From Furies Forged (Free Fleet Book 5) (43 page)

              “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.

             
We’re going to need that soon enough,
Ursht thought, taking a slow breath as the rumbling of the oncoming Kalu raising dust in the distance turned into black carapaces.

             
They do look like massive wolves, he
thought as he yelled “Fire!” at the same time.

              Rail cannons bellowed and lasers darted back at the HAPA’s.

              The five-hundred-meter gap between the two ridges was a light show, missiles added their touch to the fray as Ursht got on a channel with Holloway.

              “Looking for supporting fire five hundred meters in front of my location, need to flatten a ridge out some,” Ursht said.

              “Understood, dialing in,” Holloway said, Ursht could actually hear the tapping of the universal keyboard. There was a whining noise of a star-ship rail cannon sending a whole lot of pain in Ursht’s direction.

              The first round was on Ursht’s side of the ridge, the round hammered into the ground, exploding with its penetrator round and making the Kalu’s ridge shake.

              “Adjust another fifty meters back,” Ursht said, firing as he gave corrections, hearing Holloway tapping again.

              “Sending,” Holloway reported, a few moments later a round buried itself in the top of the ridge, killing three Kalu and turning it into a spray of rock and Kalu bodies.

              “Good effect on target, repeat, move first from position left to right from that point to fifty meters back,” Ursht said, hearing not one but multiple artillery pieces firing.

              The rounds hammered into the ridge, detonating and taking its lip off, giving the Commandos a clear line of fire into the advancing Kalu.

              They took advantage of it, not caring about bursts to take out the Kalu that popped out over the ridge. They clamped their fists onto their triggers and the battle became up to the ammo runners to keep the HAPA’s from running out of rounds.

              Here and there the Kalu got a lucky shot in, hitting arms and taking out guns. One of the great things with the HAPA’s weapons being above their heads, was that the Commandos that were about a foot and a half lower them, could stay in cover as they fired, using their arms cameras and the camera above their heads to see what their fire was doing.

              It kept casualties lower but there was still those here and there who got an unlucky hit, going down.

              Commandos pulled them free, one of their number jumping into the HAPA and seeing if they were operational. If they were, they got back on the line and took their place.

              The Kalu fighters seemed to be getting interested by all the action and were coming from the other landing locations. It was going to get real hot real fast.

              Ursht opened a channel with Kolva.

              “How is it looking?” He asked, making sure to not move that much as an ammo crew slapped feeding arms into his back, hurling rounds into his internal magazines.

              “We have about half of the ships rigged, how long do we have?” Kolva asked.

              “We can hold for another ten minutes,
tops,”
Ursht emphasized, the weight of Kalu coming to bar on him was like the waves from the growing Planner Sea. For now, it was manageable, but Ursht knew that was going to change very damned quick.

              “We will not be able to rig all of the ships. You should have your people use artillery on them to take away their resources,” Kolva grunted, clearly not pleased with destroying potential loot, but his warrior side won out in the calculation.

              “Understood,” Ursht said, his opinion of Kolva rising slightly.

              “We will be free in five minutes,” Kolva promised.

              “We will hold for five more minutes; commanders get your people ready to move back to the tunnels!” Ursht barked, more Kalu fighter swarms were coming from the directions of the other Kalu camps.

              “Commanders, you are free to use the nuclear warheads,” he told the commanders of the HAPA’s keeping the Kalu fighters off of their brother HAPA’s.

              “Holloway, nuke load, get us some fucking breathing room,” Ursht barked.

              “Yes commander,” Holloway said. They were at the three-minute mark already as HAPA’s missile pods locked into position, firing their slender loads.

              They raced up towards the Kalu. They didn’t care for the missiles, they were the Kalu, and they would wade through the fire and claim their enemy’s heads after all.

              The missiles split into three warheads, blossoming into destruction, at the heart of the Kalu formations.

              The shock waves rocked the HAPA’s only a few falling over. The Kalu warriors, racing to close with the HAPA’s, were tossed across the battlefield.

              Holloway’s rounds made their arrival known, billowing waves of pressure, fire and destruction followed by smoke rolled through the Kalu formations, hurling the rocks, dust and Kalu that were in their range.

              “We’re done,” Kolva said at six minutes.

              “Pull back!” Ursht barked, to the uninitiated the HAPA’s would look like they were breaking, turning like a flood of metal hulks and racing away from the battle. They were actually organized into their units and this was their normal marching pace. Those on the line fired missiles down onto the stunned Kalu.

              Ursht looked to the skies. The Kalu fighters were in disarray, for now. He knew that they would get their shit together all too soon.

              The mass of fighters coming from other camps weren’t in such confusion.

              Even as a part of him wanted to stay and fight, his training ruled. He needed to live to fight another day. Sure he might kill a lot today, but it would spend all of his forces.

              He had lost a hundred and fifty-seven people.

              He wouldn’t get many more by staying.

              “Commander, we’re pulling back,” Hod said.

              “Then I guess we should be following them,” Ursht fired his missiles, emptying his pods before heading for his tunnel.

              The HAPA’s covering the skies dissolved into the tunnels as well.

              The last one cleared the tunnel, rushing past Ursht as he watched the hydraulics of the tunnel’s opening close as lasers struck the ground around the opening.

              “Commander?” Hod asked, her words serving to get Ursht moving.

              “Have someone ready to collapse the tunnels if they make it in. Pass the word, we’re going to Charlie,” Ursht said.

              ‘Yes sir,” Hod started passing the word and Ursht disappeared into the world of information that told him of the fighting happening across his planet.

Chapter Oolta

              Ershue disappeared behind Bregend’s fleet, Cheerleader was powering for the planet as fast as possible. Boot was similarly powering to catch up with Bregend. Falhu had been given nearly a week head start towards Oolta.

              Reports from the system showed that there was a force of fifty-thousand Kalu shops powering for the high gravity and sandy world.

              The remaining nearly three hundred thousand ships were heading for Drvntrni as fast as damned possible. Bregend wasn’t that worried about Drvntrni, first because all of the inhabitants lived underwater, second because everything on the damned planet looked to kill its inhabitants. The Kalu were going to have a bad time when they landed. The sentients wouldn’t need to do anything, the native creatures would wear down the Kalu forces.

              It would be three days until Bregend’s fleet got to Oolta, another day until Boot caught up, and another two until the Henry classed Destroyers caught up with them all. Then Bregend would look to taking the smaller packets of Kalu head on.

                                                                      ***

              It was three days later and Falhu was already on his way to Drvntrni. A third of the fifty-thousand Kalu had been stopped from getting to Oolta’s surface, the gravity was too strong for Planetary Rail cannons. Though mines didn’t need to worry about the same issues.

              Another seven thousand craft didn’t make it to the surface, well more accurately, they made it to the surface
too
fast. The planet Ooltar was one point seven the gravities of Earth. Making it nine gravities more than the Kalu’s normal gravitational equivalent.

              Orvunut, using specialized powered armor that turned them into walking tanks of HAPA cannons and missile pods meandered down to the Kalu landing areas and piled the firepower into the Kalu that were trying to slog it through the planet’s sand.

              Kalu were meant to run fast over firm ground on lower gravity worlds. The sand seemed to eat them as they heaved themselves forward. The thicker atmosphere absorbed their laser fire and Kalu fighters were more likely to run into one another than hit the Orvunut tanks, or the Commandos that had been stationed there for a number of months.

              “Commander Geh, if you have any targets I would be happy to send them a gift from the fleet,” Bregend said over a channel to the Planet’s Commando Commander.

              “Sending,” Geh said, her voice rolling, deep and
slow
. The Orvunut were damned smart people, but they talked like molasses dripped from a spoon.

              Targets illuminated the map.

              “Domal, spread those targets around. Wilma have the fleet come to bear on the planet,” Bregend said.

              His orders were carried out, and rail cannon batteries fired on their preselected targets. Their masses turned into cherry-red droppings, striking the target areas with brutal force. Dust rippled out from their impacts as craters appeared from their landing sites.

              After twelve minutes the remaining three million Kalu strong force was turned into less than half that.

              “The Orvunut can easily clear the remaining Kalu from the surface. We will try starving them first. We know that the Commandos will be needed in other systems to protect them. You are good fighters. Many of our own wish to join your ranks in helping push the Kalu back. Will you allow them to fight alongside your forces?” Commander Geh’s voice came out in a computerized synthesizer. Reading her body language was a lot faster than her actual ability to form words.

              “Are you Certain Commander?” Bregend asked seriously. Yes, he wanted those forces, but he didn’t want to pull them from Oolta if he could help it.

              “Yes Commander, we have gamed this situation out, this is one of the better and we will be fine. Thank you for your concern,” Geh’s computer voice came back.

              “Very well, we are honored with your offer of assistance. We will send down ships to collect your people as soon as it is safe.”

              “I will have one of my aide’s contact yours when we have secured a spaceport for your shuttles to land,” Geh cut the channel, it wasn’t rude but rather a high point of respect in the Orvunut culture. Everything they did was an economy of motion. If they spent more time on something, then it was because they thought they were dumb.

              Bregend checked his reports. The Kalu had made it through Parnmal and AIH, the main force was moving on to Chaleel. Salchar and Commander Whorst were chasing right after them.

              He looked to his own concerns, once Falhu was in Drvntrni he would have three directions in which to go; Rosho, Hada or Urshval.