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“I had a whole ser her tone casual Conversational “On the burden we place on our soldiers The sacrifices we ask you to make for the rest of us”

Chris looked up fro marine put her hand ter rooray box The little knot of soldiers floated in front of her, and suddenly the perspective shifted and she was above the toward them She blinked rapidly to break up the scene and sed to get the le man with brown hair and dark skin said He had an accent that she thoughtman said

“That’s just the nice version,” the uy who killed one of his own ht for his country and his faith,” Anna cut in, using the teacher’s voice she used in Bible classes for teenagers The one that made sure everyone knew she was the voice of authority “That’s the part I care about right now Before he was a king, he was a soldier Often unappreciated by those he served He put his body over and over again between danger and those he’d sworn to protect, even when his leaders were unworthy of hi at hand ter the that of our soldiers since the beginning of ti to be here Often we’re unworthy of you and you do it anyway”

“So why didn’t you?” Chris asked “You know, do the David sermon?”

“Because I’ Chris’ hand with her left, and the hand of the Australian boy with her right Without anyone saying anything, the loose cloud became a circle of held hands “I’m so afraid And I don’t want to talk about soldiers and sacrifice I want to talk about God watching ht maybe other people would too”

More nods Chris said, “When the skinnies blew that ship, I thought ere all dead”

“No shit,” the ave Anna an embarrassed look “Sorry, ma’am”

“It’s okay”

“They say they didn’t,” another woman said “They shot at Holden”

“Yeah, and then their whole ship ed Holden, he’d have flown off scot free”

“They’re gonna follow hi o in”

“Fuck the dusters,” the Australian said “We’ll grease every one of the her voice gentle “Dusters are Martians They prefer Martians And calling people from the outer planets skinnies is also rude Epithets like that are an atteroup so that you won’t feel as bad about killing them”

The hting out here is the last thing we should be doing Aht out here, we’ll all die No support, no reinforce bigger than a stray hydrogen atom for cover This is e call the kill box”

The silence stretched for a hed and said, “Yeah”