Free Fleet Box Set 2

by Michael Chatfield

“Last Commando,” someone said. The ramp came up and sealed as the shuttle tilted, my sideways view becoming horizontal.

  Shuttles flipped as they too had the last HAPA get on top.

  The shuttle's guns sighted targets and started firing. The HAPA's waited, our rounds were as big as the shuttle's guns, but without the specialized stabilizers of the side guns.

  “It is good to see you once again Commander,” Planner said in his deep gravelly voice, sounding tired.

  “Sorry we weren't faster,” I said, guilt coloring my words.

  “What's done is done, now we can only look forward.”

  HAPA's started firing at the leading edge of shuttles, some of the black masses of Kalu Fighters, turned towards the shuttles.

  “Got to go,” I said, cutting the channel with my finger balls and rotating my guns into position while taking off the safeties. The other HAPA's did the same.

  The range identifier ticked down.

  “Let them fucking have it!” I screamed as I pulled both of my triggers, the cannons firing as HAPA's joined in. It was a terrifying but exhilarating display of firepower. The streams caved in on themselves as they tried to cover one another and stay a solid stream. We pressed on, the streams and shuttles crossing one another.

  Then we were amongst them.

  “Come on you bastards, come and get me!” I yelled, turning and using each cannon individually, letting my eyes become unfocused, I didn't think I just fired at any threat I saw.

  The HAPA pilots had learned long ago how to work in concert to not only not hit one another, but so that they could cover multiple areas at once, we moved with ease and bare glances at our HUD's. Our guns never fell silent as the Fighters kept descending on us.

  Then they were gone, as if someone had pulled of a blind fold, they were past us and taking a wide turn to compose themselves into proper streams and turn to us.

  The shuttles began flaring to cut speed and bring us over the battlefield. The Fighters that had been swarming the lines were adding their forces to the swarms that had attacked the shuttles.

  The deceleration was immense but the battle suit forced blood through my body and limbs to make sure I didn't pass out.

  Then there was no momentum as the shuttle hovered.

  “Off we get, time we saw to our brothers and sisters,” I said, unlocking my mag boots and jumping the fifteen feet to the ground. The HAPA absorbed the impact, I felt nothing inside my powered armor as I stood and scanned the area. Communications came online, it seemed that the Kalu's armor acted as a signal absorbing material, which was why we couldn't make contact with them until we got past the Kalu ships in orbit.

  “Bok Soo,” I said as my comms suite registered a connection to him.

  “Salchar?” He said, as if coming up from a deep sleep. “I want you and all of your people to trade off roles with us. It's about time they had time to recuperate, this battle is going to be a long one. I don't intend for them to collapse because of wake up overuse,” I said, my tone making it clear that this was not a request.

  “Yeah we'll get your lot sorted out. We just...,” Bok Soo trailed off, fatigue affecting him in a big way.

  “Carsickle and I will handle it,” I said, compiling the conversation I'd just had with him and orders to take over command sooner rather than later.

  “Okay, thanks for coming back Salchar,” Bok Soo said,

  I checked my HUD, coordinating weaknesses in the defences, and looking for a certain tag. My battle computer found her before I did.

  I moved with what felt like slow-motion steps, each shaking the ground as I moved, faster than any powered armor wearing commando would when running. Krom and Shreesht steps only served to further shake whatever we passed.

  I got to the trench of a familiar set of armor getting newly arrived reinforcements into position.

  I let her finish up, waiting for her to turn around, she looked up at me, confusion on her face. I opened my visor and leant my HAPA down.

  Shock and a myriad of emotions passed over her face, she scrambled up the side of the trench as I released my harness and jumped from my HAPA. We came together in a clash of armor, her legs around my midriff, my helmet closing as I fell backwards. I opened it again as she opened hers.

  “James,” she said, her voice melting my walls as I pulled her close, emotions running free through me. She released her hand, stroking my hair.

  “I knew you'd come back,” she said as I held on even tighter. “You’re going to crush me with that grip,” she teased settling on my chest.

  We lay like that for a while, savoring the moment we hadn't been sure we'd be able to have.

  “Go get some rest and relaxation, we'll fight these bastards side by side now,” I said.

  “Such a romantic,” she said, raising herself so I could see the amused expression on her face.

  I laughed, being on a battlefield taught me to take the joys when I could.

  “Their forces are regrouping and coming in for another attack,” Carsickle said in my ear. Yasu and my eyes connected, our faces becoming hard. We might be husband and wife, but we were commandos first.

  “Keep yourself safe.” She gave me a quick kiss which burned, my lips thirsting for more.

  Emotions played through me, the pressure that had left my shoulders, descending back onto them as my visor clamped back down and sealed.

  “Later babe,” I said her hand finding mine, after a brief squeeze we parted. I sighed, getting into the HAPA.

  I stood upright checking my readouts. They grounded me as I moved from thinking about Yasu to the oncoming battle.

  “We're needed two hundred meters to the right,” Krom said into my ear. I located the position.

  “Let's get moving then,” I said, my voice dull as I took off on the loping jog.

  “Incoming!” Carsickle yelled as I planted my feet, the HAPA skidding, which was damned terrifying the first time I had done it. Now I raised my hands, my grips and cannons responding to my movements.

  The swarms were back in force, more of them were descending from the Star Destroyers every second. Fighters fired the new multi-warhead missiles into the centre of the swarms, the dispersal and the atmosphere blew Kalu formations into disarray. They would doggedly try to regroup into that same formation.

  Fighters used this to their advantage, picking off stragglers instead of getting into the middle of a Kalu swarm.

  The sky was a dull brownish black as the sun set behind the oncoming swarms, Kalu Warriors had landed as well. Their Kaluian shapes now rushing towards the Free Fleet position.

  The explosive forces cracked and lit up the final light on Heija.

  Lasers and the PDS rail guns, and the weapons of the Fighters and ships struck out at the swarms.

  The range finder went from red to green. I moved my grip slightly, the cannons moving with me as I followed an oncoming swarm.

  “Fire!” Carsickle said as the sky was lit up by thousands of rounds. My HAPA shook as I clamped down on my triggers. All of my rounds were in penetrator mode, driving into the Kalu's armor and exploding, sending them careening off, sometimes into one another, or turning them into fireballs.

  I shifted my fire, lasers sparked around me, cutting into the ground and dirt, a few hitting me or other commandos. Krom grunted, his HAPA showing that its ammunition line had been cut, He flicked it out, changing to a secondary line.

  I saw the HUD in the top part of my helmet, without stopping my shooting I checked the area that we were supposed to be protecting.

  It was getting hard because I had wanted to see Yasu myself.

  “We need to move,” I said to Krom and Shreesht, sending them a map with the area we were supposed to be in, highlighted.

  Both of them greened up as I started moving towards the area slowly, we worked in tangent, each covering one another as we made our way to where we were supposed to be.

  “Incoming Warriors!” Someone yelled.

  “Krom,” I said on a p
rivate channel. The massive Avarian, only emphasized by the HAPA that he was wearing, turned his cannons onto the oncoming Warriors. The damned bastards were using their Fighters as cover to get into close combat with us.

  Free Fleet forces split their concentration, the Kalu got more hits and the Fighters were free to move faster, but the Warrior's charges were slowed.

  Ammunition was still being hauled off of the shuttles that had come down with the reinforcements. While the PDS and the supporting weapon systems were firing occasionally, it was giving little relief to the forces on the ground. Some of the systems were out of ammunition, again not helping our situation.

  “How long until those supplies are in the mountains and to the Destroyers?” I asked In Sook.

  “Forty five,” she said as I felt my stomach drop.

  “Do anything you can to speed that up,” I said, knowing that in ground combat, everything could change in five minutes.

  Krom blunted the charge of a group of Kalu Warriors that were raking a trench with laser fire. The Commandos immediately stood up and began firing at the Kalu that had been thrown into disarray.

  That was all I could bear to look at them as Fighters descended from the sky and rushed the HAPA's and Destroyers.

  Being inside a swarm is what I would imagine being the eye of a tornado would be like. There was the main force that seemed to stream around you, then there was the random ones that seemed to dart out from that mass heading for you, then getting absorbed back into the mass of Fighters.

  It was a dance of twisting and tilting to bring the massive cannons to bear, changing from target to target at the next attacking fighter, spraying the mass around you as you waiting for another fighter to dart in to face you head on.

  Then the swarm was gone. It was as a sudden as the swarm that had passed over the shuttle formation.

  It took minutes, sometimes seconds to have a fighter swarm pass over you. In that mess the world disappeared. You never let go of your dual triggers as you fought to stay alive in that storm of armor, engines and laser cannons.

  “Going to need an ammo refill,” I said to a controller. Krom, Shreesht, and I were down to fifty percent already.

  “We'll have it to your position in five,” they said, marking where we were supposed to be.

  “Understood,” I said, continuing my moving, raining rounds down on Kalu Warriors, none of the swarms in range yet.

  We got to our position shortly after the ammunition resupply had got there. They smacked loaders to our reservoirs, our counters rolled upwards as we kept firing into the Kalu wherever we could find them.

  Lasers reached out, scarring the harness my body was in. Shreesht made sure the offender would never fire lasers again.

  “Two up, one down rotation, unless there's swarms,” I said.

  “You should take a break and relay with the commander of the area,” Krom said, clearly I was not going to be spending much time on the front if he and Shreesht had their way. It was their job.

  “Alright, thirty minute rotations,” I said, knowing arguing would be useless.

  I turned, dropping into the trench. It took me a few minutes to locate the commander of the area.

  “Commander, here's our link-up if you're in any trouble along the line we can sort them out,” I said.

  “Very well, though you're going to catch some flak using Salchar as your call sign,” he said, his voice making it seem that he would be one of those people.

  “Good thing I'm not using it Commander,” I said, iron filling my voice.

  An alert went up from Shreesht. Incoming swarm.

  I pushed power into the HAPA'S legs, clearing the trench and bringing my cannons online. Remaining still as I crested the ridge to avoid running into anyone's line of fire.

  There were three swarms incoming. Other HAPA's along the line were hammering them, but true to their fashion, the Kalu Fighters kept coming. Tens fell from the sky, like a snake shedding its skin as its pieces fell to the earth.

  I fired at the first one I could see, scanning my different readouts. I kept firing with my left while I moved my right cannon so it was pointed into another swarm.

  MEF's from the fleet in orbit descended, launching missiles into the swarms, causing nuclear light to dance across the exterior of the enemy.

  “We've got ground forces moving in!” The commander I had just been talking to said.

  “Got it,” Shreesht said, his cannons adding to the firepower of the Commandos on the ground.

  “Those Fighters are looking mighty low,” I said, wondering what new tactic the bastards were thinking of. Ashota made it clear that the Kalu Fighters were the best, they did nothing but fight the enemy and work with their fellow Fighters to engage the enemy.

  The Warriors, comparatively, were akin to an old militia unit.

  I switched targets again, only one was headed towards us on the right flank.

  “Shit,” I said as a hundred meters from the trenches, the Fighters opened their bays, the Kalu pilots dropped from the reverse comet like machines.

  The now pilotless machines, tilted downwards.

  “Shit.” My guns were hosing every falling fighter I could see. The commandos in the trenches were now dealing with an enemy a hundred meters away, instead of three hundred.

  They were overwhelming us with husks and themselves.

  Lasers raked the HAPA's as we started shifting, not staying still in one spot long enough for the lasers to pierce. We were trying to stop the Fighters from crashing into us and the Commandos at the same time.

  One laser took out a hydraulic line in my right leg, secondary systems kicked in as alerts signalled the Kalu on the ground were now twenty meters away. I lowered my guns, switching to fletchette. Some of the rounds penetrated, mostly it stopped the lasers, and blinded the Kalu. Their added moments of confusion were enough to give the Commandos the ability to pick their shots and not duck in cover quite as often.

  I kept my left on fletchette as I spewed penetrators with my right.

  “Multi!” I said to Krom and Shreesht. We had made a few modification to the HAPA's, one being a missile pack on our shoulders filled with the same missiles as those on the MEF's and Jump fighter's. The missiles shot from our packs hitting the Fighters and the pilots that had jumped from their ships, on the lowest level.

  Kalu were flung back with the explosive power of the missiles, but they were back a few hundred meters, the ones I was raking weren't so slow.

  A fighter husk came at me. I fired my left cannon at it, realizing too late it was set on fletchette, many of the rounds sparked off and didn't penetrate.

  I hit a command on my left hand, the cannon flipped back and a plasmid blade sheathed in the upper arm swung forward. I braced, raising the blade and my right cannon, shooting the fighter as it smashed into my sword, cutting itself apart through momentum. The sound of metal being mangled reached my ears even through my helmet. As I got fell forward from the kalu’s hit.

  I disentangled myself from the fighter, switching my left blade back to cannon, and continued to fire with abandon, while finding myself amongst the Kalu. The fighter had stopped them from getting to me. Now I was free and open to them.

  A few jumped at me, my cannons smacking them away as I let loose on those still charging the lines. The fletchette at this range was deadly.

  I was anything but elegant, bashing the Kalu, shooting any I could while my cannons were free.

  I stomped one that got too close to my feet.

  I shot a Kalu as it was exiting its fighter, changing that cannon to a blade and stopping another Kalu's attempt to eat the harness I lay under. It squirmed on my blade earning it a few shots with my other cannon before I threw the lifeless husk and changed the blade back to a cannon.

  Time had no meaning in that fury, it was simple reacting, remembering our training. Passing information to help the commanders intermingled with yells for someone to pull the wounded out as we covered them in our HAPA’s or
the shrill yells as our ammunition dipped below twenty percent.

  Heija had become the new hell of the Free Fleet.

  ***

  Rick watched the battle rage on Heija, the planet was small enough that the battle was visible from space.

  Sensors were dialed in so that Rick could see the battlefield in infinitely deadly detail. The Commando lines were a sea of armored beings rushing from one position to another. Projectiles of all forms spat from trenches, the mountains, and even the ships that had landed on Heija.

  That fire flattened Kalu, ripping through their lines, leaving rents in their oncoming formations. Heija was naturally pitch dark, but the constant explosions and the light of rail gun rounds kept the battlefield lit up in spectacle.

  Salchar had been clear in his orders, no ships were to attack the Kalu in orbit. The ships were there to provide the forces on the ground with support by way of ammunition and fresh Commandos.

  Already shuttles filled with wounded, and those ineffective on the battlefield had been lifted from the ground and slotted into medical bays.

  Foshunti's fighter commander, Rav and Heston were coordinating getting the MEF's that had been on the planet, changed out with those stored on the ships in orbit.

  The newly arrived MEF's were on standby or in the atmosphere giving the Fighters on the ground a chance to leave their posts and get their MEF'S sorted out. They were also piling shot after shot of anything and everything they had at the Kalu swarms from every direction that they could.

  The Kalu would descend like a wave, their reinforcements never stopping. The Star Destroyers didn't descend like the Star Warriors and the Fighters, the Destroyers released like an endless stream opening up the floodgates.

  Also with them all being around the planet, Rick had been able to get solid readings on the ship numbers, there were two thousand ships in orbit, fifty of them were Destroyers with no Fighters, and another four hundred were filled Destroyers. Three hundred star Warriors had descended onto Heija, leaving 520 Star Warriors.

  The Fighters and the Warriors didn't descend according to any battle plan, other than when enough Kalu died, they rushed in to replace them.

  “The ammunition has reached all of the weapon systems,” In Sook said, the weapon systems went from only firing bursts, to firing on full automatic. They ripped into three star Warriors as they came down, turning them to hulks, smashing into their fellow star Warriors that had been landed at the edge of the battlefield.