Exactly on time, Ryck gave the time-honored hand-and-arm signal to move out. Silently, with Second and Third in the lead, the company faded into the brush in a company V, moving silently to its objective. The SOG would undoubtedly have sensors surrounding their position, but the key was to get as close as possible before being spotted. The Marines had some pretty impressive counter-detection devices among them, but at some point, the device’s AIs would be overwhelmed, and the SOG at the transportation hub would know the company was there.
Ryck wished he could monitor the other three companies’ and the headquarters’ progress as well. When any of them was spotted, the gig would probably be up, and the assaults would shift from surprise to ferocity of attack. They had to overwhelm the resistance before anything could be organized against the Marines.
The night air was cool as they advanced, which was fortunate. Ryck didn’t like their new utilities, and with the poor meshing with the Marine Corps bones, walking was a little more awkward, and that could have caused excess sweating had the temperature been higher.
Visibility was good, though. Acquisition was well into the Gould Belt, and even without a moon, light from Jones’ Haven and the amazing spread of stars was more than enough for the light-gathering capabilities of his reticule. Through many hours of use, he’d gotten so used to having one eye seeing things through the reticule and the other eye unaided that he didn’t even think about the difference anymore.
Ahead of him, but still within sight, Horse, Sgt Mon Tullare held up his hand. He made a fist, then opened it up quickly. His Spook Fart had deployed. When the Sensor Deprivation Sphere detected an enemy sensor, it deployed what looked like a small puff of mist that drifted forward to envelope the sensor. It worked well against bio and vibration detectors, sort of surrounding the sensors in a cottony mush of high-tech blanketing, but it didn’t fare so well in blocking the newest wave-based detectors.
Ryck held his breath until Horse brought down his hand, signaling that the Spook Fart was in position. Either the SOG knew they were coming now or not, depending on what kind of sensor that was. Siomai Lee motioned his platoon back into the advance, and the company was on the move again.
Seven more times, Spirit Farts deployed. There was no indication that the sensors had given away the company’s position, but Ryck knew the SOG pirates could just be laying low.
As the company approached the FCL,[18] all hell broke loose up ahead of them, at least 10 klicks away. Firing intensified as a full-fledge battle raged ahead. Bravo Company didn’t break their emissions silence, but Ryck pumped his arm up and down to order the men to speed up the movement to contact. He knew the SOG at their objective would be aware that something was up, but he hoped that the pirates would be focused on what was going on at the main camp, not on his company assaulting through their position.
Siomai and his Second Platoon started shifting left. The platoon’s mission was to maneuver to the far side of the objective and keep anyone from escaping in that direction. Third was to lay a base of fire, to include using their Banshees and M67 HGLs, the 18mm Heavy Grenade Launcher. Both weapons should be able to take out the Patties and destroy any other vehicles there. That left First and Fourth to assault through the motor pool. Ryck, Sams, and Çağlar would assault through with Sandy and Fourth, while the XO, First Sergeant, and Liplock would stay with the base of fire.
Ryck felt his excitement rise. He’d thought his days of assaulting were over, but with the Raiders, things had changed. He could have stayed with the base of fire, but with the excuse of needing to be at the scene to effectively command, he chose to be right in the thick of things.
Way back in the recesses of his mind, he thought about Hannah, the twins, and Ben, that he was putting them at risk, that he’d served his time in the front, but it was surprisingly easy to bury those thoughts. He was in his element now, and he would not be denied.
The company gained speed, pushing through the brush. A branch whipped across Ryck’s jaw, raising a welt. That was something he’d never worried about in a PICS, and he had to consider that. One eye was protected by his reticule, but the other was unprotected, and he didn’t want to go down to a grubbing tree branch. He held up his left hand as a shield, protecting the left side of his face.
The muffled explosion of what was probably a booby trap sounded ahead and to his right, followed shortly by surprised-sounding shouts from up ahead. Ryck immediately turned on his full array of electronics.
“All hands, we are live,” he passed over the net.
His reticule came to life with a stream of information. The first data that caught his attention was that Sergeant Halcom Smith, “Creep,” was WIA. He’d probably been taken out by the booby trap, even if it sounded like it had been partially contained by Smith’s suppression field. His bios were steady, but his was out of the fight.
Ryck couldn’t see the objective yet through the brush and trees, but they were less than 300 meters away. That was an awful lot of distance to cover now that the pirates were alerted.
“XO, get that base of fire going now!” he passed on the P2P.
He didn’t want the two assault platoons to break out into the clearing around the motor pool before the base of fire could provide cover. The same heavy foliage that kept them out of sight from the pirates meant that the base of fire had to be in close to be effective, and Second Platoon could be exposed as it crossed the road if the base hadn’t opened up yet.
“Two, do not cross Yellow until the base commences. Do you read me?” he asked Siomai.
“Roger that. We are coming up to Yellow now. We will hold up.”
“XO, Now! I want fire now!” Ryck shouted into his mic.
“Roger, we’re almost into position,” the XO responded.
The firing Ryck heard next was not coming from the base of fire, though. A heavy chattering broke out, and to his left, in the direction of Second, Ryck could hear the heavy impact of rounds hitting wood. It was the unmistakable report of a 50mm chain gun. That confirmed the presence of at least one Patty. The 50mm could take out a PICS, much less a Marine in only his bones, and it had to be taken out.
Ryck shifted his direction towards the right as me moved forward, eyes straining to pick out a target.
“XO!” he shouted out, ignoring his mic.
There was a soft whoosh, followed by a series of louder pop, pop, pops before an explosion rocked Ryck’s front. The chain gun ceased firing. One of the base of fire’s Banshees had scored a hit.
“That’s the way it’s done!” Ryck shouted as a concerted cacophony of fire opened up from his right.
The base of fire was full on, and First and Fourth broke through the trees and into the cleared area around the motor pool. A huge column of black smoke roiled into the sky, choking forth from the burning Patty. Surrounding it were at least 15 vehicles, and one other Patty was maneuvering to try and get around them to engage the Marines. Two HGL rounds landed near the Patty, one destroying a small commercial hover, the other going long. Sandy was leading his men at a full charge to cover the 75 meters to the buildings before the pirates could effectively organize. Just breaking cover, Slug Hester was leading his First.
Ryck could see several bodies on the ground, and there was no organized resistance yet. A pirate ran out of the small block building, his weapon in hand, only to be cut down immediately. But that Patty was a threat. It opened up its 50mm, chewing through the vehicles in front of it. In a moment, its weapon would not be masked, and Ryck’s men had to have closed the distance by then.
“Where the grubbing hell’s another Banshee?” he passed to the XO.
“We’ve got a problem arming it!”
“Drop it and rack up another!”
Their gunner, Gunny “Jack-in-the-box” Nolan, had four missiles, but only one launcher. It had been a tight fit in the duck egg with only his launcher, and the missiles had been spread loaded to others. And if his missile was not communicating with the launcher, it had to be d
isconnected and re-connected, or a new missile had to be used.
The Patty’s 50mm ate through a truck body, opening up a firing lane. Ryck was right in that lane, and he darted to the side as a buzz saw of rounds zipped like angry hornets not two meters to his left. At the same time, the right flank of Second flowed in and among the parked cars, a tsunami of angry Marines. Ryck heard the XO shift the base of fire as he plunged between two pickups, both riddled with holes. He kept scanning for targets, looking, hoping for someone to pop up so he could engage. With the Patty still spewing out rounds, it would be easy to focus on that and miss a pirate popping up from inside one of the vehicles. The Patty’s chain gun could cut a man in two, but a pirate with a simple handgun could kill a man just as dead.
Ryck rounded a dozer and caught a full glimpse of the Patty just as a Marine darted away from its tracks. A moment later, a blast blew out from the armored vehicle, and the Patty lurched to its side, a track and road wheels blown away.
“Pork chop secure,” Captain Hester passed from the other side of the compound.
With the building secured, all that was left was the Patty. It was crippled, but its 50mm was still functional, and deadly. Without supporting infantry, though, the fight was all but done. The big beast had the ability to shock the living shit out of anyone who tried to climb on it, but it couldn’t stop Sergeant Ling from scooting inside under the big gun’s reach and simply tossing a toad up on the exhaust grill. Within 20 seconds, the toad had burned its way into the engine block, resulting in a nice, if subdued explosion.
It was over—at least the first stage. Now came the real fight.
Chapter 31
“We’ve got two WIAs, Jawman and Creep. Doc Lyon’s working on them. Creep’s pretty messed up, but he’ll stabilize. Jawman says he’s good to go, though. Took a round through and through the arm,” Sams told him. “Probably friendly fire, by the look of it.”
Shit! “Friendly fire?” These guys are supposed to be the cream of the crop! Ryck thought to himself. We’re too good for that kind of shit.
“What does Doc say?” he asked Sams.
“Jawman can probably handle it. Doc gave him a nano-boost and says it is mostly pain. Creep’s getting ziplocked, though.”
“Good. We need Jawman,” Ryck told him.
Jawman, Staff Sergeant Belter de Portia, was First Platoon’s demo expert. All of the Marines could handle demo, of course, but each platoon had one man who had more extensive training, and with most of the SOG underground, that asset might prove to be invaluable.
“What about the enemy? Do we have a count?”
“Six KIA,” Sandy said as we came up to the two Marines.
“Only six? We were told that there would be 10-15 men here,” Ryck said, more to himself than to anyone else. “Were the hell are they?
“Any sign of the third Patty?” he asked the other two.
“Nothing here, sir. But there are three tool sets, so there has to be one more,” Sandy said.
Bravo’s mission was to secure the motor pool, and that had been done. But his secondary mission was to take out the three Patties. Two were destroyed, and the XO and the first sergeant were going over the hulks now to record the serial numbers. But it looked like there was one more out there somewhere, and he didn’t want that thing crawling up any of the other companies’ asses.
“Six, this is Bravo,” Ryck passed on the battalion command net.
With all the attacks underway, there was no longer a need for comms silence.
“Hyundai is secure. We’ve got two WIA, one requiring ziplocking. We have counted six, I repeat six hostile KIA. Two Patties and numerous other vehicles have been destroyed.”
Ryck knew that the CO had the readouts from his Marines, so he would know that two had been wounded, but the information on the enemy situation would be new to him.
“Roger that,” Bert passed back. “Only two Patties? Any sign of the third?”
“That’s a negative. There are three tool kits, but no sign of a third vehicle.”
“Understood. OK, I want you to leave one platoon at Hyundai to secure that avenue of approach. Keep them on the lookout for that third Patty. I don’t want that thing surprising us. Get the rest of Bravo here to our pos. I want you as the reserve force here, but be ready to get into it. The tunnel complex looks to be quite a bit more extensive than we thought.”
“Roger that. We’ll be there in about 45 mikes.”
“Roger. Bravo, out.”
“Commanders and staff, to my pos now,” Ryck passed on the command circuit.
Sams looked at him with a raised eyebrow as they waited for the others. Ryck just shrugged. Sams would have to wait. He didn’t want to repeat himself in another minute or two.
“OK, we’ve got our frag, and it’s just about what the first sergeant predicted,” he started when the commanders and staff were around him. “We’re moving to Aglarond to act as a reserve and to exploit success as we can. But we’re leaving a platoon here to secure this avenue of approach. That’s you, Giles,” he told his First Platoon commander. “We’ve got a Patty out there somewhere, so keep alert. How’s your Banshee situation?”
“We’ve got the full combat load. All three,” the captain responded.
“OK, good. If he so much as pokes his nose out of some hiding place, I want him taken out.
“Luke, what about your Banshee? What happened out there?” he asked the Third Platoon commander.
“Don’t know, sir. The launcher couldn’t interrogate the second missile.”
“Is it up now?”
“Jack-in-the-box and Kitten are trying to gin up a new interface, but no guarantees,” Captain O’Leary said. “I think it’s the interrogation chip on all three we have left.”
Ryck took a moment to consider that. Somewhere out there was another Patty, and there was no guarantee that is was further down the road away from them. It could be closer to the main objective, and with an inoperable missile, they only had the HGLs to engage it. A missile that couldn’t mesh with the launcher was useless.
“Giles, I want Sergeant Albierto to give up one missile to Gunny Nolan,” he said after only a few moments.
He hated taking away a missile from First, but the rest of the company had to have some coverage.
“What about me?” the XO asked. “You want me with Slug?”
“No, Giles has it covered, I think. I want you with the rest of the company for this. Everyone else, I want us ready to move out in two. Any questions?”
“What about Creep, sir?” Doc Lyons asked.
“Just as briefed. He stays here with First. He’ll be gathered up when we retrograde,” Ryck told him.
The Marines fully expected casualties on the mission, and the plan was to ziplock all Cat one and two WIAs, stage them, and then gather them up while boarding their ride out.
“Anything else? Any more questions?”
When there was none, he said, “OK, let’s get going.”
He grabbed Giles Hester’s shoulder as they broke up. “You OK, Giles?” he asked his heavy-worlder captain.
“Sure, no problem.”
“You know what we need, right?”
“You’ve got it, sir. No one gets past us. No one.”
Ryck looked as his broad-shouldered, bull-necked, shaved-head platoon commander. It was not fair to stereotype anyone based on their home world or appearance, but Slug reminded Ryck of his TBS classmate, Jorge Simone. Jorge was been something of a tactical genius, and Ryck hoped that the captain was like Jorge in that and not just in appearance.
“OK, I know that. Just remember, we’re just down the road, Giles. You’re not alone here.”
“And neither are you, sir. If you need us, First is ready to come to the rescue.”
Ryck laughed at the bravado. He didn’t know what the next hours would bring, but this was the caliber of men he was leading. He couldn’t ask for anything more.
Chapter 32
Ryck turned u
p the magnification on his reticule, trying to see inside the entrance to the cave complex, codenamed “Aglarond.” Under the light amplification, though, the magnification suffered, and he couldn’t see much. He knew that just inside the large opening, Bert and his headquarters were positioned, while deeper inside, Charlie and Delta were trying to clear the complex. Fighting had been heavy at times, and both companies had taken casualties, but there had been nowhere near the number of SOG engaged as had been expected. Comms had been significantly degraded with the two companies underground, but Ryck was catching snippets of transmissions as the assault continued.
Ryck’s very first combat mission, centuries ago, it seemed, had been in a mine on Atacama, and as a sergeant, he’d fought in a cave on BHP Billiton B-19, but he really hadn’t been comfortable with the closed-in areas. He preferred being out in the open, where he could spot the enemy and bring his weapons to bear on him. He was getting an itchy trigger-finger, just sitting in the darkness, doing nothing, but he wasn’t too eager to enter the even darker mazes. He wasn’t claustrophobic. The duck eggs, for example, were nothing to him. It was just that being underground felt like some of his senses were being taken away from him.
He pulled up First Platoon on his reticule. One of the limitations of the reticule was its small size. In a PICS, or even with a full helmet face shield, he could have the entire battle area and a plethora of other data displayed, but on the small reticule, he had to shift from one view to the other or specifically call up the desired data.
Major (The United Federation Marine Corps Book 5) Page 17
