Make or Break the Hero (The Hunter Legacy Book 4) (9 page)

All ships now launched IR's, and continued
doing so until there was nothing left to fire at.

Jane moved the fleet to one side of the
remains of the Midgard fleet, and we kept going toward Atlantis.

I opened a vid.

"Marshall, Admirals, General.
Afternoon tea was served by Midgard, and a good time was had by all but the
host. Proceeding now to Atlantis. Hunter out."

There was a chuckle from several places on
the Bridge. I looked around in surprise, having forgotten I was not alone. I
made up the email, included Admiral Bentley this time, and sent it off.

I opened ship coms again.

"All clear. Two and a half hours to
Atlantis. Combat teams should prepare for deployment when we arrive at the
Orbital station. Stunners only. We don't want to damage the station any more
than it already has been."

I closed ship coms.

"I'm not sure I liked you being tied
up for that long," I said to Jane. "Twelve seconds was too
long."

"The alternative is to clone me to the
other ships."

"Can't you compartment yourself so you
on each ship can do its own missile aiming?"

She thought about it. More than likely ran
some tests as well.

"Yes, it can be done that way. Not as
efficiently. It'll add half as much time to the task."

"Facing six Cruisers, if you fire two
Mosquito launchers on each ship, the aiming would be complete in three
seconds?"

"Confirmed."

"Much better. Do it that way."

"Confirmed."

I wondered what to do next. I sat there
thinking.

Alison appeared in front of me, and took my
hand. Angel jumped up as I moved, shinned down my leg, and ran up her ramp to
sit on her cat mat. Alison led me out.

She'd solved the problem of removing
underwear. She had me lie down on the bed, while she pulled mine off, and then
lay down herself while I removed hers.

We moved to the spa and gently lowered
ourselves in again. I sat on the ledge, slumped down so the bruise on my chest
was underwater. Alison slid over and sat straddled over my lap.

"Jon," she said huskily,
"turn your override off."

"I'm not sure that’s a good
idea."

"Why not?"

"I hurt too much."

"Oh. Maybe you should go to medical
and get another pain shot?"

"I may do that."

She leaned against me at the shoulder
level, and laid her head next to mine. She kissed my ear.

"You kids back in the sp…" said
Amanda from the doorway.

"Oops," said Aleesha beside her.

"Sorry," they both said together,
before fleeing. Twin giggles followed them out.

"Now look what you did," I said.

Alison kissed me on the nose, and retreated
to the other side of the spa. We soaked in silence for a while.

I did take Alison's suggestion, and went to
the Medical Bay. One of the auto-docs scanned me, asked about pain levels, and
gave me a pain shot. The difference from what the PC medical monitor could do,
was another order of pain relief. I was worried about needing it, as I didn't
want my mental functions to be affected. The auto-doc assured me this wouldn’t
happen.

I was back on the Bridge by five. Atlantis
Orbital was on the scanner, so it hadn't been destroyed as I'd first thought
was likely. Only time would tell what its condition would be.

"Thirty minutes to Atlantis," I
said into ship coms. "Saddle up, lock and load."

I think the pain killer was affecting me.
Either that or I’d been hanging around Americans too long. Or maybe one too
many old flat screens.

My emails had a series of responses from
various brass. None required responses. I was surprised the emails were still
downloading this far from the jump point, but the ship version of the satcom
was obviously still in range.

It would be nice to know what was going on
at each jump point, I mused. Being a good idea, I sent off an email to
McLauchlan asking if the satcoms could be modified to also include a standard
ship's scanner, accessible by request. If so, what would we need to give the
repair droids, to convert the existing ones we had with us?

Atlantis station was getting bigger on the
forward view. Angel sat up and stretched, before settling herself in a sitting
position, watching the shape getting bigger. She seemed to have an endless
fascination with space travel. I knew the feeling.

"Jane, can you tell what shape the
station is in?"

"It's basically a series of round
shapes."

"Ha-ha. Answer the question."

"Most of it has been decompressed.
There are six adjoining open airlocks. The small ship landing bay is the only
place aired up."

"Put us at the middle airlock. Hold us
in place for soft seal, even if we can't actually make one yet. You better go
down and assess the damage yourself. If the airlocks can be sealed quickly,
have the repair droids go ahead with the repairs. Even if we can't air it up properly,
we should try and seal it up."

"Confirmed."

Her avatar left. Alison was sitting in a
side chair where she could watch me and the screen.

I turned on team coms.

"Team coms are active. There are six
destroyed airlocks as expected. Most of the station is in vacuum. The small
ship landing bay is the only area aired up. Stand by for the air in the Cargo
Bay to be removed."

I listened to General Smith giving orders.
I turned on a cam to see what was happening. The combat suits were going in
first, BA in the lead, followed by the combat droids. I noticed Jane's suit was
with them. Behind them was the General, with her suit in space suit mode, an
air backpack obviously on her back underneath it.

The air backpack was misnamed in my
opinion. It didn’t actually hold much in the way of air. Instead, it was a
miniature life support system, which maintained the integrity of the air you
did have. It lasted as long as the micro-filters remained unclogged. It was
rated for several hours. Being form fitting, you looked like you only had extra
thick clothing on, or you worked out a lot.

Behind the General, were fifty troops in
conventional spacesuits.

"Anyone not prepared for vacuum?"
I asked.

Silence.

"Air being removed."

"Confirmed," said Jane.

Custer eased into position against the
destroyed airlock. BA jumped the gap before the ship met the station buffers.
The other combat suits followed. There was no fire of any sort.

The General waited until the ship was hard
up against the station, before jumping through herself, followed by her troops.
We listened to her barking orders, and the area in front of Custer cleared. I
turned down the sound a bit, to just enough to hear.

"Jane, can you take control of the
station's computer?"

"Sorry Jon, there doesn't appear to be
a working computer anymore."

"I guess we won't find an operational
droid either." I wasn’t asking a question this time.

She didn’t respond to the obvious
conclusion.

I opened a channel to the planet.

"Sci-Fi Space Force to any Atlantis
military personnel. We're in orbit of Atlantis, and have begun securement
operations on the station. Please advise your situation."

There was no answer.

"Admiral Hunter to General Connelly,
please respond."

Nothing.

An email came in from O'Neil. There had
been a two Cruiser, five squadron force at the Pegasus jump point, easily taken
care of. The new comsat was in place, and it had been confirmed that the
Pegasus system had working emails. He'd dropped several salvage droids to clear
the jump point area. They were on the way to Atlantis. Working emails implied
Pegasus hadn't been attacked. Midgard obviously wanted to take Avon first. With
luck, the same was true of Avalon.

"Connelly to Hunter, sorry for the
delay."

"Glad to hear your voice General.
Sitrep please."

"We took the precaution of sinking our
cities under the water, so they would not be a target for Midgard missiles. It
worked, they didn’t find us. However, we only kept one receiver poked above the
water, and had to raise a city before we could respond."

"Nice work General. Do you have
shuttles?"

"Yes sir. We took everything we could
off the station before we abandoned it."

"I'm aboard the Assault Frigate
General Custer, with General Wellington. Please report here as soon as you
can."

"Yes sir. How bad is the
station?"

"As predicted, they destroyed six
airlocks, and left most of the station in vacuum. They destroyed the main
computer. If you've got the station's repair droids with you, send them up
immediately. If you've also the means to re-air the station, bring that as
well."

"Yes sir, be there soon. Connelly
out." The channel closed.

"General Smith, priority on the
shuttle dock please. Locals will be wanting to use it shortly. If you can get
it re-aired from the small ship dock, go ahead."

"Affirmative."

Vonda came onto the Bridge just then, and
took a seat to my side, and in front of me. Alsop followed.

"Anything I missed?" I asked her
quietly. She shook her head.

We waited, listened, and watched suit cams
move through the station.

"Jon?"

"Yes Jane?"

"With your permission, I'll move
Custer to an undamaged airlock. The repair droids will begin sealing this one
as soon as we move."

"Go."

Custer moved back away from the station.
With enough room, she twirled and headed around the station to the nearest
undamaged airlock.

"Shall we eat?" I asked the other
three.

Vonda rose immediately. We followed her
into my Dining Room. We ate rapidly, and were back on the Bridge before the
first of the shuttles reached us.

Vonda and Alsop rose from their chairs as Major
General Connelly strode onto the Bridge. He went straight over to Vonda, and
hugged her. Alsop looked traumatized.

Connelly stepped back and saluted her. She
and Alsop returned the salute. Alison and I exchanged bemused glances.

"I take it your pleased to see us,
General?" asked Vonda.

"Sorry sir, couldn’t help myself. Yes,
we'd been wondering what had happened in Avon, and thinking the worst. What did
happen?"

Alsop gave him the fast summary.

"What's the latest on the
station?" Connelly asked.

"General Smith, sitrep," I said,
throwing the team coms to the Bridge com system.

"The station is empty of people. All
technology of any kind has been destroyed, with the exception of airlocks. The
only aired up areas are the small ship dock and the adjacent shuttle dock. It
looks like they've been using hanger space as barracks. We're returning to
Custer."

"Thank you General."

I removed team coms from the Bridge coms.

"What are you bringing with you
General?" I asked.

"As you suggested Admiral. Repair and building
droids, butler and maid droids, air replacement modules, and a new station
computer. Plus a great deal in the way of spare parts."

"Do you need us to stick around?"

"No sir. I officially take back
command of the station, and release you to go kick some more Midgard arse.
Sir."

Technically, he was senior to me. I didn't
quite get why he was deferring to me.

"The station is yours General. You may
lose coms for a short while sometime after we leave, but they should be
restored before nine tonight, when our second force arrives with the comsats. They're
coming here, before heading to the Avalon jump point. Pegasus is already back
in the flow."

"Very good. I'll get to work here, and
let you close the door from Cobol."

He saluted us, and almost bounced out.

"Contact," said Jane.
"Midgard fleet on course for Atlantis."

"What?" exclaimed Alsop.

"Tomorrows Avon attack force," I
said to him. "They must be assuming they're unopposed, and simply sending
fleets off as fast as they make them. Each fleet replaces one before it, and
that fleet moves forward a system. We'll probably have to deal with four more
fleets tonight. At least one, perhaps two of them, will need to be at Atlantis
in time for a decent sleep before arriving at the Avon jump point by seven
thirty."

I turned back to the front screen.

"General Smith, company on the way. We
need to leave as soon as possible."

She responded by bellowing commands, and
one of them included the word 'run'.

Fifteen minutes later, we formed up with
the Guardians, and in line abreast formation, moved to intercept the Midgard
fleet. I turned off team coms, when most of the team appeared on the Bridge,
and took seats.

"If anyone wants to eat, we've about
half an hour before combat begins."

"Jeeves is bringing us finger
food," said Annabelle with a grin.

And he did just that, laying out platters
on the consoles, with slabs of bottled water.

George passed me over a bottle.

I passed the time in emails, to the sounds of
munching.

Five minutes before contact range, Jeeves
cleaned up the mess.

"Change of tactics," said Jane.
"They've stopped already, and are waiting for us to come to them.

"Step into my parlor, said the spider
to the fly," I said. I received funny looks. "I will, said the fly,
unlimbering its bazooka."

"What's a bazooka?" asked Aline.

"BA would have loved one. Old style,
hand held, rocket launcher." BA grinned.

I turned back to Jane.

"Are we in missile range yet?"

"Not quite."

"Launch as soon as we are. Then launch
Mosquitos to counter their first barrage. Assume they launch a second barrage before
we're in gun range, and have those mosquitos…"

"Barrage launch," interrupted
Jane. "Very long range for them. They must assume we'll come on at our
current speed. If we stopped, the missiles would run out of fuel before
reaching us, and be easy to avoid."

"We'd still have to take them out as
we went past. Can't leave them as a navigational hazard. Launch the Mosquitos
now."

"Confirmed."

We watched as twelve hundred little zips of
light, sped away from us. Nothing happened for three seconds as Jane did the
tasking of each missile.

"Approaching missile range," she
announced.

"Fire when ready," I responded.

Three hundred much larger missiles followed
the twelve hundred. Our six ships followed them a lot slower, the range closing
steadily.

We waited, the tension mounting.

Barrage met Mosquito. Space exploded before
us. About a hundred broke through and kept coming at us. Point Defense opened
up at them, picking them off.

A second barrage started towards us. One of
the Guardians fired a new salvo of missiles.

Five of the Missile Cruisers exploded.

Another twelve hundred Mosquitos started
towards the new barrages.

"Anyone who’s not buckled up, please
do so," I said into ship coms.

I tightened my straps, even though it hurt
to do so. My hands went to the ship controls on my chair. I linked the capital
ship turrets to my main guns on my joystick trigger, and set them and my main
fixed forward guns, to gatling fire.

The next barrage exploded in front of us,
but enough missiles came through it to ensure we took some hits. My six ships
all shrugged them off, shields dropping less than ten percent each, although
Custer, not having the same level of shielding, was worst hit. Still, to be
expected given Custer was the smallest ship, with the least shielding.

The last Missile Cruiser exploded.

"Circle formation Jane. Leave me
control."

"Confirmed."

The Guardians peeled off left, right, up
and down, moving to encircle the Talon cloud.

Custer continued straight forward into the
cloud. I pulled the trigger, and pulses came from the main guns one at a time.
I walked the nose of the ship around the cluster of ships coming at us, trying
to achieve two hits on each ship before I moved us on.

At the center, I turned us into a broad
circle and for the first time ever, a Frigate did the dance of death with
fighters.

Ships whipped past the view screen almost
faster than the eye could track them. Blink and they were gone. Blink and
something else was there.

"I think I'm going to throw up,"
said Alsop.

"Man up," snapped BA. "This
is fun."

A Talon got too close, and exploded against
the forward shields.

"Ye-Har," yelled George.

Alsop fainted. His seat belt kept him in
his seat.

The number of Talons was thinning now.

I brought us out of the circle, and to a
stop near where the center had been.

The last red dot winked out. Our shields
were down to seventy eight percent. All in all, Custer's performance was not
only impressive, but impossible. A Frigate that could dogfight fighters was
unheard of.

There was silence for a few moments. Then
applause and cheering, coming from both the Bridge, and up the staircase.

George and BA were grinning madly.

"You enjoy this?" asked
Annabelle.

MEOW. Angel looked happy.

"Better than sex," added George.

Everyone laughed. It didn’t hurt quite so
much this time.

"Estimated time to next action is one
and half, to two hours," I said into ship coms.

"That soon?" asked Vonda.

"It's roughly three and a half hours
to the jump point from here. If the next fleet is coming towards, and they're
four hours behind this lot, we could see them in an hour and half at our
combined closing speed. I expect to see a fleet before we get there, at any
rate."

"Makes sense. Did you really need to
fight this ship like that?"

Everyone stopped to listen to my answer.

"No," I admitted. "But
sometime I needed to see how this ship would perform in a dogfight action, so
better now than leaving it too late."

There were nods around me. Jeeves came in
and woke up Alsop, who unbuckled, stood, and raced out.

"In his defense," said Vonda,
"he is a damned fine administrator."

"No combat experience?" asked BA.

"Not like that. He wasn’t expecting to
see fighters up so close."

"My hero," said Alana with a
laugh.

"Everyone has a first time," I
said.

"True," Alana admitted.
"Maybe I should go console him?"

"Better not," said Vonda.
"He's married."

Alana looked disappointed. BA slapped her
on the arm, and they headed out. Most of the team followed them.

I opened a vid.

"Dinner tonight was a smorgasbord of
Missile Cruiser with Talon sauce. While somewhat crunchy, it went down
well." I paused. "Seriously though, the average intelligence of the
commanders seems to be improving. This one waited for us, and got off two
barrages before our missiles took them out. Sixty missiles targeting each
Missile Cruiser does the job. The trick is dealing with the twelve hundred
capital ship missiles coming back at you. So far, the new Mosquito system, and
our Point Defense, have worked well to keep us from losing less than ten
percent shields by the end of the second barrage. I won't say it's easy, since
the slightest misstep could be fatal, but so far, we've the edge on them now. I
expect dessert in several hours, before we arrive at the Cobol jump point. More
then. Hunter out."

I sent the email off to the usual suspects,
with the usual attachments. Business as usual.

"I'll be in my office," said
Vonda as she left.

"No," I said to Alison.

She pouted, and left as well.