Jethro 10 Snippet 3

 Sitrep:

So, J10 is off to Goodlifeguide who said they will get it back to me by the end of the month. So, on track there.

I am past the half way point writing the current manuscript. It is a bit of a struggle here on out though. Not fun. There are a lot of ships and stuff to keep track of.

In other news, it is unseasonably hot... or soon will be here on the west coast. Way too dang early to be kissing 95 let alone nearly 100 later in the week! GRR! I hate hot weather!

On to the snippet!  

Chapter 3

 

Triang

 

Jones checked the news with an eye to what they'd missed. The team had dispersed after the Antigua job. Much to his annoyance, the Feds had gotten a bit more than they'd like. The client was most likely not going to be happy.

If he wasn't careful, he might find himself on the wrong side of a cleanup spree. He had participated in them before. He never wanted to be on the wrong side but knew that it was a risk of the job.

The colateral damage had the media up in arms. The Feds had plastered images all over the media. There was no mention of DNA. So much for cyber covering their tracks, however. They had been lucky to get out of Antigua at all.

Well, the good news was that they'd had some partial success and turned over the DNA samples to the lab goons. He had not been offered a bonus, and he'd been wise enough not to ask about it.

If he got out of the area alive, he'd be quite content and call it a win.

<<(O)>>

Triang orbit

 

“There was no viable DNA in any of the samples that were recovered, sir,” the tech reported.

Nigel Mosfet was surprised and alarmed. He was unsure how that was possible. He frowned and then realized in the haste of the situation there might have been cross-contamination. Besides, it wasn’t like it had been a sterile environment to begin with. “Contaminated?”

“No, sir, no DNA. Not a trace of the target DNA. The only DNA we found were from the team which we filtered out.” He looked offended. “I ran the test three times to confirm.”

“How is that possible?” Nigel scowled. “All beings shed hair, skin … There should have been something!” He flapped his hands in distress.

“Unknown.” The tech frowned. “It could be that the hairs lacked follicles. I don’t understand the lack of skin cells.”

“Clearly we need to figure it out if only for our own uses in the future. So look into it.”

The tech nodded, looking slightly relieved to not be in trouble. “Yes, sir.”

Once the tech had retreated, Nigel frowned as he leaned against the chair. He tried to frame the report but he didn’t know how to do it without it coming back to bite him.

The one bit of good out of the report was that he couldn’t get called on the carpet for the failure. The general couldn’t ream his ass through the ansible. But the delay was hardly comforting. It just put off the inevitable.

He sighed softly and then selected a program. He selected a sympathy card in the pre-determined selection. He used his cipher to write three code words into the innocuous message and then read it. It looked good enough so he hit send.

What happened next was out of his hands.

He frowned. Well, that wasn’t quite true. He knew he had another mission coming up. But he could and probably should tidy up some loose ends.

Two of the mercenaries had come out on the passenger liner with the samples. Jones and Smith. Well, not Smith, he had links to the senator and was too useful. The review he’d seen had shown that Smith had done just about everything right.

He frowned thoughtfully and then called Smith in.

“You summoned me?” the agent asked in mild amusement.

Nigel turned to him. “Yes, I take it you heard?”

“Heard?” the lead agent asked mildly.

“Never mind then. Thoughts on fallout?”

“Moderate. They got better images and video than I’d thought.”

“I know.”

“I have a couple of agents on Antigua. I can have them work on some quiet cleanup.”

Nigel nodded thoughtfully. “We need to get into those files and erase them,” he warned. “All evidence needs to be contaminated or destroyed.”

Smith nodded. “That will be tough and won’t come cheap.”

Nigel frowned. “I’ll check with higher on a budget.”

Smith nodded.

“What about the operatives that got out?”

“All extracted successfully as of last report in. Four are headed south to ET. They’ll get lost there.”

Nigel frowned but then nodded. If they didn’t get picked off by the mobsters, they might get picked up by the Feds. If they did, they might have to do something about loose ends later.

The ET connection would obscure the real client, however, he reminded himself. But it would draw attention to unwanted parties.

“The good news is that it had the desired effect,” Smith said.

Nigel blinked as that statement penetrated. “In what way?” he asked.

“The side client wanted the heat off of his home. He got it. The target’s mother raced home in a courier. Word is she just got there.”

Nigel blinked and then pursed his lips.

“You know this how?”

“Saw it on the news a few minutes ago. I was actually coming to tell you.”

“Ah.” Nigel thought about it and then nodded. “Funny how she made the news.”

“The connection to her illustrious husband and of course the recent attack on her family no doubt,” Smith stated.

Nigel nodded.

“What about the operative that came in with you?”

“He’s solid. Laying low. Waiting for orders. Possibly expecting the ax to fall.”

“Paranoid?”

Smith snorted. “Wouldn’t you be in his shoes?”

“True,” Nigel admitted. “I’ll find out from higher if they want a general housecleaning. You and I both know that they won’t be happy.”

Smith froze. He turned to Nigel. “I take it the samples had issues?” he asked slowly.

Nigel just stared at him.

Smith’s Adam’s apple bobbed briefly and then he nodded slowly. He was internally kicking himself for not checking the samples sooner. “Good to know. Though I don’t understand how that could have happened.”

“Be more careful in the future.”

“Definitely,” Smith said fervently. “Most definitely.”

<<(O)>>

Wampa Bust

 So, I couldn't resist posting this here:

I 3D printed this guy at the original scale that Sabertooth Collectibles sold it as, made another and sent it to Regal Rebel, but then I got to thinking and well...

Lol.

I added fur and here he is. Nice learning project for fur and airbrushing. Special thanks to Uncle Jessy and M.M. Props Shop for the encouragement.

I've got enough fur to do 1-2 more projects. Debating on which. Mom asked me to make an ewok. lol. I was leaning towards Snarf.

Jethro 10 Snippet 2

 Sitrep: So, Rea has sent me back J10. I hope she has fun in Irvine at the track meet. :)

On to the snippet!

Chapter 2

 

Antigua

 

“I love my job,” Willow said as she took the stairs to her boss’s office. She had short legs so the steps were slightly uncomfortable for her dwarven physique. She made it work, however.

Newly promoted Chief Warrant Officer 1 Mariah Willow was the lead armorer of the Cadre. Well, most of the time. Whenever that Tauren Ox showed up, everyone including herself deferred to him. That was fully understandable and she supported it. Ox had been the original armorer after all.

She had been the mastermind behind the Cadre 2.0 program. She was still working on improvements for it. She had a small design team that was also working on alternative ideas for the suits to use in combat.

One of the greatest strengths of the Cadre 2.0 program was that they could innovate new designs and send them via ansible to units in the field to implement. Field units could then generate the changes with their AI and nanites. Major changes could be altered permanently into the hardware or “baked.” Minor changes could be stored for later use. Alterations for mission specific scenarios could be stored in modules for on-call use. But of course they all needed to be tested first.

The same was actually happening in reverse; deployed Cadre units were sending feedback and adjustments back via the ansible to the armor, nanite, and software research and development teams. They then went through the data and changes and built virtual and then physical test models to see what worked and if they could refine it further.

A lot of the data coming in were rough and ready bug patches to address a specific problem. Usually it was mission related, such as in smoke or to deal with other environmental factors. The team was particularly looking forward to the heaps of data that would come in from the Cadre deployment within the pirate battle moon.

Well, the data that survived to get to them at any rate, Willow mused with a slight grimace as she passed a set of robots.

That was another thing that had been innovated, the partnership with robots. The Cadre now had two robots assigned to each suit minimum. Some could handle up to six smaller robots. They were still working on the level of autonomy in the units.

She nodded to the two mastiff-sized robot dogs on either side of the door as she went in.

She waited patiently as the yeoman dealt with a call.

“He’s on a call,” Peggy informed her. She indicated a seat on the HUD. Willow grimaced and took the seat. The Yeoman looked up to her and then nodded and went back to the call. She was using a hush mike so Willow couldn’t quite hear it.

She briefly toyed with the idea of testing her aural implant improvements but decided to keep her nose short.

“You think he’ll really go for this?” Peggy asked.

“What’s with the pessimistic approach?” Willow asked. She was only slightly nervous. They had a good pitch; the idea had been used in science fiction media for centuries. It had even made it into a few suits at different time periods. Unfortunately, the specific data on their use and why they fell out of favor had been lost to the ravages of time.

Willow had come up through the army’s powered armor units. She’d heard stories about how they’d gotten the jump start on powered armor courtesy of then Lance Corporal Jethro McClintock.

Jethro had just graduated with the legendary F Platoon. He had heard that the corps was struggling to get into the hardware and had remembered his family’s cache of suits including his own ancestor’s suit.

He had dug them out, and they had been refurbished and copied. At the time, not many had known that his suit was a Cadre suit and that he had been the descendant of a legendary Cadre member.

She smiled slightly. Some of the details were still sketchy but she’d picked up a few more over beers when she’d chatted with Ox a few times. Like the fact that Bast had been awoken in the armor and had caused havoc in Agnosta before being tamed and eventually brought to full sentience by Admiral Irons and his AI.

They had used Jethro’s armor and Bast as a template for the formation of the Cadre some years ago. Admiral Irons had authorized them to continue to innovate and to incorporate the little data that they had gathered from the Lemnos facility.

When she had come on board, she had been determined to make the Cadre the best it could be. A step beyond what they were. So far the jury was still out on if they’d achieved that lofty goal. They’d find out more when word got back to them about the battle moon … if it ever did.

Hopefully, she thought.

The battle was a suicide mission some whispered. She didn’t believe that. The Cadre took insane tasks, impossible missions, and broke then down into something they could win when others would fail. They’d make it, she thought firmly.

When they did get word, they were going to be swamped she mused. They had servers ready to process what came in … when it came in.

Dribs and drabs, she thought as her strong hands flexed on her knees slightly.

Most likely the data from the battle moon would have to be sent in packets at various ansibles or by courier. The wait for the full data would be excruciating in some ways.

They weren’t sitting on their thumbs while they waited, however. They had a bunch of proposals to sort through as well as some concepts to pitch in sims and test. She had been increasingly enamored with the idea of transformation. The suits with their nanites and hardware were polymorphic. They could adapt to any scenario. She wanted to capitalize further on that concept.

One of the techs had mentioned a foldable motorcycle called the Corgi. Apparently, Abe had seen it in a museum and it had stuck in his mind and caused a bit of inspiration. During the AI research that Peggy had initiated, they had found references to mecha that could transform into vehicles for rapid transit. Something called Mospedea. She had become fascinated with the concept which brought her to her current pitch.

“Ma’am?” she looked up. The yeoman indicated the door. “The general will see you now.”

She nodded and got up. She paused at the door to knock twice. The open command allowed her to open the door and come in.

“I’ve got twenty minutes, Willow,” General Lyon said as she came in and took a seat that he indicated. “I scanned your brief.”

“Briefly scanned the brief,” Mars said from the holographic projector on the desk. Peggy joined him there.

“Bite me,” the general growled. He turned to the dwarf. “Back it up a bit though. Corgi? You were inspired, not by the dog but by …?”

“Corgi. A motorcycle, really a scooter that folded up. It was dropped by planes for paratroopers during the second World War,” the dwarf explained.

Peggy helpfully put an image up of the thing.

“Okay, and this attaches to the suit?”

“No, sir, it inspired the project. From there we went into Mospedea which really inspired it.”

“Okay …?”

Peggy put up a few images and a 3D model and then animations.

The general watched them thoughtfully.

“What we were thinking was add on components or a program where the AI can initiate a change to grow the components of a motorcycle.”

“Sounds … interesting.”

“Doesn’t it?”

Various videos were shown of mecha and robots transforming into motorcycles. “We can combine the idea with the robots too as seen here. Build on the modular ability I mentioned earlier.”

General Lyon nodded thoughtfully.

“And you think this is faster than running?” he asked.

“Yes, sir!” Peggy said excitedly. She highlighted the speedometer on one image and showed it bobbing and weaving through traffic.

“Definitely on roads. We are still experimenting with off-road and indoors.” Willow hesitated. “The general idea is fast reaction to a battlefield and shock value. Hard and fast.”

General Lyon blinked and then nodded slowly. That was the essence of shock attacks. They could backfire, however, he knew. He also didn’t like the idea of moving through civilian traffic but he was a pragmatist. He knew such things happened in reality from time to time. As much as they’d like to avoid civilians, they did tend to get underfoot and clutter up a battlefield.

“Okay, I’ll authorize a single test. Check it out.”

Willow nodded. She felt smug. That was easy as expected. “Thank you, sir.”

“Not so fast. Try before you buy.”

“Sir?”

“Try it in VR first. Run simulations. In fact, run a lot of simulations as realistic as possible.”

Willow frowned. “I’m really a hands-on person, sir.” She was a maker; she generally left the coding side to her AI partner.

“Then find someone who can do the VR side and the testing. Run them through various scenarios and then see what comes out the other side. You are on a shoestring budget. I’m pulling a few credits from projects that completed early and under budget to finance this,” he warned.

Mars nodded from his spot on the general’s desk.

Willow thought fast. “We could probably build the thing for the cost of hiring a programming team and getting them through the necessary security clearances, sir.” She was hoping that would deter him. With AI and nanites, they could fab just about anything as long as they had raw material or meta materials.

Of course they had to have a basic design to copy first.

“We have AI for a lot of the coding as you know,” the general reminded her. Willow flushed slightly as Peggy quirked an eyebrow upward on her HUD. The dwarven armorer gave a slight grudging nod. “You could also involve Bagheera.”

Willow blinked. “Sir? He’s a civilian.”

“Who is on base and is an avid gamer. He doesn’t need to know what he’s testing. Just have Peggy or some of the other AI create a game mod. Design the basic unit and drop it in and then create various scenarios for him to try it out with.”

“I’ll create the scenarios,” Mars stated.

Willow blinked and then cocked her head. She didn’t like that Mars would create the scenarios but then again they would be tough but fair.

“That could work,” her AI stated. “We can look at game examples as well. We haven’t gotten beyond the sci-fi references in the pitch.”

“Good. Try that first,” the general stated.

Willow nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“Dismissed.”

<<(O)>>

Jethro 10 What We Fight For Snippet 1

 So, I am struggling with getting back into writing. I have been having a lot of fun making various projects. I may post some images and video here in the coming weeks.

I just finished a life size Wampa bust, it is... cool. :)

  Anyway, I need to get back to the AI art and the current book I am writing. I sent Rea J10 the other day so I better get on the snippets too.

Oh, you are going to see some crossover material. That syncs my timeline up and of course some events drive reactions in other circles... yadda yadda.

On to the snippet!

 Chapter 1

Deep Space, Sigma Sector

 

Jethro felt a sense of relief as the titanic ship dropped out of hyperspace. It pushed through the last barrier in an incredible burst of energy and then drifted. Second Fleet came in behind them. As he stared at the screens Bast finished working her way into the computers and signaled the other Cadre members.

Jethro noted other AI in the network but he was busy making certain that a reactor wouldn’t overload or something. He’d hate to come this far only to blow it somehow. When power dropped to lower levels he flicked his ears.

“We’re getting calls from across the ship demanding to know what is going on,” Bast said in amusement.

“Now what?” Mara asked, looking very small as she climbed out of the helm tube. Water dripped around her. She snagged a towel from the limp fingers of a sleeping attendant and dried herself off. She looked at the other sleeping water dwellers and her lower lip quivered.

Bast sent a signal to the nanites to wake them up. The girls woke within seconds. They looked up to Mara and then began to cry.

Bast flashed ‘trauma’ on Jethro’s HUD in yellow as a caution. He gave a slight nod and ear flick of acknowledgment.

“You were very brave. Now we get you and your friends back home,” Jethro rumbled softly.

“Home,” she said in a quavering voice. She shivered violently. The other water dwellers cuddled with her. “Home,” the blue woman said softly over and over again as she cried. They cried with her huddling together in a knot of comfort, misery, and relief.

“Sitrep?” Jethro asked as he scanned the room.

“Doors secure. They are armored so the guards outside won’t get in easily… even if they were awake which they are not,” Bast stated. Jethro raised an eyebrow in inquiry. “I am in their computers and control the life support.”

Jethro nodded.

Images appeared with knots of humanity as well as some fighting. Jethro grunted. Even though he had control of the ship there was still more to do. They had anticipated this, the die hards would try to fight to the end rather than surrender.

“You need to broadcast to the ship to lay down their arms,” Bast stated. “I am transmitting the codes to Second Fleet with the invitation to come on board.”

Jethro nodded and took a position at parade rest. When Bast nodded a green light came on in front of him indicating that she was recording.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Jethro said over an all hands circuit. “This is Chief Warrant Officer Jethro McClintock. I am the black cat you definitely do not want to cross,” he growled.

Bast smiled and barred her teeth briefly.

“As some of you know, the Cadre boarded this vessel several days ago. We have disabled the self-destruct and taken control of this vessel. Your empress and her staff are in our custody.”

He didn’t look around the room.

<<(O)>>

Detective Kern felt his shoulders slump a little as he and other police officers and their families gathered around the video screens in the bullpen to watch the broadcast from the black cat.

He wasn’t quite ready to admit it, but he felt strangely relieved that it was over.

<<(O)>>

Jewel Cohen stared at the screen. Her lower lip quivered as did her whole body. “What happens to us now?” she asked as she turned to her parents.

“I wish I knew,” her father said quietly. He shook his head. “I wish I knew.”

<<(O)>>

Across the ship some diehards bristled at the idea of surrendering. Some were just ornery, others knew that they would be executed for war crimes. They had no reason to lay down their arms. Some privately vowed to build a death guard of as many people as possible.

<<(O)>>

“Twenty or so years ago I boarded one of your ships on my own in a little star system called Kathy’s World,” Jethro rumbled matter of factly. He felt his lips twitch in an almost smile. “I fought the crew to a standstill. Their captain negotiated to leave if I left their ship.” Bast flicked her ears on his HUD.

His ears flicked briefly. “Well, this time I brought friends,” he growled.

Bast smirked on his HUD. She had been with hiim on that mission but she was classified.

“We are now out of hyperspace. Second Fleet and a task force of Tenth Fleet are outside and boarding Marines now. Your fleet, what little was left of it, fled. We control your life support, your security systems, weapons, computers, power, the whole kit and caboodle people. There is nowhere to run, if you try to hide we’ll find you. There is no sense in fighting. It is over,” Jethro said flatly. As he spoke Bast was altering the command codes for the systems with the support of the other AI. She was also locking down sections of the ship, trapping people while also mapping their locations.

<<(O)>>

Chief Warrant Officer Hurranna grinned at Jethro’s broadcast. “Now that’s tellin’ them,” she growled. She glanced to the compartment where the EPOWs were being housed. Some looked even more defeated. Good.

<<(O)>>

"Power plants are on lock down. All self-destruct packages are secure. All magazines are secure though some are only remotely secure," Minotaur reported.

Ox grunted and flicked his ears. After a moment he nodded. "Good to know."

"Marine shuttles are inbound. Once they have a secure beachhead they will start to ferry over the skeleton crew."

"The round up?" Ox asked.

"Lockdown has been initiated. Anyone not locked down will be caught. We are working on tracking them now. Many are without weapons."

"Understood."

"It is rather pathetic that many of their weapons are melee weapons."

"Thank the tyrant for that," the Tauren rumbled as his thick fingers scrolled through the feeds. "She didn't want her people armed out of paranoia. So, it bit her in the ass."

"Right," Minotaur stated. "Though, they are pirates. We still need to be careful. That militia came as something of a surprise."

"Agreed."

<<(O)>>