Major (The United Federation Marine Corps Book 5) by Jonathan P. Brazee

Author:Jonathan P. Brazee [Brazee, Jonathan P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Semper Fi Press
Published: 2015-06-28T07:00:00+00:00

TARAWA

Chapter 23

“Well, that was fun,” the CO said sarcastically as he, Ryck, and Major Cleo Davidson, the Charlie Company commander, left the conference room.

The debrief had taken no less than 10 hours with only two short breaks, and Ryck was both famished and exhausted. He was looking forward to getting home and seeing his family.

Ryck had initially thought it would be more of a simple accounting of the operation. They had the Ferret under custody, and that was the main thing. He had forgotten, though, that this was not just an assassination operation (or snatch, as it turned out), but a trial run of the new Raider type of mission. So along with Cleo (“Guppy”), whose men hadn’t gotten involved, they had gone through all the minutia they could remember, then more that the de-briefers had managed to pull out of them.

The operation itself had run smoothly. Doc had arrived on the scene where he stabilized both the Ferret and Sandy, putting both into ziplocks. The zipsicles had been loaded the ambulance and extracted to Morning as “industrial accidents” for evac off-world and to a Federation facility—Sandy to the Navy hospital on Tarawa and the Ferret to the tender ministrations of the FCDC. The Marines of the two Raider companies filtered their way back to Morning as normal business movements. Half of the Marines left the next day, the rest the day after for transport back to Federation space. The men rendezvoused at the Firebird space station, to return to Tarawa together.

Ryck had met up with the CO in the Firebird, wondering what his reception would be. He’d been pretty much a gunslinger on Fresh Beginnings, not something too many majors did. But after he’d given Bert a slightly more detailed brief, the CO seemed to take it stride. Ryck had wondered if their friendship had anything to do with it, and he’d finally asked, telling Bert to let him have it if necessary.

“Why?” Bert asked. “You did what you had to do and accomplished the mission.”

They’d been in under a comms blackout during the mission, but once they’d reached Firebird, Ryck was able to call home and let Hannah know he’d be back soon. Ben had inserted himself into the conversation, though, blocking out his mother as he related the sins of one of his crèche classmates and how well behaved he’d been in comparison. With Ben on her lap, Hannah had rolled her eyes at that, and Ryck knew his son’s pronouncement of good behavior might not be an accurate representation. Ryck tried to suppress a smile as his fireball went on with his story. He was developing into quite a character—and quite a handful—but Ryck felt a touch of pride. His youngest was going to make his mark on the universe someday, he was sure of it.

After landing on Tarawa, most of the Marines went straight home as there were no weapons or equipment to turn in. The three commanders, though, were not so lucky and had been taken right to the debrief.

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