Jethro Goes to War (Wandering Engineer Jethro's tale)

Jethro Goes to War (Wandering Engineer Jethro's tale) by Chris Hechtl Page B

Book: Jethro Goes to War (Wandering Engineer Jethro's tale) by Chris Hechtl Read Free Book Online
Authors: Chris Hechtl
will
bounce when they land and then frag at waist height, tearing apart
anything around it. Delayed rounds will blow a hole through an object
then a secondary charge goes off inside a millisecond later tearing
the place apart. Sticky grenades have a sticky material or magnet
that lets them stick to a wall or other surface and blow in a
pre-programmed direction. Sensor grenades can be fired and then you
can link into them, letting you see and hear what is around them.”
    “ We've got
other weapons, more grenades, claymore mines, anti air weapons, and
even more toys in the toy box. But unfortunately I couldn't get the
clearance to use them here. You’re stuck using your dialed down
smoke, flash bang, or frag grenades for now.” He shrugged as he
grimaced. “I so wanted to look at mortars and grenade
launchers,” he sighed and shook his head. “We'll just
have to work with what we've got for now,” he growled. Jethro
shot a glance to Valenko. He was kidding right? The glance said. The
bear gave an infinitesimal shrug and then he went back to watching
the DI.
    “ Which should
be enough. They did specify that we have to keep the park in one
piece gunny,” Corporal Jefferson said smiling.
    “ Bitch bitch.
They can bill me.”
    That earned a snort
of humor and chuckles from the group including the DI's.
    “ A couple more
things,” Schultz said letting the humor die a natural death.
The gunny went over to the side and nudged a box on the ground. “The
neat thing about rail guns is we can swap battery packs in the ammo
clips. But even they are eventually run dry. So to keep the soldiers
going we've got a micro power plant here. It'll charge the batteries
and other equipment for a platoon. If you’re smart you'll have
two issues of batteries. One your platoon is using and the other that
is charging. That way you can swap them without having to wait.”
    He nodded to them
then went over to another box. He nodded to corporal Brenet who took
a spade and dumped a load of dirt into the top hopper. A green light
on top lit. After a moment a package dropped out. “Field
expedited ammo,” the gunny said holding up the package.
    “ This isn't a
replicator. What it does is compact and melt the stuff you toss into
it, wrap a ferrite jacket around it, and then reshape it into ammo
for our weapons. In this case assault ammo.” He tossed the ammo
onto the table. “It will fire just like your issued clips as
far as we know. We haven't tested it that well. That is about to
change today.”
    “ Now, it's
time you got some hands-on with these weapons. First row forward,”
he ordered. He pointed. The row took two steps forward. “Break
down into interests. I want each of you to take a shot with each
weapon. Keep the plasma rifle at ten percent power or I will rip you
a new one. You read me?”
    “ SIR YES SIR!”
    Jethro had to keep
from blanching. The plasma weapon had been at only ten percent power?
Goddess of space! He so didn't want to be in the path of one of those
mothers if that was true!
    “ Very well.
Let’s go to it. Corporal Jefferson will work with each of you
on the sniper rifle. Corporal Brenet will handle the plasma weapon.
I'll check you on the maser rifle. Move!”
     ...*...*...*...*...
    Major Forth snorted
as he and Firefly watched the vid feed. “You were right,”
he said, not looking at the gunny beside him.
    “ I was pretty
sure they were good,” Schultz growled, watching Valenko
silently instruct the team with hand signs.
    “ Hostage
rescue?” First Lieutenant Pendeckle asked, watching the team at
work.
    “ Aye yup. They
are good. I'll give them that. A few rough edges, but the quality is
there under the surface.”
    “ I thought I
told you to back off? Give them some time off?”
    “ I did. I gave
them paperwork, that heavy weapons sneak peek, their usual Sunday of
chores and light duty, and then book learning for the past two days
but they were bored to tears. They asked for this.”
    The Major

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