From Furies Forged (Free Fleet Book 5) (6 page)

              Krom had spent enough time around Monk to know that while he wished for creatures of all races to get along, he was willing to use that staff of his to protect those that he cared for and against any that threatened the Free Fleet.

              Krom didn't need to remove his powered armor to place the chess pieces on the board. He'd lived in it for so long at this point that it felt like another layer of skin.

              “So how is he doing?” Monk asked, focusing on putting the chess pieces in the right places.

              “He's been asleep since the surgery two days ago. He should be coming out of it soon. He's got quite a bit of bone replaced with metal shunting. They had to remove a lot of his vertebrae, seems it wasn't as clean cut as they thought. He's going to have a metal spinal column for the rest of his life,” Krom couldn't hide the harshness of his voice.

              “Stop blaming yourself Krom, we both know that as much as we will try to get him out of damned danger, he will do everything to find it.” Monk looked at the Avarian, his words a calming balm to Krom's anger.

              Krom was the first to look away from those caring eyes.

              “I know, but it’s my damned job to take those wounds instead of him. Especially now that he has a kid on the way,” Krom's voice was softer now as he finished putting the pieces on the board.

              “It’s your job to keep him safe. That means looking after your own damned self too,” Monk said, a distinctly commanderly tone entering his voice.

              Krom snorted at the care in Monk's words.

              “Very well. Your move,” Krom said.

              Monk looked as if he was about to push the matter for a moment before looking to the board and moving a pawn.

              Krom surveyed the board with renewed interest.

              “Conservative aren't you,” Krom mused, pushing his knight up.

              “I work on Parnmal; the damn thing is an armored asteroid. Safe and steady is pretty much par for the course,” Monk drawled, a gleam in his eyes.

              Krom let out a peal of laughter, his eyes focused on the board as Monk moved his bishop out.

                                                                      ***

              “So how are we looking?” Silly asked from his seat. The receipient was Chief Domask, a Dovark and the man that would be taking over managing Nancy. He’d been kind enough to allow Silly to use his old office until he was picked up on his journey to the Star-destroyer yard.

              “Well if this engine coolant system works as it’s supposed to, I should be there in about two weeks,” Felix said, he was the leader of a bunch of engineers stuck in a desolate system beyond Earth. Felix and his people didn't pump out ships like the other yards down the corridor. They developed the systems used across the fleet to increase the fleet's combat power. Their fingers had a hand in creating a number of systems and creations from the Point Defense Systems on every Free Fleet ship, to a combination of Union sensors, AI computing and human Gatling guns, to even the HAPA and Jump ships that were now coming into major production.

              “Get some damned sleep before then Felix,” Silly said, gesturing with his Kuruvian manipulators. He would go around Felix and talk to the other engineers into putting their commander to bed if he had to.

              “I hear and obey,” Felix said with a tired smile, his dark hair almost as dark as the rungs under his eyes as he leaned back in his own chair, sipping on his coffee. “How are the preparations going for LaRe?”

              “I will be ready for transport shortly,” a voice came through Silly's old office and over the conference being held over FTL relay.

              LaRe was the AI that was responsible for managing Nancy, the Free Fleet's biggest yard since it was captured in the defense of Earth.

              He would be coming with Silly and Felix to their new post in the middle of Kalu territory.

              “Good, I'm looking forward to finally getting down to turning those Star-Destroyers into Henry-classed Destroyers,” Felix said, a dark note to his normally enthusiastic voice.

              “I would also like to report that the first HAPA factory has come online and we will be transporting them to the reserves closest to the line. Transports started to leave with the armor three hours ago,” LaRe said, not without some pride.

             
And proud he should be, he was one hell of a driving force behind the whole thing while I looked to getting the new Dreadnought's Battle Cruisers and our first super-carrier ready to go.
Silly thought.

              If Resilient was LaRe's mother, then he was undoubtedly the father, he had pushed LaRe to succeed and given him all the opportunities he could to grow.

              LaRe had done him proud, and Silly's half-mad family had come to think of him as another part of their group.

              Silly's brother Shrift was serving on the massive war-station that he would meet at the star-destroyer yards. His Uncle who had raised and trained him was Eddie, the most infamous engineer in the fleet. His father who he'd thought was dead had just returned to Parnmal after being on Heija as Talhalla's chief engineer. Silly had been the commander of Nancy until Domask took over, now he would be the commander of the star-destroyer yards. The massive sprawling complex needed someone with experience of running around like a chicken without a head and somehow kept things from falling apart.

              “Good work LaRe,” Felix beamed, those HAPA's had proved their worth on Heija in spades. While Silly knew that Felix wished he was on the front lines. Knowing that his work had gone to save lives, well it didn't make him not want to go to the front lines, but it showed that his work was damned essential to keeping the Free Fleet going.

              Felix looked away from the screen, someone seemed to have entered his office.

              Felix's face turned from interest into him standing up, an excited smile threatening to split his face in two as he leaned in close to the vid pickup.

              “The damned focuser worked! Looks like I won't just be coming with an empty hull after all!”

              Silly found himself on his feet and closer to the pickup, as if he could somehow express his excitement by pushing himself through the view screen.

              “What kind of tolerances are we talking here?” He demanded, his manipulators moving in nervous anticipation.

              Felix moved out of the pickup, pulling the Sarenmenti, Chug, his second-in-command into the view. The Sarenmenti's stub was flicking in excitement.

              “Up to a damn zetawatt for point seven seconds due to creation matter burn up,” Chug said as fast as his jaws would allow.

                                                                      ***

              Commander Whorst looked over the plot as War-station returned to real-space. Sensor buoys went through handshake protocols, confirming war-station was friendly before the main plot was illuminated with the most up-to-date information.

              War-stations bridge was the biggest of its kind in the Free Fleet. Makes sense when the craft was the size of a medium station.

              It had four decks to sort all the information of the ship and feed it to Commander Whorst.

              Before this he had been the commander of the Free Fleet's personnel in Sol system.

              He’d managed Hachiro, the training centers on Mars, Nancy, the miners, the patrols, and all of it had been easier than handling War-station.

              Devastahli appeared in front of Whorst, he was the AI that resided inside of War-station and a damned powerful sounvabitch. He paid Whorst little attention as he looked at the main screen. More than any other AI he liked to use his holographic form to look over information.

              Some hypothesized that because he had been in the black for so long without any interaction with organics, that he used any excuse to interact with them on a more intimate level.

              Of course no one said this around Devastahli, or even voiced the fact that Devastahli was more interested in getting to work than some of the power games that happened within the AI league.

              “
Hmmph,
for once something is as big as reported,” Devastahli said, his voice carrying over the sounds of people working their star-ship.

              “Yeah,” Whorst said, looking at the star-destroyer yards.

              Devastahli half-turned, his glowing eyes looking in question.

              “The Commander is still wondering what in the hell we're going to be used for,” Takahashi said from his seat as commander of the Commandos aboard War-station.

              He was one of two surviving members of Samurai's revenge, the other being Yasu Ono Cook, one hell of a warrior and the only one that could make Salchar submit to her orders. Well that also might have something to do with the fact that they were married to one another.

              “We've got an incoming message from Min Hae,” Arfo the communications commander said.

              “It looks like we're going to find out soon enough,” Whorst said low enough so that only Dev and Takahashi could hear him. “Put him on Arfo.”

              Min Hae appeared on the screen in some kind of conference room. With him were a number of Ship Commanders by their rank tabs, and Ashota. Ashota had changed from being Edvasho’s intelligence officer and battle-brother to Min Hae's right hand man. Edvasho had ordered his death, which limited Ashota's options as he looked to protect the independent Kalu. The independent Kalu were like a separate part of the species, they wanted to live, not just go to damned war all the time.

              He had been restricted to a hovering chair from his wounds in the first teaching war as the Kalu called it, a war between the Kalu and the Union, which had been destroyed by the Syndicate.

              Now he was no longer stuck in a chair, and instead rested on his own paws. His true body was larger than most Kalu, but the intelligence that lurked in his eyes was more deadly than his claws and teeth.

              “This is going to be all rather quick,” Min Hae started off. He looked almost dull with his simple brown haired, plain face and features. Whorst wondered if Min Hae made himself look that way to make himself seem unthreatening.

              “Commander Whorst, you will be gaining additional units, both Free Fleet and independent crewed. You will act as a base of operations deep in Orshpa's own territory, while Bregend is ripping into the other Kalu clans. Orshpa's control needs to not only be weakened with other clan's but within his own clan.”

              Whorst nodded, it made sense, Devastahli could hold more fighters, bombers and jump ships than four super-carriers’. His mind was thinking back on the tactics that Bregend was using, thinking of how he could emulate the sheer destruction Bregend was raining down on the Kalu yards.

              “It will be risky as my sources report that Orshpa is pushing his people to crew their ships and go out to look for Bregend and will undoubtedly be looking for you once you begin operations,” Ashota said, much in the same calm but heavy tone of Min Hae's.

              “Very well, what forces will I have?”

              “Sending you the information now. I have assembled all of the Free Fleet Ship Commanders here, the Independent Ship Commanders will be available shortly.” Min Hae's voice became harder as Ashota straightened, the two men's annoyance clear.

             
That doesn't bode well for operations.
Whorst thought darkly.

              “Very well. War-station will be docking within forty-five-minutes. I hope that everyone will be able to meet me aboard. I find these things go better in person.” Whorst looked at the people on the main-screens conference table. Firm nods of agreement came back.

              “Good, and I hope that the Independent's will also be coming,” Whorst turned the statement into more of a semi-question.

              “They will,” Min Hae's matter-of-fact voice made Whorst feel a tiny bit sorry for whoever got in his way.

                                                                      ***

              I woke up, actually woke up after my surgery. No one was sticking me with a detox, or hellfire to pull me out of my drug induced sleep.

              I looked to my side, finding the sleeping form of Yasu coiled around my now numb arm and leg. I tried to extract it as slowly as possible, trying to get some damn circulation going in it.

              She burrowed into my side, her hands holding onto my chest and back as her legs tightened around my own.

              I looked down at her, smelling her scent as I moved her hair from her face.