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

by Hechtl, Chris

  “Looks like you've seen better days. Both of you,” she said turning to the bear. The lieutenant grunted. “But you most of all miss.” She turned to the human girl. “Want to get some of your own back?” she asked quietly, eyes intense.

  The girl looked up shaking. She blinked through her tears and rubbed at her bloodshot eyes with a dirt encrusted finger. Hurranna held out a canteen but she pushed it away. “What do you mean?” she asked battered and bruised eyes locked onto the heavy worlder. She could barely see out of one eye, the swelling had it nearly completely shut.

  “Oh, I see we've got three live prisoners. I bet you could have fun with one. Sort of get some of your own back. I for one wouldn't mind. We're probably going to do all sorts of things to them until they wish they'd never been born.”

  “All but this one. He's got an unpowered implant,” Schultz said, indicating the pilot. A rag was stuffed into the man's mouth. Rigging tape and zip ties kept him in a tight, hogtied bundle on his stomach. He closed his eyes and whimpered a little, trembling in his bonds.

  “Go on. Just don't kill them,” Asazi said, giving the girl a stick from the fire. The charred end burned for a bit before ebbing to a muted glow. The girl's eyes locked onto the glowing tip with savage light.

  The girl hefted the stick and then looked at the men. She poked one, and then another. They grunted. She looked at the bear who rolled his eyes. “You're going to hit them or what lady?”

  She smiled tentatively and then slammed the stick down. The gunner groaned as it hit him in the arms. He tried to roll but she kicked him and then hit him again and again. She got a toe under him right into his balls. He squealed, trying to bend in a fetal position to protect his privates. She kicked him again there and then his eyes rolled back. He went flacid, out cold.

  She turned her attention on the wounded man, slamming him with the stick so hard he passed out. She turned huffing and held the stick up. “How about I shove this up his ass? Won't kill him but since he did it to me over and over I think he deserves it! He loved to hear me scream...” she said, voice trembling in fear and rage.

  “Fair's fair,” Asazi said with a nasty grin. The man looked at them wide eyed and then quivered. His head shook back and forth. The girl raised the stick and then stopped. The man's eyes rolled back as he fainted. She dropped it without a word and turned, falling into Asazi's arms sobbing.

  “There there,” the marine said, patting her charge. “I think that should help a little down the road. But for now, I think it's enough,” she picked the girl up gently.

  “I want to go home,” the girl said in a small voice. “Please take me home.”

  “That's the plan ma'am,” Jethro said softly. “Your uncle said little brother is waiting.”

  “He's alive?” she asked burying herself in Asazi's chest. Asazi gently stroked the girl's hair, picking out some of the leaves and dirt.

  “Yes. Yes he is. And in need of his big sister now more than ever. We'll get you home. Count on it,” Asazi said softly.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  “Called higher yet?” gunny Schultz asked, giving the wounded bear a look as Asazi moved off with the girl.

  “In a minute. Ox get over here.” He pointed to a rock nearby. The Tauren came over and sat, then pulled out his satellite link.

  Valenko plugged into it as the Tauren adjusted the dish to get the best signal. Normally they'd do this wirelessly but after the day they just had he wasn't taking any chances of an intercept or of signal loss. “Red one calling Red three six come in over.”

  ...*...*...*...*...

  The captain looked up as the RTO Private Harley Quinn came in and waved. He grimaced and made an excuse to the negotiation team and got up.

  In the hall he practically glared at the Neo hyena. “What is it?” he growled. “Can't you see I'm busy?” He'd finally made some headway in the negotiations and didn't need distractions.

  “Sir Red one is calling in. You said to let you know. I tried your implants but they bounced me back.”

  “That's because I turned the radio off and wasn't accepting calls,” the captain grimaced as he closed his eyes and opened the link to her implants.

  “Red one to red three six come in over.”

  “This is Red three six, come in red one.”

  “Sir, we've found and taken out the raiders.”

  “What?” the captain opened his eyes and then blinked. “Good job!”

  “Yes sir,” Valenko grimaced as the greyhound medic dabbed at a scab.

  “Did you get them all alive?”

  “No sir. Three alive. Nine enemy dead. We've got two KIA, four WIA.”

  The captain blinked and then his jaw tightened as the casualty list registered. “Say that last part again?” he growled. What the hell had they run into?

  “We have two KIA. Private Miles O'Brien, and Private Veraxin Chirby sir. Four WIA, two moderate, two minor.”

  “How did it happen?” the captain demanded.

  “Ambush sir. We had just identified a possible cave at the top of a wooded hill where they may have been taking refuge when we were hit.”

  The captain closed his eyes. “How are the wounded? Can you extract?” He was already trying to think of a way of getting some relief to them.

  “We've got moderate casualties but we're ambulatory sir. Be advised we've rescued one hostage as well.” Valenko sent him the map location. The captain opened it and grimaced at the terrain overlay.

  “Wounded, prisoners, a hostage, gear, and the dead. You've got quite a load to carry off that hill.” He looked at the Hyena who was looking worried. Her hand was on her ear listening in. Unlike the captain she was from F platoon and knew the bear. She could hear the strain in his voice. Something was going on, something he hadn't said yet. IT hurt to loose Miles and Chirby. Miles had been good troop, hell both of them had. But Chirby had a kid. Had. That thought sent a pang of mourning through her. Her ears drooped.

  “I'll send second to meet you as soon as possible. They wont be able to get to you until mid afternoon tomorrow though.”

  “We have a local posse that will provide support sir until we can medivac sir. We'll meet them at the base of the hill near the falls.”

  “That is if you hold still,” the medic growled over the open link. “Plasma burns are a bitch,” the medic muttered.

  Catching part of that the captain blinked and then stared at the hyena. “Did he just say plasma burns?”

  “Yes sir,” Valenko admitted. “The tangoes had one. Pirates sir. Crash site is on the map.” An icon on the map blinked. “We found it and scouted it. It's rigged with booby traps so we left it alone so we could continue hunting.”

  “Who's wounded; you?”

  “Yes sir,” the bear rumbled a sigh. “I caught a coronal discharge from the plasma gun. Cooked my ruck. Lance corporal Jethro took some buckshot, Private Sergei has a broken collar bone, and PFC Hurranna has an injured leg. Most likely a soft tissue injury.”

  She looked up from where she was sitting. “Just a sprain. Got it when I fell out of the tree or when I stumbled coming up the hill I guess.” She and the gunny were splinting and wrapping the injury.

  The captain nodded. “I see.”

  “The hostage is in bad shape sir. She's a mess,” the bear grimaced as he glanced to the girl. “A minor sir. They worked her over pretty good. Took their time, the whole pirate thing.”

  “Crap,” the captain sighed, just imagining the details was enough to make him sick. He was glad the bear wasn't specific. He was also tolerantly glad the satellite wasn't up for a video feed. “We'll have to turn the prisoners over to the local law.”

  “About that sir, ah, I'd hold off. They have... intelligence value. One is an officer. Implants as well.”

  “Oh? Well, you do have a story to tell. I'll meet you in port. Tell your people well done. Red three six out,” the captain said. He grinned, knowing the news properly presented to the colonists would be welcome.

&n
bsp; “Red one out,” Valenko sighed, disconnecting the sat link. He shook his head, and then slumped forward as the medic picked at the skin on his back. “I've actually preferred rare over being well done.”

  “Funny,” the medic drawled. “You and me both.”

  “That the Major?” Jethro asked dabbing at a cut.

  “Captain. He's dirt side right now,” Valenko sighed. He tried not to move. Every time he did he could feel his skin crackle and fresh wounds open up. Blood and puss would dribble down from them. “And yes. It was.”

  “Oh.”

  Valenko looked them over. “Second is going to try to meet us sometime tomorrow or the day after. I don't know about you folks, but I have no intention of playing hurry up and wait. I don't fit the damsel in distress image worth a damn.” He glanced to the girl. “No offense miss.”

  She gave a wan smile and then shrugged.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  They bagged the bodies, treated the wounded and then took samples of the enemy gear. They went over everything else very carefully, making sure to make full sensor recordings before burying what they didn't want to carry. Intel might want to come back for it later. At first light they moved out. Valenko grimaced as Hurranna limped ahead.

  “Some point you are,” he growled. She snorted, not bothering to look back his way. She had twisted her ankle either in the fall from the tree or landing on the one pirate but had insisted on taking point. He'd given her part of the dead marines' pack loads to lighten things up for the wounded and stretcher carriers. Unfortunately the grizzly's ruck had been melted into ruin by the plasma blast.

  He grimaced at the pain in his back. Perhaps it wasn't such a bad thing after all. Humping that thing back with his back the way it was would have been a serious taste of hell. He didn't dare mention it to the gunny, the sadistic little bastard would probably get ideas to inflict on some hopeless boot in the next class.

  “Posse will meet us at the falls,” Ox said. Valenko looked round, the giant Tauren had his usual pack, half of Miles pack, as well as the girl on his back. He didn't look like he minded in the slightest.

  “It hurts,” Sergei growled as he stumbled, carrying the litter. Every bounce of his arm jerked on his collar bone. His implants were dulling the pain, but only a little. He needed a clear head to keep from falling in the rough steep climb down the hill.

  “It's just a collar bone fracture. You've got so much in you plus the nerve block so it shouldn't bother you at all,” Doc Gusterson said with a patient sigh.

  “Still hurts,” Sergei sulked.

  “Tell that to them,” Schultz snarled, carrying the other end. The Liger glanced back at the bodies of his comrades and then shut up.

  Letanga and Jethro watched over the prisoners who stumbled along in a line between them. Asazi grimaced as she hefted Sergei's pack load but didn't say anything.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  They made it to the base of the hill and the waiting posse by mid afternoon. The girl fell into her uncle’s arms the moment she saw him, sobbing again. He cradled her, tears falling down his craggy face. He stroked her battered body. The marines had done their best to help clean her up but she needed proper medical attention. The wounded marines stood around watching the perimeter as a few of the men touched the battered child on the face and arm as if to reassure themselves she was alive.

  “She's had a rough time. She'll need counseling,” Asazi said kneeling next to the girl. The girl reached out and grabbed Asazi's hand and squeezed it firmly. She did the same with Huranna.

  “I'm taking her home. Her brother's waiting for her there,” the sheriff said patting the girls back and then getting up.

  “We'll take them from here,” the sheriff said, looking at the prisoners. “Sweetz, go get me a rope,” he said coldly, looking over his shoulder.

  “No can do sheriff. We need them. We're going to turn them over to the authorities. Our authorities. Trust me, they won’t enjoy it,” Valenko said grinning a terrible grin. Most of his lip was still gone, exposing bloodied gums and sharp yellow teeth. The battered prisoners shivered a little.

  “Trust me, intelligence won't be gentle. We'll squeeze them dry then take them apart piece by piece and not bother putting them back together again. I guarantee it wont be a pleasant experience.”

  The sheriff eyed the burned bear and then looked away. “All right,” he spat.

  “There are nine other bodies up there. And some gear. We kept the choice bits for intelligence to go over. Be careful though, they may have booby trapped the rest,” Ox warned.

  “All right,” the sheriff nodded.

  “We'll send an Intel crew to go over the crash site and their last stand. See what we can get out of it. Who knows, maybe they'll find something useful,” the gunny replied. He set the pieces of the scorched, broken plasma gun down. “I for one would really like to know where they got the weapons from. And if they have more or can make more.”

  The sheriff's jaw worked as he looked at the giant scorched and melted weapon. The Neo dog had held it like it weighed nothing. “Plasma?” he asked after a moment.

  “Yeah. Crew serviced weapon. On a tripod,” Ox answered.

  “Okay. You boys have been through hell. I've got an air lorry coming in, a couple actually. Seems we should go back in style rather than walk.” He eyed the wounded, then grimaced at the dead.

  “Yeah.”

  “Hell yeah,” Sergei said rubbing his shoulder.

  Chapter 26

  The Major tossed his tablet onto his desk and grimaced, turning his chair back and forth. “This gets better and better.”

  “The implants?” Firefly asked, swirling into holographic being nearby. The freighter with the marines on it was still a hundred kilometers out and closing. Captain Pendeckle had sent out an encrypted report at light speed the moment they had exited hyperspace the day before. It was now being digested by the commanding officers.

  “Yeah,” The Major said eyes closed. He tapped his chin with one end of the stylus. The loss of two Marines was bad enough. But how they lost them was disturbing. “Yeah. Two of them have it. The plasma gunner and the shuttle pilot. But the copilot that had been killed also had implants. Crude from what doc says, basic unpowered civilian grade. Better than the pirate girl we picked up here. Way better. The gunner's implant jack was in his arm so easily overlooked by the marines. The shuttle pilot's was easy to spot.”

  “Yes. I was going to point that out. I just got the report of the remains. All the bodies had ident implants. It looks like someone reworked the implants for a basic ident package. I checked the serial numbers, they are identical.”

  “Ah.”

  “So they are using the same nanites in each person. Either they are reprogrammed to set up the coding to access the hardware, or the implants are surgically modified afterward.”

  “Yes,” the Major nodded. “That crew serviced plasma gun came as a nasty surprise. It required a higher level of implants than our other prisoner has. I didn't expect it.”

  “Neither did Intelligence. Things can be over looked or not taken into account. Sometimes that happens,” the AI said. They'd been even more surprised by some of the parts of the weapons. They were new, some less then four years old. That had some bad implications for the future.

  “We will have to update the threat profiles. The pirates are a more serious danger than we first believed. Much more technically sophisticated with a logistics ability we hadn't anticipated. So we are going through with the training base?”

  “Yes. I talked with Commander Logan on Anvil. The Agnostan's have sent a representative to do the final lease negotiations. We're getting it for a steal, they just want us there for safety and security. The team's actions was good PR.”

  “Exactly,” the AI agreed nodding. “After the experience they just had I would think it is an imperative.”

  “Yes. Which means you'll be going as well. At least for a month.”

  “Me?” Firefly as
ked surprised.

  “Well, the orders haven't been cut, but we'll need you commander. At least your military grade replicators,” the Major said with a shrug. “Hecate is going to be diverted to babysitting duty in Agnosta. We're going to send Destiny back with a gas giant mining platform and some automated tenders for starships. We'll need you to help set up the space infrastructure and the base itself.”

  “Oh.” The AI sounded a little put out at the news.

  “I'm speculating here Firefly, we haven't left you out of the loop. I am pretty sure how this will go down though. You'll only be there until the base is set up,” the Major replied.

  They were still digesting the gear and material the Admiral had sent back in Destiny. With it they could properly finish Hecate and Kincaid, maybe even one of the other escort frigates. He was hopeful anyway. “We actually, I'll be going along as well.” He tapped his chest with a finger.

  “I may be staying behind,” he admitted. The bases were going to take a while to set up. Both. Agnosta had agreed to both base requests. Paris Island and the mountain valley training center. Paris Island was going to be the primary training base for all branches. The Admiral had called it right, having your own private island complete with space port was a better training base than a small mountain valley. He was actually looking forward to seeing both, it had been over a decade since he last touched real soil.

  “Ah,” the AI said, nodding in agreement to the news. “I have some files the Admiral left behind. As well as the files and material he sent back with Destiny. Plans he was drawing up. Perhaps we could go over them? They include a space station, communications satellites, and automated weapons platforms for the jump points. I am not sure we can manufacture the weapons platforms however. Perhaps the core parts, but the power, sensors, and weapons are locked out unfortunately. We might get some of the parts from stores though. Do you have any ideas?”

  “Later. Are you getting more flack about this high guard nonsense?”

  “I think it's been changed to a militia guard concept. The commander has it well in hand.”