Jethro: First to Fight (41 page)

“No one likes a brown nose sir,” Valenko
replied, twitching his great black nose. The Major caught the twitch and then
snorted softly.

“Spoken like a true Marine. Dismissed.”

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

Off duty, other squad leaders and
officers joked about Valenko's squad in the officer's bar. Despite the new meat
he had to train, and being shorthanded they still ended up cleaning everyone
else's clock on a seemingly regular basis. They now knew the only sure way to
win against him was to take him and Jethro out early.

The other officers complained that with
Valenko it was like he didn't bother to even read the book, or he had chapters
the rest of them lacked. Valenko was sitting at the end of the bar and snorted
when the griping got too loud and started sounding like a perpetual whine.
“Think outside the box. Innovate. Try and be willing to fail. Train. My squad
trains
daily
even though we've got other duties. We have training ops
against simulated opponents all the time.”

The room quieted and all eyes turned to
him. “Okay...”

“Your squad has also seen combat,” a
fellow Marine said from the back of the bar. A few nodded at that.

“Both before they were Marines and on
Agnosta, yes some of them did. Not all, some. That tends to put things in
perspective,” Valenko said waving a hand. “My squad may not be the best when it
comes to dressing up and looking pretty, but we've got other priorities.
Surviving in combat for instance. Kicking ass and dishing out pain is another.”
He smiled ever so slightly. The others winced at that. He downed his shot and
nodded to the barkeep to refill.

“Baddest on the block.”

“Bully,” a woman said amused. The
barkeep snorted and poured Valenko a double.

“Sometimes you need some hard ass to
kick everyone in the teeth a few times. Learn from it.”

“I will.”

“Good.”

“Gunny was a great teacher. He was a
bastard as a DI, believe me. You learn fast by being pounded on hard.”

“Ouch.”

“Of course life did that for most of us.
Life in the gangs was no picnic. You learned to be a survivor right away.”

“Damn.”

“Combat from diapers?”

“Probably,” Someone else said. Valenko
nodded.

“Gunny made damn sure F platoon busted
their asses and didn't coast for a moment. We usually had less than four hours
of personal time a week if we were lucky, there was always something new to
learn. I looked at the records. We did more combat sims then any of the other
platoons. More than all of them
combined
actually.”

“Shit.” Lieutenant Myers whistled
softly.

“Yeah we were tired, sore all the time
and damn cranky. But it weeded out the ones not fit to be there and taught us
how to deal with it. Deal with it on a moment's notice, constant, or whenever.
Deal with the crap and learn to take it so we can dish it out later.” He shook
his head. “Speaking of crap, I honestly don't remember taking one for the
entire first phase.” That earned a chuckle.

“Rub it in,” a Captain said with a sigh.
His entire platoon had been wiped out by Valenko's squad from hell in an op.
Sure they had inflicted sixty percent casualties on the squad, but he hadn't
had more than one effective trooper when the sim was finished. One hundred and
twenty Marines against a paltry ten. Of course most of the squad were Neo's,
born and bred for combat. Yeah Valenko and his team were scary. “That damn
panther is a major reason why you win,” he said downing his own drink. The
others nodded. They all knew Jethro's reputation. His ability to cloak and go
through troops like a hot knife through butter had more than one trooper
willing to see a shrink after a combat sim. It also had every platoon Commander
putting in to get the panther transferred to their squad almost every week. One
squad leader had even tried forging Jethro's signature. He was up for a
reprimand. When asked why he'd done it, he'd just stated the old axiom, 'if
you're not cheating you're not trying hard enough.' It seemed everyone wanted a
piece of Jethro these days.

“He plays his part. But sometimes it's
fun to use other ideas to fight. Ideas
not
in the book. Do the
unexpected. If you're not cheating you're not trying hard enough,” the bear
rumbled. Which was true. Now that the other squads knew what Jethro was capable
of he was holding the panther back and watching them shit themselves as they
nervously tried to figure out where he was. As a Neo predator Jethro preferred
a rear attack, ambushing from the six o'clock. Now the other platoons were
deploying remotes to cover their rear arch more than their front, which of
course meant Jethro attacked from another angle, sometimes above, and once,
below.

Lately they had worked on attrition
tactics, having the panther pick off a point or other soldier who was for one
reason or another isolated and alone. That usually served as a distraction, the
rest of the opforce would funnel to the action. Sometimes Valenko would
position the panther on the off side then use someone else in the squad to take
a point or flank out. When the platoon reacted to the threat by massing in the
direction of the perceived threat Jethro would come in on their exposed flank
and pick off any he could before they realized he was there. Attrition was the
name of the game and they played it well.

“You're saying you cheat?” Myers asked
suspiciously.

Valenko rumbled a laugh. “Oh hell no,
just looks that way.”

“Sure,” a Lieutenant said dryly, still
not quite convinced.

“Tell me that mine wasn't cheating?”
another demanded.

“Worked didn't it?” Valenko asked with
an ear flick and slight smile. Jethro had dropped the mine in the sweet spot
after the platoon had swept for it. They had pivoted and then came back on the
same track and didn't rescan, walking right into the ambush. “Always treat a
path as compromised, always sweep, even if you've been through it once before.
IED's suck. That's from the book by the way.” They nodded ruefully. The Major
had pointed it out in the hot wash. “You walked right into the ambush.
Claymores are a good way to break a team. They sow chaos and confusion, letting
you get the first shots in. When the enemy has superior numbers sometimes it's
the only way. Read Sun Tzu if you don't believe me. Lay traps, devise
stratagems. Blowing the mine and that's the sign to take out the enemy. No give
away radio signal needed. The explosion has the opposition so screwed up all
they can think of is cover.”

The Lieutenant nodded grudgingly.
“Letting you get in the first shots. I'll remember that.”

“Snipers did actually. They took out
well... you and your ensign over there and your noncom,” he said waving his
hand paws. “Cut off the head and the body flops around.”

“Headless chicken,” the bartender
murmured. They flicked a look at him and then nodded.

“Innovate. I'm also open to other ideas.
Ideas from my squad. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. I've been doing
a lot of research. So has my team. It helps that Jethro's so curious.”

“He was a cat. Goes with the territory,”
a Lieutenant growled. That got a laugh.

“Anyone tell him curiosity usually kills
the cat in the end?”

“Not in this regard. I've accessed his
family journal. It's fascinating reading.”

“Huh. Any way I can get a hand on it?” A
Lieutenant asked. Another nodded.

“I'll see what I can do,” Valenko said
dryly, taking a swig of vodka. The rotgut burned down his throat. He had
thought that since Letanga had been reassigned others would have access to the
journal. Or that the Major would make it available for everyone. Apparently the
Major was respecting the family's right to privacy. He'd have to talk to the
cats about it. If they were uncomfortable with a full release perhaps only the
parts they were comfortable with could be released?

“We're also working on new toys and how
to use them effectively. We're constantly thinking up new ideas to try.
Sometimes they work, sometimes not.” He shrugged again.

“Some of them are damn good,” someone
said dryly.

“The shields. When do we get them?”
Lieutenant Halsey further down asked, shaking her head. “Those are a pain in
the ass.”

Valenko smiled. Four platoons of Marines
had powered combat armor now. His squad had it the longest and were damn good
at using it, mainly because of Ox's maintenance and constant tinkering... and
the team's constant rethinking of old concepts. They weren't afraid to try
anything in a sim. “Logistics is working on it. The Major is debating on making
them standard issue,” Captain Pendeckle said, setting his cover down as he
staked out a stool. That was news, the armor was locked out. Most of the Marines
had an infantry MOS because there were so few slots available in the other
fields right now. Apparently things were changing.

“Figure out how to counter them yet?”
Valenko asked sympathetically. His ears flicked. He was curious if he'd get an
honest answer.

The female Lieutenant scowled. “No,” she
said in disgust. She looked down at the bottom of her glass. She set it down
and the bartender refilled it.

Valenko smiled evilly. “Pity. I've
figured out several counters. My team has trained on them and counters to the
counters.”

“Don't suppose you're going to tell me
any?” she asked knowing the answer. He just smiled at her. “Thought not,” she
said in disgust. The others around the room snorted in amusement.

“Experience is sometimes the best
teacher.” He got off his stool and nodded to the barkeep as his implants paid
his tab. “I've got to go do my homework. We've got another sim tomorrow,” he
said nodding to the others.

“I might as well not even show up,” the
female Lieutenant said in disgust covering her face with her hands. Valenko
rumbled a chuckle and waved a good bye as he exited the bar.

The next day Valenko's team participated
in a practice extraction op. The squad he was covering was on its way across a
variety of terrain, most of it forest. First Lieutenant Myers was a prickly
human, by the book and not experienced in ground combat. The squad had a few
wounded and it was a tricky op to participate in. Their coordination had to be
spot on, and Valenko was pretty sure the other platoons were more interested in
pounding his team flat rather than winning the scenario.

It was a complex scenario, one he was
pretty sure would tax all the systems and people involved before it was done.
To make it interesting he decided right off to change a few things right off,
just to throw anyone's carefully laid plans out the lock. It was time to teach
a few people about not only thinking outside the box but staying the hell out
of the box all together. The kill box that was.

The dropship was a heavy Marine ascraft,
one designed for planetary ops. They didn't have many in the inventory just yet
but it was on their TOE so they trained for it. She was a Prejudice class VTOL,
a manta shaped beast painted in smart camo that adapted to the forest colors.
When she was off duty she changed to lengthwise stripes of green and brown. Her
wingtips had nacelle engine pods that swiveled down as she went into a hover,
or horizontal for normal flight. She could handle reentry but she was small.

A Prejudice class ascraft was a
utilitarian bird, she had clamps on her underside that held a pod or a military
vehicle. Right now she had a pod that could hold two squads of lightly armed
Marines... if they were friendly. In the case of the Neo's on board...
very
friendly.

There was a door leading to the cockpit
pod. The dropship had a crew of four, two pilots, a crew Chief and an engineer.
The engineer sometimes doubled as a door gunner if things got too hot.

Valenko was of two minds about the
Prejudice. It lacked the size and legs to really move gear, but it's ability to
multitask was both an asset and a burden. Her ability to multitask was probably
why the powers that be were focused on using her design. She couldn't do every
job perfectly but she could haul freight, people, or vehicles and do a fast
turnaround to another task. She shared a lot of common parts with other similar
craft and had a reputation as a hardy craft that was easy to maintain. She
could also refuel in flight which was great.

Of course if you didn't have the right
pod the people she carried would be just a bit put out over how they'd be
carried. He didn't picture hanging onto the underside of the thing as a good
idea.

Right from the beginning he dropped his
snipers in to cover the extraction before circling wide. They would come in
from a new vector, moving in with the sun at the back of the dropship. Jethro
and his two apprentice snipers were dropped several kilometers out from the
extraction point, they rappelled down to the tree canopy rapid fire. It would
be a short walk for them to the LZ, in this case an open meadow in the middle
of a virtual poplar and spruce forest. The opposing force would be looking and
listening for the dropship, not for a group of people on the ground.

The lion Private Kovu was still coming
along when it came to moving quietly in the bush. He had taken the time to put
on camo paint on the flight out. His short cut black mane was greased with
brown and green, as they walked he occasionally snatched twigs and small
branches off trees and bushes and added them to his camouflage.

Kovu still had an attitude problem, he
was definitely no Letanga but he was coming along. Jethro was glad that Valenko
had insisted on the time chop for realism sake. It had given them plenty of
time to prepare even though the pilots had complained.

Fonz wasn't so bad in the bush for a
human. That was surprising to Jethro, Fonz had never been off his small
asteroid colony before he'd joined up. He was a good sniper, bit of a goof off
when he was off duty, but he settled down nicely in action. Or at least in the
sims. He still had to face the real furnace though.

When Fonz had replaced Miles it had been
a bit of a see saw with Asazi. Most of the others had concluded Fonz was in for
a broken jaw, or at least a broken nose. He'd surprised them all by cracking
her up by showing her an image of him before he'd joined up. She'd cracked up
and then passed the image on to the others. Jethro had to admit the guy had changed.
He'd gone from a black mullet and long sideburns to a no nonsense Marine buzz
cut. Now he had to live up to his new “rep”.

Jethro knew the op orders but he also
knew that whoever the opposition team leader was they were probably out for
blood. Most likely camped around the perimeter of the meadow on the south side
of it, facing the incoming team. When the team came in they'd wait and use them
as bait until the dropship arrived.

Or they'd wait until the dropship
dropped its security and then ambush them. Or wait until the entire group was
in the bag and then let loose. There were a lot of different ways things could
play. Well, they could if Valenko had been bothered to follow the book to the
letter at any rate.

He picked a nice thick oak, one with
some nice branches about two hundred meters up. Climbing it was dead easy,
doing it quietly from the south side so no one could see him on the other side
wasn't so easy.

When the team was set they double
clicked their radios to call in the dropship. Valenko rested his paw on the
pilot's shoulder and leaned over. “Just bring her in a bit, enough for the
whoever is waiting there to hear your engines. Then wait.”

“Wait?” the pilot asked, looking up at
him dubiously. Didn't the damn bear know they were a sitting duck for anyone
with a plasma gun or SAM?

“Yes. Just a bit for the all clear,”
Valenko rumbled. The pilot nodded. He had no intention of screwing with the
bear.

Jethro smirked as he caught sight of
rustling ahead of him. Whoever was waiting could hear the engines as he did but
had pretty good camo on. Thermals were useless. He tracked the motion by eye,
glad there wasn't any wind at the moment. When he was certain of their
positions he nodded slightly and sent them to his teammates through a wire
link.

Jethro spotted the predicted ambush
before it happened and called it in. There were two dozen of them by his count.
He left Kovu and Fonz as over watch with his gear and then headed out hunting.
The dropship pulled back to secondary recovery LZ.

His real task was to draw the hounds
into chasing him. For this he was the hare, and Kovu and Fonzarelli would slip
past the hounds and hunters when he distracted them. He'd draw the hunters off
buying time for the others to meet up hopefully.

“There is no secondary LZ! This is it!”
The retreating Lieutenant snarled. He was thoroughly confused. This was
supposed to be a simple shoot and scoot, get to the LZ and then pack it in. He
didn't know why they bothered with such scenarios, they should just do the
basic op and then quit. Doing an insert, op, and then extract may be realistic
but it was damn tiring. Now throw in Valenko's little monkey wrench... What the
hell was going on? What was the bear playing at?

“Trust me, the selected LZ is too hot.
No go. Repeat, No go,” Valenko rumbled. He closed his eyes for a moment. He
didn't want to remain on the radio for much longer, it would draw the attention
of the hunters. “Little eyes and ears are involved.”

“Roger,” the Lieutenant replied, feeling
a little put out but suddenly relieved. He didn't want to be the one to screw
the pooch, walk into an ambush all fat dumb and tired. Sure Valenko was
responsible for LZ security but his people would get caught up in the works if
things went south. Valenko shot him a set of coordinates embedded in an
encrypted message. Myers opened the file and checked them. The indicated
coordinates were west of the first LZ, about two clicks off his course. “That's
in the deep forest. That's no clearing!” he snarled back.

“It will be when my people get done.
They'll rappel down and clear a zone,” Valenko replied soothingly, praying that
the other team hadn't hacked their communications. If they had this asshole
would blow it for all of them.

“Roger.” There was a brief pause and
then, “smart,” the Lieutenant said grudgingly.

“I figure the Major has the other
clearings covered. Do the unexpected,” Valenko rumbled. Myers double clicked in
response to that.

Myers turned to his people and waved.
Sergeant Minachelli shot him a look. Myers was still new to the hand signal
thing. Quietly Minachelli made his way over to his boss and leaned close. Myers
whispered his changed orders in the Sergeant's ear and then waited for a
response.

Minachelli straightened and then looked
him in the eye. After a moment the heavyworlder just shrugged and made hand
signs to the others to stop. He pointed the blade of his hand in the new
direction and then waited for the point to adjust. Then he signaled to move
out.

The retreating squad was pissed but humped
the extra clicks. They were never aware they were being stalked by enemy
squads. Not until nearly to extraction when a rear guard blew a floating sensor
pod away to keep them from knowing they were being followed. After that Myers
changed direction and double times it out of the area.

Sergei, Valenko, Asazi, and Ox rappel
down to the newly designated landing zone and cut down trees. The dropship
moved off to the western sun to keep their location a secret. Valenko watched
the two heavy weapons Marines take on the virtual trees and winced. Ox had no
finesse, he was all business. When one metric ton of enhanced Tauren at full
charge met a virtual poplar the tree didn't just break it shattered. The word
'Timber' didn't even cover it.

Sergei's technique was a bit more
varied. With smaller trees the Liger ripped them out of the ground and then
threw them aside. With larger trees he either climbed them until they bent and
then snapped them or he gripped them with gloved hand paws, digging his claws
in to the bark and his toe claws into the ground and just ripped them in half.
No explosives necessary.

“Damn!”

“What?” Valenko asked, looking at Sergei
as he shook a paw and then tried to pick something out of it.

“Got a splinter!”

“How the hell could you get a splinter
here?” the bear demanded. He wasn't sure if the liger was pulling his leg or
not.

“Don't ask me!”

“Sometimes this place is a little
too
real if you ask me,” Asazi said. She went over and used her slightly smaller
fingers to pull the splinter out of the Liger's paw and then flicked it away.

Valenko looked over to Asazi. The Terran
woman just shrugged and went back to watching her zone. He snorted looking at
the other two. Damn it looked like fun. He made a mental note to figure out
something faster before he pulled on virtual gloves to get his paws dirty. He
couldn't let the others have all the fun after all.

They used the trees as cover for the
outer perimeter. Stacked in piles the trees and their tops made a good screen.
Not that wood would stand up for more than a half second against rail guns and
plasma weapons, that wasn't their intended purpose.

The spotter and co sniper made the
perimeter just before they picked up the flashed IFF of the incoming retreating
squad. Good, Valenko thought in approval. He waved to the sniper team to set up
and then sent a burst signal for the dropship to return. The snipers nodded and
kept moving, not even slowing their pace. They had made good time to make it
here ahead of the storm. He listened, turning his head as the birds and animal
life quieted. Yes, the dropship was incoming.

The dropship's engines screamed as it
came in, kicking up dust and leaves while making the virtual plant life dance
as it came down to land. It's boarding ramp in the rear dropped. The pilot had
been smart, he'd come in and positioned himself facing his extraction course
with his door facing the incoming squad and the enemy. The door gunner was set
up. Valenko smiled. If he was right the gunner wouldn't be needed for more than
show.

At the secondary LZ the dropship picked
up the injured squad and the officers consulted as the rear guard warily came
in. They reported the incoming squads were less than five minutes behind them.

Myers, their first Lieutenant wasn't
happy. He was a normally by the book guy who just didn't get into this humping
across the dirt crap. He wanted bigger and better things, but he'd grudgingly
admitted he needed this experience if he was ever going to get above Lieutenant
rank.

He was gruff, taking on a no nonsense
personality. As human's go he pulled it off okay, not as well as someone
seasoned could, but not bad for a bald former spacer turned Marine. He marched
up to Valenko, aware of the bear's mighty frame but reminding himself that the
bear was on his side. The bear was also only a second Lieutenant so he
outranked the grizzly by a pay grade.

The LT started to ball out Valenko but
Valenko quietly explained to him to be ready for ambush. His team was deployed
around the secondary LZ before the squad had arrived. “Payback's a bitch
right?” Valenko growled, giving the other Lt a challenging look.