by Jay Toney
Hunted
Jay Toney
Copyright 2018
Coming soon
Freedom Flight
Other titles
Space Rogue Series
Exiles
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Introduction
The Roberts family has interfered with the plans of the Alliance and its desire for conquest one too many times. The Alliance leaders don't want Captain Roberts captured any longer. They want him dead. They put a bounty on his head that few could resist and that is before they realize that he has robbed them of the treasure they need to help pay for their expansion into the Collation star systems. Once they learn of his treachery, there will be no stopping their hunt for Nathaniel until he is dead.
Life for Nathaniel and his friends was pretty good on San Paulos's space station until he, his wife, and his companion became stars on a popular holovid show called "Busted." Now everyone who once thought of him as a hero hates him for attempting to steal the hard-earned credits that the Lucy's girls worked for.
If that wasn't bad enough, the system governor signed a treaty with the Alliance representative. Part of that agreement includes turning Nathaniel over to the Alliance military for execution. He and his friends are forced to make their escape earlier than planned. Now he has to flee the Alliance. Along the way, he has to search for stragglers that were sent prior to his departure to a rendezvous point.
Once Nathaniel rendezvous with the rest of the fleet it will be up to him to lead them someplace safe where the Alliance can't reach them.
Copyright Information
The characters and events in this book are fictional. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without permission of the author is unlawful piracy and theft of the authors intellectual property. Thank you for support of the authors rights.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Gun Running
Busted
The Persephone
Moon Base
Treasure
Homeward Bound
San Paulos
Shree'tek
Hyperspace
Making Room
Escape
Reunion
Alliance
Persephone
Quarantine
More From The Author
Gun Running
Rylon was an odd name for a star system, but at least I could pronounce it. The bugs that inhabited this system called it something else that is unpronounceable by human vocal cords. The sounded like high pitched screeching with clicking noises intermixed. I had to hold the mute button on the comm panel while Minerva did her best to pronounce it for us. Natasha would have known better than to say its insectoid name for us. She was in the process of being installed on my new ship.
Three saucer-shaped alien ships flanked us. Red told me to expect this. They were here for the payment promised them for allowing us to visit one of the moons of the second planet and pick up the weapons Red stored there. The items we were picking up were main guns he salvaged from an abandoned dreadnaught. They were needed to replace the plasma cannons that were destroyed on the battleship we disabled. The weapons were too large to fit inside of the Lucy's cargo holds but they would fit in the Hedgehogs.
One of the ships extended a docking tube to our main airlock. Amber and I left the bridge to meet our guest at the airlock with his payment. "Tanya, have Doc bring the prisoners to the main airlock." According to Red, we would be safe after turning over the cargo we were carrying to the Rylons.
Rylon was a system we didn't inhabit, trade with, or travel to for any reason. The Rylons considered humans a delicacy and hunted any trespassers. That made their planets and moons a safe place for Red to store some of his most valuable weapons. I didn't want to know the details about how he made a deal with the Rylons. I was sure it involved supplying them with warm bodies to feast on.
A team of crewmen met us at the airlock with 20 cryogenic pods. Each of the capsules contained an Alliance Officer. They were prisoners we recovered after our last battle. They were considered too dangerous to put to work in the mines in San Paulos. Red had them spared from execution. He explained, "Why waste their lives when they could be put to good use elsewhere?" Of course, that use was feeding the Rylons in exchange for safe passage.
Doc led a lone prisoner in irons and chains. He was the traitor that gave us away to the Alliance. His face was covered with a lot more bruising than I remembered and he wore a clean set of disposable coveralls. His head was tilted down. "Kill me," he begged. I smiled; this would be a fitting end to his life after putting my crew and me in danger.
The Rylons didn't kill their prisoners, preferring to feast on them while they were still alive. They didn't eat them all at once. The Rylons kept their humans live as long as possible, feeding on them a little at a time to make them last. To the Rylons, the bruising would make the meat a little more tender and more favorable.
I opened the airlock door. Two Rylons stood inside of the airlock waiting for us. They were insectoids but stood on their rear legs. The Rylons looked like seven-foot tall cockroaches, but they had pincers on the end of their extremities for tearing flesh when fighting or eating. At least they weren't arachnids. I hate spiders.
The Rylon made a loud; high pitched screeching sound. My universal translator translated what it said, "Have you brought the agreed payment?"
"I have what you requested plus a bonus. They are all healthy and detoxed per your instructions." I pushed the traitor forward.
The Rylon touched his face with one of his pincers. "We shall feast on him tonight while the meat is still tender. I have twenty empty cryogenic pods to exchange for the ones you bring us, but none for this one."
"It is not needed. Enjoy your meal."
"We shall."
The traitor and the rest of the prisoners were taken aboard the Rylon ship. Empty cryogenic pods were exchanged for the full pods we brought the Rylons. Our ships undocked from each other and we set our course for the second planet. One of the Rylon ships escorted their to ensure our safety. We were under their queens protection in exchange for the gifts we brought. No Rylon would be allowed to hunt us.
The second planet was a desert world, covered by rock and drifting sand. The atmosphere is mostly nitrogen and carbon dioxide with only 14% oxygen. Humans couldn't breath it and live, but the bugs thrived in it. Most of the planets life lived below ground in caverns and tunnels. There was an area covered by flat rock that we would be landing at. The bugs knew what we were coming for and had the gun turrets brought to the surface where we could load them aboard the Hedgehog.
"Natty is the homing beacon active?"
"It is, but I am having trouble convincing Minerva to land. She believes landing on the planet would be foolish. It would just make it easier for the bugs to eat us. If we want to die; we will have to find another way. She has switched on self preservation protocols and refuses to land."
"He had other ships to protect him while he was dropping off cargo."
"Red wouldn't have sent us here alone if he thought we would have problems with the Rylons. We paid their price plus a bonus to ensure our safety."
"Their queen can protect your from being hunted by her subjects, but not the renegades. According to my latest estimates there are over fourteen million renegades in her empire. Some of them may be here. Red chose this location to store some of his salvage because no one in his right mind would come here."
"Natty, try to convince Minerva to let us land here."
"I've been trying. She won't let us land unless we can convince him that we will be safe."
"Hack into her and override her preservation protocols. She doesn't have to worry about the Rylons; they can't eat her."
"I can't. My resources are limited without being in range of my core memory. There isn't enough memory in this avatar to transfer everything. I had to be very selective about what I packed."
"Minerva, our cargo handlers will be armed and wearing powered armor. There will also be armed guards in the cargo hold to prevent any bugs from boarding. We will be safe."
"Additional security methods must be in place to ensure your safety before I can allow you to land."
"What else is needed? We have your guns."
"If the bugs attack in numbers, my guns may not be enough to protect the ship. An additional means of protection is needed."
"Like what?"
"Bug spray." Minerva changed our viewscreen to show the design of a gas canister, similar to ones used for riot control, and a spring loaded launcher. The schematic showed that six launchers would need to be strategically located on the hull and each launcher would need to be supplied with ten canisters to dispense the gas.
"Jane, can you make the launchers and dispensers and mount them to the hull."
"They look simple enough. I can use liquid nitrogen for a propellant to disperse the gas, and the launchers are nothing more than spring loaded catapults. I will need Doc to make a fast acting poison that can be released as an aerosol."
"How long will it take?"
"I'll need a couple of hours to make the first canister and launcher. After that we can replicate the rest. Then I'll need a couple of hours to mount the launchers on the hull."
"Minerva, in five to six hours we will have the launching system ready and mounted."
"After the launchers are mounted, I will release the safety protocols and allow the ship to land."
We entered a geosynchronous orbit above the landing site until the modifications were completed. Minerva reset her safety protocols and began her descent into the planets atmosphere. Her heat shields protected the Hedgehog from the heat generated during our entry into the planets atmosphere.
"Amber, is there anything on our sensors."
"Our scans show that the landing site is clear. Red's guns are there waiting for us."
Minerva fired our braking thrusters, and activated our repulsorlift engines. She kept us directly over the landing site, bringing us straight down. The ship's main viewscreen changed from the forward view to show where we were landing. Red's gun turrets were huge. We were able to see them from an altitude of 20,000 feet.
Minerva landed as close as she could to the gun turrets. She kept the repulsorlift and main engines operating at minimal power so she could take off in a hurry if needed. I couldn't blame her. If Red wasn't my brother in law I wouldn't be doing this for him.
Minerva opened the cargo hold doors and lowered the ramp as soon as we touched down. Two gun turrets were waiting in cradles near the ship. We only had one loading vehicle capable of lifting the gun turrets enough to bring them aboard one at a time.
The loader was a tracked vehicle with a large, flat platform. Its platform could be raised or lowered as needed to lift or carry large loads of cargo, but it was slow moving. thankfully it didn't have to go far to reach our cargo. It took over an hour to load the first gun turret in our cargo hold. That was longer than I planned on staying on the planet and we still had one more gun to load.
The gun was lifted and on the way to the ship when the alarms sounded. Hoards of bugs were converging on the ship. It looked like every renegade bug in the empire was converging on us. Minerva fired her guns into the mass of attacking bugs. The high explosive rounds did little to slow them down.
I activated my comlink. "Jane get everyone into the cargo hold and prepare for take off."
"We can't take off yet; the loader is one ramp. We need a few more minutes."
"We don't have a few minutes. The bugs are attacking!"
"I can see that!"
Minerva's view screen split. Half of it was showing our forward view, the other half showed our tactical information. Millions of bugs were attacking from all directions. The bugs were well within range of our guns. Minerva fired steady bursts of our guns into the hoard but there were too many to stop. A red ring surrounded our ship. That was the range of our gas canisters.
When the bugs got within 200 meters of the ship, Minerva launched the first gas canisters. Whatever Doc mixed up was working. The bugs that entered the gas cloud instantly dropped to the ground and their limbs twitched uselessly. It only caused the bugs to pause for a few seconds before they renewed their attack.
Minerva launched a second, then a third set of canisters. A lot of bugs laid dying on the ground, but not enough.
"Jane, we have to hurry!"
"I just need another minute."
Minerva continued firing her guns into the mass of bugs and launched more canisters. We were down to twenty canisters when Jane signaled that the loader was inside. Minerva didn't wait for the cargo doors to finish closing. She launched the remaining canisters into the crowd of bugs and lifted the ship with the repulsorlift engines.
As soon as the cargo doors were closed and sealed she fired the main engines and we headed skyward.
"I'm tracking two Rylon ships on an intercept course with us."
Our missiles wouldn't be of any use to us. We were still inside of the planets gravity well and the missiles would expend their energy long before reaching the Rylon ships. They would have the advantage of firing down at us with increased missile range.
Amber activated our ECM and our PDC. Our gunners rushed to our gun turrets. We weren't high or fast enough to escape orbit, but we still might be able to use our altitude to our advantage. I relieved Natty at the helm station and took over the helm controls. I raised our deflector shields and our heat shields, then dove towards the surface of the planet. I wasn't flying straight down, but at a steep angle that would take us close to the surface.
The bugs tried accelerating to intercept us. I increased our engines to full power. The pull from the planet's gravity would give us a little more speed, hopefully enough. "Minerva, start calculating a jump to the Nueva Zelanda system." Plasma glowed blocking our forward view. Pretty soon it would start heating up in here, but we would be gone before then.
I watched our plot on the navigation monitor and made a few minor adjustments. We would be coming to within 30,000 feet of the planets surface. The shock wave from our speed would be devastating to anything on the planets surface within a few kilometers of our course. The plasma continued to glow around our ship. Our hull temperature was close to critical. I had no intention of slowing down or landing. Red would have to have the Hedgehog repainted. All of the ships markings and hull numbers were burnt away, and replaced by blue, magenta, and yellow caused by heating the metal. That was minor compared to the damage the bug's missiles would have caused.
The Rylons fired on us, unconcerned about the loss of life or damage to their tunnels and caverns. I wasn't expecting that. Shock waves from the explosions shook the ship. I held the ship steady and diverted more power to the engines. We flew close to the planet, then began climbing through the atmosphere. The explosions from the missiles grew more distant in our rear view.
There was nothing the Rylons could do to stop us now. We were out of range from their missiles and we gained a sizable lead away from them. The sky changed from blue to purple and then to the black of space on our forward viewscreen. Our rear view was still filled with the planet, but wouldn't be for long. "Minerva, engage the hyperdrive as soon as we reach a safe jump distance," I had, had enough or Rylon. It was time to get the hell out of here.
****
"Captain, our sensors indicate that their is a ship ahead of us. Scans show that it is a freighter," Amber reported
"Captain, its transponder signals identify the ship as an Orion class freighter. It registration shows it as being an Alliance starship registered Nueva Terra," Tanya added.
"Is she empty or full?"
"Short range scans show that the freighter is fully loaded. We will have to get closer to identify the cargo."
It had been a while since a plump target presented itself to me. Better yet it was an Alliance starship. The Alliance conscripted my friends and those that I considered as my extended family. They also stole my families wealth. During the last two years, I regained most of our lost wealth, but I hadn't satisfied my need for vengeance. The Alliance still had a lot to pay.
"Tanya, sound battle stations, all gunners to their weapon stations. Orders are to shoot to disable. We are going to take their cargo."