Smith didn’t think that anything but working together against the Kalu was going to do anything to stop them.
“So it comes down to this,” Smith said.
“It looks like it.” Flek couldn’t hide the nervous twitch of her wings.
Four-hundred and seventy against eight-hundred and forty-seven thousand Kalu ships. Only about two-thousand to one for the Kalu.
“I think I need a drink,” Smith said.
“Shower first, I’ll meet you up there, I’ll buy a round,” Flek said.
“I’ll take you up on that Flek,” Smith said turning to his barrack door which opened for him.
“It would be a miracle to see you forget a free drink!” She said to his receding backside.
Maybe I should pass on it then, we’re going to need some damned miracles to survive this.
***
“Board your star-warriors, fill the star-destroyers! We will march through the stars against the Union and their Free Fleet as our ancestors did! Remember this day and record it for the clans of our descendants. We are the Kalu, we are the claws and hides of warrior-borne! We will bring victory to our clans, or we will not come home. To War!” Orshpa bellowed before stepping onto his star-warrior. The chant of ‘To War, To War!’ filled the open field which held thousands of Kalu ships.
Orshpa took his place as leader of clans on his ship, his other Kalu praised him with their baying and shouts to victory.
His teeth came together in a snarl, his gums pulling back as he basked in the moment, letting himself feel the battle rage that filled him, wishing that the Free Fleet were in front of him. So he could pit his claws and armor against their skills and plasmid weaponry.
Star-warriors and Destroyers at the jump points around Ulri charged their jump generators as soon as they had received Orshpa’s message.
He couldn’t hear the baying and the war cries as battle-brothers crashed into one another, pawing each other in faux battle, showing what they would do to their enemy.
***
Min Hae looked at the imagery from the stealthy reconnaissance drone that parsed its information out to the FTL relays the old Union had sown throughout the Kalu systems.
Three thousand ships rose from Ulri’s surface heading towards the jump-limit.
Silly and Felix appeared in the Destroyer yard’s command deck, looking to Min Hae.
“It’s started,” he said simply, the confused looks on their faces and manipulators turning grim.
They all looked to the main screen that usually showed the plans of the station. Now it showed the input coming from the recon drone. Star-Destroyers and Warriors continued to pile out of Ulri’s atmosphere, like massive black locusts.
The squadrons of a hundred or so Kalu ships already waiting at the jump points started charging their jump generators. It would be hard to track a few dozen ships charging their jump generators, but numbers meant that even the recon drone could pick-up what the Kalu were doing.
“Well I guess we move to the second phase then,” Felix said. “Get as many Star-Destroyers converted and armed as possible train as many fighters as possible and get them to the Fleet as soon as possible.”
“We’re not going to be doing any good watching the Kalu. I’ll let my people know and we’ll start working off of the premise that we won’t be getting any more supplies from the Fleet as they get ready to deal with the Kalu,” Silly said.
“Let me know if me and mine can be of any help, we’re still pulling information from the Kalu traditionalists but soon it’s going to be irrelevant; movements and Kalu ship’s positions are going to be essential, and they don’t need us for that,” Min Hae said.
And I want to be doing something other than watching as the Free Fleet goes into yet another battle and I can do little to nothing to help them.
“Ah we’ll find a job for you Commander,” Felix said with a grin, his eyes understanding Min Hae’s pain oh so well.
***
After I got the news of the Kalu movements I checked over the positions of my ships, and then listened to my wife’s astute advice to ‘get back in bed, I’m cold, we knew they were coming and this pillow is not as comfortable!’
We didn’t sleep much, lying there, not really understanding what was coming but enjoying the feel of one another’s embraces, our breaths seemed to declare our life to the rest of the Universe.
We lied like that, just making small chat. I felt my boy as he complained about the noise this late at night with the pounding of his feet.
We smiled and chuckled, but there was a sad note to it all. Heija might have been half a year away, but it was still fresh in our minds.
She didn’t let me get away before I had breakfast and she’d seen that I’d eaten it all, as well as Krom, Shreesht and Moft.
“Now go bicker over plans that have been set in stone for the last four months. I’ll see you tonight,” she said, giving me a ‘come here’ curl of her finger.
I came closer and she grabbed my collar, pulling me down into a kiss. There were a few hoots and hollers from the people in the mess, our Avarian protectors looked away in embarrassment. Well Krom snorted and I could feel his eyes rolling.
“Good,” she said, her tension on my collar falling away as we looked into one another’s eyes, just smiling at the moment.
Then I straightened, the universes problems assailing my head.
“I’ll see you tonight,” I said.
“Yes you will,” her tone telling me that I had better be back in our quarters at a reasonable time, or she was going to be rather unhappy and probably come up to the bridge and kick my ass out of the commander’s seat.
I looked over the information coming from behind the line. The Kalu were sweeping through their own positions, those to the rear were coming up to join the systems that ran along the line. All of them were moving away from Ulri and towards Ockhara, gathering their strength.
“Looking over the plans again?” Rick asked as he walked into our new massive conference room.
“Yeah,” I said, there was little that I could keep from him anymore. I rubbed my face, we would be at Parnmal station tomorrow, where we would meet up with the rest of the mobile force consisting of one-hundred and seventy ships.
“It’s simple, it’s elegant and it’s our best chance. There’s no sense in going back over it and trying to see if there is a way that we might be able to make the Kalu pay more,” Rick said taking a seat.
“There is always a way, I just can’t see it right now,” I said.
“That may be true, but it isn’t going to do the fleet any good to have their commander worrying about the plan when it’s impossible to change it anymore,” Rick replied.
“What if the Kalu don’t go past our initial defenses and hammer our ships on the line?”
“Then they get hammered and we make sure that we avenge them. They know what they’re doing and all of them have agreed to their task,” Rick said in firmer tones.
The plan was as Rick had said, rather simple.
“I know, get me the commanders. The Kalu might be taking the long way round getting their forces together. I want to get our fleet into position to react as soon as possible.”
“Inkal?”
“Yes, Inkal,” I answered.
***
“We have multiple wormholes emerging across the jump limit,” Zal said from his position, there wasn’t even a quiver in his voice.
“Battle stations! Run the guns and get those fighters out. Flek, I want jump fighters watching the jump-limit and plugging any holes in our sensor net we might have! Arfo, send word to the other units on the line as well as Salchar,” Commander Whorst said, he had been asleep an hour ago, but Zal had finally woken him, letting him know that the Kalu were entering jump range. Whorst didn’t begrudge his sensor commander for making sure that he had as much sleep as possible.
Now was not the time for sleep, now it was time to fight.
“Pilots are moving out
,” Flek said into the bridge that had become a mass of movement and talking.
“Guns are coming online,” Frankeuw added.
“Shields are ready,” Dallaho reported.
“Fleet status?” Whorst turned to his second-in-command Richter.
“Ships are coming online, all report readiness, systems are taking a few moments,” Richter reported, his short cropped blonde hair and blue eyes focused on his command screens.
“MxKug is also reporting Kalu emerging at their position,” Arfo said. The plot to Whorst’s side updated with information on the star map of known space. The main screen updated with information on what was happening in Eltar.
Cheerleader and Bregend hadn’t reported any Kalu at their positions.
It had been a week and a half since the reactionary force left Parnmal. It had arrived at Inkal and was waiting by to give their assistance no matter what happened.
That sorted, Whorst leaned back in his chair, using the holographic interface to see the system around him and look at the Kalu which were pouring in. There were already ten thousand in-system and there were more coming in through more wormholes every second that he watched.
He felt fear fill his stomach like acid. He acknowledged it and understood it, but pushed it aside. He needed to see where they were coming from, exact numbers and then he could see what one of his plans he could put into action against these bastards.
***
Orshpa looked onto his screen as his star-warrior emerged from its wormhole. Information on the forces already in the system spread across that screen.
He let out a hungry growl as he saw the massive creation that had pushed him back and taken a hefty number of his fighters.
He knew that his warriors would want to close with the behemoth and the ships that surrounded it. He needed to try and get them away from that idea and to push on towards the enemy’s home worlds. They didn’t have the resources or the supplies to fight every enemy that they saw. Especially not an enemy as powerful as the station that waited like the universe’s own challenge.
We will defeat you…
“The Free Fleet are moving towards us,” Daskil announced. “The other clan leaders are asking for permission to lead the charge,”
I got them all excited to wage battle on the Free Fleet and to have their second teaching war. They have been attacked out of the black time and time again with little to nothing to show for it.
“Clan leader Isal will be allowed to take his ships and offer the Free Fleet battle. The rest of the Clan leaders are to hold position and follow us towards the true battle against the Free Fleet,” Orshpa said.
Daskil relayed the orders.
Isal’s ships could be easily picked out as they charged towards the oncoming station and fellow ships. Their bomb acceleration pushed them as fast as the Kalu could handle. He had twenty thousand ships, a decent sized force, but quickly replaced by the other leaders that were transiting into the system behind Orshpa’s fleet advancing through the system.
“Missiles!” One of the lower beings said as Orshpa watched missiles head towards opening wormholes.
Missiles erupted into multiple warheads, striking ships in various phases of exiting their wormholes. Wormhole projectors and generators were destabilized in the un-shielded ships. Wormholes claimed ships, or cut through them as they closed.
Jump fighters had jumped past the jump-limit and were hitting ships as they came out of their wormholes. There was nothing that Orshpa could do but watch, he was too far away from the emergence point. No Kalu was going to head back into their last system to pass the word that there were missiles waiting for them on the other side. It would take them five hours to just build up enough charge to do that.
It will be too late by then. All he could do was watched as fifty-jump-fighters fired into oncoming Kalu. Star-destroyers and warriors died in droves.
***
“There goes the siren that warns of the air raid. Then comes the sound of the guns sending flak”
“Ready?” Smith asked his fellow wing leaders, their plan outlined and their jump points plotted. His music blaring in his ears.
He got greens across the board from all of the jump fighter wing leaders.
“Alright then let’s give those bastards something to worry about.”
He shunted power from his capacitors into his wormhole generators and projectors. A hole in time and space rippled into existence in front of him. He entered and exited it behind the Jump-limit the Kalu were using.
“C’mon, I was hoping to get the first barrage in!” He complained in a light tone, not meaning anything by it. If anything he was happy that his people were trying to get into the fight as soon as possible, instead of holding back. If Commander Whorst’s plan was going to work, he needed that kind of drive.
Jump fighters that had made the transition before him were already firing the missiles on their external racks, their internally held missiles following a few moments later.
“Move in to fire at the mainstream of bombers Let off a sharp burst and then turn away,” Music blared through his speakers as trails of missiles ripped away from his craft.
Jump fighters started jumping back for War-Station as soon as their racks were emptied.
There were so many targets that Smith barely looked to changing the trajectory of his missiles. The AI’s were using the FTL relays to put the missiles to the most use. He was just the delivery system. His magazines and racks clicked empty.
He dumped another half-capacitor, jumping towards War-station. He avoided the areas where other ships were supposed to come out of their jump and headed in towards the open hangars. It was a quick process of bringing himself down on the landing pad. Techs were on him in moments, pulling the missile racks off, changing out the two used capacitors with charged versions as a missile loader handed multi-s to the internal rack which secured them and cycled taking on the next missile.
His song had just ended as they finished.
He got cleared, powering up his engines and heading back out into the dark. War-Station and the fleet of sixty-three ships around her were heading straight for the twenty or so thousand Kalu charging for them all.
The next song started up.
“One life I'm gonna live it up I’m takin' flight said I'll never get enough. Stand tall I'm young and kinda proud” He looked at those ships and he felt that pride. He poured more power into his engines as he opened a wormhole. It snapped into existence and he appeared behind the Kalu jump-point once again.
The fifty jump-fighters had done massive damage; they had launched sixty-two missiles each. The Kalu didn’t have any PDS on the rear of their ships so none of them had been shot down, about four were faulty and didn’t work, but the rest did.
Three-thousand and Ninety-six missiles had run at emerging Kalu ships. They’d split into Thirty-thousand-nine-hundred and sixty.
Some had hit ships out of wormholes, they took damage, but usually kept going, or went drifting as their rear sections were hit. The ones that were just emerging, or partially so hadn’t fared as well. Missiles threw their projectors and generators out, wormholes closed, cutting off whatever hadn’t made it out. Some actually survived, missing their rear sections and drifting. Most turned into nuclear suns as their power plants overloaded.
Seventeen thousand Kalu ships would not be making it to war, another three thousand were heavily damaged.
“If you think I'll let it go you're mad You've got another thing comin',” Smith sung along with the last line as he pressed his firing stud, missile trails appeared. Smith heard the missiles as they ignited and left his racks, the next volley firing as soon as the first had cleared and the mechanisms of his internal rack had a new missile in place.
He wasn’t alone, other jump-fighters piled in their missiles.
Twelve seconds passed and Smith was out of missiles once again.
He opened another wormhole and headed back to War-station.
It wou
ld be an hour until station closed with the Kalu, which gave him ten more minutes to get his shots into the Kalu’s emerging forces. Which meant, two runs, three if he pushed it.
If I’m a little over I don’t think the Commander’s going to be too annoyed.
***
“The last of the jump wings have returned and re-armed,” Commander Flek said from his holographic table that showed all of the Multiple Environment Fighters, or MEF’s, bombers and Jump fighters.
“Very well,” Whorst said, his eyes flicking from the constant influx of information that was filling his own holographic sphere around him.
He grabbed and expanded numbers into his view, he knew them off by heart but he just wanted to make sure.
One hundred and twenty-seven wings of MEF’s sixty-five wings of bombers and just over four wings of Jump fighters were armed, ready and waiting.
Seven hundred and six craft positioned themselves between their sixty-three larger brothers and sisters.
It was the largest group of small craft brought into battle by the Free Fleet to date.
“Kalu are flushing fighters,” Zal said from his sensor pit.
There was a half-hour until they were able to engage the Kalu with their laser cannons, another fifteen minutes after that and they would be able to use their other armaments.
“They’re surging ahead and forming into swarms.”
“Dev, Frankeuw. I want that minefield right on top of them after we pass through their formation,” Whorst said.
“Yes sir,” Frankeuw said.
“Commander,” Devastahli confirmed in his rolling voice from overhead.
Whorst turned his eyes back to his information sphere, looking at the Kalu fleet which was filling it.
The Kalu Star-warriors and Destroyers moved fast, damned fast with their bomb-pumped acceleration. Though they had stopped accelerating and were now slowing down so they could board Whorst’s fleet and not just simply smash into their sides.
From Furies Forged (Free Fleet Book 5) Page 16
