Read Online Theogony 1: Janissaries by Chris Kennedy - Free Book Online Page A

Mr. Jones. No surprise there, Calvin thought.
    Calvin moved toward the formation and lowered his voice.
“That’s not actually why you are here.” There were several murmurs that ran
through the platoon. Calvin heard at least two voices say, “Told you so; pay
up!” He smiled. “While that is part of it, there is actually a lot more
to it. Some of you are already aware that we were contacted by aliens from another
planet. For those of you that weren’t, about a month ago, three aliens asked
our president for help, because their communications link back to their home
planet stopped working. The mission of this platoon, along with some other
support personnel, is to go with the aliens out into space to find out why.”
    Another murmur, a lot louder this time, ran through the
platoon as it dawned on most of them that they were about to become spacemen
and women. He raised his voice to regain their attention. “I will not, however,
take anyone with me that does not want to go. If there is anyone that wants to
drop out now, please come forward.” No one came forward; if anything, the
entire platoon swayed away from him. Calvin wasn’t surprised. He had
already found that the United States’ special forces troopers were the most ‘gung
ho’ soldiers he had ever met; he expected the other countries’ troops were as
well.
    “In that case,” Calvin said, “welcome to the Terran Space
Force. As of right now, you are the entire force, but there will be other units
standing up before too long. You will notice that I said ‘Terran,’ not the
‘United States’ Space Force. The United States has opened up partnership in
this force to all of your countries, and they have accepted, which is why you
are here. You are now part of something that is greater than any of our
countries on its own. I want to be very clear, though. This information is
classified at the highest level, higher than any clearance you have ever had,
and all of you will be required to sign disclosure forms when we are done
talking today. Your former commanding officers don’t know anything about this;
only your presidents and prime ministers do.”
    “I’m sure that all of you want to know where we are going
and what we’ll be doing there. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you that, because no
one knows yet. The mission details are still being put together and, even when
they are finalized, there are going to be a lot of holes because we don’t know
what’s happened. We might get out there to find that the aliens have a bad
transmitter. The friendly aliens, the Psiclopes, think that this is unlikely,
though. What they believe has happened is that a different alien race has
destroyed one of their relays and is currently looking for us. Ladies and
gentlemen, these creatures are bad news. Imagine ten feet tall frogs that like to
eat their food, you, while you’re still alive. If we find any of them, we will
terminate them with extreme prejudice. Preferably from orbit; preferably with
nukes.
    I don’t know what kind of combat we will have, if any. It
might be in space; it might be on land; it might be under water. We will be ready for all of these. All of us will become SEALS: Sea, Air, Land and
Space. There will be two squads. Master Chief O’Leary will command the first
squad, which will be primarily responsible for space and undersea operations,
while Master Sergeant Aaron Smith will be in charge of the second squad, which
will be the primary squad for operations on land. All of you, though, will be
qualified to go anywhere and do anything.”
    There was a chorus of ‘hoo-ah’ and various other unit cheers
that the men and women used to express pleasure and indicate motivation.
    Calvin looked back at his XO. “The first thing we need to do
is come up with a unit cheer.”
    As he turned back to the platoon, he saw a hand go up. If he
remembered correctly, it was the German Special Forces paratrooper. Calvin
indicated that the soldier should speak,