U.S.S.M.C. Document 4010121-30137 DISP

U.S.S.M.C. Document 4010121-30137 DISP

CLASSIFICATION CODE: ULTRA

Captain Dkimbe Uomo

Tell me about the circumstances leading up to your

transfer to Sisyphus 1.

Corporal Sonya Nero

My C.O. decided it would be better if I wasn’t a part of a combat unit. The garrison assignment—

Colonel Clinton Bettelheim

That’s a diplomatic way of putting it. Safer, you mean.

Corporal Sonya Nero

Okay. He felt it would be safer for everyone.

Captain Dkimbe Uomo

Why?

Corporal Sonya Nero

The Colonel over there seems to know the whole story. Just ask him.

Captain Dkimbe Uomo

I’m asking you.

Corporal Sonya Nero

After the Ixion Mutiny I was assigned to the U.S.S. Vendetta under Lieutenant Crane. It was a small detachment: recon, board & Capture, quick-response. And the lieutenant and me, we never saw eye-to-eye on many things.

Captain Dkimbe Uomo

What do you mean?

Corporal Sonya Nero

Let’s just say that he had his way of doing things, and I had mine.

Colonel Adrienne DeMarguerite

He put you on report several times for willful insubordination. Did you have problems with the other Marines because of Ixion?

Corporal Sonya Nero

Some. I can take care of myself. It was just that Lt. Crane was one of those West Point types.

Colonel Clinton Bettelheim

Careful, Nero—

Corporal Sonya Nero

I’m saying that he had no experience. Why you send those green-sleeve pretty-boys into the shit—into the Kuiper Belt, no less—I’ll never know. He’s lucky nobody’s fragged his ass by now.

Captain Dkimbe Uomo

What did the other Marines think of him?

Corporal Sonya Nero

They didn’t know what to think at first. Most of them were green too. But the first time the Russkies tried to make a grab for the Foldpoint, and they saw for themselves what a C-Beam or those fucking weird sonic rounds can do to a man, they realized pretty quick that Crane was useless.

Colonel Clinton Bettelheim

Sounds to me like Lt. Crane smelled another mutiny coming on, doesn’t it?

Corporal Sonya Nero

Oh Jesus Christ.

Colonel Clinton Bettelheim

He got rid of you to prevent another bloodbath.

Corporal Sonya Nero

He didn’t file for the transfer. I did. Okay?

Admiral Isao Kumagai

In Corporal Nero’s defense, her combat record is exemplary. The issue at hand is the Callistoan installations, not the Ixion Mutiny.

Colonel Clinton Bettelheim

Respectfully Admiral, I think it’s at the core of the matter. Given her role—

Corporal Sonya Nero

I was cleared! I didn’t—

Colonel Adrienne DeMarguerite

Colonel, please, this—

<<>>

Colonel Clinton Bettelheim

Given her role in the Ixion Mutiny, I don’t even see why—

Corporal Sonya Nero

It was an illegal order, Colonel! I don’t care how far away from Earth it was, some things are just wrong!

Colonel Clinton Bettelheim

Oh so now you care about the regulations, Corporal? You can’t afford to be this naïve, you really can’t.

Corporal Sonya Nero

There was no proof, you know there was--

Colonel Clinton Bettelheim

It’s not your place—

<<>>

Colonel Clinton Bettelheim

--had a duty to perform. Nobody would have ever known if you hadn’t testified. If you hadn’t lost your nerve.

Corporal Sonya Nero

Plausible deniability doesn’t give us the right to carry out a massacre. If a tree falls in the woods it still makes noise, whether you want to admit it or not.

Colonel Clinton Bettelheim

You cost us a strategic foldpoint. You set us back a full year and cost us trillions in long-term expansion.

Colonel Adrienne DeMarguerite

That’s enough, the both of you. Truth be told, Corporal Nero’s actions may have done more to prevent a war.

Colonel Clinton Bettelheim

How in the hell do—

Colonel Adrienne DeMarguerite

If the Russians hadn’t managed to carve out a more stable supply line, who knows how desperate they might have become? It could have gone from piracy to full-blown privateering and open warfare.

Colonel Clinton Bettelheim

This is ridiculous. I’m not sitting here and listening to this traitor one second longer.

Admiral Isao Kumagai

Colonel Bettelheim!

Corporal Sonya Nero

Thought he’d never leave.

Captain Dkimbe Uomo

Let’s get back on topic. Can you tell us the details of your assignment? Your observations of the station personnel and what sort of work was being conducted?

Corporal Sonya Nero

Well terraforming was a priority, of course. There was a lot of pressure among the engineers to get atmospheric processors running. It was hard work considering how deep they had to drill for water. The scientists were always fighting for equipment so they could do research on possible aquatic life.

Captain Dkimbe Uomo

Aquatic life?

Corporal Sonya Nero

Yeah. Callisto has huge underground oceans so scientists get excited whenever they find a planet or moon with huge water deposits. They wanted core samples so they could look for fossilized bacteria, stuff like that.

Captain Dkimbe Uomo

Did they find any?

Admiral Isao Kumagai

Corporal?

Colonel Adrienne DeMarguerite

What’s so funny?