The two soldiers introduced themselves to be Sergeant Christine Wilkins and Corporal Matthew Perkins. As they sipped the coffee that Sarah had made for them, Jason questioned his two guests to try and get the measure of them. “So what gets the two of you so all fired up as to fight the mighty Alliance?”

“I’m an original native of Shadow, Sir,” said Corporal Perkins. “Reclaimed my family plot after the reterraforming. Not ready to loose it a second time.” Jason looked into the man’s eyes and found only honest sincerity. He turned to the young woman seated next to him.

“Me family emigrated ‘ere from Dayton four year back,” said Private Wilkins. “We was tryin ta find a better life. Afore this we worked in the sweat shops.” Christine spoke with a strong cockney accent like Badger’s. It was a sharp contrast to Corporal Perkins who spoke with the familiar Old Rim accent of Linda and Captain Reynolds, and the one Jason himself had adopted to better blend in. Jason knew that many cheap goods were manufactured on Dayton where labor was inexpensive, which meant that both stories held water.

Jason asked the two soldiers to retell their story of what had happened that morning, carefully looking for any inconsistency. He ground his teeth when Christine finally concluded with how they had watched from the bushes as the officer had condemned all the captured soldiers to death.

The only part of their story that did not fit was why they had not joined the fight when their camp had been attacked. Clearly if they were deserters they would not have stayed long enough to provide the full account of the battle, so that was not likely the case. The two pretended to be very professional toward each other, but something intangible between them told Jason exactly what the two had gotten up to in those bushes in the early morning hours before the camp was overrun. Jason decided not to push the issue however, as it was not important and they were not his subordinates to discipline.

“Isn’t there rules that