Make or Break the Hero (The Hunter Legacy Book 4) (12 page)

Seven salvos of sixty missiles launched at
fourteen Cruisers, starting from the bottom left of the wall formation, going
right and up. They were each getting thirty, instead of the previous sixty.

Forty Five Mosquito launchers belched four
thousand five hundred small missiles, in the direction of the enemy Cruisers. This
included the two launchers on Custer, who was now well behind us. Those two
hundred would arrive late, but still be useful.

Four Thousand, eight hundred missiles
launched from twenty four Missile Cruisers.

Seven hundred and twenty   anti-fighter
missiles launched from the Talons.

I aimed at the top left Missile Cruiser,
and pressed the torpedo button on my joystick. One hundred and ninety two torpedoes
left the sixteen Hive clusters. I moved my aim right, and fired again. Aim and
fire, aim and fire, aim and fire, aim and fire. Move down to the next line, and
repeat back to the left. Down, and to the right. Down, and to the left. As fast
as I could.

I was answering a barrage with a barrage.
The only thing was, the torpedoes would be out of fuel long before they reached
their targets. This wouldn’t matter though, as the targets were not moving. It
also didn’t matter that many of the torpedoes would miss. Behind the primary
targets were so many secondary targets that most of them would find something
in the way to hit.

Mosquitos launched for a second time.
Talons launched a second time.

Seven more salvos of sixty missiles
launched, aiming from the top left, going right and down.

Time stopped.

I had a flash of a top level view of the
battlefield. On the left, my formation of ships. On the right, the Midgard
formation. Less than half way to the middle on both sides was what looked like
two solid walls of missiles.

Time started again very slowly.

The missiles on both sides met in the
middle.

There were dozens of explosions as capital
ship missiles from both sides collided. These set off other missiles nearby.

The remaining capital ship missiles were
now past each other.

Time returned to normal.

At two thirds of the way towards us, my
fleet went to top speed, and shot away from each other.

"Fuel exhausted," said Jane,
after getting all ships moving.

She meant the enemy missiles were out of
fuel, and now unable to change course.

The station was going directly up, while
remaining still pointing at the incoming missiles. This is why I'd had the tugs
rearranged.

The Mosquito missiles intercepted the
capital ship missiles, and space exploded. The second Mosquito launch
intercepted the Talon missiles, and anything remaining from previous launches.

The Midgard Cruisers completed their roll,
and fired again.

Some of the new barrage exploded almost
immediately as they collided with incoming missiles and torpedoes.

Fourteen Cruisers exploded together.

The Mosquito launchers fired again. But the
situation was different now. Each of my ships was on a different trajectory,
and the barrages had separated, targeting individual ships. Each ship was now
on its own as far as defense was concerned.

Cruiser fifteen died. Talons behind it
winked out.

"Oh Shit!" I said.

"What?" asked Alison.

"You don’t want to know," I told
her.

She didn’t ask again, but her eyes went
wide with fright.

Cruiser sixteen died with a lot more
Talons.

I rolled the station to change our line of
advance. The thrust we had making us go up, now shifted to send us left as
well. I hoped it would be enough.

Cruiser seventeen died. Eighteen. Nineteen.
Pause. Twenty. Twenty one. Pause. Twenty two.

Mosquitos met missiles again. Space out
there in the middle now seemed to be continuously boiling.

The Mosquito launchers fired again.

Twenty three. And finally, twenty four.

I breathed a sigh of relief for a moment.
No more barrages would be coming. But hundreds of Talons were still firing
missiles at us.

I carefully lined up the nearest
approaching barrage, and fired torpedoes at it. Five more times I shifted aim
to another barrage and fired torpedoes again.

Mosquitos and torpedoes met missiles. Half
of the barrages vanished in more explosions. I kept pumping out torpedoes.

The remaining capital ship missiles were
converging on where they expected us to be. But all six barrages seemed to have
been fired at a different point in space, as if each ship had guessed a
different location for the station when the missiles arrived.

I lined up the missiles I thought most
likely to hit, and this time fired all the main guns. Pulses met missiles, and
space exploded once again.

Point Defense was now filling space in front
of the station, coming from both the station, and from the Hive clusters.
Missiles continued to explode, drawing steadily nearer.

I rolled the station again to change our
heading, but I knew it wasn’t going to be enough. One barrage was now falling behind,
and this was going to make us vulnerable, since the Point Defenses were all at
the top of the station, and the missiles were now aimed well down it.

Thirteen capital ship missiles made it
through, coming from two different barrages, on different headings. I
desperately tried to re-aim, but it was too late.

I looked at Alison. She was looking at me,
saw my expression, and our eyes locked.

"Do you hear singing?" she asked.

I wasn’t game to answer. I'd told her
before not to say goodbye, until the fat lady was singing.

Ten capital ship missiles slammed into the
station's shields together.

The station staggered, is if it had rammed
into something solid.

The shields went down.

Three more were still inbound. We had
seconds left.

The three incoming missiles exploded.

Against Custer's shields.

I felt myself go limp in my seat as all the
tension leeched out of me.

"No singing," I said to Alison.

She smiled, tentatively.

"Thank you Jane."

"Thank General Wellington, she ordered
me to follow you closely in case something like this happened."

"Tell her thank you. Please."

"Confirmed."

Our shields were starting to regenerate
now.

I cast about for what was happening over
the whole battlefield. The Pocket Battleships were all firing IR missiles, and Talons
were winking out by the dozens. Mosquito launchers were still firing, now aimed
at anti-fighter missiles.

I checked each ship. All of them had taken
hits. One of the Guardians had a hole in its side, but the damage didn’t seem
to be very bad. The rest were undamaged, but had very little shielding.

I brought the station to a stop.

"Realign the Tugs please Janet."

"Yes my Lord."

"Can you tell if we've injuries?"

"Yes my Lord, twenty seven major ones,
and several hundred minor. I have cargo droids with sleds on the way to collect
those who cannot move. But we'll need people to organize the hospital."

"Attention," I said into ship
coms. "The battle is over. Anyone who is injured and can move by
themselves, please make your way to the hospital. There are cargo droids on the
way for those who cannot move. Please remain calm and orderly. Help is coming.
Hunter out."

"Jane, have Custer dock. We'll have to
postpone the station boarding, until after the stations wounded are taken care
of. Have General Smith arrange troops to co-ordinate the hospital, and check
all the safe areas of the station."

"Confirmed."

I suddenly realized, I'd never removed the
air from the Docking Deck. Something else I'd forgotten. I hoped this wasn’t
the start of a pattern. People trusted my judgement, and I was beginning to
wonder if I should be. Just as well we'd seen no shuttles. But I wondered where
they were.

The last Talon winked out. Shortly after,
so did the last missile.

"Janet and Jane, send out all the
salvage droids. Let's get this mess cleaned up."

"Confirmed."

"Yes my Lord."

Alison climbed out of her chair, and came
back to mine. I climbed down, and she kissed me long and hard, after which we
hugged for a good five minutes. Disentangling myself, I held her at arm's
length.

"You better go to the hospital. You’re
the closest thing to a real doctor we have, not including the doc-droids."
Alison was the team medic. "Here, take my stunner, just in case you need
to impose some order."

I handed her my gatling stunner. A holster
appeared on her suit, and she slotted it in. She nodded and limped out.

I returned to my chair, and opened a vid.

"Marshal, Admirals, General. It was a
very close thing, but we prevailed. As you'll see from the attached battle
feeds, mobility proved to be the difference this time. One Guardian is holed,
but otherwise we took no significant damage. The station however, has wounded from
a particularly hard hit we took, so we'll be delayed for a while, before we can
attempt any action on Cobol Orbital. I hope to find out what has been happening
on Cobol soon. More to follow. Hunter out."

I waited while all the battle feeds came
in, and attached them to an email. It was so large, it took minutes to send.

Next on the list of things to do, was an
email to General Chandra. I'd met him on my way to Avon, and had suggested he
make a fight of it on the station. Vonda had made it an order when she found
out, but had ordered him to take command of the planet instead. We didn’t know
if he'd obeyed the order or not.

I told him we were close by the planet, had
defeated the Midgard fleets, and asked for a sitrep.

I picked up my bottle of water, and drained
it.

Now what?

I spent a few minutes thinking.

I ordered O'Neal to form up the Guardians
in line abreast, and to advance along the line to the Azgard jump point. If he
came across a force he could handle, he was to deal with it. If the jump point was
clear when he arrived, he was to stake it out, and prevent any ship from
getting past him.

I ordered Admiral Bentley to take her fleet
to the Azgard jump point as well. When she arrived, she was to take command of
the combined fleets.

I ordered George and John Slice to come
here, with the Liner. If what I thought was going on down on the planet was
true, we'd be needing the three of us to pilot the dropships. And there was now
no reason to keep civilians off the station.

Finally, I ordered Janet to move the
station close to the Orbital station, once the Tugs were back to normal.

Orders done, I limped back to Custer.

I found the ship deserted. Jarvis welcomed
me back at the top of the ramp. I trudged up the staircase, and stepped
carefully over the cat wall at the top.

MEOW!

Damn, I was in trouble again.

Angel shinned up my left side, but I caught
her before she reached my shoulder. I didn't particularly want my ear bitten
again.

I carried her into my living room, sat, and
proceeded to give her a decent pat. I rubbed her up the wrong way, smoothed her
fur back down, and she purred and demanded more. I gave her plenty of
attention, while I let the great feeling of having a cat on your lap, lessen
the stress of the afternoon. She smooged, purred, and carried on. I was happy
to let her. Eventually, she fell asleep on my lap, and I just sat there, happy
to do nothing for a while.

I was so tired, I nodded off.

I didn’t get to sleep long however. Jane
woke me less than half an hour later to tell me we were at the Orbital station.
I gently removed Angel from my lap, placed her on the chair where I'd been, and
limped to the Bridge.

The Orbital station was a wreck. Every
single docking airlock I could see, was open to space. Several other levels had
massive holes in them as well, as if capital ship missiles had been fired at
them.

"Any signs of life aboard?" I
asked Jane.

"Negative."

I opened a channel to the planet.

"Admiral Hunter of the Sci-Fi Space
force, to anyone hearing this transmission. We've defeated the Midgard fleet in
orbit of Cobol. Please respond."

There was no response.

I opened a new vid.

"Marshall, Admirals, General. Cobol
Orbital looks like a war was fought there, and no-one won. I cannot see an
intact docking airlock, and there are major holes in other levels. The station
is dead, and there are no life signs. It'll need a major rebuilding effort
before it can be used again. So far, there's been no response from the planet.
It looks like we'll have to go down there to find out what's happening. Within
two hours, the door into Cobol should be closed when my Pocket Battleships
arrive there. Admiral Bentley's fleet will be there several hours later. At
that time, all there should be left of any enemy forces will be anything still
at the Midnight jump point, or wherever the Midgard forces managed to get to
inside Australian space. Once we've secured the planet, I'll be heading to
Midnight to find out. Hunter out."

I sent the email off.

"Jane, what's the local time for the
capital city on Cobol?"

"Ten in the morning."

"Janet, whisper in both General's
ears, and can we meet in my Ready Room as soon as possible to discuss planet
action."

"Yes my Lord."

I went in, and made myself comfortable.
Jeeves came in with a bottle of water for me, and I emptied half of it without
thinking.

I began nodding off again.