Continued
Weather made the decision. This is 'deep winter', a period that happens fairly regularly thanks to Kowloon's 730 standard day orbit. about every ten years or so, roughly, the planet enters an orbital period where only one sun is shining. given that Kowloon's suns orbit one another at a slightly different rate, Deep Winter happens fairly infrequently, the periods where the excentricities of orbital mechanics place the planet at apogee, while facing only one sun, are relatively rare. When it happens, however, the cold is brutal. The alternative, "High Summer" tends to happen more frequently. a Deep Winter tends to last around four to six months, and happens around twice in any given ten year period.
In the surrounding high country of the Iron Hills and the continental spine mountains, the frost line lowers and the ice builds up. come spring, there will be raging rivers in Minsky's folly where there are normally thin, thready streams, and in Camp John, the cactus-analogues will bloom...and there will be flooding along most of the rivers.
but that's months away, probably in late October or early November.
Right now, Colonel Patricia Hammerick is glad the Recruit Depot Processing center is a large, well-insulated building well above the flood line. Patricia's a Military Surgeon, her normal posting is Fort Ebon's post hospital.
While it's nice to be indoors while snowfall is making people miserable outside, she's not a particularly happy Military Doctor. The problem, is the equipment she's looking at for medical screenings.
'primitive' doesn't cut it, this stuff is positively 21st century, if not in technology, in implementation. The medical personnel she's interviewing know trauma backwards and forwards, know how to diagnose diseases, cancers, and maladies, can can probably sew a limb back on in a muddy ditch under fire.
What they are...well, maybe 'undertrained' in, is screening for things like chronological age, genetic defects, the things that the SLDF used to screen for routinely before three centuries of brutal warfare shifted priorities.
and so far, since she began her audit in the region on Jessenice, this was the best equipped facility thus far.
"You don't look happy, Patty." Commander Thorpe, from Intelligence, noted.
"I'm looking at the answer." Patricia said, "Actually, I looked at this answer on Jessenice, and Arluna, and Hood IV on the way here. I don't know what I was expecting but I know what my conclusions are." she sighed, "They're not even equipped for a deep screening. Nobody's trained for one either, and it isn't just Kowloon-those kids slipped through with falsified or forged, or no records, because nobody's put a priority on that in three hundred years, and based on what I've gotten from the people here..." she closed a terminal's window, "Kowloon never did. Some of those Corpsmen out there know surgical techniques that fit with seventh year surgical candidates in training back home, but they really don't bother teaching them to use the scanning gear to determine age. They just count the teeth and do a surface physical for general health and off to Basic Training..and sometimes they don't bother counting the teeth."
George Hasek leaned on a desk. "Yeah, Lean a rifle against him and if he doesn't fall over, he's in." he quipped, "We see it a lot in the Broken Wheel area troops too-for Militia units the entry standards are more in line with 'can they learn how to soldier and can they be counted on not to fall apart' and that's as far as it gets-but we're usually able to catch the Juniors before they get into the Regulars-at least, on my side of the FedCom."
"What's the difference?" Thorpe asked, he could guess the answer.
"Well, we're looking." George explained, "We're more selective because we're watching for it. there's a known enemy on the Cappellan border, keeping the next generation from trying to be cannon fodder this generation is enough of a problem we're watching for it. Out here? Fifteen Years ago, nobody even heard of the Clans, they didn't have to keep an eye out for patriotic young people who want to be heroes against a known enemy, because the closest thing to a long-standing problem was a few bandit raids once in a while, and aside from Regular forces and Mercs, there wasn't much money available to fund militaries on this end."
"And now, there is." Evangeline Stephanopoulous, an SLDF officer from Andurien and the 'outside voice' brought in to keep the audit balanced, noted.
"Yeah. sudden military expansion, mixed with economic dislocation and a growing tax base to pay for soldiers." George contributed. "they dump it into training and into field gear and support, but the screening? not so much. In a way, this is a security issue too."
"because it makes it easier for spies to get in." Thorpe observed.
"Yep." George said. "The area wasn't important until Liz made it important. These folks are behind the ball on updating their recruit screening, and I'd wager they need training in how to screen recruits-especially on things like age and eligibility, plus the whole end of the Commonwealth out here is about as screwed up on their record-keeping as Broken Wheel or Filtvelt."
"Is it a finding?" Thorpe suggested.
"yeah. It's a finding. Steph?"
"Finding...but it's one that could apply almost anywhere outside the core worlds of the Inner Sphere." the FWL officer said, "Honestly, their facilities are pretty good for a second tier organization, I've been taking notes to take back home."
"It's a finding. We're going to have to put Kowloon's Coast Guard, and the Kowloon Brigade, and the MTM's in the area on Probation." George said, "is the review group certain? we're going to have to bring in oversight if we are."
"You're reluctant?" the Wolverine doctor asked.
"Yeah, I am." George stated, "If we put these people on oversight and probation, we'll have to recommend it for half the military units in the Star League-because this?" he gestured at the data center, "It's compliant with the standard practices of better than half the militaries in the Inner Sphere, including the AFFC. it's just not Star League Regulations Compliant."