War's Reward (Free Fleet Book 6)

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War's Reward (Free Fleet Book 6) Page 5

by Michael Chatfield

Smith looked away as near-miss alerts came in, he jinked, dived and swerved, rotating the entire way.

  “Fucking swarm!” Smith said, heading towards the front of the Kalu formation, coming right behind an unsuspecting Star-warrior.

  He mated his capacitors with his rail gun, sending four plasma bolts into the back of the Star-warrior. Smith muttered along with the song blaring through his headset, a smile on his face, his hits landing right in the Star-warrior’s engine.

  The warrior went up in a rippling blast, giving Smith some room from the Kalu, by the mere fact he’d been flying close enough that the swarm had been around the damned thing.

  “Ladies and gents of the bombers and fighters to my front, it seems I’m bringing a party to you, could you give me a hand please?” Smith asked, conversational, music playing in the background.

  “Glad to help Commander Smith,” someone said, sounding amused. Smith got a trajectory line, he tilted, powering his engines towards it. It was none too soon as bombers missiles went streaking past him. He turned, using bombs to break his acceleration. He’d be crushed by the gravitational forces if he wasn’t in the gel-cocoon.

  But he was and had the greatest seat in the house for seven missiles crashing into his following swarm, lighting them up from the inside, turning them from a mass into piecemeal.

  The bombers and fighters raced past Smith, inertia carrying them through the Kalu formation, they dove and jinked, firing their guns and unleashing their missiles on the Kalu ships and swarms that chased them.

  Smith grinned and pushed his engines and bombs to maximum. He braked finally and started building momentum. He sung along as he dove down and across, putting his heading right at a Star-Destroyer.

  Looks like they’re trying to get their fighters out, got to do something about that.

  His rail gun shredded the fighters, two missiles streaked in for the kill.

  The ship lost it’s forward and lower sections.

  The ship seemed to listen to the words of one of the greatest bands and singers ever. If anyone said differently, well Smith would be having words with them!

  The ship exploded, with one Commander Smith a tad too close for comfort, he got an actual push from the whole ship going up with all of it’s ammunition.

  He tumbled, he fought for control, his head pounding from gravity and his own blood going where it shouldn’t and not being where it needed to be.

  He pulled his ship up and around, stitching a Star-Destroyer with plasma, he’d forgotten to stop supercharging his rounds.

  He didn’t have time to change, watching as the plasma ate into the Destroyers engines.

  A laser caught his armored shell. Smith jinked weaved and turned.

  There was four Kalu, looked like they were just leaving the Star-Destroyer. They didn’t see the missile till it split and well then there weren’t any Kalu to shoot Smith in the ass.

  Smith dove down onto a moving swarm, War-Station had turned to present its front. It would go right through the Kalu formation to give every gun a target.

  That said, it didn’t need the suicidal little Kalu fighter bastards ramming into it’s shield.

  Smith dropped onto an angle with the Kalu fighters and fired several missiles. The Kalu had no target locking mechanism.

  The waves of destruction came like an unknown tide, washing away a swathe of Kalu fighters.

  Another Star-warrior was shooting at him, Smith weaved, turned and accelerated. His inertia took him past the Star-Warrior. he lined up on another Star-Warrior.

  An alert came in moments later, a bomber dropping two missiles into the ship. He accelerated away from the target in search for another as the Star-Warrior shuddered and drifted, it’s engines out and most of one side missing.

  Alerts sounded, War-station was now starting it’s run, he dumped his missiles in the direction of the Kalu, used a capacitor and appeared at a pre-selected emergence point.

  He used his view screens to see War-station.

  “Well it lives up to it’s name,” Smith said.

  Laser cannons, rail cannons, missiles and Personal Defense systems seemed to ignite.

  It was like a porcupine spreading it’s needles and spearing tissue paper. The needles were weapons fire, and the tissue paper was Kalu ships being bashed to death with rounds, turned to nothing from the nuclear blasts of warheads, or the invisible rays of laser cannons.

  Kalu ships were battered, sections of their ships disappearing, armor being bent in. Power plants shut down where the Kalu were lucky, others exploded. Engines stopped and ships drifted.

  Kalu fighters rushed in on their suicide runs, ships that were being smashed closed with the massive station.

  The fire didn’t increase but more ships exploded and the destruction increased ten-fold. The Artificial Intelligences were in command now.

  The Kalu were being halted in progress. It all came from instantaneous communications and understanding of the Kalu’s weaknesses and it was a slaughter.

  Kalu ships crashed into the shields. There were just too many of them to be stopped by even War-station’s fire.

  Missiles, a full spread pushed out and wormholes started appearing.

  “Holy shit,” Smith said, finding the words to understand what was going on.

  War-station was getting hammered, but someone was using the ship’s attached to it, to make dual wormholes right next to one another, a makeshift shield that absorbed anything incoming. It staved off the worst of the Kalu fighters.

  It didn’t stop them all, the first and second shields had already failed, but even those were layers Smith new next to nothing about.

  War-station was past the Kalu fleet.

  It turned, firing at the Kalu, the Kalu turned, striking the station or the shielded ships.

  Still the station’s guns fired, the engines powered up, once again working to brake the station and then start it after the Kalu.

  The War-station was still taking Kalu down, but it was nothing like their in-close action. They’d taken three and a half thousand ships out with that.

  It had been four minutes since Smith had jumped away from War-station, now he was powering for it again.

  His smart computer told him that there was something happening as he closed with the station. He checked the alert.

  The Kalu had formed together again, their fighters returning to their star-destroyers. Now they ran into War-station’s last surprise. A nice thick minefield.

  Ships disintegrated like cream cheese through piano wire, or crumpled like they’d hit a wall.

  There’s nothing pretty about seeing that much death, but Smith watched. The gunners of War-station never gave up.

  He headed towards War-stations hangars, looking at a diagram that showed the breakdown of the people within his command.

  Too many holes showed, many had gone out and too few had returned.

  They worked independently for the most part which made it all the more sudden, the questions lingering in his mind of how they had died and if they would have survived if he was with them.

  He bowed his head, he knew the jumpers operating procedure, he had made the damned thing. While they worked apart they were a tight knit group and it was hard.

  He looked to the minefield the Kalu had sailed into as automated systems pulled his jumper inside.

  You did good, you did good. Their sacrifice meant that more people would survive the oncoming wave of Kalu. Though he’d be lying if he said he’d trade their lives again.

  ***

  “Alright, this isn’t time for damned sightseeing, gather round, sit down and shut up,” Yasu said and the Commandos obeyed, they took their seats and waited.

  “We’re going down to Chaleel. We will be in support of the forces already on the ground. We will be hopping between the Kalu’s last bastions. While the fleet is pounding on the Kalu we will be catching bleeders and protecting the Chaleel tanks. I want us to start putting Commandos on the ground in fifteen minutes” Yasu l
ooked to everyone in the room. “Questions?” She asked, hands raising, she pointed to Connolly.

  “What will our positions be?” He asked.

  “We’ll adapt as we go along, a third of our forces will stay in shuttles ready to be deployed as necessary. Also I want to make this clear.” Every AMC Commander seemed to hang on her every word.

  “Do not be heroes. Don’t push beyond the waypoint, otherwise you’re liable to get yourself and your people smoked by the fleet’s guns. Watch your arcs, be prepared for contact, don’t go chasing them down. Wait for them to come to you, understood?” She said, getting mutterings.

  “Understood?” She said, steel entering her voice.

  “Yes Commander!” They barked as one.

  “Good, then let’s go put are party-armor on,” she said a grin coming to her face, the others in the room grinned and stood, most disappearing instantly, they’d been on their individual ships and only holographically projected into the room. Others talked and coordinated with other commanders.

  Yasu marched out of the room, Connolly following and issuing orders on his data pad.

  “How are we looking?” Yasu asked as they got to an elevator.

  “Ready to go,” Connolly replied.

  “That’s what I like to hear.” Most of the Commanders were rotating their Commandos through alert. With her meeting she had ordered them into their armor and HAPA’s.

  She closed her visor, her HUD coming to life with a message from James waiting for her.

  She opened it, Good luck babe it said simply, making her smile. A gentle warmth spread through her from the message. It was signed with his real name, not his pseudonym, Salchar.

  She pushed those emotions away from her, she needed to focus on the here and now. She had commandos to command and had to make sure they stayed on task.

  She and Connolly marched into the armory, grabbing ammunition for their rifles and stepping into their HAPA’s. The Kuruvians had been pumping out the massive machines as fast as possible, pushing them up to the Free Fleet. Now Eighty percent of the Commandos had a HAPA. Most that didn’t were already engaged in combat on the ground.

  Yasu and Connolly stomped out into Floater’s hangars, fighters were coming in off of their shift, others launching at the same time down at the far reaches. The majority of the hangar was taken up by Commando shuttles, their engines making heat waves, ready to be freed on their task.

  “See you on the ground,” Yasu said to Connolly.

  “Not if I beat you!” Connolly answered with mocking delight. They’d become a good team, their trust in one another absolute. They knew one another’s tendencies and had melded together into a symbiotic relationship, much like the way Salchar and Rick did.

  Yasu stomped up her ramp and onto a shuttle, locking her feet into the HAPA lockouts as a harness wrapped around her. The ramp was still whirring upwards as the pilot lifted, tilting the shuttle and headed out of the battle-carrier’s hangars.

  The ramp closed and the hums of the shuttle filled the craft.

  Yasu had given force coordination over to the AI’s and they had already picked out the best positions for the fleet’s commandos and provided a detailed HUD outlook on the various contested areas.

  Shuttles formed into wings of five craft, arrows heading towards the Free Fleet formations to the south.

  It was these moments alone, when she had time to think about something other than her plans which were the worst.

  She thought of James’ safety, sure he was Salchar, but he had got into more grievous injuries than even her.

  Her hands patted her now flat stomach. Medical science and physical training had gotten her into fighting trim. Though it hadn’t taken the memories, the attachment that ran like a string from her to her boy, Henry.

  She and James had time for a few talks and a combined video conference with Uncle Monk and the growing Henry. He was already getting bigger, his eyes filled with wonder and he was constantly letting out bubbling laughter.

  He’d crawled through Salchar and Yasu’s holograms, grabbing at them and playing with them with the curiosity that only a baby was capable of.

  She held onto that conference, she thought of James’ embrace, his hugs and the pride in both of their glistening eyes as they’d looked at one another.

  Warmth filled her again and she just wanted to jump off of the shuttle, find James, Henry and run away from it all. Her oath and the people around her, that relied on her, stopped her in her tracks. Making her feel guilty for even having the idea.

  She was the Commander of Salchar’s Commandos; she would lead them. There was no other option.

  The shuttles didn’t take long to get to their destination. They cut their speed drastically, ramps opening as Commandos piled out as fast as possible, cannons were up and ready as soon as they cleared the ramp.

  No threats showed themselves, only the rolling barrages of the Free Fleet ships hovering a few kilometers up and laying waste to any sign of Kalu presence.

  “Clear! Move to our step off point, form into two ranks space fifty meters apart on the front line, second line back thirty meters and between the front ranks positions,” Yasu called out. The formation gave them depth while also allowing them overlapping and clear lines of fire. It looked like a W that had been connected and repeated across a kilometer and a half. Yasu took up her position on the second rank. Tully and Moft were in the front rank to either side of her.

  She checked the map on her HUD, other groups were also getting into position and facing off with where they would be advancing.

  “Commander Yasu, it’s good to see you,” Commander Delahil said, Yasu had set her communications to automatically allow the commander to open a channel with her.

  “Hope you don’t mind when I say, I’ll be happy to be free from Chaleel,” Yasu said.

  “I wish that was the case as well, as it would mean all of the Kalu are dead here and we could start repairing our planet that your husband has been remodeling.” There was something warning in Delahil’s tone.

  “Something wrong?” Yasu asked.

  “Let’s just say that I’ve heard rumors that the establishment is not so happy that your husband has so much power. Seeing it across their planet has definitely made a number of people start to talk. It’s not just on Chaleel,” Delahil warned.

  “I will tell James to watch out, thank you Delahil,” Yasu said.

  “I don’t understand the idiots, they sit back and make decisions about those that are dying for them. Not one of them actually standing on the battlefield,” Delahil said.

  “Me either,” Yasu sighed, already sending a recording of the conversation to Min Hae as well as Rick, but not to Salchar he needed to keep his head in the game for now. Rick would know when it was appropriate to pass on the message.

  “The formation is now moving forward,” Resilient warned Yasu after a few minutes.

  “Are the other commanders notified?” Yasu asked.

  “Yes Commander,” Resilient replied, new positions appearing ahead of Yasu. On her map the tanks that had been rolling up on the Kalu positions were now joining the rear ranks of fresh HAPA’s.

  They were about the size of a normal bungalow, low to the ground and predatory with their three main rail-cannons and four medium cannons on their sides.

  They slotted into positions the AI’s had come up with, Yasu checked to make sure they were all where they werem actually supposed to be.

  “Move out!” Yasu called, her HAPA thumping forward, the lines around the closing circle of Free Fleet ships moved, the ships advancing.

  The Kalu were more concentrated here and not all of them were killed by the fleet’s fire.

  HAPA’s guns buzzed and traversed, the Kalu were panicked and without anywhere to go. Their fighters stopped trying to do passes on the Free Fleet. The few of them that remained turned to kamikaze tactics. MEF’s cut them off to the best of their ability and PDS turrets tried to bring them down, but a few bled thr
ough.

  A destroyer above shook from multiple impacts, it rotated a new side into battle, shields didn’t work in a planet’s atmosphere.

  Yasu could see the opened armor and decks, they had great gashes in the Destroyer’s sides.

  She turned to her work, pulling her cannons up.

  “We’ve got bleeders!” Someone called out.

  “Let them have it,” Yasu replied, cannons bellowed, the tanks advancing as it’s cannons fired, dust and dirt being thrown up around it.

  HAPA’s pushed forward through the crater filled terrain that marked the passing of the fleet above.

  The Commandos trekked on, moving from cover to cover.

  “Got a breakthrough in the center,” Connolly reported.

  “Left and right side, move forward to support the center and bring the Kalu under fire,” Yasu said, moving forward, using her HUD to manipulate the positions of the line. The formation turned from a line to a V, fire pushing the Kalu back. The tanks added their weight into the fray, missiles launched from shoulder launchers. The oncoming Kalu were broken. A number of them had got to the lines to be met with plasmid blades and cannons.

  “How are we looking,” Yasu asked, picking a commander in the center.

  “None of them made it past, lost fifteen HAPA’s,” the Commander said, their voice heavy.

  “Tighten your lines and continue on. bringing shuttle support in,” Yasu said, sending orders to awaiting shuttles, three fanned out over her line, their turrets waiting for any oncoming Kalu.

  “Straighten out and continue forward,” Yasu said. In moments they were moving again.

  She didn’t feel like a Commando, she was an exterminator, hunting down and removing a pest. It was hard to think of the Kalu as an intelligent species in this kind of action.

  Commandos around Chaleel were marching under the protection of the Fleet’s ships, sowing destruction like the inhabitants of Chaleel would sow crops.

  The Chaleel had begged and pleaded for the Kalu to surrender, they were met with threats and silence. The Kalu knew they couldn’t die; another would always take their place. That belief system stopped them from even thinking about surrendering.

 

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