Redd Christmas by Ryan Steck

Author:Ryan Steck [Steck, Ryan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FICTION / Thrillers / Military, Fiction / Thrillers / Suspense
ISBN: 9781496485953
Published: 2023-11-07T00:00:00+00:00

FOURTEEN

“Do it.”

The words hit Redd like a bucket of ice water in the face. He was a Marine NCO—non-commissioned officer—trained to lead. So what if his rank only put him in charge of a fire team. Leadership was leadership.

He recalled an old quote that his dad had been fond of—Teddy Roosevelt, or so J. B. claimed: “In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”

He clicked his mic three times to interrupt the transmissions. “Break, break,” he said. “Team leaders, check in. Give me an up.”

After a moment of stunned silence, the corporals began calling in with their ACE status—ammunition, casualties, equipment. The quick battlefield report used a color code system—green, amber, red, or black—to indicate combat readiness after contact with the enemy.

The results were not encouraging.

Most of the team leaders were reporting in as amber—meaning they had less than seventy-five percent of their combat load remaining. Some were already red—below fifty percent. The two recovered machine guns were, thankfully, still green, but the gunners were reporting that they would need to make a barrel change.

They were better on casualties, but there were still too few greens. Redd asked for additional clarification on the amber and red reports and learned that most of the injuries were minor scrapes caused by rock and bullet fragments. Three of the Marines, however, had sustained serious injuries. One had taken a round through the right forearm, the bullet shattering both the ulna and radius. Another had been hit in the face by something, a ricochet or a piece of debris, that had lodged in his left eye. The third was the most serious—a chest wound that had somehow angled in through a gap in the Marine’s body armor. The wounded had received immediate attention, the men stabilized, but they were out of the fight.

Then an urgent voice sounded over the radio. “Break, break. This is Two-two. I have enemy movement at four o’clock. Three hundred meters out. Looks like . . . four, no, five tangos. Heading our way.”

Redd scanned the indicated sector with his rifle scope.

Where are you, you sons of—

He spotted the barely visible figures, creeping across the open ground but clearly heading toward the crash site. He clicked his mic. “Roger, Two-two. They’re trying to draw our fire. Make us waste our ammo. Let ’em come closer.”

Another sighting came in a moment later—a group of six insurgent fighters advancing from the eight o’clock. Redd repeated his order, adding, “Wait for them to reach one hundred meters. We have to make every shot count.”

Then he heard Burgess’s whiny voice, not over the comms but from the next firing position over. “Who died and made him the boss?”

Before Redd could even think about how to respond, Mike wheeled around and barked, “Your sergeant died, you pathetic little thumb-sucker, that’s who. I suggest you quit your sniveling and do what he says.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.