From the Black (Free Fleet Book 4)

by Michael Chatfield

  The station and the ships were coming online in a state of panic. Lifendi fought down his fear as Lady Fairgate came onto the main screen.

  “What is going on?” She demanded, Lifendi would have been scared for his life if she had given him that look and tone at any other time. Now she was a secondary threat.

  “The Kalu are here,” he said, Lady Fairgate's face went apoplectic.

  “We must run, take your ship and follow me! There is no winning, the Union left my world to burn. We will leave these planets to burn. We will find new hunting grounds. Yes we can find others to pirate. I didn't run far enough the first time, now I will. I will run to another galaxy. They won't get me,” Lady Fairgate raved. It seemed she had forgotten that she had given his ship away.

  Lifendi shut down the channel, he didn't have time for a madwoman now, he needed every second he had trying to figure out how the hell he was going to deal with the sea of Kalu ships racing towards the station.

  “Fire everything we have at them! I want everyone in mechas!” He barked.

  He looked to the star map of Rosho system, the small weak red dwarf star bathed three plutoids with light. The second plutoid was Rosho station.

  Due to the small size and mass of the star the jump limits weren't as far as they were in most systems. Rosho was built with the thought that the enemy would have to get through a fleet, then mobile platforms and then the station's guns to get close. The Kalu had nearly bypassed everything except the station. They had turned Rosho's defences against them.

  Missiles darted towards the Kalu, cannons started to come to life, shields came online as did engines.

  The Syndicate turned to flee en masse.

  “Tell them to get the hell back here!” Lifendi barked, wishing he still had his carrier to take the fight to these Kalu, he was not used to fighting a station and hated its inability to move.

  The station came alive in a panic, it's massive cannons smashing into the Kalu, the smaller ships were washed away, the larger ones were deploying fighters, taking a couple of hits from the Planetary grade cannons before crumpling.

  Gunners rushed to their stations, the mobile platforms came online. Weapons fire filled sensor readings as space came alight with the firepower of Rosho pressing down on the Kalu.

  A missile barrage ripped free of the Kalu, hammering Rosho's shields.

  “We're at seventeen percent!” Shield squeaked in fear. Rosho's shields were the strongest in known space.

  “Well get them back up!” Lifendi yelled, watching as Lady Fairgate's carrier powered away for all it was worth, the majority of the Syndicate ships followed her.

  “Those jumping ships are back!” Sensors yelled out.

  Lifendi did not like what he was seeing.

  “Show me,” Lifendi said, the screen changed. Ten, fifteen, twenty thirty ships jumped into existence, nuclear explosions were recorded as their speeds increased to speeds that would take a normal ship hours.

  They're using the same acceleration as the Kalu.

  All of their plots lined up with the Syndicate fleet.

  “Tell the Syndicate to turn back for Rosho to use our guns for cover,” Lifendi said, a feeling that he did not like filling his gut. He had been sure that those ships were from the Free Fleet, now he wasn't sure, and if the Free Fleet and Kalu were working together? He growled. He would make them regret coming for Rosho.

  The fleet fired at the oncoming ships, the ships replied with missiles. Only one of the small craft were destroyed, they were quick, small and damned hard to hit.

  Shields fluttered and failed, scars appeared in armor, holes were punched through ships as the missiles exploded still thousands of kilometers away.

  The small ships used the cover, their main weapons shooting a solid slug of plasma at their victims.

  Plasma cannons ripped into shields, those without had holes burned through them.

  “What the hell was that?” Lifendi asked as a Destroyer buckled and went dead. Seven corvettes and two battle cruisers followed.

  Shields were falling in droves, plasma burned into the hulls of the Syndicate ships. The jumps ships now amongst the gaggle of ships were mostly safe. Some tried to hit them. Most hit other Syndicate ships instead. It was chaos, the small ships using it to their full advantage.

  “They're missiles, but lasers,” Someone said, sounding confused. Lasers were unstable, took a hell of a lot of energy to do much, invisible in vacuum and travelled at the speed of light.

  “The lasers are coming out at five hundred gigawatts,” Lifendi could do nothing but watch as more missiles fired their one-time lasers, destroying themselves but hammering whatever was in their way.

  Two more Destroyers were clipped by these missile-lasers. Four battle cruisers were smacked. Yet the carrier was left untouched.

  Fairgate continued her escape, not caring for her people in the slightest.

  “Tell the fleet to turn back, they only want Lady Fairgate and I think it was time that we were rid of her,” Lifendi said, she had turned her back on him too many times. She was out of her mind, he had seen her eyes on the main screen. Her sanity was coming apart, the stories of the Kalu taking her planet must have been true.

  Now it looked like the Free Fleet wanted to keep her alive and take her. Lifendi wasn't going to fight that.

  A wormhole appeared in the path of the jump-ships, they used a combination of their nuclear propulsion systems and the gravity of the wormhole's event horizon to slow and turn themselves, racing back for the Syndicate fleet.

  Their either insane or the best damned pilots I have ever seen. Lifendi thought, the fleet was now partially turning for Rosho. The jump-ships crossed the fleet, only the ships that were still trying to escape were targeted. Three Destroyers were ripped apart by the missile lasers, eighteen corvettes were left lifeless from plasma cannon blasts. The worst was the two Dreadnoughts that went dead as they ejected their power cores. The big ships had been taxing their power plants heavily, the added energy of the laser had been the last straw.

  As more of the fleet turned for Rosho, less ships were attacked. The jump fighters changed course, leaving the fleet's formation and slowing themselves. They took a wormhole, disappearing. A few appeared in front of the Syndicate fleet.

  Fairgate and a collection of twenty or thirty ships kept going, right into what had to be one of the worst mine fields Lifendi had ever seen.

  The mines seemed to be based off the same technology as the missiles. Lasers measuring in the hundreds of gigawatts smashed into shields, more and more added their short lived power, ripping through shields and the toughest armor as if it was a plasma torch to a battle suit.

  The forward momentum of the ships didn’t help, spreading the damage across the ships.

  Five jump-ships joined the two waiting ahead of the fleet.

  Four Destroyers, a Battlecruiser, a Dreadnought and twenty two corvettes had been destroyed. Now only one damaged battle cruiser and corvette remained. Both of them were surrendering to the Free Fleet.

  Lady Fairgate's carrier continued to power for the nearest jump point.

  Lifendi looked away from her departing carrier, she had taken his own, giving it to a creature used to sitting back and counting their resources, not enforcing her rule across known space.

  Three hundred ships were around Rosho, or coming back to it.

  “Have all ships fire all they have into the Kalu. I want all the damned people we have in powered armor onboard Rosho,” he said, it felt good to defy Fairgate's inane rules. Her fear, her cancer was gone, now he could be the damned Syndicate Captain Lord he wanted to be.

  “Have the fleet in movement, those Kalu will try to land on them. No matter what they're to keep firing at the Kalu formations. I want those big ships gone,”

  “Those swarm like things are hitting our shields,”

  The swarm hit the shields with their lasers, it took down the shields a decent percent, but not too much.

  “What
in the dark are they doing?” Lifendi asked, answering his question seconds later as the fighters hit the shields themselves.

  Shields started falling as missiles, cannons and PDS fired into the swarms and incoming Kalu.

  “Shields at twenty four percent and falling,” Shields said.

  “Tactical, I want missiles right into their formations!” Lifendi said, Missiles followed moments later, tens of them were shot down, but a few made it to the formations. They wiped tens if not hundreds out of existence. The swarms rebuilt themselves and continued on. They were like some great big beast repairing itself, no matter the damage visited on it.

  “The Kalu are moving to attack the Fleet. They're firing missiles at us,”

  “Get those shields up!” Lifendi barked, the missiles went off, fighters that had been close to the shields getting washed away as alarms never heard before, signalled the shields were below ten percent.

  As the Kalu moved around the station, more weapon systems were able to hit them.

  Kalu ships had little that could stop the firepower of Rosho, but there was nearly three hundred weapon systems, spread across all of Rosho, there was thousands of Kalu ships, tens of thousands including the fighters.

  Lifendi didn't feel the cannons as they fired for the first time since being installed. He didn't hear the screaming alarms as power relays melted. Rosho had been built by the Syndicate, as with most things the Syndicate did it was made to work, or look good. Not be used and abused again and again.

  Weapons went down as engineers scrambled to keep them online somehow. Everything that could supply power was getting hooked up. Personal power plants to shuttles and ships that were in Rosho's bays were hooked into the grid.

  “Those guns are to go silent only when their gunners are dead! They stop firing they're asking for the Kalu to come in!” Lifendi said. Tactical and comms relayed his words to every person in or around Rosho.

  “Lady Fairgate is four hours away from jump, it looks like she has cleared the mines,”

  “Leave her for the Free Fleet. It seems that they want her. We will look after ourselves,” Lifendi said, the jump fighters had redeployed while he was watching the battle with the Kalu. Five remained, around Rosho, waiting. Ten or so were around the ships that had surrendered to the Free Fleet they had powered down their weapons and engines, drifting.

  “New jump emergence,” Someone said as a fleet of forty ships exited a wormhole.

  They were just a light minute from the Syndicate fleet. Without pause they accelerated for the group that had surrendered.

  The Free Fleet had grown a lot. They weren't just a group of ex slaves piloting ships they'd salvaged from the Syndicate, they were a fighting force. One to be reckoned with, shown by how they were transiting into a system past its jump point in formation with ease. Their communications and trust in one another was incredible. Thousands had just risked their lives on the information given by the Jump fighter.

  Rosho might be engaged in the biggest battle that Lifendi had ever seen, yet he found himself watching the Free Fleet release fighters and shuttles, all of them bearing down on the Syndicate ships.

  It wasn't long before shuttles were turning to brake.

  The infamous Commandos would no doubt storm the ships, clearing and taking them.

  “The fleet is transmitting a message on all frequencies,” communications said.

  “I am Ship Commander Boot of the Free Fleet. Salchar sends his regards, we will make sure that none escape our wrath. Those that try we will turn back, surrender, or be destroyed,” A Kuruvian said from his chair, nodding its head a little before the channel ended.

  The Kalu and the Free Fleet were working together somehow.

  “Northern shields are at twelve percent, Eastern and Western are at a balanced forty two, South is at seventy,” Shields said.

  “Then balance them damn it!” Lifendi said, watching as north dipped to eight percent.

  Lifendi stormed over to the shields, pushing the controller out of the way as he looked over power levels, heat warnings and area coverage.

  His fingers played over the console, North rose to thirty two, South dropped to seventy, East and West got to thirty eight.

  Finally given something to do he managed the numbers and charts that governed the shields. It flashed with the power of incoming attacks. Acting like some damned beast trying to spot and collapse.

  “Come on, you can ride it for a bit more,” Lifendi said, coaxing power from unused shields to areas that were getting a pounding. When the shields dropped then all of the weapons now firing into the Kalu would be open to attack.

  The leading Kalu forces were now using their bomb powered acceleration to slow and turn themselves. The shields had lasted longer than they hoped, their slowing made them open for more hits, something that the fresh gunnery crews jumped on.

  The Syndicate fleet was throwing everything they could at the Kalu. They were disorganized, panicked and running in any direction they thought would give them the biggest chance of surviving but not running into the Free Fleet's barricading jump-ships.

  “I am Edvasho, war leader of the Kalu clans. I fought in the great teaching war against the Union. I returned to my systems to raise an army in order to press the second teaching war onto the Union. You, the Syndicate denied me my war. You will be but a marker in our clan stories. Only talked about as the defeated ones. You will go with the silent clans, only honoured by having being killed by the Kalu. Pray your clans accept your weakness into their home,” The comms channel went dead, the comms officer had left the incoming open transmission channel open.

  “Well now we know what we're up against,” Lifendi said, forcing his dread away. “Get to work, or let his words become truth, those are your options!”

  ***

  Felix watched the battle, his eyes straining at the screen as he and his development staff took note of how the Jump fighter's acted and how effective the weapons were.

  Felix pulled out his Data pad, he had one hell of an idea, if it worked, well it would be something to behold. Now he just needed a ship, one that was in decent condition and not being used by anyone.

  He tapped a bud in his ear.

  “Hello this is Onur, who is this?” The comms officer said.

  “I would like to talk to Cheerleader, its Felix,” he said.

  “Transferring you,” Onur said, no hesitation in their voice as they stopped searching for Felix though comms channels/

  “Felix?” Cheerleader said, sounding quite busy.

  “I would really like if you got that carrier intact, and possibly sent my way,” Felix said.

  “We haven't even taken it yet,” Cheerleader pointed out.

  “I know, but I have faith,” Felix said, making it sound as if it was a done thing.

  “Of course you do. If we get it then your people best be picking it up. I'm all used up,” Cheerleader said.

  “I'll have someone get it,” Felix said.

  “Good enough for me, you best have some damned good use for it,” Cheerleader said.

  “Oh, it's going to change a few things,” Felix said.

  “Mysterious as always,” Cheerleader said, amused.

  “Of course, hidden space base, maniacal engineer with too many gadgets and not enough room. I'm like a bond villain, or Q? Or was it M?” Felix tapped his chin in thought.

  “I'll let you figure that one out. I'll talk to you later, probably when you have another bizarre request,” Cheerleader said.

  “Byeee,” Felix said, noticing that the development team was looking at him.

  “Well I think it's about time that we got started with giving the Jump fighter a platform capable of servicing them. Plus I think those laser missiles might need to get revisited,”

  There was a few grumbles. Though it was hard to stay annoyed with Felix for long, he was an infectious ball of energy.

  ***

  Cheerleader had watched as the Kalu smashed into Rosho. Both sides
had turned to pounding one another. It was vicious fighting, Star-Destroyer and warriors firing their missiles as fighters fired their missiles into the shields, hitting them with their own craft if they got close enough. Nuclear explosions light the black of space, ships buckled and disintegrated. Syndicate ships were chased down by fighters, swarmed till they were defenceless, Star-warriors charged in, smashing into the armored hulls and charging the Syndicate personnel left alive.

  The Jump fighter's had done spectacularly, they had turned most of the Syndicate forces and captured a bunch more. She had ordered that they let Fairgate run, she didn't want the woman to die before punishment was rendered on to her.

  “Fairgate's carrier has created a wormhole, they're jumping,” Jorvut said, hooked into the sensor platforms and Jump fighter in Rosho system through the FTL relays.

  “Good,” Cheerleader said, she wouldn't have to wait long to see where Fairgate came from. “Are they using capacitors?”

  “By build-up speed it is the only possibility,” Jorvut said, risking a pleased look to Cheerleader.

  “Let's not get too confident. We still need to board and clear that carrier,” Cheerleader said, Onur turned to her expectantly.

  “Yes?” Cheerleader asked, looking to him.

  “Commander Boot's forces have landed on the Syndicate ships, there hasn't been any trouble yet,” Onur said.

  “Carrier has completed transit,” Jorvut said.

  All eyes were on the main screen as communications commanders and sensor commanders worked across the fleet to find where the carrier had gone, losing Lady Fairgate was not an option.

  “We've got her!” Jorvut said, not looking up. “Sending co-ordinates. She's coming in right through the direct jump point. Commander Kelu is closing in,”

  “Helm, best speed please, Onur I want to have the fleet that is further than two light minutes to move back into formation. Werv can you make sure they're to be ready to assist Boot or us at a moment's notice. Onur could you get me Commander Smith?”