Then I rechecked my weapons. My projectile weapon, an ancient .50 caliber automatic pistol, had enough ammunition for me to fire it and reload once. The bullets were the most expensive part of the weapon system. I still wondered why the Sarge advised me to buy it. It was quite unlike our stingers which didn’t run out of ammunition. They were rechargeable while not in use and would pick up energy from just about any light source. Even while firing them, they were constantly recharging themselves from light sources. Also, they had a longer range than the antique pistol. The stinger rifles packed even more punch and range besides being rechargeable like the regular stingers. I went ahead and drew a survival knife with the rifle and clipped it onto my gun belt, along with a directional finder and communications pack.
Once I had all those items, I went on back out of the ship and waited for the two lieutenants to join me. They weren’t far behind me with all their gear ready. As soon as they came out of the ship, we rechecked our directions and left the ship to make our way to the enemy location. This would likely be my first chance to see the Ape-oids up close and in person, so to speak. We had all seen their pictures in the briefings, but none of us had seen one up close as we probably soon would.
At least, we had a goodly-sized clearing for the Mark II singles to cover. Anyone trying to approach the ship would be visible for almost half a kilometer. Of course, it meant that the ship was clearly visible, but it had weapons and its hull would protect it from most light weapons. It would need to be attacked either with overwhelming odds to capture it or heavy weapons to destroy it. While there were a few chinks in our armor where the damage was being repaired, I felt the rest of the ship would give my crew adequate protection from whatever the planet might have in the way of animal life.
I led the way across the clearing after checking the directional finder. Lieutenant Sorenson followed me and Lieutenant Kruler brought up the rear. Each of us was still wearing standard issue overslicks, mesh undies, and non-skids, along with shoulder packs. The load we carried wasn’t particularly heavy or bulky. I had seen pictures of what soldiers used to carry into combat. I wondered how they ever managed to handle all that gear.
We walked straight through most of the brush. Our overslicks easily resisted the worst of it since the overslicks were made of Tevlarian. The Tevlarian was resistant to a lot of things besides being thermally protective. It actually made it possible for us to move faster through brambles and thorny brush because it was impervious to the thorns and stickers and very slick. Almost nothing stuck to it. The overslick pants could be sealed to the overslick shirt to create a moisture and thermal seal. Yet another seal could be made at the collar of the overslick shirt to add an overslick hood with protective face shield for the worst of situations.
Our non-skids had a top covering of the same material while the soles were quite the opposite. They gave traction on almost any surface, even ice and oily surfaces, plus they had a bounciness to them that helped absorb shock and were lightweight. Grippers at the top of the non-skids made it possible to attach the overslick pants to create a seal between them. That was useful when trying to keep liquids out of the non-skids and create thermal barriers against inclement weather.
I estimated that we were probably making about six kilometers an hour as we moved through the sparse forest and brush. We could have moved faster, but I didn’t want to run into anything without any chance to respond to it properly. I doubted that any of the wildlife was much of a threat, but I preferred to be cautious. At least, I noticed, the other officers were moving as easily and quietly through the forest as I was. I was glad that they picked up and remembered their first year academy lessons properly.
Almost every cadet complained about the amount of time spent on field exercises during the first half-year when they wanted to get into space. Just about everyone of them had to have it explained to them that they might have to land on an uncharted or unexplored planet to discover a new life form, so being capable of moving silently and quickly was important to them. Then just about every cadet applied the effort to achieve the necessary abilities. The second half of the first year was devoted to not leaving a trail, survival instruction, and hand-to-hand combat. Usually a lot of trainees didn’t make it through the first year because of the physical rigors. After all, they had to do it on an inhabited planet with the heaviest gravity of all the human inhabited worlds. Of course, the first year wasn’t all physical training. There was also a lot of textdisk work, but most of that was carried out in the field while the cadets were being conditioned. So, if nothing else, a cadet was in excellent physical condition when he or she graduated after four years.
Additionally, they were in the top of the educational strata since they had to have a college degree before they could even enter the Academy. Academically, cadets were inferior to no one. They had chosen fields from college and another from the Academy. Theoretically, every cadet was qualified to do more than just military drills. That was the way it used to be until rich families sending their kids to the Academy began bribing public officials to change the rules so that they could get in with degrees that made absolutely no sense for military use. After all, what was the Navy going to do with a real estate consultant or stock broker? The Academy had been in the habit of accepting college graduates with degrees in biology, electronics, physics, math, and languages, for example, because they saw a need for those fields in the exploration, research, and development of space.
Then the reduction in force came about. The rich families bribed more officials to keep their kids in the Academy so that their kids could continue to get into the Navy and send home information about new discoveries before they were released to the public. Consequently, a number of rich families were in on the ground floor, so to speak, when any newly discovered planets were opened up. And I had six of those rich kid officers on my ship along with forty-three enlisted crew members when we left port. Now, I had only twenty-seven crew members, seven of whom were from Pennyweight Shipping Company. I was going to miss the two Pennyweight personnel we lost in the battle.
I kept us moving almost until night when we finally stopped after covering almost thirty kilometers of straight line distance. We had been in sparse forest the whole time since leaving the clearing where the Thurman was. Rather than leave ourselves open to wild animals of all descriptions, we climbed one of the trees and set up our hammocks. I took the first watch for three hours. Each of the others took their turn after me. The animal calls during the night were chilling to the bone. Even so, we were tired after our full day and sleep came easy.