From Furies Forged (Free Fleet Book 5) (2 page)

                                                                      ***

             
"Flash before my eyes Now it's time to die Burning in my brain I can feel the flame"

              Commander Smith muttered the words under his breath as he looked at the Kaluian system through his sensors.

              The system was called Donakrel. It housed the third biggest Star-destroyer yard in traditional Kaluian control.

             
The biggest is in our control, and the second was one hell of a firework show.
 Smith smiled at the memory as Kyle came on the comms channel with him.

              Kyle and the rest of Bregend's fleet were two-light years away in the dark of space. It had taken three days to get Bregend's plan together. Though its craziness went up against some of Salchar's own plans.

              Smith had been a fighter and test pilot before the Syndicate decided that Earth looked like a good source for slaves. He had been recruited into a program by the United States to take at least some control back from the damned bastards. 

              He had launched, and found to his surprise that the slaves of the Syndicate had been up to their own tricks. Led by Salchar they had taken the second biggest damned station in known existence. They had also freed another planet and found a planet of genetically enhanced warriors, the Avarians.

              Smith had been sent back to Earth and given new orders. Infiltrate the Free Fleet. He had followed his orders. Maybe a little too well. He had fought across the stars, the people he was supposed to betray, became his brothers and sisters. 

              He had gone from Multi-Environmental Fighter or MEF to the Jump fighter and gained himself a seat to the fall of Rosho station. The last Syndicate bastion. 

             
And now I get a seat to the destruction of Donakrel's Star-Destroyer yards,
he thought, not without a little glee
.

              "Payload is on-route,” Kyle said through Smith's ear. Smith clicked a button, confirming he got the transmission.

              A wormhole snapped into existence. 

             
"Sweat, chilling cold as I watch death unfold Consciousness my only friend"

              "Holy Fuck,” Smith whispered. He might have felt something like, pity for the Kalu in that moment.

              Then the darkness that had lived in his soul from the first battle against those damned demons made his eyes dance as he bared his teeth.

              Asteroids ripped free of that wormhole, there was no stopping them as active Kalu star-warriors and Destroyers fired into them.

              Smith remembered the asteroids that had ravaged Ship Commander Kelu and his Syndicate fleet. Salchar's plan had been as brilliant as it was risky. Bregend's plan mitigated those risks, and used the asteroids with terrible efficiency.

              The asteroids weren't just single entities. Each projectile was made up of tens of asteroids. Each connected by cabling and supporting struts. Charges went off, breaking those separating struts. 

              The asteroids had been given a small spin for just this reason. It made the projectiles unfurl like deadly flowers. 

             
"Time moving slow The minutes seem like hours The final curtain call I see How true is this? Just get it over with If this is true, just let it be"

              Smith didn't even try to listen to the lyrics of his song as the first asteroid hit the yard.

              The wave of destruction was indescribable. The superstructure of the thousands of yards shuddered, breaking as its sides disappeared. Kinetic energy met Star-Destroyers.

              Projectile after projectile hit the yard. Those deadly flowers turned anything that seemed to stay together into uselessness. Fireballs burst into existence as Destroyers disintegrated.

              It was like watching Lego be hit with a fifty calibre machine gun, again and again.

             
"Flash before my eyes Now it's time to die Burning in my brain I can feel the flame"

              "I think we can chalk this one up for a win,” Smith heard himself say, the wormhole disappeared as he surveyed what had been the Star-Destroyer yard.

              "Yeah,” Kyle said, the shock clear in his voice.

             
What will happen when someone looks to use that against populated worlds?
 A part of Smith's brain thought. A shudder passed down his spine.

              "On to Venzir next,” Kyle said.

              "Only fourteen more Star-Destroyer yards to go,” Smith replied as he passed the message onto his Jump-ship pilots.

              They confirmed and set their plans for jumps back to the support ship.

              "Be damned happy to get rid of them,” Kyle's voice turning cold.

              "Me too,” Smith said, remembering the Kalu fighters at Rosho and the vids he'd seen from Heija.

              Evelyn Sparks and every damned reporter was pushing those videos as hard as ever. Some were getting the idea at least.

              The Free Fleet was getting more applications everyday. The reserve planet-based Commandos and fighters were quickly mobilizing. If Ashota' predictions of what Orshpa was going to do came true. Those reserve units would quickly find themselves on the front lines.

              Smith discharged a capacitor, making a wormhole away from Donakrel. 

                                                                      ***

              Evelyn Spark's articles were read, broadcasted and listened to all across known space. Knox, Min Hae's informant within the highest echelons of government, listened to them more than most. The spy master scanned through another one such article. The war on Heija was unlike anything that he had ever heard of or seen. It had gone on for months. The Free Fleet Commandos and ships were just staying alive. There were no reinforcements coming, but they held on, inflicting casualties and bringing hell onto their enemies. Video footage of HAPA's being called into support of a front line trench that had collapsed kept his attention. The cannons blazed, their tracers grinding the Kalu back as the line rebuilt itself.

              Injuries were severe, people were missing arms, legs and getting back into powered armour and going again. The neural implants kept them fighting. The armour acting as their new bodies while they fought.

              The Free Fleet was as relentless as their enemy.

              Knox respected their strength, and while he acted as an agent of Min Hae there was a few things that he wasn't going to reveal to the spy master. Such as the meeting he was about to have with the President, and a group of specially selected and powerful people which were acting as liaisons with other countries.

              With the race to get into space and expand countries power, old allies had come together to have the resources to do so. Countries were now so closely connected with one another that calling them separate countries was fact only in name.

              Knox put down his data pad and stood from his seat. He was in the UN building, the new one which was buried seventeen stories in the ground, with escape routes leading kilometers away. The old building in New York had been leveled as a show by the Syndicate that they ruled the planet. They didn't care about the millions of people they killed.

              A man with the newest forty calibre rifle, raised a hand as Knox was scanned by hidden sensors. It didn't take long before the security guard lowered his hand, the door behind him opened.

              Knox was the last to the meeting. His seat the only one open.

              “The Free Fleet is basically a Private Military. We pay them with resources, technology and money to keep us safe. This sounds like a good compromise, but it also leaves us open for the fact that if the Free Fleet were to raise their prices we could cancel our contract, but then there is nothing to say that they won't turn on us. They are one hell of a force and we need to come up with a plan to hamstring their power, especially Salchar's. Among their ranks he has become some kind of legend, the kind of leader that they would do anything for,” the President said while looking over the people in the room.

             
An actual leader that leads from the front,
Knox mentally added.

              “Are there any objections with moving a plan forward to curb the control and power of the Free Fleet?” The President asked, there were none as he nodded.

              “Very well, Mr. Knox would you brief us on our current personnel within the Free Fleet?” All eyes looked to Knox with the President's final words.

              “We have about a Brigade's worth of informants throughout the entirety of the Free Fleet. Most have gained positions as commanders. Gaining access to Min Hae's intelligence department has been hard to penetrate, we only have ship based intelligence commanders and leaders. The development base has been similarly guarded. We could initiate a coupe, but I believe it would be more prudent to wait until after the war has run its full course. We currently need the Free Fleet to defend Earth,” Knox warned.

              “What about forces on Hachiro and Nancy?” A diplomat asked.

              “We have about a Battalion on Nancy, a Company on Hachiro,” Knox said. The numbers were staggering, but the yard and station supported nearly fifty million people, three times that amount if the processing and mining facilities in the belts were added, and five if the training ground on Mars was included.

              “Sources on Nancy have reported that the dead fleet is going to be cut up, melted down and their components sold,” the diplomat from England, Damien Forsyth said. “We have all been developing systems for space, if we were able to get our hands on that technology then we could start to build our own parts and a force capable of taking on the Free Fleet, or at least giving us back the control of Earth.”

              “It might also be an idea to test our connections in Chaleel, they do have a destroyer and a corvette under their personal control,” Jon Wilkinson from Canada said. “AIH sees Salchar as the one to give them purpose, he gave them their deity and kept them alive when their shield generator started to fail. Safe to say it be difficult messing with that connection.”

              There was rumbles of agreement through the room, AIH was firmly in Salchar's pocket. They were the third biggest traders after the Kuruvians and the Free Merchant Fleet.

              “Chaleel is also a massive trader with the Free Fleet and AIH, we will need to tread carefully,” Ash Anthony from Australia said, pointing a finger at Jon in his reclined position.

              “We also need to figure out the numbers of the Free Fleet, and how many ships we could cripple, use or destroy,” Robert Shinawa of New Zealand said.

             
We might call people that fight in war's beasts, but are they right? Are they, the ones that inflict violence on others for the better of many the beasts, or is it the one that sits back, watches and criticizes those that die for them or is it the ones that call the beast's a heroes, while planning to kill them.

              Knox had already relinquished the information that Edwards had given him on the Free Fleet, their systems, capabilities and people. He knew that the Free Fleet was a risk that would needed to be watched like a hawk. Yet he didn't know if taking it apart, or leaving it would be best choice.

              With having people from every planet and race amongst its ranks the Free Fleet would be hard pressed to do anything against civilians without a damned good reason.

              Still the what if's and maybes were what Knox and the people in this room dwelled on. Once they had a plan and a way to carry it out, then they would all feel calmer. Though it would become easier to pull the trigger on the operation.

              Knox wanted to hold his head, to just have space and time to think of something other than direct action.

              The potential for this to go sideways was too high and the stakes were far too big for his liking.

Chapter To the front

              Cheerleader and Boot sat in her conference room aboard the carrier Mondal. Carriers were quickly being refurbished and sent to the forward lines. Boots own Pretak was supposed to clear the yards and be ready for action within nine days. The corridor's yards were working to pump out battle-ready ships as fast as possible. 

              More than one hull was being melted down to make the purpose-built hulls of the Free Fleet. Everything but Carriers were being made from the hull inward. 

              In a few weeks even that might change. With the Star-Destroyer yard in the Free Fleet's possession, using the already made carriers could be faster.