Hero at Large_Second Edition

by Timothy Ellis

  In effect, I was setting the guns up for maximum hitting potential at a very short range. Further out at a longer range, some might hit as the pulses diverged, even if my aim was off. But I was banking on being a good shot, at close range. At longer ranges, I'd be pumping out missiles. Missiles cost credits to use, where guns were effectively free, but for the moment, credits were less important than staying alive. The other thing I hoped to demonstrate if forced to it, was I was going to pack a wallop for anyone who came close.

  Having set up everything, I put the ship through its paces, turning, rolling, looping, and for a while, just enjoyed the sensations of flying.

  The last thing to test was jumping. If I was going to do that, I may as well go somewhere. But first, I needed to send some messages. I headed back to the Shipyard, and pinged Bob I was happy with the ship, and was going to jump out. If all went well, I'd head to Outback. I needed to prove I could get there, before risking taking Wanderer and a cargo there. He responded with a 'good luck'.

  I next headed for Sydney station. As I did a slow fly by, I pinged the General's aide I was off to Outback on a test flight. I also pinged the same to Amanda. I got an acknowledgement back from the General's aide, and another 'good luck' from Amanda.

  With the decision to go, and knowing my luck so far, I took the precaution of setting my suit into full space suit mode, had it plug into the seat's air supply, and double checked the seat air supply was full, and being fed by life support. It all checked out.

  I brought up the nav map, selected the jump point into Nexus 618 so it was targeted in the HUD, brought her round on course, and pushed her speed to maximum.

  "Jane, can you handle the jump please?" I asked.

  "Affirmative".

  As the jump point approached rapidly, I felt excited about finally being free to come and go as I wanted to.

  Without slackening speed, we jumped.

  Twenty Eight

  It was the speed which saved me.

  I knew immediately I was in big trouble. I sped past a double line of ships, all pointing toward the jump point, and within seconds, behind me.

  In those seconds, as I flashed past each, it fired its guns at me, missing, and fired its first missile. By the time I'd passed the last ships in line, I already had a dozen missiles coming after me, and a dozen more just being launched. The rear turret opened up, even before I was aware they were there.

  "Shit a brick, you have got to be kidding me!" I yelled.

  "Order not understood," said Jane.

  "Keep the missiles off me," I yelled.

  I had seconds to think. Were they 'stupid', 'STUPID' or 'Thank you for being so stupid'?" I had to act on one of them. I chose.

  I held the thrust at full, gaining space away from the ships themselves, which for now, were a lesser threat. Lesser in they couldn't actually catch me to shoot at me directly. That left their missiles, which were a major immediate threat.

  In the seconds I'd taken to think, the turret had taken out most of the first launch, and was now working on the second. The third was still out of range. I waited to see what the lead missile would do. I could take a couple of hits if need be. I couldn't take many of them at once, even with my stronger shields.

  A first one sailed past the turret, and instead of hitting me in the rear, it flew along my right side. As it came alongside the cockpit, it turned. I pushed the stick to the left, and the missile slammed into my right side shield. A few seconds later, I repeated this on the left side.

  "YES!" I yelled. "Thank you for being so stupid!"

  The missiles were IR's targeting the cockpit. No imagination in this bunch at all.

  I checked distances to the nearest ships. I had time. Missiles coming up on my right again, I swerved left as hard as I could, and held the turn. The missiles tried to come with me, and overshot.

  The thing about turning in circles, is two main factors define how tight you can turn. The first is the maneuvering thrusters. The more maneuverable you are, the better your turn. The second was speed. The faster you're going, the wider is your turn. So for missiles, being faster and less maneuverable, their turning circle was not as tight as mine.

  I'd learnt this one from a very old computer game. Fly the fastest, tightest circle you could, and let everything try to intercept you. In the meantime, you took advantage of what progressively crossed your sights.

  The turret continued to pick off missiles at a fast rate. Now I didn't have ships immediately behind me, I started pumping out FF missiles as fast as I could, while taking pot shots at missiles coming past my nose. Some got through, it couldn't be helped, and I kept one eye on my shields. The ships were nearly up to me now, and no longer bunched, but strung out in a loose line by pilot reaction, or lack of it, and individual speed. They were still launching missiles.

  I came half way around the next turn, and lined up with the lead ship. This time I was playing 'chicken'. I waited as the range came down. Head to head, I gave him four torpedoes, and he exploded. I shot up and over the debris, lined up the second ship, and gave it a full salvo from my front guns. It went red all down the middle of the ship, and just stopped dead. I threw the ship around it, and lined up the third. Guns not ready, I gave it four torpedoes as well. One missed.

  I went down the ragged line of ships firing guns or torpedoes at each, as I could. My flying had been totally erratic, but all the same, I took hits, and some of the missiles got through. I staggered off the end of the line, and went back into a defensive circle. Five ships tried to match my turn, and we started circling one another.

  Six ships and several dozen missiles did the dance of death. Time honoured since the invention of the first biplane fighters in the early 1900's.

  By now I only had IR's left in the launcher. I kept targeting the nearest ship with guns or torpedoes, and sending several missiles at a time after each. They did the same for me. I had speed and a turret on my side. They had a slightly smaller turn circle on theirs. And they were still aiming for my cockpit, which most of the missiles could not now get at, unless I pulled out of the circle.

  Craaack! A shield had gone down, and there was a hull breach along the left side. I evened up the shields, but they were getting low. The hits kept coming.

  Four enemy ships left. I had no idea where the other one was, but who cared? There were only four red dots surrounding me now, and only six orange missile dots. Four, two, none. The turret fell silent. They were out of missiles!

  I targeted the nearest ship, and hauled my ship out of the circle at it. It wasn't quite head to head, but it was close to it. At three hundred meters I fired my guns at him, and turned for the next nearest enemy. It was pulling in behind me, and the turret was doing its best to keep it out of my kill slot. I sent the last two IR's at it as I twisted away, and then called for Jane to reload.

  The third ship appeared in front of me, and I gave it six torpedoes, of which only three hit. The fourth ship was behind it, and firing at me as I turned.

  My ship staggered as a full gun salvo took down the left side shield. The end part of the left wing came off. The shield stayed down. Suddenly it was sluggish to turn left, so I had to compensate by turning around all the way from the right instead. More fire hit me in the rear, and the turret went silent, my speed fell, but the shield came back up.

  Two enemy ships left. All of us showed major damage.

  The missile launcher came back online, reloaded. I fired off six quick FF's, and continued to try to get behind the other two ships. I got a deflection shot on one of them, and hit with two of the guns. The ship staggered, and I waited to see if it would blow. It didn't.

  My moment of inattention cost me. There was another huge hit in the rear, and I lost speed completely. No main thrust, no thrusters. I still had power though. I sent off another six FF's.

  Not being able to do anything else, I watched them chase the last remaining enemy ship. He was damaged enough they were a real threat, and seeing as I was not going any
where, he tried to deal with the threat, but his guns missed. The six closed in on him. At the last moment, he ejected. The first missile hit, and the ship staggered, but held together. The rest of the missiles went dormant.

  "I took the liberty of deactivating the remaining missiles. I thought you may want what was left of the ship, rather than destroying it," said Jane.

  "Thanks," I said. "You were correct."

  I took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. I'd survived. I wasn't sure how.

  "What's the main damage Jane? System check please."

  "The engine is destroyed. Power plant is at fifty percent, and under repair. Shields are at twenty percent, and under repair. Rear turret repairable, but a low priority. Left wing badly damaged. Two guns destroyed. Most other systems under nominal, but acceptable. Hull breach has been sealed. No damage to living area. Life support fully functional, so there is no need for a full suit."

  "Is the Salvage Droid operational?"

  "Yes. It has two sleds available for use, plus the two the ship is equipped with. If need be, it can also be used to tow us home."

  "Are there any ships left in any way operational?"

  "Five. Two with cockpits destroyed, but most else in good shape. Two took lots of hull damage, but systems are repairable. One is not significantly damaged."

  "Would you be able to download in to each of those ships, and take control of their systems from any existing AI?"

  "I will make the attempts." There was a moment's silence. "Three did not have an active AI. They are now an extension of myself. One has extensive computer damage, and cannot be controlled. One had an active AI, and it has agreed to your ownership, and will take my commands."

  "Get them to all come here, close by. Choose the best one for towing Excalibur, and get us on its grav sled. Have the Salvage Droid clean up the entire area, and get everything on sleds."

  "By your command."

  "Are you kidding me? Where did you hear that one?"

  "Since coming online after the ship was built, I've been finding out about my owner, and determined you have a fondness for old flat screen series. This reference seemed appropriate."

  I grinned.

  "Hmmm, I wonder if getting the smartest AI available was really a good thing to do."

  "Is that a rhetorical question, or do you really want an answer?"

  "Work to do," I said, by way of answer.

  There was a grinding noise as the cargo bay door opened. I presumed it wasn't in too good a shape. As I watched, the Salvage Droid jetted out, and started to work.

  A channel opened.

  "Are you going to leave me out here?"

  "Me too. I don't have a lot of suit air left."

  I looked at the scanner. There were three grey dots representing ejected pilots. I closed the channel.

  "Jane, is there air supplies in the cargo bay?"

  "Yes, enough for six people without needing special arrangements."

  "Have the Salvage Droid retrieve the ejected pilots, take them into the cargo hold, connect them to air, and make sure they cannot move. Without harming them, of course."

  "Confirmed," she said.

  I shook my head as the connection to yet another reference was made. As I watched, the SD changed course.

  I opened the channel again.

  "Attention ejected pilots. My Salvage Droid will retrieve each of you in turn, and connect you to air in my cargo bay. Please do not attempt anything. My AI will be monitoring you, and at the first sign of anything hostile from you, one of my security droids will shoot you. If you are armed, toss any weapons you carry before the SD takes you in tow. If my AI detects a weapon of any kind on you, you will be shot."

  I closed the channel so I didn't have to listen to replies.

  "Jane, I don't really want to shoot them, but make sure they are not armed, before they enter the ship."

  "Will do."

  There was nothing much else I could do for now. I got up and stretched. I changed my suit back to a belt, but left it on hair trigger response to danger. The ship was air tight, and for now, I seemed to be safe. I was not going anywhere in a hurry, so safe was a relative term, until I could get moving again. I went into the living area, and freshened up. I had water on board, but no food. I made a mental note to always carry food, even if it was a test flight. I went back to the pilot's seat, and monitored the cleanup operation. The SD was efficient.

  Over the next few hours, one of the other ships was brought close, and Excalibur attached to a grav sled. The ship which couldn't be controlled was placed on Excalibur's lower sled. Above on the other sled went the ship which had agreed to my ownership. With the help of a repair droid on the uncontrolled ship, the grav sleds of both of those ships were filled, and overfilled. Likewise was one of the still functional ship's grav sleds, and it and the other ship took station behind us. Then as I watched, a grav sled became a gigantic pile of ship parts and hull fragments, as the SD cleaned up the entire area of battle.

  While I waited, I did the releases for the nine pilots who'd not survived the fight, and for the three in the cargo bay. Once cleanup was complete, the SD took the load, and attached itself to the sled of the last ship in the line.

  Finally, I gave Jane the command to take us back to the shipyard. The lead ship took the load slowly, and we started moving towards the jump point, with the other two ships following behind. I was amazed at how far away from the jump point the fight had gone.

  "Jane, can we jump like this?"

  "Yes. Records show as long as everything is connected, the entire mass jumps as a single object. There has not yet been any quantification of maximum size or shape which will go through a jump point as a single mass."

  Something of a relief. I'd had sudden visions of getting to the other side of the jump with less than half of what we started with.

  Eventually, we jumped.

  "Excalibur to Sydney Shipyard. You there Bob?"

  "Shipyard to Excalibur, you're back earlier than I expect…HOLY SHIT! What have you done to my new ship?"

  "I'm afraid I dinged it a bit."

  "Dinged it? That has to be a record! Brand new ship goes out on its test flight, and comes back in the middle of a scrap heap." There was a pause. "Are you all right Jon?"

  "I'm fine. Six damaged ships coming in, plus the wreckage of six more."

  "Sydney Station to Excalibur. Sitrep please."

  "Excalibur to Sydney Station. Excalibur twelve, Pirates zero. Sending the General the battle records now. I'll need a security detail waiting at the shipyard. I have three pilots to turn over to whoever wants them."

  I pulsed all the battle recordings and data to the General's aide. I hadn't looked at them yet. I hadn't had any time for details of who had been waiting for me. Which brought me up cold. How had they known I was coming? They'd been lined up waiting for me. On a hunch, I checked my Bounty Hunter Guild profile. Near the bottom was the notation, 'Test flight to Nexus 618'. I sighed.

  "Sydney Station to Excalibur, you are ordered to report to the General's office as soon as you're back aboard the station."

  "Will do," I replied.

  More than an hour later, we came to a stop close by the shipyard. Tugs took away the other ships, and the load the SD was pulling. The SD returned to the cargo bay. Excalibur was released by its tower, which Jane landed in its designated repair bay. Another tug took Excalibur to a repair bay.

  Once the bay was sealed and aired up, a set of stairs wheeled in with a squad of Marines behind. I opened the Cargo Bay door, and the Marines took charge of the three pilots. Once they'd been marched out, I cycled through the airlock, and met Bob at the bottom of the stairs.

  "Well my boy, you have indeed made the record books. The last recorded brand new ship brought back as a wreck within twelve hours of leaving the yard, was one hundred and twelve years ago, and that was down in the American sector. There also hasn't been a pilot make twelve kills on a solo flight, and make it back unhurt, in the last t
wo hundred years. You amaze me lad, how did you do it?"

  "I guess I ate my greens when I was told to as a kid." I grinned at him. "Actually, it was a lot of luck, a lot of stupidity, and a tactic from a very old flat screen space combat game which got me through."

  "What do you want me to do now?" asked Bob.

  "Repair Excalibur. I went through a lot of missiles, so replace those. Leave the other ships for now. Just inventory everything which is useable from the ships and the wreckage. I'm going to do some more thinking about ships. Excalibur couldn't have performed better, but they threw over two hundred missiles at me. Without the turret I'd have been dead meat within a minute of jumping. If it's going to be like this on a regular basis, then I'm flying too small a ship. I'll keep Excalibur. The General will doubtless want me patrolling as soon as possible, but I'm going to completely rethink everything." I paused for a moment. "Is there a tiny turret of any sort available? What I really need is point defense right above the cockpit for when you're going head to head. Until you get in gun range, missiles are the serious threat, and the pirates use them more than guns. I really need a forward pointing turret to take out what is coming at me. In fact, point defense is the single most important requirement for staying in one piece."

  Bob thought for a bit.

  "I think I know what you're referring to. Most turrets are designed for manual firing, with AI override secondary. What you want is a pure AI controlled turret. With no need for a person, it should be a fraction of the size. I know where I can get some specs. The rear turret looks like it needs replacing anyway. What say instead of replacing it, I put two AI only turrets in its place, top and bottom, and one just behind the cockpit pointing forward. For that matter, I could put another one underneath pointing forward as well. It would give you sixteen point defense guns, capable of firing at four different targets at the same time."

  "That sounds great. Would there be any room at the back for anything else?"