Make or Break the Hero (The Hunter Legacy Book 4) (10 page)

I remained on the Bridge alone. Angel had
vanished. I slid off my chair and walked into my Ready Room, with my pad, and
the remains of my bottle of water. The lounge chairs looked more comfortable,
so I eased myself into one. It was.

"Can you let Janet know the location
of the battle, so they can pick up salvageable hulls, and clean up the battle
site into a single hazard zone?"

"Confirmed."

"What was my kill count this time?"

"Fifty nine."

I sighed. Well I'd decided to take the
battle on personally. It came with a price. More releases. I took myself into a
meditative state, and did them. A peep noise from my pad brought me out again a
little later.

An email from Chief McLauchlan had come in.
He'd included specs to turn a comsat into a combined comnavsat, and suggested
any repair droid could make the modification with basic spares available. I
sent the email on to John Slice, suggesting he convert all of them.

I also asked him if I could buy some for
later use. I still had unfinished business in the Australian sector, and
knowing what was moving around Nexus in real time, could make a big difference.

I sent George a position update, in case
that brought him back faster.

The next email was from Miriam. I threw the
vid to a screen.

"Are you alright Jon? Really? You looked
like shit. Worse. Why aren't you in a hospital? Okay, silly question, there's a
war on. I know you have to be where you are. Please take it easy. Remember you've
bigger ships with you. Let them take the risks."

A sheepish expression came over my face,
thinking about what I’d just done.

"Take care of yourself. If you don’t,
I'll have to get some of your team, to make sure you do." She blew me a
kiss, and the vid ended.

She would too. She outranked most of them,
so they would probably take an order from her.

I needed some music, I thought. I hunted
through my orchestral library until I found something appropriate. Da da da
dah, da da da dah, began Beethoven's fifth. I lounged there, closed my eyes,
and immersed myself.

"Jon."

I startled awake. The music was still
going, now well into the third movement.

"Yes?"

"Email from John Slice."

"Thanks."

I picked up my pad again. He'd arrived at
Atlantis, and was just setting out for the Avalon jump point. He was already
getting some comsats modified, and yes, I could buy whatever he had left if I
wanted them.

"Contact."

I limped out, and sat in my seat again. Jane
switched the music off behind me.

"Sitrep."

"Standard Midgard fleet. Oh."

"Oh?"

"They just stopped."

"Oh oh."

"Oh."

"More oh?"

"They just started to reverse
course."

"Oh no."

"Oh yes."

"Oh Damn."

"Oh."

"Even more oh?"

"Down jump. There's another fleet at
the jump point now."

"Oh."

I should've seen this coming. The next
fleet was on its way to Atlantis, with the one behind it just jumped in. At a
guess, we were travelling twice as fast as they were. But they were much closer
to the jump point. For us, it was an hour and half away. For them, roughly the
same.

I sat there for a moment, before opening
ship coms.

"The good news is, there will be a
delay before the next engagement. The enemy are fleeing ahead of us now." Cheering
came up the staircase. "The bad news is, they'll make it back to the jump
point before we catch up with them, and join up with another fleet. Prepare for
combat in about an hour."

I closed the coms.

Jane and I discussed tactics as I watched
us draw closer to the fleeing fleet. In theory, we were outnumbered two to one,
although in terms of sizes, it was five and a half to twelve, ignoring the
Talons. In terms of firepower, we were still outclassed. But it was quantity
verses quality. The trick was making sure quality won out.

I did an email advising there were two
fleets at the jump point, and we were going in. If something went wrong, at
least the brass behind us would know what the odds were.

The closer we came to the fleeing fleet,
the more obvious it was. We were't going to reach them in time to stop them
joining the other fleet.

Custer dropped back slightly in the
formation, so we were behind the Guardians. Jane closed the Guardian formation
up, so there was little more than missile firing room between them. Custer rose
up behind them, and assumed a tail position above and behind the middle
Guardian.

"Half hour to contact," I said
into ship coms. "Decide where you want to be folks."

I limped off to my bathroom. On the way
back, I found Angel on top of her kitty castle.

Meow?

"Bridge time sweetie pie."

She jumped down each level, and rushed
ahead of me. By the time I was back in my chair, she was sitting upright on her
console cat mat.

Over the next fifteen minutes, Vonda and
most of the team appeared on the Bridge. Alsop was noticeably absent this time.
So was Alana.

"Buckle up everyone," I said into
ship coms.

I checked my straps, and wished I'd gone
down to the Med Bay for another pain shot. Too late now.

The ships in front of us, now clearly
visible in the distance, slowed and stopped. Those at the jump point moved to
join them.

We slowed to a stop as well.

Before us, twelve Missile Cruisers formed a
wall, six wide and two high, all side on to us.

"Creep us in Jane. The moment we hit
maximum missile range, stop and fire."

"Confirmed."

"Get salvos off to all the Cruisers,
then immediately launch Mosquitos and reload."

"I know what I'm doing."

The tone indicated stress. For an AI, that
was amazing. Maybe not though. Given what she now had to do, anyone would be
stressed. Vonda and Annabelle gave me speculative looks. I gave them the
'It'll-be-alright' grin. They didn't look reassured.

We stopped. Three hundred missiles left
their launchers. Two thousand, four hundred missiles came back at us.

For fifteen long seconds, we sat there
waiting.

The next three hundred missiles left their
launchers.

Another fifteen agonizing seconds passed.

One hundred and twenty more missiles headed
outward.

Jane spun all our ships upward and over
their center points, pointing us back the way we'd come. We accelerated away
from the incoming missile barrages. The view on the screen changed to the rear.

Twenty Two Mosquito launchers fired at the
same time. For six seconds, Jane was completely tied up on all ships, while she
targeted each Mosquito missile.

Now at top speed, we fled before the massed
barrages aimed at us.

A second barrage launched from the jump
point, as the Midgard Cruisers completed their rolls to bring their other side
launchers to bear.

The first five Missile Cruisers exploded
moments later.

Mosquitos intercepted capital ship missiles
at long range from us, and a wall of explosions lit up space. Even so, some
came through.

"Beyond range," said Jane, and
radically altered our direction.

The remaining missiles no longer had fuel,
so they would not be able to change course to hit us. They were purely
ballistic in the direction they were fired. From far enough away to avoid
explosions, Jane raked them with Point Defense fire, and the remaining missiles
of the first barrages, died.

The next five Missile Cruisers also died.

We turned back towards the battle site, still
in formation, but at a slow speed, the viewer changing to front view again. The
Mosquito Launchers fired again. For another six seconds, Jane was again dedicated
to targeting, after which, two hundred and forty IR missiles launched after
them.

A wall of explosions lit up space again,
much closer this time. When we could see through it again, the last two
Cruisers were gone as well.

We sped up again, closing on the three
hundred and sixty Talons. A wall of anti-fighter missiles launched at us. We
replied with two hundred and forty FF missiles. Seconds later, another set were
launched, and then another. In theory, this was two FF's per Talon. In
practice, it was anyone's guess how many would hit any given ship.

Point Defense opened up on the incoming
missiles, but we started taking hits anyway. The brunt of the missiles were
aimed at the Guardians, but Custer also took its share of fire.

Talons winked out faster than the eye could
keep up with, but the remaining ones were pumping out their own missiles as
fast as they could.

Talons and missiles diminished rapidly, as
missiles hit targets.

And suddenly, everything stopped. Including
us as we reached the edge of a massive debris field. I checked the shields for
each ship. None of them were below eighty percent.

"And that’s how you do that," I
said generally, before opening ship coms. "All clear. Good guy's one, bad
guy's zip. If you want to sleep, now's the time." I closed the coms.

There was general merriment on the Bridge,
and coming up from below.

"Send out the salvage droids Jane.
Open up the Cargo Bay's on the Guardians, and take any salvageable hulls there.
We'll need the debris field moved into a mountain, well away from the jump
point."

"Confirmed."

With nothing more to do for now, I limped
down to the Medical Bay, and had a doc-droid check me. It gave me another pain
shot.

Back in my chair on a now empty Bridge, I
pondered why my bruises hurt so much this time. When I’d first been hurt after
leaving Outback, I'd not felt this bad, even though I was hurt worse. The
second lot of bruises I'd received by tree crashing, hadn't been as bad. What
was different?

Hospital.

Oh, yes. The first time I’d spent five days
unconscious in hospital, while this time it had been one night. I was hurting
more because I should still be there.

Can't be helped. Wars wait for no man.

But man waits for news. I sat there,
waiting for what should be coming soon.

Jane and I discussed what should happen the
next morning, and the preparations to make for it.

Just after midnight, the email I was waiting
for, came in.

There had been another small fleet at the
Avalon jump point. Two Cruisers and five squadrons of Talons. The four ships
had made short work of them. Avalon was now connected with the rest of the
spine once again, having also not been invaded. Slice and O'Neil were on their
way to join us now.

I sent orders to Admiral Bentley to bring
the station and her fleet here as well.

Next, I opened a vid.

"Marshall, Admirals and General. The
Cobol jump point is ours, the system is clear, and back on the communication network.
The fleet I expected to face away from the jump point, turned tail and ran
before us. The timing aided them enough so they could join the next fleet
through at the jump point itself. The combined fleets were handled relatively
easily at long ranges. It'll be morning before we can jump into Cobol. Hunter
out."

I assembled the email, and sent it off.

Until the jump point was cleared, we
couldn’t go any further. Which was just as well, because we were all exhausted.
Well I was. I assumed everyone else was as well.

I found Angel curled up in her cat bed,
visited the bathroom, changed into t-shirt and boxers, and went to bed.

"GOOD MORNING ATLANTIS!"

I wish Jane wouldn’t do that. I lay there,
with tail in my mouth for a moment, before moving a still sleeping puss, and
heading for the shower.

"Sitrep," I said, stepping into
the water.

"Half hour until the station arrives.
George and Eric arrived just after two. Slice and O'Neil arrived at five. No
enemy activity. The jump point is clear."

"How many heard your wake up
shout?"

"Everyone."

"Good."

I wouldn’t be the only one feeling sleep
deprived. Less than six and a half hours wasn’t enough, but it was all I could
afford.

We had to take the next step before Midgard
did.

Jeeves waved breakfast under my nose as I
stepped into the living room, so I detoured to the Dining Room to eat it. I was
hungry, for once.

When I arrived on the Bridge, Jane had us
formed up ready to go. The eight Pocket Battleships were in a two tiered wall
formation, with Custer behind and centered between them. Repulse and the
station were just coming up to their backup position, in case anything came
through after we jumped. I noticed Apricot One on course to dock with the
station.

"Ten minutes to jump," I said
into ship coms. "Find a seat, and buckle up."

There was a mad rush onto the Bridge. The
noise of buckles drowned out the noise of my own being fastened.

I opened channels to Repulse and Apricot
One.

"Admiral and Wing Commander. Mind the
fort while we jump into the chicken coop. I'll call you through when it's
safe."

They acknowledged, and I closed the
channels.

Jane had a countdown timer running on a
side screen. I watched it, waiting.

"Jump in ten seconds," I said finally,
through ship coms.

The Pocket Battleships jumped, and a few
seconds later, we followed.

I immediately knew I'd goofed.

"Jane, open our formation out into a
sphere, so we can all shoot."

There was no answer.

Twelve barrages were inbound and very
close. All of our Mosquito launchers had answered them.

I pushed Custer down, and to full speed,
running. One barrage turned to follow us. John Wayne did the opposite, going up,
with two barrages following. O'Neil must have taken control himself, as JW
would have been like Jane, unresponsive.

"Confirmed," Jane said finally,
acknowledging the order I’d given her years earlier. Well it felt like years,
even if it had only been seconds.

The Guardians, which had flown on in a
straight line for six dangerous seconds, now moved in different directions, to
clear each other's line of fire.

Point Defense fire and Mosquito missiles
set off capital ship missiles all around us.

Custer staggered under multiple missile
hits, and I threw us around in as wild a turn as I could manage, trying to give
the Point Defense more time to take out the remaining missiles. Several more
hit.

Seven sets of missile launchers now spat
sixty missiles each.

Talon anti-fighter missiles were going in
all directions. FF's were spitting from our launchers as well.

Nine sets of capital ship guns aimed at one
of the other Missile Cruisers and fired. It exploded seconds later, followed
almost immediately after, by seven more, as our missiles struck them.

Four new barrages appeared, aimed at the
nearest three Guardians.

Four more sets of missiles targeted the
remaining Missile Cruisers.

More Mosquitos launched.

Missiles were exploding seemingly
everywhere.

The last four Cruisers exploded, and we were
left with mopping up the Talons.

I kept us far enough away to avoid direct
fire, but allowing our Point Defense, and IR's, to engage.

It didn’t take long for the last Talon to
wink out.

I brought us to a stop over the top of the
debris field.

"Sitrep Jane."

"No damage." Minor miracle, I
thought. "All ship's shields are below twenty percent. If they'd had a few
more Cruisers, we would have taken damage, possibly even lost a few
ships."

"Clean up. Put the salvageable hulls
somewhere where the station can pick them up later."

"Confirmed."

I opened a channel to John Wayne.

"Nice flying Commodore."

"You saw that?"

"Sure did. You did the opposite to
what I did."

"Sheer desperation I'm afraid. I'm
amazed it worked, as that’s the first time I've taken control of a ship myself,
in thirty years."

"It worked. That’s all that matters.
Drop off all your salvage droids, so we can clean up this mess as fast as
possible. Arc formation please, across the line to Cobol. Move out about half
an hour. That should give us enough buffer zone to work with."

"Yes sir. Moving now."

The channel closed. Jane was deploying salvage
droids.

"All clear," I said into ship
coms. "We won't be going anywhere now until the jump point is
cleared."

"What happened Jon?" asked Vonda.

I sighed.

"I goofed."

"How so?"

No-one had moved. Everyone was listening
intently.

"Wrong formation choice. I assumed
they would be laid out in front of us, so went in with a tight formation
designed to allow us to fire at once."

"Why was that wrong?" asked BA.

"They weren't in front of us, but
staked out on each side. At best, we'd four ships which could fire half their
missiles at them, while they could all fire at us."

"None of ours fired though, or did
they?" asked Aline.

"No, there was no time for any offensive
move. Jane had to fire the Mosquito launchers immediately after the jump to
counter the barrages. That’s why she didn’t answer me when I ordered a
different formation. For six seconds, all she could do was missile defense, and
during that time, we were totally helpless. Only O'Neil and I could do anything
except fly straight."

"How did they know?" asked
Annabelle.

"I can only assume one of the Talons
from yesterday managed to jump back and sound a warning. Knowing we were
coming, and the makeup of our fleet, it wasn’t hard to set a trap like this.
Only the timing of when we came through was unknown. And the closer we got to
seven thirty, the more likely it was immediate. They were probably loaded and
sighted in on the jump point for hours, waiting for us."

"Don’t beat yourself up Jon,"
said Amanda. "We came through it just fine. Besides, you're only human
like the rest of us, and mistakes like this happen on the battlefield."

There was a general rumble of assent.

"We live and learn, I guess. For those
who didn’t finish breakfast, you may as well go back for seconds."

I sat there while everyone left.

Alison turned at the door, and opened her
mouth.

"Yes," I said.

She turned and left.

I started a vid.

"Marshall, Admirals and General. We walked
into a trap this morning. At least one Talon must have made it back through the
jump point last night. A fleet was staked out on each side of the jump point,
catching me flat footed with the wrong formation choice. We prevailed, but all
our ships had less than twenty percent shielding left by the end. I'm going to
rethink tactics for the next encounter. Knowing we're coming, it's likely they'll
have Cobol well and truly staked out. For the moment, we can't move until the
jump point is clear enough for Repulse and my station to jump in. I'll let you
know before we head to Cobol. Hunter out."

I sent off the email, sent a similar
message to Repulse, advising a considerable delay while the jump point was
cleaned up, and headed for the spa in my bathroom.