'Bella surveyed the three ranks of ten men and women each, gathered before her. She'd heard of the new 'recon' companies that were being cobbled together from the disparate unit remnants left over after the Black Fleet battle, and those individuals who volunteered or had otherwise been 'convinced' to join up since. The Courier Corps had used these companies on a sort of 'liaison' basis for several months. By and large, they did fine, and in some cases even better than the original Corps had before the Black Fleet debacle, but they still tended to be a motley lot, and the 4th was no exception. At least they all wore the same uniform with standard cleated boots and forage caps with airmen's chinstraps; whoever had been placed in charge of the unit's chandlery and quartermaster duties had done well on that account... except that by either choice or accident two or three of the women filled out their uniforms a bit too well, so to speak. They were all a bit scruffy, but recon units that were worth their salt tended to be that way.
The weapons...well, everyone sported at least one converted Walker Colt like hers, apparently right down to the snap-in cylinders, and they all had the standard COVAS cutlass, but that was where the standardization went out the window. Two women and three men, apparently zeppelin crew, carried various makes and configurations of rotary-barrelled gatling-type repeating guns. Some were of the short-barrelled, eggbeater-like personal gatlings so beloved by mercs, two were of the four-barrelled wind-up Piltdown Arms variety, and there were one each of a Lewis, Maxim, and Vickers machineguns.
One stocky, muscular young fellow cradled a Greener shell gun in is arms, and wore a bandolier of ten or more rounds for it, crossed over a similar bandolier with what looked like at least a hundred rounds for the Colt at his hip, with spare cylinders for same in cartridge pouches on the gunbelt. Almost all of them had some kind of backup pistol or weapon in at least one boot-top, and several had one in each. One or three seemed to have something there besides guns. One fellow had two laquered black handles of some sort protruding from the left inside boot top, and another, an asian-looking fellow, sported a khukri, of all things, the scabbard stuck under the belt in front. The rear rank consisted of what looked like a rifle squad. A closer look revealed their 'cutlasses' to in fact be longbladed sword bayonets.
"Sergeant... Flagg?," Bella said sotto voce to the NCO standing beside her.
"Ma'am?"
"Isn't this unit a bit large for a Lieutenant?"
"Officers of your experience level're hard to come by just now, Ma'am," Flagg answered."No matter what rank they actually are. The Recon Corp's commander, Colonel Jakes, has a company everybody thinks is too small for her, but she does have the rest of us under her as well. All of us have at least two armed packet zeppelins for both deliveries and field missions. We have each of us a rifle squad (they act as marines when we need 'em to), two zeppelin crews who also serve as Direct Fire Support when needed, adn the rest are what pass for aerial troopers." His voic eturned slightly wry and more than a bit cynical, "They keeps tellin' us the 'troopers' 'll all get new mounts of the same make and model, but they been sayin' that for six months, now. Somethin' tells me the new mounts'll be here just about the time they furlough us after this war's over." He brightened a bit. "At least we get all the spare parts we need, even if we do have to finagle 'em, once in a while."
The 2nd Lieutenant reported for duty, then. "2nd Lieutenant Michael Murphy, reporting for duty, SIR-uh-MA'AM!" he snapped off a near-perfect salute. Bella almost expected his hand to go 'Whoosh' as it cut the air.
"At ease, Lieutenant. lets get the evening's patrol mounted up and ready, Miste rMurphy, I'd like to accompany them, get a feel for their style."
"AYE MA'AM! COURIER SQUAD ONE, PROCEED TO DOCK! Sergeant Flagg, fall the rest out.
"AYE!"
The hangar was suddenly a beehive of scrambling activityu as the Dusk Patrol prepared to head out...
