From Furies Forged (Free Fleet Book 5) (21 page)

              As Planner had shown the Avarians that they needed to work together and accept one another’s differences as not necessarily weaknesses but possible strengths, the Independents hoped to show the same to their brethren.

              Min Hae had made it clear that if the independents mistreated their traditionalist brothers and sisters, they would answer to the Free Fleet. He had read the information on residential schools on Earth. Yet that was with humans, Kalu were entirely different creatures.

              Once the Independents got control of the Kalu systems they were going to hold their position if they could, if they couldn’t then they were going to flee as they originally planned.

              “Hopefully,” Min Hae said, his mind had turned to other matters as he looked at the three-dimensional star-map with various locations highlighted in different colors. The line was purple, the Kalu space red, and the inhabited systems green, Union systems blue.

              “So what are you thinking we tell Commander Whorst and Bregend?” Ashota asked.

              “I’m thinking that we have Whorst pull back to Eltar, Boot should move to MxKug and Bregend should go to Wugan. That way every system that provides a jump-point from the line into our lines is covered. I’m going to suggest that they, as well as Cheerleader and Boot have squadrons go into Kalu territory to continue their raids but be ready to be engaged shortly,” Min Hae said, expanding the star-map.

              “So start to move into the final phases,” Ashota said, most Kalu might growl at the futile efforts of those challenging them. Ashota was not most Kalu, instead he forced those emotions away and thought of the situation.

              “Yes, and we should hope to hell that everything is in place for this,” Min Hae drummed his fingers on the table for a moment. “We’d best get started.”

              “I thought you might say something like that,” Ashota said dryly, getting a small smile from Min Hae.

                                                                      ***

              Edwards had been grabbed from his office, once the outcome was realized his supporters had fled.

              Commandos crashed through his ornate door.

              He’d yelled, cursed and thrown what he could at them. They simply grabbed him, reading out his crimes and slapping restraints on him as they dragged him to a shuttle.

              He found others that he knew in that shuttle. Others that had worked with him to bring about the great failure that had been their attempt to take over the Free Fleet.

              They were no longer the power brokers from back then. Their power had been stripped from them, some still cried out injustice. Edwards was among them.

              He’d been shipped to a transport that then took him and the other prisoners to Parnmal.

              Now he stood in court. It had been proceeding along at a good pace where he had learned that talking out of place was only going to get a glower from the judge and displeased noises from the jury and his defense.

              There was no one recording the trial. Edwards had asked the defender about that.

              They’d told him that the Free Fleet saw no reason to give coverage to a backstabber, they believed in showing the good of the Union not the shit.

              Now was judgement day. Edwards had been able to read the signs, Earth wasn’t a powerhouse anymore, it was a backwater. His actions had made them weak not stronger.

              “Does the Jury have a verdict?” the judge asked.

              “Guilty of all charges,” the Jury’s elected spokesperson said.

              “Very well,” the Judge turned to look at Edwards.

              “You took the faith of the Free Fleet, turned it against them, harrassed them, got people killed and then worked to attack the very people defending your home and born of your planet. In my mind you not only betrayed their faith but you betrayed the faith of the other Union systems and your own people. That said the Free Fleet dislikes to kill people if they don’t have to and they believe you may be able to redeem yourself like a great many other prisoners the Free Fleet have in their care,” the judge sat back and Edwards tried to remain defiant, his world in ashes around him.

              “You will render seventy years of service to the Free Fleet within the maintenance groups. I hope that you learn to work with and trust others. Space is the great equalizer. It is the hope of this court you learn to treat others with fairness and in trust. Please remove the convicted,” the judge said.

              Edwards had seen the anger and hatred in the guards faces, all of them were from the Free Fleet. He had tried to evoke that anger but they hadn’t given in.

              As they had said, they wouldn’t devolve to his level.

              He hung his head and allowed himself to be dragged off, a part of him was relieved he would not be killed. Another part of him felt a new fear for the maintenance crews. They were fair and just, but they did menial work, for the next seventy years he would be a miner of a cleaner, he would have little control over his life.

              He cried, his game of politics and maneuvering was gone.

              Even then he didn’t care for those that had died, he still cared only about himself.

              Those kinds of thoughts would only get someone killed working in null gravity and atmosphere, teams survived, individuals got themselves killed.

Chapter Six weeks and counting

              “Alright Milra, take us out,” I said from my command chair, thankfully there were only three floors like with Resilient, yet each floor was larger to accommodate the larger crew needed to person Hic Stamus.

              Commander Heston was still walking with a bit of a limp but he was quickly getting over his injuries. While Hic Stamus couldn’t move his pilots and their ships could. He’d had them out as soon as I’d given him the okay. We might have a few trainees in the ranks, but they were quickly learning the ropes first-hand.

              For this moment the ships lay in their racks and most of their pilots were probably glued to the view screens which could be used to see outside the carrier.

              “Yes Commander,” Milra said with more than a little enthusiasm.

              Stamus’ engines came online, pushing the ship forward for the first time. Grins were on every face as our behemoth pushed away from its slip.

              Eddie’s crews were putting in the final sections inside the ship. All of the double-hulled armor, topped with reactive plating had been put into place. Weapons sprouted from that armor. Every weapon was pulled into their maintenance positions catching the light of the Sun as we came out of the shadows of Nancy’s massive slip.

              I looked to the systems plot. The Chaleel and AIH forces had returned to their positions. Word of the Kalu’s plans had gone through inhabited systems faster than the FTL relays could pass information it seemed.

              Training had been ended as trainees were put into the positions they wanted to have and given on-the-job-training. Leaving them on a planet or a station where they could be picked off easier and making the Free Fleet lose their abilities was not acceptable.

              The accused master-minds behind Earth’s betrayal had been transported to Parnmal just two weeks ago. The courts had pushed them through with quick efficiency. Five out of the ninety accused were on their way back to Sol, the others were serving sentences or awaiting a later trial date due to one reason or another.

              I didn’t have time to worry about that.

              “We are clear of Nancy,” Milra said.

              “Good driving Milra, I want reports from every station every ten minutes for the first hour, then every hour after that,” I said, looking around to see that my order had sunk in, the mass signs of acknowledgement came back.

              “Ben, plot that course to the asteroid belt for some weapons practice, might as well test all the systems out,” I said doing my best to sound happy and not let my previous thoughts enter my voice.

              “Yes commander, sending it to you now Milra,” Ben said, excited and proud.

              He and Milra talked about the planned route as I looked to reports that were part of my existence now.

              Elshurvum had been fixed up, packed full of supplies and dispatched with Felix, Silly, LaRe and all of their people towards the Destroyer yards only two-weeks since I had first stepped on Hic Stamus. That was a month ago now.

              I was on the biggest ship ever commissioned and the biggest ship that the Free Fleet had built from the superstructure out. It was an impressive feat, not even including all the systems that had been weaved into its massive creation.

             
I have just six weeks left until the Kalu get to my lines and those systems, this hull, my people and my fleet will be tested against the forces the Kalu bring to battle.

             
Including my wife.
It was hard to hide the wave of emotion that ran through me. Yasu was now five months pregnant. My kiddo was now making it hard for her to fit into her powered armor. In a month she wouldn’t be able to fit into her standard armor.

             
When she has our kid, it’s going to be while we’re engaged against the Kalu in the fight of our lives. I guess it all comes down to timing in the end.
I growled, closing my eyes as I pushed those thoughts away. The Free Fleet, the newly created Union and the bonded planets and ships needed me.

                                                                      ***

              Yasu looked at Hic Stamus as it powered out of its slip finally, she didn’t know it but she was having much the same thoughts as her husband.

              She rested a hand on her growing belly.

              “That’s your dad little one, showing off his new ship Hic Stamus. He’ll probably show the ship off to you when you’re old enough, which with the Syndicate therapies means in about a years’ time!” She said with an admonishing smile.

              The option of putting her baby in one of the simulated growth chambers the kids of the Free Fleet had been born from, had been there. Yet she couldn’t bring herself to do it. There were too many ways in which her boy might get hurt. She wanted to protect him, the best way to do that was to keep him in her. Defending herself was as good as defending the life that grew inside her.

              “He will grow up to be a strong battle master, like his mother and father,” Moft said in a soft voice.

              “Well we’d best not tell him, if he’s anything like his father his head will get too big to get through a shuttle bay!” Yasu said with a smile that made Moft’s lips quirk in amusement.

              Moft had become one of Yasu’s projects, it had taken some time to break down his walls. At moments it reminded her of the Sato sisters, sending painful memories through her head.

              Moft had come to talk to her as Krom and Shreesht talked to Salchar. Maybe not with the same familiarity.
But time and persistence will win through. Look at James! Though he might say the same thing about me.

              She looked back to the Super-carrier, her eyes sparkling as her lips twitched in amusement.

              She looked at the view screen for a few more minutes before turning away.

              “Bridge?” Moft asked.

              “Might as well, we’ll be moving out as soon as Hic Stamus is cleared for action. Ship Commander Frex will probably want another check before we’re on our way,” she said as they walked away from the observation room.

              Moft made a noise of understanding.

              “The Engineers did a good job putting us back together,” she said, looking over the corridors of Floater, one of the first three Battle-Carriers that had been made for the Free Fleet. Now there were closer to thirty.

              “They are an industrious bunch. Some of the things they have completed on Asul need to be seen to be believed,” Moft said.

              “I would like to see Asul once this is all done. It has been too long since I spent some time in my house,” she said, remembering the house cut out from the medium sized mountain that jutted out behind Asul city and sloped down to the Armored Marine Commando Barracks.

              Most humans might look at the Avarian city as if it was some kind of wasteland. Yasu saw the work that had come to turn that wasteland into a bustling metropolis. The Avarians had worked hard to come from simple warrior clans having competitions over land, to asteroid miners and the weapon makers of the known universe.

             
Well they might have held onto the whole fighting thing.
She thought with a small smile, she had taught thousands of personnel, from Avarian to Kuruvians, Ershue’s to Slevarans. Avarians loved to fight, that wasn’t to say that other races didn’t like fighting as much. The Avarians were used to struggling to survive, having the occasional bout did them good to learn their place and smarten up. She had yet to train an Avarian group that didn’t need their ass beaten by their commander to get their attention.

              Except herself and James. More than one Avarian they’d beaten was willing to educate someone that questioned their battle prowess.

              “How is Dila?” Yasu asked.

              “She is well,” Moft said, his voice tightening to sound more official.

              “That’s good, have you asked her out on a date,” Yasu poked, she was feeling rather motherly, and poking at Moft’s love life with one of the few Kuruvian females aboard was quite interesting.

              “Yes Battle Mistress,” he said, resorting back to official titles, for an Avarian with so many accolades to his name, he was not very open with his love-life. Something that Yasu was working on.

              “Very good, where?”

              “I was going to ask her to go, bowling with me,” he said, a note of question in his voice.

              “Good!” Yasu said, patting his arm and bestowing him with a mischievous grin. He somehow stopped himself from imitating the rolling-eye habit that the Avarians seemed to have adopted from Humans.

             
Who said that power didn’t have its rewards?

              They got the elevator and Yasu’s face slowly shifted into an expression more suiting the Commander of Floater’s Commando forces. Her thoughts changing from Moft’s love-life to the status of the men and women under her command, from the newest trainee that had been stuffed into armor before completing full training, to the veterans like herself, which had been with the Free Fleet since Parnmal.

Chapter it starts with Eltar

              Smith wiped his sleep away as he headed through War Station’s massive hangars towards his barracks which were located through a few meters of rock and a layer of armor. He nodded and waved to other pilots, mechanics and people he knew as he walked onwards.

              None of them looked to stop him, or the fourteen pilots behind him. They were all tired as hell and had just come back from the latest run into Kalu space.

              Smith was the Jump fighter’s commander, he got his orders from Flek the Wing Commander and had taken his people and their ships three systems to hit a group of Kalu ships moving to one of their stations.

              It had been a six-day long run. Their internal missile berths had been switched out with expanded magazines for their rail-cannons. The multi-head missiles were more precious than air and had been stockpiled on carriers instead of being deployed. Railguns and basic missiles did their job.

              When they were in a larger battle, those multi-missiles could give small craft fighters the ability to go toe to toe with a swarm, or actually push back the Kalu for a short period.

              Flek, the Ershue bastard was waiting outside the Jump fighter’s barracks. Smith tried to not sigh loudly, but from the snorts behind him it wasn’t quiet enough.

              He walked up to the wing commander as his jump fighters filed into their barracks and the sweet showers and cots in that pod.

              “Wing Commander?” Smith asked, wondering what she was doing down here.

             
I thought I sent that report in, didn’t I?

              “Don’t worry I’m not here to bug you about writing a real report for once, or the music, or your name choice for your craft,” Flek said, her wings emphasizing her dry humor.

              “Thank you commander,” Smith said, the lines of a forming smile, showed his need for sleep.

              “I came to tell you that our latest supply run came in from Parnmal,” her large black eyes looked at him, he felt as if he was being pulled into those massive orbs. “We’re switching to multi’s.”

              Smith’s face turned serious, he nodded in understanding. It meant they now had the supply to lay into the Kalu. It also meant that the higher up thought it didn’t matter if they started hitting the Kalu even harder.

              Before Min Hae had advocated hitting the yards and materials because to the Kalu they were just loot. Once that was done they moved to hitting populated ships more. There was already a timer winding down.

              “How long until they move?” Smith didn’t need to say who he was talking about, it could only be one group of people.

              “Two weeks,” Flek replied.

              “When are third wing coming back from their scouting positions?” The Jump fighters of third wing were positioned in the two systems Ockhara and Pezra that led into Eltar.

              “Four days,” Flek answered.

              “Fifth wing is taking their place. Commander Whorst is also preparing a minefield for the Kalu.”

              “What about the rest of the Fleet?” Smith asked.

              “The other fleets on the line are also building up their positions. Salchar’s fleet is moving to Parnmal, ships from down the corridor are being moved to roving positions throughout the Union,” Flek said.

              In the last two and a half months since a date had been put on when the Kalu were coming, the original ten systems had grown to sixteen, five other systems hadn’t joined, but they’d built up their defenses or bonded their ships, or laid in bunkers to hide in.