Coming Home (Free Fleet Book 2) (11 page)

Some optimistic, others looking hungry. I made a mental note to have my intelligence department see which nations would be interested in what.
“I am transmitting the terms to you which I hope we can discuss in person at the meeting in Canada our aides have set up.”
They nodded around the room, obviously used to group conferences and how out of order they became when people yelled their agreement to a simple question.
“I believe that time is of the essence getting this ironed out. So shall we agree to a meeting in three days time?”
“We would like to make four stipulations.” I nodded to the president as he talked.
“Could you begin returning personnel from the station and the Marines we sent up as well as their assault craft? We wish to extract data from their computers and have a line of defense for Earth other than your people and your word,” he said in a way that made it clear that he felt my word was as worthless to him than gum on the bottom of his shoe.
“I will return your personnel and, for the recruits, we wish to have volunteer shrinks talk to them before we allow them back to Earth. We don’t need to release people that will feel they have to kill for their next meal let out into the world en masse.”
The leaders of the world looked at me with shock as I sat back. While training was something that had turned me into who I was, these people didn't know what training meant for the men and women that had been taken.
“The way of training that the Syndicate had was of pitting recruits against one another, first hand to hand and then Mecha to Mecha. If you lose, you don’t eat. If you don’t fight, you don’t eat, and you get pain treatment. With the first recruits we made rules so that people wouldn’t lose their humanity to the fights. The ones that came after us would as quickly kill a human as they would an enemy. To them, to kill is to survive and eat. The third generation recruits attacked my Commandos as much as they attacked the Syndicate forces.”
“By Syndicate forces do you mean the Planetary Defense Force?” the prime minister of Australia asked. I was quickly thinking of all the things the leaders of the world would need to know in order to be prepared for our meeting, another thing to get the intelligence department to worry about.
“Yes, the Planetary Defense Force was created by a union of races to protect themselves. They grew weak as criminals grew stronger. The criminals banded together after the war ended and destroyed the PDF; this organization is called the Syndicate. Taking over their ships and using the PDF's history as a story and a reason for taking over planets in faraway sectors, the Syndicate has enslaved three systems and their people to do work on their ships and to mine their own planets for their resources, including Sol.

“Though they have many other systems under their thumb that they use for many different reasons.  I will have an information packet given to you all.” That seemed to solve many issues as there was a lull in talking.
“I think we’ll be able to find a few psychiatrists for people to talk to, to expedite people’s recovery.” The prime minister of Korea said, everyone nodding again.
“Please communicate when and where they will require pick up and I’ll have shuttles collect them. Also, we were wondering if my people would be allowed to visit their families? If you have any rules and such on such matters, please email the address that will be provided shortly.”
Another thing to do,
I thought as I got my head back to how I'd gotten here and I felt I'd missed something.

“What where your other two stipulations, Mr. President?” I said, looking at the president of the United States. He was a large man, bordering on fat, but his face was angular and hawkish. To most he would of looked handsome, to me I could see the anger and loathing behind his eyes. He looked more like a vulture.
“Yes, I will agree to this meeting if you are out of armor and have a security detail of no more than four.”
“Agreed.” I looked away from him, looking at all of the representatives. “Now, I believe I’ve taken up enough of your time. I look forward to seeing you all in three days.” They again nodded and murmured agreement as I cut the channel to all of them.
I stood, stretching.

“Alright, see what they do through their channels. I’m going to check on the station and the ships. Also, get that packet, email, and all that sorted, please.”

“Of course, Commander,” the department head said. Krom and Janice went in front of me as I walked out and into the control center. In the time I’d been talking it was already looking better. Droids were putting things back together and there were crew, mostly AMC still wearing their Mechas, sitting at stations.
Damn, I have good people,
I thought as they worked tirelessly. Complaints could be heard and annoyed voices, but that was natural in any military group. There was a saying that I’d heard—I can’t remember the author—but they said that the role of a soldier is to bitch, the second they aren’t bitching then you better run for cover or stop, because you’ve got a problem on your hands.
It seemed that the factory ships had brought with them not only the sections of the station but hundreds of thousands of droids which where now crawling over our ships, putting them back together. I wandered the new station quickly, going past the med bay again and back to the Resilient. I first went to the mess, grabbing a box of energy bars. My protection detail closed in on me as I walked to the shuttle which held the Marines that had assaulted my ship. I walked through the airlock as the commander came to attention. I snapped off a salute in return.
“At ease, Commandos, protection detail two, front and back.” Krom and Calerd took the front as Dave and Janice took the back.
I tossed the commandos energy bars. 
“Have a seat and get some food in you,” I said as I gave the box to the commander.
“Get them as fed as possible.” I nodded to the Marines and their pilots.
“Yes, sir.”

I nodded to him before turning back to our guests. I scanned them, using my connection with the American military database to find one Captain Connolly, leader of this little expedition. I slumped into a seat opposite him between two Marines without a care as I sat back and rested my head on a gauntleted hand.
“Can I help you?” the Captain asked as he looked at me, not caring about the blood, scars, or my eyes. Well, he was looking at me in the eyes so he might be thinking about them.
“Maybe, Captain Connolly, maybe.” The two Marines on either side of me tensed.
“I wouldn’t do that if I was you,” I said to the Marines on either side of me with my voice raised high enough that all of the Marines and pilots could hear me, without looking away from Connolly or moving.
“If anything happens to me or my people, I’ll let Krom have some fun. Krom, introduce yourself.” Krom growled, his voice guttural and terrifying, having the same effect that meeting a bear in a forest might have on the American forces personnel.
The Marines on either side of me moved as far away from me as their chairs would allow as I continued looking at Captain Connolly.
“You have a question? The eyes?”
“Yes.”
“Well, in a battle where I was fighting Krom without a helmet, the bastard wanted me to have the same amount of brain cells as him, so he hit me in the head. By the way, he hits like a powered sledgehammer. So, feeling bad, he and his people fixed me up, with that came some extras. Tada. Cool looking, isn’t it,” I said.
“Scares the shit out of me if I’m honest.”
“It would me too if I was in your shoes, but I’ve seen much scarier things since I left Earth, like a Sarenmenti eating, that for the front row will make them a little more queasy about having a power bar.” My Commandos laughed as the  Sarenmenti’s among them shredded their power bars with so much gusto so as to get it on their fellow Commandos, to their own laughs.
“Well, here’s the good news, you’re on the first shuttle back to Earth. Which is probably going to be this one as it’ll be too annoying to move you, so it might take a day.”
“I sense the bad news…”
“Well, you’re going back to Earth, which means debriefings, questioning, and all the fun that that comes with. Oh, pilots, we’re going to ask you to take those rockets you call assault shuttles back home.”
“Damned fine ships they are!” one of the pilots said.
“It was built on the design of strapping four ballistic missiles to a train car. I’ve seen the initial sketches,” I said, shaking my head. “I always wondered why NASA didn’t get out into the universe earlier. The biggest was money, the second was risk, and the third was how much damned safety they have. Did you actually read that seven thousand page basic guide to using the assault shuttle?” I looked around the room.
“Thought so, the Free Fleet’s done more space work that NASA has in all it’s years, and common sense, safety lines, and a non-com yelling down the necks of troops has done alright by us. Sorry, just annoyed it took aliens screwing with us for us to meet the rest of the universe.” I looked at a space far away, shaking my head as I came back to reality.
“So, I have a question for you Marines and pilots. You don’t have to answer if you can’t or don’t want to; I just want to know like a man walking on the street.” All of their attention was rooted on me.
“What’s going on with the United States and this stupid damned Space Assault Force?”
“Bunch of canon fodder,” one of the Marines muttered as the rest’s faces showed anger and disgust.
“I’m sorry, Commander, but we can’t answer you,” Captain Connolly said loud enough that everyone heard.
“Okay, I respect that.” I nodded, rising from my seat.
“Well, if I don’t see you before you leave, it’s been nice meeting you and I wish you good fortune.” I gave a slight nod.
“Commander, they’re all yours.” I said to the guards commander who’s men were already taking my protection details positions, who where drifting back to me as I waited for them.
Leaving the shuttle and ship, I went to the command center of the station to rein in control of my new responsibilities and attempt to keep everything going with the ghosts of the latest battle waiting for when I went to sleep.
***
Captain Connolly and all of his Marines that had assaulted Resilient and Hachiro had been put on a different mission as soon as they were back on the ground.

One that nearly every single one of them hated. They were to be trainees for the Free Fleet, to gain positions of power in order to turn the Free Fleet over to the United States and the people that actually knew what they were doing, not Salchar, a gaming kid that was playing soldier.

That was how the woman at their briefing had said it.

As such, the Marines were officially released and all signed up to become, largely, Commandos. Connolly wouldn't doubt if there were other people that were being sent to infiltrate the Free Fleet.

Chapter Big Day

“Hey Doc, I'm here for Yasu,” I said as the doctor held up a scanner for me. I put my hand in it and it beeped.

“Follow me,” he said, his voice as tired as he looked.

Yasu was on a makeshift bed, which was a gravity cart and a pillow, her battle suit kept her warm.

“She'll be out for another couple of hours. Best to put her somewhere she'll recognize.”

“Thanks, Doc,” I said as they half waved acknowledgement before going to do something else.

I pushed Yasu out of the med bay and to my captain's quarters.
“For someone so deadly, you're pretty light,” I said quietly as I gently placed her in bed. I pulled the sheets up on her as I sat at the edge of the bed. I just sat there watching her, smiling.
Thank you,
I thought as I stood pushing the cart ahead of me.

“You two, make sure you're there when she wakes up,” I said to the Sato sisters who were lurking down the corridor. They looked to one another, a possible look of—shock?
No it couldn't be,
I thought as I walked the cart back to med bay. Dave, Janice, Krom, and Shreesht followed me as I dropped off the cart and boarded a shuttle bound for Earth. 
Five shuttles had already dropped people off on Earth all across the globe who had been cleared by the army of shrinks aboard the station which had been up in more flights than I cared to remember. The fleet was fixing itself and it would take time. Eddie had nearly lost it when we got the generators, but I ordered him to put them into storage as we didn’t have the people or supplies to fix the Resilient and get the other ships in fighting condition. Instead, he took to putting in new weapon systems and hull sections on those which had been lost with the minimal crew required as the rest of his engineers worked to bring the smaller ships online. I had ordered tons of small power plants which where being integrated as secondary power sources on many ships, including the Resilient. It abated some of Eddie’s complaints but not many.
Shrift as well had complained as I took most of his workers from the armory to help build the ships up to full strength and supplemented them with Commandos. I hadn’t seen the Kuruvian in a while, and I missed him badly, but duty called.  Henry, Santos, and Bok Soo had got all of the Commandos in action. Now I was dealing with the largest problem of all though. My human personnel wanted to go back to Earth. I couldn’t blame them either, it was their home and while they’d been away terrible things had happened and Earth badly needed their skills. I didn't know how many would stay or go, though I had made it clear that they were free to do as they desired.

At the same time I had no one to replace them, and if I could they would need to be trained, and they wouldn’t be the veterans I’d had from before. With all of this going on, I sighed, feeling uncomfortable in my upgraded battle suit. All of my protection detail had there's, but I was still painfully aware of how little protection I was afforded with the battle suit, thinking of how I had to deal with this agreement with Earth first before I was able to even get my people on the planet to see their families. 
On the first day, I had connected with Earth’s scattered internet and thrown down a few relay towers to boost it to cover the world, allowing my people to connect with their families. I hadn’t given out lists of who was dead or on other places of deployment. I’d do that after the conference, I thought, let people celebrate the hopeful union with the Free Fleet and then add in the good or bad news of their loved ones fates.