From the Black (Free Fleet Book 4)

by Michael Chatfield

  Whorst let a hungry look cross his face.

  It's about time we showed you what we're capable of.

  War-station and the Kalu fleet crossed one another, Cannons heat shrouds left a haze as round after round was sent flying at the Kalu.

  Kalu fighters headed for war-station's shields were engaged by the station's own fresh fighters. Rail guns and lasers flashed in that not so small battle, multi-warhead missiles leaving more than one Kalu swarm in chaos.

  War-station's shields flashed with impacts as Kalu ships fell again and again, the station's cannons pounding the hell out of the Kalu as if to make sure they were dead.

  Then it was over as the Kalu moved past.

  “Helm bring weapons to bear on the departing fleet, might as well give them a parting gift,”

  “Yes commander!” Peck said, clearly happy as he turned the lower sections of the station to face the departing Kalu. The station lumbered around as cannon fire continued to rain hell down on the fleeing Kalu.

  “Zal, enemy numbers if you please?” Whorst said, seeing that the Kalu fighters were being mopped up by PDS and MEF's quickly.

  “Ten destroyers and seventy nine Star Warriors remaining,” Zal said, pride ringing through his voice.

  “Well then Tactical, it does look like your people are pretty damned good shots,” Whorst said with a proud smile. He and his command team had been together only a few months, yet they were operating together like one well-oiled machine. Which was war-station was going to need to keep it moving and combat effective.

  “Arfo, request new orders from Commander Cheerleader. I want reports from every department at your earliest convenience,” Whorst's tone dipped, making 'earliest convenience' sound a lot like, 'right damned now'.

  Whorst pressed a button dedicated to connecting him with Shrift.

  “Alright, how are we looking?”

  “Like we're still only a damned third complete. Though all of our systems are holding up mostly. Power relays in some places came close to overloading, but we shut down power, we need to have those secondary relays all across the station. Currently only about half of the station's systems have at least secondary backups to keep them operational, or switch off to,” Shrift said, his tone pointed.

  “I know, you've told me, and I will get you as much damned help as I can, but as long as we are even a third effective, we've just shown, that still makes us pretty damned effective,” Whorst said, trying to get his chief engineer to look on the bright side.

  “Don't you be trying to butter me up Commander. Some of us have real work to deal with, instead of that damned dizzy sphere thing you seem to enjoy so much,” Shrift said, his disgust for the holographic sphere was legendary, he hated it. He'd come on the command deck once, seeing Whorst use the thing, and complaining of feeling like he was in a human drying machine, had retreated and never returned.

  “Very well, it is your job to be annoyed when things aren't complete I guess,” Whorst sighed.

  “Yes it is, a chiefs work is never done, especially when it takes ten minutes by lift to get from one side of the damned thing he's in charge of, to the other side!” Shrift admonished, but Whorst had learnt to tell when his engineer's complaints were also points of pride.

  Anyone that knew the work that Shrift had put into getting war-station to this point, could understand the Kuruvian's pride. It was one hell of an undertaking, and Shrift was damned well exceeding all of others expectations, though never his own it seemed.

  “Alright. Alright, I'll let you get back to it commander, I'll inform Takahashi to release the people he can to you. Though tonight I want everyone to have a night off. We've been going hard for nearly two months now, and we just hammered the piss out of the Kalu. I think blowing off some steam would be a good idea,” Whorst emphasized the last four words.

  “Very well, I will see to letting my people free,” Shrift sounded as if pained to let work fall by the wayside. Though he knew, as well as anyone else, the pressures and stresses that his people had been under.

  “Very good. I look forward to seeing you at the bar,” Whorst, cut the channel with a smile on his face. Salchar had made sure that there was a bar on every ship. As long as people didn't get belligerent, having a few drinks couldn't hurt, especially with a detox that would clear any toxins out of a person's system.

  Being far from home, or constant fighting, wore on a person, having a place to relax was pretty much necessary for the crew to relax.

  Whorst read the now incoming reports. He lost track of time until Zal announced the Kalu were opening a wormhole.

  We may have won a battle, but it took Rosho station and too many lives to get there. Whorst knew that this was but the beginning of a war the likes of which had not been seen in generations.

  With those sobering thoughts he turned back to his work.

  Chapter Hit them hard and hit them fast

  Bregend had not been sitting back as the Independent's sorted out their fighting forces. Jump ships had been sent to every system they could get to on their fuel and capacitors, launching sensor missiles that used the newly found FTL relays to feedback constant data to Bregend and Min Hae.

  The Kalu territory was spread over thirty six star systems. Of those thirty six, seven were habitable, and only four other systems had been detected building ships and having stations for Kalu to live on.

  All of the four dead systems were under the control of Orshpa's clan.

  Ashota had divulged information from his independent agents. Orshpa was clearly going to make a play for leader, and without Edvasho having Ashota in his corner, it wasn't that hard to think that he would win.

  Bregend and his Commanders had hashed out a plan to hit Orshpa's clans first. If the Independent's came then they could hopefully wrangle some warships from the Kalu traditionalists. Then Min Hae and Ashota's war of deceit would begin.

  Who's getting ahead of themselves? Bregend thought as he sat on his command chair, his fleet was readying itself for wormhole generation.

  Many of the Free Fleet had made it clear about their feelings on the Kalu. Bregend understood it, and he felt a slight animosity towards them.

  That was until Min Hae pointed out that the Sarenmenti, and the reformed syndicate members that made up the Free Fleet were no different. Hell these one's had been stranded on a planet because they had fought for change, instead of having change forced upon them.

  Bregend had pointed out those same facts to his crew's with a little more tack. His people had to have made the choice to join the Free Fleet just as he had.

  It had lessened the grumbling and dark stares, but it was still there. Bregend just hoped that a real battle might get his people and the Independent's on level footing.

  “We are ready for wormhole entry,” Wilma said from her position at the helm.

  “Then let’s get going,” Bregend said as his fleet followed his ship. He looked around the bridge, everyone was ready and waiting in their powered armor, tension clear in the air.

  Bregend looked over to his chief engineer Rous, who was studying his console intimately.

  Bregend let out a hot breath of air, remembering his engineer’s sighs and arguments as Bregend had copied a tactic right out of Salchar's handbook. Much to the annoyance of his chief.

  After all a ship was not supposed to have nearly half of its weight attached to his exterior! The corners of Bregend's lips quivered, unable to not think of the admonishment coming from his chief's lips.

  They entered the wormhole, emerging on the other side. Using the sensor missiles Wilma and the other Helms had been able to easily make a jump point that wasn't reliant on the stable jump limits.

  Which must have been a bit of a shock for the Kalu on the other side as a fleet emerged just two light seconds from their two dockyards.

  “Accelerating,” Wilma said as soon as they had cleared the wormhole, there was no need for shields, they would overload with what was blocking them.

  “Astero
id covering is holding,” Rous said, with a confidence that Bregend had to be appreciative of. No matter how impossible Rous thought something was, he would try it out until he would bet his young on it.

  “Very well, strike force one, continue as planned. Begin maximum acceleration. Strike force two, ready insertion into dockyard two,” Bregend said.

  The two ship yards were split into a star-warrior yard and a star-destroyer yard.

  There was nearly twelve thousand ships in the system, the largest concentration of ships in any Kalu system that Bregend's jump ships had been able to spread their missiles through. Yet only fifty or so were manned, and all of them were star-warriors.

  The sensor missiles had faithfully shown how the Star Warrior teams of ten rotated on patrols of their system. That had been surprising, no other clan except Orshpa's had ships even manned.

  The Kalu used their ships to get to battle, however they loved open spaces, the cramped interior of the Star Warriors and destroyers were only suffered when travelling to battle. No Kalu wanted to be on their damned ships more than they had to.

  So the Kalu had needed to find a place to store all of those ships while they trained and readied themselves for battle. They attached them to their shipyards, and then to one another, making the yards look like some odd modern art piece of identical ships stacked and protruding from one another.

  Which was why Bregend had ordered his fleet to attached asteroids to their exteriors.

  He had studied every battle Salchar had gone through, and a good number of Kalu-Union battles.

  All of his missiles might make a dent in the nearly nine thousand Star Warriors.

  Yet if he sent objects as large as a Star Warrior, powered with his new acceleration system. Well it could cause on hell of a headache.

  That same acceleration system went into overdrive, bombs coming out faster and faster as destroyers accelerated as fast as MEF fighters.

  Bregend grunted as the extra gravities wore on his body. Thankfully all types of gravity training, especially dealing in high gravity environment's had always been a core subject to Free Fleet personnel training.

  Bregend's body, with a bit of medical assistance and his battle suit, was able to handle gravities that Earth fighter pilots had endured, and be able to function and move.

  Though that didn't mean the extra gravities weren't annoying and tiring to deal with.

  The Star Warriors that were on patrol wouldn't see them for another twenty minutes. Three Star Warriors were powering up, that Bregend could see. Talking was becoming a chore so alerts were sent from each station.

  I wonder how long it will be before they start changing their tactics? Bregend thought, hoping that he would be able to have all of his targets in one vulnerable location again.

  “We're within launch range,” Tactical grunted more than said.

  Bregend waited, his hand on the command button that would release tethers and fire thrusters across all ships.

  He waited, his ships moving faster and faster, the braking limit appeared as he touched the button. Cables flew free as thrusters pushed the asteroid shards clear of their ships.

  Helm's fired forwards thrusters, cancelling all forward acceleration, and relieving some of the pressure.

  The asteroids headed towards the shipyard and its ships like deadly daggers of metal and rock.

  The fleet turned and used their engines to brake, their crews feeling the weight of giants lifted from their bodies as a more bearable number of gravities settled on them.

  Bregend was watching the asteroids, they maintained their imparted velocity, most of them tumbling due to the thrusters.

  They crashed into the yard, Star Warrior's tethers broke as ships flew free. Explosions ripped at the yard as it was pulled apart, the forces of the asteroid's impact causing it to break and shudder. It was unbelievable as ships exploded, others flew free and the yard came apart like a dandelion against a strong breeze.

  The three ships that had gone active were crushed, ripped apart or removed from existence by the explosive endings of their fellow craft.

  “I want shuttles moving to those Star Warriors closest, and were tossed free in the first impact. I have a feeling our Kalu Independents are going to need some craft to help us out,” Bregend said, breaking the silence that had descended on the Bridge, everyone's eyes glued to the destruction they had brought onto the Kalu's ships. Decades of work had just been destroyed in a matter of seconds. Thousands of ships had been destroyed or were tumbling across space.

  “The jump ships are engaging the patrol. Three ships are already down. The others are immobile,” Kyle said.

  “How is the second strike-force doing?” Bregend said, while the Star Warriors were a damned pain, the Star destroyers had showed their true effectiveness even if they had been given the wrong tactics book.

  While it would be awesome to have the Independent's in control of those ships and allied with the Free Fleet.

  But Min Hae knew that, he was not going to let a Star-destroyer leave that yard under Kalu traditionalist control.

  Bregend didn't have the new bombers with his fleet yet, but hopefully when Boot and Whorst joined him, that would change.

  They would be in Kalu space in five days, till then, Bregend was going to hit as many damned Kalu yards as he could.

  While the Kalu didn't seem to have FTL communications, Bregend knew that what could go wrong, would probably do so.

  Word would get out one way or another, so Bregend had made Wake-up available to everyone, they were going to need it in the coming week.

  Min Hae's ships weren't covered in asteroids but fighters and shuttles. They had launched as soon as they were free of their wormhole, sending thirteen thousand Kalu and four thousand Free Fleet personnel hurtling towards the Star-destroyer yards.

  In fifteen minutes they would land.

  ***

  Jesse Simiah was technically the commander of Bregend's ship's commandos. Yet now instead of being aboard his ship, he, and three quarters of his commandos were packed onto a shuttle with three times their number of Kalu readying themselves for battle.

  “Landing in five,” The pilot said.

  Simiah looked over his star-map. He was also technically in charge of all the commandos that were to attack the star-destroyer yard.

  Fat chance of that. He thought, battle in space was fought by squads and platoons. Battles were usually fought with large distances between groups of soldiers. The people on the spot had to make a decision and go with it most of the time. Commanders basically told their people what their basic objectives were and maybe other information they saw, or knew. The rest was up to the commandos, which was why Jesse was damned happy that Salchar, Henry and Bok Soo made it clear that they were not going to skimp on training. No matter amount of Commandos they wished they could have active, they would only pass commandos, nothing more, and never anything less.

  Which was why, instead of communicating to all of his sub-commanders, he left them to sort themselves out. They knew what their job was and all of them had memorized the Star Destroyers and yards layout to the deck plating.

  “Coming in hot!” The shuttle pilot said with some relish, they were technically the first force to ever board a Kalu vessel.

  The airlock made noises to say it was sealed before its software hammered the internal airlocks open and Commandos rushed through. Forces split, Independent's rushed out, using the curved walls to turn themselves.

  The Commandos entered the hangar, Jesse looking at the row upon row of Kalu fighters. They ran the length of the ship, rotating racks tens deep down the length of the behemoth.

  “We have captured this ship, my warriors are moving to the next ship,” The warrior leader Fali said in Simiah's ear.

  “Very well,” Simiah said, watching as the Kalu Independent's rushed out, only fifty staying to get the craft moving.

  “Back to the shuttle, we're onto the next one,” He said, watching as Min Hae and his f
leet fired buckling cables into the station, rail cannons and PDS hit the thrusters and engines that kept the station from drifting, the Free Fleet ships, accelerated along the drift path of the yard, using their own engines at full to even impart some kind of momentum. It would take some time, but it was possible.

  Jesse was on his seventh destroyer when he ran into a traditionalist crew. There was eighty of them getting into fighters when Lofua, an Avarian heavy gunner, felt like saying hello with his rain cannon.

  “I think they won't be earning any frequent flyer miles today,” Jesse said, Lofua gave him a very Avarian grin as he rolled his eyes-in a very commanderly way of course.

  Eighty seven Star Destroyers were underway before the first Kalu fighters started deploying from traditionalist ships.

  MEF's made short work of them.

  “Take a rest,” Jesse said, his people were exhausted from jumping from ship to ship in an attempt to secure as many as possible of the enemies weapons.

  He watched the massive main screen, the star-destroyer's active sensors showed what was going on outside as he drank from his water tube.

  “About time they showed up,” Someone grumbled.

  A wormhole appeared as dozens of Kalu Independent ships emerged and headed for the yard.

  Jesse shook his head, three more destroyer's had released themselves from their mooring and were powering towards the rally point.

  Strike force two had spent the last while making sure that nothing would hit the Kalu station, where millions of Traditionalists watched their war machines being turned to uselessness, their enemy out of their grasp.

  The Hundred or so star-warriors on the station were powering for Bregend's ships, lasers and missiles fired Shields flashed, and rail cannons answered, the Kalu were too close and their acceleration already too high to turn as rail gun rounds ripped them apart. Missiles were met with PDS fire, only one Corvette was hit, its shields gone as it rotated out from the front battle lines.