Jethro Goes to War (Wandering Engineer Jethro's tale) (47 page)

“
And solar
panels. Not that they are much use that far out,” Sergei cut
in. They looked over to the white Liger. He waved his own tablet. “I
just finished reading the article myself. Did you read the one about
the committee?”

“
Uhm?”

“
Investigation
committee,” Sergei said getting up and handing his tablet to
the lynx. He turned as she glanced at it and pulled his running shoes
out of his foot locker.

“
No...”
Jethro scrolled down and found the article. He started reading it.
Hurranna snorted. They looked at her. She was still looking down,
shaking her head.

“
Those
bastards,” she growled, lips wrinkling in a half snarl. “Oh,
you've got to love crap like that,” she said looking up to
them. “The entire incident was a regrettable misunderstanding.
Given the circumstances and lack of evidence they are willing to...”
she looked at the tablet again. “Ah, let bygones be bygones,
what ever the hell that means, and the Admiral can come back.”

“
Exactly. They
want to smooth everything over like it never happened and everyone is
one big happy family. No harm, no foul. Bastards,” Jethro
growled, reading it himself. “What are you doing?” He
asked looking at the Liger.

“
What does it
look like?” Sergei asked, not looking up as he strapped his
shoes on.

“
Run?”

“
Work out. I
need to get some aggression out.”

“
Ah.”

“
Besides, I
don't think I can eat. I've got a nasty taste in my mouth after
reading that.”

“
Yeah me too.
I'll join you,” Jethro said pulling his foot locker open.

“
Me too,”
Hurranna said going to her rack.

“
Just don't
get too pooped. Remember, we've got the exercises tomorrow.” Ox
rumbled from across the room.

“
Oh yeah!”
Sergei said giving Jethro a feral smile. On the Liger it was scary
for the uninitiated.

“
Don't get
your hopes up bub,” Jethro laughed.

“
We'll see.
We'll see.”

 ...*...*...*...*...

“
He's in
there,” Hurranna said quietly, pointing. She looked back to the
others. Seven against one. The odds hardly seemed fair. For them.
Jethro had that damn suit. She knelt near the hatch, checking it
carefully for booby traps. You could never be too careful in these
situations. The last thing they needed to do was be sloppy.

Sergei and Betty
stacked up behind her, ready to move on her all clear. The others
were on either side of the corridor corners, ready to move as soon as
they cleared the hatch.

“
Wish we could
blow the hatch in,” Sergei muttered. “Or blow a hole
through a bulkhead. Going through a door is nuts.”

“
Can't,”
Hurranna grunted. “This is a training op remember? Firefly
would be a little put out about things like that.” She picked
the lock and then flattened herself against the hinge side of the
hatch.

“
You sure he's
in there?”

“
This is a
dead end. Only place for him to go with any sort of cover,”
Hurranna said.

“
You're sure?”
Betty asked again.

“
No,”
Hurranna grimaced. “Gotta go with what we've got. He's probably
cloaked. Watch for traps. He'll either flank us or pop up.”

“
Yeah we know.
We were there remember?” Chirby said over the link. This was
their third exercise of the day. Jethro had taken four to one odds in
the first, then seven to one in the second and still beat them. Now
it was time for a little payback.

“
Go,”
Hurranna said, touching the door key. The door swung open. The bay
was dark inside. Stygian dark. That was fine, they had their implants
and suit sensors after all. Sergei shouldered the hatch aside and
then rolled. He was so large he was taking center stage.

Betty was on his
left flank, Hurranna on his right. They swept the boat bay, eying the
shuttle and work pods in the center of the bay. Crates were along one
wall. There was just enough room for someone to be there.

They took their
time, going in at a crouch as the team followed in a delta formation.
Chirby exchanged places with Hurranna, practically bouncing. His eye
stalks moved around in front. Asazi was on Betty's side, carefully
scanning every centimeter of her sector. Hurranna dropped to the
deck, startling Ox for a moment. He looked down to see the Lynx
carefully scan under the shuttle then get up and shake her head.
Miles acted as rear guard, dogged the hatch behind them to be 
sure the slippery panther wouldn't get out.

“
Damn it. He's
got to be in here somewhere...”

Jethro hid a smile
as he watched from above and behind them. He tapped his implants and
sent the signal and then disconnected the clear fiber optic line. The
line transmitted his light signal to a remote transceiver ten meters
away. Two seconds later it sent out a pulse.

“
Signal
detected,” Ox said freezing right arm up balled in a fist. He
crouched as the team froze. “He's in here, I just got a burst.
From...” He turned to the transceiver just as the gun at their
front opened up.

“
He's in
front!” Sergei snarled diving to the deck. Flash bangs went off
and the bay filled with smoke and tinsel.

“
He's clouding
our sensors,” Ox rumbled, twisting back and forth. He grunted
in surprise as Jethro landed on him. The one ton armor threw him off
balance. He swayed back and forth for a moment, hands out for
balance.

“
Bang you're
dead.” Jethro tapped the harness then leapt off. He slammed
into Asazi, hitting her while spreading his arms apart to target
Sergei and Chirby. “Bang bang.” He rolled, firing onto
Asazi as she tried to recover. Her suit locked up.

He reactivated his
cloak and rolled under the shuttle as the remaining team reacted.
“He's going under! He'll come out the other side!”
Hurranna growled. “Got you now...”

She leapt on top of
the shuttle. As her feet touched down she triggered the platter sized
anti-armor mine there. It flew up and went off. She went down in a
shower of sparks and curses. Her suit fell bonelessly off the shuttle
to the deck.

Jethro hadn't gone
out the other side, he'd immediately changed direction the moment he
was under cover, pushing himself backward with his arms so he came
back out feet first. He took cover behind Ox's locked down armor as
Miles and Betty moved to circle around the shuttle. He rose up and
targeted them with his wrist weapons. “And bang bang, that's
game,” he said, smugly smiling.

“
Ah shit!”
Miles snarled, turning as the panther decloaked. “How the
hell..”

“
Practice,”
Sergei rumbled rolling over. “Damn I feel like one of those
turtle things,” he growled. He glared at the team.

The fans kicked into
high gear to suck out the smoke and airborne debris. “Seriously,
where were you?” Hurranna growled getting up and checking
herself over. He smiled slyly. “Inquiring minds want to know,”
she said, hands on her hips.

“
Wouldn't you
like to know?” the panther teased as Hurranna sat on the edge
of the shuttle's wing. “I was up high. I'll tell you that much.
I don't want to give away all my secrets.”

“
Yeah. I know.
I felt it when you landed on me,” Ox said getting onto his
hoofs once more then looking around. He walked over to the paper thin
translucent transceiver and touched it, then traced the fiber optic
wire coming out of it. “Up there. I see.” The Tauren
pointed to the spot above the hatch.

“
Ah,”
Hurranna nodded. She jumped down and slapped Miles with the back of
her hand. He looked down at her. “See, I told you I should have
gone through the vent.”

“
Did not.
Besides, if you had you wouldn't have made it. Not in the armor. Too
big remember?”

“
Yeah, but I
could have taken it off you know,” She growled shaking her
head. Her suit helmet dialed back as the smoke cleared. “Sneaky.”

“
You wouldn't
have gotten me,” Jethro said smiling. “I kept to this
side of the bay, out of range of anyone in the air ducts. Besides,”
he climbed up the wall and pulled a device off the duct. “If
you had, you would have regretted it. Briefly.” He put the pin
back into the disarm cylinder carefully and then pulled the training
claymore off and tossed it down to Ox.

“
Ah. Covered
all the bases.”

“
Prior
planning prevents piss poor performance. Remember?” Jethro
grinned. “That was why I used a stand off transceiver with a
time delay. I picked up that idea in sniper school. I knew Ox would
home in on any transmissions. I set my gun up on a tripod to run on
remote. When he zeroed in on my transmission he turned the wrong way.
It opened a window of opportunity for me to exploit. I did,” he
said with a ear flick and shrug.

“
So, up
against someone in a suit like yours, in this situation, what would
you have done?”

“
Me?”
Jethro asked, cleaning up his gear. He coiled the hair thin fiber
optic cables and then stored them in the pouch built into his thigh
armor. He thought for a second then shrugged mentally. “I'd
have had a crew out on the hull. I would've locked the bay down and
vented it. Opened the doors and let him go Dutchman.” He
shrugged. “If he didn't get blown out so they could hit him,
then come in through the bay doors and sweep the bay that way. From
the least expected place.”

“
Goodie, next
time I think we'll try that,” Hurranna said grinning. His ears
flicked.

“
What makes
you think I don't have a plan to deal with that?” he asked
laughing. Her face fell into a grimace.

“
Knowing
you...”

“
Actually. I
would have filled the chamber with gas and opened the bay doors as it
was ignited,” Firefly replied. “Or filled the bay with
firefighting foam or some other material like riot foam that would
have eliminated his cloaking ability, forced him into a smaller and
smaller containment area, or immobilized him.”

They all looked up
to the speaker the AI was using. “Good to know. We weren't
allowed that though. And no drones or sensor grenades. I insist we
get them next time though.”

“
No. One of
the goals of this exercise was to test the suits. I believe the Major
will be interested in the results.”

“
Yeah well, I
think we need more help,” Miles growled rubbing his head.

“
More bunnies
for target practice? They'll just get in the way,” Sergei
growled. He sat up. “Grenades, like Hurranna said. That's the
way to go. That or drones. Nice bit with the mine though. I didn't
expect it. Got Hurranna good.”

“
I knew the
options were flank up or around. Up was too tempting to pass up,”
Jethro smiled. Hurranna scowled but Sergei nodded.

“
Don't ever
take the easy path. If it's easy it's mined. I know. It's easy to
spout it off, but hard to remember when it comes down to crunch
time.”

“
Yes well, I
need my bay back. There is a shuttle op in an hour. Make sure you
clean up the mess properly,” Firefly said.

“
Sure,”
Sergei got up and slapped Jethro on the shoulder as the others filed
out. “He'll do that,” he said magnanimously. He grinned
as the panther opened his mouth to protest. He looked around to all
the tinsel scattered around the bay. “You make the mess you
clean it up remember?” Sergei said shouldering his rifle as he
passed the panther by.

“
I'll send a
robot in to aide you or you'll take all day,” Firefly replied
as the panther closed his mouth and scowled.

“
Thank you
sir,” he sighed shaking his head. Okay so this was his penance.
He could take it. It was a hell of a lot better then losing.

“
You pay for
your pleasures Lance Corporal.”

“
Yes sir. But
it was worth it,” Jethro said, smiling again as he went to the
broom closet and pulled out a broom.

“
Okay people,
we've got a situation.” Sergeant Brenet said pacing back and
forth. “We've got a small problem with a solar flare. The alert
system sounded off, but a few people couldn't or wouldn't hunker down
in time. We are on SAR duty. Since some of these people are pretty
jumpy, we're going in. Be careful, and when in doubt, be polite. We
don't need any incidents.”