Jethro Goes to War (Wandering Engineer Jethro's tale) (22 page)

“
Ava
whosizits?” some of the aliens and humanoids asked.

“
It's a neo
thing. He went feral. He reverted to his roots in a bad way,”
Hurranna grimaced, eying the bear. “Didn't he?”

“
Yes. There is
a human term for it. He became a serial killer,” the bear said
with a sigh. “He hunted and killed anyone who entered my
family's range. And after a while, he began to eat the bodies.”

“
Oh god,”
Hurranna said shaking her head.

“
It's been
known to happen. Here too,” a voice said in the back. Jethro
grimaced and then nodded. He tried not to remember some of the
stories of the lean times. Cats and other neo's tended to lose their
minds when they didn't have the right food, or enough of it to go
around.

“
How did he
get caught?” Sergei asked.

“
He had the
smell of human on his breath,” Valenko said. A few laughed at
that.

“
No
seriously.”

“
Seriously,”
Valenko shook his head. “And blood on his clothes and fur. His
mate, my grandma smelled it. She realized the truth.”

“
What did she
do?”

“
She killed
him. Tore his throat out when he was sleeping,” Valenko said,
looking down. “She didn't even try to hide what happened. So
yeah, I know what you’re going through. My family went through
hell when it broke. One of the reasons bigotry got so big on the
planet and why my family was killed. And why I left.”

“
Ah,”
Sergei nodded.

“
And I'm no
angel either,” Valenko said with a shrug. “None of us are
for that matter. We've all done things in our past we regret. We all
know the lives we led, the sacrifices in honor we had to make. Some
for the gangs. For me for that bastard of a Port Admiral,” he
grimaced in familiar pain. “We also know we left friends and
loved ones behind who stayed in that life. We know that.”

The troops in the
bay muttered at that. “The point is, we're here now. We can't
be held responsible for the actions of others. We all need a fresh
start and all that. New beginning. We're trying to rebuild
civilization. One day at a time. We need to work together. A
brotherhood,” he glanced at Huranna and a few of the other
females. “Okay, marine family for the pc group.”

“
Way to go,
nice gipper speech,” Hurranna said. “I'm in. I was all
along,” she held up a paw.

“
One day your
life will be on the line. We must trust each other. Or we're wasting
our time,” Sergei said, looking around. He turned, resting a
hand on the smaller panther. “I trust you with my life.”

“
So do I,”
Valenko said with a nod. “We've got too much to worry about.
Crap the DI's dream up for one thing. Which reminds me. I've got a
sneaking suspicion we're going to get a visit anytime. Let's lay out
the welcome mat,” he growled.

“
Right.”

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

“
Think that
helped?” The Major asked, turning away from the holo recording 
to the gunny.

“
Hope so,”
the gunny said shaking his head. “Nothing I was saying was
getting through. And the team building exercises weren't making a
dent.”

“
Oh they were.
It just takes time. They had him in their mental slots. He was a
known. But when his father did what he did... he became an outsider
again. Hopefully this will restore balance and unit cohesion.”

“
Hopefully,”
the gunny grimaced. “Is his story true I wonder?”

“
Valenko's?
Every word. But I have a feeling there is more to it. He's just not
saying.”

“
Which is
probably a good thing,” the gunny mussed. They all had
skeletons in their closets that were probably best left there. “Thank
you sir.”

“
Dismissed.”

The troop marched
into the bay and sat. The gunny walked up and down the ranks and then
nodded to the EVA chief. “We're ready chief Brody.”

Brody turned and
then scowled. “Oh hell,” he grimaced at the sight of all
the neo's. “Oh bloody hell. You’re kidding me.” He
shot an appealing look to gunny Schultz.

“
Problem
Chief?” the gunny asked, smiling. His tone meant that there had
better not be one.

“
Oh bloody...”
The chief shook his bald head. “You have any idea... fuck me.”
He looked over to his assistant. “New gloves. Check them all
for spines, Horns, claws, and crap.” He glared at the class.
“Okay you lot settle in and listen up. You cats and what have
you. I've got some news. NO CLAWS!”

Jethro snorted. He
shot a humorous look to Sergei.

“
Seriously.
Not freaking kidding here,” the bald chief swore, pacing. “No
flexing claws at all. None. Do so and you'll breach your suit. That
we think of as a bad thing. Very bad.”

“
It sucks.
Literally,” the assistant deadpanned.

“
Yeah, what he
said,” the chief said pacing. “The gunny here found out
the hard way his first time out. When you reach for something you
instinctively flex your claws. Or when you get excited, or when
you’re just pissy.” He watched as a few flexed their
hands and then looked down. He waited until they looked up guiltily.
He nodded sober. “Right you are. See? Piss you off and you're
already tearing strips out of the arm rests. First one to breach a
suit gets clipped. Or I'll bloody well de-claw you. Think about
that.”

“
Goes for you
too gunny.” He shot a glare at the gunny. The gunny grimaced.
“Didn't think I'd forgot about you did you?” He shook his
head. “Mister know it all breached his suit first time out. Got
one look at the outer dark and grabbed the safety line and pop pop
pop.” He flexed his left hand moving each finger in turn. “It's
not as bad with your toe claws, you’re wearing thick boots
after all. We can reinforce those. Add a couple of layers of socks if
need be. And they've got steel toes so it's not like you can get
through that easily.” He shook his head.

“
But some of
you kitties and other critters, well, I'm not so sure. Last thing I
need is for you to screw up my record any more than it already is
after he showed up.” He jerked a thumb at the no longer amused
gunny.

“
I actually
have a suit chief,” Ox said, raising a hand.

“
Did anyone
tell you to speak recruit?” the gunny growled. Ox dropped his
hand.

“
Sir no sir.”

“
Ten push ups.
Then get the suit.” He shook his head as the Tauren dropped to
the deck and obeyed.

“
Wonder where
he got one?” Chief Brody asked. “And can they get
more...”

“
Sir ten sir,”
Ox said, shooting to his feet.

“
Do you know
if there are other suits like yours recruit?” Brody asked.

“
Sir. Most
likely sir. If they were salvaged from Port a Prince sir.”

“
Port-ah...
Sorry.” Brody grimaced realizing what he meant. “Go get
the suit. You just saved me one hell of a headache. For that, my
thanks.”

“
Sir yes sir.”
The Tauren marched out and then dropped into a trot.

“
Anyone else
have a suit?” No hands were raised. Brody sighed. “Fine
then. So much for getting lucky twice,” he muttered to the
gunny.

“
If you’re
wondering why I'm teaching the class instead of him, now you know. My
name is Chief Brody, That's master chief of the freaking Federation
Navy for my sins. Get over it. Get used to it. Ain't going to change.
Now. You lot.” He pointed to the first row. “Go with Mr.
Sims here and you lot.” He pointed to the next row. “Go
with Miss Dax over there. “Row three, you've got Mr. Shatner
over there. The last two rows I'll take myself. Now get.”

“
What are you
doing?” the gunny asked.

The chief snorted.
“Trying to tell me my job?” he asked as the troops left.
“FYI I'm in charge here. You can sit nice and quiet or get out
of my face.” He shook his head. “I'm suiting them up and
we're going out. Best way to learn is through experience.”

The troops froze at
that. They looked to the chief in disbelief. “Oh, not out out,
not at first. Grav training and then a holo sim or two. Then out
out.” He waved. “But it's easier to teach you one on one.
That way I bloody well know you're paying attention and not dicking
around with your implants.” He glared at the class.

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

“
Your
objective is to capture the enemy flag. Something you've done before.
This time however you'll be doing it on the moon Praxis five,”
the gunny pointed to the holo of the spinning moon. He sent a signal
through his implants and the holo zoomed in to a section of the
surface then folded out to show a terrain map. A pair of red lights
blinked at opposite ends of the map.

They were good,
Schultz had to admit it to himself even though he'd die before
admitting it to them. Better than he'd hoped. But he knew they could
and would do even better. Now was the time to prove it. Only Alpha
had taken the time to train their recruits to EVA. He was pretty sure
Thompskins had done it to try to keep pace with him. Didn't want the
dobie showing him up.

That was too bad.
His people may have taken three days instead of one to get through
the suiting up period, but they were all settling down into
experienced vets now.

“
Your job is
to take out the enemy base. Period. You can do that with maneuver,
with direct conflict, or however you think you can. You'll be on a
hard time limit, limited by your O2 supply so don't get cute about
it,” the gunny glared at the group. “Think and plan now,
there are no time outs, no stress cards available folks, you screw up
and you're most likely dead before we can get there to bail your
asses out. IF I'd want to.” He looked at one hand and extended
his short blunt claws as if to buff them.

“
I've got a
round of drinks between DI's and a GI cleaning of every head on
Firefly for the loser on the line. Gunny Thompskins sweet talked me
into the deal. You’re not going to disappoint me are you?”
Schultz growled. The troop hastily shook their heads no.

“
Good.
Questions?” he asked. Valenko's hand paw immediately went up.
“Yes?”

“
Sir do we
have to go in the suits we've got?” After completing their EVA
course they were issued orange and white skin suits for exterior
exercises. The suits for F troop had had to be custom tailored to
each individual since they weren't Terran norms. The entire rotation
had been taken up by their platoon. Beta and Delta had skipped EVA
training. Some blamed F for that.

“
Got a problem
with them recruit?”

“
They aren't
practical sir. Not in a combat situation. We wouldn't go into combat
in orange, white, and reflective tape sir.” A few of the other
recruits nodded agreement.

Jethro grimaced and
then nodded. “Are we going to get new issue?”

“
No,”
the gunny said crossing his arms. “Any ideas to fix it?”

“
Sir, can we?
I'd like to take some riggers tape or something to my suit. All the
suits actually. Paint if possible.”

“
Not possible.
Paint is out.”

“
But we can
replicate riggers tape in the color of the terrain.” Jethro
said sitting back. He nodded. “Food replicators can replicate
it.”

“
As long as
you don't cover your sensors,” the gunny said nodding.

“
Yes sir. Are
we going to be issued weapons?” Hurranna asked. “What
about vehicles sir?”

“
Your TOE is
in your files. No vehicles however. You’re on foot for this
one.” The gunny shrugged. “You haven't had training on
vehicles anyway. You've got an hour to get sorted out.”

Jethro grimaced and
then nodded. The idea of tooling around in a vehicle sounded nice,
but it would force them to the flat level terrain. Which would make
them predictable. Also the dust cloud vehicles would kick up would
have given them away. On foot was a better option. “Rear guard
and sneak or all in?” he turned, asking Valenko.

The bear rumbled a
laugh. “Do we know who we're up against sir?”

“
One of the
other troop squads. Alpha actually. Sixty in the unit.”

“
All Terran
norm?”