Free Fleet #03 No Rest for the Wicked by Michael Chatfield Page B

tens of them but barely slowed them. Henry only had enough time to stand, using the Gatling gun like a blunt club he crushed a trooper’s face plate.
    Suddenly everything became much lighter as an unseen weight lifted from Henry. He didn't change his mecha's power settings however as he whirled, the Gatling gun now feeling like a pillow in his hands instead of a desk. Suddenly, the syndicate troopers looked like Henry's squad had when they'd first got the full abilities of mechas; they went flying off in every direction, mostly into the walls.
    Henry grinned sadly.
    Good memories. He thought.
    A blade glanced off of Henry's helmet as he used the gatling gun to check the owner's helmet.
    “What the fuck are these people? Monsters?” someone asked, and Henry realized that his comms had changed to CAF, so he was picking up the syndicate troopers.
    “Fucker won't go down!” another panicked voice said and Henry grinned as he used the lighter gravity and his still fully powered mecha to jump past the first line of attackers and bury himself in the second or third.
    “We're Commandos! Armoured fucking Marine Commandos, and we are your death!” Henry brought the gun low, tripping troops as he crushed one, the Gatling's handle flying off.
    He grabbed a blade that made to jab up into his torso. The syndicate troops seemed to be moving in slow motion as they tried to get hold of themselves and adapt to universal gravity. Henry got inside the troopers reach, grabbed the hilt of his weapon and smashed his helmet with his own extra armoured helmet.
    He took down three more in quick succession as the troopers oriented themselves to the gravity changed. The last Commando was just five meters from safety. Henry's leg cut out as an attacker behind him took out the circuits. His leg was mangled underneath the armour, and he was unable to stand on it. He jumped backwards, cutting a trooper that stabbed at him as he plowed through mechas.
    “Fuck you, fuck your shitty army!” one of them yelled.
    “Yeah, we'll kill you all.” Henry rolled and flicked his leg out as he activated the locking bolts, making it nothing more than a peg leg essentially.
    Henry took down two as he stomped his other foot and righted himself.
    He cut and sliced, nothing left but to kill, to defend what had become his family, to give his commandos the time they needed, just as the Sarenmenti commando had done.
    “Commandos came from nothing, yet we will not die, we will not stop, we will never give up. That is what the Free Fleet does. We crush our enemies so totally that others do not even know about us. Your dead will be the legions that await every Commando when they go into the dark,” Henry growled and no one said anything as he staggered, getting a slice across his side.
    He smashed a trooper in the face as he reversed his grip on his sword, getting close so the troopers couldn't attack him without killing their own. Someone stabbed clean through the trooper he'd just stabbed in the arm, the blade pierced Henry's arm and tourniquets clamped around it.
    He switched his blade to the other hand as another blade raked his side. Feeling dizzy from blood loss he backed up as a blade seemed to appear in his chest and pain flared throughout his torso.
    Shit that hurts, he thought as he dropped his blade, looking at the one embedded in his chest.
    The syndicate troops still stayed out of his reach as they went around him and ran towards the end of the hall where the gunners waited three hundred meters away. Henry pulled the blade from his chest as painkillers made everything softer and the pain disappeared.
    He looked at the fallen Sarenmenti.
    Taleel. He read as he sighed, changing to the command channel.
    “I think this is it. I'm going to miss you bastards,” he smiled sadly. “But now it's time to go see those beyond the dark. Give them hell Commandos. For the Free Fleet,” Wish I could've gone on a date with Evelyn. Wouldn’t have done it any other way