She let out a soft laugh.
“How about Henry Hachiro Cook?” She replied. Her hand tightening on mine.
“Sounds perfect,” I said, looking to her.
Henry would be safer than many, Monk had taken his duties as Uncle with great pride and the fierce protectiveness in his eyes put me and Yasu at ease. He was family and he would lay down his life to protect our son.
“Salchar,” Krom said softly, reminding us to keep moving, the Fleet was needed in AIH.
I touched the statue dedicated to Henry.
“Wish you were here to see how we’ve grown brother,” I said, emotions making my jaw tighten as my eyes shimmered.
Yasu patted the statue as well, we sunk into our own memories for a moment before Yasu pulled me onwards.
We walked together, hand in hand all the way to the shuttle bay.
“Let’s go and protect our home,” Yasu said, fire in her eyes.
I nodded to the truth in her words. Earth had betrayed us too many times, AIH was our home and the Free Fleet were our people.
We hugged, giving eachother our love. Neither of us wanted to let go, as we hadn’t wanted to let go of our boy Henry.
We came apart and I darted in for a quick kiss and one last hug.
We hid our tears, the training of gaming celebrity helping us. I pulled my helmet on, silent tears falling down my cheeks as I hooked my gloves in.
I took my seat with a rattling breath, moving my arms to focus myself.
We hadn’t been just saying goodbye, we’d been telling the other what we would want them to remember if they died.
The shuttle arrived at Hic Stamus all too quickly.
“We are ready to move to Avar Interim Hermanti,” Rick said in my helmet as I stepped off of my shuttle.
“Very well, get us there as fast as possible,” I said, steeping into my role as Commander Salchar, not James Cook the husband and father.
***
Orshpa looked at the planet he was sending eighty-thousand Kalu. All of the Kalu had vied to join the clans that had gained the honor of attacking the planet.
It was a dull looking planet of rocks and little growth. It would be easy to flush out the weak creatures of the Union. Without their ships armor and missiles, they would fall like the prey they were.
“Go, claim this world in the name of the clans of Kalu, we shall meet afterwards to feast and celebrate our victories whether with our ancestors or one our new worlds,” Orshpa rose his head, showing his pride in the Kalu that were heading towards the planet.
It seemed to have an effect as they went to full acceleration.
“The Free Fleet have arrived,” Daskil announced some three hours later.
He had seen them stopping at the massive station that had destroyed an entire fleet and anything that had come into their sights.
The fleet’s defeat at Parnmal had done nothing but expend irreplaceable missiles and ships.
Orshpa stepped on the dread he was starting to feel.
I will watch these worlds run with the blood of their inhabitants. We will claim all of space as our own and look to spread our stories through the stars. Our people will send more supplies or we will take them from those that we defeat. We shall not lose! That ironclad conviction made him look at his fleets proudly, they would bring him victory.
“The Free Fleet have transitioned into the system,” Daskil said, pausing as if determining whether to tell Orshpa something.
“What?” Orshpa said, his eyes focusing on Daskil and making him squirm into a position of submission.
“The entire planet that the fleet is going towards are chanting,” Daskil said, hitting a button from his position on the floor.
“Give us war;
Give use death,
And know despair.
We are Avar.
We are shadows,
Blades, and claws.
Hear our chant.
We are war;
We are death;
We are despair.
We serve battle,
Masters lead us
Not to victory,
But to our enemy’s death.
Give us war;
Give use death,
And know despair.
We are Avar,”
It was similar to the chant that Salchar had used, yet the deep growls, roars and guttural noises of this race fit the chant better.
It looked like they had found the planet where the song had originated from.
“Hopefully they will be able to offer our warriors a worthy battle,” Orshpa said, cutting the chant off with a shake of his head and noise in the base of his throat aimed at Daskil.
For a moment Orshpa was apprehensive. He turned and walked from the command deck.
“I will be with my brood mates, alert me when our forces land on the planet,” the door to his private chambers opened, revealing two female Kalu with clean fur, lacking the Armor of the warriors.
They helped him out of his armor and made him forget about the universe beyond his Star-Destroyer for a while.
An alert sounded on his screens, he indicated for one of his mates to open the message, the others moved to get out of his way.
It showed the Kalu fleet moving to the Union world. PRC’s and Laser cannons, more than Orshpa had thought the planet might have, but a tithe of the firepower that he had encountered at Parnmal.
He watched for a few moments, looking at the losses the Kalu were taking only to make sure that they would get to the planet with the sort of numbers that they would need to take the planet. He cut the transmission and his mates coiled around him and helped him forget once again.
***
The cannons orbiting AIH fired, the gunners didn’t miss once. They not only made rail-cannons they tested them, making them possible the most proficient gunners within the Union. But there were only fifteen hundred cannons on all of AIH. While they had made tens of thousands of weapons systems. They had been shipping them to other planets. Their defense didn’t rely on the cannons, it relied on the warriors of AIH and their planet.
“Incoming transmission from the Commander,” Hod said from her place to his right. He had done away with a command center, all of his commanders new their missions. He wasn’t going to stay back while his people were out on the hunt. Those that were not part of the battle had been evacuated by the Avarians Merchant fleet and the Free Merchant fleet. Only warriors waited for the Kalu on the planet. Two-point-three million of them, only four hundred thousand were Commandos, but all of them were armed with railguns, modern explosives and at least some kind of armor to protected against the Kalu lasers.
There was only one person that was ‘the commander’. Ursht accepted the transmission, it was audio. He continued to look over a star map of the oncoming Kalu and the laser cannons.
“Battle Master Salchar I hear that Yasu had a good birth. I hear that you a father, this is great news!” Ursht exclaimed to the smiles of the other Commandos of all races around him.
“Thank you Ursht,” Salchar said, his voice catching ever so slightly. “We’re going to put a couple of wormholes right into the Kalu’s path to help to thin out their numbers, how are we looking on the ground?” Salchar continued, his voice firm and brisk.
“All units are deployed; we have positions ready across the planet to fall back to. We will engage the enemy in a series of attacks across the planet, using the guerilla tactics that we learned about. We hope to break them up and fight them in packets hopefully less than our strength, though it will be hard,” Ursht answered, he knew Salchar had the reports he’d sent up to him. Salchar didn’t just want the numbers and figures, he wanted to know the situation from his man on the ground.
“Hopefully we can thin out their hordes a little,” Salchar said.
“Thank you Battle master,” Ursht replied, he was proud of his people and he would pit any of them against any Kalu, but there were nine million of the bastards up there. He looked up as a l
aser cannon battery was hit when it was about to fire, it turned into a fiery blast which made his visor darken.
“I have a decision to make.” Salchar said, his voice low and thoughtful.
“How may I help?” Ursht asked, feeling honored.
“I have seven hundred thousand Commandos on my ships here, I could send them to the ground to support you, or I could send them on to Chaleel. I have to decide where it’s best to put them to use,” Salchar said, the statement a question.
In his mind Ursht pictured Chaleel, he had been there many times. AIH and Chaleel had become fast allies trading food for refined materials and goods.
They’d built merchant fleets together and their people were the backbone of such enterprises.
The Chaleel were fine warriors, but there was a large amount of them that tended to their fields. Ursht of past might have seen them as weak, but now he saw them as the resource they were. He also saw how leaving them to die for the good of the warriors would be a mistake. While AIH had been able to evacuate all of their small non-fighting population, the Chaleelian had only got about twenty-percent of their population off of the planet.
They had around seven hundred thousand Commandos and standing military units. Even with those numbers they would be spread thin to protect the ten-million civilians on the planet.
“We have the thirteen ships at the supply point, I will send word for them to come and support us. Help those on Chaleel, we at least do not have our children and innocents out in the open,” Ursht said.
His decision was clear, even if he and all of those on AIH died, hopefully they would have protected the innocents of Chaleel.
“You are a credit to the Commandos and AIH,” Salchar said, pride in his voice.
“Thank you Commander,” Ursht said, his focus pulled away by an alert. The Kalu had entered AIH’s atmosphere.
“About this point I think you have something else to do. I will let you fight your war Commander,” Salchar said.
“I too wish you luck in your coming battles,” Ursht said. The channel cut and Ursht wasted no time in pulling up a map that showed where that Kalu were supposed to land.
There were noises of shock, he looked up from his planning and information, clearing his HUD enough to look where his people were staring. Orbs of distorted light appeared in AIH’s atmosphere, they were hazy and wobbly. The Kalu diving into the atmosphere were unable to meet the orbs.
Wormholes, Ursht thought, knowing that he was right. The Free Fleet had projected Wormholes into the planet’s atmosphere, right in the path of the oh-so-predictable Kalu. They were unstable and they were nasty. They moved and swayed from the distorting gravitational interference of the planet. This close to a planet nothing would come out from those wormholes alive. Which was perfect in Ursht’s eyes. The Kalu rushed through them, disappearing from existence, they didn’t have their projectors or stabilizers out and charged. It looked like watching someone jumping into water so muddy that you couldn’t see them once they were submerged.
But this was in midair and the wormholes sucked in anything that crossed their event horizons.
Science beyond Whorst comprehension annihilated anything that crossed their paths.
“Well fuck that looks weird,” an unknown Commando said, summarizing the sight up aptly.
Kalu made it past the wormholes. Some hit only partly the holes themselves, pieces of ships disappeared and debris tumbled, atmosphere caused them to glow and burn up into uselessness.
“Adjust cannons on the ground to target ships that make it through the wormholes,” Ursht said to Chief Holloway that was commanding all of the cannons on AIH.
“Done,” the chief said, the cannons took moments to change their targeting, smacking into the Kalu coming in to land.
“As soon as they’re on the ground and out of their ships, hit them with artillery,” Ursht said, his voice distant as he looked at the three landing areas that were forming and the Kalu fighters that were peeling away from their mother Star-Destroyers.
They headed for the PRC’s dotted across the planet, only to run into PDS fire. The Avarians had been busy in the time the Kalu had given them. Personal Defense Systems dotted elevations across the planet, all updated with Kalu ship types and with commands to open fire on any that came across their path.
AIH produced weapons en masse and while everyone had wanted the new laser cannons and Planetary Rail Cannons, they hadn’t stopped making PDS. They’d made so many PDS that they could churn out tens of thousands in under an Earth week. They’d passed them out like candy, but they still had a massive stockpile.
Holloway had come up with the idea of mimicking Foshunti’s idea on Heija with the PDS in the hills, except putting them across the entire planet.
Ursht had approved and Holloway’s people had gone to work.
There were hundreds of thousands of the weapons everywhere, and while the Kalu fighters took them out quickly, they each took out at least a few fighters.
Swarms that rushed over HAPA positions were met by rail cannons and nuclear missiles. Ursht could hear the thunderclaps and see the mushroom clouds forming already.
“Let the hunt begin,” Ursht said to himself, marking his Commandos objective.
“We’re going to wait till all of the Kalu are down, then we’re going to bring them under fire. The hunters will turn their ships into traps then we’ll use the tunnels to pull back,” he said to his commanders, stepping down from the ridge, his command team following him under the overhang which looking to be the bottom of the valley. Under which a hundred and thirty thousand HAPA’s waited, with engineers and techs doing last minute checks as Commandos moved in their organized lines. Ursht climbed up into his HAPA, pulling his controls down and powering up the beastie, it hummed with life and he checked his motion and various displays, waiting for the Kalu to land.
“Wormholes have ended,” Hod said.
After the onslaught of the Avarians cannons and the Fleet’s wormholes. Instead of there being nine-million Kalu warriors and fighters on the planet. There was seven and a half. True numbers were following up but Ursht flicked away from that information and focused on picking an encampment to go fuck with. He labelled the three Kalu Camp Alpha to Charlie and picked Bravo, Kolva’s hunters were moving into the area. He sent Kolva his plan.
A few moments later he got Kolva’s wholehearted agreement. Ursht got the HAPA moving with its rolling gait.
“Move out,” he broadcasted to his commanders.
They had passed on his orders down to their people and they followed him, heading not out from their hidden underground maintenance hangar, but through the tunnels which had been widened over the last couple of months since Ursht had seen the designs for the HAPA’s.
The HAPA’s went through a variety of tunnels all of them had been traced and were well known to their navigation systems.
It was a long walk and Ursht took the time to look over the Kalu, making sure that they weren’t doing anything that would warrant him speeding up. On the way down they hadn’t been able to find any good readings of people on the planet. They’d probably seen pockets, but it looked like they were piling out of their ships and waiting for direction from their leaders.
Alpha landing sites people started moving out and heading for Asul, thankfully it was away from Bravo landing spot and Ursht’s Commandos.
Ursht got to a massive door, transmitting his status to the other commanders, they transmitted when they too were next to the doors that led to the surface.
The HAPA’s moved, reading themselves for what was about to come.
“Ready,” Ursht said, grabbing the lever that would open the hatch, “Go!” He pulled the lever back and the hatch opened on its heavy-duty hydraulic pylons.
HAPA’s feet hammered up the cut stone of the tunnels and onto the planet’s surface. Rail cannons started firing and missile pods covered their wearers in smoke.
Ursht got his HAPA up on the surface, rolling side t
o side with the machine, he saw a swarm coming in from his left, and he raised his left hand firing as he kicked the HAPA’s side out, swinging it around, the recoil of the heavy railgun was just enough to notice.
“Holy fuck I love these things,” Ursht said, hearing the bellowing laughs of his Commandos. Training showed him to respect the HAPA, fighting in it, he was in love. He didn’t know how he had lived so long without the hellish destructive monster that wrapped around him.
His guns only paused as he selected missiles with his finger balls and sent one from each shoulder streaking up into the Kalu. He didn’t have normal payloads. Nukes sent the swarm into a tumbling mess of fire and broken ships. Their fires didn’t go out as they dropped to the ground, this wasn’t space anymore, it was AIH.
More HAPA’s had got to the surface, Commandos and engineers behind them were slapping PDS turrets in place and activating them to create an area that the Kalu fighters couldn’t get in.
“One Platoon watches the skies, another two focus on the Kalu warriors, we need to give Kolva’s hunters the time they need,” Ursht said. Pulling himself back to focus on the mission he needed to carry out.
There was enough PDS up and the Commanders were putting his orders into effect as they got the HAPA’s moving to a nearby ridge. Ursht looked at the HAPA’s that were pouring out from the tunnels into the light of day.
He took up position on the line, no one tried to pull him away, they knew what his answer would be, and they didn’t want to go to the rear with him.
“Wait till they get over the next ridge,” Ursht said, his voice low as if he was stalking prey.
They waited, HAPA’s to their backs continued to hammer any Kalu fighter swarms they didn’t like the look off, the PDS barrels ripped out bursts, traversing to follow a new target, firing again and repeating the process again and again.
Ursht paid them no heed, he trusted those to his back.
He moved his dual railguns, checking his ammunition levels and making sure the belts were still intact. Commandos in powered armor were already hauling ammo packs out of carts with HAPA ammunition.
From Furies Forged (Free Fleet Book 5) Page 30