Free Fleet Box Set 2

by Michael Chatfield

  “Regulating shields,” Afnar said.

  “Populating map,” Qurv said as he was connected to every other ship, pulling and sending information as the sensor operators checked their scans and relayed them back to command.

  There were five planets, one habitable, it was a binary star system. There also seemed to be a collection of metallic objects between the third and fifth planets.

  “Wilma, plot course to those metallic objects. All stations are to remain at full readiness until we're cleared for five light minutes,” Bregend said, that should give him enough time to think some before reacting to threats.

  “Clear out to one minute,” Qurv said seconds later. “Pulling information from metallic cluster, eight hours old.”

  The main screen zoomed in on the objects and Bregend was jolted with shock, then excitement, and finally anxiety before he bit his lip in thought.

  “It seems that we've found the graveyard of a Union fleet. Kyle, have Di Di stay behind and ready to wormhole out of her at a moment’s notice. Relay all information to her, Salchar will want to know about this as soon as possible,” Bregend gave Kyle a look at his comms station. The young but excitable man contained himself somehow, nodding in reply.

  “Got it Commander,” he confirmed as he fired up his station.

  He might be excitable at times, but there's no doubt there's a veteran under that veneer. Bregend thought, remembering all the things he, and his crew, had been through the last couple of years. Every time he had asked for more than any Captain should have to, they answered. They had taken their last ship and ripped it apart transiting through these same systems to get to Cheerleader.

  “Picking up signals on the surface of the habitable planet,” Kyle said making Bregend focus on the present.

  “Good out to five minutes,” Qurv added, riveted to his sensors like Domal, the new tactical commander, her hand ready to hit the transmit button on her panel if anything showed up.

  Bregend gave Mills his second in command a look, the man set to lowering the readiness level as Bregend leaned towards Kyle.

  “What kind of signals?”

  “The kind I'd expect from Earth before the Syndicate came,” Kyle said.

  “We'll have a sortie go off and check that out once we know the system is clear,” Bregend nodded to Kyle.

  “Qurv, how are those factory ships looking?”

  “Flying straight,” Qurv said.

  “That's what you think,” Wilma muttered, the pilots ranked amateur at best with Bregend’s Helmswoman. Bregend couldn’t help but crack a smile in amusement, tension lessening as they had at least something of a safety net around them.

  Unless there's Kalu out there. Bregend thought.

  He bit his lip as he looked at the main plot.

  “Domal, launch sensor missiles if you please. We'll be staying a while, might as well make sure it's completely clean,” Bregend's voice gruff.

  The young Slevaran changed a slight shade of anxiety her eye-stalks roving around the command deck as she went to work on her station. She was good at her job as thirty six missiles spread out from the fleet after a few moments. Seems that she was anticipating that little command. Bregend thought impressed by the brand new Commander. Seems they're being taught the right stuff. Bregend had been pleasantly surprised with the quality of the newly-trained personnel. Instead of decreasing in abilities as he had feared, they were quickly acclimatizing to their positions and his department commanders were pleased with their work.

  Sol, Chaleel, AIH and Parnmal had hundreds of thousands of trainees going through them. Even with those numbers, the need for as many people in Free Fleet fatigues as possible, the trainers had somehow pushed out personnel worthy of those fatigues.

  There was something to be said about the hardened veterans that made up a good number of the Free Fleet. Though even those veterans were learning that time didn't always mean they were the best at their jobs. Some of the trainees were actually showing veterans how to do things better than before. Battle after battle had taught them that knowledge was life on the battlefield. Instead of brushing the new personnel off, they were listening to them.

  Bregend turned his sombre look to the main screen, watching as those missiles expanded outwards, heading through the system.

  Soon I'll know this systems secrets, and hopefully I can send something more than messages back to James. Bregend felt anticipation rise in him as he looked at the graveyard of what must've been a massive space battle between the Kalu and Union. The condition of those ships were unknown, but there were a number of carriers and Dreadnought hulls floating there. It was hard to not rub his hands together and grin like a complete idiot. Though he did share a look with Mills whose smirk said he wanted to do the exact same thing.

  Trained personnel are worth a thousand carriers, but you also need the damned carrier to put them to work, and it looks like we just found the leprechaun and his pot at the end of the damned rainbow!

  ***

  Cheerleader had been in the system Bucket for a few days. It was part of the reputed Kuruvian Empire. It was built on trade with the middling planets that had been allowed to survive by the Syndicate. She wondered how the Kuruvians had flourished so. Though as her Intelligence officers reported, it was because the Empire had been largely docile and done as Lady Fairgate asked.

  They had given Lady Fairgate the people she wanted to crew her ships as slaves. They had given her wealth and food. This had made her hold them under her command, using them to reward her people and give a backing to her power.

  From what Min Hae's intelligence department had gathered it looked like Lady Fairgate and the Syndicate hadn't been in Kuruvian space for a number of months. Some, especially merchants were beginning to think that she was gone.

  When they had learned that the Free Fleet was not part of the Syndicate they had recoiled. Well the vassals of the Kuruvian Empress did, the Kuruvian merchants smelled money to be made.

  They had been hesitant at first, but once it was revealed that the Free Merchant Fleet had ship parts. Trade had broken down the barriers. The Empress controlled the Kuruvian docks, the currency of the Empire wasn't credits, it was time in the docks.

  Ship parts coming in from another source was like having a competing currency come onto the stage.

  The merchant's accompanying Cheerleader had done what they did best and drummed up a quick business with the Kuruvians, there were ships coming in from all four systems held by the Empire.

  “So how long do we wait for?” Werv, her second in command asked the question that her whole fleet had been asking.

  “One week,” she said, raising her voice “Onur, send a message to the pursuer, tell them that we will be returning to Parnmal in a week. Tell her to have all of the plans finalized with the Kuruvian merchants interested.”

  “You got it.”

  She had confirmed that the Kuruvians were alive, now it was a job for the merchant fleet and Min Hae’s people embedded into its core to gather more information. Then the relations team would drum up an agreement between the Free Fleet and the Empire.

  ***

  “We're getting hundreds of ships ready, all types. All of them Union types,” Sensors called out to Boot.

  Well looks like we ran right into the damned hornets’ nest. Boot thought. He had separated from Cheerleader a week and a half ago on his mission to find the Sarenmenti home world. He had jumped to what was supposed to be another empty star system. It seemed that the Star maps weren't as accurate as he'd hoped.

  “Emergency jump to system Kova,” Boot said. He didn't have the forces to engage the fleet assembled in what looked to be an uninhabited system.

  “Looks like we've found Rosho station, the biggest station in the known universe, and home of every damned ship that Fairgate didn't take with her,” Boot's second in command Dlai said.

  “Looks like it,” Boot said through gritted teeth.

  “We're ready for emergency wormhole gener
ation on capacitors,” Helm said.

  “Good. Have one of the corvette's start their journey to Parnmal as soon as we emerge,” Boot said.

  A timer started up giving twelve minutes as relays were switched over and wormhole projectors spun up, draining the massive energy stored in the capacitors.

  A wormhole appeared in front of Boots fleet, the ships moved as one, powering their drives up as entered right into the event horizon, there was little time for orbiting the wormhole before passing through it.

  Then there was no trace of them, except the light that had hit them and was bouncing back to Rosho. A few hours later six corvettes set out from Rosho on different trajectories, the station and the fleet of warships stayed where they had been found.

  No one would mess with a stronghold like Rosho, and soon Fairgate would come back and restore them to their rightful place.

  Some were still continuing age old debates over who owned what in a system, or bartered parts for slaves. The Universe be damned, the Syndicate did as it pleased.

  ***

  Min Hae was sometimes surprised with the results gathered from his intelligence department controlled merchant freighters, with his operators littered across them.

  He had his fingers in seventeen systems. He had infiltrated governments, agencies, secret militaries, guilds, and whatever institutions held power on a planet. People had become wary of those that said they walked with Merchertevak on their shoulder.

  He found what planets really needed, making relations teams talks easier. Eight planets had signed under the Free Fleets protection, including Daestramus. The planet’s networks were run by Narvu the customs officer that Min Hae had first talked to when he came to the planet under guise as a trader.

  The man now knew who he was, but cared little. He was working to clean up his planet. He and Min Hae worked together to end the secret military, punishing those that deserved it and giving the people the opportunities to do as they wanted. Without someone there to punish them for every unregulated action, the planet was growing and exporting a lot of people to the Free Fleet and its training schools.

  Though Min Hae's focus on the planet Avapor didn't have anything to do with the native residents. Rather it was with the strange rumors that had come from the place. Operatives had reported a network similar to Min Hae's at work.

  Min Hae would have thought the network was under the control of the planets government. Gogs, his Ershue sidekick who had been under the command of Kelu until the second battle of Parnmal had got into their computers and found out differently.

  Gogs surmised that the Kalu were operating

  While some had suggested that the government computer system was a cover-up, Min Hae didn't think so. There was too much information, especially records of dealings that certain companies and bureaucrats wouldn't want out in the open on that network.

  He had a suspicion and he didn't like it, at all.

  It's what I would do. He stood, a decision made.

  “We're going to pick up that woman that is believed to be the head of this network. I want to know everything she does. Prepare for a quick dust off if things go south, have the second merchant hang around. Get them into long talks, if a ship bolts we'll follow them. The other ship is to remain here and leave in a few weeks, unless something suspicious happens. In that case they can do as they deem fit,” Min Hae said.

  It would take a few days before he was standing in front of the woman that all of the spy networks seemed to expand from. She was a Klerdite, she had deep blue scales and eight sets of limbs for moving. She was amphibious, the spines that jutted from her joints had been contained with foam, those spines would leave about eighty percent of know creatures disabled or dead. Some had their poisons modified just to remove that sticky twenty percent.

  Now those spines weren't extended in anger, they were bowed in fear, but not confusion Min Hae guessed.

  They had picked her up at home, knocked her out and transported her to the warehouse where he was supposed to be moving his goods. It also happened to be rather insulated and far away from the other warehouses. The Free Merchant Fleet might be making a new purchase on Avapor in the near future.

  Her eyes were wide and scared as she looked up at Min Hae. He took a seat, her attention solely on him. He had become used to that look, that wasn't to say he liked it. He understood it and recognized its use in getting the information he needed.

  “Who is your master?” He asked gently.

  “I don't know, I just do what the drops tell me to do,” she said, her eyes pleading for him to understand.

  “Tell me what you did for your master,” Min Hae said.

  “He'll kill me,” she said scared.

  “It's a he is it? Well I want you to think about the rumors you've heard about the Syndicate KaaOrv,” Min Hae didn't even raise his voice. If he could get away with it, he was going to pose as one of the Syndicate's eyes. So far out the Free Fleet was nothing but a wild rumour, but here the Syndicate was a very real threat. It also gave the Fleet some protection.

  She visibly shook her mane at the thought of being turned over to a KaaOrv.

  She told him about how she had been sleeping on a sidewalk when one day she discovered a message and a key waiting for her when she woke up.

  It told her an address and that she could expect to be rewarded for being a simple runner.

  She went to the address, it was an apartment. There was no one around and there was food.

  Messages appeared in the apartment and she was given multiple drop points around the city to get items and pass them off to other people, or she was told to tell them what the messages said.

  She was rewarded with more food, credits, and people started respecting her.

  She followed whatever the messages said, they were the best thing to have ever happened to her and she didn't want it to end. Then Min Hae's crew mates had kicked in her door and brought her to an abandoned house at the limits of the city.

  Min Hae pulled out a data pad, typing a message to operatives on the planet to get more information on these drop locations as well as the apartment.

  He knew the likelihood of finding anything useful was slim, but it was worth a try. He looked at the woman, he would release her. Maybe he would give her an opportunity to escape in order to lead him to her employer, it bared some thought.

  “What were the specifics you gave your master in terms of Syndicate forces?” Min Hae said. Might as well and try to hit two birds with one stone.

  ***

  “Where is she?” Ashota asked his ground operations leader.

  Ashota had gained little information of worth to him and his battle brother, war-leader Edvasho. He wasn't going to get much more time to find out more about the Union, or this Syndicate that seemed to have taken over.

  His body had been mangled in the last teaching war, or the Union-Kalu war as these creatures called it.

  He had been a great Kalu Warrior, he had been part of the honor guard of three planets, before the Union started driving the Kalu back. He and Edvasho had been rushing towards battle when their Star Warrior was hit. Ashota had set the ship towards Kalu space as the Union annihilated the Kalu fleet. Edvasho had sworn to destroy the Union while Ashota had been trapped in the body of a cripple.

  What had crippled his body, had grown his mind. He had been the moving force behind Edvasho. The only reason he was getting the time to see what had become of the Union was because Edvasho understood that Ashota's help had propelled him into his position as war-leader of all Kalu clans.

  “We do not know, we assume she is dead or captured,” the ground leader said back.

  “Very well, we prepare to leave then. If she has been compromised then this planet is not of use to us. We have found out what we need. We know our biggest opposition is this Syndicate, we still need to find their base Rosho, and gather more information on Worshun, the planet that used to be the Union's seat of power,” Ashota said.

  Kalu st
arted moving to run through final checks. Ashota paid them no notice as he watched the main screen. It seems that the Syndicate are not the dull pirates they present themselves as. While rumours of the Free Fleet had reached him, he had thought them ridiculous, there was no way a group of slaves could become a space-warring group to be reckoned.

  He had himself two more months until Edvasho made his move. By that time there would be no stopping the Kalu.

  Chapter A few last minute additions

  “Commander!” Sensors squeaked out as Monk turned from talking with a Commando who was on duty.

  “Well that is definitely interesting,” Monk said sounding amused as sensors pinged a massive wormhole depositing Super-carrier's Dreadnoughts, regular carriers, and something that made even Monk feel a tickle around the nerve ports in his back.

  “Resilient is contacting us,” Comms said.

  “On screen please,” Monk said calmly, taking his seat.

  “Hello Commander Monk, I thought it would be best if I introduced the newest applicants to the Free Fleet. They call themselves the rearguard, others call them the AI Warriors. They are led by Devastahli, who occupies war station, I don't think I have to point out which one he is,” Resilient said in a tone that made Monk think she was rolling her eyes.

  “Thank you, this does make my job a bit easier. You say that they want to be in the Free Fleet?” Monk asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Could you stay connected if they join up, I want to verify that they are in fact sworn to the fleet with their coding. They could do a lot of damage if I let them continue without that,” Monk wasn't making a threat, he was the bulwark for the Corridor against incoming attackers. He would lay into anything he deemed a threat to the corridor.

  “Certainly,” she said, appearing in holographic form next to Monk.

  “Comms, open a channel to the mobile station. Address it to the AI that resides within it,” Monk said.

  “Commander,” Comms nodded, Monk looked around the room. More than one face had a look of disbelief on it.

  “Do I need to tell you to sound readiness?” Monk's voice had a bit of steel in it. People turned from staring at the plot to shutting Parnmal down, reading the defences, patrol fleet, and the fleet that was getting overhauled.