Jethro Goes to War (Wandering Engineer Jethro's tale) (18 page)

He gasped and
twisted as the grizzly's pugil went flying past his head. He ducked
and then came up twisting. “Hey! I wasn't ready!”

He danced out of the
way but the bear turned, swiping at him. Extended claws ripped into
the front of the armor. “Shit! He's serious!” Sergei
snarled.

“
You'd better
be too recruit!” Jefferson snarled. “Stop acting like my
granny and fight!”

...*...*...*...*...

Valenko grinned as
Alpha platoon blanched. “Still think this is going to be easy?”
he growled across the mud hole. He was glad the gunny had finally
passed them on to other things. A week of the usual chickenshit had
most of his people bored to tears.

It was odd thinking
they were his people. They weren't they were the corps, but he felt a
responsibility to them. He had a feeling he'd have to do something
about that soon. Brenet had dropped hints about OCS being in his
future.

“
Fuck,”
Rigatoni said, shaking his head. His troop had been living it up
after defeating Beta and mopping the deck with Delta. Now they were
shitting bricks. Sometimes life just wasn't fair.

“
Wanna throw
the towel in now?” Hurranna called.

“
I tell you
what, we'll go half and half,” the gunny said eying the
platoon. “Since mine out mass yours, I'd say that would be
fair.”

“
I don't know.
I still think yours has the advantage,” gunny Thompskins said,
rubbing his chin.

“
All right,
how about this. Your entire platoon against two of F squads.”

“
Hmmm... Loser
buys the beer?” Thompskin said grinning.

“
And losing
platoon runs laps,” Schultz said nodding.

“
Fair enough,”
Thompskin said. “If only to see egg all over your face and mud
all over theirs.” He turned to his platoon. They were looking a
little nervous. “All right, Alpha platoon you've got the
advantage. Don't screw it up!” he snarled.

“
Yeah!”
the men and women tried to pump themselves up, making muscles with
their biceps and showing off their legs.

“
If I'd
thought it was a beauty contest I'd have worn a ribbon and a bikini,”
Hurranna sniffed. “We sure about this?”

“
Like we have
a choice?” Zebo growled.

“
I'm anchor,”
Sergei said going to the end of the rope. He wrapped it around his
waist and then grinned a feral grin. “Valenko?”

“
Yeah, I
admit, you're heavier than me. A lot heavier.” A few tittered
at that. The bear picked up the rope. “My squad will anchor.
Let’s see.” He looked over the platoon. It was a pain.
They had finally been re organized into fire teams, squads, and
platoons from the fifty team units of before. Now he had a whole host
of headaches to deal with and a lot of members he wasn't sure about.

“
Um..”

“
Got it.”
The bear turned to see the gorilla had taken the rope. He nodded to
the members of his ten man squad. They reluctantly slotted in place.
Jethro ended up in the middle of the pack.

“
Twenty versus
a hundred. This is a piece of a cake.”

“
Come on
pussies!” F squad was cheering already. Sergei turned in the
harness, facing backwards and digging in. His claws flexed for the
deepest purchase he could get. The bear growled as the line went
taught.

“
Wish we had
more leverage,” he muttered, eying the other team. “Hmmm...”
He growled menacingly then louder. A few of the others eyed him and
then grinned. Jethro added his own snarl, twisting his head a little,
ears flat and exposing his sharp teeth.

The gorilla chuffed
in amusement and then stepped back and beat his chest. He grunted and
then picked up the now slack line. “Sorry, had to get it out of
my system,” he said grinning to the now nervous looking Alpha
platoon. His eyes twinkled as he looked at his teammates. “Are
we ready?” he asked, turning back to Alpha and giving them a
full grin.

“
Shit,”
one Alpha said.

“
That was me,
I think I just did.”

“
I think I
just pissed myself.”

“
Yup. You did.
Diaper change!”

“
Mommy?”

Schultz snorted. He
glanced at Thomspkins who suddenly wasn't so happy. “On
three... one, two, three... HEAVE like you mean it MAGGOTS!”

 ...*...*...*...*...

“
I think
Alpha's getting a little sore at us,” Valenko said laughing as
they made their way back from football. The platoon had split into
two teams and had played iron man football. The gunny had refereed.
It had been interesting, Valenko had taken one side as quarterback
but decided to become a lineman instead after their lineman had taken
a drubbing. Sergei had also tried his hand at quarterbacking but had
given it up to Betty so he could match the bear. Besides, the chimp
had a much better arm.

“
You think?”
Jethro asked laughing as he tossed the ball in the air. “They
lost at tug of war, track, and football yesterday.”

“
Yeah. And we
were at a disadvantage in each,” Hurranna growled. She had been
selected to run the race. She hadn't been happy, nor had most of the
platoon. They had planned on the cheetah Senjix to run it. Instead
they had thought Hurranna with her small legs would be quickly
outdistanced by her opponent. Hurranna had shocked them all by
staying on all fours from the sprinting position, quickly
outdistancing her opponent.

“
Yeah... Wait
what the... What happened here?” Sergei said, standing in the
hatch to their troop bay.

“
Crap,”
Hurranna said, squeezing past the Liger. He moved in and off to one
side. The others piled in behind him. They looked around the torn up
bay and snarled.

“
I think
someone's a sore loser,” the bear commented. He grimaced and
then got a sick thought. “Inspection could be at any moment.
Get to work people.”

“
Oh this is
lovely. They tied the bed sheets in knots!” Jethro snarled,
fingering one as he passed. His nose wrinkled at the ammonia smell.
“And pissed... ah hell,” he said, eyes watering.

“
Yeah.”

...*...*...*...*...

The gunny didn't say
anything as he walked up and down the bay an hour later. He eyed the
wrinkled sheets and his nose wrinkled at the smell they hadn't quite
gotten out. His eye lingered on the dents and scratches on some of
the lockers.

“
Seems like
someone wet the bed. I'd think you all are too old for that,”
the gunny growled. He shook his head and left. The two corporals
followed him out without a word.

“
Um...”
The troopers looked from one to the other in confusion. They had
known, not thought, known they were dead meat.

“
What just
happened?”

“
We got a free
pass. Let's not let it go to waste. Run that bedding, hell all the
bedding and clothes through the laundry again. Who's our best shoe
shiners?” the bear asked as he turned around. A few reluctant
hands were raised. “Get on it. Shine them. Someone else will
take care of your rack and gear.”

He turned to Jethro.
“Bathrooms, on it,” the panther said grabbing a mop,
toothbrush, rag and bucket. He trotted to the back. Deja shucked his
artificial legs to help. Without the prosthetic legs he was a lot
shorter than the cat, so he could do a better job on the low spots
and floor.

“
Right,”
the bear turned. “I'm not sure if we only get one free pass
people. Get this sorted.”

...*...*...*...*...

“
Interesting,”
Corporal Jefferson said shaking his head. The gunny eyed him.

“
Thought I was
going to throw the book at them?” Schultz asked, making sure
they were out of earshot of any of the recruits.

“
In a word,
yes.”

“
They've been
doing their best. This wasn't their fault. I thought they deserved a
little slack.”

“
A little?”
Corporal Brenet said with a raised eyebrow. The gunny's lip curled.
“Okay, a little. But turning a blind eye...”

“
Did you
notice they didn't make any excuses? Didn't try to cover it up?”
the gunny said.

“
Yeah,”
the Corporal said thinking.

“
They knew
they were in hack but couldn't do anything about it. I'm not going to
do Alpha the honor of playing their hatchet man. I'll just see if we
can keep them from going at each other's throats.”

“
Ouch,”
Jefferson said, thinking about some of the Neo's in their platoon.
Some would take that idea literally.

“
Didn't think
of that did you?”
“No,” Brenet sighed. “F
has a lot more teeth and aggression to tear throats out too.”

“
Alpha's
playing with fire. We've got some scary people in our platoon,”
Jefferson said rubbing his chin. “Most have had some sort of
combat in their past.”

“
Which is
scary for us. I'd prefer no injuries,” the gunny scowled. “So,
you two get to keep close eye on them. I'll put a bug in Thompskin's
ear.”

“
Ah gunny,
wouldn't that be... well tattling?”

“
Hmmm...”

 ...*...*...*...*...

“
What gives?”
Jethro asked, looking at Hurranna. She was standing against a bunk,
head down. She sighed. A few of those around her were also looking a
little put out. It was their personal time, and he wasn't sure why
they all had long faces. They'd gotten Alpha back last night and the
celebration had been a hoot. Since today was Sunday they all had a
half day to kick back and get personal chores done.

“
Um...”
She looked uncertainly around to make sure no one was in ear shot.

“
I don't know
how to put this, but well, the Fleet Admiral's in deep pucky.”

“
He...”
Zebo looked up. Most of the squad came over.

“
Tell,”
Valenko said, arms crossed.

“
I got a
friend of a friend who passed me a tidbit of gossip. It seems while
we've been cut off from the real world something big and nasty went
down.”

“
Crap.
Pirates?”

“
No. Nastier
shit. Politics.”

“
Oh,”
Jethro shot a look at Valenko. “We're supposed to stay out of
it. That's why the Admiral had those elections run and then stepped
aside,” he turned back to the lynx.

“
Yeah well,
apparently it didn't play out as well as he'd hoped,” Zebo
growled. “He got caught with his hands in some kids shorts.”

“
HE WHAT?”
Sergei growled, shouldering others aside as he moved through the
crowd. “Not Irons. Not in a million years.”

“
How do you
know? He's an officer.”

“
Because it's
not true,” a clear distinct and artificial voice said from a
nearby speaker. They looked up at the voice.

“
Um, Who...”

“
Commander
Firefly,” the voice replied. “All hands meet in the park
deck. Now.”

...*...*...*...*...

They filed out and
met the crush of people moving to the park deck. The groups weren't
moving in any uniformed way, there was a mix of navy and marine
recruits. A few of the noncoms looked nonplussed about it, but
couldn't get order from chaos in time before they got to the park
deck.

“
File in and
post,” Firefly's voice boomed over the net. “Next to your
instructors. Move!”

The recruits fell
into a jog trot, running to their posts. They filed in and waited.

“
Attention,”
Firefly called. The recruits snapped to attention, boots stomping.
“At ease.”

They fell into a
parade rest stance, feet apart, hand appendages behind their torsos.

“
What I'm
about to tell you happened several weeks ago. It is still news to
some and it affects all branches of the Federation Military. We were
waiting for graduation before announcing it but it seems matters were
taken out of our hands,” Commander Logan's voice boomed over
the intercom. The lights dimmed and he appeared in holo form.

“
I am on
Fuentes now so I am a light hour out so this will have to be short
and sweet.” His holo image flickered. “Approximately
twenty eight days ago Admiral Irons encountered a situation on the
colony of Vesta. The full download will be made available to you
after this discussion. The low points are as follows...”