Jethro Goes to War (Wandering Engineer Jethro's tale) (40 page)

“
Yeah, that
they would,” the armorer nodded looking up. “You gunning
for recon?”

“
That's the
idea.”

“
So why here?”

“
Nothing
better to do,” Jethro smiled. “I took the sniper school
and aced that. Unfortunately there isn't much beyond it. There isn't
an advanced recon school up yet. So I'd like to learn as much as I
can, as long as I can. When the brass gets ideas on what to do with
us, I want to be prepared.”

“
And he
doesn't want to be holding up a wall somewhere on guard duty. Best to
keep busy or at least look like it,” Miles said amused.

“
Smart,”
the armorer turned back to Miles. “Okay stand, let me see if
that sticky actuator in your leg is fixed.” He watched with
practiced eyes as the marine stood then bent. He checked his tablet.
“Still got some stiffness. Might have to see if it'll break in
gradually. I'll check again in a bit.”

He turned back to
Jethro. “Problem with your theory is you learn a lot they find
all sorts of things for you to do. Over achievers end up getting into
all sorts of trouble.”

“
My point
exactly,” Jethro said, smiling a toothy smile. The armorer
froze at the sign of teeth then shrugged it off.

“
Your funeral
kid. Just saying. Don't expect miracles. These babies are the basic
no frill jobs. No shields, thirty hour power supply, twenty if you're
in combat for extended periods. There are a couple external hard
points for weapons and that is it. Carry too much weapons or gear and
your thirty hours ends up being closer to ten or fifteen though.”

“
Okay, that
sucks.”

“
No cloak, no
embedded weapons, no inertial dampeners, no flight ability, just a
whole lot of armor and motors to keep you moving in it. Basically
armor over a skinsuit.”

“
Great,”
Hurranna said dryly. “I thought shields came as standard?”

“
Keep dreaming
that dream. Shields are a bitch to engineer this small. Needs an AI
to run them anyway. All those algorithms for force emitters and
impact angles and such. Them's for fancy armor like elite cadre. They
got them first and pioneered them so I heard. I can't do that here.
Lock outs. Power too.” He shrugged.

“
Oh lovely.
This gets better and better,” she shook her head giving the
panther a dirty look.

“
You wanted to
be here,” he sighed. “Baby steps. Remember that.”

“
Which is what
this is,” the armorer nodded. He handed the Tauren a tablet.
“Check his actuators one by one while I work on missy over
here.” He went over to work on Asazi's suit.

“
I've seen you
before,” he said moving her arm up and down then plugging into
the suit to make software changes.

“
I don't think
so. I think I'd remember you,” she said, looking over her
shoulder to him.

“
I do. I don't
forget a face. Yours is a bit distinctive with the broken nose and
scar.”

“
Thanks,”
she said dryly.

“
Sorry,”
he grunted and sat back. “I do know you. You're that fighter.
The one in the ring. Yeah,” he nodded. “I remember now.”

“
Yeah,”
she grunted. “That was me.”

“
You won the
Pyrax female champ for one year. Kicked this one girls ass hard. I
was there, even I winced when she went down.”

“
Good,”
the hard woman grinned. “She stayed down too.”

“
Yeah. Damn
near broke her neck.” He shook his head. “I'd say that's
good. Let me set you up with a test here.” He moved back. “Okay
what I want you to do is stand then we'll go from there.”

Carefully she stood.
He watched the tablet and then closed his eyes. “What are you
doing?” she asked, tugging on the line to him.

“
Shh. Don't do
that. I'm checking your systems.” He grimaced as she moved a
little. “And don't move. I'm resetting the default on your
right leg. Okay. Do a kneeling squat, that knee.”

Carefully she did.
Her arms were out for balance. “Good, okay, that's okay. You’re
lucky, this is an old suit, so it's been broken in already. Get up
and do it again, this time with your other knee.”

She complied then he
had her straighten. He had her do toe touches and then graduated to
jumping jacks. “You are good. Okay, I usually don't do this,
but I want you to take a walk. Just down the hall and back. Get into
trouble feel any vibrations, any grinding sounds or smell smoke stop
and give me a holler.”

“
Okay,”
she said. She nodded moving for the door. “I'll come with you I
need to stretch my legs,” Hurranna said. She jumped to all
fours and then moved off at a lope. “Just don't step on me. Or
fall on me.”

“
No promises,”
Asazi said with a laugh.

“
So you really
can move like that. The whole leg thing threw me,” the armorer
said watching them go. “Crap that's going to be a bitch to
figure out.” He shook his head. He grimaced. “Okay we're
working on the basics today. Which is going to take a while.”

“
Well, I for
one am going to lunch,” Sergei said getting up. “No point
sitting around twiddling my thumbs on an empty stomach.”

“
I was
wondering what that rumbling sound was. Here I thought it was Ox all
this time,” Jethro teased.

“
No, I ate
this morning and will not need to graze until evening. Please enjoy
without me. I wish to explore more here.”

“
Yeah well,
I'm kinda getting a might peckish myself,” the armorer growled.
“And I'm not about to leave anyone in my shop alone. Those are
the regs.”

“
Um, what
about us?” Miles asked, holding up one arm. “I kinda need
to go.”

“
Did you hook
up the suit connections like you were supposed to?” the armorer
asked, hands on his hips as the others left.

“
Um...”

“
Catheters for
peeing, the hose you shoved up your ass is for number two. Even a
grunt like you should know it's more than something to get your rocks
off.”

“
Funny. Well
ah, I ah, didn't um...”

“
Didn't hook
them up? What's the matter with you? I told you... Oh hell, let me
get a wrench...”

Jethro snickered as
they left. He shook his head. “Live and learn.

The next morning
they filed in early. The armorer was going over a gauntlet and
robotic hand. “Sit, sit.” He pointed to the row of
stools. “Okay, yesterday we worked on the basic moving stuff.
Legs, and arms. By the way chimp girl, your suit's in. I'll get it to
you in a minute.”

Betty brightened at
that. She smiled and then wiggled a little.

“
Now see, your
hands are inside these here gauntlets.” He held up the gauntlet
and then put his hand inside. He turned it so they could see the open
access panel. His fingers went through rings in a controller and then
flexed. As each flexed, fingers moved on the robotic hand.

“
See, you've
got three fingers and a thumb. The two smallest fingers are joined
into a mitten to make it easier to maintain. The suit uses the rings
and signals from your neural implants to read what you intend to do
and then do it.”

“
I was
wondering about that ,” Sergei muttered.

“
Some suits
have custom jobs for different missions. I'll get into those later.”

“
Like heavy
weapons, demo and point man?”

“
Yeah. Now
shut up or I'll lose my train of thought,” he grimaced. “Where
was I again?” he flexed his hand.

“
About to
explain why our hands are inside the gauntlet making us look like
apes instead of inside gloves?” Jethro asked.

“
Yeah. No
offense miss,” the armorer nodded to the chimp. She waved a
passing motion. “See this way your hands are protected. Getting
tiny servos for fingers are a bitch. Try to get them to fit your hand
shape and you run into all sorts of issues. If one freezes up you end
up giving someone the finger. Which can get awkward if you don't
intend to do so.” They snickered or smiled at that.
“Eventually... well, let’s just say engineers saw the
light and followed the KISS principle.”

“
Ah,”
Jethro nodded.

“
Yeah. I'm
working on new hands for you lot now. I kinda like the idea of claws,
I may work them into the next gen if I can get it figured out right.
But your claws inside the gauntlet... that's a problem,” the
armorer said then shook himself. “The new suits take direction
from your implants. You jack in and they will follow the impulses
from your nervous system. It takes a little getting used to there is
a slight lag. Millisecond or two.” He grimaced as Miles came
out of the suiting chamber looking confused. One arm was bare.

“
Got it here
kid,” the armorer said. He waved the hand. Miles looked at it
and then down to his bare hand. “Just fixing the actuator. They
need some breaking in. They stick a little first out of the box. It
takes time for things to mesh. For software to settle down, and for
parts to align like they should. You get the most teething issues in
the first thirty to one hundred hours of service.”

“
Oh.”

“
It'll need an
overhaul when you get to a thousand hours but that's a headache for a
different day. I'll show you how to maintain your hands in a minute.
The woman done yet?” he asked craning his neck and body around
Miles.

“
Just about,”
Miles answered. He stepped aside as she came to the door.

“
Right. Okay
let me get miss chimp set up then we'll go over the hand maintenance
together. That way I don't have to repeat myself.” He motioned
for her to follow. She got up and then shrugging to the crew did.

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

Jethro nodded as the
armorer returned with Betty behind him. “Okay.” He went
over to the gauntlet on the table and picked it up. “I showed
you how your hands fit inside. Now here's a few things you should
know.”

He pointed to each
of the joints and the cables inside. “Keep crap out of there.
Seriously.” He looked around. “Get muck and crap up
inside your joints and your fingers will gum up. Which isn't good in
a fire fight. Even hair... oh hell.” He looked at their fur.

“
I thought we
didn't use a trigger finger?” Jethro asked.

“
Who says?”
the armorer sniffed. “Yeah, some of the weapons can be
interfaced with and you think fire and it does. But think about that.
You really want your gun to go off every time you think fire?”

Sergei shook his
head. “I can think of a time or two when it wouldn't be a good
idea.”

“
Yeah, me
too,” the armorer said. “So we've got a safety system and
a trigger. At least for now. Once you've gotten into combat and
settled then you can work on what works and doesn't. I'm curious
about what does and doesn't work myself.”

“
Yeah,”
Jethro grimaced. “I'm not keen about finding out the hard way
though.”

“
Which is why
we do these breaking in periods then do as many training ops as you
can. That way you find out what's going to break so you can watch for
it when the ball drops. Better to hit the ground running than get
your ass shot up cause you can't work something or it locks up.”

“
Um...”

“
Trust me.
I've seen the elephant,” the armorer sniffed. “Before I
came here I was on Avalon four. I did medieval style armor sure. But
I knew what worked and what didn't.”

“
So why...”

“
None of your
never mind girly,” the armorer snarled to Hurranna. She reared
back and hissed a little in surprise. He turned to the chimp. “All
set?”

“
Yeah,”
she nodded. “I do a walk?”

“
Yes. Your
suits a hybrid so we're going to tune it for a bit.” He went
over to a shelf and pulled down another gauntlet. He tossed it to
Jethro. “Try that on.”

The panther caught
it and then spun it around a few times, checking it out. It was a
bare bones affair.

“
I don't have
all day,” the armorer scowled. Jethro grimaced and put his hand
inside. “Fit like a glove?”