Coming Home (Free Fleet Book 2) (26 page)

“Destroyer Rising Sun has lost shields!” Sensors called out. I gritted my teeth. Zor's gunnery team was giving the Syndicate hell, but the constant battering was taking down our shields still, shaking us a fair bit.

“Get it to pull behind Hachiro to affect repairs.”

“We're spotting!” Shields called out.

“Pull everyone to inner rings. We're going to take a beating,” I said and Rick started yelling for people to pull back into the ship through the internal speakers.

“Hachiro's shields are up! They're firing!” Sensors called out.

“Resilient rocked even more as there was a grinding sound.

“Taking hits,” Resilient said.
Come on, we just need to hold out enough to drop Commandos on those ships,
I thought as I stared at my screens for some edge.

I watched as Hachiro's weapons, nearly twice the size of Resilient's, fired.

“Battle Cruiser Golf's shields are down,” Sensors said. I could see Heston's fighters were already moving for the ship.

“Corvette's Ravage and Ashkul are down,” sensors continued. I forced myself to watch the corvette's come apart, Battle Cruiser Charlie had turned on them with their massive rail guns. The rounds had punched through their weakened shields and cracked the corvettes.

I watched as another took two hits before it's shields gave way and the battle cruiser hit it's bottle. There was nothing left.

Sensors reported what I'd already seen.

“Rick, have the corvettes  and cruisers on striking runs,”  I said. Kim looked like a woman possessed as she coordinated where Commandos were and where gunnery crews should shoot or were shooting.

“Shields?” I asked. Resilient reported plasma rounds hitting her armor and burning into the second layer before chemical countermeasures stopped it.

“Suggest we roll. Crews are working on shield relays,” shields said.

“Do it, Helm,” I said as I watched the screen of casualties grow, anger and pain filling me. I had to tear my eyes from the readouts.

“The destroyers are gathering together with the cruisers and attacking Hachiro,” Sensors said.

“Resilient, get me the senior commanders on those ships.”

“On.”

“I need those ships dead, whatever it takes.” I knew that my talking to them personally and saying those words would mean that more Commandos would die than if they took the ship normally. Yet I needed Hachiro. It was the only thing other than the Resilient that could take the punishment. I checked the status of my other ships. All of them, except the corvettes that were running to turn around and get a run on the Syndicate ships, didn't have shields. Most of them had breaches and were leaking atmo.

Resilient shuddered as alarms went off.

“Bottles one and two have failed. Ejecting them,” Resilient said, her voice becoming very electronic.

My finger hovered over Eddies name for a second.

“Resilient, what does that mean?”

“We cannot maneuver, only shoot.”

“Shields, I'm going to need you online ASAP!” I said as I tapped the command chair's arms.

The dreadnought was still pounding us with one side, but only one other battle cruiser was joining in. The rest were attacking Hachiro.

Then the dreadnought went quiet before its engines fired to put it above Hachiro and fire onto the forces attacking the station. The destroyers and smaller ships scrammed as they moved to attack the dreadnought.

“Henry here, we have the dreadnought,” He said, his voice coming in ragged breaths. Knowing the physical regimen the man adhered to, I knew he was wounded. I just hoped he saw to it.

“We have taken down the shields on BC Golf.”

“Understood.”

Things were now changing rapidly for the group of ships that were attacking Hachiro. My words had seemed to have the desired effect.

A destroyer changed its IFF and moved out of the battle. It was a wreck. Three cruisers went dead as one corvette's bottle let go, taking it and the corvette nearest it out. Usually, such a thing didn't happen in space, but we were within each others personal space with everyone holding around Hachiro.

I let my fingers hit the armrest a few times as the bloody screen with my constantly updating wounded and dead list kept updating.

“We have shields!” Shields said. The calm shocked me, I'd become used to the battering of weapons fire.

“Use starboard side shields to assist port,” I said as the corvettes and cruisers came in on their attack run, laying down fire into the BC's, which were converging into a group, actually blocking one another's line of fire. One BC learnt this as it received a plasma round in its side away from the battle. It, like Resilient, had used its shields pointing away from the battle to bolster it's engaged ones, meaning it had no shields there as plasma ate into the hull. It took out the gunnery deck and caused an explosion before the plasma was finally stopped by countermeasures.

The battle cruiser turned, moving out of battle slowly as it fired at Hachiro.

“Rick, get the corvettes to focus on those engines,” I said as the cruisers loosed their missiles racks.

Stars erupted across the front of battle cruisers as their PDS was mostly too slow to hit the missiles.

“Shields down!” Sensors said as they ran off a list.

Fighters are reloading. Cruisers also have missiles to take down the weaponry quickly. Cannons will put holes in them. Yet if they miss then those Commandos will pay,
I thought.

“Resilient, send the distances for the cruiser missiles to take out the battle cruiser's weaponry, and order to fire.”

I opened Kawaga's channel.

“We'll have an opening for those Commandos in a minute; be ready to release them.”

“Understood, Commander.”

I waited on the channel as I watched my plot. “Commander Felur is abandoning; her reactor is going.” Comms had barely finished when a handful of pods had gotten away from Felur's ship ResHin. The reactor was spat out and exploded, cracking the ship and killing any pods on the same side it was ejected from.

Fucking poor bastards,
I thought as my face remained hard.

“Three battle cruisers are leaving the battlefield. They're practically touching one another,” Sensors said.

C'mon, Commando's, cut their power.
I thought about possibly losing the men and women on those ships.

“We have confirmed all corvettes are ours as well as the destroyers and two cruisers.

“Rick, have the Commandos abandon the cruisers unless they think they can take them. Marleen, get ready to line them up.”

***

Evelyn grunted as she helped replace an ammunition feed line to the massive cannons with two others.
Get some footage of the Resilient, you thought, join the group of trainees, you thought. It'll be like every other job you've done behind enemy lines, you thought.
Evelyn Sparks chastised herself as the feed line was secured in place, George already rushing them to another damaged area.

“We're replacing power relays to the shield generators,” George said, barely out of breath as Evelyn thought that she'd run a marathon. The Resilient shook again. Those not connected to the ground through their Mecha's boots went flying but George or one of the Commandos picked them back up.

“Up you get, ladies and gents, those shields need work still.” Geroge's voice was forceful but not an order. Evelyn had found, in her five days with the Free Fleet, it wasn't like other militaries. It was much more relaxed. There wasn't someone yelling all the time and, everyone was treated as equal and vital.

The ship shook again as the lead Commando changed direction. Another section of the ship had been exposed to space.

One of the trainees yelled out as they grabbed the wall to steady themselves, instead grabbing a live wire and the Mecha shorted.

George twisted and pulled some recessed handles as the Mecha opened and a scared looking trainee emerged.

“You're all good,” George said with an upbeat tone as Evelyn sprayed the exposed wires with sealant.

“Let's keep on going, guys, we're behind Donnal now,” George said as Evelyn turned and began running after the rest of the squad.

I hope this footage is worth it!

Chapter Highs and Lows.

Henry just finished watching his Commandos fleeing all but two of the cruisers, heading away from the battle as shuttles were being scrambled to pick them up.

Resilient's guns hammered the cruisers, turning them into balls of light. I took no more than three hits to pierce the shields and armor, getting to the missiles underneath.

“We've taken Battle Cruiser Delta,” Commander Versai said over the commander channel before it returned to silence

One of the battle cruiser's fleeing split as one of its power plants exploded. Another stopped as its engines blew out; the last one just stopped as Henries casualties lists shot up.

Henry detailed six shuttles for the battle cruisers as reports filed in, names of people he knew passing in front of his eyes as he focused on the battle.

“Verlu, you're in charge of those four battle cruisers. I need to know what's going on and if it's safe for shuttles to land.”

“This is Commander Tully, Commander Verlu is dead. I will get those reports to you,” the Kuruvian said in dulled professional tones. Henry felt as if he'd had his already weakened frame kicked.

Henry let out a breath.
I will think of you later, as well as all those that go with you into the dark,
Henry thought as his mind turned back to battle.

“Very well, Commander Tully.”

He cut the connection as the battle cruisers still in the fight were bathed in missiles. Weapon systems went down as chunks of armor disappeared under the atomic wash.

Resilient lost its shields for the final time, but it still fought with a vengeance.

“We've taken Battle Cruiser Echo,” Erkshaw reported and Henry moved to the next report. Shuttles began speeding out of Hachiro, whose guns had gone silent as all the battle cruisers shields were down. Resilient picked off the larger weapons as it rolled with its own hits.

“Damned girl’s built tough,” Henry grunted as fighters raked the battle cruisers, the shuttles still not making the journey unscathed as they arrived minutes after, having lost thirty percent of their number—seven hundred Commandos.

Henry walked through the safe areas of the dreadnought, getting to the shuttle bay which had already been appropriated and was loading Commandos.

“Commander, are you sure?” one of the protection squad said. Henry looked to them.

“This is the Free Fleet. We stand together.” None of them said anything after that. They boarded the shuttle too. Henry thought it was the quietest shuttle ride he'd ever been on as ghosts sat with them all. Ghosts that Henry knew wouldn't seem real until he'd joined them or they were left still standing.

“We have missiles launched for Hachiro.” Henry checked his locking bolts as the shuttle was buffeted. Then again, but this time as if by the hand of God.

I was getting to old for this shit, anyway,
he thought sadly as he felt blood on his face and darkness took over.

“Not the best time to be napping CAMC!” A squad Commander said as Henry was jolted awake with wake-up.

“Update.” Henry barked as he saw he was inside a ship with other casualties.

“Take a few minutes first.” A medic said.

“That’s for the dead, and I ain’t one yet.” Henry stood, feeling woozy, the Squad Commander bracing him as he regained his footing.

“Thanks,” Henry said as his HUD blinked an incoming message from Bok Soo.

He accessed the channel, sounding as bad as he felt.

***

Rick's voice cut through the noise of battle as I tried to find a way to use my forces to inflict more damage.

“The shuttles leaving the dreadnought were hit by the missiles. Hachiro's breached in multiple areas.” I felt my insides twist. I wanted to roll into a ball on the floor and make everything just disappear. Tens of thousands had died. People I had known. People I had trusted, and still more would die. Instead, I nodded, iron resolve filling me. I couldn't dwell on the past. I had taken up the mantle of CFF, and I would execute it to the best of my ability until I was dead.

“Commander Ilru reports that BC Foxtrot is taken,” Comms said.

Rick trailed after. “Golf has multiple breaches. It is believed that it will be taken shortly.” His voice was gruff from talking so much for so long.

“Bok Soo is on the ship yard and has made contact with the Kuruvians there that have already cleared it,” he finished. I looked to him and nodded before looking at the plot and drinking some water.

So, we're going to win, just not yet.
Resilient's own guns had gone silent for fear of hitting a shuttle, meaning we had rolled to present our spine, the most heavily armored part of the ship other than the belly. Our shields were still down.