From Furies Forged (Free Fleet Book 5) (36 page)

              “Fire when ready,” Bregend said. It took five ships, Dal, two Dreadnoughts, a Destroyer, and Battle Carrier to cover the area that the Kalu had abandoned with their ships. The bombardment was brutally efficient, five hundred rounds rippled through the Kalu ships, turning them to slag and destroying reactors. Multiple mushroom clouds rose from where the Kalu ships had been. Fires had started in the forests of Ershue.

              The trees didn’t take to fire very well so Bregend hoped they stopped burning soon. He knew how connected the Ershue were to their planet, he kind of wished he had that same connection.

              “Domal PDS are free to engage Kalu fighters as long as there are no friendlies in the potential impact areas,” Bregend said.

              “Yes sir. I’ll make sure the gunners take them over manually,” Domal said.

              “Good idea,” Bregend said.

              “Fighters and bombers are ready for their first run,” Zoka reported.

              Bregend knew that this wasn’t going to be a quick fight and he didn’t want to have his pilots tired when he might need them most. He didn’t know how long those Kalu fighters could last without their Star-destroyers, there were still about two-thousand Kalu craft moving about, most of them Star-destroyers with the ability to re-arm and refuel those fighters.

             
It might be an idea to let the Kalu fighters attack, just so they drain those Star-destroyer’s resources faster, then drop them all,
Bregend thought, balancing lives against tactics.

              He decided against it. His fighters and bombers targets were the large swarms and those Star-destroyers. There were hundreds of thousands of fighters, even if Bregend killed a hell of a lot of them, there would still be more than the destroyers were supposed to handle.

              Instead he kept his ideas to himself and watched as the Multi-Environment Fighters lived up to their name, the bombers following. The Kalu swarms shifted directions, aiming themselves at the incoming ships. They were met with a hail of rounds. Once the bombers and fighters were fully inside the atmosphere they used their missiles to open up breathing room and head for their real targets.

              The fighters and bombers did the fleet proud but fifty-seven people gave their lives for a hundred and twelve Kalu destroyers.

              “Ready the next flight and target those destroyers from Orbit, one round each until they go down. I don’t want to start any fires this time,” Bregend looked to Domal who jerked his head in understanding.

              “Move the fleet to twenty-five percent. I want everyone to get a shower, some sleep and food, we’re not going to be of any use to anyone if we’re dead on our feet.” Bregend’s eyes were hard and unflinching as he looked at his crew, the message would be passed on to everyone else.

              Sometimes to be their commander he had to play hardball, it was all part of the game.

              “Mills sync up our computers with the ground forces. I want to have constant communications with them so we can help them in anyway,” Bregend commanded.

              “Sir,” Mills said, getting to work.

              “Kyle I want you to get with every ship commander and department head, get a parts list and fire it off to the nearest supply depot to call in supplies, before you do that, see if you can get Rick or Salchar,” Bregend asked.

              “On it,” Kyle said, Bregend sat back in his chair trying to look relaxed while all he wanted to do was jump on a shuttle, go down to Ershue and fight alongside his people in hopes that it would keep more of them alive.

Chapter The Kalu come to say hello

              “The Kalu emerged right on schedule, all systems are looking good, and we’ve got a day and a half before they reach us. Salchar thinks that he will be with us in two days and that Orshpa will be a day behind him,” Akatski said from her position as his second-in-command. It had been a while since Parnmal had gone on war footing, they hadn’t been sitting on their hands since then either.

              The shipyards had been brought closer to the station, a dozen asteroids had been added to the station, adding to the natural armor and giving the gunners more places to mount PRC’s and the new laser cannons.

              Remote platforms were dotted around the asteroid fields that Parnmal resided in, most merchants and people that came through the system didn’t know that they were being watched by multiple weapons systems at all times.

              “Send the word to the residents of the station they will want to know what’s going on. Bring all units to alert, have a full battery of tests run on everything. I don’t want anyone up and running around. We have plenty of time till the Kalu get to the actual station. Oh and send a warning to the merchants that are coming to the station. Have them divert to the supply points until this mess is over,” Monk said, standing and stretching.

              “Now I think I’m going to get some food, normal shift rotation, we’ve all been in combat before, a whole lot of hurry up and wait, I don’t want you all tired before we even fire a shot,” Monk’s voice was more like a father warning that they had to be up for an early shift the next morning than a Commander.

              “Yes sir,” they responded, amused by Monk’s kindness. He was a nice and calm man, nothing seemed to faze him. While he didn’t advertise it, he was also a damned deft act with his pole that he used to walk around. Many thought that it was because he had a bad injury, but it was a token to the monkhood he had walked away from.

              Monks carried staffs and other simple objects in their travels to make them look non-threatening, when in reality they could use those staffs with brutal efficiency.

              Monk walked out of the bridge and headed into the central areas of the station.

              People were subdued but Parnmal was the biggest trading station in known space, and it was the best defended place. A number of merchants were jumping on their ships and setting off for the supply points around Parnmal.

              Commandos moved through the massive corridors of Parnmal, wearing their normal powered armor or entombed in their HAPA’s. Parnmal’s corridors were one of the few places that a HAPA could be operated in and not run into a ceiling or wall.

              It didn’t take long before he was walking into the main thoroughfare of the station. It had been two massive corridors meeting with a large intersection between them. It had expanded upwards and out. Now it was a massive open area with elevators moving up down and around the roughly upside-down cone area. Corridors came in from all across the station trees and gardens were bracketed by seats, stores, and people still milling around. Nothing like the throngs that usually came through the place.

             
Sometimes it’s hard to think that we’ve come this far in such a short time. Feels like it was only months ago that we were taking Parnmal from the Syndicate, now there’s no Syndicate. We’re a fighting force to be reckoned with, and we’re fighting an enemy that the Union at their full-strength couldn’t destroy.
He smiled, not letting the last of his thoughts get him down.

              “One day at a time, all it takes is one day at a time and we’ll get there,” he continued to smile while on his stroll. Come what may Monk wasn’t going to worry about it until it happened, oh he’d plan for it. But there was no reason to cry over milk that hadn’t spilt yet. When it did, there was always another day when it wouldn’t spill.

                                                                      ***

              Yasu and I looked down at our boy squealing and moving in his crèche on the ramp of the shuttle that would take her back to her ship, there was just a matter of minutes before we started charging our wormhole generators that would take us to Parnmal, right after Falhu’s forces which he’d sent ahead.

              “We’ll see you after Parnmal,” I said, looking to her.

             
God, it feels like I’m being ripped apart every time she has to leave me and our son,
I thought, trying to keep my smile reassuring.

              “I know, we’ve still got to figure out his name,” Yasu said getting out a laugh as her eyes held more water than usual.

              “We’ll have plenty of time when this is all done,” I said, pulling her to me, kissing her forehead and smelling her hair. It smelt like home and of comfort. Sadly, I’d be without it for at least a few days while we dealt with the Kalu threat in Parnmal.

              She nodded against my chin, I don’t know if many people would be surprised by two of the leaders of the Free Fleet parting with tears in their eyes.

              I didn’t care, right now it was just the three of us, and then the moment was gone as we pushed away. The universe pulling us apart and to the roles we had chosen to play.

              “I love you,” I said, getting a starry-eyed smile in return.

              “I love you too,” she said, I grabbed the crèche and closed it, moving back from the shuttled. Yasu held my eyes for a moment, god it hurt seeing her go.

              She collected herself and walked onto the shuttle.

              It hurt every time she went, but now I felt the pain in her eyes at leaving not only me, but our son as well.

              “Alright kiddo, let’s go and see Parnmal. It’s where your mommy and Daddy started putting this fleet together,” I said, he looked content in his crèche as the shuttle sealed and pushed out of the hangar’s electro-static field.

              It applied more thrust and headed away from Hic Stamus.

              “It’s also where I’m going to slap the sounvabitch that keeps pulling your mommy and me apart,” I said. There was no kindness in my voice or mind, only cold hatred.

                                                                      ***

              Edmund was the brother of Eddie and the father of Shrift and Silly, he was also the chief engineer of the carrier Talhalla under the command of Foshunti.

              The ship had changed a lot since the time of its service to the Syndicate.

              Everyone wore the standard battle suits of the Free Fleet and their powered armor. The carrier had gone to Heija, followed Salchar to the Nexus and battled Orshpa’s fleet there.

              Edmund had seen the reports but it still made his manipulators shiver when he thought of those images of Kalu being slammed by wave after wave of destruction. There was no escape, no letting them surrender. Edmund understood why. The Kalu weren’t going to give them that chance and if the Free Fleet didn’t kill them here, then they were going to have to kill them on a planet somewhere. It was a lot harder to kill a few million Kalu warriors on the ground, than it was to destroy their un-shielded space craft that could only fire in one direction.

              Now Salchar’s fleet, including Talhalla were chasing after the Kalu that had already appeared in Parnmal.

              “Charging wormhole generators,” Delphine said over the ship’s speakers. Edmund looked over the power-outputs of the generators and projectors.

              The ships were refueled and re-armed from the supply station between the Nexus and Parnmal. The entire fleet was up to full strength, the Kalu however, should be low on missiles and supplies.

              Edmund was usually a rather happy-go-lucky sort. That was before Heija, now he saw the reality of the universe around them. It would pound on them relentlessly, only giving up when they did. They could only endure and hope to gain a brief respite.

              The hours dwindled down. The wormhole projectors ripped a new hole in the universe and the Free Fleet went home.

Chapter An army runs on men, a military runs on supplies

              “How are we looking?” Min Hae asked, looking to Ashota and Gogs who were bent over their screens looking at the streams of information coming from the fleet of Independents and the Henry-classed Destroyers that were massed around the point between Heija and Wugarn.

              The Kalu had been building up their resupply fleet for a number of months, tomorrow they were supposed to be moving out to join the rest of the Kalu in Union space.

             
Not if I can help it,
Min Hae thought.

              “The Independents are well, being themselves. They want to be mopping up the remaining Kalu that are floating around the Traditionalist systems and trying to figure out a way to make the other Kalu turn away from violence. Our people are ready to go, all twenty-three Henry-classed Destroyers,” Ashota said.

              “Incoming wormholes,” Gogs interrupted as ships started emerge from the new points.

              “Make that thirty-seven Henry-classed Destroyers,” Gogs said with a smug look.