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 that was a hull breach along the left side. I evened up the shields, but they were getting low. The hits kept coming though.
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 that they were a real threat, and seeing as I was not going anywhere, 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? Systems 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. Life support fully functional, 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 minute’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 have 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 see that 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 that couldn’t be controlled was placed on Excalibur's lower sled. Above on the other sled went the ship that had agreed to my ownership. The grav sleds of both of those ships were filled and overfilled. Likewise was one of the still functional ship’s grav sled, 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 had 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 that 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 that will go through a jump point as a single mass.”
That was 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 had been lined up waiting for me. On a hunch, I checked my Mercenary 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 are 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 had 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 two 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 that 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 are 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 are 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. That 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?”
“What else are you thinking about?”
“I had to wait before firing missiles today. I was going flat out to stay ahead of them, making missile firing risky until I turned. What I could have used was another missile launcher in the tail, firing FF’s straight behind me. Granted, no fighter is ever supposed to go up against twelve to one odds. But I didn’t get the chance to avoid those odds today, and next time could be more of the same. I need to be firing on them even when I'm running away. I don’t mind if putting a launcher in the middle of the rear pushes the two turrets higher and lower. I guess the main issue will be power.”
“I’ll run some simulations and see. But it sounds doable to me. Okay. No problems, leave it with me. I’ll let you know how the repairs go, probably a couple of days. I know you’re good for the credits, so we’ll haggle after you decide what you want to do next. Shuttle will take you back to the station as soon as you like.”
Bob headed off, while I went back up the stairs, opened my travel sleds, and made sure everything I needed for a hotel was in one of them. I sent it to the bottom of the stairs, cycled through the airlock myself and code-locked the hatch.
Travel sled following after me, I headed for the Shuttle bay. Once on board, I pinged the General’s aide to say I was on my way, and asked if I could drop off at the hotel, or did he want me to go straight there. I made a reservation at the station hotel for a smaller suite than I’d had before. I pinged Amanda I was on my way to the station and available for whoever was free for dinner. Then I took out my pad and spent the time in flight checking mail. Before docking, my Mercenary Guild profile had been amended to eighteen kills, and my location to ‘Sydney station pending repairs’. I was going to have to stop that.
Twenty Nine
I was given the go ahead to drop off at the hotel before I docked, as well as instructions for a dress uniform. Something must be going on if everyone was dressing up.
Amanda met me at the shuttle dock. We hugged and left immediately.
“How was your test flight?” she asked as we headed off towards the hotel.
“Good. Really good in fact. She is a nice ship. Had a few little problems though, so she's getting a bit of work done. Hopefully it won’t take long.” She accepted this without further comment, so I guess she hadn't heard anything.
At the hotel, I repeated my request for a smaller suite, checked in and was taken to the same suite as before. I sighed as I walked in. This time, like it or not, I was paying the bill when I checked out.
I quickly unpacked. Then took off my outer clothes and hung them to be cleaned. I went into the bathroom and freshened up, before changing the suit into a dress uniform. Guns back on and I was ready to go.
Amanda wolf whistled me as I came into the sitting room. “I love a man in uniform,” she said with a grin. I waved her off and went into the kitchen for a quick snack. And back to the bathroom for a teeth clean.
A ping came in from the General’s aide advising me he was ready for me, so we left immediately for his office. As we arrived, we were directed to a conference room instead. We walked in to find a large gathering of people.
On the right, standing to attention, were a dozen or so officers I had not seen before. On the left, was the crew of Moose. Amanda joined her team. In front of me was the General,
and he waved me forward until I stood before him.
“Pilot Office Hunter. For the outstanding work of destroying twelve pirate fighters in a single engagement, you are hereby promoted to Flight Officer. Congratulations.”
He handed me my new rank insignia and gold coloured Ace badges. I held each of them separately as I scanned them with my PC, and added them to my suit epaulettes file. As soon as I saved the changes, the new insignia appeared on my shoulders. There was a round of applause, and I ended up shaking everyone’s hands.
“Well done Jon,” said the General, after all the thankyous were done. “Intelligence suggests the main strength of the local pirate forces has now been taken out. So with luck, that will end most of the pirate attacks. You have done us a great service. We hope they will now rethink basing themselves in the Australian sector and will move somewhere else. Once your ship is repaired, we will get you out patrolling. Let me know when you complete your run to Outback, and I’ll send you some orders.” With that, he left the room.
“So, just how big of a ‘bit’ is this work being done to your ship?” asked Amanda.
“A pretty big bit actually. I had to be towed in. I’ll tell you about it later.” Her look said I'd better.
“We still need a pilot Jon,” said the Colonel. “You are still our first choice.”
“Thanks Colonel. I appreciate the offer, but nothing has really changed.”
“I know,” she replied. “But I had to offer it again, just in case.” I nodded in response.
“You pinged something about dinner?” said Amanda.
“I did. It’s on me for whoever wants to come, including the officers here today if they would like. I’m easy about where. Someone make a reservation and ensure I get there.” The Colonel nodded.
Hero at Large (The Hunter Legacy Book 1) Page 18