From Furies Forged (Free Fleet Book 5) (52 page)

              Not long ago Whorst had been the system commander of Earth. In the short time that he had been away from his post it had changed. Mars was creating its own cities, Hachiro was now twice the size and there were three other asteroids that had been moved into orbit to become stations. Nancy was nearly as big as she had been before she donated Nelly and Nate to Chaleel and AIH.

              Markers of haulers, freighters and shuttles moved between all of the different structures. Earth by contrast had only a few ships moving around the entire planet. After they had tried to take over the Free Fleet they had been ostracized by the space-going community at large. Most of the ships that were moving around were either private company owned, or built by the governments of Earth. Each of them represented a good chunk of Earth’s resources and credits.

              The Kalu ships, even with all that the HCD’s had done outnumbered all of the ships in-system by a hefty margin. That wasn’t even including their fighters.

              “Let’s have a look at those weapon emplacements around Mars again,” Whorst said. He had one task, keep Mars safe. It was Foshunti’s job to look after Earth.

              Gun emplacements appeared on the map infront of him, detailing what their range and their cones of fire were.

              He had a battle to plan for and if there was a saint Murphy, and he knew if there was, there would be last minute alterations and decisions that he would have to make.

                                                                      ***

              Commander Wesom looked over what had been the purple’s yellows and blues of Jakram. Now there were just scars, fires, and the bodies of Free Fleet and Kalu alike.

              Five hundred thousand Commandos had been waiting on the planet when the battle had started, four hundred thousand more of the population had volunteered for combat, two hundred and thirteen thousand were left of either force, but the civilians were safe.

              Wesom wanted to fall in the dirt and cry, he had lost so many friends, so many people had died and yet he had survived to see this terrible sight.

              There was a booming noise from above, the first Free Fleet ships were finally descending towards the planet. Following them were the Free Merchant ships that would drop off what aid they could while gathering up Wesom and his forces. They were needed on Ershue, Jakram might be safe, but the Free Fleet and the Kalu were far from finished in their war.

              “Check to see if all of our people are ready to go,” Wesom said, he turned towards the space port. The view didn’t change much, signs of death and loss were everywhere. He stood in what had been the capital of Jakram. Now it was falling buildings, burnt parks, and bodies. Kalu lay across defenses, civilians that hadn’t run lay in the street. Wesom had opened his mask when he exited the bunkers and promptly evacuated the purple soup the Free Fleet lived on.

              The planet smelt like death a few months old in a humid atmosphere.

              Civilians walked through the cities, looking in wonder and shock. Volunteers walked around, making sure there were no surprises. Some had found a comfortable place to sit and were crying, sleeping or looking at what had become of their planet.

              Wesom moved through defensive positions that he had manned just months or weeks ago, they felt like years.

              He trudged through the mess, his second, Jar sent him an alert. The first Commandos were boarding their shuttles and other crafts.

              He picked up his pace, memories flicking through his mind as he focused on his path through the destroyed city.

              It didn’t take him long to get to the space port.

              Commandos, HAPA’s and personnel moved in marching order to the massive Free Fleet warships and Merchant freighters. He cast a look over the city that was perched on the edge of a cliff. The sun was near afternoon, but the red dust from bombarding the planet so many times with the Free Fleet’s shipboard guns made it look pink. Some said that it would remain for generations.

             
A month of fighting and we changed an entire planet for generations.
He shook his head, not knowing if he felt disgust, guilt, anger, or just frustration.

              He opened up his HUD, information filling his field of view. A line showed him the way to his ship. He joined the moving mass of a hundred a seventy-three thousand Commandos.

              It was quiet other than the thumping of armor on the space port’s reinforced pad. They all knew where they were going and they all knew some of them weren’t coming back.

              They were veterans, one and all. Gone were the illusions of heroism or the belief that they couldn’t be killed.

             
I just hope I kill more of the bastards before they take me out,
Wesom summarized their feelings as he thumped aboard a shuttle. The doors sealed and the shuttle took off, he fell into a seat, a harness clamping over him.

              The rough jostling was nothing like the pounding of the Free Fleet’s cannons, he quickly fell asleep.

              He’d need all the rest he could get before Ershue.

                                                                      ***

              Fal looked at the main screen that displayed what had come to be referred to as ‘The Mound’ on Ershue.

              The landscape had changed in ways he had never thought possible since the Kalu landed. Swathes of sacred forest had been ripped apart by both the mound's artillery and the Kalu's lasers.

              The mounds flat top had been dug into with massive trenches. The three-kilometer-wide and three story tall base that he stood in was the center of it all.

              Smoke rose from the forest. Trees for kilometers around the mound had been turned into wreckage. The vibrant colors of the forest colored with destruction.

              It hurt him inside to see the new scars that his planet now bore.

              "We will rebuild Fal," Kurft said, reading his thoughts as he too looked at the main screen.

              "I know," Fal replied, their eyes meeting briefly before they looked towards the screen again.

              "We have word coming in from the guerilla forces," Poj said, referring to the platoon sized Ershue units that had been deployed around the planet to make the Kalu's lives a living hell. They'd done well in their duties, poisoning food and water so Kalu were barely able to fight, booby trapping their lines of approach and designating camps for bombing targets.

              It hadn't been without risks. Hundreds had died in order to carry out their duty.

              "On screen," Kurft said. The guerilla forces always got priority.

              It was an artillery designation, the reason that they were asking for confirmation was because it was on a fueling facility.

              The Kalu weren't as dumb as they looked, they had brought machinery and supplies with them in order to keep themselves and their weapons going. Including Helium processors that could turn water into fusion fuel.

              "Confirm target and send," Kurft said, his voice gruff. He knew the kind of damage that would come on the planet. Fal felt as if he was bartering a bit of what the Human's called 'soul' away as the order was given. A number of Ershue had needed to be removed from the command center as they watched their planet being destroyed. Their planet was their legacy, their home. It was a part of them in a way that few other races felt.

              Kurft seemed to be touched by it and understood it on some level.

              Somewhere in the base Planetary Rail Cannons fired, and a swathe of Ershue was cleared of all life. The area of forest on the screen bloomed into a cloud of destruction. There seemed to have been a power plant on the location. It had been punctured by the artillery fire, reacting from the opened storage tanks of Helium-three and turned into a bomb that shook the base with its ferocity. Kilometers of forest burned. Fal just hoped that there was little to no fallout so that they might one day reclaim that portion of their home.

              "The Kalu look to be massing along sector three," Poj said, sadness, but determination in her voice.

              "Alert the HAPA units in that sector, have artillery see if they can coax them out," Kurft said looking to the map.

              The Mound base had thirteen trench lines that extended to within a few kilometers of the incline that led from the forest to the barren rock face.

              Seven of those lines had been pulled back from, sealed off and their booby traps activated.

              Fifty-nine thousand Commandos, both from the fleet and Ershue had died in the defense of those lines. It was a small price to pay for the more than a hundred and fifty million Ershue that hid in the catacombs cut under the base and inside the mound.

              “I’m going out,” Kurft said, passing his pad to Fal.

              “I will come too commander,” Fal said respectfully, their HAPA numbers had been ground down, Fal was certified and he didn’t want to sit back as his commander went out there and fought.

              Kurft looked over him and nodded, pulling the data pad back and handing it to Poj.

              “Keep us safe,” Kurft said.

              There wasn’t the nervousness Fal would have expected to see in Poj’s wings. She knew her abilities and if Kurft bestowed his trust in her, then she would carry out her task to the best of her ability.

              Fal clamped his helmet closed, Kurft did the same. They weaved their way through the base, it was a large base but they knew it well. It wasn’t long until they were in the grimy armory racks. HAPA’s powered up and moved, their users making sure they were running properly. Racks shifted as people moved to join their units. Ammunition belts rattled as ammunition was fed into the beast’s magazines and then up to their medium rail cannons. Elevators dropped from the floor above, more HAPA’s following.

              The room was appeared to be in hard use, grease and scars ran across the walls and ceilings.

              Fal twitched his wings, his powered armor translated it into walking. Ershue didn’t walk all that much, but the heavy powered armor translated these movements.

              In space with their reactive thrusters, they were free to fly.

              Fal climbed up his HAPA and ambled his way in, he didn’t miss the easy way that Kurft swung himself into position and started the powering up sequence.

              Fal orientated and powered up, the machine rumbled to life underneath him.

              Again he used the interface between his wings and powered armor to move, which made his HAPA move. He rocked with the HAPA’s large gait, he walked, flicking switches to bring ammunition to both guns and alter the gait of the HAPA to better suit him. Another closed the harness around his powered armor and mated it to the HAPA’s.

              He checked the harness and grabbed the dual joy sticks to either side of him. He flicked a toggle on the side. His missile pods came up on both sides and locked into position.

              Kurft was ahead of him and moving through the HAPA commandos towards the hallways that surrounded the armored facility. These would put them in front of the approaching Kalu.

              HAPA’s were jogging, a simple enough looking practice, but one of the most complex.

              Fal hit another toggle on the sides of his joysticks, they became free, whirring as he brought them up, he shifted his arms and the cannons on them from side to side, checking his range of motion.

              “All good?” Kurft asked over personal communications channel.

              “Five by five,” Fal said, remembering a human saying that had stuck.

              Kurft let out a huff of air and picked up the pace into a jog. Fal followed, switching the second last toggle on his joysticks. The guns rotated, revealing plasmid swords. He hit the toggle again and the cannons came back.

              He felt his body moving side to side with the elongated steps of the HAPA. It had felt so odd and heavy compared to flying. After months of training he was finally used to it.

              Kurft turned and came out of the corridor.

              A hatch had been opened to allow the HAPA’s to stream out. Kurft’s arms came up his rail cannons firing.

              Fal followed, checking his cannons again.

              Then he too was going through the hatch and saw a sight that training could never replicate. HAPA’s stood or took a knee in any depression they could find, grouping together and firing at the oncoming Kalu. Artillery rained down over the edge of the mound and on the side of it. There wasn’t enough additional support to keep them all back and the Kalu had spread out enough that the artillery didn’t kill that many of them.