Captain (The United Federation Marine Corps Book 4) (4 page)

Chapter 6

Ryck rushed down B deck to get to Hanger Bay 2.  He’d just received the final brief, and L-hour was less than 15 minutes away.  He forwarded the updated operations order to his own staff which should be waiting in the rekis
[6]
for the crossover.

The mission was pretty straight forward despite the time crunch and the close entry and exit from bubble space to planetary bodies.  With the new cloaking system, the
Inchon
would pull to within 100 km from the
Julianna’s Dream
, which was spitting distance for ships in space.  The Marines would use the rekis to close the distance before debarking and flying their EVA vacsuits the last kilometer to their objectives.

Charlie Company was to secure the
Julianna’s Dream
, Alpha would disable or isolate the System Guard ship, while Bravo was the task force reserve.  If the System Guard ship offered any resistance to Alpha Company, they were to back off and let the
Inchon
herself disable or take it out.

Ryck was disappointed that he wasn’t taking on the opposing ship.  Frankly, he had wanted and expected that mission, and he wondered if the CO was sending him some sort of message by not giving him the mission.

He dashed into the locker room where his vacsuit and a Navy suit tech were waiting for him.

“You need to hurry, sir,” the tech said as Ryck stripped to his cotton longjohns.  He’s spent most of his time in the Marines either in PICS or in recon, but sliding into the vacsuit was almost second nature to him.  Within a minute, the tech had sealed him in, ran the check, then gave the thumbs up.  He stepped into the lock, cycled it, and entered the hangar where Sandy Petlier-Aswad, his XO, and the first sergeant were waiting for him. 

“We’ve got you in B-6,” the XO said, pointing the way. 

Ryck knew what reki he had, but the XO was earnest and trying hard, so he said nothing as he was led to the reki and clambered aboard.  The reki was nothing more than an open sled with a propulsion system.  Marines in their vacsuits stood like sardines in old fashioned-cans while the sleds transported them up to 50,000 klicks.  There was no life-support.  Men were kept alive by their suits.  There was nothing around each Marine but the vastness of space. 

During basic training, several recruits had freaked out, mentally unable to take the sensation.  Ryck rather liked it.   Once his sole plates were locked in, he glanced up at the open hangar doors.  In this section of space, the interstellar gases put on quite a show, and even from within the lighted hangar, they were sensational.

His timer display slowly ticked off the seconds until launch.  Ryck did a quick check of his own systems.  It wasn’t as if he didn’t trust the sailor’s word, but it was going to be his ass out there, and he wanted to make doubly sure he was good to go.

All suit specs were at 100%.  He was ready.

Now, he pulled up the company specs.  Without going into the weeds with specific Marines, he noted the overall numbers.  Overall readiness was at over 99%, with only a few Marines dipping below 97% in any category.  Ryck felt the urge to remind his leaders to monitor those few Marines, but with an effort, he bit that back.  Gunny Sams and the platoon sergeants would be on that.

The tendency to micro-manage and be an NCO again was something he’d had to fight ever since getting commissioned.  It had almost been his undoing at NOTC,
[7]
but while the urge was still there, he had it under control—mostly.

He set his comms on monitor and listened in as the timer clicked down.  He could hear all the chatter over the company nets, and with his AI assisting, could pull specific conversations.  If Ryck had known this was possible as a corporal or sergeant, he might have been a bit more circumspect in his own conversations, and he still felt a little guilty for listening in to others’ conversations now.  However, the mission came first, and if knowing what was happening could help, it was a valid course of action. 

One conversation caught his attention, and he toggled to isolate it.  SSgt Grimes was in earnest conversation with Private Hans
Çağlar
. 
Çağlar
was a big, powerful-looking Marine, Ryck remembered from his last inspection, a new join from Gaziantep.  This was his first operation, and his nerves might be on edge.  Ryck toggled over to pull up
Çağlar
’s readouts.  Pulse was 105, breathing was 35.  Yes, the young man was nervous.

“Nothing to it, Hans,” his platoon sergeant was telling him over their P2P.  “Just like training.  Besides, if I was some Confederation jimmylegs and I saw your big ugly ass coming at me, I would give up right there on the spot.”

“But Staff Sergeant, what if I screw up?”
Çağlar
asked.

“You won’t.  You’re a Federation Marine.”

“But what if I do?  I could get someone killed,” he persisted.

“If you do screw up, then just double down and do what’s right.  Corporal Sands will be watching out for you, so you just follow him and do like he says, OK?” SSgt Grimes said in an even, calm voice.

Ryck toggled back out of the conversation.  Grimes had things in hand.  Ryck made a note to look at both Grimes’ and
Çağlar
’s mission record after the company got back.  Grimes, in particular, might have potential for bigger and better things in the Corps.

Then he had no more time for idle contemplation.  The display countdown reached zero, and the first three rekis lifted up and passed through the plasma gate and into open space.  Ryck’s coxswain, a Navy bosun’s mate, lifted his reki up a few moments later, and along with B-4 and B-5, they passed through the
gate.  Ryck couldn’t hold back a slight start as the bow of the reki made contact with the gate.  If there was any breach in a vacsuit, the touch of the gate could cause an instant death.  It was for this reason that after a combat mission, the gates were turned off, but before the mission, with the suits checked, there was no reason to diminish the ship’s integrity even in the slightest amount.

Ryck looked over to his left where the first six A-flight rekis were already outside the ship.  In a moment, they would all be accelerating, and most of the rekis would be out of visuals from each other until they converged on the
Julianna’s Dream
.  He could pick out A-3, the one with 1
st
Lieutenant Jefferson de Madre in it.  Jeff was Ryck’s First Platoon commander, and more pertinently, the assault element leader for their mission.

Until a month ago, the XO was the First Platoon commander, but Jeff had transferred to Charlie, and he was a month junior to Sandy.  Sandy was bumped up to XO, and Jeff took over the platoon, much to Ryck’s relief.  Jeff was a picture-perfect Marine:  fit and good-looking, but more importantly, he had the ingrained manner of a natural-born leader.  Ryck felt much better with Jeff as a platoon commander than if he’d still had the more cerebral, quieter XO.

Normally, rekis were dispatched immediately after debarking their ship, but this time, due to the short distance, the rekis gathered while the rest exited the hangar gates.  The rekis’ approach would deviate in random paths to avoid mines and other unwanted welcoming presents, but if the
Inchon’s
AI was on top of it, the rekis would all converge on their debark points at the planned times.  With such a small distance to cover, they had to start on their crossover almost simultaneously in order to reach their debark points as planned.

Finally, on some unheard signal, the rekis started accelerating.  All Ryck could do now was to sit and enjoy the ride.  He took a moment to look up at the brilliant display that gave color and light to the dark reaches of space, then settled in to go over the plan one more time.

He needn’t have bothered.  There wasn’t time for much before the rekis started converging on the
Julianna’s Dream
.  The reki came to a stop, and the green light flashed for the Marines to debark.  Ryck released his sole plates, and with a kick, rose several meters “above” the reki before he hit his controls to stop his motion.

“Above” the reki was all relative.  In space there was no above and below, and Marines were taught to ignore the spatial terms that had worked for mankind for millennia. For the Marines, “above” and “up” meant towards their target, “down” and “below” away from it.

And their target was clearly visible less than a klick away.  The
Julianna’s Dream
was a sleek ship, clearly visible in the reflected light of CF-32-5.  Ryck had no idea how it was outfitted inside, but from his vantage point, the Cessna 900 reeked of money.  With all the top-of-the-line navigational gear it had to have onboard, Ryck wasn’t sure how it could have strayed so far off the beaten path just to be close to Confederation space.  It wasn’t as if there were any tourist destinations in the region.

“Taco-Six, this is Taco-Three-Alpha,
[8]
” Ryck’s headphones picked up as the S-3A came up on the battalion circuit.

First Battalion, Eleventh Marines, had the Mexican
Fuerza de
Infantería de Marina
as its patron unit.  For longer than anyone could remember, the battalion staff had adopted “Taco” as its call-sign.  There had been some talk about changing that before Ryck had even enlisted after the call sign had become common knowledge.  The battalion had earned the Chairman’s Battle Streamer on Garret’s Hold, and a book about their fight had been written.  However, traditions are a mainstay of the Corps, and the dispersed people who could claim Mexican descent took “ownership” of the battalion, proud of its accomplishments.  The callsign stayed.

Captain Virag Ganesh was the assistant three, or assistant operations officer, and his place for the mission was back on the
Inchon
within CIC.  He was the conduit between the ship and the Marines.

“We have two incoming signatures centered at 47884-63789.  We think one is a Federation destroyer, the other a packet.  There is no indication that they are aware of our presence yet. The two ships could reach your pos in fewer than 90 mikes under impulse drive, and the
Inchon
Six requests that we move up the timeline accordingly, over.”

“Three-Alpha, this is Taco-Six.  I understand.  I will push up the operation,” the CO passed back to the ship.

Technically, once the Marines had left the ship, the entire operation was under LtCol uKhiwa’s command, hence the “request” from the senior Navy captain.  However, the
Inchon
was their ride back, and if the captain thought his ship was in danger, he would have every right, even duty, to abandon the Marines to save the ship.  The
Inchon
technically more than matched up with any destroyer, but with a Confederation packet there as well, and with possibly more ships arriving, the captain would not want to get into a fight here in Confederation space.

“You heard the Three,” the CO passed on his command circuit.  “Alpha, I want you to isolate the System Guard ship now. We don’t want them firing up.”

That’s an understatement
, Ryck thought. 

If the System Guard ship decided to move, there wasn’t much Marines in vacsuits could do about it.  The
Inchon
could easily take it out, but not only would that alert the Confederation ships that had just arrived, but it could wipe out any Marines near the vessel.  Alpha company had to close in with the System Guard ship and either board or disable it.

“Charlie, don’t wait for Alpha.  I want you to move now.”

Ryck toggled the acknowledgement.  He didn’t like it, though.  Originally, he wasn’t to start the breach until the System Guard ship was neutralized.  Now, he not only had to worry about booby traps or hostiles on board, he could be having a ship crawl up his ass.

“Platoon commanders, listen up,” he passed on his command circuit.  “We’ve got company, and not the heavy transport we expected.  We need to move up the operation.  But that doesn’t mean we’re going to forget caution.  I’m not getting any Marines killed on this, so Ephraim, I want the ship scoured for any boobytraps before Jeff breaches.”

First Lieutenant Ephraim Davidson was Ryck’s Weapons Platoon commander, and for this operation, the security element commander.  With an attached Navy EOD team, he was to sweep the ship to identify and disable any booby traps. Ryck didn’t want any Marine entering a space until it had been cleared.

“Jeff, as soon as Ephraim’s cleared what he can, you need to get your team inside and find our hostages.  We don’t have time to waste, so let’s move it now!”

There was a flurry of activity as the security element started to move to the
Julianna’s Dream
.  Ryck hesitated for only a moment.  They seemed too exposed.  But if the ship was rigged to blow, he did not want his entire force to be compromised.

“Sams, keep your eyes open.  If you see anything, I want you to stop Davidson,” he passed on a three-way P2P with the gunny, the first sergeant, and him.

Having a gunny “watch over” a lieutenant, especially a well-regarded first lieutenant, was not standard practice.  But Ryck had never seen his lieutenants in real action before, while he was intimately familiar with both Sams and First Sergeant Hecs.  He trusted both of them, and if Sams “overruled” Ephraim, Ryck would take care of wounded egos after the fact.