"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.
Thirteen
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.
Fourteen
I remained on the Bridge alone. Angel had vanished. I slid off my chair and walked into my Ready Room, with my pad, and the remains of my bottle of water. The lounge chairs looked more comfortable, so I eased myself into one. It was.
"Can you let Janet know the location of the battle, so they can pick up salvageable hulls, and clean up the battle site into a single hazard zone?"
"Confirmed."
"What was my kill count this time?"
"Fifty nine."
I sighed. Well I'd decided to take the battle on personally. It came with a price. More releases. I took myself into a meditative state, and did them. A peep noise from my pad brought me out again a little later.
An email from Chief McLauchlan had come in. He'd included specs to turn a comsat into a combined comnavsat, and suggested any repair droid could make the modification with basic spares available. I sent the email on to John Slice, suggesting he convert all of them.
I also asked him if I could buy some for later use. I still had unfinished business in the Australian sector, and knowing what was moving around Nexus in real time, could make a big difference.
I sent George a position update, in case that brought him back faster.
The next email was from Miriam. I threw the vid to a screen.
"Are you alright Jon? Really? You looked like shit. Worse. Why aren't you in a hospital? Okay, silly question, there's a war on. I know you have to be where you are. Please take it easy. Remember you've bigger ships with you. Let them take the risks."
A sheepish expression came over my face, thinking about what I’d just done.
"Take care of yourself. If you don’t, I'll have to get some of your team, to make sure you do." She blew me a kiss, and the vid ended.
She would too. She outranked most of them, so they would probably take an order from her.
I needed some music, I thought. I hunted through my orchestral library until I found something appropriate. Da da da dah, da da da dah, began Beethoven's fifth. I lounged there, closed my eyes, and immersed myself.
"Jon."
I startled awake. The music was still going, now well into the third movement.
"Yes?"
"Email from John Slice."
"Thanks."
I picked up my pad again. He'd arrived at Atlantis, and was just setting out for the Avalon jump point. He was already getting some comsats modified, and yes, I could buy whatever he had left if I wanted them.
"Contact."
I limped out, and sat in my seat again. Jane switched the music off behind me.
"Sitrep."
"Standard Midgard fleet. Oh."
"Oh?"
"They just stopped."
"Oh oh."
"Oh."
"More oh?"
"They just started to reverse course."
"Oh no."
"Oh yes."
"Oh Damn."
"Oh."
"Even more oh?"
"Down jump. There's another fleet at the jump point now."
"Oh."
I should've seen this coming. The next fleet was on its way to Atlantis, with the one behind it just jumped in. At a guess, we were travelling twice as fast as they were. But they were much closer to the jump point. For us, it was an hour and half away. For them, roughly the same.
I sat there for a moment, before opening ship coms.
"The good news is, there will be a delay before the next engagement. The enemy are fleeing ahead of us now." Cheering came up the staircase. "The bad news is, they'll make it back to the jump point before we catch up with them, and join up with another fleet. Prepare for combat in about an hour."
I closed the coms.
Jane and I discussed tactics as I watched us draw closer to the fleeing fleet. In theory, we were outnumbered two to one, although in terms of sizes, it was five and a half to twelve, ignoring the Talons. In terms of firepower, we were still outclassed. But it was quantity verses quality. The trick was making sure quality won out.
I did an email advising there were two fleets at the jump point, and we were going in. If something went wrong, at least the brass behind us would know what the odds were.
The closer we came to the fleeing fleet, the more obvious it was. We were't going to reach them in time to stop them joining the other fleet.
Custer dropped back slightly in the formation, so we were behind the Guardians. Jane closed the Guardian formation up, so there was little more than missile firing room between them. Custer rose up behind them, and assumed a tail position above and behind the middle Guardian.
"Half hour to contact," I said into ship coms. "Decide where you want to be folks."
I limped off to my bathroom. On the way back, I found Angel on top of her kitty castle.
Meow?
"Bridge time sweetie pie."
She jumped down each level, and rushed ahead of me. By the time I was back in my chair, she was sitting upright on her console cat mat.
Over the next fifteen minutes, Vonda and most of the team appeared on the Bridge. Alsop was noticeably absent this time. So was Alana.
> "Buckle up everyone," I said into ship coms.
I checked my straps, and wished I'd gone down to the Med Bay for another pain shot. Too late now.
The ships in front of us, now clearly visible in the distance, slowed and stopped. Those at the jump point moved to join them.
We slowed to a stop as well.
Before us, twelve Missile Cruisers formed a wall, six wide and two high, all side on to us.
"Creep us in Jane. The moment we hit maximum missile range, stop and fire."
"Confirmed."
"Get salvos off to all the Cruisers, then immediately launch Mosquitos and reload."
"I know what I'm doing."
The tone indicated stress. For an AI, that was amazing. Maybe not though. Given what she now had to do, anyone would be stressed. Vonda and Annabelle gave me speculative looks. I gave them the 'It'll-be-alright' grin. They didn't look reassured.
We stopped. Three hundred missiles left their launchers. Two thousand, four hundred missiles came back at us.
For fifteen long seconds, we sat there waiting.
The next three hundred missiles left their launchers.
Another fifteen agonizing seconds passed.
One hundred and twenty more missiles headed outward.
Jane spun all our ships upward and over their center points, pointing us back the way we'd come. We accelerated away from the incoming missile barrages. The view on the screen changed to the rear.
Twenty Two Mosquito launchers fired at the same time. For six seconds, Jane was completely tied up on all ships, while she targeted each Mosquito missile.
Now at top speed, we fled before the massed barrages aimed at us.
A second barrage launched from the jump point, as the Midgard Cruisers completed their rolls to bring their other side launchers to bear.
The first five Missile Cruisers exploded moments later.
Mosquitos intercepted capital ship missiles at long range from us, and a wall of explosions lit up space. Even so, some came through.
"Beyond range," said Jane, and radically altered our direction.
The remaining missiles no longer had fuel, so they would not be able to change course to hit us. They were purely ballistic in the direction they were fired. From far enough away to avoid explosions, Jane raked them with Point Defense fire, and the remaining missiles of the first barrages, died.
Make or Break the Hero (The Hunter Legacy Book 4) Page 9