That night, we all had a major video conference with our commanding officer. We were informed that a couple of the explorer squads had not reached out in a while. That was not good. Either they were having a catastrophic problem, or they were already all dead. I was not going to be the one to volunteer to look for them. Neither were any of squad mates. We already had a lot on our plate. One of the better enforcer squads would be redirected to finding them. That was fine with me. After that, we took turns going over our reports. After our turn, the lieutenant looked over the file again. "Jameson, Bond and... Cooley, eh?" he said. Then, he looked at the screen. "I served briefly with your father. A great commander. Looks like you're doing your family proud." Dolan looked excited and gave a salute. "Yes sir!" he said enthusiastically. The commanding officer cracked a smirk. "Keep up the good work on the exploration front Bond. Jameson. I expect great things from you. Dismissed." he said before cutting the feed. We saluted back to him anyway. That was their indoctrination.
Understandably, Haroon was a bit miffed at being overlooked by their commanding officer. "Why did he only praise you 3!?" he demanded. I turned to him. "I have been giving credit to those helping me with the exploration. You guys have not been helping me out." I said. "That's because we've been fighting at the river!" he yelled at me in frustration. "But you've never taken any territory in all this time. We've been hitting all sorts of milestones on the plains and by the mouth of the river. Have you even met the yellow, green or purple scaled tribes yet?" I challenged. "Fighting to conquer the planet is much more important than looking around and reporting on things." he said with his arms crossed. "Clearly, that is true. But you've never produced any results to be shouted out." I said calmly. That devastated him. I did not really want to crush him. It was time to change tactics. "Haroon. Our team was never the best a combat. I am not good at using the suit or the power armor. I was not good at the exploration drills. I'm doing my best there. How about you leave them and join us?"
Very quietly, he got up and left to go to the sleeping quarters. I did not need to follow him. Haroon would not need to be coddled. That might cause him to blow up at me. I did not want that. He had to come to terms with it on his own. The very next day, both Corey and Dolan came with me to the lake. The commanding officer actually gave them a personal shout out. That was extremely valuable. Before yesterday, I was just some weird guy that knew all about their blackmail and somehow was even more gay and effeminate than them. Now I was a massive meal ticket for their advancement. It was a great opportunity for them. We were there to trade. A white male merfolk had a green gemstone. Like the others, it was unrefined and the chunks of stone were still sticking to it. Still, the light refracted from it in a pretty way. I gave him a bullet in exchange for it. There was a bit of a commotion from the gold scale tribe. A young man with jewelry dove in the water and swam over to where I was. He smiled and placed both hands out for me. Nothing was in either. I gave a low five.
