Lieutenant (The United Federation Marine Corps Book 3) (7 page)

As far as Ryck was concerned, the PICS Marines could have stormed the objective.  The building, consisting of offices and a number of labs filled with quality control equipment, was where all of the factories products underwent quality testing.  The ceilings were high, the labs large.  A PICS Marine would have no problem maneuvering inside.  However, the Killington reps had nixed that.  It seems they didn’t want Marines in PICS “blundering about,” as they put it, “destroying valuable testing equipment.”  So First Platoon, with limited weaponry, was to go in and root out any mercs who had taken up position in the building.

A quick look-up on Janes
[20]
revealed that the Kracivik Battalion had recently bought Farnham CYL Plate armor for its soldiers.  The “lobster” armor consisted of a tough, one-piece torso shell with strap on arm and leg plates.  The main shell was fairly impervious to kinetic small arms, including the Marine’s M99s.  It could even deflect larger man-packed rounds, such as the M76 “bunker buster” that one Marine in each fire team carried, although a direct hit would pierce it.

The relative weakness in the armor was in the extremities.  The arm and leg plates never seemed to fit well, leaving areas of vulnerability.  Kinetic rounds could find those seams and joints, while energy weapons had even an easier time breaching the armor’s protection.  Against poorly armed fighters, and that included most militias, the lobster armor was quite effective.  Against the better-armed Marines, it didn’t match up to the Marines’ skins and bones. 

The lobster armor couldn’t protect the four mercs who had been out in the arty barrage, but it should keep most of the mercs alive, if missing limbs, in a battle with infantry Marines. 

“Grizzly-six, this is Grizzly-two-six.  We are now passing through Grizzly-one and are assuming point of main effort,” Ryck passed back to the skipper. 

SSgt Mourka gave Ryck a nod as Ryck passed him.  In the PICS, it was more of a lean than anything else, but the intent was clear.  The field of battle had been passed to him.

“Sgt Timothy, send up your team,” he passed on a P2P, foregoing the “Grizzly” call signs. 

Their comms were shielded, encrypted, and employed frequency hopping, which made listening in by the enemy almost impossible, and Ryck wanted to leave no room for misunderstanding.  On a simple P2P, he felt he could be more direct.

The Killington liaison team had given the Marines the combinations for all entrances, assuring the battalion that they would still be valid.  They were confident that their codes could not be breached.

Ryck couldn’t see any damage to the lab building, and if the codes could not be breached, then there couldn’t be any mercs inside, right? 

And if you believe that, I’ve got some great beach-front property for you on Deseret
, he thought sourly to himself. 

Ryck watched as Sgt Timothy sent forward his second fire team.  Ryck slaved Cpl Goddard’s feed to his own display, and he watched as LCpl Pannata keyed in the combination.  Instead of a steady green light of an open door, the lock display went to a flashing amber.  Pannata tried again, but no green.  He turned to look right at Goddard, his hands raised, palms up, in the universal “I don’t know” gesture.

Grubbing hell!
Ryck thought. 

He knew the codes would have been broken.  This was a professional merc company in there, not some half-assed hackers.

His alternate plan had been to call the skipper to request a demo team, but that would take time, and he would have to explain why he couldn’t open the doors to the lab.  He looked up to see SSgt Mourka standing there, a huge hulk in his PICS.

“Staff sergeant,” he keyed on a P2P.  “Seems like the combos we got are not worth a rabbit’s hop.  I could call back for a boomboom team, but seeing as you guys are just standing around, you want to see if you can crack that door open?”

Ryck couldn’t see inside the staff sergeant’s visor, but he swore he could see the Marines posture change, the big PICS seemingly more alert.

“Uh, blow it open?” he answered back, holding up his attached HGL.

“Well, if we have to.  But first, let’s see if one of you can just ram your way through.”

Ryck didn’t think highly of the Killington reps, and if it came down to it, he’d level the lab if he had to, but still, sending a grenade through it might mean a ton of paperwork to explain why he’d dared to damage some piece of shit lab equipment.

“Well, it’s not like that’s some sort of military installation,” the staff sergeant said.  “Yeah, I’ll give it a shot myself.  Clear me with the company, though, will you, sir?”

“I’ve got you covered,” Ryck said as the platoon sergeant left the P2P to coordinate with a few of his Marines.

“Grizzly-six, this is Grizzly-one-six.  The combination codes were not valid. I repeat, they were not valid.  I am commencing my own breach,” Ryck sent back to his commander.

Ryck thought the captain might want a longer explanation, or worse, tell Ryck to wait until he could come up to the position.  Instead, the captain merely told him to go ahead and report back when he got the door open.

If there were mercs inside, they had to know the Marines were there, ready to come in.  The delay was frustrating, and it gave any mercs more time to prepare.  If Ryck had his way, he would have had a team from Weapons Platoon, and they would have blown open an entrance right through a wall with a Banshee.  Never enter where an enemy thought you would was one of the prime lessons taught at recruit training.  When he’d suggested this, he thought the Killington rep was going to have a heart attack.  The rep had gone on about how the company was “allowing” the Marines to destroy the outer facilities, but Killington would not stand for any of their core facilities being damaged.

“Sgt Timothy, move two teams up to cover Staff Sergeant Mourka, then back to the plan.  I want your squad in and in fast.  Secure the front office.  Second squad’s going to be on your ass,” Ryck told his First Squad leader over the platoon command circuit.  “All three of you squad leaders, get your Marines moving.  We don’t know if there’s anyone in the lab, but we need to mass our forces if we meet resistance.  Watson and Ariana, no gap.”

Then, over his platoon circuit, “We’ve got a slight delay here.  As you can see, the combination we received is worthless.  We’ve got Staff Sergeant Mourka now about to create a breach.  As soon as he does, we’re back on track.”

“Joshua, I really need you to push.  Make sure Ariana gets Third in.  Keep an eye on him, and let me know after this is over if you still think he’s got what it takes,” Ryck passed to his platoon sergeant after switching to a P2P.

Ryck wasn’t sure Sgt Tand Ariana had it in him to be an effective combat Marine.  Joshua, though, wasn’t ready to give up on the squad leader.  This was Ariana’s chance to prove himself.  If he fell short, Ryck was ready to get Ariana transferred.  Ryck felt that Cpl Kerrick Howell, the squad’s Third Fire Team leader, was more than capable of leading the squad if it came to that.  A gung ho aggressive corporal was better than a weak sergeant any day of the week.

Ryck turned his attention back to SSgt Mourka.  The PICS Marine, flanked by four others, was at the double doors leading into the building.  He stood there a moment, studying the entrance.  Taking a step forward, he put his gauntleted arms, one on each door, and pushed.  To Ryck’s surprise, the doors crashed in.  He’d expected the SSgt to be able to break them down, but these didn’t offer even a hint of resistance.  Then again, this wasn’t a military installation.  A simple retina scan and lock would have been more than enough to keep unauthorized people out of the building.

SSgt Mourka stumbled in, probably surprised the doors had collapsed so easily as well, followed immediately by his security. 

“Go First!” Ryck sent, even though Sgt Timothy had his squad right on the PICS Marines’ asses.

There was a burst of automatic fire, then several answering bursts and one explosion.  Ryck was slaved into Sgt Timothy, but by the time his squad leader made it into the building, the fight was over.  Icons appeared on Ryck’s display as the AIs analyzed what the PICS and First Squad Marines were able to pick up.  There were four more mercs inside the office:  all were down, but only one was zeroed.  Sgt Timothy was already calling for Doc Camp.

One of the PICS Marines was out of action.  LCpl Vance was unhurt, but he was out of the fight with a fried PICS.  One of the mercs had taken him out with what the AIs identified as a DIF-3 “Diablo” rocket. 

Ryck had heard of Diablos, but he was not completely familiar with them, so he popped up the specs as he ran forward to the building.  The Diablo was a small, relatively inexpensive 6mm rocket, a semi-smart fire-and-forget.  It was dual-use, with both a small shape charge and pulse warhead.  The shape charge could pierce armor, depositing the pulse warhead inside the outer layers of defense of its target.  The little rocket had taken a PICS out of action.  From what Ryck read off the specs, just the shape charge alone could wreck havoc on a Marine in skins and bones.  Ryck flashed the spec summary to the platoon.  He hoped the mercs wouldn’t have too many of the rockets, but his Marines had to be aware of them.

Ryck dashed through the smashed entrance.  Sgt Timothy had his squad deployed to cover the entire outer office.  Two of the PICS Marines were at the entrance to the lab floor while two more were assisting LCpl Vance out of his PICS.  The office itself was in shambles.  The Killington rep was going to be royally pissed.

Fuck him
, Ryck thought. 
Take it up with the lawyers after all this is over.

“Hold on Sgt Ariana,” he passed to his Third Squad leader.  “It’s getting crowded in here, so secure the entrance for now.”

This was a 180 from Ariana’s previous orders, but flexibility was a key to combat.  Nothing went according to plan, and Ariana had to be able to adjust.

“What about me?” Joshua asked over the P2P.

Ryck knew that Joshua was itching to get into the fight.  But he needed his platoon sergeant with Third.

“Stay with Ariana.  Make sure no one comes up our ass here.  Once I get my bearings, we’re pushing on, and I’m going to need you to bring up the rear,” Ryck passed.

“Sergeant Timothy, get a probe through the hatch into the lab, then I want you and Sergeant Watson over to me,” he sent on the platoon circuit.

“Lieutenant Ward wants to know if you still need us,” SSgt Mourka asked him.

“Hey Donte, Mourka was a big help,” Ryck said after switching to a P2P with the First Platoon commander.  “You need them back now?”

“Is Vance OK?  Mourka says he’s fine, but he’d say that no matter what,” Donte asked first.

Ryck looked over at the lance corporal, who was laughing at something one of the other Marines had said.  He looked naked in his longjohns, but he had his Ruger out of the leg holster and in his hand.

“He looks fine.  I’ll have Doc check him out, though, after he stabilizes the mercs.”

“OK, that’s good.  About Mourka, I’m in a holding pattern now.  The Killington rep is on my ass not to let my guys get too aggressive.  But if you need him, you got him,” Donte said.

Ryck’s display suddenly lit up with more data.  Cpl Goddard had run a probe through the entrance to the lab floor, and it was picking up more data.  The AIs were trying to analyze that and decipher it into usable intel.  The mercs inside were shielded, but there were enough tiny leaks to be able to start to form a picture of what awaited them.

Ryck was tempted to ask Donte to task Mourka and the squad to him to assault the lab, but the ROEs were pretty clear.  Like it or not, he had to minimize damage.

“No, I don’t need them to be taking anything out of my salary to pay for stuff they destroy.  A year’s pay probably wouldn’t take care of the broom and shitcan they use to clean up the place.  If you don’t mind, though, I’d like them to secure our six so I can use all three squads to assault,” Ryck responded.

“You got it, bro.  Let me tell Mourka.  This is Donte the Great, out.”

Ryck had started to key in the platoon command circuit but stopped as he broke out in a laugh.  Donte was still Donte, whether back at the O-Club or here in combat. 

“Doc, how are the mercs?” he sent to HM3 Campomanosi, Doc “Camp.”

“We’ve got three WIA.  One is a Code 3, but the other two are Code 1s.  Lots of regen for all three, but the Code 1 needs to get casevac’d ASAP,” Doc told him.

Ryck didn’t have the merc’s bioreadouts, of course, but Doc uploaded his own findings.  Ryck had basic first aid training, but not much of what Doc sent really meant a lot to him.  That is, except for the Code 1.  Code 1 meant a life-and-death situation where a WIA needed immediate evacuation and advanced care.  The UCFMJ required that all prisoners receive medical care as required. 

Tactically, Ryck didn’t want to give the mercs inside any more time to prepare or plan.  Waiting for a casevac would give them that time.  On the other hand, the mercs inside knew they had a KIA and three WIA, and they probably knew that one of the WIAs was serious.  They would counter-attack when it wouldn’t put their comrades in danger. 

There was also the moral side of the issue.  These were men, just like his Marines.  Ryck would hope that if the situation were reversed, any wounded Marines would be afforded proper care.  The moral issue trumped tactics.