by Chris Hechtl
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Jethro watched the evening news as he ate his dinner with Lil Red. He glanced over to her. She had eaten well; he wasn't sure where she put it all away. He'd been amused to see her take a bath in the sink instead of the shower. She'd been absolutely enthralled by the dripping faucet.
She was picking at the wreckage of her dinner as she lounged in an easy chair four sizes too big for her tiny frame. She looked over to him and then looked back to the screen.
He snorted at himself and went back to watching the news as well.
Antigua had matured a bit in the media department, but they still had a bit of polishing to go before they were up to the old Federation standards. When they started going on about a ship arrival in Pyrax, he flipped channels to the major news networks, exasperating Red. He of course listened to the full report on Caroline's return on the Knox News channel.
When he flipped to the other news affiliates to hear their take, he found that they all had the same basic news release from the government but each had talking heads to interpret and spin it to their own designs. Disgusted, he shut the channel off and returned to his meal before they pissed him off to the point that he lost his appetite.
“What'd you do that for?” Red accused.
“I'm tired of Pete and repeat,” he said.
“Who's Pete?” she asked, cocking her head.
“It's an expression,” he said.
“Oh. Well, can I watch something else?” she asked, looking aggrieved.
“Here,” he said, handing her the remote. “You watch something then,” he said.
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“I'm assuming we've all heard the news by now?” General Forth asked as he eyed the assembled officers on Monday. Everyone signaled assent. “Good, good,” he said. “So, we get to discuss what impact it is going to have on us. We've got a short-term impact and a long-term one,” he said.
“Caroline brought back officers, sir? From both Bek and Nuevo?” Dana asked carefully. Her Third Division was en route to the Pyrax jump point. They were eighteen hours away from jumping. The long distance meant Dana couldn't experience the meeting in real time. In anticipation of that, she'd recorded questions and then sent them ahead of time. He liked that she had planned ahead.
“Yeah, all squids,” Ted said in disgust. Captain Ted M'mbeki was one of a handful in the room who had mustanged through the ranks. A graduate of F Platoon, the Neochimp had served on Pendeckle's Third Squad during the First Agnosta RECON Expedition. He'd served several times in other theaters while taking a series of correspondence courses. He'd graduated with a bachelor's degree in military history and taken a commission. He'd done good things since then and had become a trusted battalion commander of Battalion 1 in the general's First Brigade, First Division. He was 1,1,1 and loved to rib others about that designation.
“Not quite all,” the general said, eying the Neochimp. Ted blinked and sat up straighter.
“Bek has a full Navy as you know. But they also have a Marine Corps. We're going to have to integrate with them; that's a part of the whole long-term impact thing I mentioned. It's not going to happen overnight obviously,” the general said. “But to facilitate it they sent one of their officers. He's going to liaison with us. Actually, I plan to use him as any officer once we've got a feel for his skill set,” the general stated.
“We're also getting a pair of Army officers from Nuevo.” That made the group blink. “The fact that both star systems have existing military units is good. But we don't have much INTEL on them. For instance, we know they don't have implants, but we don't know their standards, their training methods, TOE, or how well they will adapt.”
“Are they higher ranking than you, sir?” Valenko asked.
“No,” the general replied with a shake of his head. Valenko seemed relieved by that. “There is one Marine general in Bek, and an Army general in Nuevo who do outrank me. But they are there, and I'm here. And for the moment I'm the one in command of the Marines.”
“And the Army, sir?” Ted asked carefully.
More than one person indicated distaste over the Army. Admiral Irons had insisted they set up the Army. For the past year, they had complied but had been doing a bit of foot dragging as well, as much as they could get away with. They'd lost some personnel to the Army, but those personnel plus the ones that had come in half-trained were still half-organized and screwed up in so many ways.
And they used the Marine's equipment and basing until they could get around to making their own. A sore point with the Marines who wanted the equipment and structures for their own purposes.
For the time being, General Forth had been nominally in command of both the Army and Marines. But he'd neglected the Army in favor of his own forces, something the Army officers complained incessantly about. The complaints had fallen on deaf ears. The general had wanted them to stand on their own feet and see what they could do to affect that desire. Some of those complaints were working their way up to higher levels, however, which was bringing pressure on to the general to fix the situation.
He'd known intellectually that the Army would take over from his Marine units when they took a planet. They would garrison it and finish rooting out any Horathian resistance while his troops fell back to rest and rearm before moving on to the next target. He had started to regret not paying more attention to the Army unit when he realized Pendeckle's division was mired on Protodon until relieving forces could be moved in.
Garrisoning a planet for a long period of time wasn't in the Marine playbook he knew. He really didn't want to rotate in another division, but he might have to if the Army couldn't get its act together. Fortunately, the powers that be had sent him someone to lead the Army and do that very thing.
“The good news is Nuevo has an Army group even if they are mostly reservists. So, we've got a knowledgeable chain of command to tap into. We can hand off the duties to this Colonel 1010111 when he gets here. After he and the others get their implants and ONI has a run at them,” the general said with a shake of his head.
“Yes, sir,” Ted said.
“Getting more officers and enlisted out of the nexus will be hit or miss for a while. Most likely it will be in dribs and drabs, and of course most of them will be squids,” the general stated. “I am not sure what sort of impact that will have on our chain of command. At the moment, I'm not even sure they have the same standards as we do. We shall see,” he stated.
“Of that we can count our blessings. Do we know if they plan to send Marine officers of high rank to us eventually, sir?” Valenko asked.
“Worried about having your command yanked out from under you, Major?” Ted asked.
“Aren't you?” the bear retorted, eying the Neochimp severely.
Ted shrugged in reply.
“For the moment, we're not going to shake up established chains of command at this point. It is a moot point since Second is deployed. Third,” he indicated Dana's holographic image, “is en route, and Fourth will be leaving here shortly,” he said with another nod, this time to Valenko. “I'd love to have Major Myers take on a brigade or even Fifth, but he's stuck as senior officer in Antigua," the general said with a grimace. "I'll most likely have anyone we get in from Bek as well as troops rotating in from various outposts fill in the blanks for Fifth Division or even take over my own division if it comes to that,” the general stated flatly.
Something like an exhale of relief past through the room. He knew why; most of them didn't like the idea of shaking up their chains of command in poaching efforts to flesh out the other divisions as they were stood up. That was tough; it was a part of life he thought as he snorted softly. “That being said, I think we are going to have to make room for them eventually. For the moment, we've got one Marine officer coming to us, a Major Theodore Edward Bear the IIXXX.” That earned a chuckle from some of the group.
“He's a polar bear, so don't let the name fool you. I, unfortunately, don't have his record, just that, name and rank
. He was ninth or tenth in the Bekian Marine chain of command I think,” the general said. He glanced at his tablet as his audience indicated surprise in small gasps or nostrils flaring. “Yes, tenth, there are several colonels, both lieutenant and full bird, plus a couple majors who had more time-in-grade and were therefore senior to him.”
“Why such a limited chain of command, sir?” Valenko asked. "I heard they have a massive population in both star systems."
“They don't need many Marines,” the general stated. He shrugged as they stared at him. “Don't look at me; I didn't set it up. It's what we have to work with. Something tells me we're not going to get a lot of Marines from Bek for a while, not if they are that limited,” he said caustically.
“Okay,” Dana said thoughtfully. All eyes cut to her. She was playing catch-up, that became obvious as they heard what she had to say. “Are you still considering standing up another division, sir? We're well ahead of schedule for it. At least two years even given the people who jumped ship to the Army,” she said with a grimace. “But if the recruiting numbers hold firm, we're going to need it soon. Unless you make larger deployments to the planets in the sector … and that doesn't include the command structure of the Tau and Pi expeditions either, does it?”
“I know. I'm honestly considering giving him my division,” the general stated. All eyes stared at him in shock again. He shrugged uncomfortably. “I can't very well command it in the field now, can I? And it's silly to have a division sitting on its ass collecting dust.”
Ted grimaced at that thought. He'd gotten used to the general's more or less hands-off approach to running the division. He had no idea how the new guy would want things to be run. He made a mental note to find out if any of the majors in First Division outranked the bear. That would be nice … but would someone be bumped? How would that work?
“So … he might be in the running for the command of Fifth Division, sir? And all of the Bekian Marines for that matter?” Valenko asked slowly.
“No. He won't be here for another seven or eight weeks or so. I'll have to assess him and then go from there,” the general said. “It is going to take time to get a handle on his skill-set and temperament.”
“Any ideas on who might get the next combat deployment …?” Valenko said in a wheedling voice.
The general just gave him a pointed look, and after a moment, the bear shrugged. “Hey, can't hold it against a bear for trying,” he said with an innocent smile.
Ted and a few of the other officers snorted.
“Two pain-in-the-ass bears is two too many,” the general said dryly. That earned a chuckle. “I might need to start making some fur rugs if I get pushed too much,” he said, earning another chuckle. Ted chuckled as well but it was pro forma. They had all heard some nasty stories about what the Horathians did to Neos, so the joke was a bit flat and distasteful to him.
“We'll find out what the bear's skill-set is when he gets here. I'm leery about just handing the division over to him, so he's going to have to prove himself, especially since we don't have his record on file and have no experience with him or Bek. We don't have a meter stick to measure Bek at all, and I for one do not like that,” the general said. “Something we're going to have to rectify eventually,” he said firmly.
Heads nodded or indicated agreement around the table.
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General Forth shook his head as he laid down the tablet displaying the latest report. It was unfortunate in its timing. Dana's Chester Puller convoy had jumped for Pyrax the day before … but she'd get the news when she got there he mused.
According to the news, the two Navy ships that had taken the fight to Destria had done so, then caught a pair of lumbering transports on their way back to B100 omega. The two transports were converted super bulk freighters that had carried the Horathian Nineteenth Division to Destria.
A full division on the planet. With supports … there was a notation about an engineering platoon, some help from the “department of enlightenment” and a platoon of armored troops. Joy. Even though the enemy had been pasted by all accounts from the squids, he was fairly certain Dana and her boys and girls were going to still have her hands full.
The Federation warships had picked the unarmed Horathian ships off in the empty star system leading back to B100 omega, then put prize crews on board. The prize crews and engineers from the warships had downloaded their databases to the warships—what hadn't been scrubbed that was. They'd also worked hard to repair the two ships. Both ships had suffered some damage to their hyperdrives limiting them to the low octaves of Alpha band of hyperspace.
According to the initial report that had just been transmitted, the ships had pulled the officers and senior enlisted off the prize ships and brigged them on the warships to keep them from forming a mutiny to retake the ships. They'd left the prizes to bumble along at their own best speeds to catch up to them in B100 omega.
He frowned thoughtfully. According to the report, the intelligence officers and Marine officers were working on a follow-up of what they'd found in the interviews and in the databases. Obviously they couldn't transmit it all through the ansible, so they had to cherry-pick the most important to let the admiralty know right away.
It wouldn't do Dana much good, well, not initially Jersey thought. She'd get a taste in Pyrax and B101a1, but she'd get the full download in B100 omega most likely he thought.
Still, it wouldn't hurt to have his own staff intelligence team work through what was going to be downloaded and put their two cents worth in. Keep them honest he thought with a small smile.
In a way, Agnosta was about to get lonely, almost like it had been when they'd first landed he thought. Second Division was still tied up on Protodon, though Valenko's Fourth Division had finally received the transports to bring them to Protodon to relieve them yesterday. They would be loading once the ships were in orbit.
Since the General Elliot convoy had been briefly delayed at Kathy's World, they would be arriving around the same time as Fourth Division's convoy showed up. That would allow Second Division to stand on the defense briefly while they wound down their tour.
The plan was for Second Division to leave all of their gear behind for Major Hayes' First Brigade and Fourth Division to use. They were going to be outfitted with new once they got back to Agnosta, which was a budget headache and a half. Valenko and Wade were going to have some surplus of equipment on their hands, but some of it was going to be near its operational lifetime max limit. They'd have to be reconditioned, which meant shipping them to Antigua or Agnosta or selling them off as surplus.
He shook his head. Either way the bean counters weren't going to like it. But those two divisions would tie up any loose ends on Protodon.
That accounted for two of his four divisions. Dana's Third Division was also out and about as he'd noted a moment ago. His own division had no one to play with and was getting lonely training wise he thought with a smirk. He'd have to rectify that sometime.
If the recruiting numbers held firm, he'd be able to stand up a fifth division by the end of the year. Obviously someone, most likely one of the current crop of brigade commanders, would have to be promoted to run it.
Or, he could hand over the new division to the new bear … once he was sure of him. What about the troops coming in from Bek and Nuevo? Something told him it was going to take time to get them out of that nexus, at least initially, but when the spigot finally did open, he was going to have to deal with it. Another headache waiting in the wings he thought acidly.
He'd been told that morning that there were no more Marine transports in the pipeline; resources were being shifted to work on the Tau and Pi mission as well as the transports necessary to move personnel and equipment in and out of the Bek nexus. But the brass threw the Marines and Army a bone; the two recently captured transports would be refitted and made available to them. Great he thought, he had to share. Share all the transports and command ships with the Army he thought with a grimac
e.
He sighed and rubbed his brow as he thought about the problem and all it entitled now that three of his divisions were away. How to fill Fifth Division out—enlisted was no problem, but the noncoms and officers—he shook his head.
Then a fresh thought came to him. He picked the tablet up and scrolled back until he found what he'd been looking for. “Nineteenth,” he murmured out loud. “Nineteen … and obviously they didn't send their best and brightest to a backwater like Destria. So, the question is, how many other divisions do they have and where are some of the ones we don't know about?” he asked himself, then typed out the question to ONI. They knew about eight Horathian divisions, with “unconfirmed reports” of two more. But nineteen … that was far higher than anyone had projected.
Unless … could they randomize the number? To keep enemies off balance? It was possible, but something told him it wasn't true. Earth had fielded large armies in continental battles; Horath had more than just their homeworld to draw personnel from.
Was he right? Was that number just the tip of the iceberg he wondered darkly.
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Corporal Gleason wasn't thrilled about working the docks. Someone had to handle it he admitted; he just thought he would have had a more glorious post when he'd signed up for the Army instead of the Marines.
Fat lot of good that had done him. He was still manning a post, a boring post. Well, boring until a shipment like the one currently being unloaded came in.
A human stevedore came over with a dolly and a massive casket-like container. He set it down on one end and unhooked the hover dolly, then wheeled it off to the side before standing it upright. He pulled a tablet out for the corporal.
“What's this?”
“Delivery,” the stevedore said, holding out a tablet for the Army corporal to sign. The corporal was used to the antic. He knew not to argue, but he was careful about what he signed for.