Big Pete (Privateer Tales Book 4) Read Free

salvos at a hundred percent. It’d be enough. I quickly marked off tactical locations on the building where the Skampers were holed up. The plan was simple. If we couldn’t hit them, we’d blow the frakking building.
    A positive chime sounded for each team member and their icons pulsed green, indicating they’d successfully changed their load-outs and received the coordinates for their targets. Fortunas audentas juvat , or luck favors the bold. Words to live by in combat, especially if the baddies are about to roll up on you with armor.
    “Methane, count it off and then fire,” I directed. “I’ll provide a distraction.”
    Even with all the sophisticated views of the combat space that I had, I still preferred to let whoever was sitting in the shithole make the decision on when to pull the trigger.
    I fired three - one hundred percent rounds into the backside of the thirty-story building. I’d targeted three exterior supports. I didn’t have any reason to expect that I’d bring the building down, but I’d get a good portion of the fascia to slide off on my side. If that wasn’t enough to distract the squishies, I didn’t know what would.
    “Three… Two… One…” Methane’s voice came over squad communication.
    Did I mention that a Marine in full armor is a terrifying beast? I should have.

LEAVE NO ONE BEHIND
     
    Some say that demolition is a science. Most of my squad would find this statement laughable. More accurately: precision demolition is a science. To that statement, we’d all nod our heads sagely and agree. I wish I’d had time to stand around and watch the fireworks, but the best time to go Charlie Mike (continue mission/get moving) is when big shiny objects are blowing up.
    “Go! Go! Go!” Methane’s voice cut in over the squad communication channel. I’d provided a rendezvous location and was currently sprinting toward it. My route would take me next to the building into which we’d just fired a crap-ton of explosives. I was carefully watching for surviving squishies who might gain line of sight on us. Turns out, I didn’t have anything to be concerned about. Whoever was inside seemed to be busy dealing with the disintegration of the building. With a few horrific groans and screeches, the detritus-spewing structure slid over a few yards and sank into itself. I later learned that we’d overdone the explosives by a factor of two or three. Meh! Why have ‘em if you can’t use ‘em, was always my theory on that sort of thing.
    Mulehog and Methane had gotten out of the courtyard where they’d previously been pinned down, dragging Patch with them. I was pleased by the lack of return fire, but we were in a hot-zone and needed to make sure we cleared the area quickly. At some point, the battlefield lines had changed. Up to this point the city had been a neutral zone but that had obviously changed recently. I suspected this was news to Cent-Comm (Central Command), otherwise we wouldn’t have been given the go-ahead to fly over. None of that crap meant anything at this point. Three of my men were alive and I had a ten-minute-old location on our missing pilot, Lieutenant Irawan. Everything else was noise.
    Command, give me an update on Lieutenant Irawan .             
    “Sergeant, you are ordered to make your way directly to the extraction zone. Lieutenant Irawan is down, and we can’t afford any more collateral damage.” The Lieutenant’s reedy voice grated on my last nerve. Man, I disliked this guy. I actually hadn’t met my new Lieutenant yet, as we’d just been reassigned. I couldn’t believe he’d just compared damage to a building and a Marine’s life, as if they had the same priority.
    “I have no confirmation on Irawan’s status. Frak! She’s in a flight suit, her comm gear could just be busted. We need eyes on her.”
    “You have your orders, Sergeant.”
    “Bullshit!”
    “Sarge, I think Patch is going into shock.” Methane’s voice cut in on my