Metal Militia

[Shulsky]

The Bristol team, and really Blake in particular, listened to the story with little comment save for a snort at that pause. Coral. It was an interesting enough name because, aside from a biology class she had taken so, so very long back, Blake had never seen coral. For that matter, she'd never really gone swimming in an ocean. Sure, you could see those from space and see them stretch out to the horizon when landed, but the woman had never really had the impulse to go down and swim. There was more than enough swimming about that Blake really didn't trust it and, for that matter, she supposed the story was the same for most of the rest. The only one the CO was hesitant to speak for on that matter was the Rheinlander. He'd traveled a lot.

Cobra instead of Coral, something in the weeds and tall grass instead of something bright that stands out, supports others in how they grow, something that struck suddenly while the other well…didn't strike at all. Maybe Coral wasn't ideal for a combat commander's callsign, but in Blake's view she hadn’t come across many callsigns that were ideal. That had never been the point to them. And the idea of not respecting someone with a funny callsign…well, that was even worse. Maybe the Xenos had more trouble with such than the prior walk had suggested.

She talked to the room first, almost not at all addressing Damien's iron stare. Instead she talked at an angle, hands clasped behind her, going on her toes every now and then throughout. “When I was on the Honolulu as WEPS…our callsign was ‘Sounding Board’. A whole cruiser with that callsign, and we were damned respected after New London. Personally, Coral had a nice ring to it.”

A little turn, looking him in the eyes finally. “Cobra works too, though. Liberty needs a few snakes. So, then…let's talk about these ships of yours. Do you have any scans to show or will this be a more manual appraisal?”

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Operation Have Sea