Read Online Decisively Engaged (Warp Marine Corps Book 1) by C.J. Carella - Free Book Online Page B

sizable fraction of the heavy weapons in the platoon’s Table of Organization and Equipment and attached them to diverse parts of their vehicles. ALS-43s were the bastard plasma-spitting children of the pre-Contact M240 machinegun and the Mk 19 automatic grenade launcher; he’d gotten at least one of them mounted on every vehicle. His command van had a ALS-43 and two 20mm self-propelled missile launchers, which gave the unit – they’d named it Rover Force – more firepower than a local tank company. He had no desire to get into a running battle with the local ETs, but if he was forced into one he intended to win it.
    Obregon all but leaped into the driver’s compartment of Rover Two. He turned the primitive ignition system’s switch, and the vehicle roared into life. He did a status check: most everything was green, and the systems highlighted with blinking yellow lights would do, for a while.
    “Y’all fucked with the wrong people,” the Marine growled as he gunned the engine.

Four
     
    Year 163 AFC, D Minus Ten
    They were probably screwed, but it wouldn’t be because they hadn’t tried everything they could think of.
    “There,” Heather said, her imp marking the building she’d selected as Locquar swerved to a stop, less than a hundred yards from the barricade. Nobody had shot at them yet, but that was bound to change.
    The structure she’d led them to was an auto garage situated at the top of the hill. The locals’ propensity to steal anything that wasn’t nailed down meant the lot was surrounded by a sturdy wall, concrete blocks with razor wire strung on top, its main entrance sealed off by a sliding metal gate.
    “We can make our stand inside until the authorities drive off the rioters,” she said.
    “Fine,” Fromm said. He didn’t sound terribly convinced, but time was short and he clearly knew that a bad plan of action executed now was better than a perfect plan contrived after it was too late. “Get everyone inside. I’ll cover you.”
    “Locquar, help him,” she said as they left the car. The Vehelian limo began to go around it, then stopped when its driver saw the barricade and mob waiting down the road. Behind them, the bus also came to a stop. A glance told her the mob giving chase behind them wasn’t very far away, and it’d been reinforced by more militant society warriors and regular civilians. Her imp could have given her a good estimate of the number of aliens rushing towards them, but she didn’t really want to know. More than enough, she was sure.
    “We’re going to fort up over there,” she announced through the imp, which overlay a virtual arrow all humans and Vehelians would see through their own implants.
    Heather headed towards the garage’s entrance. There was an intercom by the metal gate but she was sure the people inside weren’t going to be hospitable. Instead of trying to communicate with them, she placed a hand over the gate. Its lock was electronic, a new model using imported Starfarer tech, the kind of cheap trinket any fabber could produce for pennies’ worth of raw materials and then sell at a nice profit to primitive worlds. Her imp’s special apps took over the lock’s crude systems, and the gate started rolling open. Off to her right, the captain’s blaster coughed once, followed by a burst from the submachinegun Locquar kept under the driver’s seat. Things were getting lively already, and there was no time to lose.
    She rushed inside as soon as enough of a gap opened up. There were two Kirosha on the courtyard, a man in grease-stained coveralls who’d been working on a sporty-looking two-door car, and an older male in the informal tunic, pointy hat and pantaloons of one of Kirosha’s small but growing entrepreneurial middle class. They were both unarmed, which was unsurprising, since city ordinances made possession of firearms of any kind a crime punishable by mutilation, torture or death, sometimes all of the above.
    “You are not welcome