Hunter Legacy 12: Hero in Darkness

by Timothy Ellis

  "This is our enemy. These are shots of the ships encountered so far. There are some variations, but they're all about the same size and shape. We have some going back to my shipyard for analysis, but it's going to be a while before we know anything useful. By then, I expect us to know exactly what they can do. The black in the middle is all we can do so far for an image of the alien itself."

  It wasn’t much to see. Just a blob of black. Even in bright light, it was still a blob of black. Something about it made viewing it, and taking an image, difficult. But something in me knew this shape, knew exactly what it was, and was shit-scared of it. Soul memory. The soul knows what has hurt it in past lives. Even if it was billions of years ago, the soul knows.

  "We don’t yet know what it is. We don’t know what it calls itself. But its colour is black, and where we found it was totally pitch black. We have two of them. One was found frozen solid, and the other I killed when it attacked me. A pulse rifle shot didn't seem to be noticeable to it, and didn’t slow it down at all."

  "How did you kill it?" said someone.

  "Magic sword."

  There was a titter as about half the room expressed its disbelief.

  "The sword is real," barked Annabelle, and the room went silent. "It cuts anything. Don’t pick a fight with the Admiral. Even unarmed, he is never unarmed. You will lose."

  I considered giving them my 'don’t mess with me' grin, but I doubt it would have worked.

  "A single pulse rifle shot was ineffective. How many at the same time we need to stop one of these aliens, we don’t know yet. We have new weapons coming to test on them, some of them being sidearms, but they aren't here yet. I'm hoping the Mesons we have now will work better, especially the streamer versions, and the new big ones."

  "The third rule of engagement is we take no prisoners. As yet, we have no means of communicating with the aliens. They have made no attempt to communicate with us. We have no idea how they communicate with each other. They shoot on sight. So will we. If one of their ships is damaged too much to do more than drift, we let it drift, and hope the alien dies before its own kind rescues it. We have no evidence they will. Only if the drift is towards a planet or jump point do we take out the ship to be sure. We do not take prisoners because we have no idea yet how to contain them. Once a ship has passed us, and is out of range of rear facing guns, we let it go. We bleed them first, mop up after if we can."

  "If you get boarded, you shoot to kill. If your fire is ineffective, you run. If you can get out of the room, your AI will attempt to immobilize the aliens with gravity. We have no idea how much gravity is needed to immobilize one, hence it being a good idea to be out of the room first. If your ship is taken, marines will go in to take it back. The pirate Battleship we took yesterday was being operated by human crew, not the aliens. It didn’t have an AI on board, so we know nothing of if they can detect an AI, or what they would do if they did. For now, we hope they don’t, and the AI can continue to run the ship, and if need be, remove the life support completely. But having said that, we have no idea, yet, what life support this alien species needs. For now, we have to assume a lot of things, and make plans in case we're wrong."

  "You will wear a belt suit. This is mandatory for all personnel, including civilians with the fleet. Anyone who refuses should leave now. The suits we wear in combat have the armour of a combat suit, and can keep you alive in space even if your ship is debris around you. I personally have survived a bomb blast which completely destroyed ten floors of a building, and that suit wasn’t as good as the current ones. One of my Cruiser captains had her Corvette destroyed around her, and she simply re-boarded it, and flew her Privateer out of the wreckage. In both cases, the suit kept us alive during the explosion, and in the latter case, it kept the wearer alive in space long enough to get to safety herself, without waiting for search and rescue. If you do end up in space, SR may take time to reach you, and you will be very glad the suit has its own life support while you float there watching the battle continue around you. You may wear the belt as a belt, but it must be set to hair-trigger mode. But there are advantages to using the suits instead of clothes. Anyone who doesn’t have one, or has people who don’t have them, should talk to Admiral Jane after the meeting."

  I paused for breath.

  "As of nineteen hundred today, all personnel will wear side arms. These will be set to full laser. For now we assume stunners will only tickle them." There were a few chuckles. "Where ever each person's battle station is, they will have the best rifle sized gun they have in arms reach. I don’t know how effective they'll be, but if an alien is about to eat you, I suggest you find an eye or something, and shoot it there."

  There were a few more chuckles, but not many. It led me into my next point.

  "Yes, they do eat us. We found the remains of pirate crew in the mess hall. There wasn’t a lot left. According to the pirate Admiral, who left us some documentation, this alien species eats everything, and is especially partial to animals, and complex metals. If you do get boarded, you consider yourself to be on its menu, and act accordingly."

  I had a thought then and paused. They ate everything. The significance hadn't sunk in until I said it. It explained a lot.

  "Any questions?"

  "What do we do when we run out of ordinance?" came from the middle of the room.

  "A good chunk of this station is now devoted to making missiles of all sizes and types. Fighters can land and rearm, then launch again if the battle is still raging. So can the smaller capital ships. Any ship where missiles are the primary armament, and we have a few, will retreat if it's not feasible to dock with the station. A steady stream of missiles will be fed to us from my shipyard. If we do run out, we'll deal with that at the time. When battle joins in less than two days now, I seriously hope we don’t run out of missiles before we withdraw, but doing so may tell us the time we need to go. The good news is, normally after we withdraw, we'll have at least a day before any planet needs defending, and up to three before the next jump point up the spine requires us. We should be resupplied during the down times."

  "And while I think of it, down time is one of the reasons why there are at least three people on every ship. Someone must be on watch at all times. Someone must be getting some slack time and entertainment at all times. The third person should be asleep. Only during battle will all three be on your Bridge or in the CCC at the same time. This is vital to keep a fresh person on watch all the time. Captains, you will take downtime. I want no exhausted captains when a battle starts suddenly, because they've only had a couple of hours sleep in the last twenty four or forty eight. If a battle lasts days, I'll rethink it. But I seriously doubt they will. Eight hour shifts people. Love it and live it. This goes for senior marines as well. Alternate yourselves and team leaders. Alternate the teams on immediate readiness. Each marine ship should have one third of its teams ready to go with zero warning. The same goes for squadrons. Where there are three or more squadrons, rotate in squadron strength. On the Escort Carriers, rotate by thirds of what you have."

  Nods were happening in the marine and fighter groups. A few of the captains looked unhappy. I wasn’t all that happy about it myself, but proper shifts were necessary to keep captains effective over the long haul.

  "You mentioned sector fleets before," asked someone different. "When will we see them?"

  "In Morocco. But we won't see them initially. The Latin force will be there to protect Brazil. Once they fall back, they have to hold long enough to evacuate the entire sector. It's unlikely they will hold long enough, and even more unlikely we'll be able to help them. The African force will most likely defend Mali, on the basis they need to rearguard through their sector as it escapes through Egypt. The problem is, we need to defend the planet Morocco, then fall back through Algeria, defend that planet, but make sure we get to Libya in time to hit them as they come through Treasure Chest or Brazil. In Libya, it becomes very complicated. Any remains of the Latin forces should join us ther
e, assuming there are any. Egypt is easier, but we need to try and hold as long as we can, in order that the African sector has time to evacuate. Again, we may have to fall back before we might want to."

  I sighed.

  "The sad fact is, no-one down this end of the spine believed us when we were here last, so the least preparation has been going on here. With the short notice they have about Prophesy being real, there is nothing at all we can do about the majority of people here. I hate to say it, but my hope is the aliens spend a lot of time exploring the Latin and African sectors, and leave us time to consolidate Indian, Chinese, and Japanese forces, in Egypt or Nepal. I know this is a callous view of things, but we have to be realistic. The most unprepared sectors are the first in the firing line, and probably at the same time. Maybe their sacrifice will save a lot of other people further up the spine."

  "Roger that!"

  I didn’t see who said it, but the number of nods confirmed the sentiment was general.

  "What happens after we pull back out of here?" asked one of the American Captains, although I couldn’t remember off hand what his name was.

  "Everyone will get special orders for War. It's something of a unique system, and provides an interesting opportunity. We'll bleed them at the jump point same as here, but we have a few tricks up our sleeves as well. You'll find out when we get there. Sensitive information will only be given out when it can't be absorbed by an alien who just ate you."

  The room laughed. I let them go, since they needed an outlet of some kind now. I went on when they finally quietened down.

  "I've read enough science fiction to know almost anything is possible. If they do capture a ship, and they do have a way of getting information involuntarily, only the generic information must be available to them. Even telling you War is special is too much information. But it was a fair question."

  I looked around, but there didn’t seem to be any more questions.

  "If that’s all, I'll end this briefing now. If anyone has questions, ask the AI on your ship. If it needs to come to me, it will. Will the Admirals meet me in my Ready Room here on the station in ten please. Everyone else, is dismissed."

  The room stood as one, braced while I left, and I wasn’t there to see how they reacted. Probably just as well. I limp-paced back to my Ready Room and collapsed into my chair. I was exhausted.

  Jeeves placed a ginger ale in front of me, and quietly left.

  "That went well," said Jane, standing in the doorway.

  Twenty

  I didn’t get the chance to answer, because Miriam swept in past Jane, hauled me bodily out of the chair, kissed me solidly and long, dropped me back into the chair, and left. She dragged Jane out with her.

  "Is he still seeing Aline?" I barely heard.

  "Yes."

  "Damn."

  There was a pause.

  "I'll be back when I've briefed my pilots. Try and get him to look alive by then will you?"

  Huh?

  Jane came back in with a smirk on her face. I waved her to a seat, and busied myself with my ginger ale.

  Chet Hallington came in just as I was finishing the drink. He was grinning madly, and pumped my hand several times before dropping into the chair next to Jane.

  "What did you do to Young?"

  "What did I do?"

  "I just saw her doing an impersonation of a tornado. I figured it had something to do with you."

  "How should I know? The tornado was already in motion when she stopped by here."

  Jane snorted. I mean, actually snorted!

  "What's up chuckles?"

  She shook her head and said nothing.

  Susan Bentley arrived next, greeted Chet and Jane, and plonked down in the next seat along. Daniel O'Neil was last in, and seeing everyone else there before him, was very apologetic.

  "Nice to see you again Chet," I started. "What did you bring with you?"

  His grin widened. I looked at him suspiciously, and he actually laughed.

  "I bring glad tidings from the upper brass at home, in the form of six John Wayne class Pocket Battleships. Patton apologizes for not sending more, but our conversion program is still ongoing, and he isn’t going to gamble on not having enough force in Hawaii if we fall short. He did however send Greer's Gunbus squadron, and Young's Excalibur Wing."

  The grin was back again. I decided to bite.

  "And what did you personally arrive in? I find it hard to believe a Carrier driver would turn up in a PB?"

  "Oh I brought Yorktown."

  "Seriously? Wasn’t she too slow to fly with the PB's?"

  "She's had a few minor tweaks."

  "Such as?"

  He waved twice. An outside station cam showed Yorktown, and her specs popped up as well. My jaw dropped.

  "That's Yorktown? Hooley Dooley! What did they do to her?"

  "Followed your lead."

  "How so?"

  "Lexington was so badly damaged during the war, that while she was repaired enough to function, we found she had structural damage which effectively made her a death trap if she was ever hit hard again. So we de-commissioned her, and bolted her on underneath Yorktown. Both ship's lower hull was removed, and the two halves of the new ship joined much the same way you did with your own Super ships. We also took another older retired Carrier out of mothballs, chopped her up, and extended Yorktown by another fifty percent. What was left over from all three was then used to strengthen the ship's length, and give her more hull depth in key places."

  "So she makes my new Dreadnaughts look small?"

  "Yeah. Sorry about that."

  His chuckle showed he wasn’t sorry at all.

  "So what did you bring on her?"

  "She internally docks Young's wing, which is twenty five Excalibur's. She also has twenty squadrons of heavy fighters, and five squadrons of bombers."

  "Nice."

  "And you get steak knives as well!"

  "What?"

  "Sorry, old joke, and you ought to know that one with your entertainment preferences. We covered every inch of her hull with every sized gun we could bolt on, and every type of missile launcher which would fit. Especially Mosquito systems. We have a few prototypes on board as well. The bombers have a new missile type, currently unnamed, which fires a standard looking capital ship missile, but when it nears its target, it splits into Mosquito sized missiles, which will either pepper a target from all sides, or seek individual targets. As I understand it, they put an FF guidance package on each tiny missile, and an IR/FF selector package on the missile itself. They also upped the bang, so a half dozen small ones will take down the shield on a light fighter. Fire them at a squadron, and you can take them all down with one missile. Fire them at a salvo of missiles incoming, and it can take them all out at once."

  "Nice," I said. "I want to know how you go with them. If they prove to be useful, I'll have them made here."

  "Janet already has the specs. We just need a live target."

  "I'm sure we can arrange that. What else?"

  "We brought some nukes."

  "How many?" asked Susan, before I could.

  "A dozen. They are loaded into what looks like an old style wet navy torpedo. One of my squadrons of bombers are rigged to fire them."

  "Give Jane the specs. We can definitely use them. Why only twelve?"

  "We don’t have many. They simply aren’t needed anymore. You don’t need to nuke anyone. With gravity tech the level it is, you throw a rock at someone and you get the same result as nuking them. We have maybe another dozen, but they went to Hawaii."

  I pondered that for a moment.

  "Are there any others around anywhere?"

  "Jedburgh said you'd ask. Yes, there are. But no-one can retrieve them. In one of those rare moments of co-operation which actually worked, most of the nukes never left Earth. They simply left them wherever they were stored. By the time anyone thought to try and retrieve them, the weather made it a suicide mission. It still is."

  "J
ane?"

  "Jon?"

  "File that information away for when we reach Earth."

  "Confirmed."

  We sat there in silence for a full minute.

  "Jane."

  "Yes boss?"

  "Update your avatars to the new rank. I promoted you because I suddenly realized that if you need to take control of ships in the middle of a battle, you need the rank to do it. I hope you won't ever need it, but better safe than sorry. You will most likely pass on orders through your AI interface at times, so I want ship captains to know they need to be followed. Saying you speak for me is one thing. Having people believe it is another. Also, it struck me that it may also curb tendencies to try and give you orders, since you do actually control the ships. It doesn't mean you don’t follow them when you get them, but I want the captains to think twice about what they ask you to do. If nothing else, it might engender some respect as well."

  "One star on fleet epaulette?"

  "Yes, and you retain the red."

  "Confirmed."

  "Daniel, you command the Pocket Battleships. They'll support our larger ships, and you know how to use them effectively. Have JW link to the AI's on the other manned ships, and co-ordinate."

  "Sir."

  "Susan, you command the rest of the fleet. I'm worried the smaller ships won't have enough shielding, so position this station to its best effect, and the smaller ships remain inside its shield. Review our first encounter with the original station, so you can see how they used it. Talk to Jane about larger ship handling, especially rolling to fire efficiently. It's not going to be about how much we can fire at once. We need to be consistent, rather than fire everything and then not have enough while most guns recharge. It needs some trialing, and then getting everyone to do the same in a coordinated way. This won't work for the more standard ships, but the new ones need new tactics."