Angel was indeed asleep on the console. Her space suit was still active and she was still connected to the ship air supply. I linked to her suit and changed it back into a collar. She stirred, and saw me.
Meow?
"It's all over sweetie," I said.
I patted and tickled her. Picking her up, I carried her into the kitchen and put her down near her water. We both had a long drink. Jeeves bustled in and put some dinner in her bowl. She went over to it, smelt it, circled her bowl and finally started eating. I left her to it.
I found everyone in the makeshift mess on the Promenade Deck. I joined in eating, and even went to the extent of having a beer.
The soldier I'd given the shiner to, wasn’t there.
It was not yet nine. The entire battle had taken less than an hour and half.
Forty Three
The beer had been a bad idea. It increased my feeling of fatigue. I wasn’t ready to give in to the need to sleep yet, so had my medical monitor administer a stimulant.
There was no-one in the CCC when I walked in. I took a moment to look around. It resembled the Bridge on Gunbus, only much bigger. Stations were at regular intervals around most of the walls.
About a third the way back from what I assumed was the front of the CCC, a solitary chair sat, with activated hollo screens. I assumed this was the Admiral's chair. Oddly it wasn't in the center of the room. I couldn’t think why not. Behind it was a rather large empty space. I guess that’s what happens when you let an AI design a CCC without supervision.
I asked how many casualties the station had taken. Janet told me more than half the troops had been killed.
I asked Jane for the stats on the space battle.
"Gunbus took out two of the Cruisers and one hundred nineteen Talons," she said. "George made fifty two Talon kills. The other one hundred eighty nine were divided up among all the other pilots, although John Slice had a lot of them."
"How are the ships?"
"Excalibur is being repaired now. As are the drones. They'll be ready for use again in about four hours. Gunbus is being resupplied now. The patch will hold if need be, but she needs a shipyard for a full repair. As well as the hole, there's deck damage as well, not to mention the offices trashed."
"How many pilots did we lose?"
"Nineteen pilots were killed out of forty fighters lost. But four pilots are unaccounted for. Your friend Eric is one of them." I sighed. That was a blow. I'd liked him.
I pinged Slice to see if he knew what had happened to Eric. He responded he didn’t know, but the last time he'd seen him was near the jump point, and he looked to be out of control. Anything could have happened.
I sighed. We had won, but we'd paid a huge price tag for it. Just as well the next attack would not be until tomorrow. We had no real ability to handle another one now.
I went to medical to check on Alison.
She was awake, but not looking very good. She was in a hospital gown and propped up in bed, so her wounded side wasn’t touching anything. She smiled at me as I entered.
"My hero," she said. "They tell me I was seconds from death when you saved me."
"Seconds?"
"Well maybe I exaggerate a bit. But I wasn’t far from it."
"I hope you learned your lesson."
"Lesson?" She sounded confused.
"Yes, never say goodbye until the fat lady sings."
She laughed and cried out as her side hurt.
"You say the funniest things at times."
"Your welcome." I grinned at her.
She slowly moved her arm to my neck, and pulled me down towards her.
The kiss was long and sweet.
"Thank you for saving me, kind sir."
"My pleasure Madam. I'm a sucker for a damsel in distress."
She laughed and cried out again.
"Go away before you make me laugh so much I do more damage."
I caressed her cheek for a second and left her.
I wondered aimlessly for a while. The corridors were empty. The shadows menacing. I felt uneasy, like I'd missed something important.
Eventually I headed back to the CCC.
Seated in the main chair, I pulled my pad out and started a vid.
"Marshall, Admirals, and General. Midgard hit us with twelve Missile Cruisers and thirty squadrons of Talons this morning. We prevailed, but at a heavy cost. Warspite is completely out of action and is limping back to the Shipyard for repair. Repulse is damaged but still able to fight. The station was undamaged but we lost more than half our troops defending her. In the end, I had to open a whole deck to space to stop them breaking in to the rest of the station."
"We lost two Cruisers, two Corvettes and forty fighters. All surviving ships are damaged to some degree. Two of the Destroyers and three Corvettes are shipyard jobs, and lost most, if not all, of their crews. At the moment we're repairing what we can. The new fighter drones were a huge success. While badly beaten up, they're being repaired and will be operational again later today."
"I've not had time to check yet what else has been happening. It's taken time here to pick up the pieces, hence my late report. We're building a debris wall in front of the jump point, but the damage to ships is extensive owing to the Midgard's finally ensuring their crews were not affected by random hull breaches. We had to completely destroy the ships to stop them firing barrages. It hasn’t left us much to work with as a mine field."
"Anything more will have to wait. We're all dropping from fatigue here. Hunter out."
I assembled an email to the American Admirals, British Marshal and General Harriman. The latter wasn’t going to get it for a while, but he would in time. I sent it off.
I did a similar one for Miriam. I told her that Gunbus had been holed around Deck Two, and that another Gunbus had lost its hanger doors. Angel and I were fine, but we'd spent a fair while on suit air. She should tell Greer about this, in case they were design weaknesses we hadn't known about. I finished with a thrown kiss, but she would have been able to see how fatigued I was, and how lacking in romance I felt at the moment.
I started to get up to return to Gunbus.
A ping came from McLauchlan. I sat down again. He told me my Pocket Battleships would be launched over the next two hours and I could expect them within three hours after. I asked him if the Frigate had been fully fitted out as I'd requested. He answered in the affirmative. I smiled, and thanked him.
That was good news. In about five hours we would have more than enough firepower to repel whatever Midgard threw at us in the morning.
I pinged O'Neil to tell him the John Wayne was very close to being launched. Did he wish to catch a shuttle and meet her? He pinged back he was on his way.
I leaned back in my chair. It was much more comfortable than my pilot's chairs on Gunbus or Excalibur.
It had been a long morning, but things were looking up.
I fell asleep in the chair.
Forty Four
"JON!"
I jerked awake and almost fell out of the chair. It was Jane and Janet speaking together.
I'd been asleep for about an hour and a half.
"What?"
"Look."
The view screen was showing the jump point, with the scanner overlaid.
Six dull red dots had appeared at the jump point. I could see the small shapes of Missile Cruisers, in the distance, on the screen.
"You've got to be fucking kidding me!" I yelled.
… To be continued.
Jonathon Hunter
will return
in
Make or Break the Hero
Acknowledgements
Once again, a big thank you for Helen Ellis. My editor, sounding board, ear that listens, and experience which talks.
Also thanks to Egosoft, for allowing me to use images from their games, to make the cover of this book.
Special thanks to 'pref' from the Egosoft forums, for the specific image used for this book cover.
&
nbsp; A Message to my Readers
I’ve had a lot of fun writing this novel. There is still a lot of story to come, and I invite you to come along for the full journey with me.
If you've enjoyed this novel, I hope you will take the time to leave a review on the Amazon site. All reviews are greatly appreciated, as they help assist purchasing decisions by other readers. Sales and reviews will help me to focus on the next book in the series, which impacts how fast the next installment is released.
Please join me on the series Facebook Page:
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If you would like to be kept informed of new eBooks, updates and information from The Hunter Legacy universe, join the mailing list at http://eepurl.com/bqMgVz
Feedback is welcome on my Games Forum. http://apricotmappingservice.com/X3forum/viewforum.php?f=46
The Apricot Mapping Service exists as the author's personal in-game entity, for the computer games in the X3 series, by Egosoft. John Slice and other AMS characters, were originally used in fan fiction for mods, walkthroughs and guides for the games.
http://apricotmappingservice.com
The Egosoft website is at: http://egosoft.com
'Liao-Fan's Four Lessons' and 'Changing Destiny' are available FREE from any Amitabha Buddhist society way place. Or you can download a FREE PDF version from
http://aasariel.com/angelforums/viewtopic.php?t=32.
'The Wisdom of the Ages Volume 6 Accrued Karma' is available on Kindle.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KP5OYT8
Thank you.
Also by Timothy Ellis
These Kindle eBooks can be found on Timothy Ellis’ Kindle Author page.
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00HRTTIJG
The Hunter Legacy
Hero at Large.
Hunted Hero Hunting.
Send in the Hero.
Make or Break the Hero.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WL26P8G
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00YPIKC6U
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B011FH7TSM
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PC Games
The X3 Handbook.
The X3 Handbook for Albion Prelude.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EV43G3Y
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B010VYG67A
Spiritual
The Wisdom of the Ages is available for the price of asking a question.
The Wisdom of the Ages Volume 2.
The Wisdom of the Ages Volume 3.
The Wisdom of the Ages Volume 4.
The Wisdom of the Ages Volume 5.
The Wisdom of the Ages Volume 6 Accrued Karma.
The Wisdom of the Ages Volume 7 Healing the Indigo.
I want to go home, Ascension for the travelling soul.
Personal Healing using basic meditation.
101 Tips for the John of God Brazil Experience.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HQSORZI
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HV5C6WC
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IJBWRP8
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KF6QARQ
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KNMV9TQ
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KP5OYT8
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KP9BIPM
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LJVW71E
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HT087E0
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XVA1BKY
Feng Shui
Life Harmony, Feng Shui in Plain English.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EX4Y07S
Send in the Hero (The Hunter Legacy Book 3) Page 26