Bravo and Charlie Companies returned to the infantry quarters, with an ecstatic group of former convicts. The declaration came in while they were returning to the Abraham Kepler that they had earned their pardon and would be attached to their respective companies, and retired from active service with them when the ship reached Kepler 111 in only a few months' time.
Sure, it wasn't anywhere near their homeworlds, but that didn't matter. They were better off making a fresh start in a new world as returning war heroes than going home to be known as ex-convicts.