Major (The United Federation Marine Corps Book 5) Read Online Free PDF Page B

externals.  She seemed anxious, possibly even agitated, and Ryck got the feeling that she was a kindred spirit and rather pissed about being shunted aside as a blocking force while the other two ships moved into the fight.
    Ryck took a moment to look at Commander Nuzzi.  She and Ryck were the same rank, but she was the sole authority over the ship and the 92 sailors in her crew.  Ryck had commanded more Marines in combat, but he’d never matched the absolute authority of a ship’s commanding officer.  During his training in Brussels, Ryck had been surprised to learn that not only did women serve in the Confed Army, Navy, and System Guard, but they could also command.  But this was the first time he’d actually met a female commander. 
    There was something about her, though, a sense of purpose, that Ryck felt he picked up from her that was the same he’d felt from other commanders in the Federation.  That should not have surprised Ryck, he knew.  To get command of any ship, even an old cargo hauler, while just a lieutenant commander, was a pretty strong indication that she was right at the top of her year group.
    “Rather a let-down, huh?” Bill asked quietly as the two observers stood in the back of the bridge.
    “You’ve got that right.  A ‘blocking force?’  With one ship?” Ryck whispered back.
    The two offensive ships, the Path of Glory and the Hanson Lake , were the point of main effort.  With a cohort-plus of assault soldiers, both ships were going to stand off the Sisyphus and provide cover as the assault force penetrated the research station and took out the SOG.  The general feeling was that there were fewer than 20 pirates onboard, and the pirates wouldn’t be thinking that the Confeds would risk military action that could damage the station or threaten the crew.
    What they undoubtedly didn’t realize was that the Confeds still had some degree of control over the station, and could shut down the power as well as open the ports, all from the Path of Glory’s CIC.   By moving in quickly while cloaked and sending a lightning strike of a deca [3] of Exploratores, the Confed’s version of the Federation Navy’s SEALS, immediately followed by the cohort, the Confeds hoped to quickly root out the SOG pirates.
    The CT-83, with only limited weaponry, was sent to a position some 750,000 klicks inward on along the X-Y-Z axis, the direction the Confed AIs determined would be the most likely avenue of retreat should the SOG make a break for it. 
    Space was big, though, and Ryck thought that even if the SOG managed to escape the two Confed ships, the chance that they would just happen to retreat into their direction was pretty remote.  Ryck was sure that the orders to the CT-83 were issued merely to keep the poorly-armed supply ship out of harm’s way.
    Instead of the 3D holo display favored by Federation ships, the Confeds used flat screens to monitor the fight.  The display could be rotated in any direction, and while the flat screen took up far less space in the bridge, Ryck thought it was not as good as the holos in detailing the battle space.
    Still, with only the three Confed ships and the research station, it was easy to follow along as the three ships slipped into position.  They were heavily cloaked, but no one exactly knew what abilities the SOG had in piercing through their cloaking measures.  Ryck was alert for any indication that the SOG on the Sisyphus had acquired the two Confed ships.  He knew CAPT Franks and just about everyone else would be doing the same thing, but at least it gave him a sense of purpose.
    Time dragged on as Ryck watched.  When he was going into combat, there was the sense of excitement and nerves that swept through him, and his mind would race with everything he had to do in response to what might happen.  This time, though, he was merely an observer, and it seemed as if time was barely creeping along.
    At last, the ships were in position, and the