“They’re damn young,” Sekeen gripes. “Barely out of the scouts.” Mere months ago these men were boys, most of them less than twelve years old. They are still unaccustomed to their over-large enhanced bodies.
“I know,” Jaad counters, not looking at him.
“They should go to Assault.” Sekeen’s delivery is matter-of-fact. “A decade in Assault, and they might learn enough to be of some use in the tactical squads.”
“I know.” Jaad’s cunning eyes track the figures in the training yard. “We don’t have a decade. Nothing like.” The squad has been all day, every day, at grueling regimens of physical training, weapons drill, and tactical simulation. “They’ll be ready.”
Sekeen says, “I disagree.” Jaad leads the squad; Sekeen is his second, his enforcer, bigger, meaner, more intimidating. But though he sometimes antagonizes his sergeant, he will always defer t