From the Black (Free Fleet Book 4)

by Michael Chatfield

  “Resilient, I was wondering if we could re-purpose a few PDS to help out our gravity trapped fellows,” Rick said.

  “Certainly commander. I will forward a link to Bok Soo, if he requires support fire,” Resilient said in her calming motherly tones.

  “Thank you Resilient,” Rick said, throwing quick reports to Salchar as he watched the rest of the fleet manoeuvre.

  ***

  “You mother fucker!” I said as a Kalu jumped, grabbing my left cannon, a blast from my right left nothing but chunks.

  Another rushed up the berm, coming right for me. I pulled my hands off of the controls, pulling a shotgun from my right side.

  “Hello,” I said, pulling the trigger, the Kalu getting a blast of plasma in the face for its trouble. I cocked the shotgun, dropping it as the string it was attached to, kept it next to me and ready.

  “Need a reload,” Krom said, he was a whirl of blades, Cannons and Kalu. He used the HAPA as if it was an extension of himself, he didn't fight. He danced, the dance of the awakened in its element.

  I let go a guttural roar, my speakers making it a wall of sound that dominated even the Kalu's own war cries as I grabbed my cannon handles. Rounds spat from my cannons, Kalu movement was rewarded with a blast from my cannons.

  A beeping filled my helmet.

  “Reload!” I yelled the request, switching my right arm to a blade. I scanned the battlefield. Above MEF's and Kalu fighters clashed, PDS systems from the ships behind the lines crashed into the Kalu fighters. More PDS systems fired over the lines into the advancing Kalu, but there was too many of them.

  Rail cannons thumped rhythmically, their massive rounds smashing Heija's ground as if it was gods own anvil. The front lines were alight with weapons fire directed at the oncoming Kalu. Most of the lines were actually fighting hand to hand, the bluish green illuminating the dark holes, armor from both sides illuminated with the deadly light of plasmid weaponry.

  The battlefield the Kalu advanced on was an explosion of dirt and rocks as rounds landed from above, lines of rounds cut across it, yet still the black seething mass of Kalu warriors continued, racing on their four limbs to close with us. Their lasers flashed in the short bursts they were capable of.

  It was hell incarnate, a landscape of pure and unadulterated war.

  I shut my brain off, right now I wasn't Commander Salchar. I was the commando that would do whatever his CAMC told him to support his brothers and sisters.

  “Missiles,” I said, firing the last four missiles at a particularly large concentration of Kalu. My missile pods rotated back and I squeezed my left trigger, three Kalu that had turned towards Krom, Shreesht and my own pit, turned into bleeding armor. I used my plasmid blade like a bat, smashing it through a Kalu that leapt for Shreesht's left arm.

  I felt a laser strike my leg, I gritted my teeth in pain, moving out of the way of the laser, sending thousands of rounds at the lasers shooter. I raked the closest Kalu, my left arm beeping that it was nearly out, I switched it to a blade, jumping at the Kalu. They seemed intent on returning the gesture, jumping and targeting my sword arms. I punched my sword through a Kalu in a cross, the HAPA's power and the plasmid sword making short work of the creature as it slid off my right my left underhanded hook taking another Kalu's face off. A kick with my right foot caved A Kalu's side in and sent them flying. My kick left my back exposed. I pushed off of my right foot, swinging me to face the Kalu fully. I sensed more than saw the Kalu that had been going for my back. A left hook and my plasmid sword waited for them, their own momentum impaling them on my blade. I brought my left over to slash another, the carcass of the last coming off and smacking them backwards. I switched my right sword to a cannon, blasting the closest Kalu, giving myself some damned breathing room.

  “Reload here!” Shreesht yelled, he didn't have the time to change his cannon to a sword as he smacked a Kalu out of the air, riddling them with holes as they landed.

  I looked over at Krom, he was deep within the Kalu. My HUD showed his ammunition was out. I fired another burst at would be attackers. My left hand grabbed grenades in the opposite side of the shotgun I tossed them as far as my power armor enhanced would allow me. I turned my cannon onto the swarm around Krom, he was barely stopping the multiple attackers. The unnatural speed of an awakened keeping him alive. I fired my right cannon as my left rotated into place. Krom used his HAPA's strength, actually doing a damn back flip into the pit, he drove his sword into the ground stopping his momentum, slicing a Kalu in half, skewering another as my cannon fire smashed into the Kalu that had surrounded him.

  The reloading crew wasted no time now he was in at least some kind of cover. They rushed up to him, slapping feeders into his back, his swords rotated out as rounds were fed to his cannons.

  The two person reloading crew smacked the locks on the spent missile pods with hammers, the pods fell away as they lifted replacements into place.

  I turned back to my area. Fatigue had made my mind wander.

  “Well come on you fuckers, let's dance!” I said, I still had five percent ammunition left in my cannons, and my plasmid wasn't running out any time soon.

  My right rotated into a sword, I smacked a leaping Kalu down, my left sending a blast into another's mid riff. I sent another burst across the front lines. My rounds smashed into the Kalu fighting to get into the trenches, or were crowding to follow their own brethren down.

  “They're bringing everything down!” Someone yelled, I gave a glance to the sky, that pause, rewarding me with a Kalu biting my HAPA's foot, my sword cut them in half, I switched my right to a sword, the cannon now dry. Missiles streaked over my head, Krom looked to be ready once again.

  “Reload!” Shreesht called.

  “Salchar, get your arse back here, you're nearly out,”

  “Hah! Am I'm the only one that has been close to zero?” I barked as I started walking backwards over the Kalu that had gotten too close to my pit for comfort. The Kalu were a sea, they were smashed by boulders and rocks, even the cliffs of the front lines, but still a few made it past those cliffs.

  Krom's guns went live as he pushed back the front line in front of the pit I turned and jumped back into the pit, turning so the re-loaders to get to my ports and missile pods.

  Only the most proficient had survived this long, it was a damned hellish way to separate people.

  They got the pods on and the loader was hurling rounds into my internal storage as I switched to cannons and took over watching over my own arcs. I was supposed to be looking after the frontage of the pit as the other two looked after the lines on either side. The reality with the oncoming hell storm of Kalu, was we were just fighting for our survival at this point. My mind wandered to where Yasu was, or Bok Soo, or the hundreds of people I had come to know more than anyone than someone that hasn't fought alongside people for their very lives would understand.

  I took another glance at the sky, my HUD overlaying a wire grid so I could see the ships in orbit.

  Kalu ships descended like some artificial night. Free Fleet ships fired everything and anything that they had, hammering the Kalu. Kalu fighters were split into two groups, those attacking the Free Fleet ships, and those descending to press their attack on the surface.

  We needed something to give us the time to instigate operation 'get the fuck off of this rock'.

  While the fighting in orbit was severe, it was minimal. With time the Free Fleet could win. Rick had it well in hand. He hadn't been sitting up there and wasting his time away. He had taken out hundreds of ships, thousands had incurred damage. Star-destroyers had been the first targets. Rick seemed to be keeping track of those that had full fighter contingents and those that hadn't. His first attack had devastated them.

  The fighters that had been resting up for their next engagement had been well drilled. They had got amongst the Kalu and given them a new one. Their targets had been the destroyers as well.

  The Kalu in their disorganized assembly they had created out
of their want to be on the planet as quick as possible, had made it practically impossible to have a mutual defence. The Kalu were mostly silent, for fear that they would hit one another instead of the enemy. Most were using their ships in an effort to crash into fighters. It was crazy and damned hard, but they still had around fifteen hundred ships in orbit, or descending.

  Kalu ships were split apart as the new multi-warhead missiles hit their varying targets. The Kalu's lack of shields put them at a marked disadvantage.

  They cracked, bled atmosphere, blossomed into fire balls and...

  Ships descending, all of them the same design, no shields, high powered power plants, filled with missiles and nuclear bombs to accelerate themselves. I turned my fire onto a swarm that seemed to have disengaged the fighters above. My rounds piercing the heavens, bringing a rain of Kalu fighters to the ground.

  I looked at the Kalu enemy, wire diagrams from sensor readings still filling my vision as I saw twenty or so Star Warriors land in the massive formation of Kalu ships.

  “Bok Soo, I have one hell of a bomb that could give us the time we need to get off this planet,” I said, my mind working.

  “You are damned insane man!” Bok Soo said.

  “I know! Makes it interesting. Resilient!” I yelled, my earpiece pinged that she was online.

  “Okay, so we're going to have to change our plan escape somewhat. It's going to be damned risky, but I think we can pull it off,” I said.

  “What do you need?” Resilient asked.

  “First, I need all of the Kalu on the planet, for that I need the fleet to come down to the planet. Come in behind the mountains, smash the Kalu on the front lines. We use the confusion to give the Commandos and ground forces enough time to get to the ships. We need to give the Kalu enough time to swarm the planet. When the Kalu are smacking on our armor we head for space, we hit their landed ships with whatever artillery we have. Those ships are bombs if we hit them in the right places. Resilient I want you and planner to work on the best way to entice all of the Kalu down based on your knowledge of them, then I want you to make a present firing solution to turn those ships into bombs, with atmosphere those ships turning into bombs is going to have a hell of a punch,” I said.

  “You're insane,” Resilient said, even though her tone was thoughtful. “I'll work on it and relay your plan to Rick,”

  “Thanks, and tell him good work with the Destroyers,” I said, being released by the re-loaders.

  “Certainly,” she said, cutting the channel, she had work to do after all.

  “How bad is it?” I asked Bok Soo. My attention was on the battlefield now, my cannons hadn't stopped firing since I had been reloading, there was little need to aim, my twin streams found Kalu wherever they went.

  “Bad,” His tone grave. “The left flank is gone, we're using constant shelling and pushing whatever ship personnel we can pull to fill the gap, we're out of reserves. We're fully committed, but so are the Kalu, the numbers we're dealing with are just too many for even our massed firepower. Thankfully the Kalu are basically only fighting us hand to hand, with there being so many of them it's hard for them to shoot their lasers without hitting their own people. Foshunti is personally seeing to the mountain guns getting reloaded, they're battered to hell as they are still in the Kalu's line of fire. The fighters are getting hammered by the swarms, but they've had enough time fighting them that they know what to expect,”

  Rounds from the heavens hammered across the battlefield, cutting fighter swarms and Kalu racing towards our line apart like some kind of knife. The rounds tracked back and forth, turning the cut through the Kalu, into a wall.

  “You beautiful bastard!” I said on a personal channel, overriding prompts.

  “Thought you might like that,” Rick said, obviously happy and relieved to hear my voice as I was to hear his.

  “A little rain from the heavens especially in this hell hole is more than welcome,” Bok Soo said, his grave stones cut with thanks towards Rick.

  “Ah well hopefully we can put this hell hole to our backs,” Rick said, his own tone become serious and dark. “Resilient has relied your plan, it's pretty... ambitious. But if we even do half of what you're hoping, I think we can take, if not whittle the remaining Kalu ships down,”

  “Good,” I said, the simple word flat and dull with old anger. Just as Yasu's own team Samurai's revenge had tried to use honourable ways against me. I was going to bring the unholy and terrible power of the dishonourable Murphy down on the Kalu.

  “I think it's time that we got the hell off of this rock,” I said, sending them both our escape plan.

  “I believe it is Commander,” Rick said, his tone vicious.

  “If I never see this planet again, I will be a happy man,” Bok Soo growled.

  I pressed a button connecting Lifendi to our call.

  “Alright Lifendi, we're getting the fuck off of Heija,”

  “Very well commander, I will see to my ships and their people. I have no doubt Bok Soo will keep me in the loop,” Foshunti said.

  “Good, in that case, I think we should create some room and get as many wounded sorted out as soon as possible. Shuttles would be the fastest I'm thinking,” I said.

  “I'll see to it commander,” Bok Soo said.

  “Good man. We have one hell of an operation to carry out, I don't want any fuck ups,” I said, my tone becoming hard, it wouldn't take much to turn our plan sour.

  Everyone greened up and I cut the channel, firing two missiles from my right into a mass of Kalu.

  Night was coming quickly, but artificial light from the heavens and weapons fire illuminated the hellish battlefield above and on Heija.

  The Free Fleet crossed the Kalu fleet, coming in at breakneck speeds, braking as they got amongst the Kalu, their broadsides unleashing hell as the Kalu fought to get a bead on my ships.

  Fighters fell on the Free Fleet ships, thousands of lines of light reaching out from the ships to hit the swarms with their terrible power.

  “Come on you beauties!” I said, pumping one cannon in the air in salute to the fleet which plowed through the fighters, cannon rounds sending Star Warriors and Destroyers into chaos, or down towards Heija. More than one had been ripped at by the forces of even Heija's thin atmosphere.

  The first ones to hit Heija had been too far away to feel much, now the ground was beginning to shake with every single one.

  “Ammo!” Krom called out, firing missiles into the Kalu which had thankfully slowed their pace. Not without some liberal help of the PDS raining their pre-timed fletchette rounds onto the damned creatures.

  Alerts came across my screen as a Kalu concentration had broken through the lines to my right.

  “Moving,” I said before Shreesht or Krom could. I took off with the odd ground eating slow lope of the HAPA. I lowered my cannons, freeing the missile pods, firing one multi from each. It flew over my people's heads and into the third or fourth line of Kalu trying to get into the trench system. Lasers sparked off of my armor as I moved, thankfully too fast for many of them to do much more than cut some hydraulic lines and, Shit, left cannons gonna be a bitch to use now. I grumbled, one of the main power lines getting a lucky hit of laser and shorting it out.

  Thankfully the firing mechanism, cannon and its ammunition feed looked to be still functional. I ran over a rise, turning sideways, braking myself with the HAPA's massive feet as my stabilized right cannon rose, a line of fletchette rounds spitting into the breach.

  Kalu were literally blasted backwards as I stopped moving and jumped into the trench. I tossed my left cannon onto the edge of the trench, firing it along with my left cannon, using my shoulder to move my stream of rounds as the edge of the trench acted as a pivot.

  A Kalu hit my back, its claws digging into my armor. I checked my map for a second and kicked the forward wall of the trench, I smacked into the back wall, reinforced with armor plating, crushing my Kalu backpack.

  I swung my left cannon like a flai
l, close arming a Kalu, with HAPA power. Gore went everywhere, the cannon's weight and the HAPA's force cracking the creature's armor and the skull underneath. Two more got a blast from my right cannon. The Kalu turned on me, forgetting the Commandos at their backs.

  I swung and flailed, not firing for fear of catching one of my people as Commando's roared into battle, their plasmid swords burying themselves in Kalu armor and flesh.

  The battle of the trench had been won, but the Kalu didn't know that.

  I fired as I moved up to the front of the trench.

  “Come on commandos!” I roared, slapping down my left cannon and firing with that as well, my missile pods erupting in flame as missiles leapt free towards swarms of Kalu fighters in the sky, and their charging battle brothers on the ground.

  I moved and fired, anywhere the Kalu seemed to be making ground I brought the delay fire of the HAPA down on them. Requests lit up my HUD as I shifted fire, rounds streaming through my auto loaders as my rail cannons opened up their coolant ports, heat waves came off of the cannons to either side.

  There was no James Cook, no Salchar, and no Commander at that point. it was just a man fighting for the lives of those around him, as they fought for his.

  The ground seemed to erupt and shake.

  “Take cover!” Bok Soo barked. I had enough time to look up and see as the Free Fleet that had been in orbit had passed the Kalu formation, and dove into Heija's atmosphere, now they were coming in at an angle to the battlefield. The massive ships of the Free Fleet, my fleet rumbled louder than anything I have ever heard, it shook the marrow in my bones as PDS, cannons and even Commandos in the airlocks created thousands of streams of rounds.

  I got down as bigger rounds than the PDS' hit the battlefield. I was rocked backwards on my HAPA as dirt and stones rained down on my form.

  “The Kalu have taken the bait and are coming down in force,” Bok Soo said.

  “Well then it's about time we got on those shuttles and got the hell out of here!” I said.

  “Yes Commander!” Bok Soo said, even the bone weary fatigue of fighting on Heija for months couldn't stifle his excitement, or his pride. He and his Commandos had come to Heija, probably expecting to die, yet they had smashed the Kalu, bathing the world Heija with the hellish creature's blood and armor.