Deck Five was where we'd come in. The main Cargo Bay was three decks high, and used almost half the length of the ship, more than double the size of Gunbus'. The Armoury had fifty combat suit recharge bays, and enough gun racks to fight a small war with, if you filled them. On the other side of the stairway, was the Droid store, general storage racks, and auxiliary magazines for the launchers. The docking airlock was positioned so the stairway was in front as you walked in, with a direct entrance into the droid space, opposite another entrance to the cargo bay. This meant droids could come and go, without getting too near people.
Deck Six was where I expected to get the first notes of real surprise, and I wasn’t disappointed. The front section was a large Medical Bay, set up as a medium sized surgery, including three doc-droids, and twenty five top-of-the-line Care Units. Each one was equipped with an auto-doc sufficient to handle any problem short of major surgery. Each doc-droid was a medium level AI, dedicated to treating anything which did not require a Care Unit.
There was a Common room with dining, lounge, and entertainment facilities, for seventy five. The barracks slept fifty. There was a kitchen off the common room on one side, and a gym off the other side. The communal bathroom could shower everyone at once, and had three twenty person spa baths.
I could see questions and speculations crossing faces, and my grin was getting bigger.
Deck Seven was more weapons access.
Deck Eight was a series of Gun Ranges. I'd used what the Mercenary Guild on Sydney station had, as an example of what to put in. There was even one range where you could safely fire any laser, up to, and including, a Meson Blaster.
The last deck down was the hanger.
From the main access area, we could see Excalibur, a shuttle, and three very strange looking ships.
"Are those Dropships?" asked Annabelle.
"Certainly are," I responded. "Completely new design as well. I expanded on what I did to your last Dropship. These are effectively heavy fighters now, as well as being a drop ship. Each has a missile and torpedo launcher in front, with six fixed guns firing forward. There are Point Defense turrets with four guns each, on the sides, top, rear, and underside. When the ramp is down, there are two turrets. These can be set up to fire four Point Defense lasers, or two Meson Blasters. Their speed is comparable to Excalibur. Shielding is not quite up to heavy fighter standard, but it's much better than a standard Dropship has. As well as dropping a team somewhere, a decent combat pilot will also act as air and ground support."
"Wow," said BA.
"Indeed," I agreed.
The standard drop ship had only two turrets and another two on ramp gun positions. The ramp guns normally fired standard Point Defense lasers. These were more than adequate for shredding unprotected people. The Meson Blasters added a whole new dimension. A single Meson hit would leave the wearer of a belt suit undefended, as even the next stunner to hit it would result in it shredding. Two hits would leave very little left, of the person, let alone the suit. Two hits would also do damage to the standard combat suit, which was the point in adding them.
The level also contained the Brig, and an internal airlock, so prisoners didn't need to enter the ship itself, keeping them isolated. Like Gunbus, the hanger was in vacuum, and the ships were accessed through umbilical tubes.
I rubbed my hands together.
"Who's for dinner?" I asked.
We trooped back up to Deck Two, and sat at the dining table. Jeeves and Jenkins came in to take orders, and organize food and drink. Jenkins was the Deck Two butler droid. Jeeves had the run of the ship, but his main responsibility was Deck One.
While everyone settled, I loped up to Deck One to check on Angel. She was asleep in her cat bed. I tickled her, received a purr in return, but she didn’t stir. I went back down to dinner.
"So Jon, this is an Assault Frigate now, isn’t it?" asked Annabelle.
"Yes, that was the idea."
"Why did you do this? I thought you wanted firepower?"
"I have it with the Pocket Battleship Drones. When I first saw the hull, I wasn’t sure what I'd do with it, but along the way, I noticed how crowded it was in Gunbus for all of you. I was also thinking of the future, and how the team would take on mercenary missions, since you lost Moose. This seemed the logical thing to do."
Moose had been a Military Transport, used as bait, in a trap I'd fought my way out of.
"Why so much room on Deck Six?" asked Amanda.
"I figured there might be times when you needed help, so I allowed for two teams of twenty five, or four teams of twelve, to be carried easily."
"Jon," said Annabelle, "I have other teams you haven’t met yet. This ship is large enough for all of them." I nodded. I'd guessed it from offhand things which had been said.
"How much has this ship cost you?" asked Abagail.
"I've no idea," I said, laughing. "I might find that out this evening. Depends on what General Wellington has in mind for our brief stay here."
I'd noticed that Vonda was keeping quiet, but not missing anything. She stirred herself.
"Actually," she said, "there's going to be a celebration tonight on the Orbital station. Dress uniforms please."
"I'll need someone to send me a scan of them General, otherwise Annabelle and I will be limited to fatigues."
Alsop nodded. A few moments later, a pulse came in with what we needed. I glanced at Annabelle, and she'd glazed over as well, so I knew she'd received it too.
I added the new uniform to my uniform file, and gave it the correct set of epaulettes, and medal ribbons.
"Do you require the use of full medals General?" I asked her.
"No, ribbons are fine."
"Good, that’s easier for everyone." There were a few smiles around the table.
Dinner continued.
After it, I took Annabelle into my ready room.
"What's happening with the troops on the station?" I asked her.
"They'll be returning to Avon as soon as the station arrives."
"Should we keep some?"
"For station storming?"
"Yes. As we head back to Midgard, each station will need to be retaken. If they've garrisoned the stations they took, your team and sixty combat droids, may not be enough."
"True. Custer can take fifty. Any idea how many the John Wayne can carry?"
"Ask O'Neil. I’d suggest we take as many as we have sleeping accommodation for. But, they must be the best, and they must be volunteers. We shanghaied them out of necessity, this is different. Also, don’t accept any officer who you don't think measures up to your standards. I'd rather we have elite troops answering to your team, than having desk drivers with importance delusions mucking things up. Quality is better than quantity."
"Have you been talking to the troops?"
"No, why?"
"Just wondered." She laughed.
"Also, have the best troops billeted on Custer. John Wayne will be on detached service for some of the time, so we may have to do without them. It might be possible to rotate troops at some point, but don’t bank on it. If you're not sure of loyalties, better we just take the fifty best. Oh, and make sure we've food for them all. Custer was only provisioned for twenty, for a month."
"Will do."
"Can you arrange for the station's civilian population to be returned please?"
"Certainly. When are we leaving?"
"The station will leave as soon as its repairs are done. Sometime in the morning I expect. We'll leave as soon as Gunbus is ready. If there are still civilians outstanding by then, we'll leave the Liner behind for them. It can catch us up."
"I'll get on with it."
She left.
"Jane, can you move the two freighters back to the station when it arrives. And have one of your security droids pretend to be a Liner Captain."
"What's this pretend business? I'll duplicate my avatar, and use a Liner Captain's uniform. In fact, I could do that for the freighters as well, since
they're not technically up to spec for humans to use. The cargo bays are fine, so an avatar could run the ships just as well as a human could. Better in fact. Both ships have deliverables. My other selves can deliver once we arrive back in Australian space. You've done drone Battleships and fighters, why not freighters as well?"
"Good point. Fine, organize it. Better empty their cargo bays as well. Put the cargoes with those other deliverables we have from Miami, and organize them by destination. Once back in Aussie space, you can load up for destinations, and deliver systematically, regardless of where the station ends up. Have the station's repair droids go over both freighters. They won’t need life support or crew spaces. Those could be gutted, and used for more storage space. And see if they can increase their speed. Faster is better. If you need, pull some repairable power plants, and anything else you need, from some of the hulls we retrieved today."
"I feel the need. The need, for speed."
She mangled the cry on the end of it. But then, only an American could get it right.
Eight
We docked at the Avon Orbital a little after seven.
I was in the shower when George pulsed me a suit file for approval. After drying off, and pulling on briefs and socks, I activated the file to see what he'd done.
'Slinky red' became 'swanky red'.
He'd taken the Dress uniform Annabelle and I'd been sent, and combined it with 'slinky red' to create a new dress uniform everyone else could wear. It looked like the Sci-Fi dress uniform, but was in the Hunter dull red colour, with three white stripes down the sleeves. I liked it, and told George. I made up an epaulette with just the large ship captain badge on it, only bigger than normal, and sent it, and the 'swanky red', to Jane. I added it to my uniforms collection, for future use.
"Confirmed," I heard Jane say through the ship coms.
I set my suit to Sci-Fi Dress and wandered out to find Angel. She wasn’t in my suite at all, and I tracked her down to her pad on the Bridge console. She was fast asleep, so I didn’t bother her. I headed down to the Rec Room on Deck Two.
Amanda and Aleesha were waiting there, and for the first time I saw medal ribbons on them.
"Why don’t you wear your ribbons on your normal uniforms?" I asked.
"Just never did," said Amanda. "The suit is normal wear, and apart from rank, nothing else is needed. Within the team, flaunting medals doesn’t achieve anything. Truth be told, we don’t need the rank insignia either."
"What she said," added Aleesha with a grin.
"You will from now on. We're taking troops with us in case stations need retaking. You may find yourselves in command of troop units. They'll need to see rank insignia. Even on board ship, the fifty who move in downstairs need to know you're officers from moment one. You should pass that on to the others. Until we get this war done with, showing rank is necessary."
"Confirmed," said Amanda. Aleesha giggled, and we both joined her.
The others came in progressively. I absently noted that everyone had tooled up, over their Dress uniforms. I'd felt strange doing it, but also felt compelled to. Looks like I wasn’t the only one.
Just before eight, we all trooped out through the Cargo Bay.
My danger proximity alarm went off the moment I stepped on the top of the ramp, my suit shifted to full coverage, and I took a blow to the left temple that cartwheeled me backwards, landing on my left side.
Ten handguns roared seconds later. There was a thump in the distance. My medical monitor immediately gave me pain relief, and I went fuzzy and giddy for a moment.
"You alright Jon?" asked Annabelle.
"Yes," I replied. "I think so."
I didn't move. Neither did my suit change back.
"Are you getting up?" asked Amanda.
"No, I'll stay here for a while. I like it down here. It's very peaceful."
BA hauled me back up onto my feet. My suit still hadn't changed. I took a step towards the ramp.
Another blow, even more powerful than the last one, struck me in the left side of the chest, and I went spinning backwards.
Again, ten handguns roared, and there was another thump in the distance.
"Jane, perimeter, use the combat droids." I barked it out through clenched teeth.
"Confirmed."
Sixty combat droids came to life, and raced out as far as where the two bodies were lying, forming a ring around the docking area.
My suit changed back to Sci-Fi Dress.
The twins hurried over to me, and helped me back on my feet. I was hurting all down my left side again. My heart area felt like it was exploding, and my left knee throbbed where I'd come down on the deck on it.
"FUCK THIS!" I roared, and limped as fast as I could down the ramp towards the second body.
I found a tripod stand with a Meson Blaster on it, next to an unconscious man.
I pulled out my right gun, extracted the laser activator bolt from the holster, and armed the gun for full laser. This was actually illegal, but I didn’t care.
I looked around. No-one had moved. All eyes were on me. My eyes went looking for station cams. I noted three of them pointed directly at me.
I looked directly at one of the cams.
"I know you're going to see this, you bastard," I yelled. "I don’t know who you are, but hear this. I'm coming for you! And this is what's going to happen to everyone you send against me."
I put my gun against the head of the unconscious man, and pulled the trigger once. Six shots made a mess.
I limped over to the other man, and did the same thing.
I calmly removed the laser bolt, placed it back on the holster, changed the charge to a fresh one, and holstered the gun.
"Collect the weapons Jane."
The nearest droids picked up the Pulse Rifle and Meson Blaster, tripod and all, and carried them towards the ship.
As I turned to move back to the ship, a group of security officers ran up. The youngest of them, who looked younger than I was, found the nearest bush, and threw up.
The officer in charge looked me in the eyes, and hurriedly looked down. I could tell he was shit scared of me.
"You want a piece of me Officer?" I asked.
"Ah, no sir," he responded. "I watched the whole thing on hollo as it went down. These two misguided men tried to kill you, and their weapons malfunctioned, killing them instantly."
I looked at him for a moment. Some of the anger began to leech out of me.
"If you need me for a statement, I'll be at the celebration."
"Yes sir. I won't hold you up any longer, sir."
"Thank you."
I walked back to the ramp. Alsop looked appalled. Vonda had the look of someone trying to control her shock. The rest were smiling.
Aleesha turned to Amanda.
"I told you sis, you created a monster."
Amanda laughed. I limped up the ramp. At the top I stopped, and turned.
"Give me five," I said, and carried on into the ship.
I limped up to my bathroom, and showered in full suit, to make sure I didn’t have any blood on me. As I stepped out, the suit was already dry. I looked in the mirror. A large red welt covered my left temple, extending from the eyebrow to the top of my head, and back to the ear.
Angel greeted me in the bedroom, so I sat on the bed, scooped her up, and cuddled her for a few minutes. I sat there doing another two releases. Oddly, for what had been deliberate murder on my part, the releases were very minor in effect. I pondered that, absently stroking Angel.
What am I becoming?
What you need to be.
Will I like what I become if I do this sort of thing?
Liking yourself is not a requirement.
What is?
Loving all beings, even those you must kill.
Must?
Silence.
I set Angel down in her cat bed, told her I had to go out for a few hours, and started down again.
"What was that about?" asked Vonda, when I w
as back at the ramp.
"Which that is this?" I asked.
"You're yelling at station cams?"
"The cams were following me the whole time. The entire thing was recorded. I'm very sure it'll get back to whoever ordered the hit. I just wanted them to know I wasn’t mucking around, and when I say no-one who comes after me will survive, I mean it."
"Are you ok boss?" asked BA.
"I'll live. But I'm going to be limping as bad as Alison for a day or two."
"How do you want to do this Jon?" asked Annabelle.
I counted us. Fifteen, including Jane.
"Diamond formation I think. Vonda leads, George and Jane bring up the rear."
"You heard him. Form up!"
Vonda strode out a couple of meters. Annabelle went to behind and to the left of her, and I took the right. The rest formed up behind us.
We moved out in step, Vonda setting the pace. Alison and I were limping badly, but Vonda didn’t set a hard pace. I concentrated on keeping in position, and had my PC synchronize my steps. My medical monitor upped the dose of pain killers. Behind us, the combat droids fell back to a close ring around the Cargo Bay.
The celebration was in full swing when we arrived.
We had to surrender our weapons at the door, which I did reluctantly.
We moved into the mass of people as a group. Amanda steered Alison and I to a group of easy chairs, and we gladly slumped down in them. George came up with beers.
"Would you rather something stronger?" he asked me.
"Actually, alcohol of any sort with pain killers, isn’t a good idea. Can you get me something soft? Ginger Ale or something?" He nodded.
"Me too," said Alison.
George nodded again, and left.
"Are you okay Jon?" she asked me.
"Very sore. My suit took the hits okay, but I'm still going to have a major set of bruises again."
"Spa when we get back?"
"You're on."
James McLauchlan came up to me. He pulled over another chair, and sat facing me.
"You’re a miracle worker Chief," I said to him.
He smiled, but waved away the compliment.
Make or Break the Hero (The Hunter Legacy Book 4) Page 5
