Paige looked at the man with "FEATHER" printed on his jacket, and sneered. She advanced on him, not intimidated by his extra 127mm of height. The sergeant knew exactly how close to get, to give the "in-your-face" treatment without looking short. Her voice was soft, but it carried in the quiet of the room. "You, Soldier, will address me as Sergeant, Sarge, First Sergeant, or Sergeant Paige". The voice shot up in volume "<strong><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 14pt;">IS THAT CLEAR?</span></strong>"<br/><br/>She waited for an affirmative and then back at normal volume, ordered, "Give me twenty. NOW! You, count them!" She ordered the nearest man.<br/><br/>Paige looked around at the new faces. "You're all veterans here. You survived the loss of your transport ships. You've seen combat, you've lost comrades, you've probably seen them killed in the most horrific ways. The fact that you are still alive is down to one thing and one thing only. Does anyone know what that one thing is?"<br/><br/>She paused, waiting until someone offered the answer, "Training, Sergeant!"<br/><br/>"BULLSHIT! You are alive because you got LUCKY! Do you think the poor sods in the compartment next to yours who got sucked out into space had any less training? NO! The just got unlucky because the fucking bioship drilled through into their compartment and not yours!" Paige sneered at the troops. who were still (mostly) at attention. "You were lucky because you made it to an escape pod or captured an enemy ship before your transport blew up, and you were lucky because you were out of the blast radius when it did!"<br/><br/>Kerry looked at them "At ease." She leaned back against a bulkhead. "But we're going into a different sort of combat next. Sure luck plays a hand, she always does. But planetside, you survive by keeping you head down, keeping your arse down, and doing as you are told." She grinned evilly. "And if you are told to die, you do so in the name of the Emperor, willingly and gladly!"<br/><br/>Paige stood up again. "And do you maggots know why?" she didn't wait for an answer, but gave it herself, "Because by dying when and where you are told to, you will be saving the lives of others..." She shook her head. "True story... I ordered a squad to hold a bridge against an entire swarm of bugs. The bugs swam the river, but they needed the bridge to get their heavy stuff across. That squad held that bridge for two days. They were slaughtered to a man. But those two days enabled Division to put together a counter-offensive that not only retook that bridge but the city on the other side of it!"<br/><br/>She looked each of them in the eye in turn. "So, if you EVER question an order, if you EVER delay obeying, if you EVER show a lapse in discipline...." Suddenly her sidearm was in her hand and with a soft PHUT! a fletchette buried itself in the deck a millimetre from Feather's right hand. "I will kill you myself. You, Feather, are on my shit list. You do your job, do your duty and live long enough, you will get off my shit list."<br/><br/>She shook her head and put the gun away. "If Key got caught with contraband, then he was an idiot, and it serves him right. If any of you have anything illegal I suggest you take it as a warning, and dump it in the nearest garbage chute. That is all!"<br/><br/>And with that, Paige spun on her heel and left, heading for the tiny closet that had been given her as a warrant Officer's Mess.