Gods of War (Jethro goes to war Book 5)

by Chris Hechtl

  “So far so good,” his partner hand-signed to him. He gave an OK sign and then knelt as she scanned the woods in his sector. His Area of Responsibility was towards the objective.

  <)>^<)>/

  Mackie was bored, practically bored to tears. There was no way anyone could stare at a screen and a series of video feeds for hours on end with no changes and not be bored. He'd done the duty though, day in and day out. Occasionally, an animal would brighten his day but not too often.

  He was of two minds about seeing action. On the one hand, it would end the tedium; on the other, it would be trouble. Those thoughts percolated in his brain as his eyes scanned the video screens, then went back to the book in his lap. He read a page, flicked the advance button, then went back to scanning the screens again, left to right, row by row.

  Which was why he noted movement, movement of a barely-seen figure moving ever so slowly off camera. He checked the motion sensors to confirm it and grunted. “We've got movement all around,” Mackie said in a flat voice as he noted the telltales on the screen. He flipped the main screen to IR. The heat signatures were faint, but he could just make out pairs of them moving slowly in towards them. He turned to Private Askdall. “Wake the brass, we've got trouble,” he said.

  The private looked up with wide eyes, did a double take at the screen, and then bolted out of the room like a scalded rabbit.

  <)>^<)>/

  The captain's eyes narrowed as he watched the video feed. The cameras were well hidden; some were periscopes with fiber optic connections but not all of them. He grimaced when one of the cameras was noted by a ghost-like figure. The figure went over to the camera and then spritzed something on the lens, turning it into a blurred mess.

  “Yeah, we've been made,” Mackie breathed.

  “Widow-makers. Let's see if we can drop some rocks and take them out,” the captain said.

  Mackie stared at the captain until the captain's normally expressionless face hardened. He nodded. “Yes, sir,” Mackie said, tapping at his board to turn the robots on and then order them to hit the targets. “It'll be tough though, sir; some are easier to see than others.”

  “Go for the ones hardest to hit first then,” the captain ordered.

  “Aye aye, sir.”

  <)>^<)>/

  Small stubby tubes rose out of the dirt and snow to make certain they were clear of obstructions. One had nuts in it from an overzealous squirrel. It didn't matter. The tubes oriented on a track for the enemy targets and then puffed.

  Six inert rocks went off into the air before the robots reloaded and fired a second volley.

  <)>^<)>/

  The cracks of tree branches were what got Chege to stop and kneel suddenly. He looked up, his implants orienting on the sounds. Then some of the sounds came closer, almost … he threw himself to the side and into a copse of trees on pure instinct.

  Something slammed down where he had been. He heard a matching thud and recovered himself to look and see his partner hadn't been so lucky. Broken tree branches covered the area, but it was clear from Private Loni's vital signs that he was gone.

  “Incoming!” he said as another round came down on his position. He heard the explosion of sound as the heavy, fast-moving object cut through the branches of the spruce above him. He got the trunk between him and whatever was coming, then hunched down. The object slammed into where he'd just been.

  He turned and saw a divot in the snow, a small fist-sized crater. He grimaced.

  “Romeo One to all units, pull back!” he said over his radio link, breaking protocol as he ran for his life.

  <)>^<)>/

  Mackie cheered as one, then two targets went down. Then a third. He was peripherally aware that the room behind him was filling up with officers and noncoms, and the base's compliment had turned out in the hallway to see the action.

  “More,” he muttered. “Come on …,” he practically begged. He threw a fist up in the air with Private Askdall as a third and fourth target was taken out.

  But then he noticed the others were running rapidly away.

  <)>^<)>/

  Chege swore as he slid down a hillside. Something pounded down at the top of the hill, but he didn't look back. He reached down and zipped up his gilly suit then ducked under a fallen tree and stopped. He panted, trying to recover himself as he covered his face with his mask. As his training kicked in, he wondered how many of squad were left alive.

  <)>^<)>/

  Jethro heard the warning from Cheg and then noted the sudden spark of IFFs turning on, then going out one by one. “What the hell?” he demanded.

  “Traps,” Letanga said. “Something nasty,” he muttered.

  “Yeah,” Jethro said, noting five of the IFFs were flatline. “Damn it!” he snarled.

  “Yeah, that sucked,” Pamplona said with a shake of her head. “Unfortunately, we just warned them we know they are there.”

  Jethro closed his eyes in pain. “I know,” he said. But that wasn't what bothered him the most.

  <)>^<)>/

  Captain Zhukov grimaced as he noted they had only killed five of the invaders. If they had come in a full squad, that meant seven had gotten away. Gotten away and undoubtedly told someone that their fellows had been killed. He didn't need to see Private Askdall's radio computers light up with unknown encrypted transmissions. Nor did he need to know the source, they were just confirmation. “They found us. Get ready,” he said simply. He turned to look at the rest of his command team.

  “Frack,” Lieutenant Sng muttered. “There goes the neighborhood,” he growled.

  “We can kick them where it hurts. Kick them so hard their mother's will feel it,” Sergeant Scornlan said as he polished the end of his favorite wrench.

  “Well, you can't bitch about being bored anymore,” Lieutenant Zevaya sighed as she stretched. “Time to put our game faces on.” The captain nodded.

  “We're so screwed if we go out there though,” Sergeant Jensen murmured.

  “We're backed into a corner all right,” Lieutenant Kinoshita muttered. “That back door is looking more and more appealing every day,” he said.

  “It ain't gonna matter. They'll hunt us down,” Sergeant Jensen said. “Pick us off when we get out into the open.”

  “It ain't over until the crying and whimpering, and I'll be damned if it's us,” Gunny Brillo snarled. “Posts people!”

  <)>^<)>/

  Once the surviving RECON team members were clear, Dana called a meeting of her senior staff. Debate raged on how to handle the base right off before she could get a word in edgewise. She let them go for the time being, content with sipping her coffee and occasionally shooting an amused look at the far corner of the room.

  “Well, that sucks. We lost how many people?” Captain Silverman demanded.

  “Five. Almost half the squad,” Major N'v'll stated.

  “Five,” the captain echoed. “And they just got here too. Damn. Was it worth it? Did they just leave a trap behind? Series of traps?”

  “Yes, their sacrifice sucks, but it told us something important. It told us the enemy has to be protecting something. I don't buy that the weapons were left over from when the base was active. No way. So now we need to find the pot at the end of that rainbow,” Major R'nz stated. He swiveled a pair of eyestalks to the colonel, but she didn't say anything.

  “We need to do something and fast. The question is, what? If we go in and try to dig them out, we'll get our ass chewed. We don't have the personnel or equipment to go toe to toe with them, even if we get all our armor on this. They are prepared and know we're coming. They've got those caves, know the terrain, and they might have places to pop out. Our air cover will be useless. Getting in there will be a bitch,” Captain Irenez said.

  “I don't think we've got the firepower. I know we've got a thermobaric missile but getting it in is questionable. And if we don't …?” Captain Dernigz looked at the colonel. “It is wise to use it? I didn't see any more brought in from Roy Boehm's in
ventory.” He left unsaid that some of the inventory had been classified even to him. “They can sit tight; we can wait them out, right?”

  “It is possible. I don't think we can dig them out,” Captain Irenez said. “They'll have home court advantage, and they'll be hell in the confines of the caves.” She shook her head.

  “Not necessarily,” the colonel said.

  “Ma'am?” the captain said, turning to her. All eyes turned to the colonel as she set her cup down.

  “Leave it to the new troops. They'll get the job done,” she said simply.

  “With all due respect, why do you think these two squads can do what our units can't? Granted many are veterans of past conflicts …”

  The colonel turned to the corner of the room. “Care to fill them in?” she asked.

  All eyes turned to the empty corner. When nothing happened, the major turned back to the colonel. “Ma'am?” he asked.

  “Simple, Major. They won't see us coming,” a familiar feline voice growled. They looked around the room but settled on that same empty corner as a black Neocat decloaked in a crouch. He stood and came to attention.

  “Warrant Officer Jethro McClintock, Federation Cadre at your service,” he said as his helmet retracted.

  The colonel turned a triumphant look on her staff. “Any questions?”

  Chapter 61

  Dimitri inhaled and then exhaled slowly. He was awake, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to be. He could feel a nice warmth snuggled up to his backside. He felt a hand drift on his side, then caress his hip. Finally, it caught his shoulder and pulled him irresistibly over to look at its owner.

  “Hi,” he murmured to a sleepy looking Mabel.

  “Hi yourself,” she murmured sleepily, stretching and then wrapping her arms around his neck and head. She pulled him down and kissed him.

  When the kiss broke, she wrinkled her nose. “Morning breath,” she said, starting to sit up.

  “Well, you asked for it,” he teased. “Any regrets?”

  “Nary a one. Okay, yeah, one,” she said.

  He stared at her. “What?”

  “We should have done this ages ago,” she murmured, pushing him onto his back so she could lay on top of him.

  “Um … you said morning breath?” he said.

  “Eat an apple. Later. Much later,” she growled as she started to kiss him once more.

  <)>^<)>/

  Letanga slowly scanned the area and then moved forward again. It was difficult to avoid every stick and twig. He knew there were motion sensors in the area, but the winds were picking up. Hopefully, that would give the enemy fits. His cloak would make certain they couldn't see him so hopefully any mistakes he and the various RECON suits made would be thought of as the weather and wildlife.

  He was working his way inward to the location of where the mortars had been fired from. His fire team were each doing the same for their side of the area. Pamplona's RECON fire team were doing the same thing on the other side. Along the way, they were supposed to locate and mark traps and cameras while disabling them only when necessary.

  He got to the site and then swore under his breath. Satet shook her head at him on his HUD and crossed her arms. “I know, I know, too easy,” he murmured, staring at the churned-up earth and snow. Obviously, whatever had been there had been moved. He knelt and then scanned the area carefully. Finally, he noted a set of tracks. They looked like rectangular marks in the snow, which was contrary to nature.

  Satet noted his interest, picked up on the tracks, and then highlighted the others. She drew a path on his HUD and even created an approximate shape of the creator of the tracks based on them. The six insect-like legs and mortar clues were all she needed to project a widow-maker mortar sentry robot on his HUD. The life-size hologram scaled down and then rotated with specs highlighted.

  “Yeah, okay, now we've got to find the damn thing,” Letanga grumbled as he moved to follow the tracks.

  <)>^<)>/

  Pamplona was the first to find a widow-maker. It wasn't where it had been; the thing had moved to a new location along her path to the original location and then buried itself. But in burying itself, it had given itself away. The ground was freshly churned, and there was a chimney pipe of a mortar sticking out the top. Had it found a way to dust itself with snow it would have been safe … except the pipe.

  She knelt a few meters away from the robot and waited for the signal.

  <)>^<)>/

  Letanga noted a slight shimmer near the churned up pile and paused. Satet set a laser on it and an IFF came back, Blue Eyes. They exchanged data quickly. Blue Eyes had located the widow-maker, so Letanga turned and moved in towards the objective to see what else was waiting for them. There were six known widow-maker sentries, so the two who didn't find them first would get the honor of moving inward and searching for the next line of defense. Unfortunately, they weren't certain about what they were looking for.

  <)>^<)>/

  Jethro forced himself as he stared at the map. He had to stay behind with his fire team and the two heavy weapons teams. He'd accepted the help of Sergeant Sekidu and the remaining Marine armors, but they would be his backup. There was no way he was going to risk them in the actual assault.

  Once the RECON teams got in and located the enemy defenses, they were going to take out the outer ring of widow-makers to signal them to attack. Then, while they were moving in, the RECON team would upload everything they found to him and the other suits. Their A.I. would share the data and build a better profile of the objective and its defenses on the fly. Bast wasn't exactly up to the task. Jethro's suit was a RECON suit not a command suit with its extra processors and memory, but they'd have to make do.

  He just had to be patient until that signal came.

  <)>^<)>/

  Letanga and Roarack made notes of enemy defenses that they could see as they moved in to the objective. When Letanga got to the cave entrance, he paused and then took up a place where he could easily observe it. A slight shimmer across from him told him another cloaked suit was there. Satet laid a whisker laser on it and Roarack's IFF came back. The two A.I. exchanged data on what they'd seen as Roarack took up a position overlooking the cave.

  Letanga went through the data he had. He had Blue Eyes' limited data, his own, and Roarack's to go off of. None of them had noted any hidden side entrances. That was to be expected; the enemy had camouflaged them well.

  They had noted the cameras, laser trip lines, and other sensor networks. It looked like the enemy had set up layers of defenses around their base. What the defenses were for the inner layers, he wasn't certain. He hadn't been able to detect any pop-up weapons, and that worried him.

  He inhaled and then exhaled slowly as he read the report once more. They weren't going to get a better view and the more they tramped around in the snow, the more likely someone would notice their footprints or one of them might set off a physical trap. No, it was now or never.

  He nodded to Satet. “Let's do this,” he said.

  She nodded her head eagerly and broadcast his compiled files to the other suits to kick off the first phase.

  <)>^<)>/

  Lobo, like all of the other patiently waiting RECON team members, got the signal and then acted. He moved in fast, in a blur of speed and rooster tail of dirt and snow to hit the mortar stack hard like a linebacker. Instead of snapping it off as he'd intended, the entire robot came out of its hole and the two of them went end over end. He flung the thing against a tree trunk, then went in and ripped out its underbelly, dodging its kicking legs as he tore its guts out. It flayed and then slumped inert.

  “One down,” he breathed as he took stock of the area and his suit and then moved in to the objective to take out the sensors and targets of opportunity in his area.

  <)>^<)>/

  Pamplona snuck right up to the mortar tube, stuck her rifle down it and let it rip. The first rounds hit the load in the breech and then ricocheted back up the tube before the next two rounds g
ot through. They tore into the innards of the mortar and then other rounds got through to go deeper. The small hill shook and then the robot went dead.

  “Two down,” she said as she too turned to take on sensors and targets in her area.

  <)>^<)>/

  Shiku had found the hair-thin fiber optic wire leading from where the old site had been to the new. He tapped into it with a probe. Zenko sent a series of bots to invade the enemy system but couldn't stop the human from sounding the alert as Shiku took out the robot.

  Shiku was torn on what to do. If he stayed, Zenko would be able to invade the enemy's computers and perhaps let them get an advantage. But he had a mission. Zenko pulled what data he could out of the network before something cut the bots off. Shiku unplugged the patch and then rose from his crotch to go after his immediate objectives as Zenko went through what the bots had pulled from the enemy net and then transmitted them to the other suits and command.

  <)>^<)>/

  Private Askdall saw the widow-makers go down. Not one or two, but all of them in less than three seconds. “What the hell?” he demanded, rising to his feet as he stared at the screen. He licked his lips nervously and then tapped out an inquiry. “I so don't want to have to go out there and fix you … be a simple glitch …,” he muttered over and over.

  Data came back at him, but it didn't make any sense. He scowled as he tried to hash it out. He tried another inquiry, but nothing came back that made sense. The small hairs on the back of his neck rose as he noted the CPUs were suddenly at nearly 100 percent. That didn't make sense. He opened the task files and noted a lot of unknown files running. He issued a freeze and then tried to get through to the drones one last time.

  When he didn't get the proper response, he swore and then hit the big red button on his console.

  <)>^<)>/

  “I'm tellin ya now, Lieutenant, it aina gonna work,” Sergeant Scornlan said shaking his head as he held the chunk of armor.