Jethro: First to Fight (22 page)

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

A hundred meters ahead Lieutenant
Silverman paused at the edge of open ground. This was a great ambush site,
there was little or no cover for almost fifty meters. She signaled her people
to move through single file, in long intervals. She wanted to see what Valenko
would do. She signaled the point to move forward. He hesitated but then did so.

Valenko watched the point come in and
nodded. Single he could appreciate, but he would have had the guy hugging one
bulkhead, not coming up the center. The center just begged to be seen. He had
been tempted to set up on the other side and then chew them up, but he'd settled
for a different approach.

Fonz, Gusterson, and Asazi had portable
shields. Ox had something better, a standing shield that could also serve as
cover. He had just finished setting it up when the enemy point moved into the
crates and then dropped to cover.

Jethro itched to go into stealth, to
cloak, work around the enemy, and then hit them from behind. No doubt they were
anticipating that very thing, that might be why Silverman was going single file
across open ground. He wasn't sure.

One by one the enemy crossed the open
ground. When the last had crossed Valenko hand-signed to Jethro. Jethro turned
and passed the signal on to Fonz who passed it on to Sergei who was off and
back from the main group. Sergei nodded and opened fire.

Simulated mortar rounds puffed up from
his position and arched up. One bounced off the ceiling, smashing a light and
then tumbled off to explode in a puff of smoke off to one side. “Oops,” Sergei
muttered, hunching his shoulders. He adjusted his aim, leaning forward.

Lieutenant Silverman saw the incoming
fire, and tracked it warily. Her implant computers immediately showed her it
would land behind her. She smiled wolfishly. So, they screwed up their timing,
expecting her to go slower. She could deal with that. She sent a signal for her
people to move in as she backtracked the incoming mortar fire.

Her point rounded a corner and found
himself facing a strange device on the ground about a dozen meters away. Just
beyond that his sensors picked up the tell tale signs of five suits. He froze,
hand signing to freeze, and then indicated contact ahead, prepare to fire. When
Ox shifted slightly, exposing himself the point rose from his crouch and opened
fire.

The device on the ground was a new
invention, a shield wall. It was primed, when it detected incoming fire it
flared to life, blocking it. An almost invisible wall formed, pushing and
knocking a few things over in its path. The point blinked in surprise.

Two other shooters behind the point
opened up, the shield glowed blue, shirking off the fire. Ox monitored the
incoming fire as well as the attackers.

Lieutenant Silverman got the report of
the shield and swore softly. “So, that's what the bruin's been doing,” she said
thinking hard. To be on the defense was to invite attack and defeat. You didn't
stay bottled up in a suit, that just gave away the initiative to the enemy. She
wondered what Valenko was playing at. “Flank it. Skirt the shield, see how far
it extends on either side. It should be weaker on the edges,” she said. She
turned to the other half of her squad. She'd arrayed them in two chevrons, one
facing forward, the other the rear. She was in the pocket where she could see
what was going on and pass orders fast.

“Anything?” she asked her rear guard.

“Nothing so far, but we'd expect that.
That damn cloak is scary,” The rear replied, looking slightly over his shoulder
to her.

“Keep me posted,” she said. She turned
back to the skirmish at her front.

She didn't like what was happening, her
five men were forming a firing line, trying to find the edge of the shield.

Valenko turned to where he knew the
leopard was waiting and then waved a hand. He held up fingers, then signaled to
open fire.

Letanga received the hand sign and then
reoriented on his first chosen target. He moved from left to right, stopping at
each, then went back to start. He was ready. He quickly fired, then moved on to
the next target.

One by one his targets dropped, the
incoming fire signaled the suit's computers to lock up and drop the Marines as
KIA. The Marines went from firing at the shield to stuck in dark coffins.

“What the hell? Where is that... shit,
sniper!” Silverman screamed as her suit localized the fire and backtracked it
to its location. The sneaky SOB was in the crane box above the shield, shooting
out above the thing into her troops. She pointed. “Hit it!” she screamed.

Silverman's Marines reoriented on the
sniper nest. When they did so Valenko signaled again.

Gusterson, Fonz, and Asazi moved
forward, shields raised on their left arm, right arm carrying their weapons.
They fired, hitting one exposed Marine and driving others into cover.

Letanga knew the maxim of a sniper,
shoot and scoot. His cover was blown. Fortunately he had planned for the
occasion, he was sitting with his legs pinned over an empty seat. His back had
been against the bulkhead. He brought his body in and dropped through the
opening below him.

Unfortunately he hadn't planned on the
long barrel of his rifle, it snagged on the short opening. He hung there for a
moment before he let go. The power cable disengaged as he let go and he
dropped. Like any proper cat he dropped to all fours, landing on his feet. He
crawled forward, just far enough to catch the rifle when it slipped out of the
hole and dropped. He did a quick once over and then gently set it down. He
pulled his regulation C-42 Gauss rifle and moved forward.

The C-42 Impaler was the latest weapon
to be put into broad release to the Marines. It was a coil gun, a linear
actuator weapon that used electromagnetic coils to fire a twenty four gram
steel jacketed tungsten impaler dart down range. It could also fire an
explosive dart, as well as a flashbang dart. Rumor had it that some egg heads
were trying to create a sensor dart.

The C-42 was good against infantry, but
it only had decent penetrating power against powered armor when it was under
the twenty meter range mark. Which wasn't going to happen with the damn shield
in her way.

Silverman knew she was in deep, she was
down to four effectives counting herself. That damn sniper had picked off five
of her people, one had fallen to the soldiers behind the shield line. The
shield wall went down to allow them to pass, but she was already in retreat.
“Cover fire,” she said, turning her torso backwards to fire back the way she
had come.

“Double time to the other side! Move
Move!” she ordered.

Hurranna had been watching from her
vantage point off to the side against the right bulkhead. She sent a brief
burst to Sergei to reengage.

The rear guard picked up the signal
burst and turned to its source. Silverman passed him, practically bowling him
over as he slowed. “Move!” she snarled as mortar fire began to rain in front of
them, cutting off retreat.

“Never give a sucker an even break,”
Hurranna chortled, sighting through her rifle to add to the chaos. After a
moment it was all over, Silverman and her last man were down.

A loud err err sounded, blaring a klaxon
signaling an end to the exercise. The lights came up to full. Gusterson hefted
his rifle on his hip, cheering. The squid corpsman had earned it, he was
normally a medic, not a shooter. His whip tail wagged as he cheered. “Yes! I
didn't screw up!” That got a snort from the others, they had known the
greyhound had been nervous about his role. Asazi high fived Fonz and then
shield bumped him onto his ass. He laughed as she stood over him.

“Okay, I admit, that I didn't expect,”
Silverman said, amused at being an unwitting guinea pig. “But next time...” she
warned, waggling a finger.

“Next time you'll be ready. That's fine.
I was conservative here, I wasn't sure they would hold up long enough to
matter. Now that we know, well, we'll see about stepping it up a notch.”

Silverman rolled her eyes. “I obviously
need something to balance your cheating out.”

“Hey, if you’re not cheating you’re not
trying hard enough,” the bear replied, spreading his hands. She looked at him
and snorted. Then she turned to the panther who was lounging against a crate.
The bear looked at her and then to the panther. “You were so busy looking for
Jethro, well, we just let you wonder,” he said.

“What were you doing? Scouting me and
mine?” she asked.

Jethro shook his head. “No ma'am,
sitting on my ass taking a nap back here,” he said, indicating the crate he was
on.

Silverman snorted. “A likely story,” she
said, voice dripping in disdain.

“Honest ma'am, check the feed.”

“Right,” she scoffed, turning away.

“She just doesn't want to admit she got
her ass kicked while trying to anticipate you,” Valenko said, chuckling.

“Where can I get some of those?” the
woman demanded, indicating the shields and long rifle. From the look of it she
was certain it wasn't standard issue.

“Check with supply,” Valenko said and
then smirked. “We made these though, so you may have a bit of a wait.”

“Prototypes,” Letanga said.

“All good?” Jethro asked.

“I think so,” Letanga said, looking at
the rifle. “I want Riley to check it out though,” he said.

“Well, it won't do you much good. The
next exercise is internal,” Silverman said. “Boarding action,” she said with a
look at the sniper.

“I do wonder if this will punch straight
through a station,” Letanga said, looking at the rifle again.

“Probably,” Jethro said with a tight
lipped smile and an ear flick of amusement. His tail flicked once.

“Shit,” Silverman said. “I can just
image you trying to get that damn pole around a corner. Good luck trying,” she
said. “I don't even know how the hell you got it through the locks here,” she
said, indicating the room.

Letanga looked around and then shrugged.
“It wasn't easy ma'am, but we managed just fine,” he said, breaking the rifle
down into three manageable parts. He racked them on his back.

“Shit,” Silverman sighed.

“Five minute set up?” she asked, turning
to the bear.

“I'll be magnanimous. I'll give you
fifteen,” he said with a wave of his fingers for her to be off.

“Gee, thanks,” she said, and waved for
her troops to move out.

“Shields?” the bear asked, turning to
the team. Each of the shield bearers checked their HUD then double checked the
indicator lights on the shield emitters. “Ten,” Asazi said.

“Ten point five,” Fonz said.

“Eight,” Gusterson said.

“Shield wall is just about drained,” Ox
replied. “Fifty seconds, maybe a minute.”

“Okay, that's out. Well, this is an
offensive exercise anyway,” The bear said. “Got your pack?” He asked looking at
Jethro. Jethro nodded. He turned to Asazi. “Got your gear?”

The woman jumped and then swore. “I knew
I was forgetting something,” she muttered, moving to recover her dropped
surveillance gear.

“Mortars are out,” Sergei reported. He
had his micro camera in his hand. He stored it in a small port on his hip. He
shucked the empty ammo packs and mortars and then unslung his Impaler. He
checked it as he had been taught and then nodded.

“I wasn't going to use them in this
anyway,” the bear said. “Okay, you're on,” he said, nodding to the panther.

Jethro went over to their starting point
and pulled off a cloak sheet. Underneath was his wings on a stand. “Someone
want to give me a hand suiting up?” he asked, looking at Ox as Letanga climbed
to get the rest of his gear from his sniper nest.

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

The simulation was brutal, but another
success for Valenko's squad. The new shields and the tactical changes forced
the defenders off balance and added confusion and consternation. Valenko was
careful to use only one shield at a time, rotating them out at each
intersection. When Silverman got cute and tried to flank him, Fonz blocked it
until his shield was drained.

By that time however Jethro had exited
the station and used his flight pack to get to another lock near their
objective and then reentered. He'd shucked the flight pack and then cloaked,
going on the offensive he took Silverman out inside her control room. After
that it was just a matter of clean up.

Good and bad natured grumbling about
cheating was brooded about. Valenko had the shields and gear recharged.

“Fine, you try it,” he said to Silverman
when she grumbled again. He waved to Fonz who looked up in surprise. “Give the
lady the gauntlet Private. You too Asazi. We'll go with two and two, fair?” he
asked, turning to Silverman. She nodded, testing the shield out. He sent her
the file on it and then waited for her to distribute each gauntlet to one of
her people. When they seemed confused by the devices he silently waved Asazi
and Fonz in to do a quick tutorial.

“Boss, why'd we do that?” Asazi demanded
when she returned to them and they reset. This time they were the defenders and
Silverman would be the aggressor.