Jethro Goes to War (Wandering Engineer Jethro's tale) (29 page)

“
It was you,”
Sergei growled. He rolled his right shoulder. He had a hell of a sore
spot there from a nasty roll. A rock or something had dug in.

“
No, it was
easy. Training. The gunny's right, the more you sweat the less you
bleed. I bet the other platoons are shitting bricks right about now,”
Valenko growled. “But then again, the cream rises to the top. I
think that's appropriate in this instance don't you?”

“
Hell yeah,
gimmy some love!” Sergei said, fist bumping Zebo.

“
Yeah. I can
imagine,” Jethro said nodding. He flicked a glance around. So
far it had gone just about as he'd expected. The team had handled the
IG exercise, the safety and equipment tests, and hot insert sim with
aplomb. Twenty four hours in the crusher park and now they had either
a simulated boarding or an outside exercise. He was hoping the
outdoor exercise was next, the last thing he wanted was for them to
get that on their last twenty hours. Being in a suit was bad enough.
Being outside in a suit when you're drop dead exhausted was just
plain suicide stupid.

“
Ten minutes
to clean up and eat. Get your asses moving recruits! We've got a
boarding exercise to complete!” the gunny snarled from the
overhead.

“
Ah hell,”
Jethro sighed shaking his head as he hot footed it for the door and
the mess deck.

“
Still think
this was such a good idea?” the gunny asked as he passed him.

“
I wouldn't
miss it for the world gunny. Not in a million years,” Jethro
said smiling.

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

Schultz opened a
window to view F platoon. He was administering Beta's crusher, but
since they were bogged down he could spare the attention for a brief
moment.

Valenko was going
the unorthodox route. Gunny Thompskins had assumed he'd send a strike
team led by Jethro to try to take the bridge right off. Instead the
bear had thought out of the box.

The boarding
exercise was on one of the old freighters they'd recovered. Her
drive, power plant, and frame were shot, so instead of trying to
rebuild her they had turned her into a training ship. The navy used
it to train crew to handle watches and emergencies. The marines used
it for other things.

Called the fun
house, or carnival ship by the opposition crew, it was rigged with
all sorts of tricks to throw at trainees. Thompskins had been almost
gleeful when he'd pulled the duty to pin F platoons ears back.

They better not
disappoint me, Schultz thought, scowling. A beer and steak dinner
were riding on how well they performed.

 ...*...*...*...*...

Valenko grimaced as
they made their final approach. He checked his team stats and nodded.
Sergei was in shuttle two. Zebo was in shuttle three. They had four
hours to take the objectives and or pull out. It was going to be a
bitch.

They had to take the
bridge, main engineering, power plants, and if possible the armory.
They had received downloads of the ship and her class, but he knew
that the swabbies had modified her extensively so the ship plans were
next to useless. Just enough to get them well and truly stuck in and
bogged down when they least needed it.

“
Damn. Hope
this works,” Letanga said eying his HUD. Since this was a
boarding exercise he was on point for one of the squads and not happy
about it. He looked over to the others. Each shuttle had two squads
inside and one outside. The pilots hadn't been happy about having one
platoon riding on the outer hull in suits, but when they heard about
the plan they hadn't objected. A few were extremely amused by the
idea.

Valenko, Sergei, and
Zebo would do a conventional attack from the inside, bogging down as
expected. Jethro, Letanga, and Ox were taking a different route.
While the others occupied the attention of the DI's and opposition
forces the shuttles would undock and go back as if to pick up the
next wave.

 ...*...*...*...*...

Jethro felt the jolt
as the shuttle docked, he motioned with his hand to move out. He
unclipped the safety line and then pushed off the hull. The squad was
already streaming out, looking for the right airlock.

 ...*...*...*...*...

Ox passed two
possible airlock entries before finding the one he wanted. They went
in fast and quiet. His point checked the corridor and then waved. He
made his way to a computer terminal and paused. He plugged in a padd
and started hacking.

 ...*...*...*...*...

Letanga grimaced as
he maneuvered the packs through the corridors. He found a life
support station and paused as the neo-chimp Betty plugged the
canister she had been carrying in. She nodded and he motioned them
onward.

 ...*...*...*...*...

“
They are
screwed,” Thompskins said grinning. He wanted to blow the ship
now, but he didn't see the need. That bear was cut off, Thompskins
had cut dumped the air in the corridors and shut hatches so they were
sealed. They had surprised him by wearing skin suits, but so far they
had chosen the wrong door to breach.

“
Bear bogged?”
a corporal asked looking up with a smile. “That big white kitty
cat is hopelessly lost. Probably looking for the litterbox.”

“
Fell for it?”
Thompskins asked, grinning.

“
In a word. I
wonder if they will learn not to trust a map?” he asked
sarcastically. He shook his head.

“
They will
now,” a private laughed. He shook his head. “Shuttles
went back for the second wave. They'll be back in thirty.” The
lights flickered and then went out. Data screens went dead. “What
the hell?” he said, looking around.

“
Power surge.
Or drop. Call engineering see what the hell's going on.”

“
No... I don't
think so,” Jethro growled from the back of the room. They
turned to see the panther in the open hatch.

“
How the
hell...”

“
Wouldn't you
like to know,” Jethro grinned. His ears flicked as his team got
around him to secure the bridge.

“
Bridge
secure,” he sent over his link. He pulled up a map and shot it
out over the team net. He wasn't sure if the map Ox had sent was
accurate so he wanted to be sure.

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

“
Engineering
cleared,” Letanga said nodding. His crew had used the sleepy
gas to douse the real engineering room once Ox had shot everyone the
real map of the ship and bypassed the security systems in the
corridors around the three squads. The gas had knocked the crew out.
He had taken a moment to blow the door, then the rest was clean up.
Easy peazy lemon squeezy.

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

“
Computer
secure. Life support secure. Security secure. Engines off line. Self
destruct isolated and bypassed. We're good,” Ox said.

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

Valenko nodded, one
hand touching his ear in instinct as he listened to the report.
“Good,” he rumbled. “Good.” Everything had
gone as planned. “I love it when a plan comes together.”

 ...*...*...*...*...

“
What the
hell?” the Major asked with a laugh. “Fifty three
minutes? Is that a new course record? And doing the job with only one
drop?” He shook his head.

“
Seems like it
Major. It would seem that they learned from past drills and came up
with their own plan,” Firefly responded. “The follow up
navy team is impressed. The damage control team is a little upset
however. There wasn't enough damage for their crews to test with.”

“
Yes. You have
a crack unit there Major,” Commander Logan said with a nod.
“I'm suitably impressed,” he said, saluting them with his
cup of coffee.

“
I am as well
sir,” the Major said shaking his head. “I thought for
sure that the gunny would bog them down. Well that puts an unexpected
crimp in the schedule.”

“
Hot wash
debrief of the exercise and equipment inspection,” Firefly
responded. “We can drag that out an extra hour.”

The Major watched as
the shuttles arrived with the navy team to take control of the ship.
“Run both but I think they deserve a break. And we don't want
any slip ups during this last exercise.” He nodded to the holo
of the bear.

“
Definitely
officer material. He took the focus and let those trained to do a job
do it,” Firefly replied. “He trusted his subordinates. I
am curious if they had a back up plan though.”

“
I am as well.
I may sit in on this,” the Major said sipping a cup of coffee.

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

“
How are they
doing?” the Major asked, looking up from his paperwork to
stretch. The debrief of F platoon was all he'd had time to be in on.
That had been nearly eight hours ago.

“
By that I
mean the platoon exercises?” Firefly asked as the AI projector
came on line. The AI cocked his head. “So far they are doing
all right. Beta and Delta are having trouble with the full combat
sims.”

“
And they did
so well with the IG inspection and testing,” the Major said
sarcastically. “Well, it just goes to prove, no inspection
ready unit passes combat.”

“
Not very well
at least. Beta was forced to rerun the boarding scenario twice. Delta
is running that now as Beta is the last in the crusher. Alpha managed
to handle it's fair share but it's an uphill battle since they are
short on men.”

“
And F
platoon?”

“
F platoon is
doing the alternative exercises along with the normal crucible
routine. So far they have done exceedingly well, setting a new course
record for the boarding exercise and handling the crusher without
major problems. However they did get a great deal of demerits in
their initial IG inspection. Of course the fact that they got the
inspection four hours earlier than intended might have something to
do with that. A lot of their demerits were over um, as you marines
call it, chicken shit things. Scratches and such.”

“
And the other
half of the saying comes into play. No combat ready unit passes
inspection,” the Major chuckled, shaking his head. “Anything
major?”

“
Major major?”
the AI asked dryly. The Major snorted. “No. Like I said before,
most of it was as most grunts say, chicken shit. They earned demerits
for scratches on equipment, heavy wear on gear, but all their suits,
weapons, and equipment passed basic qualifying. Schultz is more
interested in making sure they survive combat over having the proper
creases in their pants and shiny boots it would seem.”

“
Ah. A man
after my own heart,” the Major nodded. “This alternative
exercise...”

“
Rescue. With
a time limit. Something none of the other platoons will attempt since
only the survivors of Alpha platoon have EVA experience.”

“
Ah,”
the Major nodded. “Let me see.” He sat back as he placed
his right palm on the interface on his chair arm. He closed his eyes
as the feed began.

“
The exercise
is to get to and evacuate a colony after that colony has sustained
significant damage due to a quake. The colonies power is out, and
life support is failing so there is a time limit. The platoon must
get in with limited support, stabilize the situation and then get the
people out,” Firefly said over the link as a plot formed.

“
And they have
an hour to do this?”

“
No. Four
hours is the projected time limit. They were given six rocket sleds
to transfer people and supplies but two were deliberately sabotaged
to make it harder. They also have a fuel limit.”

“
Oh,”
the Major smiled. “Who dreamed this up?” he had a
sneaking suspicion he knew.

“
Gunny
Schultz. However he is administering Delta's run now.”

“
So who is...”

“
Staff
sergeant Jacklynn sir. She is running the opposition force.”

“
Wait I
thought this was... oh tricky.” He smiled as various camera
feeds came up.

“
In order to
make things interesting they will have a simulated riot. Order has
broken down and the marines must balance getting enough people on the
ground for security versus having enough fuel and life support to get
people off.”

“
Interesting,”
he said. The final video changed to one of the suit cameras. It was a
little jittery, but it seemed that they had left the two damaged
sleds behind to get the job done.

“
The Tauren Ox
has been working on the sleds. The work crews were ordered to stall
but the Tauren has taken a direct hand in the repairs and will have
them working shortly,” Firefly replied.