From Furies Forged (Free Fleet Book 5) (10 page)

             
Those numbers are only going to rise when someone finds out just what these meetings are for. Or some might hold out to start creating the PDF again.

              There were so many possibilities, all of them created from the decisions of the people in this room, she looked down from her seat in the Semi-circle configuration of the lecture hall. Each delegation had their own seat, placard and were arranged so that they could see one another as well as the Free Fleet delegation that sat at the front of the auditorium.

              Silence fell as Salchar stood from his position at that forward table, Rick remained seated on Salchar’s left, the commander of planetary relations and a woman by the name of Dalia Wasseur sat on either side on the right of Salchar. Rick and Salchar’s protection details sat behind them, looking omnious in their powered armor. They looked as if they were going to walk out the doors into a warzone.

              Even though Elisati couldn’t see their eyes she knew they were watching the delegates, constantly ready.

              Elisati didn't think that she had ever seen Salchar out of his powered armor, it looked more natural on him than the battle suit he wore. He, like every other human that had undergone Syndicate or Free Fleet training was a large specimen of muscle mass.

              His eyes locked with hers for a moment, she felt herself being assessed before he moved on. He was quick with his look around the room, she didn't doubt that he had classified them based on his own system of how much they were a threat to him.

              “Rick and I are largely here for decoration and to act as referees in this talk. Dalia will be dealing with all of our points. I suggest that she begin and we go from there, talking over the points raised and deciding how we're going to get the Union back on its feet,” With that he took his seat and reclined.

              Dalia leaned forward in her seat.

              “Okay, first of all we will look at the military organization of the Union.” Dalia began as Elisati sat forward in her chair.

              The future waited for no one, and she wasn't about to have this Union come into creation without being as thoroughly vetted as damned possible.

                                                                      ***

              Felix looked at the station on his sensors. It was too far to be seen with a naked eye, or even with the telescopic abilities of the visual sensors. The station had been put into standby mode and its reactors shut down. All of the Research and Development people were coming with him to the Star-destroyer yard. They had all been pining over the issues with the Star-destroyer's and leaving them out here would be doing them a disservice. A tug had already come to collect the various factories and other equipment that had been resting at the station. That tug would be jumping between systems all the way to the Star-destroyer yard. The factory ship in-system would be doing the same to Parnmal, resupplying, joining up with the relief column and then Elshurvum as it came through.

              “Ready for jump,” Elshurvum's Helmsperson said as Felix turned towards the blast doors, the noises of confirmation  were background noise to him as he turned back to pondering just how in the hell they were going to be able to get those Star-Destroyers in fighting trim, without taking months, and giving out totally crap ships.

              He heard the noises of the capacitors discharging to make the wormhole into Sol. It was a test of the carrier’s new systems; it was supposed to be able to use its multiple capacitors much like the jump-fighters to create multiple wormholes in quick succession.

              For right now his people were checking that having one discharge didn't create bleed through or damage the new system. They'd simulated it multiple times, and done it with models, but this was the first real test.

              There was no feeling of entering the wormhole, only an announcement overhead by the ships communications commander.

              He found his bunk, pulled out his data pad and joined the forum being run by his people. He went straight to the conversation happening about the Star-Destroyer station, he didn't even hear the announcement that they had arrived in Sol as he was deep into discussing whether it would be more feasible to just melt down the Star-destroyer's than keeping them active.

                                                                      ***

              General Davidson had to give it to Edward's source, whoever they were, they knew their damned stuff. The carrier arrived only an hour late. Dealing with things like wormholes and FTL relays, that kind of timing was damned near impossible.

              “Send the message to the other ships, and to Edwards,” he said the freighter's command staff, they had begun moving on intercept course for the ship as soon as it had arrived. They were all grim faced and hard lines as they carried out his orders.

              He turned and walked back to the storage pods which had been converted to hold the powered armor and HAPA wearing participants of his plan.

              He pulled his visor down, it would be thirty minutes until they reached Elshurvum. He gritted his teeth and accepted that fact, no matter what, he was taking that carrier.
About time someone showed Salchar what a
real
military with a real leader can do.

Chapter Beware the wrath of the patient

              I was sitting in a meeting between all of the planets that wanted to bring the Union back into creation when I got the message.

              It was our third meeting and everyone now knew what was happening in this auditorium. Groups of excited creatures whooped and cheered as we entered and exited, it reminded me of the times I had exited a tournament to crowds of gaming fans.

              I was a lot more bored than I tried to make out. Which meant I was looking around when Yasu entered the room and headed straight towards me.

              I didn't know what was wrong, but seeing as the session was supposed to end in a few hours, and I knew enough about Yasu that she clearly wasn't pleased, I sat up.

              I heard Wruck, Shreesht and Krom do the same behind me.

              Yasu walked straight towards me, her eyes hard and her strides purposeful. I felt my teeth press together in anticipation, my own eyes darkening. I could tell from her body language that she knew I wasn't going to like what she was about to say.

              She bent down to my ear, I looked past her, seeing the people of the assembly. Talking quickly died as she had walked towards me. They understood that something was wrong.

              “Earth has attacked Elshurvum on its way through Sol, Hachiro, Mars and Nancy are engaged in battles. Some of the enemy combatants are from within our own ranks. Elshurvum fell, they have freighters, powered armor and HAPA's,” she said, her tone capable of melting armor plate.

              I looked to my right and to Rick who wore the same hard expression as me. We both knew what we had to do. That didn't mean we weren't going to like it.

              “Get the intelligence department pulling all personnel that could be linked to this,” I said, pulling my data pad, using a hotkey to connect me to Monk.

              “Put Parnmal on lock-down we have a possible mutiny,” I said, talking over his greeting.

              “Understood,” he said, going from dealing with the day-to-day of Parnmal to possible internal war in a moment.

              I stood, my eyes finding the delegation from Earth.

              “The Free Fleet will be withdrawing from further talks.” This sent a series of gasps and shocked expressions back from the delegates.

              “We will not be part of the Union unless Earth are left out of it. They attacked a carrier moving through Sol that was intended to gather supplies for the Kalu offensive. Using tech that they stole from us. Earth units have also attacked the instillations on Mars, Hachiro and Nancy.” Shock was quickly turning to anger, people from every system represented here were training or working in those facilities. The hope of the people in this room depended on those facilities.

              The Free Fleet was the only force capable of keeping the Kalu at bay, and Earth had attacked that bulwark.

              More than one delegate would probably see this as not only an attack on the Free Fleet, but on their own planets which would be under attack if the Kalu got past our lines of defense.

              Dalia and Rick stood, even Dalia's smiling face was dark with anger. I led the way out of the auditorium, pulling out my data pad and connecting to Vort.

              “I want all Merchants to clear Sol, put all reserves on alert. I want every Free Fleet person at their stations.”

              “Yes sir.”

              I clicked off the channel and joined a new one with Eddie as I marched, there were no salutes from the Free Fleet personnel as they moved with purpose, announcements were already coming through the station and telling people to go to their homes or ships and wait while Parnmal went into lockdown.

              Stores closed down and people raced home as prisoners were secured in their cells and every person in the Free Fleet was screened for coded communications from Earth before being given their powered armor or being allowed back onto their ships.

              The intelligence department was an efficient machine as not only humans but creatures from multiple races were held in isolation until the situation could be resolved.

              “Salchar?” Eddie asked, breaking my concentration from the reports that were flooding in.

              “Eddie, will Resilient make one more journey?” I asked, flipping through reports as Eddie took a few moments.

              “She will,” Eddie's voice was like starlight, pure and irrefutable. “What are we dealing with?”

              “Earth attacked Felix aboard Elshurvum and every instalation in Sol.” A report flashed over my screen. “Earth forces are fighting in Parnmal's yards as well.”

              I wanted to punch the bulkheads we walked past on our way to Resilient.

             
How could they be so damned stupid!

              I knew the answers of course, politicians had been playing to the fears of the people, making the situation seem as if it was apocolytpic. It was still too expensive for most people to get passage on a ship off of Earth, let alone around the trade routes that ran across what had been Union territory.

              The majority of people didn't know what was going on outside of Sol, meaning that Politicians could use the fear of the unknown to give them unprecedented power.

              Earth militaries were larger than ever and people wanted to assert control over the chaos that the politicians had emphasized.

              Now it looked like the governments of Earth were acting upon their promises, they were going to remove the Free Fleet and show their people how Earth was going to lead the people into a new future. They didn't care about the Kalu, they cared about gaining more power. They'd come out of every war fine in recent history. They couldn't understand that the Kalu would wipe out an entire species, happily dying to add a race to their list of victims.

              I didn't notice that Dsalia had left us until I looked up from my data pad to the shuttle-bay that was waiting for us.

              “I'm going to move to Floater,” Yasu said.

              “Look after yourself,” I said, turning to her, my tone more serious than usual.

              She heard it and hugged me, I returned the embrace, breathing in her scent.

              We released and she stiffened, becoming Floater's commando commander.

              She looked to Krom and Shreesht.

              “We'll do our best,” Krom said, tiliting his body in respect to his battle mistress. She nodded, I swore I saw a flash of wetness in her eyes before she started walking away.

              I wanted to call to her, to have her come with me, but I knew that her place was with her commandos, as mine was on the bridge of Resilient. I straightened, my anger coming back to me as I headed for the shuttle at a brisk walk.

              “It looks like the traitors are limited to the rear echelons. Most of the frontline personnel that got messages from Earth to attack us have reported it to their chain of command and agreed to be incarcerated. Others have been found within the frontline units but they went without a fight. It looks like they're more pissed to be associated with this, than they are unhappy about being arrested,” Rick said, trying to keep a neutral tone and failing. I nodded to the shuttles cargo master.

              “Get us to Resilient as fast as possible,” I said, the cargo master sealed the door behind us as we made our way to our seats, there were a number of Resilients crew with us. Dark eyes and angered expressions met my own, sharing a sign of acknowledgment.