A Forest of Stars - Kevin J. Anderson [136]
Not surprisingly, the green-skinned Therons did not stand at attention or give any sense of well-behaved order. They filled the room with a casual chaos, showing no automatic deference to any officer. That would need to change, but he knew he couldn’t push too hard.
The green priests served the EDF in the most tenuous of alliances, and Lanyan probably wouldn’t be able to make them march in ranks. They might simply turn around and go home in a huff. Still, they were working with the Earth Defense Forces, and there were certain expectations…
One green priest with an outrageous scar on his thigh limped over to the broad window and stared out at the rusty landscape. The leg injury would be a detriment in battle, but the General didn’t intend to let these volunteers get into any kind of physical combat. He had to think of them as valuable equipment, communications resources, transmitters in human form.
The scarred priest gazed with large eyes into Mars’s olive green sky. “You have no trees here.”
“You brought your own trees.” Lanyan tried to sound encouraging, rather than impatient. He cleared his throat to get their attention. “I am General Lanyan, your commanding officer.”
One priest stood straight-backed, his green skin marred by more tattoos and designs than any of the other priests. He stepped forward, holding his treeling as if it were a life-support system. “My name is Yarrod, the senior green priest here. The worldforest agreed to let us contribute our telink skills, and so we have come to do our part in the hydrogue war.”
“Yes…yes, and it will be a great help to us,” General Lanyan answered. He had hoped for a bit more patriotism and enthusiasm for the cause rather than this somewhat grudging cooperation. “Any intelligence you can provide about the enemy would be valuable to the war effort.”
Several priests joined the scarred man at the window wall to gawk out at the canyons, amazed by the stark bleakness. They didn’t seem to be paying attention to this important briefing.
As a strict military man, Lanyan was not impressed with the lack of organization and formal respect these green priests exhibited to each other, or to him. Though Yarrod might be their highest-ranking member, they afforded him no special courtesy.
Yarrod said, “We do not yet understand the basis for the original conflict ten thousand years ago, but the hydrogues thought they had obliterated the worldforest. Only the smallest vestige remained on one planet, Theroc, and the trees survived there in hiding, afraid the hydrogues would come again to exterminate them. Now it appears their fears were well founded. The enemy is obviously searching and attacking forested worlds. We must protect our trees.”
The General decided to be firm. If he used his powers of persuasion now, then gave the Therons a bit of training, any decent EDF commander should be able to keep the priests in line once they were separated across all ten Grids.
“Let me be clear with you all. I understand that you joined the EDF because you knew we could help you protect your worldtrees. Our best hope of success against the hydrogues is if we all work together. So, in order to assist in the struggle against our common enemy, we need you to become a functioning part of an overall system. The Earth Defense Forces perform both small- and large-scale operations. Tens of thousands of people might contribute to a single event.
“Therefore, it is imperative that you accept your position in the chain of command. You have been brought into the EDF at the rank of warrant officer, but with no specific authority except in the area of communications.
“The EDF is a channeled, destructive force used for the defense of humanity. When I issue an order from the top, an avalanche happens. Commanders beneath me issue subsequent orders to accomplish their portions of the objective, and then their subordinates issue yet another set of orders, and so on.
“Each of you is responsible for