From the Black (Free Fleet Book 4)

by Michael Chatfield

  I was watching the station through one of Resilient's observation bubbles. Since coming to the Quarst system I had been busy with a variety of pressing matters. Most people wanted to know if we were going to bring the Union back, or if we would make a new system. I thought that most of them were day-dreaming. We were still embroiled in a war with the Syndicate and looked to be starting another on the other side of known space with the Kalu.

  An alert sounded for an incoming vessel.

  I turned, running to the Bridge. Shreesht who was with me followed, the familiar feel of his powered armor thumping behind me, with the quiet whine of servos and hydraulic parts.

  Isn't it odd the things that we get used too?

  An elevator override got me to the bridge in minutes.

  “It looks to be one of ours, we've still got a few minutes before we get confirmation,” Rick said, having beaten me there, from the stains on his battle suit it looked like he had literally dropped what he was eating when the alert went off.

  “Very well. Bring us to yellow, full check on all systems,” I said, taking my seat, my hands falling on my screens. Others had gone with holographic spheres that would cover their upper torso and give them more control. I had stayed with the screens as they were reliable and physical, plus moving holograms that fast made me nauseous.

  “Ben, Milra, get the fleet turned and facing the incoming ships,” I said, sifting through information on my screens.

  Resilient's engines rumbled to life as we pushed out of Worshun's orbit, coming around the planet to face the oncoming ship.

  “How long until shuttles are aboard,” I asked.

  “Fifteen minutes,” In Sook said as I watched batteries come online and weapons were cleared and readied, their turrets raising and their cannons extending to their full lengths.

  I knew the gunners would be looking at their myriad of screens which showed them the space that their guns were looking at, all of it moving with the flick of their free-floating trigger mechanism. With Resilient's processing power our gunners were able to operate four guns at once, the gun crews rushing from one to the other, keeping them operational.

  “We have incoming transmission,” Vort said, putting it on screen. It was from Bregend.

  “One of the Intelligence department's ships followed a Star Warrior to these co-ordinates,” He said, a map appearing on the screen, highlighting a system. “The Kalu were believed to have gone to one of these three systems.” The systems were highlighted in a different color from the system they were last seen in.

  “The Free Fleet has moved into a defensive posture, the most current information is attached to this communication,” Bregend re-appeared.

  “See you all later, no matter where our path's cross,” he said straightening before touching his two raised fingers to his temple.

  The transmission ended.

  “Prepare the Fleet to move, we're going after the Kalu. We'll leave some shuttles here, the merchants are also released from our charge. They are under their own command. Rick, compile any information you deem necessary and send it off to the corvette. Bring us to green,” I said.

  It's about time we met these Kalu, I thought. A feeling of dread filled my stomach, I knew I would lose people in the upcoming engagement. Yet I needed to know what the Kalu were capable of, numbers, anything. I was blind and hopefully this would shed some light on the whole situation.

  Chapter The search ends, a battle starts.

  Emergence had gone through smoothly, we launched another barrage of sensor missiles and coasted. We had cleared most of the system on sensors when the missiles started painting a different picture.

  It was the second system that Min Hae's undercover ship had plotted as a possible destination for the Kalu Star Warrior.

  It was called Heija, it had one habitable planet which had been removed of life since the beginning of the Union-Kalu war. It had been a farm planet like Chaleel with its rich soil, intersecting rivers, and nearly constant temperature. The soil had become irradiated, rivers had been backed up and flooded other areas, and the water had disappeared. The temperature was higher and led to great thunderstorms and hot muggy temperatures, like that experienced in a jungle, but across the planet.

  “Battle stations,” I said simply as power plants upped their power output, shields rose in density and Resilient came alive with singular purpose. That was to go kick the dots which seemed to grow in number, the missiles got feedback from hundreds of Star Warriors, yet there were still blind spots. The Kaluian stealth tech was excellent, and there was so many of them that only close in missiles would get a certain number.

  “Corvette's and Destroyers report readiness, Battle Cruisers ready, Dreadnoughts online. Battle-Carriers and pilots are ready, same for Talhalla,” Rick said, keeping a running commentary going.

  I wondered, not for the first time, if leaving War-station behind had been a smart move. I’d ordered Commander Whorst to take War-Station to Inkal, the system where Bregend was working to refit and rebuild the fleet of ships there.

  I checked my powered armor over.

  “Alright, ladies gents and creatures of every damned sex, let's go and kick the proverbial hornets’ nest. Ben, plot us a course along the end of their formation. Marleen, I want those guns ready, we don't have enough missiles to keep up complete coverage for that long,” I said.

  “Course locked in,” Ben said as I finished.

  “Milra, take us in, Krat keep those shields ready to supercharge and Walf when you need it, you'll get missile launches,” I turned to Rick.

  “They're prepped and ready,” he said, his face unreadable.

  “Once again into the dark.”

  “At least this time we aren't being pulled there in boxes,” he said.

  I snorted, thinking about how this mess had all started as I flew through different screens. Everything was as ready as it was going to get. Now we just had to wait three hours to cross the edge of the Kalu grouping.

  ***

  Edvasho pawed the ground, his armored claws digging into the surface.

  “They look to be advancing on us,” a seer said.

  “Let them, we will wait and then crush them, no matter their useless missiles,” Edvasho said, Ashota's time had run out, the time for learning their enemy was gone, now they and the enemy would teach one another lessons with their star-warriors.

  Edvasho opened a message channel to his warriors.

  “Today, the second teaching war begins! We will carve our names into these creature's corpses and descend on their planets to their wails of mercy. We will stain their worlds with their blood, we will enter a new age with our victory, expanding our clan's claims and remind these pitiful things, why they tremble at the name Kalu,” he said viciously. Closing the channel as he heard the thumps and bangs of war-ready Kalu. Edvasho smacked a support beam with his head, his armor taking the blow as he let the thump of his paws on the ground add to those of his fellow Kaluian warriors.

  ***

  I was debating taking a wake up when Walf spoke up.

  “We have anomalous readings coming from the Kalu star-warriors,” he said.

  “They're using their drives and nuclear explosives to go faster,” Resilient said.

  Just as they did in the Kalu-Union war.

  Sure enough sensors registered explosions seconds later. The Kalu picked up speed in a hurry, all of them steaming right for my fleet.

  “The hell are those?” I asked, looking at a type of ship that had not been in the Kalu formations when they had attacked the Union.

  “Those, are called Star-destroyer's. They're the Kaluian equivalent of carriers,” Resilient said, something very like dread in her voice.

  “Have you ever fought them?” I asked.

  “No, but a ship from the AI league ran into them three years ago. I didn't realize until I ran it through my sensors and checked it against the League's database.”

  I nodded, injecting the wake-up.

&nb
sp; Seems the stakes just went up.

  “Well it looks to be about time,” Rick said.

  “Time to make them regret ever trying to restart this war,” I said darkly, opening and closing my armored hand, the one I had melted off with a damned plasma cannon.

  The timer rolled down.

  “As soon as we're in range, start calling out missile barrages,” I said.

  “Yes sir,” Marleen said, looking to me briefly before she started checking her own systems.

  I looked back to the main screen.

  “Incoming,” Walf said, and he wasn't wrong. It was raining missiles. The Kalu weren't firing in volleys, but all of them firing on their own timing, making it a continuous stream of nuclear powered warheads coming right for me and mine.

  It would be some time before they reached us.

  “Ovaloid formation, rotating,” I said, Ben getting to work on the co-ordination as Milra shifted Resilient.

  We would go in ovaloid formation, all of the ships rotating around like a rolling pin on a counter-top. This would spread the damage over our ships, give them time to charge and give them a good amount of exposure.

  Ship commanders would have to decide how they rotated their gun crews, if they used their heavily armored bellies or for most of them, their larger more powerfully armed spines.

  “Vort, connect me with the fleet.”

  “You’re on Commander.”

  “Again I asked you all to follow me into the hell we call battle and again you answered the call. I salute you all and give you my thanks,” I looked directly into the visual feed.

  “Gunners load those guns, engineers keep us running, and let’s show them why you don’t fuck with the Free Fleet!” My voice rose to a roar, hungry yells joined in.

  “Shields supercharge. Combined split ship reports between me and Rick. Tactical I know your habit to be on the gunner deck, please choose your station,” I looked to my screens, checking the fleet again as I issued my orders.

  “Thank you Commander, I’ll be down below,” Marleen said.

  Marleen and Rick shared a look.

  “Well are you going to kiss or just stare at one another?” I said as it continued for a moment.

  Both of them blushed before Marleen jogged over to him quickly giving him a peck before jogging out her cheeks bright red.

  My face hardened, the moment of levity gone as I looked up to the main screen.

  The fleet had transformed from a three dimensional square to a large triangle which consisted of the heaviest warships and two smaller triangles connected to either base tip of the larger triangle. It reminded me of the symbol for a very old video game in which a usually green robed traveller went off in search of a princess that seemed to be constantly stolen.

  Time seemed to pass quickly for once.

  “In range within two minutes,” Walf said.

  “Alright Ricky, once more into the unknown,” I said, turning to him.

  “It’s going to be a rough one,” his face cold like steel.

  “When isn’t it?” I said my own voice harsh but resolute, their was no going back now.

  “In range!” Walf yelled, cutting off any other conversation.

  “Fire,” I said, my voice cold. Waiting meant killing less of them. A first battery was used to pound at a creature's morale. The Kalu had bloodlust, morale was a far consideration to them.

  Resilient bucked as all of her guns fired from both batteries on port and starboard laser and rail gun cannons unleashing their massive payloads. PRC's along her spine added their heavier firepower. Other ships fired as soon as they came into range, our formation was stacked and staggered so that every ship had clear lines of fire.

  “They’re firing, lasers,” Marleen's second in command, Prev said, confirming that the Kalu's armament hadn't changed.

  There weren't many lasers, and most of the Kalu didn't have the best aim thankfully. Still tens of hits smashed into Resilient and the other ships almost as fast as the Kalu fired.

  “Second tier within firing envelope,” Walf said suddenly.

  “Shields have reached supercharge! At one hundred and fifty seven percent,” Krat said, pride in his people clear.

  “Good work shields keep it up!” Seems they’d been able to get even more out of the super-charge than they thought.

  And we're damned well going to need it, I thought. My eyes focused on the cloud of incoming missiles. We had damned good PDS, but there were thousands of small missiles out there. Missiles tore into our shields, their combined power making Resilient shake like a dog trying to dry itself off.

  “Shields dropping to one twenty and falling,” Krat's voice was calm and steady.

  Rick opened a channel. “Seems we’re the main target.”

  “Good we can take it more,” I added In Sook who ran combined arms and made sure my orders were passed on to the rest of the fleet while Rick was collecting information for me, and sending it to the channel. “Remind the captains to have their ships focus on the smaller ships specifically thrusters and jump drives.”

  In Sook simply clicked off getting to work. I nodded to myself, in the middle of battle there was no time for sirs, and yessing, people had to do what needed to be done or people would die.

  “Prev, why are only two-thirds of the cannons active?” I asked.

  “We don’t have enough gunners for the gun deck Commander,” Prev said.

  Well so much for crossing all the T's and dotting all the I's!

  “Vort, tell Carisckle to have his Commandos familiar with the gun deck to help out,” I said, standing.

  “The hell do you think you're going?” Rick asked in alarmed tones.

  “To help our gunners out. I have three gun-trained commandos right here,” I said.

  Rick gave a terse nod.

  “Taking command,” he said.

  “You lot with me,” I said pointing to my protection detail. Resilient shook as more missiles smashed into her shields.

  I paused, making sure I didn't fall with the hits as I made my way to the bridge's blast doors.

  “I’m in a rather cranky mood and bowing some holes in a Kalu ship sounds like a brilliant idea!”

  “Seventy percent shields,” Krat said.

  I didn't need to see the main screen to envision the hell that was being waged outside the Dreadnought's hull.

  Unseen lasers hammered shields across the fleet, missiles flared into star-brilliance along a funnel like path. Some of those missiles were exploding from hitting one another. The Kalu had no such thing as fire control, overwhelming the enemy with firepower, no matter if that firepower took out one another was fine to them.

  Hell they have enough damned missiles and ships that losing a few tens of thousands would be fine. I stopped myself for grating my teeth, or letting my anger at how walking right into this whole damned mess was blowing up in my face.

  I walked over to Rick leaning down so no one else could hear us talk.

  “We have to do the most damage in our first run and get the hell out of here,” I said. Our ships are going to barely get through the first damned run. Rick nodded in understanding, he didn't need me to say the words out loud.

  We were pretty much going for a Hail Mary.

  “Yes. Commander,” his tone making it clear he knew what he had to do.

  “Good man,” I slapped his shoulder as I ran out of the bridge my minders in tow Krom and Shreesht sharing happy glances as we made our way to the gun deck.

  “Have you got three guns free and twelve loaders?” I yelled as I got onto the gun deck.

  “Indeed Commander Salchar!” Chief Brusk said an angry welt on his upper arm, white foam covering the burn as he hauled two massive replacement rails on his shoulder.

  “You twelve are loaders!” He said, pointing to a group of commandos that were also jogging into the gunnery deck.

  They were veterans and moved to join with me and mine as we went to work with the rail guns. People sorted out who w
as the better shot, who knew the most about fixing the damned turrets and we got to work.

  I sat in the gunner’s seat, a harness latched onto me, it would push me out of the way if the gun was about to explode. At least in practice it would.

  I wasn't thinking about that as I ran through start-ups and linked to the four other guns connected to the one in my control.

  Damn it is good to have an AI on our side!

  I turned my view finder to the upcoming carats that was the syndicate ships.

  I pulled the cocking handle on the gun the only manual part of the machine in case it jammed as a round the size of my forearm was loaded.

  “Damn that does feel good,” I said winking at my loaders before stroking the cannon's triggers.

  I saw hell outside that view screen. Missiles were ripped apart by PDS. Shields flared with impacts.

  Kalu ships were torn apart with incoming rounds, Felix's rounds did him proud, they smashed through the Kalu armor, exploding and leaving the ship's in shreds.

  There were two types of ships, the Star-warriors from the Kalu-Union wars and the Star-Destroyers.

  It works.

  The larger Planetary Rail Cannons shook the spine of Resilient as they fired their massive rounds at the destroyers. They didn't stand a chance without shields. Holes appeared in their hulls as they seemed to leak fighters.

  “Fucking bastards,” I said through clenched teeth.

  “Target those fucking bays!” Chief Brusk barked before I could say the same thing.

  “Rick, get those fucking Star-Destroyers,” I said. Thankfully Resilient heard me and opened up a channel to him. A green light in my HUD was all the acknowledgement I needed.

  The deck shuddered as my ears rang with the cacophony of massive rail guns and lasers firing.