TGoaW-16

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==Chapter 16 - The Glow of a Worm inside a Child's Eye==
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The Nagelring Acedmy - Tharkad, Lyran Commonwealth - 3017...
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"Nuh-go?? How the ****** do you say that CADET??"
"Sir, it is pronounced 'no', Sir!!!"
"No Sir, huh? Are you disrespecting me, Cadet??"
Upperclassmen, aren't they cute? Cadet Leutnant Daniel Edward Russell (The Third) is handling a group of nuggetts for hell week, and his personal target (as given him by a member of the Cadre) is a short, asiatic-looking guy from the ass end of the Commonwealth named David Ngo, whom is not from a MechWarrior family, but instead from almost-periphery merchants.
Kind of like Daniel himself. 
"No, Sir."
"I didn't hear that."
"SIR, NO SIR!!"
"Better. Use your diaphragm more, don't strain your throat." Daniel isn't good at giving new guys hell. "Let me see your schedule, Ngo..."
David presented it to the senior cadet.
Daniel read it, then read it again. "Son of a bitch...okay, NOW I feel sorry for you, nugget...Jesus, right into the deep end... did they screw it up?"
"Sir, No...why, Sir?"
"That's because half these classes I couldn't get into until this year...you're going to need help to pass some of this unless you're some kind of brain."
"Sir?"
"Wipe the dumb look off your face, and get this...mess...sorted out and your shit stowed, there's going to be a Cadre inspection in half an hour and you don't want the extra gigs."
"Right, Sir."
half of Cadet Ngo's schedule was the kind of advanced classes you get when you're tracking into Military Intelligence...as a Junior, with some of the physicals in the electives being things you only go for if you're going with the 'naughty boys' in Loki or one of the Special Operations teams.
Either way, both sets of classes aren't the kind of thing they normally let a nugget sign up for.
"What's your ride, No?" Daniel asked.
"Shadowhawk, sir."
The hell?? "That..a medium 'mech? Itty bitty cannon and crap range?"
"Deep heat curve and well armored, it's a Two-hotel, sir."
Not even a decent heavy? "You got it used or something?"
"So far as I know, nobodys' making them new, sir." Ngo said, "Yeah, it's used, vintage even, pristine though. Dad says if I make it through to graduation he'll spring for a Griffin on trade-in, he apparently knows a guy."
"Huh. I drive a Whammy."
"Sweet."
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16