From Furies Forged (Free Fleet Book 5) (4 page)

              “Never Battle master,” Shreesht said, trying to look shocked, I don't know what made me not believe him, it might have been the damned Avarian sized crooked grin on his face.

              I snorted as we passed through the second blast door and into the actual ship.

              A hologram descended next to me, the regal blue features of Resilient, the AI embedded in the heart of the Destroyer since it had been sent off to fight in the Kalu-Union war was the epitome of a motherly figure.

              “So, how is Yasu doing?” She asked as we walked.

              “Fine as near as I can tell,” I said, relaxing my guard and letting the stresses of command get pushed to the side for a bit. Thinking about the new Star-destroyer converts that Felix had in mind, as well as his new damned weapon system and how he was going to be personally...

             
Later damnit.

              “I've been looking up the information on pregnancies. Nine months of holding the child in gestation is rather long,”

              “I guess it is rather long compared to the minutes it took you to get LaRe sorted out,” I drawled, crooking an eyebrow at her.

              She seemed to brighten and her eyes round in humor, she didn't have a mouth with which to smile. But with all the species of the fleet were capable of expressing their feelings in ways that no human would, I'd become pretty adept at telling what a creature was feeling.

              “Yes that is true,” she replied.

              “You should be proud, he's turned into quite the AI,” my voice softening as she looked on proudly. An AI wasn't supposed to really have a familiar connection with another that they had helped to reach maturity. Resilient had been in communication with LaRe almost constantly and had watched him grow with the Free Fleet. While others might think that no AI could feel like a true parent. I would disagree.

              LaRe was now in contact with the AI league, which had declared that any and all AI's that wanted to, could apply to join the Free Fleet, or roam inhabited stars, knowing that they would be protected by the Free Fleet and the League.

              There were now twenty-seven AI's in the Free Fleet, from Devastahli who controlled War-Station, to LaRe who controlled Nancy and would be soon moving to the Star-destroyer yard deep in Kalu space.

              “Yes he has.” There was a note of sadness to her voice as we walked. I nodded to a tech working on bashing a deck plate back into place. He returned the gesture and went right on hammering.

              I looked to her, never needing to voice my question.

              “I just wish, as you probably do, that he wasn't born into this damned mess,” she said annoyed. “Should have made sure the job was done the first time and set Planner's programs to work in helping them to become constructive creatures instead of genocidal mutts.” There's no missing the heat directed at herself.

              I nod in understanding.

              “Well we've just got to make sure that we win to give our kiddos a chance.” It feels odd saying those words, as if it’s not really true that I'll be a dad. I haven't changed since Yasu announced she was pregnant, but my way of thinking, my priorities, it felt as if the world was moving around me and I didn't have enough arms to pull it all back together.

              My face hardened, if it came down to it I was going to have to make a choice, give my kid the time they deserved, or keep giving the Free Fleet my body and soul.

                                                                      ***

              Donal Shkim was a Sarenmenti, one of the first born on Hachiro, which made him a rare case indeed, out of the roughly three hundred thousand Fleet kids, he was one of five hundred Sarenmenti.

              It wasn't odd for Sarenmenti to rub his head scales for luck.

              The Sarenmenti were working on a place in Asul city on Avar Interim Hermanti to raise their young and start a new Sarenmenti home.

              Salchar was fully behind it and had done everything as Battle Master and Commander of the Free Fleet to make sure that the program was a success.

              Donal, didn't really feel like he was a Sarenmenti, sure he had the body of one, the scales, the four separate jaws and such. Though he had grown up in a crèche of Kuruvians, Humans and Sarenmenti. They had all been family, sure there had been times when he was picked on for his looks, but bullying was a no go on Hachiro. When you had to learn how to rely on one another in vacuum at a young age. It didn't take long before bullying was pushed aside.

              You needed to trust the people with you in vacuum. If you'd been bullying one, then it was not likely to end well.

              Add in the fact everyone matured to full adult bodies in a few months, and had the brains and hormones of a balanced adult. To any of the races that the Fleet's kids came from, it would have been an odd experience. For the kids it had been all they had known.

              They had hundreds of thousands of brothers and sisters and even more aunts and uncles.

              Donal had taken his tests to join the Free Fleet as soon as he had reached a year old. He had been put on an accelerated program for the Commandos, jumping past basic space orientation as well as a bunch of beginning sparring and information sessions.

              The training hadn't been any easier and he had made a good number of friends through that process. Now he was waiting at the massive airlock which would directly connect Parnmal's yard five with Resilient's shuttle-bay.

              He would be lying if he said he wasn't excited. He knew what he was walking into and he knew that there was a high chance he wouldn't be coming back to Parnmal alive if those vids from Heija were true.

              Yet he would be serving as a Commando on Salchar's own flagship!

              Resilient's main shuttle-bay was open, the massive ship growing as it got closer to the yard’s auxiliary locks. Parnmal yard five was one of four slips that could handle anything up to a super-carrier. Each slip was made from a hollowed out asteroid. They were linked together with scaffolding as shuttles and tugs moved the myriad of supplies between slips, freighters and ships. None of that was moving between Resilient and the massive bay as the ship slowed to barely a crawl. Clamps secured the two bays together.

              Sealing shrouds pressed up against Resilient’s hull and confirmed their seal. The electrostatic barriers dropped and personnel started to flow between the bays.

              “Move it,” the Company Leader growled. Moving forward in his powered armor, two hundred Commandos followed in their boxy formations, their gear stored in bags attached to their backs. Their weapons were similarly clamped to their backs as they passed formations of Commandos moving the other way.

             
Holy shit.
Donal looked at the veterans. Their battle suits were far from pristine, some of them moved amongst their fellows in powered armor. The scars from the damaged armor spoke volumes about the missing parts under that armor.

              There was a hardness to those eyes, as if challenging the new Commandos, searching out the weak and the strong alike.

              These men and women had fought Kalu, seen and felt things that Donal could only imagine. He closed his jaws, pressing them together in stern human fashion. He made a silent promise to be worthy of being in those ranks.

              Racks of parts were being pulled out of Resilient for replacement. It took Donal a moment to realize that those parts were from HAPA’s. He had his qualification for them, but it was hard to think of those juggernauts being dismantled in such a fashion. Shiny metals showed where Kalu claws and teeth had made their entrance.

              The racks of HAPA's and powered armor were similarly engraved with the Kalu's own signatures.

              “Did you see that?” Fredrick, a Kuruvian said on a side channel.

              “What?”

              “The damned fucked up armor,” Fredrick had a tendency to like the more colorful words of each race's languages.

              “Yeah,” Donal replied.

              “And we just signed up to be in it for the next three years,” Fredrick went on.

              “You can always change to something like astrogation,” Donal said, feeling a smile come on.

              “And be around all those egg heads? No fucking thank you!” Fredrick said with a certain pizzazz. He was an oddity with Kuruvians, he was more interested in break skulls than he was fixing things.

              Donal laughed at his friend as he noticed a group waiting for the incoming Commandos.

              “Commandos, halt!” The Company leader called out, legs slamming down in unison as the group of four moved towards the Commandos.

              The two at the rear wearing powered armor were some of the biggest bastards Donal had ever seen outside of HAPA armor. The one leading the group wore the insignia of Resilient's Commando Detachment Commander on his battle suit, making him Commander Carsickle. He had been the general of Chaleel's armed forces when the Free Fleet hadn't existed and the Sarenmenti/human slaves were told to take Chaleel.

              He had joined the Free Fleet not long after Chaleel had come under the Fleet's protection and gained his current position.

              The final person in the group of four wore powered armor and was just a bit taller than Carsickle, and a few feet shorter than what must have been the two Avarians behind him.

              His armor was well kept, and his helmet was clipped to his hip, his insignia had been burned off by something and the fixed dents and scrapes showed he had seen as much fighting as the Commandos leaving Resilient and Carsickle next to him.

              “Battle Master,” one Avarian barked while dropping to their knee, he was an Awakened. He must’ve been further enhanced by the awakening priests. Donal's head snapped back from the Avarian to the man in armor, using the zoom on his visor.

              That mottled skin, eyes and hair tied back with a leather thong was burned into Donal's mind.

             
Salchar!

              Avarians yelled out battle master going to a knee in quick succession.

              The party came to a stop just a few feet from the Commandos. Salchar looked over them, Donal felt himself squirm at those hard and calculating eyes.

              The biggest of the two behind Salchar stomped his foot, making the Avarians look up.

              “Rise,” Salchar's voice was clear and authoritative, cutting through the working noises around them with ease.

              The sides of his head had been shaved down as the top was left to grow, secured by a leather thong.

              His brown eyes were cool as they swept the group in front of him. His Avarian/human skin looked odd, but the small marks of scars were still there. He had a strong jaw and nose, his other features were made harder by decisions and emotions rather than age.

              Carsickle took a step forward as those Avarians followed his orders.

              He did, like all Chaleelians, look like a bipedal alligator with a shortened snout.

              “Commandos, I am Commander Carsickle and I will be seeing to your well-being for the foreseeable future. We will be getting acquainted as time goes on. Your bunks are ready and waiting for you. We are going through a quick refit and refuel before getting Resilient back to the fleet. The rest of the ship is going to be taking leave. I do not want even one issue from any of you.” Carsickle didn't have to raise his voice for it to become harder and scarier than any training commanders.

              “These creatures have damned well earned their rest. One day you will too. Be polite, and make sure that no one does anything stupid.” Carsickle's eyes slowly swept the Commandos before resting on the company Commander, they looked at one another in understanding.

              “Commander?” Carsickle said, looking to Salchar.

              “Thank you Commander Carsickle,” Salchar nodded to him, his eyes taking in those before him slowly.

              “Get some food in you, get to know the ship and listen to your fellow Commandos. I have walked on Heija with these creatures and we will probably be making our own walk in the near future. Make sure that you're as ready as you can be.”

              Donal looked back at those eyes, they had lost their hardness becoming clear. In that moment Donal knew why Salchar had stayed as Commander of the Free Fleet.

              He wasn't challenging them, or telling them to prove themselves. He was accepting them, together they would win or lose.

              “Trust your Commando brothers and sisters to either side and the Free Fleet personnel that run these beasts,” Salchar tapped the decking with a grin. “You will become closer to them than any family you've ever had. Give respect and you'll gain it, do your job and be reliable as those around you.” He might have smiled but his eyes were serious as he looked into Donal and the new Commando’s visors.