Make or Break the Hero (The Hunter Legacy Book 4) (25 page)

"That’s not a problem. Next time we
get somewhere you can buy them, order a new set, with a complete set of
backups. And General?"

"Yes sir?" She smiled at me.

"You order the top of the range."

"I've always wanted to do that, but
could never justify it."

"Only the best will do for my team,"
I said, deadpan. She laughed. "Actually, order a dozen extra of Jane's
special suit. Its sounds like the Meson Blasters would have been very useful in
quantity."

"Yes. Jane was a godsend in that
regard. Actually, I had a thought along those lines. I was wondering if they
could build something like the Dropship turret guns for Jane to use. A combat
suit firing four Point Defense lasers would be devastating against unarmored
troops, and still effective against belt suits, and combat armour."

"Talk to the 'tool man', when you're
ordering combat suits. The standard Dropship ramp gun might be adapted easily.
They seem to always be tinkering with things, so ask."

"I will. So anyway, immediately we deployed
from the dropships, we came under heavy fire. BA and the twins actually ripped
out a portion of a blast wall from around the ship landing area, and positioned
it in front of us as a shield."

"Whose idea was it?"

"The twins. Came out of both their suits
in stereo. BA was off and running before they finished saying the idea. They
dumped it down in front of us, shocking the hell out of the regular troops. But
it did the trick, giving us some protection. I directed the fighters as to
where to lay down fire, while the combat droids deployed in front of us. Some
gung-ho officer gave the order to charge the combat droids, and it was like an
ant hole had swarmed all around us."

I smiled. I could see it in my mind's eye
as she described it.

"At that point, the fighters became
ineffective, as the fighting was too close quarter to allow them to fire
indiscriminately. We could have used your sniper rifle again. Or a dozen of
you."

"When you get time, start rethinking
your attack strategy. Plan on having three Dropships, with a Gunbus or Camel,
and an Excalibur, supporting them. As a base force. You might have more. How
many snipers do you have on all your teams?"

"Two. We've never really relied on
them, since snipers rely on being able to be still. In a fluid situation, they
tend to be more vulnerable, and get killed quickly."

"Think about recruiting more. Two or
three per Dropship ramp, plus more for the Corvette and Excalibur. They can
hover to give them a height advantage. We need more pilots too, so look for experienced
Dropship combat pilots."

"The three we used on Azgard did
pretty well. But it was Eric who made the decisive play, turning things around
for us, allowing us to go on the offensive properly."

"How so?"

"He brought his Camel down to grass
height next to BA, with the Cargo Bay open, and told her to jump on. She did.
He took her over to the first building, she jumped through the door, and found
it empty. They repeated this with every building, until she determined there
were no prisoners in any of them. It was the damnedest thing Jon. This bloody
huge ship, dropping down between rows of buildings it barely fit between,
putting BA exactly where she needed to be for each jump. It was the kind of
thing you'd expect a Dropship pilot to do. Seeing a Corvette do it, was
straight out amazing."

"How do we reward BA? She wouldn’t
want to be promoted again, would she." It wasn’t a question, I knew the
answer.

"Make her an officer?" She
laughed at the suggestion. "She'd refuse. She has what she always wanted
now. She was as proud of making Sergeant Major, as I was finally making
General." She coughed and went red. I ignored her blush.

"What would make her happier?"

"A top of the range combat suit would
definitely do the trick." Her laugh returned her face colour to normal.

"Done." I grinned at her.

"While I'm talking to the 'tool man',
I'll see if he can rig a backpack for the combat suit, which will enable her to
carry a Meson Blaster as well as Jane. That, would make her day to
receive."

"Great idea. What happened next?"

"I pulled us all back to the shield,
and sent the ships in to flatten everything. Once they had nothing but rubble
to hide behind, the guns on the ships picked off the majority of the enemy
soldiers, and we mopped up the few who were left."

"Did we lose anyone?" I paused,
as she just looked at me. "I've been a little pre-occupied at the
strategic level. I've left the ground wars to you while I concentrate on space.
I can only do so much!"

She smiled at me.

"I know. I was just having a go at
you. Yes, we lost some people. Nine Marines died, and another ten were badly injured.
The combat suits gave us the edge, but they had significant numbers. You lost a
dozen combat droids as well."

"The droids are expendable. And as it
happens, I received four hundred more at the same time you arrived at the jump
point. If you need to go in at Midgard, they can go in with you."

"Good. The more fire power we can take
in the better. But I hope we don’t need to go there. A hostile planet is a
whole different ballgame, and not one we've trained for."

"I don’t know if it'll be necessary or
not. Or what the Americans have planned when they get there. Tell you what, do
you want to contact the Americans, and find out if they have ground troops? If
so, find out who has the command. You can ask what their plans are, and see how
you fit in with them."

"I can do that."

"Overall, how did the team perform on
Cobol and Azgard?"

"A well-oiled machine!" she said
with a grin.

"Apart from you, George, and BA, when
were they last looked at for promotions?"

"Hasn’t happened since I formed the
team. There wasn’t much point."

"Is that true of your other teams as
well?"

"Yes. Although if anyone really
deserves promotions, it’s the Alpha team. Why?"

"I've just been making up a new rank
structure. A lot of it isn’t relevant now, but who knows down the track? Having
done it, I'm now assessing where everyone fits on it."

I indicated the wall behind her, and she
read through it all.

"Workable," she said at last.
"How are you going to tell the difference between infantry, fleet, and
pilots?"

"Epaulette colour. Green for infantry,
grey for fleet, blue for pilots. I'll be bright red."

"Also workable. What insignia?"

"There you have me. That's as far as
I've thought it out so far."

"I notice you haven’t used
Specialist."

"No. I see everyone as a specialist in
something. As a rank, it's very vague. Tell me, how do you rate everyone on the
team in terms of those ranks?"

"Most of them are obvious, they slot
right in where they are. The three Specialist's, I guess, are Corporal's on
that chart. But it somehow doesn’t seem right to rank them that way."

"Is there anyone on the team, who
hasn’t been recently promoted, who doesn’t deserve one?"

"No. They all do."

"Good. Keep this quiet. Have George
come up to take a look at this. I'll tell him it's something I'm working on for
down the track, and have him make up the epaulettes for all the ranks. After we're
released from other space forces, I'll bring in the new rank system, and give
out a few surprises."

She grinned at me, and I grinned back.

"I think that’s a great idea."

"What do you think of O'Neil?"

"I only had that time before the Avon
battle working with him, but he's certainly a competent commander. I don’t know
why he never made Admiral. He can certainly do the job."

"That’s what I needed to hear.
Thanks."

"Your welcome."

"What do you suggest about
insignia?"

I threw the charts for British and American
ranks on the walls, and we went through them. In the end we selected a mixture.

Private was one downward sloping v-shaped stripe.
Lance Corporal was the same, but closed with a curve at the bottom. Corporal
was two open stripes. Sergeant was three. Senior Sergeant was three, with the
lower one closed. Master Sergeant was three, with two curved underneath.
Sergeant Major was three, with three. Command Sergeant Major was the same, with
a star in the middle. But these were not stripes to be worn on the sleeves, but
badges to wear on the epaulettes, top of the stripe pointing to the neck.

Sub-Lieutenant was a thin bar. Second
Lieutenant was a thick bar. Lieutenant was two thick bars. Major had two thick
bars with a thin bar between them, which was what the stripes for Lieutenant
Commander, and Squadron Leader had. Lieutenant Colonel was the Oak Leaf.
Colonel was the American 'Bird'. The rest were stars, from one to four, in a
row.

All were in gold colour, and were to look
like metal badges. I updated the rank chart with them all.

Annabelle stood.

"I'll send in George, so he can get on
with creating these."

I nodded, thanked her for the Azgard
review, and her help with the ranks.

She left, and I went back to tickling
Angel.

George came in, took an image of the new
rank chart, agreed to keep it all quiet, and left to do the suit programming.

With time on my hands before dinner, I
tooled up with the Long Gun and gatling stunner, and made the trek to Custer. I
dropped Angel off on her kitty castle first, and dropped down the access shaft
to the Cargo Deck. I took a trolley to the front end of the ship, for the first
time since I'd come aboard, the trolley depositing me at the left side access
shaft going down to the lower decks. I dropped all the way down to the bottom
deck.

"Jon, can you come to the Bridge
please?" asked Jane.

"Really? Now?"

"Yes Jon, it's important."

"It had bloody well better be."

I turned back to the up access shaft. I was
about to leap when I was interrupted by Jane again.

"Sorry Jon, I couldn’t help it."
She laughed.

I supposed I was fair game for that one. I
sighed, and moved towards the airlock for Custer. It was open, so I checked to
make sure no-one was underneath, and jumped down. I landed a bit awkwardly. The
next challenge was the stairwell. I had to take a breather half way down.
Eventually I stepped onto the Range Deck, and had a look around. Other than the
first tour we'd done when we first came on board, I’d not been here. A screen
near the stairwell showed a number of dots on a deck plan, so I could see
others were here as well. I asked for direction to the best range for my Long
Gun, and followed the arrow on my PC.

I started out with various range target
shooting, using the Long Gun first in my right hand, and later in my left. I
quickly had a feel for it, and was achieving a ninety percent hit ratio. Next I
changed it to a combat scenario, and kept at it until I was also in the
nineties. Starting to feel pain in my major bruises by now, I finished by
trying to see what range I could hit at. It was almost as good as a standard
rifle, but nowhere near the sniper. All the same, the claims the 'tool man' had
made were accurate. In a normal station environment, it should be able to hit a
target at as long a range as you could get in most areas of a station. Across
the docks was probably the only place a sniper would have the advantage on me.

Satisfied, I made the long trek back to
Deck Two, and poked my nose into the Rec Room. About half the crew were sitting
around with drinks, waiting for the dinner hour to begin.

I spotted Slice sitting with Eric, and gave
him a wave to follow me. He stood immediately, and we moved to my lounge room.
Angel was asleep on top of her kitty castle, so I didn’t disturb her.

"What can I do for you sir?"
asked Slice.

"Camels," I said enigmatically.

"You want to know if I want some? I'd
prefer to build my own, than buy them."

"Okay, I just wanted to check. I know
Eric wants one. But so do two of my pilots as well."

"Sounds like you should keep
them."

I nodded and he started to leave. At the
door, I asked him another question, he shook his head, agreed to keep it quiet,
and left.

Meow?

I patted the puss for a few minutes, and
headed back to the Rec Room.

When everyone was present, we went into the
Dining Room for dinner.

In the gap between main course and dessert,
speculation about what was at the Miami jump point began.

"What do you think boss?" asked
BA.

"I think we'll see a large force
there, probably lying in wait for the Americans to come through, as they must
know they will some time. Trying to guess their formation is pointless, as
every encounter we've had, used a different one."

"So what haven't they tried,"
asked Lacey.

"A box or sphere formation. They've
done several wall formations."

"Can we counter those?" asked Brown.

"With advance warning, yes. Hopefully,
we can see what their formation is this time, without being detected."

Dessert interrupted conversation, and I was
glad to get off the topic. We could find almost anything at the jump point, and
speculating about it was rather pointless.

After dinner I headed back to the Bridge,
detouring via my bathroom, and a quick cat pat, and settled into my seat. Angel
followed me up.

"Did we come within scanner range of
the planet as we went past?" I asked Jane.

"No. Nor have there been any contacts
of any kind."

"Is the salvage droid ready to go with
the comnavsat?"

"Affirmative. I'm taking direct
control of it, so I can stop it the moment it makes contact with the Midgard
fleet."

With time still on my hands, I took my pad
out again.

I threw a vid from Miriam to a side screen.

"Thanks Jon. I was a bit surprised
this time. I wasn’t due for promotion yet. But I guess my enthusiasm for your
Excalibur's was taken as a sign I was the person to lead them. Greer is chuffed
as well. He's been a lot closer than I was, and being the senior kill maker, it
was inevitable giving him a Corvette would get him promoted."

"About your suggestion for jumping in.
You're really serious? It can be done, but there were some seriously vanished
eyebrows apparently, when your vid was viewed. Had the hallmarks of you all
over it, but nothing you suggest surprises me anymore."

"With luck, we'll see each other again
tomorrow. Bye for now."

She blew me a kiss, and the vid ended.

"She forgave you then?" said BA
from the doorway.

"Apparently so," I responded,
without looking at her.

BA had been surprisingly insightful when
Miriam had taken issue with some of my past actions.

"Your advice worked," I added.

"Glad to help."