Free Fleet Box Set 2

by Michael Chatfield

  “There's also the fact you're the best cheats around,” Krom said as Calerd laughed.

  “It makes the game more interesting!” Calerd said, grinning as Krom held his hand to his mouth as if trying to stop Calerd from hearing him.

  “Never play cards with a Sarenmenti,” he said as Carsickle grinned at the sage advice. Calerd looking proud of himself as Shreesht let a huff of a laughter out.

  “So, how are you liking the Free Fleet?” Krom said as he indicated to a cleaning rag. Calerd tossed it to him.

  “It definitely keeps me on my toes,” Carsickle said.

  “Probably Groven's boy Bexatus,” Shreesht said and Carsickle felt a familiar headache start to form.

  “Has he always known how to blow everything up? Is it just his inane gift?” Carsickle asked as Shreesht laughed, looking to Krom.

  “Remember the Schollax explosion?” Krom made a pained noise. He clearly did.

  “So, in Mines there's a build-up of all kinds of stuff. Sometimes you could hit a pocket of something really nasty. We did with the Schollax mine. Then one day, young Bexatus was roaming around and showing off. He threw a rock into the mine. It took some time to reach the bottom but it created a spark..,”

  “And the damned mine became a crater,” Krom said, obviously entertained.

  “Ever since then whenever something blows up, or gets set on fire, Bexatus is usually around, or gets the blame,” Shreesht finished.

  “Well, he's still got the touch,” Carsickle said.

  “He messed up the capacitor in his rail gun, thinking he could fix it himself and he blew the railgun up. The quartermaster at Parnmal was not pleased,”

  “How the hell did he do that?” Calerd asked, looking at his own weapon as if he couldn’t figure it out.

  “I don't know, but a round that wasn't even in the chamber got stuck two hundred meters into Parnmal's asteroid.”

  Everyone looked to Carsickle, a little stunned.

  “Yeah, Chief Zor and Brusk have him trying to replicate it,”

  “Crazy bastards,” Krom said, respect in his tone despite his words.

  “How are the Chaleelians settling in?” Calerd asked and Carsickle shrugged. Looks like they weren't the only ones that picked up some other races' gestures.

  “Well, the food leaves something to be desired.” Everyone grimaced. “But they're happy with it. Most of them dreamed of becoming spacers, but the only way to do that was to get on a merchant freighter. Many that did that didn't come back,”

  “How many planets did Chaleel trade with?” Calerd asked as the others leaned forward in interest.

  “Five, all of which haven’t been contacted since the syndicate showed up,” Carsickle said.

  “And Chaleel has no idea where they came from?” Calerd asked, the other two either forgetting or done their cleaning.

  “Well, we know what kind of ships they were piloting now, so we think we might have some ideas where they come from. Though we need to go through system by system to make sure our territory is clear, instead of charging right to their planets, which might be middling’s,”

  Krom began putting parts of his rail gun back together.

  “We'll let someone else do that. For now us three have the hardest job in the damned galaxy,” he said as parts were slotted, slapped and clipped into place.

  “What's that?” Carsickle asked.

  “Keeping Salchar out of trouble,” Shreesht drawled and Carsickle laughed.

  “Yes, that is quite the difficult task,” Carsickle said as Shreesht and Calerd stood. They looked odd side by side, Shreesht was large by even Avarian standard, stretching his battlesuit with his muscles frame as Calerd was stooped by his Sarenmenti posture and height. His larger torso made him look overweight but he was one of the stronger people Carsickle had seen. The jaws were the oddest thing, when talking and eating a Sarenmenti's four separate jaws mashed together creating odd guttural noises without a translator. Though otherwise Chaleelian's were closer in appearance and stature to Sarenmenti than any other race.

  Carsickle also had wide hips and stubbier arms compared to other races, and his head had only one jaw, but no matter their physical attributes, they were all Free Fleet Personnel.

  “We're on watch for him, so we'll see you later,” Calerd said. Standing next to Shreesht he looked like a dwarf, but he moved like greased lightning when he needed to.

  “Good luck boys,” Carsickle said. Shreesht gave a small hand wave as they continued their walk to the armories.

  “So I don't believe I formally challenged you to a game of chess,” Carsickle turned to Krom, whose eyes slitted.

  “Is that a challenge I hear Carsickle?” Krom asked.

  “Why I think it is.” Carsickle tried to sound as if he found the fact surprising.

  “I'll take you up on that, only if you teach me how to play.” Krom said, moving

  “Be my pleasure,” Carsickle smiled, Krom doing so as well.

  “You Avarians don't get much shorter do you?”

  “We do get wider,” Krom shrugged.

  “Now I know why all the pastries are gone,” Carsickle said, a glimmer of amusement in his movements.

  “I didn't mean it that way,” Krom growled.

  “Commander Krom, you are admitting to putting on a few pounds. This is quite the discovery!” Carsickle said, signalling humour.

  “Carsickle, I'm going to whip you at Chess,” Krom said, trying to get back to the original point of the conversation.

  “We'll see,” Carsickle said, feeling like he wanted to be Krom, Shreesht, and Calerd's friend.

  Can't go wrong when all of them are a damned sight crazier than yourself.

  Chapter - Part of the Job

  I watched as we exited the wormhole. The bridge was silent as Milra, Walf, and Krat made Resilient emerge untouched. Everyone was on alert as Walf busied himself with finding out just what the hell was in the system.

  “Clear to thirty light seconds,” he said as the main plot overlaid current information on the information pulled from Bregend.

  “Launching sensor missiles,” Marleen said.

  The sensor missiles were another Felix and Min Hae wonder child. They blasted off at incredible speeds and used simple FTL relays to transmit back to the fleet in real-time.

  “One minute clear,” Walf said as everyone relaxed minutely. Resilient was relaying the information to the gunner crews as well as the rest of the fleet that had emerged behind us.

  It was a small force, but it was powerful. I was confident that it would be enough to deal with any potential issues, unless we ran into Foshunti, which shouldn't happen for some time if we were lucky.

  “Picking up old chatter. I'm recording,” Vort said, working his terminal. The other ships had already reported full readiness.

  “Slow,” Edwards said from behind me as a familiar headache settled over me. Edwards’s constant over watchfulness was wearing my patience severely thin. The man had become a master of finding a way to annoy me. Now he wore an anklet to make sure we could find him, something he'd raised all hell about, with mutterings of being treated like a prisoner.

  “Good work everyone, as always,” I said, overriding Edwards’s comments.

  I dreaded what Edwards had written on his nefarious tablet, but more than anything I wanted the man off my ship.

  “Take us in, nice and slow,” I said and Milra did so, Ben giving directional and speed information to the rest of the fleet.

  “Sphere,” I said simply as the four sided triangle became a sphere, bringing the maximum guns to bear.

  “Clear up to five minutes. We also have a clear look at the planet,” Walf said, as the main screen split, half the solar system, half the planet itself, visibly rotating.

  “Not picking up any signatures of warships in the system. Got a whole bunch of merchant freighters, however.” He continued his rolling commentary as I pulled the information from the main screen onto my armrest.

 
The planet was an ice ball other than the cities, just like what we'd got from Bregend's Rebirth. The cities base dome, curved up into a thinning spire. Everything was covered by sheeting of some kind to keep the heat inside the cities, but there were protrusions and parts sticking out, making the covered city look less than pristine. Air vapours could be seen exiting the tops of the massive peaks, and spewing gasses could be seen on the horizon as more cities came into view, all with a similar structure.

  “Looks like a bunch of hershey kisses,” Rick said.

  “Quite the apt description,” I drawled, a few signs of amusement coming from the bridge crew as he looked completely unperturbed.

  “Based off of incoming information there are only merchant freighters in system as of yesterday,” Walf said.

  “We'll wait till that's down to six hours. Then we'll send a message. Take everyone down to twenty five percent readiness,” I said getting comfortable in my chair as Shreesht nudged me, a tea in hand.

  “Why thank you Shreehst,” I said as I saw him roll his eyes. There was a glimmer of a grin on Calerd's face.

  ***

  The tea was gone and I had finally staved off paper work for some time. With more departments set up it meant that I could pass off these issues to others, and often they never had to reach me.

  It was slow going but the Resilient was still moving at a good pace into the system. The freighters were still running their trade, but most of them were leaving the system.

  “We have an incoming transmission,” Vort said.

  “Play it.” They must've sent the message just a few minutes after finding out that we were in the system.

  A creature with a dulled expression and a droopy snout like an ant eater’s, with four limbs and a purple body looked was on the screen. The surroundings made some of the worst alleyways I'd seen look presentable. Obviously the conditions within the cities weren't the best.

  “This is Overseer Marhtu. We have already made our payment to Rovkew a month ago. Are you here to drop off Recalcitrants?” Something glimmered in the creatures eyes that made the hairs on the back off my neck stand up.

  “Marhtu out,” The overseer said, raising its snout and lowering it again as the channel went dead.

  “Send it to the Intelligence department. See if they can pick up something on what these Recalcitrants are. I want to know what's going on in this place,” I said to Vort who got to sending the file and my orders out.

  I didn't know what it was, but something made me wary of Marhtu and his sleepy expression. It took a few minutes for the information to come back. I answered the buzz on my armrest screen.

  “Go.”

  “Simply, we have no idea what he means. When Min Hae arrives and starts building his web he'll know more,” the Intel chief said as I nodded.

  “Very well. Thanks.” I cut the channel and looked to Vort who had just started his shift after entering the system.

  “Call them up”

  “Ready to record,” he said as the screen lit up again with the image of the creature.

  “Overseer Marhtu, I am Commander Salchar of the Free Fleet. The Free Fleet has been created with the sole purpose of defeating the syndicate and looking after those that require or are under our protection. We would also like to set up trade with you if at all possible. Good day,” Pretty straight forward, I thought as I dropped a line to the public relations department. They would be the one dealing directly with the people on the planet. After Earth I found it was best to let someone else deal with that. I'd just run the fleet. I stood and stretched, noticing a gleeful look on Edwards face.

  “What is it that you're so happy about?” I grumbled, not really meaning for it to reach him.

  “Just thinking of how when I make my report to the President, I doubt that I'll ever see you in command of so much as a cash register again,” Edwards said.

  That's one spiteful, and fortunately naive little man. He still thought that the United States somehow had some power over me. No one had power over me. Well... Other than Yasu and the rest of the Fleet. I would do anything for my people, but unfortunately for me that anything seemed to be sitting in a rather large and uncomfortable chair, doing a lot of paperwork and seeing those that trusted me die in the hope that a few others might live and make a change.

  “I'll take over if you want,” Rick said, turning to me from Edwards and his lovely personality.

  “Thanks, bud,” I said, tapping his shoulder as Krom and Dave trailed me.

  I bumped into Carsickle as I walked through the corridors. He made to give me a somewhat professional salute and I waved it away.

  “We're not that posh here,” I said, grinning as I indicated for him to join my wander to the mess. I smiled and nodded to a few people I knew as they passed.

  “How are you liking Resilient?” I said, looking to the man.

  “She's a beauty. Your Commando detail are very well trained.”

  “Any trouble with command?” I said, sure he knew that the last Platoon commander had died on Parnmal.

  “Minor issues. They're not hampering me and I'm not hampering them. It's strange treating them more like equals than ranks,” he said as I studied him.

  “Don't get me wrong. Rank is useful and all, but it makes sense for people to work together based on the person, not what they wear on their shoulder,” Carsickle said as I nodded. “Especially with your tactics, anyone should be ready to take any position at any time. That's the nature of internal ship battles.”

  “It's one hell of a mess in those fights,” I said as I came up on Shrift with his head in a panel.

  “Want food?” I yelled into the panel.

  “No! Go away. This damned wiring is all backwards,” he said, his manipulators waving me off.

  I caught Carsickle's look.

  “He's doing a job. No sense in pestering him, getting him to mess it all up just for a meal,”

  “Not going to mess it—oww, shit! Well, you're still alive,” Shrift said as I grinned, Carsickle and I moving on.

  “You eat yet?” Carsickle shook his head, Dave and Krom doing the same.

  “I doubt you'd say you had, yah big lug,” I said to Krom.

  “Not my fault you humans don't know how to eat properly,” he said, raising his massive shoulders slightly.

  “And I smell a food eating contest,” I looked to Carsickle, who looked confused while Dave looked amused.

  “Right, you’re not humans,” I forgot how a race's sayings meant something completely different to other races sometimes. “Dave?”

  “Like the human ruddy thesaurus,” He complained quietly.

  I let out a snort of amusement as he cleared his throat.

  “Right, well a food contest is where a group of people sit down to an enormous amount of food, and the person to eat the most in an allotted time, or all of it, wins,” Dave said as Krom nodded.

  “You have enough food on Earth for these contests?” Carsickle asked Dave as we got on a transport.

  “I guess not technically. A lot of people on Earth still starve because they don't, but in the richer parts of the world they have the resources to farm a great deal and supply themselves,” Dave said.

  “Something that we're looking to fix with the implementation of growing towers,” I said.

  “Yes, I looked into them, they are quite ingenious. The environmental section of the ship has already adapted some of the practices. I think that Chaleel would be willing to trade a great deal for the plans of these places,” Carsickle said, quite excited.

  Chaleel had experienced massive food shortages, making it near impossible for them to feed all of their people. It was why they had made their planet one big farm essentially. They were a race of gardeners, which is why it wasn't odd at all to find a hardened Commando that kept a flower garden in the environmental section, or watched gardening television for hours on end.

  Normal was an abstract word when talking about the Free Fleet, and I kind of liked it that w
ay.

  ***

  Captain, turned Free Fleet Personnel member, Connolly looked at his orders, his eyebrows climbing.

  “You've got to be kidding me! I'm going to Nancy to assist with operations there as I complete my Commando training?”

  Yasu arched an eyebrow, and Connolly became rigid.

  “Yes, you are. Commander Everez requested you specifically,” she said, and Connolly felt a ray of pride, while still continuing to be as straight as possible. Even as he was expecting something like drill, or pushups his mind turned back to working with Everez.

  Sure the Company Commander might be a kid, but he was a damned good commander, Connolly had seen that in the defence of Earth, or the second battle for Earth depending on who you asked.

  “I thought he was on the Resilient?” he asked. Yasu's eyebrow dropped and her eyes thinned before disappearing and Connolly saw past Training Commander Yasu's image.

  “He got messed up on Parnmal, lost a few limbs and we can't regrow them. He has mechanical prosthetics. He had to go to Nancy to get them, and until the Resilient comes through here, or he can get a transfer to another ship, he's doing training and labour on Nancy,” she said, looking to him. Don't piss him off or you'll have to deal with me, her eyes seemed to say.

  “Thank you commander,” He tapped his head, even though he felt like saluting. She had broken that habit out of every military person that had joined pretty quickly. She returned the finger-head touch.

  “Look after yourself, Connolly. Protect your fellow free Fleet personnel and you'll keep Earth safe,”

  Does she know my mission? He wondered. They saluted one another before the next graduate tapped their data pad to Yasu's.

  He and his company of Marines had been sent to the Free Fleet by the United States Marine Corps to gather information on the group. Not only that, but provide support in the event that the United States decided to make a play for the Fleet.

  Min Hae is supposed to have gotten a network of spies already in place on two other planets. Would it be so unreasonable that he has one on Earth? Do they know of Earth's plans? His thoughts were cut short as someone jumped on him.

  “It is you! Captain Connolly!” Captain Adam Smith of what had been Roman Candle One, the ship which had carried Connolly and his men into the bowels of Resilient said with an excited look on his face.