Jethro: First to Fight (20 page)

“We're working on that. Right now no. It
can if you've got a battery with it, but it needs a support where the arm is.”

“Oh.”

“We're thinking of a simple stand or
something.”

“Rigger's tape maybe? Tape it to
something in the field?” Gusterson asked.

“Hey! Block this!” Sergei said, tossing
a ceiling tile fragment. Gusterson put the shield out, the tile ricocheted off
the shield. “Cool!” the liger said.

“Just clean up the mess Sergei,” Valenko
ordered.

“Sir, yes sir,” Sergei said, getting
back to work.

The medic trained to use them to defend
himself and a fallen patient against incoming fire while treating wounded.
Intrigued with how well the design was working, they worked out a shield wall
as well. They even tried out metal shields with mixed results.

The Major and Gusterson had them extend
the idea to portable shield generators. They dug through the archives to find
designs but were limited on what they could make and therefore do. But they
didn't let that stop them for long. If they couldn't do something straight
forward they looked for a work around. Ox was the one who tumbled into
interlocking portable shields into first the shield wall, and then into a
bubble.

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

When Ox and Riley hit a seemingly dead
end with the shields, or were sidelined waiting on simulations, software patch
writes, or parts, they turned their attention to neglected work or other ideas.
Jethro's favorite project was put into the spotlight, a flight pack for the
combat armor.

At first the impromptu think tank
considered force wedge pods, using force emitters to neutralize and or provide
thrust. But the large power demand, slow initial acceleration, and high energy
signature ruled the concept out. 

“Getting them into production is an
issue. We still can't get shields! Let alone this,” Riley said, shaking his head.

“It would also interfere with any ship
that launched it and would be hard to control at best,” Veber the Centaurian
programmer said, killing that dream.

Instead they went back to the Keep It
Simple Stupid concept. Since the super high tech way wasn't viable, they went
the low road. They adapted the flight packs from MMU's into wing like pods with
RCS thrusters on winglets and wing feathers. These were mounted to universal
ports on the back of the suits that were usually used as attachment points for
a robotic arm to hold or carry a large field piece such as a heavy plasma
cannon, mortar, or anti-aircraft turret.

The entire thing was over designed,
complicated and a maintenance nightmare, but it looked cool. For some it made
the armor look like a black winged angel, to others a demon.

The wings required additional fuel
tanks. The entire set up wasn't cloaked on Jethro, but they would allow a level
of mobility and flexibility in space that he hadn't had before. Which was the
whole point of the project.

“Why not just use an MMO?” a visiting
Private asked.

“Cause this is cooler,” Riley replied,
hooking up the fuel tanks. He'd grumbled about the complexity, but he defended
it against outsiders. The suit had several fuel tanks, one on the back between
the wings, smaller ones for the RCS pods strapped around each boot, and a final
tummy tank for emergencies and braking. All were jettison-able.

Jethro would also carry an equipment pod
complete with bot to carry it, and as much ammo and batteries as the suit could
manage. The entire arrangement was ungainly as hell walking around in the ship.
In flight simulation it moved like a drunk mule at first.

“You realize these are for space right?
I mean, I can't imagine using them on a moon or say, on a planet,” Riley said,
zip tying hoses together and out of the way.

“Why not?” Sergei asked. “I thought, I
mean, angel and all, come out of the sun...”

“You just like the idea so you don't
have to walk,” Jethro teased.

“Damn skippy,” the liger growled. Jethro
snorted.

“Back oh,” Riley looked up and tapped
his chin. “Oh, I think I saw it in the archives dating back to the 19
^th
or 20
^th
century Earth they fooled with jet packs and stuff like
this. They thought it'd be great, I mean, a one man recon squad right? Or jump
up over obstacles or into battle right? Up, up, and away right?”

“Sure,” the liger replied with an eager
nod.

“Yeah, and you're in the air when you do
it. Big noise, flash of light, sound, big 'here I am sign!” Riley replied
waving his hands around as he said sarcastically, glaring at the liger. “Which
draws attention to you, and oh, every idget with a rifle.”

“Um,” Sergei suddenly looked sheepish.
He rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. “I hadn't thought of that,” he
finally admitted.

“Right.”

“But we can use it for some ops.”

“Like? The more I work on this the more
I think it's not going to be feasible in the field.”

“Um,” Jethro frowned. “My idea is for
someone to I dunno, distract the enemy. Draw them away from where I'm coming
in, then come in behind with a squad or so and pincer.”

Riley snorted. “And what about point
defense? You try this on an alert ship it doesn't matter how noisy the
distraction is. Any computer could cut you up.”

“True.”

“But that doesn't include oh, say a
civilian ship. Or station. Or dropping onto an asteroid or moon,” Valenko
rumbled.

Riley glared at the bear. “Who's side
you on bruin? I'm trying to keep the fool from getting killed you know,” he
growled.

“Which isn't your job Sergeant,” the
bear rumbled. “I can see some limited use for this. I wonder...” he mused,
drumming his massive claws on the counter.

“What?”

“Well, you made them jettison-able
right? So oh, he could accelerate, then turn over, brake, and then cut the
wings loose and coast in. Maybe go into stealth...” Valenko rumbled, glancing
at the cat.

Jethro nodded.

“And final braking?”

“Hope you got air bags!” Sergei joked,
slapping the panther on the shoulder. Jethro snorted.

“The suit has integrated inertial
dampeners right? So he could land like any cat...” Valenko said eying Jethro.

“On his feet. Yes sir, with my claws I
should be able to manage it. I don't like the idea of a rebound if I can't dig
in though. Dutchman and all,” Jethro replied.

“We can work it out. Give you a one shot
harpoon and line or something,” Riley said looking at the bear.

“Now who's on who's side?” Valenko
joked.

“Ah hell,” Riley sighed, shaking his
head. “I'm gonna shut my yap and get this done before I get into any more trouble.
Soon you'll be expecting me to try this fool stunt,” he grumbled.

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

Jethro did a first field test of the
armor in vacuum before testing the wings. Since he had over a thousand hours of
vacuum time he had no qualms being in his suit. After all, he had his skin suit
on under the armor.

“You've got to earn those wings,”
Hurranna joked when she heard about the project. She was sitting in flight ops,
manning a shift to get her flight deck qualification hours.

“I thought you wanted to be the pilot,”
Jethro teased right back, still nervously checking his life support and seals.
It was his third time. You can never be too careful. He remembered how jittery
he'd been going out for the first time as a boot. He'd gotten over it. The
worst bit was the waiting for clearance.

“Yeah I am, but if you strap those
suckers to my suit I'd end up half way across the damn system before I figured
out how to shut them off,” the lynx said wryly over the circuit.

“You know, you're not really making a
good case for you becoming a pilot,” Jethro teased.

“Oh shut up,” she sputtered, laughing.

They had a few incidents testing the
flight pack on the test stand, but the concept seemed to work well. Jethro
grinned, he had an idea to use the packs to infiltrate an enemy station or
ship. Visions of flying around in the interior were quickly ruled out however.

The Major became interested in the
project and had them do a field test. It was an exhilarating and terrifying
experience for the panther. They did it well away from San Diego, in the shadow
of the artificial moon and away from any prying eyes.

The test went well until Jethro's fuel
mix misfired. The compressed hydrogen mix wasn't quite one hundred percent
clean, a small micron of dust made it sputter and clog the emitter. It wasn't
enough to do serious harm but it was a scare. He ran out of fuel and drifted
into the full light of the sun, managing to turn away just in time. His suit
adjusted itself, changing the visor polarity on its own. He muttered a thanks.
He felt something respond, but wasn't sure if he was dreaming it or not.

Deja was riding a shuttle in a Dutchman
training exercise, he was called in to recover the panther. Jethro was amused
to discover that Deja had been sent out to track him for the exercise. He was
also glad. Had he not had the back up things could have gotten ugly.

They analyzed the flight and talked
about what they now know. The fuel in the pods were limited so they had to ride
in on something else. A throw away sled was possible. A comet or other body was
also possible, but a close pass would be highly suspect and would take ages to
get to a target. In a time crunch that wasn't a viable option. Valenko
suggested riding in on the hull of a shuttle. Coming in attached and either
getting off after the shuttle docks or before and maneuvering to a different
lock.

“Distraction,” Jethro mused.

“Hmm... Yes.”

“What if we pulled a bait and switch?”
Jethro asked. He smiled a tight lipped smile and flicked his ears at his boss.
“Like our final exercise? Remember the crucible?”

The final boot exercise was a week of
hell called the crucible. They had experienced the full tour, a boarding
action, a full on combat sim on Anvil that had torn one of the park decks
apart, as well as combat drops on one of the local asteroids. The icing on the
cake was the series of ORS,  Operational Readiness Surveys. Being
nitpicked by outsiders on scratched equipment after going through what to some
was as close to combat as the Marines could provide had rammed home the whole
joke about if you can't take the joke you shouldn't have joined.

F platoon had maxed the combat sims,
blowing away most of them and set the standard for others to try to rise too.
However they had been dead last in points for the ORS. They had proven the
maxim true, those who could fight did. Those who looked pretty, couldn't fight
worth spit.

“Um...”

“Put the shuttle in on a hostile dock.
The enemy will naturally pile in to repel boarders. But the docking is a ruse.
Come in to dock but instead we make a jump to a nearby lock.”

The bear's eyes narrowed. “Or we could
go in for one dock and then shuffle to another at the last minute. Make them
redeploy on the fly.”

Jethro snorted, flicking his ears
forward. “True, take all the fun out of it.”

“You really want to float around in
space with point defense lasers trying to pick you off?” the bear demanded.

“Well... when you put it that way, no
not especially, but I want to lay the option open. Can we do a sim?” Jethro asked,
turning to the Ensign.

Valenko rumbled, rubbing his chin. His
skin still itched but he manfully kept himself from scratching like he wanted
to. “Harrumph, let me see. I'll draw up a scenario. You two work on the
details. I'll see if I can get Gunny or someone else to run the opposing
force.”

Jethro wrinkled his nose. He knew what
that meant. “Shit,” he said with feeling. He really didn't object in theory,
after all, he didn't want a gimme. They needed an honest evaluation of the tech
and tactics. Someone hard, harder than a real world scenario maybe, but that
was how F platoon played the game. They played hard, they trained hard, and
they played for keeps.

The bear smirked. “Put your foot into
it.”

“Yeah. But um, one request. Can we make
this a blind test? Let them think of what they have in mind, but don't
tell
them what we've got beyond a repel boarders scenario.”

The bear chuckled, nodding. “Ah, yes,
that's good. Just remember they've seen your tricks during hell week. Plus
they've read your reports on the new tech toys and things we've been working
on.”

“Can we do a hard suit test? I mean,
we've got a couple of dozen people in armor now. Use the suits or a full up...”

The bear reluctantly shook his massive
head no. “No, something tells me that's out. We're up for a full test yearly
but this year has a full schedule with the setting up of the base. We'll see.
Sims for now I bet. I'll pass it up higher though.”

“Okay.”

“And I'll play ref since I know what you
have in mind.”

“Okay,” Jethro sighed.