Recruiting Drive: Jethro 4 (Jethro Goes to War)

by Chris Hechtl

The colonel rubbed his jaw briefly then shook his head. “No, Lieutenant Simpson and Chief Sho have been after me to send them someone qualified,” he grinned. “Someone they consider top notch and can teach them something new. Let's see if he still qualifies.”

  “I see, sir.” The Major frowned then cocked her head as she checked her implants. “Well, from what intel has said about his movements he's been north along the arctic coast. Some surf and sand here shouldn't be much of a challenge then.”

  “Yeah, but he's a cat. Some cats hate water,” the colonel joked.

  “What's the word on Lemnos?”

  “We've got more sleepers. Two of them are flag officers.”

  “Awesome.” Dana frowned though at the colonel's expression. “You don't approve?”

  “I'm not sure. They went offline a short time ago.”

  “Oh? On their way home?”

  “They were supposed to be, but there was some crap going on. Admiral Halsey was killed. Others were killed too.”

  “Killed?” Dana's eyebrows rose in surprise.

  “Yeah. A guy they said had time shock. Stasis psychosis. It can happen.”

  “Wait, and we're supposed to be getting more of them?” The colonel nodded. “Joy,” Dana said, now suddenly less enthused. “How many?”

  “Marines? Thirty. One of them is an officer. Recon, decorated. He's been promoted to captain, a Captain Joshua Lyon.”

  “Well, that should help Recon out a bit. And no doubt he'll have some input for us while he's here.”

  “No doubt. Also for all the Special Forces. He's going to need time to adapt. He can do it in transit here.”

  “Okay, so he is coming here. You said as long as we have him?”

  “He's going to do a short turnaround. He's going to take the best squads we've got and take them to Antigua with an eye to train with Captain Myers there or possibly backstop operations in Protodon.”

  “So we are doing that?”

  “Yes.”

  “Great. At least we'll have Lyon for a while.”

  Jersey nodded. “He is going to be here for a couple of weeks picking some Recon teams to take back with him to Antigua. He's going to be busy, but we'll try to pick his brain as well as Captain Yee's. Yee is Army. We'll have him at least two to three months.” He pronounced Army with a decided drawl.

  “Oh?”

  “Artillery expert. He's going to start the Army and overhaul our Artillery.”

  The Major scowled. “Oh joy. So we'll be dividing our people up? You know we're going to lose some good people, right?”

  The colonel shrugged. “The price of doing business I'm afraid. We're not supposed to be in competition for resources. Not yet anyway,” he said with a grimace. “They'll need time to get their feet under them.”

  Dana wrinkled her nose. “I'm not sure I like the idea of the army. Do we really need one?”

  “Garrison troops. We're going to be on ships and doing hot drops. They come in behind us and clean up and hold the ground we paid for in blood.”

  “And get the credit,” Dana sniffed. The colonel's jaw worked a bit then he nodded grudgingly. “And I know you don't like it one bit. You've never been one for credit and glory, but it's going to burn when it does come up—to see the dead glossed over.”

  “Then we'll have to make sure they never forget. That we never forget.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  <(>~^~<(>

  When Jethro returned to the base, he dumped the chip from Kirima into the communication network and cued it to be transmitted to Deja. He entered Deja's email and acknowledged the usual warnings about classified information and limited bandwidth. The ansible warning was new; apparently the admiral had opened up the spare bandwidth of the ansible to transmissions on a priority basis. He could pay for the transmission but instead cued it to be sent out on a freighter, the cheapest method he could find. He was fairly certain that whatever was said wasn't a priority … and besides, by the time the A.I. in charge of the communications allowed it to be transmitted through the ansible, it might have already have been sent through by ship anyway. He shook his head. At those prices only the media could afford to send anything anyway.

  To his surprise he didn't return to the regular boot camp but was instead briefly assigned to the SEAL training program under Lieutenant Simpson. He had been one of the original SEAL trainers before so he took to it quickly despite the changes in the training program. He'd expected a go at Recon, but they were between classes according to the training schedule. Those who were in Recon were out and about in the field or on leave apparently.

  When he reported to the SEAL training center, he reported to the ensign turned lieutenant he had trained there. Lieutenant Simpson had matured greatly in his absence, but he had a depressing eagerness to get blooded in combat. There was also the Neochimp Chief Sho and other familiar faces.

  He didn't mind the beach though the sand was a pain in the ass. It got everywhere. And the sea spray didn't help his fur any. His fur was on end, stiff and starched like his clothes. Though he did enjoy being outside instead of being chained to a desk. He could also handle swimming and did so without batting an ear, much to the trainee's surprise.

  “I told you apes to get with it! Move out!” Chief Sho snarled, motioning for the trainees to move into the surf. The teams huffed and carried their life jackets until they got to the surf then sat to up them on and then kick while being beaten by the waves.

  <(>~^~<(>

  An hour before lights out on Friday, he had a chat with Chief Sho over a couple of beers. “It's like this, Gunny, you had your shot. You proved yourself. We've been stuck to training. It gets old,” the simian said, shaking his head.

  “I get that.”

  “We need to be blooded. To see for ourselves what it's like. To learn from it.”

  “It's not all it's cracked up to be. Glory and all that. Trust me. Seeing your friends puking, bleeding, and dying around you is hard,” Jethro said.

  “Only the best steel survives the forge,” the chief said simplistically. Jethro snorted. “Combat will burn all our impurities off. It'll make us see ourselves for who we are and learn from our mistakes.”

  “Rarely does anyone survive a mistake in combat to learn from it,” Jethro said eying the chimp. “Trust me, I know.”

  “Okay. But what can we do to get out of this? I mean surf and sand is fun, but in winter it's a bitch on the balls. They shrivel up into tiny things you know?”

  Jethro snorted. The chief was as salty as ever. “My best advice? You sure you want it?”

  The chimp spread his arms apart. “Fire away.”

  “Fine, but you aren't going to like it,” Jethro warned. “Train harder than combat. If you do combat may seem easy after that. But keep training, don't slack off much. Keep learning new things, don't be afraid of it. And spirit of space don't take the crap you see in the entertainment files too seriously. I highly doubt the SEALS were really like that.”

  “Okay.” The chief scowled however.

  “Keep up with safety. That's important. If you get reckless, you'll frack up and loose someone. And trust me, you don't want an incident investigation. Even minor shit can get the brass in snits. Keep them happy. I suggest you also get your brass,” he made a meaningful look over to the officer's quarters and then back to the chimp's brown eyes. “Into looking into various plans and scenarios. Say, a recon drop. Pick a planet in enemy territory, or better yet one nearby. Protodon for example. Nuevo Madrid is another good one. Come up with a plan to infiltrate the planet, do a recon, and then get the team out safely.”

  “Not blow anything up? Come on!”

  “If you're doing a snoop and poop, you don't want them to know you are there. Part of Special Forces is to get in, do a recon, then get out with the intel so the enemy doesn't know you've been there. That way they won't be on guard when the real strike comes.”

  “Oh.”

  “Come on, you didn't know this?”

 
“Damn it, I can't know everything!”

  “Special Forces have to know a lot.”

  “All right,” the chimp grumbled. “What else?”

  “You've got teams now. Exercise them against Recon and the regular Marines. In sims if you can't get field time, and as much field exercises as you can.”

  “Shit.”

  “Right,” Jethro smiled slightly, ears erect in amusement. His tail flicked. “Then there are the pranks.”

  “Pranks?”

  “Minor shit but annoying. It keeps you on your toes, teaches you situation awareness. And of course the old axiom, if you can't take a joke …”

  “… You shouldn't have joined. I know that one,” the chimp said, taking a pull of his beer. “Gotcha.”

  “Usually back in the day it was hassle crap. Painting someone's vehicle with water based paint, gluing their ass cheeks together …,” that got the chimp into a snorting fit. Jethro flicked his ears and smiled broadly. “Sneaking into the barracks and tying their socks into knots, that sort of thing.”

  “What about if you get caught?”

  “You get caught you take your medicine. And if someone gets tripped up by your prank, they take their medicine. But they'll be out for revenge.”

  “Hmm …”

  “Yeah. Once you start down that path it's a two way one.”

  “Oh boy.”

  “Right.”

  “Training with Recon, I mean, we've done sniper and bush exercises ….”

  “Recon trains against itself regularly. We also train against the regular forces. You remember Valenko's reputation, right?”

  The chimp nodded and wiped at his mouth with the back of his hand. “Yeah. You guys are a legend.”

  “It didn't just come from combat. We got good in combat because we busted our nuts in exercises and sims. And we learned every waking moment.”

  “So what are you learning now?”

  “Apparently I'm being taught to relax,” Jethro said, shaking his head. “I've been too busy to take my regular classes like I'd like.”

  “You? In school?”

  “Never stop learning. There is always something new to learn. Like a new piece of equipment. Cross train on them. Learn how to jump out of a plane or shuttle. Armor training. I can barely keep up with my quals,” Jethro admitted.

  “Oh. Sucks to be you.”

  “You have no idea,” Jethro sighed softly.

  Chapter 10

  “A Xeno changeling? And a Xeno virus? Sleeping the sleep of ages …,” Major Pendeckle scowled. “Can Murphy frack us up anymore?”

  “Shh,” Dana said, shooting him a scolding look. “Don't tempt the spirit of mischief and things that can go wrong with a challenge! You know better than that!”

  “Yeah,” the colonel agreed. “We lost some good people, but it looks like Admiral Irons and the others survived.”

  “That's a relief,” Dana said. She looked around to the other senior officers. “So, they are on their way back?”

  “Yes. But that damn Xeno Virus, they are calling it a Wraith, it suborned the A.I. in Lemnos, one of the Federation's most secure facilities. They believe it got away. Or a copy of it did.”

  “Oh joy.”

  “Yeah.”

  “How?” a captain asked, flicking his ears.

  “That we're not sure about. Through the ansible of course. Commander Sprite, the intel A.I., and computer techs on Xavier have certified the hard copies they are carrying are clean.”

  “Yeah right. I'm not so sure about that. I mean, the A.I. didn't see it in the first place, did they? How did it get in?”

  “That was the Lemnos facility. Commander Sprite nor the facility had the software patches and programs to deal with intruders, Lemnos went offline shortly after the admiral was lost.” The colonel shook his head. “The report says the changeling, their replacement head of security carried the virus in. And since he was head of security he could override everything in the net.”

  “Oh frack.”

  “Yeah.” A Neochimp growled. “That sucks.”

  “Exactly. For now we're abandoning the facility. The hardware is mostly intact, but there is no telling what booby traps were left behind. Since only the flag officers know where it is and they are needed at the yards and on the front line, it'll be a long time before they mount a return expedition—if they ever bother.”

  “Yeah, but wasn't there something said about it getting through the ansible? And something about gremlins in the yard?”

  “Yes,” the colonel said. He crossed his arms as he contemplated the future. Things had been looking up when not only the sleepers had come into their ranks but also all the tech toys and upgrades Lemnos offered. And its prototyping facilities were state of the art. Hauling them back to Antigua would have been a chore, but it could have been done.

  Now though they had problems. The Admiral had downloaded a selection of software and hardware upgrades and patches for the ships currently in production. Apparently the Wraith had infected them with malware, altering the specs and code to turn out junk or disable the ships. It was also suspected that it had secreted copies of parts of itself in those files. Something had happened when the Wraith had been found. It had activated something in the Antigua and Pyrax networks and then they had disappeared.

  The Wraith itself had been cornered and destroyed by a concentrated attack by Commander Sprite and the crew of Lemnos. But it had come at great cost to the admiral, his personal security A.I. Lieutenant Defender had been driven insane and had suicided. They had also lost the suborned A.I. Those that hadn't suicided or been destroyed had been shut down. Commander Sprite refused to reactivate them, the risk was too great. They could never be trusted again.

  He rubbed his jaw.

  “Sir?”

  “Sorry, just woolgathering I guess,” Jersey replied looking at his subordinates again. “We've got orders to mount the expedition to Kathy's World ASAP. I want that expedited and off by the end of this week,” he said. A few officers winced. “From what I understand the world is heavily populated by Neos. It is an ice world though. We also have another sleeper in that star system.”

  “Oh?”

  “A Captain White Wolf. A Neomarine. Admiral Irons gave her a promotion before he left the star system. He left a picket behind. You've all read the reports.”

  Captain Ellington raised his hand. “I must have missed it, sir.”

  “Okay, short version,” the colonel frowned as he accessed the file and sent it to them again. “Okay, it's in your inbox. But short version is the Horathians sent an expedition to secure the planet and begin cleansing it,” he said with a scowl. More than one officer scowled or growled at that news.

  “A Neomarine sleeper, White Wolf had set herself up as some sort of Peter Pan.” When Ellington looked confused, the colonel gave him a dirty look. “Look it up on your own time,” he growled. Ellington nodded. “Anyway, she was waking up every year, doing some stuff for the Neos on the planet, then going back into stasis.”

  “Living forever?”

  “Trying to keep her people alive I suppose. She had a salvaged assault shuttle. When the Horathians came, she organized the Neos into a resistance movement. They stole supplies and equipment to repair the shuttle and mounted a very effective guerrilla campaign. So effective she led them on an attack on the transport in orbit with the shuttle. They boarded and captured the vessel.”

  Lieutenant Silverman whistled softly, eyes wide. A few officers grinned.

  “Yeah, they did good. She's organized them into a planetary militia group using the transport as their orbital cover. They managed to bluff their way through various Horathian visitors, telling them there was a snowstorm or virus or something to keep them at bay.”

  “Smart.”

  “Right. Anyway, Admiral Irons arrived with his fleet and was passing through when she sent her IFF. He stopped the fleet and picked up some recruits and left them a ship, the Tweedle Dee as an additional picket. H
e promised we'd send in more support when it became available.”

  “And someone reminded him of that promise? Joy. You do realize, sir, that's essentially the front line, right?”

  “Yes. But apparently they are going to do something about that,” the colonel said, sitting back. “Before the admiral took the Lemnos ansible offline to pack it back up, he told me he's authorized a strike on Protodon.”

  That bombshell got everyone's immediate and instant attention. He waited a long moment then nodded. “That's right people; we're going on the offensive. Rear Admiral White will be organizing an expedition force to hit the star system as soon as they return to Antigua. They are reorganizing the fleet too.”

  “More paperwork?”

  “More like getting people off their asses and into the fight.”

  “High time for that, sir,” Silverman said with her trademark feral grin.

  A few of the officers hooted softly. Ellington grinned. “Ooh rah.”

  “Right. But the Protodon force is going to be made up of people from Antigua initially. A scratch force, most likely a platoon or smaller with minimum support and training. We're sending in a follow-up wave to hold the ground they fought and bled for.”

  More than one marine sucked in a breath at that last sentence. The colonel didn't need to add die for, they knew it was there though. “Crap. I hate harem scarem crap like that,” Dana muttered.

  “Right. The problem is shipping and time. The plan is to send in the Kathy's World expedition to do some recruiting and set up some locals to help if needed. While they are doing that, we're going to prep one of the divisions for movement. As soon as the navy sorts out the shipping issue, we'll send them in.”

  “With escorts I hope?” Major Pendeckle asked. Everyone looked at him. He shrugged. “Hey, I'd hate to be in a fat unarmed transport and watch it get shot up.”

  “Yeah, that'd suck,” Dana drawled. “If it is you going,” she said. He eyed her reprovingly.

  “You know I'm the most experienced. And my battalion has been up the longest.”

  “Let's not get into that right now. I'll make the decision later,” the colonel said, holding a hand between the senior officers. “For now focus on the Kathy's World expedition.”