SpecOps (Expeditionary Force Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

sharply.
    Williams bit his lip, and explained. "The DIA
guys wanted me to take over the ship, if I felt it was necessary, sir. I refused."
    "Yup, you did," Skippy added cheerily.
"And the third guy they offered the assignment to also refused their
condition, so they went back to you, and dropped their idiot idea of planning a
mutiny. That's why, technically, you are the fourth choice to command the SEAL
team."
    Williams looked back to me. "I didn't know that,
sir. I think the mutiny idea was something DIA, and I suspect CIA,
wanted."
    "I appreciate that you didn't come aboard
intending to take over my ship, Lieutenant." My ship. I was now thinking
of the Flying Dutchman as mine. When had that happened?
    "I can't promise that no one else has that idea.
We have four other militaries aboard. And I can't vouch for the Ranger team,
either, sir."
    "You make a very good point, Lieutenant Williams,"
Skippy said. "Colonel Joe, perhaps I should make an announcement over the
intercom, and create a demonstration of what will happen, if any idiot troop of
monkeys tries to take over the ship. How about I close and lock all the doors
on the ship, and shut off the ventilation? Oooh, and I can kill the artificial
gravity also, that will slow down any mutineers."
    "Skippy, you can't do that."
    "Huh? Clearly, I can, Joe. Oh, sure, I get it,
you're right, I'll leave ventilation and gravity on in the bridge and CIC
compartments."
    "That's not my point, Skippy! You can't, let me
say this a different way, you should not do anything like that. If there is a
plan for mutiny, I need to handle that myself. Having a shiny beer can do the
work for me only makes me look weak, as a commander. I don't need any help
here, Skippy, this is something you need to keep out of."
    "You sure about this, Joe?"
    "Hundred percent. You know about sciency stuff, I
know monkeys, damn it, I mean, I know humans, people. Stay out of this."
    Skippy paused. "I'll make you a deal, Colonel
Joe. I will stay out of this, unless there is an actual attempted mutiny. If
that happens, certain monkeys are going to find out real quick that I am not
always a friendly little shiny beer can. Anybody screws with me, they will
seriously regret it. Ask the former Thuranin crew of this ship, if they have
any questions about that."
    "We get your point, Skippy. Loud and clear."
A potential mutiny is a subject that I needed to discuss with my command team;
Chang, Simms and Adams. The entire idea of anyone trying to forcefully take
over the ship is idiotic; without Skippy's cooperation, the ship was never
getting home. "Williams, it is not my intention for Sergeant Adams to
interfere with how you train your SEAL team, she will remain in charge of
overall training. You and your team may have studied how to use armored suits
and combots, you have no experience with them even in training. Bring your team
to the training hold at 1300 hours, and I'll show you what I mean."
     
    Arranged along one wall, or I guess aboard a ship I
should have called it a bulkhead, were ten Kristang powered armor suits, there
were more of them in another compartment. We'd taken forty six suits from the
Kristang troopship in Earth orbit, they weren't all in good condition, so out
of the forty six units, we had forty two that were operational. The good news
is that the troopship had equipment for modifying suits, we now had that
equipment aboard the Flying Dutchman , and we'd been able to
adjust most of the suits so that normal sized humans, anyone above five feet
six in height, could use a suit. There hadn't been a whole lot of extra time
before we departed Earth orbit, so I didn't have a whole lot of experience with
the new suits, I did have way more experience than any of the new crew.
    In addition to powered armor suits, the Kristang
troopship had provided us with plenty of rifles, ammo, and Zinger antiaircraft
missiles. Except for Thuranin combots, we were equipped almost entirely with
Kristang military gear, including