“Regular Army up until about two week ago.” The recruit pauses and seems to choose his next words carefully “I have had some small arms training, but mostly we would just sneak around and blow something up … or radio coordinates to someone else to blow it up.” He thinks a minute and continues “I guess a 20mm Auto Cannon is the biggest ‘military weapon’ that I qualified on.”
“We might as well get it out in the open right up front” Mr. Lawrence abruptly changes the topic, “I left with a double D – a dishonorable discharge – so if you have a problem with that, let’s settle it right now and not waste either of our time.” Marion looks directly into the Sergeant’s eyes, deliberately making unblinking eye contact before continuing “If you need someone to kill enemy soldiers or destroy stuff then I am your man, sign me up – but if you are looking for someone who will toss babies into the air and catch them on their bayonet**, then count me out.” Lawrence holds eye contact for a moment longer before a haunted look crosses his face and his head drops. In a barely audible whisper “I wouldn’t do it for them and I won’t do it for you. A soldier does not kill unarmed civilians.”
He regains his composure and begins to speak again in a conversational tone “… besides, that trouble in startown was really not my fault. Like I said, double D and a career flushed down the drain. So I do what men in my situation have done for centuries, I locate a bar and attempt to set a new record for alcohol consumption. So I am drinking my drink and talking about how the army gave me the shaft when this no-neck oaf says that ‘a dishonorably discharged drunk (like me) is not a real soldier’. So I responded by asking the young lady next to him ‘So how did someone as attractive as yourself end up with someone as just plain but ugly as him?’ The no-necked gentleman takes umbrage at my remark – go figure – and overturns his table with an exclamation something to the effect of ‘someone needs to teach you some manners’.”
“I respond as any gentleman would under the circumstances, with a front kick to the man’s nose, and down he goes – blood gushing all over. The next thing I know, the bar is awash in drunken melee and the local constabulary is pouring through the front door. Realizing that discretion is the better part of valor, I perform a tactical withdrawal towards the rear exit, only to find the route blocked by another constable. So I attempt to persuade the officer to let me pass, by kicking him in the groin. Unfortunately, he grabbed my foot and knocked me on my ass. Then I remember a circle of men with batons hitting me, followed by blackness.”
“I wake up cuffed in a patrol car with two officers driving. I figure I will be spending the night in jail and paying a fine, until we arrive at the starport. Then they beat me unconscious. I remember someone screaming something about Startown, and I wake up here.”
“So you can see that this wasn’t really my fault. After all, how could I have known that Mr. no-neck was an off duty constable?”
“Anyway, what do you want to know about my former Army career?”
** reference to attrocities from the Japan-China wars - not intended to be taken literally - the character IS a Military History major
