Free Fleet Box Set 2

by Michael Chatfield

  “What the hell were you going to do if it wasn't?” Connolly said.

  “I would've thought of something,” Smith said with a grin.

  “Good to know you haven't changed,” Connolly said, his own smile growing. Smith’s smile was infectious.

  Smith had been originally from Hawaii, giving him a large build not usually found with fighter pilots. Now however he looked normal among the Basic trained Free Fleet personnel. Other than his tan and Hawaiian features.

  “Where are you going?” Smith said after a quick handshake.

  “Nancy.”

  Adam's eyes went wide.

  “They're building the new fighter prototypes there I heard. That's so cool! I thought you would be a Commando for sure,”

  “I'm doing Commando training and helping the yard too, apparently,” Connolly shrugged.

  “Better than doing it on Parnmal and having to watch the Syndicates,” Adam said, the man could always see the good side of something.

  “That's true. Where are you going?” Connolly asked.

  “Fighter training school.” Adam's smile cranked up a few terawatts. He looked like all of his holidays had come in one.

  “So you're staying here?” Connolly said, gesturing to Hachiro.

  “Yeah, when are you leaving?” Adam said as Connolly checked his pad.

  “I have to be there by tomorrow evening.”

  “Well. How about some drinks with the boys?” Adam said as Connolly shrugged.

  “Sure,” Adam dragged him through the corridors, talking the entire way, giving a few hellos to fellow female personnel. Getting a few rolled eyes in return.

  Coupling and long term relationships weren't shunned in the Free Fleet as they were on Earth's militaries. People were stuck together for months. If they wanted to have relations then they would. Having the Free Fleet stop it would create friction. That said, issues with relationships were dealt with quickly, a few complaints from fellow team members, anonymously, and the two individual's commander's would talk to them and try to sort it out, or get them both transferred. It sounded a lot cleaner than it was. Romantic or emotional relationships were damned hard to deal with. More than one commander had needed a stiff drink afterwards. It was a rather fair system but it was still odd to Connolly.

  They got to Hachiro's entertainment district, a place rarely visited by trainees as they were too busy or too tired to do much of anything. To Connolly it looked like heaven right now. Heaven with beer as Adam took him into a bar where Connolly saw others from the group that had come with him up to the Free Fleet ships. The now ex-marines grinned and made noises of greeting as Connolly found a beer in his hand and handshakes from his men. He grinned and joked, and for a short time he forgot what his real mission was.

  ***

  Connolly arrived on Nancy, the detox injection clearing him of alcohol as he'd drunk litres of water to replace it. Leaving him sober, and ready to see what his project was. His data pad told him where he should go. After a few minutes he found himself in a squad pod identical to the one he'd used in training, other than the personal effects of the squad members.

  “What's your name?” A Chaleelian asked from her bunk. Chaleelians, being closer to Sol than Avarians, had been sent to the Free Fleets bases there for training. There were still Avarians in Sol, but there were definitely less of them compared to the ranks of them on Parnmal.

  “Connolly,”

  “Good to meet you, I'm Gorvite,” she waved, an obvious Human gesture.

  “You too. Where's Commander Everez?”

  “He's getting a tune up, and waiting for all of the trainees to make it in,”

  “Ah. So which bunks are free?”

  “Those ones,” a woman said as she gestured to the free racks. Connolly looked to where she was pointing. Some of the other commandos were coming from the shower. He still found the coed showering a little awkward, but it was deemed as normal by the veterans of the fleet. Connolly guessed if you saw it enough you stopped caring.

  “Uhh, thanks.”

  He found a bunk, and put his bag packed with his battle suits, a few packs of gum, data pad and a few comfort items. Trying to keep his eyes off of the rather tanned and rather athletic looking girl as she towelled herself off. More people came into the room. Connolly looked to them and found most of them to have weathered but tanned skin. Ghurkas? He thought as the others said hello and moved around the room to find their beds. Squad pods kept on filling up as a message came over the communications screens.

  It was a rough outline of their training. Everyone copied it down as they talked excitedly, introduced themselves and a few started going to the mess hall. Connolly found himself talking to a mixed group as they made plans to go to the mess and get some food before checking out the rest of Nancy. Connolly was surprised with how the Free Fleet had grown into a true military institution. It was different to how the Marines were.

  It was strange, but he liked it more for the way it accepted everyone and appreciated their skill set. In the Marines roles were set in stone. In the Free Fleet a commando could be a gravimetrics tech, or be a computer whiz and do that as a secondary role. Connolly followed the wave of trainees going to the nearest mess, and finding that it had the same buffet style serving as on Hachiro, complete with non-ration food. Which was a mandatory meal for all to feed their massive bodies.

  ***

  George Everez had seen better days. He was missing both legs, as well as some of his arm, and his fingers. Yet it had all been replaced by the engineers on Nancy. Silly himself had looked over it after his brother Shrift had asked him to. Silly had talked of how Shrift had talked about George and Salchar's squad and how he'd been inspired by them. George owed both brothers a huge favour as Silly had got him fitted and using his prosthetics in record time. Now however it was George's time to help out Silly.

  “So he's asking if he can be part of the Free Fleet?” George asked Silly as he sat at his desk, his fingers thumping against his own body in a thoughtful rhythm.

  “Yes.”

  “So let him.”

  “But then he wants to become Nancy,” Silly said.

  “Ahh... Why doesn't he want to be a Battle Cruiser anymore?” George asked. Similarly relaxing in his chair.

  “I don't know. He won't talk about it.” Silly's rhythmic tapping picked up.

  “So he wants to become the AI of Nancy. Why not?”

  “Well because, it's rather odd. I don't know what he could do,” Silly said.

  “Why not ask him?” George said, Silly looking to him and his tapping stopped.

  “Hmm.”

  Silly opened up a channel.

  “Silly?” LaRe asked.

  “Hello, LaRe. I'm with George Everez right now. We were wondering what you would do if you became the AI of Nancy,”

  A list started cascading across Silly's planning table, George and Silly looking at the words.

  “I've got to..,” George stood, playfully starting to walk away.

  “You told me to ask him. Now you're going to help me understand just what the heck he's said,” Silly said, talking over George’s protests.

  “Alright. Let’s see what he's thinking at least,” George said, the grin on his face making it clear he wasn't going to leave his friend to this mess.

  “Then you want to help me with figuring out how we're going to fix all of these ships?”

  “You're on your own for that one.”

  The numbers were all messed up. George felt that Min Hae and Salchar both had something to do with that. Silly probably knew how many ships were coming but he also had the job of getting them all in fighting trim, Free Fleet fighting trim. It was no small feat but the first round of trainees from Hachiro would be a big help, as well as the incoming training freighters. Sols Free Fleet population was about to grow another forty thousand.

  Let's see if we can't add a one onto the end of that. George thought as he began reading LaRe's list.

  Chapter
- Freedom

  After the transmission to Overseer Marhtu the planet had been silent. The only activity we could see was a fast moving freighter that was on course to go straight past the Free Fleet. It passed us, undoubtedly sending a message to the planet. Marleen had her guns tracking it. Other than that, nothing happened as we closed in on the planet. Finally, Marhtu, looking no different from his last transmission, sent another message.

  “We welcome you to our home. We would like to invite you down in order to meet you and know the Free Fleet better. We thank you for freeing us from the Syndicate. We hope that we can be of assistance.”

  The lack of any emotion reminded me of videos I'd seen on heavy worlds, but Marhtu's eyes were dark, as if he was pissed off instead of happy.

  Must of had a rough time with everything going on, I thought.

  “Vort, send it to the relations people,”

  “On it Commander,”

  “Get me Cheerleader,”

  “Hey, boss!” she said with a grin as she sat across her armrests and I shook my head at her antics. Of course she commanded her ship kicking her legs like a teenager in her father’s big chair.

  “I want you to take the scouts to check the other systems. And link up with Bregend. Have his forces assist yours in scouting,”

  “On it,” Her voice serious, despite her position.

  “ Good luck,”

  “You too.”

  “I just stare at a world and wonder if they want the Free Fleet to protect them, or see if they want to survive on their own,” I said simply.

  “Exactly! With a whole bunch of politicians!” she grinned happily.

  “Please take me with you! They're the plague!” Rick said to the screen.

  “Slanderous accusations on the command deck,” I heard Edwards say, just loud enough for Rick and I to hear. We looked to one another, an annoyed expression on our faces.

  Cheerleader's expression made it clear she knew what we were feeling.

  “The faster I go the sooner I can come back.” She gave a salute from her relaxed position. “See ya inna bit boys and girls!” she said, cutting the channel.

  “She is moving away,” Walf said, the plot reflecting it.

  Nine of the twelve Corvette's, one Destroyer, Cheerleader's Battle Cruiser and Turek's headed away. Leaving me with Resilient, three Destroyers, Heston and Xing's freighter-carriers and three Corvette's.

  A message appeared on my station.

  “Appears that the relations department already has an invitation to the planet. Its name is Daestramus. Rick...”

  “I'll plan who goes on the little outing,” he waved me down, reading my mind.

  “I swear sometimes you're the one married to him,” Marleen said, and Rick took on a look of horror.

  “I couldn't deal with his singing in the shower,” I said as Marleen grinned.

  “Earplugs,” she said, Rick tried to look hurt.

  “People don't understand good music,” he muttered loud enough for everyone to hear.

  I was happy to see hidden smiles. Parnmal had been an ordeal, but we'd made it. Most of us. Now just some more hoops to jump through.

  “Looks like we have a few visitors,” Walf said and I looked up, my smile evaporating. A number of ships had approached us as we got closer to the planet. “Freighters are coming in for a closer look.”

  “Probably just want to know why there's a non-syndicate fleet floating around,” Rick said. I made a noise of agreement, feeling myself relax.

  “See that our weapons are stowed, best to keep a few surprises.”

  Marleen worked her control panel as PDS weapons lowered and cannons went into the standby positions. It made us slightly vulnerable. The fleet followed suit, every gunner crew was trained to get their weapon systems operating in less than thirty seconds. Gunner Chiefs with years of battle experience had made that number even smaller. Ships circled the fleet, which had collapsed into a smaller sphere. There were quite a number of them that checked us out as we reached orbit and sent our shuttle down with our relations people aboard.

  “Scans of the planet are problematic. Seems that there is still quite a bit of dust thrown up from the Syndicate bombing the place. We can only get basic scans of the top of the towers. Seems they're built to be heat retainers. The heat circulates to the base of the city, slowly coming up to the peak. I would guess that each city has mined into the ground and pulls heat from the planet,” Walf said.

  “Isn't that some serious digging?” My armrest bugged me for my attention.

  “Quite. But it seems that they're advanced enough to do that,” Walf finished. I accessed the message, it was a listing of all the races that were believed to not only be on the planet but be in the freighters. There were believed to be seven main groups, and four smaller groups of other races. I couldn't keep a grin off my face.

  Eleven more races! I thought excitedly. It was soon going to start being too hard to even distinguish who was what.

  ***

  Min Hae looked over his crew. He and Rick had picked them each by hand, and all of them knew their jobs as if it was second nature.

  “Making it a bit rough,” Chrys said as the freighter bucked and shook, unlike the other transitions it had made on the way to the mystery planet.

  Gogs sat at the shields. The rest of the crew were about the ship. The majority probably checking the cargo. Being traders, they needed goods to sell. All but three of the crew were Chaleelian; Gogs, Min Hae and one of his analysts, Baldabuh. It would make the freighter less out of place. After Ervstl confirmed there was nothing in the immediate area Min Hae ordered the second deck cleared and sealed. Baldabuh signalled when he got out of the secondary deck where the control panels for the weapons shields and everything else was connected. It was in the middle of the freighter instead of the front where Min Hae was located. The rest of the journey was uninteresting until the Verslva made it into ten second communications range.

  “State your goods and your intentions,” a grumpy looking customs clerk asked.

  “We have food stores we wish to barter or sell for technology,”

  “Fifteen percent tax,” Min Hae leaned forward, a sly grin on his holo-skin face.

  “Is there any way you could lower that, for a tip?”

  “Well, I would be interested in a few months’ supply of food for eleven percent.” The customs officer was no longer bored.

  “Deal,” Min Hae grinned as the customs officer told them to make orbit and where to land their shuttle. As the channel closed Min Hae's pleased look disappeared.

  “Gogs,” he said. The second function of the shields was a discrete connection to the communications antennae and a link to every sort of high speed information. Combined with Gogs hacking skills, the information of the entire planet filled the massive storage drives Verslva held.

  “I'm already in some rudimentary systems, nothing interesting other than where people went and more information to update your star map of cities and such, minimal,” Gogs reported, his small nimble hands moving quickly.

  Min Hae didn't comment as Gogs continued his work, letting out small squeaks of joy. Gogs had been helpful ever since he'd been able to talk to Salchar directly about how his middling planet was being treated and his wishes for them to be free. Afterwards Salchar had said to use the chipper hacker to get more information from the Syndicate ships. Gogs was a whiz with computers and trying to make it clear he was trustworthy. Min Hae wasn't completely sure on that point. It was why he was monitoring Gog's hacking and why the diminutive man was not to leave the freighter.

  Min Hae spared a glance at the Free Fleet ships that orbited the planet.

  “Chrys, see what rumours you can pick up, as well as all information on the Free Fleet from the planet's point of view. No need to be quiet about it. I will be going down with some of the crew to get acquainted with the land. You're in charge, but don't hesitate to call if you need me.”

  “No worries sir,” Chrys said as
Min Hae moved to the rear of the ship. He checked that he looked the part with his disguise as a Chaleelian, carefully inspecting his clothes which hid his array of weaponry.

  He went through the ship, picking the first four he found that weren't busy, grabbed the food bribe, and fired up the junker shuttle and road it down to Daestramus. He wouldn't have admitted to anyone he really wanted to fly the shuttle. All he'd done so far was in-space and simulation flights. Entering atmosphere was its own kind of thrill. He let his smile show as he went down to the space port, which lacked in any kind of automated landing system. His smile tightened after having a few close calls before he got into the covered space port near the bottom of the largest city.

  “The customs officer has said he'll meet you at this bar, Captain,” Chrys said to Min Hae. Commander and other connotations and names from the Free Fleet were forbidden on communication systems.

  “Sounds good, Chrys. I'm feeling like a drink. Enjoy watching!” Chrys, probably stunned that Min Hae was talking in such a relaxed manner, took a minute before replying.

  “Better leave something for me!” he said. “Been in this tin can for too damned long!”

  Less time than the fleet taking the route past Bregend. Min Hae powered down the shuttle and led his crew

  “Go in in two's and don't get lost,” He warned them before locking the shuttle.

  Excitement bubbled up from the group at the sight of a new planet, city and possibilities.

  Min Hae grinned slightly too. This was where he would finally get to show the commander how the intelligence department was worth it. He had a lot of work ahead of him, trying to get people to trust him and become his informants. Hell he'd never done anything like this, but he was determined to make it work. Salchar and the rest of the Fleet believed in him. He couldn't let them down.

  Time to start, instead of standing here and lolly-gagging, he thought as he headed for the seediest bar he could find, a splash of some kind of alcohol and his self-affected stumble got him through the doors unnoticed. Ears were such a godsend, especially ones that had implants that could cut out background noise. He hid a smile as he heard some people talking darkly about the “shadows.” He was confident as they found the bar and entered.