“A bit of a downer aren't you?” Hurranna asked, sizing her up.
“A bit. And I also know I'm in for an uphill battle here. All of you are F platoon. I volunteered beforehand, so I never had the benefit of boot. But I did see combat in boarding the ships,” she said.
“Good to hear,” Sergei said, looking up briefly while his hands continued to tune a servo's range of motion.
Jethro wasn't so sure. All the Marines who had volunteered in the first wave had been drafted to higher positions. She for some reason stayed or was left behind. Or demoted. He wasn't sure.
“Usually Gunny Schultz handles introductions like this but he's been tapped for other duties. He'll check in later. He's an old friend of Panache, so behave.”
“Yes sir.”
“Aye sir.”
The bear turned to Riley. “Sergeant, she'll need Chirby's suit refitted to her body pronto.”
“Okay,” Riley replied. He sized the female Veraxin up. Her body size was almost the same as a male's but there were some subtle differences in form. He sighed. “Into the scanner,” he said, sending a signal to the armory to open the scan booth door. The Veraxin turned to the bear. He motioned her to move. She bobbed a nod and waved first level acknowledgment followed by second level embarrassed retreat and then moved into the scanner booth. Riley went with her.
“Sir?” Asazi asked.
“Yes she's a bit long for her rank. She's a damn good shooter, and an able communication's tech. A bit squeamish on medical matters, but everyone has their quirks. No I don't know all about her, I just found out about her a moment ago when Firefly dumped her orders to report to me. It came out of the blue, apparently paperwork in Bupersonnel finally got processed or something. I'll look into it.”
“Okay.”
“Get her up to speed. I mean that. All our tricks and stuff. Check her out. I got a brief email from the Gunny saying she's good troop, so we'll take that part on faith. She'll need to hack the black too. If she can't she's out. Hell, if she can't dance to any of our dance tunes she's out on her...” he looked at the door. “Um, rear thorax. Whatever.”
“Okay. We'll get her sorted sir,” Jethro said.
“You can count on it. Another girl!” Hurranna said, smiling to Asazi.
“Hell, just with you two us guys are outnumbered, surrounded, and most of the time, outgunned,” Jethro said, flicking his ears.
Hurranna exchanged amused looks with Asazi. “Nice of him to finally notice the obvious,” she said.
“Funny.”
“At least he did, Sergei still hasn't figured it out,” Asazi said.
“Figured what out?” Sergei asked disinterested, looking down at the arm he had on.
“Never mind,” Hurranna sighed, looking away.
“Carry on,” Valenko said and left the room.
...*...*...*...*...
When they were ready, they ran several in squad tests on the shooting range and in virtual reality before the bear asked for a combat sim. Unfortunately they would be down several people, Gunny Schultz was off on a training mission and had taken Veraxin Private Pa'nash with him. Valenko had managed to hang onto Letanga, but he knew they were in tight. Hopefully the new gear would work right and he wouldn't end up with egg all over his face. Setting this test up had been a nightmare in scheduling.
“Are you sure about this?” Lieutenant Silverman asked. She was a bluff Marine, quite good at her job, but a little too butch for some males. She came off as gung ho, trying to keep up with and be superior to the men. Even some women had a hard time dealing with the woman. For one thing she shaved her head bald, and insisted other women in her troop did the same. Not a regulation Marine hair cut, but skin. She even shaved her eyebrows. “My people have had more time in the suits since you people were on Agnosta. I also happen to know you are down a couple people,” she said wickedly, smiling.
“I seem to recall you got your suits when we went to Agnosta Lieutenant,” Valenko retorted. “Besides, we're the first to get full suits, and we're the first to build them with Sergeant Riley from the ground up. I bet if you check your numbers again you'll find my people have a lot more suit time and suit sim time than your people.”
Silverman made a face. She pulled the numbers up and then blanched, Valenko was right, his people had each of hers by a good hundred hours. Some like the panther had nearly double that. “How the hell... When do you people sleep?” she demanded.
“Sleep when you're dead,” the bear growled. His ears flicked as he got his game face on. “You up for this?” he asked.
She nodded, now sobered. “I think I'm glad it's just a sim. It is just a sim right?” she asked, looking around nervously.
“Well, we'll see,” Valenko said.
“Oh shit,” Silverman said, signaling her suit to drop her visor.
“Ready?” he asked. She nodded assent.
“Retreat to corners. Five minute warning,” Firefly said over their link. They were doing this in a depot station, in an empty warehouse module that was over a kilometer wide and two kilometers long. Well, not quite empty, they had left over a megaton of equipment and cargo pallets inside to serve as obstacles and cover.
Valenko crouched, watching the digital timer count down. “Remember the plan,” he said simply. “Stay off the coms,” he said at T minus 1 minute. It counted down in a cascade to five, then four...“Times up, here we go,” Valenko said, and then silently he hand signed to the squad to move out.
They moved out in a Chevron formation, Asazi on point with a shield raised. Gusterson was on her left with a shield, Fonz on her right. Sergei was off to their right behind a two story stack of pallets. Ox anchored the left side of the line. Valenko covered the rear. Jethro anchored the right side in Sergei's place. For once his unique suit wasn't the star of this particular show.
Asazi held up a fist indicating stop, then waved to go again, slowly creeping forward. Jethro checked on Letanga.
The leopard broke off from his rear position and climbed into the scaffolding, moving into the crane system before he set up shop. He had his massive sniper rifle handy. He was only going to have six shots before he ran out of battery packs. Jethro snorted as the leopard deployed camo netting over himself and his rifle. He was in a poor location, but he didn't have a choice, this place lacked proper cover and he needed a high point for what was coming. He looked around and then nodded. Next time, he thought, mentally marking a position near the left bulkhead on his HUD. After all, the pole gun had nearly an unlimited range.
His distraction made him fall behind the team. The bear hand signed with both hands to close the intervals. Jethro nodded and picked up his pace.
Suddenly Asazi raised a closed fist indicating freeze. Each of them froze in place, not moving, barely breathing. Asazi waved her hand down, indicating take cover. Slowly they slunk to a deeper crouch. The cats dropped to all fours and crept to cover. The female heavyworlder indicated a force coming up and measured out a hundred meters with her hands. The bear nodded as Asazi set up a series of cameras and then fished out fiber optic line to their temporary command post.
Hurranna signaled flank. Valenko nodded. He signaled to Ox to set up shop, then both took cover behind the nearest set of pallets. Ox moved forward, setting his beast down and then keying the prime sequence. It was a boxy thing with extended legs to keep it from tipping over. Ordinarily he'd anchor it with bolts into the deck or ground, but since they were using low power shots he could get away with not doing that. He hoped. He moved back to cover.
Sergei scowled then moved to his left after dropping a micro camera on top of a stack of pallets. It had a bad angle, he could just make out part of the kill box. It did give him the range, which was what he needed anyway. He set up his mortars to cover the kill box. He didn't like not being able to see, but he planned the firing arcs anyway.
...*...*...*...*...
A hundred meters ahead Lieutenant Silverman paused at the edge of open ground. This was a great am
bush site, there was little or no cover for almost fifty meters. She signaled her people to move through single file, in long intervals. She wanted to see what Valenko would do. She signaled the point to move forward. He hesitated but then did so.
Valenko watched the point come in and nodded. Single he could appreciate, but he would have had the guy hugging one bulkhead, not coming up the center. The center just begged to be seen. He had been tempted to set up on the other side and then chew them up, but he'd settled for a different approach.
Fonz, Gusterson, and Asazi had portable shields. Ox had something better, a standing shield that could also serve as cover. He had just finished setting it up when the enemy point moved into the crates and then dropped to cover.
Jethro itched to go into stealth, to cloak, work around the enemy, and then hit them from behind. No doubt they were anticipating that very thing, that might be why Silverman was going single file across open ground. He wasn't sure.
One by one the enemy crossed the open ground. When the last had crossed Valenko hand-signed to Jethro. Jethro turned and passed the signal on to Fonz who passed it on to Sergei who was off and back from the main group. Sergei nodded and opened fire.
Simulated mortar rounds puffed up from his position and arched up. One bounced off the ceiling, smashing a light and then tumbled off to explode in a puff of smoke off to one side. “Oops,” Sergei muttered, hunching his shoulders. He adjusted his aim, leaning forward.
Lieutenant Silverman saw the incoming fire, and tracked it warily. Her implant computers immediately showed her it would land behind her. She smiled wolfishly. So, they screwed up their timing, expecting her to go slower. She could deal with that. She sent a signal for her people to move in as she backtracked the incoming mortar fire.
Her point rounded a corner and found himself facing a strange device on the ground about a dozen meters away. Just beyond that his sensors picked up the tell tale signs of five suits. He froze, hand signing to freeze, and then indicated contact ahead, prepare to fire. When Ox shifted slightly, exposing himself the point rose from his crouch and opened fire.
The device on the ground was a new invention, a shield wall. It was primed, when it detected incoming fire it flared to life, blocking it. An almost invisible wall formed, pushing and knocking a few things over in its path. The point blinked in surprise.
Two other shooters behind the point opened up, the shield glowed blue, shirking off the fire. Ox monitored the incoming fire as well as the attackers.
Lieutenant Silverman got the report of the shield and swore softly. “So, that's what the bruin's been doing,” she said thinking hard. To be on the defense was to invite attack and defeat. You didn't stay bottled up in a suit, that just gave away the initiative to the enemy. She wondered what Valenko was playing at. “Flank it. Skirt the shield, see how far it extends on either side. It should be weaker on the edges,” she said. She turned to the other half of her squad. She'd arrayed them in two chevrons, one facing forward, the other the rear. She was in the pocket where she could see what was going on and pass orders fast.
“Anything?” she asked her rear guard.
“Nothing so far, but we'd expect that. That damn cloak is scary,” The rear replied, looking slightly over his shoulder to her.
“Keep me posted,” she said. She turned back to the skirmish at her front.
She didn't like what was happening, her five men were forming a firing line, trying to find the edge of the shield.
Valenko turned to where he knew the leopard was waiting and then waved a hand. He held up fingers, then signaled to open fire.
Letanga received the hand sign and then reoriented on his first chosen target. He moved from left to right, stopping at each, then went back to start. He was ready. He quickly fired, then moved on to the next target.
One by one his targets dropped, the incoming fire signaled the suit's computers to lock up and drop the Marines as KIA. The Marines went from firing at the shield to stuck in dark coffins.
“What the hell? Where is that... shit, sniper!” Silverman screamed as her suit localized the fire and backtracked it to its location. The sneaky SOB was in the crane box above the shield, shooting out above the thing into her troops. She pointed. “Hit it!” she screamed.
Silverman's Marines reoriented on the sniper nest. When they did so Valenko signaled again.
Gusterson, Fonz, and Asazi moved forward, shields raised on their left arm, right arm carrying their weapons. They fired, hitting one exposed Marine and driving others into cover.
Letanga knew the maxim of a sniper, shoot and scoot. His cover was blown. Fortunately he had planned for the occasion, he was sitting with his legs pinned over an empty seat. His back had been against the bulkhead. He brought his body in and dropped through the opening below him.
Unfortunately he hadn't planned on the long barrel of his rifle, it snagged on the short opening. He hung there for a moment before he let go. The power cable disengaged as he let go and he dropped. Like any proper cat he dropped to all fours, landing on his feet. He crawled forward, just far enough to catch the rifle when it slipped out of the hole and dropped. He did a quick once over and then gently set it down. He pulled his regulation C-42 Gauss rifle and moved forward.
The C-42 Impaler was the latest weapon to be put into broad release to the Marines. It was a coil gun, a linear actuator weapon that used electromagnetic coils to fire a twenty four gram steel jacketed tungsten impaler dart down range. It could also fire an explosive dart, as well as a flashbang dart. Rumor had it that some egg heads were trying to create a sensor dart.
The C-42 was good against infantry, but it only had decent penetrating power against powered armor when it was under the twenty meter range mark. Which wasn't going to happen with the damn shield in her way.
Silverman knew she was in deep, she was down to four effectives counting herself. That damn sniper had picked off five of her people, one had fallen to the soldiers behind the shield line. The shield wall went down to allow them to pass, but she was already in retreat. “Cover fire,” she said, turning her torso backwards to fire back the way she had come.
“Double time to the other side! Move Move!” she ordered.
Hurranna had been watching from her vantage point off to the side against the right bulkhead. She sent a brief burst to Sergei to reengage.
The rear guard picked up the signal burst and turned to its source. Silverman passed him, practically bowling him over as he slowed. “Move!” she snarled as mortar fire began to rain in front of them, cutting off retreat.
“Never give a sucker an even break,” Hurranna chortled, sighting through her rifle to add to the chaos. After a moment it was all over, Silverman and her last man were down.
A loud err err sounded, blaring a klaxon signaling an end to the exercise. The lights came up to full. Gusterson hefted his rifle on his hip, cheering. The squid corpsman had earned it, he was normally a medic, not a shooter. His whip tail wagged as he cheered. “Yes! I didn't screw up!” That got a snort from the others, they had known the greyhound had been nervous about his role. Asazi high fived Fonz and then shield bumped him onto his ass. He laughed as she stood over him.
“Okay, I admit, that I didn't expect,” Silverman said, amused at being an unwitting guinea pig. “But next time...” she warned, waggling a finger.
“Next time you'll be ready. That's fine. I was conservative here, I wasn't sure they would hold up long enough to matter. Now that we know, well, we'll see about stepping it up a notch.”
Silverman rolled her eyes. “I obviously need something to balance your cheating out.”
“Hey, if you’re not cheating you’re not trying hard enough,” the bear replied, spreading his hands. She looked at him and snorted. Then she turned to the panther who was lounging against a crate. The bear looked at her and then to the panther. “You were so busy looking for Jethro, well, we just let you wonder,” he said.
“What were you doing? Scouting me and mine?”
she asked.
Jethro shook his head. “No ma'am, sitting on my ass taking a nap back here,” he said, indicating the crate he was on.
Silverman snorted. “A likely story,” she said, voice dripping in disdain.
“Honest ma'am, check the feed.”
“Right,” she scoffed, turning away.
“She just doesn't want to admit she got her ass kicked while trying to anticipate you,” Valenko said, chuckling.
“Where can I get some of those?” the woman demanded, indicating the shields and long rifle. From the look of it she was certain it wasn't standard issue.
“Check with supply,” Valenko said and then smirked. “We made these though, so you may have a bit of a wait.”
“Prototypes,” Letanga said.
“All good?” Jethro asked.
“I think so,” Letanga said, looking at the rifle. “I want Riley to check it out though,” he said.
“Well, it won't do you much good. The next exercise is internal,” Silverman said. “Boarding action,” she said with a look at the sniper.
“I do wonder if this will punch straight through a station,” Letanga said, looking at the rifle again.
“Probably,” Jethro said with a tight lipped smile and an ear flick of amusement. His tail flicked once.
“Shit,” Silverman said. “I can just image you trying to get that damn pole around a corner. Good luck trying,” she said. “I don't even know how the hell you got it through the locks here,” she said, indicating the room.
Letanga looked around and then shrugged. “It wasn't easy ma'am, but we managed just fine,” he said, breaking the rifle down into three manageable parts. He racked them on his back.
“Shit,” Silverman sighed.
“Five minute set up?” she asked, turning to the bear.
“I'll be magnanimous. I'll give you fifteen,” he said with a wave of his fingers for her to be off.
“Gee, thanks,” she said, and waved for her troops to move out.
“Shields?” the bear asked, turning to the team. Each of the shield bearers checked their HUD then double checked the indicator lights on the shield emitters. “Ten,” Asazi said.
Jethro: First to Fight Page 18
