Jethro: First to Fight (66 page)

“It appears so,” Commander Firefly
responded. “Unfortunately my attempts to communicate with the AI have been
rebuffed. I believe it is an instinctual AI, not a fully sentient one. At least
not now. I do not know a great deal about this technology.”

“And if you did you couldn't tell us
anyway,” Riley sighed.

“True.”

“Keep us up to date if anything changes
Commander,” Major Forth ordered.

“Will do sir,” Firefly responded.

Forth slapped Riley on the arm. “That
goes for you too. For now I think we'll limit suit time to VR unless we are
testing something, and even then only in a more controlled and safer
environment.”

“Good idea,” Riley said with a nod.
“Sir.”

“Carry on Sergeant,” Forth said and went
to leave. He paused at the hatch, looking over his shoulder to the suit for a
long moment.

“Feels like it's watching you huh sir?”
Riley asked.

“Yeah. Good luck with that,” Forth
replied and left.

The Sergeant turned on the armor. “Hey, don't
look at me. I'm just the repair man remember? Now if you don't mind I've got to
figure out what's buggy in Valenko's left arm. You're welcome to watch if you
want...” he turned. “Since I can't stop you anyway,” he muttered to himself
under his breath.

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

“You do realize we're going to be
filling out reports and answering accident inquiries for a month right? Let's
so not do that again,” Ox said in disgust. He remembered the maxim, 'ten atta
boys don't amount to one oh shit.'

“Here here. I swear, they make us fill
out the paperwork and answer all the questions to make us regret surviving,”
Jethro said, shaking his head. As the pilot he had to face a board over the
thing. He wasn't happy about that. Even less so when certain circles nastily
pointed out that he technically didn't have a damn pilot's license.

His dark thoughts had briefly turned to
the idea of sabotage, he even thought Kovu could have done it, but then he
recalled the accident. It hadn't been sabotage, just touchy controls, an
untested practically unguided missile, and a lame pilot.

“There is something of interest though,
the suit. It was the one to fix my shields and get things going. It saved me.
Well, both of us,” Jethro said.

“I see.”

“Something tells me the brass already
knows it though.”

“I'll bet. I spoke with Riley, he
couldn't tell me in so many words, but he did give a pointed look at your suit.
It was self repairing.”

“I... yeah,” Jethro said sighing and
sitting back. “Somehow, not surprised.”

“Will wonders never cease?” Ox asked.
Jethro snorted in response.

Jethro lifted his shoulder to rub at his
lower back. It hurt, but tingled too, more than ever. “Yeah, I know they know.
I just wish I knew everything they knew,” he sighed, and then flopped back into
the pillows. “And why they won't tell me.”

A group of navy noncoms on Firefly and
in the navy crew on the planet got together in a bar and had a bull session.
That eventually got them to put forth a petition to start Navy Seal training.
The idea was bucked over to the Marines who were amused.

“Do they have any idea what they are in
for?”

“Not a clue,” was the response. “They
play it virtually so they think the real thing is just as easy,” the Major
said.

“Yeah well, there is no reset in the
real world.”

Captain Mayweather and the Major talked
to the group and their commanding officers. The Major was surprised to find two
ensigns were also interested in joining up. Captain Mayweather was reluctant to
lose two of the ratings but when the Major quietly told her the graduation
level was around fifty percent she reluctantly agreed to try it.  “They
don't know what they are getting into. They see the film footage, but they just
don't know. But they want a chance to try.”

“And they'll sulk if they don't. What
are they two?”

“Sulk or not they'll get over it.
Proving that they can handle it is fine. Proving to them is important. But if
they can't hack it, they need to know, and more importantly we need to know.
I'm working on separating the branches of the Marines a bit.”

“I heard something to that effect. Recon
and Raiders?”

“Yes. Captain Pendeckle still wants
Recon, I'll give him that and Force Recon when we get there. But right now the
best candidate for Raiders is Valenko.”

“Ah.”

“Yeah. He's got ghosts in his squad, but
some heavy hitters like Sergei and Ox as well. Not to mention Valenko himself.
Seeing someone that large pulling a sneak and peek boggles my mind.”

“And will give you the willies if he
does pull it off.”

“Nightmares you mean. Jethro gives
enough people nightmares.”

“Yeah,” the Captain replied a little
darkly. She still hadn't quite forgiven Jethro for going off the reservation.
But she had understood, and in many ways, agreed with him. He'd kept the navy
out of it fortunately, which was a good thing. It had muddied the waters in
Pyrax for a bit, but the loss of the speaker and her conspirators had cut one
of the biggest heads off the hydra standing in their way. That might turn into
a good thing down the road.

“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 inhaled 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.