“How long until the supplies are here for the Ershue,” the one with Wesom on his armor said.
“Not long, I am looking forward to getting away from this planet and people that put trees before lives brother,” Fal said.
Isaz’s anger returned and he made to move back into the room.
The two Commandos that had escorted him out moved as one, blocking his path, he was clearly not welcome.
“Savages,” Isaz said, turning and walking out of the mound.
Chapter Help is Coming
Empress looked at the lines arching through the known systems plot. It would have made little to her at most times, but right now she knew what most of those ships were carrying and what their purpose was.
Commandos were being thrown around, semi-literally in shuttles, from their starting points to HCD’s which then started their transits to Daestramus and Sol.
Well they had been going to Daestramus, now that the planet had somewhat stalemated, the majority of the forces were going to Sol to support Earth.
She didn’t understand how Salchar was out there and defending the very people that stabbed him in the back.
Either he’s a much better man than I am, or he has the shortest memory ever, she thought.
Sure she understood on some level how not going to Earth’s aid would have saved hundreds of lives. Yet she also knew that the Free Fleet was made on the promise of helping those that were weaker than them. Denying their request for aid would have spat on their very founding promise.
A large percentage of them were from the planet plus there was their whole reason to exist, they lived to free the oppressed. If they didn’t help Earth, then it would go against some of their deep-set beliefs.
To her it was a mess and she was thankful that her people were now working on better solutions to aid the Free Fleet anyway they could.
“Time I was back working on those new super-freighters,” she said moving her manipulators in anticipation.
What was the use of being an Empress if she didn’t get to do what she wanted?
***
Cheerleader and Min Hae watched as Monk and the Commandos with him disappeared from Parnmal.
Henry made his displeasure known by leaning back from Cheerleaders grip and looking around, he wanted to be free dammit!
Cheerleader looked at the little terror and she couldn’t help herself from the small smile on her lips.
For a moment she forgot the nightmares that kept her from sleep and her fear that she could have done something, anything else to have saved more of her fleet.
The head doctors had her and all of the survivors having talks with them nearly constantly, it was annoying at first but as she’d got more comfortable it helped her out. Just like talking to her people who’d been there helped.
They were allowed all the exercise they wanted and to work on training up for their new assignments, but drinking was tightly controlled.
They could have a few beers or drinks to take the edge off but nothing that would get them drunk.
Her people weren’t the happiest about that, but it made sense. Alcohol was a depressant, it wasn’t going to help them out in their current state.
“Well this is becoming a right mess,” Min Hae said, sounding thoughtful, and just ever so slightly annoyed.
She was one of the short-list of people he would even let that modicum of emotion out around.
“What?” She asked, interested in doing something that wasn’t understanding how the Free Merchant Fleet operated and their current orders.
“You are not going to like it,” Min Hae said, looking to her.
“Give it to me straight,” she said standing straighter as Henry started playing with her hair.
“Ershue isn’t too happy about the state of their planet now that the Kalu are gone,” Min Hae said dryly.
“What will our actions be?” Cheerleader said, he was right she didn’t like that all, a good number of people had died to keep that planet controlled by the Ershue and not simply fodder for the Kalu.
“We fight fire, with nukes,” Min Hae said, his smile becoming hungry.
Most would flinch from his predatory look, instead Cheerleader felt it spread across her own face.
Commandos and Free Fleet personnel no matter where they hailed from, were their people.
Anyone that spat on their sacrifice, they might not know it for a long time, might think themselves out of reach. Though there was a reason Min Hae’s nickname was Merchertevak. The bird was painfully patient, hitting its target without it usually knowing it, unless the Merchertevak wanted them to know, then it would watch and wait from a distance till their prey thought they were comfortable and their poison took effect.
Then they would strike, killing most targets in a single blow.
“Let me know if you ever need help,” Cheerleader said.
“I most definitely will. When we win this war, things are going to change very quickly. Though most of the plotters won’t understand the repercussions for generations. No matter what, the Free Fleet is here to stay and try as they might, that will not change,” Min Hae said.
“I almost feel bad for the idiots,” she looked to Min Hae, sharing a very cold smile that she’d gained from her battle in Quarst, one that seemed to chill the room than exude warmth. “Almost.”
Chapter It comes to this
Bok Soo heard the booms that came with craft making entry into Earth’s atmosphere.
Poland had fallen, reinforcements from Mars were bolstering their current line but it was still just a holding measure, there were so damned many Kalu and while it took them time to reach the forces battering the European lines, it meant there was a near constant rate of fresh Kalu reinforcements.
The Combined military might of the European union was putting up one hell of a fight, now sparsely armed with rail guns and some even having powered armor.
They didn't know their equipment and it showed.
That said, they were learning, if the hard way.
War was a hellish teacher, but it worked.
Bok Soo tilted, a glancing hit from a laser smacking into his HAPA.
“Ahh shit,” he said, as warnings signals flashed and his harness released.
Got the power core, he thought, wincing. The power core was built for this kind of abuse, so it wasn’t going to explode or do anything ridiculous like that.
The HAPA thumped to the ground, jarring him on impact.
He grabbed his rail gun from it’s position and pushed free of his HAPA.
“Commander?” Jameson asked, one of his protectors.
“Core’s fucked,” Bok Soo said by response, getting to an elevated trench made for powered armor and human military types.
He brought his rail gun to bear, taking time to line up his shots now he didn’t have the massive firepower of the HAPA.
“Jameson, vamp the magazines. I was at sixty percent, you need them more,” Bok Soo said, glancing over his statuses.
“Sir,” Jameson said, his HAPA coming off the line to twist Bok Soo’s HAPA around and slap his spare feeder into the machine.
As he vamped he fired with the other HAPA’s.
“Prepare to move HAPA’s, Kalu are zeroing!” The Platoon commander said.
Bok Soo, just sighted targets, using the trenches lip to pivot his gun across the Kalu lines.
There was no lack of targets even if the Kalu had learned to space their shit out.
Because of their spacing out the line now went from Northern Germany through the Czech Republic and Austria.
Red flashed on Bok Soo’s HUD, his jaw working as medics were called, he prayed they were in time.
He wasn’t a religious man, but fuck he hoped that someone or something could help them out.
There’s no atheists in foxhole. It wasn’t strictly true, but hell he would barter with a Kalu itself to save even one of his people’s lives.
“Ouquishar reinforcements coming in!” Someone b
arked.
“Ouquishar?” Gajos asked.
“Holy fuck you people need to read a star-map,” Bok Soo said, tired and currently focused on other things.
“Bok Soo?” Gajos didn’t sound like she was in a mood for games.
“Inhabited system connected to Daestramus, has a nice population of Commandos. Two hundred thousand expected reinforcements. We get forty,” Bok Soo said, not even needing to consult his HUD as he rattled off the information.
“Kalu overrunning!” Someone screamed in the background of Gajos’ channel. Bok Soo could already see the flurry of alerts growing on his HUD.
They couldn’t use their nukes now, the Kalu were too close, plus there were civilians still moving through the area.
“I suggest we get them into the next positions and ready for us coming in hot. We need try and push the Kalu back so we can free up our positions to pull back. Get your people ready to move,” Bok Soo said.
“Agreed,” Gajos said, she sounded as tired as Bok Soo felt, but damn if that lady wasn’t determined.
Artillery shifted and started hammering the hell out of the Kalu. It wasn’t just the rail guns, human tanks and artillery pieces added in their own angry volleys.
Humans had been practicing dropping death on one another for centuries, and tanks while being basically tracked artillery weren’t the only ones hiding out back and dropping support.
Entire brigades of artillery from several nations started pouring a hellish amount of fire down on the Kalu.
Sure they might not be Free Fleet tech, but enough of anything made a difference, and there were thousands of weapons throwing all manner of death down on the Kalu.
Unprotected humans ducked into cover, a few in the powered armor did the same. If Bok Soo was closer to the explosions he might have, but they were nothing more than dirt and small debris coming down on him.
So he continued firing, hoping like hell that the artillery was enough to give them the pause they needed. The artillery didn’t fire a few shells to see the effect change target and fire again. They fired till their tubes ran hot, poured water on them and kept going.
Incoming shuttles fired their rail guns, MEF’s supporting them peeled off and added their fire to the Kalu fighters that were heading over the lines, their fire raking troops, Commandos, fleeing civilians, anything and everything they could find.
Anti-air rumbled and tried to stave off the renewed assault.
Bok Soo could see that it worked somewhat but it wasn’t enough. There were too many Kalu fighters.
Ammunition dumps went up in explosions and the rate of fire dropped.
“Get reinforcements in there, we need to push them back!” Bok Soo barked.
“Do it!” Gajos said to her people.
Every armed person under Gajos’ control that wasn’t already setup at the next line of defenses surged forward into the madness that was the front lines.
Bok Soo ducked into cover as a shuttle’s cannons ripped into the Kalu not fifty meters from his position. Cursing, he was up as soon as the pass over was done. His eyes flicked from his targets to his HUD, a practice that had taken many hours but made him able to fight and know what the hell was going on around him.
The shuttles landed, dropping off their reinforcements.
It looks like the Kalu take the shuttles to mean attack, have to take that into consideration later, he thought, grimacing. Smart enemies were fucking pricks.
Missiles streaked into the Kalu rear, using the artillery as cover. Not many made it past the lasers that tried to bring them down.
Bok Soo’s visor darkened against the nukes, more went off in the sky, all of them far away from the front lines and the civilians still running past.
Bok Soo understood the plan as he tracked a Kalu pack coming in, HAPA fire took them out and he changed targets.
If the nukes opened a hole in the Kalu’s advance, then it would give them room to pull back.
That was if they could clear out their current neighbors. The Kalu were just meters away, using every damned depression, wall and groove to get closer.
A red halo appeared beside a wall, Bok Soo barely turned as the halo was on top of him.
He fired, yelling as the Kalu’s claws grabbed his shoulders.
The Kalu’s maw came down at his head.
He kept pulling his trigger in the belly of the Kalu as he fell.
They crashed to the ground, Bok Soo still yelling and firing, his low magazine clicked empty and he realized the Kalu wasn’t moving.
His helmet was filled with oxygen and his body was fighting pure panic.
“Get yourself together Bok Soo, it’s not the first time one of those fuckers has tried to kill you,” he growled, chastising himself, his hands working to reload his gun, not even a shiver in them.
He moved back to the wall of the trench grabbed a grenade and put it over the wall the Kalu had come from. Two Kalu ran out, Bok Soo caught them both before they made it to the trench, the grenade went off, the wall falling and three more Kalu dead behind it.
Bok Soo grabbed the lead Kalu he’d killed, pulling it into the trench so it wasn’t blocking his view. He had a damned job to do.
“Bok Soo you okay?” Gajos asked.
“Fine,” Bok Soo said, his anger and the new pain in his shoulders serving to focus his mind.
“Suit shows it’s got some tears in it...”
“I’m fine, ain’t the first time I’ve fought these fuckers, you just keep pushing out the commands, need that fire support in position and hammering these bastards,” Bok Soo said.
“Go it,” Gajos said, her voice hardening. Bok Soo was just one man, she had thousands of people to try and protect.
Good girl, she’s learning battlefield mathematics.
***
“Alright, that looks like it’ll work,” Xer said, looking at the targeting data.
“Will or won’t no looks,” Carsickle demanded, there was no second chances on this one.
“Will,” Xer said.
“Good,” Carsickle said, opening a channel to all of his HAPA’s and Commandos.
“You’re going to see the new targeting system, aim for the targets, we’ll be shooting over our people’s heads so unless you have a cleared region, watch your damned shots,” Carsickle said. Commandos got any elevation they could find to bring their new targeting systems online.
Carsickle opened a channel to Scharringa.
“Go,” Scharringa said, no longer the excitable bundle of energy from before.
“We’ll be providing fire support to the front line, as more reinforcements come in we’ll add more fire, we can’t keep it up for long, our barrels will overheat and we will need ammunition. We can keep up our fire for, eight minutes, ten tops,” Carsickle said, shunting information to the man.
“Shit, alright, wait,” Scharringa said.
***
“They plan to what?” Gajos asked.
“Shoot over the front line and right into the Kalu,” Scharringa said for the second time.
“Shit, that’s fucking crazy,” Gruben said.
“What do they do that isn’t?” Gajos said, making her decision.
“Send the alert to the front lines and artillery, five minutes, then we open up with everything we have and they pull back. Make sure they stop when they get to the second line I don’t need another Slovakia,” she said.
When their lines had gone through Slovakia, troops had kept running past the lines. The reserves were called up, the line held, but barely.
The troops that fled, had taken days to recover. Most had gone so far that it would take too much time and resources to get them.
She didn’t blame them, this kind of battle had never been seen in history. Sure in World War two Germany had quickly moved over ground, the Kalu put that to shame, borders and lines changed by the day, every day or other day people had to be shifted back. The Kalu were constantly figuring out the terrain and cover necessary to get into
the lines and wreak havoc.
“Yes Major,” Gruben said, not trying to drive her lower rank to his own. He’d got past that a while ago.
She started moving icons across the tac table, hoping that the insane plan would work.
“One-minute left,” Scharringa said.
The artillery fired with everything they had left and the second-line Commandos opened fire, their elevation giving them a line of sight over the front-lines.
Their rounds speed meant their drop was almost negligible as they peppered the Kalu.
“Move it damn it, move!” Gajos said, gripping the tac table and watching the plot of thousands of her personnel, no matter their military, country or planet.
“That’s the signal people, first group move it! Double time!” Bok Soo’s voice boomed through even the command center’s computers.
People started moving, rushing to their transports and getting the fuck out of dodge.
“Commandos!” Bok Soo yelled a few minutes later.
One minute, Gajos said, her eyes flicking to the counter, she could swear they had longer. It didn’t matter, her eyes flicked to the Commandos, they ran, boy could they ever fucking run.
Their bounds made it look like they were almost skipping across Earth’s surface.
The rate of fire died down but shuttles that had dropped off their reinforcements now raised above the second line, their rail cannons adding their fire.
Three hundred ships rained fire down on the Kalu, they were massive targets, the Kalu raking them with lasers, a number of them going down in the fire, but they covered their people until the last Commando was in a trench.
The shuttles powered away from the front lines and headed back up to the warships above.
“Hic Stamus is on station,” In Sook’s now familiar voice came down, while MEF’s and shuttles were in the air the Free Fleet were not going to drop anything through the air around them.
Now they were gone however.
“Request orbital drop,” Gajos said.
“Rocks away,” In Sook said, Gajos saw the lines of rounds that spat out of Hic Stamus’ batteries, their gunners working their machines.
War's Reward (Free Fleet Book 6) Page 20