Make or Break the Hero (The Hunter Legacy Book 4) (21 page)

"Oh," she said. "You don’t
know."

"Yet," I added.

"What's the problem?"

"Nothing has come through this jump
point, or through to Miami, for two days."

"You think they're massing on the
other side?"

"Most likely. And in strength. The
last time we did a jump like this, we nearly bought it, because I guessed wrong
about their deployment."

"Well then, we just have to play the
percentages, and plan for as many deployments as we can think of."

"Compromising could kill us just as
fast as getting it wrong."

"What else can we do?"

"That’s the question I'm
pondering."

"It’s a pity we can't get a look in
there first, before we jump."

Bingo! I grinned.

"Jane, whisper in John Slice's ear,
and ask him to join us please."

"Confirmed."

After Vonda and Slice left, and I'd paid
the invoice I finally extracted from him for the comnavsats, I spent some time
on my HUD overlay. By the time we reached the jump point, I was satisfied there
was nothing more I could add to it, and I’d had Jane install it on all my
ships.

The Bridge was packed when Angel and I went
back out. Well, not exactly packed, considering the size of the Bridge, but
only the three pilots were missing. Vonda, Alsop, Slice, Lacey, George, and
Annette, were in the VIP chairs. Annabelle was in the XO chair, and Abagail was
at Coms. Jane had the helm. Everyone else was around the wall surrounding
console.

I took my place in my captain's chair. Or
should that be on? No, in. It was almost as comfortable as my lounge chairs,
and I sank into it, while still being a supportive chair for piloting
operations. Angel went to her pad. The twins, on each side of Jane, reached
over and tickled her, eliciting a purr.

I looked towards Slice and nodded. He
stood, and left.

Jane brought BigMother to a stop not far
from Repulse. Shuttles launched from both Repulse and John Wayne.

"That's a sight, isn’t it," said
Aline.

Everyone was staring at the fleet deployed
around the jump point. It made an awesome sight.

We waited for Bentley and O'Neil to join
us.

They strode on to the Bridge a short time
later, and stopped short when they saw all of us sitting there. Annette stood,
giving her seat to a more senior officer. She moved to a spare one.

"I was going to say nice flea
trap," said Susan, "except she gets better as you come up. Where did
you get this ship from? And what's with the red paint?"

"Long story," I said with a sigh.

Was everyone going to ask me the same questions?

Probably.

I sighed again.

"Sitrep," I said.

O'Neil looked to Bentley, and she
responded.

"Nothing has come through this jump
point since we arrived here. Nothing else to report."

"That’s good isn’t it?" asked
Alana.

"No, it's bad," said BA.

"I wish you'd stop saying that!"
exclaimed Alison.

"Unfortunately," I said,
"she's probably right. They've had two days to consolidate on the other
side of that jump point."

"Or they've given up and gone
home," suggested George.

I chuckled. It freaked out Alsop, who
wasn’t looking at all happy.

"We should be so lucky," said
Vonda.

"Nope, I don’t think so." I was
still chuckling, and Alsop wasn’t the only one looking freaked out now.

"Jon," said Jane, "stop
chuckling like that, or I'm going to come over and slap you."

I stopped chuckling as everyone else
laughed.

A channel opened from Apricot One, and
Slice's face appeared on a side screen.

"Ready to depart, Admiral," he
said.

"Go," I responded.

Another screen popped up, and we watched as
Apricot One undocked from Custer, and headed towards the jump point. A small
shape shot out of her airlock, and started upwards.

"Comnavsat," I said generally.
"Jane, throw up the network please."

A screen popped up showing the Cobol,
Atlantis, Midnight and Avon systems. There were a number of white dots between
Midnight and the Cobol planet, and some green dots in Atlantis heading towards
Cobol. Neither side of the Avon jump point was covered, but most of the rest of
Atlantis was.

"What you're seeing," I said,
"is all traffic in Atlantis and Cobol at the moment. This is more or less
real time. The ships coming from Midnight are my small freighters, bringing
supplies. They're small enough to land on the planet. The green ones coming
from Avon are also relief ships."

"How?" asked Annabelle.

"We incorporated the ship scanner tech
into the comsats, so they not only conduct com traffic now, they'll transmit
ship movements with the correct request. Are you ready Wing Commander?"

"Ready sir."

"Stand by Jane."

"Confirmed."

"Go," I said to Slice.

Something shot out of the Cargo Bay of his
ship and sped towards the jump point. In seconds it was gone.

The display of systems changed, with the
other side of the jump point now visible. There were two lines of dull red dots
and a solid blob of bright red ones.

For about twenty seconds, the image lasted,
and suddenly, it was gone.

"Put the last image back up Jane, and
enhance it."

The image returned to the screen, and
zoomed in to just the Azgard side of the jump point.

"Oh Shit!" said O'Neil, summing
it up for all of us.

"Re-dock with Custer, Wing
Commander."

"Aye sir."

The Bridge was silent.

"Game over," said Alsop.

I turned to him.

"Come now Commander, let's be
positive."

"I'm positive it's game over. The only
course of action we have is to blockade this jump point for the rest of
time."

"Won't work," said Susan.

"Why not?" asked BA.

"Because," I said, "every
day we give them, they grow in strength. We've nothing more coming. If we don’t
go in there today, tomorrow they'll throw everything they have at us, figuring
we're not strong enough to hold them. And tomorrow we won't be."

"How do we win against THAT?"
asked Alsop.

I started chuckling again as the idea hit
me.

"Oh hell," said Alsop. "He
has that look on his face again."

I gave him the Maniac grin.

It took two hours to set it up.

Everyone had eaten lunch, and then moved to
their assigned places.

O'Neil had returned to John Wayne, and
Bentley to Repulse.

Slice was still in Apricot One, but docked
to Custer. Lacey had the pilot's chair in Custer. George was in Gunbus, Annette
had Unthinkable, and Eric was in Camel. The senior 266 pilot was in the other
Camel, one had Excalibur, another the second Excalibur, and the other pilot was
in his Centurion. All remained docked to BigMother. The team, Vonda, and a
traumatized looking Alsop, were still on the Bridge.

I nodded to Abigail, and team coms came on.

"Team coms is on, everyone check in
please."

The 266 pilots and Eric, had all been added
to team coms. Everyone checked in according to rank.

"Jane, move us into position ready to
jump."

"Confirmed."

We were going in with all the capital ships
above Cruiser size. The rest would wait for my signal to join us.

"One minute to jump."

I was deliberately timing the jump to an
almost random time, so we couldn't be predictable.

"In position," said Jane.

"Everyone hold onto your lunch,"
I said.

Alsop groaned, and passed out.

"My hero," said Alana with a
grin.

We waited.

"Ten seconds," I said.

Jane had put a count clock on a side
screen. I watched it wind down.

"Jump."

One second after jumping, every capital
ship missile launcher we had, belched a missile. Warspite sent fifty in two
different directions. The seven Guardians and BigMother, fired their thirty
missiles on each side, at different targets.

At the same time, six Hive fighters crammed
into each of twelve launch tubes down each side of BigMother, spat four
torpedoes each, as fast as they could fire.

Also at the same time, every capital ship
turret that could, fired on a target not receiving missiles or torpedoes.

It had all been exhaustively calculated in
advance. Jane joked it was to ten decimal places.

For three long seconds, nothing happened.

Almost together, forty two Missile Cruisers
exploded.

Six seconds.

Six missile barrages appeared from the last
six ships and twenty Mosquito launchers belched a response.

Eight seconds.

Mosquitos met capital ship missiles and
annihilated each other.

Nine seconds.

As a single entity, our ships continued
forward, bringing us into line with the last six Missile Cruisers. More
missiles spat at them.

Twelve seconds.

The last six Missile Cruisers exploded.

"Turn us Jane."

Repulse slowed, turned to the right, and
rolled. The upper surface of every ship was now aligning with one thousand,
four hundred and forty Talons. Every Point Defense turret we had which could
come to bear on the Talon cloud, aimed at the anti-fighter missiles now coming
at us.

Every anti-fighter missile launcher we had,
started spewing out FF missiles as fast as they could. The Mosquito launchers
belched again.

Twenty two seconds.

The first wall of missiles from the Talons
exploded against our Point Defense. Our shield started taking hits, but held
solid. Again the Mosquito launchers fired.

Thirty seconds.

The second wall of missiles coming at us started
exploding.

Talons were winking out now at a furious
rate.

Forty seconds.

"First wave, break and attack."

The seven Guardians and John Wayne, attached
to BigMother by grav sleds, shot away from the Carrier into the cloud of
Talons. The attrition rate of the Talons increased exponentially.

Fifty seconds.

"Second wave, go."

Warspite, attached to the front of
BigMother, shot forwards and started to circle around the Talon cloud.

Repulse, attached to the back, backed off
as fast as she could, and turned to circle the other side.

One minute.

"Third wave."

One minute ten.

The remainder of our ships started jumping
in behind us, after receiving a signal from Jane. BigMother moved out of their
way, and let them go after the remaining Talons.

One minute thirty.

Grey dots had overtaken red dots as the
primary colour on the nav map.

Two minutes.

The last red dot winked out.

Cheering erupted through team coms and the Bridge,
and I had to turn the volume down. More cheers came up the stairwell behind us,
as the troops below expressed their feelings as well.

I sat there, completely and totally
exhausted.

Amanda hauled me out of my chair and hugged
me, and everyone joined in.

As soon as I could extricate myself, I sat
back down.

"Commodore, picket at five minutes
please."

"Yes sir."

The Guardians formed up into line abreast
formation with John Wayne, and moved off to cover the line to the planet
Azgard.

Jeeves dropped a bottle of water into my
hand, and I drank deeply, emptying the bottle. I handed the empty back to him.

I opened a vid.

"Marshal, Admirals, Generals. The
Azgard jump point is ours. We encountered forty eight Missile Cruisers, and one
thousand, four hundred and forty Talons, making up eight full fleets. The
Missile Cruisers were lined up in four rows of six, on each side of the jump
point, waiting for us to jump in. By using grav sleds, we attached Warspite to
the front of my Carrier. The eight Pocket Battleships were attached to the
underside surface, each pointing sideways. Repulse was attached as our
propulsion unit. We jumped as a single ship, and fired one second after jump,
in a precisely calculated way. Forty two of the Missile Cruisers died within four
seconds, so close were they, and such was the precision of our attack. The rest
died shortly after. The last six managed to fire barrages, but it took them six
seconds to fire, at a distance of three seconds to hit. We overfired Mosquito
missiles, which took one second to aim, resulting in the entire destruction of
the barrages a second away from us. The combined shield of all ships, held so
well, we were in no danger. The Talons took a few more minutes."

"We were able to do this because we sacrificed
a salvage droid to carry a comnavsat into Azgard, so we could see what was
there in advance of jumping in. It also helped that the Midgard formation
wasn’t changed during the next two hours as we organized the attack. They
obviously didn’t know what we sent in, nor guessed it gave away their defense
strategy. We suffered no damage to any ship. I am however of the opinion, the
worst of the Midgard commanders are now dead, and we're facing some very bright,
recently promoted, junior officers now."

"The trap they laid had only one real
flaw. They were too close to the down jump line, and too close to the jump
point itself. I speculate the commander wanted to minimize his own casualties
by ensuring we'd be hit by everything they could fire at once, within four
seconds of firing, with the hope we wouldn’t get off a shot first.
Unfortunately for them, taking six seconds to fire, was way too long. However,
six seconds for manually operated ships, indicates well drilled crews. The
position was also gutsy, as they were in serious danger of taking hits from
their own missiles, if they missed us. I'd have arranged it differently, and
also made it harder for us to respond. All the same, the result would have been
the same. We'd pre-determined every missile and torpedo we fired, and aligned
the ships so they fired on the shortest distance to target, one second into the
jump. This was especially necessary for the torpedoes, which accounted for
twenty four of the Missile Cruiser kills. The Hive ships firing them had to be
precisely aligned in advance, and only had that one second window to fire
accurately in."

"All in all, I can happily say, I love
it when a plan comes together." I said this last with a grin.

I paused and took a deep breathe. Vonda
spoke instead, from just behind my chair, moving to be beside me.

"Gentlemen. A miracle occurred here
just now. We were seriously outgunned, and had we jumped in separately, with
normal tactics, we would have been slaughtered. Admiral Hunter came up with the
brilliantly unorthodox attack strategy, and masterfully carried it out. I've
never seen anything like it, and I doubt any of you will have either. We also
had no choice but to attack, or risk being overrun tomorrow, as they
accumulated more fleets. The day belongs to Admiral Hunter. I'll be
recommending to SFSF Command that he immediately be advanced in rank to Vice
Admiral."

I looked at her with a stunned look on my
face, as the rest of the Bridge cheered again.

"We'll now evaluate our options, and
decide the next step to take. We'll advise you as soon as we decide. Wellington
and Hunter out."

I stopped the vid, still in shock. Vonda
looked at me.

"Please send that to General Chandra
as well."

"I was going to," I responded.

Jane sent me the battle feeds from each
ship, I assembled the emails, and sent them off.

"Everyone stand down," I said.
"Admiral Bentley, please join us in my Ready Room. Ship crews can be given
time to refresh themselves, but please be ready for orders in about two hours."

I nodded to Abagail and she turned team
coms off.

"Jane, salvage droids to clear the
jump point please. Salvageable hulls first, clear the down jump line
completely, then make a mountain of the rest of the debris well off to the
side. Pack the hulls into the Guardian cargo holds."

"Confirmed."

"Someone wake up Alsop," said
Vonda.