Hunter Legacy 9: Hero at the Gates

by Timothy Ellis

  Likewise, we'd had enough trouble with a few thousand missiles being launched from average sized ships during the Midgard war. What if something came at us throwing out tens of thousands of missiles at a time? Come to think of it, was the thousands of black dots in my nightmare oncoming missiles? For missiles to cause space to go black was so far outside my ability to comprehend, I was suddenly chilled. I made an effort not to show it, and turned my attention back to my pilots themselves.

  My senior pilots were growing up. They were beginning to think beyond the cockpit, a place most pilots hardly knew there was anything at all beyond. They were starting to think like small fleet commanders. I left them to it, without saying anything.

  Carter was discussing the possible medical needs of something much bigger than the biblical exodus. With her were most of her medical team, about half of Magnus' scientists, and Alison. The latter noted me entering, and nodded my way, before continuing to concentrate on what was being said.

  I'd thought about moving people. I’d thought about feeding them. But I hadn't given any thought to keeping them alive medically.

  And that wasn’t the worst of it. What were the ethical considerations of someone with a virulent disease at the time of evacuation? Did we leave them behind? Did we bring them on board and risk infection of an entire ship or station? Did we need to make sure the medical facilities on all ships had containment provisions?

  Which led to an even bigger issue of making sure all ships had as little as adequate medical facilities and provisions, as I seriously doubted most of them did. They were rigged for relatively short hops between stations from one system to the next. The possibility of them needing to run for weeks or months without stopping was something our society as a whole had no real concept of these days.

  Which brought me back to food requirements. Most ships only carried enough food for a short cruise, with some level of disaster rations in store. Not only were they not going to have food for a ship full of rescued people, they would probably have them on board for a lot longer than anyone expected.

  I headed back to my Ready Room in a very troubled state of mind.

  Something bugged me, but for the life of me, I couldn’t focus on it. I let it find its own way out, knowing it would sometime.

  Dinner was upbeatedly subdued. The tone of conversations was serious, but very positive. Ideas from one group were shared with others, and back again. It was a babble, and I kept myself out of it. I was the first to leave the table.

  Back in my Ready Room, Jane gave me a summary of what all the groups had covered. It took a while.

  One thing stood out from all else.

  We had no idea what was coming, what it would hit us with, and what we needed to counter it. If countering was even possible. The more it seemed we needed to prepare for an invasion, the more likely a spine wide catastrophic event would catch us unprepared.

  But evacuation was the key. There were a number of things which could be done, and I spent some time with Jane working them out. We needed time, and a lot of it, and had no idea if we would get it or not. All the same, we had to start as soon as we could. The planning could be begun immediately. The real work would have to wait until after the Door had closed, and we had, hopefully, more information.

  Jane turned my attention to weapons, and it became clear there was only so much she could do to tweak what we already had. We needed help.

  I sent off offers to each of the 'tool men' I'd come into contact with so far, offering them positions with Hunter Security, specifically to develop new weapons, new suit advancements, and anything else they could think of which might help. I offered them shares in anything developed which had civilian applications, suddenly reminded I'd once promised to find a way of doing cheaper suits designed for cats and dogs. I also contacted the administrators of the Shipyards I'd been to, asking them to recommend missile and weapons specialists I could recruit.

  I copied the lot to David Tollin, and told him to aggressively recruit the best he could find, and if need be, send Lightnings to pick them and their families up. By the time I returned to Nexus, I wanted a weapons development team up and running. If it meant building them a station dedicated to research and development, he was to get Janine to design and build it immediately.

  Angel made her presence known, and I gave my attention to her for a while.

  It was then I figured out what was bugging me. One of our requirements was to document how the first planet died. The problem was, how to do that without dying with it.

  If this was science fiction, I'd simply borrow a cloaking device from someone. But although they'd been working on them for centuries, no-one had come even remotely close to building one which actually worked. There were simply too many variables. It had to be invisible to the nav map and HUD. This could be done, as I’d discovered. But it had to also be invisible to mass detectors. Unexplained mass, particularly when it moved like a ship did, tended to get investigated. Even if you masked electronic presence and mass, you still needed to make it actually invisible in case someone looked out a window. Even then, you still needed to mask off any engine emissions, power emissions, and any sensor usage. Doing this in an atmosphere had its own additional problems.

  I asked Jane to research what had been achieved so far. Maybe we could adapt something, once we knew what we were up against.

  With too much on my mind, I finally went down to bed.

  Aline took one look at my face, kissed me goodnight, and fell asleep while I was still pulling my socks off.

  That night, I dreamed I was walking down a long dark passageway.

  Lights came on behind me, throwing my shadow out ahead of me as I walked.

  The white light of the Divine suddenly appeared in front of me, making it impossible to see anything else.

  I walked into it, and was gone.

  Twenty Five

  We down jumped into the Last Hope system a few minutes before five the next morning, on high alert. The Battleship had come on. I'd considered slowing down so we had the advantage as the Battleship down jumped in front of us, but on second thoughts, combat in the War system, so close to such a nasty asteroid field wasn’t a good choice. I’d made the choice before going to bed just before ten. Six and half hours sleep hadn't really been enough, but I could cope with it. The situation was pumping me full of adrenalin.

  The Last Hope system seemed to be at war. There were two friendly fleets on the other side, having recently jumped in from Morocco, with pirates scattered about trying to escape them. They were all coming towards where we were going to be jumping in.

  The big question was why.

  I didn’t have time to ponder it further. As soon as we appeared in the system, we were in range of the Battleship's main guns, and it opened up on us.

  I pulled our speed off, ponderously pointed Prometheus away from the Battleship, and pushed our speed up again. Having effectively more than doubled the length of ship the maneuvering thrusters had to move, with none of them at all along more than half the overall length, we'd lost the advantage BigMother normally had. So major course changes were now going to take time. I resented the need to do one now, but better safe than sorry.

  A full salvo of capital ship missiles left their launchers. They crossed with the pulses coming the other way. Half of the pulses missed, but my sudden turn, as ponderous as it felt like, had at least allowed us to take the hit on our rear shields. They went down by more than fifty percent, and I braced for the next broadside from the Battleship.

  There wasn’t one. It jumped into the War system. Only a handful of missiles hit before it jumped. Jane set the rest to inert, and sent out several salvage droids to recover them.

  I didn’t stop to wait for them though. I pointed us back on course for the Morocco jump point, and pushed our speed back up to near full.

  Inside the War system, the Battleship icon seemed to spin out of control.

  "Seems they hit that big roid," said Jane, with a grin
.

  The icon steadied, and moved slowly in-system.

  "Still moving though. Looks like they bounced off without killing themselves."

  "Where do they think they're going?" asked Grace.

  "Good place to hide?" suggested Dick.

  "Could be," I said. "But a ship that big is going to be in serious danger from the asteroids in there."

  "They won't have known that," said Amanda. "Didn’t we just say the system was full of asteroids, without actually saying how dangerous they were?"

  "True. Abigail, you better com the fleet commanders and advise them the Battleship jumped into a particularly nasty asteroid field, and not to go blundering in there after it. Much better if they blockade the jump point on this side and wait for it to come out. When I can get some forces here, I'll relieve them of the need, assuming it hasn’t come out on its own before then."

  "On it boss."

  "Jane, keep an eye on it. If it doesn’t come out by the time we're ready to take a station in there, we’ll have to take a force in to hunt it down. With luck though, it will come out on its own, and one of these sector fleets will take care of it."

  "Confirmed."

  An hour later, having managed a rushed breakfast, the next pirate ship came in range of our missiles. The Frigate died well before we came into range of its guns, from a salvo of missiles we sent it at long range. I wasn’t intending to stop for anything.

  Ahead of us, there were four Corvettes around a Cruiser, the five escorted by two squadrons of Gladiators. The Cruiser captain obviously carried some weight, as the Gladiators would have been better served escorting the now dead Frigate.

  Lacey popped up on a side screen, from the Bridge of Camel, where he always was when combat was likely.

  "Sir, let us take this group."

  "It means leaving you behind. I'm not stopping until we get to the Shipyard."

  "We can catch you up there. It'll take you at least a couple of hours to get Prometheus docked with the Shipyard. It should be enough time."

  "Two hours then. Not a minute more. We're on the clock, and it's ticking down far too fast for my liking."

  "Fine sir. Will you at least slow down so we can launch?"

  I groaned, but reluctantly agreed.

  I had a pretty good idea of who was going to launch.

  "George?"

  "Boss?"

  "No."

  "You take all the fun out of life. Sir."

  I let that go, but there were grins all around the Bridge. Camel and 266 I could afford to leave behind if it came to that. But Custer was the only ship I couldn’t at this point replace quickly. Besides, I'd never intended it to be used as a fighter.

  I pondered if this was the right thing or not. My sole aim at the moment was getting Prometheus to the Shipyard in one piece, and then getting home. The last thing I needed was combat damage of any kind. The gap between when the Door at home opened, and how long it would take to get home at top speed, was narrowing with every delay now.

  I sighed, and changed course to take us away from the small battle group coming at us. The sector fleets were still on the other side of the system from us chasing their own pirates, so were not a lot of help. And the last thing I needed other than combat damage, was pirates hiding out in the War system indefinitely, especially if they raided Last Hope for supplies periodically.

  A half hour later, we were far enough away to prevent us taking fire from the pirate fleet, but close enough my smaller ships could intercept them. We were also on the very edge of missile range. I slowed down to a normal Carrier launch speed.

  "Launch," I said.

  Camel and Unthinkable launched immediately, quickly followed by Tag'Em and 266 squadron. I opened my mouth to call Annette and the Centurion pilots back, but closed it again. Unthinkable wasn’t as fast as a Camel, although better armed, and the Centurions were a bit slower than the Excalibur's. But if the pilots thought they could make it in the two hours allocated for them to catch up, who was I to argue? Sure, I was the Admiral, but sometimes you had to let your people do their thing.

  "Fire," I said to Jane, and a salvo of missiles headed towards the Cruiser.

  I pushed our speed up again, angling away still. When we were well out of range, I put us back on line for the Morocco jump point.

  The two forces behind us met. Most of the missiles aimed at the Cruiser were intercepted by Mosquitos, but a few hit. But it left the Cruiser in full firing order, which bothered me. But all I could do now was watch. It was up to Lacey to fight this battle. The urge to turn around and finish the Cruiser was strong, but I resisted it.

  Lacey formed his Corvettes up into a line, with Camel in the middle, Tag'Em on his left, and Unthinkable on his right. The two faster ships matched speed with Unthinkable. The Excalibur's formed an arrow head in front of them, and the Centurions formed a line on both sides of the Corvettes.

  The Gladiators peeled off from the fleet and came towards my little one. They had numbers, but had no idea of just how outclassed they were. The Excalibur's moved to meet them, the Centurions remaining where they were.

  Lacey lined up the Cruiser, with each small group of Centurions lining up a Corvette each. On his order, the Corvettes fired at the Cruiser with all forward guns and a full salvo of torpedoes. The lead Centurions did the same at their Corvettes. Camel and Tag'Em, went high, while Unthinkable went low, the idea being to loop around the Cruiser to have a go at the Corvettes on the other side. The lead Centurions also went high, the next low, and the last high, after they had fired at their targets.

  The Cruiser fired a broadside towards my Corvettes, and almost immediately exploded. The two Corvettes on the same side also died a few seconds later.

  The icon for Unthinkable vanished.

  "Annette!" yelled Annabelle.

  There was no answer from ship coms, and we were still in range. All we were getting was normal combat chatter, which made me wonder if anyone had realized Unthinkable was gone.

  One of the Corvettes on the other side of the Cruiser took some of the torpedoes which missed, and started tumbling off to one side, and down. The other one saw Camel coming, and decided to go head to head, which ended badly for it a few seconds later. Camel tore through the remains, and dived into the middle of the remaining Gladiators like an avenging angel.

  We passed out of range of ship coms before the last of the pirates was destroyed.

  I could feel several looks burning into me, and I didn’t need to turn around to know whose. But I wasn’t stopping. I'd made that clear. All I could do for now, was hope Annette had survived, and someone would pick her up before her life support ran out.

  It was a good, long, ten minutes before we heard anything.

  "Email from Lacey, Jon," said Jane.

  I threw the vid to a side screen.

  "Annette's ok," he said with a grin.

  There were cheers all round.

  "She took the full broadside from the Cruiser a few seconds after it blew up. Most of the top half of Unthinkable was destroyed, but her suit protected her. She ended up in space, with her chair intact, and managed to get back aboard. Nightshade was only damaged slightly, and she's in the process of launching from the wreckage. I suspect she'll have to shoot her way out the hanger doors. Once she's free, she can dock with me. More when I know anything."

  The vid ended. Nightshade was her original ship, and while updated, was slower than the Centurions. Had she been on her own, she'd have ended up arriving back at the Shipyard well after we'd left.

  Over the next few hours, more pirates died. But the casualties were not one sided, as both sector fleets had lost ships, and taken damage. There was nothing I could do. We couldn’t get there any faster than we were going already, even if I’d wanted to, which I didn’t.

  Annette had been our only casualty, although one of the Centurions was now tucked up in Tag'Em's hanger. Lacey updated us with her successful docking with Camel, and the Camel's and 266 squadron were now follo
wing after us at the top speed of the Centurions. This allowed Camel to tow the remains of Unthinkable, while Tag'Em was towing the damaged and surrendered Corvette.

  With nothing about to happen for a while, I suggested everyone go and do their own thing, and moved into my Ready Room. Angel followed, and went to sleep on my lap. I reviewed Lacey's attack plan, and couldn’t find anything wrong with it. Annette had simply been unlucky the Cruiser had been able to get off a shot, and had chosen to fire everything it had at her. Even so, she'd slipped a lot of the pulses, but there had simply been too many to avoid all of them on the course they were flying. I wondered how she was feeling.

  Sure enough, an email came in from her shortly after.

  "Sorry boss. I screwed up and cost you a ship. I've been so comfortable flying Unthinkable, I'd forgotten she was only a Corvette. She's probably salvageable though. I've included the scans. While I’d like to see her rebuilt, I still want to go to Outback, so I guess you need to rethink my assignment. I can fly Nightshade with 266 if Jane tinkers with getting some more speed out of her. Sorry boss."

  I pulled up the scans.

  "Jane?"

  "Not salvageable."

  "Not at all?"

  "While a lot of her is intact, the core structure is compromised too much. Best we can do is salvage what we can, and use it to build a new ship."

  "Damn. Do we need a new Corvette?"

  "You’re the boss. What do you think?"

  "We need more Cruisers and bigger. And we do need pilots for them."

  "Give her a Cruiser?"

  "I'll think about it."

  It was something to think about. If what I thought was coming did indeed come, we were going to need a lot more than we had. And I didn’t have the people for what I already had. Sure I could leave piloting to Jane, but it was far better in combat to have a person flying the ships.

  "Homer's command crew are going stir crazy."

  "And this is relevant, how?"

  "Just talking about Cruisers and bigger."