Jethro Goes to War (Wandering Engineer Jethro's tale) (67 page)

Officer training:

Officer:

Honors and awards for Military personnel

Awards:

Golden comet/lion:
Gallantry above and beyond the call of duty
that influences a battle or campaign in a major way. (all branches)
(comet is navy lion is marine/army)

Medal of honor:
Gallantry at risk of life above and beyond the
call of duty (all branches)

Extraordinary Heroism:
(all branches)

Cross  (can only be awarded in times of war)

Distinguished Service medal
(all branches)

Silver star (gallantry above call of duty)

Legion of merit

Distinguished flying cross

Distinguished leadership

Heroism:
(all branches)

Soldiers medal

Navy/marine medal

Gold life saving medal (adopted by all branches)

Bronze star

Purple heart : wounded in battle

Meritorious service

Silver life saving medal

Aerial achievement

Commendation Medal
(all branches)

Achievement Medal
(all branches)

Unit awards
(all branches)

Presidential citations

Meritorious awards

Valor awards

Efficiency Awards
(all branches)

Prisoner of War:
(all branches)

Good conduct:
Good  personnel conduct during a tour of
duty. (all branches)

Expeditionary medals
(all branches)

Campaign ribbons:
Small bar shaped pin for each major conflict
a person has served in. (All branches)

Service and Training awards:
(all branches)

Navy space duty

Navy deep space duty

Army deployment *on a planet other then the persons home world

Special ops service (all branches)

Long tour service (all branches)

Expeditionary Service (all branches)

Heavy weapons (army/marines)

Vehicle (army/marines)

EVA (Navy/marines)

Flight (all branches)

Powered combat armor (army/marines)

Elite/recon/ranger/cadre (army/marines)

Professional Development

NCO graduate (all branches)

Honor graduate (all branches)

Recruiting Service Ribbon
(all branches)

Training Service Ribbons

Navy

Army

Marine Drill instructor

Marksmanship
(basic)

Expert Marksmanship

Distinguished Marksman

 
Princess Rescue Inc.

This is a forthcoming stand alone Science fiction book in my writing
pipeline. I've pushed it back a bit when other projects caught my
attention. Expect it to be released around mid 2013. I still need to
sweet talk Mechmaster into editing it. :D

“
Is this going
to work Ryans?” the general demanded, eying Ryans warily.

Eugene Ryans, owner
of Futuretech smiled. “It already has general quiet a few times
actually.” He pointed to the vortex. “We didn't make it,
we've just contained it.”

The general looked
at the vortex but his eyes inevitably tracked back to the waiting
camera crews. “You just had to involve the media didn't you?”
he asked sourly. He didn't like working with the media. They always
had to put their own spin on things. And of course if anything went
wrong it was there for one and all to see.

“
Best way to
keep things on the up and up and completely open. I have to protect
the capital we've invested into this project general,” Ryans
smiled. His smile didn't touch his eyes. “After all, I don't
want any chain of command problems general. You of all people should
understand that. MY people did the grunt work, got our foot in the
door.” He pointed to the vortex again. “I have no
intention of letting anyone steal our thunder. now or ever,” he
growled. the general gave him a look then walked off to where his
aide and Colonel Richards stood near the entrance.

 ...*...*...*...*...

“
Is this for
real general?” Colonel Richards asked, eying the light show in
the vortex room. There was a group of techs fiddling with something.
Engineers and techs were doing last minute service work on the
vehicles they were supposed to ride in.

“
You bet your
ass. We've confirmed it. They've been sending probes through for a
couple weeks. We even sent one of ours through. Damnedest thing,”
he shook his head. Short iron colored hair was there, more now than
there was a few weeks ago.

“
So why isn't
this a government show sir?” the major asked quietly.

The general looked
around to make sure there were no camera crews inconveniently nearby.
“Because no one but a nut case billionaire believed it was true
or even possible. Or had the chops to get a team together to pull
this off,” he waved to indicate the room.

“
So why... why
didn't we come in and take over?” the aide asked clearly
perplexed.

“
Well, first
we're on a platform in international waters. Second, he invited us,”
the general sighed. “Believe me, we thought about it, many
people way above my pay grade talked about it, when we finally
realized he was telling the truth. Hell, we didn't take him seriously
till he made that damn news announcement! That live shot of a UAV
going through the vortex on CNN got our attention,” he snorted
wryly.

“
By then all
thoughts of coming in and wrapping it up in an NSA blanket went out
the window. It's hard to do that with the media breathing down our
necks,” he indicated the camera crews nearby.

The colonel nodded.
“So the joint op?” major Stark the general's aide-de-camp
asked.

“
Winston,
listen, Perry's going. He's green, but the best we have in the time
available. I'd send you but you've got a family and this is most
likely a one way trip,” the general answered. Colonel Richard's
face scowled for a moment before clearing.

The major nodded.
“Thank you sir. Andrea will thank you as well.” The
general smiled. “So Perry  is the exec and the colonel
here is in command?” the major asked.

“
No, it's
complicated. He's in charge,” he waved to the billionaire
talking with the camera's.

“
From here
sir?” the major asked in disbelief. The General shook his head.

“
Oh no, We're
not having a repeat of NASA's micromanaging from a hundred thousand
miles away. No, he's going too. Or so he says,” he grimaced.
“He's not about to send his people into the unknown alone.”
The general shook his head. He'd been surprised by that one. “Gotta
admit the guy's got balls to spare.”

The major snorted as
he saw the impromptu news conference. “Yes sir. That he
does...”

 ...*...*...*...*...

The he in question
was standing in front of the gate room admiring what he saw before
his six foot two frame. The vortex was enclosed in a series of
powerful electromagnets set up on each x,y, and z axis. Smaller
electromagnets were embedded in the walls to help contain the
anomaly.

“
We're not
sure where we're going beyond it's an earth like planet,” Ryans
held up his hands as the babble of questions rose. “Please, let
me finish. We had plans to bring an astronomer but he had a last
minute change of heart. His alternate and their equipment was
unavoidably delayed,” he smiled. Most of the equipment had been
tied up with red tape when the news broke. When the authorities had
finally gotten out of the way a hurricane had cropped up, screwing
his schedule totally to hell and back. They'd just have to make the
most of it. “This is an international joint command effort
thrown together at the very last minute folks.”

“
Why go now?
Shouldn't you know more?” someone in the back shouted.

“
I'm not.. oh
hell, yes, I was planning on answering that.” He grimaced. “The
reason is the window. The anomaly, wormhole, gate, whatever you want
to call it, fluctuates. In a couple hours it will expand and we will
be able to pass through. Any mass passing through it changes it,
making it oscillate more or collapse in on itself for a period of
time proportional to the mass of the object. We're still figuring the
math out. I've got a couple of poor man's super computers crunching
away. I know a couple of universities are trying different approaches
as well.”

“
From what we
understand it's linked to the earth's gravity and somehow linked to
the magnetosphere activity, so there is some possible link to the
sun's gravity as well,” he shrugged, hands up in supplication.
“The wormhole, vortex, whatever is too small for much of the
earth to pass through it when it opens. But what we do know is that
when something does pass through it then it shrinks down to damn near
molecular sized,” he grimaced. He was pretty sure when they
sent this amount of mass through it was going to be a bitch to
contain on this end. Hell, on both ends. It might be a one way trip.

“
Which pretty
much rules out radio communications when we first cross over. So we
will be on our own when we get there,” he plowed on, mouth
going as scripted but mind on bigger things.

He waved to the back
wall. “About a hundred meters that a way is a trio of rooms
filled with a super computer network. We've got hundreds of PCs
crunching at the data... and since we've opened up to the
international community they too have added their resources,”
He shrugged at some of their expressions. “We'll get answers
when they do folks... if we can understand them.” The group
chuckled at that.

“
Call it what
you will, a space bridge, vortex, Stargate, portal... wormhole,
whatever works. I don't frankly care...” he grimaced. “Okay
I do care if some bureaucrat or egg head tries to give it some
acronym no one can say.” A few people in the audience laughed
at that.

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

He explained that
the wormhole was a pinpoint quantum singularity that was attracted to
objects of large mass and magnetic fields. It was also influenced by
large magnetic fields, such as the earth's magnetic poles and the
turbulent solar activity from earth's sun. The wormhole was first
deduced after a scientist noted it while using the CERN research
facility, but it wasn't until two years later that it was
conclusively confirmed and mapped. “Obviously we're not sure
why it's here, why it's not on one of the larger planets. I'm sure
future generations of scientists will figure that out.” He gave
a Gaelic shrug. “Another question is how and why it connects to
another Earth class planet.”