From Furies Forged (Free Fleet Book 5) (7 page)

              This elicited an annoyed moan, making me stop, unable to not smile happily at the moment I'd been given.

              Yasu's black hair ran free, removed from the normal braid she used to keep it at bay. Her eyes and mouth were closed in sleepy bliss. She had caramel brown irises that hid under her almond shaped eyes, a cute nose complemented her high cheek bones. Her porcelain skin was marked with the scars of battle, framed by her hair that made a sort of wispy curtain around her features.

             
How did I get so lucky?
I no longer wondered how I had been lumped with Yasu, I loved her. That I knew now. No matter what had happened in the past we felt deeply for one another in ways we hadn't expected.

              I looped my arm around her, resting it on her side gently.

              She was going to be the mother of my child, and as much as I was scared, I was also excited. The kind of excited that had me smiling at the ceiling like an idiot and made me want to throw my body around in some form of happy dance.

              “Stop being so loud,” Yasu complained sleepily, moving her head onto my shoulder, one eye half-opening in warning.

              “Sorry babe,” I said leaning over and kissing her forehead.

              She rubbed her forehead a playful frown on her lips.

              “Tickles,” she said, looking to me, both her eyes thinned in accusation. I couldn't help keep the happy grin off of my face.

              Her own face broke into an identical smile.

              “Baka.” While on top of me slightly, she planted a kiss on my lips.

              “Now, back to sleep. I'm tired!” She rolled back down, making an act of getting nestled in my arms.

              “I never thought the blade mistress would be so cute in bed,” I said to the ceiling, looking to her after the words were out.

              “You watch it James Cook,” she said with one open eye.

              I rolled over her so I was now looking down on her, my own hair falling down the sides of my head.

              “Or what.”

              “Or I will make sure our kids start playing Mecha Assault as soon as their out of swaddling to beat their daddy up!” She pouted.

              I laughed, unable to contain myself anymore.

              “Kids is it now?” I asked after I had got my laughing under control.

              “Well according to Avarians standards, having about nine is a normal amount,” she said, looking at the bed's headboard in thought.

              “Hmm, nine is it? That'll take some work, but I'll be up for it,” I said, looking over her body and raising my eyebrows suggestively, having to flick my long hair out of my eyes.

             
Damn hair tie is gone again!

              “Nine kids? I'd look like a damned bean bag!” She barked.

              “My bean bag,” I said leaning down for a kiss, she pressed her lips together for a few seconds before giving up and wrapping her arms around my neck and pulling me in deeper.

              “Then you're going to have to get lots of rest and be my sleeping pillow!” She hit my right elbow, making me roll away, her legs and arms capturing one of my own legs and arm.

              “Good,” she said, happy with my captured limbs.

              I shifted her with an arm under her body. Syndicate enhanced muscles had their use after all.

              She sprawled on my chest, her head tilted to look at me.

              “I'm happy I got stuck with you James,” she said, one of the few people to use my real name anymore. She reached up, giving me a quick peck on the lips before pulling the sheets over them and adjusting herself into a comfortable position.

              I ran a hand through my long hair, finding that my usual leather tie, which held it in check was indeed missing.

Chapter The more things change, the more they stay the same

              Foshunti ate the popcorn in peace. Parnmal had many amenities, including a theatre. Foshunti was enjoying his day off when
she
sat in the seat beside him. He had been trained by Elisati to infiltrate the Syndicate and work to overthrow Lady Fairgate. He'd found the Free Fleet and picked them as the best bet to get rid of Lady Fairgate and he hadn't looked back.

              He was Ship Commander of the Talhalla, he had spent weeks grieving for those that had been lost on Heija. Sounds and movements still sent him back to his time on the planet.

              “Foshunti,” she said in that measured way, which seemed to impress her confidence in her own skills and his position as something lower than her.

              “Fuck off,” he said conversationally a cold edge of anger seeping into his tone. Getting a surprised jolt from Elisati.

             
Deserved that.
He thought, trying to focus on the movie and forget that she was even there.

              “I wanted to talk to you about the events on Heija,” she said.

             
Not one to take fucking hints.
Anger rolled off of him as he stood, pushing past her without waiting for her to move her legs. The movie didn't seem as amusing anymore.

              He exited the theatre, walking through the snacks and such.

              A group of gunners and a few commandos from Talhalla saw him, nodding to him. He waved with a small smile as he left the theatre. She caught up to him before he got to the theatre's doors.

              She grabbed his arm, turning him.

              She recoiled from his fiery eyes and hard face. Quick as ever those emotions disappeared as she talked.

              “What happened?” She demanded.

              “People fucking died, too fucking many of them,” he ground out, seeing their smiling happy faces as he remembered them in the rec rooms, or in the mess when they'd been people living life to the fullest. Not getting it ripped away from them in the mindless fury and destruction that happened on Heija.

              He looked away from her eyes, feeling his own emotions rushing through him. He smelt the fear on those front lines. His throat felt raw from rallying those under his command, his arms ached as he reloaded his rifle and turned to face the Kalu once again. He fired, seeing the hellish landscape before him. Lasers burned through powered armor, ignited power cells as Kalu rushed through bombardment after bombardment. Kalu fighters and MEF's waged their own terrible war above. Their losses crashed onto the battlefield, killing the unknowing below.

              Powered armor, covered in the red dirt of the planet manned the trenches, were jumped on by advancing Kalu plasmid blades came free from their scabbards as claws, teeth and melee weapons fought for salvation by killing the enemy.

              Foshunti saw it, but didn't register it. His world was that of a creature holding the line. He

              reloaded his weapon by what the human's termed as pavlovian response. He didn't have to think as he pulled that trigger. He watched his tactical screens barking orders and pushing Commandos and volunteers to take up the positions of the fallen, or reinforce those being hammered by Kalu.

              He flinched as she touched him again. She lowered her hand, obviously unsure what to do.

              “I'm sorry,” she said in a tone he had never heard before. There was almost a soft element to it.

              Foshunti snorted, barely keeping the look of disgust from his face.

              The anger that resided under his skin, fueled by the frustration of people walking, talking, joking and living life, as if Heija had never happened.

             
This is what you damned well fought for. For people to be able to have lives.
His anger turned on him as rationality fought emotions.
But was it worth those that died for it?
A smaller voice asked.

              “Now you know what happened on Heija, can you leave me alone?”

              “Yeah, I'll leave you alone,” she said, Foshunti couldn't pin down the feelings in that tone as he turned and left, throwing the popcorn in the trash. It didn't taste nearly as good as it had.

              He headed towards Talhalla, his relaxation ruined as he stood straighter, people moving out of his way as he pulled out his Data pad.

              “Wasta, take the next two days off,” he said, connecting to his second-in-command who was looking over the repairs.

              “But commander, you only just took your break,”

              “Nothing really interesting going on,” Foshunti said, gliding through the crowds that filled Parnmal, watching, smelling and hearing the sounds of the main courseways, but detached from it all.

              “Yes Commander,” Wasta's soft tone made Foshunti think that he might understand how he needed to be with his own people; people that had gone through the same things as him.

                                                                      ***

              Elisati saw the man that she had practically raised stormed out of the movie theatre. She could sense the anger, confusion and pain that seemed to roll off of him in waves.

             
Maybe I was wrong to send him off against Lady Fairgate.
She thought, sadness forcing her to see the remainders of a man cobbled together. A man without a planet, but with a family.

              He pulled out his data pad, talking to someone, only then did he relax. He ignored the sights and sounds around him. Only nodding to the Free Fleet personnel along his path.

              Her eyes turned to those creatures. They too were hiding their feelings as best they could. The only ones not were so self-medicated on booze that their friends were dragging them to somewhere less public.

              She remembered her conversation with Min Hae, the talk of having representatives from each system, the hope for the return of the Union.

             
Oh, but you knew that the old Union was never coming back. The PDF is long gone, and Worshun isn't the planet it once was. Parnmal on the other hand is the new hub of the known universe, and the Free Fleet are throwing themselves at the Kalu with every opportunity they have.

              She turned on her feet and headed towards the Free Fleet sections of the station. She pulled out her own data pad and sent her message to the other three governors of Worshun. They had returned to the normal election process of having three leaders as was used with the Union. Now it was time to see if that Union and those elections were worth it.

              She glanced up, seeing a group of prisoners doing maintenance in a corridor. A number of them glanced up, nodding in greeting as they got back to work. The Commandos watching worked to help teach them how to do their jobs better, and make sure that they didn't get any ideas of running away, or hurting people.

              The Union would have executed them for their crimes, it was one reason that the syndicate had become so damned ruthless.

              She got to the training office, the biggest of the Free Fleet.

              It was the dead end of the main course-way armor plating barricades rested in front of the two doors that led into the office HAPA's waited behind those barricades, searching for any threats.

              The doors were simple blast doors on either side of block letters which declared the building behind it the 'Free Fleet training office'.

              She passed around the barricades, there were ones and twos also flowing towards the doors. She had to get out of the way of a few people talking excitedly, or looking dejected.

             
Prepared aren't they.
She thought, looking at the railgun rounds in each of the HAPA's ammunition belts.

              She moved through the doors, people were milling around, talking to various people wearing free fleet fatigues. She knew all of them were veterans that had been pushed onto the job in order to weed out those they didn't think could handle the free fleet.

              The room was utilitarian, multi-functional kiosks and a clear blast-proof wall stopped people from moving on.

              People tapped their information into the kiosk, the speakers calling out people towards the set of doors in the blast proof wall to meet a free fleet councilor.

              She passed her arm over the kiosk, it took the information from her implants. She'd had them from before the fall of the Union and they still worked perfectly fine.

              For a nominal fee a person could get them implanted by a number of medical techs.

              “Elisati Drova,” a voice said after a few moments, she walked up to the doorway in the blast glass.

              A Kelvar waved her over once she cleared the double doors to stop people attempting to rush through the first set.

             
This place is a damned bunker.
It looked identical to the one on Worshun.

              The Kelvar with a nametape on their chest that said Jilem looked up at her.

              “I can see that you haven't done the training tests or medical. Do you want to schedule those?” The Kelvar asked.

              “I was wondering if I could talk to Salchar,”

              “Everyone wants to talk to the commander,” the Kelvar said, rolling over the question.

              “I want to talk to him about creating a new Union,” she said, suppressing her annoyance. The Kelvar looked up to her.

              “I guess it does fall under your role as Planetary governor,” Jilem said.

              A man stepped into the office wearing the necessary tags for someone in the intelligence department.

              “You called Jilem?” The human, Carter by his nametape, asked.

              “Drova here wants to talk to Salchar about creating a Union. Seems more your type of thing,” Jilem said, he'd probably called Carter as soon as he got her information from the kiosk.

              “Very well, if you would follow me Ms. Elisati Drova,” Carter said, gesturing for her to follow.

             
Well seems that someone did their homework.

              She repeated her intent three more times to various people before she found herself in a conference room.

              An Awakened Avarian walked into the room first. It was so damned big it could only be an Awakened Avarian.

              The Chief of Staff, Rick Hansen walked in.

              “So how do you propose we start?” He asked, taking a seat and reclining.

              “We write up a charter, people in the Union can travel between the planets with their talents and training being compatible in any other system. Taxes are the same and go to the Free Fleet as well as other administrative needs such as relief efforts, medical care and such,” she said.

              Rick nodded in thought, his eyes weighing Elisati.

              “Then I think we have some work to do.”

                                                                      ***

              Knox stared at the after-action report in shock, shock which was quickly turning to anger.

              It took all of his self-control to hide that anger as Keith Edwards, the prick that had reported on the Free Fleet and done everything in his power to get the kind of information that the free fleet didn't want anyone having, gloated.

              “It was rather easy, with my knowledge matched with General Davidson's powered armor strike force the two freighters didn't stand a chance,” Edwards said, almost flippantly.

              “All of the crew are dead?” Knox's voice was somehow calm. All he needed to see was that smile on Edwards face to know the truth.

              “Well we couldn't let there be any possibility of a leak. Having witnesses that are able to talk are, well you know,” Edwards said brushing the point away.

             
You just killed three hundred Kuruvians traders you idiot! The Kuruvians might be peaceful for the most part but they have the most ships out there other than the Kalu and the Free Fleet. They also have damned close ties to the miners of AIH. It wouldn't take much for them to change their agreement of materials for ships to our heads for ships!

              “Anyway, we now have two hundred HAPA's under our command and our strike-force distributed across that amateur's fleet,” Edwards said, not hiding his disgust for Salchar.

             
That is the crux of the issue. He didn't care for your bullshit and walked all over you. That's why you've been such a proponent of attacking the Free Fleet.

              “Why was I kept out of the loop on this one?” Knox asked, lowering the papers which had been written out in pencil instead of trusting it to any computer system.

              “If it went badly I don't think the higher ups wanted you to get pulled down as well. While Min Hae is a pretender, his people have shown that they are good at tracking down their quarry and pulling information from them,” Edwards said darkly.

             
I wonder if he actually thinks that Min Hae tortures those he questions, or that he's trying to use it as a reason for him to keep on torturing those that he believes have important information?

              A man that could fool others was never good. Someone that believed in the lies they used to fool others, that was scary. Add in the fact Edwards had clearly been growing his power base as Knox dealt with more impotant matters. An unseen shiver ran down Knox's back.

              “Yes, they are quite resourceful,” Knox allowed.

              Edwards made a noise somewhere between a grunt and a snort.

              “When do you think that your agents will be ready to strike?” Edwards asked.

              “I don't think that now is the time to strike.”
Especially when there's a damned galactic war going on!
“Do you think that the Free Fleet knows about the attack on their freighters?”

              “No,” Edwards said with more than a little heat at the jab. “General Davidson and myself think that it would be prudent to strike while we have momentum on our side. The President and the other world leaders are also in agreement. I am going to make a report to General Davidson personally on our ability to take control of Sol system and strike at the heart of the Free Fleet,” Edwards said, his voice hard as he looked straight into Knox's eyes.

              Knox felt his blood freeze over.
They're going to do it; they're really going to do it!

              “Well it will take about a week to get all of the units on standby,” Knox said.

              Edwards nodded, his eyes dark as he found something interesting on the wall behind Knox to look at.

             
That should allow the Free Fleet enough time to pull this whole thing down.
Knox knew that Min Hae would not be pleased with the fact that his informant hadn't told him about this little snake's nest forming on Earth.

              Knox had hoped that the world leaders might come to their senses, understanding that getting rid of the Free Fleet and stabbing them in the back would only harm Earth's ability to survive the oncoming battle with the Kalu.

              Too many people were too far removed from what was happening outside of Sol. To them the Kalu were something far away to be dismissed as an immature group of kids playing at soldiers. They didn’t have to deal with it.

              “Really, I thought it would be something closer to a few hours. Though I could also swear that Felix was set to come through Sol to meet up in Nancy in three days. Then again people are so unreliable today.” There was something sinister and dark in Edward's voice that made Knox's stomach drop.

             
How did he know about the carrier?

              Two shots rang out, Knox fell from his chair, looking at the blood which had appeared in his stomach.

              Pain and shock warred with one another as everything became cold and heavy.

              “Min Hae will be joining you very soon, traitor,” Edwards spat on Knox.

              “You won't win, they'll hammer us back, they'll avenge their fallen and the Kalu will come,” Knox pleaded with Edwards to see reason, but those hard eyes had already made their decision.

              “This is Earth, home of humanity. You think some damned aliens are going to defeat us!” Edwards' gun shook with anger as he pointed it at Knox again.

              Knox laid down on that floor of his unremarkable concrete room and laughed.

              Fear and jealousy had defeated Edwards, it had defeated those heads of nations and General Davidson. They were so scared that they were becoming irrelevant that they’d lashed out. An act done to show that they had some kind of control.

              Other nations, other systems were taking the limelight and they were jealous. They were scared humans were allowing their emotions to show that they were the greatest. They didn't need other races, they didn't need the Free Fleet, they were strong by themselves.

              That kind of thinking was what made them weak compared to the Free Fleet. It was why they were going to lose.

              “Humans, when will we learn?” Knox said, Edward's gun barked once, a disgusted look on his face as he holstered it and took the papers from the desk. He walked outside to the men waiting for him.

              “Knox is dead, tell General Davidson we are ready to proceed with operation home turf.” One of the men saluted running off.

Chapter Sometimes the carrot doesn't work

              “So how are we looking with this whole recreating the Union?” I asked, stopping myself from scratching the newly formed skin on my lower back.

              “So far it looks like all of the eight systems under our protection as well as Quarst, Jakram, Rashdahl and the Sarenmenti reclamation project that is trying to rebuild their homeworld are in. The Kuruvians have mentioned some interest and will be supplying a representative. They haven't said if they want to be part of the Union if it comes into formation or not,” Rick said, not needing to look at the conference room table or his data pad that lay on it. He had been in meetings with all of the representatives for the last two weeks while I had got my ass out of bed, got my new spine all checked out and signed off on. I'd been dealing with the paperwork of ship repairs as well as the never ending reports I had been missing while I was on Heija.

              I looked up to the Parnmal conference room's wall mounted view screen. It faithfully displayed where the systems were that were interested in being part of the Union.

              The room was empty except for me and Rick, leaving us plenty of room for our data pads, and the litany of information that the view screen turned desks that was being pulled from the Free Fleet's servers.

              “Good, what about the agreement that you looked at? What did they think?” I looked to Rick who was rubbing his face to try and energize it and himself.

              “We've got a tentative agreement,” he said, finding the file after a few flicks through his personal storage, he pushed it off towards me. I turned it, checking it over.

              “Basically it’s the exact same as the Union charter. Except this one names the Free Fleet as a contractual security force unlike the Planetary Defense Force of the original Union.” There was an annoyed edge to Rick's voice. “You would not believe how hard it was to get them to think of us as not a body of the Union, but as a trading house that Min Hae proposed.”

              I nodded, going into this mess Min Hae had suggested that we show ourselves as a marketing house, we protected traders, traded out of Parnmal and such. Our war with the Syndicate was to keep the trading lanes clear and us in business. If we made ourselves another PDF, then we were liable to deteriorate like them. They had hamstrung themselves by looking at the military as if it was a way to climb the social ladder. With the Free Fleet we would run it like a business. Only doing good at your job would get you a higher position.