Read Online Sergeant (The United Federation Marine Corps Book 2) by Jonathan P. Brazee - Free Book Online Page A

lights came on and the suit’s AI began the start-up check. A set of PICS feet stepped into view, then the PICS ponderously bent over to reveal Cpl Rey’s face. Ryck had no comms nor movement yet, but he winked back at his team leader. Rey gave him a thumbs up, then moved out of Ryck’s narrow range of vision, probably moving to check on someone else. Yancy Sullivan had been just to Ryck’s left where the blast seemed to have originated. Ryck needed to know if his PFC was OK.
    Ryck was confused as to what could have hit them. Nothing was picked up by the sensors as incoming, and their sensors should have identified any mines.
    The dust cleared, but Ryck couldn’t see much. Marines were moving back and forth in front of him, but Ryck was facing away from the direction he wanted to face, that towards Sullivan. Two more of the squad bent down to check Ryck, turning him onto his back.
    Ryck tried to take stock of himself as his PICS started coming back online. He’d banged his left arm pretty good, and he knew his tongue was bitten, but other than that, he seemed in one piece.
    Lips put his face shield against Ryck’s and shouted out “Are you OK?”
    Ryck could hear him clearly, but muffled, through his face shield, so he shouted back “Yeah. How about Sullivan?”
    As he yelled, he splattered blood across the inside of his face shield. It started to form into droplets and drip back down on his face. Instinctively, he tried to shift his body, and his PICS responded. It was coming back online. The display on his visor came to life—covered in blood splatters.
    “Sullivan’s out of action. Doc’s got him stable though, but his leg’s pretty fucked up. That blast twisted it like he was some sort of doll,” Tizzard Rey said, his shout coming both through his PICS and over the comms.
    “What the fuck was that?” Ryck asked. “How come we didn’t pick anything up?”
    “Don’t know yet. Sergeant Kyle is doing a scan,” Rey told him.
    Frank Kyle was the EOD team leader. He would have some basic analyzing tools in his PICS-E, but Ryck knew they had to keep moving , and Frank might not have time to do a full scan. Knowing just what had exploded might have to wait for the Navy Seabees to come down and determine what had hit them.
    Ryck slowly stood, checking all the readouts he could. He bent his knees and flexed his arms. He seemed to be moving OK, but he could n’t check the actual readout figures. Much of his face shield display was obscured by the blood he’d spit out. For all the advances in battle suit technology, something as simple as blood inside was a big problem. He couldn’t just reach up and wipe it, after all. Not only did it block his view of some of his readouts, but it blocked some of the small micro-scans embedded in the face shield that read the eye commands used to activate the PICS’ various display functions.
    He turned to where PFC Su llivan had been and took his first steps to see if his PFC was OK.
    “Sergeant Lysander, you back online?” the lieutenant asked over the person-to-person circuit.
    “I think so, sir, but I can’t really tell. My display is sort of covered in blood. I’m OK, though,” he said, his words slightly slurred as his tongue was already swelling. “Can you wait one, though? I need to check on Sullivan.”
    The platoon commander said nothing else as Ryck arrived at where Sullivan was down, Doc Grbil working on him. The blast had wrenched the PFC’s right leg, actually bending it at the knee at about a 70-degree angle. The joints were the weakest part of a PICS, but still, that had to have been one hellacious blast. Luckily, the PICS leg had not completely detached, so Sullivan’s leg had not been amputated. The angle was gruesome, but Ryck thought a couple of months in regen would make him as good as new.
    “ Yancy, how’re you hanging?” Ryck asked as he approached the Marine.
    The PFC’s face shield was on clear, and Ryck could see Sullivan’s face, a