CHAPTER
ONE

Fourth Force Recon Company, Fourth Fleet Marines, Camp Howard, Marine Corps Base Camp Basilone, Halfway

" 'Toon, ten-hut!"

The Marines of second platoon, Fourth Force Recon Company snapped to attention at the command from their platoon sergeant Gunnery Sergeant Alf Lytle.

"Section leaders, report!"

"Squad leaders, report!" first section leader Staff Sergeant Suptra commanded in turn.

"First squad, all present and accounted for!" Sergeant Jak Daly shouted. His three Marines stood in a rank to his left.

"Second squad, all present and accounted for!" Sergeant Wil Bingh and his three men were directly to first squad's left.

The four Marines of third squad were also present. Fourth squad would have completed the front rank of second platoon, but it was on a deployment, running a reconnaissance mission for the army. Only the four Marines of fifth squad were present from second section; sixth, seventh, and eighth squads, along with their section leader, were on a mission in support of a peacekeeping operation somewhere else. All seven members of the platoon's sniper squad were present in the third rank, as reported by the squad leader, Staff Sergeant Athon.

Once the reports were complete, Gunny Lytle faced about and Lieutenant Tevedes, the platoon commander, marched toward him. Lytle raised his hand in a sharp salute and announced, "Second platoon, all present and accounted for, sir!"

"Thank you, Platoon Sergeant," Tevedes said, returning the salute. "You may take your place."

"Aye aye, sir." Lytle executed an about-face and marched to his position two paces in front of Suptra.

Lieutenant Tevedes looked with pride at his Marines—his Marines. He'd previously served as a platoon sergeant and a platoon commander in a Fleet Initial Strike Team, a FIST. Before that he'd been first a reconman, then a squad leader in Seventh Force Recon Company. This was his first command in Force Recon, and he looked forward to the day when his entire platoon would be sent out on a mission. Individual-squad and multi-squad deployments in support of Confederation army units or the armed forces of Confederation member worlds were the bread and butter of Force Recon, but platoon-size missions were nearest to the hearts of the platoon commanders; those missions were when they got to demonstrate that they could do more than train their Marines and provide them with mission planning and support, that they could successfully lead them in harm's way.

"I'm sure you will be happy to hear that sixth, seventh, and eighth squads have completed their phase of the peacekeeping mission with the army and will rejoin the platoon in a couple of weeks," Tevedes said.

The Recon Marines were too well disciplined to show a reaction, though they'd been looking forward to the return of the three squads—by tradition, when two or more squads returned from a deployment, the entire platoon was given a week's leave.

"That's what I thought," Tevedes deadpanned at their stone-faces. "Fourth squad is still bogged down trying to instruct the army on the difference between unconfirmed reports and the hard intel generated by Force Recon, so it'll be a while yet before they come home."

That brought out snickers from several of the Force Recon Marines and hoots from one or two. "Leave it to the doggies to not know the difference," someone murmured just loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Quiet in the ranks," Gunny Lytle said out of the side of his mouth.

"In other company news," Tevedes continued as though there hadn't been an interruption, "first platoon is deploying on a six-month training mission to Carhart's World, where they will establish a recon school and train the first generation of instructors for a new Carhart Armed Forces special forces reconnaissance unit. Add in travel time and whatever bureaucratic nonsense they'll have to deal with when they arrive on Carhart's World, and they'll probably be gone for seven months or longer. In the unlikely event that any of you don't understand the significance of first platoon's extended absence, it means there will probably be additional deployments for the rest of the company for the duration of that deployment."

There was little reaction to that news; as much as half of the company was on deployment at any given time anyway, and it wasn't all that unusual for a squad to have as little as two or three weeks, Standard, between deployments, though the normal rest and training period was at least two months Standard, and occasionally five or six months.

"The same squads from third and fourth platoons that were on deployments the last time I gave you an update are still on deployment, but I don't imagine we much care about when they're due back, not unless it interferes with our coming leave." Tevedes was right, his Marines were more interested in what they would be doing until sixth, seventh, and eighth squads returned.

Copyright © 2005 by David Sherman and Dan Cragg