Coming Home (Free Fleet Book 2)

by Michael Chatfield

  I was dancing on a knifes edge, and I knew it.

  ***

  Commander Heston was similarly moving between screens as Stephenson came over his earpiece.

  “All fighters flushed.”

  “Very well, Wes,” he said, cutting the channel.

  “Keep it together, watch your wing man and hit those bastards where it hurts!” Heston yelled to his fighters. He changed to flight commanders in charge of four fighters a piece.

  “Cleo, you're all over the place,” he said. He watched over his fighters much like a bear would their cubs.

  God, I wish I was in a fighter. I understand why the commander is always getting in the middle of battle. His hands reached for imaginary fighter controls as Commander Xing reported his fighters were also in the dark.

  “PDS are online. Shit, Kar-” The line ended as the flight commander dealt with a renegade fighter going for glory.

  “Pass to higher,” Heston said, pointing to one of his three comms team members.

  He pressed an icon for a ship, connecting him.

  “Pull your head in! Corvettes and targets of opportunity, not some slow moving PDS!” He cut the channel.

  God, I wish I was in a fighter. He repeated the mantra as he tried to keep his fighters alive by trying to yell down their ballsy moves while also trying to temper that with the confidence to do the ballsy shit they were already doing.

  “Bravo, Charlie—launch!” Wing Commander three said as three Bravo and Charlie fighters fired their missiles and the entire wing veered off. The corvette rolled to displace the damage over its hull as the missiles detonated at a distance enough to rake the Corvette's armor and weapons, but not penetrate the innards, hopefully.

  “Good hit,” Heston said as the corvette powered out and away from battle, it's one side cleared of weaponry.

  A fighter went down then another.

  “This is not time for show boating; this is the real damned thing,” Heston growled at them. All as the fighters stayed closer to their wing member and only dived in close to deliver their missile payload.

  Heston felt as if he was riding a bull more than he was organizing anything as someone overrode his channel. “Weapons firing, Syndicate are hot.”

  Then another override. “Shields are online, premature detonation.”

  One of the comms personnel was already passing it up as Heston was talking to his fighters.

  “Get those shields. I will relay if any shields come down. Targets are shield generators.” Heston reminded them all as their adrenaline was probably skyrocketing, no matter their race.

  ***

  Henry was listening to Heston's comms. He was in the belly of the dreadnought.

  Already, he and the Commandos had a blueprint for the ship and were moving to the personal quarters of the Syndicate personnel. The Mecha's had been locked away in the outer layer with no communications. The Commando's plasmid blades served to quicken their progress to transports that took them to key areas of the ship.

  “Alright, commanders, we need these ships down. Their weapons are coming online,” he supplied as his transport reached the bridge of the dreadnought.

  “Commander, we can't get in,” one of Henry's platoon commanders at the bridge said.

  “Then go around it, and cut the lines in. We need to get this ship down now.” Henry's voice was rough.

  “Commander,” the platoon commander said, as Henry saw his forces were already cutting through the ship.

  Henry's protection detail was around him as he walked off the transport and found a cubby to sit in. He checked the progress of his other Commando groups.

  Bok Soo was nearly at the ship yard. The groups throughout the Syndicate fleet were having varying levels of success. Some were engaged with Sarenmenti Mecha's, others were working with them, some were being wiped out because there was not enough of them to hold the ship. The corvettes were already taken, the ones that had been docked, anyway. The Commandos had them pulling back behind the station, it only took two ships out of the battle, and the least damaging ones at that—but everything counted at this point.

  “Verlu, Erkshaw, how are those battle cruisers going?” He'd put them in charge of two of the four battle cruisers that had shuttled their Mecha's in exchange for the disguised Commandos.

  “Verlu here. We've just left the Mecha's behind. We had to fight our way through them. We took heavy losses. I have people operating in strike squads to run through the ship and cause as much damage as possible. Once the Mecha's get free, we're screwed. I need reinforcements if I can drop this shield.”

  “Understood.” Verlu cut as soon as Henry had acknowledged.

  “Erkshaw, we have taken the port gunnery. We were able to subdue the Mecha's and are working to take out the shield hubs and cut power to the starboard.”

  “Understood,” Henry said as he passed their information to Kim In Sook.

  “Kawaga, are my Commandos loaded and ready to be deployed?” he asked.

  “Yes, they are ready and waiting. There is a core group of two thousand Commandos, and seven thousand of the trainees,” he said as if commenting on a thoughtful novel.

  “Thank you.” Henry checked on Bok Soo, who was still an hour away from the ship yard. I can swear I checked that two hours ago, Henry thought as he checked the progress on the dreadnought's bridge.

  “Commander, I want you at the blast doors into the bridge,” Henry said, picking a squad commander that looked to be doing little.

  “Sir.”

  Now time to prepare to have my Commandos leave for the other ships. We need to get those damned shields down! Henry stood and he began marching towards the bridge as he cut orders for his Commandos and trainees to lock up the Kuruvians in the same areas as the Sarenmenti. There was no knowing who was loyal or not and having a reactor blow up in his face was not high on his list of priorities.

  ***

  I watched as Syndicate ships changed from orange to red.

  “Syndicate weapons are online,” Sensors said as they updated which ships had their weapons online. First it was corvette's and cruisers then destroyers. The Resilient shook from impacts as every ship seemed to focus their fire on the dreadnought. When the battle cruisers and dreadnought came online, it was hard for me to not jump up and try to manage Tactical as Marleen was yelling to her gunners.

  “Shields are at eighty percent, sixty-four.”

  “Marleen?” I asked, trying to hide the near-panic in my voice.

  “Roll!” she said. Helm rolled Resilient, putting new shields and new guns in the line of fire as Brusk's gunners let loose a full volley into every ships but the one Erkshaw and his people were on

  “We have shield spotting!” Sensors said.

  “Get those shields down, Marleen,” I said as I opened a channel to Heston.

  “Heston, I need those guns and if needed, ships, taken out.”

  “Hachiro is coming online,” Rick said. I nodded as I punched another channel open to Kawaga.

  “Hit the battle cruisers.”

  “Weapons are going down on the dreadnought. Henry is reporting command has been cut from the bridge. He's clearing house,” Rick reported.

  “See if he can use those weapons against the rest of the Syndicate,” I said, remembering I was still live with Kawaga.

  Resilient shook from another blast as shields called out.

  “Forty-five percent and falling. They're focusing on us.”

  “Prepare to roll!” I said, coming back to Kawaga.

  “They'll turn their attention to you as soon as you become a threat.”

  “Yes, sir, I have removed people from the outer areas already.”

  “Good.”

  “Shields are spotting,” Shields said.

  “Roll!” I yelled as systems short circuited, someone swearing as Resilient shook violently.

  “Talk later, Kawaga.” I cut the channel as Resilient was reporting her damage.

  “I'm hit in a corridor,
sealed and contained. Systems rerouted, also in second gunnery deck, area sealed, hull weakened.”

  It had taken the firepower of the dreadnought, destroyers and some of the battle cruisers to do that damage which, while being a testament to Resilient's defenses, showed how even she was vulnerable.

  “Destroyer Rising Sun has lost shields!” Sensors called out. I gritted my teeth. Zor's gunnery team was giving the Syndicate hell, but the constant battering was taking down our shields still, shaking us a fair bit.

  “Get it to pull behind Hachiro to affect repairs.”

  “We're spotting!” Shields called out.

  “Pull everyone to inner rings. We're going to take a beating,” I said and Rick started yelling for people to pull back into the ship through the internal speakers.

  “Hachiro's shields are up! They're firing!” Sensors called out.

  “Resilient rocked even more as there was a grinding sound.

  “Taking hits,” Resilient said. Come on, we just need to hold out enough to drop Commandos on those ships, I thought as I stared at my screens for some edge.

  I watched as Hachiro's weapons, nearly twice the size of Resilient's, fired.

  “Battle Cruiser Golf's shields are down,” Sensors said. I could see Heston's fighters were already moving for the ship.

  “Corvette's Ravage and Ashkul are down,” sensors continued. I forced myself to watch the corvette's come apart, Battle Cruiser Charlie had turned on them with their massive rail guns. The rounds had punched through their weakened shields and cracked the corvettes.

  I watched as another took two hits before it's shields gave way and the battle cruiser hit it's bottle. There was nothing left.

  Sensors reported what I'd already seen.

  “Rick, have the corvettes and cruisers on striking runs,” I said. Kim looked like a woman possessed as she coordinated where Commandos were and where gunnery crews should shoot or were shooting.

  “Shields?” I asked. Resilient reported plasma rounds hitting her armor and burning into the second layer before chemical countermeasures stopped it.

  “Suggest we roll. Crews are working on shield relays,” shields said.

  “Do it, Helm,” I said as I watched the screen of casualties grow, anger and pain filling me. I had to tear my eyes from the readouts.

  “The destroyers are gathering together with the cruisers and attacking Hachiro,” Sensors said.

  “Resilient, get me the senior commanders on those ships.”

  “On.”

  “I need those ships dead, whatever it takes.” I knew that my talking to them personally and saying those words would mean that more Commandos would die than if they took the ship normally. Yet I needed Hachiro. It was the only thing other than the Resilient that could take the punishment. I checked the status of my other ships. All of them, except the corvettes that were running to turn around and get a run on the Syndicate ships, didn't have shields. Most of them had breaches and were leaking atmo.

  Resilient shuddered as alarms went off.

  “Bottles one and two have failed. Ejecting them,” Resilient said, her voice becoming very electronic.

  My finger hovered over Eddies name for a second.

  “Resilient, what does that mean?”

  “We cannot maneuver, only shoot.”

  “Shields, I'm going to need you online ASAP!” I said as I tapped the command chair's arms.

  The dreadnought was still pounding us with one side, but only one other battle cruiser was joining in. The rest were attacking Hachiro.

  Then the dreadnought went quiet before its engines fired to put it above Hachiro and fire onto the forces attacking the station. The destroyers and smaller ships scrammed as they moved to attack the dreadnought.

  “Henry here, we have the dreadnought,” He said, his voice coming in ragged breaths. Knowing the physical regimen the man adhered to, I knew he was wounded. I just hoped he saw to it.

  “We have taken down the shields on BC Golf.”

  “Understood.”

  Things were now changing rapidly for the group of ships that were attacking Hachiro. My words had seemed to have the desired effect.

  A destroyer changed its IFF and moved out of the battle. It was a wreck. Three cruisers went dead as one corvette's bottle let go, taking it and the corvette nearest it out. Usually, such a thing didn't happen in space, but we were within each others personal space with everyone holding around Hachiro.

  I let my fingers hit the armrest a few times as the bloody screen with my constantly updating wounded and dead list kept updating.

  “We have shields!” Shields said. The calm shocked me, I'd become used to the battering of weapons fire.

  “Use starboard side shields to assist port,” I said as the corvettes and cruisers came in on their attack run, laying down fire into the BC's, which were converging into a group, actually blocking one another's line of fire. One BC learnt this as it received a plasma round in its side away from the battle. It, like Resilient, had used its shields pointing away from the battle to bolster it's engaged ones, meaning it had no shields there as plasma ate into the hull. It took out the gunnery deck and caused an explosion before the plasma was finally stopped by countermeasures.

  The battle cruiser turned, moving out of battle slowly as it fired at Hachiro.

  “Rick, get the corvettes to focus on those engines,” I said as the cruisers loosed their missiles racks.

  Stars erupted across the front of battle cruisers as their PDS was mostly too slow to hit the missiles.

  “Shields down!” Sensors said as they ran off a list.

  Fighters are reloading. Cruisers also have missiles to take down the weaponry quickly. Cannons will put holes in them. Yet if they miss then those Commandos will pay, I thought.

  “Resilient, send the distances for the cruiser missiles to take out the battle cruiser's weaponry, and order to fire.”

  I opened Kawaga's channel.

  “We'll have an opening for those Commandos in a minute; be ready to release them.”

  “Understood, Commander.”

  I waited on the channel as I watched my plot. “Commander Felur is abandoning; her reactor is going.” Comms had barely finished when a handful of pods had gotten away from Felur's ship ResHin. The reactor was spat out and exploded, cracking the ship and killing any pods on the same side it was ejected from.

  Fucking poor bastards, I thought as my face remained hard.

  “Three battle cruisers are leaving the battlefield. They're practically touching one another,” Sensors said.

  C'mon, Commando's, cut their power. I thought about possibly losing the men and women on those ships.

  “We have confirmed all corvettes are ours as well as the destroyers and two cruisers.

  “Rick, have the Commandos abandon the cruisers unless they think they can take them. Marleen, get ready to line them up.”

  ***

  Evelyn grunted as she helped replace an ammunition feed line to the massive cannons with two others. Get some footage of the Resilient, you thought, join the group of trainees, you thought. It'll be like every other job you've done behind enemy lines, you thought. Evelyn Sparks chastised herself as the feed line was secured in place, George already rushing them to another damaged area.

  “We're replacing power relays to the shield generators,” George said, barely out of breath as Evelyn thought that she'd run a marathon. The Resilient shook again. Those not connected to the ground through their Mecha's boots went flying but George or one of the Commandos picked them back up.

  “Up you get, ladies and gents, those shields need work still.” Geroge's voice was forceful but not an order. Evelyn had found, in her five days with the Free Fleet, it wasn't like other militaries. It was much more relaxed. There wasn't someone yelling all the time and, everyone was treated as equal and vital.

  The ship shook again as the lead Commando changed direction. Another section of the ship had been exposed to space.

&nbs
p; One of the trainees yelled out as they grabbed the wall to steady themselves, instead grabbing a live wire and the Mecha shorted.

  George twisted and pulled some recessed handles as the Mecha opened and a scared looking trainee emerged.

  “You're all good,” George said with an upbeat tone as Evelyn sprayed the exposed wires with sealant.

  “Let's keep on going, guys, we're behind Donnal now,” George said as Evelyn turned and began running after the rest of the squad.

  I hope this footage is worth it!

  Chapter Highs and Lows.

  Henry just finished watching his Commandos fleeing all but two of the cruisers, heading away from the battle as shuttles were being scrambled to pick them up.

  Resilient's guns hammered the cruisers, turning them into balls of light. I took no more than three hits to pierce the shields and armor, getting to the missiles underneath.

  “We've taken Battle Cruiser Delta,” Commander Versai said over the commander channel before it returned to silence

  One of the battle cruiser's fleeing split as one of its power plants exploded. Another stopped as its engines blew out; the last one just stopped as Henries casualties lists shot up.

  Henry detailed six shuttles for the battle cruisers as reports filed in, names of people he knew passing in front of his eyes as he focused on the battle.

  “Verlu, you're in charge of those four battle cruisers. I need to know what's going on and if it's safe for shuttles to land.”

  “This is Commander Tully, Commander Verlu is dead. I will get those reports to you,” the Kuruvian said in dulled professional tones. Henry felt as if he'd had his already weakened frame kicked.

  Henry let out a breath. I will think of you later, as well as all those that go with you into the dark, Henry thought as his mind turned back to battle.

  “Very well, Commander Tully.”