Apocalypse Crucible

Apocalypse Crucible Read Free Page A

Book: Apocalypse Crucible Read Free
Author: Mel Odom
Tags: Fiction, Religious, Christian, futuristic
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Marine Expeditionary Unit—Special Operations Capable MEU(SOC) out in the Mediterranean Sea had AH-1W Cobra attack helicopters in their ranks. The Whiskey Cobra was a piece of serious hardware. After seeing the marines and the Cobras in action, Goose had a healthy respect for the pilots and their machines.
    “We’d be risking the helo,” Goose said. “And the pilot and gunner.”
    “Every military action is an investment of risk,” Remington countered. “Whether you advance, fall back, or wait, you’re at risk.”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “So, if they’re a ticking clock, everything in me wants to spring the trap.”
    “Yes, sir,” Goose replied. “One thing my daddy always taught me about hunting in the swamps down in Waycross, Georgia, Captain: A patient hunter makes fewer mistakes than a man breaking brush just because he’s a little antsy.”
    “Do you think I’m antsy, First Sergeant?” Remington’s tone was abrupt. Despite the friendship and the working relationship they had, Goose knew there was also a certain friction between them.
    Goose had chosen not to follow Remington into OCS despite Remington’s best arguments in favor of the move. Having served his country for seventeen years as a noncommissioned officer—a noncom—Goose remained happy to finish out his twenty as the same. A commission meant dealing more with paper and less with people. Goose preferred the people.
    “No, sir,” Goose answered. “I feel the same way. It’s hard to pass up a snake hole without cutting a branch and shoving it down that hole to find out if the snake is home. But the way we’re set up here, sir? We’re prepared to skin the snake if it was to come to us. We are not prepared to go after it.”
    After a brief hesitation, Remington said, “Maybe we’re not ready now, but we will be.”
    “Yes, sir.” An uncomfortable silence passed for a few minutes. Goose stood on the rooftop with his binocs to his eyes. The gentle wind out of the south brought the thin scent of possible rain and a constant barrage of dust. Nearly every meal and Meal-Ready-to-Eat Goose had eaten since arriving in Sanliurfa tasted of dust. But even the prepacked MREs had been welcome.
    “Still no sat-com relays in the area?” Goose asked.
    “No,” Remington answered.
    Only a few days before, the new Romanian president, Nicolae Carpathia, had donated use of his satellite systems to aid the United States military teams in their assessment and eventual evacuation of the border. Yesterday, Carpathia had withdrawn that support. He had decided to go speak to the United Nations to focus the world’s attention on staying together on the issue of the mysterious disappearances. Syria had protested the U.S. military’s use of Carpathia’s satellites, saying the United States was there only to protect their own interests. According to Remington, who had somehow managed to get the Romanian president’s ear, Carpathia had reluctantly agreed and withdrawn the use of the satellites.
    The United States–supplied sat-relay system in place now proved barely adequate to allow communications between the U.S. forces scattered around Turkey and USS Wasp in the Mediterranean Sea.
    Captain Mark Falkirk commanded Wasp, the lead ship in the sevenvessel Amphibious Readiness Group. At the time of the Syrian attack, the 26th MEU(SOC) had been assigned to a 180-float in the Med. Now Falkirk and his ships were being used as staging areas to prepare for the coming battles in Turkey if Syria didn’t stand down.
    A flat tone buzzed in Goose’s headset. Knoffler was calling for attention. “Cap,” Goose said.
    “Got it,” Remington replied. “Go.”
    Goose flipped the radio back to the primary channel.
    “Go, Oracle,” Remington said. “You’ve got Control.”
    Goose didn’t say anything. With the Ranger captain logging on, Knoffler would know that the first sergeant was there as well.
    “We’ve got movement, Control,” Knoffler said.
    “Where?”

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