From the Black (Free Fleet Book 4)

by Michael Chatfield

  They had rallied as we had come back for them. But they had still thought that they were going to die on this planet.

  Now, well now there was a chance to get off of this hell, and to take a hell of a lot of Kalu down.

  Well that was something that would sit well with any Commando.

  “All units this is Commander Salchar, begin movement to the ships. HAPA's will cover. Shuttles get your asses moving,” I said, pushing myself up as I stopped looking at the Free Fleet ship's that were now floating over the trench lines, clearing the skies of Kalu fighters and hitting the Star-warriors that were descending to add their weight to the Kalu on the ground, and landing on the actual floating ships. Shuttles came from those ships in a flood, landing on the front lines and loading up with Commandos.

  Everyone had been briefed on the plan, now it was working, people just followed their leaders and commanders, most of them shocked as they piled onto shuttles and headed towards their awaiting ships.

  I was up and moving to secondary lines through trenches, my mass taking up all of a trench as I took up the rear. A few Kalu followed but a couple of blasts killed even them.

  Damned cockroaches. I thought as I stopped at the secondary line, the HAPA's stood as a line, pushing back any Kalu that had followed as the second line assisted, their fire dwindling as they too turned and made for lines further back.

  “Holy shit,” Shreesht said, his words stunning me as I looked at where he was facing.

  Tens of Kalu Warriors had arrived every few minutes up till now. Eight hundred had landed as they had got word from the enemy ships. The six hundred remaining in orbit were all coming down now in a stream.

  The PDS of the fleet wasn't enough to keep what must have been over a hundred thousand Kalu at bay and try to slow the six hundred ships coming down.

  “All HAPA's mark sector and ready missiles, check for no overlaps. Green when ready,” I said, HAPA's coming back as missile pods moved into position.

  “Fire,” I said, HAPA's were hidden in missile propellant as warheads rushed towards the enemy.

  “Move it HAPA's!” Bok Soo said.

  The line dissolved laser's reaching us at even this distance. We didn't take the time to go through the trenches, there were no defending lines anymore, just three hundred meters to the grounded ships.

  Even though the lasers were faraway, and weak, there were a lot of them. Alarms quickly rose in volume as my rear armor took hits, I pressed on harder with my ground-lope as I saw A HAPA stumble I turned, braking as my legs wind milled, my HAPA almost horizontal as I turned.

  “Eject,” I yelled over my close area frequency.

  I saw the multi-missiles crash into the Kalu lines. They didn't even seem to stop as fresh Kalu leaped over their fallen, they were five hundred meters away and they were damned fast.

  I turned my attention onto the HAPA, the pilot was cutting themselves free of their harness. I reached out a cannon, braking as they freed themselves of their HAPA and grabbed onto it like it was a lifeline I wind milled my legs, using my other cannon to stay upright as I failed to take into account the extra weight of an armored commando.

  I grunted in my armor as I kept running, the laser hits much more powerful. As PDS went live as HAPA's cleared their line of fire.

  Four streams of rounds blasted past me, I looked up, my HUD connecting to the two's Identity tags.

  “Will you hurry up boss?” Shreesht said in a mildly annoyed voice. As he and Krom, turned and started running with me.

  Engines were firing all across the ship formations. The Kalu were just a few hundred meters from us now.

  I could feel the heat from the laser strikes now. One got my back, my legs faltering for a second as my HUD flashed warnings as pain lanced down my back, and I couldn't feel my legs anymore.

  I had just had my spine severed.

  I kept running, my neural implants that had made me scream in pain and terror, my first day being a recruit, now kept me alive as my armor was cut and sliced, my battle suit sealed over wounds as I could hear the Kalu behind me, not even needing to look at my HUD to see them.

  A pod was cut in half, hydraulics started failing as the last three of us ran through the first line of ships, Kalu ran at the airlocks, scraping at them to get in as ships started to rise. Commandos were yelling, firing behind Krom Shreesht, my tag along and myself as we ran to the second line of Battle cruisers and carriers,

  Just a hundred meters. I thought, another laser cutting into my ribs. It felt as if I was in vacuum, air seemed to rush out of me and try to escape my body as I kept running, my vision blurred and I stumbled.

  No I was getting this person home. That was my job, to get my hanger-on home. I grunted, coughing with the exertion, blood was in my lungs, I tried to fight the coughing attacks. Anger fueling me as my right hand dropped to the grenades waiting there. I thumbed them, the strength leaving me as I dropped them on the ground, running, always running. Then I felt as if I was lifted off of the ground.

  “Salchar!” Krom's angered, but oddly scared voice said barked.

  Why was he scared? He was never scared? Well there are Kalu behind you. I thought, I slapped a wakeup manual injector on my thigh, clarity came back, a little. Enough to see Krom and Shreesht throwing me, then jumping over me as other Commandos grabbed me. Kalu were at the door.

  I had to protect them. I grabbed the shotgun, coughing as I fired. I cocked and fired again as I felt someone cutting at my harness.

  It was getting hard to cock the shotgun as another Kalu got a face full of plasma.

  This is pretty good. No wonder Bok Soo likes them. I thought, lucidly as I fired again.

  I saw as Destroyers tilted, their engines to the ground as Kalu raced under them and towards the other ships.

  A Kalu was using me to climb up into the ship. I was out of rounds. I tried to club them, but my shotgun was tethered to my HAPA. A massive figure came from outside my vision, grabbing the Kalu and shoving a plasmid dagger into its head before throwing it out.

  He turned to me, I knew that armor.

  “Krom,” I said as I felt the harness come apart around me. I was dragged out of it by willing hands. My HAPA, unceremoniously kicked out of the Airlock, the airlock sealing behind it.

  I looked up, someone pulled my helmet off.

  “James! James!” She screamed, the most beautiful creature I had ever seen. I looked up as Yasu, smiling.

  Well some good things did come of being recruited. I thought, coughing racking my body as blood made its presence in my lungs known.

  Pain lanced through my entire being.

  I saw Krom's armor come into view, his shoulders moving people out of the way as I was lifted.

  “Shreesht, clear the way,” Krom's voice like granite as I felt myself moving.

  I was supposed to stay awake, but I'm tired, so tired, and it hurts. Goddamn lasers.

  Another spasm of pain flooded my upper body and darkness claimed me.

  Chapter Murhpy's minions.

  Xentar watched as the Free Fleet ships rose into the air, he had just missed the engines firing. They had killed thousands of Kalu as they melted the ground, and sent rocks, debris and air at the Kalu ranks, throwing them back and killing a number of them before they raced for the sky, the other ships joining them as they fired on his ships that had been descending and were now targeting their ships.

  “To the Star-warriors, we will hunt them down like the cowards they are!” Xentar said, word passing as he charged back through the ranks, butting Kalu out of the way as he rushed towards the collection of ships.

  ***

  “How are we looking Eddie?” Rick said, trying to keep the anxiousness out of his voice. Resilient had taken a pounding from the Kalu fleet which he was currently having a slug fest with. There was no manoeuvring or room for anything fancy other than their opening hits which had taken out the freshest Star-destroyer and star-warriors. It was his armor and guns against the Kalu's. Resilient's shie
lds had bee wiped out a while ago.

  “We're on secondary relays at least, the power plants are holding stead somehow. We're moving guns from damned storage to bring more firepower to bear. Missiles tubes are getting royally messed up and I've ordered the evacuation of the outer decks. I suggest that we depressurize up to the third deck,” Eddie's voice deadly serious as Rick looked at his screens, seeing te angr red areas which seemed to take up the outer decks.

  “Do it,” Rick said, cutting the channel to Eddie, the Kuruvian was bad enough keeping Resilient together without needing Rick over his shoulder and Rick ad a ship and a fleet to fight.

  “Vort send out that alert that we're going to depressurize the three outer decks,”

  Removing the air from the decks meant that anyone that got a wound in the area would probably die, but it meant that things such as fires, explosive blow outs, and people being thrown out into space wouldn't happen. Rick just hoped that the injured were able to get out of those areas that weren't already open to space.

  “Fire any and all remaining missiles,” Rick said as Resilient shook with impacts, laser cannons plowed into her armor as Rick bared his teeth.

  “Fight your stations as best as you can people, don't wait for confirmation,” He said, giving an order that no military on Earth would give. He was giving control to the commanders that ran the ship. Shields that had bee stretched to fill his priorities ow covered areas atincreased strengt. Milra and Ben worked as if one organism, moving the ship and the fleet as Marleen barked orders into her earpiece with the gunnery deck. She took of, Prev and the rest of Tactical following her to the gun decks.

  “Taking over gunnery decks,” Resilient said in that metallic tone alerting Rick that she was using a hell of a lot of processing power.

  She blossomed in ravaging fire, she placed trust in the crew to keep her systems running and her safe as she did everything to fight for their lives.

  Rick pulled the workload off of In Sook, firing information from ship to ship. Commanders released control to their crews, letting them fight the ship.

  Each ship blossomed in fire, wrath and anger. They overstepped their abilities when they attacked the Kalu. They knew that, but they were angry, the kind of rage that made creatures yell into the black's face and ask for more.

  These creatures had been trampled more than once and that anger now took form in their defiance of the Kalu's fleet around Heija.

  The Fleet rose from the surface of Heija, streaming atmosphere their own cannons PDS and missiles adding to the fleet in orbit's fire.

  The Kalu waded through that fire and kept coming.

  Rick knew that the Kalu would eventually overrun them if they waited.

  It was time for their last remarks.

  The last ship exited atmosphere, powering for the jump-limit as fast as possible.

  “All ships, this is the COS, move to protect the fleet and head towards the jump limit. Resilient will cover. Gunners, I think we should give the Kalu Salchar's gift,” Rick watched as rail cannons paused and turned towards Heija, towards the star-warriors that were now being swarmed with Kalu, some starting their ascent towards the departing fleet.

  Those cannons seemed to fire as one, rounds heated up in atmosphere, gravity aiding them slightly as they rained down like hell's own hail.

  ***

  Foshunti let out a grunt as the acceleration lessened and he was able to fully breathe again.

  He looked at Heija as it fell behind him. Ships from the second fleet moved into position around his battered squadron.

  “Plot us a course to the nearest jump limit Nav,” Foshunti said, slumping in his seat. He would've taken wake-up if he wasn't past the maximum dosages and it had little effect on him.

  “Fifty percent across the board. Get some damned sleep and a detox people,” Foshunti said, sitting upright, his own voice hoarse.

  The reinforcing fleet fired at the Kalu Warriors and fighters that were coming after them, numbering in the tens, they were little compared to what Foshunti had fought the first time entering this system.

  The Star-destroyers were being weighed down by gravity and their own mass, still trying to get out of atmosphere and chase the second fleet which had cleared the planet.

  “We are getting a live feed from Resilient,” On screen,” Foshunti said, life returning to his body as he leaned forward, broadcast it to every ship,”

  “Already done,” Communications said.

  Foshunti nodded to himself as rounds which had to be from Planetary Rail cannons hurtled towards the junkyard looking arrangement of Kalu Star Warriors and random Star-destroyer.

  The forward elements of the Kalu that had chased the Free Fleet ships just made it to their ships as the rounds smashed them. The penetrator rounds exploded, cracking dozens of Star-warriors and an unlucky star-destroyer. Power plants lost containment as smaller rail cannons fired onto the mass.

  Dozens of reactors let go with the power of minuscule suns, they triggered other power plants to fail as fusion reactor after fusion reactor released the suns power that they mimicked. Sensors dialed back and out, some blacking out from the white destructive light, mushroom clouds warred with one another as the surface of the planet seemed to fight the Kalu.

  Ships that were in the atmosphere were thrown, some touched by nuclear explosions, other by the storms of fire and air pressure.

  Heija burned, like the hellish place it had become to the Free Fleet.

  Foshunti stood, two fingers snapping to his head, silently others on the bridge followed their commanders lead. Unknown to Foshunti, his image was now being broadcasted to every ship as they too saluted Heija.

  “Let you not go into the light peacefully, but go knowing that the full fury and love of the Free Fleet will be with you. May your fires burn ever brighter as we take on your promise, to banish the black and strive for the light,” Foshunti said the old prayer of the Personal Defence Force.

  “Strive for the light,” Others that knew the prayer responded.

  Foshunti let his hand dropped as he turned to his command screens, watching as Rick and his fleet put their acceleration systems to work.

  “How long until Rick reaches us?” Foshunti asked.

  “Thirty minutes,”

  “Thank you,” Foshunti said, falling into his seat.

  “Shake out the fleet into formation, I want PDS and weapons inter-linked. Any of the bastards that want to touch us will have to pay the fleet price,” Foshunti said, like a creature that had lived and breathed in savagery for so long that it had become a part of him.

  The Free fleet came into formation, any Kalu ship that came into range, tasting the fleet's rail canons.

  ***

  “Orshpa was unapproachable, not even Darsoo tried to talk to his War-leader who stood like some statue, watching the Free Fleet as they powered away from Heija.

  Three hundred thousand Kalu had been destroyed trying to overpower the Free Fleet, and in the Free Fleet's final surprise.

  “The Kalu in this system are to reform their forces and attack any planet they can find. Now we will wage this war how it was supposed to be fought. We will tear from them their weakest and bring their true forces to bear against ours, we will spread them thin and attack them everywhere they reside. Change our heading towards the jump limit. We will rally our fleets and our clans, and we will crush these creatures that have used trickery and deceit to wither our strength,” Orshpa physically shook with anger, as he continued to look at the main display.

  Darsoo saw that his war-leaders commands were carried out.

  Ashota had been right about one thing. We should have got more information before we came back to Union space. Orshpa thought with disgust.

  ***

  As soon as The Kalu fleet had fled Boot turned to his next objective, getting behind Kalu lines and letting his ships loose. It also seemed that Cheerleader didn't need War station to make sure Rosho was clear and send ships after the Kalu to make sure they
didn't double back, or attack a protected system.

  So, not wanting to waste time, Boot had collected his fighters, moved around War-station and begun their journey. The Jump ships had however been sent ahead, which was why Commander Smith was now hailing a tired sounding Commander Bregend.

  “Good to see you Commander Smith,” Bregend said. He had just hit his third system, three Yards lay destroyed in the same way that he'd hit the first Kalu yards.

  “You too Commander Bregend,”

  “Get your people sorted out and then come see me for some...food,” Bregend said, a look of momentary confusion making Smith think that the Commander had actually forgotten what meal he was supposed to have next.

  “Certainly Commander,” Smith said, Bregend tapped a salute before the channel ended. Smith couldn't transmit video inside his jump ship, the jelly and the fact he was lying down would mean that someone could only see his helmeted head if there had been a camera.

  It was another few hours before Smith had got his shuttle aboard a Battle-Carrier, got showered and on a shuttle to Bregend's Dreadnought, it was one of the ships that had been salvaged from the fleet of mashed up ships Bregend had found, and then started rebuilding. A number of those ships were still being hauled off to the Free Fleet's yards to be upgraded or gutted. The Yard in the system made sure the ships were able to move and pushed them on. Being so close to the front lines there was no guarantee when the Kalu might show up and attack. Having fifty ships in partial fixes was less useful than having thirty already moved into Fleet controlled areas with more people and resources dedicated to them, instead of a myriad of ships.

  The shuttle settled in the Dreadnought's shuttle bay, the ramps lowering as materials and personnel were dropped off.