Free Fleet #03 No Rest for the Wicked (24 page)

“Grit!”

Salchar smacked the fist away with ease.

“Good. At least you know what we're up against.”

“What you're up against, I'm not part of this fleet anymore.”

“Oh, I think you'll find you are,” Bok Soo told him. Not saying anything else as he left.

Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, you misery-guts,
Bok Soo thought, a grin on his face. He'd seen Salchar under that veneer of self-pity. The man was in there. He just needed time to come to terms with the deaths of those that he had sent to Daestramus.

Time that we don't have,
Bok Soo thought, nodding to Krom who had replaced Shreesht and taking a transport off to the shuttles he needed to look to his own people. He had looked to the dead, taking time for them yesterday. Now he needed a stiff drink to deal with a day without them. He knew he'd be able to rouse a few for a good old toast to those that had ventured into the Black to find the Light.

Chapter - Off To a Jokester's Game

“There's a message you'll want to see,” Chrys said through Min Hae's implants. He'd been pouring over the information that he and his crew had pulled from Daestramus.

“Send it,” Min Hae told her, and the message hit his implants. It was a simple text message.

Engaging Captain Lord Foshunti in system DU122349
.
All ships that are combat ready are to meet the Free Fleet before or during combat.

There was a list of systems that the Fleet could be in at a given time. Min Hae nodded to himself, adjusting his plans. The Free Fleet could very well be destroyed by Foshunti and his goons if they weren’t extraordinarily fast and lucky. It was his job to keep the Fleet going by any means. He sent of a number of messages to the Q-ships and intelligence departments. He would have every Q-ship under his command out and working the people under the control of the Syndicate. He was not going to let the Fleet die.

“At the next jump point I want us to change headings towards the Sarenmenti home system,” he said to Chrys.

He was advancing his plans by months, if not years, but he didn't have the time to play around. If Lady Fairgate was sending Foshunti, she saw the Free Fleet as more than an irritant. Either she saw them as a threat, or something was going on that he knew nothing about.

He filed that away as he remembered a piece of information he'd stumbled across. He flipped through his reports before landing on a scribbled note saying that it was rumoured that Captain Lord Lifendi, Lady Fairgate's second in command and most loyal follower, had not been seen for some time. Many thought that he was dead. Min Hae doubted Lady Fairgate would kill anyone that could have a potential use for her, and he filed that tidbit under interesting as he checked the ships stores, coming up with a story for why he would be going towards the Sarenmenti worlds.

***

Yasu was teaching a class on Mecha control, helping her recruits toward being able to adjust the power output of their mecha as easily as they walked. When her implants pinged.

She had been given orders to report to the newly finished Battle Carrier Floater. She was to be the AMC commander of the ship. She kept studying her orders. Every ship was being pulled up. Thirty nine from Sol system, a further eight between Sol and Avar Interi Hermanti. Parnmal was holding onto its meagre ships to throw up some kind of defense. The station was battered, but hopefully it would have enough shields and weapons to deal with the Captain Lord.

Takahashi was to take over training. She was going to make sure that Whorst kept an eye on the man. She checked the time for her departure.

“Go to your quarters and await further instructions,” she said to the class she was teaching. They moved off as she began jogging to her own quarters, the Sato sisters following her.

“What's going on?” one of the sisters asked, something that would've stunned Yasu a few weeks ago. Being around the kids had brought her and her sister out of their shells.

“We're going to help the Fleet defeat the...” she began as a private message came in from Rick.

It was brief and brutal. She felt herself choke up as she read the medical reports and psychiatric evaluations. If they were to be believed, this Marhtu had broken her husband. She gritted her teeth as she took a transport to her room. Hachiro was a hive of activity. Yasu balled her fist as she watched the stops fly past the transport as it crossed three kilometers in a matter of seconds.

What am I going to tell the kids?
She thought, getting strapped into her mecha. The Sato sisters helping her, before getting themselves into their own. Yasu grabbed their bags, her eyes stopping the Sato sister’s complaints as they rushed to the shuttle that would take them to Floater. As the shuttles went through the shimmering electro-static shielding, she remembered the state that Hachiro had been in when she finally got to it after fighting on the fleeing Syndicate ships.

They had come so far and done so much. Yet still they were being thrown curve balls by the Universe. She got onto the Floater, taking her mind off of James by writing letters to the kids in lieu of saying goodbye. She wouldn't be there for the first series second birthdays. All of them had been pulled from their artificial wombs on the same day, making them all the same age.

“Sealing,” the pilot said, the ramps coming up as the shuttle jostled. Yasu moved with the familiar movement. She looked through the simulated view-ports, seeing the shuttle-bay fall behind as she looked at the exterior of Hachiro. She knew it had come a long way since it had been taken, and now it was nearly complete. It was even rumoured that there were plans for expanding the station.

Using what she knew from her astrogation classes, she found the rough direction of where Nancy and the swarm of broken ships and the one's awaiting crew orbited. It was a while before anything was visible. Nancy shone, as a sea of ships ran around the docks. Tugs brought in raw materials from miners that lined the belt. Most of them were automated, it took just about a day for the furthest miners to get materials to Nancy. The mining station that was stuck out in the Oort cloud took three days. Though it was owned by the Free Fleet, and the tugs were actually converted haulers, they could pack in enough materials to keep a factory ship running for two days.

The constant movement of resources, prefabricated materials, people, drones, ships, even the docks themselves were a mess. All of it being controlled by Lare. Under his watch, accidents had sharply declined and productivity increased.

It took some time before she saw Floater. Its wing pods were a strange sight to see. The shuttle went into one PDS and shield generators covered the entrance as electrostatic shields sparkled from shuttles and fighters moving in and out of the ship. Yasu took her bags, waiting by the ramp as the shuttle finally landed and the hatches opened. The noises of an operational flight deck hit her as she walked out. Fighters waited, ready to go onto the flight deck and be launched from what looked like the launch system from a human sea based super-carrier. An advanced catapult system to get the birds up to speed.

There were two actual hangars, but they still had to be cut from the Battle Carriers double armour. Yasu looked over the stats of the Carrier. It was one hell of an impressive build. It had taken months just to prepare to build it, but once ready it had taken bare weeks to come together. The second Battle-Carrier had just come out of dock. It was in better shape than Floater, as they had devoted a massive surplus of people to get her online. She had been named Fruit Cup. Yasu was going to have a talk with whichever Kuruvian was making the names for these ships when she got back.

The next unnamed Battle Carrier was expected to be finished in a week and a half, with the ones after that being finished faster and faster. There were also the new Battle Cruisers, which were going to start coming out after the fourth Battle Carrier. By then, the fifth dock should be operational and Silly could look to making true Carriers.

If we get through this shit storm,
Yasu thought. Turning towards the reality she faced, she moved into Commando territory. People were streaming into their billets. She looked them over as she got to her own private room.

“Go find your racks and then find me. I'm going to see what we've got to work with.”               Yasu pulled out her data pad, putting in her codes and looking at her roster. A small smile appeared on her face as she saw a familiar name.

“Well, George, it's been a while,” she said under her breath. She ran a quick check and found the man hadn't yet made it onboard.

***

“Floater, this is code name Mefti Diver two one eight, permission to land,” Smith in toned as he played with the fighters controls. The new MEF (Multi-Environmental Fighter) was one hell of a craft. She could suck atmosphere as well as she could blast her ion drive. Her manoeuvrability was damned insane. She packed eight missiles, not including external racks of four, tripling her in that account. Her primary weapons were a pair of alternating twenty five calibre rail guns, with Felix's rounds making them multi-purpose beauties.

Her wings were curved around and down instead of being straight. She was rounded, curved and deadly as all hell.

“Mefti Diver, you are cleared for landing,” Control said, a flight path growing on Smith's plot. He followed it in his wing and fell into formation behind him.

The Battle Carrier could launch eight wings of fighters, each wing consisting of four fighters. It meant that the Carrier was able to carry thirty two fighters. Twelve on the Floater would be the new MEF model. Smith was interested to see how the new ships, and their trained crew, would do against the Syndicate forces. That didn't mean he wanted to join them in battle. Just a minor curiosity. Though he knew his curiosity would be put to the test before he knew it.

He brought his fighter onto land. After a few minutes on the flight deck, a magnetic clamp pulled him into the ship and settled him into a cradle that connected to his varying ports. His ship would be checked, refuelled and re-armed in minutes. Though he looked as if he'd just taken a bite of something rotting.

“Where's the deck controller?” he asked a nearby tech.

“Not sure, why?”

“Because having a fighter sitting on the deck for five minutes, instead of getting it ready to get back out there is not going to be our standard operating procedure,” Smith said, looking around to spot the right coloured stripe that denoted deck controller on a battle suit. He didn't see one, but wrote down a reminder as he continued into the ship. His wing followed him and they found their quarters, just seconds away from where their ships were stored.

Well, whoever designed this was definitely thinking along the right lines,
Smith thought as he ran checks through the crew to see if he knew anyone that had been transferred over. A lot of people that had been unassigned but affiliated with flying fighters were on Floater, including a large grouping of Commandos. Why there was such a big compliment of them, Smith didn't understand. It seemed that someone had decided to keep the same size group of Commandos that a shuttle usually had, even when carrying out missions where the use of the Commandos would be largely turned over to other ships and Floater was to be only in a supporting role.

Hopefully the Commandos had some other trades they were interested in, or they were going to have a very boring time traveling to meet up with Salchar.

***

“You know the drill,” George said as they got to the Commando's quarters on the Floater. Connolly grabbed a rack, stowing his gear. His mecha was already slotted into the armouries connected to the shuttle bay.

“Attention!” George said, the room snapping to.

Connolly turned his head slightly to see who their commander was. He felt his eyebrows climbing as he saw Yasu Cook. She tapped her visor. She hadn't gotten out of her mecha yet.

“You can calm down on all that crap. That's only for training and showing off to the civvies,” she said with a grin. “Commanders in the armoury in ten. As you were.”

She and George hugged as he quickly stowed his gear and followed her.

Connolly followed shortly after. He checked the Floater. His time in the yard had given him an eye for ships. The Floater had come together quickly but under Lare, George, and Silly's eyes she had come together the right way. She was a well built ship.

“Close the door behind you,” Yasu said as the last person filed into the ship’s single armoury. It was pulled directly from Resilient. Connolly wondered if being in the space brought back memories for George and Yasu.

“Alright, as many of you know Captain Lord Foshunti has arrived in our sector. He has challenged us to a battle in this system,” Yasu said.

A hologram displayed the system. It was boring; one Jovian planet, a red star and a massive asteroid belt.

“Most of you and your people were involved in the building of this ship. As you may or may not know, she is not complete. Thankfully we have all the parts for her. Our main priority is to get the guns and PDS online. I can see a few of you are wondering why we're going to be looking to that instead of the shuttle-bay, which is our entry and exit point. This is going to be a largely ship to ship battle. There are plenty of ships with shuttles and Commandos aboard. This carrier is one of five carriers in working condition. Felix completed another freighter conversion that will meet us en-route. The newly finished Battle Carrier Power will also be coming with us. It is expected that Foshunti will be bringing his carrier that can launch twenty wings.

“It's unknown how many his other ships will be able to launch,” she went on. “We're going to be keeping Floater alive and in the fight to combat whatever fighters Foshunti throws at us. Which is why getting this ship up and running and keeping it so, is our number one priority,” She looked to them all, Connolly knew there was a few crestfallen Commandos. He understood. He wanted to serve his original position, not be a wrench turner.

Should've joined the engineering corps,
he thought.

“I know that you want to be doing what you signed up for, but this ship is one of the most important in the fleet right now. Salchar himself said he would rather have one of these than three Dreadnoughts. Though we're not going to tell Resilient that,” she said with a grin, a few smiling in return.