Lieutenant Colonel (The United Federation Marine Corps Book 6) Page 18

  “Sams, get that engineer team moving. I want you on their asses until they break through,” he ordered.

  “I was already planning to,” Sams responded.

  With Ellis in tow, Ryck returned to the CP. Most of the Alpha Command had arrived and were setting up their C4 gear. The helmet AIs and displays were all well and good, but the portable C4 offered easier and more thorough information and control, just as watching the latest flic on a PA never was as engrossing as on a full-sized screen or platform.

  “Three, what’s the situation?” he asked as he entered the room where most of the command were setting up.

  “Fox and Echo have landed and are spreading out. The bulk of Golf has landed and is ready to pass through Fox’s interior position and take up the right sector of our perimeter. We’re taking sporadic fire, but it looks as if the main forces were drawn elsewhere. 3/7’s started pounding away at their breach point, but there hasn’t been much progress.”

  “We might have managed to divert some of their forces, but they know we’re here now. I want the companies in position ASAP,” Ryck said.

  “Any additional info on civilians?” he asked.

  “Not yet, sir. We’ve got some readings, but no confirmation yet,” the Three replied

  The civilians should be showing up on any of the various surveillance options available to the Marines and Navy, yet the readings were spotty and haphazard. That meant there was shielding being put into effect, and that had to come from the Sylvington mercs. That had to be against the protocols, but the mercs had some serious legal assets, so Ryck wondered if they had thought they had found a loophole.

  Shielding the actual position of the civilians probably wouldn’t change the end results of the fight, but it could hamper the Marines ability to act quickly and decisively, and that could result in extra Marine casualties.

  Two avatars flashed to a light blue. Ryck pulled up the data, and his heart fell.

  “Three, is that—”

  “Yes, sir. From Building 8445. Echo was right; they were enemy forces, and they’ve taken down two Marines,” Proctor passed, his voice hard with controlled anger.

  “Echo has answered in kind,” he reported.

  Grubbing, fucking hell! Ryck thought to himself. I should have let Genghis annihilate the building in the first place when he asked!

  He wondered for a moment if he’d let the incident in Hester affect his decision. He hoped not, but he didn’t have time for extensive contemplation at the moment. The question would be filed away for later.

  He turned his focus back on the buildup of battalion forces inside the fort when Deshawn Jiminez interrupted him on the P2P. “Ryck, what’s the status of the downed Stork? The CO wants an update.”

  “Hell, the mercs took out number Seven with some sort of anti-aircraft missile. One of the Wasps took out the missile site, but the Stork was destroyed. Looks like 22 KIA,” Ryck responded.

  “Seven had most of the heavy water? Is that right?”

  “Uh, let me check,” Ryck said, surprised at the question.

  The dissonators the engineer team would use to breach the wall ran on fusion power, and the heavy water used to fuel the reactors had been combat loaded on several birds. Ryck didn’t know where it was loaded offhand, and he had to query his AI.

  Shit, almost half of it was on Seven!

  “Uh, roger that. We’ve got it on Seven, Five, and Eleven. Almost half was on Seven, though,” he passed.

  The small portable fusion reactor could be fueled by almost any liquid, but the specially treated 2H2O allowed the reactors to reach peak efficiency. Any other fuel would only increase the time needed to get through the wall.

  “What are we doing about the heavy water on Seven?” he shouted to Justice Freebottom, covering over his mic.

  “I’m working on it,” his S4 replied.

  “Deshawn, we’ve still got almost half, and we’re commencing the breach now,” he said loud enough for Proctor to hear, who nodded back his agreement. “Let me get back to you as soon as I can.”

  “Roger that. The CO wants to be kept up-to-date on it. Three, out”

  Bert had the same C4 that Ryck had, so he knew that the team would be commencing their breach, but what he didn’t know was what Ryck would do to adjust to losing half of his fuel. That was what he wanted to know.

  “XO, I want you in on this,” Ryck passed on the command circuit.

  The XO was still airborne, coming in on one of the last birds, and the Bravo Command would set up behind Golf Company, which had started to flow into its battle position, but Ryck wanted his input now.

  “OK, half of the heavy water is gone. We’ve got two dissonators, one on the ground and one still incoming. What are your suggestions, and make it quick?”

  “Sir, we can run D1, and they’re setting up now,” Gunny Roscoe, the engineer liaison sent to the battalion said. “If we give them all the heavy water, they might be able to breach the wall on schedule or close to it. We can scrounge up regular water or another fuel for D2. It will just take them longer for their breach.”

  “Or we could split it up and get both breaches done, even if it takes longer,” Proctor said.

  “You think that is a good idea, Three?” Ryck asked.

  “No, sir. Just laying out the options,” the S3 responded.

  “XO?” Ryck asked.

  “Time is of an essence. We’ve got to get 2/4 and the armor into the city. They can do that through one breach, even if we’ll have all of the mercs targeting it,” Sandy passed.

  The two-breach concept was based on dispersion, giving the mercs more targets to cover. Having only one breach gave the mercs one target, and they could Horatio at the Bridge it and close it off with minimal forces. Except in this case, the Fuzos were already inside. They would just have to hold off any merc attempt to seal off the breach.

  “Give the heavy water to D1,” Ryck decided. “But get D2 up and started. I’m going to request more heavy water from brigade, but get them going with whatever’s at hand.”

  Time was more of a factor than the number of breaches, Ryck thought, and he was going with that. He had to get 2/4’s PICS Marines and the armor into the city as soon as possible.

  “Gunner Barnhouse,” Ryck said, quickly changing tack. “What’s the status with the hummingbirds? I’m not getting any feeds.”

  “I’ve got Staff Sergeant Gilchrist on it. I’ve been working on ya C4 here,” the chief warrant officer responded.

  “Well, it looks like we’ve got comms, so I want those hummingbirds up now. We don’t know how long we’ll have until the mercs start knocking them down, and I want as much data as possible before that happens.”

  “Aye, aye, sir. I’m getting on it now.”

  “Give me the enemy disposition,” he sub-vocalized to his AI.

  A moment later, his display centered on the area inside the fort. Opposing 3/7, which had started hammering on the walls, was a fairly dense concentration of the mercs, or what seemed to be the mercs. Based on movement and actions, the AI gave it an 82% probability that they were Sylvington forces and not civilians. The other images scattered around the fort were not as clear, but a battalion-sized group of about 800 images was moving directly toward 2/3’s position. There were pockets of other signatures, but many were grouped and not moving, so they were more likely to be civilians. For the 800, however, Ryck didn’t need his AI to give him a probability. Ryck knew they were mercs, and they were coming to stop the breach.

  They were moving pretty fast, so Ryck asked his AI for an estimate of when they would arrive and how they were armed, almost dreading the response. His gut told him that the engineers didn’t have the fifteen minutes they needed, and at least some of the mercs were in combat suits.

  The Sylvington Brigade was outfitted with the Sentex C40 Personal Combat Unit, a decent, but not spectacular combat suit. One on one, the PICS was more than a match for it. But Ryck only had 36 PICS inside the fort. The rest of his Ma
rines were in their skins and bones. It boiled down to numbers. Just how many C40s did the mercs have? Most mercenary companies, if they even had combat suits, had only a few. Sylvington, however, was flush, and they could afford many more of the C40s than other companies.

  “Enemy forces are estimated to reach our perimeter in ten minutes. One hundred fourteen are in personal combat units,” his AI intoned.

  A hundred and fourteen? Shit!

  “All hands, we’ve got approximately a battalion inbound along Pitt Street as a general axis of advance. A full company looks to be in C40s. Estimated time to hit the Golf Company FEBA[18] is ten, I repeat ten minutes,” Ryck passed on the command net. “We have to slow them down so the engineers can finish the breach.”

  He took a deep breath, ready to issue the order he dreaded, one he’d hoped never to have to issue again. His emotions warred, but he bit down and gave it. Golf has just consolidated into its primary battle position, and now the main enemy thrust was bearing down on it.

  “Chris,” he passed on the P2P to the Golf Company commander, keying in the XO and the S3 to listen as he spoke, “I need you to displace to your alternate battle position. Echo is going to close in on your present position to form a defense in depth. You’ve got to get there now and set up your M51s along their AOA. I’m going to try and get you Fox’s and Echo’s PICS squads, but I can’t promise they’ll get there in time. Do you understand?”

  “Roger, sir, I understand. We’re moving now,” the calm, collected voice came back over the P2P.

  “Chris, this is, I mean—”

  “No worries, sir. You can count on Golf.”

  “Go with God,” Ryck passed, before switching to just the XO and the Three.

  “Proctor, get those other two PICS squads moving. I don’t know if they can get there in time. If they can’t, have them stay with Echo for the second line of defense. And get Echo moving now.”

  “Tough call,” Sandy said somberly as the Three rushed to comply. “But the only one possible.”

  Both Marines knew that Ryck had just ordered an entire Marine company into what was essentially a suicide mission. He’d had to do that on G.K. Nutrition Six, sending his own brother-in-law to his death, and he’d prayed he’d never have to face that situation again, but those prayers had not been answered. Here he was, doing the same thing again, but this time, his orders would end up with more than just three Marines killed; it could be an entire company.

  By displacing forward 200 meters to their alternate battle position and extended the FEBA, Golf Company was forcing the mercs to deploy early, slowing them down. Depending on how effective Golf could delay the mercs, it could be long enough for the breach to be made. But there was little doubt that even with their squad of PICS Marines, the more heavily-armed mercs would be able to push through them. The 12 PICS Marines and the two M51 man-packed plasma gun teams were the most powerful punch with the company and should be able to make the mercs pay to advance, but after that, the un-armored Marines would have a much tougher go at it.

  Ryck just hoped that the delay would be enough. Once 2/4 came made it into the fort, the balance of power would decidedly shift to the Marines. If they made it in, that is.

  When they make it, Ryck told himself, refusing to consider even the possibility failure.

  Ryck called up Deshawn, relaying his plan and asking for air, arty, or anything that could slow down the merc advance. A few moments later, Deshawn came back to him.

  “Sorry, Ryck, no can do. The risk of collateral damage is too great. We’ve got pockets of civilians all through the area.”

  Ryck immediately called Bert. “Look, you’re going to have a company of Marines, at a minimum, killed. Wiped out. I need some firepower, and now!” he shouted into his mic.

  “Ryck, I know the stakes. Get off the net. I’m fighting with upstairs right now to get this done, so let me do my job, and in the meantime, do yours. Six out!” the angry voice of the brigade commander came over the circuit.

  Ryck watched on his display as the Golf Marines flowed forward and into their alternate battle positions. There was no hesitation that he could discern. Each Marine had to know the odds facing them, yet they were marching forward into battle. Ryck felt a surge of pride.

  “Genghis, Hog, get your PICS squads moving now! I want them there before Golf engages! Move them!” Ryck sent to the other two company commanders.

  He could see that Echo’s PICS Marines had already crossed the old FEBA and were close to joining with Golf, but the Fox PICS squad was still well off. Ryck knew they wouldn’t get there in time.

  “We’re releasing the two Wasps,” Deshawn passed over the command circuit. “Prepare for a gun run.”

  A Wasp was pretty heavily armed, and Ryck would have preferred some of the more robust weapons, but a gun was easier to limit, so he understood the order. Still, a 30mm cannon firing 1,000 rounds per minute was nothing to sneeze at.

  Hurry up, Ryck silently implored.

  The leading edge of the merc force was less than 400 meters from the Golf positions. Each side was well within range of each other to commence firing if the buildings hadn’t been in the way, but some fields of fire were open to each other.

  It seemed to take forever, but it was probably less than 30 seconds before the telltale scream of a diving Wasp filled the sky over the battalion. The chatter of the first Wasp’s 30mm was a welcome sound as death poured from above. Explosions sounded—too close—as the rounds found their marks. The second Wasp started its dive, its own 30mm cannon letting lose. A few seconds into its run, however, a fusillade of small missiles reached up to it. The Wasp juked left as it’s point defense system let loose with both repeater chaff to spoof the missiles as well as meson beams to knock them out. Ryck could see some of the missiles explode short of the Wasp, but at least one made it through, detonating close to the Wasp’s tail. After the initial detonation, there was a secondary one as something in the Wasp exploded, a huge fireball expanding in the air.

  The Wasp kept flying, but it was obvious that it was crippled as it swung about and wobbled out of sight. Ryck was close enough to hear a dull roar as hundreds of mercs, a little more than a klick away, cheered.

  “What’s the BDA?” Ryck asked his AI.

  “Thirty-two armored soldiers destroyed or out of action, 48 individual soldiers WIA or KIA.”

  Thirty-two was fewer than he’d hoped for, but more than he had expected.

  “Are we getting another run with the remaining Wasp?” Ryck asked Deshawn, already knowing the answer, but asking anyway.

  “Negative. Air has been shut down.”

  Ryck had expected as much, so he asked instead, “What about the Derne? We need some no-shit heavy support now.”

  “Negative on that, too. We’ve confirmed the mercs have Davids. It’s not going to happen, Ryck. Sorry about that.”

  Ryck wanted to scream, to demand to speak with the task force commander, but he knew that would be useless. There was no way the Federation was going to even slightly risk a capital ship in order to save a company or even a battalion of Marines. And if the Derne dropped to the low orbit it needed to provide fire support, it could conceivably be hit by one of the Davids.

  “XO, keep arguing with brigade. See if you can’t dig something up that can help us,” Ryck ordered.

  He didn’t think brigade could do any more, but he wanted to keep trying. He wanted to scream that if they failed to hold back the advancing mercs, the entire mission would fail. But he had to command, not spend his time tilting at windmills. If the Alpha Command got overrun, Sandy would have to take over, but in the meantime, he could argue with brigade.

  Up ahead of Ryck, the unmistakable sound of a PICS firing echoed back to him. The battle was joined as a cacophony of explosions reverberated between the blocks of buildings. Ryck toggled his display to take in the main battle area. As the enemy fired his weapons, his AI was able to consolidate a clearer picture of their disposition. Golf Company
looked pitifully small as the merc forces came into focus. But they were hurting the mercs, and hurting them bad.

  The problem was that while the Marines were doing far greater damage, there were more mercs. For each three mercs to fall, a Marine fell, and those numbers were not sustainable.

  “What’s the status on the breach!” Ryck asked Sams, anxious to see how much longer they had to hold.

  Just over the wall, there were enough PICS and tanks to sweep up the mercs like so much refuse. But they might as well have been on another planet if that breach was not opened.

  “They’re about three-quarters of the way through. But they might run out of heavy water, the team leader tells me, short of breaking through.”

  “What? I thought they had enough,” Ryck protested.

  “So did they. But the wall is taking more power than expected,” Sams said.

  The Marine dissonator was essentially a commercial model painted olive drab. Being man-packed, it didn’t have the power that the mounted models, such as what the civilian miners used on Acquisition to dig out the trapped Marines in the SOG complex. And more importantly, it was not as efficient.

  The dissonator worked by breaking the molecular bonds in a substance, compressing the space between molecules. The more powerful the dissonator, the tighter it could compress the material, turning solid objects such as walls into tiny particles that could then be shoveled out of the way. Originally designed for cutting tunnels, it was just as effective against fortifications. With the small Marine dissonator, different variations in the material could require more energy and slow down the process. And if the engineers ran out of heavy water, they’d have to use something else, and whatever that was, it would provide less power.

  “How much time are they saying?” Ryck asked Sams.

  “If they have enough heavy water, maybe 10 to 12 more minutes,” Sams told him.