Free Imperial Guard by Joseph O'Day Page A

thought you were on your way to town, sir.”
    “Well, I figured someone ought to look out for this greenie and make sure he gets to the Academy in one piece,” Unger said with a grin. “Even if you could find the tubeway yourself, you’d probably end up going in the wrong direction. Anyway, I had to give you your gun. Here, put it on.”
    Brogan secured the weapon around his waist with enthusiasm, taking it in and out a few times and cursorily examining it. “Let’s get going, dummy. I want to show you the glorious sights of Mexcity. The shuttle’s waiting for us, and I’m sure everyone’s impatient to get moving.” The two hurried to the shuttle and boarded in haste.
    Mexcity was built on the ruins of Mexico City. As the territorial capital, it administered the Empire’s laws and taxes in what used to be the old American continents. Most of the territory to the north was uninhabitable and had been abandoned for more than two centuries when the survivors of the nuclear/biological holocaust moved south.
    In the early years of the twenty-first century, hopes of nuclear disarmament had been high. America and Russia had reconciled and began to drastically reduce their arsenals of nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, however, the Islamic states and Communist China developed long-range delivery systems for their own nuclear and biological weapons.
    The radical Islamic Jihad gained ascendancy in the Middle East and launched a preemptive strike against the United States. By secret agreement, the Chinese launched a simultaneous attack against Russia. Both countries retaliated with their reserve land-based nuclear missiles and their remaining nuclear submarines, totally annihilating coastland China and the Islamic states. But the major population centers of the United States and Russia were wiped out as well. Only in recent years had long-term programs begun decades earlier started to overcome sufficiently the ecological destruction caused by that war. People were now starting to push north again in an effort to resettle the vast reaches of the once-fertile continent that had fed most of the world for much of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
    Originally, the Academy had been built on the edge of the North American wasteland—in what used to be the western part of Texas—because military training required wide-open spaces. Now, however, a town stood nearby, and civilization was beginning to crowd the area. The overcrowded Earth badly needed the new land, both as a release value for its burgeoning population and as a source of new farmland, which it was hoped would one day significantly reduce the need and expense of importing food from other planets.
    Robot equipment and droids were already at work in the Great Plains, seeking to farm its fertile soil and repairing the biological damage, supervised at intervals by technicians working in the shielded environment of hovercraft. The effort, however, was not proving as effective as hoped. The land did not seem to respond kindly to long-distance farming.
    The Emperor had a standing offer of citizenship for any who would settle the wilderness of the Great Plains. Many noncitizens, desperate for the chance to improve their existence, were willing to take the risk to escape the always unpleasant vicissitudes of the lower levels, but progress was slow.
    “This is where we get off!” shouted Unger over the din. When they disembarked, the shockwave of the swarm of humanity blasted Brogan. As he plowed through the crush, he had the sensation of being suffocated.
    “Is it always like this?” he shouted as he fought to keep Unger in sight.
    With a grimace, the Ensign replied sardonically, “Wait’ll rush hour!” Then grabbing Brogan’s arm, he pulled him to the side of a building and said, “Here, we’ll stop off and get you something to help you adjust to your new environment.”
    He pulled Brogan along, pushing and shoving toward a door lit with flashing lights. Once inside