"By the light," Bregend said, unable to understand that power.
"Quite a smart design if you ask me," Eddie said, looking rather please with himself. Salchar that had been listening to the tail end of the conversation shook his head as if he didn't expect anything else from his engineer.
"We have an incoming transmission from Earth's United Nations," Vort said on Salchar's bridge.
"I think I best be taking this, do you need him, or anyone else for anything?" Salchar asked Bregend.
"Nope, I think that's it. I'm going to have a talk with Commander Narvu," Bregend said.
Recognition flashed in Salchar's eyes.
"Tell him I send him and his boys my regards," Salchar said.
"Will do sir," Bregend said. "Kyle?"
Kyle cut the channel.
"Get me all of the ship commanders for a holographic meeting. Let’s see if we can get the Kalu to walk right into Daestramus' laser towers. Kyle could you find out everything about those towers, Domal help him out," Bregend said, standing.
"Sir," Kyle and Domal said, Domal moving from his position to Kyle's. Bregend turned and went to his conference room. It was time to put down a few plans.
***
Months ago most of the people in this room had been in this very room and planning to take over the Free Fleet. Now they were deciding how to plead with them to save Earth.
How the tables have turned, the newly elected President of the United States Frank Gerard thought.
They should have taken Knox's advice. The United States was no longer the world's super power, they had devoted all of their military resources to the failed attack on the Free Fleet.
Their actions had turned the United States into a black Mark for Earth. Hell, Earth itself was a black mark on all of them now. No one would do trade with them. Emigration was up thirty percent, the United States was no longer the land of opportunity. That now belonged to the Free Merchant Fleet that was plying the trades through every damned inhabited star system known.
Frank Gerard's predecessor had been made to step down by the American people. They were done with letting people run their country on ruined promises. They had realized how their vote mattered not only to their country but to their very lives and Earth.
Politics was not a game, nor was it a tool to make people scared of what was to come. It was supposed to create leaders that would do the best for the people, not for their own pride.
Frank had served with the Marines, he was a doctor and a teacher. He had put his name in with one promise. Not to hold onto past glories and stay quagmire in the politics of old, but to get the United States out into space. Not as a warfighting powerhouse, but as a trader.
America was great because of its people. They were innovators, they were determined and they could carve out a place among the stars. He came with the hope for that future. He quoted John F Kennedy's speeches about doing things not because they were easy, but because they were hard. They went through a terrible time, but now America could become something magnificent, move past those struggles and be reborn into a new age.
That's not likely to happen with the Kalu coming down on us like a ton of bricks, Frank's expression soured as a connection was made to the Super Carrier Hic Stamus.
Frank wondered if many knew that the carrier's name meant 'Here We Stand', he hoped they would stand with Earth.
"What?" Salchar asked, spitting the word out with a combination of cold anger and someone wholly done with listening to the other person.
The representative from South Korea looked a bit shocked for a moment, obviously they weren't used to being talked to in this manner.
Frank felt his jaw tighten as the representative looked like they were about to say something else.
Thankfully they bit back their comments, maybe they noticed the angered looks coming from the people across Salchar's bridge.
All wore the powered armor of the Free Fleet, all of them had killed before and all looked like they would like to do it again to the people that had betrayed their trust and killed their friends.
The representative bowed their head.
"We call, asking for your assistance against the Kalu," Kim Mi Yeon said.
Salchar stood, the people on the bridge looking to him as his powered armor thumped up to the edge of his dais.
"Send them the conditions Rick," Salchar said.
A document appeared in Frank's personal email. He had heard of the Free Fleet's intelligence abilities, but shown in such a flippant way sent a shard of cold fear through him.
"In the document before you, you will see the terms of the Free Fleet. We will aide you in the defense of Earth, and you will abide by our decisions. If this battle and the other battles against the Kalu are won with the lives of my people then you will damned well make their sacrifice worth it." There was no mercy in Salchar's voice just the cold reality of their decision. They had made their bed, now they must reap what they had sown.
"You will become a member of the Union, you will reach the stars, you will create a polity to overlook all of the nations, or absolve nations into one polity. You will allow the Free Fleet to recruit from Earth, you will allow trade through your system. You will pay recompense to the families of those that you killed,"
"This is absurd!" Germany’s prime minister declared.
"ABSURD? YOU FUCKING KILLED MY PEOPLE. People that wanted to fucking learn, people that were building ships, that wanted to go and see the fucking stars. They had fucking family Mr. Prime Minister; they were my fucking family. So if you, any of you think that they were just another fucking cog in the machine, another fucking nameless soul who died for you to fucking show what assholes humanity can be. I will fucking come down there and I will burn that planet down around you. You will fucking learn the realities of space, the realities you are now living in. The Free Fleet was not fighting just for itself out here, we were fighting for every fucking sentient, including all of you. Yet you decided to take that gift and stab us in the fucking back. You do that again and I will not be the person bringing you peace and harsh terms. I will bring my fleet and I will treat you like the selfish inconsiderate fucking children that you are!" Salchar's hand had gripped the railing in front of him, crushing it without noticing. Veins could be seen in his neck.
"You are not a powerful nation on a singular planet anymore. You are all the heads of nations on the weakest planet in all of known space. With this you are being given a third chance," his eyes swept the assembled leaders of nations. All of them shocked into silence.
"There will not be another," he made sure his words stuck, turning and waving a hand, "Kyle." The channel cut. It was a few moments and then people started the inevitable yelling match around the room.
Someone, Frank didn’t know who, got control of the main screen and changed it from the emblem of the UN to one of the systems map.
Coming right into the heart of Sol was eighty-seven thousand Kalu ships. It sounded like a lot, it was hard to think of that many ships, but it hadn’t sunk into the minds of many people in this room or beyond.
Over half of the Kalu fleet were on headings that would take them towards Hachiro, Nancy and the facilities on Mars.
Still there was nothing that Earth could do against those forces. Sure they had standing militaries, though they had no force that could engage them in space and their ground forces didn’t even have powered armor.
Frank was finally given the chance to speak.
“We stabbed them in the back and this is what we get. I will not try to say that America was not in the wrong here. Yet there were other nations that were equally in the wrong. Earth stabbed the Free Fleet in the back, and now they are the only thing that can save us from the enemy they warned us about. The longer we sit here debating this, the longer until they get here and try to save our asses.” He looked around at the politicians that had talked about how they would not stand for this injustice, how the Free Fleet was looking down on them.
“We forget all too quickly that they are not indebted to any one group here, they have attachments yes, but in the bigger scope of things they answer to a conglomerate of systems. They answer to the Union, which number in a population magnitudes larger than Earth. We are small fry to them. Some of the populations of the countries around here are less than the number of personnel within the Free Fleet, both military and merchant wing. Now we can posture and piss away our time. I hope that you won’t. I call for a vote of confidence in favor of the Free Fleet’s agreement. Hopefully we can save as many of the people that elected us as possible,” Frank sat down among hesitant clapping.
The speaker called for a vote, it didn’t pass, and too many people were left undecided.
He just hoped that they would hurry the hell up, the timer was very literally winding down.
***
It took four hours and some grandstanding that made Frank pained to be called a politician. Yet it was finally over, they finally agreed to the Free Fleet’s decision. They sent it off, they didn’t get any kind of speech from Salchar, just a set plan that the Free Fleet had drafted up for the protection of Earth. It had been modified as Armored Marine Commandos Barracks had been pulled from Earth. Yet there was a general call to any of them that had chosen to stay on Earth. Shuttles were being sent from Mars with all of their gear.
The militaries of the world were being called up, they too would be getting lower end power armor and weapons.
“We have new emergences into the system!” An aide said, their voice carrying across the room as the main map changed. Now there were six pyramids standing in the way of the Kalu fleet as it headed inwards.
“What kind of ships are they?” Someone asked.
“Kalu they look to be their Star-Destroy...” Their voice trailed off as the Star-Destroyers started to open fire on the Kalu.
Those aren’t any Kalu, Frank thought, standing and looking to his staff.
“See that all of the commands from the Free Fleet are followed and make sure that as many of our people are in the underground bunkers as possible,” he said. They pulled out phones and started passing his orders. He walked out of the UN assembly, there was nothing else they could do. The holographic images of other nations also started to slip away.
***
Orshpa looked over the system. There were two inhabitable worlds, the one that was barely in habitable was surrounded by a few stations, one a massive conglomeration that was four or five kilometers big and a shipyard.
The other habitable worlds showed many signs of life, yet little in the way of structures in space.
The blue-green marble habitable world he summarized as being Earth. He was headed there at his best speed with sixty-four thousand ships. The remaining twenty-three thousand of his ships headed towards the station, yard, and barely habitable world.
Wormholes appeared in their path. Out from them came Star-Destroyers.
How were they able to cross the system so quickly? He thought looking at them in wonder as more appeared from separate wormholes, they were all along his acceleration path and they were all facing in his direction.
Then they opened fire and dread filled his gut, they weren’t friendly Star-destroyers, they were the Free Fleet’s.
They must have converted them from the stolen yard. A small part of his mind thought. It didn’t matter, they were here and the resupply fleet wasn’t. Doubt started to crawl into his mind as to the status of his resupply fleet.
“Bring them under fire!” Orshpa barked, the laser cannons struck his formation, ripping through ships and carrying into his formations.
There were roughly two hundred of the Star-destroyer converts and they had two cannons cycling between the two, they also had some damned deep missile magazines. Wave after wave of missiles came crashing into the formation. Jumpers, fighters, and Bombers piled out to add their own kind of hurt to the mix.
“Flush all Kalu fighters. I want those Destroyers!” Orshpa growled. He was so close to Earth he could reach out and taste their blood. They were going to bleed him heavily.
“Go to full acceleration, we will rush past these obstacles to our true prizes!” Orshpa said.
***
Delahil looked upwards to the skies, the twenty-three ships that Chaleel had under their command had returned as soon as the Kalu had made it past the space elevators, they were now acting as orbital batteries firing into the Kalu landing sites. Over three and a half million Kalu had landed. A million had died at their landing sites. The forces on Chaleel were still well under half of the Kalu’s and they had civilians to deal with.
“That is one hell of a plan commander,” she heard herself say as she thought about the plan. It could work, hell she knew it could. She was just thankful she didn’t have to weigh the risks of following the plan.
“Thought you might like it,” Salchar said in her ear.
“We will make orbit in two hours, our shuttles have already been released and they’ll start landing in that time. I would suggest looking to their landing sites and using them to plug your gaps. Rick is sending you a manifest of their load outs, most are wearing HAPA’s,” Salchar said.
“Very well, in three hours I guess we’ll give this plan of yours a test,” Delahil said, wondering what in the hell she was agreeing to.
“Yes Ma’am,” Salchar said, sounding a lot more enthusiastic than she felt.
“Recall the tanks in two and a half hours, Salchar seems to have a plan,” she said to her staff around the command room.
Orders were passed and looks given as she sunk into her seat.
***
“All Commando units are on the ground and moving to position,” In Sook reported as I sat at my place on the command deck.
The last time the Free Fleet had tried out this little feat it had been to rescue my sorry ass.
“Very good. Milra, how are we looking on the plot?” I asked.
“Clear, mild turbulence?” She said looking to me and shrugging. I gave her a small smile despite the seriousness of our situation.
“Resilient how are we looking at for the targeting system?” I asked.
She appeared in holographic form. “Information has been input and we are ready to go,” she said.
“Marleen?” I asked.
“Gunnery is ready,” she assured me.
“Alright, then, Vort connect me to the fleet,” I asked.
“You are connected Commander,” he asserted.
“Let’s go for some target practice boys and girls. Dive,” I said looking to Vort, he cut the channel as Milra took her cue from that. Hic Stamus tilted and headed towards Chaleel.
“All hands brace for atmospheric entry,” Vort’s voice said through the ship, repeating as the carrier started to shake from atmosphere trying to beat on her armored plates.
She handled like a brick, we were jarred around in our seats some, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as some of the near-nuclear blasts that I’d had in my time.
Then it was gone and we were leveling off.
“Coming down to ten thousand feet,” Milra reported, she and Ben were working as a team with a singular purpose, piloting a super carrier in atmosphere is probably no easy task.
Yet they pulled it off as the massive carrier came down.
“Running out weapons,” Marleen said, the cannons extended from their berths to make sure that they hadn’t been sealed shut with the warm atmospheric entry.
“Looking good,” Marleen said, her face stuck to her screens as she went through various data readouts.
“Kalu on the horizon,” Qurv reported,”
“Marleen, I’ve always wondered what a laser cannon looks like in atmosphere,” I said.
“I have to say the same,” she said with a smile that made her look like one scary damned woman. I couldn’t help but reciprocate as she turned and passed orders.
Laser cannons lanced out, their beams weren’t invisible punches but rather a few seconds’ long blasts of
both coherent and incoherent light. Mostly it looked like a light bulb that couldn’t be turned off had been shot out of a, cannon... Laser, light, cannon, kind of makes sense.
The destruction against Kalu ships had been bad, against Kalu that were running across a field. It was chilling.
Weapon impacts left glass craters and threw dirt, rocks and Kalu through the air.
“Milra, might you be able to rotate us so that your spine is facing in the direction of the Kalu?” I asked, tapping my chin in thought.
“Yeah,” she said.
“Oh, this is going to be fun. Resilient, could you get a fire algorithm for the side facing away from the Kalu, one that would turn their guns into long range artillery so that they can join in the fun? Link them to the ships above for telemetry,” I asked.
“Working on it,” she said with a special sparkle in her eyes that made my day just seem that much better.
“Milra, turn this ship. Vort could you get me Zor and Brusk?”
“Sir,” Vort said, confused.
“Sir?” Zor asked.
“Commander?” Brusk added.
“Alright gents, I’ve been wondering lately which side of the ship is getting the most kills. Who ever gets the most, will get a round on me the next time we’re in Parnmal,” I said, the challenge clear.
“Oh damn sir, we could do that any day of the week and twice on Sunday,” Zor said, spitting.
“You wouldn’t know how to hit a damn Kalu from an asteroid!” Brusk yelled back.
“So I take that as a yes,” I answered.
“Of course commander,” Brusk said.
“Wouldn’t ever let a wager go,” Zor said, I could hear the amusement in their voices.
“Good, get me some damn Kalu,” I said, my voice dropping from light and cheerful to cold and dark.
“Aye,” Brusk and Zor said together, cutting the channel. Milra finished her rotation and Resilient’s fired program worked a gem, cannons blared across Hic Stamus’ exterior. Not one Kalu was making it past our line.
From Furies Forged (Free Fleet Book 5) Page 34
