Make or Break the Hero (The Hunter Legacy Book 4)
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Authors: Timothy Ellis
Make or Break
the Hero
By Timothy Ellis
The Hunter Legacy, Book Four
Copyright © 2015 by Timothy Ellis
Cover Photo from the Egosoft Game, X3 Albion Prelude.
This book is a work of fiction. The names,
characters, places and events are fictional and have no relationship to any
real person, place or event. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is
purely co-incidental.
The author has taken the liberty of using
some recognizable names in a historical context or projected into the future as
if such entities survive into the timeframe of this work of fiction. Such
references are intended solely as a tribute to the entity so used and all such
usage has an intended deep respect. The author has also deliberately chosen
names for characters in tribute to the science fiction genre in all forms of
media. Some may be obvious, others will not be. There is no implied connection,
other than what the reader may make for themselves.
The author is Australian and the main
characters in this book are of Australian origin. In Australia, we colour
things slightly differently, so you may notice some of the spelling is
different. Please don't be alarmed. If you do suffer any discomfort, please
take it out on the nearest pirate.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book
may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any manner whatsoever without the
written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotation
embodied in critical articles or reviews.
Hunter's Redoubt was the largest Battleship
ever built.
It hadn't started out as a Battleship. It
was a station I'd been given as compensation for effectively ending the Pompeii
civil war.
I'd fallen asleep in the Admiral's chair,
in the Combat Command and Control (CCC). As I was the Admiral, this wasn't a
problem.
It was fitted with tugs to move, and Battleship
guns to fire, in a desperate attempt to stop the invasion of Avon by the
Midgard fleet.
We'd won, but only just. Not a single
surviving ship had escaped damage. The station had damage to its Docking Deck,
where Assault Shuttles had poured in troops to capture it. I'd decompressed the
entire deck to stop them. It wasn’t a pretty sight afterwards.
Those of us who'd returned to the station
after the morning's battle, were mostly asleep now. I'd been finishing up
messages to the outside galaxy, letting superiors know we'd triumphed, before
succumbing to the need for sleep myself.
It was a very comfortable chair, and
sitting in it had been a mistake.
"JON!"
I jerked awake, and almost fell out of the
chair. It was Jane and Janet speaking together. Jane was my ship's Artificial
Intelligence (AI), and Janet was the stations.
"What?"
"Look."
The view screen was showing the nearby
Atlantis jump point, with the scanner overlaid.
Six dull red dots had appeared at the jump
point. I could actually see the small shapes of Missile Cruisers in the
distance.
"You have got to be fucking kidding
me!" I yelled.
Four hours ago, we'd fought off a fleet
twice the size of what we'd expected. Now, against all expectations, another
fleet had jumped in. The next attack was not expected until the following day.
Until this morning, the Midgard commanders
had been very predictable.
Now, our complacency was about to bite us
on the arse.
We had brand new reinforcements on the way.
I quickly calculated the ETA's. As I'd thought, about three hours after we'd be
space dust. I sighed.
I opened up station coms.
"NOW HERE THIS," I bellowed. I
continued in a more moderate voice. "Evacuate the station immediately.
Proceed to the nearest ship to your location, and board it. Do not stop to take
anything with you. You have five minutes. Anyone still here after that time
will most likely die."
"This is not a drill," I added,
thinking of all the flat screens and hollo's I'd watched, where that had been
said in the same situation.
I closed station coms and opened a channel
to the Battleship Repulse. While damaged, she was still operational, although I
assumed her crew were also mainly asleep.
"Station to Repulse. Emergency. Enemy
at the jump point. Get that ship moving to top speed, and head towards the
Shipyard. Further orders will follow. Hunter out."
I didn’t wait for a response, and closed
the channel.
"Janet. Get us moving away from the
jump point as fast as you can. We need to delay them firing missile barrages at
us for as long as possible."
"Yes my Lord."
"Jane, launch the drone clusters. I
want them attached to the side of the top level of the station as soon as
possible. Aim their Point Defense turrets aft. It’s the only defense we have
back that way."
"Confirmed. Most of them are still not
repaired yet."
"Can't be helped. Mostly what I need
are torpedo launchers."
"Those have already been repaired."
"Are we running or fighting, my
Lord?" asked Janet.
I sometimes wondered if she'd actually been
cloned from Jane, or from my butler droid Jeeves, who calls me the same title.
"Fighting. But we need to get everyone
off first, as this could get messy. Shit! I should've thought of this."
I'd been having dreams lately, where there
was a dream, within a dream, within a dream. Three levels. Three fleets to
face. I'd also, once again, missed the exceedingly obvious. The Cobol system
had three jump points, meaning it needed two fleets to cover the other two, as
the third led back to Midgard. Cobol had received two fleets. Avon had five
jump points. That meant four fleets were needed to proceed outward from this
system. Four jump points out, four fleets on their way? This was the third. It
was very likely the fourth fleet was behind this one somewhere.
It had taken everything we had to beat the
first and second, combined fleet. One station and one Battleship was all we had
left in fighting condition. The latter was lacking enough Point Defense to
defend against a two hundred missile barrage, which the Midgard Missile Cruiser's
fired. We'd defended her with fighters last time, but even then, she was holed.
The other Battleship, Warspite, was limping home with huge rents in her side,
and an entire main turret missing. The station might be able to take care of
itself, but Repulse was toast unless I came up with tactics that would save us.
And soon.
"You will need this then, my Lord,"
said Janet.
"What this is that?" I responded automatically.
I found out. I'd wondered why the area
behind the command chair was so empty. Doors opened in the floor, and another
chair rose out of it. Set on a platform, it loomed above the command chair. It
was fitted like the pilot's chair on my Corvette, Gunbus. Gunbus was unusual in
she could fly and fight better than any fighter.
I stepped up and sat. On my right was the
joystick. On my left was the speed slider. It was showing full speed, as Janet
raced us away from the impending doom at the jump point.
"Jane, how is the evacuation coming?"
"Slowly."
I opened station coms again.
"Three minutes to all ships undocking.
Move it or lose it."
I turned off the coms again.
A ping came in from Amanda. "Where are
you Jon?"
Team coms came on. I disconnected myself.
My crew had once been a Mercenary team that I'd saved accidently from imminent
death. With our adventures since, we'd become close. This wasn’t the time for
their protectiveness though. They didn’t know it, but this time, I had to
protect them, by keeping them away from what only I could do.
"Jane, the moment the team are all on
Gunbus, close up and undock. Don’t give them the chance to come looking for me.
I want them safe. Make sure all ships head for the shipyard at their top speed.
No heroics. If you have to, take control of them, and keep them heading away
from here."
"Confirmed."
"Janet, what guns does this station have?"
I'd been instrumental in getting the
station armed, but I'd left it to the engineers to actually do it. I knew she
had Battleship guns mounted up top, along with Point Defense turrets, and
missile launchers. I'd seen the initial designs, but I'd no clue as to how many
of what, and which else, had actually been mounted and worked.
"Eight Battleship turrets, sixteen
Cruiser turrets, twenty four Destroyer turrets, eight Missile Launchers, three
Mosquito Launchers, and thirty two Point Defense."
"Give me a normal Gunbus
Heads-Up-Display." My HUD was unique. "Add to it recharge sliders for
each type of gun, so I can see at a glance where the charge of each gun type
is." They appeared in an unused spot on the HUD. "Bigger." They
doubled in size. "Thank you. Rear view please. When we turn, keep the view
on the Missile Cruisers."
The view changed to show six Missile Cruisers
coming after us. Behind them was a cloud of Talon (medium) fighters. If they
were true to previous fleet sizes, it was fifteen squadrons of twelve. They
were falling behind slowly. I was gaining us precious seconds.
I opened station coms again.
"One minute to all ships undocking. Run
faster, or kiss your arse goodbye."
I closed the coms again.
I began to slow the station. Repulse was
behind us, but as we slowed, she began to close the gap.
I opened ship coms to all docked ships.
"Station to all ships. As soon as it's
safe to undock, do so immediately. You are ordered to proceed at your top speed
to the Avon Shipyards. Hunter out."
I closed the channels. I didn't want anyone
questioning the order.
The station was almost stopped now. White
and green dots appeared on the scanner, showing ships departing the station.
White ones belonged to me, green ones were friendlies.
"Janet, is there anyone left on
board?"
"Yes Jon," came a voice from
behind me. I jerked around, and found Alison looking up at me. Wounded in the
last battle, she was still wearing a hospital gown. I looked at her in
astonishment, and she grinned at me. "I simply knew you weren't abandoning
the station, and this was where you'd be."
"No-one else on the station my
Lord," interjected Janet.
"How did you get left behind?" I
asked.
"I didn't. I lied to the team, and
told them the medics took me to a different ship which was closer. They're
still trying to find out where you are. Actually, I guess they know now. They
just heard it from me. Oops."
She giggled. I sighed.
"What on Outback made you stay?"
"The safest place is with you."
I looked at her as if she was stupid.
This was obviously a whole new meaning of
the word safe, one I hadn't come across before. Or it was female logic. Either
way, it made no sense to me.
I waved her in.
Alison limped tentatively in the door, and sat
in the Admiral's chair. Jane's avatar entered after her, and took a seat at a
control station, where she connected to a data port.
I looked at the HUD again. All ships were
clear.
"Janet, spin us back towards the jump
point, and bring us up to half speed. Vent the air on the Docking Deck into
storage, and open one of the airlocks to space."
If Midgard soldiers wanted to board us,
they would have to do it the hard way.
"Yes my Lord."
I opened a channel to Repulse.
"Repulse, swing around behind the
station. You've rearguard duties. Stay behind the station, and pick off
anything that comes past."
"You're going to attack them with only
the station?" Admiral Bentley sounded a bit surprised.
"Oh yes," I said. "They've a
nasty surprise awaiting them."
"Why did you evacuate the
station?"
"Because it might not work."
"Oh. Good luck."
Hunter's Redoubt, the largest single seat
fighter ever built, moved to engage the enemy.