Read Lieutenant Colonel (The United Federation Marine Corps Book 6) for Free Online

having no comms.  I just can’t do it.  No, if the bullets are flying for real, we’ll be in PICS.
    “You need to keep your brass happy, and with you being right there under the big flagpole, I imagine you’ve got more stars crowding around you than you can shake a stick at.”
    Ryck had to smile at that.  3/7 Rick had it right.  It seemed that there were more VIPs at some of their evolutions than battalion Marines.
    “But you are the commanding officer.  You need to do what you know is right.  And if they don’t like it, they can fire you ass later, but at least you did right by your Marines and the mission.”
    Ryck looked at 3/7 Rick with newfound respect.  Of course he was right.  Ryck was the commanding officer, and swarming general’s aside, the battalion was Ryck’s responsibility.  Not General Meintenbach’s.  Not Colonel Dove’s.  His.  Lieutenant Colonel Ryck Lysander’s. 
    Ryck would keep working with the Armadillos to try and make them more effective.  But unless there were big changes, if they got a mission, Ryck would do what he had to do, the brass and all the corporate weenies be damned.  The “Fuzos” would not be guinea pigs if things got real.
    Just then, the wind shifted, and the heady aroma of grilling steaks hit them hard.  Every single Marine standing there looked up in unison.
    3/7 Rick laughed, and then said, “I know we were supposed to have a short debrief now, but I hear a steak calling my name.  They’re Bluebirds, a local fabricator, and they are pretty damned good.  What say we head on over to the field day and take care of this in the morning?”
    Ryck looked over at the eager officers and SNCOs.  He could almost see them salivating.
    “Well, since I don’t want to be the first Marine commander in 300 years to have a mutiny, I think for our own best interests, we’d better do that.  Let’s see what kind of hosts you ‘Black Devils’ are before we whip your butts in battleball.”
    “I bet you a case of the brew of your choice that we take the game,” 3/7 Rick said.
    “Ha! You’re on!”

LONESOME END
     
    Chapter 7
     
    Ryck watched his display timer count down to zero.  He didn’t need to say anything, but he was amped, so he passed “Move out!” on the command circuit. 
    As before any battle, Ryck’s nerves were humming with anticipation.  He didn’t really feel fear per se, which was a non-survival trait if there ever was one, but it was always more of the thrill of the raw pitting of one against the other.   He’d played sports back in school on Prophesy, and this was the same eagerness to clash with the others.  Given the raised stakes, it wasn’t surprising to him that that everything was ramped up, though, and that the level of excitement was higher.
    He wasn’t ignoring the personal danger.  He’d lost Marines in his command before, more than he wanted to remember.  He’d been wounded pretty badly as well, requiring two long regens.  But those were factors that hit him after the battle.  Prior to enemy contact, he was brimming with the desire to close with and engage the enemy, to prove that he was the better man, that his Marines were the better warriors.  It made him feel more alive than anything else, which was ironic in that he was putting himself where he could very reasonably get killed.
    He didn’t expect that date with the Reaper would happen today, though.  He was entering combat, and people were going to die.  He just didn’t think it would be his Marines.  This technically was a real mission, but it might as well have been a live-fire training exercise.
    The Yuri Front was a separatist group wanting to pull away from Mountain Home and form its own government, taking control of a good portion of the rare earth deposits that were the base of revenue for both Mountain Home and the Kingdom of Altoona, the two governments on Lonesome End.  Understandably, the government of Mountain Home was not too keen on the