Oh, yeah, there are other factions on the Moon in this situation. I wonder if they’re doing all right up there?
Tobias found the meeting with the leaders of the other two factions to be somewhat… fraught. He took it as a hopeful sign that neither one was ready to simply throw enough people out of the airlock to make the math work, though. That was something.
That was about all. Dr. Hu Mali of the Chinese Coalition was ready to cut the ration levels again, make everybody have biofeedback training from here to the launch date, and try to have the refugees breathe in stages for the entire trip back to Earth. The now-General Lorenzo Bruno had started muttering about ordering his cadre of EU soldiers (plus any volunteers) to hold a ‘rearguard action’ while the Lifeboat took off. That should have come across as far more offensive than it did, except it sounded like Bruno was ready to lead that regiment himself. Still, the other two were still far more focused on surviving the trip back to Earth than they were on how they were going to plan to survive being on Earth. Tobias still envied them. At least they had plans. All he had was a gnawing feeling in his guts at the thought of leaving people behind.
He knew showing that would do absolutely nobody any good. “All right, how about this?” Tobias offered in a lull. “Biofeedback exercises will help us with our supply situation now. The less energy we use, the more we’ll have later. And a militia itself isn’t a bad idea. Not for defense!” Tobias shook his head. “For salvage. We’ve been letting the civilian side do all the gleaning, deciding what to bring in and what to leave out there. Let’s see what the military can do there, all right?”