Jethro 6 Snippet 3

Still in chapter 1:

Colonel Josh Lyon tried to be patient as he listened without saying anything as the newly elected governor raged at him over the drop test. She was quite testy, and he could understand it in theory.

"Ma'am, we did inform all parties. We secured the site; it is a military reservation site. We've done exercises like this one before," he said patiently once she'd stopped to inhale. Mars as well as the junior officers had informed all authorities since it was considered RMT, Realistic Military Training that included explosions, booms and other things that would normally alarm the public.

Apparently the local sheriff's office hadn't paid attention or the left hand and right hand hadn't connected. He'd thought Sheriff Uday would have known better. Mars was still looking into whether she was new or just wanted a platform to complain to the media.

"I don't care! I'm done! We've been getting calls all damn night! This is the last time you do this sort of shit on my frackin' planet!"

The Colonel scowled. "Ma'am..."

"And I don't care if you call your boss or whoever!" she snarled. "Wait, who is your boss? You are a colonel, I should be saying this to a general right?"

"At the moment ma'am I'm the head of both the Cadre and the Special Operations community."

"So, who is your boss?" she demanded.

"That would be Admiral Irons. He personally signed off on this test. Your government gave us carte blanche to hold military exercises on military owned or leased land. This was one such exercise. It was a Realistic Military Training Exercise and we informed the Sheriff and all parties."

Silently the colonel's A.I. Mars gave him a heads up of the test. Everything had worked out nicely; only 10 percent of the drop had drifted off target. They'd all still landed within the 3 kilometer drop zone however.

Not bad for generation 4 pods. He decided to not bother with pushing for the gen 5 model at the moment. The ones they had were safe enough.

"Admiral Irons?" the woman finally asked.

"Yes ma'am. I report directly to him."

"You... there is no general?"

"Not at this time ma'am. I work in parallel with General Forth and General 1010111 but they have their own duties with their own commands. SpecOps is all me," he said, trying hard not to smile.

"Well, I don't give a damn! I've never had this sort of situation before, and I don't intend to have it happen again!"

"Very well ma'am. I'll inform the admiral. We'll have to make other arrangements."

"And don't threaten me with pulling your people! I don't care and you know that's an empty threat!" she snarled.

"I wouldn't dream of threatening you ma'am. I will ask that you give me the request to not hold drop tests on the planet though. The admiral will want it."

"I'll get it to you within the hour," she said and then hung up on him.

He snorted and shook his head. "Fun," he sighed. "Why'd I take this job again?"

"Because someone had to," Mars replied.

"Oh, yeah, that," the colonel replied with a sigh.

"Personally? I'd much rather be out with the troops at this moment rather than dealing with... crap like that," he growled. Mars nodded.

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Ensign Sahib 'Lordy' Kapish saw the drop come in and began to open up. There were Marine units in the area, SAM units who had been brought in for the exercise. Delta platoon had to get through them, land, and then they had a random timed window before Charlie platoon engaged them.

He had been surprised by how accurate the KEW strike had been. Of course it had been a clear night and the squids had done it several times before at this point. He couldn't help but wonder what strings Feathersnake had pulled to get them to be a tad more accurate for him though.

It might be petty, but then again, so was Feathersnake. He didn't envy Jethro for having to put up with his sorry ass. He shied away from wondering if he'd been that bad all of less than six months prior.

Feathersnake had yet to earn his spurs or a nickname. Credits were on Feather duster, duster, or dusty. The ensign was trying to put his finger on the scales though, which just meant those interested in naming him were going to be rather particularly vicious about the final name. A name was a badge of honor, something to be endured after a big screw up or some attribute you had, not something you chose for yourself.

The Cadre had exploded in ranks since the first 2 classes. Now they had a new class of candidates every 3 months. They were up to 50 candidates every quarter, but the recruits had to pass muster. It was a very hard act to follow, especially with Jethro leading the way.

The best were crossover personnel from the Raiders and Recon Marines like Jethro, but they were few and far between. So were those of the blood, but one or two would occasionally pop up on Mars radar for recruitment.

The Army's Delta and powered armor units were starting to send their own people in, much to their chagrin at losing them.

The Cadre was up to 400 strong, arranged in 5 platoons. Captain Sinclair led Alpha platoon. The last platoon was known as Echo, which was made up of support personnel, trainers, and the rawest of the recruits.

He didn't envy any of them. They were going to have to sit on the sidelines while the rest of the Cadre got to invade Horath sometime in the not so distant future.

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Jethro listened as Ensign Feathersnake began to bark orders even before the last pod had landed. He was amused, keeping quiet as he listened to the officer lay out what he wanted.

As top kick it was his job to implement the here and now orders while the officer focused on what was to come. Feathersnake wasn't having any of it; he set the perimeter and even began queuing up targets for the individual squads to focus on.

He didn't wait for Charlie Company to come to them though, something Jethro heartily approved of. He didn't linger on the drop site, once he had his bearings and the mission outline he gave the execute order and they moved out.

For Jethro it was an interesting experience. He cloaked and followed his droids as they moved out along the left flank, watching the rest of the Cadre keep up.

The unit had changed a great deal since the early days. Robots had been added to their ranks. As he watched a Cadre suit stopped and took out a snooping drone as it crested the horizon. The suit was tagged with Crash's icon. He flicked his ears and moved on.

None of the suits jumped or exposed themselves. They all knew the drill, keep an eye out for firing lane traps and for any cover. Also traps. Charlie Company wanted to come out on top and Delta had a lot to prove.

The suits were powered by fusion still, not antimatter as their forbearers had. Even though the federation was coming into a surplus of antimatter fuel the powers that be had no intention of switching back. Antimatter was nice but it was limited in supply and hard to supply in the field. Fusion power allowed the suits to scavenge for fuel in the field if necessary.

It did mean they ran low on fuel faster, and their power budget was a third of the antimatter but the tradeoff was considered worth it at the time. They didn't want to get caught out of power ever again.

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Letanga set up an oversight hide and began to scan the area. It didn't take him long to find the first targets and begin to relay them to his droid and then from there to the squad.

He focused on his sector first, clearing it to the horizon and then he went back to scan it again, this time for hides for enemy spotters and snipers.

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