The Recruitment: Rise of the Free Fleet

by Michael Chatfield

  “Alright look after the house while I’m gone.” I said as I entered the shuttle bay.

  “Will do Commander.”

  I cut the channel feelig uncomfortable as I sat next to Yasu. Her regal calm poise at odds with the dried blood and what looked like parts of metal. I could see the Sato sisters which had attached themselves to her, were similarly covered in gore.

  I tried to sit as confidently in my seat as possible but I felt the thinness of my comparative battle suit instead I shrugged as I looked over the information coming from the surface as a channel connected with me put through the Resilient as the shuttle was pushing out of the bay. “James!”

  “Iron Bok Soo, how goes it brother.” I said happiness and relief swelling in my chest.

  “Dealing with the Sarenmenti forces that the fleet you just destroyed sent down. The ones that were with us are working with us after having the information shoved down their throats.” I heard gunfire in the background as he put me on hold quickly before returning.

  “Some of the new Sarenmenti have defected to us after we’ve been relaying the information we have to them since you began attacking the fleet. Others, well there’s always a few diehards.”

  “Shit, well they made their decision. What’s going on now?”

  “We’re holding the positions we have, the Syndicate Sarenmenti are destroying whatever they can. We’re holding our stations and leading attacks against them as best we can but again we’re so thin it’s hard to have any forces move from one to another whereas they can attack a target with a good portion of their force but we don’t know where the rest of their force is. We’re reacting more than acting and it’s pissing me off.”

  “With the long range sensors on our ships we should be able to solve that issue. We’re already on our way with reinforcements so tell me where you need us?”

  “Takashi needs you most I’ll relay you to him. He’s direct, talks as little as possible but he knows what he’s doing.”

  “Okay, patch me to him.” I said wishing I could’ve just kept talking to Iron Bok Soo. I heard a grunt on the other end of the channel of someone fighting. More grunting continued as Takahashi said nothing.

  “Takahashi, where do you need men?” I said after a few seconds.

  “PowerStation’s nineteen, twenty eight to thirty two and thirty five.”

  “Has anyone talked to the Chaleel leaders?”

  “No.”

  “Thank you.” I changed to Henry’s channel. “Split forces to PowerStation’s, nineteen, twenty eight to thirty two and thirty five.”

  “Yes sir.”

  I connected with Resilient. “Commander, I’ll get you the chief of staff.” The communications officer said.

  “No I need you, I need you to put me in contact with the Chaleel leaders, I want General Carsickle included in the conference.”

  “Yes, sir, one moment.”

  “Five minutes till we hit pay dirt.” The shuttles pilot said through the hold.

  “I have a connection with the people listed as the leaders of the planet by the Syndicate fleet.”

  “Thank you please connect me.”

  I felt the harsh thrust of the shuttle decelerating as my implant beeped. “Hello, my name is commander Salchar, Carsickle can vouch for me. Currently we are working to remove the forces that wished to enslave your planet. Please attend to defending your cities as we remove them from outside of your walls.”

  “You say you want to defeat those that enslaved us, but it was in fact you and your people that were the forefront of those that attacked us. I’m sorry we’re not that stupid.” One of the leaders said.

  “Just tell us your demands and we will fulfill them.”

  “Carsickle are you there?” I asked realizing that he probably wouldn’t recognize me on looks alone anymore.

  “Yes.”

  “Incoming small arms fire. Gun teams!” The pilot said as Gun teams in retrofitted jump seats next to the ramps and airlocks hit emergency buttons. Their weapons in racks beside them shifted so that they were in front of them on pintles. The airlocks opened as they swung outwards through them. They’d taken the idea from when I’d done it the first time we were on Chaleel. I wanted to put actual turrets on the shuttles but maybe later.

  “I’ve undergone some, changes recently but I am Salchar. I’m the one that brought your wounded out and was attacked by your people. Then talked with youdirectly afterwards. You showed me the videos of the Syndicate captains demanding all of your people’s food and I said I would be back to help out. Do you remember me?”

  He looked skeptical as I sighed.

  “Alright here’s it nice and simple. Look after yourselves; stay within your city walls and you won’t be hurt. We’re clearing the place of any Syndicate forces. You come within a hundred kilometres and you will be treated as Syndicate sympathizers. Carsickle make sure they obey. I do not want any more Chaleelian blood on my hands but I will to protect my people. Salchar out.”

  “One minute!” The pings for the small arms fire could be heard hitting the armour of the shuttle as the shield gave spotty cover due to the changing forces placed upon it as the shuttle jinked and weaved. Making it of little use as it was letting a decent amount of rounds through.

  “Hover drop!” The pilot said as our movement stopped in mid-air. I smashed my harness release only the Avarians matched my speed and ferocity, Yasu was half second slower. Whereas I got up in a flash she rose regally popping her sword out a half inch with her thumb to make sure it was free.

  I halfcocked my rail gun checking the round seated in the acceleration chamber, even though the light was rose coloured indicating there was a round in it. I did the same with my pistol and popped my sword. Then I was outside of the shuttle. I let my legs absorb the fall as Commandos leading Avarians secured the perimetre. I pressed a tab for the battle suits hood as it formed to my head. My HUD came alive feeding me battle information as I took cover behind a house.

  With a quick glance I got the lay of the land.

  This power station had a decent sized village around it; we were a kilometre from the actual station where the most severe fighting was going on.

  I turned to the wall, my claws coming out as I held my rifle in one hand. “Up to the roofs. Sharpshooters and support.” I told Henry; he was running his own show and he didn’t need me confusing his troops as me and my personal detail ran or in my and Krom’s case—lunged up the wall.

  I threw myself over the lip of the building getting into the prone. There was no entrance to the roof as I peeked over the raised lip of the roof I didn’t see anything, neither did my HUD or the linked sensors of every battle suit and Mecha. The roofs swarmed and my smaller protection detail was reinforced by a combination of Sarenmenti, Avarians and humans.

  “Alright PD lets go crush some skulls.” I said as I queued music on my HUD and took off at a run, throwing myself to another building, rolling and continuing my headlong progress as I used a wall and pole to get to another roof. Below us others moved through the deserted village.

  The Avarians were slow at first, the Humans and Sarenmenti happily showing off as we parkoured through the maze of buildings showing how skilled they were with their Mechas.

  Once the Avarians got the feel for the quick transitional running, jumping and rolling I could see a few grins through their visors along with us. I slowed our headlong charge with quick hand gestures so that those below us could keep pace.

  Henry who’d connected with the forces at the plant now had a sensor feed which he uploaded to us all. He sent orders splitting us into three groups One Two and Three. I was Three.

  We were coming from the south organized in three extended lines running from east to west. One and two created an arrow like formation with three in an extended line along their base.

  “Only shoot Syndicate forces. If a civilian runs do everything in your power to provide them with protection.” Henry said over the general channel, repeating the rul
es of engagement I’d given out days ago. The rapid advance that reminded me of parkouring athletes back on Earth was now slow and silent, the nerves of everyone on edge as they waited for battle to be joined.

  “Contact!” A squad commander yelled out as the mini-map on my HUD changed colours as Syndicate forces where highlighted and those Commandos engaged changed from blue to green.

  Quickly both One and Two were engaged in fire fights.

  “Three moves in and link up One and Two!” As an extended line we carried forward using roofs for cover we moved quickly as our heavy support weapons were with One and Two.

  “Fire and movement in squads!” The Commander of the Third detachment said as squads moved forward yelling “Covering!” and “Moving” while we advanced.

  A Sarenmenti was looking east where fire had been coming from second. He didn’t see me as I raised my rifle sending a burst into the unknowing Mecha dropping him to the ground as a group behind the building moved out to see what the noise was from. Already my PD was with me as we opened fire, the syndicates realized what was happening and returned fire, causing two to go down due to injuries before Krom’s use of a grenade put an end to the fight.

  I waited as my squad checked to make sure the dead were actually dead before we moved off.

  The lead Commandos were far ahead of us by the time they were done with their search. Leaving me to think that my PD had taken their time about the task.

  “James can you use your PD to check over the corpses?” Henry asked.

  “On it.” I said as much as I didn’t want to interfere, this was his battle and he had a million and one things to attend to as I well knew.

  “We’re on clean up duty. Disable weapon systems and check to make sure the dead are actually dead; if they’re wounded we call in a waiting shuttle and get them attention, same with our own people.” I said to my PD as they split up accordingly.

  “I do not understand why you humans help your enemy even if they’ve tried to kill you.” Krom said on a private channel.

  “Humans have been fighting one another for thousands of years we created these rules to remain somewhat human and that after we’ve fought one another both sides can have something they can fall back on. A base of trust that each side treated their prisoners humanely and tried their utmost to preserve life. It gives them grounds to work together in the future possibly preserving life instead of ending it. It is how we’ve kept surviving, without rules humans return to their barbaric ways, as with the Mechas that arrived on Parnmal station after we took it.”

  We’d moved to another tagged group of downed Mechas three quarters of my PD disabled weapons as I talked to Krom and stayed back from the searchers.

  “Until the space god came and saved us from the planet killer we fought viciously never getting above living in caves, our population was small and near extinction. When the space gods came the awakening priests could make my people reach their full potential, creating two main groups, the warriors and creators.” He changed channels quickly before returning to his story.

  “The creators spent their lives studying the machines of the space gods; the warriors went out and kept the peace between the major groups by becoming the leaders by majority. Others won over control later as less people were awakened, but those that had their parents awaken still had the majority of their awakened abilities. But without the code that the warriors and creators swore too they were free to do as they wish. We again began to fall into chaos; the creators taken up with their time with the space gods machines died off and weren’t replaced as the priests saw it as a waste of the space god’s gift as they’d shunned the rest of the Avarians.”

  “Then the Kareet came, they were a vicious race of creatures that were a match for ten Avarians. Warriors underwent extreme testing before they were awakened. Most pledged at least one child to the awakening when they came of age and accepted the responsibility to keep the sons and daughters from committing the atrocities their predecessors had. The four clans joined and fought the Kareet. And the second re-birth came. Awakening priests were accepted into every clan. Warriors pledged loyalty to their battle master who was also their clan leader as long as it didn’t interfere with the code of Awakening. Creators weren’t awakened as they had lost their chance and that is how we’ve survived until the third death which you saved us from.”

  “Why don’t the priests awaken Creators now?”

  “There was talk of doing so when we left, to see what they could do to help our people move to the stars. It is something for the awakening priests to decide. With the third death passed and the third re-birth it seemed that they were accepting of the idea there was talk of awakening your creators if they were accepting of the idea.”

  “The Kuruvians? There are quite a few of them with modifications already, seeing as most of them working with computer systems nearly all of them wanted improved implants that would allow them to use internal universal ports so they could directly connect to computer systems instead of having to take complex equipment around with them, plus wireless message one another. With every race there’ll always be a few that are willing to try it out.” I surmised.

  “Indeed. Let’s move onto the next group Commander.”

  “Of course.” I said letting him lead on as I had a lot to think about. The PD put me near the rear as we roof jumped to the next group. This was a large one as the PD spread out a bit more to not cross arcs as one checked the fallen the other covering them. I was on the ground to make me less of a target the team assigned to me watching out as I stood there thinking about the story Krom had told me.

  “There, behind you!” I heard as a team of my PD opened fire.

  “C’mon.” I said to my team my HUD already showing me where the team under fire were positioned as we ran to them. I was greeted by the sight of Sarenmenti tossing off their fellow dead as they got to their feet firing and screaming wordlessly. A team in the same open area turned and shot them as more got out of other piles of bodies, or hiding places they’d found. Hundreds of rounds hit the other team before they had time to react.

  My team and I fired as our HUDS painted them as the enemy. The Sarenmenti shifted their fire onto us as we continued to fire.

  “Get back into cover!” I said following my own advice taking a bound that with my Avarian strength put me behind a wall as I turned to provide covering fire.

  The first team member made it behind cover as the second team member cried out in pain as they fell catching a round. I checked the vital sounds dropping my rifle and grabbing the first team members pistol as well as my own.

  “COVER ME!” I yelled as I ran around the corner. Now in the movies using two pistols is amazing, everyone dies and the main character reloads. When I first got a pistol I tried this out and found out how much Hollywood had lied to me, hitting one target wasn’t all that bad but hitting two that weren’t even moving was damned near impossible the recoil on pistols just threw it everywhere and you couldn’t sight down the weapon.

  But add in the additional strength of whatever the Awakening priests had done to me and the linked in weapons which gave me an aiming carat on my HUD, it was like playing duck hunter.

  I flung one empty pistol back in the direction I’d come from reloading and hitting the activator as I grabbed the fallen Mecha, who to her credit was firing with her rail gun. I dragged her as I shot. My battle suits enhanced strength and the odd assisting kick from her worked to help me move the near ton of armour and person.

  Her team mate covered us, making his rounds last to keep the Sarenmenti back. I felt blazing agony across my forearm as a round grazed it another across my trap as I made it to cover.

  “Use hell fire.” I told her, the auto injector had been upgraded so that it didn’t fire unless the user was going to die immediately without the powerful drug or they couldn’t fight without it. It was worse to be in writhing pain over your entire body and unable to fire in a firefight than endure what you had and not b
e able to fight.

  She took her finger off her trigger and fired the hell fire through her system as I reloaded my pistol grabbed my rifle and tapped the other team member still firing.

  “Switch out!”

  He fell out and back as I took his spot. I could hear him and his wife/team member talking as he reloaded while I lined up my sight picture with the advancing Sarenmenti.

  “Can you move?” I asked her as I fired.

  “Yes commander.” Anger and resolution in her voice as she picked herself up.

  “Good,” I changed channels. “Krom we need support.”

  “We’re to your left flank I can’t get people to you; they’re covering the rooftops and a road in between us. I have support moving in from the North. Hold your position we’ll take their fire. Remember we’re you shields.”