From Furies Forged (Free Fleet Book 5) (44 page)

              Rosho would allow Bregend to harass the ever living hell out of him. Something he had learned well in Kalu space. If they went to Hada then it would take them to the overpopulated moons of Geraz three. It would not be pretty at all. They were late comers to the Union, so they had less forces on the planet’s their cannons were just getting installed and their moons had little atmosphere and gravity.

              The last choice was Urshval. The planet Urk and its moons Ud and Uek were well populated, but they were the fifth biggest group of traders in the Union. They’d joined the Union quickly once they’d gone through all the terms with a fine comb.

              They had one of the first mercenary units, which had called themselves Future Securities Incorporated watching their asses. They also had a hundred and eighty thousand Commandos spread across the planets.

              “Let the dice fall where they may,” Bregend said, wiping his tired face. Dal fired occasionally according to the coordinates that Commander Geh fired up to Domal and he fired right back down with very physical results.

              To the Kalu, Bregend might seem like a god of wrath and destruction. To him, he was a man trying to save a boat that had been beset on by a massive wave, but was now facing much smaller holes punched through its sides.

              “Kyle, send a message to Boot, tell him to move on towards Drvntrni. We will hold here to grab the forces Ooltar is willing to part with and then follow behind him,” Bregend said, his voice sounding tired and weary.

              “Yes sir,” Kyle said.

              “Mills, make sure everyone gets some down time. I want them fresh for when we come up on Falhu,” Bregend said, looking to his reports from the Henry-classed Destroyer. It was time to do some real damage.

                                                                      ***

              The dark of space was ripped apart and a flood seemed to come hurling out of the blackness.

              “Well I don’t think Falhu’s going to like this,” Boot said to himself, seeing hungry and tight expressions mirror his own. The Henry classed Destroyers with their four capacitors had busted their asses off from their first battle to the nearest supply point and all the way to the nothingness between Oolta and Drvntrni.

              Seventy-eight ships, turned to four-hundred and fifty-seven. The newest ships went to join them. The HCD’s grouped around the heavier ships of the line. They all had at least three capacitor banks as per Bregend’s orders. His own Dal led one of the larger pyramids.

              Boot could have added Pretak’s hull to those pyramids, but someone needed to command the remaining ships that were formed up, ready and had asteroids strapped on their hull. Every carrier in his formation was a hull filled with Commandos and without a single MEF, bomber or jumper. All of them were slotting into the HCD’s with precision.

              Boot’s pride at the entire evolution made him want to laugh and pat people on the back.

              It was one of the most complex maneuvers he had ever seen but every single person was working to make sure that it went according to plan.

              Five hours later and Bregend opened a private channel to Boot.

              “Start wormhole generators, let’s kick this thing off right,” Bregend said. He sounded a hell of a lot better after the sleep and forced rest he’d been practically ordered to take by Boot after Oolta.

              “Sounds like a fine idea to me,” he looked to Dlai, his second in command.

              “Me too,” she said with a smile.

              “Mister Dennison, power up our wormhole generators. Welick, be ready on those weapons. Asa run a final check on all the buckling cables for my piece of mind. I don’t want an asteroid going the wrong way,” he said with an amused display of his manipulators.

              “Yes sir,” Asa smiled as the set to work.

Chapter victory comes at a cost

              Falhu watched as the fleet of fifty-thousand ships headed towards the largely water covered planet he had found.

              He was down to around two hundred and forty-five thousand ships, a fourth of his original strength, and all too many of them had been destroyed by the Free Fleet’s attacks.

              He was heading towards Orshpa, he needed to report on what he had done and ask for new orders. A long the way he would sow his fleets across the inhabited worlds he came across.

              “We have a wormhole opening in our fleet,” one of the aides said.

              “Free Fleet!” The words came out like a curse that Falhu wished had never existed.

              He watched as his fleet plowed through the tens of wormholes that had appeared directly in the largest concentrations of his fleet.

              After a number of seconds asteroids came through the wormholes, spreading out as they cleared the event horizons and adding to the wormholes already considerable body count.

              All the Kalu could do was get out of the way.

              Sixteen points around the Kalu opened into wormholes.

              Pyramids started coming out from them, each numbering around twenty to thirty. All of them lay along the fleet’s acceleration path and off to either side.

              “Kill them!” Falhu said, they were actually within range of his ships for once, he wasn’t going to let this go to waste. The meager remaining missiles shot out from the Kalu ships.

              Their lasers started firing, and Kalu ships disintegrated.

              The laser cannons that had been on less than a fifth of the Free Fleet ships he had faced before were mounted on most of the ships which looked to be.

              “Are those Destroyers?” Falhu demanded, his claws ripping through the decking.

              “They appear to be,” an aide replied. Falhu yelled in frustration and tore a console apart with his claws and mouth.

              “DESTROY THEM!” He growled, anger raging in his eyes and through his body.

              They had taken their weapons of war, and turned them against their true masters. This would not stand!

              The destroyers released smaller crafts; the fighters, bombers and Jumpers of the Free Fleet were within missile distance of the Kalu.

              Their Pyramids vomited fire from their laser cannons and rippled out missile launches.

              The smaller crafts used the covering fire to pull themselves together into formations and get in close to the Kalu formations.

              Waves of stunned and defenseless Kalu were wiped from existence, becoming nothing more than navigation hazards as Free Fleet ships dove into the formations.

              They reminded Falhu of Kalu on the hunting plains in their prime, cutting down the enemy and prey with impunity.

              His fleet took out a ship here and there but they simply moved behind their fellows, regenerated their shields and took up a new position.

              His anger from before was removed as he looked at the beauty of their warfare, of their economics.

              For someone that had been born, trained, and lived to fight battle, this was art to him.

              Kalu ships fell like forests before a fire.

              “Flush all Kalu fighters!” Falhu barked, seeing that they moved through his formation with such impunity.

              Someone passed the word. It took the fighters five minutes to launch, in that time another wormhole had appeared, all made of ships of the line, all of them releasing a barrage of missiles.

              The new ships were unknown, but the ones that had emerged, he knew their capabilities. They were citadels of war, but he knew they could be destroyed with enough fire brought onto them and they could be boarded.

              “Order Guresh to take our new arrivals,” Falhu said. He would not leave this battle without at least one victory. Twenty thousand Kalu ships started moving off from their acceleration line, subjecting themselves to massive velocities in order to change their heading and cut their trajectory.

              The Free Fleet read their movements and piled fire into them. The new formation of larger ships was arraying in a rotating pyramid of rail and laser cannon barrages.

              They could pile more destruction into the Kalu, but their rounds were taking longer to reach the target and could be avoided.

              In forty-five minutes the two formations would crash together, physics and its laws of inertia were already deeming it an eventuality.

              The Free Fleet ships used their own bomb-pumped acceleration to increase their speed.

              They fired everything they could muster up into the oncoming Kalu fleet. Guresh pushed his people on, not one of them turning away as walls of rounds came down on them. Leaving no room for the ships to escape or evade the slower rounds.

              The Kalu’s lasers took on the Free Fleet shields, taking them from calm serene colors to the angered hues of beleaguered juggernauts.

              They failed as the Kalu got within three hundred thousand kilometers.

              “Come on you fuckers, bring your fucking lasers and meet my fucking gunners, they’ve been waiting to give you some personal lessons. For the Free Fleet!” A creature with its Skeleton on its outside yelled, the video showing them gripping the bannister in front of their seat, their manipulators moving in calm but swift manners. Falhu couldn’t understand them. Yet he could understand the effect of the Free Fleet’s fire.

              The Free Fleet had just recently acquired the laser cannons which gave them the ability to hit the enemy faster without them knowing what was coming at longer ranges.

              They had long ago mastered the rail cannons, missiles, PDS and reactive armor that lined their hulls.

              Avenging gods turned and watched as the armored citadels of the Free Fleet were bathed in tracers and plasma, rail cannons bellowed and PDS streamed across Drvntrni system.

                                                                      ***

              “Come on you bastards, my mother could do better than you and she’s a damned toy maker! Get those cannons singing!” Boot yelled, he was no longer a person, he was no longer detached from this fight. He was part of Pretak, the man wielding the sword that was this fleet. His people were the blade, the Smiths that had formed it and the edge that cut into the Kalu.

              They forgot who they were, what their hopes and dreams would be to answer his call. They were the ship, the blood that ran down the sides, the sinews that supplied the ammunition for the hands, the gunners to delivered their blows.

             
Now come on you Kalu, bring us your warriors, your destroyers and fighters, we will show you the fire that hides in the Free Fleet.

              “Missiles!” Welick barked, “I can’t get them!”

              “All hands brace!” Boot barked over his ship-wide channel.

              There were five, one was caught in time, the second and third got close enough to activate the reactive armor. The fourth and fifth played tag with one another. The fourth detonated out of the reactive armors range, stripping it clean and opening a hole in the side of the ship.

              The fifth detonated, the hull and the ship’s structure screaming in agony as Boot went sideways, he felt pain in his side and then nothing.

              He came to, not knowing where he was. His powered armor showed a gash in the side of it. He looked around the bridge, delirious from the drugs and wake-up that kept him mobile.

              It was a sort of surreal moment.

              People fought their stations, lights blinked and flickered, red seemed to cover the main screen. Sparks shorted out of somewhere and someone fell back. People rushed around and there was a movement to the door. He turned, seeing the door had a growing red line on it.

              Something in his brain told him that was bad. He used his manipulators to move himself to his chair.

              Dlai was slumped over, half of her side missing as well as the chair.

              He felt a moment of sadness and pride. His people were doing their duty without instruction and doing it damned well.

             
They definitely don’t need my messy cock-eyed input right now,
He thought a mix of sad and happy, as if a father watching his kids going off to live their own lives.

              He grabbed his railgun, checking it by impulse. He leaned against his chair, aiming it at the door. His side hurt and his lower limbs weren’t working. Probably because his carapace was fucked up in ways he didn’t even want to know.