Commandant (The United Federation Marine Corps Book 8) by Jonathan P. Brazee

Author:Jonathan P. Brazee [Brazee, Jonathan P.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, azw3
Publisher: Semper Fi Press
Published: 2015-12-29T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter 20

“Look, I don’t care if you have to shit them, just take care of it,” Ryck almost snarled at Lieutenant General Marv Oppenheimer, his chief of logistics.

God I’m beginning to hate him, Ryck thought as the general wearily sat back down in his seat.

He wasn’t being fair, he knew. The general was working 20 hours a day trying to make sure Marines had what they needed when they needed. And with Ryck’s plan of light engagements, the Marines were very dispersed. Ryck’s wasn’t too concerned about any ground forces, but he didn’t want to be concentrated enough to tempt the loyalist Navy into a strike against him.

Besides, the issue with the PICS coldpacks was not Marv’s fault. The manufacturer and the main depot for the coldpacks, which were vital to the operation of a PICS, were on First Step, which was firmly in loyalist control. And when General Nottingham had led the defectors to Alexander, he’d managed to raid several of the remaining depots, right under the Marines’ noses, of a number of vital components, the coldpacks being one of them. Now, Marv had just informed him that they had only enough of them for six days of total combat. It pissed Ryck off to no end that his mighty force of PICS Marines could be sidelined for want of a 128 credit part. What hit doubly hard was that the theft was done under his watch. He’d already been sworn in as commandant.

Ryck had already canceled one operation by Fourth Division, and he’d delayed another because of the shortage. That galled him bitterly. But better to use the PICS where and when they could do the most good.

Ryck was fed up to his neck in the seemingly innocuous problems that seemed to be able to bring the government to a halt. Ryck wanted to focus on the fight, to bring others to his cause, and crush the old regime. But he couldn’t. Life went on. Couples were getting married. Babies were being born. Kids were going to school. People were aging and dying. Nothing stopped just because a full-out war was just waiting to break out. And all those people, all those babies, all those in ill health demanded attention. Ryck tried to push as much of that off to the CAC, but some things just had to be done by him, it seemed. This morning, before his staff brief, he’d spent almost 45 minutes with two different heads of state who demanded Ryck’s attention. It just never ended.

“What’s next,” he sourly asked Jorge.

“This one,” his chief of staff said, punching up an Immediate Action Issue on everyone’s PA. “Weyerhaeuser is demanding that they receive transport for their wheat crop.”

“But Weyerhaeuser declared for the loyalists,” Ryck protested.

“That was their headquarters in Seattle. This is Weyerhaeuser 4, and their wheat is needed by our own people.”

“So Weyerhaeuser 4 is with us?” Ryck asked.

“And more than a few others,” Sams said. “It sort of depends on where they’re located. Can’t rightly up and move their superfarms.

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