Sergeant (The United Federation Marine Corps Book 2) (10 page)

Captain Davis took arrived and took over, but not for long. He told SSgt Hecs, who still had comms, to take over the platoon, which must have galled the lieutenant.
A quick look at the passages leading off from the scene, though, made it obvious that the PICS Marines had done all they could do. The passages were just too small for combat suits. Fox Company was called forward, to take the fight on to the remaining enemy.

As Ryck waited to move out, he
thought that his squad had fought well, especially given the fact that this was the first combat for a good chunk of his platoon.

Corporals Rey and Mendoza, Lance Corporals
Keiji and Martin, and Private Peretti were the only Marines who had faced combat before. Caesar Peretti was the only one who even had a bronze star on his Combat Mission Medal, earned before a drunken spree out in the ville had gotten him busted back down to private. Yet the squad had faced an armed, determined enemy and had not blinked. Ryck felt honored to be a part of the squad, part of this group of men.

His reverie was broken as they started to form up. The p
latoon, using the hand and arm signals Ryck had thought were obsolete back at Camp Charles when the recruits had to learn them, rallied up and started moving back down the main passage to get out of the complex and where they could get picked-up for their ride to the ship. They filed past Fox as the light company made its way in. They would be fighting in their skins and bones against a foe that had managed to take out one Marine in a PICS and almost disabled an entire platoon of PICS Marines.

Ryck had been in Fox when he first joined the battalion, and he had friends there. When he saw
his old running mate T-Rex filing in with his squad, Ryck gave him a thumbs up. Even if his squad had led the initial assault, he felt guilty about leaving the field of battle before the battle was won. Now his friends, his fellow Marines, would have to go in and finish the job.

Fair winds and following seas,
brothers
, he sent his thoughts out to them as his fight was done.

Prophesy

Chapter
5

Ryck looked in the mirror. His medals hung straight, his dress blues sharp and creased. Everything looked right with his uniform. Today, everything
had
to be right.

“Looking good, little brother, looking good.
You’re going to make the ladies fall hard,” Lysa said from the bathroom doorway.

“None will be as good looking as you, sis,” he said.

“Ha! Like this?” she asked, pointing at her very pregnant belly.

“Men
on Prophesy like their women fertile. You know that,” he said with a laugh.

After seeing
the look on her face, he protested, “Just joking, just joking!”

“Well, that’s me
, fertile, despite the misogyny inherent in your statement,” she said, punching Ryck in the arm. “When your new nephew arrives on the scene, I’ll be up on you three to zero, so maybe you can use this opportunity to find your own wife? Women get the nesting instinct at weddings, after all, and you, little brother, more than most, need someone. And speaking of weddings, Barret and the girls are already in the hover waiting. You about ready?”

“Yeah, just trying to make sure I look OK,” he answered.

He followed his twin down the stairs and out the front door to where Barret had the Lexus idling.

“Uncle Ryck, sit with me!”
Camyle called out from the back seat.

“No, your Uncle Ryck is going to sit in the front seat. He has to keep his uniform nice and clean,” Lysa told her four-year-old.

“But he never sits with me!” she cried out.

“Yes he did. This morning, to go to the store,” Kylee told her.

“That doesn’t count!”

“Should I?” Ryck whispered to his sister.

“You kidding? You may be a Marine, but you’d stand no chance with those two. No, you get in front. We’ve got an hour before we get there.”

As soon as they got in,
Barret lifted the big hover off the pavement and pulled out of the development. This was the fourth Lexus Barret had since Ryck had known him. The water reclamation business was very kind to him. Ryck knew he could have the same kind of life. Barret had offered him the position of vice president of the company, but Ryck had decided that he wanted to re-enlist in the Corps. He didn’t regret his decision, but still, this was one sweet ride.

The hour drive flew by quickly with
Camyle teaching Ryck
The Popcorn Song
. Kylee, with her 6-year-old sense of maturity, didn’t join in.

Ryc
k had only been to the Hope-of-Life family compound once, and he had thought it crowded then with his friend Joshua’s large family. This time, it was a zoo. A teenager was directing traffic, and he waved Barret to park the Lexus right up against a corn field along with what had to be 30 or 35 other vehicles.

They got out of the Lexus and walked over to the barn, each of his nieces taking one of his hands in
hers. Joshua’s mother was in the yard in front of the barn, giving instructions. She saw Ryck and waved him over.

“Do you know my Uncle Ryck is a Marine?”
Camyle asked Joshua’s mom.

“Of course she does,” Kylee said in an exasperated tone. “Uncle Ryck and Mr. Joshua are Marines together, and Mrs. Hope-of-Life is Mr. Joshua’s mom.”

“Ryck, it be good to see you again,” Joshua’s mother said, giving him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Joshua be in the house in the guest bedroom. Why don’t you go in and see what he be needing. Tabitha here will take care of your family.”

Before Ryck could reply, she shouted out “No, no! Those are to go under the tent!” to some unseen worker.

“Sorry, Ryck, I must be going,” she said before hurrying off to take care of whatever emergency she had discovered.

Ryck left Lysa, Barret, and the girls and walked over to the main house. People were streaming in and out of the main doors on various missions. Most of the women a
nd men were wearing the plainly-colored clothes typical of a Torritite, but there were a few splashes of color, and more than a little cleavage and leg exhibited by some of the women. Not all the guests were part of the Torritite community.

Ryck walked into the foyer, barely getting out of the way of a young girl rushing out carrying a pitcher of some sort of drink. He spied the stairs and started to them when a familiar face caught his eye. Hannah, Joshua’s sister, had come out
of the large kitchen, wiping her hands on the little white apron that most single Torritite women wore. Ryck made a beeline to her.

“Hi Hannah.
You busy?” he said as he came up, immediately regretting his choice of an opening line.

Busy?
Really? That was the best he could do?

Hannah’s eyes lit up when she saw him.

“Ryck, welcome! Joshua’s going to be happy to see you. He be afraid all week that you weren’t going to make it, and he be so happy afta you called last night,” she said, giving him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Oh, it be good to see you!”

She reached up and flicked his Silver Star.

“Joshua, you know, he be always talking about you. ‘Ryck be a hero, Ryck be going to make sergeant major.’ But if you don’t be showing up here, I think I be tracking you down and let you have some.”

“Have some what?” Ryck said, trying to inject a
playfully suggestive quality to his voice.

“Oh, don’t you be trying that stuff with me, Ryck Lysander,” she said with a laugh. “No way I
be getting with a soldier boy, no sir. Not like poor Hope, the dear girl.”

Hope was Joshua’s soon
-to-be bride.

“What do you mean? She’s marrying your brother,” Ryck asked.

“Well, aside from her new name, Hope Hope-of-Life, she be marrying a Marine. A Marine be like any soldier. He be gone from home. And the wife be worrying, waiting while her husband fights, waiting for the chaplain to come a’knocking on the door to tell her that her man won’t be coming home. No, not for me, thank you very much. Not for me.”

Ryck felt deflated. He didn’t know Hannah well enough to have any serious intentions with her, but to be knocked out of the race before even leaving the gate was a little rough.

“Oh, listen to me, rattling on. This be a joyous day,” she said, reaching out to take one of Ryck’s hands in hers. “You go on upstairs and see Joshua. He probably be about ready to pass out by now. And after the ceremony, come see me. Mayhaps we can get together some evening while you are here.”

“You and me?
Like on a date?” he asked stupidly. “I thought you didn’t want to date a Marine.”

“I don’t want to be with a Marine, as in marry one. But I want to see if men in uniform
be really as fun as the other girls say, and you be cutting a rather fine figure, if I do say so.”

That was fine with Ryck.
More than fine.

“OK, then. It’s a date. I’ll catch up with you later,” he said,
reluctantly pulling away and rushing up the stairs.

He should have known better by now. The
Torritites dressed conservatively, and they followed the teachings of the Bible as they understood them, but they were not prudes. Joshua liked to lift a pint or two, and he was no stranger to the ladies. Why would Hannah be any different?

Never having been upstairs in the Hope-of-Life household, he didn’t know which was the guest bedroom. He opened one door to see the bride, in her long white gown, getting help with her veil. A dozen female voices screamed at him to get out.

He did.

The next room was empty, but he felt a sense of relief when he saw Joshua in the third room he tried. He was leaning up against a dresser, talking to several other men both in uniform and out. As soon as he saw Ryck, he broke out into a huge smile.

“’Bout time you showed up, bro,” he said as he strode over to Ryck and gave him a bear hug.

They pounded each other’s back a few times,
then tried to disengage. Ryck’s medals, though, hung up on Joshua’s shooting badges, hooking them together.

“Oh,
snark. You’re hero shit’s trying to mess me up. A little help here!” he called out.

Another Marine stood up and reached between them to unhook the two.

“Kellen Krupt. You must be Ryck Lysander,” the Marines said. “Josh’s told us all about you since we left Tarawa.”

“I swear I’m innocent. Don’t believe
all his BS,” Ryck said as the others broke out into laughter.

There were eight men in uniform, all wearing sword belts. Six were Marines, Joshua’s friends
from Camp Charles where he was a DI. One was a Navy corpsman, also one of Joshua’s drill field friends. The eighth was a legionnaire. That had to be Joshua’s older brother, Ezekiel. The eight were to form the sword arch to welcome the new bride into the military family. The last man in the arch would swat Hope on the butt as they passed through the arch.

“Hey, come help me with my SGA,
[14]
” Joshua told Ryck, leading him to the guest bath off the main room.

Ryck made a show of checking the alignment of the Marine Corps emblem on Joshua’s collar, but he realized that had just been an excuse to talk to him.

“You OK?” Ryck asked.

“I
be stressed but good,” Joshua said, momentarily reverting to his Tortie speech patterns.

“Seems normal to me.
I’d be stressing, too, if I be getting married,” Ryck replied, mimicking Tortie speech.

“But, I’m glad you’re here, bro. You and I go back. Remember when we were sitting there, ready to enlist in the Legion? Then your friend, what was his name?” Joshua asked.

“Proctor. Proctor Miller.”

“Yeah, that’s the guy. He convinced us to go see the Marine recruiter, and that sly cat hooked us. Your buddy didn’t even make it.
DOR’d
[15]
. But we did. Now we’re Sergeants of Marines.”

“And why the history lesson, bro?” Ryck asked.

“I don’t know. Just been thinking. About life, you know. I had my tour with 1stMarDiv as a grunt, then re-upped and went to the drill field. Never saw any action, though, not like you. I don’t know how I would have reacted,” Joshua said matter-of-factly.

“You would have been fine, kicking ass and taking names,” Ryck assured him.

“Maybe, but I was single then. Now, I’m gonna have me a wife and kid, and they’re gonna need me.”

“No hurry on the kid, there, big boy. Take it a step at a time,” Ryck told him.

“Already took that step,” Joshua admitted.

“You mean you knocked her up,” Ryck asked,
surprised.

“You’ll see in about seven-and-a-half months,” Joshua told him. “Hope came out to visit me on Tarawa, and well, you know how that goes.”

“Yeah, I guess I do now!” Ryck exclaimed.

“So, what I mean is, I still
gotta prove myself in combat. You’ve been there. You’ve proven the temper of your steel. We’ve never talked about it, but I gotta know if I can do the same. But now, I’m going to be a husband and a father. Hope thinks she’s gonna like the military life, but only if I redesignate into a pogue billet.”

“You want to do that?” Ryck asked his friend.

“Fuck no. I need to prove myself first. Maybe after, but not now.”

“Well, you’re just going to have to tell her,” Ryck said.

“Hey, you two done making out in there? They’re calling for the groom!” a voice shouted out accompanied by a pounding on the door.

“Just a freaking minute!”
Joshua shouted back.

“Hey, don’t stress out now. This is your happy day. We’ll talk later, OK?” Ryck said.

“OK, OK. We’ll talk,” Joshua said, taking a deep breath. “Thanks, bro, though, for coming.”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.
And I am honored to be your best man. Surprised, though. Your brother is out in the next room, and you’ve got your Camp Charles buds.”

“What, Ezekiel? Nope. He’s married, and
Kellen, he’s married, too. According to tradition, a best man has to be single. The other guys, I just needed eight for the sword arch.”

“So I’m your third choice? Suddenly, I’m not feeling so honored,” Ryck said with a chuckle.

“Hey, at least you made the list, bro!”

“Before we go, here,” Joshua said, taking a slim package from his trouser pocket. “I think it’s traditional, right, for the Best Man?”

Ryck took it, admiring the clean packing for a moment, then tried to slide off the ribbon without breaking it.”

“For goodness sakes, just open the grubbing thing!”

Ryck broke the ribbon and slit the paper. His heart caught when he saw the name on the box. He opened it, and yes, there was a Rolex Adventurer, shiny and beckoning.

“Shit, Joshua, that’s amazing, but it’s what, a month’s pay?”