Free Fleet Box Set 2

by Michael Chatfield

  “Be safe,” I told her.

  “I should be the one saying that. Whenever I'm not around you get yourself into all kinds of shit,” she said, pulling herself into me briefly before walking up the ramp into her shuttle.

  I turned, determination filling me as I breezed past Krom and Shreesht. I saw the smirks they traded between one another. Clearly they knew their Battle Master was back. I pulled my data pad out, remembering the information that Bok Soo had beaten into me, a little too literal in some ways. But it had worked nonetheless. I scanned for extra information as I checked the charging cycle for the wormhole generators. It looked like they were almost ready to go, so I returned to my cabin and immersed myself in all the information I could find.

  Chapter - Some Trust is Earned, Some Takes a Leap

  Foshunti tried to not look nervous. Keeping up the veneer of being a psychotic dog of Lady Fairgate was tiring. He had done it for close to thirty five years, and now it might come to an end. That is if Salchar was as good as Foshunti had been told, and the two of them could trust one another to put a big one over on the Syndicate.

  The tension was palpable on the bridge. The Talhalla, his carrier, was the biggest ship that Foshunti had been able to fill with people that hated the Syndicate and had hidden in their ranks with him. It had taken a lot of work and today Foshunti would have to gamble whether he should join forces with the Free Fleet so that they could work to destroy the Syndicate. There was a big chance that it would fail. There was still half of the fleet that he hadn't been able to replace with loyal forces, though they were on the worst ships, or the damned useless cruisers. Foshunti was not a great fan of the ship type.

  Now I just have to decide. Not hard at all, he thought grumpily.

  ***

  Rick checked his implants. They were a few hours past what they should've been. He tapped his fingers on the Command chair, Marleen's look stopping him mid tap as he rested his head on his left hand and put his arm on his armrest. Hopefully it would be enough to stop his jitters as he watched the wormhole that he was travelling through. Milra piloted it with grace, but Rick couldn't tell what the hell was going on. He'd read the material and the theory, and all of it went right over his head.

  A counter wound down, showing the time until emergence.

  “Establishing exit,” Milra said as the ride got slightly bumpier. There was a flash as the pits came alive.

  “Compensating for gravity anomalies,” Krat said.

  “Powering through event horizon,” Milra said, both of them calm and collected, their veteran status showing.

  “Free of event horizon, checking position,” Milra said after a few moments.

  “Shields are tuned, refining,” Krat added.

  “Sensors are online, nothing in ten light seconds,” Walf joined in.

  “Firing sensor missiles,” Marleen said, as per Rick’s orders before entering jump.

  The missiles sped off, heading for the asteroid belt of the system. He wanted to know if there was any forces hiding in there before he entered it. It's what he would've done to get an advantage on the enemy. There was a noise at the bulkheads as they opened.

  I don't fricking believe it! Rick thought as he saw Salchar marching onto the bridge.

  ***

  “Alright, give me everything you've got!” I barked as I walked onto the bridge. There was no missing Rick's open mouthed stare as the rest of the bridge looked at me in shock.

  “Time is lives, people. I believe that's my seat,” I said with a confidence I didn't feel.

  Rick stood up, a grin spreading across his face.

  “I stand relieved, Commander.” He passed me to get to his seat. “Goddamn, it's good to have you back James,”

  “The name’s Commander Salchar,” I said, my voice taking on a rough edge. I sat in the commander’s chair, a wave of emotion running through me. Without thinking about it I went through reports on the ships and moved the screens so they were adjusted to me and not Rick.

  You were right Yasu, this is where I belong. Fuck the stats, the probabilities, and likelihoods. The Free Fleet makes its own luck. I rolled my shoulders, a strength filling me that I hadn't felt since I left Resilient.

  I looked to Krom and Shreesht, who had followed me and I nodded to them. I hadn't wanted the responsibility that came with this Fleet, but I had made it, formed it from a group of slaves, half trained and made to be cannon fodder. I owed those that had followed me, those that had died. They were the Free Fleet. I had made a promise to look after these people, a promise that I had forgotten in my self-pity.

  “We've got scans coming in from the sensor missiles. Our own sensors are compiling a picture of the system,” Walf said.

  “Good. How are we looking, Shields, Tactical?”

  “We've still got damage to our armor from Daestramus, shield generators have been fixed and are fully operational,” Krat said.

  “Good,” I said, looking to Marleen.

  “Weapons are online, damage to port side from a missile strike. Lost four guns,” she said. I nodded.

  “Rick?”

  “Rinky Dink and Daisy skimmer are damaged as well. Their captains are reporting battle readiness across ship. Feng Fang is also damaged. She has reduced launch capability. It's been cut in half. The rest of the Fleet reports ready.”

  “Very well.”

  I checked my boards, looking at the four Dreadnoughts, two brand new Battle Carriers, thirteen Battle Cruisers, seventeen Destroyers, thirty six Corvettes, and two Cruisers I wondered how those two Cruisers had survived Silly's converting them o merchant vessels them from the Fleet. They took people from the rest of the Fleet and were moving bombs. I decided that after the first exchange I was going to have them as runners. I sent messages to the Captain's, as well as to Monk. If we were going to make Foshunti pay, we were going to need more ammunition than we could hold.

  “Vort, have the Battle Carriers join the Dreadnoughts on the front line,” I said, looking over the pyramid like formation.

  “Sir, we also have an incoming message from Foshunti.”

  I nodded as I kept reading my reports. Foshunti had the message on repeat and on all bands. He would know when we were in-system in an hour and a half.

  “That's nice. He can wait a few minutes,” I said, catching a few glances and grins. That's right. I wasn't going to be on his beck and call.

  I took my time, reading the mundane reports. The important stuff I'd already gone over in my room.

  “Alright, Vort let's see this ugly bastard,” I said as the main screen changed to show a bridge the size of Resilient's crewed with all manner of creatures. Foshunti sat in his chair, looking at the feed almost lazily.

  “So nice for you to show up for our battle. I will enjoy this little fight. Maybe I will make you my pet afterwards, Salchar.” The Dovark seemed to enjoy saying my name as he languished in his seat. “Maybe the outcome will surprise me. I so dearly hope it does,” he said, a smile that made me doubt his sanity playing upon his lips. “I hope that you surprise me Salchar. It will be so interesting to find out the truth behind the man. I hope Resilient will prove true. Let us begin,” he said, cutting the channel.

  “How does he know your real name?” I asked Resilient.

  “It may be that there is a lot more to this battle than I thought,” Resilient said, appearing in her holographic form. “That super-carrier is the Planner,” she said, pointing to the plot that now filled the main screen.

  “What? He's been captured?”

  “No, he's working with Foshunti I think. I'm sending handshake right now. Hopefully he can tell us himself,” She said.

  “I thought he’d be bigger,” Rick said, I rolled my eyes at him as he shrugged, it seemed his happy-go-lucky attitude was back at least.

  “Why didn't you know before?” I asked resilient.

  “I haven't seen him in a hundred and fifty years. When he left he was barely a ship. He must've found that carrier or pulled it togethe
r around himself.”

  I studied the carrier as if I could figure out whether to trust it and its occupants.

  “So is he working for Foshunti?” I asked, the screen changing as a metallic blob appeared on my screen.

  “In a manner I am,” a new voice echoed. “It is good to finally meet you James. Resilient has kept me updated with your progress.” The blob moved over itself, ripples forming and flowing like visual synthesizers I'd seen for music videos.

  “Please explain,” I said.

  “Resilient said you were a rather driven man.”

  I looked to Resilient. We were going to have to have a talk later about telling people secrets.

  “Ah, you are annoyed with her for telling me about you and your fleet,” Planner said with amusement. “Understandable, but I mean you no harm, nor does Foshunti for that matter.” he said as I looked at the screen, realizing he could read body language as well as I could. Though with him being a blob there wasn't much that I could tell from his appearance.

  There seems to be an assumption here that Salchar knows the personality behind this voice. However, it’s not clear to me.

  “I believe I should start at the beginning. As you know I disagreed with the council's thoughts to leave the people of the Union to fend for themselves when the PDF fell. I set out to try and make it a better place, but a rot had taken a hold of the people. Many wanted to do something about the issues, but few had the drive to actually follow through.

  “I needed to get close to Lady Fairgate, understand what she was doing and try to reverse it in some way. I went to the line and cobbled together this super-carrier that you see. I put myself in a system that the Syndicate would rummage through and was taken to Lady Fairgates’ base. He got me repaired and used me as a symbol of power for her Captain Lords.

  “Many Captains took control of me, but none of them cared about the people. I quickly found ways to be rid of them and started forming my own ship’s crew. I picked people from planets that had been oppressed and I gave them an opportunity. They were to mimic a syndicate pirate and I would get them aboard me and start doing some good for this messed up galaxy. I did this under the watch of many captains. I began influencing them to switch around the crews of other ships, so that I would get a group that would hate the syndicate, and when the time came, look after the people they had left behind on their planets.

  “I spent so much time over Worshun that I became the planet's only means of communicating with the outside galaxy. They took generations of children, training them in secret to be the best of them in all ways. There were three champions, but it took time for me to sway Lady Fairgate to make a Dovark as a captain in order to amuse herself. She finally decided to pick one and I made Foshunti look the most favourable. The Dovark had created a character for him to play. The darkest and deadliest of the Dovark, one that craved sadistic pleasures, a true psychopath.

  “Foshunti performed his role,” Planner said, “And she made him the head of her fourth fleet. The Fleet that I had changed into the tool that could change the galaxy.”

  “So you're telling me that these ships, all of them, support the people, not Lady Fairgate,” I said, I just couldn't believe it. It was too unreal, but still hope grew in my chest.

  “Not exactly. While I was able to get the core group of people to changed over I wasn't able to change out some captains, or chiefs, or lowly ranked people,” he said.

  “How do I know that you're not being used by Foshunti for his own purposes?”

  “You simply don't. Resilient can run a stress test on me, but that could be faked,”

  “So I'm going to have to take it on faith,”

  “A leap, if you will commander,” he said, his tone completely calm.

  “Why don't you just overthrow the people that aren't loyal to the cause and then join us?” I asked.

  “Because they have a lot of ships and there are multiple people that have a FTL connection with Lady Fairgate. We need to get them into the next system where there is no relay for them to connect and then strike when it is least expected.”

  “So what do you need us to do?”

  “Pull the Fleet in. We'll get them to report that they have engaged you, that you have been routed and we're chasing you. Then when in the next system we will guide them into a trap, take the ships from them and put your people on them. Then we can consolidate our forces and move on Lady Fairgate,” Planner said.

  It sounded nice, but I had some serious doubts.

  “How are you able to talk FTL?” I asked. It had taken me a moment to realize it. I was so used to talking to people face to face instead of having an hour and a half time lapse that I should be having.

  “You should ask Resilient that,” Planner said.

  “Let me talk with my people,” I said, the bubble simply shivered as the connection cut.

  “Vort, all Commanders conference in five minutes. I want a recording of that sent to all of them,” I said, standing.

  “So what have you been telling him, Resilient?” I asked, unable to hide my icy edge.

  “You were asking me what I told Planner,” she said as my implants pinged a message coming in from her. I reviewed it, it gave a list of items as well as summaries if I desired to know more.

  “How did you get these messages to him, there isn't a FTL relay in our systems,” I said.

  “No biological ones,” she said with a smirk, following me and Rick to the conference room, and appearing inside it.

  “You're telling me the AI's have an FTL relay?”

  “Yes, the largest in existence. It allows us to know where an AI has been born to minimize the damage. It's how he was able to talk to you in real-time just now,” she said as I stared at her.

  “We could've used that, when Parnmal knew that Nancy was coming, or countless other times,” I said, containing my anger.

  “It's for AI's only. Organics have to be given permission by the council. Otherwise the relay is shut down and another one built with different codes,” she said.

  “Then what about that right there?” I said, pointing to the conference room door.

  “He was technically talking to me and you were just there. At least that's what we'll tell the council if they ask,” Resilient said.

  “Is Lare part of this FTL network?” I asked.

  “Yes he is, though whether he knows he is I don't know. I was going to tell him when I next saw him. Most AI's block it out. There's usually a lot of chatter and garbage on it. Like any communications where there's a lot of people,”

  “Is there anything else you're keeping from us?” I said, as I finished her report. It was filled with generalities and feelings rather than numbers. She hadn't described our force strength, where our people were or our technology and resources once. It was more like a 'how are you doing' postcard that one got at Christmas, a lot of information but little to no specifics.

  “If I am I don't know about it,” she said as I nodded.

  “Doesn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but its the best we're going to get I guess,” I said as Captains and commanders started coming online holographically.

  “Alright you've all seen the video. Now we've got to decide if we're going to trust the Planner and Foshunti.” I gave them a minute to breathe before pointing to the first person.

  ***

  “So what did he say?” Foshunti asked. Planner hovered, a seeming sphere of floating mercury.

  “He didn't make a decision,”

  “If he had I would be worried,” Foshunti said. It had taken two decades from when he was accepted into the Syndicate to build his fleet, even longer to forge his contacts and people to the standard they were at now.

  His bridge crew moved about, doing their jobs with ease and competence. Memories of the things he had to do to gain his position and retain it, still haunted his mind. However he had been trained for a purpose. For a Dvark it was the highest calling to be a champion. He had not only been a champion,
but he was being given an opportunity to be the one that could lead the Dovark back out into the Galaxy and bring back the PDF and Union. He had plans already made for doing it by himself, but this Salchar and his people had proved themselves to be a worthy adversary.

  While Salchar had his own plans to make, Foshunti had to weigh if it was better to join his fleet to the Free Fleet, or to continue on his path. He craved to be free of the crazed personality of Foshunti that he had come to embody. Yet he knew that being free of that personality was a small consideration compared to the survival of the Dovark.

  “What do you think of him?” Foshunti asked Planner.

  “I think that he is a highly capable warrior. Having him at your side would be advantageous. Though to judge him by the people around him, I think that he might beat even you in battle, if it was on a level playing field,”

  “So I would crush him if I fought him in this battle?” Foshunti asked, his time competing to be a champion made him always evaluate himself according to the competition.

  “Not quite,” Planner said, clearly amused.

  “How so?” Foshunti asked. The forces massed were in Foshunti's favour. He had a super-carrier, twelve Dreadnought's twenty two Battle Cruisers, thirty three Destroyers, twenty nine Cruisers (He hated the things), and forty seven Corvette's. He had Salchar by four times the weight of ships, guns three times.

  “You'll find out if you join him, or not,” Planner said in his oh so mysterious way.

  Foshunti wished there was a way to show how what Planner said was true. Yet for the Dovark it had imperative that his true purpose be kept secret. He looked at the info-graphic of Talhalla. She was a kilometre and a half long, with two massive fighter hangars built directly into her structure that rested three quarters down her mass. It gave her the look of an atmosphere capable ship. Her bow came back, looking like a rounded arrow head before it cut in in front of the fighter hangars.

  Turrets and missile batteries lined the hull. They ranged from heavy cannons to medium ones. She looked like hell. Scars ran through her hull plating, atmosphere leaked from places, turrets and missile batteries were missing, and there were piles of slag on the hull. One of the five massive ion engines was out, and she had a famous issue charging her wormhole generators. It was a clever disguise. While the ship looked like crap inside and out, everything that was online was fully operational.