From Furies Forged (Free Fleet Book 5) (24 page)

              The laser-cannons were no longer firing their twenty-centimeter-wide beams, they’d turned into unfocused meter wide projections. Their increased radius allowing them to hit more Kalu fighters that could avoid the fleet’s railgun rounds.

              “Coolant issue in gun one!’ The controller called out.

              Shrift saw the issue, a coolant tube had become warped.

              “With me!” Shrift said, his team of fifteen following him as they rushed towards the massive gun that shook the very tunnel they were in with a punishing round being sent into the face of the enemy.

              No one looked to turn back, instead their faces becoming harder and steeled against the possibilities of what might happen trying to get this cannon back in action.

              “Cease fire, we’re almost at the gun,” Shrift said.

              “Understood,” the controller said. “Hurry up!”

             
Don’t need to tell me that, I saw the Kalu coming at us!

                                                                      ***

              “Laser Cannon one is out of action,” Frankeuw reported as the forward batteries fired again. With War-station’s size, his forward batteries were the same as a Destroyers broadside. It kept the two laser cannons of the fleet pointed at the enemy.

              “How long until it is operational?” Whorst snapped.

              “Shrift is looking into it, he said it shouldn’t be long,” Frankeuw said.

              “Do you have that missile firing solution?”

              “Yes sir, it’s ready to be inserted between our barrages.”

              “Fire when ready Frankeuw,” Whorst looked to his Tactical commander, their eyes holding one another for a minute.
And make sure you make the bastards pay.
Whorst thought before looking away.

              “Yes sir,” Frankeuw said, he’d heard loud and clear exactly what the commander left unsaid.

              “Now this is a battle commander!” Devastahli said, coming into existence, his chair not accompanying him as Whorst saw the outline of a very deadly and hungry grin behind his feature-covering hood.

              “The corvette Pyuz have lost their port shields, they are rotating to bring their starboard to bear,” Zal said.

              “Have them rotate out with another ship in better condition. I want their shields up as soon as possible,” Whorst said back, the hunger he had shared with Devastahli just moments ago evaporating into command as he checked his sphere, looking to see if there was anyone else close to losing their shields. Losing them before crossing the Kalu ships would add a whole new hell to the experience.

              Missiles fired in streams, the AI’s had again timed the launch perfectly. Rail gun rounds were still shredding through the fighters but there was just five minutes until they crossed the Fleet’s formation.

              “Come on you fuckers, come on!” Dev yelled, growling like an Avarian as the rounds before the missiles opened up swarms again, the first missiles split into their twenty warheads and turned the smashed swarms into a quagmire of confusion and nuclear suns.

              Sensors had a hard time picking out what was happening through the cover of all those missiles as they continued on. The AI’s had switched to remote sensor platforms, using the FTL relays and guided their missiles through the Kalu swarms and into the teeth of the Kalu Star-warriors and destroyers.

              “Flek, command your pilots,” Whorst said.

              Flek didn’t even acknowledge the commander as bombers that had been sitting quietly in their wings, MEF’s surrounding them, now released a hell storm on the Kalu fighters. A Jump-fighter could fire nine missiles every two-second from their internal and external racks.

              Bombers could fire twenty-four and they had the capacity for one hundred and twenty missiles.

                                                                      ***

              Orshpa looked at the Free Fleet as it charged towards the Kalu fleet that numbered hundreds more in force. Clan leader Isal was no coward, yet Orshpa felt his hairs raise at the Armageddon that was coming for his sub-leader.

              Having a few hundred of the Free Fleet ships did not make him feel safer, forty-three-thousand of his ships had not emerged from their wormholes. The work of a mere twenty-five ships.

              The Free Fleet and Leader Isal’s fleet smashed together like asteroid in space.

              Ships flew apart and away from the formation as guns blazed, cannons raged as the Free Fleet roared in defiance. Missiles let loose, their hundreds of warheads populating the long stream of Kalu.

              Fighters had been released from their positions, they danced and weaved, hitting the swarms with their new missiles and exploding rounds.

              Free Fleet ships accelerated away from the main body, their beleaguered shields failing.

              The Kalu hammered them, yet the fleet made them pay for their distraction.

              They plowed through the swarms, hundreds of thousands of Kalu fighters blocking out sensor readings, light and destruction ripping through the shroud of Kalu fighters.

              The Free Fleet cruised out from the fighters; wounded, damaged and twelve less ships than what they had entered with. Their fighters now charged out, blood in their eyes as the massive ship-station leading the charge, fired its cannons. Missiles billowed out from every ship, the Kalu returned in kind.

              Missiles were exchanged with mere minutes between their launch and hitting one another. The Free Fleet’s PDS were overwhelmed, shields started crumbling.

              Reactive armor fought against the oncoming missiles, panels blowing out and sending shrapnel into the missiles path, destroying them before they got into range to rip into the ships.

              There weren’t concentrated barrages. Isal’s ships were firing missile after missile, with all of their lasers remaining constant..

              The Free Fleet fighters, bombers and jumpers were amongst the Kalu formations, laying missiles, rounds and plasma into anything they could get a bead on.

              It looked like chaos as Star-warriors started getting through the shields, ripping themselves into the PDS and reactive armor, their bows latching onto the Free Fleet’s armor.

              Star-warrior after Star-warrior attached themselves to the Free Fleet’s ships.

              There was silence on the bridge, the battle had every Kalu’s attention.

              “They might sneak, they might use tricks, but they will not back down. This is the enemy we face. They are warrior’s worthy of the stories and with courage of Kalu,” Orshpa said, his eyes not turning away from the battle as the Fleet continued on its path, no more Kalu fired on them as to do so would put the forces on board the ships at risk.

              Rail-cannon rounds broke armor, PRC’s ran through it and rounds still exploded inside ships, turning them to names to be remembered by the stories.

              The laser cannons took out swathes of ships still.

              They fought like a Kalu, half-mad with hunger.

              Twenty-seven ships made it to the end of the Kalu line, continuing on towards the jump-limit, small craft fired their remaining missiles at the Kalu ships which were now braking hard to turn around and fight the Free Fleet again, they had lost five thousand ships, and fighter tallies were still hard to figure out.

                                                                      ***

              “Frankeuw, if you’d do the honors,” Whorst said, his voice flat and hard, his body numb as he looked at the numbers detailing how many of his people had laid down their lives to complete his plan.

              Frankeuw didn’t respond but looked over his screen, his hand ready over a button.

              “Time to burn fuckers,” that was all he said as the minefield that had drifted out from every ship as they charged the Kalu now erupted with bomb-pumped lasers about a fifth the strength of War-stations cannons.

              Ten thousand mines as big as a desk directed their master’s fury into the regrouping ships, none were wasted on the fighters.

              The AI’s worked together on a level that organics could never accomplish, using the same coordination for weapon sectors for each gunner as they did with their mines. Only two hundred shots hit the same ships.

              Four-thousand-three-hundred and seventy-six Kalu ships were left. Whorst looked at those numbers, Dev looked to him and he saw his own thoughts in the AI’s eyes.

             
We will not rest until the Kalu will never pose a threat to our people.

              “Zal collect all readings and information. I will write a formal report. Arfo get it to Salchar as soon as possible. Richter, I want reports from every ship we have and every department. Peck I want to jump to the nearest supply point as soon as possible.”

                                                                      ***

              “I’m getting a transmission from Commander Whorst.” Vort said.

              “On screen.” I said, the report would probably not make easy reading, but I needed to know what was going on over the line.

              “Playing recording of the battle,” Vort said, the screen changing from the desolate system we were travelling through, Eltar.

              Goliaths battled with everything they had, fighting the kind of fight that silenced the whole bridge. Everyone saw the display of courage and professionalism of the men and women that had waded into a sea of Kalu.

              The sped up video ended with the Kalu being besieged on all sides by stealthy mines.

              Tens of ships acted like limpets on the Free Fleet forces. A fight still waged on those ships. Kalu face Commandos and ship’s personnel for the ownership of every ship.

              Each of those ships were fully staffed, three hundred thousand Free Fleet personnel had manned those ships, that number was now closer to two, but they would fight for their ships with everything they had.

             
And they still might lose them.
A part of my mind said. No matter my feelings I had to agree with that part of my mind. I couldn’t rely on emotion to command my fleet.

              I looked to the information on the Kalu fleet that was still heading across Eltar to the jump point on the other side of the system. The Kalu’s understanding of wormhole transit was still rudimentary at best, and something that I could definitely live with.

              “Rick, what does it look like the Kalu are doing to you?” I asked, wondering if my eyes were deceiving me as I used my command screens to pull up information on the Kalu craft.

              “Umm, like they’re slowing down?” Rick asked, his voice rough as he was pulled from his thoughts and emotions.

              “It looks like they’re going to transit as one entire group. Ashota was right about Orshpa, he’s smart. He won’t let us hit his people as they come out of jump if he can’t help it,” I said.

              “Yes, but transiting that many ships with wormholes that close together. It’s going to be one hell of a nightmare if he cares to do it the right way.”

              “If he doesn’t because he has the ships and warriors to lose?” I asked.

              “Then we have one hell of a problem that will be jumping into our system all as one.”

              “At least with his fleet. His prime Falhu might not be as smart.”

              “Yes, but he gave him one-point-one-
million
Kalu ships to make sure that his stubbornness doesn’t lose him the war. While he might be dumb, he’s nothing if not methodical and loyal. He will do as his leader says to the letter,” I said looking to Rick with calculating eyes. He nodded in agreement of my assessment.

              “Resilient, can you get me Boot?”

              “One second commander,” she said, Vort was busy passing information through the fleet as well as gathering reports from Whorst and his forces.

              “Salchar, I was just about to open a channel to you,” Boot said in my ear, he was the only other commander who had Kalu in his system, and from the reports from Min Hae and Ashota it looked like he was the only other one that would be having Kalu coming through his position.

              “Great minds think alike and all that,” I said, rushing on to get to the meat of the conversation. “I’m wondering what your plan of action is to engage the Kalu.”

              “That sir I was wondering if I could run by you. I’m thinking of hitting them and getting the hell out of here,” Boot said, I could hear the question in his voice of whether he would be allowed to try and save his people.