Free Jethro 3: No Place Like Home by Chris Hechtl

behind were questionable at best.”
    “True. We'll do our best. You're going to get some who are unhappy about the situation. Some who had wanted training in flight or mechanics duties or whatever. Deal with it. Tell them it's not the end of the road, just the intermission. We'll sort it out on the back end.”
    “They’re Marines, sir; we'll square them away,” Jethro growled. The Major looked into his feline eyes for a moment and then nodded.
    “Get with your people; tell them the good news. Get the troop bay squared away. I want a lesson plan soonest. I know you can handle it,” Pendeckle said, hands going out as if to hover over a keyboard. He looked at them expectantly.
    “Sir, with your permission?” Valenko asked, hands on his sides.
    “Go on then,” the Major said. Valenko and Jethro saluted. The Major returned the salute and then turned, already going back to work as the Neos about faced and stepped to the hatch.
    “And so rode forth the three hundred,” Valenko murmured as they exited the compartment.
    “Aye, sir. Sir, I was wondering, can we make some changes?”
    “Changes?”
    “Well. sir, it accorded to me that Bret needs some downtime...”
    Valenko sighed heavily. “And with his wife just having had a kid, he's not going to have his head in the right place you mean? Jethro, you realize we're going to be short handed as it is. Loosing another member of the squad...”
    “We can handle it, sir. And from what the Major just said, we're losing them anyway. The others will be assigned as junior leadership with the other squads.”
    “Oh great, that's all I need. Sergei and Harley with a posse of their own,” Valenko rumbled.
    Jethro snorted, ears flicking in amusement. “It does boggle the mind; the thought of a bunch of little Harley's running around the ship,” he said.
    Valenko groaned, hand rubbing his muzzle. “You would bring that image up,” he growled.
    “Well, to be fair, she's been surprisingly helpful lately,” Jethro said.
    “Yeah, that's because she's saving up for something good,” Valenko replied.
    “True.”
    ---( | ) --- ( | )---
     
    “Is he serious?” the bear rumbled in the head.
    “Is who serious?” the Major asked tiredly. He washed his face with his hands and then looked up to the bear. “He, meaning Major Forth, I take it?” He asked, taking the cloth towel from the waiting bear's hand paw.
    “Yes. What happened to the other units? Why are we getting half-ass dribs and drabs and not stand-up units?” Valenko demanded.
    “Well,” Pendeckle said, “ours technically isn't to reason why. But I'm betting it has something to do with all the commitment of forces we've got here in the system and now abroad.”
    “The bases you mean?”
    “Yes. And the space stations, don't forget that. And the ships. We've got ship companies or squads on just about every ship. Even the two frigates in this system have half squads.”
    Valenko made a face. “Penny packets, that's inviting defeat in detail.”
    “It's better than having all your eggs in one basket I suppose. In this case, he's right. And we're stuck with it. Besides, if you remember our briefings, he sent three mixed platoons of Marines to Antigua along with an engineering platoon to work on the initial bases. Plus we've got detachments in Pyrax, Gaston, Seti Alpha 4, and just about every ship or station that can support a Marine squad or larger. Each of those positions requires good leadership. Officers and noncoms we know will get the job done.”
    “Oh. Yeah, I remember that now,” the bear said. They had gotten the briefings about the deployments before they had left and then additional updates when Fuentes and Hecate had caught up with them. “So we're left with dregs?”
    “Yeah, the three platoons was the Major's quick reaction force, one trained almost as good as we were. So now he's scraping the bottom of the barrel until another can have the time to form up. And we're messing that timetable