Lieutenant (The United Federation Marine Corps Book 3) (9 page)

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 tactical 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.

The Navy had insisted that the 3/6 AO was clear, but they hadn’t detected the capys in Peterbund, either.  Now Ryck was forced to move into a column.  If they got hit, it wouldn’t be pretty.

Ryck slid in behind the First Squad’s Second Fire Team.  Cpl Ibrahim, the Third Fire Team leader, led the point team out in front of the column.  The four Marines were trotting ahead, eyes and sensors scanning the fields for any threat.  One hundred meters behind them, Second Fire Team led the rest of the platoon. 

The terrain consisted of slightly rolling wheat fields, broken up by low hedgerows of a native vegetation, genmodded to coexist with the Terran crops.  It was pleasantly warm, and their skins’ cooling webs had no problem keeping the Marines comfortable as they trotted along.  Even with the bones inserted, they moved freely.  Take away their weapons, and they could be back on Zephyr-Hadreson running an afternoon PT on a nice spring day. 

Their stress levels, though, were not the same as if back home.  The enemy was out there somewhere, an enemy with unknown capabilities.  Ryck felt exposed, moving through the fields.  He kept flicking his viewfinder to max magnification, trying to spot any movement.

Up ahead of the main body, the point team held up.  They had reached the mine head.  This wasn’t a huge working mine as on Atacama, where Ryck had first tasted combat.  The opening to the mine was simply a hole going into the low hill.  The door to the mine was simply two pieces of corrugated metal, tied shut with wire.  A dump truck and a pickup hover had been set down in front of the doors as if to provide more of an obstacle. 

“Check them for keys,” Ryck told the Marines in First Squad as he came up.

LCpl’s Thomas and Sutarno checked out each cab but ended up empty-handed.

That would have been too easy,
Ryck thought.

With a PICS, he could have simply shoved the vehicles aside.  Even breaking out their muscles—the strength-augmenting framework each Marine could attach to their skins— the dump truck would be a tough move. 

Ryck walked over to the far side of the two vehicles.  There was enough room between them and the door for the Marines to squeeze by.

“What do we got?” Joshua asked as he came up.

“We can get by these, but single file,” Ryck told him.  “Have Ariana form a perimeter around the door.  No, belay that.  Make it Watson.  I want you inside with me, and Doc.  I’d rather have Watson handle the security.  And I want his sensors on max gain.  Give him one of your dragonflies, and get it up in the air.”

“Roger that,” Joshua said before striding off to brief the two squads.

Ryck turned back to Sergeant Timothy and said, “I don’t think the capys are here, but that doesn’t mean squat.  I want that door blown, then get your squad in as fast as you can.  I’ll be on your ass, but make contact with any civilians.  We’ve got to get them and get out of here ASAP.”

Ryck looked back, and Sgt Watson was getting his Marines deployed around the mine opening. Within moments, First Squad was in a file between the truck and the doors.  LCpl Pannata was watching his squad leader.

Ryck didn’t want to wait until Second Squad was fully deployed, so he gave Timothy the go-ahead.  The squad leader nodded at his lance corporal, who raised his M76 and aimed it at the twisted wire that was acting as a door lock.  The bunker buster was probably overkill, but it would ensure a quick entry.

With one blast, the door blew open, one piece of corrugated metal blown completely off its hinges, the other one askew.  Pannata stepped aside as Pvt Hueber, M99 at the ready, started to dash inside.  A single shot rang out from the mine, and Hueber jumped back out.

“Hold your fire, hold your fire!  We are Federation Marines!” Pannata called out.

There was a pause as the Marines stopped in their tracks.  Ryck wanted to push ahead to the door, but there was no room unless he climbed on top of the truck and clambered over.

Finally, a voice called out from inside the salt mine, “Prove it!”

What the . . .
Ryck wondered.

The Marines in front of Ryck started looking around in confusion.

“What do we do, L/T
[25]
?” Sgt Timothy asked on the platoon command circuit.  “Prove it?”

Ryck changed his display menu, pulled up LCpl Pannata, then took over the Marine’s comms, switching his speakers to external. 

“This is Second Lieutenant Ryck Lysander, United Federation Marine Corps.  We have been sent to evacuate you.  Your planet is under attack, and it is not safe here.  Do you understand?”

There was another pause, then “How do we know you ain’t one of them,” the voice called out.

Mother grubbing shit!  We don’t have time for this!

Ryck made up his mind.  He might get his ass in a sling for this, but he couldn’t sit here arguing with the man.

“Sgt Timothy, get your men in there and rush the guy.  Don’t hurt him, at least too seriously, but secure his weapon.”

Ryck hoped there wasn’t anyone else armed, but Timothy’s Marines would react to whatever they encountered.  Sgt Timothy took a few seconds to brief his men, then on his command, Cpl Goddard’s team rushed inside with the other Marines on their tail.  One more shot rang out, then someone shouted. 

Ryck was pushing up Sutarno’s ass, and by the time he got into the mine, Goddard’s team had the man down on his face.

“You sumbitch,” Pannata was yelling.  “You fucking shot me!”

Pannata’s bios read fine, so if he’d been hit, his bones had protected him.

“Don’t kill me!” the man was crying out, his face pushed into the mixture of salt and dirt that covered the entrance floor.

“No one’s going to kill you, you dumbshit,” Sgt Timothy told him.  “Didn’t we say we were Marines?  You think we’re the friggin’ capys?”

“I didn’t know,” he whined.  “All we know here is something big’s going down.  I don’t know nothing about no capys.  None of them here.  ’Sides, they can’t hurt no one.”

“Let him up.  Pvt Hueber, you take that rifle, though,” Ryck said as he came up, pointing to the man’s old Winchester that was lying in the dirt.  “No use tempting anyone.

“What’s your name, sir,” he asked the man who was now sitting up, spitting out dirt and salt.

“Morrison Tahoe, sir.”

“Where are the rest of you?  We need to get moving,” Ryck told him.

The man hesitated, and Ryck, exasperated, had to keep from yelling as he said, “Look, we’ve no time for this shit.  If you don’t get your people out here, there all going to die.  Do you understand that?  We’re going to leave you here and you’re all going to die!”

Ryck wouldn’t leave them, but he was not above telling a lie to get them going.  It seemed to work and the man’s will broke right then.  Whatever suspicions he had evaporated.

“Back in the chamber, sir.  We’ve got 35 more of us, mostly women and children.  We didn’t know what was going on, only that it was bad.  So me and Tyrone, Tyrone Sukito, that is, he’s the—”

“Sorry, sir, you can fill me in on the details later.  Just get us to your people now,” Ryck interrupted.

“Oh yeah, sure.  This way,” the man said, leading them down the only passage, a low, meter-and-a-half wide cut in the salt.  The air in the passage was dry as a bone.  The hairs in Ryck’s nose clumped together as the moisture was sucked away.  A naked wire looped along the ceiling, LED’s hanging every three or four meters.  Within 30 or 40 meters, the passage opened up into a chamber.  The Marines pushed by a hover cart, something obviously used to transport salt to the entrance. 

The chamber was well lit and the white salt walls reflected a somewhat eerie glow.  Twenty or so barrels were stacked up against one wall.  An old beat-up metal desk was along the far side of the chamber, and several benches had been carved right out of the walls.  Sitting on the benches and cross-legged on the deck were the civilians.

“Give me a head count, Joshua,” Ryck passed as his platoon sergeant entered the chamber. 

He was pretty sure all of them would be there, but he wanted to be certain of that.  Several passages led away from the chamber, and it was possible someone had wandered away.

“Who’s your commander?” a voice asked in back of him.