Battleship: A Military Sci-Fi Series (Exodus Earth Book 3) by Andrew Beery

Author:Andrew Beery [Beery, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aethon Books
Published: 2021-11-29T16:00:00+00:00

17

Adapt and Overcome

“Don’t worry. If Madison can’t fix it, it can’t be fixed.”

I looked between Matt and the buck sergeant named Madison. The kid, and I do mean kid, didn’t look old enough to shave, much less be a Marine. He was also the smallest Marine I’d ever seen. I don’t think he was a meter and a half tall. If he was fifty kilos soaking wet, I’d be checking the calibration on the scale. To be a Marine—and an E5 at that—was almost beyond my ability to grasp. Was I just getting that old that buck sergeants were beginning to look like kids?

I have to give the youngster credit though. He field-stripped my armor faster than I had ever seen it done before, and under conditions that were not exactly optimal. His workbench was a couple of rocks supporting some planks cut out of some of the surrounding trees.

I wasn’t especially worried about tearing into the ground cover to make our base camp. We were currently under a cloaking net that hid us completely from spying eyes. Someone would have to land on top of us or walk right up to us to know we were here.

“Ok, so aside from the fact there’s mud in places I didn’t know could get muddy, the armor’s not in too bad a shape,” Sergeant Madison reported a few moments later. “I’m pretty sure the armor could self-repair on its own if we had the time… well aside from that right foot.

“I’m going to help things along a little and also give that right foot some much needed love. I’d recommend the admiral not take too many more mud baths. They may do wonders for her, but it doesn’t really help the equipment, and frankly, it ain’t going to get any prettier… mud or no mud.”

“Thank you, Sergeant,” Matt answered before I could say anything.

“May do wonders for her?” I sputtered. “He does know I’m sitting right here next to you, yes? He does understand that admiral outranks NCO, yes?”

Matt smiled and followed it up with a wink and a pat on my knee. Not a wise move on his part, given the pretty crappy day I was recovering from.

“You have to give Madison a little rope,” Matt said. “His mind doesn’t play by the same rules as you and I. That said, he’s a frigg’n genius with machines and about the best shot I’ve ever seen. If he suffers from a little Tourette’s syndrome, aaah, what does it matter?”

It turns out the man was every bit the genius Matt claimed he was. By the time I got my armor back, it looked like it had just come off the assembly line. He even added some decals on the armor’s legs about half a meter above the feet. “Max Recommended Mud Line.”

I did my level best not to laugh when I saw it. Matt wasn’t as successful. Madison, for his part, grinned like a kid at Christmas.

“Good work, Sergeant,” I said without otherwise acknowledging the extra decaling.

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