Free Fleet Box Set 2

by Michael Chatfield

  “They're connected,” Comms said as the screen went from the Star plot to a creature of smoke with twin shining eyes and a cloak.

  Monk straightened in his chair.

  So did the hooded creature on the screen. While Monk was lit, the incoming image was dark. The throne looked to be hew from obsidian, lights from consoles on either side of the creature illuminated the brown cloak which hid the massive form of some humanoid looking creature. The only discernible feature other than its size, was the two orange orbs, which Monk knew had to be eyes. They were looking straight at Monk. They seemed to indicate their lack of care at the weapons platforms that were coming online and turning in its direction.

  “Commander Monk, I am Devastahli of the rearguard. I wish to join your Free Fleet,” he said, his voice as heavy as an Orvunut's but flowing as a Dovark's.

  “Did you have any terms in mind, with the abilities that you and your fellow AI's bring to the battle that would be a large recompense from the Free Fleet coffers?” Monk said.

  “I am transmitting terms,” Devastahli said in that same deep rolling voice that seemed more suited for yelling a call to arms than simple conversation.

  “I have them,” Comms said.

  “If I may?” Resilient asked.

  “Please,” Monk said.

  A highlighted report appeared on Monk's personal screens a few moments later. It summarized everything the AI's wanted in return for joining the Free Fleet.

  “Do you accept the terms?” Devastahli asked.

  “I do, now, if you repeat after me. From this point on, until the end of my service with the Free Fleet I will uphold the rules and regulations of the Free Fleet. I join of my own will...”

  ***

  A part of my mind thought of the times I had played in a much bigger mecha, fighting in the kind of hand-to-hand combat I was now engaged in with the commander of Resilient's Commandos and ex-commander of Chaleel’s military forces, Carsickle.

  The electro-static field that kept the plasma contained in a plasmid blade sparked off of my armor, reminding me to focus on my opponent. I didn't flinch from it as I had in training, instead I turned my blade, bringing my strength to bear as I upped the power to the exoskeleton driving the offending plasmid blade away. Using the momentum to get clear pushing off of my left foot as I crossed over my opponent’s front, snapping my right foot up.

  Carsickle turned, getting his head out of the way. His helmet was larger than a humans to accommodate for his larger mouth and snout that looked similar to an alligators.

  My armored foot came within inches of his face.

  A flick of my finger balls and magnets in my boots powered up. This did two things, it disrupted the helmets electronics, and it drew my opponent’s helmeted head to my boot, dragging them to the floor as I fell. I disconnected before I hit the floor with them, I rolled, turning to face my opponent, my sword up. Carsickle used his strength to throw themselves backwards onto his feet.

  Carsickle's eyes were wholly focused on me, he'd already written his helmets electronics off as faulty and gone with his own optical sensors.

  I panted in my suit, a mix of air and stims keeping me combat effective.

  I need to work out more. I thought, just a little pissed by how winded I'd gotten in a few rounds.

  I used that annoyance to focus my efforts. I charged, hoping to get past his guard with the sudden change of tactics.

  He turned my blade and me. I allowed myself to fall, bashing the floor with my arm while coming up behind him, my blade landing a hit on his side. The plasmid blade didn't hold plasma but its electro-static field buzzed with the hit.

  He pivoted with the speed of a veteran powered armor user as I came in for another attack.

  He brought his blade up and across his body, hitting my blade away. I tried to turn around him, my visor alerted me to his blade, I blunted the blow slightly but he still snagged my bigger armored shoulders.

  I grabbed his leg with my left hand and pulled with all my strength, grunting in my armor as I pulled him off balance let go and made him crash to the ground as I whirled my sword in front of me. He twirled his legs and pushed off with a hand getting him vertical before coming at me again.

  Blades rang as plasmid spat across our armor. We traded blows, fighting in a blur of reactions. I threw in kicks as he turned and dodged. As we separated, my diaphragm burning, Carsickle looked barely winded. I forced myself to take small breaths to make it look as if I was just studying him.

  He moved his sword to ready, I lowered myself as I rotated my blade upwards. He charged, me following a second later. I tossed my blade sideways. He smacked it away, leaving himself open as I launched myself with all of my mecha’s strength. I wrapped my legs around his shoulders over balancing him and driving him to the ground. I held my fist a few inches from his visor. He looked up at me, having closed his eyes when he fell to the ground.

  I felt the tension go out of him. I grinned and pushed off of him. I turned, giving him a hand up as I took my helmet off. The cool air from the circulator system was replaced with the smells of Resilient's shuttle bay.

  “Damn I'm out of shape,” I admitted as he took off his helmet.

  “PT is required,” Krom said in his professional tone.

  “Thanks Krom,” I said sarcastically, the big Avarian's teeth lifting in a glimmer of amusement.

  “Still got me down,” Carsickle admitted.

  “Yeah, by bending the rules slightly, and taking one hell of a risk,” I said, I wasn't pleased with the victory not by a long shot.

  “A win is still a win,” Carsickle said non-committedly, hearing my less than happy tone.

  “A last ditch effort is still that,” I said. “Gonna have to step my game up,” forcing a lighter tone and a small smile.

  There was never anything bad about learning how to defend myself better. Though some, including Yasu and the closest in my command team, wouldn't be best pleased to know I was training up to fight in powered armor. They wanted me to stay at the rear and orchestrate the battle. While that was hard, I wasn't going to lose the skills that I might need to lead my Commandos into battle one day.

  I was their leader, which meant I got in the muck with them, not just sat back and watched the results of the battle coming in. I wasn't that type of commander and my command team knew it, but it wasn't going to stop their whining.

  Resilient appeared in holographic form.

  “Commander, I am currently in Parnmal talking to Commander Monk and the leader of a group of AI that wish to join the Free Fleet,” There was a slight pause. “Well they are now part of the Free Fleet. I thought that you might want their details. Their hulls are quite impressive and in need of repairs largely. Not many of the worker AI's wanted to help those that had turned to fighting wars and destroying things.” she said, a mixture of annoyance and displeasure coming out in her voice.

  “Okay, contact the system leaders, we'll sketch out a plan,” I said, looking to Carsickle.

  “Some other time?” He said in understanding.

  “Yup, thanks Commander,” I said, before putting my helmet on and using the visor to access the information Resilient had sent to me, my eyebrows disappearing into my hair line with every passing line.

  I opened a line to her.

  “Is this for real?” I asked, unsure of what to think as my mind couldn't understand the dimensions and weight of the War station.

  “To the best of my knowledge,” Resilient replied.

  “Damn.”

  I didn't say anything else until I got to the conference room. I took my helmet off, the desk coming to life as holographic images flared up. I looked at Commander Whorst and Silly in Sol. Commander Diplo, a capable engineer who had been a Commando, was running the newly arrived dock in Chaleel. Then Tik, Tak, and Ursht in AIH. Monk and Rick were in Parnmal. Finally Yasu and Bok Soo that were on their respective ships in Sol.

  “Alright, does everyone have a report on the goings on in Par
nmal?” I got some confused looks. “I'll be taking that as a no then. Resilient,” She appeared in holographic form once again, nodding to me.

  “You should have it momentarily,” I said, taking a seat and playing with my desk as I tried to figure out just how I was going to clear enough room for the incoming ships. We only had one dock capable of taking the carriers, not taking the super-carriers into consideration. We would have to do most of their work without the use of a dock, it would be slower, but completely possible.

  “Bring LaRe in on this would you?” I said absently as I worked.

  LaRe joined a few seconds later in holographic form. I gave him a glance, he returned it, and there was no confusion there. At least I wouldn't have to brief him. I looked around the table, some people were going back and reading facts, but everyone was done.

  “Okay, so as you've read, a bunch of AI have joined the Free Fleet. The Union gave them damned impressive hulls, which have degraded over time. We need to get these ships turned around as quickly as possible,” I said while looking to those that dealt directly with the shipyards.

  “What about this, War-station?” Silly asked.

  “Well we fill it with what we can, strap what damned weapons we can to it and let automated bots worry about the armor and turning it into a true moving station, instead of a moving asteroid. I was thinking that your brother Shrift might be interested in a new challenge,” I trailed off, Silly's manipulators thoughtful.

  “Still the other ships?” Tak in AIH asked, the FTL relays were worth their weight in gold, instantaneous communications was pretty damned awesome.

  “We're going to have to break them up according to production and personnel abilities of each system. We want to get them turned around as quickly as possible. We will of course try to make yards big enough as we will need to fix them at a later date, if not create more ships of this size,” I said to Tak.

  “Why aren't we concentrating on more smaller faster mobile ships instead of huge Dreadnought's like War-station and Battle Cruisers, we could turn all of our attention on to the Carriers and Super-carrier's, surely they would be of more use in battle against fleets believed to be in the hundreds, with ships the size of a Destroyer and the flight capabilities of a corvette,” Commander Diplo asked. We had been through the debate before, and his side would only gain more heat as we now had the ships mostly built and ready for our use.

  “Yes but I need the defensive capabilities of those ships, I am going to make as many Fighters and carriers as possible, but the bigger ships will need to run the gauntlet of Kalu fire. They are going to hit us with everything they have, Fighters won't do well in that kind of onslaught. Dreadnought's can soak that damage up to give Shuttles a chance. While the Kalu work with a single ship type and do it well. We work better with multiple ship types that we can move and adapt into new roles at any given time. We aren't big, so we need to focus on what we can do with our forces. Not on what we could do with a fleet that only has a limited set of abilities.

  “That's where the Kalu hamstring themselves, they think they have found the most economical way to fight. What they don't think is that having multiple different kinds of ships can give them the ability to react in different ways. While having all their armaments on their bow gives them strength in chases, it means there are more holes in their armor. If we get beside or behind them, they have to flip in order to face us, then we can pound them. With Every ship we have we can fight a battle tens of different ways, they can only fight one way. Our ability to understand, change and use our ships to their limit will give us an undeniable edge,” I answered.

  “Except Cruisers,” Rick said, any tension evaporating.

  “Except goddamned Cruisers,” I said, trying to keep a professional mask, the corners of my mouth rising as a few laughs came out from the different people connected to the conference.

  “Rick, if you wanna take over, this is more your side of things,” I said.

  “Technically, very technically,” he said, waving a finger at me, before settling into his seat. “Okay LaRe, I need you to crunch some numbers for me,” Rick grinned at the suppressed but nonetheless felt groans around the room.

  ***

  It was some time before the AI fleet appeared in Sol. A number of the ships had been diverted to Parnmal and AIH, they were doing what they could for the ships and were the closest facilities that the ships would need to improve themselves.

  Sol was the only system that had a shipyard with a slip capable of handling a carrier. There was now a mad rush going on to make another yard for the super-carriers at least. They would add much needed strength to the fleet.

  It would take a lot of time to get them up to standard. They had been in the dark of space for a long time, their systems built in a time of war. They were built to work, not last, something that came with a whole damned crop of new issues.

  That was nothing compared to the issues that were coming up with War station. The creation barely moved with its massive engines which were largely jury-rigged to the asteroid body.

  The jump drive was unstable, but Devastahli was big, and his computing abilities damned impressive as they compensated for the disturbances in jump.

  There were no back-ups, the power plants were aged and barely functioning.

  Thankfully Shrift had taken a shine to the ship and was looking it over, it took at least one thing off of Silly and the shipyards plates.

  Shrift's plan was elementary, he was going to slap massive power plants inside the War station, just get them hooked in and move from the exterior, in-wards. It would take three years with the crew that War station was being allotted, we barely had enough people for the station. Hell I was thinking of pulling most of them off of it to crew other ships that would be ready to come with me.

  That said the crew was largely green, there would be two full training groups taught the ins and outs of engineering on the lumbering creation.

  There was nothing against putting people to work before they were fully graduated, something that the Free Fleet took advantage of, and one of the reasons that Engineers expressed safety over everything and they were damned good at their jobs. The ones that hadn't been weren't around anymore, usually having injured themselves so badly they had to be removed from service.

  Either I went, waving the flag with the forces I had, or waited until I had more ships. Both choices had their own advantages.

  I sighed, burying my face in my pillow.

  “What's wrong?” Yasu asked, her hands playing over my tense back. With Floater being in dock and her people turned over to engineering duties, she spent all of her free time between her own shifts with me. Usually dragging me away from the Bridge, or the conference room.

  I would have probably died of starvation without her forcing me to eat, or gone nuts if she hadn't pushed work away and just had some 'us time.’

  I relaxed, sighing and rubbing my eyes.

  “Just juggling everything. Wondering if staying here, or going out there is the best bet,” I said.

  “Well if we stay here, then it will be easier to extend the time we want to stay here again, then again and again,” she said.

  “I know, but we could get two more Destroyers and three corvettes if we wait another week,” I said.

  “You have to decide if waiting for those ships is worth waiting here for the Kalu.” She said, turning me to look at her.

  “I always get the easiest decisions,” I complained.

  “I know love,” she said, understanding in her eyes as she wrapped me up in her arms.

  I folded my arms around her, finding the comfort of another that would be there for me no matter what the hell the Universe threw at me.

  “Let's go and see what the Universe has to offer,” I said into her neck.

  “There's that spark,” she said, pulling back, a proud smile on her face.

  “Just doing my job,” I said, looking away embarrassed.

  “It's not because you want to
see just what the universe has to offer, the different planets, the home worlds of billions, cold systems of dancing ice and frozen planets, or super-nova and star formations seen by so few before?” She said.

  “Maybe a bit,” I said. A spark of my old self returning as my excitement grew, “Though we first gotta look at winning this war, finding out what the hell Fairgate has planned, and then we can look at the beauty of space.” The part of me that had formed when I had been on Daestramus forcing cold hard logic into my thoughts.

  “I'd like that, to get away from this and to just explore,” she said, pulling herself onto me, nestling into my chest.

  “You're like a damned cat,” I said playfully.

  “Mine,” she said, tugging on my neck.

  “Yours,” I said with a smile, pulling her to me.

  “Mine,” I said, a whisper, as if it could be blown away.

  “Yours,” she said, her smile beaming as my heart thrummed in my chest.

  She might be a woman that made creatures from across known space snap to attention with the sight of her. Made Avarians talk of her fighting abilities in revered tones, and was one of my best damned Commando's, but she was still my wife, and I loved her for everything she was, and did.

  “How long until we leave for Chaleel?” She asked, interested but also anxious.

  “A week, we need to wave the flag, and Rick is going nuts on Parnmal,” I said.

  She nodded into my chest as I sighed, thankful to have that moment.

  Chapter A few last stops

  Carsickle looked out over the sensor readout that was connected to the Commando sections of Resilient. He had been on Chaleel a few months ago. It seemed so much longer than that.

  Everyone had seemed different, changed by the Kalu threat and the Free Fleet.

  Chaleel had grown into space in a big-way. It was making quick trade with AIH and the planets beyond Parnmal at a good rate. Merchant ships travelled straight from Chaleel to Parnmal every few days. Other traders plied the entire corridor. Everyone wanted food and Chaleel, now armed with the knowledge of the Union had quadrupled their crop production, and reduced their workforce by forty percent. While there were those that blamed the Free Fleet for taking their jobs, there were so many opportunities that a large number of people were moving from the farms onto trade jobs, or taking their knowledge to other planets to sell their skills or raise their own farm. One aspiring Chaleelian had started to build domes on one of Chaleel's moons. The soil needed a bit of chemical rejuvenation, but he would have his own tiered farm up and working within a few months. The Free Merchant Fleet or FMF was a silent partner at thirty percent. The Free Fleet was the biggest lending house in the entire known Union and they had the power to move any freight anywhere. Parnmal had become the trading place in the known universe. It was one reason that the station was growing faster than ever.