Jethro Goes to War (Wandering Engineer Jethro's tale) (35 page)

“
You will also
learn about the fog of war and how it effects the coordination of
units. Communication skills will need to be worked on. You each have
strengths and weaknesses that will need to be assessed.”

“
You'll see
what we mean as we get into the class. Shall we begin?”

 ...*...*...*...*...

Sergei nodded
politely to the gorilla and a couple other faces he recognized.

“
This is going
to be fun,” Ox said smiling. He was taking this class in the
afternoon. Sergei was taking a mortar class in the morning but it was
mostly sims.

“
Hell yeah.
Blow stuff up and break things. What's not to like?” Sergei
asked.

“
All right
class, we've got a lot of ground to cover and not a whole hell of a
lot of time to do it in. I'm your instructor.” Sergei tried not
to grimace as Brenet, now an E-5 sergeant came into the room. “For
those of you that were hoping to break stuff literally you’re
in for a disappointing couple of weeks. We're only breaking things
virtually. For some reason people get a little ticked if we do that
indoors for real. Since we're all inside a station, that'd be a bad
thing anyway.” He shook his head.

Sergei's grimace
took on an even darker sour look. “Quit pouting,” Ox
sighed beside him. “It'll work out. Maybe we can go outside and
blow something up.”

“
I see a few
familiar faces here. Good. You are here because you either showed an
aptitude with heavy weapons and tactics, or an interest. Or you were
recommended. Either way you're my headache for the next three weeks.
Let’s get this ball rolling.” Brenet motioned them to sit
at the tables.

“
In a moment
you’re going to work on taking apart and putting back together
a heavy rail gun. I expect each of you to study the manuals on your
off time and do some sims when you can. However this is a hands on
exercise to get you used to the weapon. You're going to build what we
call muscle memory. After a day you’re going to know this
weapon inside and out and be able to do this blindfolded.” He
grinned as a few groaned.

“
Which will be
your final test before you move on to the next weapon system. Fail
too many times and you’re out of the class.” He pointed
to the rifles in front of each of them.

“
Access the
manual. Do the assembly virtually three times. Firefly or the
computer will monitor your progress. Once you've passed the tutorial
I'll put a weapon in a box in front of you and let you give it a shot
for real.” He looked around. “Now. Begin.”

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

Ris'ha articulated
his vertical mandibles in amused tolerance as he waited with the rest
of the class. His rear eyes caught sidelong looks from the others.
Most were bipeds. He and a Veraxin female were the only non bipeds in
the group. He didn't recognize her, she must have been from Delta.
That was too bad, he thought, it would have been fun to have someone
else like him to do this with. Someone from his own platoon.

He had put up with
all the crap in boot camp just for this. Pushups? What were pushups
to a species that one Terran called a snake with legs? Running now,
that had been a problem since he lacked legs. That and the upper body
calisthenics, mainly because the bar was higher then he was
comfortable reaching. But he had excelled on the range, and excelled
at the crawling exercises.

The EVA training had
been a painful experience. He used his middle hand to reach back and
touch the stumps of his antlers. His previous rack had fallen off a
week ago. The stubs would remain like this until a new set began to
grow. Hopefully he could direct it this time, he had gotten an idea
for an impressive set from an image of a Terran animal. Most likely
extinct. Pity. He scratched at the itchy velvet then his eyes caught
the sign at the front of the class. Vehicle introduction training.

“
All right,
we're going to go as fast... Oh crap,” the unfamiliar
instructor paused, glancing at the two aliens in the class. “Don't
tell me you're in the wrong class,” he muttered. They shook
their heads. He grimaced. “I didn't think so,” he sighed.
“Okay, Well we've got only one vehicle class right now, the
LAV.”

Ris'ha sighed softly
at that. He had really hoped to explore the larger armored vehicles.
That was the entire reason he had become a marine. To dig into the
ground, tear it up, rumble along in a mechanical beast, and blow
stuff up. Oh well.

“
You'll have
to suffer with VR training for the other types. You can take
refreshers when we get them into production. IF we ever do,” he
said darkly and then seemed to shake himself.

“
Okay, you
each have a copy of the course and an abbreviated text book. If you
note the manual to the LAV, or Light Attack Vehicle, you'll notice
it's being changed daily. That is because we're just now developing
the doctrine for it. Firefly and the Admiral had the blueprints for
the thing but not any of the manuals or doctrine for it. Some of you
will be writing it for future generations of Marines to use.”

Ris'ha blinked all
six eyes at that. He did like the idea of leaving his mark on the
universe. Making a difference.

“
Okay.”
The human instructor paced and then stopped and put his forward
appendages behind his back. “We have ground vehicles to secure
the ground. Simple right? Not really. Some of you may be wondering
why we still use wheels and tracks instead of force emitters and
mechanical legs right?” He looked around.

“
KISS,”
the Naga said.

“
What was
that?” the instructor said, his single set of blue eyes locked
onto the Naga.

“
KISS Sir.”

“
I'm a
corporal. Drop the sir,” the instructor growled. “And
yeah you're right. Stealing my thunder but that's all right. KISS.
Keep It Simple Stupid. In combat you want it that way. Keep it simple
so if it breaks it is easy to fix, easy to drive, easy to maintain.
But sometimes the simplest things in combat are the hardest to get
right.”

“
Take ground
combat for example. We don't use force emitters much because they
give off a big honking energy signature. They also suck energy.
Energy you have to get from somewhere. Nothing comes for free.”
He shook his head. “We're just getting into the logistics of
things, trust me, it's giving some of the brass nightmares.” He
chuckled.

“
But that's
not our problem. Anyone know why we don't go with legs or tails or
some other method over wheels?”

“
Energy
efficiency,” Ris'ha answered.

“
Correct
again,” the instructor nodded giving the Naga a look. “Clearly
you're a fan.” He turned back to the class. “It's all
about engineering efficiency. The most efficient method to get around
is a wheel. Baring that, a track, which is a set of wheels with a
band to spread your footprint. Legs take a lot more energy, have a
narrow footprint, and elevate you off the ground, Making for a higher
center of gravity that is unstable... and making you a big target.”

“
Which is
bad,” someone muttered. They'd all learned the hard way about
exposing yourself on a battlefield.

“
Which is very
bad. First one seen is usually the first one dead. You want nap of
the earth movement when possible. That way the enemy has a limited
range to hit you,” he used his hands to describe what he was
talking about. Ris'ha was fascinated with how the instructor walked
his fingers to show an example of a walker, and then hovered his hand
to show a wheeled vehicle.

“
Which is
another reason force emitters aren't used,” Ris'ha bobbed a
nod.

“
Correct
again,” the instructor nodded back. He turned and picked up a
scale model of the LAV, and then a fighter. He held them up and then
put the fighter on a stand elevated above the table, then the LAV
back on the surface.

“
I want each
of you to take a look when we take a break. Kneel down to the level
of the table and look. Which one do you want to be in?” he
asked.

“
Me I'll take
the LAV. At least until we get a tank worked out,” he grinned.

“
So the
marines of the old Federation stuck to the tried and true methods. If
it ain't broke don't fix it,” someone in the back said.

“
The Light
Attack Vehicle is our one and only production vehicle. We're keeping
it as simple as we can, while making it so we can adapt the basic
frame for any environment. Even space. It's a tubular frame with four
wheels and an electric motor for each wheel,” the instructor
said and then grimaced.

“
It is fast,
and adaptable to almost any terrain. It also has a trio of force
emitters that cancel out a planetary bodies gravitational force and a
pair of electric fans to propel and steer it while it hovers. You
only use them when you are on ground you can't cross otherwise, or
when you’re on a base.”

“
The LAV can
be adapted to be used in space, on moons or asteroids or on planets
with different G fields or atmospheres. Unfortunately they do not
have the room to test them in the station, they can only be tested on
a moon or asteroid. Which is what we are going to do when we get done
with the class work and each of you gets a chance to tear one down
and put it back together. I hope you packed an EVA suit. If you
didn't, you're just wasting my time.” He looked around.

“
Um...”
A few of the students looked around and then shot their hands up.

“
Let me guess,
no suit training? It's a prerequisite for this class.”

“
Well, I did,
but I wasn't issued one.”

“
Were you
trained by us?”

“
No sir. I ah,
learned as a kid.”

“
Then you
don't have training. Not by us. You have to be qualified by a
certified instructor to go out. Which is a problem.” The young
man looked crestfallen.

“
I've had
training sir. Me and Jinx here,” a human male said jerking his
thumb to a girl near her. “Alpha platoon,” he said with
pride.

The instructor
scowled and then looked at the Veraxin and Naga. “You two don't
have the training as well?”
“No sir. F platoon went
out and we have EVA certification,” the Veraxin replied. She
flashed her IFF. Ris'ha was surprised. He hadn't recognized her. Then
again individuals of other species were hard for him to distinguish.
Maybe she had been one of the ones injured? He was unsure. He shot
her a brief e-note but she ignored it.

The instructor
caught the IFF and blinked. “Wait, F, ah, yeah I remember. The
ones who did that rescue. Okay. Well, out of twenty, you two and the
two Alpha's are the only ones going out it seems. The rest of you are
mechanics until you get EVA qualified. Or we get a chance to drop you
on a planet with a decent atmosphere so you can qualify there.”

A few grumbled at
that. He shrugged. “Learn to live with it folks. You should
have checked the course requirements before you signed up for this.
You got a problem, you can check with your gunny and see about
getting a makeup EVA course. Later. On your own time and dime.”

“
We've covered
most of chapter one, introduction to vehicles. At least the high
points I'm going to cover. Each of you will read the entire chapter
and do the quiz at the end on your own time. We've got two hours of
this book crap to go through until we can dive into the hands on.
Moving on chapter two...”

 ...*...*...*...*...

“One of the things I have to get through to you is that a
sniper is ninety nine percent observer. We call in the shots,”
the Sergeant said standing at attention.

Jethro's nostrils
flared as he picked up an unknown scent. He did a little subtle
glancing around. He was pretty sure it was coming from the rear, near
the corner. He didn't want to look around though, he needed to focus
on the course instructor. He had a feeling the class was going to be
harder than he'd anticipated. He knew the paper side alone was one of
his weaknesses.

“
A sniper
observes the battlefield, and calls in intelligence or calls for
fire. Rarely do you ever engage. Does anyone know why?”

“
Because when
we do we let the enemy know we are in the area sir.” Shiku the
white arctic Neo fox growled.

“
Exactly. It
sends up a flare. That's a bad thing,” the human Sergeant
nodded. “But sometimes you have to,” he grimaced. “If
at all possible try to remember to pick off the closest units first,
then move back down the range. You'll find that the rounds kill
better at range. Close range shots are moving fast and the round
doesn't do nearly as much tumbling, and therefore a lot less damage
to the intended target.”