Charles Stoneheart

Dry Mouth

The problem with Mars is how dry the mouth gets.

Porter Watkins is an NCO on the first Earth infantry tour of Mars. The briefing said nine months, toxic air, and a planet nobody owned. The mouth knew better. Then his major orders the helmets off — and Watkins learns the lining in his lungs is a one-way ticket. There is no going home. Mars already belongs to someone else. What follows is a soldier’s account of a unit that was packed for a claim and used for a war: brothers, knives, a dry country, and the lights that drink the wet out of the air.

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