The seven who’d come with her from LAV-1 were already there. “We’re with you, Lieutenant!” Kaminski called. Other Marines were approaching
“Okay, then! You! You! You! Cover us and come up last! The rest of you, follow me!” Grabbing the handrails of the gantry ladder, she started up the steel rungs.
She wondered where the Ranger Marines were, and how much longer they’d be.
Captain Robert Lee
USS Ranger
0058 hours GMT
Rob was furious.
He was floating on Ranger’s tiny bridge, where the ship’s four flight officers were strapped into seats all but surrounded by instrumentation and consoles, and Colonel Avery was sitting in a jump seat just behind the captain’s station. The hell of it was that the bastard Avery was right. He had the call, and the safety of the ship came first.
He shifted handholds, moving closer to Avery’s seat. “Sir, I understand that,” he said. On the big display screen above the captain’s and pilot’s positions, the ruggedly cratered surface of the Moon scrolled past. A steadily dwindling number on the lower right corner of the display gave the range to the UN base. Just over one hundred kilometers. They must be just outside the Tsiolkovsky ringwall. They had to act within the next minute or two, or miss their chance entirely. “But our people need the firepower we can bring to bear. That’s why we’re here!”
“You are being insubordinate, Captain,” Avery replied. “Our primary mission objective has been met.” Minutes before, the two LSCPs had been jettisoned; drifting clear of the Ranger, flying tail first, they’d fired their engines together and now were dropping toward the surface, and a landing at the UN base.
Technically, Ranger was supposed to do the same, but according to the mission orders, that was an option, one that Avery could exercise at his discretion.
And he was choosing not to exercise it.
“Sir, may I remind you that this mission was originally designed to take advantage of Ranger as a mobile fire-support platform. If you stay in orbit, we get one pass. A couple of shots. It won’t be enough to help.”
“And I will remind you, Captain, that we have burned over ninety percent of our reaction mass in that six-G run from L-3. We have just enough remaining to boost free of Lunar orbit and make Earth orbit in three days. If we decelerate to land, if we expend reaction mass hovering, we will have to set down, and we will be stranded here. Vulnerable.”
“Transports are already on the way from Earth, sir. And there’ll be a water tank down there somewhere, reaction mass for the UN ship. Sir, we can’t abandon our people!”
“My orders state that I must secure the safety of this vessel,” Avery said, his voice petulant. “I do not intend to allow it to fall into UN hands or to suffer combat damage. If the Marine assault down there fails, we have no other defense against the enemy AM ship. None!”
Eighty-eight kilometers. They were over the ringwall now, drifting swiftly above the flat, dark maria of Tsiolkovsky’s crater floor. Each second they waited meant more reaction mass spent killing their velocity.
In another few seconds, it would all be moot. He didn’t mind arguing with his commanding officer when he thought the argument was justified…but there was no way in hell that he could argue against the laws of physics.
PFC Jack Ramsey
LSCP-52
0059 hours GMT
Jack had felt a solid thump as the LSCP jettisoned from the side of the Ranger. For another few moments, they’d been in free fall, and then the craft’s engines had cut in. With the seats facing each other, the minute or so of acceleration made him feel as though he was lying on his side. He let his tongue loll from his mouth and crossed his eyes, eliciting a laugh from Dillon.
For several minutes, now, most of the sensation of weight had been directed toward the deck, which meant the LSCP was flying on her ventral thrusters. With no windows and no camera or seatback monitor, there was no way to see out, and the Marines had only the words of the LSCP’s pilot to cling to.
And most of those words weren’t even directed at them.
“Okay. I see the central massif. Comin’ up on fifteen kay…”
“Five-two, this is Five-four. Looks like some shootin’ goin’ on there, just to the right. Got multiple airborne targets on radar.”
“UNdie hoppers, Five-four. Give ’em a wide berth.”
“Jesus Kee-rist…looks like one of the LAVs got nailed down there. Look at that crater!”
“Roger that. Okay. Coming down to fifteen hundred. Fourteen…twelve…”
“Ground’s rising. Watch your altimeter.”
A resounding thump sounded from somewhere below and forward. “Uh, Five-four. I’m taking some fire here. I got laser fire from the south flank of the mountain and projectiles from the base.”