Free Fleet Box Set 2

by Michael Chatfield

  “Alright ladies and gents it's about time we got into this flight. I want every fighter that we have in the sky.” PDS systems opened up on the Fighters that were headed directly for the fleet. Kalu ships dove for the surface of Heija.

  “Ready all Commandos on board to prepare for repelling boarders,” Rick said as Star Warriors made their targets clear and their bomb-pumped drives kicked off.

  “Nav I want us in the best position possible to use all of our guns.” Rick kept the orders flying as the command crew worked like hells own. The fleet reacted, like some kind of half-asleep Dragon kicked into life in flame and death.

  “Changing to laser missiles and splitters,” Marleen said, more and more of the regular missiles getting shot down.

  “They are targeting sensor platforms,” Walf said, there was no panic in his voice, just the calm of someone that expected everything that could go wrong to do so.

  “Some sensor missiles tactical, we want to be able to see the bastards’ burn,” Rick said.

  “Yes sir!” Marleen said parts of the Star map that had become wire frames were cleared up in a few moments.

  “New positions to bring the most weaponry to bear sent to your console.” Ben yelled.

  “Pass it on Ben, I trust you to not put us in a black hole,” Rick said, allowing a glimmer of a smile on his lips.

  “Yes sir,” Ben said, his tone at odds with his commanders as he was getting the fleet shifted into position. Milra shifted the ship accordingly, silent destruction racing across the outer reaches of Heija’s atmosphere, rialguns making angry red lines.

  “Destroyer Vagabond has taken severe shield damage, they are rolling to interpose extra shields, but they are under heavy contact by Kalu Fighters. They're practically right next to a Star Destroyer,” Walf said.

  “Well Marleen I sense a new target for your guns,” Rick said. “Vort, tell Heston his biggest priority is those damned Destroyer's. The one's with Fighters and closest to us are the biggest priority. Marleen could you get some laser missiles on those dear?”

  “Certainly,” she replied, Rick could see the amused head shake she gave at his slip-up as she tapped away on her controls.

  “All helms confirm receipt, Fleet ready for movement,” Milra said.

  “Well Helm, I see no time better than the present,” Rick said back, watching the Star map as he spoke. Mere minutes ago it had been a place of calm, now it was a true battlefield. Kalu and Free Fleet formations hammering one another with lasers and missiles to great abandon.

  The Kalu were so tightly packed that they weren't able to bring all their weapons, or missiles to bear. Something that Rick was thankful for. The first wave of missiles had struck down forty-seven Star Destroyer's. Each missile had been picked out for precision, hitting the weakest parts of the Star Destroyer's and the one's that had been filled with Kalu Fighters.

  Though it didn't seem to have much affect by the number of Fighters that were now streaming out of the damned two to three hundred Destroyer's remaining.

  Thankfully half of them were empty, and half of the number leaving the Destroyers were headed for Heija.

  “Vort, the ground...” Rick started to say.

  “...has been fully appraised of the situation and is reacting as necessary,” Vort said, cutting off his commander. Not many would have done so, but Vort and Rick had known one another for a number of years, and battles now.

  Rounds started flying from the ships on the surface of Heija, missile tubes released their payloads as they too added their weight to their brothers and sister’s onslaught above.

  “That's what I'm talking about Lifendi,” Rick said making a fist and pumping it slightly in victory. Foshunti might have a small squadron on the surface of Heija, surrounded by Kalu, but still his crews were fighting with the perseverance that the Free Fleet was feared for.

  Laser-missiles struck Star Destroyer's engine's causing them to lose altitude. If it had been in the black of space then the Destroyers would have been fine, but now, so close to the atmosphere gravity had it’s own laws. Heija’s gravity pulled the ships from their orbits. The Kalu were unable to do anything as they tumbled, coming apart under the stresses of atmosphere and turning into meteors racing towards the ground. The fighter's leaving the Destroyers were thrown as atmosphere ripped at the ship. More ships followed, their engines also unable to push them away from Heija’s grasp.

  “Nice shooting Tactical, keep it up,” Rick said as more Destroyer's engines were struck, the ships ripped apart by the laws of gravity and air friction.

  One smashed into a mountain range, the entire ship going up in a ball of plasma and burning. Burning like no ship would in vacuum.

  Gunners changed their targets to ship's engines, it took some time for the ships to be claimed by gravity, but at least slowing the enemy at this point was a plus.

  Marleen stood at her station, missile salvos that had already been programmed in were flying free of the fleets tubes in synchronization.

  Gunners were leaning into their guns, the AI enhancements making one gun team as effective as four teams would have been.

  “Tactical, you may run down to the gunnery decks,” Rick said, knowing that she was of little difference up on the command deck for the immediate future. Also knowing that his gunner's accuracy, savagery and rate of fire took a jump up when their tactical commander wrangled a gun and got into hammering the enemy, clearing and firing like the best of them.

  As much as she liked being in the gun pits, she was a necessity on the bridge. Though as Salchar had let her loose, sometimes even following her down to gunnery. Rick was not going to challenge his commander's precedent. Or listen to the eventually reasoning Marleen had for being on the gunnery deck.

  “Aye, Aye commander!” she said, her eyes sparkling with excitement at the new challenge of her task. She snapped two fingers in his direction. Rick knew she was more at home kicking round feeds until they cooperated and slamming rails out and into place than on the bridge.

  “Seventy-six percent shields,” Krat said, looking to Rick. “Once they get around the atmosphere and get a bead on us, we're going to get hammered,” he said, voicing what Rick already knew, and reminding him.

  “Well we best give them a smaller window. Milra, Ben,” he said, his voice snappish as both heads cracked around while Rick studied the main screen.

  “What would give us greater acceleration through the Kalu, I want us coming around the planet as fast as we can, then braking as we come across the Kalu formation. They've come this far,” Rick shocked heads, eye stalks and Manipulators looked at him.

  Charge the Kalu? Are you crazy? They seemed to say as Rick's thoughtful demeanor stretched into something much more feral and hungry, much like a wolf might smile when its prey walked into its domain. “I think it would only be fair to give them a full fleet broadside.”

  Those concerned looks from before mimicked his hunger as they looked to their stations, Rick could almost read their thoughts here we go again, a Free Fleet commander at it again. Tugging at their mouths or expressive modicums.

  Milra and Ben looked to one another, a silent messages passing between them before they both turned to their consoles.

  Rick sat back in his chair, settling his face into a more official expression as he looked to the ground.

  He was sending constant reports to Salchar, now he received an order.

  About time we got the hell out of here anyway, Salchar's message said.

  “Ben, Milra, once we clear the Kalu formation I want us to dive into the atmosphere, we will provide support to the fleet on the ground and hopefully lure the rest of the Kalu onto the surface,” Rick said.

  “Certainly commander,” Ben said, as if the order was as normal as plotting a wormhole.

  Well even that was odd at one time, Rick remembered.

  “Resilient, I was wondering if we could re-purpose a few PDS to help out our gravity trapped fellows,” Rick said.

  “Certai
nly commander. I will forward a link to Bok Soo, if he requires support fire,” Resilient said in her calming motherly tones.

  “Thank you Resilient,” Rick said, throwing quick reports to Salchar as he watched the rest of the fleet manoeuvre.

  ***

  “You mother fucker!” I said as a Kalu jumped, grabbing my left cannon, a blast from my right left nothing but chunks.

  Another rushed up the defensive berm, coming right for me. I pulled my hands off of the controls, pulling a shotgun from my right side.

  “Hello,” I said, pulling the trigger, the Kalu getting a blast of plasma in the face for its trouble. I cocked the shotgun, dropping it as the string it was attached to, kept it next to me and ready.

  “Need a reload,” Krom said, he was a whirl of blades, cannons, and Kalu. He used the HAPA as if it was an extension of himself, he didn't fight. He danced, the dance of the awakened in its element.

  I let go a guttural roar, my speakers making it a wall of sound that dominated even the Kalu's own war cries as I grabbed my cannon handles. Rounds spat from my arms, Kalu movement was rewarded with a blast from my guns.

  A beeping filled my helmet.

  “Reload!” I yelled the request, switching my right arm to a blade. I scanned the battlefield. Above MEF's and Kalu Fighters clashed, PDS systems from the ships behind the lines crashed into the Kalu Fighters. More PDS systems fired over the lines into the advancing Kalu, but there were too many of them.

  Rail cannons thumped rhythmically, their massive rounds smashing Heija's ground as if it was gods own anvil. The front lines were alight with weapons fire directed at the oncoming Kalu. Most of the lines were actually fighting hand to hand, the bluish green illuminating the dark holes, armor from both sides illuminated with the deadly light of plasmid weaponry.

  The battlefield the Kalu advanced on was an explosion of dirt and rocks as rounds landed from above, lines of rounds cut across it, yet still the black seething mass of Kalu Warriors continued, racing on their four limbs to close with us. Their lasers flashed in the short bursts they were capable of.

  It was hell incarnate, a landscape of pure unadulterated war.

  I shut my brain off, right now I wasn't Commander Salchar. I was the commando that would do whatever his CAMC told him to support his brothers and sisters.

  “Missiles,” I said, firing the last four missiles at a particularly large concentration of Kalu. My missile pods rotated back and I squeezed my left trigger, three Kalu that had turned towards Krom, Shreesht, and my own pit turned into bleeding husks of armor. I used my plasmid blade like a bat, smashing it through a Kalu that leapt for Shreesht's left arm.

  I felt a laser strike my leg, I gritted my teeth in pain, moving out of the way, sending thousands of rounds at the lasers shooter. I raked the closest Kalu, my left arm beeping that it was nearly out, I switched it to a blade, jumping at the Kalu. They seemed intent on returning the gesture, jumping and targeting my sword arms. I punched my sword through a Kalu in a cross, the HAPA's power and the plasmid sword making short work of the creature as it slid off my right my left underhanded hook taking another Kalu's face off. A kick with my right foot caved a Kalu's side in and sent them flying. My kick left my back exposed. I pushed off of my right foot, swinging me to face the Kalu fully. I sensed more than saw the Kalu that had been going for my back. A left hook and my plasmid sword waited for them, their own momentum impaling them on my blade. I brought my left over to slash another, the carcass of the last coming off and smacking them backwards. I switched my right sword to a cannon, blasting the closest Kalu, giving myself some damned breathing room.

  “Reload here!” Shreesht yelled, he didn't have the time to change his cannon to a sword as he smacked a Kalu out of the air, riddling them with holes when they landed.

  I looked over at Krom, he was deep within the Kalu. My HUD showed his ammunition was out. I fired another burst at would be attackers. My left hand grabbed grenades in the opposite side of the shotgun I tossed them as far as my power armor enhanced would allow me. I turned my cannon onto the swarm around Krom, he was barely stopping the multiple attackers. The unnatural speed of an awakened keeping him alive. I fired my right cannon as my left rotated into place. Krom used his HAPA's strength, actually doing a damn back flip into the pit, he drove his sword into the ground stopping his momentum, slicing a Kalu in half, skewering another as my cannon fire smashed into the Kalu that had surrounded him.

  The reloading crew wasted no time now that he was in at least some kind of cover. They rushed up to him, slapping feeders into his back, his swords rotated out as rounds were fed to his cannons.

  The two person reloading crew smacked the locks on the spent missile pods with hammers, the pods fell away as they lifted replacements into place.

  I turned back to my area. Fatigue had made my mind wander.

  “Well come on you fuckers, let's dance!” I said, I still had five percent ammunition left in my cannons, my plasmid wasn't running out any time soon.

  My right rotated into a sword, I smacked a leaping Kalu down, my left sending a blast into another's mid riff. I sent another burst across the front lines. My rounds smashed into the Kalu fighting to get to the trenches.

  “They're bringing everything down!” Someone yelled. I gave a glance to the sky, the pause rewarded me with a Kalu biting into my HAPA's foot, my sword cut them in half. I switched my left to a sword, the cannon now dry. Missiles streaked over my head, Krom looked to be ready once again.

  “Reload!” Shreesht called.

  “Salchar, get your arse back here, you're nearly out.”

  “Hah! Not like I'm the only one that has been close to zero?” I barked as I started walking backwards over the Kalu that had gotten too close to my pit. The Kalu were a sea, they were smashed by boulders and rocks, even the cliffs of the front lines, but still a few made it past those cliffs.

  Krom's guns went live as he stood, I could hear his yells as he covered me. I slid back into the pit and turned so my back so the re-loaders to get to my ports and missile pods.

  Only the most proficient had survived this long, it was a damned hellish way to separate people.

  They got the pods on and the loader was hurling rounds into my internal storage as I switched to cannons and took over watching my own field of fire. I was supposed to be looking after the frontage of the pit as the other two looked after the lines on either side. The reality with the oncoming hell storm of Kalu, was we were just fighting for our survival at this point. My mind wandered to where Yasu was, or Bok Soo, or the hundreds of people I had come to know. I pushed that to the back of my mind, I had to focus on winning this fight so that we could have a chance of getting off Heija.

  I took another glance at the sky, my HUD overlaying a wire grid so I could see the ships in orbit.

  Kalu descended like some kind of artificial night. Free Fleet ships fired everything and anything that they had, hammering the Kalu. Kalu Fighters were split into two groups, those attacking the Free Fleet ships, and those descending to press their attack on the surface.

  We needed something to give us the time to instigate operation 'get the fuck off of this rock'.

  While the fighting in orbit was severe, it was minimal. With time the Free Fleet could win. Rick had it well in hand. He hadn't been sitting up there and wasting his time away. He had taken out hundreds of ships, thousands had incurred damage. Star Destroyers had been the first targets. Rick seemed to be keeping track of those that had full fighter contingents and those that hadn't. His first attack had devastated them.

  The Fighters that had been resting up for their next engagement had been well drilled. They gotten amongst the Kalu and were given them a new one. Their targets had been the Destroyers as well.

  The Kalu in their disorganized assembly that had been created out of their visceral need to reach the planet as quick as possible, had made it practically impossible to have a mutual defense. The Kalu were mostly silent, for fear that they would hit
one another instead of the enemy. Most were using their ships in an effort to crash into Fighters. It was crazy and damned hard, but they still had around fifteen hundred ships in orbit or descending.

  Kalu ships were split apart as the new multi-warhead missiles hit their varying targets. The Kalu's lack of shields put them at a marked disadvantage.

  They cracked, bled atmosphere, blossomed into fire balls and...

  Ships descending, all of them the same design, no shields, high powered power plants, filled with missiles and nuclear bombs to accelerate themselves. I turned my fire onto a swarm that seemed to have disengaged the Fighters above. My rounds piercing the heavens, bringing a rain of Kalu Fighters to the ground.

  I looked at the Kalu enemy, wire diagrams from sensor readings still filling my vision. There were twenty or so star Warriors landing in the massive formation of Kalu ships.

  “Bok Soo, I have one hell of a bomb that could give us the time we need to get off this planet,” I said, my mind working.

  “You are damned insane man!” Bok Soo said.

  “I know! Makes it interesting. Resilient!” I yelled, my earpiece pinged that she was online.

  “Okay, so we're going to have to change our plan escape somewhat. It's going to be damned risky, but I think we can pull it off,” I said.

  “What do you need?” Resilient asked.

  “First, I need all of the Kalu on the planet, for that I need the fleet to come down to the planet. Come in behind the mountains, smash the Kalu on the front lines. We use the confusion to give the Commandos and ground forces enough time to get to the ships. We need to give the Kalu enough time to swarm the planet. When the Kalu are smacking on our armor we head for space, we hit their landed ships with whatever artillery we have. Those ships are bombs if we hit them in the right places. Resilient I want you and planner to work on the best way to entice all of the Kalu down based on your knowledge of them, then I want you to make a present firing solution to turn those ships into bombs, with atmosphere those ships turning into bombs is going to have a hell of a punch,” I said.