“Loaded.” Shreesht was disconnected from the two loading arms.
I crouched, putting my HAPA into loading mode. Ports opened on my back as the loader slapped a loading arm into each port.
“The Kalu Warriors are making a push. Don't let them get into our lines” Bok Soo yelled.
“Salcharrr,” Shreesht said, his alarm evident.
I looked at the loader, I was useless without its ammunition.
I used my left cannon putting it under the wheels of the ammunition cart, the HAPA's servos whined, compensated and I lifted the cart. My counters kept ticking up as I unlimbered my right arm.
“Enough of a break I guess,” I said, standing, seeing the area infront of our lines swarmed with Warriors. Fighters were regrouping above, given time now the units on the ground were taking the majority of the front-lines fire.
Walking with the cart was difficult, but not impossible.
I pulled the trigger on my right cannnon, going off like a buzz saw again. Kalu, dirt and whatever was in my way was churned up.
Shreesht put bursts into groups, his cannons moving from one group to another, never taking pause in his firing.
“I leave for five minutes and you get yourselves into an actual fight,” Kroms amused tone came through the comms.
“Hey buddy, how yah doing?” I said, spitting rounds into the oncoming Kalu, portable missile packs fired, the lines were alight with every weapon system firing.
Reactive armor embedded in the ground was set off. Kalu that were on or around the buried armor were ripped apart being hurled away from the blast.
“Missing a few bits, but the important ones are still intact,” Krom said, not sounding amused at all.
I couldn't stop myself from laughing, Shreesht joining in.
Krom came to my left cannon, grabbing the masive ammunition cart, he lifted it with his Avarian powered armor. It looked like the armorer had given in to his demands.
“I'll hold onto this, you make those bastards pay,” Krom grunted, holding onto the ammunition cart so I didn't have to, freeing my left. I brought it up, adding its fire to my right cannon.
“Moving left,” I said, ducking as lasers were getting too close for my liking.
Krom just grunted his agreement. We moved slowly, I didn't want to break the damned ammuition leads, or hit Krom.
I rose up again, my cannons paying back the assholes that had been taking shots at me with their damned overpowered laser pointers.
“Incoming!” Bok Soo said, the battle cruisers fired their small railguns at low velocity, turning them into mortars.
The line went quiet as people ducked, the world shook with the mortars clearing the area of Kalu presence.
I rose to see Kalu strewn everywhere. I didn't have much time to look as another swarm was now coming in. I pulled my triggers, the cannons blasting into the swarms.
A noise told me I was loaded, I remotely ejected the ammunition leads and closed my ports.
“Loaded,” I said.
Krom placed the cart none to lightly on the ground.
“Cover me, I'm gonna try my HAPA,” he checked over the wreckage he had been pulled from not that long ago.
Krom was something on to himself.
“Did you want me to go on with the briefing?” Planner said.
“Please,” I said, taking me a minute to remember what we had been talking about as I kept adjusting my arms to inflict the most damage with my cannons.
“For operation enemy of my enemy, Cheerleader's forces are spread across the Kuruvian Empire, they're using Jump fighter and the growing FTL relay to stay in contact. The Empire will be connected to our network, with relays to Rosho within the week. The Empress has mandated it for her returning merchants.
“The reinforcements from the corridor will reach Cheerleader in two weeks. The Kalu are expected to reach the station in a week. Jump fighter ships will be posted to keep a watch on the station and make sure that no Syndicate forces escape. Commander Smith will be leading the four wings of trained Jump fighter from war station in two days, they are expected to reach Rosho in five days,” Planner finished.
“What I would pay to see what happens at Rosho,” I said, ducking and looking over at Krom who had cleared his HAPA and stepped back into it, one side was pretty much gone because of the pack exploding, but the other side and cannon were still functional. Something that he proved as he powered up, stood and set to adding his fire to Shreesht's. I stood up, adding my own cannons to my protection details.
“Rotation coming up,” A controller said, signalling that we had been fighting for eight hours. Forces changed out with one another, three new HAPA's taking over our position as we stored our cannons and moved to the rear. It was odd, for eight hours we were fighting for our damned lives, the next eight we piled food into ourselves, slept maintained our gear and readied ourselves to walk back out into hell.
I rarely slept, instead volunteering my time at the med bays, or working on armor and weapons. This planet had been the last place that too many people had seen. Not doing anything was worse. Those that had gone to the light visited me, the images of Commandos being ripped apart by Kalu claws, lasers, and teeth came to mind.
I looked at a scan of Heija's orbit, the Free Fleet was taking in a group of Fighters, fixing them up to come back down. The Kalu sent Warriors and Fighters down in massive numbers still. There was still so many ships filled with Kalu, wishing nothing more than to destroy us.
I couldn't think about that those kinds of thoughts, they would defeat me.
We got to the Destroyer we had been staying in, our HAPA's clomping as we entered the shuttle-bay, something tapped my armor. I looked down to see Yasu.
“Hey,” I said, my face creasing into a smile.
“Hey yourself,” she said, giving me a wink with her helmet under her left arm. The shields snapped back into existence as we cleared the front of the shuttle-bay.
“What the hell happened this time Krom?” She asked, noticing the damage to Krom's HAPA.
“For once I was the one injured instead of Salchar,” he said.
“You almost make that sound as if I am trying to get myself hurt.”
“I haven't been shown that you aren't,” he said, leaving me to try and prove that.
“Alright boys,” Yasu said with amusement. “Krom, leave the HAPA to us, we'll look after it, get yourself to the medical bay.
“I am...” He started to say
“Missing quite a bit of your actual body, you will go to medical bay,” she said, using her 'commander' tone as I called it.
“Yes Battle Mistress,” Krom said. Shreesht had powered down his HAPA and moved to help Krom get out of his HAPA.
“I'll take him,” Shreesht said, obviously Krom's wounds were worse than I thought since Krom didn't argue.
“Very well, I’ll park the HAPA’s,” I said I walked into one of the large frames which hooked onto the HAPA’s refueling their miniature reactors and ammunition lockers. Techs, most of them ship engineers looked to repair and replacing damaged panels and parts.
I got down from my HAPA. Yasu pulled off my helmet, kissing me. It was a hungry kind of kiss, as if she was reassuring herself that I was still with her. I kissed her back, the fear of not knowing if this would be the last time I saw her powering me.
We broke apart after a few moments, emotions passing between us through our eyes as we embraced one another through our armor.
“I'll hook up the power lines and ammunition, you check over Kroms?” She said, ending the moment as we moved away from one another.
“Lovely, give me the most screwed up HAPA to look at,” I said, she passed my helmet back, rolling her eyes.
“Best hurry up or else we won't be able to get out of this armor,” she said with a coy smile.
“Kroms HAPA, got it,” I said, shutting up and moving to the machine.
“So, going to need a new arm, legs mangled, harness needs to be replaced,” I muttered
to myself, putting my helmet on and accessing the HAPA's operational information.
“Well this is going to be fun,” I looked at where the parts that I needed were located as well as the tools. I was not missing a date with my Blade Mistress. For a bit I could forget the war around me, I was just a man fixing a HAPA in order to go play hooky in a corner with his wife.
“Hey Connolly, if you're done with that powered armor I'm rebuilding a damned HAPA,” I said, I had worked a lot with the man recently, he was a good commander and in the same area of the line as me. Cheerleader thought highly of him, even if Min Hae had red-flagged him and others as being part of the US's plan to start a coupe in the Free Fleet.
“Are we going to have to nail this one to the armory bulkhead too?” He asked, referring to my first set of powered armor which I had melted, burnt, and practically destroyed when taking Parnmal from the Syndicate.
“Hey that was one time!” The armor was a symbol of how a commando should rely on their armor. To some it was a good luck charm, tapping the foot before they went out to their shuttles.
“So what do you need?” Charles asked, putting the powered armor he was working on away.
I sent him a list. His data pad on his workstation beeped.
“Is there anything left of the damn thing?” He asked, scanning through it.
“Some. Shall we get to work? Otherwise Yasu is going to kick my ass,” I said.
“And the real reason comes out,” he said checking the list still as we moved deeper into the Destroyer, towards the warehouse that held the myriad of parts used by the commandos and their weapon systems.
Chapter Karma is a bitch
Cheerleader looked at the reports coming in from across Free Fleet space, Rosho to the Empire, to the corridor and Heija, all of it was now online.
The Universe had become a smaller place, there was no need to send ships on week to a month long journey to get a message to where it was needed.
War station and the accompanying fleet commanded by Whorst were still a week away from the Empire, but the Jump Fighters were on station, with their charming commander Smith.
She had ordered him to meet her personally. He was one of the most crucial parts to Min Hae's idea and Salchar's plan.
Boot was relaxed in his chair, among the lower ranks he was much more stiff and official, but around those his rank he was just another guy, well Kuruvian guy, and they could change sexes, and aliens are confusing.
Smith knocked at the door.
“Well let's see the man who this whole plan hinges on,” Boot said, his manipulators showing his relaxed attitude.
“Doesn't sound daunting at all,” Cheerleader said, sitting up. Boot did the same.
She hit a button allowing the commander in.
Not bad on the eyes at all, crossed her mind while looking at the Commander, his file about him being rather confident and somewhat of a loud mouth seemed to be wrong, for the long moment he just seemed to stare at her in confusion.
“Commanders,” he said, realizing where he was again before giving a two finger tap to his head.
Cheerleader allowed a playful grin at his confusion.
Maybe confusion is the wrong word, dumbstruck expression might be better.
“I thought the Jump Fighters were a little bolder,” she said, goading him, it was always fun to mess with pilot jocks.
“Well you haven't gotten to know me yet,” he said, giving her a wink and flashing a kind of grin that promised he knew how to have some fun.
“Ugghh, human mating rituals, will you just 'do it' as your race says. We do have a war to fight here,” Boot said.
Cheerleader and Smith looked at one another, Cheerleader couldn't help putting her tongue between her back teeth.
I think Commander Smith might be interesting to meet after hours, she thought, wondering how long it had been since she'd relieved, her, stresses.
“Ah we're a classy bunch, we just throw pheromones, body language and words at one another. We want to make sure you non-humans can understand what the heck's going on,” Smith said, taking a seat next to Boot.
Boot let out a wracking laugh.
“Yes it is quite clear to us when you want to copulate. It's like setting off a damned flare!”
“Well if we are quite done with human mating rituals I would like to turn to looking at how we're going to contain the forces of Rosho,” Cheerleader said.
“Well I'm done with mating rituals, other people...” Boot said, his manipulators reflecting his humour.
Smith laughed, cocking his head and giving Cheerleader a look, she could do nothing but sigh and roll her eyes. There was no hiding her smile now.
“Rosho Station,” she said, trying to get them on track.
“I have my Jump fighter dropping mines on the direct routes out from Rosho. They are the bomb-pumped laser mines that Felix and his group cooked up. If the Syndicate start using their brains and going for other jump points we will drop mines among them. We’ll hit them with missiles and our cannons, jump away. Rinse, repeat, simple.
As the situation changes so will we. If the Syndicate stays around Rosho, then we will not attack. Otherwise we will hit them with everything we have,” Smith said.
“Simple, but it at least sounds effective,” Boot said, relaxing into his chair, it looked as if he approved of Smith.
“In a Jump fighter it is best to keep things simple, the constant jumps, shooting manoeuvring and speeds are quite fun already,” Smith said.
“How come you did so well when others weren't able to transition from MEF's to the Jump fighter?” Cheerleader asked.
“I made a promise to Commander Heston,” Smith said, his voice becoming serious for a second.
Cheerleader hoped that the Commander hadn't been playing favourites, only time would tell. If Smith wasn't right for the job, then she would put someone else in his spot, no matter how she felt for him personally.
The Free Fleet came before everything else.
“Very well. Tell us if you need anything and we will get you sorted out,” Cheerleader pressed a button on her command console. “Onur, inform Empress and the Fleet that we will be moving to our staging point in four hours.”
“You bet Commander,” Onur said, sounding almost hungry. There had been a growing feeling of discontent among the personnel since Bok Soo had been fighting on Heija, now with Salchar and a large portion of the Commandos fighting on the planet, most were not happy to be sitting on the sidelines. All of them were trained to fight their ships, their powered armor and make their enemies regret ever meeting them. Sitting back and maintaining their war machines, waiting just two jumps from the Syndicates last stronghold was like holding wolves back from their prey.
If the Free Fleet hadn't been a disciplined force, then most of the ships under Yasu and Boot would have charged Rosho already.
“I think it is time that I returned to my ship and make sure that my reserve force is ready,” Boot said, standing.
“I will be no doubt talking to you shortly,” Cheerleader said.
“Can't get rid of you can I?” Boot said, making it clear he talked in jest.
"Of course not,” she said with a smile.
“I will see to my Jump fighter and finally meet commander Doshri,” Smith said, standing.
“Then I guess I should make an appearance on the bridge.”
“After cruising by the mess hall,” Boot said.
“A woman's got to eat,” Cheerleader said, her extra sparring rounds meant that extra food was always welcome, and put to good use.
“I'd take the liquid meal option any day,” Smith quipped.
“The mush?” Cheerleader asked, looking disgusted.
“No! Hell no! Beer,” Smith said, his own face scrunched at the thought of the food the Syndicate had fed their slaves, and was still used by the Free Fleet.
“Make sure that your Jump Fighters don't let anything through and I will personally buy you a beer,” Cheerleader s
aid.
“Yes ma'am! I will hold you to that,” he said, giving a wink and leaving for his ship.
“I can smell you from here!” Boot yelled back, already in the corridor.
Cheerleader couldn't help but smile as she made her way to the bridge.
The smile faded as she got past the armored doors.
“Alright, Werv, what the hell came apart while I was gone?” She asked, Werv moving to his own seat as she took hers.
“Not too much, just got a lot of those Jump fighter people hanging around. The Fleet is ready when you are, it seems that the ship commanders were anticipating your orders,” Werv said.
“Good, we'll move up our departure time, but let's keep a slow pace, we have two days before the Kalu should make it to Rosho.” Best to have our people busy than biting at the bit waiting to be deployed.
“Commander Smith is leaving in his Jump fighter, the wings are moving towards the jump limit,” Jorvut said from sensors.
“Very well. Cut orders for the second fleet to hold in Kuruvian Empire space. I only want to use them when we absolutely need them,” Cheerleader said.
“You got it cheerleader,” Onur said.
There was nothing Cheerleader could do, but wait with the rest of her fleet. She knew battle would come soon, and when it did everyone would be wishing for a time when their only worry was how long it would take them to get to their destination.
***
“Orshpa has made contact, his fleet will join with ours by the time we reach the next system,” one of the talkers said.
“Good, I want his Star Destroyers to release all of their Fighters. I want them to pound these creatures that took away our second teaching war,” Edvasho said, his command deck was a mess, his claws had cut through all of the grating. No one tested his patience, there was a reason that he was the war leader. It wasn't just because he had come back from the Kalu-Union wars, it was because he had beat every Kalu that had dared to challenge him.
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