Make or Break the Hero (The Hunter Legacy Book 4) (2 page)

I linked up all the capital ship guns so
they would fire from my gun trigger. All at the same time.

"Janet, concentrate on the Mosquito
defense system. When the barrages enter the range they can be intercepted from,
fire all three. Take the time to direct all three hundred missiles at the
capital ship missiles coming at us, reload and repeat with what's left. If they
get any more barrages off at us, repeat. That's your main task."

"Yes my Lord."

The Mosquito anti-missile system was new.
It was a magazine of one hundred small missiles with a guidance system, which
only a top level AI could handle well enough to lock each outgoing missile onto
a specific incoming missile. It could launch singly, or the lot at once. In the
latter case, it took a second of dedicated AI time to assign targets. I was
asking her to spend three seconds totally dedicated to one task. During that
time, she would be able to do nothing else. During the first battle, she'd fought
the station by herself, guided by Commodore O'Neil, who I'd left in command,
while I fought from Gunbus. Dedicating whole seconds to the Mosquito system had
been dangerous then, as during that time, nothing else could fire, but the
station hadn't been alone. The station now, couldn’t afford Point Defense
turrets to not be firing.

Fortunately, I had Jane as well. A second
AI was going to make a huge difference to the defensive capabilities.

"Jane, you take Point Defense. The
fighter missiles, and any capital ship missiles that get through, are your
responsibility."

"Confirmed."

Each Point Defense turret had four quick
firing guns, designed for knocking down missiles. The station also had missile
launchers of its own, but these fired two types of anti-fighter missiles. FF,
was Fire and Forget, a missile that only targeted an enemy generally. Once you
fired it, you had no control over it. It picked its own target. If the target
was destroyed or stopped being an enemy, it went after another one. IR, or
Image Recognition missiles, took the data from your target lock, plus any
pre-given instructions, and only went after that specific target. You fired
them at a specific ship, or a specific place on the ship. The main use of these
was to kill the pilot of fighters without unduly damaging the ship itself. The
pilot was the weak link in fighter systems. Take out the engines, and the pilot
is still free to fire guns and missiles at you. It wasn’t exactly sporting, but
war wasn’t sport. A ship with a dead pilot didn’t fire anything at anyone. And
you were able to salvage the hull for repair, use, or sale.

The IR was about a third the destructive
power of the FF, but much more accurate. Three IR's would take down the shield
of a standard fighter, and do some damage, while a single FF could do the same.
But it was extremely unlikely two FF's would ever hit in the same place, where
the IR's were programmed to. FF's were useful for distractions, especially at
the beginning of a battle, as they were dangerous to those who ignored them.
IR's were more of a surgical strike weapon, and more use later in a battle when
you had time to think before selecting targets.

IR's were pretty well useless against a
Cruiser, while it would take a lot of FF's hitting close together to damage a
Cruiser. Both however, were deadly against medium fighters. But for now, the
fighters were only secondary targets.

Without having to worry about the defense,
I would be able to concentrate solely on offense. And I intended to be
unexpectedly offensive. I might swear at them as well. Never know, might help.
I smiled in spite of myself.

"Janet, can you redirect all available
power outside this room into shields? Use life support if you have to."

"The system is not designed for that,
but I can redirect some power."

"Do what you can."

I checked my joystick. It had my standard
buttons for missiles and torpedoes.

"Jane, can you link torpedo firing on
half the drone clusters to my torpedo firing button on the joystick, and the
other half to the missile firing button? Alternate the clusters to each button
if you can."

"Confirmed."

"Align the clusters so the torpedoes
fire inwards, coming together at two thousand meters."

"Confirmed."

This wasn’t going to be very accurate.
Torpedoes had no guidance. They went exactly in the direction you fired them.
If they missed, they missed. And because the launchers were nowhere near
central to my gun sight, they were going to only be approximately aimed. But
each cluster had twelve launchers, and there were twelve clusters. So a touch
of each button was going to fire seventy two torpedoes. If only a dozen hit, a
Cruiser should die. Magazines held a hundred, so I had plenty to waste. They
also fired much faster than missiles did.

I strapped in to the chair and told Alison
to do the same.

Belatedly I asked if she had a suit. She
shook her head.

"When they tried to take it off me in
the med bay, it crumbled to dust."

Suits were designed to take a lot of
punishment, and ours were boosted. But Alison had caught a lot of fire before
being subjected to decompression. The suit had kept her alive, but it was
already shredding when I'd found her.

They were actually a belt, programmable to
form a protective suit imitating clothes, space suit, or anything else you
wanted to look like. Jane was using one as an avatar, using a security droid with
a belt to appear human. She was so good at it now, even facial expression was
too good to pick as artificial.

The suits activated into full space suit in
the event of decompression, or into a suit of light armour that completely
enclosed you in the event of hostile fire. But there was only so much it could
take, and Alison had tested it to the absolute limits this morning.

"Janet, send Alison a security droid
with a belt please. If you can find boosters for it in the station's Mercenary
Outfitters store, bring three."

"Yes my Lord."

Repulse had fallen well behind now. I
slowed us down. I wanted to meet the enemy far enough ahead of Repulse that she
wasn’t targeted, but not so far as she couldn’t help if things went pear
shaped.

We waited, the range closing.

A security droid rushed in and handed it's
belt to Alison. Like Jane's avatar, which was usually an early twenties girl,
my security droids emulated human males. Their suits were thus available in an
emergency to be used by someone else. She put it on, and seconds later was
dressed in her 'slinky red' uniform. At least now she was protected if the hull
was breached. Both our suits would turn into full space suits, and plug us into
the chair emergency air feeds, if that happened.

One worry out of the way.

I locked up the middle right Cruiser. It
was not in range yet. The moment to fire was when it started to turn, before it
could fire its first barrage, assuming it was in range then. The range was
dropping rapidly now. I eased back on speed again.

There. They were slowing.

My Battleship guns were in range. Cruiser guns,
wait a bit longer, yes. Destroyer guns, waiting, waiting.

The Missile Cruisers came to a stop, and
began to turn broadside on.

The Destroyer guns came in range, and I
ripped back the speed slider to bring us to a halt at long range.

I pulled my trigger.

Forty eight guns fired.

I shifted target to the Cruiser to the
right, and locked it up, being quick but careful, to get a full bead on it. I
pressed the missile launch button, and seventy two torpedoes headed for it. I'd
goofed on the range though, I was much further away than I'd thought.

"Jane, realign the clusters for this
range."

"Confirmed."

The first Cruiser exploded.

Destroyer guns came back online.

Most of the torpedoes missed but a number
of them impacted the shields of the second Cruiser, and they failed.

I pulled the gun trigger again, hoping
twenty four Destroyer guns were enough against no shields.

"Realignment complete," said
Jane.

I locked up the last Cruiser on the right,
aimed carefully, and pressed the torpedo firing button.

The second Cruiser exploded.

Four barrages of two hundred missiles each,
launched from the remaining Cruisers.

The Mosquito system fired all three
launchers at once.

Point Defense was firing now, and I took my
attention away for a second to notice that the Talons had already fired
anti-fighter missiles at the station. Jane was systematically destroying them
at long range.

I locked up the first Cruiser to the left,
and waited for the Battleship guns to recharge. Destroyer guns, yes. Cruiser
guns, yes. Waiting. Yes.

The third Cruiser exploded.

I pulled the gun trigger again.

I lined up and locked the second last
Cruiser, and fired torpedoes.

Another three barrages left the remaining
Cruisers. They'd wised up at last. They carried missile launchers on both
sides. To bring the other side into play, all they had to do was roll the ship.
For the first time, they had.

Missiles were exploding all across the
front of the station now, in a fiery display the likes I'd never seen before.
And that was saying something, since I'd already thought I'd seen the maximum
display possible in an earlier battle. Some were hitting the shields, and they
were slowly going down.

The fourth Cruiser exploded.

The Mosquito system fired again. But this
time, many of them detonated prematurely as they met explosive residue from
other explosions seconds earlier.

I send another salvo of torpedoes at the
last Cruiser. Some of them exploded in the residues as well. Most went through.

I shifted target now to the Talons.

They were a cloud of ships, one hundred and
eighty strong, still firing from beyond the Cruiser line.

I lined up on the left end of the cloud,
and fired a salvo of torpedoes. I moved aim to the right and fired again. And
again, and again, and again.

The fifth Cruiser exploded. The Talons
surged forward. They met a wall of torpedoes.

A group of the last capital ship missiles
struck the station together. The shields failed. Alison screamed as we lost
gravity and lights for a moment. But our suits hadn't changed, so the hull
hadn't been breached.

The last Cruiser exploded.

Point Defense was still picking off
missiles, but enough were hitting to stop the shields from regenerating.

All main guns were charged again, so I took
aim into the cloud and fired.

Talons vaporized, leaving a hole in the
middle of them.

I shifted aim to the left, and fired
torpedoes again, doing the same for the right.

CRACK. Our suits shifted to full space suit
mode, and connected us to the air points in our chairs. I'd heard the first
part of Alison's scream, before it was silenced by the suit. I was reminded of
the flat screen which had first said, 'In space, no-one can hear you scream'.
We still had air, for now.

"Repair droids on the way," said
Janet calmly, through my PC. "The breach is small. It'll take a long time
for the station as a whole to lose air, and it should be patched long before
that."

The shields started to make headway now, as
missile hits, and gun hits, tapered off.

IR missiles were firing now that Jane had
time to target them.

The red dots representing enemy fighters
dwindled now, faster and faster, until at last, there were no more.

A channel opened.

"That was bollocks, Hunter. Do it
again, and get it right this time!"

I could see Alison was laughing as hard as
I was, inside her space suit. I could also see what laughing was costing her,
pain wise.

Admiral Susan Bentley had a way with words
it seemed. Since she taught Captain's to drive capital ships, I guess it was one
of her stock expressions.

"What's your status Admiral?" she
continued.

We were both full Rear Admirals, in
separate Space Forces, she being British, and I being attached to Sci-Fi
sector's Space Force. I'd been given the command, even though she was senior.

"We've a hull breach somewhere,"
I replied, "but otherwise, we're fine."

"That was INSANE. You know that, don’t
you?"

"Sorry Admiral, you're breaking up.
Repeat your last?"

She laughed. She'd just told her superior
he needed mental help. I had to pretend not to hear it, even if it might have
been true. Alison was still laughing, but her pain had tears streaming down her
face as well.

"Your status?" I asked.

"No damage. There were some missiles
that missed you and targeted us, but our Point Defense handled them easily."

"Stay on alert. I suspect there's one
more fleet inbound. How long before it gets here, is anyone's guess, although
three and a half hours is mine."

"How do you know that?"

"Educated guess. Cobol had two exit
jump points, and received two fleets. Avon has four. Four fleets? We've already
seen three. And this fleet jumped in four hours after the last."

"Logical. Let's assume the worst, and
stay on alert."

"Indeed."

I closed the channel.

And opened one to the ships which had
departed so abruptly.

"Hunter to all ships, return to the
station please. We've a minor hull breach, so remain on board your ships until
given the all clear to come back on board."

I closed the channel before anyone could
comment.

"Janet, any survivors out there?"

"No my Lord."

"Send out the salvage droids, and
let's get this mess cleaned up. Salvageable hulls on the station please, the
rest to the jump point to add to the Debris field there." We'd had one
there already, but it hadn't been completed, and there obviously hadn't been
enough mass to inconvenience the Cruisers jumping in.

"Yes my Lord."

We sat waiting, not being able to move out
of our chairs, in case we did fully lose air.

"Initial patching complete," said
Janet.

Our suits changed. Alison's to 'slinky
red', and mine to Sci-Fi sector Space Force fatigues. She jumped out of her
chair, groaned at what it did to her wound, and limped over to me. I stood,
stepped down to meet her, and she hugged me.

After she released me, I turned to Jane.

"See Alison back to her hospital bed
please Jane. If she tries to go anywhere else, carry her."

"Monster," said Alison, but with
a smile on her face.

"Confirmed," said Jane.

I wasn’t sure if she was confirming my
order, or Alison's comment.

I watched them walk out, and returned to my
chair. I rather liked the view from up here. It gave one a sort of lofty view
of the minions below. Except there were no minions.

I opened a new vid.

"Marshal, Admirals, and General,"
I started.

The Marshal, was Space Marshall
Bigglesworth, of the British Fleet. The Admirals were Admiral Jedburgh, commander
of the Dallas based American fleets, and Admiral Hallington, who commanded at
the Miami blockade. The General was General Harriman, my boss back in the
Australian sector. Bigglesworth and Jedburgh were the equivalent of four star
Generals. Harriman was a three. Hallington was a two.

"The fog of war just came to bite us
on the arse. Less than half an hour ago, another Midgard fleet jumped into the
Avon system. It was a standard size for them, six Missile Cruisers and fifteen
squadrons of Talons. The station and Repulse successfully took them out. The
station suffered minor hull damage, and Repulse was undamaged. Battle feeds
will be attached."

"Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but I
now believe yet another fleet is on its way to the Avon system. The number of
fleets seems to be determined by the number of outward jump points in the
system. However, unless the next fleet is working on a different timetable, we'll
expect it around the time our reinforcements arrive from Avon Shipyards. We'll
remain on high alert until we're ready to begin offensive operations. This will
likely be delayed as support ships are repaired, but I hope we can begin
removing debris from the jump point as early as late today, in preparation for
going through. Hunter out."

I assembled the email and sent it off.
General Harriman wouldn’t be receiving his anytime soon, as the entire
Australian sector was currently cut off from the rest of the Orion arm of the
galaxy. Midgard was waging a war against technology, space travel in
particular, and they were destroying all the coms satellites they found. Cobol
had been taken by them a few days earlier, and as the gateway into the
Australian sector, all coms traffic each way, had ceased.

"Jane, did they launch any Assault
shuttles?"

"Yes. I killed them with IR missiles
before they came anywhere near the station."

I hated to think what the total death toll
was. Hopefully I would never find out.

"Janet, close the airlock on the
Docking Deck, and re-air and heat it please. Best we don’t decompress our own
people coming home."

"Yes my lord."

I sent off an email to Miriam. This was Lieutenant
Commander Young, stationed at the Miami blockade. I was still trying to work
out if she was my girlfriend, unexpectedly, or if our relationship was still
what I'd thought it to be. We'd so far had 'Thank you for saving my life' sex,
and 'We might be dead tomorrow' sex. But in a recent email, she'd used the 'B'
word, although the context was ambiguous. As I'd slept with Alison last night,
being 'I don’t want to be alone tonight' sex on her part, with a 'We might be
dead tomorrow' undertone, my social life, such as it was, could only be called
complicated. Alison had nearly died this morning, justifying the need in my
mind.

One thing I was coming to believe. If your
number is up, you should have at least one last good bonk, before you go.