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

had cut off the head of the organization, but instead, many new heads had sprung up, far more decentralized. Wherever one of those heads showed up, it was immediately stomped.
    This time, it was Second Battalion, Ninth Marines, with the FS Toowoomba , that would be doing the stomping.
    Golf Company was the lead element, each platoon going in heavy. Echo was setting a perimeter, Weapons was in support, and Fox, going light, but with breathing gear, was in reserve, waiting to exploit success or move in if the complex was too tight for PICS. The attached Frog Team, with their Ratcatcher missiles, was deploying to knock down any escaping craft. The Toowoomba , in geosynchronous orbit above the target, with its array of weapons and Experion fighters, was more than capable of taking out a SOG ship, but if they were going to be in a fight in the first place, the Marines wanted credit, either with the Ratcatchers or their Wasp attack craft.
    Ryck checked the readouts of each of his Marines , checking biostats and power levels. The upgraded command information system gave him ammo counts as well and would calculate rates of fire and depletion. It was a good add, but it was just one more thing to monitor. As a sergeant, Ryck was beginning to think he was getting to be more of a resource manager than a fighting Marine.
    At five minutes out, he toggled the countdown warning. He could have passed it on over the comms, but they didn’t need to continually hear his voice. A simple data message would suffice.
    Like it or not, Ryck was feeling a bit nervous, and he couldn’t let his Marines know that. Whether that had been SOG or a copycat on the Robin , memories of the misery that was regen kept creeping back into his mind. He looked at his rising pulse rate and tried to will it down. If SSgt Hecs or the lieutenant looked at their readouts, they would see his stress levels rising.
    Get a hold of yourself. This isn’t your first time to the party! he told himself.
    He knew he just had to focus on the mission. Second Squad, with the EOD [10] team and heavy weapons team, was in a Charlie Stork, so they would be first in the zone, getting out and deployed within 15 or 20 seconds. The two Deltas, carrying First and Third, would flare in right after. Marines in PICS could actually damage a Stork if they weren’t careful, so they couldn’t bumrush out the back. They had rehearsed deplaning back on Alexander, like the riffle of a pack of cards shuffle in reverse, Ryck imagined it, the port aft Marine followed by the starboard aft Marine, followed by the next port Marine, and so on. It would take at least a minute to deplane. That was when they would be the most vulnerable.
    There were three eyes on the target as they approached. The Toowoomba had her planetary sensors, battalion had a butterfly drone, and there was a recon team out there, all streaming in data. With the naked eye, their target looked like a rock face to a hill. Under different spectrums, seeds to which Ryck could switch, he could tell there was something off with it. There were odd lines visible on the display, and the rock’s ambient temperature was slightly different from the rest of the rocks. The SOG had made a pretty elaborate and extensive effort, and it might confuse a casual sensor, but not the Federation’s best equipment. It was SOG’s bad luck that the original BHP Billiton drone was designed for deep ground analysis and not surface observation. Good luck to the Federation, though.
    The go -light turned amber, indicating one minute. A matching amber icon flashed in their helmet face shields. Ryck shifted to look out the back to where the ramp was already lowering. When in skins and bones, Marines could start out a Stork before the ramp was fully lowered: with them in PICS, this wouldn’t be possible. The Stork crew was going to be over the LZ much longer than normal as it was, so they were already lowering the ramp. There was no intel on anti-air, but with the