Starfist: Hangfire Read Free Page B

ordered. He hefted his stungun. "We go fast and take the guards down."
    And hope they didn't have projectile weapons, he thought. The plasma shields would protect the Marines if the guards had blasters, but they weren't wearing body armor. "Our objective is right beyond them."
    Claypoole and MacIlargie acknowledged him then turned on their plasma shields and readied their stunguns.
    "On three. One. Two. Three."
    The three Marines sprinted the ten meters to the adjoining corridor and skidded around its corner, The guards had noted movement on their monitor and were drawing their hand-blasters.
    "Where are they?" shrieked one when he looked up from the monitor that told him three targets had just run into their corridor.
    The other guard, eyes wide and mouth open in surprise, raised his hand-blaster to fire blindly, but he convulsed as shots from two stunguns hit him before he could press the firing stud. His weapon fell from limp fingers and he collapsed over the railing of the guard station. The other guard was twitching and falling before the first dropped his weapon.
    "Go!" Kerr shouted in the clear.
    The three Marines bounded through the guard station, burst through the double doors beyond them, and scattered into the command center.
    "Everybody, you're dead!" Kerr shouted as he raised his helmet shields.
    Most of the two dozen people in the room looked toward him with disgust.
    Three other grinning, chameleoned Marines were already there, helmets off. They shouted friendly greetings. A cluster of high-ranking officers, including three Confederation Marines in dress reds, stood at the far end of the command center.
    Rear Admiral Blankenvoort, commander of the Confederation Navy supply depot on Thorsfinni's World, and the highest ranking member of the Confederation military in the sector, looked glumly at the second trio of Marines to burst into his command center, then hung his head and shook it ruefully. "I really need to tune up my security chief. Probably replace him. This is downright embarrassing."
    The lieutenant commander who, as provost marshal, was responsible for security, blanched.
    Blankenvoort looked sideways at the Marine lounging next to him. "I hope your Marines didn't injure any of my personnel."
    Brigadier Theodosius Sturgeon, commander of the Confederation Marine Corps' 34th FIST, and Thorsfinni's World's second-highest ranking military officer, replied, "I don't think they did, Admiral. I impressed on them that civilians and sailors, even navy security personnel, are fragile creatures compared to Marines and that they needed to be gentle with anyone they couldn't avoid." He couldn't keep a touch of smugness out of his voice. "And, Admiral? Don't be too severe with your provost marshal."
    "Why not?"
    "A couple of reasons. First, no matter who the nominal security chief is, you're ultimately responsible."
    When Sturgeon didn't immediately give the second reason, Blankenvoort asked through a clenched jaw.
    "Commander Van Winkle's infantrymen are very, very good." Sturgeon and one of the other Marines exchanged grins.
    "How many other fire teams do you have in the building?" the admiral asked. Anger and despair fought for control of his voice.
    "Four."
    The top navy people in the room groaned.
    The three Marine officers courteously refrained from grinning.
    Ten minutes later the sixth and final Marine fire team burst into the command center and announced that everybody was dead. The command center had six entrances; each fire team had entered through a different one. Brigadier Sturgeon and Colonel Ramadan, his chief of staff, went with Admiral Blankenvoort and his staff to debrief the results of the security exercise, while Commander Van Winkle took the infiltrating Marines, two fire teams from each of the three blaster companies in his battalion, into a room where his S-2, intelligence officer, waited to debrief them.
    "Did you kill anybody?" Van Winkle asked as soon as the door was closed.
    "Nossir," the