Coming Home (Free Fleet Book 2)

by Michael Chatfield

  Kids had thought her weird when she interviewed her teachers, usually sending them to the breaking point. The workplace had been the same thing for her then VICE had helped her and she'd reported on everything possible. VICE was no longer a thing, but the people that made it up kept in contact with one another. If she was going on this ride, she could think of a few more people that could join her.

  Look at me, Dad, I'm interviewing kids that were trained by a PDF-impersonating Syndicate. Doesn't get more bizarre, does it? she thought as she was hanging onto every word Rick and Marleen said.

  ****

  I looked across to Shrift as I sat down in my seat with a sigh. With everything going on, I needed to keep on top of not only the progress with my people, training, and relations, but also the engineering side. Without ships, guns, and Mechas we were not going to win the war.

  “That went well,” Shrift said.

  I shrugged. “Hopefully she isn't like the reporters that bug me for my comment on anything, from fashion to my love life and my tactics.” Shrift laughed, looking at my face of weirded out confusion.

  “Back to the ship yard and dock?” he asked, a grin still on his face.

  “Alright, onwards and upwards,” I said, getting comfortable in my seat as I pulled out my data pad, damned thing was a life saver. I never left home without it.

  “Now, for weapons systems, Felix and Min Hae have come up with some interesting designs. They're testing them right now, but they could add significant firepower to our ships.”

  “Did they turn away from the plasma weaponry?”

  “Yes, they agreed that the technology is so unstable that, while it is very effective, it does more harm than damage as we saw with the battle cruisers.”

  “Also, have you placed the order for the Gatling guns and other PDS's?”

  “Yes, I have, I have an armor contractor that is interested in joining the fleet. It makes sense, really, if we're making reactive armor big enough to fit on a space ship that we have it in space. The costs in fuel will be astronomical otherwise, and the resources are more readily available,” Shrift said.

  “Makes sense. Now, I know that Eddie had plans for the hull from the last battle as well as one of the operational battle cruisers, have you been able to sway him into using that hull as the base and the cracked BC for whatever he needs?” I asked.

  “Yes and no. Yes, he'll use them, but he wants to put all new systems into it.”

  I nodded. “Very well, I'll want it in full fighting order, anyway. Once our current forces are fixed up then I want to start getting the broken destroyers and such into the line then use anything left to get me carriers, proper carriers. Min Hae and Felix are only able to make bastardized versions so far, but I want real ones.”

  Shrift nodded to my words as he made a note, talking as he did so. “Shall we continue with the extending of the dock?”

  “Yes, I want everything growing. Nancy is going to be key to us with our oncoming battles, and she won't be much use to use without the materials she needs.” My face turned sour. It's all damned numbers, if we could use the market, however, maybe make loans, then have them pay it off.

  “We're going to need some accountants,” I said.

  Shrift looked at me with clear confusion. “Accountants?”

  “We need some people to look into the financial workings of the Union or... Resilient?” I looked to the ceiling.

  “Yes?” she responded.

  “Would you be able to assimilate the information on the banking systems of the Union?” I asked, probably sounding a little hopeful.

  “Lare would probably be more interested in that, he like's numbers. At this stage he's basically a child AI, so he's making way more connections than I ever could, though he needs more processing power. I do too.” She finished and I looked to Shrift.

  “I'll get right on that,” he said and I saw him scroll to the top of the list and do just that.

  “Now, Resilient, could you have Lare have a look at Union laws, specifically the rules about loans?”

  “Certainly, he's been looking for something new to do.”

  “How is he doing? Has he made any decisions?”

  “Not yet, though he's interested in the Free Fleet and what it does. For now he needs more computing power and to get his physical aspects fixed.”

  “That's reasonable, though as he is not personnel of the fleet then he will be one of the slower jobs, unfortunately.”

  “I understand. We need ships capable of defending our interests and our charges. Working on him would possibly not get us closer to either of those goals.”

  “Thank you for understanding.”

  “Do not worry about it,” she said, her calming voice making it so that I didn't.

  I looked to Shrift. “So, what are our forces at right this minute?”

  “To the standard you would want, not including Boots forces. One battle cruiser, two cruisers and seven corvettes. The destroyer will be fixed in a week, three for the corvettes and cruiser. The remaining two BC's, other than Eddie's project, three weeks on top of that. Then the dreadnoughts. With your wanting to overhaul all of them except the cruisers, again triple the time.”

  I nodded my head. “Get it done.”

  “Very well.” He rose, checking his data pad. “See you around, James,” he said.

  I grinned. “You can bet on it, Shrift. You decide where you want to be posted yet?”

  “Nope, still thinking on it,” he said. I shook my head as he wandered out. He was holding the promise I'd given him like a get out of jail card.

  As he left I checked over the transfers that Monk was proposing to send to Nancy. Cheerleader was also requesting a few of her ships to be overhauled.

  I went through each of the ships, assessing their value and making a schedule for them to be fixed up. I reached the point where Parnmal's own docks and yard would be built in a years’ time, by Monk's estimate, before I stopped.

  “I also need to figure out a schedule to rotate people into Sol System and the others systems and keep patrols going on without a hitch.” I sighed to myself as I finished my tea. It was summer berry. While smelling nice, I never found it had the actual taste, something that I missed from Korea. Teas actually tasted as it said it would. Still, it smelt good and had some taste to it.

  Chapter Rebuilding

  Henry barely felt any strain as he used his Mecha to lift bulkhead paneling into place. Drones tacked it to the deck and ceiling quickly before moving on to seal it fully. Henry moved to the next panel, knowing the drones would be done by the time he had the second one in place.

  “Don't you find it annoying that we have to fix the holes we put in these ships in the first place?” Rick asked and Henry grunted a laugh, pulling the panel into place, the drones darting around again as he waited a few seconds before going to the next one.

  “Takes a few seconds to take them down but hours to put it all back together,” Henry said and it was Rick's turn to grunt in agreement.

  “Makes you almost want to use corridors, even though they are veritable death traps,”

  he said, somehow making light of it as Henry sighed. They'd been putting the ships back together, rotating crews and Commandos in and out so everyone got some training and rest.

  “More fun to use a sword than just walking. More, wham bam, thank you, damn,” Yasu said.

  Henry laughed at this. “It does sound better that way.” He got to his next panel, the drones following him like loyal dogs as they tacked the panel and he continued on.

  The work was menial and mind numbing, but Rick's anecdotes made the time go quickly. Min Hae and Felix were supposedly working on designing an army of drones with their teams as Silly and his gave them feedback. The drones would be able to put the ships back many of times faster than Henry and his Commandos could. Henry just wished it was a reality already. Pulling down panels and then replacing them was a dull job, indeed.

  Henry's mind wandered as h
e began to think on the ships that had already left to change out with Cheerleader's people who'd bring back another mixed bunch of newly minted Free Fleet personnel.

  It's all rather exciting once you think of it, though it's going to take a lot of damned time, Henry thought as the Free Fleet was finally on a standing where it could grow instead of diminish.

  “Seems that Cheerleader's pretty certain about there being life in system RX-4,” Rick said, breaking Henry from his thoughts.

  “Well, there were some readings from Parnmal,” Yasu said, “seemed that they were looking for a civilization that used to be part of the Union. Looks like Cheerleader has the bug too. She was always damned determined and stubborn.” A note of respect was in her tone.

  She's come a long way from thinking that our underhanded tactics are dishonorable. Heck, I bet she'd do them too if she thought she could keep a few of us alive. While Yasu was most definitely part of the Commando's and retained the rank of company commander, she was pretty much Henry’s filler. If he needed someone to take command of a group which was in disarray or he needed something done and his other commanders were busy, Yasu was always the one he went to. She was also the one that created the training program, overseeing Takahashi take the trainees through it and had also created the advanced physical and hand to hand training of a Commando, forcing the Commandos around her into peak condition.

  Great Commando to have when we're doing this work a third of the time. For once working for Salchar is boring. Henry couldn't stop himself, letting a laugh go as he grinned to himself.

  “What was that?” Rick asked.

  “Did you ever imagine being bored under Salchar?” Henry said, chuckling. Rick paused for a second before chuckling and shaking his head.

  “No comment,” Yasu said as the two's chuckles became laughter.

  ****

  Eddie was in no laughing mood as he was installing Resilient's new upgrades, from processors to cooling systems and memory cores.

  While Earth wasn't very advanced compared to the information that Resilient had shared from the Union, their computer systems were a different matter. While their societies didn't look to expand as it would make the capitalist society they lived in a very hard one to control, they did believe in making new and advanced systems to make life faster. So Resilient was not just getting a small upgrade but a rather large one.

  “Vac! Davidson! I don't care if you’re talking; just get the damned job done!” Eddie said as the two got to work, speaking quietly in hopes the all hearing-seeing Eddie wouldn't notice them.

  Eddie sighed. Kids and slackers. He groaned as his auto wrench finished bolting the massive memory bank into the floor.

  Eddie saw something out the corner of his eye. He pulled his boot off and threw it in one motion.

  “Ow!” Damn Amart. Eddie knew every engineer under him by the noises they let out when his boot connected with their backside. Eddie retracted his boot.

  “Amart! Check those bolts and the shock structure. You don't just bolt and leave!” he said as Amart turned and studied the structure for faults, jacking into it to make sure everything was fine.

  “Always check your work. Doesn't make sense to-” Eddie threw the boot that had just come back to him. His aim had improved after he'd hit Retter in the face the first year he'd been chief. He'd never been quite the same after he fell off that catwalk because he wasn't properly secured.

  “Shit!”

  “Maaaark! You've been staring at that cooling system for an hour. It's not going to run away on you unless you try to mate with it.” Eddie picked up the boot which had come back to him.

  “Chief,” Mark said as he closed up the cooling unit and moved on, looking more than a bit embarrassed.

  “Now, as I was saying, it doesn't make sense to install it and not check it. Otherwise, we'll be doing it in battle. Then you'll have to answer to Commander Salchar.” Everyone put their heads down to work and conversations ceased.

  That's better. Eddie checked the memory bank, running start up on it before moving on. Eddie knew his people were the best in the fleet, but that didn't mean that he'd let them rest on their laurels. Being the best meant they had to maintain that status.

  So he was going to get Resilient's guts into fighting order before the yard rats got to it. Nine months was a nice estimate and all—if it wasn't a ship run by Chief Engineer Eddie.

  Not going to have the commander of the Free Fleet with the worst off ship in the fleet. Not on my watch!

  Eddie didn't think that Salchar was some god as some of the personnel in the Free Fleet did, but he was quite exemplary, while being just a human.

  Plus, Chief Fuddy on the new dreadnought was known for his ability to get things done. He should be after being my protégé, Eddied thought darkly. Now it was protégé against master in a race to finish their dreadnought. Though, Chief Fuddy had the added advantages of being in zero grav and having less damage from the battle, yet it was evened out with his thrown together crew and the fact that the dreadnought was in terrible condition.

  Chapter It's Never One Thing At a Time.

  Bregend grunted as he lifted enough weight to make the bar bend. Kurft, Bregend's commander of the contingent of Commandos across his ship, was one of the few people that could spot the mass of a man.

  Bregend stood slowly before dropping just as slowly down to the floor again, exhaling and then pushing up again, all in one fluid movement. Bregend racked it as Kurft got out of his way.

  “Don't want to squat a shuttle today?”

  “That's Marleens gig,” Bregend said. She was one of the few other people that could spot him.

  Kurft grinned as he got into the squat rack.

  A siren went off as Kurft was about to lift the bar. He got out from the Rack as Bregend turned to leave.

  “Seems we're needed,” Bregend said. Kurft grunted, running off towards Commando territory.

  Wish it was after we got our structure seen to, Bregend thought as the Rebirth's main structural supports had been realigned and strengthened, but with Nancy now online Rebirth had been on the fast track to getting new supports. It was a big job but otherwise Rebirth was the only BC at a hundred percent in everything but structure. She even had some upgrades that Bregend was going to owe Min Hae and Felix a few beers for.

  “Move,” Bregend said, his deep voice unforgettable as crew moved to either side and the ship commander barreled through before they continued to their positions.

  Should have gone for an Ashenti Class Battle Cruiser, thing has transports on it, Bregend thought. He'd memorized ships, their abilities and names while training. He thought it was one of the only reasons he stayed sane, unlike many of his generation of recruits. It had become somewhat of a hobby, and an exercise he continued onto his commander ship of the Rebirth.

  Bregend had downloaded some interviews from the information broadcast from earth where Salchar was asked about strategy.

  Don't just know your opponent, know their gear, the battlefield and their lives. To properly gauge an opponent, you need to know them better than they know themselves. You need to be able to read them. Do it often enough and you know your enemy as soon as you see them.

  Bregend entered the bridge as his thoughts turned toward the present and he took his command chair.

  “We have a pre-one flash from Parnmal. They have a Syndicate fleet moving in on them and are requesting aid from Free Fleet forcesc” Comms Commander Kyle Tonfen said.

  Mills, Bregend's second, as if reading his mind had a plot of Parnmal and it's surrounding system projected into the bridge and transferred to Bregend, who looked at it.

  Too many. Plus with the relay only going to Salchar, Cheerleader won't get this for another four days. Bregend checked when the switching ships would get to Parnmal, it wouldn't be for another three days.

  “Nav, I need a possible plot around Parnmal to meet up with Cheerleader's forces,” Bregend said, his tone solemn. That many jumps, if done roughly,
could rip apart the repairs they'd carried out on the Rebirth.

  Just until we get to Cheerleader, Bregend thought as he rubbed the armrest of his chair.

  Mills looked to him. She already knew what he was thinking. He nodded to her as she turned to her terminal and began checking if Rebirth was ready for the journey as best as possible.

  “We will take the Rebirth and go around Parnmal in an effort to catch up with PC's fleet. While the message will get to Salchar in two days, Cheerleader will not get a message. We know where she and her fleet will be. We will have to be the messenger. We have the fastest ship, other than the corvette, and the fuel reserves to make it that far.” He looked around the bridge. When he'd come into command, they'd been strangers. Now they were his alter egos.

  “Kyle, I want the patrol forces here to go silent. I want AIH to do the same. AIH went undetected for twelve years, they can do it again.”

  “Nav, do you have a plot?”

  I have one out of system, working off of planetary maps for possible jump locations as well as gravitational anomalies.”

  “Good.” Gravitational anomalies could mean a friggin black hole, Wilma. Bregend's mind automatically going to the worst possible outcome as he refrained from asking Wilma to find something better. He knew she would not enjoy him using her name instead of her occupation, and she was damned good at what she did. Salchar had recommended her and he'd seen her scores himself.

  “Continue on. Mills?”

  “Sir, Engineer Rous says that as long as we make smooth transitions, we'll be good.” Or we won't be and it won't matter anymore, Mills' eyes said.

  Bregend nodded once. “Very well. I want to be underway in ten minutes.” Rapid orders were yelled across the ship. Bregend hadn't been just sitting on his hands. He'd made sure that his people were ready for such an emergency where time mattered, and right now every second did.

  Chapter Unexpected Guests

  “We have jump point emergence!” The sensor commander squealed in excitement. Monk knew that it would wear off soon enough.