Free America's Galactic Foreign Legion - Book 2: Reenlistment by Walter Knight Page A

snowflake
occasionally dropped from the overcast sky. I walked down to the
river bank where the bridge construction would begin. Survey
markers and posts were already in place. To my left a grenade went
off in the water. I dropped into the mud for cover.
    “Don’t worry, it was just me,” reassured
Corporal Kool. “I was fishing.”
    “Get any?” asked Private Williams as he ran
up to the river bank.
    “Almost. It was this long,” said Corporal
Kool, gesturing about three feet. “But it got away.”
    As I angrily picked myself up out of the blue
clay, I noticed something shiny in the water and picked it up. It
was a gold nugget about the size of a door knob. I washed it off
and put the nugget into my grenade pouch. I looked about for more
gold but didn’t find any. No one had noticed my discovery.
    “Captain, are you okay?” asked Corporal Kool.
“Sorry if I startled you.”
    “Private Williams!” I yelled. “You take
Corporal Kool north along the river and show him the proper way to
fish. No more grenades!”
    “Yes, sir,” said Private Williams. “That is
the best order I’ve been given since I joined the Legion.”
    “We better get going before he changes his
mind,” suggested Corporal Kool. “Or before Sergeant Green sees us
and puts us to work again.”
    I called Battalion Headquarters on the radio
to check in. I told the engineers I wanted cabins built because it
was about to snow. When they asked if I wanted anything else built,
I said I wanted a large lodge, a well for the plumbing, generators,
swimming pool, and a hot tub. I then E-mailed the County Clerk in
Disneyland and filed a miner’s claim. I also filled out an
application to buy Finisterra under the newly passed Homestead Act
of New Colorado.

    * * * * *

    Team Leader #4 of the Arthropodan Special
Forces had orders to resupply the insurgency with arms, and to
destabilize the North. He also brought twenty-five Special Forces
advisors to help train the locals. At first the Emperor was
reluctant to violate the terms of the peace treaty. But after the
prison massacre at Disneyland, there was a public outcry to do
something. Also, it grated on the Emperor that uranium and oil
deposits had just been discovered in the North. The human
pestilence was keeping the discovery a secret because they knew
some of those profits belonged to the Arthropodan corporation that
sent geologists to the North in the first place.
    #4 brought assault rifles, machine guns,
RPGs, armored piercing rockets, land mines, and SAMs. #4 gave the
local dragon leader the weapons and cached them in hidden bunkers
along the North Highway. Apparently the insurgency had just been
run out of town, and the Lion of the Forest was dead. They were
eager for payback.
    “This is the only road to the North,” said
#4. “You should be able to easily harass convoy traffic. The forest
canopy is a perfect cover for hit and run tactics.”
    “I do not like this wild forest,” commented
the dragon leader. “I heard the human pestilence have seeded the
forest with vicious predators from Earth to control the deer and
other pests. Last night I heard a God awful scream as some poor
animal got killed.”
    “No animal can stand up against your assault
rifles,” said #4. “With these weapons, you will rule the Northern
Territory.”
    “Sir!” interrupted a Special Forces sergeant.
“We found an old prospector who says he has information about the
Legion being in this area.”
    “Bring him in,” said #4. When he saw the
prospector, he was shocked by his renegade appearance. The old fart
entered the camp wearing a human cap and tugging at an animal of
Old Earth origin. “Is that a Legion hat?”
    “Of course it is,” said the prospector. “They
came through here about a week ago.”
    “What were they doing up here?” asked #4.
    “Looking for you,” said the prospector. “A
captain told me engineers would be coming through to build a bridge
at Finisterra.”
    “What are you