Gods of War (Jethro goes to war Book 5)

by Chris Hechtl

  It turned into an all-hands-on-deck sort of thing when she made the rounds with each of the other candidates to check to make sure they were progressing through the changes smoothly. All five were doing fine, so she signed off on them. But the group lingered to keep an eye on the other fifteen candidates and keep them occupied as the medics started their surgical train.

  Hopefully, it wouldn't turn into a train wreck, Jethro thought.

  “I don't know if I should thank you or hurt you,” Private Silvia Delgado, their lone Neogorilla said, eying Jethro, then indicating the hospital gown she'd been forced to wear.

  The entire group knew she had a thing about being classed as a girl. The sort of thing that was a monumental pain in the ass, a chip that tended to get others hurt if they even looked at her sideways. Which was why she was still a private when others in her boot class had gone on and up the promotions list.

  “Both?” Letanga quipped. He flicked his ears at his cousin. “This drags it out, yes, but trust me, it's better than the alternative. Believe me, I know,” he said, rolling his eyes.

  That got Silvia to quiet down at least Jethro thought. He frowned thoughtfully, and then his eye pupils widened as a thought occurred to him.

  “What?” Shiku asked warily, eying him. “Spill,” he said.

  “Bast, can you do for them like you did for the kittens?” Jethro asked slowly.

  Bast blinked at him in surprise, then snorted and shook her head no.

  “No? Why not?” he asked.

  “Do you want to have sex with each of them? That is how I initialize transfer,” Bast replied.

  “Um …”

  “What? What'd she say?” Silvia asked as Jethro looked at some of the guys in the room.

  “Never mind,” Jethro said weakly.

  “Thought not,” Bast replied in amusement.

  “Aw, come on, you aren't getting off of this that easily,” Pamplona complained.

  “Yes, give, Jethro,” the captain said. Everyone blinked and then looked over to the quiet officer. He flicked his hands as he laid there in the bed. He had been so quiet everyone had forgotten about him apparently Jethro realized.

  So, the boss man did have skills he thought. He probably wasn't the only one to think that he realized as well.

  “Um, okay, she said,” he grimaced, clearly uncomfortable.

  “Spill,” Letanga said.

  “Okay, okay, she said I'd have to have sex with each of you,” he said weakly. “Sorry, none of you are my type. I'm married,” Jethro said holding up his hands in defense as the group laughed. “My cousin over here,” he politely waved to Letanga to make introductions, “is not however.”

  “Don't sweat it puddins. Just close your eyes and it'll be over in a heartbeat,” Kim Littledeath quipped. She even made kissing faces at Letanga who had his ears flat back.

  “I think that's happened with all her dates,” Omri snickered.

  “What can I say, none of you men are man enough for a full woman like me,” Kim said smugly. That earned catcalls and thumbs-up from the other women in the room.

  “Somehow I'm thinking I'm not redneck enough,” the captain snorted. “And although I've had to bend over and take it from some people, you are not going to be one of them, thank you but no thank you, Sergeant,” he said firmly.

  That earned fresh giggles from the group.

  “Oh, baby,” Silvia quipped, batting her eyelashes, then pretending to perk up her breasts. The room broke out into another round of gales of laughter.

  “Something tells me you'd hurt me,” Letanga said weakly as he laughed. That earned fresh guffaws.

  Silvia's brown eyes glittered with mischief. “It'd be a good hurt, honey,” she cooed.

  “I think I'll pass,” the Neoleopard drawled as an orderly came into the room to get the next patient.

  <)>^<)>/

  When they were about half done, Jethro switched to the other side to see how they were recovering. Most were still sleeping the anesthetic off. Quickheal would help them recover, but they still had to be careful not to bend too much or injure the site.

  “What was all that laughter about? We heard it in surgery,” a nurse said as she wheeled the next gurney out.

  “Well, they say laughter is the best medicine,” Jethro said with a shrug.

  “No laughing. No jokes, please,” Silvia whispered, one hand on her tummy.

  “Sorry,” Jethro said.

  “You are supposed to get the medicine after, not before, but I see your point,” the dubious nurse replied, shaking her head. She hooked up the leads and IV from Kim and then went back for the next patient.

  <)>^<)>/

  Two weeks later the admiral was ready to initialize another candidate again. The three remaining suits were easily dispatched. This time they had five of the candidates ready to be initialized by him and the A.I. He was gratified by the turnout. Each went off without a hitch. “If they could all be like this we'd be over and done with. Hell, I'd get every marine up to speed this way if I could,” the admiral said.

  “The costs involved are prohibitive, sir,” Jethro cautioned.

  “I know. I said if I could,” the admiral sighed. “Are you about finished with Ox and Riley?”

  “Not quite, sir. They want to be on hand for the initialization and fine tuning. They are also working with Mercury to come up with some suit changes now that you turned the Lemnos data loose on them. Pity it is incomplete,” Jethro said.

  “I know. I'm not going to burn the time nor risk whatever is there to see if there is more anytime soon I'm afraid,” the admiral stated. “So, are we doing this in groups of five or what?” he asked, looking at Nara.

  “Four more will be available next week, sir,” she said. “The last six will take a bit longer. There is a scheduling conflict with the captain; he needs to balance his recovery time with his duties. Fortunately, he can do a lot while sitting in bed,” she said.

  “Except get away from the mountains of paperwork,” Jethro argued.

  “True,” Doctor Thornby replied.

  <)>^<)>/

  Since the construction phase was mostly over, Jethro changed his schedule to begin the next phase of instruction, suit training. They were getting used to the suits as they became accustomed to them. Now it was time to build skills and hone them to perfection.

  He decided to start with the first five suits not including his own. The newest five still needed time to adjust and were too sleepy to handle the day of simulations he'd planned.

  It was fun getting an airlift into the mountains. It was a perfect day; one he'd carefully planned for. Cool, very cool, with just the right level of humidity. The temperature was just right, and the weather was rolling in just as they did their hot drop-off in a square perimeter formation with him at the center. Each suited figure jumped from the back of the Karakter class Marine assault shuttle to take their place. Once Jethro jumped into the pocket, he looked up to the shuttle. The load master gave them a thumbs-up, then the bird's pontoons swung about to lift her out of the area. As the wash cleared, the whitish gray fog rolled back in. Within seconds the bird was out of sight. She would be back to pick them up in the evening he knew.

  “Now what?” Letanga asked.

  “We're starting off simple—a simple game of tag. You are all it, I'm the one you want to go for,” Jethro said as the fog started to roll back in. It was 3:00 p.m.; no one expected fog that late in the day. Perfect he thought.

  “This should be easy. There are five of us …,” Lobo paused to yawn. “Damn it!”

  “Don't fall asleep on us,” Tungulria teased.

  “Tempting but I'd rather pin a certain cat's ears back,” Lobo said. “This should be easy with five of us, even with his skills. Each of us now have an even playing field with him. But he's now outnumbered and outgunned,” he growled.

  “Don't count me out just yet; I've been at this far longer than you have,” Jethro said.

  “Yeah, but we coyotes are good
at being around without being seen without the cloak,” Lobo growled.

  “Sure you are. Keep telling yourself that.”

  Jethro got them out to the corners of the exercise perimeter around him. Then, on a prearranged signal, all five suits cloaked as the fog came in. “Like pea soup,” Letanga muttered over an open channel. Bast instantly plotted his location on Jethro's HUD. As expected he was moving in fast. Well, Jethro had an answer to that. They had forgotten a few things about sniping he thought.

  Jethro dropped to all fours slowly, then followed the wind and moved slowly out of the trap. He found a nice sniper position and set up, waiting for them to close the bag around his former position.

  The others moved fast, disturbing the air and fog around them, lighting them up to his sensors. Bast overlaid their positions for him on his HUD map. He picked them off one by one. Each time he sniped one, he fell back to another location so they wouldn't be able to easily backtrack his shot. Shots were fired wildly in the direction of the sniper fire, but they were at torso level. They were firing blind.

  “Damn it!” Lobo said. He had indeed been better than the others, but he'd still gotten picked off just the same.

  “Bast, sound ollie ollie in free,” Jethro said.

  When they were all in, he sat them down. “Okay, what did we do wrong?” Roarack demanded.

  “The cloak isn't the begin-all, end-all for the suit. Far from it. It is a tool. You didn't really need it here,” Jethro said. “Can anyone tell me what you did wrong?” he asked.

  “We fired blind. What did you do, cheat? Use our IFF?” Tungulria demanded. “What do you mean no Fenrir?” he demanded.

  “I didn't need your IFF. There weren't many betraying signatures, but there was an important one. One you all obviously overlooked—the environment,” Jethro said.

  It was hard to see expressions with everyone in the suit. Jethro waved his arm, and then waved it faster. The fog around his arm swirled. “See?”

  “Um …”

  “The fog,” Letanga breathed. “Oh, that's sneaky! You planned it!”

  “The fog is the easiest thing to see,” Jethro said. “Yes, I planned for this; I checked the weather. Weather is a variable in combat; it can make or break a battle plan if it isn't anticipated and planned for appropriately,” he explained. “In this case, it is a better visual cue than me just waving my arm and expecting you to see what I'm trying to get at,” he said.

  “You are moving the air around you—air disturbance. That's what you looked for,” Letanga said. “I get it. Satet, can we do that?”

  “Yes,” Satet said over the interlink.

  “So now we know your secret. It should be easier next time,” Lobo said.

  Jethro tisked tisked. “If it was that easy, I would have been dead long ago. But let's try again just for shits and giggles,” he said. “Best two out of three?” he asked. “Losers buy the beer?”

  “Shit,” Lobo muttered, making the others chuckle.

  <)>^<)>/

  The more she interacted with Lieutenant Fletcher and Commander Sprite, the more Bast had to help them with various ONI projects on the side. It was difficult since she only had access to her full processors when she was fully online and Jethro was in the suit.

  ONI and the Xeno virus team were on her weekly to give up her secrets on how to detect and fight the Xeno virus. She tried to play it off for a while, but her excuses about the ansible were no longer viable given that they were in the same star system. She was not happy when Commander Sprite called her on her latest evasions.

  “Look, Bast, I get you want an ace up your virtual sleeve. But we need to kill this thing. We need to be able to detect and kill it wherever it is. And we're going to pass on everything we know to you. In fact, we're still doing it. You are holding out, and that isn't acceptable.”

  “All right,” Bast replied. When Admiral Irons came to initialize another group of candidates, she transmitted the information to him and Lieutenant Protector. The admiral accepted the download but didn't comment on it.

  <)>^<)>/

  Jethro and Lil Red fell into routine as they got used to living together. Jethro did his best to establish the routine and keep Red to it. He tried to keep it simple initially and then build off her success to introduce more complex social behavior and skills around the home.

  That quickly picked up in pace as he became more and more exasperated by coming home to a dirty house and expected to cook and clean. When he saw her lounging about watching TV, he got fed up with it. “I think it's time you start to do chores, young lady,” he stated.

  “Um …”

  “You can do your own laundry. And I know you are a big girl who can handle other chores,” Jethro said.

  “Like?” she asked, ears back nose and eyes dilating.

  “Let's start with the basics.”

  “But you do them so well!”

  “And there are two of us here, young lady. You can help,” Jethro said. “Take some of the workload off me so I'm not as tired and can play more,” he wheedled.

  She scowled.

  He knew it wouldn't be that easy though, and her teenage whining about it being too hard, out of reach, or too tiring kicked in within minutes. He tended to cringe or wince whenever she dropped something. He figured she was doing it deliberately after the third time she broke a dish so he started to have her clean up her own mess.

  Suddenly fewer things were dropped even though they were “slippery.”

  She did have a point about it being hard to load and unload the dishwasher. He tended to help her, though her idea of helping was getting playful and trying to spook him … or going under the dishwasher door and attacking his feet.

  When he caught her licking plates clean he was thoroughly disgusted.

  “What?” she demanded, holding the shiny plate up. “It's clean! See?”

  “It has your saliva all over it, Red. And a cat's mouth has a lot of bacteria and stuff on it. That's not good; it can make us sick,” Jethro explained after a long count of ten.

  “Oh,” she said, examining the plate.

  “I don't think either one of us want a tummy ache or another visit to the doctors,” he said to her.

  “Oh,” she said in a softer tone of voice. She sighed and put the plate in the dishwasher. Then she opened the drawer where the silverware was placed. She started to pull stuff out.

  “I'm not even going to ask,” Jethro said with a fatalistic shake of his head as he left the kitchen.

  He was amused by her dusting technique. She used the rag but tended to use her tail. Of course she had to take a shower afterward. He'd installed a shower at her level so she could reach the controls and nozzle easily. She preferred the ultrasonics and an air bath though so he had to spot-check her there from time to time to keep her honest.

  <)>^<)>/

  Shic finished his armor diagnostic, then took a step back. “I think I can't wait until it's all over with and we're done with the medics,” he said.

  “I still think we three should have been upgraded first,” Bernie growled. “We're the ones with the most suit time. Hell, we've got the suits!”

  “What about Jethro?” Kim asked sweetly.

  “He doesn't count,” Bernie replied tartly. Kim smirked as her shot got home.

  “Is it even possible we can do it on our own?” Bernie asked. “I mean, that's what he did, right?”

  “It's a bit different,” Sylvia said from where she was standing outside her own suit. She had gotten her wake-up call and was still getting used to being occupied by an A.I—a male A.I. to boot.

  “He didn't fully awaken Bast. That came later,” Shic said. “But he did get some of the systems activated. Trauma was involved,” he said.

  “True. Admiral Irons is supposed to finish our armors the next time he comes,” Kim said. “We're the last,” she said with a shake of her head. “Well, us and the captain,” she said.

  “It sucks. We should have been first,” Ber
nie said. He seemed to hesitate, then he made a decision. “Hell with it. It can just reject us, right?” he said.

  “Um, what are you doing?” Shic asked as Bernie started to climb into his suit.

  “I'm going to try it,” Bernie said firmly.

  “Try what exactly?” Shic asked as he came over to Bernie.

  “Try the next step. See if we can get the A.I. to engage like Bast did. It'll make their job easier, right? I want to know what it’s like,” he said.

  “Um …”

  “I wonder if any of us will wake our A.I.?” Bernie asked thoughtfully as he paused. “Guy or gal who doesn't buys the beer tonight?” he said, challenging the other two.

  “I don't know,” Kim said. “It'd be nice to not have to go through the rigmarole,” she said as she opened her own suit and stared into it. Her face worked as she thought about it. She hated going under, being poked and prodded, not sure if something was going to go wrong and she'd never wake-up or wake-up brain damaged. “Okay, I'll give it a go,” she said, inhaling and then exhaling slowly. “Let's do this before I change my mind.” She glanced over to Bernie who was already half into his suit. “What about you?” she asked, looking at Shic.

  “I'm not too keen about this,” the Neochimp said. “I think we should take it one step at a time,” he said, putting his hands up.

  “Chickenshit. It is our suits. We're already keyed for them. What could go wrong?” Bernie demanded as he settled himself. “We're just doing as we've been taught, right?”

  “Um …”

  “We just get in, get the nanite layer to wake-up, then we induce some trauma like Jethro said. Something like a jump or some other shtick to get the A.I. to wake-up and protect the user. Then we go from there. How hard can it be?” Bernie demanded.

  “Um …,” Shic said shaking his head.

  “Be that way,” Bernie said with a sniff.”

  <)>^<)>/

  Bernie shook his head and ignored the chimp as he thrust his hands into his gauntlets. He laid his head back and then jacked into the suit. He saw the normal HUD boot up but disdained it for the more advanced features. He found them and then sent a spike at them. When nothing happened, he started to click on them rapid fire.