From Furies Forged (Free Fleet Book 5) (40 page)

              He had expected the people of the United States and Earth to rally to his cause. Instead they looked away, as if they were ashamed by him.

              He had yelled and screamed at his guards, accusing them of everything and anything he could think of, he refused to do his tasks and he’d been put in isolation.

              It took weeks before he finally gave in.

              He cared little for those he worked with and they couldn’t give a fuck about him or his issues.

              More than once the other prisoners had told him to shut the fuck up.

              No one had raised a fist to him and that had made him all the bolder as he cursed aliens and the useless creatures that wouldn’t be in the stars if it wasn’t for Earth’s abilities.

              His arguments made little sense, he said that humanity had brought them to the stars but many had the ability to travel in space before humanity did.

              The only humans to help people get to the stars were in the Free Fleet. Earth was now back at sorting out getting themselves into space as the Free Fleet had removed their support.

              There was no winning against his arguments and most gave up, finding him an annoying nuisance that never shut up.

              Now Edwards scrambled across the asteroid, forgetting where the hatch was, and his fear of space filling him.

              He vowed to make it back to Earth and exercise control over these savage aliens. A righteous fire built in him as he thought of seeing the fear in their eyes, his face twisting into a hungry snarl as he thought of how he would hurt Yasu to get to Salchar.

              Too fucking bad someone’s feelings aren’t as powerful as a nuclear missile.

              The asteroid’s surface gained a new crater and sanitizing Edwards from the universe.

Chapter The Mound

              Kurft was finally up to date on everything that was happening around the mound. The Kalu hadn’t taken long to rush towards their primary position. It had kept a lot of them alive when the Fleet hammered the crap out of their parked ships. The fighters and bombers thinned out the remaining Kalu starships hovering over the planet’s trees.

              The PDS and HAPA’s were keeping the Kalu fighter swarms occupied.

              He’d lost five hundred HAPA’s in a few short days and it didn’t look like it was going to get any better. The forward trenches of the Mound were engaged with the Kalu heavily, the artillery’s guns never paused, crews shifted out in parts so that they could keep the guns going. A number of the guns had to be completely replaced when they burned through their control circuits or the coolant couldn’t keep up. The Fleet shipped down all the rail cannon parts they could.

              Rail cannons along the armored walls above the trenches were having the same issue.

              He had the AI’s generate a schedule to change out Commandos and Free Fleet personnel. The cooks had strict orders to always have warm drinks and food ready for those coming in and those about to go out.

              “Have a talk with the ranger groups and see if they can do anything about the Kalu foragers. I know that they can eat almost everything, but from their biology we know that they get colds and the runs. Let’s see if we can’t get something into their diet that doesn’t quite agree with them,” Kurft said to Fal.

              “Yes Commander, I think his teams will only be too pleased,” Fal said, sounding quite happy to ruin the Kalu’s days.

              No one, not even a soldier or a warrior hell bent on bloodlust was going to have a good day if they needed to pop a squat every few hours. Kurft let out a grunting chuckle at the thought of Kalu looking like a bunch of dogs out for a walk.

              “I’m a little shocked,” Fal said, pulling Kurft out of his thoughts and wondering if the Ershue could read them.

              “About what?” Kurft said as they walked around the command center. Kurft hated to be sitting still and Fal made climbing through the lower limbs of the artificial tree as simple as walking.

              “I’ve heard the stories and I seen the videos from veterans. I kind of thought that they were one of a kind, and while they are each their own person. It is easy to see their similarities with the other Veteran Commando units you brought along. They might complain a bit and mutter about their shit deal. Though when the shit hits the fan they’re like grim juggernauts. They put their armor on and get to work,” Fal said, respect in his voice.

             
If he keeps thinking that way he might have a future as a Commander,
Kurft thought, all too many officers before the Free Fleet had seen their soldiers as nothing more than pawns for their bidding. They showed them to do something on the map and they expected it to be done that way. They didn’t see the obstacles in their way, to them they were idiots wandering around in a field. Not trained killers ready to look after their friend to their left and right.

              “Fal, I think you’re doing the newer units a disservice, everyone has been on the front lines. It’s hard for everyone. The Veterans have learned of ways to deal with that combat. For most of us it’s embracing the reaper as our true master and Salchar being his conduit. The veterans don’t simply go about this as if it’s another job at the office, doing the same thing day in and out. They go out their expecting their enemy and uncle Murphy to do everything to fuck with their day,” Kurft let that settle in Fal’s mind.

              “The newer troops are still thinking about their training and worrying about fucking up. Once they’ve been bathed in fire a few times they’ll realize their instructors were right and they’ll stop trying to imitate Commandos, they’ll be Commandos,” Kurft continued his pacing, Fal pausing for a half second as he thought on Kurft’s points.

              “Kalu are pushing hard in sector five, HAPA’s are already reacting and moving to the walls to support,” Poj reported, Fal felt his wings open in alarm, Kurft’s body tensing as he eyed the door.

             
Damn I wish I was out there fighting the fight.
He remembered the message that Bregend, his Commander, and good friend had sent him after he’d voiced his own feeling about being in command. The trust and respect in Bregend’s words hadn’t been sugar coated, they’d been just what he needed to keep him in the command center and watch as his people rushed into danger.

              “Very good,” Kurft said, his voice harsh, he looked over the main screen to see what was happening.

              “We’ve also been able to trace some of the camps the Kalu have been making,” Fal said, drawing Kurft away from the screens.

              “Very good, let’s keep observing them for a day or two, to see what they do, the Fleet needs that information for other battle plans. Then we’ll give them a new kind of rain,” Kurft’s voice hard, he saw Fal wince as well as some of the other Ershue.

              “I wish we didn’t have to bombard your planet, but.”

              “I know, we all do, its just that we’ve protected our planet from everything including ourselves for so long that its an almost gut reaction,” Fal said, imitating a human smile, it was weak, as was his wings attempt at brevity.

              “When the Kalu are gone, I promise I’ll do what I can to help Ershue, all of Ershue,” Kurft said, looking into Fal’s eyes. The Ershue twitched a bit, they did not like looking in one another’s eyes as it was usually what happened when they looked at the animals that tried to kill them.

              They were usually prey.

             
They’ve come a long way to get to this point,
Kurft thought, proud to be standing next to a race and planet that had been able to prioritize their needs in order to fight a battle to save their lives and the lives of their people.

             
I hope it won’t mess the entire planet up after this,
he thought before shaking his head. He had to first make sure that they won.

              “We have break-ins in sectors one, seven, twelve and fourteen,” Poj said, her voice increasing in volume. Kurft marched to face the main screen, his eyes darting over it to read the situation.

              “Drop a nuke load onto each of the breaches, push the Kalu back,” ue said to the artillery.

              “Send a warning to the Commandos in those areas, have radiation meds ready to go. Bring up the reserves and have them ready to move,” Kurft pointed to Poj, his eyes still looking over the main screens.

              “Inform the commandos that they are pulling back to the second line,” he pointed to Fal who started rattling out orders. “This isn’t going to be their first push and we really should have pulled back earlier than this, we’ve got a hell of a lot of frontage to cover.” The last part was mostly to himself.

              HAPA’s rushed out of the opening hangar doors, right into the Kalu’s fire, their own guns up and firing as smoke haloed from their missile pods, coming down among the Kalu pressing through the lines breaches.

              The reserve that had been sitting in the second line of the trenches now stepped up and started firing as the first line grabbed their gear and ran back to them.

              In most places it was organized, in others it was chaos where the Kalu had broken into the lines and were fighting Commandos in hand-to-hand combat.

              It was getting messy and fast.

              The nukes went off, mushroom clouds putting an end to the Kalu’s advances, the HAPA’s and reserve units piled in the firepower and kept the Kalu off balance. Units that had been on the front lines moved to help out their comrades in killing Kalu in the trenches while pulling back to the second line.

              It took some time, more time than Kurft had hoped, but less than he feared. Thankfully the Kalu seemed to have pulled back and were regrouping for an attack.

              “Activate all of the booby traps in the first trenches, wouldn’t do to have the Kalu use them,” Kurft said.

              “Yes Sir,” Poj said inputting the codes that turned the first trenches and the area around them into a death trap.

              “Pull back the HAPA’s but keep them on alert. The frontlines and the secondaries should be able to handle this. How are the standby reserves looking?” Kurft asked the main screen panning out from the highlighted second group of entrenchments.

              “They are in the third line of entrenchments and waiting,” Fal said.

              “Good,” Kurft said, nodding in approval. His people had reacted with speed and efficiency. He knew it would go on as the battles lasted longer and they got less sleep.

              For now, they were safe and ready if the Kalu decided to attack.

              “They’re coming.”

             
Didn’t have to wait long,
Kurft thought, watching on the feeds as the Kalu ran up the mound’s sides, getting blasted with PDS and pushing through it, their lasers taking out the PDS where they could. The Commandos fire helped give them pause, but it wasn’t enough to stop them. The artillery waited before raining timed rail cannon rounds onto the Kalu which turned them into holed and bleeding armor grinding to a sudden halt.

              Kurft watched, seeing if there were any breaks in the defense.

              “Fal, how are we looking for artillery shells and missiles?” He asked, continuing his stroll and Fal moving through the fake tree.

              “Well Commander, our numbers are good, we have…”

                                                                      ***

              “Don’t take this wrong Ben, but damn if Physics isn’t a bitch,” Salchar said. Ben had plotted out the new route of the surviving Kalu fleet heading for the jump point as well as Orshpa’s fleet if they were to meet up with them. The Free Fleet would be too late, and if they used their capacitors they’d get minutes on their targets. Using Wormhole generators would take too long.

              “No offense commander, but I was thinking something along the same lines,” Ben said.

              “Well then, seeing as we aren’t going to be giving them any parting gifts. We should work on getting a gift ready for their arrival on the other side. Plot a course for Parnmal, we’ll pick up our Commandos before heading down the corridor,” I said, the bridge turning into action as my orders were carried out and the fleet informed of my decision.

              I looked to Ben who understood my glance having worked with me for so long.

              “Two hours until we reach Parnmal Commander,” he said.

              “Good,” I said, sitting back in my seat.

              “So what do you think?” I asked Rick as I looked at the map of the corridor. The intelligence department had cracked the codes of the Kalu fleet and with ours being right in-between the two fleet’s we were picking up everything.

              “It looks like he got them all riled up. If it was just so they would turn away from Parnmal, I don’t know, but we both know that he is going to need to do something to bleed off their bloodlust. It did look like he was telling them that the next inhabited system they got to they would make a demonstration of their might on,” Rick said rubbing his face. We had aged years in months.

             
Guess that’s why we get paid the big bucks. Hell I wonder if I even do get paid,
I thought, my mind wandering due to a lack of sleep.