John Ringo - Eye of the Storm

Hagai cracked open the hatch to the latrine and saw that the lights were off. Damn!

He waited in the corridor for someone else to enter the compartment, his arms crossed and bouncing in his need to pee. Various troops and NCOs past, some of them raising an eyebrow. Finally, a Feldwebel came along and paused at the door.

“Is there something wrong with the latrine, yellow-shit?” the Feldwebel asked.

“Nein, Feldwebel,” Hagai said, coming to attention and trying not to bounce.

“Then why are you standing here?” the sergeant asked.

“It is… complicated, Feldwebel,” Hagai replied. “But please to enter first.”

The sergeant pushed open the hatch suspiciously and looked around for a possible ambush. When it was apparent the compartment was empty he walked in and headed to one of the stalls.

Hagai darted in behind him and practically ran to a urinal, untabbing his trousers as he did. He let out a long sigh a moment later.

“Schutze, you are acting very strangely,” the Feldwebel said, grunting. “Are you well?”

Some of the SS troops had succumbed to situational stress disorder on the voyage, unable to handle the fact of being in a tin can in outer space. The Feldwebel clearly feared that he was suffering from the ‘raumverruckt,’ space crazy.

“I’m fine now, Feldwebel,” Hagai said then paused. He tabbed up his pants and thought about it hard but there was nothing for it. He backed up and the urinal flushed.

Damn. Another sin. It was hard being a good Jew on a space ship.

He walked to the sink to wash his hands and nearly cursed.

The faucet was automatic…

Maybe he should think about shifting over to Reform. They didn’t have as many rules…

No. His mother would kill him. Or, rather, his mother would kill herself .

He made a mental bet with himself that Frederick was having a pleasure cruise…

“The V-1467 charging system, a generator connected to six C-8438 capacitors via the T-2754 power junction is the primary charging system of the main gun… ” Frederick recited, standing stiffly to attention.

“In the event of failure of the V-1467 charging system, what is the primary response method?” Harz barked.

“By connecting the G-396 generator to the T-2754 power junction using the M-892 power run and an S-487 connector, power to the main gun can be reestablished under field combat conditions. However it is recommended that… ”

“What are the negative effects of using the G-396 generator to power the gun?”

“The G-396 generator is the primary power system for the ground effect drive. The G-396 generator is a generator connected to… ”

“What if we need the ground effect drive and the gun but the V-1467 is out?”

“If the V-1467… ” Frederick said then paused. “I do not recall any portion of the manual that covers that eventuality, Feldwebel.”

“That’s because there’s nothing in the manual, Schutze,” Harz said. “But let us imagine for just a moment that the unit is moving very fast in march order but wants to have the guns up. Because, you know, we are a panzer unit. Perhaps we intend to go directly into battle after we come off ground effect and perhaps, just perhaps, we will need our gun . How would you affect that?”

“The diesel engine, which provides power to all the generators, can run without the G-428 generator,” Frederick said, slowly and carefully. “The only way I can think of to get the whole system to work under those conditions would be to start the engine then disconnect the G-428 and attach it to the gun system. But I’m not sure it would work. The S-487 connector… I don’t think it will fit the G-428… And I’m not sure there is sufficient charging capacity because… ”

“It would take about three times as much time to charge the guns, but it could do it,” Harz said. “Which means that we’d have less rounds we could fire per minute. But we could fire some rounds. Until we died, that is. Or the engine choked out because you ran over an obstacle. Then we’d have to hop out in a hostile environment and try to get everything running again. Not a good position to be in. What is the P-5297?”

Frederick ran through his memorized list of the many parts and pieces of the Leopard and could not for the life of him recall what a P-5297 was. He vaguely recognized it, though. It was there… Wait…

“The P-5297 is… a lifting platform,” Frederick said, frowning. “It is mentioned once in the loading appendix. It is used for short distance movement, primarily in loading and internal ship movement procedures. If, for example, a shuttle has a damaged loading ramp, the P-5297 can be used to move the vehicle vertically then… ”

“How many are on the ship?” Harz asked.

“What?” the private asked. “Feldwebel… How would I know that ?”

“You couldn’t,” Harz said, grinning. “Unless you had my network of comrades. The answer is very interesting, though. As is the fact that they have been upgraded with the M-3698 field generator.”

Frederick ran through his mental checklist and came up most definitely blank.

“I do not recognize that item, Feldwebel,” he admitted.

“That’s because it is not in our inventory,” Harz said. “It’s a Fleet Strike item. It uses the American naming convention. Put it out of your mind. Useless military trivia. Let us return to training.”

It was normally easy duty.

The military police of Feldgendarmerie Company 1 had various duties. The soldiers packed into the assault transports were occasionally given to high spirits. These ranged from stills to occasional fights that approached riots. By and large, the unit officers could control both but occasionally they needed help.

One of the easiest duties they had, though, was guarding the headquarters section and, especially, ensuring that no-one broke in on command meetings. They had been briefed that this was a special meeting. The ships were three weeks into their voyage and had broken out of warp specifically to gather the battalion and regiment commanders to meet with the Generalmajor. Something important was being discussed but all such discussions were important. It should have been easy duty. Just stand there looking alert and not let anyone through the door.

“Should we call the Hauptmann?” the Schutze asked.

“We should stand here with our mouths shut and our ears shut as much as possible,” the Feldwebel said. “So shut… up.”

The hatch was very thick and very sound-proofed. So it required very high decibels to penetrate it. The first such had been a simple question: “ Was ?” (“What?”) It sounded like it might have been the Second Panzergrenadier Regiment’s commander. Thereafter there was babble followed by “ madness !” “ Impossible !” and, repeatedly, “ Disaster !”

Command meetings, especially those of Herr Generalfeldmarschall, did not devolve into riots. This one, however, was sounding more and more like one.

“They’re quieting down,” the Feldwebel said. “You will not bring up that anything unusual happened. There are but two of us. If it gets out, it will fall on one of us. It will not fall on me.”

“I hear not’ink,” the Schutze said in thick English. “I see not’ink .”

“Those old shows will rot your brain.”

“Buckley, contact Schutze Hagai Goldschmidt,” Frederick said, quietly.

The Buckley was supposed to be hooked into the ship’s communication’s system so he should be able to contact Hagai. If he was on the same ship.