From Furies Forged (Free Fleet Book 5) (13 page)

              He had been in charge of growing Asul City on AIH in Salchar and Yasu’s absence. In his care the city had grown to be the largest of its kind on the planet and had absorbed much of the other cities.

              Yet even with the struggles of a city going from barely surviving to thriving a thriving metropolis, one that had the only spaceport on the planet, he had wanted more. His blood called to him and he wanted to serve not as an administrator, but as his Battle-masters man in battle.

              Salchar had created the planetary Commando program. He’d also given Ursht his blessing to push his work off to those that had helped him to run the city thus far and test his skills as a Commando.

              He had proved worthy and done his battle master proud with his performance. He had been given his permission on merit and by the votes of the other Commandos that lived on AIH.

              He was indebted to Salchar for his actions, how he had saved his home and planet, and then gifted them with prosperity.

              The other Avarians also felt a deep connection to their battle master.

              This betrayal by Earth was personal. Earth had scorned their master, which made them not only betray him as a man, but them as a people.

              It helped that Salchar was a good battle-master and a good man. The stories of those that went to Asul on leave from the Free Fleet made the residents of Asul happy and proud.

              Some disagreed or resented their battle-master, it was to be expected. Some complained how the old ways had been lost, and they had a point, but the future wasn’t going to let them focus on the past if they wanted to grow.

              “Clearing event horizon,” Linda Yousef said, as the Battle Cruiser exited its projected wormhole. Ursht might have bragged about beating the Chaleelians to the battle at one point, but right now he was more concentrated on getting to the battle. All of the ships had been boarded within a few hours of getting word, the Avarians had trained to be the fastest reactionary force they could be and that training had paid off. Two hundred and fifty thousand Avarians had boarded the ships that were capable of wormholing and headed for Earth.

              They’d jumped as fast as they could, actually jumping into the dark, the spaces between systems to go to their full jump range. Their generators had been kept at ninety percent to charge the capacitors between uses and supply the wormhole generators with the power they needed to fight physics.

              It had taken them nearly four days to reach Earth and the situation had improved only slightly from the initial reports they’d received about the system. Nancy was secure but badly damaged, fighting was still ongoing at Hachiro. Mars was a mass of confusion and fighting. Earth was secured by Earth forces and there was a large group of ships that had reached Hachiro supporting their forces there, with a separate group that had gone onto Mars.

              The carrier Elshurvum had escaped capture thus far, but in the next two days the Earth forces would be on them.

              “Linda I want to know if we will be able to jump to Elshurvum’s aid. Quasa, inform Commander Silly of our presence and ask for a situational update,” ship commander Zali asked without missing a beat.

              Ursht’s opinion of the Battle Cruisers crew was revised upwards as they turned to their tasks with professional detachment. It didn’t take long until the main screen was updating with the newest information on what the Free Fleet and Earth Forces were doing in the area. Ursht used the HUD on his helmet to sift through the information and look specifically at Mars and Hachiro.

              He sent the information and a list of questions to his subordinates so he could focus on any developing information on the bridge. They would get back to him with results as they found it, instead of him using his time to try and do more than he was capable of.

              “It doesn’t look like a wormhole will be possible with the gravitational disturbances in the area as well as our profile. Jump ships could but we’re no jump ship,” Linda said. There were jump ships being made on Nancy but there were few pilots and the Earth forces had attacked the factory with speed and precision. Silly’s people were still assessing the damage but it would be a while until they had it figured out, fixing it would take a lot longer.

              The pilots were on Hachiro, a handful of them had gotten out but they weren’t fully trained. More Jump fighters were with Salchar’s forces that were moving from Parnmal, they had set off after the fleet had made a few jumps so that they were within their resources range of Earth. They would arrive sometime in the next twenty hours, but they would need to refuel at Nancy before they were able to go into combat.

              “Commander Ursht, it looks that our choices have thinned somewhat,” Zali said, looking to Ursht.

              Slevarans looked very similar to Sarenmenti, but where Sarenmenti had large hips and lower legs, a stub of a tail, four jaws and large scales that didn’t change colors. The Slevarans were thinner with a larger head and eyes that looked sideways instead of forwards, they showed their emotions through their scale color, had only one jaw like the humans and no tail.

              They had used to walk on all four limbs but had gone through genetic therapies when the Union was around to change so they stood upright instead of crawling.

              “Yes,” Ursht said, his jaw tight as he nodded to the Slevaran, knowing just what Zali was asking.

             
Mars or Hachiro, which one do we take on?

              He glanced over the reports again, looking at the station named after the bravery of his battlemistress father and the people that had joined him in battle against impossible odds. There were millions of people split between Hachiro and Mars, both were worthy targets. Yet Hachiro was in the path of Elshurvum and its position in Mars’ orbit would make it a good launching platform to Mars, if he could get those jump fighter pilots to their ships then maybe, just maybe they could make the small time window Elshurvum had before it was set on by Earth forces.

              “Hachiro,” Ursht said, looking to Zali.

              Zali’s scales flicked colors to signal agreement.

              “You heard the Avarian Commander, prepare battle stations and shuttles. Linda will you be able to jump us to the station?”

              “I can get us a few million kilometers closer,” she said.

              “Do it,” Zali said, tongue flicking in malice.

              “If you don’t mind I will be readying myself for battle with my forces,” Ursht said, grabbing his helmet from the railing it sat on.

              “By all means Commander. We’ll do our best to deliver you right down their throats,” Zali didn’t try to hide the anger that filled his eyes and colored his scales.

              Ursht grunted his agreement, pleased to be going into battle with a man such as Zali.

              He turned and marched out of the bridge, his helmet locking with his powered armor over his bald head.

              His skin was a grey-black that looked like the rocks of AIH, he, like the rest of his people were great at making themselves invisible on their planet.

              Avarians looked similar to humans but were much larger and had muscle mass that looked more like armor plating than the ridges and bumps humans possessed.

              Their joints and muscle had developed similar to the Dovark’s that had been the first race of the Union. While humans’ had first class lifting systems in their bodies, Avarians and Dovark’s had third.

              The AI Planner had seen to changing their bodies to make them stronger and capable of living in the harsh environment that AIH hosted. This had allowed them to survive as a race and made them powerful adversaries. He had also taught them to work together and create a system that would allow them to work with others, stopping them from becoming another force like the Kalu.

              He felt the power being shunted directly from the ship’s massive capacitors into its wormhole generators whose energy was focused by the wormhole projectors to open a hole through space and time. The ship moved into that wormhole, coming out of it just a few million miles away from Hachiro, behind the Earth forces.

              “Get me the bastards,” Zali said over his ships comms, the Battle Cruiser Rolfa answered with anger. Her gunners trained Free Fleeters were not in the practice of missing their targets.

              Missiles could be heard chasing and then passing their ship’s cannon fire.

              “Commander?” Sarenmenti Kashal looked to his commander with only one question on his face.

              “Well we’re not going to let the Ship’s crew have all the glory!” He barked over his speaker. Kashal didn’t wince from the volume but bared his four jaws.

              Roars, the kind that one might expect from savage warriors filled the shuttle bay as the first sealed up, the others doing the same. Ursht felt his eyes widen as battle hormones filled him.

             
Today Earth will get their second lesson and learn what happens to oath breakers.
He silently promised himself. He could still hear the yells from the others shuttles as he marched onto his own. Warriors moved out of his way as the ramps closed. The cargo master didn’t even try to calm his load as the shuttle rose after a few minutes.

              Ursht looked to the questions he had asked his commanders, they had responses now.

              He put his anger away, there was a time for it, and it was soon, first he had to make sure that he got his Armored Marine Commandos onto Hachiro.

                                                                      ***

              “What in the fuck is this?” The Prime Minister of Russia said, throwing a tablet at Edwards as he entered the combined forces of Earth military command center. Edwards went red and then white with fury as he looked at the Prime Minister of Russia with disgust and anger on his face.

             
Why did we have to allow this, one of our worst enemies into our midst? Surely the President will allow me to deal with him after this, once and for all. I’ll show him his place like I’m going to show Salchar.

              “I only answer to the Pres…”

              “Answer him Edwards,” the President snapped, cutting Edward’s anger off.

              “Yes sir,” Edwards said, picking up the tablet his eyes not seeing it for a minute as he quelled his anger.
The President must be making sure to keep the Prime Minister unaw… Shit.
His mind reeled as he looked at the massive forms of powered armor rushing through Hachiro. Massive creatures that looked as if they were wearing HAPA’s.

              “It looks like the Avarians have picked a side,” he said putting the tablet on the table.

              “You said that he wasn’t capable of getting forces here for another week, let alone the Avarians. While in your report you called them ‘Mindless beasts with no understanding of tactics only a lust for bloodshed’,” the Prime Minister of Russia said as if he was quoting Edwards exact words.

              “You also said that ‘they seem to enjoy two things, fighting and credits. It might be possible to buy them from Salchar’,” the Chinese General Secretary and President said. Anyone that thought Xi Biwu was harmless was a fool, Edwards didn’t even feel a tremor of rebellion in his body as he kept his mouth resolutely shut while his anger ate at his stomach lining.

              “There is still the…” Edwards started.

              “No there is not,” Prince Majdi Saud said, his normally dark eyes black. Again Edwards bit back a retort. “I am removing my support from this endeavor, but I will leave you with one piece of advice. Those fighters might look like savages, but they are loyal. They have broken off all trade with Earth as soon as they heard it, and they must have left as soon as they could.” A video played creatures yelling ‘Salchar!’ in a heavy accent not of Earth. “Salchar is their master and a good one from the way that they follow him. They will not abandon him and they will not be forgiving.” His eyes came to rest on Edwards, he thought he saw those eyes go colder and hungrier for a moment before his feed stopped.

             
I shouldn’t be listening to that asshole. There’s not just a chance left, we will win and then we will see who is giving ultimatums.

              He looked to his President who was staring at the star-map without seeing it. Edwards noticed the ships moving on Hachiro in red outlines.

             
The might of the American military will smash them back to their useless planets and show how strong America is once again.

              “We cannot go back now, Salchar is coming. It seems that we can expect more than our pessimistic estimate of his forces,” the President said.

              “And their abilities,” the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom said.

              The President looked as if he had eaten something sour as he nodded, looking at the leaders of the conference, the nation-leaders that had devoted their resources, time and people to the cause of taking Salchar’s power from him.