Lieutenant (The United Federation Marine Corps Book 3)

by Jonathan P. Brazee

  The merc captain had thanked Ryck for their treatment and accepting their surrender and parole. She asked about the three who had been in the outer office. She acted as any officer would. And if Ryck was honest with himself, given her resources, she had actually led her company quite competently. The only difference was her gender.

  “Well, Ryck, looks like we got out of this one pretty light,” Joshua said after the merc captain took her leave of Ryck to rejoin her men.

  “Two wounded, neither one pretty bad. Yeah, I’d say that’s pretty light. It could have been worse, you know, if not for you.”

  “I’ve got your back, Ryck. I promised Hannah, that I would.”

  The two Marines, brothers-in-law, fell into silence. That was all they said about the incident. That was all they needed to say.

  Zephyr-Hadreson

  Chapter 8

  Ryck took a long swig of Poison Amber Ale, draining his bottle. The O-Club had Poison both on tap and in the normal pressure packs, but the last CG[21] had a liking for his beer in real bottles, so the O-Club started stocking them. Ryck really liked the bottled beer, too. He knew the taste was the same, but the feel of a cold bottle in his hand made drinking a more visceral experience for him. True, the pressure packs were more practical and could cool a beer within five seconds of activation, but they never felt as good in his hand.

  He let out a loud burp and said, “Well, I’m off. You guys take it easy.”

  “You leaving, you lightweight?” Donte asked. “We’re just getting started. Let me get you another round.”

  “No, I really have to go,” Ryck protested. “Hannah’s got this dinner thing going, and she’ll kill me if I’m late.”

  “You are so whipped,” Cal Anderson said, taking a slow sip of his cider. “That’s why you’ll never see me tied down with a wife.”

  Cal was the Third Platoon commander. He was younger than both Donte and Ryck, having gone straight to the Academy without serving as an enlisted Marine first. Ryck thought he had a pretty high opinion of himself, but Ryck was honest enough to realize that might just be his personal opinion of officers who had never been enlisted. Donte, Jeremiah Benton (the weapons platoon commander) and Unger Tately (the company XO) had all been enlisted before being commissioned and had fought in the last war.

  Most of the lieutenants in the battalion were there at the club. The battalion had just had their new star on their battle streamer awarded at a ceremony an hour before, and the officers had gathered at the club to hoist a celebratory drink (or two). The action on Killington had barely deserved a star, Ryck thought. Of course, to LCpl Godfrey of India Company, or more correctly, to his family, dying during a quick police action or in a major conflict didn’t make much difference. Dead was dead.

  “That’s assuming you could ever find anyone who’d want to marry you, dickwad,” Donte told Cal.

  “They all want to, and can you blame them? I mean, look at me,” Cal said, one hand sweeping to take in his frame.

  “Well, I’m outta here, guys. Don’t get too plastered. We’re still the secondary alert battalion,” Ryck interrupted their trash talk, knowing he could be there for hours if he waited for it to subside on its own

  He ignored their cat calls and walked out of the club. It was a brisk evening, making him feel invigorated. He felt even more invigorated as he walked up to his brand new Hyundai Vulture. It might not match his brother-in-law Barret’s Tonora, but it was more car than he’d had ever hoped for. Hannah had surprised him with it when he’d gotten back from Killington. He’d balked at the price she’d paid, but only half-heartedly. Hannah had gotten a job at the Federation lab on base, and as a FS-15, she not only outranked him, but she made almost twice as much as he did. Besides, the Vulture was one sweet ride.

  The Vulture recognized him and the driver’s door swung up. Ryck slid inside, the nanos in the seat molding it around him. He’d only had one beer, so the hover allowed him to take control. The hover was almost silent as it rose off the deck, only the low, almost subsonic rumbling giving any indication of the horsepower under the hood.

  Ryck eased the Vulture out of the parking lot. He carefully kept to the speed limit on base. The MP’s were extremely strict, and they seemed to like nothing more than to give officers, especially lieutenants, citations. Once out the gate, he opened the Vulture up a little. The hover leapt forward like a racehorse released from the bit.

  Ryck almost wished he lived further away. He was in base housing, though, in Januzek Manor, only three klicks from the main gate. He slowed back down, passed through the gate, and barely puttered down the street to his home. With Hannah’s new job, they, as a couple, rated a single home with the senior officers. But they’d decided to stay in the junior officer housing. Hannah and Ryck had half of a duplex. It wasn’t large, and Hannah had been used to better back on Prophesy, but for Ryck, it was fine, more than fine, actually.

  He carefully pulled the Vulture alongside Hannah’s Creighton B50, then set it down. It looked like he was the last one there. Joshua’s old Ford Flamingo was parked in front. Joshua had been at the same ceremony, yet he’d obviously not stopped for a drink, first, before heading over. Score one for the brother-in-law.

  “’Bout time you made it,” Joshua said from the couch as Ryck entered.

  Joshua was in his civvies, a cider in one hand, the other reaching into a bowl of chips. Technically, there was nothing wrong with him being in officer country. Ryck and Joshua were brothers-in-law, after all. But still, he always came over in civvies if it was a social call.

  “Duty calls,” Ryck responded, reaching for his own handful of chips.

  “I thought I heard you,” Hannah said, coming into the room followed by Hope, Joshua’s wife.

  Hannah was a very competent, independent woman who had a pretty high-flying job. But Ryck was sure that she appreciated having Hope around. They were both Torritites from Prophesy, and that common background kept Hannah grounded.

  “Have I told you how beautiful you are?” Ryck asked, putting his arm in back of her, pulling her close for a kiss.

  “Not be often enough,” she responded after coming up for air, playfully reverting to her Torritite speech pattern what with her brother and sister-in-law there. “But you sayin’ that now won’t be getting’ you out of trouble. I be smellin’ the beer on your breath. Joshua and Hope be comin’ more than 30 minutes ago, and I be left with entertainin’ them.”

  “Well, it was worth a try,” Ryck said with a laugh. “But you are beautiful.”

  “Why be you not more as Ryck,” Hope asked her husband, her Torritite patois much more pronounced than Hannah’s. “He be havin’ the best sugar mouth around.”

  “Thanks a lot, Ryck,” Joshua said with an overacting tone before turning to Hope.

  “Thou be the fairest maiden in all the land, love of my life,” Joshua said, one hand sweeping towards the floor as he bowed his head.

  “OK, OK, it be getting’ deep in here,” Hannah said, trying not to laugh. “If you two gentlemen can set the table, Hope here has prepared somethin’ special for us.”

  “You heard the ladies,” Ryck told Joshua. “Let’s get at it.”

  “And what will you be doing?” Joshua asked when Ryck didn’t join him.

  “Let me get out of this uniform, and I’ll be right back down.”

  The two men quickly set the table after Ryck returned, and a few minutes later, the two women brought in the food. Hannah was right about the meal. She had bought a real prime rib, and Hope had spent the day at the house slow-roasting it. With fresh veggies, mashed potatoes, and a garden salad, the meal was prime alpha. Ryck stuffed himself to bursting. He stayed to clear the table as the other three went to the front room where Hannah had prepared a pitcher of sangria.

  Sangria was not really an after dinner drink, but Ryck was pleasantly surprised to find it was a nice, crisp balance to the heavy meal. He had three glasses before it was gone and he switched to cider. The four sat around,
mostly listening to Hannah and Joshua telling tales about each other when they were kids. At one point, when Joshua was relating when an eight-year-old Hannah had gotten her hand stuck in a toilet, Ryck laughed so hard that cider came out of his nose, burning as it came. That made all four of them laugh even harder.

  It took a few moments for Ryck to realize the recall was being sounded. The four of them were singing a love song popular when they had been in high school, and it wasn’t until Joshua’s wrist PA started chiming in with its own recall that the singing stopped.

  “What’s going on?” Ryck asked stupidly, more than a little tipsy.

  “Oh, man. We’ve got to get back to battalion. It’s the sergeant major, I know it is,” Joshua slurred in disgust.

  The sergeant major was a reformed alcoholic, and his opinion of Marines who drank was well known. Ryck thought it was within the realm of possibility that the sergeant major had convinced the CO to sound a recall. The battalion was the secondary alert battalion, and technically, they should be ready to take off on a moment notice. That had never happened without prior warning, though, at least as far as Ryck knew.

  Ryck shook his head, trying to clear it.

  “Baby, can you get us both a cup of coffee?” he asked Hannah. “If it really is just a drill, we’ll be back in a couple of hours, but we should sober up a bit if we can.

  “Well, Joshua, you ready? Get some water on your face, and we’ll head on back.”

  Hannah came back with the coffee, and both Marines drained the cups. It really didn’t help. Ryck kissed Hannah before he noticed Hope seemed worried.

  “Nothing to it, Hope. It’s probably just a drill, and we’ll be back in a shake.”

  The two men went to Joshua’s Flamingo. The hover’s AI detected the level of alcohol and refused to relinquish control. Joshua keyed in the battalion, and the hover lifted off in automatic mode and took them back to the gate where a line of hovers slowly made it past security. It looked like the entire division was on the recall. Whatever this was, it wasn’t the sergeant major checking to see how many Marines had been drinking.

  When they finally pulled into the battalion area, Ryck told Joshua to go check on the platoon to see if everyone was making it back. Ryck made his way to the battalion CP to see what was up. Donte, still in uniform, saw him and motioned him over.

  “All officers are supposed to be in the conference room in ten. You hear anything yet?” he asked Ryck.

  “I just got here. What about you?”

  “Nothing. We were still at the club when the recall came,” Donte said.

  They both made their way to the conference room where most of the officers were already gathered. The majority of them were in civvies. Capt Yu was even in coat and tails. Ryck knew the captain and his wife were champion ballroom dancers, and he figured the suit had to be related to that. There was surprisingly little talking as the Marines waited. The sheer number of people streaming back onto base was indicative that something, probably something big, was up.

  “Attention on deck!” the XO shouted as he and the CO burst through the hatch.

  The CO was in PT gear, so this had evidently caught him unawares as well. He strode to the head of the conference table before putting them at ease. He nodded to Terry Olney, the commo

  [22], to start the holo.

  The image was only 2D, obviously from a security camera.

  “This was just received at Franklin Station from G.K. Nutrition Six about an hour ago,” the CO intoned. “I have not seen it yet, but I’ve been briefed by the CG. I will withhold comment until I see it with all of you first.”

  Ryck shifted his position from where he was standing behind the company commanders and senior staff so he could see the display better. The image seemed to be a gathering of some sort, a picnic or fair. People were eating, kids were darting back and forth. It was a scene probably repeated hundreds if not thousands of times each day throughout the Federation—nothing remarkable.

  Then things changed. People started falling to the ground while others started screaming and running. More fell, and the panic grew to encompass all the people.

  “What the hell?” someone said from the far side of the room as they watched.

  “Who’s attacking them?” Capt Yu asked, voicing something each of them was probably thinking.

  The CO held up his hand, palm out, and the muttering ceased. He focused on the screen.

  When the attackers appeared in view, even the CO couldn’t quiet the gasps. Shockingly, the attackers were not human. They looked like something out of a scifi flick. Standing about five or six feet tall, the, well, creatures were bipedal, walking upright. Covered in hair or fur, they looked like odd, vaguely familiar teddy bears. There was no mistaking the weapons in their hands, though. The short, squat guns had glowing balls at their fore, and the creatures launched the balls forward at the few people still left alive.

  Then it hit Ryck why the creatures seemed familiar. They were walking upright, were larger, and had weapons, but it was unmistakable. They were larger, deadlier versions of the capys, the smaller creatures that the farmers had been trying to exterminate.

  Humanity had finally run into intelligent life, and the capys’ big brothers were back for revenge.

  G.K. Nutrition Six

  Chapter 9

  “The Shetlands just got destroyed. No survivors,” Ryck passed to Joshua as they moved across the abandoned fields to the salt mine where a pocket of survivors were hopefully still hanging on.

  “How the hell did that happen? The entire ship?” Joshua asked incredulously.

  “Looks like it. I’m not getting everything, but an alien ship appeared and took out the Shetlands. It’s been either driven off or destroyed, but I can’t get clear word on that.”

  “A capy ship?” Joshua asked.

  “Has to be,” Ryck responded.

  Ryck was monitoring the command circuit which was understandably on fire. He glanced up as if he could see what was happening in space around G.K. Nutrition Six, but the heavens were quiet. The day was sunny, the breeze light. Genmodded bees were the only sign of animal life as the Marines moved through the knee-high wheat.

  Despite the situation, Ryck reached down and took a handful of soil. Before enlisting, he’d been a farmer on Prophesy. This planet’s soil was excellent, which was not surprising given GKN’s experience and resources. If the soil on his farm had been half this good, he might still be back on Prophesy, tilling the fields.

  “Grizzly Two, this is Grizzly Six. You need to pick up the pace. We’ve been ordered to be ready for evac in 90 mikes. Get that salt mine checked out ASAP, then report back. I’ll try to get a flight of Storks in to pick you and any civilians up at your position, but don’t count on it. If I can’t get one, you’ve got to be at LZ Diego at 1430. You copy that? Over” Capt Portuno passed on the command circuit.

  Ryck checked his display. They were still a good klick-and-a-half from the entrance to the mine, then another klick to the open field designated as LZ Diego. He’d originally been given a pick-up time of 1800.

  “Roger, Grizzly-Six. Understood. Any reason given for the change? Do we have signs of capys in my AO?[23]”

  “Negative to the enemy here. But up there and with 2/6, things are heating up, and the Navy has been ordered to withdraw,” the captain said. “Keep me informed. Grizzly-Six, out.”

  “Listen up,” Ryck passed on the platoon circuit. “The situation has changed, and the Navy’s got to pull out sooner. The Shetlands has been hit hard, and 2/6 is already being evacuated. We’ve been ordered to get to our objective, rescue any civilians, and get back to the LZ for pickup by 1430. There’s no way we’ll make it in a platoon V, so we’re switching to a column—First Squad, then Second and Third. Sgt Timothy, send a team out ahead 100 meters to precede us, then everyone move it. I want to be there in 20 mikes.”

  “Twenty mikes?” Joshua asked on the P2P. “That’s almost at a double time. What happened to the tact
ical security you were harping on?”

  Ryck hated leaving the V, which provided optimum security. While there were no known capy soldiers in the area, something had caused the local settlement to go to ground. He wished he could contact them, but the salt mine in which they had taken refuge blocked all comms. The group of 36 settlers had passed that they were going in, then once in, they were out of contact.

  “No choice here. I hate it, but we’ve got to make time. The Navy’s going to pull out, and I don’t think we want to be here alone when they do,” Ryck told Joshua.

  “No, not with what happened to 2/6,” Joshua agreed. “I guess there’s no helping it. You move on up with First. I’ll bring up the rear, kicking ass to keep everyone going.”

  Second Battalion, Sixth Marines had formed one half of the NEO[24] task force sent to rescue any surviving civilians. While the Federation Council hemmed and hawed and tried to come to an agreement with the Brotherhood, the Congress of Free Worlds, the Liberty Alliance, and the major independent worlds on how to react to the attack on GKN, 2/6 and 3/6 were dispatched, along with four Navy ships of the line, to evacuate the planet. Recon teams had been sent in first while the ships scanned the planet’s surface. Pockets of humans had been located, but none of the soldier capys. 2/6 had been tasked with the main population center of Peterbund while 3/6 was given the scattered settlements across the main growing region.

  When 2/6 entered Peterbund, they found thousands of people—all dead. Fewer than 30 were discovered hiding out in the sewers, in a bank vault, and in building crawlspaces. What they didn’t find was capys—no sign of them at all. The Marines’ and Navy’s sensors were quiet.

  Two hours earlier, though, the capys found them. They appeared suddenly among the Marines, attacking. Ryck wasn’t connected to the 2/6 or MEB command circuit, but from what was being passed, 2/6 was in the shit. Casualties were mounting fast. Ryck had told Joshua all he had been able to glean, but as no good specific intel was being disseminated, all he’d told the platoon was that contact between 2/6 and the capys had been initiated.