Re: Ditching the ballast
Brown gives his head a single, slow, definitive shake as he addresses Don' as only a senior enlisted man can, as if laying down a simple law of physics.
"Nobody's walkin' who's coming with the vehicles, that's the whole point o' this hard choice. But I agree, we have the room, we could take a couple-few o' the worst o' the stretcher cases, n' not be any slower."
Then he speaks up, so any and all can hear.
"We missed our 'humanitarian' side when we didn't ambush and kill every last one of those slavers. That's a hard lesson, and one civilians paid for- but let's learn by it, now. We won't meet no one playin' by no rules of war out here, nor lookin't' make friends, nor negotiate, except from a position of strength. The next time we spot trouble, we have a full plan in place before we raise our hands and start waving flags of truce."
He turns aside to Don'.
"You want 'humanitarian'? Y'shoulda joined the Peace Corps, laddie-buck."