J5 Snippet 3

Sitrep: I received most of the input from the betas and I've waded through their suggested corrections. I just sent the manuscript to Rea. Don't worry, Tim, Jory, Poon, I can incorporate your suggestions when you get them to me once she's sent it back.

I'm a bit distracted with the new Shelby book and stuff going on in real life. (and worried about the Edison fleet out front. Am I going to loose power AGAIN???)

That being said, on to the snippet!

Chapter 2 

Bast received an email request from Marine security as well as the local ONI office to update the base's firewalls and security files to protect the Marines from the Xeno virus. She considered the problem for a long moment before she decided to do a bit of horse trading. First she would need access, she had no intention of turning the files over so they could be easily accessed, copied, and potentially taken apart by a Xeno virus.

She also wanted, no, need additional processors if she was going to keep her eye on Jethro.

Her emotional modulators indicated amusement when she received an email saying they would get back to her on her request.

Apparently they weren't that eager to protect themselves from the virus she thought as she returned to watching over her host the best she could.

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“So, are we ready to finally do this?” Admiral Irons asked.

“I believe so. I'm just amused about how the competition has turned out,” General Forth stated. He felt a little nervous over it all.

“Competition... between the divisions yes?”

“Yes sir.” With more planets joining the Federation and regular interstellar trade picking up recruits were turning up everywhere. Agnosta had its fair share, as did Pyrax and Seti Alpha 4, but new Marine and Army recruits were being shipped in from all over the western side of the sector and the numbers were steadily climbing. So much so that they now had roughly a thousand recruits a month for the 2 branches. He knew the navy had plenty of recruits that passed through Agnosta on their way to the training centers and academy in Pyrax, but they weren't his problem. The new troops were.

So far a majority of the recruits were for the Marines. That was changing as the Army started to get its feet under itself. He knew they had a long way to go before they were ready to stand up, so he was glad there was no active recruiting going on for that branch. Captain Yee was also busy as their local artillery expert so a lot of the Army was suffering for his distraction. Eventually that had to stop he knew.

But with so many recruits showing up with each convoy or tramp freighter meant he had to expand the corps at a faster pace. Many of the recruits had to go through a series of pre-training and medical clean up before they went into boot camp, but some were ready from the moment they landed, enough to still force them to expand the boot camp until it was almost bursting. Hence the expansion of the brigades into divisions.

Originally there had been four brigades, his First, Archie Pendeckle's Second, Dana's Third, Myer's Fourth, and one planned for Valenko. They'd lost some good personnel and officers when the Admiral had insisted the Army be started up, but they still had enough to expand faster than he'd expected. With so many warm bodies he had given in and paired Myer's brigade with his own to form the First Division. Archie had not only his brigade but also troops that had been shipped in from Antigua as well as thousands of militia recruits from Protodon to justify his having the Second Division. Dana had moved herself and part of her senior staff up to form the Third Division, handing control of her Third Brigade over to Major R'nz while a new brigade had been stood up.

Valenko had shown up just after Dana's Second Brigade's command team had settled in. He'd been handed a full Division to stand up from the beginning. He'd poached some good people from First and Third division to do it. His was the greenest of the four divisions but they were also the best in sims. They should be, he drilled them intensely he mused.

At the moment each division had 2 brigades. Each brigade had 3 battalions. There were 5 companies in each battalion, and 4 platoons made up a company.

They were still integrating infantry, powered armor, mechanized, and air units into the mess. If he had his druthers he'd keep Major White Wolf and have her take over his division or set up a fifth division with a heavy air and mech component. But he'd been warned she had too many irons in the fire to be talked into it. After meeting her and noting her ansible traffic to Kathy's World he'd come to the reluctant conclusion that the Admiral and ONI had been right.

Which was a pity, she was good. She'd even given Valenko a pounding in some recent air sims they'd arranged.

He shook his head. His house was getting crowded again but it was all good, he knew they could handle it. All this while the Army made up a single company of trained troops with a bunch of enlisted who'd barely scraped through Marine boot and had opted to switch branches, he thought.

Valenko's division was almost up to full strength. It was one factor he'd had to consider in the 'competition'.

He didn't even want to think about having to stand up another division so soon. But he knew he was going to need to do so most likely before the end of the year if recruiting continued at the pace it currently was. And if more planets were added, as he knew there would be, then things were really going to get hectic.

The other thing that bugged him was that all the orphans he had out all over the sector on ships, planets, and stations. They were not assigned to a proper chain of command like they should be. Just another thing he would have to sort out soon, he thought.

“Getting a bit rough?” Admiral Irons asked, breaking in to his thought process.

“Not at all. They've actually kept it pretty clean and let their records speak for themselves. Which is what we're going off of. The final record is that Harley has more stand up time than Valenko does, despite his combat record and his division's better sim record. He's also still a bit short in the personnel department, not that he's let it stop him when it comes to sims,” he said with a sour face. “But I think he's been a bit cute about how hard he's pursued this command.”

“Oh?”

“He's gotten a bit aggressive about it pursuing it. I think he's employing a bit of little reverse psychology; I'm attributing it to 'don't throw me in that briar patch'.” he said. “I don't think Harley has figured it out. At least, I don't think she has.”

“You lost me on the reasoning there. Valenko... Valenko...”

“The bear. Major Valenko Kodiak I should say,” General Forth stated. He knew the Admiral or more likely his A.I. would pull up the bear's record for him to look over. “He's playing his chess and thinking long term strategic with his career goals. She's thinking short term tactical,” he explained.

“Ah,” the admiral said as Protector put the bio up for him.

“I guess it comes from his Russian heritage. He's a wily old bear,” the General replied with a snort. “He may think he's pulled the fur over everyone's eyes playing the stereotype, but I know better. He's really after Horath. What he doesn't know is that I believe that Horath is going to be a tough nut, and therefore most likely an all hands on deck sort of thing.”

“True,” the admiral replied with a snort of amusement. “So, you think he maneuvered Harley into aggressively pursuing this command in order to open up a future one for him to slot into?”

“Almost certainly.”

“And you're going to let him get away with it?” Admiral Irons asked. The ansible leached out most of the emotion with the text messages converted into robotic verbal readings, but Jersey still read a bit of humor into the question anyway.

“Oh definitely. Valenko might not have much seat time but he's definitely damn good at the job. He's got the division eating out of his hand and setting records. Granted he's following in others footsteps, learning from our mistakes, but I know he's damn good. His record speaks for itself.”

“So why not send him to Destria?”

“Because I think his division could use the extra time to train... and because I think we're going to need his grit when it comes time to take Nuevo Madrid or whatever planet you choose next,” the General replied. “So, he needs to get the division fully integrated. They are still at ninety percent,” he said.

“Point. Okay, so Harley will be going to Destria. I'll have Sprite cut the orders to get the ships moving.”

“A lot of them sir?”

“Actually, not as many as you'd think. She's getting a small task force, but as far as the division is concerned, she's going to get the second group of Marine transports. She's also going to get her hands on the first Marine Command ship. That should make your bear regret not pushing the competition harder.”

“It just might,” the General replied with a chuckle. “I think I'm going to burst the bear's bubble and have his division relieve Pendeckle's in the next six months. That way Archie can get his house in order properly and the bear can really blood his troops.”

“Sounds good,” Admiral Irons said. “Hey, I've got to go. Major White Wolf's promotion was approved by the way. Um... crap, my schedule...”

“Yes sir. Thanks,” the General said hastily. He knew a losing battle when he heard one. He glanced at his door to see his own appointment manager checking on him in the small glass window.

“Antigua out.”

“Agnosta out,” the General replied as he cut the channel to the Ansible.

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