Kerry grinned. This was no fucking graduate, this was a line officer! Promoted from the ranks, the way she would never be. "Lt, sir," there was ten times the respect in that one soft word than there had been in any previous use of it, "If you'd said anything else, I would've put a bullet in you right now with your own gun and made it look like suicide." She chuckled.<br/><br/>"Yeah, I know how it is. I've lost men. I just hate to see them wasted needlessly. LIke I told them before you came in, sir, your job is to get them killed, my job is to keep them alive while you do... That doesn't put us on opposite sides. But you know that. If you give an order that I think will get more men killed than needed, I respectfully ask permission to see if there's another option first, but sir, you have my word. If there is no other option, your orders will be carried out to the letter."<br/><br/>She held out a scarred and meaty right hand, to shake, then picked up the glass and sipped, more slowly this time. "This is good stuff, sir. Oh, and just so you know, the only reason you're the LT and not me, is<em>because</em>they think I shot an officer. They just can't prove it or I'd have been in front of a firing squad... Hence it's not in my official record. "<br/><br/>Paige sipped again. "The guy was a lunatic. A glory hound. You've come across them. He wasn't so much worried about completing a mission, as completing it in such a way as to bring himself to the attention of the higher ups. He was ordered to defend a bridge across a river. There was an island in the middle. He was ordered to defend the near bank and if it looked like we couldn't hold the bridge, to blow it and fall back. You wanna know what the bastard did?"<br/><br/>She sipped again, relishing the warmth of the spirit as it slid down her throat. "He ordered us to cross the bridge to the island, take the Orc positions there, then cross the other bridge, and establish a bridgehead on the far side. He had this strange notion that 'the best defence is attack!"<br/><br/>Kerry chuckled grimly. "We took the far end of the first bridge. Arrows don't do so good against Kevlar. But then the damn Orcs counter-attacked with their dam wave tactics. Shit, but I'd hate to be an Orc!They kept coming and coming until we ran out of ammo. I was a squad leader back then...  The platoon sergeant ordered us back across the bridge. He had no choice. He held the rearguard, held it long enough for about half the survivors to get across. The damn coward... the officer, I mean, blew the bridge with half his men still on it. Half of what he had left.<br/><br/>"He got off with it. The enquiry blamed Sergeant Wright for leading the attack, exceeding his orders. I spoke out and got my second DH. The officer was commended for quick thinking in blowing the bridge!"<br/><br/>She sighed softly. "And that's why I hate officers, with all due respect, sir!"<br/><br/>Kerry downed the last of the second glass and turned the glass over, indicating she didn't want any more. "I've a favour to ask, sir, seeing as we're talking about how the platoon is run? Private Victoria Stern. I'd like her promoted to Corporal and made squad leader. There's only five people in the platoon with any combat experience. You and me make two. The dumb grunt lugging the heavy has some, but he's fresh out of the slammer. The point man is too full of himself and unless someone slaps him into line he's going to get himself and a lot of others killed. That leaves Vic. We know each other, we trust each other and we work well as a team. Her main issue with officers is the same as mine, sir. She doesn't want to die needlessly."