Chapter 591: Stock Car Race

"When I was born, FTL travel was a pipe dream. WE were what were scientific triumphs. Now FTL is commonplace, our friends are gone, and our return is a scientific triumph.

"The more things change, you know?" - CPL Telli Brubaker-3BGL8YL27, canis lupus nobilis.

Vuxten's intercom beeped.

"Go ahead," Vuxten said, tapping the button.

"Three to see you, sir," PFC Yelretit said from his desk in the Orderly Room. "They're from 193rd Special Troops."

"Send them in," Vuxten said, saving and closing the file he was working on. Before the three spaced knocks rattled the door he had his desk looking good.

"Enter," Vuxten called out.

The door opened and Vuxten stared at the three that entered.

Two were tall, black and brown patterning on their muzzles, heads, and necks. Those two had upright triangular ears and long muzzles. The other one was shorter, with whitish-yellow and dark gray fur, with longer floppy ears. They had long arms, digitigrade legs, and looked more related to Telkans than anything Vuxten had seen.

One of the taller ones stepped in front of the other two and they stopped three paces from the desk.

"Sir, Second Lieutenant Rex Fullstrike, 193rd Special Troops, with Gunnery Sergeant Spot Rightsmart and Sergeant Lucky Desperado, reporting, sir," the being said.

Vuxten returned the salute the stood up, extending his hand. "Good to meet you, gentlemen," he said. After all three of them shook his hand he waved at the seats on the side. "Take a seat."

"Thank you, sir," the Lieutenant said. All of them moved 'smartly', to use a Corps phrase. Vuxten noticed they were all carrying their hats in their left hands, sat with their backs rigid, their knees at a 90 degree angle, and put their hands on their knees, turning their heads to look at him.

"So what can I do for you?" Vuxten asked.

The Lieutenant gave a frown. "You weren't informed, sir?"

"No, Lieutenant, I was not. Can you elaborate?" Vuxten said.

"21st Replacement Battalion assigned us to Headquarters Company, Headquarters Battalion, First Telkan Marine Division, yesterday, with a reporting date of between zero eight hundred and eleven hundred thirty hours," the Lieutenant said. "Not only us, but an entire thirteen man recon team in addition to the Gunny and myself."

"Forgive me, Lieutenant," Vuxten said. He glanced down and activated the datascreen in his desk. He scrolled through his notes but didn't see anything in any of the morning bulletins. "I don't see anything here."

"It's the Corps Way, sir," the Gunnery Sergeant with the floppy ears said.

Vuxten checked the TO&E (Table of Organization & Equipment) real quick. First Platoon, Recon Platoon, was made up of four squads of eight. While having fifteen was a stretch, he could just add a fifth squad to First platoon, divvy up the excess seven between the other three platoons, including Headquarters Platoon.

After a moment he looked up. "All right. How many NCO's do you have?"

"The Gunnery Sergeant here, a Staff Sergeant, Sergeant Desperado, and another Sergeant, two corporals," the Lieutenant said.

Vuxten nodded. "All right, I'll assign you, Lieutenant, and the Gunnery Sergeant, to Headquarters Platoon, the Staff Sergeant and whichever Sergeant and whichever Corporal and five lower enlisted to Recon Platoon. We'll divide up the others with the other platoons, probably put them in the Recon squads."

All three nodded.

Vuxten leaned back in his chair, folding his hands over his stomach. "I'd ask you what your last posting was, Lieutenant, but I have a feeling that I would have no context."

The Lieutenant nodded. Vuxten was still trying to parse and figure out the Marine's body language. "My last posting was with Third Marine Expeditionary Force, part of the Earth Defense Force during the First Interdimensional War. I served from... uh..." the Lieutenant cocked his head. "Weird."

"What?" Vuxten asked.

"I can't seem to remember the dates exactly," the Lieutenant said. He shook his head. "I'm sorry, Captain, my men and I have problems with dates and historical names."

Vuxten nodded. "It's all right," he gave a grin. "You're over nine thousand years old, there's bound to be a little bit of drift here and there."

The Lieutenant nodded, lifting his upper lift in a close approximation of a human smile. "At least we've all been through recertification and refamiliarization."

Vuxten nodded. "All right. I'll get a hold of Brigade and Regiment, have them pass up to Division that we need priority on the ranges so we can get you up to speed with how the Telkan Marines do things."

All three nodded together.

"Right now, let's get your men into rooms, get the Senior NCO's and yourself into quarters, and we'll get the assignments handled. Over the next few days I'll arrange individual interviews with all of you," Vuxten finished.

"Thank you, sir," the Lieutenant said.

"Anything else, gentlemen?" Vuxten asked.

All three shook their heads as the Lieutenant said: "No, sir."

"Well, get with Sergeant Holkurt, he's the Supply Sergeant. He'll start getting you squared away with your gear and other necessitites," Vuxten said. "Dismissed."

"Thank you, sir," the Lieutenant said. All three stood up.

Vuxten watched them leave. As the door closed his desk beeped at the same time as his datalink. He looked down to see he had fifteen messages from 21st Replacement, one from Division, one from Brigade, and one from Regiment.

Vuxten sighed and shook his head. He tabbed the intercom and asked the Specialist who answered to have the First Sergeant and the Executive Officer meet him in his office.

That done, he opened the messages from 21st. Copies of the fifteen troops CDOMC (Confederate Department of the Marine Corps) 201 files as well as data on canis lupus nobilis.

He glanced them over and noticed that all of them had the same birthplace.

Lone Star Military Complex, Hamburger Kingdom, XXXX Pre-Glassing. Afterwards were creche numbers.

What surprised him was the ages. The youngest was only three Terran years old, the Gunnery Sergeant was only thirteen years old and had eleven years in service.

He closed the file and waited till Second Lieutenant Hrevex, who had been assigned to the Company only a week before, and First Sergeant Awrktrawt, a Kobold Marine, came in.

"Have a seat," Vuxten said, before either could say anything.

"What's going on, sir?" the Kobold asked after sitting down in one of the two chairs built for someone with a tail.

"Met our new Marines?" Vuxten asked.

Both shook their heads.

"Ever heard of a canis lupus nobilis?" Vuxten asked.

Again, both shook their heads, but the Kobold looked up. "Wait, isn't that a Terran dog?"

"Goodboi, to be exact," Vuxten said. He kicked the toe switch and the ceiling holoemitter came on, showing the Lieutenant's image from his 201 file. He was in a dress uniform, severe looking, staring straight ahead, his fur cut extremely short.

Vuxten noticed that the datalink he'd seen on the Lieutenant's head was missing from the file picture.

The Kobold shook his head. "By the Digital Omnimessiah, I'd heard they're back," he looked at the hologram again. "Wait, is he assigned to us?"

"Yes he is. As a," Vuxten consulted the Lieutenant's file. "A Force Recon 0326, Reconnaissance Man, Parachutist, Orbital Drop, and Combatant Diver Qualified*"* as well as a Marine Rifleman," Vuxten shook his head. "He's got a list of schools as long as my arm. Former enlisted, made it to Sergeant."

"Wait, he's only nine Standard Terran Years old? He's been in service since he was two?" Hrevex asked.

"Five out of those seven years he was involved in something called the First Terran Interdimensional War and working with something called Earth Defense Force," Vuxten read. He shook his head. "Wounded twice in combat, several valor awards," Vuxten looked up and shook his head. "He's the real deal."

Awrktrawt smiled and nodded. "We can use him, to be honest. Our Recon is pretty much following the Terran Confederate Marine Corps."

Hrevex frowned. "What's the maximum age for them in service?"

Vuxten checked and shook his head. "No data."

"Do you have anything about them? So we know what we can expect?" Hrevex asked.

Vuxten went through the files real quick and found "Goodboi Introduction Video Media" in the package from 21st. He threw it up into the holoemitter.

The Kobold jumped half out of his chair when a rippling flag appeared, red and white stripes, a blue field in the upper left, white stars in the blue field. It was playing music for almost a second before it vanished, to be replaced by the Confederate Armed Services logo.

"What is THAT doing there?" Awrktrawt asked, sitting back down.

"What is it?" Hrevex asked.

"The flag of the Ancient Hamburger Kingdom," the Kobold shuddered. "Just be glad we didn't see something terrible."

"Canis lupus nobilis, mankind's most ancient friend, ally, and pack member," a voice said, showing a bunch of four legged goodbois running around a field. It quickly changed to ones standing upright, wearing uniforms.

The three watched the video as it went through how mankind had uplifted the canis lupus, first to assist in military operations, then later, to full sentience and sapience. It went into how Lone Star Labs was the primary military cloning, creche, and training site for them, with applicable candidates entering the military, law enforcement, medical, search and rescue, forestry, and other jobs.

"Look at how old this video is," Hrevex said.

Vuxten paused it. "What?"

"No datalinks. It doesn't even look like they have SUDS yet. The vehicles are all ground vehicles, no graviton," the Lieutenant shook his head. "They weren't kidding about Pre-Glassing."

They watched it for a while longer.

"They aren't 'Born Whole'," Awrktrawt said. "Cloned, steel wombed, raised in a creche, tested," he looked at Vuxten. "How does this not violate their rights?"

Vuxten turned off the video and brought up the notice from CONFEDMIL.

"They all had the chance to leave the service after receiving medical care and psychological therapy. Roughly 11% took the option, the rest rejoined the military. In the year since they were brought back, almost half who left the military have reentered service," Vuxten looked up. "TerraSol is gone. The Terrans are gone. The military is what they have left."

The Kobold nodded. "By Vat Grown Luke's beard, can you imagine that. You're brought back to life..."

"By Vat Grown Luke," Hrevex added.

"Only to find out your best friends for tens of thousands of years, your genesis system, is all gone. There's nothing left that you know and nine or ten thousand years have gone by," Awrktrawt said.

"I want you to put the word out quietly to keep an eye on them. Let me know if it looks like they're having any problems integrating," Vuxten said.

The XO and the 1SG both nodded.

"Let's take a look at their training. We've got videos from the Earth Defense Force as well as 'sanitized' Hamburger Kingdom videos," Vuxten said.

"Sanitized?" Hrevex asked.

"They pull any old the Old Kingdoms' sigils and regalia out of the old videos or seriously alter them. Most of the Confederacy consider those old nations to be really bad news," the Kobold said.

"Why?" Hrevex asked.

"Because, sir, they're the ones that fought off three interdimensional incursions, two temporal attacks, then handed the Mantid their first defeat since the Precursor War," the Kobold said. "Just seeing those old logos makes my blood run cold." He gave a sudden shudder. "I went on a tour of Terra, back when I was younger, and an eat-mu got into the hotel I was out. It got in the service elevator, went up the top floor, and started killing everyone, working its way down."

The Kobold shuddered again. "Most terrifying thing I'd ever seen, and I'd seen some shit, sir. Took a Ozland Biological High Threat Response Team in full armor to take it out."

"What was it doing in the hotel?" Vuxten asked.

The Kobold shrugged. "Killing. It's what they do," he shuddered again. "Let's watch the next video."

Vuxten nodded, hitting the clicker with his foot.

---------------

Vuxten watched the fifteen goodboi team take off at a dead run toward the obstacle course. The rest of the company was watching them. Staff Sergeant Presawrk held an old style pocket-chrono stopwatch in her hand.

He watched them quickly navigate every obstacle and shook his head. He knew that the Telkan Marines were held in high esteem by everyone, but seeing the dogbois in action was something else. He watched them do a quick pyramid, go over a wall, throwing gear over, then pull the last one up.

They crossed the finish line with four minutes left to go for minimum scored time. All of them were panting, some of them with their tongues hanging out.

He'd been able to get range time earlier and what the goodbois had shown was nothing short of amazing, reminding Vuxten of his first encounter with the Confederate Army. While it took most Telkan a half second or so to engage a target, the goodbois were hitting them before they even spun all the way up.

They were fast, efficient, and very very skilled.

"What do you think, Sergeant?" Vuxten asked.

"We're going to have to get with TRADOC, figure out scoring for their physical fitness tests," the Rigellian female said.

Vuxten just nodded.

-------------

Brentili'ik was waiting for him when he got home Friday. He knew it was late, but he'd been working with Lady Keena, Peel, and Casey, still trying to get a hold on the rage still running through him.

"I had an interesting visitor today," she said.

"Really?" Vuxten asked, sitting down on the bench just inside the door and bending forward to take off his boots.

"Lady Keena," Brentili'ik said. She sat down next to him and rubbed his back.

"Really. She didn't say anything to me," Vuxten said, pulling off his boot.

"She wants to see the goodbois, but didn't want to just show up," Brentili'ik said. "It's the closest I've seen her to outright beg for something."

Vuxten nodded. "They've been separated a long time. I can see why it's so important to her."

"Is it all right if I call the Post Commander and make arrangements?" Brentili'ik asked.

Vuxten sat for a second, thinking about it. "I'll talk to Mental Health first."

Brentili'ik nodded. "Probably for the best," she rubbed his neck, ruffling the fur. "Dinner's in the warmer. Come in the frontroom with the rest of us and we'll eat in the pillow fort."

Vuxten looked at his wife and smiled. "I think I'd like that."