Recruit by Jonathan Brazee (the best ebook reader for android .txt) 📕

it in.  They weren’t twinned, after all.  There was no connection between them at the hadron level.  It didn’t make any sense, and Ryck wondered if there wasn’t another explanation, one highly classified.  Regardless, he just had to accept that this was within the Navy’s capabilities.

“It looks like the pirates are SOG,” the major added, eliciting a murmur from the Marines. 

Soldiers of God were criminals, their religious-sounding name notwithstanding.  They had rained terror on the Reaches, wiping out entire communities, recording their torture and rape and sending those flicks out over the open net.  Their leader, who went by the name of All Seeing, narrated each flick, explaining that God told them to kill and pillage.  When they entered the inner core, hitting planets, stations, and ships, the leeward edge of both the Federation and the Brotherhood started to panic.  No one knew where SOG originated nor where they got their ships. 

They were not always successful.  Several ships were destroyed by Federation or Brotherhood Navy ships, and DNA regression studies on what human remains could be gathered showed that there was no single ethnic or regional source.  It seemed as if SOG came from a wide variety of worlds and people, probably recruited from the flotsam of society.

The Reaches, by definition, were widespread and sparsely populated.  Even with modern technology, the SOG’s homeworld remained hidden.  That was until an SOG pirate mothership was purposefully damaged, but not destroyed, and allowed to “escape.”  Two Shrike pilots, operating well beyond the range of the little fighters, followed in trace, stealth projectors at max output.  One disappeared into bubble space, but the other found the homeworld and torped back the coordinates to the waiting combined fleet.  The fleet arrived, and with the main guns of the FS Russia and the Brotherhood battleship Retribution slaved together, the admiral of the Federation fleet and the archbishop of the Brotherhood fleet jointly pushed the firing button, sending no less than twelve planet busters to destroy the homeworld of the SOG.

Unfortunately, within a year, SOG was back.  All Seeing was probably killed when the planet was destroyed, but others rose in his place, and SOG was back in the space lanes.  They started taking freighters, disappearing with valuable cargos.  They took some planetary militia ships, and even a destroyer from the independent Greenworld.  Finally, they had started taking some passenger ships.  No ransom was ever requested.  The rumors were that the men were made into slaves, the women into wives and breeders.

The major let the rumble die down before continuing, “I don’t need to tell you what happened three years ago with the SOG and the Mount Ranier.”

It had been widely publicized, so pretty much the entire Federation had followed the story.  The SOG had gotten aboard the ship as passengers, then taken over the bridge while the rest of the pirates boarded from small shuttles.   Over 600 souls were taken captive.  The Ranier was not a bubble ship but an old fabric ship.  The FS Wuhan caught them before they could align for their jump.  The Marines assaulted, but when they entered the Ranier, they found all of the passengers murdered, most horribly mutilated.  The 30 pirates themselves had committed suicide.

“I was part of the boarding team, and I am not ashamed to admit to you that I broke down when I saw what they had done.  Rest assured that this is not going to happen during my command.”

Several “oorahs” echoed within the mess deck, only to fade in an awkward silence. 

“I’m going to turn this over to Lieutenant Silverton for a moment.  He’s the ship’s intel officer, and I think we need to listen to this.”

Several Navy officers and crew had arrived with the major and Captain Light Chaser.  One of them, obviously a heavy-worlder from his physique, stood up to face the Marines.

“As the major said, I’m Lieutenant Silverton,” he started.  “There has already been a release that the hijacking is the work of the SOG.  However, a couple of things stand out.  First, this is the farthest into Federation space that the SOG has ever struck.  Second, the announcement that they were the SOG came quite early, sooner than what they normally do.  They are still vulnerable, and usually the SOG waits until they are safely away.  The Admiralty gives it a very high probability that this is not the SOG, but rather a copy-cat group that is using the Ranier incident to forestall pursuit.”

That elicited another round of rumbling, and the lieutenant had to hold up his hand to get everyone to quiet down. 

“The decision has been made, and this is at the highest levels, that SOG or copycat, the Adelaide, if at all possible, will track down the Robin and take it back, no matter the consequences.  The pirates, whether actually SOG or not, will be given the same summary treatment as authorized by Joint Communique 2005.”

“Joint Communique 2005” was an official understanding between the Federation, the Brotherhood, the Confederation, and seven independent planets that all civil rights with regards to SOG members were suspended, and summary executions would be conducted on every captured member.  The Federation had issued similar rulings before, but those were only in effect in Federation space.  This was the first time, to anyone’s knowledge outside of it, at least, that the Brotherhood had done away with due process.

The lieutenant sat down, nodding to the major, who stood back up.

“To repeat what the lieutenant said, even if these are copycats, they will be treated like the real deal.  You want to play with us, then accept the consequences,” he said.

This time, the chorus of “oo-rahs” was louder and sustained.

“According to what I’ve been told, we should arrive on station in about, uh . . .” he started, then looked down at his watch, “. . . about 45 minutes.  Then our Navy brothers need to find the spoor and lock on the trail.  Even if successful, the soonest we could possibly launch is in two or three hours.  Not much time, so I’m going to turn it over to Captain Light Chaser for the op order.  Listen up.  We won’t have time for a real rehearsal, but we’re Marines.  We make do, and do it in a most outstanding manner!  So listen up and get it down, then we’ve got to get suited up and ready to go.  Captain Light Chaser?”

Major Paulan was actually the battalion ops officer, but when the mission to Atacama came up, he’d been given command of the task force of the ground element, the single Stork of the air element, and the small logistics element.  Captain Light Chaser was the Fox Company commander, and as such, commanded the company along with the arty and engineer detachment.  Navy Captain Webber, the Aidelaide’s skipper, was the overall commander, and Major Paulan the Marine commander, but Captain Light Chaser would lead the assault.

As the assault force commander, Captain Light Chaser stood up to give the order.  He had everyone’s undivided attention.  Two hours was no time to plan and kick off a ship-to-ship mission.  But they would march on and complete the mission.  Ryck joined the others, all business, as they received their op order.