The Recruitment: Rise of the Free Fleet (38 page)

“Certainly. Though you’re going to need to get those wireless hubs up on those secured and isolated systems.” She said as she was able to activate all her systems without caring if anyone would notice her presence.

“Yeah, lots to do.”

“Sir that’s the Captain’s chair—your chair as commander of the fleet.” Felix said pointing to the lounger.
 
Always the tactful one isn’t you Felix.

“I was just checking out things on this station. We’re going to need to get that lounger replaced as quickly as possible.”

“Yes commander.” Felix said going over to look at it as his people were already getting acquainted with the ships systems.

I used the chair to access inter-ship communications to armoury three. “Shrift, opening armoury doors.” I said doing just that as I saw all of the weapons racks open on one of the armrest’s screens.

“Thanks James, damned plasma torches were having a tough time cutting through that stuff, and seeing as I’m talking to you I guess the disablers worked.”

“Got that right. Get ready for company.”

“Right, time to get back to work.”

I quickly checked on the Sarenmenti which were still locked in their rooms.

“Alright, it’s Christmas and the armoury’s hosting.” I said to those that had taken the command centre and bridge with me. All but two squads started for the lifts to the armoury. I saw Yasu going with them as I turned on the two squads left.

“Anyone left alive?”

“Not from the crew, but there are what seems like twelve or so creatures the crew used for
 
entertainment
.” The Commander of the forces said as I clenched my fist.

“Alright, get them transported to the Mecha quarters, one per room, get them a meal they look to be half starved the ones I saw and post a guard on them. The rest of you I want two teams on the lifts incase, another two on both sides of the bridges armoured doors. For love of all things holy please shut the damned things as well. You will be the reserves I’ll have weapons brought up to all of you as soon as possible.” They were already moving before I’d finished still in my chair.

“Felix looks like you have everything in hand. I’m leaving you in charge of her while I’m away.”

“Yes sir, I’m going to have my people run through their systems to work through any kinks.”

“Good thought. I’m going to say hello to the establishment.”

“Yes sir.”

I hoisted my plasma rifle as I walked out of the door six followers spreading around me as I waited for the lift like everyone else. My shoulder still felt a little strange but I put it down to the lack of movement I was getting from the suit. Instead of turning for the armouries I moved to the nearest airlock checking my plasma rifle as the others in my group checked their pistols. Interesting how they’d all gotten one of the very limited pistols we’d taken from Chaleel, and were all following me like my shadow.

Piles of weapons were put on grav carts with each squad having double the weapons they needed with them as we waited at the airlocks into the station. Those without weapons were quickly armed as we waited.

Someone brought me my sword and pistol which I slapped into place.

“This is Rick, we’ve taken our ship.”

“Tomaki.”

“Monk.”

“Cheerleader.”

“Jun Mo corvette two.”

“Corvette three, Chris.”

“Four hayato free.”

“Second battle cruiser Julia Captured.” They sounded off as they took their ships and were in place to assault the station.

“Okay this is it. Now let’s go and take this damned station!” I said as I hit the airlock release opening up to a flexible tube around a catwalk with bars extending all around. I ran and dove.

There was no gravity in the umbilical’s that connected the station to the ship. I floated through the middle, catching the flip bar with my free hand, turning so I landed on my feet.

Resilient had given us the element of surprise with the worms she’d had us download into the ships we were on. Not one comms system was working to warn Parnmal.

“What the!” The guard jumped up from where he’d been looking at his data pad as I put a servo assisted fist through his chest my six protectors behind me as I dived through the hatch beyond him. If anyone had heard him we didn’t have time for the rest of the AMC’s on our ship to catch up before they sounded the alarm.

Someone was moving towards a purple button. I raised my rifle as my rifle belching repeatedly as he and the control panel turned into a smoldering mess. I heard my protection details rail guns fire twice, followed by the thumps of bodies hitting the deck.

“Right clear!” I yelled scanning but keeping an eye on the open hatch to beyond

“Left clear!”

“Alright Advanced parties make entry.” I said as I moved in the room more. My protection detail rushed the next door before I could make it there.

I could hear the powerful thumps and whines of Mechas as the rest of the AMC’s had caught up with us and moved to secure our beach head, giving us a clear path into the station.

“As we planned, clear everything and listen to your chain of command. As soon as you’re ready get moving.” The first group of six moved out, more moving out quickly after them as weapons fire could be heard. I opened my map on my HUD checking the situation with the other ships and how far they’d gotten.

“Make sure they’re on target Henry.”

“We are sir, just watching you from beside my airlock.”

“Understood, you are clear to proceed.”

“Yes sir. Being out here isn’t as fun as it first sounded sir.”

I laughed. “Why do you think I didn’t volunteer for it?” I cut the channel as Min Hae rushed up beside me.

“My people are already pulling apart the weapons control panel in the first room; hopefully we’ll be able to cut control before they know what’s going on.”

“Alright get to it. I’m going to see what it’s like up front.”

I could already hear fighting; now it didn’t matter for us as we had control of the airlocks and the weapons arrays which were placed to blow away our ships had been dealt with by Henry’s boarders.

I tagged onto the groups moving into the station now as alarms started going off.

“Eddie?”

“Yes James, I’m uploading the program for the airlocks now do you have a hard connection the wireless here is spotty.” I could hear something speaking in the background but I ignored it.

“Well Uhh, working on that.” I said well hell the plasma cannon worked better than I thought. I jumped in the first room I found with consoles lit up and stuck my jack into it.

“Alright establishing connection. She say’s it’ll take a few minutes.”

“Okay.”
 
Must be referring to Resilient.
 
I summarized.

“Bingo was his nameo! All airlocks locked and sealed, if they try to flee now they’ll rip a hole in the side of the ship. Plus the stations weapons array will fire on them. ”

“Thank you Eddie, keep the golden refuge safe till I’m back.”

“Oh she’ll do that herself sir!” He said with pride.

Henry was wondering what the hell he’d gotten himself into as he floated in space.

“
Great just great! Jump out of a perfectly good spaceship stuck to a chemical rocket without a damned weapon to take a space station with tens more people. You’ll be becoming a Ranger at this rate with these ridiculous ideas.
 
He growled inside his head as he spoke in a tone which seemed to spawn from granite, entirely different from his own thoughts.

“Watch your velocities and approach vectors. Don’t eyeball it people.” In space with the velocities he and the other AMC’s were travelling they’d learned that using your eyeball was the best way to become a dent in something. The best way was to use the sensors and a braking table, for the velocity you were going at you needed to brake this hard, or little to stop a few metres off of the surface.

His HUD turned green as James signalled the shields were down.

Oh yay, at least I’m not going to be crushed like a bug on a windscreen. Why did I agree to this?

“Get a move on Commandos.” Henry said as if what they were doing was an everyday kind of thing, pushing his acceleration up as he watched his counter. He sighed briefly as he passed where the shield would’ve been turning him into a splotch of armour and man. He couldn’t relax yet as he watched his counter.

Gently does it, that’s a big ass rock, check guages, nice and slow, nice and slow, don’t think of rock the size of America, fire reverse thrust, nicely does it. Nearly there.

Henry goosed the rocket in his hands as he felt the g’s impact his body everything strained. Now he was thankful for the high gravity training James had subjected everyone to. Then the pressure was gone. Henry felt his boots clamp to the ground as he looked at it with shock.

Well fuck me.
 
He said as he looked at the ground and checked as landing dots filled his HUD, the nearest thirty metres away and still braking.

Henry cut his comms as he rowed the air and kicked his feet out. “Duhh nuh nuh nuh, nuh nuh, nuh nuh can’t touch this! Duhh nuh nuh nuh, nuh nuh, nuh nuh can’t touch this!” He stopped dancing as he looked to the rock.

“Take that yah damned frigging rock!” He grinned as he turned on his comms again. Seeing the Resilient for the second time as it passed underneath him heading to its dock. It made something resonate within him, the way a soldier would with a battalion of tanks, or a sailor would within a super carrier. They just projected military purpose, they were machines for battle, and there was no room for frills or prettiness. Henry just wished he could see her in better shape the hull of the golden refuge looked as pitted as the station he stood on.

Golden refuge sounded too damned pretty.
 
He grinned as he checked his Commando’s progress.

“Alright hurry this up people! As soon as you’re down now get to the airlocks. We aren’t here to sight see!” He barked.

Henry’s eyes caught sight of one of the stations weapon batteries and felt his eyes swell. Where the Golden Refuge’s had been big these were gargantuan. They looked too big to be weapons being easily five stories long.

Finally all of the AMC’s were down and within the shielding as it re-activated. A few had come in too hot either having to come back around from missing the station or wounding themselves, only three had died. Henry was thankful the number was so low but it still gnawed at him, he knew that there would be many more deaths today.

He located the nearest airlock sitting down as he watched the Golden refuge’s engines go silent. Umbilical cords of the airlock attached and then became rigid with a good seal between the station and ship.

Now it was in the hands of those they’d left behind. He waited for what felt for eternity before James opened a channel with him and the rest of the advanced party.

“Alright Advanced parties make entry.” James said and not a minute too late Henry grumbled.

“Make sure they’re on target Henry.”

“We are sir, just watching you from beside my airlock.”

“Understood, you are clear to proceed.”

“Yes sir. Being out here isn’t as fun as it first sounded though sir.”

James laughed lightly. “Why do you think I didn’t volunteer for it?” Salchar cut the channel as Henry jacked into the airlocks control panel, letting the program Eddie had made open it.

As soon as it opened he threw himself inside with others packing in with him so tight it might as well have been rush hour on the train Tokyo. They righted themselves with the artificial gravity, as the airlocks cycled and they rushed out. There was one guard running away who turned at the noise of the airlock opening. One of the forward Mechas put their fist through his head as the others swarmed around and into the corridor. Clearing it for the others.

The first Mecha with their yellow bloodied hand stood there.

“Get moving Commando! They wouldn’t have hesitated to do it to you!” Henry pulled him out of the airlock as it cycled and some Commandos pulled weaponry from the corpse.

Another pirate came to see what the noise was about, getting a burst to the head for his worries.

“It’s us or them Commando!” Henry told the Mecha who shook their head breathing as they visibly shook them, following Henry who moved to the next corpse.

Henry picked through the amazingly exotic and large array of weaponry on the second pirate. He shook his head as he took the heavy rail gun and spread out the various pistols and small machine guns and then two bandoliers of plasma grenades.

“What the hell did he think he was taking on? Armageddon?” One commander said with a shake of their head at the pirates overkill as they grabbed a weapon.

“Well his overkill is our win.” Henry said as he checked over the rail gun with a sour face. He could’ve at least invested in more than a few magazines! The lack of discipline with the pirates was not something he was going to let continue on in his Corps.

“God this thing probably hasn’t been cleaned in years!” He grumbled as he cycled the action and thumbed the rail activator which whined oddly but still worked. Sighing he brought it to his shoulder and opened the door in front of him and right into the middle of a confused poker game. The five or so players were rushing to put their gear on as Henry walked in the door getting stunned looks. His finger stroked the trigger being rewarded with a bloody impression on the wall behind them, others funneled in the room behind him engaging anything he hadn’t. He switched targets to the nearest door, his sensors were confirmed by one of the men behind him.

Damn that training was paying off Henry thought.

“Clear!” He waited for a team to stack up on him as hypervelocity bolts ripped through the door in front of him. Seemed the pirates knew they were finally here.

Henry leaned down grabbing a plasma grenade.
 
I’ll take that
 
and that.
 
He thought, grabbing a wicked plasmid blade from a bloody pulp that had been a pirate before they’d been hit by Henry’s hyper velocity slugs. He cut through the door, tossing in a grenade, as if the whole thing was nothing more than brushing one’s teeth.

Plasma and fire shot out of the holes in the door as Henry bashed it open with sword raised, slowing his run as soon as he got a few steps inside the room. Finding a clearly dead gun team. They’d been drinking some rotgut from the distillery they’d made in the corner but a plasma grenade combined with the flammable aspects of high proof alcohol had ended their merry time rather spectacularly, leaving a hole through the next wall into someone’s now nonexistent closet.

“Keep your visors on it looks like you’d get drunk off the fumes in here.” Henry said as he looked at the melted mangled mess of the huge still.

Alarms were going off and a weak fire suppression system was going off, but it didn’t reach this section as Henry watched his temperature gauge creep higher as he walked through the closet, finding a selection of weapons and a fired alien. He grabbed a heavy railgun and some ammo before exiting the living quarter’s door.

He was happy to see that most of the lead people had some kind of salvaged weapon. Henry broke into a quick trot to the first intersection where some half armoured pirates and a large amount of non-armoured pirates were running towards the intrusion. He thumbed the selector to full auto as he fired at the pirates at head height.

The armed teams with him joined in with the fire as she moved to cover.

“Grenade!” One pirate yelled as Henry dove back as the hallway shuddered. He picked himself up and turned looking at what had been the reaction force. In their panic they’d hit the roof of the hallway and the grenade had bounced back at them.

“Medic!” He heard on the channel as he looked around finding someone on the ground that’d caught a rail gun round in the leg their other team member checking the tourniquets were applied and slapping the manual hell fire injector.

“You fucking sounva…”

“You’ll thank me in a bit Wilma.” The man said turning off the speakers in the suit so that his team member could swear in peace as they went unnervingly still and then thrashed in pain of the telltale hell fire. Hopefully it hadn’t gotten an artery or it would take her a while to get back in the fight.

“Alright stay with her. We’re going to move on. Grab any weapons that work. Keep moving straight that’s where the command centre of the station is, half of you with weapons split and link up with the people with our weapons and ammo.”

“Yes MC.” MC had come to stand for Mecha commander James didn’t know much about ranks so he made people commanders of everything platoon and higher, with leaders for everything below and being the second in command after commanders. Effectively making an officer and NCO core, it was very simplistic but Henry had to say it worked. He advanced with the lead sections of the advanced teams jumping forward between any cover they could find.

“Contact front!” Henry jumped for cover as he let a continuous stream of rounds go into the oncoming forces.

He grunted as he picked himself up seeing the rest of the forward squad laid waste to the advancing pirates.

“Medic!” This was going to be a long day Henry thought as he picked himself and began bounding forward again people taking the place of the injured and the attending teammate

***

Captain Welick looked at the screens that showed the hundreds of cameras around the station to either side of a huge hologram which displayed the entire station showing where everyone was in the station.

“How?” He said his twin eye stalks moving wildly among the different screens unable to understand what was happening.

“They’ve all come from
 
your
 
fleet.” A gargantuan brown furred alien said a thunderous turned thoughtful look on his face.

“I know but this is not my doing Jorsht!” Welick said his eye stalks moving wildly in distress.

“I don’t doubt that as your own crews are dead and it seems they have taken your ship.”

“What’re we going to do?” The furred creature waited staring at the screens for a few minutes, Welick knew it was unwise to interrupt Jorsht when he was thinking, more than one being had been crushed in a hand swipe by the massive muscle bound monster.

“We’re going to wait Welick; we still have the kill switches.”

“Yes, let’s activate them now.” He said pulling out a remote from his robes.

“NO!” Jorsht said smacking the device from Welick’s hand-fin. Welick squealed as the fragile bones broke like toothpicks being hit by a sledgehammer. The noises of pain quickly stopped as Welick realized an enraged Jorsht was staring at him.

“You idiot, you want to kill them all now when they’re eliminating all of our competition?”