Leonardo "Leo" Constone

I was a Space Marine, I rose to Sargeant-Major in Special Forces, I am now senior NCO of Military Police all over our contingent off in the Epstein-Barr Galaxy. Because my major in university was Legal, I'm now seconded to the Juris Advocate directorate. My old teammates, the Montral Fusiliers, I've retained as shock troops, MPs for the brass, and the odd bailiff, when needed.
I now report to a hard-nosed Judge Advocate Director, Lieutenant-General Marjorie Anantze-Gallant. She keeps tut-tutting at my wearing my space marine armor, but it is allowed in the regs as formal wear if I wear even one medal on it. I hate wearing my medals, but my ceremonial cloak of the Great Reef Defense campaign is surprisingly practical, and it is technically and legally a decoration, so that shut her up. She's a fuss-budget, and that's no mistake, but she's sharp. Actually having a lawyer to help negotiate the contract makes so much sense, I want to ventilate a rear-echelon motherfrakker or three now, it took them so long to think about it! But she's such a stickler for regulations, for everything done just so. Won't drink with the troops either, never lets her hair down, as my old master sargeant said.
"Fine woman, but don't you let anyone hear that I said that, Adian. Who did you have to kill to get sent here anyways?"
"No one, my father-in-law got recalled, so it was me or my wife taking over, and they're not sure how she'd go over, since neither of us is a clone. But since she's half-Terran, it might also go the other way."
"Half-Terran, what's that?"
"Not what you think. She has Thallaxan blood..."
"No foolin'?"
"Her mother was born there."
"How divergent are they?"
"Negligible amount. Twenty-three chromosome pairs, XY-system, they are an offshoot of ours, not some alien culture."
"No way, and you married her."
"She told me when we got engaged, I hadn't been able to tell..."
"Oh. Well, a fine-looking woman..."
"And I told you in case you get nutcases, people thinking she's taking their side..."
"Mmmm, and that's likely?"
"No, but it has happened before... Mostly when we were in Sol System, not in Epstein-Barr."
"Thanks for telling me. Not everyone's so nice to the security prick..."
"You gotta keep us safe, I don't envy you that..."
"I don't have to do it alone, thankfully. Hey gunny." The gunnery sargeant was walking into the cafeteria, his hulking frame sunned from too many EVs, his skin the darkest of anyone on the squad.
"Hey, Colonel. Hey..." He blanked on Adian's exact title, diplomatic liaison service were technically civilians, but wore Solar military full-dress uniform of his equivalent rank...
"Mister will do, Gunny."
"Ohoh, a civilian?"
"State department don't mean I earn the badge, but I don't make the rules either."
"Sir, yes Sir!"
"I work for a living."
"No, compared to Gunny here, you really don't, excellency... But you are not like those state department pukes we've all met, and for that I'm thankful."
"You ain't met my father-in-law?"
"We did, but we just crossed transports with him, he was going back to State. Nicest politician I know, not a puke. I almost wished he was going back to head defense, not state."
"He's got chops for that?"
"Well, he's taught at Sandhurst... And he sent his daughter, and she met his son-in-law there, didn't she?"
"Yeah, that's where we met..."
"She good enough for you, that's all I need to know, really, Sir. But seems she's being dipped..."
"Dipped?"
"Looked at for greater things, she ranked what at Sandhurst?"
"Valedictorian, beat me by three whole percentiles in a class of one-hundred and two."
"So she's your subordinate how?"
"She's not applied for this job, I did. She's keeping her chip for a better opportunity, can't say I blame her."
"Better than full-bird?"
"Brigadier's right there... Although they don't call them that here... Something to do with the alliance..."
"Yeah, one-brand, instead of one-star, not that different..."
"And she's got connexions for that?"
"Just who was telling me her father could be secretary of state, exactly? And she introduced me to the chief of staff, star navy during our grad ball at Sandhurst, family friend."
"I see your point, she's going places... What's she like, when she's not careering?"
"Gunny, you're the first person to ask that question in so long, I'm not sure I've examined that myself..."
"How about you ask me directly, Gunny? Folks, this is Leonardo Cunstone, political officer, Meritocracy's fist."
"Five-oh-first!"
"Till the dawn breaks, until the light stops, or until Terra herself returns to us. Nice to see you again Gunny."
"Terra herself huh?" Adian interjected.
"What about that, Sir?" The newcomer asked, not aware who Adian was, but knowing enough to know this was a staff-grade officer, at least, maybe even flag.
"I was born there, and so was this lovely lady's father."
"Ugh."
"What?"
"We don't commonly use those terms for a vatborn... And she's clearly decanted..."
"I'm decanted from partial Terran stock, Leo... It's not exactly common."
"Terran?"
"Kristof Wraith, ambassador from Solsystem."
"Common nothing, that's never happened, not with anyone even remotely high vat."
"Mila Slafkovsky, thirteenth geneticist, Thallax III Kappa."
"Vat-giving? No way."
"In Kappa, a thirteenth is called a Valkyrie, a chooser of the slain. My mother's valkyrie name was Brunhilde..."
"An honor. The five-oh-first are known as the Einherjar, the chosen slain..."
"Can you cut the bullshit?". The coarseness of the words strained the translator, but it finally worked its way through the unfamiliar phrase.
"I beg your pardon?"
"You're special ops, Cunstone and so's the gleeful assortment of killers you call your unit. And there's exactly two reasons we can be allowed to meet with you, one's to enlist you as our protectors for the rest of the journey, indicating we're a lot more at risk than Rachel told me, and the other is in case we get out of hand..."
"Do you know the best thing about working for special ops, Five-spark Adian Stammler?"
"No, but I hope you'll tell me..."
"I get to say: 'why not both?', and mean it... No one else can be expected to handle such important guests without... mistakes."
"So if you kill us, it's not a mistake?"
"It means you went beyond the... boundaries covered by my orders, Rache. I'm sure you understand it's nothing personal, only business..."
"And are you going to tell us those boundaries, Leo?"
"No, what would the fun in that be? But you've made a reputation of pushing the boundaries, without clearly violating them, or I wouldn't be here..."
"Oh great, a political officer who thinks the world of himself."
"Listen..."
"No, you listen. Me and Rache traveled all the way from Sol, from holy Terra just to visit the jumped-up Uplifted-Gorilla-mining you call Thallax, so I'd appreciate if you cut us a little slack."
The look in Leo Cunstone's eyes now had froze many an enemy during combat, fatally, as it happened, but neither Rachel nor Adian flinched. Leo considered his orders might have underestimated his charges... "Look, the both of you are important, and I know that. The both of you come from a place in our Lore that is hallowed, and I know that too, but that doesn't give you a blank license...
"Says who?" Adian asked, his eyes blazing...
Leo was taken aback... That was new! The five-oh-first's reputation cowed everyone below a Gene warden's family, and even some of those tread lightly... Of course, he had no idea how to map how high Adian was, or he'd have drawn the immediate conclusion that was exactly was Adian was, son-in-law of a directorate head in the Solsystem government and plenipotentiary in his own right as first Naval Secretary at the embassy. "Let's assume you have even half the license you think you have? You think you can just ride roughshod over me?"
"No, I just expect the respect that I'm due, you should know better. I outrank Rachel, and even she's a Terran Plenipotentiary, sworn-in by our senate as speaking with a binding force for matters within her purview."
"Noyjitat! And they let you out of purse strings?"
"Ever since the the cutting of the light, anyone assigned to the Meritocracy is that independant, since we can't exactly phone home..."
"I'm so stupid..."
"What?"
"I assumed they assigned us to keep an eye on you in case you were subversive..."
"And that's problematic how?"
"I thought there was a way for you not to be subversive..."
"Oh."
"We've been cut off for so long, we always assumed you didn't want us back..."
"No, nothing of that sort... But there are things you've done we'd take a dim view of, I can tell you for free..."
"Like what?"
"Like bloodline cullings..."
"Oh, jitatin, they let you know about everything..."
"Look, I doubt they consult you on those, although, I imagine that's part of what they expect a SpecOps force to do..."
"You're awfully perceptive..."
"Look, Einherjar translates to angel-of-death in Martian now..."
"Fitting." Leo seemed determined not to give an inch...
"Got your testosterone exercised boys? Because I'm expected at the Geneticist-General's office in an hour..."
"What? Why?"
"Something about being the first vat-born descendant of someone not born in the Meritocracy, I imagine she wants to map my genome, the divergent portion, that is..."
"You're divergent?"
"You dummy! I've spent the last fifteen years on Terra, which has a different spectra than Thallax III, I'm rife for radiation mutation!"
"Oh."
"And I've got non-meritocracy genes, presumably, these are at least a throwback to pre-thallax genomes, but likely, I've got half a Terran genome that you ain't seen since the cutting of the light..."
"Anong Thallaxians, you'd be coming on to me with that statement, can you tone it down a little?"
"Handle it, Cunstone, I'm here with my mate and I got no one I need be ashamed of..."
No one had ever so blatantly emasculated Leo like this before... Even gene-wardens were gentler with his feelings... "Highborn, I am humbled." The words his culture demanded of him bled through his teeth like he was biting them back.
"Just so we know where we stand, Leo. I was your childhood friend, not your childhood sweetheart..."
"I've ever had a dissenting opinion on that..."
"Congradulations on the pending promotion..." Rachel tried to distract him from this particular thorny problem.
"How do you even know about that?"
"That's for me to know, and you not to find out... But Judge-Advocate Director? Congradts, a long-serving officer, poltical, like the job needs, you're perfect."
"You'll forgive me for not bringing out the champagne because you're the only one who thinks that way..."
"What, the rest still think you need to be incorruptible..."

Ethnicity

Terran Meritocracy Genemixes