Free Fleet #03 No Rest for the Wicked

by Michael Chatfield

  She went to the only console in the room. It was foreign and not on the planetary network. Still she accessed the messaging system, she wrote a simple message that advertised rare metals, set it on delay to be sent to everyone connected. Using the broom like a crutch she got to the door. She opened it, finding an empty corridor. She went right, hobbling towards something with the Orv by her side. There was no one at the next corridor. She took a left, looking in the doors as she passed them. They were all unoccupied cells. She got to one where a guard was working on a console. She opened the door quietly, judging the distance she jumped. The guard turned as she reached him, she pressed the Orv to his nearest tentacle his other shot out in pain. Janice grabbed a tentacle and jabbed the Orv in towards his main body. A gurgling shriek came from him for a few minutes before it ended.

  The console had videos of people being tortured on it. It looked like he was the movie maker for the scenes she'd seen on her view screen. She checked in his tentacle cluster above his body and found a communication device. She fired it up and sent the same message that she had on the console to every contact.

  “Crap,” She said as it didn't send. There was probably some kind of communication blocking system in place.

  Sirens went off as she put the device back into the guards’ tentacles and took his pistol. She still held onto the Orv. As much as she despised it, it was still a weapon. She got into the corridor, hugging the walls as she advanced, her legs were slowly getting better but they were still weak. A squad of four turned the corridor she was going down. Janice fired first recognizing their races and their weaknesses. She dropped to the floor as she kept firing. A Tacher rolled into a defensive ball. Janice crawled toward the downed squad trying to reach them before the Tacher had time to get out of its defensive shell. She was grabbing a rifle when it did. She put three shots into it before it died.

  Janice got a vest on and a rifle, using the walls as she stood unsteadily and continued her advance. She kept going until she got to a corridor where there was a barricade. She edged out only to have rounds smash into ’the wall right above her head. She ducked back behind cover, knowing that there was no way for her to get through all of the soldiers in front of her. There were raised voices as something was thrown. Janice jumped away from the corner. There was no explosion and she looked to the object they'd thrown.

  She picked it up, seeing a video screen. She kept a rifle trained on the corner as she hit play.

  “You made me do this,” a voice said as she watched a door open to Dave's cell.

  “No, don't!” Janice yelled as tears rolled down her face.

  It changed to the view she had seen from the movies. Dave looked at the person who entered the room.

  Janice saw realization dawn on his face. She screamed and cried as the person raised a pistol, a shot rang out as Dave slumped.

  “Noooo! NOOO!!!!” She screamed remembering how they'd looked after one another when they'd been in the same squad, and the comfort of just sleeping with one another. They had been one another's rock and these bastards they'd tried to help had destroyed that. She felt strength fill her as she stood, checking the items she had.

  Bead rifle, four clips, three grenades, pistol two clips. She felt a sad smile cross her face. She fired down at the barrier, priming a grenade that she whipped after the rounds. Crump. She turned the corner firing at anything that moved. Her legs wobbled and her body hurt where it touched anything. The leftover pain was nothing to how her mind reeled from Dave's loss. She was hit in the chest, but she controlled her fall, firing at the shooter. She rolled next to the armoured barricade as she reloaded her beader. She thumbed another grenade, waiting for it to go off before following it again. Her reinforcements came in as she was going past the barricade. They came together in a mash of bodies and weapons. Janice screamed as she grabbed her pistol, shooting the attackers. She got up as a round hit her leg. She fell face first, firing and rolling to get a new weapon. Her leg was destroyed, but she had learnt to handle pain as she grabbed a riffle and laid down fire. Another round got through the thin layers of her side armour, she gasped in pain as she felt her body become weak from blood loss. An irresistible wave of tiredness was breaking over her and she let her rifle drop.

  ***

  Krom felt like his body was freezing from the inside out as he became fully awake. His torturer put the view screen in front of his face and turned it on. He watched as Janice took a barricaded station and rounds hit her as she fell. She sank to the ground and a pool of blood expanded underneath her. Rage built inside Krom, and he pulled on his restraints as his muscles bunched.

  His Orv put her kaaOrv in his nerve ports. He passed out, screaming in pain until the cold feeling brought him back. He looked up to the video as he saw a soldier enter a torture room. Dave looked up before being rocked back as the soldier's pistol kicked.

  “They died and you did nothing,” his torturer said into his ear as she left the video playing, forcing Krom to see the deaths of his two closest friends.

  Dave and Janice had been like parents to the rest of the protection detail. They were the ones that made sure everyone was eating and changing shifts. They made Krom trade off protecting Salchar all the time. They had been kind and loving people as well as the best Commandos Krom had the pleasure of knowing. He would add their names to the wall of the awakened when he returned to AIH if he did.

  For the first time in his life Krom felt completely useless. He had been trained to fight and look after his battle mates his entire life. Yet now he couldn't do anything. He was shameful, weak and useless. He wasn't a real warrior anymore. Over and over he was forced to watch the deaths of Dave and Janice,’ just as he’d been forced to watch the scenes from the relations team. It was all he could do to pay them homage as his Orv returned. The feeling of cold focus faded away as the hazy continuance took over. Krom let his head fall to the floor, shame and embarrassment filling him.

  I should've never let them take us, was his last thought as he lost himself to nothingness.

  Chapter - Progress and a Surprise

  Cheerleader and the majority of the fleet had been working to scout out the areas they didn't know as much about as they would like.

  But now something had emerged from a wormhole looking for them.

  “Move!” she yelled as people hugged the walls.

  Her first shift crew were already in their positions or trickling in after her.

  “We have one Cruiser in system,” Jorvut said from the Sensor pit. Werv, Cheerleader's second-in-command was still making his way to the bridge.

  “Bring the fleet to readiness.”

  Onur bent over her comms console as she sent the alerts. Anyone too far out to provide support was to watch the outcome of a battle, if one occurred, and head for the fleet at Daestramus as fast as possible.

  Bregend's small squadron of two Corvettes, two cruisers, a destroyer, and his new Battle Cruiser Resolute went through start-ups and readied themselves. So did Taleel's Battle Cruiser and two more destroyers which made up Cheerleader's scouting fleet.

  In minutes they were ready.

  “Sphere formation,” Cheerleader said as she pulled up reports on the FTL system, which would be connected within four days.

  She waited as it took six hours for a message to come in from the Battle Cruiser.

  People gasped as a Dovark appeared on the screen. Dovarks were the first race, the group that had created the Union and the real PDF. They had connected races across the Universe and their home planet was the centre of the entire Union. The home system Quarst was now the property of Lady Fairgate and she had something against the Dovark, something she made clear to the race. She never let them leave the surface. Well, she never had. It looked like she did now.

  “My name is Captain Lord Foshunti,” The Dovark said with a sweeping bow. Its mouth was toothless and it had oddly shaped long limbs. They looked long and weak but Cheerleader knew they were extremely powerful. The Dovark, while
looking like feeble creatures, were as strong as, if not stronger than an Avarian.

  It wore rich clothes which shimmered in colors against its bland grey skin. Its head had patches of roughness which she knew extended across the rest of its body.

  “I come on behalf of my Lady Fairgate. To challenge you and your fleet to a nice little battle. Say at this location in three weeks’ time? Good luck, lovelies.”

  Foshunti bowed again, his clothes shimmering as he did so, the transmission ending to be replaced by a solid looking Troulver resting on its chair.

  “Do you accept Captain Lord Foshunti's battle?” the creature asked, ending the message.

  Cheerleader stared at the screen while she thought about it. Salchar had given her the power to make decisions on his behalf. Having someone actually proposing a battle seemed ludicrous, yet she only knew a little about the universe. It was a possibility. Also knowing where a battle was going to take place was good intelligence. They could get some advantages just from knowing that I had a time. And, not agreeing meant she had less of an idea where Foshunti might be.

  “Open a channel,” she said and Onur did so.

  “I accept his battle.” She indicated for Onur to cut off the connection.

  “Have the ships near the jump limit move independently. I want them to alert the other scouting parties as soon as possible. I want one ship to get to the nearest FTL hub and send a message to Parnmal about what's happened, another ship to Salchar. No movement before that cruiser is out of this system,” she said, Werv looking after the details as Onur contacted ships to make Cheerleader’s idea a reality.

  “Go to readiness yellow,” Cheerleader said They could have a fleet waiting within wormhole range,” making sure her people didn’t relax now that their immediate issue was dealt with.

  Cheerleader waited for the message to reach the cruiser. A half hour passed before the cruiser jumped away using its capacitors. Cheerleader couldn't see what the other ships were doing as they had four, to eighteen hours time lag.

  Yet another fight to prep for. Cheerleader thought, opening a channel to Bregend.

  “Cheerleader,” the man said, his voice deep as ever.

  “Will you be with us or following Min Hae? He's supposed to go to the next inhabited system.”

  “I'll send my fast movers. Two Corvettes and cruisers. My Destroyer and my Battle Cruiser are at your disposal,”

  “Thank you, Bregend,” Cheerleader said, updating her roster.

  “I'll leave you to it,” Bregend replied. Cutting the channel, Cheerleader sent a message off to the ship that was on standby to Daestramus.

  ***

  Cheerleader wasn't the only one getting messages.

  “I've got them!” Gogs said as Min Hae rushed to his station, mostly by climbing and awkwardly shuffling.

  Gogs opened a hologram in the middle of the room, making Min Hae feel a little embarrassed. Well. If he'd cared about that sort of thing. Algorithms the hologram showed a section of an underground base out in the middle of nowhere.

  “How did you find it?”

  “Someone posted an advert coming from this position that fit our algorithms.”

  “You sure it's not a mistake?”

  “No, it looks like one of ours was able to get a message out. I'm trying to retrace, using the communications device sending the message as a hub.” Gogs stopped talking as his hands flew over the console. As information populated the hologram, Gogs face tightened in a rictus of concentration.

  “Chrys, I want that communications system prepped. Also get the others ready. If this is them we need to be ready to leave,” Chrys nodded into his console as he worked.

  “Someone also sent the same advert through the entire system. I'm finding the point of origin. Seems there's some video footage. I'll see if I can..,”

  Gogs stopped, looking away as Min Hae watched four different screens of people being tortured. There were slim wands being pressed against their flesh but Min Hae knew that something didn't have to be large to elicit pain. He looked away as he remembered his pain implant. The wands left bloody welts wherever they passed and most of the tables his people were strapped to had a container underneath them that caught the creatures’ equivalents of blood.

  “Run it through face recognition. I want to know where our people are,” Min Hae said and Gogs did so, putting it in the background so he didn't have to see the pain people were being submitted to.

  ***

  I breathed heavily,’ having forgotten there was any other way to breathe. KaaOrv Sevrare was walking around, waiting to use her Orv whenever I wasn't paying attention for maximum shock and to make me feel completely vulnerable.

  “I used to hate this thing,” she said, waving her Orv. “I used to be a good person. I was told so by my father before I tortured my mother in front of him. You see, for you it is an instrument of pain, for me its freedom. I don't feel anything unless I use my Orv on flesh. Not being able to feel anything is worse than any pain imaginable. I don't really know who I am, or care about anything other than bringing others pain. The more pain I elicit the more I can feel.

  “Once I'm done inflicting pain I don't feel anything anymore. It makes me wonder if the reason I don't continue is because I hate the emotions I feel, or if my feelings contain some of the goodness my father talked about,”

  She looked into my eyes. “Everything is better from the other side,” she said, jabbing my stomach as it felt as if I'd been impaled.

  ***

  “We have someone transmitting to the fleet in orbit,” someone said in the command centre. Jelum didn't have time to remember people's names.

  “I want it traced. Have the detail nearest the transmission bring them in.”

  No one said anything as the signal was traced back.

  “It's coming from the city of Jak... Governor's personal communication system,”

  “City Governor Roshvi sent the message?” Jelum asked.

  “Yes sir,”

  “Bring him in. See if Overseer Marhtu is available,” Jelum said as he stood at parade rest.

  It was several minutes later when Overseer Marhtu graced Jelum with his transmission.

  Marhtu raised an eyebrow in question.

  “City Governor Roshvi sent a message to the Free Fleet. I have a team bringing him to your KaaOrv,” Jelum said as Marhtu's scales reflected his anger.

  Jelum saw someone trying to get his attention. He dared not turn and look to the person, lest it be taken as an insult by Marhtu.

  “See that he is not allowed to die before getting there. I want him to adorn my floor,” Marhtu said and Jelum bowed.

  “It will be done my Overseer,” Marhtu waved his hand, the channel closing as Jelum looked to the person trying to get his attention.

  “WHAT?” He asked, his voice threatening what would happen if the person hadn't nearly interrupted the Overseer for some very good reason.

  “The Free Fleet is moving. The Dreadnought is descending,” the message said in a rush as the entire room seemed to look to Jelum, all of them in shock.

  “Scramble the fighters, get the defences up. I want the Free Fleet personnel moved!” Jelum said. “I want a plot on the main screen!”

  He leaned on the railing in front of him. He was a nobody Marhtu had picked for his loyalty. He wasn't trained for this sort of thing. He wasn't a general.

  “We have visual!” someone said, and the screen changed to the Dreadnought as it sunk through atmosphere, the massive ship blowing as it's armour was heated by entry. Two Corvette's trailed behind it as the rest of the fleet waited in atmosphere. It was one thing to see it as a designated target on a screen, another to see it sinking through atmosphere like Death's own judgement. “It looks like they know where the prisoners are.” Nervousness was showing in people's voices. The room suddenly felt too cold and Jelum shivered slightly.

  “What the hell is going on, Jelum!” Marhtu said, his face replacing the image of Resilient. His scale
s were a mess of anger.

  “They've got ships descending,” Jelum said, shock filling him.

  “I can see that! I want them off of my planet! Tell me when it's done, or I will replace you!” Marhtu said, cutting his channel and leaving Jelum to stare at Resilient as if the ship had some kind of answer.

  “Fighters are in the air,”

  “Pound those ships!” Jelum yelled as he remembered the planets defences. “Shoot them with everything we've got!”

  Jelum felt strength come back into his body. He could still win this!

  “We have multiple launches from the ships in orbit, it looks like they're carriers!”

  We should've told the informant which ships. We don't know what they have other than Resilient,

  “We know what Resilient's defences are. Hammer that first, then the other ships,”

  “Resilient is flaring thrusters. It's opening shuttle bays!” Jelum's panic rose again but he fought it down. If he didn't win he wouldn't survive, or worse he'd become one of Marhtu's slaves.

  ***

  In Sook was wearing the cap of Ship Commander instead of Combined Arms Commander when the information on where Salchar and the rest of the Free Fleet were being held came in.

  “Confirm that information and prep for drop,” she said, opening a channel to Rick.

  “In Sook?” He sounded confused.

  “We know where they are,” she said.

  “Follow the plan and drop us right on them,” Rick told her.

  “Readiness level red,” she said as the fleet powered up fully, not caring who saw.

  Helm moved the ship so it was ready for entry. They switched off with Milra as she took over. Rick jogged into the room as In Sook got into her command station, making sure that all of the Commandos as well as fighters were ready to go. Heston and Santos were giving her a green light. Bok Soo was staying with the Fleet in orbit in case they needed reinforcements, or the rescue force was killed. He was next in line for command after Rick, something that he'd been very vocal about being against. He didn't want his Commandos on a battlefield he wasn't on.