The lord's Star Warriors chased after him, racing to join the great battle.
Warriors joined Edvasho, getting through the cannons fire, with a third of the original number.
It would be another few moments before Edvasho's leg was healed enough to continue, then he would again join the front in charging down these worthy warriors.
***
“We need that support fire yesterday Edmund!” Bok Soo yelled, the panic clear in his voice.
“You nattering in my ear is not going to help it any!” Edmund hissed back as he pulled the rails from the bank of cannons, reconfiguring the systems for an arching trajectory instead of a straight one. He then linked it to the sensors on the front lines and tacked on a datapad that showed what the projectiles were doing.
Engineers were copying his method onto all of the ship's railguns that were able to bear on the battlefield.
He'd gained a bigger appreciation of human's ability to wage war since they'd told him about artillery used back on Earth.
He checked the data pad as it linked to the sensor information coming from the battlefield.
Dread filled him as he redoubled his efforts. Seeing that many Kalu was enough to make any creature go cold in fear.
“Edmund,” Bok Soo said, dragging out his name in warning.
“You've got some support, not much. I'm working to get you more,” Edmund said, hiding his panic as he checked over the PDS in the mountain and on the ships. Planner had been able to hack their software while he'd installed the necessary hardware they needed to keep running together.
He felt that smashing things back together as fast as possible was going to be his life.
Until the Kalu get through those lines, Edmund chastised himself for those thoughts, hardening his reslove. Here we will hold, and here we will buy time for the rest of the fleet to figure out how to smash these bastards. He remembered his all-to-brief talks with his kids and brother.
He pushed those thoughts away, he had other things to deal with now.
***
Yasu looked around, the hills and ships PDS were firing into the sky, taking down Star Warriors at an impressive rate. Planner had changed their targeting to compensate for gravity and atmospheric changes.
Still the air was thick with them as they descended. A clump of them set down over the rise in front of what had become the Free Fleet's base.
“Move it Commandos!” She bellowed, using the trenches which had been dug from the airlocks to the front.
Commandos and personnel in powered armor moved everywhere, getting to their positions and weapon systems.
Star Warriors didn't seem to slow their pace as Yasu got to her position and looked over the trench. There was nothing out there yet.
“Alright, check your gear again, soon we're going to be up to our heads in Kalu,” she said, checking the commander channel, nothing interesting was on there so she looked over the trench again.
“Here they come,” someone said as the Kalu raced over the small rise a few kilometres away. It was hard to not feel fear crawl up her spine as hundreds if not thousands of Kalu charged towards her position. It was one thing seeing them in corridors where they couldn't put down much speed, but on an open plain they were in their terrifying element.
Lasers fired from their backs, they could barely scratch armor but it still made people flinch.
“Going to use damned laser pointers are you?” Bok Soo yelled. “Ready yourselves,”
Yasu held her rifle up, nestling it in her shoulder and finding a comfortable place for her elbows. She checked her people along the line, all of them were looking at the enemy. She greened up, nestling back down behind her rifle while she concentrated on her breathing, the sounds of PDS firing and the explosions overhead falling away.
“Fire,” Bok Soo barked, the weapons of the Commando's responding to their Commander's words.
Yasu squeezed the trigger, seeing one go down as she fired again, another in its place. She kept her weapon at the same height, squeezing the trigger again and again.
The Kalu swarmed around the front, the group that had been leading now being overtaken by the slower group. The slower group took the damage and hits as the lead split up. The slower grouped around them as Yasu wondered if it was Kaluian reflex or tactic to use their weaker or unproven warriors to protect the one's that had proved themselves.
Her counter blinked as her last bolt disappeared into a Kalu's face.
“Reloading!” She yelled as she dropped her old clip and slapped a new one in. Commandos in reserve picked up the discarded clips, giving them to others that loaded them.
Yasu pulled her charging handle, a round seated in the barrel. She fired as someone with a fresh clip slipped it into her now empty pouch.
She didn't even look at them, she just kept firing.
More cracks of Star Warrior's entering atmosphere made her look up to see a new group of ships drop, instead of the steady trickle.
“Why the hell do they keep trying to go over our anti-ship defences?” One of her people asked.
“Don't curse us now, I'm more than happy to have them throw themselves into our automated defences than full on attack us,” Connolly replied before Yasu could.
Star Warriors were now coming down in more and more numbers, some of them not even landing as they dropped their warriors right into the fray.
Fighting the Kalu wasn't like fighting a traditional army, it was like fighting a tsunami, if they died or they lived they gained acclaim as long as they won. Which with their massive numbers was still a high possibility.
A cannon toting Kuruvian was hit in the visor, they screamed.
“Medics!” Yasu said hitting the Kuruvian's external button for hellfire. She stepped over them, removing their ammunition, slinging her own rifle and putting her shoulder into the plasma cannon.
She fired, her visor adjusting so she wasn't blinded. The cannon charged again, beeping when it was ready again. She squeezed the trigger as she found another group.
One looked to trip on something, plasma hitting its armor as a half dozen others were killed instantly. Yasu changed her aim before she could see the results of her hit.
The cannon beeped again as she fired.
The lasers were now getting considerably stronger.
She kept firing, Commandos across the line doing the same. It was one hell of a display of weapons fire.
“Come on then you Kalu! Welcome to Heija, your tomb!” Bok Soo yelled.Yasu felt a dark kind of humour bring a grin to her face. She was amongst her brothers and sisters, there was no retreat, no getting away. She might die, but then Salchar would destroy them down to the last genome.
“Demons run when a good man goes to war. Night will fall and drown the sun. When a good man goes to war Friendship dies and family is made, night will fall and the dark will rise. When the Free Fleet goes to war, the Demons are no more,” Yasu said, realizing that her channel was open to everyone.
Yasu didn't know where it came from, it seemed to come from multiple directions at once. The light started to dwindle, the sky being lit by weapons fire, Star Warriors falling from the sky, controlled or destroyed by the Free Fleet. Plasma set unnatural fires, burning rocks and armor, setting the battlefield alight with the tools of death.
“We will be there. We will be there. We will be there,” the chant started, quiet and growing in volume until they were screaming it.
It died down. “Who will be there?” Bok Soo yelled.
“We will!” Came the reply.
“And who are we!” Bok Soo Screamed.
“The Free Fleet!” Yasu didn't realize her voice had joined them until she felt the scratching feeling of yelling.
At that moment the guns of the Destroyers opened up. Rounds cracked overhead, wind pulling the Commandos and their gear forward, created by the pressures of the rounds.
“Commandos reload, work in shifts,” Bok Soo said as the gunners earned their pay, millions of rounds sp
at from the Destroyers small and medium ship-based rail-cannon's. If they hit a Kalu they disappeared. For the gunners it might as well have been day time to them, they were used to fighting with their sensors in the dark of space.
Star Warriors now started firing on the ships with their lasers.
“Shields going up in five,” Foshunti said, Planner showing where those shields would be and danger areas.
The shields snapped to brilliance as Battle-Carrier's took on the incoming Star-warriors while the Destroyers kept on firing at the oncoming Kalu.
The Kalu had been pushed back about a kilometre and a half, but there was still some creeping closer.
The cannons mounted in the mountains could only hit so much around the hills and areas they were assigned.
Yasu sighted more targets and fired her plasma cannon, trying to hit the tip of the hill so that the plasma would fall down the opposite side and kill any hiding Kalu.
“Reserves move up, those on the line switch off,” Bok Soo ordered. Yasu looked at the time, they'd been fighting for five hours already, and it didn't look like the Kalu were giving up any time soon.
Someone tapped Yasu, she moved out of the way as they checked the weapon, flipped off the safety and illuminated the line with plasma.
Yasu's sound cancelling was at full but it still wasn't enough to cut out the supersonic cracks of the millions of rounds rushing through the air.
She looked over the battlefield again, the Kalu were still rushing, their lasers now close enough to do damage after only a moments notice. They targeted the heavy weapon systems and raked the line, firing in atmosphere meant that they're lasers painted their own positions. Earning a slew of incoming rounds from the Commandos.
Yasu moved to the second line, her body more tired than she expected it to be. Being switched on for that long took its toll.
She got in a covered hole, checking her supplies and seeing she had a few hours of down time. The lines had to change on and off to keep people fresh, five hours on the front, five of pure rest and rearm, then two and a half hours ready as reserve, two and a half hours forced sleep
The ground shook suddenly. Thoughts of sleeping were banished.
Yasu rushed back outside, her rifle ready as she looked at her map of the battlefield.
The Battle Carrier's and Destroyers were using their spinal cannons as artillery. They were at a fraction of their original speed but it still got them a few kilometres into the sky before they came crashing down.
Good damned work Edmund, She thought. Looking at the massive rounds that rose into the sky only to come right back down onto the Kalu. They exploded on their timed setting, ripping apart anything below them.
The engineer's had worked since they landed on the planet to get the reactive armor plating buried into the hills to create massive mines. They set up PDS to work without being plugged into a ship and turned their ship's cannons into artillery. Gunners had thrown their weight into the latter pursuits and were now raining pure destruction down on the Kalu. Giving the Commandos and volunteers a pause for the first time since they had come under contact.
After the first barrage the fire slowed considerably. The rate of Star Warriors picked up again. Yasu felt her adrenaline receding as she looked to her hole again. Tiredness seeped back in as she trudged to her hole.
They only had a limited amount of ammunition for those cannons. The Kalu seemed to have an unending supply of star-warriors and Star-destroyers.
Chapter Time to plan
Bregend looked at his sensor readings, less than a half of the fleet that had passed him a few weeks ago was left and all of them needing major repairs. Most still had Kalu ships attached to them.
Reports and information flashed between the two fleets as building priorities by the factories were changed. It seemed that Salchar wasn't going any further behind the line.
It was a few hours before Salchar opened up a channel to Bregend, finally in range of a FTL relay.
“We will be staying here to rebuild our ships, re-arm and help your people to fix these ships as reinforcements are called up from the remainder of the Free Fleet,” Salchar said, sounding distracted.
“Certainly commander, my people are ready to assist yours in getting your ships into working order,” Bregend said officially.
“Good I will be having a conference with all of the Command staff in a few minutes. It's time we planned out this war,” Salchar sounded tired, but also sure that the war with the Kalu was going to be a long affair.
“Yes Commander,” Bregend said. They had finally broken free of the Syndicate somewhat, yet while the Fleet had returned from battles in the state Salchar's was, and worse, they hadn't been defeated.
Defeat always hurts like a bastard.
***
I looked through all of the reports waiting for me in the FTL relay’s memory. Rick and I split the load to get through it faster.
“Seems that Felix has been busy with a bunch of long-range super-fast ships that could be used in engagements. Well if someone was insane enough to use wormholes in a battle and wait seven seconds to super-charge a rail cannon till it shot plasma,” Rick said.
“See how he got a railgun to project plasma, we could use that on our main ships. I'll want to look at those specs later,” I said as I read up on the numbers that were applying to the Free Fleet. We were still hurting for people.
Ships were now being made fast enough that we were getting close to not being able to man some of them. Progress on war station was painfully slow but Shrift had put in Elevators and movement systems that didn't suck, and was speeding up the entire process by magnitudes.
“Meeting time,” Rick said, turning in his chair, while he tried to look jovial, the iron in his voice showed a man that had been through more battles than he should have, and yet he kept going.
I pressed a control on the desk, putting my data pad down as the room seemed to fill with system commanders and command staff.
“If you have read the report then you know what the outcome of our battle with the Kalu was, you will also know that your brothers and sisters are fighting on a planet in hopes that they can give them pause enough to allow the Free Fleet to be ready for the Kalu. Let me make one thing very clear, we are not going to leave them out there,” my voice hard. They seemed to straighten at attention, as if they had all hoped this was my plan.
“We are going to pull every upgraded and ready ship we have into one fleet capable of saving our people. That said we also have to look to defence. Here, today, in this conference I want to iron out our plan of war,” I said.
Multiple people looked away as if someone or something had interrupted the meeting. Vort pinged on the desk a text message flashing across it. Kuruvian Empire raided by the Syndicate. Carrier involved. Believe that Fairgate has returned. I looked up, grating my teeth and pushing hair out of my face. All eyes looked back to me after a few minutes.
“It seems that the Syndicate has also shown its hand. I want to know where they are and their numbers. We have to deal with them, lest they attack our rear, depleting our ability to fight and take over again,” hard faces looked back at me in agreement.
“Cheerleader you've been to the empire before, go and offer our aid. Use these fast moving crafts to scout the area. I want to know where Commander Boot is as well as the Syndicate forces. Take merchant freighters with relays. We need to have communications up as soon as possible. Patrol crafts beyond Parnmal are to move to Bregend's system with any and all materials the Commander needs. AIH's contingent will patrol the secondary entrance into the corridor. Parnmal's ships will be in support. Any ships upgraded and ready for battle will link up with the patrol ships. Ships completed after the convoy has left their system for Bregend’s are to make their own smaller squadrons and move to Parnmal, ready to be used as a reserve for any fleet. Monk I want you and your people looking that over.”
“Certainly,” Monk said, not sounding at all distressed by the weight of h
is new duties. I took a breath, looking at the creatures that made up the Free Fleet, my eyes fell on the system commanders. They had grown in the past months. New planets and new recruiting stations were adding their weight behind the Free Fleet and it was having an affect.
“I am enacting the war protocols, this means that planetary defence forces will be given the ability to serve the Free Fleet in a full-time capacity until hostilities are completed. Their workplaces are asked to take them back when they return, or they will be looked after by the Free Fleet and its agencies to find new employment,”
“Is that wise commander?” Tak asked.
“We are at war, we win or every race is destroyed by the Kalu, or enslaved by the Syndicate again. The Free Fleet has been under strengthed since it was created, even with planetary forces adding their weight to the fleet, we could still be lacking,” I said, Tak nodding.
“The reporter Evelyn Sparks has done more for our ranks than anything we could have,” Commander Whorst said.
“Pardon me?” I asked, genuinely confused, Evelyn kept to herself on the Bridge and on Resilient largely. She was a good writer and had brought me under fire more than once. I had been busy with running the Fleet, so had not read articles. If they were important then Rick or my Intelligence department would have raised it with me. Like they did with the article about me looking to become a tyrant. Lovely bit of writing that.
She wrote a piece that has passed through every relay and system with traffic. It goes into detail of the battle with the Kalu, and it pleads with people to support the Fleet. In her own words she says 'think not on the past or the present but the future. For us to have one, we must work with the Free Fleet. They have given their time, bodies, and lives for us. They might not be polished and proper, they might be heavy handed at times. Yet they are the bulwark that stands between us and death. The Kalu are beasts driven by war, either we stand united with the Free Fleet, or die apart trillions of times.' She's started a fire with the people,” Whorst said.
From the Black (Free Fleet Book 4) Page 14
