Read Online Free Fleet #03 No Rest for the Wicked by Michael Chatfield - Free Book Online Page A

not fucking fair!
    “Get more grenades on those damn things!” he yelled as he saw that the majority of his grenade throwers had been ripped apart by the Rail gun.
    Replacement's crept up, only to get washed away with more rounds.
    “Stack the dead, use them as cover,” Falesh said as troops started to create protective walls with dead or dying troops.
    A wounded woman was yelling for aid and Falesh absently shot her, stopping her annoying screams.
    “Shields are down,” a gruffer sounding grenade thrower said. Falesh saw the new one was using a dead trooper as a shield.
    “Good. Now silence those fucking guns!” Falesh barked as he checked his weapon.
    Rail guns ripped into the hastily erected barricades of mechas as beaders fired against the walls trying to catch anything that stepped out. Grenade throwers arms were shredded but others quickly moved into their place. Stopping now would mean giving the shields enough time to recharge and make all the work that they'd done worth nothing.
    Finally, one beader went down, then the other. The rail gun took time but it fell eventually.
    “Go!” Falesh yelled as he forced those in front of him into the corridor.
    They walked quickly, as doing anything more was almost impossible. As the first man made it past the corner, a plasmid blade flashed and the trooper fell backwards.
    “Get 'em! They're right there!” Falesh yelled as more people moved past the corner. A few fell back here and there, but the majority of them continued on. Falesh turned to look into chaos, and at his enemy.
    Their mechas were essentially the same as the ones the syndicate troops were wearing. They changed them up as they needed to. Whereas syndicate troops always went for more armour, as that was a symbol of status, these fighters had different amounts of armour across their mechas. The mechas were also well used. They looked grungy compared to the polished and cleaned mechas the syndicates troops had forced their slaves to polish to perfection. These mechas wore their scars with pride as, and that made Falesh pause. These people had been in vicious battles, and yet they had somehow survived.
    “G-General, there's not one group. There's five of them at least.” He steadied himself at the sight as he pulled behind the corner.
    “They come from a high g planet, they move as if they were born in this..,” Falesh felt the gravity increase even more and he gasped as he strained to look around the corner.
    “What was that, Sergeant?” The General sounded not pleased in the slightest.
    “They're definitely not syndicate. They fight together and they have no trouble doing it in a high gravity environment,”
    “We shall have a harvest of many!” one of the enemy soldiers said as they cut through two attackers, then dropped back as their comrade killed another that slashed at him.
    Without a word the general cut the channel and Falesh returned to his ragtag group of troops, which were dying in the droves.
    “Get up there you!” Falesh said as more reinforcements funnelled through the already cleared areas to the rear.
    Who the hell are these demons?
     
    ***
     
    I grinned as I saw who was in charge of my squad as I jogged right up behind him. I tapped him on the shoulder, grinning as he turned.
    “ Look, I don't have ti - Salchar!”
    “George,” I couldn't help smiling as the kids face lit up. He made to salute as I clapped him on the shoulder, stopping that nonsense.
    “I'm now under you, as well as my pals here.” I indicated my security detail who varied from annoyed for having to protect me in a war zone, (Dave and Janice) to outright grinning (Krom and Shreesht). Calerd looked as non-committal as anyone could be. Monk and his security detail had gone to another squad under Shminkt's command. George nodded to them all. They'd met when I'd taken George home and the few times I'd gathered my friends together for a meal wherever I'd been. George was still stationed on Resilient and