Jethro 8 Snippet 2

 Sitrep:

I was supposed to take time off around my Birthday (and Carlos' birthday. Happy B-day again dude!) but it has been nigh on impossible. Ember is extremely co-dependent at this stage. (I can't even use the potty without her trying to break the door down!)

So, I've been puttering around with another Roo story for Multiverse 7. "Didn't you just finish Multiverse 6?" I hear some ask. Yes, you would be right. I bumped MV7 up the list since I seem to be only able to write in short bursts.

Today has been particularly trying, the little monster tested my patience to the absolute limit. She messed me up many...many times as I was trying to get thoughts down into the story and wrap it up. She finally decided to cuddle in my arms to fall asleep. A few minutes ago she crawled out of them to slither into the night stand in a nest she's created there. She's welcome to it.

So, I'm getting caught up on things while I have a brief (all too brief!) breather. Here is the snippet:

 

Chapter 2

 

TFP

 

Warrant Officer Jethro McClintock found out that they were to travel back to Antigua in stasis aboard a fast courier. One of the fastest couriers had been in Finagle about to jump into Sigma when they had arrived in the TFP star system, which stood for Tiny Frickin’ Planet. He heard that the captain and crew were trying to break all records to get to them and pick them up, he was grateful for that.

For the return journey the courier would have to reroute around the destroyed Horath star system, but apparently the navy was taking that into account in the planning of the movement.

They’d had their dinners and the navy had broken them up into various groups. The local JAG had thrown around phrases like ‘isolated persons during operations in hostile territory’ so they were being treated initially like rescued POWs.

It meant debriefs to go along with the time being poked and prodded by medical. He had been offered his choice of a special counsel to request. He didn’t know of anyone he specifically wanted. The local JAG, a lieutenant JG who seemed excited by their arrival hinted that she could act in that capacity.

He wasn’t certain he wanted it and had a feeling she just wanted to ride along to get out of the terminally dead end posting. He brushed the inquiries off until she dropped them with a slight air of disappointment.

>>*<<

Jethro’s inbox began to fill up with congratulations from old friends and colleagues as news spread of their survival. Admiral Shelby Logan, Admiral Irons, Admiral Horatio Logan, Gunny Schultz, General Forth, General Lyon, and many others paid their respects.

Shelby wasn’t shy about wanting his services. He wrote back that he was going to take a prolonged leave of absence to be with his family. She sent him a big thumbs up in reply.

He was still coming to grips with the news of the Federation since they had been lost. A lot had happened. He received daily emails from Shanti and Zuhura.

Both ladies warned him to not expect much from the new litter. He did in fact get a get well email from Cleopatra and Shy, but nothing from the boys for days.

>>*<<

Bast had continuous issues with her processors and the armor. The armor was completely offline, only the helmet and torso remained. It had been stripped of parts and nanites. It was effectively an inert shell and she felt… damaged. Off.

She had backed up as much as she could in Jethro’s implants and created artificial DNA packets for long term storage but she was not certain how much she had lost. She had regressed further. All of the AI had in the time they had lost.

They had also stripped their host bodies of nanites. One of the first things they did was get more material to make more nanites. But the process took time to grow more and distribute them throughout their host’s bodies.

The hosts also needed a lot of medical repair, which divided their time. She was initially happy for the medical intervention. Jethro had become severely dehydrated and deprived. Only his iron will had kept him fully sentient.

The AI’s regressions hadn’t gone unnoticed by their hosts. They kept asking about it and the AI could only shrug such concerns aside. Their armor had been packed away so they couldn’t access it to begin repairs even if they had nanites to spare.

Inevitably a few of the concerned Cadre members found their way to Ox, their resident engineering expert. He was spending a great deal of time in medical, far more than most.

“I’ll work on it,” Ox said, voice rough with fatigue.

Jethro looked concerned. “We’ll work on it you mean.”

Ox frowned in puzzled confusion.

Jethro stamped on the dismay he felt at his friend’s look. “I can’t be away from my armor remember? Right now it’s offline, sleeping,” Jethro gently touched the armor with his fingertips. “But it will be reforged and woken once more.”

Ox grunted and then nodded.

“Until then it’ll go with me to Kathy’s World. Bast and I will do what we can to get the minimum up and running until we get back to Antigua.”

Ox nodded again. He looked tired and concerned.

“Hey, you and I both learned under the same tutor remember?” Jethro asked. Ox snorted softly in memory. “That’s right. So, I can get by. But, I’d appreciate any tips and tricks you come up with when you get back to Antigua.”

“Count on it,” Ox said roughly. He nodded and then relaxed.

 >>*<<

SG3R211-94 Sigma Sector Capital

 

Warrant Officer Hurranna got a call from Suqi and wondered what was going on. When her ship was in orbit she put a video call in.

“So kiddo, what gives?” Hurranna asked. She could clearly see excitement in the other cat’s face.

“He’s alive!” Suqi gushed, eyes bright as she bounced on her rack.

“Who’s alive?” Hurranna asked, wrinkling her nose. She was a lynx, her bloodline was a bit muddied but she leaned heavily to the Canadian Lynx form. She had been a graduate of F platoon and had served the Marines in a variety of roles before falling in love with being a fighter pilot.

She had risen through the ranks to become CAG of her own ship on her own merit. Her old friend Deja was also a CAG but he’d been pressured recently to either take a teaching post or mustang to officer.

She had been a bit lonely and had latched onto Suqi and Sabu when she had found out that they had been deployed to the sector. She acted as their impromptu aunt and she was grateful that they accepted her in that role.

“Dad!” Suqi nearly screamed, briefly rushing the camera before sitting back down.

“Dad?” Hurranna asked, clearly confused.

“Dad! He survived! They survived! He got out! They just turned up at a place called TFP!”

Hurranna stared dumbly at her.

“I mean most of them made it out. Ox made it too he said. Not everyone though, Letanga didn’t make it. But I talked to him! Live!”

Hurranna continued to stare. Feelings welled up inside her. Denial was first, then relief, shock, consternation, and then excitement and exuberance.

It hit her in waves and she felt almost orgasmic when the elation started. The tears came too. “He’s alive,” she said, covering her muzzle with her hand. “Alive.”

“Yeah. Oh, I’m sorry I did it like this but I couldn’t wait!” Suqi said.

Hurranna nodded.

“You said Ox too?”

“Yeah, I’ll play the video for you. They’ll be on the news soon I bet,” Suqi said.

Hurranna watched fascinated as Jethro appeared and talked to his family. She smiled a watery smile. She’d have to tell Deja, she really should soon. At the moment she just felt incredible at the miracle that had unfolded.

 >>*<<

Jethro 8 Snippet 1

 Okay, a little late, but here we go:

Chapter 1

 

Sigma Sector

 

Warrant Officer 1 John Draco tightened his hands into fists and then slowly relaxed them. It was the only movement he allowed for. He was trapped in a coffin going who knows how fast as it crossed the void.

His team had used boosters to boost up to speed on course for the objective. There was a concern about the thermal flare so they had to cut the boost phase well outside of long range sensors and then take the rest of the ride in stealth. Once the boosters flame out they are jettisoned. Travel the rest of the course on ballistic.

They’d spent a long 3 days in space getting to their target. He’d slept some, sucked on the tube of suit food, and ran the plan through his mind over and over. It was a cruiser, a new design but they had the detailed blueprints and specs on file. So far no surprises.

The biggest thing was not to spook the target. If they got even a whisper of a naval vessel in the star system they would have jumped into hyperspace and ran for it. Hence his team’s present occupation and mission. He was prayerful that the enemy wouldn’t get wise. He’d hate to bounce off their shields or see them jump away. It was a long damn walk home.

Some of the team had a whisker laser party going up until the last 18 hour stretch. He’d cut them off with a curt order. He didn’t want to chance the lasers being spotted. Besides, the griping about the suit chow and lack of bathroom privileges had gotten old anyway.

For the past 6 hours he’d watched the target grow larger and larger on his HUD. He was pointed directly at it head down, so everything was fed into his HUD. Data scrolled, but the main things he picked out because his AI Angie highlighted them for him. The ship class and fingerprint were a match. The interior map was overlaid over the hull. Objectives were highlighted.

One minute before burn the AI transmitted that in a whisker laser burst to each suit. He then braced himself as the AI handled the final maneuvers.

The ship didn’t see them coming. She didn’t have her sensors on high alert since supposedly nothing was in the star system to object to its presence.

The squad of suits endured a hard braking burn just as they came up on final acquisition, the flare of IR making it suddenly obvious something was up. They passed through the layers of defensive protection in rapid order though, and he felt a sense of relief as the inertial dampeners eased up. A lot of their power had just been sucked up by that maneuver, but it was worth it. No other suit came close to being able to do what they did. It was why they had the suits.

The team reoriented to feet down and made a hard land onto the hull. Those with claws dug in, two bounced off the hull, one heavy suit dented it. Harpoons helped to get the wayward suits back on track and on the hull.

Radar and lidar on the ship opened up, searching the heavens for the sudden flares of thermal energy. It was too late however. Draco unshouldered his rifle and checked the safety by muscle memory, barely aware of the action. The suits moved and silently took out cameras as they moved to the designated airlocks. The warrant boarded the ship at the lock and then cycled anxiously through it.

This was the time when he most worried about something going wrong. It was a choke point, totally in the control of the crew.

>>*<<

The skeleton crew on graveyard watch heard the odd sounds of bangs through the hull. A few looked up and around in confusion and growing alarm. They began to question what was going on. Some however just shrugged it off.

>>*<<

Each suit went through an airlock. Some doubled up, some had their own airlock. They all had their objectives and knew the mission, the floor plan of the ship was uploaded in their computers and their AI would keep track of their position and the position of the others. Once on board, they ejected their flight packs, pulled out their weapons, split up into pairs, and began the process to take the ship intact.

They had no robots with them. Their flight packs had been on the ragged edge of performing the mission without the additional mass. They would make do without them.

Each boarder had stunners and blunderbuss with rubber bullets and shredder hollow point rounds. They could select the round as needed from 2 magazines. The whole point of the limited weapon mix was to limit the damage to the ship and crew. Rounds that could pass through flesh into the thin interior bulkheads could do potentially disastrous things. That was strenuously avoided as much as possible.

Each boarder had a selection of stun grenades and micro cameras in their kit. They had a very narrow window to get in and get as much done as possible before they were detected. That was their golden time, precious beyond measure.

At every major computer terminal a device was plugged in to hack the network. The AI linked through the remote WIFI link and got to work while also managing the host’s suit, the tactical updates, and secondary weapons. They quickly set up their own network to coordinate the movement of the Cadre team and direct resources against opposition forces.

The AI had their own objectives. They dedicated less than 30% of their processing power and attention to their principles for the initial boarding action. Some of their mission objectives were critically time sensitive if they were going to survive. They were in the golden hour of a boarding action. Every minute that passed without the enemy becoming aware was a precious thing beyond value.

Like any predator it was critical to take the prey and minimize any opposition to protect yourself and certain objectives. Once the prey was aware they would invariably thrash and panic. They had to prevent the worst of that.

The squad’s AI hacked into the ship’s computer and communication network within a second. Multiple Cadre AI quickly overwhelmed the ship’s AI. “Their AI is getting better,” Angie observed as the Horathian AI was cornered behind a series of firewalls around its core and then went down.

“Did you secure the priority target?” her host demanded.

“Negative.” The AI paused and noted activity in the primary and backup navigational suite. The suite power went offline abruptly and with a sense of defiance and finality to it. “And it doesn’t look like we will. There was a secondary AI embedded in the navigational suite. It just triggered a self-destruct.”

“Damn.”

“Agreed.”

“Switch up. Secondary objective is command and navigational personnel. Tertiary is helmsman and engineering teams.” Klaxons went off and lights flared but it was a life support alarm. The AI were following the script and locking the ship down and evacuating the air in select compartments. That would prevent crew who were not suited up from using those paths.

Within seconds the crew were chopped up into isolated pockets of resistance. Some were trapped in their barracks without weapons wondering what the hell was going on. The pounded on airlocks only to find a vacuum on the other side.

The Cadre were fully suited however, so a little vacuum wouldn’t bother them.

“Agreed. Hopefully they don’t have their own self-destruct packages in their implants.”

“No doubt they do.”

“Well, either way we still have a ship to capture.”

>>*<<

Meet Ember

 Sitrep:

So, Jethro 8 is in the hands of Rea. I'll start posting snippets tomorrow.

In the meantime, meet Ember!

 We picked her up from the shelter May 3rd. This little monster has quickly worked her way into our hearts. She keeps us on our toes. I had to shift the schedule to go with another short story novel in order to work my schedule around her. She likes to nap in my lap or arms for hours which makes writing impossible. Boy is she persistent when she wants a nap! lol

She got to me so much that I wrote a story around her which you will see in Multiverse 6!

So, Jethro 8, Horatio 5, Academy, and Multiverse 6 are done and in the hands of Rea and the betas. I'll start the next book next week or the week after. (Though I've been poking at another story for Multiverse 7 over the past 2 days)

 Oh, the covers:

 So, we have a lot to unpack and explore in the future!

Tauren Invasion Publishing Now!

 

The Taurens are coming! The Taurens are coming!

The Taurens invade the Federation unexpectedly. Here are the planet invasions from all of the Tauren Invasion books with a bit more. :)

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C41NSBH9

B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1143422555?ean=2940160950815

Tauren Invasion 5

 Sitrep:

First off, this was cool:

 I've seen them 3 times in person and countless times from my house. I still get a kick out of them flying over and rattling the windows. :)

I wish some of the other photos had come out. Oh well, next time!

Second: Goodlifeguide got Tauren Invasion back to me this morning. I will work on publishing it tomorrow.

On to the last snippet!

Chapter 5

 

Lebynthos

 

Lieutenant O'Hara scowled as she read the latest report. The army and marine intelligence officers and staff, what little they had of them in the sector had been tapped along with army and marine squads to help Federation law enforcement to track down Tauren spies. FIS and FBI and other agencies were of course involved. They were also tapped to track the enemy's lines of communication to their hidden ansible platforms in some of the star systems.

Easier said than done she thought as she scanned the files. A big part of the problem was that she was one person on one planet. There had been a handful of students who had studied intelligence with the Marines but none had her level of training. To her chagrin she was the senior military intelligence officer in the entire sector. Well, the ground forces one, the spook in charge of the navy side was busy trying to get a handle on the Confederation space tech and industry.

The idea that she was the head of Marine and army intelligence in an entire sector was both a heady and scary prospect for her career. It meant everything was coming down to her. Luckily, she was just one cog in a greater machine; law enforcement and the civilian spook agencies were taking the lead in the hunts.

That was fine with her; she was trained to find spies but only during a combat or occupation situation. Finding embedded spies was a different sort of animal. They still leaned in her direction though, primarily because many were learning on the job and it was a daunting task to find so many spy cells scattered across the sector.

Fortunately, they had a starting point, something she'd pointed out to every spook and law enforcement she'd spoken with in conferences. Getting them over the idea of it being impossible had taken time.

Many of the planets lacked any sort of tracking on their immigration and definitely not going back generations. That meant they had to get creative. Where others had wrung their hands in frustration, she had taken the second half of their mission and put it first.

The embedded spies had to be communicating somehow after all. They either had drops to a channel out of the star system to one that had an ansible, or they had an ansible in the star system to communicate with. They were useless if they couldn't get their intel out in a timely manner.

Finding those lines of communication were therefore key to finding the spies. Which meant looking for the communication systems.

She'd worked with the communication techs over the course of a week to get a general idea on what they should be looking for.

They had started with a system that could find a spot in space and transmit a signal to it. The signal had to be strong enough to punch through an atmosphere on a planet. Most likely the transmissions were short, pulse laser or narrow band burst transmissions. Encrypted obviously.

In a star system that had no space presence, the spies had to be on the ground obviously. Which meant they had to transmit the signal through the atmosphere to a specific spot in the night sky as the planet rotated, and rotated around its parent star. The ansible platform was orbiting somewhere too but passively, and it had to be in space that was clear of anything that might hit and hurt it.

Back to the ground side part of the equation, all of the communication equipment and the sensor equipment to find the ansible had to have computer support and all of that meant power. Hydro, solar, wind, whatever—it meant a power fingerprint.

Those things gave them an initial list of things to look for. They took it a step further in looking at what it would take to transmit a signal and where that signal could go. That was when someone brought in a navy spook briefly.

The ONI spook had pointed out that the ansible platform was most likely well off the established jump points since if they were close they might be spotted by a ship. Unless they were completely solar powered, they had to have some sort of nuclear power, either fission or fusion. They could supplement their power with solar, but that would give away a reflective presence.

Nuclear meant neutrino spoor for the navy to find. It also meant onboard computers and most likely a self-destruct package. But it also meant at some point the platform had to be maintained by a visiting ship.

That had led to speculation about the maintenance ship. The navy was looking into that and trying to pull records of ships was a fun thing she was gratefully not involved in. They had a database to compare it to though, one compiled to get a handle on interstellar traffic and identify pirate activity. Hopefully, something nice would come out of that, though she had her doubts.

There was a hit though recently, several and one solid lead. The picket in the Platte Cluster had found a platform. The navy and spooks were handling the platform. There wasn't much said about that side. They had intercepted a series of signals to the platform and were busy decoding the signals. Better still, federal law enforcement was en route from the Trajan cluster.

The navy had pinpointed a series of targets on the planet. A recon drone had been deployed in orbit, and they had identified a mountain home with a larger than normal energy signature that was transmitting signals to the platform.

At the moment, they were hands off. The orders from on high were to monitor the coming and going from the cabin and get IDs on everyone involved.

There had been no hits in Delos and Samos but a promising lead in Mykonos. That led to a bit of frustration; it was one jump away from her and only two jumps from the capital. It was also one jump from Tortuga. The navy wanted that source cocooned quickly, no doubt because whoever was there might be passing on intel about convoys to and from Tortuga.

The biggest problem was that they didn't have enough agents and teams to go around. There were federal agents on some of the larger populace star systems, but not many agents, and those that were there were involved in their own spy hunts, not to mention other cases.

She had a sneaking suspicion that the powers that be were scratching their heads on how to do something about this situation. They couldn't just ship people from Rho in either, which meant in-house. So, in a couple of months she expected that she might get tapped to travel again.

Until then she would do the best she could, which meant watching from afar and giving advice and looking for needles in very big piles of hay scattered across the sector.

~~{}~~

Captain JG Mya Halice read the latest report and nodded. From the look of the exit polling, Sparkling Seas was taking itself out of the running for the Pele refugees. That was fine. She had a backup plan in place. As soon as the vote was official, she'd execute it and redirect the platoon and team to 77. If they timed their arrival right, they would get there a week to a month prior to the arrival of the refugee ships.

That was, if the ships were loaded in a timely manner. They were still en route to Pele and wouldn't be there for weeks, and knowing civilians they'd want to pack everything up to and including the kitchen sink for sentimental reasons or tradition or an heirloom or whatever.

She didn't care. Honestly, there were enough ships to hopefully handle the load. They had a set weight and size limit on cargo though, and the community leaders had agreed to it in advance.

She felt for those people, but hopefully, once they were landed in a new home, the spirits would be kinder to them.

In the meantime, she still had the preparations for war to contend with. The Army Corps of Engineers had dispatched teams to work on evacuation centers and plans. The official reason was to help with natural disasters and they were going to stick doggedly to that cover story for as long as possible.

It didn't hurt that it was true. The primary purpose of those places would be to be used in case of a natural disaster such as a hurricane, wildfire, flood, or whatever. The threat of war was still just that, a threat.

Best to be prepared, she reminded herself before digging through the reports. Getting her people into position to make something of a difference was a big issue at the moment. Getting people to take the plan seriously was second.

The evacuation centers were supposed to be a funding match program. So far the governors had yet to come up with their side of the funding. She had a sneaking suspicion they were going to play fast and loose and then expect the Federation to take up the slack. When the shit hit the fan, if, she reminded herself, they'd whine and boo-hoo and the Feds would have to fund the rest.

She shook her head. Sometimes she really hated politics.

~~{}~~