15
An unfamiliar Master Gunnery Sergeant was waiting for them as they landed at the military spaceport at Camp Kamachi. He ushered them into a waiting hoverbus for the trip back to Nguyen.
Each of them was scanned at the gate before the bus was allowed to continue, and once out of the camp, the master guns activated security screens for the windows, then he stood and faced the Marines. Neither tall nor short, he could have passed for an average guy before he’d been augmented. But there was something more about the man than just his Raider augments. He had that weathered leather look that told of a life full of the extremes. He was not a person to be reckoned with.
Rev thought he knew most of the Raider master sergeants in the two divisions on the Gold Continent, which was the same rank as a sergeant major, but he didn’t recognize the man.
“I am Master Gunnery Sergeant Kauri Tuala, just transferred in from the Double Nickel division.”
Tomiko nudged Rev hard with her knee. The PUMC’s Fifty-fifth division, the Double Nickels, was one of the most storied Marine divisions in existence. Based out of Apia, which was one of the charter worlds of the Union, it was Regular Corps, unlike the provincial corps such as the New Hope Marines.
But what was a regular Marine master sergeant, from the Fifty-fifth, at that, doing meeting them at the spaceport?
“I am fully aware of what you have gone through since you last left New Hope. I am aware of the pressures you may have felt, and I’m aware of how that might have affected your choices and actions.
“But that is in the past. There isn’t time for recriminations and endless hotwashes to determine what went wrong and how that could have been avoided. The tin-asses have launched a galaxy-wide assault, and we’ve already lost worlds and possibly billions of lives.”
Billions?
Rev had heard the gunny on New Mars, but he’d no idea things were this bad.
“We’re still relatively untouched for the moment, but that is not expected to last. But what that has done is given us a short time to prepare. We’ll be deploying and thrust into the fight in eight days.”
Which was actually several days longer than Rev had thought they might have. He half-expected to immediately board a warship upon arriving back home. He also noted the master guns’ use of the word “we.” He wasn’t sure if that was the grand “we” as in the division, or was that the “we” as in the platoon, and he wasn’t sure he was going to like finding out the answer.
“We don’t have much time, but we’re trained to react at a moment’s notice, and I fully expect that all of you will rise to the occasion.”
“Master Guns, are you now part of the platoon?” Staff Sergeant Khumalo asked, something that was by now on everybody’s mind.
The senior enlisted Marine took a moment to sweep his penetrating gaze throughout the bus, stopping to bore into Rev, before answering. “For reasons I’m not privy to, you here on New Hope were chosen to test out a new weapons system that greatly increases the lethality of the individual Marine. Like I said, why New Hope? I haven’t the foggiest. But the decision was made.
“During your past deployment, things didn’t go exactly as ordered, and so the Sector CG, General Isiah, asked me personally to come to this platoon. I’m the new platoon sergeant. Master Sergeant Thapa will be moving to take over Second Team with the departure of its former commander.”
Rev wasn’t sure he liked having a foreigner waltz in and take charge, especially with the inference that the platoon had poor leadership, maybe related to the fact that they were a provincial corps, and he was the new sheriff in town to clean up the mess, but as platoon sergeant, the team might be able to stay out of his crosshairs.
“Additionally, you all should know by now that Sergeant Delacrie has been reassigned.”
Rev resisted turning to look to where the sergeant had taken a seat in the back of the bus.
“So, with that being the case, I’ll be dual-hatted. Aside from my duties as platoon sergeant, I’ll be taking over Third Team.”
* * *
“Hey, Rev, the master guns wants to see you ASAP,” Hussein told him.
Rev sighed but said, “In a few minutes. I need to run some checks on Pashu.”
“He seemed pissed that you disappeared right after we got here.”
“He’ll get over it.”
“Trouble in paradise?” Daryll asked.
“It’s nothing. Let’s finish up here.”
Daryll guided the hoist, moving Pashu to the test cradle.
“I really think he means now, Rev.”
The base was a mass of activity, and Rev hadn’t waited to ask for permission once the bus dropped them off at the barracks. He’d called Daryll who’d come and picked up the crated Pashu to take to the IMBU armory. They’d just gotten her out of the crate when Hussein had tracked him down.
“Can’t you hang out for twenty minutes and then say you found me?”
“Nothing doing. I don’t want to get on his bad side, and for all I know, he’s pulling some shit right now to track me.”
“It’s OK, Rev. I’ll run her through her tests. If anything’s up, I’ll let you know.
Rev hesitated, but if there was anyone he trusted with Pashu, it was the civilian tech. “OK, I’ll check back later.”
He followed Hussein out of the armory and headed back to the barracks. “What’s he like, Hus-man?” he asked.
“The master guns? Don’t really know yet. Hard, for sure. And kinda full of himself, you know, being a Double Nickel and all. So much higher on the food chain than us mere provincial hicks.”
Which Rev had already figured out. But he’d been hoping that Hussein would have had some better insight.
“He’s in the platoon sergeant’s office. Good luck,” Hussein said.
“Yeah, thanks.”
It was getting late, but people were out and about. Several of the First and Fourth Team Marines shouted out a “welcome back” when they spotted him, and Rev waved, but his attention was on the platoon office doors near the end of the passage.
Rev was just about to step in when Captain Sauer, the Delta company commander stepped out of his office at the very end, spotted Rev, and motioned him over to shake hands.
“Glad to see you back. I was really upset with what the D-4 assholes were doing to you. I’ve already talked to Captain Omestori, so I know a little of what went on, but do you have a minute? I’d like to hear your take on how things went down.”
Rev glanced at the platoon door, then looked back at the captain. “I’d love to, sir, but I’m supposed to be seeing the new master guns.”
Please tell me that you’re overriding that order. Please?
The captain actually blanched, as hard as that was to imagine. The mustang captain, an infantry officer with more than ten campaigns under his belt, blanched.
“Oh, well, you’d better see him, I guess. But later, when you’ve got a moment, come on back, you hear? I really want to hear your take.”
“Aye-aye, sir. Will do.”
Withholding a sigh, Rev opened the hatch and stepped into the outer office. He crossed to the platoon sergeant’s office, knocked on the doorsill, and said, “Master Guns, Serg—uh, Corporal Pelletier reporting as ordered.”
The master guns looked up from his pad and told him to come in and close the hatch. He pointed at one of the chairs. “Take a seat, Corporal.”
He deliberately closed his pad, set it neatly in front of him, and aligned it with the front of the desk before he carefully folded his hands together and then caught Rev’s eyes.
“Corporal Pelletier, I’ve gone over your actions at the tin-ass asteroid. You did what you thought you had to do, and not being on the scene, I am not going to second-guess you. Officially, that is.
“Would I have made the same decisions? No, I don’t think so. But I have the advantage of having far more experience than you have. So, to put your mind at ease, as far as I am concerned, and as far as the commandant himself is concerned, you have been demoted to corporal, and with that, the matter is over and done with.”
Rev started to say that he was demoted to appease D-4, not because he’d done anything wrong, and that he wouldn’t change any of his actions, but he realized that for the moment, at least, it would be better to just sit and say nothing.
“However . . .”
Crap. Here it comes.
“. . .the mere fact that you were in the position to make that kind of decision is a travesty. You were a conscript sergeant, for God’s sake, with less than six years in service.”
Rev bristled at the “conscript.” He hadn’t heard that term for a couple of years, and he didn’t appreciate it now.
“Lieutenant Harisa should never have let you make decisions. And if not her, then Staff Sergeant Delacrie should have known better.”
“Master Gunnery Sergeant, everyone knew I was supposed to be the point of main effort. It was important that I deploy my IBHU as I best saw fit. Lieutenant Harisa knew that.”
“Sweet Saint Leopoldina’s immaculate butt, Corporal, you’re going to have to get off your high horse. You are nothing special, no matter what fairy dust the program heads have been blowing up your ass. You’re a Marine, nothing more, nothing less. You have a powerful weapon in that arm the Corps has given to you, but it isn’t as powerful as a tank, for example. Do you see tankers strutting around giving orders to their superiors because they’ve got bigger guns? No, because it just doesn’t work that way.”
“But—” Rev started to try and tell him that the organization had come from on high, not from Lieutenant Harisa abdicating her authority.
“But nothing,” the master guns almost snarled. “She let you make command decisions, thereby proving that she was not officer material. And so, she lost her bars. But let me tell you something, Corporal. Those days are gone. From now on, you are not out of the chain of command. You are just another member of your team. Understand?”
Rev was seething. Not because of being just another member of the team. That was meaningless to him. But to hear the lieutenant and staff sergeant get slammed like that. The master guns might be going by the book, but things had been different, and they all had been simply following orders.
“Understand, Master Gunnery Sergeant.”
“Very well. Then this is all in the past, forgotten. We’ll look to the future and how we can defeat the tin-asses.”
“Is that all, Master Gunnery Sergeant?”
“That’s all. No. Wait. Where the hell were you after we arrived? You were the first person on my list to speak to, and you were nowhere to be seen.”
“My IBHU. It had been crated up without any maintenance since the asteroid. I wanted to make sure it was operational.”
The master guns’ glare softened, and he gave a grudging nod. “At least you know what’s important. I can’t fault you for wanting to take care of your weapon first.” He picked up his pad and powered the screen back up. “You’re dismissed.”
Rev held it together as he walked down the passage, nodding at the greetings. It wasn’t until he was out the front hatch and into the night air that he clenched his fists, raised his head to the sky, and screamed out his frustration.
Without even considering Centaurs on the rampage, things were going to be rather hot in the First Raider Platoon.