“Alright, those of you with the rank to give orders, get over here, we’re going to have a quick and dirty lesson on how the tac-table works!” Bok Soo said, Doz moving to the big man who was yelling.
The big man curled over as Doz helped him find the exit.
***
As cold and as brutal as it was, the war with the Kalu had now come down to numbers.
How much firepower either side had, how many forces they could bring to bear on their targets and time to get them into position.
I had never liked math, these numbers tempted me to banish it from the Fleet.
I remembered Rick’s comments on my outburst one planning session. I ranted and raved, anger in my gut, he’d sat there, cool as freeze-dried cucumber, waiting for me to pause.
‘Well I’d personally rather not end up in a planet,’ Rick deadpanned, shutting down my argument and getting me to focus on the subject at hand, defending fucking Earth.
“Exiting wormhole,” Milra reported.
“Still looking clear on sensors,” Walf reported.
Clear being a relative word, I thought my eyes being drawn to the two screens that showed me Earth and Mars respectively.
Orshpa’s splinter force had made it past Nancy and Hachiro, they’d taken a beating from the two facilities and war-station.
Though too many of them had still made it to the stations.
Even with the missile barrages hammering them as they entered Mars’ atmosphere and exploding just outside the facilities own shields, thousands had got their beachheads.
There were two training areas that trained Armored Marine Commandos and gave the people of the Free Fleet their basic qualification with powered armor and the various weaponry they would use in close combat. Parnmal for the space portion of powered armor training and familiarization, with AIH taking up the ground combat side of things. Mars, with Hachiro and Nancy doing the space portion and Mars actual doing the ground portion.
So those beachheads, worked both ways, as Kalu, predictable, proud and straight-forward Kalu couldn’t have outlined their moves anymore than making a neon fucking sign and saying ‘We’re going to land here okay?’
After the images I saw from Nancy and Hachiro, I don’t think I could ever eat re-fried beans again. That’s what the Kalu looked like running straight into the waiting cannons of the HAPA’s and Commandos.
The Kalu didn’t see the orbital facilities as threats, they hated being in enclosed areas so they probably assumed that we hated being in enclosed areas.
Assumed wrong mother fuckers, I thought looking at the more detailed maps of Nancy and Hachiro. There were regions where the Kalu had been able to penetrate the stations, it only made sense with their numbers.
Takahashi took the lessons of Parnmal’s defense and put them to work. The Free Fleet knew when to give up ground to wear down the Kalu, and the continuous corridors, choke points and automated turrets were taking a bloody toll on the enraged Kalu.
While the Kalu charged ever deeper into the facilities, Commandos used the old adage of ‘if there isn’t a door, cut one’ with liberal affect.
They had the Kalu pinned on two side and were hammering them with everything they had.
The Kalu got all too many licks in, blood covered the decks in the hectic close quarter fight that the two orbitals had become.
We had got lucky, that there was only one major city on Mars, called Hasta. It roughly translated to mean Spear, the weapon of the war god Mars. Some historian had proposed it and the motion carried. It was a pretty cool name after all.
The Kalu leader didn’t seem to have the most smarts putting all of his ships into the same valley.
Jorsht who had been keeping a few PRC’s back might have been the leader of Parnmal in a previous life, but now he was one hell of a fire control commander. He’d opened with the three PRC’s as soon as the Kalu entered their terminal landing deceleration and tasked another fourteen PRC’s to help out.
He walked kinetic fire across that valley from both sides.
Kalu, the hardy mother fuckers climbed out of that mess, all five hundred and a half thousand of them and charged Hasta.
Jorsht continued to drop ordinance on them. Hasta added in their own compliments and nuclear warheads, three hundred thousand were now within a few kilometers of Hasta’s walls.
Weapons fire could be seen from orbit. Thankfully we had decided to build the city into the planet rather than on top of it. Every building was a light bunker, with the extra months that the training personnel had, they’d slapped armor, PDS, artillery and every other system they could think of, onto the facility. After the mess with Earth they’d been given and blank cheque and trainers were only too happy to teach their people how things worked by getting them to install it.
Most of the trainees were manning those facilities now, their fellow students spread across all of Union space.
“Plot to Earth is good, fleet has accepted,” Ben said.
“Powering engines and activating bomb-pumped acceleration,” Milra said. The ship seemed to nudge forward as our acceleration numbers started creeping up.
Everyone was pressed into their chairs as the acceleration built.
“Good work,” I said, looking at the new numbers showing on my personal screen, Resilient was already giving me the time it would take to reach Earth.
As with most things in space it was too damned long, but I knew that it would feel like it had been too short when we started dropping shuttles into Earth’s gravity well.
“Now all we can do it sit back and wait,” I said, low enough for Rick to hear.
“I’ve just got a report from Min Hae, he’s on a fast-track to Parnmal. The reinforcements are reaching AIH, Ursht really beat the hell out of them,” Rick said, shaking his head in memory of the event.
“What about Cheerleader’s progress and the ground fight on Daestramus and Ershue?” I asked.
“Cheerleader is limping back to Inkal; she should be there soon. Daestramus is getting hammered they need reinforcements sooner rather than later. Bregend thinks that one of the Kalu is not just going with the flow. One of the outposts was taken with a combined assault from air and ground,” Rick said, his face grim.
“Shit,” I said wincing.
“It’s not all bad... kind of,” he said. I tilted my head getting him to spill the rest.
“The outpost lost the first couple of areas around the entrance, but with the barrage they were actually sealed in, there’s still about five million survivors in there. Not the best state but they have food water and some sanitary systems. If the Kalu find out it won’t be pretty, but it looks like they’ve left the area for better prey,” Rick answered.
“So until we get someone over there, they’re stuck in the dark, not knowing if the Kalu are going to smarten up and go back or keep going,” I said, shaking my head. “Fuck, this is a mess,” I continued, rubbing my forehead with my armored hand.
“Yeah,” Rick said, the same tired frustration in his own voice.
A message pinged on his station.
He leaned to it, his brow furrowing in concentration.
“Well it looks like someone is listening to our pleas,” he said more to himself than me as he continued to read. I noticed he no longer sound tired anymore.
“Care to share?” I asked.
“Seems Empress and the Kuruvian Empire seemed to have changed their tune slightly,” Rick said, focused on the message in front of him.
“Hmm?” I asked, looking to him.
“They’re going to refund their operational fees and they’re freeing up their fleet for transport. Empress has also freed the Commandos from their duties,” Rick said.
I sat up leaning towards him.
“How many is that?” I asked, my frustration and fatigue forgotten.
“Nine hundred thousand,” Rick said, his eyes dancing as a smile appeared on his face.
“Well shit,” I said, slumping back into my seat. “W
hy didn’t you tell me earlier?”
“I just got the confirmed report now. Before this it was just been Min Hae’s agents, who do you think brought this to her attention. She lives in those shipyards you know,” Rick said.
“Sometimes I wonder if I’m running this fleet or he’s just nudging me along. That man is sneaky,” I said, smiling at the same time.
Nine hundred thousand Commandos, that could change quite a few things, if we can move them, I stood.
“Let’s go and see if we can’t find somewhere for those Commandos,” I looked to Rick.
“In Sook, Ben, come with me and Rick, Marleen you’ve got the bridge,” I said turning and heading to the conference room at the back.
Krom, Shreesht and Wruck were looking bored as ever.
“Want to plan an invasion boys?” I asked.
“Thought you’d never ask commander,” Krom said, rising from his seat the others following suit. I walked into the room, everyone else crowding in.
“Rick, tell them the good news, also can we pull any more Commandos from other places not under contact? I’ve been so focused on the battles we have ongoing I haven’t thought about that,” I admitted. I was only human after all. My fame for coming up with some damned insane ideas came from the fact I believed my people were the damned best in the universe and with them there were no bounds.
Rick went through the information, getting hard smiles around the room.
“As for other planets, we’ve got Oolta and Drvntrni Commandos looking for reassignment, the Henry-classed Destroyers are our fastest ships they’re moving to Oolta right now,” Rick said.
“Yeah, but going through the system is the longer than the jump transit times,” Ben said, he looked to cut time and increase speed, slow probably gave the eccentric Kuruvian headaches.
“Then we need to speed it up. Give me an overlay of all Free Merchant fleet vessels, patrol craft, kuruvian and AIH traders,” I said.
The star map was littered with the craft, most waiting out in the dark of space.
The people around the room looked at me.
“If it takes the HCD’s so long to cross the system, why don’t we have the Commandos come to them?” I said looking to In Sook and Ben.
“What if we ordered the traders to grab the Commandos, push as hard as they can to get out of the gravity fields that would de-stabilize the HCD’s wormholes. Then the HCD’s drop out, grab the Commandos and head off. Then we have more traders waiting to take them in-system. There aren’t any more Kalu floating around inhabited space, and even if there was we could give our people enough advanced warning to get the hell out of there,” I said looking to the others in the room.
“I don’t see an issue with it, how about time?” In Sook asked, looking to Ben.
“It would speed it up, how much I don’t know. I’m going to need to talk to the helms people of the traders and HCD’s but I don’t see an issue with it at all.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do, now what other Commandos do we have out there?” I asked.
“Ouquishar, Parnmal of course, Urshval, Rashdahl, comes to about, seven hundred thousand,” In Sook said sounding shocked with the numbers.
We had planned for the possibility of being engaged on every planet that had joined the Union to give them a chance if the shit hit the fan. At first we had planned to just use the forces on our ships, accepting that most planets would be under contact.
The winds of war had blown in our direction for once. The HCD’s were damned fast and the Kalu hadn’t landed on every planet.
“Alright, I want to know how many personnel we can move on the HCD’s,” I said.
“About a hundred,” Rick said making me wince. That lift capacity wasn’t anything to sniff at, but the remaining five hundred HCD’s would only be able to move fifty thousand Commandos.
“If you want to keep those fighters on them, if you pull the fighters and bombers you could probably fit,” Krom tilted his head in thought, “Maybe hundred and fifty, depending on distance, less distance more troop lift, slap supplies to the exterior, two-hundred,” Krom said.
“Now that’s what I’m talking about, okay let’s plan this out. I want to keep forces together, they’ve trained and lived with one another it just makes sense. Let’s move Ouquishar’s forces to Daestramus, get the Oolta people to Ershue. Earth can take Urshval’s forces. We’re going to need to make sure we have enough ships in and out system to meet the HCD’s and ferry the Commandos,” I looked around the room seeing the same fire that blazed in my own soul, a new fire, one of hope. We weren’t going to let this opportunity die.
***
“New orders from the Commander,” Delphine said.
“What about?” Foshunti asked, there was little he could do but what he was doing already.
“We’re to take on any of the Henry-classed Destroyers fighter craft and munitions they have. The HCD’s are being re-tasked,” Delphine said.
“What for?” Foshunti asked, looking to the data packet on his terminal.
“They’re going to move the Commandos around from the uncontested worlds,” Delphine said, her eyes glued to her screen so she didn’t realize the question hadn’t been aimed at her.
Foshunti didn’t even try to dim the excited talk around the bridge. He was tired of seeing lines dissolving down on Earth. Fifteen percent of Earth’s population had been cut down already and that number was only growing as the Kalu got into tighter packets of Humans.
“Do as the Commander orders, Rav,” Foshunti said, reading the information. Feeling excitement building in his body.
It wasn’t just hope, it was a realization that Earth, Ershue and Daestramus had a chance now.
They just need to hold out a little bit longer, he thought, knowing how damned ludicrous that sounded to him, his glance shifting to the ever-present hologram of Earth, covered in reds, yellows and slivers of green.
Chapter Bad Days
Sometimes you didn’t wake up on the wrong side of the bed. Instead the floor came rushing up, slapping you like you were a punching bag.
“You fucking sounva,” Bregend balanced on one foot, driving the other foot into an charging Kalu.
He swore the thing looked stunned as it went back the way it came Bregend’s cannon putting a blast into the little fucker.
“Bitch!” Bregend finished, priority targets filtered into his HUD, he didn’t even pause accepting the orders as warheads spewed from his launchers.
He smacked another Kalu trying to jump onto him from the trench line in front.
His left canon, inoperable from Kalu fighter’s raking his ass, slammed into the jumper.
“Fuck yes!” Bregend said to himself, the hit breaking off the remaining parts of his cannon, his plasmid blade rotated into position, his right cannon never stopped firing, he had half capacity magazines, but with his left down he had a full twenty minutes of continuous fire.
He wasn’t going to baby his rounds.
Bregend wasn’t one for blades, but he was a brawler. He used his plasmid blade like his own fist, wincing when he forgot his right cannon was used in a similar manner.
Every Commando and combat able person was out around the outpost in the trenches cut into Daestramus’ perma-frost.
The fighters had started half-hour ago, it seemed the smart little Kalu bastard was going to try the same tactic he’d used on outpost nine.
People had boiled out of outpost one, they weren’t going to be trapped below like the people in the other outpost
They’d staved off the attack for a handful of minutes and the main body of Kalu hadn’t even showed up yet.
Spoke too fucking soon, he thought as sensors started going off, two hundred thousand Kalu were now charging out of the cover around outpost one. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what their target was.
“Mills, how are those bombers looking? Getting a bit shitty down here,” Bregend said, his feelings at odds with his calm and measured tone as he f
ired a missile into a particularly nasty looking cloud of Kalu fighters.
That will show you to try and come into our skies. Fuckers. Bregend had been taking a much needed medic ordered detox when the Kalu started their attack.
His powered armor had faithfully overruled the medics and slapped wake-up into his system as soon as the alert went out.
Coming out of a detox only five hours after going into it, was like a hangover of tequila and pure sugar, it wasn’t doing much for Bregend’s current state of civility.
At least the Kalu gave him something to let his anger out on.
“Bregend?” Narvu asked, his tone becoming higher, expediting things.
“We’ll wait till their on the ice sheet, have the bombers target the other sectors,” Bregend said.
“Today would be nice!” Narvu said.
“That I think I can do,” Bregend smiled, it wasn’t a kind thing.
Narvu cut the channel, running not only the defense of outpost one but the other outposts was taxing.
Bregend had been given pretty much command of outpost one after him and Narvu had spent a few weeks together.
It spoke to Narvu’s trust in Bregend ability to put not only his life, but that of his two boys who were sheltered in outpost one.
Bregend consulted a map on his HUD, letting loose on Kalu above the entrenchments in front of him. The forces of the outpost were holding the line, firing into the Kalu, but for every Kalu that fell, another was only too eager to take up the position.
“Come on, just a little bit, more, the ice isn’t bad, oh no, it’s nice and firm and with no explosives in it at all. All together now,” Bregend said under his breath, his eyes flicking to his map even as he continued to chuck rounds down range.
“Should have watched where you stepped,” Bregend said, his voice hard instead of coaxing.
“Fire in the hole boy’s girls and creatures!” Bregend said over the outpost-wide channel.
“Hey Mills, ‘bout those fighters?’” He asked his second in command.
“Ah yes, seems I already launched them, thought you might be needing them soon,” Mills said.
War's Reward (Free Fleet Book 6) Page 12