The first three barrages faltered as most were destroyed and only a handful impacted the shields of the battleships.
Three more barrages were on the way now. Again, one each for the Battleships, the other for the station.
Jane increased the size of my scanner screen so I could make sense of the globs of colour.
A new set of dots caught my eye. Assault shuttles I guessed. The first three Cruisers had launched them before dying, and the next three had launched them before doing anything else. The Talons were forming a screen around them.
"Assault shuttles inbound," I said.
"Noted." Sounded like Annabelle, but it could have been anyone.
I was losing track of the battle now. Too much was happening.
I needed to pay attention to the incoming barrages. Jane emptied the second IR magazine. The second barrages again had a handful make it through. The shields on the Battleships were now stressed. I checked the station, and its shields were fine.
One of the Midgard Cruisers exploded, but all three had launched their second barrages. Talons winked out as IR's and FF's took them. Shades winked out as the Point Defenses failed to protect them, concentrating as they were on the capital ship missiles.
It was going to be close.
Capital ship missiles began exploding again, as a second Midgard Cruiser exploded.
"JON!" yelled Jane. She highlighted some dots.
Six more Missile Cruisers had just jumped in together.
"Switch targets. Six new Cruisers at the jump point. Battleships take the end ones. Station take the middle left one. Cruisers and Destroyers take the other two on the right.
Suddenly we went from balanced to deadly. The enemy now had the upper hand. Talons were still jumping in.
So that was what the dreams had been trying to tell me.
Layered dreams, layered attack? I wished they were more explicit.
A capital ship missile slammed into Gunbus' shields, followed by some smaller ones.
The need to move and to act was tearing me apart. I had to stay where I was. Repulse and the ships behind me depended on it.
I targeted the one untargeted Cruiser, locked it, carefully lined it up, and fired three torpedoes. Twenty one torpedoes sped off towards it.
"Jane, clusters," I said.
Each cluster loosed thirty six torpedoes. Seventy two aimed for each Cruiser.
The trouble was, torpedoes had no guidance. Your aim had to be impeccable to hit at this range.
I'd completely lost track of time now. The fourth IR magazine was loading. The second FF magazine was nearly empty.
The barrages kept coming.
Warspite staggered as her shields went down and a missile blew a hole in her side. One of the Corvettes simply vanished.
The most damaged of the Midgard Cruisers blew. I didn't see what took her out. Five remaining. Four. Three. Torpedoes from the clusters hit their targets.
I took a hard look at one of the remaining Missile Cruisers. Its shields were down. There was at least one hole in the hull. As I watched, it launched another barrage.
"Heads up people. We need to destroy the Cruisers completely. They seemed to have solved their decompression weakness."
"Figures," said George. It sounded like his teeth were clenched.
The clusters fired torpedoes again. This time it was a little more ragged. I cast my eye on them and found all of them had drones that were now inactive.
Missiles slammed into Gunbus and her shields failed. No damage, but that had been close. The shields started to regenerate.
Two. But three more barrages were on their way. One.
WAM. Gunbus staggered. Our suits snapped into space suit mode, and in seconds the air was gone. I looked at Angel. She stood firm on her cat pad, and I saw her claws were on the outside of her suit, holding her in place against the out draft. Jane's hand hovered behind her in case she couldn’t hold herself. Our suits sent out air connections, mine to my seat behind me, and Angel's to the connection under the helm console.
"Hit on Deck Two. Repair droids on the way." Jane was matter of fact.
Zero. The last Cruiser exploded. The last barrage was gone.
"Break and attack by flights," I said.
In a predetermined dance, the fighters all peeled away from their Battleships and moved to engage the cloud of Talons.
Gunbus' shields were only at five percent.
"Jane, concentrate on keeping us safe until the shields come back up."
"Confirmed."
I headed for the nearest Talons. Space was thick with them. Missiles were going in all directions.
A flight of four turned to face me. I fired two torpedoes. Fourteen torpedoes hit four ships and I juked around them.
"Chalk four up for the Maniac," I said quietly. Someone laughed.
Guns on gatling fire mode, the side heavy turrets cycling with my main guns, I blazed a path through the formations of enemy Talons. Jane pumped IR's out while I was shooting at what I could see in front of me. We took hits from guns, but slowly the shields restored themselves.
I didn’t fly straight for more than a second at a time, moving randomly.
The rear launcher ran out of missiles and the reload droids were too busy reloading the front magazines to do anything about it.
I started using torpedoes more often, especially with groups of Talons close together.
The combat babble was overwhelming, and I took a moment to turn it down.
Two Shades almost collided with me, and I suddenly realized we were thinning them out at last.
I started to take the time to select targets instead of firing randomly. Select, Lock, Fire. Select, Lock, Fire. Select, Lock, Fire.
The dance of death went on and on.
A shade blew, off to one side, and I turned to take the shooter. Select, Lock, Fire.
Gunbus ran out of missiles. The torpedo launcher was being reloaded.
Select, Lock, Fire.
Twenty reds left. Ten. Five. Two. None.
The dance stopped, as those of us left brought our ships to a stop, and looked around to see who had survived.
Forty Two
Warspite looked dead. She had several large rents in her side, and one of her main turrets was completely missing.
Repulse looked battered. She had one large hole in her side, and several of her turrets were obviously damaged.
The station looked intact.
Excalibur pulled up alongside me, looking the worse for wear, but at least George was alright.
Apricot One pulled up on my other side. Her hanger doors were missing.
I looked for the other capital ships. Neither Cruiser was anywhere to be seen. Two Destroyers were moving, the other two looked dead. Only one of the Corvettes looked fully functional, and two were gone. I'd seen one of them vaporized.
Of the fighters, only ten of the Shades remained. There were three Epees, and all five Sabres. Four of the Mustangs had survived and all twelve clusters, although they looked battered. There was no sign of any of the Explorers.
The debris field spread across a huge area of space.
"Gunbus to Warspite, anyone alive over there?"
"Yes, but only just." It was Admiral Dingle.
"Can you move? Or do you need a tow?"
"That'll be the day! No, we can move."
"Start back towards the Shipyard as soon as you can."
"Aye sir." He didn’t sound very happy. Then again, I wouldn’t either, with my command a wreck.
"Admiral Bentley, sitrep please."
"We're mostly here. We have one vented compartment and we lost a few people in there, but we're still functional. Or will be once we get some shields back up."
"Sounds like most of the rest of us. Pull back from the jump point and start repairs. All ships. Those of you with functional life support and major damage, head back to the shipyard. If you can, ride shotgun on Warspite. Those who need to, land on the station. The rest of you, if t
hat leaves anyone, take up a CAP role around Repulse."
"Jane and Janet, send out all the SR droids. Also, send out all the salvage droids. Have the dead looking Destroyers and Corvettes towed back to the shipyard, and have the rest begin moving the largest pieces of debris to build a wall in front of the jump point.
"Confirmed."
"Yes my Lord."
"General Smith, sitrep."
"Jon? Glad you survived. Can you help us? We still have major forces on the Docking Deck. We have them blocked from exiting for now, but they're wearing us down. They more or less have us pinned against the exits. That plan you talked about. We're going to need it."
"On my way. Start withdrawing anyone who won't like it."
"On it."
"Jane, take us to the station please. When will the hull breach be sealed?"
"Not in time."
"Does the Cargo Bay still have air?"
"Yes. I locked the hatches before the battle, on the basis that the most vulnerable place was the airlock."
"Vent it to storage, please. Have Jarvis bring me an air pack."
"Confirmed."
Angel was looking at me, obviously not happy. I opened a channel from my suit to hers and told her everything was going to be alright, but she needed to stay where she was for now. I was going to have to leave her alone, so the best thing she could do was curl up and try to sleep. She hunkered down immediately and while she didn’t sleep, she looked a bit more comfortable. I noticed her claws had now retracted, and the suit fully covered her paws. We still had gravity, but no air. So she was safe where she was, as long as she didn’t break the connection with her air supply. I didn’t think that was possible for a kitten, but I worried all the same.
Jarvis came in with an air pack. I let myself loose from the chair, and disconnected myself from the chair's air supply. My suit air would last for a while, but not long enough for what I thought might be needed.
I took a deep breathe, held it, closed my eyes, and rolled my suit down to my waist.
Damn that was cold. I immediately began to shiver, while I shrugged the air pack onto my back. As soon as I had it in place, I shifted back to full space suit. I opened my eyes again, and breathed heavily a few times. The shivering continued, slowly coming to a stop a few minutes later.
"Jon?"
"Alison?"
"I need evac Jon. I was separated, and had to flee from a large group of enemy soldiers. I'm hiding at the moment, but I think they might have found me."
"Where are you?"
"Tach six."
She was not far from one of the docking airlocks.
"Get on suit air and wait, I'm coming for you."
The station was close and I told Jane to swing around to the airlock nearest Alison's position.
I motioned to Jane and we raced downstairs. In the armoury, I grabbed a pulse rifle.
Sniper.
I grabbed that as well, and slung it over my back. We hurried into the Cargo Bay. The doors were opening as we arrived there. The station loomed ahead.
"Bring us into jumping range," I told Jane. "General, are you ready?"
"Sorry everyone. They've got me. Goodb…" Alison's voice cut off abruptly.
"Hunter. DO IT!"
"Jane, go."
Jane leapt across the gap to the airlock's outer controls. She opened the panel, and the outer doors slid open. She plugged herself into the data port, and the inner doors slid open as well.
The air of the Docking Deck rushed out like a hurricane. With it came lots of small items that hadn't been bolted down. When it eased, I jumped across into the airlock. A guidance arrow popped up as I thought of the way to Alison's position. I ran as fast as I could, Jane behind me. In the distance I saw four shapes moving slowly, firing away from me.
I stopped abruptly, and Jane had to swerve around me. I pulled the Sniper rifle off my back, sighted in on the first target, locked my limbs so I couldn’t move, exhaled, and gently pulled the trigger. The first man went down. I unlocked enough to sight in again. Number two went down. I repeated this for the next two, each one going down with a single shot. I cancelled the limb lock, and started running again, throwing the rifle over my back as I went.
I slowed as I came upon several dozen dead soldiers. Not far beyond them were the four I'd just shot. These four seemed to have breathing gear of some kind. Not that they needed it now.
"Alison?" I called.
No answer.
I continued to follow the guidance arrow.
At last I found her. She was slumped against a wall. There was an ugly wound on her right side. Her suit was no longer protecting all of her, the wound was exposed, and in the process of freezing solid. She looked dead. I reached for her suit buckle and attempted to take control of it. It shouldn’t have worked, but it did. Our suits merged, mine flowed over hers, and sealed her in.
I pinged her PC with a bounce back request. If she was still alive, it would answer the ping. If she wasn’t, I'd get nothing.
The bounce back worked.
"I've got her," I said. "She's alive, but out cold and wounded."
"Thank God," someone said.
I threw the pulse rifle to Jane and picked her up.
I muttered a question about where the nearest med unit was. A new guidance arrow popped up. I followed it into the station as fast as I could.
"Are there any hostiles still active?" I asked generally.
"No my Lord," said Janet. "All down now. It seems there were a handful with each unit that had breathing gear."
"I noticed, I had to shoot four on my way in."
"Is that you, boss? I can see someone moving towards me. Wave if it's you."
"BA, I can't bloody well wave. I'm using both hands to carry Alison."
Jane waved from behind me.
"Okay boss, I see Jane waving. We have a medical transport capsule on the way."
I changed the guidance to show me where the medical capsule was. It led me straight on. BA was waiting by a jury rigged airlock, with the door open. I stepped inside. She slammed the hatch closed and the airlock cycled. The hatch on the other side opened, and I stepped out. The arrow showed me the way, and I started moving again as fast as I could.
The Medical capsule met me two minutes later. The medic with it slid the cover open. I retracted my suit from Alison and slid her into the capsule. The cover closed.
BA caught me up. She slapped me across the arm, and then took off with the medic and the capsule.
I sighed, and asked for guidance to the CCC.
I walked with Jane, feeling increasingly tired as I went along. Whatever adrenalin rush had taken me to Alison was gone now, and the fatigue I now felt, was threatening to take over.
When I arrived at the CCC, I asked Jane to terminate the team coms.
Outside it was a row of combat suits.
Inside I found the rest of the team.
"How is she?" asked Amanda.
"Not good," I replied. "She has a nasty wound in her side, and she's out cold. It was cold enough for frostbite too."
"Why didn’t she explosively decompress," asked Aline.
"Her suit looked like it was in the process of shredding when I arrived. I can only guess that when the deck decompressed, she was out, but still fully protected from decompression. The ones with breathing gear kept shooting at her, and as it reached critical integrity, the suit started shrinking, trying to keep her alive with what was left of itself. I got to her in time I think. I don’t know why, but her suit accepted my control and I merged her suit with mine while I took her to the airlock."
The twins hugged me. And then the rest were as well.
After, I turned to Vonda and O'Neil, standing away from the rest.
"How did we do here?"
"We took some hits," said O'Neil, "but the shields held. The new anti-missile system was a life saver. Without it we'd have taken major damage for sure. We lost a lot of troops."
I spotted a chair and sa
nk into it.
"Janet?"
"Yes my Lord?"
"Spin us around and move us back from the jump point. Put us at the longest range for Battleship guns, and point us back to the jump point. Have Repulse move to a similar place."
"Yes my Lord."
"How are the salvage droids doing with the debris?"
"The major pieces are now in place, but they won't be too effective at stopping down jumping ships yet. The work continues."
"Did the SR droid check the dead looking Corvette and Destroyer hulls for survivors?"
"They did. None were found."
I shook my head. We had lost a lot of people today.
"Commodore, when the station is repositioned, have the remaining Corvettes and Destroyers dock and the crews stand down." He nodded. I turned to Annabelle. "General, have the troops stand down. I'd suggest a special mess, where we can all eat before we fall asleep." She nodded. "Janet, close up the opened airlock, and re-air the Docking Deck please. There will need to be a cleaning crew assigned as the place is a little messier than usual."
There were some smiles at this.
"Yes my Lord."
I turned to Vonda.
"Anything to add General?"
She nodded, and touched a couple of controls.
"Well done everyone." Her voice was coming through the station com system, and I suspected going to all the ships as well. "You pulled off a miracle this morning. They hit us with twice what we were expecting. We prevailed. Job well done." She closed the coms.
George and Slice entered, found themselves seats and slumped into them. They looked like I felt.
Angel.
Shit! I jumped up and ran for Gunbus.
"Hell," said George from behind me. "First time my arrival has made him do that."
"Jane. Is Angel alright?"
"Yes Jon. She's asleep here on the console."
"What about the hole? Has it been repaired yet?"
"A jury rig is almost finished. Gunbus really needs a shipyard."
"Can you dock her properly and let the station air re-air her?"
"Already docked. I was about to open the Cargo Bay doors."
"I’ll be there shortly."
I arrived at Gunbus pretty well pooped. I was breathing heavily as I went up the stairwell. On Deck Two, I saw where the temporary patch was, and the repair droids still working on it. It looked like Vonda's office had taken the brunt of the hit.
Send in the Hero (The Hunter Legacy Book 3) Page 25