From Furies Forged (Free Fleet Book 5) (35 page)

              “Understood,” Mills said, touching his earpiece and relaying his commands.

              Bregend had missed his shot to put a wormhole in front of the Kalu. Yet he’d done better than he’d hoped. Now
only
five million Kalu were headed towards the planet. So were another three hundred thousand Commandos.

              “Planetary defenses are firing, good effect on target,” Qurv said, Bregend nodded, not trusting himself with words as he looked at the main screen, the names of his friend’s ships wiped from the screen.

              The rage he kept back through gym and work made his fist ball. He was an angry man, but he put it to use. Though he hadn’t got all of his anger out, not by a long shot. He had a lot of Kalu to kill.

                                                                      ***

              “Fire all Planetary Rail Cannons and get some missiles up,” Fal said.

              The ground thumped as the first PRC’s accelerated their massive projectiles towards the Kalu. Smaller Rail cannons added their fire into the mix as armored missile silos opened their hatches and unleashed their half-ship strength missiles.

              The Kalu didn’t fire once on their way down towards the planet, but the gunners took their toll, PRC’s blasted straight through even Star-Destroyers, smaller rail cannons riddled them with holes. The missiles, well in atmosphere weren’t just destructive, they were cataclysmic. Each of them carried a load of a hundred refined kilotons of nuclear force. The kind that makes new suns and is felt thousands of kilometers away. Anything within a hundred kilometers disappeared, the shockwave whipped Kalu around for another hundred kilometers, some recovered, and others didn’t. It was mayhem.

              Fal saw the first of the craft dip below the tree-line.

              “Find out where they land and get the word out to the ranging parties,” Commander Fal said, it was night time where he had made his defenses, giving them a prime view of the Kalu and Free Fleet smashing together. It made one hell of a light display.

              The Kalu fighters were now pouring out of the Star-Destroyers and heading for the defenses.

              “Have the missile weapon techs seal up their armor if the Kalu fighters come in close. Don’t need them having their gear going off,” Fal said.

              “Yes sir,” Poj said, passing the information. Ershue made great assistants, they were one of the few races that could multi-task, and with their agile limbs they could manipulate many items at once.

              It was probably one of the many reasons why Ershue were so damned good and annoying with practical jokes.

              Everyone was inside the armor mound and the PDS were starting to earn their pay.

              The HAPA’s had wanted to add their own firepower to the mix, but Fal wanted to get a feel for fighting the Kalu before devoting his most powerful units.

              “Communications from Bregend’s Commando Commander,” Poj said from her position at the communications console.

              “Well tell me!” Fal snapped, some of the stress and understanding of the seven kinds of shit that had just landed on his planet breaking through.

              “He’s coming down with the Fleet’s Commandos, breaking atmosphere in three minutes,” Poj said as if she was in basic again.

              “Good,” Fal said and he meant it, he was going to need the veterans of the Fleet. He had a few hundred sown into his units, their advice and teachings were invaluable. Having an entire Fleet’s worth of them and their tag-ons from Quarst made him feel the etchings of hope.

             
No time for that now,
he thought. The Gatling guns across the armored mound going from periodic bursts to full out streams, more of them adding their firepower with every second.

              He had a feeling that sound would become normal after a while.

              “We have touchdown with the Kalu, five hundred miles out. I’ve informed the Ranging parties, artillery has the coordinates and they are coming on target.”

              Fal winced, it wasn’t that he didn’t appreciate artillery, it was what it would do to his planet with its use.

              It was a capital crime to burn a tree down that wasn’t dead or destroy them. Even with the battles between the Ershue, before they found the ability to spread across the stars, they never hurt the trees.

              Now it was do or die. Fal wanted to limit as much damage to the trees and his home planet as much as possible, but it was losing a few trees to surviving. Salchar had brought up the point that trees could be grown, great swathes of the planet could be left untouched by the fighting. Yet lives, the lives of the young and the old, they couldn’t be regrown. If the Kalu won on Ershue then there would be no place for the Ershue to come back to.

             
I can start to see why having the same name as our planet can be confusing.
He thought trying to alleviate some of the guilt in his thoughts as artillery tubes fired timed rounds that would rain shards down onto the Kalu.

              The Ershue shared the same name as their planet. Their belief was that they were just a part of their planet, they did anything to protect their planet, hurting it was like hurting another sentient creature.

              “Rangers have acknowledged orders, they are moving between us and the Kalu to lay traps,” Poj said, her multiple hands working various screens as her wings moved in anxiousness. “The Commandos have broken atmosphere, the Kalu fighters are moving to intercept.” Her wings were not at all happy.

              “Concentrate all PDS fire on those fighters. Tell Commander Xar he and his HAPA’s are cleared to fire on the Kalu fighters moving against the shut… Holy fuck,” Fal said, swear words are the first words that a person learns from another language after all.

              The shuttles weren’t without their defenses, they might be big lumbering crafts, but after the first drop on Chaleel the pilots understood a need to upgrade their ability to clear a path and help them get to the surface.

              Heat coverings fell away from disposable missile pods and Gatling guns seated on the wings, sides and front of the shuttles came alive.

              The Commandos inside manned those guns, sent rounds trailing out from the crafts as the shuttles plowed into the Kalu fighters.

              Even the Kalu fighters seemed shock as the missile pods erupted, sending multi-warhead missiles into the midst of the holes they’d created within the Kalu swarms.

              Shockwaves ripped the Kalu formations apart as nuclear fire showed itself. The missile pods fired fighter missiles and only a few at a time for good reason.

              However, like always the Kalu could soak up the hits. They fired on the shuttles. Lasers meeting armor. The lucky ones had a new engraving, the unlucky ones got hit in something useful, or too many Kalu hits coming in from too many directions and they were cut apart like cheese through piano wire.

              The HAPAs fire helped some, drawing the Kalu fighters away from the shuttles helped more. PDS weren’t even slowing down now, just moving across the sky, peeling Kalu out of the swarms. The Kalu didn’t even change their direction.

              Then the first Commandos were on the ground, ramps opened before the shuttles touched down. Commandos were on them and jumping free of the vessels as fast as possible. Half of them were wearing HAPAs.

              “Oh my,” Fal said, his wings moving in excitement as those massive arms fired, missile pods locking into position and added to the fire.

              Fal had never seen something so beautiful as over a hundred HAPA’s rail cannons streaked rounds across Ershue’s skies.

              Tracers, missiles, artillery, lasers, a collage of weapons fire lit the Ershue night sky. Shuttles raced up into the atmosphere, firing what seemed like all of their missiles. Thankfully most of them that had made it to the ground made it out into atmosphere.

              Caught out in the open against Kalu fighters, the Commandos didn’t panic and run, they leapfrogged, Companies protecting one another until they reached the mound.

             
I wonder if my people would keep it together like that,
Fal batted the thought away.

              “Once the Fleet’s Commandos are in, recall Xar, and his people. Send a message to the Commander of our reinforcements asking for them to meet me,” Fal said.

              “Sir,” Poj answered, dealing with the mass of information and messages that were vying for his attention and prioritizing them.

              “Mound!” Fal exclaimed, rolling the word around in his mind. The base had never been officially named, and not having a name was going to get really annoying really quick.

              “Poj, revise the base’s name to Mound,” he said.

              Her wings stopped moving for a second, caught off guard by the comment, she looked to him confused.

              “Yes, sir,” she said slowly as if trying to figure out if he was serious and if she had heard him correctly.

              “Commander Fal?” Commander Kurft said, coming into the command room which was styled like a tree with hologram screens at the end of the branches, Fal resided on the second tier of branches, perched inside a hollow.

              “Commander,” Fal said, Kurft looking at the tree, and then the mix of races in the room. Fal jumped, twirled slid and landed in front of Kurft.

              “I am pleased that you and your men were able to reach the mound. I am sorry for those that you lost, your assistance and their sacrifice will not be forgotten by Ershue,” Fal promised.

              Kurft made a noise somewhere between clearing his throat and trying to water it enough to talk.

              “Thank you,” he got out.

              “I offer you my seat as Commander of our forces here,” Fal said, waving to his perch in the hollow.

              “This is your planet, I could…”

              “Commander if I may stop you there, first of all this will be my first battle. I was looking up your information as you were coming in. You have fought in a number of battles, including against the Kalu. I have trained and not seen any real combat. I am trained as a guard commander. While I look to carry out my duty to the best of my ability. I couldn’t do this if I remained Commander. The logical choice is for me to give you, or someone you choose to be commander of the forces here,” Fal retorted.

              “Why are you doing this?” Kurft asked, probably trying to look for some Ershue trick.

              Fal wanted to rub his wings in annoyance.
Not all Ershue are pranksters, most, but not
all
of us!

              “This is my planet and home, I want my wives and children to come back here and find it at peace. While I might be able to win, I believe that my decisions will result in more people dying and with me as commander there is a greater chance that this mission will fail. You have experience that is literally invaluable to the protection of my home,” Fal said instead.

              “Alright, but you’ll be my second, so learn quickly. Us fleet types don’t like being in the rear all that much,” Kurft warned, looking to the tree.

              “You can take the seat up there. I’ll use something a little more on ground level,” Kurft turned to the three Commandos with him.

              Fal turned and picked a console that would afford Kurft the best position to command from.

              The three Commandos raced out of the room, not wasting time on saluting. Kurft had been talking to them through his powered armors communications.

              “Second thing. I want everyone,
everyone
in powered armor, the civvies should get some armor at least. Also how well do they know weapons?”

              “Some do, some do not,” Fal answered.

              “We’re going to change that. I’ve seen the layout of the base but I have a few questions,” Kurft said, walking over to Fal.

              “Certainly,” Fal said, there was a can-do attitude about Kurft that was making his wings move in excitement.

                                                                      ***

              “Deploying fighters and bombers,” Zoka said from her station, the fighters and bombers had been collected a few hours ago, their crews given a few hours and a rota while the fighter engineering crews repaired, armed and refueled the small craft. The shuttles had made it back to their berths just thirty minutes ago, they’d been rotated in on their cradle’s so that the fighters were ready to go at a moment’s notice.

              They were being filled with ammunition and supplies that the Commandos would need.

              “Have sights on Kalu parking space,” Domal said.