Jethro Goes to War (Wandering Engineer Jethro's tale) (21 page)

...*...*...*...*...

“
Think it will
help?” the Matriarch asked, watching them go a little while
later.

“
Maybe,”
Firefly responded through the speaker in her tablet. “Maybe.
Each has to go through a rite of passage. Every marine does. But
they've had a hard road getting here as it is. We'll see. Thank you
for helping them through this moral crisis ma'am.”

“
Of course. He
is my godson after all. Do keep me informed. Thank you for returning
the original archive.”

“
My pleasure
ma'am. It seemed like the right thing to do. We are using spiders to
index the files now. I believe it will add more depth to our training
and more insight into the historical record.”

“
Good.
Anything to help them survive and thrive,” the Matriarch
nodded.

“
Good evening
ma'am,” Firefly said, signing off.

...*...*...*...*...

The gunny paced back
and forth the next morning. The recruits watched warily from the
floor. Each was kneeling next to a pile of gear in the park deck.
“All right you lot, listen up,” the gunny growled. “Today
and tomorrow we're going to introduce you to the wonderful world of
camouflage.”

“
This here is
a ghillie suit. You can make it as the marines back in the twentieth
century did out of burlap strips.” He held up what looked like
a suit made of rags. “Like this one.”

“
We've come a
ways since then.” He dropped the suit and picked up another. He
shook it out. It too looked like it was made of rags, but the rags
were odd, more plastic looking. “This baggy thing is our modern
equivalent. It's for the sneak specialists.” He triggered the
suit with his implant. It began to fade until it looked like he was
holding up air.

“
As you can
see, or can't see, it's got a cloaking ability. But there is a
catch.”

“
There always
is,” the Major said softly watching the team from the back of
the park.

“
The catch is
it's got a limited power supply. Also we've only got a handful and
can't make more... and it's got this teeny tiny problem,” he
said. He moved the suit. As it moved they could see an outline and
then distortion where the suit was.

“
You see the
problem? This uses a micro polymer weave. Real funky stuff. Tiny
cameras on one side project the same thing they see on the other.
Works real good when you’re sitting still. It will also defeat
thermal imaging to a degree. But it can't keep up with you if you
move.”

“
So we're back
to digicam made to fit the environment you’re in. At least for
now. Tried and true methods. KISS. Sometimes it's the simplest things
that win out in the end.”

He dropped the suit
and turned to Jethro. “Recruit Jethro on your feet.”
Jethro leapt to his feet at attention. “Yes Gunnery Sergeant!”
he said.

“
Strip.”

Jethro blinked.

“
You heard me
boot,” the gunny growled.

“
Yeah baby
take it off. Take it all off!” Hurranna said grinning. The
gunny turned to her with a snarl. She shrugged.

“
Twenty now,”
he said simply. She nodded and dropped into a push up position. She
started counting off as she did her penance.

“
It was worth
it,” she muttered.

“
Then it was
worth twenty more,” the gunny growled. She growled softly.
Shit. She thought, this time keeping her mouth firmly shut.

Jethro stripped and
then held his clothes in his hands uncertainly. His ears were flat
against his skull. “Drop em,” the gunny said pointing to
the panther's feet. The panther did. “Now cloak.”

Jethro immediately
got the idea. His ears perked up and then dropped once more. He
closed his eyes and relaxed. After a moment he faded.

The others around
him blinked. He was gone.

“
Where the
hell did he go?” Valenko said, playing along. “You
who...”

“
He's there,”
the gunny said. He bent over and picked up a rock and then tossed it
underhand to where he thought the panther was. Jethro wasn't there
though.

“
Ah,”
the gunny looked around, clearly annoyed. With all the bodies around
him he couldn't scent the little shit. Hurranna was amused though
smirking. “Oley Oley in free!” he said after a moment.

Jethro faded in
smiling slightly. They looked around and finally Sergei spotted him
standing behind the gunny. “Holy crap. Every time I see that it
still gives me the heebie jeebies,” he shivered.

“
Point,”
the gunny nodded. He handed the panther his hat. “Now try it
again.”

Jethro went to set
the hat down but he shook his head. “With it.”

“
It doesn't
work that way,” Jethro replied. “Gunnery sergeant sir.”

“
Cute. Still
earned twenty. But cloak now. Pushups later.”

Jethro sighed and
cloaked. They tracked him as he moved with the DI's cover around the
room. “You see?
He
may be cloaked but the cover isn't.
I'd like it back now,” the gunny growled.

Jethro thought about
throwing it across the room like a Frisbee then thought better of it
and came over and handed it to the gunny as he decloaked. Jethro was
panting.

“
Why are you
panting?” the gunny asked.

“
The cloak
takes up a lot of energy. I have to divert my heat. My ability to
shed heat that is. Since I can't get rid of it I overheat in
minutes.”

“
And now you
see the other downside of a cloak,” the gunny nodded turning
back to the class. “Nothing ever comes for free. There are
three other neo's who can cloak like this. One is Letanga, and the
other two are Tungulria over there and a wolf that didn't join up
with the corps.”

“
His loss,”
someone muttered.

“
Twenty,”
Schultz said turning. “Both Letanga and Tungulria can cloak,
but not nearly as well as recruit Jethro,” he glanced at the
panther and then to each of the others.

“
By now some
of you know what happened on Firefly,” the gunny said nodding
to the panther. “Go do your pushups and then dress.”

“
Sir yes sir!”
the panther said automatically and then went smartly to his post and
fell into doing his pushups.

“
What most of
you know is that the person that did it was recruit Jethro's sire,”
Schultz continued. Jethro paused. “What tired already?”
the gunny asked sarcastically.

“
SIR NO SIR,”
Jethro replied.

“
Right then.
Continue. Add ten more,” Schultz looked around. “What
most of you by now realized is that recruit Jethro had nothing to do
with it. Had he known what his father had intended he would have
killed him himself. We know that. But why do I bring this up you
wonder?” he asked looking around.

“
Evil and
sadistic nature?” Jethro muttered.

“
And that's
twenty more,” the gunny said conversationally. Jethro sighed
and kept going.

“
Jet did this,
got by the best scanners the navy had by using his ability. But it
comes with a price as you know. He had to do it buck naked.”

“
Which kind of
makes it hard to do much,” Firefly said. His avatar swirled
into being next to the gunny. “Cloaking ability like the
panthers and others have is useful... or was before and during the AI
wars. You each have formidable natural weapons to compliment it if
used properly.”

“
But that
doesn't do you any good against modern tech. Firefly spotted the
panther before he got close to his targets and he was caught. Not
without casualties,” the gunny grimaced.

“
Yes,”
Firefly shook his head. “Sadly yes.”

“
Right now
we've only got so many suits, and they are going to recon and sniper
teams. Don't mess them up. They are worth far more than your hides,”
he glared for a moment.

“
Sir yes sir,”
Valenko said, shrugging off the idea of getting a suit in his size.

“
Which brings
me back to my point. The equipment you have here is designed to do
it's best to defeat these same scanning methods. Even the rifles.”
He picked up what looked like a bag and shook it out. He wrapped it
around a plasma rifle and then tapped his implants. After a moment it
faded.

“
So don't ever
use them when you’re not supposed to. You will get your ass in
a sling,” he grimaced. “Don't rely on them either.
Everything in the field can and will break over time. Keep that
firmly in mind. First time you take something for granted it'll turn
around and bite you in the ass good and proper. Bet on it,” he
shot the class a look.

Jethro finished his
pushups and stood. “Sir. Finished sir.”

“
Good. Get
dressed and let’s get to work,” the gunnery sergeant
said. “With your permission of course,” he said. He
turned to the commander.

“
Carry on,”
the AI said nodding and fading out.

...*...*...*...*...

Jethro tried not to
grimace as the Gahsg bumped into him. He did grimace when a foot
stepped on his own.

“
Clumsy
clumsy,” the Gahsg muttered.

“
Yeah you
are,” the panther growled, ears back. The Gahsg turned an eye
stalk back to him. “Any time anywhere you want to work on your
coordination, let me know,” the panther snarled, showing his
teeth. His ears went flat. His claws came out.

“
Sins of the
father again?” Valenko said from his rack.

“
You could say
that,” Jethro growled with his back to the bear as the Gahsg
moved cautiously away. The Gahsg had a sack cloth and ashes mentality
for families that had a member do something wrong. There was some
reference to Klingons in it but he had yet to find a species in the
index that matched that name. Perhaps he was missing something again.
He grimaced.

“
Let me tell
you a story,” Valenko said, sitting up. He huffed, looking
down. “It's not something I like to remember.”

“
I take it
this is going to be interesting,” Hurranna said, pulling a
chair up. She spun the chair around and sat on it, placing her arms
over the back rest.

“
Yeah,”
the bear sighed.

“
Something
from your past? What happened you sat on someone and they got
squashed tubby?” a Veraxin in the back chuckled.

“
No, but I'm
thinking about it now. Problem is it'd mess the bay up then I'd have
hell to pay with the gunny,” he grimaced as the troops looked
at each other amused. “But it might be worth it in the end, he
growled, looking toward the Veraxin. The Veraxin ducked down out of
sight. Valenko snorted, turning to the others. After a moment eye
stalks peaked out over the edge of the rack behind him. The troops
who noticed it snickered.

“
As I was
saying. I know the feelings you're going through. Being blamed for
something you didn't do. It's not your fault. It's a common thing
though, a family being punished for the sins of a member. Usually by
shunning or other psychological means,” he shook his great head
and then huffed.

“
Ah. Yeah,”
Jethro shrugged uncomfortably as looks were shot his way. He wasn't
sure where the grizzly was going with this.

“
You weren't
to blame for your father's actions. You would have prevented it had
you been given the choice. That I know of you. That we all know of
you. You have a sense of honor. If we have learned anything here, it
is that. And that you’re a team mate. And we can always count
on a team mate right?” the bear growled pitching that to the
watching and listening platoon at large.

“
We'd better,”
Sergei growled, arms crossed.

“
Enough. You
were saying? Sins of the father?” Hurranna asked waving the
Liger back down before he started something for the wrong reason.

“
Yes. Well,”
the bear positively squirmed on the bed for a moment before
continuing. “This is harder than I thought it would be.”

“
Start at the
beginning. Finish at the end. How hard is that?” Zebo said
testily.

“
Harder than
you think. You see, my grandfather went atavistic.”

“
Ava what?”