Free Fleet Box Set 1

by Michael Chatfield

  Why Me?

  Yasu contemplated all that had happened in her life to bring her to this point as she surveyed the room, looking for anyone who might attack her.

  Her eyes locked onto the peacefully sleeping Salchar. How could he sleep—while she barely did—trusting these now half-trained killers he’d forced her to teach? Again, because of his meddling in her warrior’s code. It made her furious how he’d played her.

  As if sensing her stare, he woke up, stretching and smiling to everyone, greeting people as he moved around the room as if it were any other day.

  Her eyes followed him. He was still as much of a mystery as before, when she’d been a fighter in Mecha Assault Two, as he was now after spending what had to be months watching him. He had no specific fighting style from the limited fighting she’d seen.

  Yet she was still confident in her own abilities.

  “All right, off to the armory.” Taleel led them into the armory.

  She got into her Mecha; her nerve ports connected with the uplinks in the Mecha. She watched James as he disappeared with Shrift. She could feel the thumping of powered Mecha legs as James returned. His Mecha looked mostly normal, but she could see slight adjustments: armor trimmed here and there to make it easier to move his legs, more around the joints and weak points, stronger bearings around the helmet to turn his head.

  He heralded the others into readiness and the training arena, which Yasu was already making her way into. She couldn’t miss the others noticing the modifications he’d made to his Mecha.

  “Damn, boss—nice suit.” She pitied Rick. The man was loyal to James, one of many of his blind followers. They walked in, trailing behind the last person.

  “All right, females in that door, males in the other.” Taleel indicated the doors as everyone moved into the corridors.

  She was first at the end as a wall dropped and separated her and the person behind her. For a moment, she panicked as she thought she was in the box that had grabbed her from the championship again. A section of the wall opened, revealing her customized sword she had ordered so long ago. It was like her samurai sword back on Earth. She placed it on her hip, connecting it with the magnetic clamp there as she pulled the blade free, studying it. The plasmid cast a blue-green hue on the deadly lines of the sword as she studied its workmanship.

  A door opened in front of her.

  More confident now with a sword in her hand, she stepped into the plain room, identical to the squad’s pod. She moved through a few positions, limbering up her muscles as she adjusted to the blade’s reach, weight, and balance.

  The door on the opposite side opened, feeling as if the floor beneath her had given way.

  “You know it’s rude to stare, and you can close your mouth.”

  She did so, embarrassed, and still not believing her eyes.

  ***

  I pretended to be asleep for the small amount of time we were left alone. As a signal announced feeding time, I found my eyes darting to the female faces in dread, finding Yasu’s face before I looked away.

  Sure, I wanted to get married as most people do, though my idea of getting married was, well, proposing and getting married instead of a fight to the possible death and then forcing the loser to be your husband or wife.

  If I could, I was going to submit as long as they wouldn’t be the kind to kill me. I wasn’t really scared that the others would kill me out of spite. I was just nervous. Someone was literally choosing how I would live for the rest of my life. I thought that, depending on one’s culture, they would not be happy at all to be married to me. The people in my squad hailed from across Eastern Asia and the Western Americas. In most cultures, marriage was everlasting; something that I agree on. Yet, they wouldn’t want to be married to someone they don’t want to be with for the remainder of their lives. That was what I was thinking about as I continued on.

  I was in a daze as Shrift took me to my Mecha; he had been up and without projects, so he’d seen to adding to the improvements I’d already added. I put on my Mecha, feeling more confident as I again didn’t really pay attention to Rick, who was talking to me as Taleel made us walk into corridors separate from the women. Walls descended, breaking us all up. I fought down my panic, thinking that someone would kill me as a section of the wall opened, but my custom plasmid long sword lay there. I grabbed it; it didn’t have a scabbard as it could be attached to my back clamps. I kept it in my hand as the wall in front of me disappeared and I walked out into an arena the size of the squad’s room.

  I saw her as I felt my stomach drop; I stopped like a deer in headlights. I regained my composure quickly, my mouth working before I could think as I twirled my long sword, getting a feel for it.

  “You know it’s rude to stare, and you can close your mouth.”

  She closed her mouth, still staring at me.

  “Well, Yasu, it seems that we’ll be having that fight you wanted to have.” I continued to move my sword, trying to get acquainted with the weapon while not staring at Yasu. Shit shit shit, I’m screwed!

  She continued to move with her sword, never looking away from me. “Yes, it does look like it.”

  Thanks! That really helps!

  I rolled my eyes as I did the same with my sword, around my body, getting a feel for the blade. Here I was thinking it would be easy! Cowards wait for fate. I had no intention of surrendering and leaving my life in the balance, not with this woman. There was no way she was going to submit either.

  I looked up from the ground, holding my sword back and behind me as she turned her sword high. “All right, so looks like we’re going to have to do this the hard way.”

  “Was there any other choice?”

  I thought for a few seconds before I shrugged. “Not really.” I grinned. I could swear the corners of her mouth twitched.

  We charged at the same time, sparks flying as electrostatic fields interacted and plasma dissolved armor. We pushed apart, with me swinging after her. She smashed my sword away, coming at me on the upstroke. I pushed backward; the Mecha’s strength pushed me out of the way of the blade as I planted my feet and lunged again.

  She turned, bringing her sword up as we clashed again; she pushed off and then came at me in a fury of sword strokes. I like to pride myself on being fast, and with my lighter, customized Mecha, I was damned speedy. She was lightning-quick. Being so close, I could see she’d made similar modifications to her Mecha. As I noticed the changes, she turned her sword sideways, bringing it up my sword and skimming off my shoulder. I ducked out and under, interposing my sword out of old reflex, being rewarded with a shower of sparks as I saved my ribs from a hit.

  I could see her machine-like concentration; she wasn’t like a human anymore, her mind focused on her blade and her opponent—me.

  Hmm, if she wasn’t trying to kill me, I’d probably be flattered. Being the sole focus of a good-looking girl. I grinned and she seemed to have read my thoughts.

  She came at me faster and faster. I was only barely stopping her attacks as I backed away from her. My grin evaporated as I focused on the fight at hand.

  She scored a hit as I went to parry a low strike aimed at my left leg. With nothing more than a flick of her wrist, it came up, digging deep into my left forearm.

  I hissed in pain and balled my right fist, releasing my sword as I drove it into her ribs with all of my power, lifting her a few feet in the air. I’d been cured of my unwillingness to hit a girl in countless fights where I’d seen how women could be as vicious as a man.

  I tossed my sword, catching it with my right—my left on fire, literally; the plasmid had ignited the under layers of my Mecha and the battle suit, which were doing their best to stop the miniature fire.

  We came together in a shower of sparks.

  “Can we do this without fighting?” I asked as we came together.

  “You wish to become my husband because you’re on your knees! Your cowardice knows no bounds,” she said savagely.

  “So th
at’d be a no,” I said almost conversationally.

  “All right then,” I said harshly, somehow angered at the thought she thought me unworthy to be her husband. Who was then, Hoi or Arthur? Weird stuff goes through your mind when you’re fighting your rival. On a spaceship. To marry them. It was a weird day.

  Irrational anger built as I did what I did best. I concentrated on her moves, categorizing them as I remembered the counters for them. I knocked her sword away, landing a foot in her midriff. As I advanced, she spun, coming back up, sword raised, and glanced it off my knee servo, which now registered some mobility issues.

  My left arm was pretty much defunct, but the flames had finally stopped. The auto-tourniquet in the upper arm had tightened, which meant I was bleeding badly out of my arm. Taleel’s use of the pain implant had made the pain feel as if it were a pinprick. The nerve ports were working as promised, giving me full mobility in my hand despite the fact my organics couldn’t move. I grabbed her just as I smashed the blunt side of my sword into her right shoulder. Her left came up in an uppercut.

  I had been training my nerves to run the power output by the Mecha ever since I’d talked to Shrift. Now it came in to use as I put all of my power in my left and used her to push myself back, adjusting the power in my legs so I was running as they found the floor again.

  I rushed in, too eager as she came at me as well. Her moves were a well-choreographed movement as she swiped my sword out of the way, turning with the blade as she used the momentum to drive a foot into my helmet as my inertia carried me on.

  I rolled, my head ringing as I turned to face her.

  It was obvious I wasn’t going to win this fight. I was stronger but she had been trained to fight since she was a child. I had only a few years and then Taleel’s tutelage. Her training was amazing and she could combine the techniques she’d learned in a massive array of combinations without letting me get a complete read. She was my nightmare opponent and I couldn’t see a way to win sword-to-sword.

  “You fight very well,” I said as dread filled my guts

  “What are you trying to pull, Salchar?”

  “Cowards wait for fate,” I muttered.

  “Did you just call me a coward?”

  “Fuck it!” I threw myself at her. I felt a burning sensation in my stomach as I coughed red. I grabbed Yasu, pulling her to me with my mangled left. The burning sensation in my stomach was excruciating as I threw my sword away and pulled her helmet off as she bucked, trying to move. My left held her in a death grip.

  “Will you please stop that?” I growled. She stopped bucking, her eyes wide as I looked away, coughing.

  “Looks like you nicked a lung.” I coughed again and, getting the coughing under control, turned back to her.

  “I’m sorry, but you can divorce me afterward.” I coughed again, and more blood spilled down my chin. I looked up again—her face was so close to mine.

  “You’re rather pretty, in a cold way.” I might die in the next few seconds; a compliment wouldn’t hurt me at this point—well, much—and she did have her hands still on her blade.

  “Why?” she demanded in a small voice, no fight left in her as she looked at me with wide eyes. Fear in her eyes.

  “Couldn’t win against you any other way that I could see,” I said with a bloody smile. “You’re a great fighter.” I nodded, coughing again, and leaned against her, weak from the pain. Well, that and the blood loss probably.

  “Sorry about this,” I said weakly as I delivered a blow to her chin, knocking her out as gently as I could. We collapsed to the floor in a pile.

  I braced the sword with my hands as I pulled it out as straight as possible, my hands melting, armored and not. “FuuuuuuuUUUUUUUUUCK!” I yelled, tossing the bloody blade away weakly. My hands covered the hole in my Mecha as blood started to pump out of it.

  “Well, fuck, you’ve done it this time, James,” I said quietly as I grabbed the emergency Hellfire from my hip, injecting it into a piece of skin that was exposed through the hole in my Mecha.

  I looked at the now peaceful Yasu—my wife, I thought, my mind reeling. I still felt as if it were a dream, but the pain was too much for this to be a dream. As I lay there, I realized how much I didn’t want to die. I wanted to see the rest of Mecha Tail again—my family. I wanted to make these aliens pay for taking us from our homes and forcing us to fight one another. If I woke up, I was going to let them and the galaxy know what happened when you messed with Salchar.

  I looked groggily at a hatch in the wall opening as a group of Sarenmenti emerged, towing two gravity carts. Pain took me as the Hellfire kept to its namesake. Pain laced through my body, concentrating with ferocity on my abdomen before darkness thankfully filled my vision as I slumped, boundless.

  I awoke as if a bolt of electricity went through my entire body. My eyes went wide open, pain lancing them from being in darkness and now being in bright light so rapidly.

  “FUCK!” I screamed as my body realized the pain that covered me as if I were one solid bruise. I looked down at my stomach. There was a ragged hole where Yasu’s sword had been. The skin didn’t look like the scar on my shoulder; it was still glossy and as I moved, pain followed. It wasn’t fully healed yet, but I’d been awoken. I checked my forearm, which was also glossy with new skin. I sat up, finding myself in a medical chair as I looked at Yasu sitting next to me in an identical chair—hers with restraints, though.

  Her head whipped to the side away from me as I looked at her, an odd look on her face with a peculiar shade of pink.

  “If you’re going to do that every time you wake up, I’ll find a way to keep you quiet.” She turned, the pink fading as she caught my eyes. Her expression made me less than eager to find out how she’d keep me quiet.

  “I think I’ll pass.” I rose, using my arms. My stomach and lower chest were still in fiery pain as I moved. I felt her eyes staring at me as I sat on the edge of the table, things like worrying about being naked long gone with the showers we’d had, though they’d been separated into male and female. She hissed, whipping her head away from me again as I stood. I was past the point of caring as my body throbbed with pain with every movement I made.

  Plus, she was my wife, so I figured whatever. I grabbed a new battle suit that was on a counter to the side, still studying my stomach and the messy scar on it. One more scar for the collection, I thought grimly as I gingerly got into the suit and pressed the sealing tab.

  Turning, I looked back at her.

  “I’m all dressed now—you can look,” I said as I noticed her looking away. Not fast enough.

  “Do you mind releasing me from my bonds?” she said in an uneasy tone.

  For a moment, I realized how helpless she was there. I crossed my arms. “Are you going to attack me?”

  “No.”

  “On your father’s honor?”

  Her eyes smoldered as she looked up at me. “No,” she said angrily.

  Happy with that, I walked over, trying to look better than I actually felt. I opened the clamps that held her in place before leaning against my own bed, trying to hide how out of breath I was by crossing my arms and studying her. She was still wearing her battle suit. Shame. I realized what I’d thought and tried to hunt down an answer for why I’d think such a thing.

  “So what happens now?” she said, drawing me away from my internal thoughts.

  “Not sure what happens when we get married.”

  Her eyes automatically found something more interesting in another part of the room. “Now we have a wedding, like what we would have at home and we get a couples pod.”

  “Okay, makes sense. What about the others?”

  “I don’t get that.”

  “What?” I asked, a little confused by the statement.

  “How you can be so confident. You’ve moved passed the whole wedding, which you believe to be just fine, confident it’ll go according to plan. What’s to stop me from killing you?”

  “You’re father’s hono
r.”

  “How can you be so damned confident and trusting of others!” she demanded, now finally looking me in the eyes, something in her eyes other than the cold look I associated with her whenever she looked at me.

  A smile crept on my face and then I laughed the kind of belly laugh that hurts. In my case, I nearly found myself on the floor again. It took a few minutes before I’d recovered enough to talk.

  “I’m riding by the seat of my pants. I have no confidence in anything. I trust those in the squad to do what they need to survive. I have no illusions that if there is a better option other than following me to survive, they’ll take it. The only people I trust are Mecha Tail and until I’m back with them, I’m in enemy territory. I’m just waiting for someone to take everything I have from me, probably Rick when he figures out what a fraud I am for ordering people around. Until he or someone else better than me comes along, I’m going to keep on doing what I’m doing, which is keeping myself alive and getting back to my damned Mecha Assault Two team.”

  She looked at me, unbelieving, as she crossed her arms and cocked her leg.

  “That means I have to become commander of these people to make them the best damned fighters. That doesn’t mean I won’t be right beside them putting my life on the line. First, I was going to use them to get Mecha Tail to safety.” I looked away in shame, focusing on an obscure piece of the flooring.

  “Now I know that I was being idiotic. The PDF isn’t going to look after us, we’ve got to fight for ourselves and for humanity. It’s only if we’re useful and able to prove we’re able that we can hope to carve out some kind of life in the stars.” I didn’t know then what I’d just signed myself up for, or where it would carry me as I looked into Yasu’s eyes.

  She studied me as if she saw me for the first time.

  “Now, Ms. Ice Queen, you’re a good fighter, and I need good fighters to help me succeed. So, Yasu Masami Ono, will you marry me?”

  “You bested me—I will marry you,” she said, using the fight as justification as if the very idea appalled her.