"Marked. Estimate thirty six hours from now."
Famine didn’t have as far to cross as Pestilence did. I was guessing the average system would take them three days to cross straight through. The other jump points wouldn’t take as long. Pestilence was bigger than most, so the diagonal had still taken them into three days. Famine in comparison was a lot smaller system, even than normal, I guess because it had nothing but a son in it. Sun in it. Now there was a slip of the mind. But I didn’t have the time to think about it.
All our ships except the Carriers were taking hits now, Redoubt taking them for all the small ships it was protecting. So far, Redoubt and the two Dreadnaughts were doing fine, but the smaller ships not protected were starting to lose shield power. It wasn’t much yet, but I could see the pattern forming.
"Ordinance expended," said the same voice as before.
I turned to Jane.
"How effective were the new type missiles?"
"Very. We need to make more of them."
"On it my Lord," said Janet.
"Start replacing them with Mosquito launches."
"Confirmed."
Space in front of us became even more chaotic, as thousands of Mosquito missiles joined the pulses, FF's and IR's.
And still they came. And not only came, but kept coming in seemly exponential numbers. I knew this wasn't true. There was only so much volume of space in the jump point itself, and only so many ships could fill it at any given time, and they were jumping through at the same speed. Pump water through a pipe and there was a point where the water flow comes out looking solid, at the full pipe diameter, and that’s as much as you get. So with the alien ships.
In theory, you could destroy every ship coming through, and keep it up indefinitely. In practice, this wasn’t possible. Things break the longer you use them without a rest. People make mistakes. Shields don’t get a chance to recharge.
An hour later, and we were all showing signs of being punch drunk. I'd told Jane to get rid of the cam feeds, since it was slowly hypnotizing us.
Everyone's shields were falling now. In spite of lobbing capital ship missiles with area effect warheads into the middle of the downstream at regular intervals, ships were getting passed us every second. They took a shot at one ship or another, and moved to whatever vector they were assigned in their hunt for the next jump point and the nearest habitable planet.
We'd been lucky so far. A guesstimate of the largest number shooting at us at any time was three thousand, meaning we were only killing half the ships coming through now. And for Cruisers and up, this wasn’t critical. The shots were scattered among our ships, and so no one ship was being constantly hit. The shield generators had a chance to undo some of the damage before the next hit.
The Corvettes were all within Redoubt's shields. The Destroyers however, were not, and while they were ducking and weaving behind the larger ships, they were slowly being worn down.
A half hour later, and I was checking ships regularly now. Finally, the expected happened. Wizard took a hit, and her shields fell below twenty five percent. The ship didn’t move.
"All Destroyers fall back now," I ordered.
"Boss?" asked Lacey.
"Dock with Redoubt if you can. The rest are to fall back to the first waypoint."
"Sir?" said a voice I didn’t know.
"DO IT NOW!" I yelled.
They were all close to the line now, so there was no point in taking chances.
I checked on Fearless. She was at thirty percent.
"George, time to go. Take the Destroyers, Homer, and Bonko with you."
Fearless peeled off immediately, and headed away. The two smaller Cruisers and all the Destroyers followed, although the last one took another hit before it began to fall back. They were quickly out of range.
Courageous was the next to be ordered away. Undaunted followed her almost immediately. Defiant was doing better, but Annette was a better combat pilot, and was slipping a lot of the incoming fire, dancing her Cruiser around like a fighter. But a few minutes later, she peeled off and headed for the waypoint as well.
"Fighters approaching the point of needing to dock and re-arm boss," said Lacey.
"Dock everyone on Redoubt. I don’t want to risk fighters to open space. Hold on relaunching. By the time they're ready, we may be leaving anyway."
"Roger that."
The rate of fire started to reduce. With the Cruisers and Destroyers gone, the medium sized gun fire was now well down on before, and we'd lost capital ship missile launchers. More enemy ships started making it through. As each of our fighters moved off the firing line, and went in to dock, the fire from Redoubt decreased, and a few more ships made it through. As more made it through, the size of the hits from them increased slightly.
"Diminishing returns," said Dick.
"Yes," I agreed.
"Permission to take the Cruiser's place," said Hallington.
I thought about it for a moment.
"Granted."
The three Carriers began moving into the position where the Cruisers had been. In a few minutes, they began adding their firepower, and the increase in fire, lessened the number of ships getting through.
"Jane, when the last of the fighters is docked, move the Hives in to take their place."
"Confirmed."
Unassailable was positioned next in line to Redoubt. The Hives began to launch out of the rear side of the ship, curving around to take up their positions, and begin firing. I'd debated when to use them, and continued to debate it while the battle went on. But the main factor was only so many ships could hide inside Redoubt's shield. Now there was room. Next time I might stand the fighters down earlier though. They'd been out of ordinance for a while now, while the Hives were fully loaded. In theory, by the time the fighters were reloaded, they might swap with the Hives again. But Redoubt didn’t have the facilities for so many fighter squadrons. I needed to rethink this too. Maybe Yorktown had to be close behind Redoubt. Live and learn. I hoped. For both.
The Hives took up the reigns, and we gained some ground again.
"Isn’t there any end to them?" asked Alison.
Twenty Six
"No," said Jane and I together.
Alison rose, and left without saying anything. She wasn’t the only one. By the time the CCC was still again, it was just Annabelle, the twins, BA, Grace, Dick, and Melissa left. Even the media types had gone.
"Was it something I said?" I asked generally.
"It usually is," joked Amanda.
We settled down to see how long we could last. My eyes blurred going from ship to ship, to the navmap, to the HUD, to Jane, around the CCC, and back to the shields of ships.
It was two and a half hours in, when I finally asked Jane for some changes.
"Jane, put an icon of each ship on the HUD, somewhere easy to see but not usually used. Ignore those behind Redoubt's shields. Next to the icon I want to see a number, being the current percent of full shielding the ship has. Update it in real time."
"Confirmed."
The HUD changed, and now my eyes began to scan the list of icons, check the view at the jump point, check Jane and the people around me, and back to the list. Another half hour went by. Both the Escort Carriers were edging down to thirty. Neither of them had the sort of shielding BigMother had had on her own. Better than a Cruiser, but not as good as John Wayne. I gave in.
"Preserver and Deliverer, fall back now."
They both moved off, accelerating away towards the waypoint. Immediately, Yorktown started taking more fire. I was starting to worry about her as well. While her shielding had been tripled during her redesign, as the second largest ship, she was getting the second most amount of fire.
"Hives are out of ordinance," said Jane. "In fact, most of the remaining ships are getting low. Only Redoubt has stocks left."
"I think we’ve nearly outstayed our welcome," said Dick.
It got a chuckle.
I almost missed
it, but suddenly my mouth was hanging open. It wasn’t the only one. A huge group of alien ships had turned a right angle immediately out of the jump, and opened fire on Yorktown together. Her shields flared and died.
"Yorktown, GO!" I yelled.
We watched helplessly, as the big ship started to gain speed away from the still advancing group of thousands of ships.
"There's over five thousand ships there Jon," said Jane, seemingly reading my mind.
I suddenly knew what was happening. Our reduction in fire had changed the alien's tactics. They were now sticking around to group enough to hit us hard.
"All Pocket Battleships withdraw immediately."
"Sir?" asked O'Neil.
His shields were still above forty percent.
"You can't take a shot like that one. Go!"
"Aye sir. Going."
And they did, shooting off on different vectors.
The next shot from the aliens went straight through where John Wayne had been a few seconds before.
"Thanks boss," said O'Neil, in a shaky voice.
"Dock the Hives," I said to Jane.
"Confirmed."
"Get Unassailable out of here as soon as the last ship is inside."
"Confirmed."
It took a few minutes, and by the time she pulled out of line, Unassailable's shields were at nine percent.
Minutes began to feel like hours. I pondered the next step.
"Jane, am I right in thinking the only thing we haven’t used is torpedoes?"
"The Japanese ships are out. Lacey and Greer's people haven’t used any. The Privateers have been using them sparingly as a target of opportunity went by."
I noticed Crusader was still listed as being in space, but wasn’t on my HUD list because she was still within Redoubt's shields. Lacey hadn't docked then, he'd merely ducked inside shelter and was still firing.
"All Privateer class ships. Fire off all torpedoes you have, as fast as you can at the jump point, and then land on Redoubt. It's about to get too dangerous for you. As fast as you can people."
"Jane, I want a new fleet…"
"Shit!" yelled Dick.
One of the Guardians had taken a huge hit, its shields were gone, and it now had a hole all the way through it.
"Ten thousand," said Jane quietly.
"Get the Guardians out of here. Missile Cruisers as well."
Jane didn’t answer, but the ships immediately went to high speed, and turned for the waypoint.
"Galactica, Enterprise, Prometheus. Time to go."
Relentless shook as an enormous hit knocked our shields down to below twenty percent.
"Get us behind Redoubt, Jane."
We started moving.
"Son," said my Dad on Galactica, "time we all went."
"Right behind you Dad. Just one more card to play. Dauntless, put yourself behind the rear section of Redoubt, with just your nose pointing to the jump point, with all of you within Redoubt's shield area. Fire just above her hull. Jane do the same with us."
"Moving," said a voice from Dauntless.
The next shot at us missed, fortunately.
"Fifteen thousand," said Jane.
Dauntless was just swinging in behind Redoubt, when the next shot took her in the rear. Her rear shield went down, but the shot missed the ship itself. Her shields evened out, but like us, she was now in real trouble.
"In position," said Jane.
"On my order, all remaining ships fire torpedoes in as big a salvo as you can. Keep firing until you run out. Crusader and Corvettes dock with Redoubt as soon as you're out. The moment you're all docked, we get out of here."
The acknowledgements came in. I pressed the inter-ship coms button.
"Everyone buckle up, suits to space suit mode now, and connect to air points. The next hit we take will hurt."
"Ready," said the voice from Dauntless.
"Fire!"
I had the controls now, and with the word, I pressed the torpedo button. One hundred torpedoes fired from the front of Relentless. Another hundred came from Dauntless, fifty from Crusader, and thirty each from twenty four Gunbus'. We kept fingers on triggers. Each launcher worked its way through one hundred torpedoes.
Redoubt lurched.
"Twenty five thousand," said Jane.
"Reloading," said a different Jane voice.
"Got to go," said Jane.
She was right.
"All ships, there's no time to dock. Redoubt is falling back now. Stay within her shields, and for the love of Gaia, keep up. Dauntless, angle up and wait for her to clear you, then GO."
"Moving," said Jane.
"Moving," said Dauntless.
Redoubt's shields were down to fifteen percent now, and while the Dreadnaughts had recharged a bit, we couldn’t take another hit. She shot forward and went for acceleration instead of vector, aiming to outrun the next hit and whatever was in that direction, before turning for the waypoint.
She left the two Dreads exposed, but the next shot went directly between us.
"Fifty thousand," said Jane.
Dauntless shot diagonally upwards, and Relentless went diagonally downwards. We had to, to avoid flying directly at the jump point itself. Even so, we were dangerously close to the massing enemy ships. I had my hands on the controls still, and my hands were itching. For a single long minute, we powered away.
Now.
I flipped Relentless end for end while at the same time turning us hard right. The ship cartwheeled going sideways as well as forward, and the massed shot passed straight through where we'd been a second earlier, the outside edges grazing our shield. It went down, and I flipped us end for end again, and brought us up to the top speed I wanted them to know about. The shields evened out at two percent.
There was the sound of someone being violently ill.
"One hundred thousand," said Jane.
We ran.
Twenty Seven
The entire battle had taken three hours.
It took us half an hour to get to the waypoint, and we'd taken some hits after we passed groups of alien ships, but none of them hurt us. I finally gave the okay to unbuckle. The waypoint was well clear of any alien ship, so we changed course for the War jump point.
Once beyond the waypoint, Crusader and the Corvettes left the safety of Redoubt, and formed up as several arrow heads in front of her, Crusader leading. The Explorer ships followed after, with the two Dreads bringing up the rear. The Japanese ships were the slowest, although not by much, and so we matched speed with them.
With no further threats likely, I took Angel back to my suite and collapsed into a lounge chair. She sat there in my lap purring. Where most of us had been terrified, I think she'd enjoyed herself.
The trip across Famine was going to take another four and half hours. I sat there tickling Angel for the first half hour, and after she jumped off in search of cat bickies, I dragged myself to the Mess for lunch.
I was the last in, as usual. They didn’t wait for me to sit.
"Did we cut that a little fine?" demanded BA.
"You said you loved the shit end BA."
"I said we go in at the shit end, not have it dump on us for three full hours, and almost lose it."
"Where did you learn how to flip a Dreadnaught like that?" asked Dick rapidly, cutting BA off.
I wondered what was pulling on BA's chain. She was usually unflappable.
"Just comes naturally."
"Give us some warning next time," said Carter. "Half of us had to sit there in soiled underwear until you gave the okay to unbuckle."
I plonked down into my seat, and immediately face-palmed.
"You could have asked me if you could visit a fresher. If I’d known you needed one, I’d have given the okay to move fifteen minutes earlier."
"Shit!" said the cam operator.
"Obviously," said Aline with a smile.
"It's on the news," said Amy.
"What is?"
"You're end to en
d stunt."
She waved at the wall.
The headline over a short repeating vid said "HUNTER PULLS OFF A BLINDER". The ship was flipping end to end, while going sideways as well, and the huge pulse of blinding lights went through the spot we'd just been in.
I sighed. It'd been closer than I'd thought.
"Did we learn anything Jon?" asked Alison.
"Yeah."
"What?" asked Abagail.
"I put the damned torpedoes in the wrong place," I muttered.
There were a few chuckles.
"How so?" asked Amanda.
"I designed the Dreadnaughts along the same lines as every other ship I've had, with the torpedo launchers on the front. Then we used the ships side on."
Most of them laughed. It was a strained sort of laugh though, as if it was a case of laugh or cry, and no-one wanted to be the first to cry. Hardened Mercs crying? Well yes, they were as human as everyone else. Even if they pretended not to be.
"Want to talk modifications after lunch Jon?" asked Jane, who was also sitting there.
"We better. Either we shift the torpedoes, or we raise the rear turrets."
"I'll start thinking about it."
"You do that."
"You eat."
"I'll do that."
"Good.
"Good."
"Will you two stop it!" demanded BA.
"What's eating you BA?"
She actually blushed. With her skin colour, this was saying something. She started to speak and bit it off.
"Did you know the gravity fluctuated as you did that flip flop?"
"No, I didn’t. You weren't buckled up?"
"No. I was in the fresher."
I took a moment, but most of her team laughed long and hard.
Lunch was more normal after that. No-one asked for details, but the mental imagery of what might have happened to BA was enough for everyone, without knowing for sure. The fact it was BA, made it doubly funny.
By one in the afternoon, I was in my Ready Room. Angel shot in, followed by Nut, followed by Max. The three of them jumped onto a lounge chair, and settled. Thirteen quietly materialized sitting on the arm, and started tickling all three of them. He ignored me, so I ignored him.
Jane came in, throwing a vid to the wall, showing Susan.
Hunter Legacy 12: Hero in Darkness Page 12
