Thank you everyone who mentioned my story and Juliana for the vote, which I was really not expecting. I was conscious that the tone/voice of my story was very flat, this month, but that is what I was after.
I borrowed virtually all of my ideas for this one.
The Australian band Redgum, are probably most famous for their anti-vietnam war song, I was only 19, which starts with the line:
"Mum and dad and Denny saw the passing out parade at Puckapunyal"
I've always loved the stacato miltary rythm of that line and borrowed it for both the opening and the name of one of my characters. The song goes on to, amongst other things, tell us about Frankie, who stands on a land mine, just before he is shipped out home. I borrowed that too. The song is on spotify, if you want to listen.
I was also reading a Sharpe novel at the time, and either in that book or somewhere reading around it I saw mention that it was only recently that most soldiers get killed in battle, they were traditionally much more likely to be killed by disease. i figured that was even more likely on an alien planet. So I borrowed that.
In terms of the disease, older Chrons members may remember that before he did ASOIAF GRRMartin, edited/created the wildcards shared universe, in which an alien virus is let oose over new york, truning soem into Aces (superheros) some into Jokers (deformed mutants) and killing some horribly, the latter were said to have drawn the black queen. I borrowed that.