There was a thundering crack from above. I looked to see a new meteor.
“Oh you beautiful being you!” I said, her plan snapping into my mind.
***
“I think you’ve spent too much time around Salchar,” Marleen said. In Sook was busy at her station so she had taken over command of Hic Stamus.
“Well Milra, how about it?” Marleen asked.
“It’s going to be rough and I can only get us a few minutes, we’ll have to make it count,” she said.
“I’m not the only one,” Resilient said, appearing in the seat Rick usually sat at.
Marleen tapped her stomach.
“Not going to leave my boys out there,” Marleen said, opening a channel to both Chief Zor and Brusk.
“Gentlemen. We’re about to be going in for a fly-by. Seems our Commander and his Chief of Staff have got themselves in a rather shitty situation. War Station won’t be in position for another twenty-five minutes. We are going to get in close and provide accurate support fire. Resilient will be assisting but she will only last thirty seconds as she is also helping Milra in keeping the ship from letting gravity win,” Marleen said.
“Yes Ma’am,” Zor said, Brusk giving her a serious nod.
“You’ll have a minute and a half, two tops to show up those War Station gunners. I do not expect to be disappointed,” her voice folded steel. Neither of them flinched but rather nodded, serious expressions on the both of them.
“Hic Stamus’ gunner stands by ready to provide support,” Brusk said.
“Commander still owes us a couple of rounds,” Zor said.
Marleen felt her mouth twitch, the nerves in her stomach causing her to worry about Rick made it a short lasted thing.
“Run the guns till their barrel’s warp and their coolant explodes,” Marleen said.
“Aye Ma’am,” Brusk said, both he and Zor touching two fingers to their foreheads.
“I’ll leave it to you,” she replied.
“Vort, send the alerts, let Commander Whorst know that we’re going on an excursion, tie him into our sensors so his gunners have the best read possible when we move off station,” Marleen said, looking over an armrest screen that showed the left gunnery.
“Yes Commander,” Vort said bending to his work.
Marleen saw Zor’s people gather around their chief, he looked to them and talked, she could see their bodies straighten and their eyes sharpen. They were the best of the best and they had lived with Rick and Salchar for months. Seeing them in the cafeteria, talking to them in the halls, or mess.
They knew them not for the legends they had become, but for the men that lay under that thin veneer. They knew that those Commandos and countries that had rallied against the Kalu needed them now. They had stood with the Commandos and now Hic Stamus would stand with them.
Here we stand, no more, no less. Unyielding in our duty and merciless in it’s performance.
“Preparations are complete,” Ben said, his hands moving across his stations controls.
Milra would not be flying Hic Stamus by herself. They would tandem pilot the ship, her calling out orders, he correcting as he could, with Resilient helping where needed.
“All preparations across the ship have been completed,” Resilient said from her position, anticipating Marleen’s question. Marleen nodded and looked over the command staff, the levels moved with an energy they hadn’t had over the last few weeks. They had a purpose and a mission, not just the order to watch in orbit and fire orbital bombardment.
Hic Stamus was alive with purpose.
“Take us in,” Marleen said, feeling the power that radiated through the decks of the super carrier.
“Taking us in,” Milra said, hers and Ben’s hands moving as the ship tilted to cut through Earth’s atmosphere.
“I have a Kalu swarm heading for Xi’an,” Walf reported as the ship’s engines forced them from geo-synchronous orbit.
“My people can look after that,” Heston reported from his place as Wing commander. They had a full compliment of MEF’s aboard as Henry Classed Destroyers were running to Drvntrni and the Kuruvian Empire to gather more Commandos for Bregend.
“Very well Commander,” Marleen said.
Sensor information started populating the forward screen, showing the valleys that ran from Zhengzhou to Xi’an.
Hic Stamus started to shake as it entered atmosphere. Earth’s atmosphere and gravity was much higher than Chaleel’s. This entry would take considerable skill.
I’m not carrying this mission based on emotion? Marleen thought, questioning her reasoning.
No, I have the best damned crew and they know their jobs. Yes, it might be Rick down there, but this is a mission they can do. Without risk there is no reward. Salchar can do the crazy on the daily, this is pretty damned sane compared to some of the things he’s pulled off! She smiled at her own inner thoughts, knowing she was trying to push the nerves and tensions that played inside her head.
Hold on, we’re coming.
***
“Oh yes! Oh fucking yes!” I said, turning my head to my HUD. I needed to get people moving and fast.
“All scouts, pull back to our lines as fast as you can. Move it! Fast as you can!” I barked, switching channels.
“Rick, you look after the artillery, I’ll talk to Lee. Seems your wife doesn’t like being left out,” I said, adrenaline fueling me. I clicked off, knowing he would see to it as I called up Lee.
“I need you to pull everyone that doesn’t have powered armor back to Xi’an as fast as damned possible,” I said.
“That will leave us weak on the lines though,” Lee said, confused and digging in his heels.
“We have support showing up, the kind that nothing is going to like unless it’s armored and a few kilometers away,” I said, pulling up a firing plan, we needed to make room between the forward lines and the Kalu.
I was pushed to the side a lasers cut across the wall. Shreesht got hit in his leg but his armor started looking after him and he stood up.
“We need to move!” Krom said, breaking into my channel with Lee.
“Yeah,” I said, sending my half-completed plan off to Rick, getting back to my feet.
“Shreesht, you move first!” I said, moving to his side of the building.
“Got it. Moving,” he said. Now was not the time to argue, I had been too wrapped up in planming that Id failed to how close the Kalu actually were.
I fired a burst around the side of the house, tracking a Kalu running up a small incline and diving back down. My rounds caught him before he jumped on the road. Others were moving side to side as they advanced.
I hate it when they start learning!
“In position, pull back to me!” Shreesht yelled. Krom and I used the building for cover, shifting side to side to screw up the Kalu’s aim.
We slid down the embankment we were in, dropping onto the sides of the river behind a boulder.
The Kalu seemed to have figured out where our position had been. Too bad for them that and artillery barrage started coming down.
“Move it!” Rick barked, my HUD pinged, he’d finished completing my fire plan.
We’d only have one chance at it. Krom, Shreesht and I didn’t need anymore encouragement, we rushed through the river, water splashing over our armor, yellows turned to reds as Kalu got some hits on our backsides. If we’d been using human rounds with gunpowder charges we would have gone up in fireballs.
Thankfully our rounds were inert and the HAPA’s we ran towards fired over us.
We rushed up an embankment and into new cover behind some more avalanche debris.
“We need to fire now,” Rick said.
“All HAPA’s get a clean sight-line for your missiles. As soon as they hit, start running to the rear,” I said.
I got greens and my HUD started registering that my people’s missiles packs were up and ready. I automated the firing plan, pushing back from cover, putting it between me and the b
oulder.
The valleys filled with a new kind of smoke, thousands of missiles arching into the air and plunging back down.
***
“Take cover their clouds are coming!” Orshpa said, listening to his own words and diving into an outcrop of rocks.
The clouds erupted into creation, rolling down the valley with their destruction.
“They have no more clouds, charge, take them!” Orshpa said, rushing out of his cover and seeing the large machines actually running from him and his primes.
“They run, they are broken, fall on them now, bring them to battle!” Orshpa ran faster and faster, gaining on the HAPA’s his lasers bored through one’s back, it turned firing and then continued on. Not waiting to present battle.
A shadow passed overhead.
Orshpa looked to it. He knew that shape, he had seen it on his scanners many times.
It was their leader Salchar’s ship, Hic Stamus, he fired at the ship.
As if it had sensed him, the ship responded. PDS left lines across the valleys, hitting multiple from it’s vantage point. The rail cannons bellowed, the valley coming apart in fire that the whistling rounds had not been able to match.
Lasers lashed out at the ship, Kalu fighters Orshpa had called on, coming to the fight.
Missiles ripple fired along the length of the ship, piercing the Kalu fighter swarm, the explosions rocked the very air around Orshpa.
“Press on, we will close with the Commandos!” Orshpa said, only to see his people disappear as rounds turned the valley into a pockmarked mess.
Rocks exploded and dirt was thrown into the air. Orshpa had never seen anything like this kind of destruction up close.
I wonder if this is what it looked like on Chaleel?
***
“I have expended my processing speed. I need time,” Resilient said, sounding damned tired to Brusk’s ear.
“You’ve done a fine job my girl,” he said, meaning it, she made a chief gunner proud. “We’ll take it from here.” He looked at the teams that were running around, replacing the guns that had been mangled in entry and keeping other guns active.
“Alright, Resilient’s shown us how it’s done, now it’s our turn to get these damned guns back online and on target! I want walking fire across those valleys, make a wall of rounds that no Kalu can cross!” He yelled jumping into an empty gunner’s seat, using the controls to bring him on target.
“We good Vop?” Brusk asked the tech looking over the gun’s readouts.
“Good!” The tech said, slapping his back.
“Firing!” Brusk said, seeing the look of terror on the tech’s face as he realized who he’d slapped.
Might have a chance being a gunner sometime in the future, Brusk thought, walking fire up the valley, then started roving from side to side, stopping the Kalu’s advance. Other cannons looked to clear up to where he was holding them.
His gun clanked, the noise all too familiar to his senses.
“Jam!” Vop said, grabbing the belt that fed the gun, pulling it out completely and replacing it. Ammunition fed into the new belt, Vop turning to a crew needing help swapping barrels out.
“In!” Brusk said, firing.
“That’s it baby, time to rock and roll,” Brusk said to himself, a gunner reaching down with Zeus’ own bolt.
***
“Keep moving!” I yelled.
“We are well out of the range of your ship’s guns,” Lee said, sounding confused.
“We’re out of Hic Stamus, but not War Station! Move it Lee!” I barked, no room for discussion.
HAPA’s continued our ambling, I could see the timer running down, faster than I thought possible.
My eyes flicked to War-station.
Come on, come on. I kept moving as MEF’s and Kalu fighters fought in the skies above, streaks of PDS, missiles and lasers clashed into chaos.
***
“How long until we’re on target?” Whorst said, tension running through every fiber of his body.
“Five minutes,” Peck said.
“Hic Stamus is starting to move off of position,” Dallaho said.
Whorst and Richter shared a look.
“Frankeuw, what can we hit the Kalu with now?” Whorst asked.
Frankeuw paused, Whorst sensed something behind those eyes.
“What?” Whorst snapped.
“Missiles,” he said, looking as if the very word was distasteful. “If we use them then anything in those valleys is going to be killed, anything. Not even our armor can stop the shock waves that will be going down there, they’ll be funneled through the valley, every explosion adding to the destruction,” Frankeuw explained.
“I could get a few shots on-target, it’s going to take a lot of computing as we’re going through some atmosphere and we have various engines working to compensate. Being part of the system I can change the lines of fire on the fly as new movement comes into effect,” Devastahli said.
Whorst looked at him, knowing the shot would be like shooting for a pinhole while on a glider in a hurricane. War Station didn’t look to be moving much, but there were fifteen people just concentrating on keeping the station out of Earth’s lower atmosphere. They were firing what were the equivalent of Destroyer classed engines to correct the vessel’s position every few seconds, adding to the vibrations of the ship which was already pushing around Earth as fast as possible. Then there was gravity, atmosphere, the curvature of the Earth, speed the round left the gun at.
“Do it,” Whorst said. “Take any computing power you need from systems we don’t have,” Whorst said.
“Yes Commander,” Devastahli said, bowing his head to Whorst.
His cloak disappeared and a Slevaran wearing powered armor stood there larger than a Dovark or Avarian with red eyes that turned to the main screens.
Nothing happened for a few seconds and then PRC’s started firing, not one or two, but whole batteries.
Each of those vibrations moved the other guns, a few millimeters off of target here, could be kilometers down on Earth.
Whorst trusted Devastahli, his eyes watching as those red markers disappeared into Earth’s atmosphere and headed on their paths towards
***
“Run! Shit, fuck, goddamit!” Salchar yelled, somehow staying standing even as he stumbled. They were rushing through the city that ran along the road through the valley. The residents had left long ago. Leaving fields of dead crops and an eerie feeling that clung to the city.
“We’re already running,” Rick said.
“Yeah, but Devastahli wasn’t trying to thread the damned needle with his batteries!” Salchar said.
“Fuck, run you bastards!” Rick said, HAPA’s pushed as fast as they could, following the trucks and transports out of the valley.
The first rounds landed, Rick used his HUD to see behind him.
They came in like darts, barely realizing that they were there before dirt exploded into the air, the ground rumbled against the treatment and pressure waves of air slapped the fleeing forces. A few stumbled and fell. A few trucks rising up. HAPA’s pushed them back onto the road as those that had fallen down got their feet under them and kept up their retreat.
***
Whorst’s faith was rewarded as round after round obliterated farm land, cities, lakes, mountains. Not one of them hitting the Free Fleet personnel running their asses off to get the hell out of the valleys the Kalu had followed them through.
“Be in position in minutes,” Peck reported.
“As soon as we’re in position and the guns have clear sights they’re free to fire,” Whorst said, sharing a look with Frankeuw.
“Yes Commander,” the man said talking into his microphone.
War-station was now swinging around to slow it’s advance, Dev just changed guns he was firing from, keeping up his unholy and devilishly accurate barrage.
Whorst let out a dry laugh, looking at the forces that must be running as fast as damned possible to get the hel
l out of the way.
More batteries started firing as Whorst watched Hic Stamus powering out of Earth’s atmosphere and gravity well.
Battery after battery fired rounds screaming through atmosphere and racing through Earth’s skies and into it’s ground. The impacts were visible even from orbit.
The force at Xi’an had held the line and pulled the Kalu in close, bleeding for Whorst’s chance to bring his weapons to bear.
***
Orshpa looked at the valley’s they had been pummeled, the farmyards now craters.
He looked at his once mighty host, they raced in any direction they thought afforded the greatest cover, he had been drawn in by the Commandos. He had thought to fight them with tooth and claw.
Once again they had tricked him.
Debris from a rock pierced his side, dropping him to the ground in pain.
Realization and peace came over him. He would die and his fleets would die. Yet he had written his names in history. He would be in defeat, but he dared any that might question it to fight the Free Fleet.
“Come on then, end this battle, end my story. I am ready for rest,” Orshpa said, pain making his voice weak.
He thought he saw something arcing through the sky.
Kinetic energy turned into destructive energy and Orshpa, clan leader of Oltali, war leader of the Second teaching war passed into the annals of history.
***
I looked over what had been the valleys from Xi’an to Zhengzhou.
“Everyone is accounted for; shuttles are already moving people back to the lines tot he south. Yasu is almost ready to begin her attacks,” Rick said, his helmet off as he sat down with me.
“Hard to think that this morning we went into a fight with half a million Kalu, and now all that’s left of them is that,” I said gesturing at the smoking craters that filled the valley. From our vantage point on the side of a mountain it was a testament of the destruction sentients could bring down on one another.
War's Reward (Free Fleet Book 6) Page 25