With that it ended its transmission. The Kalu following the Fleet heading for the jump limit shifted to follow Yasu's group.
Smith watched the plot on his fighter's screens as he saw people he'd trained with, those that he'd taught and flown with. People he'd drunk with at bars or seen in the corridors, even a man that he'd call his best friend would be fighting on that planet for their survival, and the Fleet's escape.
“We'll be back,” he said, remembering the reunion of the Marines and assault pilots he'd gone to with Connolly.
Smith got out of his fighter numbly, he didn't know how long he was sitting there looking at his screens.
The deck was a mess of recent combat, Fighters being repaired, and people being pulled from their Fighters with wounds.
Rick looked across the deck, seeing Heston in his fighter. They shared a look, nodding to one another, they understood what their brothers and sisters were doing for them, and they were going to do their best to help them.
“All Fighters secured, prepare for jump,” Flasher's Captain said numbly. Generators powered up, starting their charge. It would still be another few hours. Smith checked over his fighter, trying to keep himself occupied so he didn't have to think of the fate of those that were travelling to the planet.
His hands glided over the rents in his armor, the holes in his wings the burns of lasers and peppering of shrapnel.
He tapped the teeth he'd painted onto the front of the craft.
You'll be feeding on Kalu again soon enough.
***
I moved through the back end of the Kalu, no yells or crashes as I stabbed into the nearest creature. I kept going with the Commandos and my security detail following. The group at the bridge parted as I walked through.
Rick rose as I entered, moving his rail gun away from the entrance.
“Get me the command staff,” I said, knowing that Bok Soo was now gone with Yasu, and half of my fleet.
“Vort, In Sook, I want every damned piece of ammunition and usable supplies we have sent to the planet. Every shuttle crew is to be made up of volunteers,” I barked, my voice raw as I unsealed my helmet, my visor clanking open.
“How long until jump,” I asked.
“Two and a half hours,” Milra said. We'd gotten faster at being able to generate a wormhole, but it was still a timely process.
I hid my pain as I stormed to the conference room, Rick was there moments later.
“James,” the sorrow in his voice palpable.
“She isn't dead. Neither are those crews, and I intend to keep them alive,” I said with my eyes cutting into his, emotion slipped away from his gaze all that remained was steel.
The Commanders came on through holographic projectors, some of them working well, others making them appear fuzzy, or their image distorted.
“As you know, this detachment of the Fleet is going to escape this system,” rumbles went through them all. A look silenced them.
“We need to have more ships online and people trained to use them before we can free those that will hopefully roadblock the Kalu here. We will be back. We will get our people back,” there was no room for question in my eyes or voice.
“Now look to those in your care, I want them fighting ready and these ships repaired. We will move to Bregend's fleet, joining up with Cheerleader, hopefully Commander Boot will have contacted the Free Fleet and we can add his forces to our own,” I said, giving them a rough sketch, I didn't know if even that kind of forces would be enough to fight.
“In Sook, get our least damaged corvettes and send them to the nearest relays with the battles information,” I said in clipped tones.
Well you know what the Kalu are capable of now. Was it worth the price? My mind savagely turned against me.
No, but I'll make sure those losses are never forgotten, and I'll be damned if I'm going to leave them to die off on Heija. I tried to not think of the number of personnel that would die on Heija to give me and the Fleet the time we needed to escape, and figure out how to fight the Kalu and the Syndicate.
Anger, regret, self-pity, and James could wait, the Fleet, those that we protected and went home to, needed Salchar. I needed Salchar.
The mask that I had worn so many times before descended as I looked to my armrests. Before those corvettes left I needed to prepare the fleet for whatever might come next.
***
Evelyn Sparks was buried in her tablet, making possibly one of the most important stories she had ever written, she and the three other reporters had sat at the back of Resilient's bridge and watched it all.
She watched as the Free Fleet grew with every system it passed through.
She thought that Salchar's actions were reckless to attack the Kalu, yet she also knew he had to find out what the Kalu's abilities were. They Kalu had ravaged the hearts of everyone in the Free Fleet, yet as painful as it was for them they had hardened themselves and worked like the devil himself was riding them. The bridge, all three floors of it had worked in concert to get the fleet organized and do whatever they could to help their brothers and sisters in arms.
She had seen outside the bridge when Salchar had come in, his armor torn and bloodied by the Kalu. Krom and Shreesht were similarly covered. For a novice reporter it would've been hard to keep their eyes off of the massive Avarians and their armor which looked to have gone through a buzz saw.
Evelyn Sparks was no junior reporter anymore.
She had fought for armies to pull back from fights, to show the terrible things that were being committed by either side, she had reported on how the Free Fleet was monopolizing the trade, how it was making itself the only power in existence.
All of it run by a single man.
Now those thoughts left her as fear and panic turned into resolution, no matter the fact that the Free Fleet was becoming a power that made governments, planets and entire inhabited system answer to it. It was a force that had taken on the Kalu, had sacrificed half of its numbers so that the other might gather forces enough to defeat the threat that was the Kalu.
She had been in rooms with soldiers that conversed with terrorists, or opposing factions and militaries. While fear had gripped her then, she guessed that a part of her was secure in the fact that her country and world would survive. She never thought that she would be faced with a time when her country, her planet, her entire system was threatened so completely, and she knew that the Kalu could possibly win.
The Free Fleet was what the left over races of the Union and the new races under its protection needed.
She looked at her article, titled 'The Free Fleet need's you, or the Kalu win'. It was one hell of an article and it was going to be pulled apart and ridiculed, but if even a small percentage understood what she had tried to write, then hopefully they could help the Free Fleet and the sentient races stay alive. The wormhole generators reached their peak and a wormhole formed, stabilizing as the Fleet headed straight for it.
The bridge was silent, all eyes on the other fleet as Salchar exited his conference room. He watched it silently for a minute, before going to his chair and opening a channel manually.
“Hold out, we will be back my brothers and sisters, the Free Fleet will never abandon you,” he said, his mask slipping as his voice was colored with true emotion.
Evelyn had met enough politicians that she couldn’t tell it was brilliant acting or if it was real, that is until he looked away and their eyes met.
Her own eyes wet at the pain in his. He looked away, ashamed, back to the main screen.
He might be a monopolizing tyrant in creation, but he was also a man loyal to his people.
Resilient crossed the wormhole's event horizon, the rest of the fleet, the Kalu Star Warriors and the army of shuttles that were burning for the second fleet disappeared behind them.
Chapter And the Universe keeps spinning
Yasu had at least someone half-decent with the systems of the Bridge in each position. Her Commandos reported that the ship was
clear, but they were damned tired. She had ordered them all to get some food and water in themselves before helping out with the incoming shuttles.
Connolly was a good second commander. As she was checking over the status of her Commandos, he had built a report of every ship that was following her to Heija.
“Four minutes until the shuttles arrive,” Sensors said.
“Good,” Yasu said, her heart was being pulled apart as she saw James and his fleet enter their wormhole and disappear.
Look to your own survival now. He will come back no matter what. She would've called her feelings a weakness when she had first been recruited, now she knew them for the power they held. Caring for someone was hard, having them leave was harder, but knowing they would be back gave her hope and strength.
“Shuttles are docking,” Sensors said, Yasu pushed herself out of the captain's chair, the holographic bubble had been compromised by something, and the images were grainy or jumped. She went to the wing commander's table, accessing the information she wanted.
“Get them stored and secured as fast as possible, we have thirty minutes before we enter atmosphere,” Yasu said. “Get me a channel to Foshunti,”
Minutes later the Ship Commander was on the main screen.
“Commander Yasu?” He said, turning his greetings into a question.
“Foshunti as we both know I am no ship commander, as such could you take over the planning for our entry into Heija's atmosphere,” Yasu asked.
“Certainly Yasu, I will have it sorted out in ten minutes,” he said.
“Thank you, could you connect me to Bok Soo,” she asked, she could feel fatigue fighting with adrenaline as she stood there.
“Certainly,” Foshunti disappeared, Bok Soo's voice coming over the bridge a few moments later.
“Yasu?”
“Hey Bok Soo, did you get my report,”
“Yes,” his voice cold, obviously he had looked at the casualties, but right now he had to look to the living. “I'm looking at the scans of the planet. I think I've found where we will mount our defence. Meeting with every Commando Commander Platoon or higher in five minutes, conference room,” he said.
“Of course,” Yasu said, typing a text message to her commanders and firing it off.
“Talk then,” Bok Soo ended the channel.
“Connolly make sure we're still in one piece when I get out of this meeting,” Yasu said.
“Commander,” he said, occupied with something but still registering what she said.
Commanders came onto the Bridge in a rush, she looked up, and nodding to those she knew. Turning back to her work for a few minutes before sighing and joining the group of commanders waiting in the conference room.
Bok Soo took longer than the five minutes, the room seemed to expand into an auditorium. Each section was filled with the commando commanders of each ship.
“We will be the rear guard of the fleet, it's going to be hard, but this meeting is to look at our options and see if we have any ideas on how we can improve our fighting abilities, if you have an ideas, speak up,” Bok Soo made sure that stuck in as he looked at everyone from his podium at the front of the auditorium.
“These are the proposed landing areas,” he said, two areas appearing.
“Vote on which one is best, you have three minutes,” he said, sitting back as the auditorium faded.
“This one has good killing grounds for when the Kalu charge us,” someone said as Yasu's commanders analyzed the different terrains.
“Yet it has no water source, or real rear defences like this mountain range,” another rebutted.
“I agree with the mountains, they provide us better rear support and we will need water. We can use the heights to mount PDS giving us cover from the air and support on the ground. There are rises that I don't like here, here, here and there,” Yasu pointed to the areas in the holographic display.
“We could put shuttles there, or bury charges in the hill, maybe use some reactive armor if we have it, turn their cover into our weapon,” one said, Yasu nodded appreciatively, it was a good idea.
“Alright, vote as you want,” Yasu said as the timer ran out and the conference room became an auditorium again. Commanders pulled out their data pads, voting.
“We are going to the mountains. Now what can we do to improve the position?” Bok Soo asked.
Fifteen minutes later and the defences, while looking like a mess of material strewn across the ground, would be formidable if half of it could be set up.
“Five minutes till atmospheric entry,” Connolly said over the ships speakers.
“See to your people, as soon as we get down I want us to start reinforcing those positions and setting up the protective layout. Get the ships tethered to the ground, and have those shuttles prepped and ready,” Yasu said.
“Yes Commander!” Came back from her Commanders.
“Dismissed,” she said while following them out. Her commanders jogging and making the deck rumble and shake with their weight as they raced for their positions.
Yasu got in the ship commander's chair, locking herself in with a harness.
“Everyone is secured, including those in medical bay,” Connolly said. Yasu noticed that the formation had changed, with Corvette's were leading the way, Talhalla following and the rest of the ships behind like a tail of a comet.
There hadn't been any time to transfer the wounded from the rear-guard to the ships that left the system. Any shuttles would have been instant targets for the Kalu.
Thankfully all of the ships had fully working medical bays, making them as good as any hospital or medical bay in the rest of the Fleet.
Yasu still wished they could have somehow gotten them cross-loaded onto other ships. Many of them were wounded from the space battle. The medical chairs were getting them back into action as fast as possible. Then they’d be slapped into power armor as fast as possible to bolster the Commandos numbers on the ground.
She closed her eyes at the unfairness of it all. It was only for a moment, she needed to focus on how in the hell they were going to survive fighting the Kalu on the ground.
Surviving doesn't look like it's going to be so easy. She clenched her jaw as she watched the screens.
The corvettes lit up like stars as they hit atmosphere. Talhalla hit it next, then ship after ship followed the path that their fellow ships had carved out for them.
Floater shook as noise seemed to fill Yasu's existence. Still the Battle-Carrier and the formation held as the first corvettes pulled out of their dive, their armor smoking in places while Talhalla was using her thrusters for all they were worth, slowing its own descent. The ship was not supposed to be on a planet's surface, but Foshunti's crew showed their true skill as they handled the carrier and guided it like a plane back on Earth.
The noises and shaking abated and Yasu felt numb from it. She unclenched her jaw that she hadn't known she'd closed. The Star Warriors that had been stuck to the ships like limpets and pushed off before entering Heija's atmosphere now tumbled into it, creating meteors. The fleet now fully in the planet's atmosphere flew to the mountain range that they had picked out.
Corvettes perched out in what would become a battlefield. After a few moments Commandos flooded from them and started creating defences. Talhalla brought itself down near the base of the tallest part of the mountain range. Dust and debris was washed away from the ground as Talhalla slowly touched down.
“Nice and easy helm,” Yasu said, her voice calm and confident as the Commando turned step-in helms person adjusted their flight plan and descent rates with the kind of precision Yasu would expect a doctor would carry out an operation.
Floater went in front of it by a half kilometre.
It touched down, sinking into the ground before it found ragged rocks underneath, the noise of scraping thankfully being cut off by the powered armor. Tethering lines which were used to pull things in space, sprung from launchers, burying themselves into the ground.
The planet’s red sand drifted away from Floater as the rest of the ships landed in formation. Talhalla was closest to the mountains which protected their rear, the battle carrier and battle cruisers made a u-shape around that. The corvettes and Destroyers made a final encirclement around them.
Fighters were launched from Talhalla, checking the area.
“Alright, well seeing as we weren’t flying anywhere, shut down your systems, link the sensors to Planner, as well as the comms. We'll help with placing PDS in the mountains,” Yasu said, scared to let herself stop, lest she might let her feelings overtake her. She would need some time later, dealing with grief.
Some would think it cold how she planned out when to allow herself to grieve, those that have been in battle and lost loved ones knew the fear of keeping it in, or letting it out and consuming them.
She passed through an armory, exchanging her clips, reloading what she had and adding any additional ammunition she could find space for.
There was a mess of people with smaller powered suits getting into powered armor.
She exited the armory, getting to one of the flight decks, personnel from all over the ship were on the deck, and there was limited need for more than a few people in engineering. Most systems had been shut down or put on standby. Those that could be freed from their jobs were reverting to their basic training on the powered armor and weaponry, others were using their skills with Fighters and shuttles.
The training for Free Fleet personnel was long, but now it meant that Yasu's commando strength had doubled and she had enough fighter pilots to fill three wings instead of one.
Yasu jumped aboard a shuttle that was loading spare PDS. She helped the cargo master, providing the muscle as her other Commandos joined in and got the systems loaded as quickly as possible.
The ramps sealed and the Commandos harnessed themselves in.
The Shuttle exited Floater and took a flight path Planner had created. Yasu stepped into the gunner’s seat of the shuttle, she used the screens, finding the holographically painted point for the PDS. She used penetrator rounds to make a quick and dirty ledge in the mountain. The Shuttle's rear ramp lowered and stuck out as the craft came into holding across from the ledge.
Free Fleet Box Set 2 Page 45
