Strange Company by Nick Cole (best ebook reader for ubuntu txt) 📕

cut-down Bastard model. Everyone in Dog worked the shorty. Extremely violent, accurate not so much. Sergeant Hannibal preferred the kinetic violence concept as opposed to good shooting. Aggression over marksmanship.

He wasn’t wrong. It was just a choice in a scenario of limited resources. The company needed about six months to a year of training to get everyone where I wanted them. But… that just hadn’t been possible. And as Amarcus likes to tell everyone, “Orion wants a perfect universe, not the one you actually gotta go kill people in.”

He said that to my face one time. So we had it out. Later, it was chalked up to too much Arcturan rye and half-price pitchers at the bar where we had our little disagreement. But I’d only had one shot and I knocked out one of his fake teeth.

To his credit he left it out and every time he “smiles” at me he makes sure I see the gap. Like he’s letting me know there’s some payback coming down the line one day.

Every time we talk, I slip my index finger into the ring of the karambit I carry in my pocket. I practice every day with it and when I do, executing combos and putting the tip of the extremely sharp blade into the xiphoid process… I see his face.

So, there’s that.

Then I added, “First Sergeant, Third is no longer a squad. Just Hauser and Nox. Second and Fourth are down to half each if we don’t take the seriously wounded. So I’m folding Fourth into Second and adding what’s left of Third to First. That gives Reaper two squads. You still good with us taking point?”

“Affirmative, Sergeant. Doc Cutter is putting the wounded into stasis bags inside the crawler with Sergeant Biggs.”

He turned to Sergeant Hannibal.

“Your boys will be surrounding the supply crawler, Amarcus. Need you to keep any enemies off of them. We roll into the top-off point Reaper moves to secure. The perimeter of the station. I’m marking three roads into that point. Right now, recon drone says the streets are packed and the main line for top-off is six clicks long heading down the road into town. We’re bypassing that. Reaper, go in hot and secure the two roads at the far end of the station. Amarcus, hard take over and we top off the crawler, command vehicles, then Reaper, then Dog, and finally Ghost comes in with the captain as the QRF in case we get jumped. Once he gives the all-clear we break up and follow our routes. Meet at Lost Road to reassess the plan and proceed on to the bank robbery. You boys got all that? Now c’mon, I got some super-charged Mules sportin’ fifties you guys are gonna dig. Was supposed to go for some special ops merc team that never made it through to planetside. Drop got lit up on insertion and last I heard they were all dead out to sea.”

He smiled and adjusted his pistol belt.

“So, we got that goin’ for us.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

I got Punch on the draw. We were topping off on ammo, explosives, and some armor plates that were supposed to be experimental. Which was good. Most of our plates were shot to hell or cracked straight up. The vehicles were slick. Operator black. Twin turbos with some sort of nitro fuel-air burst system that could really get the vehicle moving. Armored, but still open. The vehicle commander position in the right seat came with a mounted minigun and there was indeed a Suupmann fifty-cal system mounted on the gunner’s deck in the rear.

Punch would get both squads portioned out between the three vehicles we had. What remained of First Squad was just Punch, Choker the medic, Hustle and Hoser with the Pig, and Boom Boom who’d taken a round in the leg but was still walkie-talkie. Folding in Hauser and Nox gave me a solid First Squad. And the Kid. He was still good to go. He’d kept his head down and his powder dry. There just wasn’t time to start to figure out his tag. But he was close. After his time as a New Guy. I’d have to talk to the others if we ever got a chance.

The new Second Squad, a combination of Second and Fourth, consisted of their squad leader Jacks, along with Dip Weasel, Killer Joe, and six guys from Fourth who’d managed to keep themselves alive despite So-So getting killed.

My mind was still trying to figure out how to run my platoon in its new configuration, assault and support, and I needed to inhale some chow. I felt too wired to ever sleep again even though I was exhausted. But first I left Punch and went to see about the company dead.

I found Stinkeye and Preacher in back of the supply depot. There was a patch of bare ground near an old fence. The bodies were laid out and the wind was beginning to blow. Explosions to the west and south told us where the Ultras were coming down to start the death scythe of their First Pass.

“Won’t be long now,” muttered Stinkeye as he leaned on a shovel he had no intention of using. So-So was there. Others from the company too. Gains had been too badly burned to pull out. But I’d sent comm to Astacia Esquival, our company lawyer and account rep, and started a claim to have his body retrieved and eventually delivered to a cemetery company funds had already been set aside for. We’d lost thirteen on this contract since it began a year ago. Before today. The bodies from today would go there in the end.

Above our heads the Battle Spire loomed. More strike firefighters were sweeping off her carrier decks to hit targets all across the world. I’d been close to this moment before. But only weeks away. One time the company finished a contract that was going bad, got on the Spider, and hauled away. The Monarchs and Ultras showed up