Interview on the Brotherhood's Preparations for the upcoming clan war
as part of his ongoing series, Sharing Ferrite Foxholes with The Noblest of Vermin
by Jonathan Hollis, War Correspondent
Sean Collin, as he likes to be called, sits across from me in the Brotherhood dayroom. It's a badly lit, dingy, and thoroughly filthy little closet of a room and it smells worse than it looks. My subject roots through a pile of discarded paper cups, selects one that has a bit of congealed coffee in it's bottom, taps some ash from his cigarette in it and sets it on the table in front of him as a make shit ash tray. I make a note to myself mentally, not to accept any drinks offered me during our conversation.
"So, I guess I'll just ask the obvious question first, then. What preparations are you making for the upcoming clan war?", I ask as a way of breaking the ice for the interview. Not exactly a subtle approach I will honestly admit; however, the Mecha pilots of the Frye stables and of the Brotherhood in general, have, to my experience, never responded to subtle anything. In fact, their idea of subtle, most often involves a chainsaw or a vehicle mounted anti-aircraft weapon.
"Smokes, pogue bait, and socks.", he replies.
"Pardon?"
"Smokes, pogue bait and socks.", he repeats, "That's what I do to prepare."
"Could you elaborate? And, just out of curiosity, could you tell me what a pogue bait is, as well?"
"Ok....", he draws in a sigh, "Clan wars are business as usual around here. A fight is a fight. The only difference is that a clan war is a hell of a lot longer than a quick drop on an enemy ammo dump, or jumping in to defend an infantry installation. Clan wars go on for days. So, when we get the red light on one of these deals, I pack what I need.", he digs into his breast pocket for another cigarette, lights it off the but of his previous one, and drops the dying stub into the cup slash ash tray on the table. "Smokes, pogue bait and lots of clean, dry socks. Now, smokes are a no brainer. About 24 hours into a long term engagement, those little betties are almost as valuable as water to a man in the desert. As for the socks. Mate, it don't matter what branch of the service you are in. Happy feet equals a happy trooper, if you know what I mean."
"Ok, so, what's pogue bait then?"
He laughs, reaches in another of his jacket pockets, and tosses me a candy bar. "That's pogue bait.", he laughs again, "A pogue is what a soldier calls a lazy, over weight, civilian. That being said, any food you take with you that is high in sugar or fat, like candy bars, jerky, chips, or basically anything that tastes good in comparison with those death in a bag tasting military rations, is called 'pogue bait'. Get it?"
"Yeah, I get it. So what else do you do to prepare?"
"Pray a lot and make sure my insurance policy and will are up to date. Hey, you're going out on this one with us to observe, right?"
I pause for a moment, looking at this scruffy, unshaven, mecha-merc and reply, "Yeah, give me one of those smokes."
(To be continued after the clan war....I hope)
Submitted by Ron Frye ID#879655