Lieutenant (The United Federation Marine Corps Book 3) by Jonathan P. Brazee

“allowing” the Marines to destroy the outer facilities, but Killington would not stand for any of their core facilities being damaged.
    “Sgt Timothy, move two teams up to cover Staff Sergeant Mourka, then back to the plan.  I want your squad in and in fast.  Secure the front office.  Second squad’s going to be on your ass,” Ryck told his First Squad leader over the platoon command circuit.  “All three of you squad leaders, get your Marines moving.  We don’t know if there’s anyone in the lab, but we need to mass our forces if we meet resistance.  Watson and Ariana, no gap.”
    Then, over his platoon circuit, “We’ve got a slight delay here.  As you can see, the combination we received is worthless.  We’ve got Staff Sergeant Mourka now about to create a breach.  As soon as he does, we’re back on track.”
    “Joshua, I really need you to push.  Make sure Ariana gets Third in.  Keep an eye on him, and let me know after this is over if you still think he’s got what it takes,” Ryck passed to his platoon sergeant after switching to a P2P.
    Ryck wasn’t sure Sgt Tand Ariana had it in him to be an effective combat Marine.  Joshua, though, wasn’t ready to give up on the squad leader.  This was Ariana’s chance to prove himself.  If he fell short, Ryck was ready to get Ariana transferred.  Ryck felt that Cpl Kerrick Howell, the squad’s Third Fire Team leader, was more than capable of leading the squad if it came to that.  A gung ho aggressive corporal was better than a weak sergeant any day of the week.
    Ryck turned his attention back to SSgt Mourka.  The PICS Marine, flanked by four others, was at the double doors leading into the building.  He stood there a moment, studying the entrance.  Taking a step forward, he put his gauntleted arms, one on each door, and pushed.  To Ryck’s surprise, the doors crashed in.  He’d expected the SSgt to be able to break them down, but these didn’t offer even a hint of resistance.  Then again, this wasn’t a military installation.  A simple retina scan and lock would have been more than enough to keep unauthorized people out of the building.
    SSgt Mourka stumbled in, probably surprised the doors had collapsed so easily as well, followed immediately by his security. 
    “Go First!” Ryck sent, even though Sgt Timothy had his squad right on the PICS Marines’ asses.
    There was a burst of automatic fire, then several answering bursts and one explosion.  Ryck was slaved into Sgt Timothy, but by the time his squad leader made it into the building, the fight was over.  Icons appeared on Ryck’s display as the AIs analyzed what the PICS and First Squad Marines were able to pick up.  There were four more mercs inside the office:  all were down, but only one was zeroed.  Sgt Timothy was already calling for Doc Camp.
    One of the PICS Marines was out of action.  LCpl Vance was unhurt, but he was out of the fight with a fried PICS.  One of the mercs had taken him out with what the AIs identified as a DIF-3 “Diablo” rocket. 
    Ryck had heard of Diablos, but he was not completely familiar with them, so he popped up the specs as he ran forward to the building.  The Diablo was a small, relatively inexpensive 6mm rocket, a semi-smart fire-and-forget.  It was dual-use, with both a small shape charge and pulse warhead.  The shape charge could pierce armor, depositing the pulse warhead inside the outer layers of defense of its target.  The little rocket had taken a PICS out of action.  From what Ryck read off the specs, just the shape charge alone could wreck havoc on a Marine in skins and bones.  Ryck flashed the spec summary to the platoon.  He hoped the mercs wouldn’t have too many of the rockets, but his Marines had to be aware of them.
    Ryck dashed through the smashed entrance.  Sgt Timothy had his squad deployed to cover the entire outer office.  Two of the PICS Marines were at the entrance to the lab floor while two more were