From Furies Forged (Free Fleet Book 5) (9 page)

              “Would you join me?” He asked.

              “Certainly,” Davidson said, removing the beret that designated him as part of the Space Marines.

             
We should look into changing the damned name.
Edwards quickly filed two glasses and put ice in them. Handing one to Davidson who took an appreciative sip as he went to take his seat opposite the man on the same side of his desk.

              Davidson was one of the few people that he would sit on the same side as the General was the spear that Edwards hope he would plunge right into Salchar's own heart.

              He took a sip, looking away from Davidson as anger made his lips turn into a snarl.

              “Good stuff,” Davidson said, breaking into Edward's thoughts.

              “Well, the two men that are looking to get rid of Salchar and this damned Free Fleet should be able to indulge in a few luxuries,” Edwards said with a conspiratorial grin.

              “That they should,” Davidson agreed, nodding but lowering his glass. “Training is going well. The HAPA's are a bit difficult, and they need a user to be in powered armor when operating it, but we will have a strike force ready in about a week or so.”

              “That's faster than I thought,” Edwards said appreciatively.

              “I picked them men and women myself, all of them believing as we do. Most of them have been touched by the events that the Free Fleet failed to stop.” Davidson's face hardened.

              Edwards wondered if the General actually believed the propaganda that had been going on about the Free Fleet as soon as they had saved Earth from the Syndicate.

              Some said that they could have risen up before they left Sol and saved Earth from the orbital bombardments.

             
Well if he does, it shows that our propaganda machine is working rather nicely.

              “Of course,” Edwards allowed his own face to darken. All he needed was to think of Salchar's treatment of himself, and the way that the sanctimonious prick had acted, treating Edwards as if he was nothing more than an annoyance. “Well it looks like you'll be able to get them into action in time for Felix coming through the system after all.”

              “Yes, how are we looking for Hachiro, Nancy and other operations throughout the Free Fleet?” Davidson asked, not even trying to hide the edge in his voice.

              “I have Knox's protocols that will allow me to send the message to every man and woman in the field. If they don't get it then the others will hopefully set them off as they see things starting up,” Edwards said, drinking from his cup.

              “Can we be sure of their reliability?” Davidson's voice was hard.

              “There will be those that feel connected to the Free Fleet, but the amount of them will outweigh those that do not carry out their orders. I will personally see that those that do not carry out their orders are seen to,” Edwards' eyes bore into Davidson’s for a moment before Davidson nodded in agreement.

              The Free Fleet had ballooned to thirty-six million creatures under its command, not including the extra ground forces that acted as a reserve.

              Those that had been pulled from Earth to go to Heija were being processed through the Free Fleet's system to make sure that they got the care they needed, whether it was psychological or physical. There were few if any that had made it to back without at least some physical damage, and the human mind took time and help to get past what they had seen.

              Edwards had gone over the reports. He had dismissed the Kalu numbers, the majority of people under arms hadn't served in an Earth military.
No most of them are already in the Free fleet.

              He put the reports down to inexperienced people that didn't know their jobs. In his eyes they were traitors to Earth. He didn't understand why anyone might leave the Free Fleet alone. America was the rightful military machine, the Free Fleet were pretenders that needed to be cleared away.

              Once Earth had its own military then they would show the other systems how a
true
military fought. There would be none of this losing battles. They would come through and crush these Kalu wholesale.

             
They're nothing but damned barbaric Wolves. We won our fight against wolves long ago.
Edwards thought with disgust.

              “Very well, does your source have an updated timeline for when Felix is expected to come through Sol?” Davidson interjected.

              “Next week, I do hope that your people are as ready as you say. We will only get one chance at this.”

              “My people have orders to take the carrier, or to destroy it with their own nukes,” Davidson said with something close to pride.

              “Good,” Edwards said, unable to hide his own smile. He would show the Free Fleet what a
real
government was capable of.

                                                                      ***

              “Silly, I have found something...odd,” LaRe said as Silly was looking over the information that Min Hae had given him. It was no quick read. He was trying to understand how the Star-Destroyers worked, which inevitably led to him looking at how to make them better and refit them for the Free Fleet's use. Then he was looking at how the yards were built, where the factories were placed and how the individual slips fit together.

              Seeing as the yard had been built over generations there were also variations from slip to the next. Then there was the fact that the Kalu had never used factories to make their parts and ships. Every part was hand made by a group, then another group took these parts and put them into the star-destroyer which was made by multiple groups.

              Every damned Star-Destroyer was different, every beam that made up the slips was different and the ship more of a growth than it was any kind of planned out structure.

              All of that was making Silly have one hell of a time trying to figure out how he was going to get the Star-destroyers into some kind of uniformity, with systems that could be replaced by the standardized units of the Free Fleet.

              “What is it?” Silly asked, unable to keep all the irritation of being interrupted out of his manipulators
“We've lost two freighters full of HAPA's.”

              “WHAT?” Silly demanded. “How and where?”

              “Well it’s not official yet, but I was browsing through the systems traffic to make sure that the shipments coming to us and leaving us were on time when I realized I lost two ship codes between here and Chaleel. Specifically, two freighter's seemed to have disappeared before getting to Chaleel. I back checked where they were supposed to be, they weren't in jump and then looked for the two freighters in any other location, just in case the traders had decided to make a run along one of the unplotted routes. Two freighters without Identification were recorded coming into Sol and headed to Earth.” LaRe answered.

              “So they sold the HAPA's to Earth? Send the information to the Fleet and they'll sort this out.”

              “It looks like there were no traders to make the trade, instead I have these images,” the images of the Star-destroyer yard were replaced by shuttles that met up with five ships, three were private freighters with decent armaments, the other two were Free Fleet freighters.

              The shuttles hooked up to the two freighters and moved down to Earth, to an empty part of the Nevada desert in the United States. They went into a mountain complex so Silly couldn't see who was onboard the Free Fleet Freighter or in the mountain.

              “Who the hell is that?”

              “It’s a coalition of nations I think. I started looking at who has gone to that mountain base. Min Hae's intelligence department have been keeping an eye on the facility after a few too many dignitaries were going there while they were supposed to be somewhere else.”

              “Send Min Hae your findings. I don't like this at all. Also alert the intelligence department's commander in-system,” Silly said, thoughts of star-destroyers and shipyards fading away. He did not like what he was hearing, or the feeling in his gut.

                                                                      ***

              Evelyn Sparks was one of the most known reporters on The Free Fleet and possibly the most well-known reporter in known space. She had broken stories on the Free Fleet time and time again, she regularly hosted debates on the state of trading and her network produced informative videos on the people that were under the Free Fleet's protection, and the systems that weren't. She had more contacts within the governments of the various systems that resided on the Free Fleet's side of the line. Heck she even had some sources behind the line. Though those sources weren't saying much right now just in case the Kalu had another Ashota in their ranks.

              Though none of that was on her mind as she watched the delegates from thirteen systems filed into an auditorium. HAPA's and commandos stopped anyone else from entering.

              Evelyn knew what was going on, her contact within the Kuruvians Empire had told her about Elisati of Worshun's talk with Rick as well as Min Hae's own suggestions to create a new Union to bind the systems together with trade, medical aid, schooling and mutual military support.

              She checked her appearance in her mirror before looking to Tuvio, her Chaleelian camera creature.

              “Ready?” She asked but she hardly had to, Tuvio had been her personal camera man since she’d made Parnmal her headquarters.

              “Just waiting on you,” He said with a smile.

              She rolled her eyes before settling into her professional mask.

              “This is Evelyn Sparks with an exclusive report on the events happening behind me in one of the Free Fleet's auditorium,” she paused letting that sink into her viewers before she continued.

              “The Union seems to be breathing new life today as the Free Fleet are discussing bringing back the old institution. Behind these doors nine systems including the Kuruvian Empire are debating how they are going to bring back the Union. Even in these times of turmoil the Free Fleet are pushing to restart the Union,” she disliked that last sentence. She had issues with the Free Fleet, they weren’t perfect and someone needed tyo make sure that they didn’t overstep their bounds. She recognized their power and also how they tried to make the best decision for the majority. At the end of the day it was a limited military dictatorship. A fact that mattered little with war on their doorstep.

              While others bitched and moaned about budgets and testing, making half-assed efforts to build something to stop the Kalu, the Free Fleet were pouring everything they had into the defense of those that stood with them.

              She wondered what the Free Fleet might look like after all of the conflict was done.

             
First we have to survive, and our best bet is the Free Fleet, not the politicians that complain and hide behind masks and colorful words.

                                                                      ***

              Elisati looked around the room, wondering if these people around her would be the ones to bring the Union back into creation. It was a terrifying moment and it was exhilarating. It was as if she had somehow taken the seed that Min Hae had reminded her of and she had given it life. She had started a process that could end in the Union coming back, something that she hadn’t thought possible even months ago.

              It could turn into a monster of a creation that made the old Union, or even the chaos that ensued when the Syndicate were in control—look better by comparision.

              Now it was out in the open there was no way that she could stop it from growing.

             
Not with the support that Salchar is giving from behind the scenes. Though I don’t understand why he doesn’t want the Free Fleet to be the military force of the Union. With it being the protective force of the Merchant fleet it gives them the ability to act autonomously. That might be a reason. If the new PDF becomes restive then the Free Fleet can be there to take up the contract and do what the PDF won't. It would make them our contracting forces to operate outside of Union's sphere of influence. The PDF could police them and the rest of the Union while they look to advancing their trade routes, expanding the Union instead of letting it grow stagnant.
She wondered if she was giving Salchar and his people too much credit. They kept to themselves for the most part and they were used to juggling more than one ball at any given time. She only needed to look at the current situation for that to be clear.

              They were hitting the almighty hell out of the Kalu in a way that the PDF had never even thought of, while they grew their trained personnel, both for the front lines and in reserve capacities.