The Free Fleet had pulled a smart move saying that they were a subsidiary of the Free Merchant Fleet. It had connected them to the sphere of traders and merchants irrevocably. The fact that they still had patrols helping to watch merchants crossing space at a fee was similar to the merchant fleet in Earth’s world wars.
The Free Merchant Fleet was the backbone of the Union; the Free Fleet was the shield.
There had been moments where Wallace wished the Earth forces had succeeded if only to salve his own pride and get the respect due to his office. Begging and scarping at the doors of the lowest merchants on Parnmal was undignified and humiliating.
Those thoughts were far from his mind as the Kalu fleet raced towards Parnmal like dogs on their prey’s tail. Their drives and bomb-pumped acceleration hurling their two hundred and fifty-three thousand strong armada at Parnmal.
That was more than half of Earth’s population after the Syndicates’ bombardments. Though not all of those on Earth were capable of combat, only about twelve percent of the population of Earth were actually trained for combat. Not one of the Kalu were anything but warriors all baying for the blood of any that fell in their view. To them everyone was a combatant, whether they were a kid or a mother or father.
He had never served in the military and he had generally looked down on the people that did so. Honor and all of that were just useless words to him, used by people to gloss over the bloodied psychopaths that were part of any military.
Sure it was better to have them ready to be thrown out in the defense of the country, it was better than having them clutter up the jails and hurting the real people that kept countries moving forward.
He had seen the Commandos in their powered armor as a tool to instill fear in the population. Hell he still did and he didn’t know how they, or anyone could destroy the oncoming Kalu.
There was no way that the Free Fleet with their fleet less than five hundred in strength, now closer to four hundred after the losses they’d sustained, would be able to kill the hundreds of thousands that they had reported.
We should have taken control from Salchar as soon as possible, he thought, looking to the Free Fleet pyramid that was following the Kalu in towards Parnmal. An alert appeared on the screen in front of him.
He zoomed in on it, a new wormhole had formed, out of it even more Kalu emerged, sandwiching the Free Fleet between them.
Why the fuck did I have to get stranded on this station? He asked some unknowing power as the first Kalu fleet unknowingly entered Parnmal’s firing range.
The station invited them in like a Venus flytrap, waiting for them to get just deep enough to making pulling away a hard proposition.
***
Orshpa had heard the copies of information from Ashota, they talked about how Parnmal was a station even bigger than Rosho.
He’d been right, a shipyard filled with Free Fleet warships was connected to the station which was a mash of asteroids melded together. Weapon batteries were tiny on the station which made one think that there weren’t many of them. They would be mistaken. There was more firepower on that station than in the entire fleet between him and Falhu’s splinter group.
He was looking at scans that were a half hour late.
He growled and shook his head roaming around on his command deck.
If Falhu’s fleet went up against that station they would win, a Kalu leader could never think any differently. Yet the cost of ships and Kalu would mean that they couldn’t continue their attack on the core systems of the Union and the Free Fleet.
“Send orders to Falhu’s splinter fleet. I want them to send half of their number against the station, the rest are to regroup with us as we move onto attack the feeder worlds of the Free Fleet,” Orshpa said. He was writing off half of the other fleet, but it was the only way to get the rest to come with him.
If he didn’t get into the feeder worlds, then the Free fleet would win. The Kalu’s strength was in ground combat, that was clear to him now. He needed to bring them to fight on the planets, the first world he came to he would demonstrate the might of the Kalu’s fighting ability.
Then he would strike out to attack Earth, the home of the Free Fleet’s leader. He would lose face with his home planet since he was unable to defend his own people.
He bared his teeth, a growl tickling his throat in pleasure.
“We will go on and bloody the worlds of the Free Fleet. We will go into ground combat and we will make them howl our names as we write ours in the stories! Come with me brothers, let our honor guard crush this station of metal and weakness. We shall ravage their worlds and cull those that might avenge them!” He said, stirring his Kalu up into a blood-frenzy, two crashed together in battle on his command deck.
“The order has been sent clan leader of all Orshpa,” Daskil bowed his head in reverence.
“Let us bring honor to our clans and feel the life in our enemy’s death!” Orshpa yelled, the Kalu howled and pawed the floor’s in anticipation, sharpening their black claws as their eyes burned with fresh fire. The losses of the Nexus were forgotten. The names of those lost would be remembered as they won and hopefully gained the honor of joining them.
***
“Well that’s annoying,” Monk said as if the store was out of milk. Half of the Kalu fleet were turning away, a hundred and thirty thousand or so.
“Pint, if your gunners could give them a parting gift, I’d be thankful,” Monk said, looking to the Kuruvian tactical commander. It was odd to see a Kuruvian in that position, but anyone is capable of anything and Pint was a damned good tactical commander.
“Would be my pleasure commander. Shall we open fire on all of them or just those departing?” Pint asked, a few people looked at him annoyed with his conversational tone.
“Oh, I think all of them,” Monk said, bestowing Pint with an amused smile, with just a hint, of bloodlust filling his eyes.
“Yes Commander,” Pint said, his arms moving in a way that turned Monk’s eyes into cold slits, an amused smile still on his face.
“All batteries, confirm targeting,” Pint said, his hands now moving across his multiple controls absorbed in getting the most out of his people and weapons.
“Very well, bring all batteries to readiness,” Pint said, his head twitched from screen to screen while he continued to move.
Signatures that had been dormant grey turned to active purple.
After the shipyards, Parnmal itself had been the biggest purchaser of weaponry, even when they’d been moved to other planets to shore up their defenses they had taken extra weaponry.
That was why Four thousand PRC’s came online on their remote stations, another four across Parnmal’s armor, just over a thousand Laser Cannons rotated into position. Tens of thousands of railguns that had been hoarded instead of destroyed also powered up. While most ships used a single AI to help out. Parnmal needed eight with the largest capacity processing and computing systems in existence.
“Firing third phase defenses,” Pint said. Not a single cannon actually fired, instead the hollowed out and altogether fake asteroids the Kalu had just been passing revealed their true identity.
Laser mines were great, but they had one short coming, you couldn’t pack all that many into a Free Fleet ship.
This meant there was less of them over a large area, making the chances of a hit pathetically low.
Parnmal didn’t have to carry their mines anywhere, so they made them as big as they wanted, thank you very much!
They ranged from as powerful as a laser cannon’s blast, to the equivalent of four. They didn’t just destroy ships, they made holes through ships.
The Kalu fleet continued to split up forces the majority heading for the nearest jump point, the rest headed for Parnmal.
Their lasers hit Parnmal’s planetary-strength shields having little effect. They fired missiles in their usually haphazard way.
Compared to their numbers, the Kalu’s missiles headed for Parnmal were pitiful.
Remote PDS platforms went active, rounds streaking out to meet the Kalu missiles.
“Well I think that we’ve finally run them out of missiles,” Monk said.
“All batteries, open fire,” Pint said, his voice perfectly professional as Parnmal’s batteries opened with the hunger of the gunnery teams and AI’s behind them.
Parnmal was the home of the Free Fleet, the families of the fleet lived there. It was where the Free Fleet had first come together and fought, where they had blunted Captain Kelu’s forces and struck out against the Syndicate.
The first Commander of the Armored Marine Commandos had died to give his people the time they needed to pull back.
That history rested with the people of Parnmal, it seemed that Henry himself was guiding their guns on target as the Kalu ships in range bucked and shook with impacts.
Salchar’s fleet turned, heading after the Kalu fleet that was fleeing battle.
“Commander Salchar is broadcasting on all channels,” Hulio said from communications.
“Broadcast to the entire station,” Monk said, leaning forward in his seat.
“You came for us with death in your hearts and thoughts of showing your forefathers that you could do what they couldn’t—slaughtering the races of the Union, innocents and military alike. You grew up seeing war as an ideal, learned how to kill and swore to one-day kill others to prove your strength,” Salchar rose from his chair and walked to the bannister.
“Strength is not killing those weaker than you, it’s working with them to make one another stronger. Though you will never understand that, you have made your purpose war. You may have fought on your planets for position, your clan may have fought another for domination and land. You saw war as a sport, a past-time, something to be taken lightly, yet you never experienced true war. Now you face an opponent born into battle, born right here, right in Parnmal. We fought for our freedom and we have never given up. We will never give up,” Salchar ground out, his voice crushed gravel and his eyes primed laser cannons.
“You wanted war, you wanted sport.” Salchar’s face seemed to be made of stone. Unfeeling and without mercy.
“Sir, we’re broadcasting to the entire Union,” Hulio said.
Salchar bent and slammed his leg against the floor. Monk could see the Avarians on Salchar’s bridge stand and slam their legs into the decking as well.
“Today I renew a promise made months ago. A promise that Commandos on Jakram and Ershue are fulfilling now, that the fleets and Commandos of the Free Fleet have taken onto their shoulders,” Salchar said, the beat picking up.
Monk stood, his own feet slamming into the decking in rhythm.
Then the chant came that had started with the Avarians and spread to the rest of the fleet, began, their chant, the chant of the Free Fleet going to war.
“Give us war;
Give use death,
And know despair.
We are Free Fleet.
We are shadows,
Blades, and claws.
Hear our chant.
We are war;
We are death;
We are despair.
We serve battle,
Masters lead us
Not to victory,
But to our enemy’s death.
Give us war;
Give use death,
And know despair.
We are Free Fleet.” By the end of the chant the entire command center of Parnmal was ringing and not just from the cannons that demonstrated the Free Fleet’s promise.
“Come Kalu, come fight us. Its time you wrote something in your stories that you will never forget. This is the last teaching war, and you will not survive, just as your supply fleet did not survive.” Anger and defiance seemed to roll off of Salchar’s shoulders. Everyone stood straighter. The Free Fleet would fight no matter what, they weren’t just the men and women of Parnmal. In that moment Monk felt everyone was thinking of the hundreds of thousands of Free Fleet personnel spread across the vastness of space, all working to defeat the Kalu. They might lose a planet, they might lose this war, but they had laid in plans to survive. The Free Fleet would win eventually. That thought gave even the most scared person in the Free Fleet something to think about.
Monk’s eyes slid to the crèche where his nephew rested. Even in the darkest of times there was hope.
“Remote missile batteries are ready to fire,” Pint said.
“Then let’s show these Kalu what it means to go to war,” Monk’s voice was conversational even with his words.
The batteries opened fire, they’d been waiting for the half of the running Kalu fleet to get close enough to do some real damage. They had a short window before they passed through the remote missiles’ range and towards their jump point.
The batteries were a mix of old and new, old single warhead missiles and new multi-warheads.
The Kalu seemed to have learned something, aiming their bows at the launches, targeting the batteries and firing on them instead of wading through oncoming fire. They took up trying to shoot down the missiles. Yet it was a new practise for them and a good twenty percent of the missiles made it through.
Parnmal had tried to saturate them with two-hundred thousand missiles, a quarter never left their launchers, just over half were either hit by the Kalu, failed to detonate, or were destroyed by the Free Fleet’s own fire or missiles.
That was around forty-three thousand missiles. Some were too far away to damage the Kalu ships much, the multi-warheads maimed many, but getting actual kills was harder. The bigger missiles made ships evaporate or disintegrated entire sections like something had taken a bite out of the Kalu ships.
The Kalu saved themselves by being spread out for once, changing directions had allowed them to push apart as some eagerly followed Orshpa’s orders and others tried to get as many shots in on Parnmal as possible.
Fifteen-thousand were taken out with the first wave, though they weren’t the only batteries that had fired. Batteries further back had fired afterwards, using the first wave as a screen. They fared a lot better, ripping holes in the Kalu fleet and taking twenty-seven thousand with their fiery destruction.
The Kalu fleet heading straight for Parnmal didn’t fare as well.
They’d lost Forty-thousand from Parnmal’s fire already. Another fifty-three thousand blossomed with nuclear light.
If they’d had shields or automated PDS then it would have been a different story, Monk thought, thanking the light that the Kalu’s stubbornness had led them to disregard the proposed defences. They were fighters, not ones to worry about protecting themselves.
“The fleet moving towards the jump point is exiting weapons range,” Pint said, his manipulators showing his annoyance.
“Akatski, have all of our Commandos report to their vessels, call in the merchant fleet, we’ll have them get loaded up and ready to support the worlds the Kalu decide to land on,” Monk said, the weapons were now focused on the Kalu that were still charging at Parnmal.
“Yes Commander,” Akatski said, putting his words into actions.
The battle was a foregone conclusion but the Kalu, no matter what they did couldn’t escape, they were too far into the trap to pull out. If all of them had come at Parnmal then there might have been a chance of them cracking the station.
Rosho hadn’t had the mass of weaponry, new and old that Parnmal did, they also didn’t have people working together and AI’s backing them up. The Syndicate had been too sure of their power; the Free Fleet had never stopped trying to improve their position.
Parnmal wasn’t a rock in the Kalu’s way, they were a dam.
Unfortunately, too many of the Kalu are listening to their leader and going around us. He did some mental math, it looked like a close two-hundred thousand Kalu were going to get past.
The massive numbers didn’t seem that big as the Free Fleet had bled hundreds of thousands of Kalu off of their fleets.
Monk knew that while those numbers weren�
�t quite as daunting in space, if the Kalu got to the ground it was going to be hell.
He bowed his head, sending a silent prayer to those that would be engaging the Kalu on the ground.
***
“Those fucking alien fucks!” Edwards yelled. He and his maintenance crew had been working on clearing the yards to make sure that no sensors could see the slips under the asteroid they were cut from.
Edwards didn’t care what some judge said or what the Free Fleet said or what the Union people agreed to.
He had expected the people of the United States and Earth to rally to his cause. Instead they looked away, as if they were ashamed by him.
He had yelled and screamed at his guards, accusing them of everything and anything he could think of, he refused to do his tasks and he’d been put in isolation.
It took weeks before he finally gave in.
He cared little for those he worked with and they couldn’t give a fuck about him or his issues.
More than once the other prisoners had told him to shut the fuck up.
No one had raised a fist to him and that had made him all the bolder as he cursed aliens and the useless creatures that wouldn’t be in the stars if it wasn’t for Earth’s abilities.
His arguments made little sense, he said that humanity had brought them to the stars but many had the ability to travel in space before humanity did.
The only humans to help people get to the stars were in the Free Fleet. Earth was now back at sorting out getting themselves into space as the Free Fleet had removed their support.
There was no winning against his arguments and most gave up, finding him an annoying nuisance that never shut up.
Now Edwards scrambled across the asteroid, forgetting where the hatch was, and his fear of space filling him.
He vowed to make it back to Earth and exercise control over these savage aliens. A righteous fire built in him as he thought of seeing the fear in their eyes, his face twisting into a hungry snarl as he thought of how he would hurt Yasu to get to Salchar.
From Furies Forged (Free Fleet Book 5) Page 28
