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  “Need some help, Boss?” a woman asked as she walked by.

  “Sure could, Corporal,” Parveet responded. “Get a couple more SpecComs and help carry her to her cabin.”

  “She the six-hour puke ride chick?” the corporal asked.

  “Yep,” Parveet replied.

  “Who won the pool?”

  Parveet looked at her wrist and checked the time display. “I did.”

  9.

  Giga rubbed at her temples as she stared at the prone form of Roar at her feet.

  “You weren’t even trying,” Giga said.

  “I told you I wasn’t into sparring today,” Roar said, her voice muffled by the safety mat that stretched from wall to wall of the training room. “Just not feeling it.”

  “No!” Chomps yelled from the training room’s door just as Giga reared a foot back for a hard kick to Roar’s ribs.

  Roar looked over at Chomps then turned her head to regard Giga. “What were you gonna do?”

  “Nothing,” Giga replied.

  “She was gonna break one of your ribs,” Chomps said. “Roar, go hit the sonics. I’ll spar with Giga.”

  “Good deal,” Roar said and rolled a couple meters away before hopping up onto her feet. “You ladies have fun.”

  “What was that about?” Chomps asked as she took her boots off, unzipped her jumpsuit, and threw it all into the corner. Dressed only in athletic shorts and athletic bra, she began to stretch and limber up. “You have some beef with Roar?”

  “Beef? Nah,” Giga said. “But she has been talking shit about Shock to some of the SpecCom guys.”

  “So what?” Chomps said as she moved closer and put her hands up and nodded. “Go.”

  Giga moved fast. She threw a heavy left haymaker then dropped to a knee when Chomps easily dodged the move. Chomps turned to the side as Giga jabbed at her gut. Giga tucked and rolled over her right shoulder as Chomps swiped with her left leg. She came up a couple meters away from Chomps, arms up in a defensive position.

  “No need to talk shit about anyone,” Giga said, answering Chomps’ question as the two pilots circled each other. “It’s a dick move.”

  “You know Roar,” Chomps said as she threw two right jabs then followed with a left hook. Giga dodged to the side of the jabs then ducked under the hook. “She gets bored and stirs shit up.”

  “Yeah, and I’m getting tired of it,” Giga said.

  She feinted like she was coming in for a right hook then leapt and spun a roundhouse kick, landing her foot squarely in Chomps chest. Chomps flew back, slammed onto the mat, rolled backwards over her head and shoulders, and came up in a fighting crouch.

  “Good one,” Chomps gasped.

  Giga shrugged and moved in for another attack. She kicked with her left foot, her right foot, her left again then again, but Chomps batted away each kick with her hands until she grabbed Giga’s left foot in a tight grip and twisted hard. Giga jumped with her right foot, spinning into the twist to avoid her left ankle getting snapped, and came down hard on her back.

  She flipped up onto her feet as Champs came up swinging. Giga took a left hook to her cheek, a right jab to her solar plexus, a left hook to her cheek again, then managed to get her arms up to block the next two hooks and swat away the jabs that came in. She missed the knee to her gut, though.

  “Dammit,” Giga coughed as she fell to her knees. She held up a hand. “Give me…a second…”

  “This is why you can’t let Roar get to you,” Chomps said, her hands on her hips as she rolled her shoulders and took a couple of deep breaths. “Distractions aren’t–”

  She didn’t finish as she jumped off both feet, avoiding the leg sweep Giga came at her with. Chomps used her momentum and weight coming down to land a hard punch to Giga’s right cheek.

  “You think I didn’t see that coming?” Chomps said as she bounced from foot to foot, moving backwards out of Giga’s reach. “I did and was ready for the counter move. Pull your head out of your ass, Giga.”

  Giga nodded and stood up. She was a little shaky, but after bending over, her hands on her knees, and some slow breathing, she shook it off and straightened up.

  “We’re done,” Chomps said, waving Giga off as the woman brought her hands up to indicate she was ready to continue. “You’re projecting every move.”

  “I got you good a couple times,” Giga said.

  “I let you get me good a couple times,” Chomps said. “I saw those coming too and took the hits to confirm your predictability. It also made you overconfident. You got set up, Giga.”

  “Shit,” Giga said and lowered her arms. “Dammit. I did let Roar get to me, didn’t I?”

  “You did,” Chomps said.

  Chomps plopped down on the mat, folded her legs into a lotus position, and patted the space in front of her. Giga joined her, mirroring the position.

  “I want your opinion about Boss’s pet,” Chomps said.

  “My opinion?” Giga asked. “You and Gore not speaking?”

  “What? No, of course we’re speaking,” Chomps said. “But I know his opinion. I want yours.”

  “Distractions,” Giga said. “That’s why you’re up my butt.”

  “I’m up your butt because it’s my job to be up your butt,” Chomps said. “And your distractions can get you killed. Boss’s distractions can get us all killed.”

  “That they can,” Parveet said as she stepped into the training room.

  Chomps and Giga jumped to their feet and nodded at the colonel.

  “My distraction is passed out right now and should be for the next several hours,” Parveet said.

  “Boss, I didn’t mean anything by–” Chomps started.

  “Bullshit,” Parveet said. “You meant exactly what you meant and I appreciate it. It means you are doing your job and making sure I’m doing mine. We ain’t Jethro because the name is stenciled on the side of this bucket. We’re Jethro because no one else in this damn galaxy has the gonads to be Jethro.”

  “Thanks, Boss,” Chomps said.

  “You here for a reason, Boss?” Giga asked. “You got that look on your face like you’re here for a reason.”

  “We got a vid from SBE,” Parveet said.

  “You could have called us over the comms,” Giga said.

  “Ya think?” Parveet responded.

  “It’s not a good vid and you want it on the down low,” Chomps said. “Bridge?”

  “Bridge. Be there in five,” Parveet said and left.

  They waited a couple of seconds before Chomps turned to Giga.

  “I still want your opinion of the ambassador,” Chomps said. “Something about that woman doesn’t add up.”

  “I hear that,” Giga said. “We’ll talk after Boss’s chat.”

  ***

  “The quality is crap, but you can see…something come through the hatch,” Lucky said as he waved a hand and the main view shield became a vid screen. “If you watch closely, you should be able to notice–”

  “Let them formulate their own opinions,” Parveet said then turned to the crew assembled on the closed bridge.

  All mech pilots stood in a line with Stony and Hawker to their right. On the left of the pilots was Sergeant Schroeder along with Sergeants Bosh Halva, Jim Norris, and Omar Gailey of SpecCom. On the right of Hawker stood Master Sergeant Medic W1 Carlos Chimera, Energy Chief Logan McDorn, and drop ship pilots Corporal Kell, Corporal Wex, Corporal Han Lu, and Corporal Bardesh. Other than the SpecCom infantry soldiers and Combat Logistics support personnel, it was the entirety of the crew expected to land on Hrouska.

  Lucky studied the faces of those assembled then began the vid.

  It was grainy and cut with static, but the image of a drop ship hatch could easily be made out. The fact that something was trying to punch its way through the hatch could also easily be made out. Then the hatch burst open and several long, black limbs came reaching through just before a white light lit up the screen and the vid ended.

  “Arach
nid?” Gore asked.

  “The limbs looked too fluid,” Shock said.

  “I wasn’t being literal,” Gore replied. “I know we’re talking xeno here, so it’s obviously not Earth arachnid.”

  “Roar?” Parveet asked. “Point opinion?”

  “Gut reaction is they are both right,” Roar said. “Multiple limbs, but also with a fluidity that could mean a lack of exo, or even possibly indo, skeleton.”

  “The light was the drop ship being taken out by the Dorso, yeah?” Schroeder asked.

  “Yes,” Lucky answered.

  “Do we know that killed it?” Schroeder asked.

  “My thoughts exactly,” Halva said as she pointed at the screen. “Can we see it again?”

  “Slow it down,” Giga and Shock said at the same time.

  “Run it again,” Parveet ordered.

  Lucky ran it again.

  “Freeze there,” Gailey said and moved closer to the screen. “Center it and enhance.” The vid was centered and enhanced. Gailey looked over his shoulder at Parveet. “Did SBE send an analysis with the vid?”

  “No,” Parveet said. “They relayed it to us as soon as they received it. Their analysis will follow, but I hope to have our own locked down before then.”

  “Your hopes are just polite orders,” Chomps said. “What are you seeing, Gailey?”

  “That there,” Gailey said and pointed at a white smudge in the middle of the image. “Is that a mouth? Looks like a mouth.”

  Everyone squinted.

  “You’re going to ruin your eyes,” Wan said. “Let me filter out as much noise as I can.”

  The vid wavered then sharpened.

  “Yep, that’s a mouth alright. Big one, too,” Wall said. “Good catch, Gailey.”

  “Jesus Christ, how many teeth does that thing have?” Chimera asked. “You get pulled into that maw and all the med tape and glue in the galaxy ain’t putting you back together.”

  “The Dorso made the right choice in taking out the drop ship,” Parveet said. “Lucky has already done a size analysis on the xeno.”

  “Three meters long by two meters wide,” Hawker said.

  “Limbs stretch to five meters apiece,” Stony added. All eyes turned to the two mechanics. “Simple math, people.”

  “That’s about what I came up with,” Lucky said. “Weight has to be no less than three hundred kilos.”

  “Three hundred kilos?” Shock asked. “Big sucker.”

  “It punched through a drop ship hatch with squishy legs,” Giga said. “Keep up, buddy.”

  “What else we got?” Schroeder asked.

  “This is it,” Parveet said. “A three hundred kilo, multi-limbed xeno that can punch through drop ship hatches.”

  “What are Hrouska’s stats?” Chomps asked.

  “From the intel the Dorso was able to send back, the stats are good,” Lucky said.

  “Earth good?” Gailey asked.

  “Possibly,” Lucky said.

  “Which means we can add able to handle low-to-no oxygen and freezing temps to the xeno’s list of abilities if it can do that to a drop ship in its upper atmosphere,” Parveet said.

  “How many are down there?” Gore asked.

  “No idea,” Lucky said.

  “What ideas do you have?” Schroeder asked.

  “You’ve heard it all,” Parveet said. “Now, tell me what you think.”

  “SpecCom first,” Chomps said.

  “Gee, thanks, Chomps,” Schroeder replied then looked to her fellow team leaders. They nodded. “I am going to assume that the other xenos are similar. Maybe bigger. So, assuming this guy is large for its species won’t do us any good.”

  “Assumption noted,” Parveet said.

  “We need all four teams,” Schroeder said. “If our weapons can take these things out, then we can do some damage fast. But we don’t know what our weapons can do until we are in the shit and firing. We stagger the landing as Morisaki sets up the LZ.”

  “Squishy xenos always present an issue,” Norris said. Everyone waited for him to say more, but he didn’t.

  “Moving on,” Parveet said.

  “Hold up,” Schroeder said. “The general infantry squads, what ammo were they using?”

  “Explosive rounds,” Lucky said.

  “Basic carbines?” Gailey asked.

  “Yes,” Lucky answered.

  “They got taken out fast,” Gailey said.

  “Plasma bursts,” Schroeder said.

  “Heavy magazines and we burn ammo fast with that strategy,” Halva said.

  “Explosive rounds didn’t work,” Norris said.

  “Plasma might,” Schroeder said. “We’ll start with plasma rifles.”

  “And?” Parveet asked.

  “Too little intel,” Gailey said. “We live or we don’t.”

  “That’s SpecCom,” Parveet said. “Mechs?”

  “I’m not liking what it did to that hatch,” Chomps said. “Pilots?”

  “Nope.”

  “Not at all.”

  “No way.”

  “Nu-uh.”

  “I peed a little.”

  “If it can do that to a drop ship hatch, then it can seriously hurt a mech,” Chomps said. “If we let them.”

  “Then don’t let them,” Parveet said. “Assume this is average size. Three hundred kilos still isn’t much of a match for two metric tons of mech muscle.”

  “That’s what I’m banking on,” Chomps said. “We use our skills to beat the shit out of these xenos. KYAGs will help, but if they are resistant to weaponry, then we will end up ripping them apart with our bare hands.”

  “We’ll go plasma,” Stony said. “Same as SpecCom, but drop racks down so the mechs can switch out. Hawker will have our mechanics ready for repairs or whatever is needed. Maybe the things can spit acid or something. We’ll adapt.”

  “Well, shit, Stony,” Shock said. “Acid? You made me pee myself again.”

  “McDorn?” Parveet asked. “If the SpecCom teams and mechs are using plasma as their primary weapons, then that means we’ll need you more than ever. Gonna be a lot of energy drained if the shit gets thick.”

  “I know,” McDorn replied. “I’ve been calculating. What geothermal are we looking at?”

  “No data,” Lucky said. “None reliable.”

  “And unreliable?” McDorn asked.

  “Like I said, Hrouska’s stats are possibly Earth good,” Lucky said. “The little I’ve been able to glean is that the planet is temperate to extreme tropical, some plains, very little desert. That kind of environment would make you think geothermal is plentiful.”

  “Or the temps are maintained atmospherically by gasses and proximity to the system’s star,” McDorn said.

  “That too,” Lucky said.

  “We sending all of SpecCom down there?” McDorn asked.

  “Schroeder?” Parveet asked.

  “Sergeants?” Schroeder asked.

  “Ship security?” Gailey replied.

  “Boss?” Schroeder asked.

  “We can handle ourselves,” Parveet said.

  “Then, yeah, we’ll send all of SpecCom down,” Schroeder said. “Better to have and not need than need and not have.”

  “Be a shame if you all get wiped out, though,” Chomps said.

  “You sending all six mechs?” Schroeder asked. Chomps shrugged. “Then don’t bust my gonads.”

  “Full SpecCom and all mechs,” Parveet said to McDorn.

  McDorn scrunched up his face and ticked off numbers on his fingers. “Four heavy generators, six minis, and six portables. You mechs gonna be able to carry the ports with you? It’ll make logistics easier if I know you have backup energy on you.”

  “Pilots?” Chomps asked.

  “We can adjust to the weight and balance,” Roar said. “If they’re welded tight.”

  “Seamless,” Wall said.

  “We’ll help with strengthening their stabilizers,” Hawker said. “We can integrate.”


  “Yep,” Stony said.

  “Then it sounds like we have a plan,” Parveet said. “I want you all to make preparations before we enter the wormhole. We may need to deploy within the day when we reach the other side.”

  “We’ll have at least a day before we get to the Dorso,” Lucky said. “But, Boss is right. We don’t know what we’re going to find on the other side.”

  “All agreed?” Parveet asked.

  “Hooyah,” everyone responded.

  “Then get to it,” Parveet said.

  10.

  Parveet sat still, her eyes locked onto the bridge’s view shield.

  “Two minutes until we come out,” Flay stated.

  “Crew ready?” Parveet asked.

  “Pilots are secured in their mechs,” Lucky replied. “SpecCom are strapped into drop ships. The rest of the crew are standing by for orders.”

  “So am I,” Parveet said. “Open a ship-wide channel.”

  “Open, Boss,” Wan said.

  “Me and mine, this is Parveet,” Parveet announced over the ship’s general comms. “One minute until we come out of the wormhole portal. This is a combat-ready situation. We could flop into the shit or we could come out skating free. Doesn’t matter which, I know the Jethro can handle it. I expect 100s from all of you. I’m gonna give my best 100 right by your side. Parveet out.”

  The swirling mass of lights that was wormhole travel filled the view shield and the bridge crew stared at it until the Jethro lurched, stomachs dropped, a few retched, and the ship was out.

  Nothing. Only the far off central star of the system and a glowing blue dot closer in.

  “Report,” Parveet ordered.

  “No movement,” Lucky stated. “The dot is Hrouska. No sign of the Dorso.”

  “No sign?” Parveet asked. “Stegson?”

  “I am not picking up any weapons systems, Boss,” Stegson said. “We are at the ready, but nothing has tried to lock onto us and scanners are clear.”

  “Wan?” Parveet asked.

  “No noise, Boss,” Wan said. “The system is silent.”

  “Axson, take us closer to Hrouska,” Parveet ordered.

  “Engines engaged thirty percent,” Axson said. “Flay?”