Editing Character:Sjt. Geoffrey White (section)

== Character Description ==

''"You won't get much respect around here, boy.  Look at me; I've been here over a decade, and I still get none.''

''"I came up here with the foot soldiers back in '78, as part of our war against the Gorovaangians.  Served my time with the Queen's Martian Rifles &mdash; yeah, the Parhoons.  My company took part in the capture of Gorovaan itself.  But it doesn't matter whether it's the plain brown dust of Africa or the strange red dust of Mars, eventually you get sick of marching through it and there's only two ways out: give up the service, or transfer to another branch.''

''"Not that I had much choice.  It was getting pretty clear that I wasn't going to advance past Corporal in the infantry.  The CO, bugger that he was, didn't take a shine to me.  Now the Navy was definitely out; I wasn't willing to start over at the bottom of the heap and besides, heights have always made my head spin.  So I greased a few palms, called in a few favours, and got myself transfered over to the cavalry.  A gashant's no horse, I'll tell you that, but they ride easy enough once you get the hang of it.''

''"I've made Serjeant since then and have been doing fairly well, if I may say so myself.  But now the orders have come down to accompany this bleedin' Earther and his friends on some sort of archaeological expedition.  They're headin' up into unmapped mountain territory and, since the damned High Martians have been taking captives again, the Captain has ordered protection.  Says he figures they may as well send me; I can speak a bit of the language &mdash; or at least one of them &mdash; if need be, and if nothing else I can at least make some maps for the bastards back at HQ to file away and forget about.''

''"So welcome to Mars, boy. The womean are ugly and the climate is terrible, so you better drink up; it's likely to be a long stay."''