Hunter Legacy 12: Hero in Darkness

by Timothy Ellis

  Relentless was all that was left. I was all that was left.

  The killing hit came at me.

  And I bolted upright in bed, covered in sweat and breathing heavily.

  "Bad dream or vision Jon?" asked Aline sleepily.

  I thought about it, letting my breathing slow.

  "Bad dream I think."

  "How can you tell? You normally have visions."

  "This one was too disjointed. You know how in dreams you don’t know how you got there, you just are?"

  "Maybe."

  "Well it was like that. Training, jumping into War, shooting, and then falling into a trap. They happened, but there wasn’t really any time between them."

  "So dream. No message?"

  "I think my sub-conscious was trying to tell me not to do stupid."

  "Stupid? You?"

  "Me. You know when you get a really good idea, and it proves to be a total disaster?"

  "No, never happens to me."

  "Well it does to me, and you know some of my dooseys."

  "Don’t remind me."

  "Well I was thinking about going into War, and trying to see if a cavalry style raid would work as a delaying tactic."

  "That is a good idea."

  "No, it's not."

  "Good. Now we resolved that, can we go back to sleep?"

  It took me a while, but I finally did.

  Thirty Three

  I joined training the next morning, and watched Fearless, Homer, and Bonko's Club depart for Last Hope. I didn’t expect to be using two battalions of troops there, but I left it to Annabelle on how to use her assets.

  My bruises were improving, and the workout had done my mood a world of good. The Ready Room offered as good a place as any to be, so I made myself comfortable and tried to get some work done.

  Amy came in mid-morning with ill, but not unexpected, news.

  There were riots happening across the Latin and African sectors. The further from the spine, the worse things were. I'd counselled against being so live with the reporting of the invasion, quoting hysteria as a reason to limit what was broadcast. No-one had listened. Now we had it.

  The problem in the Latin sector wasn’t escape times. All nine systems joining to Brazil were less than four days travel by ship, and at the worst, there was a nine day window before the jump point into Brazil could be cut off. The problem was the stations in the Latin sector could only take a small percentage of the population, and none of them had as much as a single station tug attached to them yet. There were thousands of ships of all sizes, but few of them were suitable for moving people in large numbers. There was plenty of food, but then there wouldn’t be enough ships. Ditto water. People needed life support, food, water, and sanitation facilities. Very little had been done by the sector or planetary governments to provide any of it.

  African sector wasn’t any better. But they had an escape route further down the spine. At worst, the trip back to the spine, after Morocco fell, was five days, and even our slowest ships would easily make it before the aliens did. Once again, very little had been done.

  The shipyards in both sectors were now being geared to turn out station tugs, and standard life support modules for freighters. That much I could help with right now, and the specs for both had been sent by Jane the moment the aliens jumped into Pestilence. My main concern was it was too little, too late.

  I had troops, and I had ships, which could evacuate civilians. But I didn’t want to commit them yet. My problem was the spine, and trying to keep Brazil's jump points safe as long as possible, and then Libya and Egypt's. In theory, we had fifteen days before we'd need to abandon Egypt. It gave the African sector much more time than the Latin sector had. Fifteen days sounds a lot longer than two weeks does.

  The Indian sector was in an uproar, although preparations had been underway. Political backstabbing was now the main sport, and too many people were hammering blame for lack of preparedness, instead of doing anything about it. Who knew how ready they would be when crunch day arrived?

  There was no news from the Chinese sector.

  The Japanese sector was calm. Preparations for evacuation had been going on for six months. All they were waiting for was confirmation it was going to be necessary.

  The Russians were urging calm while events unfolded, while telling their people how successful their fleet was going to be in repelling the invaders.

  The other sectors were mainly quiet, since they were not under imminent threat.

  But it was Earth sector which worried me. Military leaders were openly calling the invasion vids a hoax. When politicians demanded to know what the Earth Fleet would do if the invasion was real, they were pointed towards the shipyards building new Battleships. When those who asked why Battleships were being built when there wasn’t an invasion threat, they were regaled with the threat Hunter's Run posed to everyone. All I could do was face-palm.

  I really hadn't made any friends in Earth sector. I had made an impression in the German sub-sector though, and the Fourth Reich. Both were quietly building their own versions of Super-Cruisers, since neither were allowed to build anything bigger.

  The news out of the Australian sector was positive. All the systems now had their own small shipyard, which was tasked with building tugs for its stations, and people modules for freighters. There were some questions as to what Hunter's Run was up to, since the defense of the Australian sector largely fell on me. David assured the Aussie media we were building ships as fast as we could. This was true, but defending the Australian sector wasn’t my priority. We'd do that if and when we got there, with whatever we had. But by then, defense was going to be more than just ships, and the Australian sector needed to be on stations and ships on their way to Outback, before we arrived in Midnight. Once Nexus was breached, nothing could be done for anyone still on Australian planets.

  By the time I became aware again, Amy was gone. For now, there was nothing I could do. I was the front line, and what was happening behind me, was nothing more than a distraction. I went back to work.

  Midafternoon I received a note from Annabelle to the effect the Last Hope locals were not moving. Big surprise, not. I’d always known they were not going to go on their own. I told Annabelle it was up to her if she forcibly evacuated them or not. Passing the buck, yes. Her ancestor had moved these people here, so it was sort of balanced she should make the same decision now. Besides, I knew there wasn't really a decision to be made.

  Treasure Chest Station began the journey to orbit Last Hope. When we fell back here, it would move immediately to the Morocco jump point, and go through just ahead of us. It still had enough ordinance to restock us again, after which it would go back to Treasure Chest to stock itself up again. Where it went from there, would depend on where we went. Most likely Brazil, but my options were open, until they closed.

  It's amazing how fast you can fall back into old patterns. With the team gone, it was just me and Angel again. Pat the cat, work, tickle the cat, eat, play with the cat, watch a flat screen or hollo while patting the cat, and sleep with the cat. The cat at least seemed to be happy I was on my own again. But I missed Aline. Already. Which was another distraction I didn’t need.

  The night passed into the following day, morning passed into afternoon, and then it was time again.

  Thirty Four

  We formed up before the War jump point, once again in a different place relative to where we'd been before. There hadn't been any sign of the aliens anticipating where we were and trying to attack before now, but I wasn’t taking the chance. We were down three Cruisers, but I didn’t think it was going to matter.

  The navmap extended all the way to the War jump point in Famine. There had been a few other surviving comnavsats, but they were out of range now, so they may as well have been lost as well. What we did have though, was a reasonably clear idea of the rate of advance through into War. We were getting an almost real time vid of the cylinder forming in Famine, going through the jump
, and adjusting to fly in the new direction to continue as a cylinder across to the Last Hope jump point.

  War itself had the usual spread out mass of ships doing the exploring, but they were limited this time, because half the normal plane was all asteroids. It was concentrating them more than previously.

  By three, the first alien ships had arrived, and begun to form up. They made no attempt to try and avoid anything we might lob at them. And we did have something to lob at them. The big roid which had been just inside the jump point in War, was now sitting here waiting to be lobbed back through.

  I pondered why losses seemed to mean so little to them, since all they seemed to care about was moving forward. We'd delayed them less than half a day so far, but they'd lost two fifths of their force. Last Hope was presumably their first prize, but they didn’t know it yet.

  Jane and I continued to watch the main force. There seemed to be about two million ships doing the exploring, spread out over the whole system. They were close to discovering there was only the one jump point again, and they already knew it was in a non-standard place. The ships which had struck out looking for jump points and planets, were now on their way here. Only those heading directly across the system were still looking for a jump point there.

  The cylinder forming up to hit us was growing longer all the time, and I left them alone. I was more interested in what was still flowing into War. We couldn’t see far enough into Famine to know how many more ships there were, but the cylinder which stretched across half of War, must already contain close to another million ships.

  "Movement," said Jane.

  "Throw the roid," I ordered.

  The roid was thrown, and it jumped directly into the middle of the cylinder on the other side, and proceeded to tear it apart for kilometers, before the end ships managed to get out of its way. I wondered if it would now become a perpetual comet in orbit of War's sun. I seriously doubted I’d be here long enough to ever find out.

  We'd gained an hour. They'd had the same trick beat them twice now. Not so bright it seemed. Mind you, in ancient times, two armies formed up across a field, and with the dawn, they ran at each other. The two sides would grind through the other until one side remained standing, or one side ran. None of it was very bright. And they did it over and over again for centuries. And here we were, doing it again. They were doing the grinding, and we were doing the running.

  "Fire," I said into ship coms as the first ship appeared.

  And so it began, again. We held our own for the first half hour, before the cylinder again came through. Even so, we managed to keep them contained. As before, it was when the fighters started landing to rearm, and Sato took the Corvettes out of range to get their shields back, that alien ships started getting past us.

  I took a look at the Famine jump point again. Still coming through. I was getting a lesson in how long the alien rear area dragged back.

  I made a decision.

  "Commander Young."

  "Sir?"

  Miriam sounded surprised to be addressed by me in the middle of a battle.

  "Pull your wing out, and back behind the Carriers. Once you're well clear, Seek, Locate, Destroy."

  "You want us to chase down the escaping ones this time?"

  "Yes. Go now."

  "You heard the boss," she yelled enthusiastically into her own com channel, while ship coms was still active. "Follow me."

  Twenty Five Excalibur's formed up into a line, and streamed back from Redoubts shields. Once past the safety of the Carrier line, they split up into flights, and began hunting down the ones which made it through.

  It was a calculated risk on my part. I was losing some guns and ordinance, letting some more enemy through, but betting Miriam and her people wouldn’t let any escape.

  Five o'clock became six. Still they came. The Corvettes came back, and left, and came back again. The Hives docked and rearmed, the fighters landed and rearmed, and the larger ships slowly lost shielding.

  Suddenly Chivalrous took a huge hit, lost shields, and a huge hole appeared through the front of her mid-section. She staggered out of line, taking more hits.

  "Cover Chivalrous," I bellowed.

  Wizard and Whirlwind moved to block the firing line with their own shields, and then I saw Greer had broken ranks from the Corvettes. Starman sped towards the stricken Destroyer, and I held my breath as he seemed to be going to ram it. At the last second, he dragged his speed off, flipped over, slid out a grav sled, whapped it onto the hull of Chivalrous, and began towing her away from danger. Wizard and Whirlwind followed, until John Wayne moved to block the attack on their shields, and allowed all four ships to withdraw. The captain of Chivalrous reported in to say he and his crew were fine, albeit in full space suits, and connected to chair air-ports.

  "Admiral Sato, pull the Destroyers and Corvettes back, and once you have full shields again, join Commander Young's wing in hunting down the loose aliens."

  "Yes sir."

  He began giving orders.

  "It may not work Jon," said Jane quietly.

  "What wont?" asked Dick.

  He didn’t get an answer. I was going from the navmap to the shield values and back again in a steady rhythm.

  Sometime after seven, I pulled out the Cruisers, and set them in a line well behind us, where they could still pick off the growing numbers getting past us.

  "Come on!" I muttered to myself.

  Crunch time was rapidly approaching. The remaining ships were now below fifty percent shielding, and still I held us all on the line.

  By eight, everyone in the fleet was exhausted. Only Redoubt had more than twenty percent shields, and still I waited to pull us out.

  "Pull out the Missile Cruisers to long range, but have them keep firing."

  "Confirmed, but they're almost out anyway."

  One of the Cruisers took a hit as soon it began to turn, which blew a hole in the side. But they all survived pulling out.

  At fifteen percent I was out of time. I opened my mouth to give the order to withdraw.

  "Famine jump point is empty," said Jane.

  My eyes took in the navmap, as Jane enhanced the other side of the War system. The cylinder had left the jump point behind. No new ships were jumping in.

  My eyes locked with Jane's.

  "Blow it."

  Thirty Five

  The battle ended, right there and then.

  The whole asteroid field exploded section by section, in a ripple which started on our side of the system, and expanded in an arc until it reached the Famine jump point. Rocks poured through to our side of the jump point, and although going in many directions at once, the fleet was well clear. I'd made sure of it.

  It had taken five months to do, but bombs had been planted in asteroids the whole way across the War system, and as wide as we could manage, by one of Jane's avatars working with a force of salvage droids, and a small army of cargo droids.

  The entire Alien fleet was ripped apart by the resulting debris. We could tell, because although we lost the comnavsats we'd been using, we had another set a lot further above the plane, and these gave us a vivid picture of a system converted into the biggest debris field ever seen. Nothing could have survived. Not even our Dreadnaughts would have survived.

  The War system was impassable now.

  Looks of horror became fleet wide jubilation, as understanding of what I’d done spread.

  I slumped in my seat. I sincerely hope I never have to take such a gamble again. I'd risked the core of the fleet, and had almost waited too long.

  Amy pulled me out of my seat, and hugged me. She let go so she could hug Dick, and I slumped back into my chair.

  The only person not celebrating at that moment, was me. I waited for confirmation of every single alien ship being destroyed. Dick saw my face, and sat himself back down again.

  "Was that as big a gamble as I think it was?" he asked me, when we were alone, except for Jane.

  "Worse."

 
; "You waited for every single alien ship to enter War before you blew it?"

  "I had to. It was the only way to be sure."

  He nodded.

  Admiral Hallington popped up at that moment.

  "Orders Admiral?" he asked.

  "How are the fighter pilots doing?"

  "Tired like everyone, but revved up. You want them to join the search for alien ships still trying to escape?"

  "Volunteers only. If anyone wants to just sleep, let them."

  He turned to someone and gave a series of orders. And looked back at me.

  "Jon, there's close to the vest, and then there's sub-dermal. You've pulled some stunts since I first met you, but this one takes the cake. Why tell no-one about it? Sorry sir, just curious."

  "The War system was the only opportunity we had to win outright. It required us to first stop them bringing in reinforcements, then needed their whole fleet in the trap. It was always a one shot weapon. Given enough ships not in the trap, they would be able to bulldoze a way through again in time. I gambled on us not going down before they were all in the trap. It almost didn’t work."

  "Three damaged ships and no casualties in three battles, says the plan worked to perfection. You should be proud of what you achieved here."

  "We aren’t done yet."

  I turned to Jane.

  "Pop up all Admirals please Jane."

  In a moment, I could see each of them.

  "Reform the fleet away from the jump point Susan. We're going to get rocks spewing in here for some time, and we need to be well away from them. Once all the aliens have been hunted down, we go into blockade mode. We can't know if any aliens were still in Famine and just being tardy. That jump point will be spewing rocks as well, so if there were any left, they will know there is a problem in War. We still have a comnavsat working there, so for now, we wait and see if anything new turns up."

  "I'll get on it," said Susan, while the others nodded.