Jethro snorted. “What doesn't kill us makes us stronger. Remember that,” he grinned and then pulled up his team HUD. Half the team was still active. A third were considered wounded, while the rest were dead. Not bad since the enemy had taken horrendous casualties in return. He opened a channel. “Still kicking Valenko?”
“You know it,” Valenko replied. “Speaking of which...” He kicked a snoring Sergei. “Get up you lazy cat. Game's over.”
Sergei snorted and then opened one eye. “We win? Cause I'm not going to wake up to a nightmare of the gunny's wrath.”
“Yup,” Valenko said, giving the giant cat a hand up. “Would I lie to you?” he said.
“Oh hell.”
“No we won. No thanks to you Sergei. Sleeping on the job,” Jethro said over the team push.
“All right people enough back slapping and ass scratching. Back to the drop points. Hot wash when you're back to the barn,” the Major said over the net.
“Roger sir.” Rigatoni and Valenko acknowledged.
...*...*...*...*...
Jethro grimaced as he looked at the spreadsheets. Reams of numbers and information, something he knew he wasn't good at processing. They were getting class work and make work until they got to their next stop apparently. That sucked. But then again, it beat rolling in the mud and picking crap out of his fur afterward for hours and hours on end. He looked over to Sergei. The big cat was having a hell of a time trying to hold the plastic stylus pen for the padd in front of him.
“Most of your logistics will be handled by dedicated people and bots. But you still need to make sure you get what you need, and have it on hand when you need it. Which means you've got to make sure the paper work is filled out and ready to go. Since we've got a day before our next stop we're going to spend that time going over this and the new banking system,” Schultz growled. He looked around at the soft groan. “Anyone have a problem with that?”
You could have heard a pin drop in the sudden silence. He smiled slightly. “I thought not. Just between you and me, I hate shuffling paperwork as well. But every marine needs to buckle down and get the job down, no matter how much it sucks. By now you know that right?” He looked around. They nodded.
“Right,” he grunted. “The new banking system is all electronic. We deposit your pay check into your account, minus taxes and anything you want held back for later. Your accounts are all set up, and there is a tutorial in your inbox. Read it. Go over it. I'll check on your progress then we'll show you how to make debits and transactions. It's easy once you know the system. That's all I'm going to say about that for now.” He paced in front of the class.
“The logistics are a bit more complicated. By now you've all sampled the spread sheet. It's complex, and it looks terrifying, but like everything, a little knowledge goes a long way to make sense of any battlefield. Including this one. Now shall we begin?”
Chapter 9
“All right let’s move!” Valenko snarled, waving his arm. “Gunny Thompskin's boys want to play grab ass they can do it with themselves, we've got more important things to do!” he growled.
“Well, he's in a good mood,” Sergei growled a laugh. The bear gave him a dirty look. The Liger shrugged. “Who thought of a race anyway? Seems like a waste of time.”
“Terrain avoidance and team endurance. Besides, an order is an order,” Jethro sighed dodging through the broken landscape. They had about twenty hours of oxygen before they had to resupply. Hopefully they could do it at the site, otherwise they were going to be a bit short of breath when they got back to the LZ.
Firefly had moved on to a nearby asteroid to give them some new terrain to work on and explore. The asteroid was probably from the planet that had been blown up during the Xeno war, it was certainly big enough. From what mutterings he'd overheard from the squids it was not in the usual asteroid belts so it was most likely a wanderer.
Unfortunately it was also fricken huge, over one hundred kilometers at its widest. It tumbled from time to time. Firefly had reported occasional out gassing when a side rotated into the face of the distant sun.
This was their last field exercise before the crucible if his reckoning was right. Last or second to last. They'd better get it right.
“How are we going to beat them there? Rigatoni has a straight shot through that field,” Sergei grumped.
“Send me that,” Valenko ordered. He pulled up his own map and overlaid the drop point of the opposition team. There was indeed a barren field in their field of march.
“Something's hinky about that,” the bear muttered. He frowned. “Computer time till sun up?”
“Local sun rise in one standard hour fifteen minutes,” the voice of his suit reported. He grimaced again. He shifted his pack then pulled out one of the two signal rockets he was carrying. “Here.” He tossed it underhand to Jethro.
“What am I going to do with it?” Jethro asked.
“Pass it on to the rear guard. I don't want to lose them both if something happens to me or my ruck.”
“Ah. Good point,” Jethro shook his head. “I think we should have distributed some of the other items as well.” He watched as the scouts moved out ahead of the march.
“First stop we get,” Valenko grunted. He, Ox, and Sergei had the heaviest loads, the emergency shelters. Ox also had a more powerful communications set and antenna. The rest of the group carried normal rucks, spare power and air, and their weapons.
“We're about two hours out from the target and sunrise is coming fast. Let’s move people.”
...*...*...*...*...
Jethro grunted as Valenko held out a hand. He grabbed it and together they pulled him up over the cliff edge. “I still don't understand why they didn't scan this wreck before. Or had us drop on top of it.”
“Can't. Safest landing spots were where we and Rigatoni landed. And since we needed survival training anyway...” Valenko grunted.
“Still sucks,” Shiku grumbled.
“Welcome to the wonderful world of the corps. Just be glad it's not cold and raining.”
“On an asteroid?” the fox asked, giving the bear an amused look.
“Or in our case a radiation storm,” Jethro replied.
“You would bring that up. No freaking way can we all fit in those shelters, no matter how friendly we get,” Sergei grunted, coming up over the cliff edge.
“We've got one more cliff to scale then two to rappel down and we're golden,” Betty said. “That is if you slow pokes don't hold us up any more than you already are.”
“You know you could go scale that cliff with a line. Or take a turn carrying this,” Valenko said mildly, turning to the chimp.
She held up her hands in surrender. “I'm going I'm going,” she shook her head muttering darkly. “Sure send a chimp to climb... typical stereotype.”
“What was that?” Sergei asked laughing.
“Oh go claw a scratching post,” Betty growled. She shot a line up to an overhang then made sure the hook sank into the crevice. “Next floor, lingerie...”
“Sometimes I wonder about people,” Valenko muttered watching the chimp scale the cliff. She was good, laying down sets of safety lines where she needed them, but not wasting them.
...*...*...*...*...
“Looks like we're first boss,” Hurranna said from the point. She waved to the shuttle sitting in the steep crater. “I see why they didn't drop us closer.” She shook her head. They had crested the last cliff to find it had less than a meter on it's plateau. They had immediately started scaling down the other side.
“Sun's up,” someone said over the general push.
“Been up. Wake up and pay attention,” Jethro growled. “What the...” He spotted a plume and froze. “Valenko we've got plumes of gas in that field Rigatoni was supposed to cross.”
Still climbing the wrong side of the cliff Valenko paused. “Show me.”
Jethro muttered then opened a data link and shunted his camera feed to the bear. “Got it?”
They felt a quiver. He grabbed the rope and looked up and down. “What the...” A second quiver shot through the rock. Suddenly the plumes were the last thing on his mind as he held on for dear life.
“What the hell's going on? Who's shaking the line!” a voice snarled.
“Quake. Hold on! What ever you do, mind your claws!” Jethro said, grabbing the line. He reached for his belt and pulled a safety clip and slammed it into a crevice near his head. He looked around and found another. He jacked another in then clipped safety lines from his belt to one, and a safety line from one clip to the line he was on.
“Clip a safety line but make sure you're going into something solid,” Sergei growled. He looked around. “Damn bad place for a quake, dangling like a freakin piñata.”
“Tell me about it,” Valenko growled as the tremors subsided. “All clear. But we don't know for how long. There may be aftershocks. Get to the ground fast as you can folks.”
“Gotcha.”
“You don't have to tell me twice.”
Quickly Valenko, Sergei, and the rear guard crested the top. They pulled the used line in and then dropped their lines over the other side. Valenko shifted his to keep clear of Jethro who was walking backwards down the side of the cliff.
“See you at the bottom,” the rear guard said, and then kicked off. She let the line unspool then gently pulled the brake, slowing her descent. After a moment though she went out of control and bounced off the wall. Fortunately for her with her feet.
“Careful, these rocks are sharp,” Jethro cautioned. “Like broken glass in some places. Watch for the shine.”
“Gotcha,” Sergei grunted. “I see what you mean,” he said, one boot hitting a shiny patch. He felt it slip and bore down, after a second he could feel a crunch through the sole. “Damn.”
“Breach?” Jethro asked, looking up from the base of the cliff. He pulled his line, reeling it in and wrapping it quickly.
“No. Don't think so,” the Liger grunted.
“Be more careful,” Valenko grunted. “If I'd known it was going to be this bad I'd have dropped the rucks,” he panted. He was a little put out that they had to labor with force emitters simulating a one gee environment. He was tempted to shut them off but knew better. He'd be in hack with the gunny the moment they got back.
“Almost there. Another fifty meters... forty...” Jethro replied.
Valenko felt his line tighten. He looked down to see Jethro had finished his chore and was now anchoring his line. “Thanks.”
“Just don't sit on me,” Jethro replied.
“Wouldn't dream of it. Now,” the bear grunted a laugh. Sergei's line went tight as the two wolves anchored his.
“Screw this.” He shouldered his ruck off then held it by one arm. He used his free hand to clip it to his belt. “Look out below.”
“Don't drop it!” Shiku said desperately as the ruck dropped. It slowed as line played out then settled a few meters from the bottom.
Zebo grabbed it and unhooked it. “Got it.”
“Yeah. Look out below!” Sergei said, pushing off and releasing his brake. He freewheeled down for another twenty five meters then slowed himself to land on his feet.
“Show off,” Valenko growled.
“Why brer bear don't you know cats always land on their feet?” Sergei asked taking his ruck as the wolves pulled his line and started wrapping it.
“Cute,” the bear said getting to the bottom. “Report,” he said looking up.
“Scouts found the shuttle. Old civilian. Lambda class. Pretty banged up. Been here ages by the look of the dust. One survivor.”
“Alive?” the bear asked in surprise, looking up.
“Course not,” Jethro said shaking his head. “But he survived the crash. He's in a suit over there.” He waved to where a group were standing around a body laying in the shade of the shuttle.
“That'd suck. Waiting for the air to run out,” Hurranna said softly. She shook her head coming over to them. “Scouts are out, well all but me. I've pulled the emergency recorders and dumped the ship's memory. Not much in it.”
“Have a look?” Valenko asked.
“Nah, it's garbage mostly. Viruses galore. The last log said something about a computer malfunction landed them here. From the looks of it...” She shrugged and looked back to the craft. “I'd say the viruses corrupted the systems and they caused the crash. But you'd need a fancy navy puke to look at the data to be sure.” She shrugged.
“Yeah, we're just grunts, what do we know,” Jethro said with a smile. His hands were out. He used a virtual glove to sketch the scene and then highlighted the flight path of the craft. By the looks of it the ship had crested the cliff face, clipped part of it, then slid down it before hitting a rock and shearing off its starboard side and sending it into a spin. It had tumbled before coming to a rest here.
“So we're here, where is Rigatoni? I want to rub it in,” Shiku said looking around.
“No sign,” Valenko grumbled. “Which isn't good. They had an easier path and they were dropped just after us. By rights they should have had this nailed.”
“Especially with you pulling rear guard,” Hurranna grunted.
“Shut it,” Valenko stared at the way Rigatoni's group should have come. “I didn't see them when we were on the top of the cliff either. And yeah, that's got me worried.”
“And we should have by then,” Sergei said resting against the side of the shuttle. “Are we in a combat sim?” he asked, looking around to see if they were in a trap.
“No, just a survival exercise. That's the parameters laid out in the briefing. Any word from higher?” Valenko asked, turning to the Tauren nearby.
The Tauren grunted, then blew out a breath, momentarily steaming up his helmet visor. “No.” He looked up to the cliffs surrounding them. “Can't punch a signal to Firefly, she's over the horizon. And these walls aren't helping. Something's screwing the signal up, bouncing it around and canceling it out.”
“Right,” Valenko sighed. He got to his feet. “Scouts up the cliff. Let's see what's going on.”
“Do we have to? We did our part. I say it's time to go home and get a beer,” Betty whined.
“One way or another you're going up the cliffs. We can't get picked up here,” Jethro waved to the crash site. “So go girl. Get a move on,” he waved.
“What's the hurry?” she asked, playing out line.
“In a vacuum? Every moment can count,” Valenko said. “And something tells me we're going to need the time.” He turned to the Tauren and pulled his last signal rocket. “You are second up. If point doesn't see them I want you to call higher. If you can't use the rocket.”
The rocket wasn't as much a signal flare as a message in a bottle. Once it was free of the asteroid's weak gravity it would orient on Firefly's last known position and send an omni directional broadcast.
The Tauren had wanted to modify the rockets to carry a thin wire antenna up but the powers that be had nixed it.
“Boss that's for emergency use only,” Sergei cautioned.
“So?” Valenko asked, turning to him and then back to the others. “Let me ask you something, think Rigatoni wouldn't pull out all the stops to get here after we drubbed him at Praxis?”
“Yeah...” Sergei said slowly as the chimp began to climb.
“So.. why isn't he here?” Jethro said slowly. “Yeah, it doesn't fit. Thompskin probably reamed them good, they'd be hell bent to get here fast.”
“And cut corners along the way whereever possible,” Valenko scowled. He looked up to the chimp climbing. A sense of urgency began to build in the group. With no more reluctance they got down to work.
; ...*...*...*...*...
“Boss, nothing,” Betty said from the top of the cliff. “No lines on the other side either. I don't see anything at all,” she grimaced and then chuffed softly. She was starting to get a sense of foreboding that the entire platoon was now feeling.
“Crap. I was afraid of that. Jethro, get up there. Betty, rest for five then start running a line down. Ox don't wait on me for the signal.”
“Right.”
“I'm up,” Letanga the leopard sniper said climbing the line fast. The Tauren paused at the base, anchoring the line. “I'll see you on the other side,” the sniper called. He had extra line wrapped around his torso and ruck.
“Boss we've got about a day's worth of life support,” Hurranna cautioned.
“So be it. Once we get out into the open we can get picked up. Worse comes to worse I'll shut off your emitters and then toss you all off the rock for orbital pick up,” the bear growled.
“You would, knowing you,” she snorted. She looked up to the line. “Think something's wrong?”
“After that quake?” he asked. “Yeah. I can believe it. Hope not though. I'd rather get my ass reamed for jumping at shadows than wait and something was going down. They may be pain in the nuts Alpha's, but they are marines after all.”
“Right,” Hurranna nodded. She went over to the Tauren. “Let me up next.” She grabbed the line and then began to climb hand over hand.
The leopard got to the top and paused. He straddled the top looking around. He unclipped from the line and then clipped into Betty's safety hook. He leaned forward and clipped another pair of hooks into the face, then pulled the line wrapped around his torso off and clipped one end in, the other he tossed over the other side of the cliff. He unhooked from the safety line and then clipped into the new line.
“Be with you in a minute,” Betty said, waiting for her line to be cleared.
“See you at the bottom. I'll leave my line. Take care of it for me,” the leopard said, giving her a nod as their eyes met. He put a hand behind him on the line then pushed off.
“And down he goes. Sure. Leave me to clean up the mess. Why not,” the chimp muttered. “I've got nothing better to do anyway. Just sit here scratching my ass... Or trying not to actually,” she grimaced.
Jethro Goes to War (Wandering Engineer Jethro's tale) Page 16