Jethro: First to Fight

by Hechtl, Chris

  “So, Navy Seals? Don't you have enough on your plate with Recon?”

  The Major shook his head. “Right now no, Raiders is just a state of mind, nothing formal. But.. Different missions. Granted there is a lot of cross over, but Seals are better trained for hostage rescue, and water landings, sabotage, clearing mines for a beachhead, that sort of thing. Not to mention water activities.”

  “Ah.”

  “Which,” the Major mused, rubbing his chin. “I don't think these fellas have thought through. They see Seals doing hard ass combat ops, going in and killing someone, snatch and grab, hostage rescue. They don't see the water stuff.”

  “I know. Petty officer Grimby is a chimp. I can just imagine seeing him in the water,” the Captain said.

  “Yeah, it is going to get interesting isn't it?” the Major asked, smiling. “We'll set it up. I'll run them alongside the advanced recon class. It should be interesting.”

  “Get me plenty of video. I want to see them squirm.”

  “Not nice, but then again...”

  “I'm not known for being a nice squid anyway. A Captain has to keep her reputation up as mean,” Captain Mayweather replied, laughing. The Major snorted.

  “I'll see what I can do Ma'am.”

  ...*...*...*...*...

  They started with six volunteers but other enlisted and officers showed interest in the program. It expanded to forty six at one point, then shrank to forty. Major Forth and Captain Pendeckle decided to run them through the recon training program with some modifications.

  One of the group was a frank, a gene with golden skin, wiry, elf mods with super strong build and fast. He became the nucleus the others latched onto. He was the most gung ho. Another was a simian named Sho who was also gung ho. Both claimed to be descendants of seals. They spent several days trying to get Deja to transfer in with them. He finally informed them that he would be one of their instructors. That got them to shut up.

  Each volunteer was called a 'Bud'. Each was given four weeks to build up their PT and mental aptitude before the training formally began. They were also warned they would be doing the training in the traditions of the Seals, without implants or enhancements. They were given a rough syllabus with what to expect in the training. Water training was highlighted.

  At the last minute, Valenko and part of his squad were tapped to assist in the DI training to supplement Deja. Only Jethro, Asazi, Clive, and Valenko had DI training so the others had to take hastily arranged make up courses.

  Gunny Schultz was brought in to write the outline and go over the syllabus with them. He was mostly hands off however, allowing both Valenko and Jethro to handle the details once they had an agreed upon outline. “Remember, the devil is in the details.”

  “Okay.”

  “One of the biggest focuses is not only teaching them that they can hack it, but also team building. Balancing the two is tough.”

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Kovu, Fonzarelli, Panache, and a few of the other rookies were set to run through the advanced recon certification class along with their regular training and other duties. They weren't happy when they found out how grueling the training was and their own level of participation in it. But they were interested in showing up Jethro and the other veterans. Kovu was particularly interested in keeping his ass out of hack and in getting back into the good graces of the bear and panther. Kiara was graduating in a month and he wanted to be there for it.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Deja was tapped to do the SEAL water training. Asazi was tapped for recon. All of the DI's were F platoon and Recon trained. While the volunteer 'Buds to be' brought up their PT norms, the DI's ran through the training syllabus.

  Eighty Buds were gathered on a fine misty morning. They stood there on the beach, waiting as Valenko addressed them. They were all in PT clothes, boots, and looked ready. He hoped for their sake that they knew what they were getting into. Forty squids, and forty Marines or Marine recruits. Half and half. But looks could be deceiving. Valenko knew the Marine recruits were ready, mentally set to go through the hard physical training ahead of them, or at least they thought they were. He wasn't so sure about the squids though.

  “Welcome Buds. Hopefully, this will be the first and last time I'll have to do this. I am a Marine. Your instructors are all Marines. Marines are lean, mean, fighting machines. Now we get to teach you vacuum suckers how to come within shouting distance of what we do. Spacers are all fat and lazy. You think it's all fun and games, sit on your ass and push a button. Guess what, the time for fun and games is over for you. Here you are going to learn to work for a living.”

  “You think you want to be here. Good. Fine, we can work with that. The first time you don't want to be here, there's the door, don't let it hit your ass on the way out. Just ring the bell and you are through.”

  “I keep telling people, special forces isn't for the meek. You see it as a chance at glory, most likely it'll get you or a buddy killed,” Valenko studied them.

  “You are going to be hurt, tired, exhausted, and sore for weeks. Don't kid yourself, it's not easy, the training is just a small taste of what it's like in the field. You'll be run through the ringer and back again. You'll undergo the basic training, most of it the same as recon and advanced recon. Sneak and peek. You've got to handle water survival, landing on the beach, underwater training, teamwork, and a ton of other things before we get into the real fun stuff like weapons, space, and demolitions.”

  A few of the Buds grinned at each other. Jethro noted them. They were idiots, they had no idea what they were in for. Yeah, they thought it was all fun and games. That was about to be knocked out of them with a vengeance. They'd have to pay for their pleasures and prove they could hang before they got to play with explosives.

  “In the end, we want people without an ounce of quit in them. No holding back, do or die. Cool under pressure.”

  “Marine Recon, Force Recon, Army special ops, Delta, Drop Commando's, Cadre, and Seals all go in the front lines. They are the pointy end of the spear. It's a thankless job. The point of going in is usually to get in, look around then get out. Sneak and Peek like I mentioned before. For Seals, you get to go in, map the defenses, and then blow a hole large enough for follow up forces to get through.”

  “Rarely do you ever get involved with hostage rescue or snatch and grab. Trust me, by the time they call us in, police SWAT has either dealt with it, or it's gone south and there isn't a hostage left to save. But we'll get around to training for that too.”

  “The first few weeks are about getting rid of you. If you can't hack it, you don't belong here. We need to know that now, not out in the field or half way through an advanced training cycle. Get over yourself, if you can't do it, deal with it. It only gets harder from here on out. They have a saying, the easiest day was yesterday. Don't get fixated on the past, don't get fixated on the pain. Learn to cope with it, learn to deal with it. Do whatever it is you do to get through it.”

  “But first, water. Have fun getting wet,” Valenko rumbled. He turned to Deja.

  “All right, into the water Buds! Time to get wet!” Deja roared.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  The training was a brutal twelve weeks of hell. The Buds could ring out by ringing a meter tall bell hanging in the parade grounds at any time. Four of the navy personnel (one of them a Veraxin) and six Marines did that the first day despite their teams attempts to keep them going and keep their spirits up. Four more recruits rang out the next morning when they woke after four hours of sleep and felt like a punching bag.

  The first few weeks were a bitch, knocking them down, knocking the crap out of their heads, and getting them to work together as a team. The first week was about getting them to quit, to see who could hang. Sho did his best to keep his people together. He was made the boat crew leader, despite an Ensign being assigned to the group.

  The Ensign spent the first two days in the infirmary, recovering from drowning training. He had in
haled water as expected, but had a violent reaction and Fonz hadn't recognized the signs of dry drowning. Fortunately Deja passed by to check on each of the recruits and did.

  Each would have to go through drowning training, to recognized the symptoms of exhaustion, fatigue and drowning. They would also go through atmospheric training as well, to see and experience what other gases did to their minds and bodies. After that, vacuum exposure if they hung in there. But for the first several weeks it was all about the water.

  They had decided to break the training into one basic and eight advanced courses. The basic course would be twelve weeks, the advanced courses would each run about one to two weeks depending on the load. There was a one week period of down time after the basic's final hell week Crucible exam was completed and one week of down time after each advanced courses were completed. The trainee's would need the downtime to rest and recover, they were pretty intense.

  Advanced weapons training, vacuum training, escape and evade, hostage rescue, sniper, commando, urban warfare, survival, arctic survival, and other advanced courses, though they focused first on the ones most relevant to the commandos. Some would fold into existing Marine courses or use existing training facilities and instructors.

  They had settled on using the log to train teamwork during boot. Running logs was something they had done in boot themselves. They certainly had plenty of logs laying around. They had also decided to do a lot of training on the beach. Fun runs were common the first week, as were flutter kicks in the surf.

  They watched a training vid Schultz sent to them, some of it pieced together from old 2D television shows from the early twenty first century. Some like Jethro had seen it before, it had been part of Gunny's 'special advance DI training' he'd put Jethro and a few other DI's in training through back in Pyrax. Jethro had finally understood why the Gunny had done the things he had done, and why he had been frustrated when he couldn't do more.

  Things like log carrying were interesting. He'd thought of it as just sadism, but now he knew better. It not only built up the recruits back, shoulders, and arms, but it taught them not to quit, and to work as a team. It also taught them that if their teamwork failed they'd hurt even more.

  “Well, we've got plenty of logs,” he said. The next morning they had a forklift deliver a load of stripped logs, bright and early at 0600.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  “If you can't keep up, that's on you,” was the all too familiar cold bellow. “We want people without the ability to quit. You can ring out at any time.” The DI's took notes and amused themselves with comparisons. They set up a bell.

  Fourteen Naval Buds stuck it through to the second week to show the Marines up. Four of the original noncom volunteers, one Ensign, two additional ratings stuck together as the core. They were buttressed by six Marine Buds who had just finished boot, and another six Buds who were given the option after waking up from stasis.

  Opinions varied on why they hadn't quit, they either didn't want to be seen as chicken, a false sense of bravado, or they really wanted to prove their worth. To fill up the other two boat crews, twelve Marines who had passed basic and had shown an interest in commando work were allowed to join the Seals instead of waiting for a slot to open up in Recon.

  Bets were being taken on who would drop out next. A total of thirty eight out of the original sixty four made it to the half way point.

  The group was a mixed bag, only two Veraxin, but four Gashg and three Neo's. Sho was the only Neochimp. Most of the remaining pups were human.

  They ran an abbreviated training course with four other Marine recon squads in training. All had implants, which made the DI's ratchet things up a bit, they knew their enhanced strength and stamina could take it, even though the recruits didn't. The seal pups had their enhancements dialed down, but because of their blood lines and the basic implants they had a higher baseline and quicker recovery.

  Two major things they trained for, attention to detail, zero defect mentality, and the ability to absorb pain and not quit. It turned out most of the applicants had basic college courses under their belt, some qualified for officer training but there hadn't been any slots available for them.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  The first couple of weeks the DI's used a lot of stick, pounding on the crews whenever they screwed up. Usually it was individually, but sometimes the team broke down as teamwork failed.

  Taking care of their gear was an important thing, something they occasionally overlooked because they were tired or just sloppy. They had to care for their gear, make sure the salt water doesn't rot their life jackets. “It's not a fashion statement! Take care of your gear and your gear will take care of you!”

  “Hooyah!”

  A departure from Marine training, the recruits were given a three day weekend to rest, recover, and get squared away. What many didn't know was that the third day was a Federation Holiday, Founding day. The Marines were given holiday rotation and light duty as well.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Jethro watched a boat crew come out of the water dragging. The chimp Sho in the rear didn't look too happy, which was unusual. He was grimacing, but he seemed to want to remain in the damn water for some reason. Only in passing did Jethro get a whiff of the truth, and then he wished he hadn't. He checked the chimp's rear in passing and noted the brown stain. “Yeah, that's gotta suck.”

  “What?” Deja asked, then saw the stain. He snorted. “What can I say...”

  “Don't say it,” Jethro mock moaned.

  “Shit happens,” Deja said, eyes twinkling.

  “You would go there.”

  “Hey, shit or get off the pot. You can't hold your hand up and ask for a break in combat to take a dump.”

  “Scared the shit out of him?” Jethro asked.

  “Okay, that too,” Deja said.

  “Too many bananas?”

  “At least he's healthy.”

  Jethro made a face. “I'd hate to have to clean that later. Or the barracks.”

  “Should we make them wait?”

  “No, let's be all nice for once. I don't want him getting a rash and then having to go to the infirmary. We're already down to two boats.”

  “Nice?”

  “Yeah, I know learning to get it sorted out is important, and he should do it on his own. Let's give him the time and see if he uses it right.”

  “All right.”

  “But yeah, shit happens.”

  “Don't I just know it,” Deja said, shaking his head. “I'll just um, give him a hint to do that in the ocean next time. Drop, shit, then wipe with something handy.”

  “At least he didn't do it on the beach,” Jethro said.

  “Point,” Deja said in passing, trotting to catch up with the boat crew.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  A change in schedule was missed by a boat crew leader, Ensign Simpson had been banned from using his implants and had been too tired to walk to the sign board. He had taken it on faith that the schedule was the same.

  The entire boat crew went to the wrong rotation. When the DI's caught up with them, the entire group was punished by doing exercises in surf. “It's the little things that can get you killed! Pay attention! It's not just your life on the line, it's your team's!” Deja snarled at them, watching them do flutter kicks.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Deja's work with them in the sea was noted by passing native Selkie and sail boats. Once they were all swim qualified they moved on to scuba certification, then the advanced activities. The DI's used inflatable craft to drop off and pick up teams of swimmers. They buddy swam, each buddy responsible for his partner. It was good practice for space training as well. This was no nice clean pool to train in now, the DI's realized when several cases of fatigue and near drowning happened. There was one close call with a blue shark when they went to deep water. The blue, also known as a dog of the sea because it was so common, came in to investigate the divers. Fortunately it was driven off without inci
dent.

  They were well on their way to graduating the first class when things changed.

  ACT III

  Chapter 29

  "Sir we've got a situation, the freighter Lieandra just jumped in system screaming her head off about pirates," the communications rating said looking up.

  Mayweather blinked from her Captain's chair. "The Lieandra?" she asked. She remembered the ship, she'd had contact with them once or twice on the Carib queen. They made a circuit run, Centennial, Antigua, the empty b459c red dwarf chain, Protodon, Kathy's World, then south to the B452c system, and then on to Agnosta, and then Pyrax. Sometimes they mixed it up by heading to Triang but not often. It was one of the better freighters out there plying the space lanes. She was a medium sized freighter with three or four thousand people on her. "What jump point?" she demanded sitting up straight.

  “Briev ma'am."

  "Did they say if they were followed?"

  "No ma'am. They were in Protodon when the pirates came. They immediately ran for the jump point. The pirates were on a short course for the point leading to Antigua and they just made it clear and to the jump point to Kathy's world ahead of them."

  "Lucky,” she said. She didn't sound like she believed it though. She looked at her XO.

  Shelby grimaced. It could be a trap, her mind had tripped over that after a moment. She was pretty sure the Captain was suspicious of that very thing. But something rang true.

  "I'll say. They jumped to B452c but went north to Briev with a pirate hard on their heels. They made their way out from the Briev jump thinking they'd be followed but the pirates apparently didn't follow. Only a frigate emerged and it went to the planet instead of trying to run them down. They had just enough fuel to double back and head here."