Corporal Joe Buckley! Will he survive?
Buckley ended up bringing a half dozen members of the old Luxborough Squad with him. At least, Tobias assumed it was them. They had all showed up wearing shielded vacc suits, the kind where you couldn’t see inside the helmets. The Luna City — squatters? Tobias considered. Colonists? No, they’re leaving with the rest of us — detachment had kept their suits on the entire time, too, waiting outside the main airlock with only a portable auxiliary life support unit to keep them company.
Tobias wasn’t sure if the lieutenant in charge of the squad General Bruno sent over had noticed that the Squad’s unit wasn’t actually recycling atmosphere and power. If she had, she was keeping her mouth shut, which was decidedly a survival trait these days. People tried not to think too hard about stuff that couldn’t be explained. If you did, it might start to make sense without warning, and always at the worst possible moment.
The lieutenant hadn’t commented on the fact that Tobias hadn’t brought any of his own people from Heinlein Base along, either. That was a relief, because his own staff had been somewhat acerbic about the discussion, starting over why he was going. We’ve gone over this before, he had eventually pointed out. I’m the only one with the full set of command override codes, anything involving the Lifeboat is my responsibility, and if there’s something down there? Well, we don’t have many other soldiers left, and the best of them are coming with me. Or did you want Corporal Buckley to be in charge of the detachment? I trust him to do it, but how will the Euros act if there’s… complications?