Read Online Lieutenant (The United Federation Marine Corps Book 3) by Jonathan P. Brazee - Free Book Online Page B

organized battalion landing team:  3/6 was only the infantry element.  The landing team had two sections of arty, a tank platoon, a composite air squadron, and assorted combat and logistics attachments.  Ryck glanced over to his right where an M1 Davis sat in defilade, its big Chrysler engine idling.  A factory was not a great battleground for tanks, and Ryck had witnessed an M1 get taken out on Luminosity, but still, having it there gave Ryck a feeling of confidence. 
    As the countdown on his display reached zero, Ryck heard the crump of outgoing fire as the 160mm section opened up.  The section had five tubes, each capable of putting out 10 rounds per minute.  This time, though, the arty only fired only round apiece.
    All eyes were focused downrange on the factory, waiting for the impacts.  Ryck knew the targets, and with GPS sensors in each round, accuracy was not going to be an issue.  Despite knowing where and when the rounds were going to hit, Ryck still flinched when the five explosions rocked the first five targets.  One of those was a chemical storage tank which erupted in an impressive fireball, sending flames, then black smoke roiling 150 meters up into the air.
    “Oo-rah” and “Get some” burst out of the Marines around him.
    “Think the message got through?” Joshua asked him.
    “Oh, I think they got the message.  Killington’s willing to sacrifice the factory,” Ryck answered.
    “So, they gonna surrender?” Joshua asked.
    Ryck took a deep breath before answering, “That’s the thing, right?  I hope they do, but that’s Kracivik’s company.  You know their rep.”
    Theodyne Kracivik had been a Congress of Free Worlds army officer before forming his own mercenary company.  Over the years, it had grown into a battalion, one with a reputation of professionalism and loyalty to its employers.  The mercs in the battalion were among the best paid of any military unit.
    “All the money won’t mean rat shit if they’re dead.  They’re only a company, and we’ve got a battalion landing team with Navy support.  They can’t win,” Joshua countered. 
    Joshua was thinking with logic.  He hadn’t been in combat and hadn’t seen how men reacted when under fire, sometimes defying logic or reason.
    “I hope you’re right, but Kracivik’s mercs get paid so well because of their rep.  If they just give up, their rep goes out the door, right?  So even if they can’t win, they have to make a good show of it,” Ryck told him.
    “Good for the company bottom line, maybe, but if we zero the mercs, what about that?  They won’t be around for more campaigns to enjoy that rep.”
    “How many will be actually zeroed?  Lot’s of WIAs, lots of regen, but they can afford the best regen, and each merc gets that regen bonus.  I just don’t know what they’ll do.  But I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”
    When the 160mm section opened up again not two minutes later, they had the answer.  The mercs had evidently turned down whatever the CO [19] had offered them.  The Wyvern missile section also fired, the big missiles showing up on Ryck’s display.  These were probably overkill given the targets the arty was authorized to engage, but Ryck knew they wanted to play too, and the arty det commander would have pushed hard for them. 
    A series of explosions lit up the factory, demolishing storage tanks, pipes, chimneys, and warehouses.  Ryck could track the kinetic rounds on his display, but when the Wyvern arrived, he could actually see the two missiles with his naked eyes.  One flew right in the front door of the factory headquarters, bringing down the entire building in a cloud of dust and smoke.  The other Wyvern flew through the dust and hit a target out of Ryck’s sight.
    “OK, Josh, time to get going.  Take your position,” Ryck told his platoon sergeant as the warning light flashed on his display.
    “Roger that.  Keep your head down,” Joshua said as he stood up and