In most conventional militaries, there was a clear difference between the two ranks of officers. There were the junior officers, serving as the commanders of field units. Lieutenants commanded platoons made up of squads, captains commanded companies made up of platoons, lieutenant colonels served as battalion commanders and so on. After a point, officer’s simply didn’t command from the front; they couldn’t afford the tunnel vision that a lieutenant or captain faced during battle, not when they commanded platoons, companies and entire battalions by the dozen across warfronts that might span entire continents.Modern communications technologies allowed generals to command from the other side of the world, from a command ship in orbit, even from other planets. They became so far removed from the frontline that they were no longer leaders and tacticians but administrators and strategists. They read reports, wrote doctrine, planned logistics, and left the actual warfighting to the troops on the ground. Technology bridged that gap, and the stories of tunnel-vision generals directing a single platoon or even a squad of commandoes through the operation was not unheard of. Yet no matter how fast messages could cross the void, how easy it was to have a live feed from a drone or satellite overlooking the battlefield, there was always a chasm between the tactical and the strategic.A Colonel balanced over that chasm on a needle-thin tightrope, careful not to trip and fall on his manhood. Victor had served under some who’d never dropped the tanker’s helmet, breathing down the throats of their battalion commanders while their logisticians ran around like headless chickens. Others had risen up the ranks of rear-line staff or logistics, and went the exact opposite route. Some fell in love with delegation so much they quit altogether and left everybody wondering who to shoot while they played golf with the politicians.Victor liked to think he kept himself in (...)