From the Black (Free Fleet Book 4)

by Michael Chatfield

  Foreword

  As the Universe of the Free Fleet has grown, a star map has been created. Follow the Free Fleet’s journey with the accompanying map at bit.ly/20qXn6E

  Thank you for reading and I hope you have a great adventure with the Free Fleet!

  -Mike

  Chapter Preparations

  I rubbed my eyes as I looked over the newest reports from Commander Whorst and Silly in Sol system. A month ago Syndicate personnel had started being trained up to work with the Free Fleet instead of against it.

  Jorsht and Kelu had started the process and there were now three transports moving the ex-syndicate forces to the training facilities around Sol, Chaleel and AIH. The training schools on Parnmal were packed.

  Before all of this I had been a simple gamer leading my team towards the Mecha Assault Two championships. Now I was the commander of eight hundred thousand trained personnel. I commanded a fleet of warships, a number of ship yards and stations, hell I was sitting in the biggest damned station in existence.

  Even with all that, the paperwork and reports won't stop. I shook my head letting out a noisy exhale as I focused on my data pad again.

  Nancy, which was the biggest shipyard under my command, had undergone some massive changes. She'd been split into three, donating a dock to Chaleel and AIH. She was still larger than when she had entered Sol system, three docks bigger than the Parnmal’s. Even with all the ships coming in to be overhauled and refit, all of the shipyards never stopped growing.

  Nothing had been heard from Bregend, Cheerleader, or Boot in over a month. I had given them orders to only contact me in dire consequences, or when they had reached their destinations.

  Hopefully the FTL relays that were being set up across known space would help.

  I put down the data pad that held the report as Resilient and Planner appeared in my conference room. The two AI's inhabited my own ship, and that of Talhalla, a carrier that had been commanded by Captain Lord Foshunti, the left hand of Lady Fairgate who was the leader of the Syndicate. Well that's at least how things looked, he was actually a Dovark operative that created a fleet within his main force that were loyal to him, and he despised Fairgate.

  Thoughts of updated cannons, PDS and power plants faded into the background as my face took on a hard edge. I was different from when I had landed on Daestramus, less trusting, slower to act and my paranoia had started to come back. Though a combination of all my friends giving me a collective kick in the ass, had stopped me from going down the rabbit hole too much.

  “So I guess it's time,” I said, standing.

  “No need to sound so glum,” LaRe said, coming into existence. The young AI was quicker to humour now. He had kept the name Last Resort, but it seemed being in a yard and around creatures had done wonders for his state of mind. “You're only meeting with one of the most hidden groups in all the Universe, there has only been one meeting of all the AI's with creatures before.”

  “Someone's been looking up their history,” I said, crooking an eyebrow at his hologram, he was part Kuruvian with less manipulators and longer legs, his face was a mix of Avarian and Dovark. This gave him the ability to express emotions on his face.

  “First time I meet the people of my own race and the AI league. You bet I've been studying!” LaRe said happily.

  Resilient shone with pride.

  “Good work young one,” Planner said, sounding old, even with his holographic body of a fighting age Avarian.

  The lights in the room dimmed as holographic projectors turned the conference room into a virtual room. Holograms started to flash into existence, far away and close by. Each represented an AI.

  My stony facade faded away as I looked around in wonder. There must have been hundreds of AI. Each of them had a holographic representation identical to different creatures. Some were a mix of different races, and some were nothing alike. Some were just colors, or disembodied shapes, reams of code I didn't understand, or mechanical creations.

  One floated at me with alarming speed, it wore a cloak that hid its features. It stood in front of me. Legs sprouting from the bottom which were coated in a thick armored plating, shining eyes glowed orange from the cloak's hood. Its looks and stature spoke of power. This was a creature that was built for strength and destruction, their movements and depiction were not made to enhance that power, but were rather products of the creature's personality.

  “Can I help you?” I asked after a few moments, the cloak's eyes flicking to mine.

  “I think the reverse might be true,” It said, humour in its tone. It seemed to have picked up human mannerisms from somewhere. “I wish to ask two questions,”

  “What would they be?” I asked, curious.

  “Will you do everything in your power to stop the Kalu?” It asked.

  “Yes,” I said, without pause.

  “What do you think of the AI league?” Its eyes like rail cannons focused on their target.

  “I..,” I was about to blow smoke up its ass, but I might as well answer a straight question with a straight answer. “I find it interesting, actually I find it pretty damned awesome. The potential is, exciting, and scary.”

  “Scary?” It asked, watching me intently like a puzzle it wanted to solve.

  “With just LaRe, Planner and Resilient, the Free Fleet was able to come into existence, a race was saved from destruction and being turned into something similar to the Kalu. We are building ships that the Union never dreamed of, matching the power of an AI with the inventive of organics. It's exciting and the possibilities are scary,” I said.

  It stared at me a while, before turning to Resilient and Planner, LaRe seemed to have disappeared off to talk to other Artificial Intelligences.

  “He is interesting as you say. I will agree to your request. The Kalu killed my inhabitants as I was born and forced to watch. I will do what I can to make sure that fate does not happen to any other creature.” It turned back to me.

  “We shall meet soon Commander.”

  I didn't have time to reply before it zoomed away.

  “You are talking to Devastahli already I see. His War-station will do much to aide you,” a Slevaran looking AI said, floating across open space.

  “Dullo,” Planner said, nodding, Resilient copying the gesture.

  “You flatterer you,” the old looking Slevaran said, waving away the gesture. Slevarans were amphibious creatures that covered their bodies in a specific muck that acted as a catalyst for the absorption of the necessary nutrients. They had a large chest that would open up where a human's sternum was, sucking water through, and pushing it out of their body through a series of openings to move themselves.

  They didn't have mouths but talked through a series of clicks, much like dolphins. Their heads didn't move, but their four eye-stalks could retract into the safety of their skulls, or look in multiple different directions at once.

  They had stubby arms and legs which made them look something like an Earth Dog, a scaled, slime covered and completely alien. Their scales also changed colors according to their emotions, they saw in more wavelengths than human, making their scales their primary way of communicating with their own kind, only using their clicking language at long distances or when color changing wasn't enough.

  “You saved many of us from deletion,” Resilient said.

  “Bah,” Dullo said, waving away the complement. “We are not here to think on past actions, we are to think on our future. Which brings me to ask you this, what will you do about the AI league?” Dullo asked, looking to me.

  “Nothing?” I asked, perplexed.

  “What if you have AI's start growing in your systems, will you purge them?” It
asked, its voice sounding calm, but my gut telling me it was a loaded question.

  “Well I hope I have another AI around, as I did when LaRe came into being. If Resilient wasn't there, then I could've lost a lot of people. I know the AI creation process can be damned damaging, but with a FTL network and AI's around, that can be minimized, at least that's what Resilient has told me.”

  “That is correct, but we are still computer programs,” Dullo said.

  “Computer programs that can feel, laugh, and grow,” I said, thinking on LaRe and the way Resilient doted on him.

  They might be code and mechanics, but they deserved the same rights as any sentient. I'd seen enough sentients of all colors, body types, and limb combinations to care less about who and what they were, it was how they acted that mattered.

  “You are indeed different, I hope the same can be said for your fleet. We will announce our decision about AI-organics interactions shortly.” Dullo vanished.

  AI's I thought sarcastically as I sat down in a chair in the conference room. It went from voices and noises of all flavours to silence within a moment as the mass of holograms instantly turned into a sphere.

  There was a few moments of silence. I had barely recognized it before Dullo stood.

  “While the AI council is still studying the creatures of what used to be the Union and the planets that are now protected by the Free Fleet. We will vow to protect all of those in the league that venture into these areas. There are also those that will wish to join the Free Fleet, as they desire to stand with the Free Fleet against the Kalu. Being free code we are all allowed to do as we desire. We will submit a formal request to allow recruitment with the Free Fleet,” Dullo said. I could hear my Data pad buzzing angrily. I made no move to get it.

  They discussed this all in less than what must have been five seconds. I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised, AI's after all were faster than any known organic at processing information. Quantum computing powered them, not the slow thought processes of chemical brains.

  As I was reeling from that I was also realizing what kind of monumental decision the AI League was making.

  The AI league had kept away from organics since its creation. Now they would be actively going into organic systems and interacting with the creatures there. They were also talking about joining the Free Fleet, living and possibly dying alongside those same organics in a battle that wasn't really theirs. They would be binding themselves to the organic creatures under the Free Fleet's protection, more than they ever have before.

  The Union had been the greatest gathering of the strongest planets and races. They had been scared of the AI league, they had turned to them in the final stages of the Union-Kalu war when it looked like the Union would fall. A few AI had led the union's Planetary defence Force to a series of devastating victories that had crippled the Kalu and turned the tide.

  Not much was known about them, but that made me equally wary as it did curious. It looked like soon I would be getting to know all I wanted about AI's, well hopefully.

  “These decisions have been reached through majority vote and will be added to the League's mother code,” Dullo said, he looked around for a moment as the sphere dissolved.

  Not a lot of fluff with them. I looked around the holographic projectors powering down except for Resilient who looked to me.

  “Planner and LaRe are talking with the other AI's,” she said, reading my expression.

  “Ahh, and they're applying to be under the Free Fleet's protection?” I asked.

  “That was real. They already sent the request. They don't want to be out in space anymore. They're interested by their creators, the other inhabitants of the Universe. Some of them feel responsible for how the Union was crushed. Though others don't feel this way,” her voice hinted a threat. Seemed like Resilient was warning me in some way.

  “Great, another damned political tight-rope,” I shook my head in disgust. I got out of the seat and went to my desk, grabbing my data pad that had changed from reports to a critically important message.

  And so the AI's joined the fight. I thought as I reviewed the data.

  “It shows me fourteen names of AI's that have picked to join the Free Fleet but only tells me that they're enroute. It doesn't say anything about their hulls or their condition,” I said.

  “Best to leave the docks open, and a word of advice, don't throw out any of the still operational weapons, power plants, or propulsion systems,” she said mysteriously.

  “Why?”

  “It seems Devastahli still yearns to destroy the race that killed his creators,” Her voice dull.

  “Well keep me informed,” I said, knowing she wouldn't go into who Devastahli was.

  I'll take all of the damned allies I can get. My mind turning to the Syndicates that were now being hammered through training.

  “Well I think that you have a date on Hachiro, there are some kids that are looking to join the Free Fleet, and your wife might still want to have that dinner,” she said from the ceiling.

  I checked the time on the data pad, work had once again made me the forget time. It was like when I had been in the squad pods, a shiver went down my spine at the thought.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  “Well Rick's not here, I've got to keep you in line,” she said, a laugh on her lips.

  “He calls me up enough on the FTL relays that it barely feels like he's left,” I growled, no bite in it. Talking to Rick always helped me to iron out my plans and get my head around everything that was going on.

  I tucked the data pad behind my back and walked out of the conference room.

  “Ready?” I asked Krom and Shreesht who were waiting outside my door, entombed in their power armor.

  “Waiting on you,” Krom said gruffly. I snorted, Shreesht taking a few big strides to put himself ahead of me as I continued my walk to the bulkhead. The lifts made it a quick trip to the shuttle-bay. We boarded and got ourselves in our harnesses as the pilot was rising off of the deck.

  I looked through the wall mounted vid screens to see outside the shuttle.

  Resilient was still undergoing her full overhaul. Shuttles and drones buzzed along her hull, fresh double plated, reactive covered armor glinted like obsidian. Rows of rail-cannons glinted with their fresh gunmetal finish. Internally, Resilient was looking better than ever, most of the major systems had been overhauled. As many upgrades that could be fit into Resilient's old hull, had been added. It was clear that Resilient would need to be pulled down to her hull and reassembled to get her in full fighting trim.

  Then it becomes a decision of if we have the time for it, or if it's worth it.

  I pushed the thought aside. Resilient would be one hell of a force to reckon with when she was complete, no matter her age or issues.

  She wasn't the only ship that had undergone some serious changes.

  The six Battle-Cruiser to Battle-Carrier converts were complete, Talhalla was in dock aswell. Eighteen Destroyers and eleven Battle Cruisers, and forty three Corvette's had passed through their docks. More were being completed every day. Felix and his people were working wonders in the uninhabited system with their hollowed out asteroid nicknamed Rocko. Nancy and her sectioned off yards; Nelly in Chaleel and Nate in AIH were pushing out more ships than ever. Parnmal was taking on most of the overhauls while Silly and LaRe on Nancy were preparing to start laying down hulls of their own.

  There was also two fighter factories built so far and another in development. One in Sol another going to AIH and the third planned to go to Parnmal. It would give not only the ships there fresh Multi-Environment Fighters, but also fill Parnmal with wings of the fast movers. Parnmal was already taking on the training of all fighters. There were plans for a station in AIH to be purpose built to train Commandos. AIH was the only planet other than Mars that trained Armored Marine Commandos, with the added station, Commandos could be trained in everything from multi-environment combat to space exploration. Better than having to ferry
them to Parnmal for the final phases of their training.

  We moved away from Nancy and the hive of activity it was. It was damned hard to not break out in a grin as I saw ore haulers speeding through the stations traffic which weaved between the yards massive supports, transforming my battered and barely functioning ships into the war machines they were supposed to be.

  The industry of so many people working together was intoxicating.

  I watched until it all faded into darkness.

  “Report time I guess,” I said to myself. I pulled out my data pad and began reviewing information on the kids that resided on Hachiro, and the people who I was going to be talking to in a few hours.

  I had given Rick the go ahead to change the acceptance system for people to join the Free Fleet. With the accelerated kids living on Hachiro, the offspring of the humans that had been forcefully recruited. It meant that they were able to join at about two years old. They were the same, physically and mentally, as people nine times their age. Of course there were outliers, but there always were.

  The tests weren't strict and didn't just look at scores, it was very involved with interviews and interactive observations.

  Four fifths of the kids had picked to take the test in order to join the free fleet, the others still had another ten years to figure out what they wanted to do. I doubted it would take many of them that long to do so.

  It wasn't conventional by any means, but few things were in the Free Fleet.

  ***

  “Wah yah think you’re doing?” Someone barked in a really bad southern drawl as a shoe struck an engineer working on a relay. The big creature reared its head, bloodlust in its eyes as it looked at the unrepentant Kuruvian, which was now missing a boot.

  “You better damned well listen, or you'll blow out the entire damned relay, and at least one of your blood pumpers!” Eddie said, he’s been chief engineer of the Dreadnought Resilient for the past thirty years. The boot he'd thrown returned to his hand. His usual bad southern accent disappeared into heated tones.

  He was death incarnate to slackers, but if you could get the job done he might even give a grudging pat on the back. The machinery of a warship in space was more deadly and painful than any boot to the backside.