“And the dust might have scattered the rads a bit, too.”
“It’s the only thing I can think of that saved us. We had our own personal smoke screen up…and it blocked part of the beam.”
“The boys in R&D are going to be interested in that effect,” Kaitlin told him. “But that’ll have to wait.” Turning her back on the wrecked LAV, she stared east, toward the UN base and the mountain. It looked close…but distances were deceiving on the Moon.
“Okay, Marines,” Kaitlin said, turning back to face the group standing in a semicircle behind her. “Here’s the deal. We can sit where we are and wait for someone to win this damned fight…or we can hotfoot it over to that base and take a hand in what happens. Strictly volunteer. You want to sit this one out, no one’s gonna squawk. Every one of you’s done more than what was expected by the strict call of duty already. Me, I’m going to go see if I can give Captain Fuentes a hand. Anyone want to come along?”
“I’m with you, Lieutenant.” One space-suited figure brandished an ATAR and started forward. He had to get close for Kaitlin to read the name KAMINSKI on the front of his suit. Yates shouldered a slaw and stepped forward. Then Julia Ahearn. In another moment, all eight were with her; she had to order Lance Corporal Lidell point-blank to stay behind with the two wounded men.
She tried to make it look like a random choice. She imagined most of the people in the squad would know, though, that Lidell’s wife was expecting a child.
Even in war, life could be respected and preserved. It had to be that way.
“Keep a radio beacon going,” she told him. “Someone will be along to pick you up before long. And…if it happens to be the UN, no heroics.” She gestured to the two wounded men. “Your responsibility is to them, to see that they’re taken care of.”
“Aye, aye, ma’am,” Lidell said. “I still wish you’d let me—”
“Carry out your orders, Marine.”
He slapped his ATAR brusquely. “Aye, aye, ma’am!”
“The rest of you? Follow me!”
Turning, she started moving toward the UN base, several kilometers distant, still partly obscured by a shoulder of the crater’s central mountain peak.
It looked like the battle there was on in earnest, and she was determined to have a piece of it.
TWENTY-SIX
MONDAY, 10 NOVEMBER 2042
PFC Jack Ramsey
USS Ranger
0049 hours GMT
Jack pulled his helmet down until the ring lock engaged, then gave it a hard counterclockwise twist to seal it. As he pulled himself hand over hand along the passageway leading to the port airlock, Lance Corporal Wojtaszek handed him an ATAR and a pouch with five loaded 4.5mm magazines and two beehive mags for his M-440. Gunnery Sergeant Bueller gave each Marine a quick once-over as he went through the airlock, sending some to the left, others to the right as they squirmed through close-fitting boarding tubes and into the LSCPs mounted on the Ranger’s flanks like Tinkertoy remoras.
“Okay, Ramsey,” Bueller said, checking his suit PLSS readouts, then rotating him to stare through his visor and into his face. “Let’s have a look-see. You ready to rock?”
“Yes, Gunnery Sergeant. Ready to go!”
“Your PAD hooked up and ready?” It was like Bueller to double-check the important stuff. The man had an incredible mind for fine detail and seemed to know every Marine in the platoon and what they should have with them down to his or her socks.
“Right here.”
He looked past Jack at the Marine floating behind him. “How about you, Dillon? You okay? Got your PAD?”
“All set, Gunny,” Diane Dillon replied. She punched Jack’s side, causing him to drift around slightly and bump against the bulkhead. “This shaggy character’d just better watch my smoke!”
“Bosnivic? How about you?”
“I’m okay.” He was starting to sound nervous.
“Got your PAD? It’s working okay?”
“On-line and ready.”
“Okay. Remember the drill. Ramsey and Dillon, you two are going down in LSCP-52. Bosnivic, you’re going down in 54.”
Jack nodded. If one of the two landers was shot down, at least one of the 4069 MOS Marines would survive to board the UN ship. “Got it.”
“When you’re on the ground, the three of you keep together and stay down! I’ll round you all up and lead you in with my combat team, just behind the primary assault group. We’ll get you in, don’t worry about that. Use your weapons if you have to, but do not let yourselves be suckered into a firefight. You three people are the whole freaking reason we’re here, and I don’t want any of you getting capped because he or she got distracted. You read me?”