Sergeant (The United Federation Marine Corps Book 2) by Jonathan P. Brazee

don’t know why all of these observers, all of a sudden. At least we don’t have the capitaine, like Sams and the lieutenant have with them. You said you were going to keep him off my ass, anyway,” Ryck told his platoon sergeant.
    As relations deteriorated between Greater France and the Federation, there had been a flurry of ini tiatives between the Marines and the Legion, fully supported by the brass. Ryck wasn’t sure how the brass expected these initiatives to improve anything. The civilian politicians were going to do what they were going to do no matter what their military arms thought.
    Not everyone was on board with the increased interaction, though. A plainclothes member of the Navy Office of Information, accompanied by the battalion S2 officer, had briefed the Marines prior to embarkation. The Legion observers were to be treated with respect, but care was to be taken with regards to technical information or other operations. It was pretty obvious that the Marines were supposed to keep their mouths shut while around the observers.
    Still, despite the fact that he wished the legionnaire was not with them, that Legion R-3 was one sexy piece of gear. A good head taller than a PICS, it had highly advanced stealth capabilities which rendered it virtually invisible to most sensors, at least until is started firing its weapons. It supposedly used a different cooling system that didn’t have to be changed out like the Marine’s coldpacks. The armor, too, was supposedly better, especially against energy weapons. It was more effective and somehow more flexible at the same time. Ryck had spent a number of months in the battalion armory while a genhen, and he would have loved to get into the guts of a Legion suit and see what made it tick.
    Enough of the Rfucking-3 , he thought. Eye on the prize!
    In this case, the “prize” was a command base for the Soldiers of God. BHP Billiton, the huge resource conglomerate, owned B-19. There were three major mines in operation, although exactly what they were extracting was a trade secret. The planet had never been terraformed, but it had plant life and an atmosphere, albeit one that could not support human life for long. Trace gasses would have a person coughing out his lungs within an hour after exposure.
    About three months ago, the planet managing director informed their lone Federation liaison that they’d had odd fluctuations in their survey readings. He was suspicious that there could be poachers mining the other side of the planet. The Ministry of Resources looked into it before quickly turning it over to the Navy. Something was there, and it wasn’t illegal mining.
    A Navy Information Analysis Team, the NIS super spooks made up of ex-SEALS and techno wizards, was sent it. Within weeks, they had located the shielded station and confirmed it was SOG.
    The location made sense for the criminal gang. The planet was very lightly populated and all on the other side of the globe. There was no military presence. If the MD hadn’t decided to send out survey drones to see what could have been missed during the initial assessment, they could have remained undetected for years.
    Ryck had a history with SOG, and when his platoon had taken down the Robin , an SOG-held hostage ship, Ryck’s experience with them cost him over a year in regen. At least, the official report was that it was SOG. Most of the Marines involved thought it hadn’t really been SOG but a copycat. Too many things didn’t add up. But as the official version was that it was Soldiers of God, no one was going to go public and say anything different.
    SOG was a criminal organization, nothing less. They acted under the guise of religious righteousness, but they were simply in it for the money, seeding their path with unspeakable acts of terror. Every government known to man had proclaimed them pariah, not covered by treaties of human rights. The Federation, acting hand-in-hand with the Brotherhood, [9] had thought it