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

Page 43

by Hechtl, Chris


  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_uplift

  http://www.cat-dog-names.com/eskimo-dog-names.html

  If you want to see some of what I had imagined for the Neo's check this out:

  http://koutanagamori.deviantart.com/gallery/

  It's the closest I've found. I'll be putting my own spin on the idea soon enough. :)

  Rank structure in the armed forces of the Federation

  Training:

  NAVY

  MARINES

  ARMY

  Recruit

  Recruit/Boot

  Recruit

  Enlisted:

  GRADE

  NAVY

  MARINES

  ARMY

  E-1

  Apprentice

  Private

  Private

  E-2

  Journeyman

  Private first class

  Private 1st class

  E-3

  Spaceman

  Lance corporal

  Specialist

  E-4

  Petty officer 3rd class

  Corporal

  Corporal

  E-5

  Petty officer 2nd class

  Sergeant

  Sergeant

  E-6

  Petty officer 1st class

  Staff Sergeant

  Staff Sergeant

  E-7

  Chief Petty Officer

  Gunnery Sergeant

  Sergeant 1st class

  E-8

  Senior Chief Petty Officer

  Master Sergeant

  Master Sergeant

  E-9

  Master Chief Petty Officer 1

  First Sergeant

  First Sergeant

  E-10

  Master Chief Petty Officer 2

  Sergeant Major

  Sergeant Major

  E-11

  Master Chief Petty Officer 3

  Master Gunnery Sergeant

  Command Sergeant Major

  E-12

  Master Chief Petty Officer 4 Chief of a sector

  Sergeant Major of the sector

  Sergeant Major of the sector

  E-13

  Master Chief of the Navy

  Sergeant Major of the marine Corps

  Sergeant Major of the Army

  Warrant:

  GRADE

  NAVY

  MARINE

  ARMY

  W-1

  Warrant Officer

  Warrant

  Warrant

  W-2

  Warrant Officer 1st class

  Warrant 1st class

  Warrant Officer 1st

  W-3

  Chief Warrant Officer1

  Chief Warrant 1

  Chief Warrant Officer 1

  W-4

  Chief Warrant Officer 2

  Chief Warrant 2

  Chief Warrant Officer 2

  W-5

  Chief Warrant Officer 3

  Chief Warrant 3

  Chief Warrant Officer 3

  W-6

  Chief Warrant Officer 4

  Chief Warrant 4

  Chief Warrant Officer 4

  W-7

  Chief Warrant Officer 5

  Chief Warrant 5

  Chief Warrant Officer 5

  Officer training:

  GRADE

  NAVY

  MARINE

  ARMY

  1

  Freshman Cadet

  Recruit/boot

  Recruit Cadet

  2

  Sophmore Cadet

  Cadet 1

  Cadet

  3

  Junior Cadet

  Cadet 2

  N/A

  4

  Senior Cadet

  Cadet 3

  Senior Cadet

  5

  Midshipman

  Cadet 4

  N/A

  Officer:

  GRADE

  NAVY

  MARINE

  ARMY

  O-1

  Ensign

  Ensign

  N/A

  O-2

  Lieutenant Junior grade

  2nd Lieutenant

  2nd lieutenants

  O-3

  Lieutenant

  1st Lieutenant

  1st Lieutenant

  O-4

  1st lieutenant

  Captain jg

  Captain jg

  O-5

  Lieutenant Commander

  Captain senior grade

  Captain senior grade

  O-6

  Commander

  Major

  Major

  O-7

  Captain junior grade

  Lieutenant Colonel

  Lieutenant Colonel

  O-8

  Captain Senior Grade

  Colonel

  Colonel

  O-9

  Commodore

  Brigader General

  Brigader General

  O-10

  Rear Admiral

  Lieutenant General

  Major General

  O-11

  Vice Admiral

  Major General

  Lieutenant General

  O-12

  Admiral

  General

  General

  0-13

  Fleet Admiral

  Sector Marshall

  Sector General

  O-14

  Grand Marshall

  Grand Marshall

  Grand Marshall

  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)

  Disting
uished 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

  Sneak Peek

  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

  Chapter 1

  “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.”

 

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