Jethro Goes to War (Wandering Engineer Jethro's tale) (61 page)

“
Shut up and
stop shaking the tree. It's bad enough with Valenko up here. I don't
think it can take any more,” Jethro growled glancing down.
“Hurranna got to the shuttle. She's checking it now.”

“
She's out,”
Letanga breathed. Jethro returned his attention to the lynx. She
motioned no one home. Then watch and a question.

“
Good
question,” the bear growled. “Did they get picked up or
what?”

“
I've got a
feeling they didn't.”

“
What, the
raids?” the bear asked.

“
Sure? Why
not. They probably decided to hunker down somewhere and wait for
rescue. When that didn't happen they blew through any emergency
rations they had then had to improvise.”

“
Makes sense
boss,” Letanga said. “And raiding a farmstead is risky,
but it's got concentrated food and materials there. Most likely they
tried sneaking in and taking what they wanted at first, but then got
cocky and fell into old patterns of looting and plundering. If it had
no survivors they were golden. Dead men tell no tales.”

“
True,”
the bear nodded. “I wonder if they were planning on trying to
get a radio in case their people came back?” He shook his head
and then looked at the rather sheepish and impatient cat on the
shuttle.

“
My question
is, how do we get her out of there?” Jethro said.

“
I'll go,”
Letanga said. He passed down his rifle and then ran along the tree
limb on all fours. When he got out as far as it would bend he leapt
to one on another tree. He caught the branch but it snapped as it
bent. He fell in a tangled rustle of snapping branches until he
caught a vine. Carefully he swung back and forth until he got to the
tree trunk then latched onto it. He shook his hand for a moment then
continued on. Every once in a while he would pause to sniff the air
and tree to smell out the lynx's path.

“
Great.”

“
Think he'll
get her out?” Jethro asked.

“
Yeah,”
the bear dropped to the ground near Sergei. “We need to disable
the trap and see if there are more.”

“
Trap?”
Sergei asked.

“
Bomb. Near a
tree,” Jethro said, turning to look at him and then back to the
leopard.

“
We should
blow it,” Sergei growled.

“
Disable it,”
Schultz growled. “Set it off and they will know someone was
here.”

“
And if we try
to disable it, we may hit an anti-tamper device and have it blow in
our faces. SOP is to blow it in place if you can't go around.”

“
Which we're
not sure if we can,” the bear sighed. It was a dilemma, if they
blew it then they were letting everyone in the area know something
was going on here, but if they played with it they invited it going
off in their faces anyway.

“
The deer,”
Jethro said shaking his head as the thought came to him.

“
Deer?”

“
Local. Think
about it. Why didn't it set the bomb off?”

“
Trip line?”

“
Maybe. Then
again, maybe not. We need another look.”

“
Wait until
Hurranna gets back. Pull her feed and see,” the bear said
looking over to Sergei, their resident bomb expert.

“
Good idea,”
the Liger nodded. “Cause I ain't playing Tarzan. I don't think
any of these trees would support me. Let alone the vines.”

“
Point. I was
meaning to put you on a diet. Now I've got the perfect excuse,”
the bear said with a grin.

“
Funny boss.
Really funny.”

 ...*...*...*...*...

“
You know, we
could do a stampede,” Sergei said as the crew ate a quick meal.

“
Sure. You
first,” Hurranna said with a laugh, dropping down from above.
“Miss me?” she said impishly.

“
Yeah, like a
hole in the head,” the Liger said shaking his massive head.

“
Yeah you've
got enough of those already,” she grinned at him. He sighed a
long suffering sigh then turned to the bear.

“
You were
saying?” the bear rumbled.

“
I was saying,
catch a couple wild critters, tie some branches to them and then send
them off down that trail. Let them trip the traps.”

“
Ouch,”
Ox said shaking his head.

“
What? Sucks
to be them yeah. But better one of them than us,” Sergei said.
“Besides, think of the barbeque we could have afterward,”
he grinned suddenly at the thought.

“
Just what I
want, picking splinters and shrapnel out of my teeth,” Jethro
said with a laugh.

“
Bitch, bitch.
You need more iron in your diet anyway. Doc Standish said so.”

Jethro snorted and
opened his mouth for a retort but Ox got them back on track.

“
And if it
wants to go the wrong way?” Ox asked.

“
Oh, I think
we can give it the right... incentive,” the Liger growled
menacingly, showing teeth and then stretching out his claws.

“
Yeah. We
could at that,” the bear rumbled a laugh.

“
Don't
bother,” Hurranna said shaking her head. “I checked it
out. Even dumped her log.” She held up a portable scanner and
then handed it to the bear. “She's a pirate all right. Twelve
survived. They stripped out everything useful.”

“
How...”

“
They left a
note. It's in German. My toot translated it. I picked up at least
twelve different smells as well. The scents were faded though. Last
ones were there about a week or so ago.”

“
Okay...”

“
It said they
are...”

“
Going to get
set up on high ground and try to get a radio,” the bear
finished, scanning her records. He'd started with the newest record
of course.

“
Bingo.”

“
Which tells
us they didn't come down with one. Or it got Dxed in the crash,”
Ox rumbled. “I haven't found any anomalous radio or laser
transmissions.”

“
Dx'd?”

“
Destroyed,”
Schultz replied to the lynx. “Better finish your report and
then eat fast.”

“
Right. Traps
along that trail. Trip wire, some sensor thing and a couple pressure
pads I think. Most were made from local materials. Branches, dead
falls, etc. The stuff we were taught guerilla's use.  I could
see some of it from the trees.”

“
I did as
well,” the leopard said, nodding confirmation.

“
They don't
want anyone there huh?”

“
But they took
out comfort items. Chairs, fabric from the destroyed seats, bits of
wire...”

“
Hmmm... which
means they have been here a while,” Sergei grunted.

“
It tells us
more than that. It leaves a trail of bread crumbs to follow. They
have to use passable terrain to move that after all. Terrain that
will lead us right to their base,” Schultz growled. They looked
at the gunny and then slowly nodded. Valenko's eyes lit at that.

Schultz looked up at
the thundering falls and whistled softly.

“
Nice. I'd
like one in my back yard,” Miles said looking around.

“
If the brass
picks this spot you'll get your wish,” Valenko said looking
around. “This is the spot. Hunker down and wait. He turned to
Jethro and Letanga. “Not you two.” They froze and looked
up to the bear.

“
Go set up
overwatch positions. I don't like camping in an exposed place.”

“
Yes sir,”
Letanga said, shouldering his ruck back on and hefting his sniper
rifle. He moved off to a nearby tall tree.

“
Think there
will be trouble?” Jethro asked looking around.

“
No idea. I
just want to be prepared. Get going,” the bear said turning
away.

“
Right,”
the panther said, jogging as he left without a backwards glance.

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

Two hours later
Letanga signaled. “We've got a group of riders coming up the
trail hell for leather ensign. They are heavily armed.”

“
Right, that's
the posse,” Valenko nodded. He looked around. “Company's
coming. Let’s stay frosty.”

The riders crested
the hill and entered the clearing. They pulled up at the sight of the
marines. A few took out rifles from scabbards attached to their
saddles.

“
Easy there
folks,” Valenko growled. “We're marines.”

“
Yeah? You
look like whatever the hell's killing the folks around here.”

“
And how do
you know that?” Hurranna snarled. “FYI we just got here,”
she grimaced shooting a disgusted look to the others. “Ain't
been feet dry a day and we're already getting flack.”

“
How do we
know that?” a man snarled. Valenko looked at the tin star the
man was wearing.

“
Are you
sheriff Jessup?”

“
Yeah,”
the sheriff nodded, sitting back in the saddle. He pushed the brim of
his hat up. “Ya'll ain’t from around these parts.”

“
No. Nor are
you from what we were told,” Valenko said with a shrug. “As
I said before, we're Federation Marines. We were supposed to be
looking for a new site to place a training base. But your leaders
asked us to give you a hand.”

“
That'd be
Tommy I take it?”

“
No sir. Mr.
Seth Kessel.”

“
Ah,”
the sheriff looked around. “They are all right boys.” The
rear guard came riding up. “Good. 'Bout time you caught up.”

“
I thought I
saw something in the trees back there.”

“
Maybe you
did. If you did I'll have to have a talk with Letanga. He's getting
sloppy,” the bear growled. “I'm curious though. We were
told to meet you here. Why didn't you know?”

“
You're Ensign
Valenko?” the Sheriff asked.

“
Yes.”

“
Ah. Now I
know.” He shrugged and then spat. “No one ever told us
you were Neo’s.”

“
Got a problem
with Neo's?” Sergei asked, showing his fangs. The horses danced
away from the predator in their midst.

“
Nope,”
the sheriff said shaking his head. He kept shooting sidelong looks at
the big cat as he got his mount under control.

“
Least not
when your packing serious heat like what you've got,” one of
the posse muttered.

“
What gives?”
Chirby asked looking around. “We all have a mission to
complete. It's the same mission.”

“
Yeah well,
we've got something killing people,” the sheriff said shaking
his head. “Our friends and neighbors. This here is all the able
bodied I can round up. Rest are out planting or dead.”

“
I'm telling
you it's a Dilgarth. One of those raptors or a pack of them,” a
man said looking around nervously.

“
Ain't been
one of them seen for nigh on a hundred years Yuli, shut your yap and
keep frosty,” another man said giving the nervous one a dirty
look.

“
Another
attack?” Valenko asked.

The sheriff got off
his horse and led it to the stream. The others in the posse did as
well. He handed the reins to another man and then went over to
Valenko and Schultz.

“
Yeah. Another
attack. This time we've got a survivor.”
“Oh?”
Valenko asked.

“
Kid. My
nephew actually,” he grimaced. “He's four. He hid in the
basement. Got out the storm shelter door when they set fire to the
place.” He shook his head.

“
Monsters of
the two legged variety?” Schultz asked dryly. The sheriff
nodded.

“
Yeah, he
swears he heard voices talking. He couldn't understand them though.
They got his sister. My brother and his wife were dead.” The
sheriff grimaced. “The fire did a number on them but we got
Harry the undertaker a county over here. He was visiting his sister.
He checked the bodies. Both had been shot,” the sheriff scowled
and spat. From the sound of what was left out there was more to it
than that.