by Chris Hechtl
“I heard about your recent encounter with the civilian militia,” she said, pretending to stick her pinky finger into an ear to wring it out. “My ears are still ringing from all the bellowing and carrying on Dom did. He's been steamed and distrustful of the navy ever since we shot down his air fleet. He's accepted the friendly fire and I thought we were past it but now …”
“He shouldn't have bothered you. It's no longer your concern.”
“It is in a way,” she said, cocking her head. He raised an eyebrow in silent inquiry. “I'm not gone just yet, and I am a marine. He took the opportunity to vent and lob some rather nasty accusations about the honor of the corps. I'm not thrilled about that, Major.”
“Nor am I,” Major Pendeckle stated, working his jaw. “I'll have another chat with the man.”
“Hang on a minute, Major,” the Neowolf cautioned. “Don't shoot yourself in the foot is what I'm trying to say, or my foot for that matter. You are undermining my credibility as well as that of the corps. Don't run roughshod over the civilians unless you have to. In this case, you don't have to. Santini Air is working with us, and we're building bridges with them and through them to the other militia groups. The name of the game is diplomacy. We need their help. We need their eyes and ears.”
The major's eyes flashed as he crossed his arms in front of his chest. “I …”
She held up a hand. “Major, respectfully, since you have me by date of rank,” the major said, flicking her ears in acknowledgement of that fact. “Sorry, but I don't know if you know about the unwritten rule with commanders taking over from one another. You don't go back on the previous commander's word, sir.”
“I know you are old, but you are repeating yourself, Major,” the human said with some heat as he finally got a word in edgewise. He saw something flicker in her eyes. He inhaled and then exhaled. “You are correct. I caught myself when both Locke and the other marines went to bat for them. My reasoning was that you don't give an order you know won't be obeyed, and I was backing those officers into a corner. One that violated their own word and honor and might have pushed them into doing something we all would have regretted. What you and others may not have considered was that I actually didn't violate your word.”
The major cocked her head, ears erect. It was a clear, “I'm listening” pose, one he recognized as such.
“What I did was put them on notice. They bonded a bit over a common threat, me. I did goof; I shouldn't have played it that hardball I admit. I made myself an enemy to Mister Santini. He is the type I can tell holds grudges well past their expiration dates. He's lost respect for me and the corps and I didn't get off to on the right foot with him. Damage done. Moving on. I'll do what I can to fix it. We both need to focus on who the real enemy is. A reminder might help.”
Moira nodded slowly, wise eyes boring into his own. “Yes, sir. Good luck building those bridges.”
“I know. I'll need all the luck I can get. This planet …,” the human major shook his head. “You were lucky to get what you had done.”
“Lady Luck's blessing, some good people, and some really good trainers,” she admitted.
“I wish … I so wish I could hang onto the sergeant. Jethro is … good. Damn good,” Major Pendeckle stated.
“I know, sir. I'm not looking forward to losing him either. I plan to give him as much leave to be with his wife and family as possible,” the wolf said. “He's more than earned the liberty.”
Major Pendeckle froze then blinked in surprise. “He got married?”
“He's been a rather busy cat,” the wolf said with a slight trace of a grin.
“I see that,” the human major replied, rubbing his chin. “On your planet? Recent?”
“Yes. I approved it as his commanding officer,” she said in a cool neutral tone. He nodded in mute agreement. “To put it … bluntly, I'm hoping nature will take its course with them and we'll soon have more like him. I'm thinking long term here.”
Major Pendeckle froze, then grinned. “Now that's a scary thought indeed!” he chuckled. “More than one Jethro running around the universe? Granted we'd all love to have one but,” he shook his head, “that cat has a tendency of getting into mischief when he's off duty.”
“So does every marine I've ever served with,” Major White Wolf replied dryly. She flicked her ears again. “It's tradition.”
Major Pendeckle snorted. “So it is.” He raised a hand, then aborted it when a staffer off camera waved to him. “I've got to go. Safe journey, Major.”
“To you as well, Major,” White wolf replied. She saluted. The human major saluted in reply and then cut the circuit.
>}@^@{<
Life was returning to normal or at least as normal as things were with the Horathians still around on the planet. Dom's militia unit had slowly shrunk to a small group of die-hards as his people joined the marines or returned to their civilian life.
Major White Wolf left to go to her own planet, then to who knew where. They had teething issues with Pendeckle. The marine was gruff and not at all pleased when he'd heard that the shipment of 222s had been bumped and repeatedly delayed. That meant he had to continue to rely on the Wolf militia group.
It also meant he still had to support them.
Support trickled in from the Federation. Most of it ended up in space and never reached the ground. Some that did was intended for civilian use to help with the rebuilding. Dom, like a lot of people, resented all the effort being put in space … at least until Jason sat him down and explained it was all defensive. He still resented it until they got the alert that ships from the B-95a3 jump point had jumped in.
Dom had divided his time between the militia unit and reconsolidating what was left of his business. Gypsum had stepped in as chief operations officer when Jo refused to leave the militia unit. The Neodog's help turned the business around. Taking a page from the marines and the civilian aide coming in from the Federation, Dom took ruthless advantage of it to upgrade his fleet of aging craft to more modern standards as much as possible.
He'd also gotten used to having an ansible. The Hawk brothers had been right; he'd started to grow faith in this Federation. He wasn't sure where it would lead.
“We've got the mother of all battles going on up there,” Jason said, shaking his head as Dom came into the room.
“Frack,” Dom said.
“And the really sucky part is, we can't do squat about it,” Mike said.
“No, we can't. I tapped the reports; its two big ass battlecruisers, the Nevada and the Massachusetts. Admiral White has his work cut out for him. He's outnumbered and outgunned,” he said, shaking his head.
“Think they'll invade?” Jo asked.
“I don't know. I'm more worried about kinetic strikes—long range ones that can batter continents and cause tsunamis,” Jason admitted.
“You are so not helping me sleep at night,” Sinjin said dryly.
Jason glanced at him and then shrugged. “Can't be helped, we've got to be aware of the problem,” he said. Sinjin grimaced but the nodded.
“I feel so damn helpless here,” Jo said, looking up to the ceiling and turning in place. “All over again. This sucks.”
“Heh, now you know what others feel like. Now I know what you felt like earlier,” he said. She frowned at him. “And now you know what the navy sometimes feels when they are up there and can't send enough help down here to make enough of a difference,” Jason said.
Dom eyed him and then nodded slowly.
“We've got problems,” Ed said, trotting into the room. “The pirates are restless. They've taken this opportunity to come out from whatever rock they've been hiding under,” he growled.
“Frack,” String muttered as Jason reached for the intelligence feed.
“We've got to deal with the attacks here and concentrate on the problems we can solve,” Jason said. “Let the navy fight its battle. We've got terrorist attacks across the board. The nearest is a shooting in Hemet. Rangers are on that now
,” he said.
“Caitlin is in Menifee,” Dom said. “She'll respond,” he said, taking a seat at the controls of the control room to bring up a map on the main board. A red dot blinked, then another, then another.
“They really are pulling a full-court press,” Jason murmured.
“It just goes to show we didn't get them all,” Dom said.
“No, we didn't,” Mike growled.
“We've got priority calls coming in from all over. They want us to run support as well as convoy escort,” Jason said.
“Pick one, we can't be in more than one place at the same time with one bird,” String said, headed to the locker room.
“I've got the spare bird,” Dom said frowning. “We've got a Gatling gun mount. Sinjin, Mike, you take her—one of you in the back with the gun. String and I will fly The Lady. Jo, you and Jason monitor from here.”
“Right,” Jason said nodding.
>}@^@{<
It took days to get things back under control. The flight teams took turns flying missions in the two birds in-between servicing. When things suddenly cut off, they found out the battle in space had also ended. “It wasn't completely in our favor. The navy drove the battle cruisers off, but they got torn up.”
“Thank the miracles it didn't go worse than it could have,” Jo said tiredly. “I need a shower.”
“Glad that's over with,” Mike agreed with a nod.
“Until the next one,” Sinjin said, rubbing the back of his neck.
“You're just a ray of sunshine, aren't you?” Jason growled, clearly at the end of his patience.
“Sorry,” Sinjin replied. Dom nodded.
>}@^@{<
Additional support from the Federation came with strings, but Jason had primed Dom to expect it. Jason had talked with Jo who'd given him some invaluable clues on how to handle Dom and his ego. Once Arkangel had been recalled to Antigua, Jason was left running his holdings while also handling the intelligence and liasoning with the Wolf militia unit.
Jason had built on Dom's patience and pride in his ability to train pilots. Dom had made it clear he was never happy to see a good pilot leave his service, but he was grudgingly tolerant of it and well aware that they were going to be the best wherever they ended up on the planet or off of it.
Jason used his contacts through the ansible to arrange that the militia unit would be used to train formal marine units in exchange for parts, services, and support. If and when they flew authorized military ops, the marines would pay the tab and replace expenditures. The caveat was there; they had to be authorized, which meant they had to be run through the chain of command.
Dom wasn't happy with the agreement, but he knew better than to buck the system—especially when his entire team was in agreement with it. He was bemused when he found out about the shipment of 222s coming in on a convoy, with pilots being shipped in either separately from Agnosta or Antigua on a priority basis. Protodon was to be set up as a forward training base for the rookie crews to try their wings for the first time and get blooded.
That would require the team to work more closely with the Federation. It also meant once Protodon joined the Federation they might be tapped to be deployed to other worlds. Jason explained that to the group once he heard that the Protodon delegation had arrived on Antigua to begin lengthy talks for the star system to join the Federation as a member world.
“Not me,” Dom said, shaking his head. “War is a young man's game. They gave me a better ticker, and I'm happy for that. But I've also got a business to run. Besides, I'm a civilian and proud of it,” he said, jerking a scarred and callused thumb at his chin.
“I am too, Dom, but if it means kicking some pirate ass …,” Caitlin said thoughtfully.
“String and the rest of us won't be here forever. Eventually we'll clear Protodon and be deployed to help retake other worlds,” Sinjin said.
Jason nodded. “Definitely.”
“I … I'd go,” Jo said quietly. Mike blinked in surprise. “I mean,” She rubbed her arm then shrugged. “I'd think about it. It depends on the mission but … I'd probably go.”
“You'd have to be in the military,” Jason warned.
“She's in the militia. Isn't there a regulation somewhere about transfer from a militia unit to the military?” Sinjin asked.
“We're getting ahead of ourselves,” Mike said, putting a hand out to spread them apart. “I'm not so sure it's a good idea myself.”
“Well, tough,” Jo said, eyes glittering dangerously. “I'm going.”
He saw the stern resolve and then sighed. His hands went up in defeat and surrender. “Okay.”
“Just that? Okay?”
“You want a formal surrender agreement?” he demanded.
“No, I'll take what I can get,” Jo said, but she finally started to loosen up. “But now that you mention it …”
He picked up a sprits bottle of oil and looked at it thoughtfully. Her eyes widened comically. “Mike … now, Mike,” she said, hands up as if to fend him off as she backed away. “Come on, Mike, quit playing. We …,” he just smiled slightly and stepped in her direction. Her squeal and rush to the door had everyone chuckling.
“So much for someone wanting to be in the fight!” Dom called, craning his neck to look out the door.
A towel sailed in to flop over his face to answer his taunt. That earned another chuckle.
The End
El Diablo
The Wraith of Protodon
Proofread by Jory Gray, Carlos d'Empaire, Thomas Burrows, Wayne Gaskin, Mike Kotcher
Marine Cast:
Captain Joshua Lyon
Lieutenant Chiang
Chiang's squad has one Neo in the group, a Neodog Mook and also two Veraxins. No other Neos in the firebase, all out on patrol. Only HQ squad and off duty squads are in the base regularly. HQ squad has a few Veraxin and chimera but mostly humans.
Private Mook: Brown Neomutt, Chaing's squad
Private C'kk: Veraxin Chaing's squad, Buddy to R'll
Private R'll: Veraxin, also medic, Chaing's squad
Sergeant Erin Blanchard: Platoon sergeant
Ensign Lexi Myers: Intelligence officer
Corporal Liota Naysmith: Human MP
Private Blake: Neomutt MP
PFC Orange: Human, Baker squad.
Alley: Navy corpsman
Protodon was a battered world, one torn by war between the reborn Federation and the Horathian Empire. Admiral White and his naval forces had driven off the marauding pirates, but they'd left the job only half finished. The first group of marines led by the late Captain Gustav had been unable to dislodge the Horathian pirates and their supporters. They had been contemptuously swept aside and reduced to a small number barely holding a firebase near the space port until scratch forces led by Major Moira White Wolf arrived from Kathy's World.
The mostly Neo force had been partially trained and equipped. Some were veterans of their own recent liberation of their homeworld, but many had no combat experience. They did their best to secure the capital and nearby area, then expand the fight to the rest of the continent. They drove the enemy to ground before Major Pendeckle's brigade arrived to finish the job.
Once it was clear the Federation was serious about retaking the planet, the remaining abandoned pirates and their supporters retreated from the cities and towns to the mountains and forests for a prolonged guerrilla and terrorist war.
Major Pendeckle's brigade was far better armed and trained than the scratch forces that had come in before them. But the brigade had limited resources and a finite number of soldiers. The terrain was to the advantage of the enemy with hills, folds, forests, caves, and hidden rivers. They could and frequently did slip out of a noose and get away all the time.
Still, they were making some small progress here and there. The priorities were the towns and cities of course. Once they were secure, they were turned over to the local militia and police forces that were raised for the purpose. The freed-up manpo
wer then went into the countryside to run the enemy to ground or at least drive them further away to allow the locals some semblance of returning to normalcy.
Intelligence officers started to get a handle on the local conditions and the natives as well as some of the general movements of the enemy forces in each sector. They also started to pick up stories of “El Diablo,” the wraith in the hills northwest of Timber Town. The area was densely forested with massive trees and a lot of hills and caves, a nightmare for the marines to dig the enemy out of.
The stories from natives came in and began to pile up, as did a few shell shocked Horathian supporters who practically threw themselves into the arms of the marines to get away from whatever was hunting them. That got Major Pendeckle and the native leadership wondering what was going on. It also got the locals nervous about having their own monster in their backwoods.
It wasn't a pleasant feeling to know something was out there, hunting and killing people. Apparently Timber Town was a major logging hub of the west coast, so pressure began to mount to do something about it.
Hunters and wood cutters came into town with wild stories. Two hunters claimed that something was hunting them before it had left. Another claimed to have found an enemy camp torn apart, the bodies shredded. El Diablo had been written in blood on a tree as well as on a piece of shredded tent.
The pair of hunters had returned to their own camp to find it too had been torn apart. They had picked up what little they could find and then had beat feet out of the area as quickly as they could move.
Since Timber Town was so important and since the marines were also on a good will program, the major dispatched a platoon to the area to find out what was going on. He had strict ROE orders not to engage this El Diablo but to identify it and if possible rein the person or persons in. Vigilante justice they didn't want or need when they were attempting to reestablish order.
