“That is correct,” Foshunti said, not liking this meeting at all, he would much prefer to be fighting her, or back on his ship making sure it was running smoothly. “I have been asked every detail I know, and can say without breaking my promises and oath to the Free Fleet, all of it recorded by the debriefing team. I ask you refer to them and we get to the matter at hand.”
Elisati looked as if she had many more questions, but they faded away as she recovered her seat and sat down.
“To the business of our agreement with the Free Fleet. What can they offer us?” She asked.
The question was simple and rudimentary, but Foshunti's anger flared again. He didn't try to hide it, everyone was looking for what they could get, not what they could do by working together. It was one thing that had made him look harshly upon other planets and systems.
“They can offer you a connection to the growing planets that now litter what had been Union controlled space. Their merchant fleet can bring trade and the ability to get to the stations and rebuild them. They need a lot of work but our people can get to the stars again and become the traders we once were,” Foshunti saw the possibilities for his people, but still Elisati was unhappy.
“Yes and they ask for a tithe of our merchant transactions and skilled workers and to provide security, they are nothing more than enforcers. We are giving them the power to ruin us,” she said.
“They're giving us the power to get on our own two feet, they have a war to worry about, and our people will get free transport into the heart of civilized space, trained, paid and fed,” Foshunti's anger bled into his tone, making it clipped. “We both know that our people are biting at the bit to leave Worshun and find a life somewhere else. There is too much pain here for many of them. The possibility that they can use their skills in space, or as they were intended will drive them to the stars. The Free Fleet will have a recruitment office here no matter what you say, whether it be through the merchant fleet, or through the relays. People will be free to join the fleet,” he would be lying if he didn't admit he felt some satisfaction in those words.
How much have I changed that I am fighting for the Free Fleet, instead of trying to steal everything from them? He looked to Elisati who was waging her own internal debate. Worshun sent me off to kill, steal and do whatever I needed to do in order to gain Lady Fairgate's trust. The Free Fleet gave me an option, serve them faithfully and they will always have my back. No one on Worshun could have my back, I only had Planner in the beginning. They never gave me a chance to be a kid, neither did the Syndicate give Salchar, Bregend, Cheerleader or any of the other people of the Free Fleet. We're more alike than many of my own people.
“So you would tell me to throw my lot in with these Free Fleet that have done nothing for me, except bring my pupil back,” Elisati said.
“This is not the time for arguing and making plans.” He advanced on her, his anger controlling him as his finger stabbed towards the ground to drive the point’s home. “It is time to act. Do you know why that fleet is on full alert? It's because we are going in search of the Kalu, they've returned,” Elisati stepped backwards almost unconsciously. She might have been the one to train him, but he had lived with a much harsher mistress than her. Now her eyes went wide as the revelation about the Kalu hit harder than his own blow a few minutes ago.
He could see her mind working, he pulled out his data pad, queuing a video and putting it in front of her. It was the recording he'd gotten from Lady Fairgate herself, stored with instructions to search out Rosho station.
She stared at it for a few minutes, replaying it, pausing it and checking it.
He could see his old teacher's mind working as she took in this new information.
She produced a data pad of her own.
“These are my amendments,” she said, handing it to Foshunti, there was a reduced taxing on goods, but increased output in raw materials once the miners and stations were back online.
Foshunti copied it to his pad and sent it to Planner who would send it to Resilient and then the planetary relations team and Salchar for confirmation.
Elisati's eyes were distant, she had been in the Union-Kalu wars. She knew how terrible they could be.
“Was there infighting between the Kalu?” She asked, her eyes sharp.
“No, all of them seemed to be working together to attack Lifendi and his ships,” Foshunti said, his own voice low with the tone of one that didn't want to say what he had to.
“Then I pray that your Commander Salchar is everything that you and his people say he is. The might of the Union couldn't defeat them totally while they were divided, if they are now united,” she looked into Foshunti's eyes with the look of a leader, not the trainer, or one trying to barter the best deal. “Then I fear for every sentient,” Elisati's eyes bored into Foshunti's. His data pad beeped with an incoming message. He looked to it, that tone only came from one person.
Salchar himself had agreed to the terms set forth by Worshun's senate and planetary governor.
“He is something to be seen,” Foshunti said, thinking of the recordings from the battles Salchar and the Free Fleet had been involved in. “I am needed back with my ship and with my people, the Free Fleet will be undoubtedly moving on to the line in hopes of finding the Kalu,” he said.
She stood raising her palm, he rose the back of his.
“You did well Foshunti, better than any of us thought, I will trust you to see us through this war. When it is over I hope that you come back to be our military leader,” she said, solemnly, the position of military leader was one of the most honourable. It was usually that person that overlooked the military matters of the PDF in the times of the Union.
“I thank you, but I have already found my place. The Free Fleet is my home now, I think the time of the Union and the PDF is over. I do not know what is next, but the Free Fleet will probably have a large part in it. First we must defeat the Kalu,” he said. The possibilities, the hopes he had predicated on the winning of a war against a still largely unknown enemy.
***
Bregend got out of his drone pit, another taking his place. He rubbed his neck, his eyes screaming as he blinked. Crap looks like I forgot to blink again, he thought rubbing his eyes and holding them closed in hopes of reversing their dried state.
Kurft jumped and ran through the halls, Bregend still blinking as his Commando Commander ran at him. That is a mouthful.
“We have a message for Salchar from Min Hae's people, it looks like they've cut down the possible systems of the Kalu to just three.”
“Right,” Bregend heard himself say as he activated a channel to Kyle.
“Get the fastest moving ship we have and send it with the information we have to Salchar. I want a check on the relays, all Free Fleet ships and personnel should be on high alert. Salchar looks to be going to war, we need to be ready for whatever the outcome is,” Bregend said, remembering the plans that Salchar had given him and every Captain and Commander in the Free Fleet.
They needed to know if the Kalu tactics or ships had changed. There was only one way to know for certain and Salchar wasn't going to make any other Commander shoulder that responsibility.
“Yes Commander,” Kyle's voice was hard as he cut the channel, probably working a dozen different channels.
Kurft gave Bregend a wake up capsule. Bregend nodded his thanks, putting it in the holder on his arm, he activated it as the holder sealed. New energy flooded his body. He was in charge of the defence of this system and the building of the ships within it. He would make damned sure that anyone coming into his system would pay dearly for it.
“Mills I need a report on all incoming traffic and our allotted freighters. I also want the engineers to look at recovering a few of those troop transports and the converted super-freighter,” said Bregend, cutting the channel. Mills would have it sorted shortly, Bregend had trust in his people.
The Freighter and troop transports were massive, easily five times the size of t
he Cruiser converts the merchant fleet was using.
If it came down to ground combat, the transport would be key. The super freighter was an effort by the Union to bolster their numbers when they didn't have the actually war-hulls. It had decent weaponry and shields on it, but Bregend wanted it for its ability to move huge shipments of necessary parts from the corridor factories to his system. Plus with those weapon systems it could look after itself, taking less Free Fleet protection from Parnmal to him.
He sent messages to Monk in Parnmal. He was the second line of defence between the Free Fleet protected planets and the Kalu, except for Worshun. Salchar's plans for if he went into combat with the Kalu would now be activated.
Bregend took a breath, now the Free Fleet would fight a war on multiple fronts. He steeled himself, seeing the people around him moving with purpose. With that he walked to his bridge.
***
News spread through Free Fleet protected and traded space in a matter of days. The Kalu had been sighted and Salchar was going to give them battle.
Training moved from facilities on Mars, Hachiro, AIH, and Parnmal to ships. Trainees flooded Free Fleet centres across known space, freighters were dispatched by systems for the sole purpose of getting a FTL relay setup, they wanted to know what was happening the minute it did.
Cheerleader was the highest in command after Rick and Bok Soo, both of which were in Salchar's fleet. After Cheerleader, Monk and Whorst would take the mantel as Commander of the Free Fleet.
Freighters moved personnel and resources. Warships moved military spec technology, weapons, capacitors, new shields all of it was shifted to fill the needs of the fleet. There was no fixing civilian ships anymore. That traffic went to the Kuruvian docks, which with the upgrades and information that the Free Fleet was being paid a retainer for, meant that they needed a fifth of their engineers. All of that was now under Cheerleader's command as she and the people in the room had to deal with getting as many ships online and crewed to deal with whatever happened with Salchar's fleet.
It's not like we haven't been doing that from day one, she thought keeping her emotions off of her face. The Fleet was growing with every day, but there was still too many hulls and not enough people, even with the AI's making systems to enhance personnel's abilities.
Felix came online, rounding out the conference room. Silly, Monk, Whorst, Cheerleader, Tik, Tak and Ursht were already present. Hopefully some of them could help to advance their already accelerated progress even more.
“Alright Felix what have you and your lot been up to?” Cheerleader asked.
“We've got the split missiles sorted out and changed them to dual function, they can explode, or channel that explosive power into a fusion-pumped laser. Plus well, I've been watching some movies and I came up with a modification for the powered armor. I've come to call this the Heavily Armed Powered Armor, or HAPA.”
An image came on the screen. It was a pure exoskeleton, no armor and no extra features, except for two massive rail-cannons. Someone in powered armor would be able to climb into this contraption, feed it power and use its damned incredible weaponry.
“It is slower, but it adds its strength to the powered armor and in massive firepower. If someone can reload it then it can act as a bulwark. It could also be function in an anti-fighter capacity,” Felix said as everyone looked at the pictures.
“Did you build one?” Cheerleader asked.
“But of course,” Felix grinned as he was replaced by a video. Someone was standing on what looked like a deck. They climbed into the exoskeleton backwards, it lifted them up about a foot as they pulled the harness down over their chest and grabbed the two free-floating grips with simple switches. They secured their feet into the holds. A panel attached itself to the powered armor's upper back, where the user's neck would be.
“It's syncing to the user's nerve ports,” Felix said, Cheerleader unconsciously touched the ports on the back of her neck.
The person adjusted to the massive body around them rather quickly.
The user moved the HAPA to the end of the deck, pointing at an asteroid brought into range for the demonstration.
The user grabbed the two joy-stick looking contraptions that rested beside them. The joysticks came free, the cannons activated and followed the joysticks movements. They had a simple frame that connected them to brackets above the user's shoulders.
The users moved the joysticks, the cannons moving with them without any sense of lag. They showed an impressive range of motion.
Finally they reached the end of the deck, the electronic belt system turned on, and rounds began feeding from the ammunition storage on the HAPA's back into the dual cannons.
The user squeezed the trigger on the joystick. The massive cannons spat rounds at an impressive rate, the HAPA's recoil system kept them on target as rounds tore into the asteroid. Cheerleader whistled in appreciation. The user changed from normal rounds to penetrators, to fletchette rounds with a flick of the joystick's control switches.
The video stopped and Felix returned.
“Alright, we'd best get to work making at least a brigade's worth of those. I also want the plans for the new missiles put out to the factories so we can start stockpiling those,” Cheerleader said.
“I was also looking at the old Kalu tactics, and thought of a way to replicate their method of speeding up, slowing down and turning themselves,” Felix said, a grin on his face.
“With their explosions?” Ursht asked.
“Exactly, we do the same thing, but with better bombs and protection for our people. We already have the armor, all we need is some protective paint my people are working on, add in a delivery system and we're done,” Felix said.
“So we will use bombs to push our ships to level the battlefield?” Whorst asked, not sounding quite happy or understanding of the idea.
“Exactly, the Kalu do it without concern, they're rather fragile while they are accelerating with the bombs, their entire structure is under tremendous stress and they really do much to prevent it. They have lots of forward thrust, but didn’t put much into their maneuvering. Makes it easier to disrupt their paths, and brake apart their formations. We can displace the strain on the structure, meaning we can turn more easily, and continuing to use tools with our implants and nerve ports,” Felix said, rather pleased with himself.
“Add it to the list of upgrades and get them started,” Cheerleader said, about to go on but Felix's kid-in-a-candy-store smile was not going away. She gave him a pointed look as another diagram appeared, this of a ship.
“This is the Jump fighter, it is the fastest ship in the known galaxy, it has three capacitor banks, one medium class fusion power plant, bomb acceleration and not just acceleration couches, but acceleration gel.
“We tried using land based creatures to pilot it, but it seems water dwellers can use it much more effectively. Anyway, this puppy can jump, and speed its way across known space. It can act as a scout and a messenger to the rest of known space. With the relays coming on slowly, these could be incredibly useful. They could also travel through Kalu space since they are faster than the Kalu's Star Warriors, by miles.”
“Does it have any weapons?” Silly asked.
“Missiles, and a rail-cannon. The cannon takes away from the overall power of the ship, making it slower. It is also heavily armored due to the bomb-assisted acceleration, but once it is penetrated then using bombs is out of the question, they would rip it apart,” Felix said.
“Quite interesting,” Tak said, looking over the elongated icosahedron, the multiple sides had bomb delivery systems to push the ship in every direction. Missiles were actually stored inside the ship, the sides opening and rotating to shoot in all dimensions and angles. The Rail-cannon ran the length of the ship, there was room for two people, but in normal circumstances one pilot would control the ship themselves. Power systems and capacitors encircled the pilot and the vat of jelly that made sure the pilot wasn’t turned into mush with the
fighters massive acceleration.
Cheerleader re-read the last part of the report a few times before shaking her head. Felix was doing all he could to bring the fleet things that weren't just ideas but had been tested and were ready to be built.
“Are the capacitors able to fire the cannon?” Monk asked.
“Yes, and when I say rail-cannon, I mean if allowed to charge twelve seconds, the round is changed into plasma upon leaving the barrel,” Felix said, looking quite pleased.
“I suggest that we have a number for messenger and scouting missions, as well as enough for a few wings. Can they be made by the small ship building factories?” Monk asked again.
“Yes they can be, we have a number of them here, so using someone at their discretion to pick up the supplies we have might be advantageous. I would suggest twelve freighters or something of comparable size. We've kept our factories going full blast since we've been tinkering, our yard is coming along as well as our station,” Felix said, sending a full report to everyone.
“Couldn't have sent that at the start could you?” Cheerleader asked, Felix just kept smiling happily.
***
Shuttles were checking out the massive stations that lay around Worshun, shuttling up people from the surface and putting them to work within their stations, or at least sections of it active. The people of Worshun had not let their skills degrade, even when hiding under the crust of their planet they had kept training up. Everyone knew at least some kind of transferrable skill, and the basics for operating in space.
It sped up the process by magnitudes as techs flooded the stations, checking all the systems that allowed creatures to survive in space, as fleet worker drones patched the massive damage done to the exterior.
A few of the power plants were still in working order, within the first week a park was opened, gardeners moved to bring in plants to supply food and the necessary mix of chemicals for a breathable atmosphere. It was one of the few times I was thankful for the forced acclimatization to worse climates and air. The Syndicate's training had been brutal, but it made everyone capable of breathing in conditions that would kill most humans, and of course they could take one hell of a pounding physically.
From the Black (Free Fleet Book 4) Page 7
