Lieutenant Colonel (The United Federation Marine Corps Book 6) Page 9

  But he didn’t have to, and Ryck was glad for that. While the trac was better than before, Ryck still thought the PICS were the superior platform for him as a commander.

  “What about you, Colonel? Plenty of room inside now,” Throckmorton said.

  With only Throckmorton, LCpl Rizzio, the trac’s gunner, Gunny Kinongee, the systems chief, and Navy Lieutenant Phyun, the Derne’s forward controller, there was plenty of room. Which was not a good thing. With more bodies inside, it was easier for the passengers to brace themselves. Ryck didn’t envy Phyun, but that was where the lieutenant had the best comms with the ship.

  “Thanks, but I’m good,” he answered.

  “Well, sir, I know that. But if you change your mind and need a lift, we’re here, no charge.”

  Throckmorton was kind of a smart-ass, and that could get him in trouble at times. But Ryck was somewhat partial to smart-asses. He thought they had spirit and would be good in a fight. So he tended to let a bit of bravado slide.

  “Yeah, I’ll remember that corporal,” he said. “If you see me standing there with my thumb out, stop and pick me up.”

  Ryck checked his display for the 20th time, and more to occupy the final five minutes than anything else, strode back to the Bravo Command Armadillo. The back ramp was still down, letting in the air. The Armadillo was fully atmosphere controlled, but nothing beat fresh air. And with an almost 20% oxygen content (courtesy of the ongoing terraforming fine-tuning), Gaziantep’s air seemed particularly invigorating.

  “Everybody ready?” he asked over his externals as he looked inside.

  The XO gave him a thumbs up and said, “Roger that. Ready for a nice ride eating your dust, sir.”

  “With all the high-speed, low-drag filters you have on this thing? Not a speck of dust will make it into your luxurious ride,” Ryck said with a laugh.

  The Bravo Command vehicle had the XO, Wharton Po, Lt(jg) Willis Gurnsey-Hollimer from the Derne and the assistant naval gunfire support officer, Captain Ted Larry, the assistant S4, Gunny Uliker for arty and air fire support, and Captain Crispus Berchard, Sandy’s assistant Three. (Sergeant Major Suzuki had been in the Bravo command after Ryck took over, but Hecs had some serious motion sickness issues, so he was PICS-mounted instead). If something happened to Ryck and his command group, these were the Marines who would carry on the battle. Ryck was confident in their abilities. They were well-trained, and Liam Stilicho was one hell of an officer. Ryck intended to recommend Liam for an accelerated promotion and give him an enthusiastic recommendation for future command. The accelerated promotion would probably get squashed—they almost all did—but the fact that the recommendation was in his file would stand him in good stead with the command board.

  “Just keep your head down, sir. Otherwise, we might actually have to do something,” Gunny Uliker said, “instead of just taking a nap in here.”

  “If you can take a nap in this bouncing tin can, Gunny, you are more than welcome to,” Ryck said to more laughter.

  Ryck heard the laughter through his pick-up mics, and this was the laughter of confident men. This was not the nervous laughter of men unsure of what will happen and of what they might have to do.

  “See you on the backside, men. Semper fi,” Ryck said as he backed off the ramp.

  “Braço às armas feito, Colonel!” a voice shouted from inside. “Fuzos!” came from at least two more voices.

  Ryck turned up the power on his externals and repeated the call. “Fuzos!”

  All around him, through the net and over hundreds of externals, shouts of “Fuzos!” echoed his call.

  “I’ll be getting to my position,” Sams said. “You better get over there to your mother hen. He’s about ready to have a conniption.”

  Ryck smiled as he looked over to where Çağlar was waiting anxiously for him. As Ryck walked up, he could see the sergeant relax, even if he was in his PICS.

  “Jeeze, Hans, relax. We haven’t even crossed the LOD. I think I’m pretty safe here.”

  “They heard the cheer, sir. I know it.”

  “And? Do you thing that will make a difference?” Ryck asked as he checked his helmet displays one more time.

  The cheer was bravado, sure. But the St. Regis battalion knew that something was up anyways. They had surveillance on them. It made no difference if they heard—that they heard, not if. Maybe it would strike a little bit of anxiety, fear even, into their hearts?

  No grubbing chance of that, he thought. This is a St. Regis unit.

  At one time, the St. Regis Brigade, or St. Regis Army, as it was called then, was the finest, most capable mercenary unit in human space. Its units were called in when only the best would do, and even the Federation Marines and Brotherhood Host had mixed it up with them. That was before their ill-fated fear memory extinction program.

  Right out of the scifi books and flicks, the Saint Regis leadership decided to create a “super soldier,” capable and fearless. Working in secret, they genmodded a number of capabilities into their soldiers, some of which bordered if not trampled right into illegality. That was not their main mistake, though. It was the extinction of fear.

  Fear research was hundreds of years old. Some of the early attempts to control fear centered around the “Zombie Parasite,” Toxoplasma gondii. This was the protozoa that infected mice and rats and manipulated them to not showing fear of cats, thereby allowing the cats to easily catch and eat them where the parasites could then reproduce. Some quirk in their evolution made the guts of cats the only place they could reproduce, and this was how they ensured they had that opportunity. While this line of research initially showed some promise, modifications to the parasite had resulted in only mixed success with humans.

  Going in a different direction, the Saint Regis researchers decided that they needed to block the stimuli that resulted in fear. The theory for this had been published hundreds of years ago, but no one had ever tried to treat normal, functional people in this way. By microinfusing the synthetic protein synthesis inhibitor anisomycin-C into the medial prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and amygdala, they were not only able to block the initial formation of the fear memory consolidation, but it wiped out all past systems consolidation of fear. In short, they created soldiers who could think and react rationally, but who had no fear.

  They marched out their new soldiers with great fanfare and the associated angst and accusations from the rest of humanity. Their test run was a small border dispute between Allehadra and New Tel Aviv on Proclyn 4. The small volunteer Allenadra militia seemed doomed as two St. Regis battalions marched on their outpost. To immense surprise, the St. Regis battalions were wiped out, almost to a man. By fewer than 300 civilian-turned-soldiers.

  It was the lack of fear, which, of course, had evolved over millions of years as a survival mechanism, that had been the deciding factor in the fight. Without fear, the mercenaries were lambs at the slaughter. Two more campaigns confirmed that this was a disaster. The mercenaries’ research was examined by experts by every government and banned. The Saint Regis Army was broken, and it never recovered.

  The Saint Regis Army case study was taught in almost every military school throughout humanity. Ryck’s NOTC class had spent two entire days on it back in Annapolis.

  Now, the much smaller Saint Regis Brigade was a second or third-tier unit, but even 40 years after the fact, there was a degree of recklessness within their units, as if they were trying to prove themselves and claw their way back to the top.

  This was important for the Marines in the Fuzos to realize. Where other merc units might stand down after fulfilling the basic terms of their contracts, the Regis units often fought much further, occasionally to the last man. With their assault about to commence, the Marines could not count on the St. Regis mercs to surrender once the course of the battle became evident.

  Ryck watched as the battalion’s dragonflies and hummingbirds launched, the small surveillance drones augmenting the much more powerful space borne surveillance. The
little drones, although more vulnerable, could fly into buildings, if need be, and that was a capability that Ryck valued. The drone’s launch signaled that the assault was imminent, and that brought Ryck’s focus back on the mission.

  Ryck’s display counted down the last few seconds. As the timer reached zero, the first line of tanks and PICS Marines stepped across the LOD. The assault was on.

  As on Lonesome End, this assault was not going to go down in history as innovative tactics. With the river meandering through the valley and the general high degree of visibility, coupled with the St. Regis battalion’s own surveillance measures, there was not too much of an opportunity for maneuver and surprise. No, this was going to be one of those punch- in-the-face-type assaults. If the Marines, using their coordinated combined arms, could punch harder, the battle would be won. It just came down to who were the toughest fuckers in the valley, and Ryck was totally confident that it was the Fuzos.

  Golf, with both tanks platoons, was leading the main assault. Genghis’ Echo Company was to cross the border and fix that merc company in place, keeping it from coming south to support the rest of the battalion. After long consultations with Sandy and Genghis, a platoon (minus) would be out of their PICS and in two Armadillos. Ryck hated taking away almost 20 PICS, but the Armadillos 25mm chain guns could cover part of that loss of firepower, and Echo might need Marines in skins and bones to handle prisoners or root out any mercs from underground positions. He had considered giving Echo a tank or two, but Christophe argued against splitting up his platoons, asserting that they were trained to operate in support of each other.

  Fox was to be mounted in the remaining Armadillos and follow in trace of Golf. The Fox Marines would almost certainly be needed when the battalion overran the St. Regis positions.

  Ryck waited for two minutes before his Alpha Command stepped off. The command was not moving in a condensed formation. The nine of them were spread out over 300 meters. His shadow, Çağlar, was only 20 meters to Ryck’s left, but the rest of the command group was in a very wide staggered column. With their C4 synched together, Ryck didn’t need each person standing off his shoulder. Dispersion was one of the first lessons recruits were taught back at Camp Charles, and it was just as valid for colonels and majors as it was for privates.

  Only the armor and infantry were moving forward. The 155 section was some five klicks behind them, and the four Storks were in a circular orbit well within Ataturk territory. The guns were back because the range to the Regis forces was so close that they wouldn’t have to displace. The Storks, though, were a different issue. Ryck had wanted them following the rest of the Marines to provide close air support if needed. However, the Federation minder had nixed that. Not even General Meintenbach’s appeal had gained any traction. An incursion by air assets was considered too much of a provocative act.

  “What the fuck?” Sams had asked when the staff had been briefed, giving voice to what every Marine was thinking. “And a battalion of infantry and ten fucking tanks isn’t provocative?”

  The Stork’s 30mm gatling was its most effective weapon for close-air support. Even with the Storks keeping within Ataturk airspace, the guns could reach most of the Regis positions, but their effectiveness diminished the greater the range. The Storks’ air-to-ground rockets were decidedly less accurate and were more susceptible to counter-measures, and their air-to-air defense missiles were pretty useless against ground targets.

  On his display, the leading Marines crossed over the border and entered Cennet territory. The die had been cast. There was no response from the mercs, but that could change in an instant.

  Both tanks and PICS could cover ground quickly, so more and more of the battalion made the crossing. Two minutes later, Ryck and Çağlar reached the border. Ryck glanced up at his sergeant as they crossed over into Cennet. This was the sergeant’s home country, but he hadn’t shown any signs that it bothered him. Ryck didn’t know how he would feel if the Marines landed on Prophesy. He’d had a hard life on the planet, and it hadn’t treated him kindly, but still, that was his home world, and that was where Lysa and her kids lived, his only blood family. That was where Hannah’s family was, too. If the order came to take action there, what would he do? He fervently hoped he’d never face that situation.

  The battalion was moving without any prep-fires, something that was an anathema to Marines conducting offensive operations. But their orders were simply to march forward and return fire only if fired upon. They were not to initiate any firing on their own.

  That wasn’t to say that the Marines were just advancing complacently. Every 155 tube, every tank gun was already locked on to high priority targets. Each tank had coordinates locked in its targeting AI, ready to rock and roll. At any given time, as the Storks did their racetrack turns, two storks had their gatlings locked on their assigned targets. High above them in orbit, the Derne had its own target list. The Derne might not be as responsive, but it packed a much bigger punch. If the mercs were stupid enough to open fire, Hell’s own fury would erupt back at them.

  The problem was, these mercs were probably stupid enough, Ryck knew. And he was right.

  Ryck knew that only some of the Regis positions were on his display. Others were shielded. But it was the 125mm guns that opened up first. Ryck’s AI immediately began tracing a line of shells as they arched up from the positions. Immediately, from behind him, Ryck heard the buzz of two of the Storks as their 30mm gatlings spit out their 900 rounds per minute.

  The three Regis guns started to pull back immediately, but two were taken out within seconds as the third gun disappeared from Ryck’s display, probably into a tunnel.

  No orders had to have been given. The battalion was on a weapons-free status, and each component had orders to return fire based on different actions by the enemy. In this case, the Storks had jumped on it. Up until Phase Line Snow, the Regis tubes were their targets, and they needed no orders to open fire.

  The Regis Victrons were slaved tubes, so no merc would have been hurt by the two Storks, but two tubes had been destroyed, and one was in a shielded tunnel or bunker. If it poked its muzzle out again, it would be destroyed before it could get out a round.

  With the battalion in the assault, all of the point defense systems were up and running, and the three rounds that passed over Ryck’s head were destroyed before they could impact on the Marine 155s. The Regis battalion had to have known they would not be effective, so this was a simple message. They were not going to roll over and give up. If the Marines wanted them, they would have to come and get them.

  That was OK with Ryck. If they wanted a fight, they had it.

  “Sandy, let’s get our big sister on where that tube disappeared. Maybe she can drop a tungsicle on it and seal it up,” he passed on a P2P.

  “Roger that. Lieutenant Phyun’s already got it targeted. Do you want to turn in the request?”

  Ryck took a quick look at his display. The location was between the two tank platoons line of advance, but Joab Ling’s platoon would be marching right over the position. He compared the distance and asked his AI for a time to position. Sixteen minutes.

  “If they can drop it within ten, then yes. Give Attleman a head up, and that’s Joab’s platoon, so key him in, too, when you pass the word.”

  If the Derne could drop the tungsicle within that time frame, it made sense. But that was a lot of kinetic energy hitting the deck, and Ryck didn’t want any of his Marines, in PICS or not, close to it when it hit.

  That was the big problems with orbital support. In space, the ships could pinpoint the effect of weapons. Even a hadron beam passing within 10 or 15 meters would not affect a Marine. On the ground, the weapons’ effects were not as concentrated, and what the ships had packed big, big punches. Just being near the impact of most weapons could be downright dangerous.

  Ryck kept moving forward, picking his way, but concentrating on his helmet display. His Marines were surprisingly in line, with Golf and the two tank platoons leading
the way here and Echo essentially on line further north. They weren’t all abreast, of course as each company had its own depth. The trailing platoons of both line companies were actual behind Ryck and the Alpha Command. But the lead elements of the companies and seven of the tanks were advancing together across the entire five-klick frontage. The rear unit, Fox Company, mounted in the Armadillos, had just crossed the border, so the entire assault force was in Cennet territory.

  The Regis battalion was quiet in front of them. Since the firing almost two minutes ago, they might as well have been asleep. That confirmed to Ryck that the volley had not meant to hurt the Marines, just give them the message. The battalion’s continued advance, though, should also give a return message that they weren’t backing down. The Regis battalion had to either fight or stand down.

  Ryck knew they would fight, given their rep. And they would probably fight past where logic would dictate. So at any moment, he expected something else to happen, and that’s when he would unleash his Marines. He would have done it as soon as their arty fired, but the distance had not been conducive to either tanks or PICS. That distance was rapidly closing.

  That meant they were getting within range of the enemy, too. Regis units were heavier with energy weapons than most mercenary units. Most were very short range due to the huge amounts of power needed to fire them, but there were several longer-range weapons in their armory that could almost reach out to them. They wouldn’t be very effective at this range against either tanks or PICS, but still, no one wanted to be targeted for any length of time. The good thing was that each of the weapons in their arsenal would take a few moments to power up, and then they would be visible to the Marine and Derne sensors.

  “Gunny, if you see any sign of energy weapons coming online, let me know immediately,” Ryck told Gunny Kinongee.