Coming Home (Free Fleet Book 2) (29 page)

I smiled. “I’ll see you when this is all done.”

“You better.” Her eyes danced as she grinned, kissing me before I picked myself up and walked to the shuttle that would take me to Pandora, my ride back to Earth.

Commander Heston was waiting for me when I got off the shuttle.

“We have your quarters laid out for you and your protection detail.”

“Thank you, Commander. I know you're busy so I'll let you go. Where is the best place to talk to the world leaders? It's about time I let my staffers have a break from their yelling.”

“Your room has the ability to connect directly to the communications systems,” Heston said.

“Thank you, Commander.” We saluted and he walked off, pulling a data pad as he went. I steeled myself as I walked to my room. The Pandora, being a third the size of Resilient, didn't need the transports that carried people across her. Instead, everything was done with old fashioned legs.

I got to my room, taking a slurp of water as I put in my security codes. My terminal filled with communications requests from people across the world.

“You’re setting up to mine the Oort Cloud; that’s ours!” the South African representative said as others began voicing their issues, growing in volume and incoherence.

“Do you want to get into a yelling match or hear what I’m doing?” My voice was tired and probably uncaring, but I was already stretched thin. Having people yell at me for no real reason was not something I wanted.

It took some time for them to calm down enough before I started talking.
I now know how a nursery teacher feels,
I thought as I cleared my throat.

“As you will look in the agreement that you signed, the Free Fleet is basically its own nation-company, meaning that we can claim land like any other group. There is another stipulation of the amount of land and such, so there isn't a monopoly. As for the Syndicate, well they've been beaten once again.”

“You say that, but how do we know that's true? It all happened behind Mars,” A prince of the UAE said.

“Cause a lot of men and women died for you to think that,” I said, not pausing as I continued. “Now, I have with me the aid that was promised in order for Earth to get into space. After delivering this aid, the Free Fleet will continue to act according to the contract signed by Earth and rebuild our fleet. Now, are there any issues?” I feared my last statement as a wall of noise greeted me. I hunched my shoulders and set to listening to the gripes the world leaders had, most of them nothing to do with the Free Fleet.

As they were talking, I received a message from the Intelligence Department of imminent importance. I opened it, finding a video on YouTube of myself coordinating the battle against the Syndicate as well as shots from telescopes and sensors of the ongoing battle.

I paused my channel to the leaders as I connected to the commander of the Intelligence Department.

“How did someone get this?”

“We think that one of the reporters snuck into the trainee pool and placed cameras to record different things.”

“I want it vetted for anything that might make the Free Fleet vulnerable, such as military secrets and such.

“Already doing so, though it seems that whoever did this is extremely smart. They left out anything that might tell secrets of the Free Fleet.”

I nodded, the gesture unseen by the commander. “Okay, get with Rick and have him find this person. I don't want anything else leaking out. Also, have a communications blocker checking traffic as it goes. Talk to Resilient about that.”

“Yes, commander.”

I cut the channel and opened the one with the leaders, who were still yelling at me.

The journey seemed to be one of the longest I'd ever had. When Commander Boot arrived in-system, I made it clear that anything would have to go through him. Meaning that I was left peacefully alone as we glided towards Earth.

***

“Did you receive my Mecha?” I asked Commander Kurft of Heston's Commandos. We watched a series of fights, all of them deadly, just stopping their attacks before they maimed one another.

“Yes, Commander. It’s in the armory, if you’ll follow me.”

I fell in behind him and he walked me into a decent sized armory with racks of Mechas hanging next to the sealed weapon door.

“What’s it now! I’m already fixing this broken Sarenmenti knee joint!” an annoyed sounding squat human said from his worktable, bent over the Mechas form as he worked on the Mecha in front of him.

“Do you have Commander Salchar's Mecha?” Kurft asked.

“Yeah, I’ll get to it in a bit. It’s on the racks. Damned transporters knocked the nerve ports out of alignment. Don’t know what they did to the damned thing to knock them out so bad. Never even seen anything like it, not even on the commanders first Mecha. Don’t know how in hell he survived that one, but even then the nerve ports weren’t that out of alignment!”

“I survived by the skin of my teeth and I did lose a hand,” I said as the armorer shot up, smacking his head on a tool rack above him. He shook it off, coming to attention. “Commander Salchar! I had no idea, sir.”

“At ease, its fine. If you don’t mind, I’ll have a look at these odd nerve ports.”

“It’s no worry, sir, I can get one of the other Commandos to do so.”

“They have better things to do than look over my Mecha. Plus, my security detail should probably have a look at theirs too,” I said, smiling as my mind was making conclusions of what would’ve happened to me if I had gotten into the Mecha the way it was and my need to check who’d touched it.

“Certainly, Commander Salchar.” The armorer nodded as he inputted information on an interface and all of my personal detail’s suits rotated down into Mecha bays.

“If that is all, Commander, I will return to my Commandos,” Commander Kurft said. His eyes were dark and his mouth was angry, but I could tell not at me; he had made some of the same conclusions I had.

“Yes, Commander, I’ll be here.”

He bowed his head before leaving. In the Free Fleet there wasn‘t a specific way of saluting, though the two finger salute was seen as the normal one for quick situations, and nodding for more formal and between those from lower to higher.

As he left, I walked over to my Mecha, queuing it to open and I saw the nerve ports connectors.

“That doesn’t look like just any transport damage,” Krom said in a grunt. Janice nodded in agreement as the others, unknowing, spaced themselves out, covering our backs.

“I think that we’ve picked up something other than allies in our latest hires.” I opened a private channel to the Resilient and the intelligence division created by Min Hae.

“Get me top,” I told the person that answered my call after checking my clearance.

“Yes.” Using outside communications names and ranks disappeared.

“Here,” a voice said a number of minutes later, the lag between the two ships still minimal at this point, thankfully.

“Initiate India Sierra protocols. PD one and two to be given top status to assist.”

“Incident?”

“Possible attempted Ceaser.” I moved to Calerd’s Mecha, which was beside mine. He opened it and I saw his nerve ports were also damaged.

“On PD one and individual.”

“India Seirra confirmed and acknowledged.”

“Continue on.”

The channel terminated as Krom made a noise.

I knew that their implants were updating, increasing their security status to two levels below my own, higher than anyone other than myself, Henry, Rick, and Bok Soo. They now had access to every visual and audio capturing device in the fleet.

“Let’s get working on these Mechas, then.” They nodded, moving to their own Mechas with Shreesht locking the door to the armory. The armorer looked up but shrugged, nodding to me as he continued on with his work and swearing. Bregend had a good crew it looked like from what I’d seen, with their loyalty proven over time and through fire. Yet I wasn’t sure that was entirely true throughout the fleet, and it definitely wasn’t on Earth.

I got to realigning the ports as we neared Earth

***

“Good luck, sir,” Commander Heston said to me as I was waiting to board my shuttle.

“Hopefully, I won’t need it.” I winked as I walked out of the conference room, Krom, Dave, and Janice falling in behind me.

“Good thing I took those piloting courses, isn’t it,” Janice said as we walked.

“I said that both of you should have taken the medical courses. You’d be of more help to the wounded than to me.”

“They don’t see how often you come apart and have to be stuck together again. It’s almost like you’re trying to imitate humpty dumpty,” Dave chimed in and I grinned into my helmet.

“Alright, alright, I get your point.” We took the speed elevator to the Rebirths docking hangar, walking straight from the Hachiro into the Rebirths shuttle bay.

Calerd and Shreesht were already waiting there, looking as stoic as always as I swung aboard the shuttle after Janice.

“Okay, so where are we going?” she asked as everyone got aboard, Dave rechecked the hatch’s seals and Janice brought the shuttle to life.

“Nepal.”

“What’s there?” Dave asked.

“Commandos.” I grinned as I sat back.

“Okay, be all mysterious then,” Janice said as she pulled her engines power up, getting clearance from Sung Ha himself before we passed through the electrostatic field of the shuttle bay and down towards Earth. The blast doors moved away from the view ports as I looked at the Earth moving beneath us. There’s no way to describe it, seeing the view that only pilots and astronauts had seen before me. The beauty of Earth made me smile.

“So, where in Nepal are we going?”

“The Himalayans.” I threw her the coordinates I had.

“Wait, I think I remember something about my military history class and a unit-”

“Yes, the Ghurkas.”

Krom and Shreesht ears twitched at this.

“Seems you two have been looking up on our fighters.”

“Yes, Battle Master, it is customary for one warrior to find the best warrior in the area to know whether to challenge them or not. While these Ghurkas are small, it does seem that they, like you, Battle Master, are great warriors and brilliant in the art of war. It will be an honor to meet them.”

“Hopefully, you’ll be fighting beside them soon,” I said as the shuttle neared the coordinates, flaring it’s landing thrusters and slowing our momentum until we finally settled down lightly in a village square.

“Tracking multiple weapon barrels trained on the craft, more appearing by the second. Damn,” Janice said.

“May I take the lead?” Krom asked.

“If they’re going to fight for me they should see me, not never know who the hell I am, hiding behind my subordinates.”

Before he could argue, I opened the hatch and jumped down, my Mecha taking the force of the impact as I stood slowly, my Mecha making
whirring
noises as power was shunted to it's different servos and pumps.

One elderly man walked up to me without any difficulty, speaking of the fine shape he was in for looking more than a hundred years old.

“Hello, what is your business here?”

“To recruit.”

“Ah, for the shiny ships above our heads?”

“Yes.”

“What has your master sent you with to bargain with us? Wealth, power? We have been offered all of those before and we are still loyal to the crown.”

Krom came out of the shuttle, Shreesht following him, both of them making heavy thuds as they jumped from the hatch.

“We cannot be bought,” the man said with a sad smile. “I am afraid you have wasted your time and effort.”

“I like them already,” Krom said.

“At least he didn’t throw me across the room the first time he saw me,” I growled and I saw Krom’s teeth through his helmet, immediately the Ghurkas shifted and I felt the weapons hidden around us did too.

“Can we fight them?” Shreesht asked. “I want to fight the legendary Ghurkas of the Humans.”

“You wish to challenge us, alien?”

“Shreesht?” I popped my helmet with a hood. “And, by the way, I don’t represent anyone but myself and the Free Fleet,” I said with a smile as my eyes bored into the old man. Krom and Shreesht lifted their helmets. Calerd and Dave who followed afterwards did the same. Janice was still at the controls, ready for liftoff in a second if need be.

“Ah, Commander Salchar, we still won’t fight for-”

“I don’t want you to fight for me; I want you to fight with me. Not for a country, but the world, against enemies that you can’t even imagine.”

Krom growled hungrily. “What my battle master says is true. My blades have not been more wet than they are now.”

“What blade do you use?” The mans face was immediately interested.

Krom pulled out his two moon shaped daggers, which would be small swords to any other creature, with their glowing plasmid edges.