Sunday, July 24, 2016

War's Reward: Free Fleet 6 by Michael Chatfield

Release date: July 23rd 2016
Sug-genre: Space Opera, Military Science Fiction


About War's Reward:


The War did not end, it was only put on pause.
The newly formed Union undergoes it’s first baptism, the baptism of war. The Free Fleet fights, holding the line and hoping that reinforcements reach them in time.
Destroyers and fleets assemble to stop the Kalu’s progress in Sol and Worshun. Politics and power are at work in the Union, no matter the outcome the Universe will change forever.


Excerpt:



Hic Stamus rumbled with fire, it was a constant and tiring noise. We had been in the planet’s atmosphere for a few days, much to the displeasure of the Kalu.

            With every rumble my super-carrier destroyed a new section of Chaleel’s planet. I tried to not think about the cleanup that would happen after the battle across the planet. Chaleel supplied many planets with food from the farms that ran around the entire planet. Fields now filled with Kalu that were trying their damnedest to make it through the Free Fleet ships that floated above them, the Heavily Armored Powered Armor, or HAPA’s that marched beneath us and the Chaleelian tanks that added their own withering fire.

            We weren’t killing the Kalu, we were eradicating them. They were the new crops of Chaleel and harvest had come in the shape of the Free Fleet.

            “Something on your mind?” Rick asked me. The first time I’d met him, he’d patched my shoulder up. I’d been Salchar a world-class gaming celebrity. He had been a recent new addition to the American Air force. Five years later and I was Salchar the Commander of the Free Fleet, he was the Chief of Staff.

            We had fought the Syndicate, Kalu, every kind of race and even our own. We had somehow survived battles that all too many hadn’t, I was twenty-two and damn if I didn’t feel old.

            “Just thinking about the first couple of times that we were here,” I said, my eyes no longer focusing on the screens that processed information from my personal fleet, and the other actions of the Free Fleet at large.

            “Times be changing,” Rick said, I could hear similar emotions in his voice.

            The first time we had come to Chaleel it had been in a baptism of fire. We had just finished training at Hachiro, it hadn’t been named that yet, and we were told to take and hold Chaleel’s power plants.

            We’d taken those positions and terrorized the people of Chaleel under the instructions of the Syndicate. Half of our number had stayed here and the rest had continued on towards Parnmal. We didn’t have a choice in the matter, not doing as we were told meant that we were tortured, or killed.

            My jaw clamped in anger, thinking of those months that had turned us from kids and teenagers into soldiers. It had also led to the creation of the Free Fleet.

            With our return to Chaleel, we rescued our people and took on the Syndicate forces in the system. This also led to us freeing Chaleel. They’d been apprehensive of our actions at the beginning, it took them time to warm up to us. We promised to do our best in looking out for them and set out towards Earth.

            Chaleel was under attack again, and again the Free Fleet was protecting them. They weren’t the only system that the Free Fleet was defending. We were spread across nine systems fighting the Kalu.



About Michael Chatfield:






 Having spent the majority of his childhood jumping from country to country with his mother, Michael Chatfield now travels the world searching for inspiration. He calls Canada home, for now, but regularly bounces across the pond to his true home, the UK. Michael pays the bills as an Infanteer in the Canadian military.

 

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