"Wake up you bastards"
I opened my eyes as the sound of a stick of durasteel hitting the bars became a torment I could not ignore. The pain in my ears was driving me crazy, the constant pain in my back also killed me.
Looking around me I saw how my roommate, another human, also woke up. He, contrary to me, was a criminal. A rapist to be more specific. I would have been a little bit scared of him if it wasn't for the fact he was homosexual. So I was safe from his lack of understanding of how society worked.
Standing up I approached the bars and looked through them. My room was so small and so lacking in privacy that sometimes I thought that being a homeless person was probably more dignified than being here.
More in consideration that I did not commit any fucking crimes to deserve to stay here. My father was the one who committed the crime along with my mother. And as she got pregnant in prison from him I became a property of this prison.
It was slavery but with extra steps. Using their criminals as free labor the planet where I lived benefited from the practice of slavery without everyone asking about the morality of these acts.
"Where do I work today!" I shouted to the prison guard who was still making sounds with his durasteel stick. He stopped for a moment, turned around, and stared at me directly in my eyes.
"After breakfast, they will come to pick you up!" He shouted, his eyes seemed to look at me with some time of sadness. Where was I going to work now? I was fucking 14, even if I was an object to be used by this prison I still had some rights like they could not kill me or do degenerate acts to me. So what could have made his eyes look like that?
I bit my inner lip.
The planet I was born on was a fucking shithole and I lacked any future. Really I was unlucky with this third reincarnation. First I reincarnated in that crazy damn world with magic and now here.
It seemed like some fucker was fucking around with me just for fun and it was annoying. Like really, what did I do to deserve this?
"Hey crazy eyes, are you going to leave the bars to me? I also want to breathe a little bit of fresh air" He said, with a broken laugh that sounded more like the engines of a Panzer IV trying to start after its maintenance was ignored for a good amount of time.
"Fuck off" I answered as I looked back at him, contrary to my short stature and my young age of 14 standard years. He was about 40 years old man by standard years. He looked like a gorilla that lost most of his hair, the only place where he had hair was his chin. His whole body was tattooed and his muscles were menacing. But he was nice towards girls, or at least toward me.
He was the closest thing to a friend I had in this bullshit prison.
"Hey, where did you learn those words, a small girl shouldn't talk like that. I will have to clean your mouth with soap"
"Oh, you have soap?"
The man laughed. Soap was a commodity that only those who did a great job while working received. She sometimes received some but it was hard to compete against men in physical labor when the only thing she had ever eaten was nutritional paste and her body was more fit for a high-quality whore that sometimes appeared in the prison than to the working slave she was.
"No, the one I was given some time ago was already used, but it was a pretty damn good soap I have to say, I think the guard that gave it to me liked me. He is homosexual, I can assure you of that."
I rolled my eyes. Trut's imagination was only comparable to how big he was. He liked to see everything except reality. I really can't guess how this bear of a man that looks so… normal… was a rapist.
I guess, most of the people that are criminals look normal to many people.
In my time as a Human Resources manager, it was my job to separate the coal from the diamonds but if at that time Trut had come to my office I would probably have considered him a diamond.
Who could have guessed that the diamond is a rapist.
"Yes… yes, whatever you say…" I said, turning around to the bars, and looking through them. Trying to find out if I could see something new but it didn't seem any different than it had the last few years…
Wait…
I put as much concentration as I could when I saw a guy in the middle of the hall, he was, contrary to the workers of the prison, very well-suited, and he also seemed to be from the military. What was he doing here?
"I have a bad feeling about this Trut…"
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The place where we ate was huge, every day probably a thousand prisoners ate there in the morning. Today instead of a thousand there were less than a hundred. Why? I didn't know. But the presence of the guy who looked like he was from the military could have given me some warnings.
"Have you ever been off this planet?" I asked Trut as I ate the nutritious paste that had no flavor.
"Yes, I was a trader before the rape thing," He said, eating his food as if it was the best thing ever. "Millions of planets, each with their own cultures and traditions."
"I have never been outside of this prison or any of its working places,"
I had liberty both in my first and second life. Here I did not have any of that. Born as a prisoner and will die as one. No hope of ever improving, of ever growing, of ever becoming part of the society. Just a slave with extra steps. For many years I was angry, but now I just accept it. Waiting. For what? For an opportunity to escape this life of monotony.
Would that opportunity ever happen?
I would like to think that nothing is impossible. But honestly, this planet specialized so much in this prisoner working force that their systems to avoid them escaping were as efficient as possible.
"Outside in the galaxy everything is beautiful," Trut said. "Sadly I will never see the galaxy again. But I tell you, space and the planets. Their beauty is addictive."
"Is it still so beautiful even when there is war?"
I have heard about how this Galaxy was united in some type of federation of planets that all served under a government only known as the Galactic Republic. This Republic some years ago entered into a civil war with a group called Confederation of Independent Systems simply known as Separatists and the war has been going on for some time. Don't really know much more.
"Oh well, now there is peace, haven't you heard the news?"
"No? I haven't heard anything. Difficult to hear news when no one talks to me except you."
"Well, the Republic has won the civil war, and now is not called the Galactic Republic but a Galactic Empire."
"An Empire? Is there now a monarch?"
"Yes, the one that before was Supreme Chancellor, Palpatine."
Galactic politics are so weird and problematic. I wonder if I will ever understand them.
"So the Supreme Chancellor became Emperor?"
"Yup, but I heard some weird rumors."
"About what?"
"He is dead."
I laughed a little bit, the nutritious paste entered where it shouldn't and I started to cough. Using my hand I started to punch my flat chest to ease the pain.
"He did not last long as Emperor," I said after the pain was over. Laughing still at the idea that someone was Emperor for such a short time. "How did he die?"
"Rumors say that the new Emperor killed him after some incident. Anyway, political bullshit we probably don't have to care about"
He finished his meal just before I finished mine. As we both stood up and prepared to leave the room I noticed how some soldiers started to enter the eating room. They had black clothes that acted as uniform and they each had a carabine in their hands. Probably for close-quarter combat. When all of them entered, I counted 20, and another guy from the military entered. This one looked like an officer and he was the same one that I saw earlier. He was an old-looking man with a lot of medals on his uniform. His black uniform was covered by gold accents and instead of something like a helmet, he had a hat.
The officer coughed a little bit to clear his throat.
"From now on, all the prisoners present here will become property of the army."
You gotta be fucking kidding me!
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Welcome to the training camp of Litirio!" Shouted the man with a hard face. He was the trainer officer of the 1st Penal Brigade where I belonged. Three lives and in two of them I belonged to the army. Is the business of killing somehow now attached to my identity? Cant I be a fucking accountant or a Human Resources manager again?
When I looked around me, the term brigade might seem confusing at first for those outside of the armed forces but for me, it was just another term after so many years of fighting war in my second life. Would they put a penal brigade in each division or create divisions only made of penal brigades? I don't know how organized a Penal division could be. I guess the communists knew how to handle them. Hope I don't have to suffer the same fate as the communist penal brigades.
"From now on, Colonel Octavio Oratorio will train this brigade to participate in combat roles. You will stay here one month learning the necessary and then will go to the frontline"
Wait, what frontline?
I looked around me to see if I was the only one confused about this but everyone seemed equally confused. Trut's face also indicated that this was new information for him.
"You will first learn the rules," The man shouted. I looked around me again, there were probably around four thousand men, what he spoke resonated throughout the place so they probably used some type of special tech. The sun and the heat indicated to me that this was summer, or at least near summer. And lastly, we were in the middle of nowhere. It was a military base, of course, but the military base was in a sea of grass that didn't seem to end. And I could swear I could count with the fingers of my hands how many trees were present in this sea of grass.
"Rule number one. If a commissar gives you an order you will follow it. Each Company will have a commissar that will be an officer with the rank of captain. Rule number two. You can only have access to your reglementary gun with a commissar present. Rule number three, not following orders is desertion and will be punished with execution!"
Well, those rules were easy to understand. I could appreciate their honesty in how little our personal opinions and lives matter. I wonder why we were fighting.
"Any question?!"
"No sir!" I screamed, naturally. After a decade of being in the military, it came to me as if I had never abandoned the military. The man looked at me for a moment and I could feel the pressure of a thousand eyes looking at me. But I didn't care about them. In the military discipline and answering your officer loud and clear was important. Even more important when you were a private.
"What are you waiting for, you piece of shit scumbags? Follow the example of the fucking child!" He screamed to the rest. They started to scream "No sir!" In a disorganized way that made me feel sorry for them. Even during my first day in the military back in my second life, I did better. These bastards were not going to survive the training.
"How did you know to answer like that?" Trut whispered.
"Instinct," I answered. The worst part is that it was true.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I fired the rifle. It was as big as me and it was hard to keep up but I managed it well. The blue laser left my rifle and advanced through the air so rapidly that I almost didn't notice the blue color. Hitting the target. I took the rifle to rest on my shoulder and waited for my commissar to come.
"Half turn," Said my commissar and I followed the order. He looked at me with dead eyes. He was the commissar-captain Xiure Yuli and he was in charge of the first company of the first penal brigade.
"Give me your weapon."
I followed the order and gave my Xana-500 to him. It was a beautiful rifle that, according to what my officer explained to me, was very reliable and cheap. Sadly it also meant that its ammunition capacity was inferior to other rifles and it was less powerful. I wondered if 500 rounds for a blaster is low ammunition capacity and a blaster shot that could dissolve the head of a person was not considered powerful. What type of enemies I was supposed to face? Fucking mutant ants with the size of houses?
He inspected the gun with his hands and then returned it to me.
"Only one shot to hit the target. Where did you learn to aim and shoot girl?" He asked me. He was going to be the man who could decide if I was executed or not in this penal brigade… I need to start gaining points with him.
"I didn't learn anywhere sir, I have been a prisoner all my life, sir."
The man nodded. "I want you to repeat the shot."
"Yes sir."
I nodded and turned around, taking my gun up and seeing the target in front of me. Around me, my comrades in arms were missing most of their shots. Something normal when you never have shot a gun. But I had the benefit of years of experience killing people. I had to play this well. If I became the favorite soldier of the commissar my future would be far better. The opportunity to escape my miserable life was here! If in my second life, I became a general at the age of 20, here I could at least become something else than a fucking private in a penal brigade.
I squeezed the trigger and I hit the target.
"Again"
I squeezed the trigger again. And as the last two times, I hit the target.
"On your knees and shoot three times,"
I kneeled and shot three consecutive shots, all three hit the target.
"On the ground and shoot another three shots"
I accommodated myself on the ground, putting the rifle on the grass, and aimed at the target. This time it was a little bit easier due to not needing to compensate for how heavy the rifle was with my almost non-existent strength.
I squeezed the trigger three more times and three times I hit the target.
"A prodigy… and you say you have been in prison all your life?"
"Yes sir!"
I could not see him but I had the sensation that he was nodding in approval.
"Maybe you are the only thing of worth in this entire brigade. Up and go to shower first. You have earned the privilege."
"Thank you, sir!"
Showering alone instead of with another 50 men? That was a good damn gift. Not depending on Trut to protect me from the eyes of these criminal bastards was something I had wanted since I showered for the first time.
I really hope this commissar starts to notice my superiority compared to the rest and gives me more privileges. Life ain't fair so I had to play my cards well in order to have a better position. I am sure everything will be fine.
The Commissar-Captain Xiure Yuli read the reports in his hands, evaluations he did of every soldier of his Company, 250 scumbags from the prison cells. The coup d'etat and the civil war that began on the planet made them lose many cities and now the loyalist army, which kept their loyalty to the new Emperor Anakin Skywalker, was in dire straits.
The situation wasn't looking good, even if they were in the Core Ahsoka Tano, the right hand of the new Emperor assured the loyalist government that there were no clone legions that could be used to help them at the moment.
"Using prisoners as soldiers, really what stupidity, but we cannot do anything else, '' Yuli said as he sighed. Igniting a cigarette he started to smoke while reading one report in particular. Tanya von Degurechaff or at least that's what she called herself. She was exceptional in everything except physical force. She also caught the attention of the Colonel.
"14-year-old girl with a lot of intelligence, discipline, and shooting skills."
Yuli expelled the smoke of the cigarette through his nose as he kept reading the report he had written himself.
"I could promote her to sergeant so she can lead a squad," He said, as commissar-captain it was his duty to promote inside the company sargents that would take control of 4-man squads.
50 Squads, would form 5 Platoons that would form in total the company.
He could promote her to lieutenant and put her in charge of 10 Squads. It's not like there was anyone else competent in the company. All of them were idiot scumbags. In the best-case scenario, they knew how to shoot.
"A fucking 14-year-old girl being lieutenant, it sounds so funny, hell, why not? It's not like this company is going to survive its first month of battle."
Taking a datapad near to him while he exhaled the smoke through his nose Yuli smiled. Organizing the company with the promotions of sergeants and lieutenants.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Hear me you pieces of shit!" A small girl screamed in front of her and organized her Platoon. 10 squads of 5 soldiers each. One sergeant and four privates. The soldiers had rifles the Xana-500 and the sergeant a pistol the Xanu-100. The Lieutenant girl had a Xana-500 because of her own choice together with a Xanu-100 in her belt.
"I have been promoted to Lieutenant and I will be taking direct control of the first platoon of the first regiment of the first penal division."
Trut was among the soldiers who looked surprised little Tanya was the leader of this penal platoon. Since they joined this training camp a week ago honestly everything was surprising. But somehow it fits her like a glove. Her look of superiority in her blue eyes was similar to how the prison guards looked at them when patrolling. Her voice was uninspiring, to be honest, but the tone that she used to talk made everyone who could at least hear her feel like she was more like an adult than an adolescent. Her small stature was a problem but her black like space uniform made her inspire a little bit of respect. And her golden hair gave all this combination a very good taste of elegance.
"I will not be afraid to give out any necessary discipline. It is my job as a Lieutenant to make sure that you all follow the rules and accomplish the objective established by my superiors. I will not tolerate any undisciplined act nor will I be merciful to those that decide that my authority can be ignored. I am Tanya von Degurechaff but you will refer to me as My Lieutenant or Sir!"
Many felt strange that she asked them to address her as Sir but many of them shut up as she continued her speech.
"My main mission is to ensure that you accomplish your part of the role of this division in ensuring the victory in the civil war that affects our planet, Welt. And I will accomplish this task without fear. For our superiors your life is meaningless but I will try to make sure that as many of you can survive the upcoming battles. Platoon rest!"
Colonel Oratorio and Commissar-Captain Yuli looked at the speech from behind Tanya, being up from everyone else they could see her and the entire Platoon of 49 men.
"You promoted a 14-year-old girl to Lieutenant? At least she has spirit" the Colonel said as he started to smoke. His old face looked pleased. In comparison, the young Commissar-Captain smiled.
"I believe I have made a good choice, she is a very good shooter and very intelligent but not very strong physically. Giving her a small position of power probably will increase the efficiency of the unit she is in charge of."
"So instead of being exterminated the first day, they get exterminated the third day?" The colonel answered and Yuli laughed at the joke.
The colonel laughed at his own joke but soon remembered the reality of the situation. All over the planet, a cruel civil war was taking place and without support from the Empire, the war would take years to be won.
"The coup d'etat of the Palpatine loyalists against the government has taken us by surprise. We are being forced to use penal divisions. It is degenerate but we are out of options. Most of the cities are under the Palpatine loyalists and our government that swore loyalty to Anakin has to fight them"
"It feels stupid, Palpatine is dead. Why would they fight for a dead man?"
"Loyalty is a tricky thing" answered the Colonel, "Don't risk your life Yuli, I know a Captain should be in the front with their troops but prisoners are expendable. Officers are not"
He nodded
"Didn't plan to sacrifice myself in battle surrounded by scum"
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The great green plains were impressive. Never in my life have I seen such a beautiful view but at the same time it was so scary. It was like when you were in the middle of the sea. But instead of water, it was all grass and flat terrain.
I would have enjoyed the view more if this wasn't going to be where we would soon fight a battle. In open terrain, the infantry was doomed to die. That was something that became certain in most eras of war but in the modern era, it became even worse. With the existence of modern artillery and machine guns, being an infantryman in flat terrain was a constant fight with death.
We were moved in floating trucks, it was the best way to describe it. Before being used by the military apparently, it was used to move cargo. It was refitted to be able to move a fair amount of infantry fairly comfortably. But it was a death trap I was sure, any modern ATGM or AT launcher in my first life could destroy and kill all the crew with just one hit. So I could only hope that if a truck was hit with a missile it wasn't mine.
Dying, as unimportant as it became with me already dying twice, was still painful and I didn't want to risk finding out if I had a limited amount of deaths. I would have preferred a life of slavery to dying. Because at least there was the certainty that I could try to rise in the situation, on the contrary, I had no certainty in how many lives I had left.
"You seem worried," Said Trut to my right, the entire 50 men of my platoon were in the same truck.
"Aren't you? We are being sent to war"
"Well… how bad is it going to be? Of course, I have heard that we have already been in a civil war for a month but… it's not like it's going to get any worse than in other places. I have seen some battle scenes from the Clone Wars. Three to four battles and the planetary invasion is over''
"How can you end a planetary invasion in four battles?" I asked, honestly surprised, it took 4 years for the USSR to be able to move from Moscow to Berlin. How an army was supposed to conquer a planet in four battles? Did they invade the planets with billions of troops? Considering this was a galactic scale of war it wouldn't surprise me that somehow it made sense for the war of this galaxy to be counted in billions of soldiers.
"Well, most of the time you would conquer the most important city of the planet where usually all the armed forces are, and then the rest of the planet would surrender."
…
Thats fucking stupid. Why would you surrender your planet after your capital fell? Of course, in many cases, it was a moral hit and you sometimes could lose your government when that happened. But if you have an entire planet under your control you could fight the war at planetary level. Every inch of land covered with defenses, every city could have its own garrison if you don't want to defend in the open fields.
"I think the military leadership is stupid"
Turt laughed and put a hand on my head, petting me. I rapidly slapped his hand with my own.
"Do not treat me like a child, I am your superior officer!"
"Come on little Tanya, don't be so angry" He laughed again.
I liked his companionship. It reminded me of my time with the 203. Really good times. At first, I didn't like socializing with them but with time it became something natural inside my battalion.
I guess now I am used to that type of relationship with my troops. One is not so formal outside of battle but one is very professional in battle.
"So, we are fighting for the Emperor of the Galactic Empire, no? And who is our enemy fighting for?"
"For the first Emperor that was killed by the current Emperor"
Ah yes, as a history fan somehow I imagined myself being in a Roman-like Empire.
"So we are going to kill some bastards for an Emperor we don't know, and they are going to die for an Emperor that is already dead? Honestly, sometimes politics are so complex that they become stupid."
"I couldn't agree more."
I looked at the rest of my Platoon, the soldiers were sleeping in most cases. In this month of training, the first lesson we learned was to sleep whenever we could, the second thing we learned was how to shoot and the third thing that we learned was that if you did not follow the orders of your superior they would execute you. This was made clear when the Colonel said to a prisoner to do a hundred push-ups and he told him to fuck off.
The answer was a clear shot in the prisoner's face.
They weren't fucking around with all the discipline in the Penal Colony. Probably for good reason, but it also meant that I would be executed if they found me not responding well to their orders.
With a little bit of good luck, we will not enter into battle.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An explosion woke me up, the screams of people and the smell of burning men around me were so familiar that I wasn't surprised. The rest of my platoon on the other hand was starting to panic.
The explosions continued and I just stood up in the truck while the fastest ones of my platoon tried to escape the truck.
"Platoon! Prepare your arms and follow me!" I screamed, raising my pistol and slowly walked out of the truck. The moment our General decided to stop the convoy in the middle of this sea of grass I understood that this would happen. I had more military experience than these officers it seemed and when I proposed to build up trenches they didn't even know of the idea. Of course, I explained the concept to them, a line where soldiers could garrison, sleep, and defend. Completely safe from the artillery and surprise attacks.
But they ignored my advice.
In the middle of the night, the explosions and the screams I heard how roughly half the platoon followed me. Probably the other half ran away. If they were found out I wouldn't defend them, on the contrary, I would encourage their execution.
"Trut, you with me?" I asked.
"Yes, right behind you"
"Go there and accommodate the ones with us to defend that position, I will try to contact a superior"
"You heard the lieutenant you maggots! Go fucking there in a defensive line!"
The first thing to do when you suffered an artillery attack in the night was to ensure that no one was coming to attack you in the night. Covering the flank nearest to my truck was the most intelligent decision. But as I turned around, to see the middle of the convoy formation I saw chaos and madness. All the soldiers were running, some were even sacking and killing each other.
If they attacked us we would be dead.
"Here the Captain-Commissar Yuli to all the Lieutenants, cover your position and await orders"
I was tempted to answer him but he was probably drowned in communications. There was no need to drown him more to assure him that I was already following his orders.
I turned around again, approaching my platoon. The artillery was still falling but it was getting farther away by the second. They started the artillery barrage in the middle of the formation and by seeing the direction they were going their idea was to cut off our retreat. Whether they intended to force us to advance or to trap us was unknown. But when I reached my soldiers I was expecting an enemy offensive.
"Trut, how many of my platoon are here?"
"40"
"Including me and you?"
"Including me and you"
"Then 10 deserters, I hope you will be able to identify them if they try to reintegrate into the Platoon like nothing happened."
"I will, I know the guys that are with us, so identifying those that were not with us will be easy"
The artillery barrage stopped and for minutes I waited with a worried look if an attack would happen.
"They will fucking attack or not?" Asked one of the soldiers with tension after 10 minutes of nothing.
"It doesn't seem like it, they just wanted to make us weaker before we reach the actual combat, depending on the ability of their general, either they are inferior in numbers or they want to make the destruction of our division with as few casualties as possible"
I walked through the grass, my soldiers with their rifles up and their knees to the dirt. Even kneeling they were as tall as me. Which was humiliating but I was already used to it. To my right, Trut was walking with me.
"How do you know so much?" He asked, "Did you just make all that up?"
"I read a lot of books"
"There are no books in the prison"
"Only because you didn't search for them"
I totally made that up, but it was a good enough excuse so he stopped questioning my arguments and knowledge.
After an hour finally, I saw our flanks being protected by our fellow prisoner soldiers. It took them one hour to reorganize and prepare a defense around the convoy… If the enemy had attacked us we would have completely died and the only way I could have survived would have been if I surrendered.
I really should ask this question. Was it worth my loyalty to them? Well, the first answer was of course not. But the problem is that I didn't know my enemy.
What was best? Keep loyalty to the known devil or surrender to some people that I didn't know anything about? I know how many rapes soldiers did to women. Even the Imperial army which was the most disciplined in the world had problems with soldiers raping women. So if I surrendered not only would I have to worry for my life and physical integrity but about if I would be treated like a slave to be abused or with dignity.
"To all Lieutenants, report me, do you see anything?"
I watched the sea of grass in case somehow I would find an enemy, but I did not. Taking out my holoprojector I started turning it on, and the body of my Captain-Commissar appeared.
"Sir, no enemies in my area"
I cut communications and again put my holo communicator in a safe place. They would communicate to us through voice but we were forced to answer with a hologram. This was a way to keep us monitored.
Even if we were officers in their army. We were still prisoners, maybe we were competent enough to have a position in this slave army but that didn't mean they trusted us.
"It is going to be a long night" I dared to predict.
The General of the First Penal Division looked at the map, around a thousand deserters and dead prisoners. The artillery barrage took all of them by surprise and when they were able to answer, one hour later, the enemy was already gone.
"The efficiency of this division is worse than I expected," said the General to the four of his Colonels who were with him in the mobile HQ.
"Well, in my Brigade" Defended Colonel Octavio Ortorio, "I had a platoon that's answer was immediate, they were defending their designated position even before it was ordered"
Putting a hologram of their place, he pushed some buttons in the holo-projector and thousands of red dots appeared on the map. They kept track of every soldier they had in their division. While the entire convoy was in chaos, 40 red dots moved to the extreme of their position. Defending the convoy in that direction.
"Who is she?" Asked the General after pressing the red dot of the Lieutenant, the Image of Tanya von Degurechaff appeared.
"Official name Donatella Truli. She goes by the name of Tanya von Degurechaff, she is one of the most disciplined soldiers we have and one of the best shooters" The colonel talked of her as if it was the only thing worth being proud of.
"She is 14, what crime did she commit?"
"None, her parents were in prison when they had her"
"And what about her parents?"
"Dead"
The General nodded, examining her picture closely.
"Well, sadly for how good she did she alone couldn't have defended us from our position. I want you to kill 1 of every 10 soldiers to instaurate discipline and teach them to follow orders immediately. We cannot afford this to happen again. Exempt Tanya's platoon from that punishment"
"Understood" Answered the four colonels. Saluting him and then leaving the truck while the General watched Tanya's file.
"Interesting girl I have to say"