Free Fleet Box Set 2

by Michael Chatfield

  “I will send him many more offerings from the ground,” Edvasho said. “Thank you battle brother. Next time we speak I hope for you to be on the ground,” the channel ended.

  “We are to send Ashota to the gates of the silent clans. Edvasho has ordered it so, he believes that Ashota has become one of the peaceful,” Xentar said. “I want all Destroyers to join the Star Warriors around the planet, we will hit Ashota as he watches the battle.”

  His orders were passed throughout the fleet while his ships moved towards their destination.

  ***

  Ashota felt sadness. Edvasho had finally given into the other leaders that said killing him was better than letting him live. They saw him as a cripple that could bring nothing to battle.

  Only those that mindlessly went to war were 'proper' Kalu in the eyes of those leaders.

  Ashota pushed that pain away, he didn't have the time to grieve at the loss of his relationship with his blood-brother.

  Ashota pressed a button, alerting those in his crew loyal to him. Another button set off explosives inside the armor of Orshpa and Xentar's Warriors.

  “Where shall we go to Ashota?” The pilot asked.

  We could go to the planet of the peaceful, yet then we will be able to do nothing to stop the Kalu. I thought that I could change their minds, what a fool was I. No we must attack them force with force. We will give the enemy help so that we might free ourselves and the Universe of fools that wish to see it burn, he thought with a burning desire.

  He snarled, a new fire filling him.

  “We go to Parnmal, we shall see what this Free Fleet is made of, and see if we can put an end to this violence,” Ashota said. Moments later his ship moved away from Heija.

  When we next meet battle brother, it will not be me that falls to the silent clans.

  ***

  Commander Boot had headed in the direction of Flor, and it looked as if he had found it.

  “Bring the Fleet to readiness. I see some Syndicate bastards that seemed to have strayed into the wrong place,” Boot said, alarms sounding as drills were executed.

  “There seems to be a small craft waiting on the edge of the system. It matches no known designs,” Sensors called out.

  “Well hopefully it will stay out of our way,” Boot said. Not wanting to deal with another party wading in on his battle.

  “It has started moving, its rate of acceleration is unlike anything I've ever seen,” Sensor's said in awe. Boot looked at the main plot, it was already moving as fast as a corvette would after five minutes of acceleration, in twenty seconds.

  “It disappeared!” Sensors said.

  “Wormhole three thousand kilometres out!” A sensor operator announced as the small craft appeared, having made a wormhole and crossed to within a few hundred thousand kilometers of Boot's fleet.

  “It is sending a message, text only. Its codes match with Cheerleader's, it seems to be a scout of some kind,” Communications said.

  “What is the message?” Boot asked, his voice gruff with the time it was taking comms to relay.

  “It says that Cheerleader is looking for us. She will be here in a matter of hours,” Communications said.

  “I want ship numbers and specifics, we will continue into the system to engage the Syndicate fleet,” Boot said.

  “Specifics coming in on your screens,” Communications said. Boot reviewed it. She had less ships, but all of them were upgraded and could do some serious damage.

  “The Syndicate ships are moving away from the planet and turning to engage us. There is one carrier, listed as Lifendi's, five Battle cruisers, nine Destroyers and nineteen corvettes,” Sensors said.

  “Very well. Conical formation. I want PDS on missiles and fighter defence. When we reach firing range I want to rotate and present our sides to their fronts we will take them with our guns. I will call out movements as I decide them.”

  “The Jump fighter says that it has the ability to attack in close, it can gather at least four more ships and attack the carrier before it can deploy its forces,” Comms said.

  Boot thought of how the little ship could wormhole in so close and the speeds it could travel at in real space.

  “They are authorized to do so, only when they have at least four other ships, the surprise will only work once,” Boot said, his tone warning.

  “Yes commander.”

  A few minutes later the Jump fighter created a wormhole and disappeared. Boot shook his head at how the small craft was so easily able to create wormholes.

  There was hour left to go before Boot and the Syndicate fleet were in range to fire their missiles when sensors picked up Cheerleader and her fleet.

  Twenty minutes later nine scout craft appeared around the Syndicate fleet.

  They accelerated even faster than Boot had seen the single Jump fighter go. Missiles spat out from their internal racks.

  The missiles split and hit the carrier from multiple angles. The syndicate ships were trying to hit the small ships, but they were already learning why the Union's big laser PDS systems were practically ineffective against the Kalu. The Kalu, like these Jump Fighters, moved so fast, and could change their direction so easily, that these big lumbering lasers were completely ineffective.

  The missiles struck the carrier's shield as it was just coming online. They cost a lot of power so it made sense to not have them activated, well, to a creature that was concerned about having to pay for fuel against what he stole from civilians.

  The shields held but were weakened. The scout's fired their main weapons. Sensors said that it looked like plasma, but Boot was concentrated on his screens so much so that he barely registered them.

  The bolts hit the shields, nine of them a few seconds apart, the power was too much for the starting up and weakened shields, they spotted, some shield generators overloading. Scouts swooped in towards their fighter decks, they fired missiles and plasma.

  Then they created wormholes through the ship's hull. There was no fighting the forces of the wormhole. Armor and whatever sections of the carrier passed through the wormhole, disappeared. The scouts transitioned through their wormholes. The Carrier's fighter decks rocking with internal explosions, the hull looked as if potato peelers had been dragged through its hull.

  “Well I am going to need some of those,” Boot said.

  “Prepare to engage. Full thrust.”

  The Syndicate fleet was still in disarray when Boot came in.

  “Fire missiles, rotate us to present the left side,” Boot said in relaxed tones as a barrage of missiles leapt from his ship's tubes.

  Rail guns fired, causing the Syndicate ships to move and close ranks in order to miss the projectiles.

  Once the reaction time for missing the guns was down to minutes Boot looked to his tactical.

  “Fire at will.”

  The battle cruiser vibrated as rounds were accelerated towards the Syndicate forces. Some of them were turned, others were accelerating forward, or trying to escape.

  Boot waited till the lowest shield got to seventy percent.

  “Roll to present right side,” he said, the fleet rolling as one, gunners on the left stopping only when they were facing the black, the right starting as soon as targets presented themselves.

  “Four corvettes destroyed, the carrier's shields are still down. No Fighters are leaving. I think she's dead,” Sensors said.

  “Well give it a few missiles to make sure,” Boot said, looking at tactical’s head.

  Five missiles sped out towards the carrier. Two PDS lasers fired, they took down three of the ship missiles.

  The other two cracked the carrier's hull. Atmosphere and fires poured out from the craft.

  So much for being a great Captain Lord, Lifendi. Boot looked to his forces.

  “We're down to sixty percent shields on the right, eighty on the right.

  “Rotate to face forward,” Boot said, seeing a missile catch one of his corvettes, his screen alerted him that a battle crui
sers shields were nearly gone.

  “Rotate Ballhasta out with ourselves,” Boot said, helm doing so.

  Weapons from across both fleets fired as they crossed one another, sides pounded sides. Not one Syndicate ship was left with shields, a few were left wrecks. Two Battle cruisers were still functional, three Destroyer's, one of which had a busted engine was falling behind the fleeing syndicate fleet.

  Twelve of the corvettes were still in existence, they had the speed to flee the battle fast enough.

  Ballhasta hadn't been able to get out of the line of fire fast enough. Rail guns had smashed her armor, gaining access to her internals. A power plant feed line had been ruptured and the ship's frontal section had disappeared in nuclear light.

  Boots’ own ship had its shields lost, but its armor had stopped anything else from penetrating.

  “Shall we chase after them commander?” Helm asked.

  “No, we'll be seeing them soon enough. It's time we linked up with Cheerleader and the rest of the Free Fleet. Comms, did you send our reports to her?” Boot asked, forcing himself to look to his duty, those that were dead would be waiting for his grief later.

  “Yes Commander.”

  “Good, then we'll look to our own people. Request Cheerleader's support and co-ordinate medical assistance,” Boot answered. Comms would be very busy over the next while. He would speak with Cheerleader when she was closer and the lag wasn't so annoying.

  He scanned the reports now flooding in after battle. He looked for any information that could help recovery.

  “I'll be helping with medical and engineering crews,” he announced, handing command over to Tactical and his second in command. Sitting in his chair wasn't going to help anyone.

  ***

  “Well that's one issue dealt with for now,” Cheerleader said, feeling as if she'd opened Pandora's Box finding Boot.

  “Onur, get on the comms with one of those Jump Fighters. I'm compiling a message to be sent to Salchar, best speed,” Cheerleader said, tagging all the information from Boot adding a few notes and sending it to Onur.

  “They're going to fuel then they'll be on their way,” Onur said a few minutes later.

  “Good, now I want the rest to re-arm, refuel and scout this area,” Cheerleader sent the sketched outline of systems she wanted them to go through.

  “We're going to hold here and render any assistance that we can to the Kuruvian Empire. I want everyone ready for battle at a moment's notice, the Syndicate raided the system once already, and they can do it again. I don't intend on letting any of them get to a planet, or make it out of this system,” she said, looking up and to her people.

  Werv her second in command gave her a knowing glance that told her he wanted to talk to her about something.

  She turned to him so not everyone would have to hear it.

  “Are we sure that the Empire will be happy to see us, they might blame us for the attack by the Syndicate,” Werv said conspiratorially.

  “Good point,” Cheerleader admitted, knowing it was her second in commands place to be devil's advocate.

  “Onur, I want you to open a private channel between myself and whatever authority you can find on the planet Flor.”

  “Yes Commander,” Onur said. Some had talked about how the role of communication's Commander was one of the most overworked positions within the Free Fleet. Few if any thought that Vort had an easy time coordinating all of the communications Salchar spewed from his ship to his fleet and to the Free Fleet at large.

  There might be some truth to that after all, Cheerleader thought.

  Chapter Love it when a plan comes together

  “We have reports of a ship skirting the sensor networks coming from the line towards Parnmal,” Gogs said, moving where his wings would have been.

  Min Hae had been connected to the relays for a few days now. He'd gone through multiple systems that his agents were in. Having them check that no one was following Verslva.

  They'd done some trading to keep up appearances, but they were nearly to Parnmal, just three jumps to go. All of them through inhabited systems so they had to be careful.

  The systems were habitated simply because they were close to Parnmal and supplying the system with materials the Fleet and the corridor needed.

  “Who?” Min Hae asked, displeased with someone skirting the sensors. Though the sensor operators had undoubtedly caught onto it if Gogs had.

  “It matches our sensor readings of Ashota's craft,” Gogs said.

  “Get me a channel to Monk,” Min Hae said, his tone brisk.

  “Certainly.”

  “Hello Commander,” Monk said, the backdrop telling Min Hae that Monk had been sparring.

  “Are we secure?” Min Hae asked.

  “Of course,” Monk said, his tone relaxing to Min Hae. Monk was one of the few people that Min Hae knew he could truly rely on. His time working in Parnmal had left an impression.

  “It seems that a craft with a known leader, or person of statue within the Kalu Clans is approaching Parnmal,” Min Hae said.

  “We will be ready for them,” Monk said, Min Hae didn't let his sigh show. There's a reason he's the commander of Parnmal after all. Min Hae chastised himself. I need to stop looking at just numbers and facts try trusting others.

  “I will be there after they have arrived. If you are able to take them I would wish to talk to them,” Min Hae said, not wanting to give too much information away. Being in the intelligence department made one cautious, there was no telling when other ears might be listening.

  “We shall see, but if they threaten Parnmal..,” Monk said, his face making even Min Hae feel something like a chill run through him.

  Then there won't be dust left, Min Hae thought nodding.

  “Understood,” Min Hae replied.

  “Till we see one another, preparations must be made,” Monk said, his voice becoming faraway as he looked to be thinking.

  Hopefully I'll have a plan that Salchar can use to even the odds against the Kalu and the Syndicate. Min Hae silently willed Verslva to go faster, knowing that doing so would attract attention. There was too many ways that his plan could go wrong. Yet the Free Fleet regularly went into battle with plans it made only a few minutes before. For the large part it had worked, but still Min Hae's nerves and hopes warred with one another.

  ***

  Ashota looked at the system named Parnmal in wonder.

  “This is a star system,” Onqul the seer said.

  “Yes it is,” Ashota said, remembering the great Union's planets with their towering cities, orbiting factories and system wide asteroid miners.

  Why did we have to destroy it all?

  “We are being hailed by someone calling themselves Commander Monk,” the talker said.

  “Put him on screen,” Ashota ordered. There was silence on the bridge as they looked to Ashota in question. The only person he had shown himself to had been Edvasho and the spy from the Syndicate. They had wondered about the spy, but they thought he would destroy them before they could tell others of Ashota's appearance.

  Now Ashota would show an entire system his weakness.

  “We are online, there is a few minutes time-delay,” the Talker said as a pinkish-brown looking creature with little hair other than that over its optical nerves appeared.

  “This is Commander Monk of the Free Fleet. We have been awaiting your presence Ashota of the Kalu clans. Surrender yourselves to questioning, or we will destroy your ship. Signal you are willing to surrender by powering down your weapons, shields, wormhole generators and face towards the station. Do you understand?” The hairless pinkish-brown creature said.

  “I understand Commander, do as he says,” Ashota said to his crew. “How do you know my name?” Ashota asked.

  “When you are in our custody I will tell you,” Monk said, making it clear Ashota wouldn't find out beforehand.

  “Very well I look forward to finding out,” Ashota said, getting comfortable. The commander
's craft wouldn't reach Ashota for another few hours.

  ***

  Monk stepped into the interrogation room a few hours later. Ashota as well as all the Kalu aboard had been taken into custody without incident. A few scans and other tests had proven they weren't a threat to anyone through bombs, or chemical means.

  “Hello commander,” Ashota said, Monk studying him for a second before he relaxed into his seat.

  “Hello Spymaster Ashota,” Monk said, touching his hands together in contemplation.

  “Will you now tell me how you know my name?” Ashota asked.

  “If you tell me why you're here,” Min Hae said, his stare and body relaxed.

  “The Kalu Clans need to be stopped.”

  “You think that the Free Fleet can do this?” Monk asked.

  “I don't know, but the Syndicate would give the people a life of slavery, not one of freedom. I don't want my people to be slaves,” Ashota said.

  “Your people?” Monk asked, genuinely interested.

  “The peaceful Kalu. I think that this would be best if I told you a story,” Ashota said.

  “Please,” Monk said, turning his head and nodding for him to talk.

  “I am one of two known survivors of the last great Union-Kalu battle. Myself and Edvasho survived in a Star Warrior. I saved his life by taking grievous harm in battle. I put him in to a healing tank and he recovered as I piloted the Star Warrior away from the battle. I knew that the battle was lost and wasting our lives would not help the Kalu cause. I told Edvasho that the Star Warrior was on auto-pilot, he took my word and started to gather his clan to challenge the others and take them against the Union again.

  “I turned his mind to bringing all the clans under his control. He listened and I worked in the shadows to give him the information he needed to turn lifelong enemies into a single clan united under him.” Ashota paused, as if gearing himself up for what he was about to say.

  “I found out that there was two real groups of Kalu, those that were bent on following the traditions of old, and then those that wanted to move the Kalu forward. To be something other than just Warriors and killers. It was these people I stated gathering and bringing to my side. It was easy to twist Edvasho and the other clan leaders to making these Kalu live on their own planet, as a perceived punishment of their peaceful ways. I created the planet of the peaceful Kalu and became one of the council.”