From Furies Forged (Free Fleet Book 5) (46 page)

              Yet he was seeing it coming apart.

              He needed Orshpa’s guidance, they needed to end the Free Fleet.

Chapter Farmers know how to shoot too

              “Kalu fleet coming into range,” Yuvel said, looking to the Commander of Chaleel’s defenses, Delahil.

              “Open fire,” Delahil said, her voice removed of all emotion. AIH and Chaleel were close in not only distance but relations.

              So when Chaleel joined the Union with them and were allowed to purchase weapons systems from the Free Fleet subsidiaries, AIH had rushed to help their closest allies. Chaleel had the largest population of any system in the Union. They needed guns, lots of guns to keep their people who were primarily farmers safe. The Avarians had fought for generations and knew how to protect themselves. Other systems had done the same. Yet Chaleel was only getting roughed over by the Syndicate when the Free Fleet found them. They were peaceful and not used to war.

              Commandos bolstered their ranks and their military had grown with the insistence of governments that could see that violence wasn’t going away.

              They’d turned their space elevators into miniature Parnmals, covered in armor, planetary shields,  weapons, and with a thick covering of space mines around the entire planet.

              None of them had powered up or poked their weapons out as the Kalu fleet of twenty-nine-thousand headed towards Chaleel.

              Now the Kalu fleet was in range of five space elevators.

              Power shielding couldn’t hide the weapons powering up on the elevators, or how they shifted on their umbilical’s to face the Kalu.

              It definitely couldn’t hide the twelve hundred weapons firing.

                                                                      ***

              Orshpa ripped apart the railing in front of him in anger, yet another fleet was being mauled by these armed Free Fleet worlds.

              He had seen the pastures of the planet, the obvious signs of farmers.

             
They should be weak nothing’s, just creatures to be brushed aside!
He demanded answers from his universe, but the only thing that he saw was yet another fleet coming apart as they tried to make planet fall.

              Cannons had been mounted to what looked like tracked vehicles that were moving across the planet in massive formations. Their guns bellowed, striking more Kalu from the sky as they raced towards the Kalu’s landing zone.

              They might be farmers but they were no cowards and they had the same fiendish imagination as the rest of the Free Fleet.

              Orshpa looked away from his screens, the command deck quiet as wormholes formed in front of the fleet.

              They were going to Sol.

              Orshpa looked at the information coming back from the system, wormholes appeared and Star-destroyers started piling into Chaleel system, right behind the Free Fleet who were starting to send shuttles at Chaleel.

              A spark of hope lit in Orshpa’s chest.

             
Looks like not all of my supply train was destroyed.

              His sour mood evaporated as he thought of what he might be able to do with those supplies. It could change the entire war!

              He dug his claws into the deck, sharpening his claws. They exited the wormhole, looking at a new system.

              “Send orders to the fleet, attack everything and anything. We have reached Salchar’s home clan system. We have reached Sol,” Orshpa growled.

              The others got into the mood of it, sharpening their claws on the deck beneath as well. Messages were sent and the clans spread.

              “We go to Earth,” Orshpa said. “Full acceleration! It is time we had the ground beneath our paws and our teeth bloodied from meeting the enemy,” Orshpa’s growl tickled his throat and ran through his body.

              They hadn’t yet seen this Earth, sensors updating as more information came back.

              He was done with this space fighting, he would fight the Free Fleet on the ground with his full strength.

              It wasn’t long until a planet with growing cities on it and orbital facilities came into view. The entire fleet shifted like Kalu turning on the hunting plains towards their prey.

              There were not many cities and while the orbitals were dense it didn’t look right to him.

              Other planets started filling in the plot.

              A new one appeared, it was covered in life unlike the dusty cold planet he was seeing.

              “Change our heading for that planet,” Orshpa said, indicating the new planet.

              “Any clan that wishes to write their stories about the dust planet and orbitals will be welcomed at my clan hall to tell their tales,” Orshpa said, giving them assent to fight the dusty planet instead of having to follow him.

              Sub-clans broke off headed for the dust planet of the system, two massive orbital facilities were revealed, one a ship yard, the other a station. Other items were in orbit, but none matched the size of the two creations.

              They were all armed with thirty or so Free Fleet warships around them.

              Earth had no weapons, no batteries. It didn’t look to have anything in their orbitals.

              Orshpa felt the lurching acceleration of the bomb’s igniting behind his ship. His fleet of eighty-seven thousand surged towards Earth.

              Eleven thousand headed towards Mars. The battle for Sol was about to begin.

Chapter We settle this in the dust

              "Commander Kafam has fallen," Werv said from his position as second in command.

              "Shit!"
Could this week get any worse?
She thought, grinding her teeth in anger.

              "Numbers?” She asked.

              "Looks like close to thirty-one thousand," Werv said, his voice grim.

              "Get me a line to Min Hae," she said after a minute. Looking through the reports that were now coming in from the sensor buoys throughout the Kafam system.

              "Onur, send a message to the reserve patrol forces, they are to take up our position here, send orders to the fleet, we're going to Quarst. Send an additional message to planetary Governor Elisati to appraise her of the situation," Cheerleader said, getting into the zone. Forgetting what had happened over the last couple of days and focusing on her duty as the commander of her fleet.

              "I have Min Hae on the line," Onur said.

              "Commander?" Min Hae asked, sounding as if he had just woken up.

              "Kafam has fallen, what can you get to me within the time it will take them to get from Kafam to Quarst?" Cheerleader asked, having no sympathy for his tiredness.

              "I can get you at least seventy HCD's. If you want I can also ask the Independents for support, I do not know how long they will take however.”

              "Do it. Quarst has no defenses, we stripped them to help with other systems as they came under attack," Cheerleader said, her tone biting.

             
We're supposed to think of this shit
, she chastised herself.

              "Give me ten minutes and I'll have a better estimate of what I can bring to the battle," Min Hae said.

              "Very well, ten minutes," she said, cutting the channel. "How are we looking Onur?"

              "The fleet is ready to carry out your orders, the reserve patrols will be here in twenty-seven hours," Onur replied.

              "Werv pick five ships to stay behind as support for Oolta, I want us moving within the hour," Cheerleader said, looking through the sensor logs from the Kafam sensor buoys.

              "Yes Commander," Werv said.

              Min Hae came back a few minutes later.

              "Go," Cheerleader said.

              "I can have the Seventy Henry-classed Destroyers there in time, I can also bring eight-thousand Independents," Min Hae said.

              "Do it, I've been looking at the defense in Quarst, they have less than twenty fighter wings and any cannons they put their credits into were wiped out with Bregend's kinetic strikes," Cheerleader said.

              "We will be there," Min Hae assured her.

              "I look forward to it," Cheerleader said as she felt Mondal's engines start to fire, her fleet leaving Oolta's atmosphere at maximum thrust. As soon as they were clear of the planet their bomb-pumped acceleration kicked in and the fleet came together into an arrowhead formation.

              The sight brought hope and pride to her chest.

              "Good hunting, Min Hae out," he closed the channel as Cheerleader’s fleet headed for Quarst.

              They wouldn't be taking the normal wormhole routes, they'd be crossing right through the black of space, doing multiple jumps without sight of systems until they got to Quarst.

              Five ships spread across Oolta's atmosphere. Their railguns sent fiery rounds through the planet's atmosphere and into the teeth of Kalu formations on the ground.

                                                                      ***

              I looked around at the people in the conference room. I trusted all of them with my life.

              "Bok Soo, have you talked to Commander Delahil?" I asked, referring to the Chaleel Planetary Commander.

              "Yes I have, I was able to get the numbers you were looking for. I think that we should be able to get her them without affecting the numbers we need for Sol," Bok Soo said.

              "Good, Rick have you let the ship commanders know who is staying and who will be coming with us to Sol?" I asked, looking to him.

              "Yes, they understand their orders," Rick said.

              "When will they be ready to depart?" I asked.

              "Within a few hours," Rick said, looking to Bok Soo for confirmation. Bok Soo nodded his agreement as I sat back in my chair.

              "Will we be going to Earth, or just protecting our assets in the system?" Yasu asked the question that everyone was thinking. All faces looked up from reports towards me. I looked at the bulkhead in front of me. My expression blank.

              "If Earth asks for aid then we will give it. If they do not, then we will see to protecting the Free Fleet. We are not in the job of asking those that do not know how to ask for help," I said, looking around the room. I could tell that there were a number of people not happy with my decision. Yet it was my decision to make. I would have sent everything I had to Kafam if they had just asked for my help. Yet they did not, so I watched as the Kalu added a planet to their collection.

             
And I, like everyone else dismissed the system out of hand
, I thought not without some silent guilt and anger. The Vahsnu of the planet had killed a good many of the Kalu. Though the Kalu didn't need many to fly their ships, they had started birthing their reinforcements already and had thirty-one thousand ships departing the system, fully armed and heading towards Quarst.

              Cheerleader would be there a few days before the Kalu. If Min Hae or the independents could make it was still to be seen.

              "How are the HCD's looking?" I asked, breaking the tense silence in the conference room.

              "Ready to be hammering Kalu," Rick said.

              "Then I think we should release them to do just that," I said, I looked around the table to gauge if anyone had anything to say to the contrary.

              "Cut orders to that effect," I said seeing no great challenges.

              "Will do," Rick said, typing out a message on his data pad.

              "Does anyone else have anything they need to bring up?" I asked, looking around the room. I waited, no one moved to show they did.

              "Very well, let us prepare to engage the Kalu in Sol."

                                                                      ***

              Falhu looked at the numbers of his fleet, he now had less than seventy-thousand. Those damned pyramids were not giving up either. He wormholed into Daestramus and they had followed like scavengers after a predator’s kill.