"Jane, have Custer dock. We'll have to postpone the station boarding, until after the stations wounded are taken care of. Have General Smith arrange troops to co-ordinate the hospital, and check all the safe areas of the station."
"Confirmed."
I suddenly realized, I'd never removed the air from the Docking Deck. Something else I'd forgotten. I hoped this wasn’t the start of a pattern. People trusted my judgement, and I was beginning to wonder if I should be. Just as well we'd seen no shuttles. But I wondered where they were.
The last Talon winked out. Shortly after, so did the last missile.
"Janet and Jane, send out all the salvage droids. Let's get this mess cleaned up."
"Confirmed."
"Yes my Lord."
Alison climbed out of her chair, and came back to mine. I climbed down, and she kissed me long and hard, after which we hugged for a good five minutes. Disentangling myself, I held her at arm's length.
"You better go to the hospital. You’re the closest thing to a real doctor we have, not including the doc-droids." Alison was the team medic. "Here, take my stunner, just in case you need to impose some order."
I handed her my gatling stunner. A holster appeared on her suit, and she slotted it in. She nodded and limped out.
I returned to my chair, and opened a vid.
"Marshal, Admirals, General. It was a very close thing, but we prevailed. As you'll see from the attached battle feeds, mobility proved to be the difference this time. One Guardian is holed, but otherwise we took no significant damage. The station however, has wounded from a particularly hard hit we took, so we'll be delayed for a while, before we can attempt any action on Cobol Orbital. I hope to find out what has been happening on Cobol soon. More to follow. Hunter out."
I waited while all the battle feeds came in, and attached them to an email. It was so large, it took minutes to send.
Next on the list of things to do, was an email to General Chandra. I'd met him on my way to Avon, and had suggested he make a fight of it on the station. Vonda had made it an order when she found out, but had ordered him to take command of the planet instead. We didn’t know if he'd obeyed the order or not.
I told him we were close by the planet, had defeated the Midgard fleets, and asked for a sitrep.
I picked up my bottle of water, and drained it.
Now what?
I spent a few minutes thinking.
I ordered O'Neal to form up the Guardians in line abreast, and to advance along the line to the Azgard jump point. If he came across a force he could handle, he was to deal with it. If the jump point was clear when he arrived, he was to stake it out, and prevent any ship from getting past him.
I ordered Admiral Bentley to take her fleet to the Azgard jump point as well. When she arrived, she was to take command of the combined fleets.
I ordered George and John Slice to come here, with the Liner. If what I thought was going on down on the planet was true, we'd be needing the three of us to pilot the dropships. And there was now no reason to keep civilians off the station.
Finally, I ordered Janet to move the station close to the Orbital station, once the Tugs were back to normal.
Orders done, I limped back to Custer.
I found the ship deserted. Jarvis welcomed me back at the top of the ramp. I trudged up the staircase, and stepped carefully over the cat wall at the top.
MEOW!
Damn, I was in trouble again.
Angel shinned up my left side, but I caught her before she reached my shoulder. I didn't particularly want my ear bitten again.
I carried her into my living room, sat, and proceeded to give her a decent pat. I rubbed her up the wrong way, smoothed her fur back down, and she purred and demanded more. I gave her plenty of attention, while I let the great feeling of having a cat on your lap, lessen the stress of the afternoon. She smooged, purred, and carried on. I was happy to let her. Eventually, she fell asleep on my lap, and I just sat there, happy to do nothing for a while.
I was so tired, I nodded off.
I didn’t get to sleep long however. Jane woke me less than half an hour later to tell me we were at the Orbital station. I gently removed Angel from my lap, placed her on the chair where I'd been, and limped to the Bridge.
The Orbital station was a wreck. Every single docking airlock I could see, was open to space. Several other levels had massive holes in them as well, as if capital ship missiles had been fired at them.
"Any signs of life aboard?" I asked Jane.
"Negative."
I opened a channel to the planet.
"Admiral Hunter of the Sci-Fi Space force, to anyone hearing this transmission. We've defeated the Midgard fleet in orbit of Cobol. Please respond."
There was no response.
I opened a new vid.
"Marshall, Admirals, General. Cobol Orbital looks like a war was fought there, and no-one won. I cannot see an intact docking airlock, and there are major holes in other levels. The station is dead, and there are no life signs. It'll need a major rebuilding effort before it can be used again. So far, there's been no response from the planet. It looks like we'll have to go down there to find out what's happening. Within two hours, the door into Cobol should be closed when my Pocket Battleships arrive there. Admiral Bentley's fleet will be there several hours later. At that time, all there should be left of any enemy forces will be anything still at the Midnight jump point, or wherever the Midgard forces managed to get to inside Australian space. Once we've secured the planet, I'll be heading to Midnight to find out. Hunter out."
I sent the email off.
"Jane, what's the local time for the capital city on Cobol?"
"Ten in the morning."
"Janet, whisper in both General's ears, and can we meet in my Ready Room as soon as possible to discuss planet action."
"Yes my Lord."
I went in, and made myself comfortable. Jeeves came in with a bottle of water for me, and I emptied half of it without thinking.
I began nodding off again.
Twenty
Just before George and Slice arrived, I went down to the Dropships. They hadn't been used yet, so I uploaded my settings for them, including my unique HUD design. In the third one, I spent a little time using the simulator function, getting used to the way it handled, and practicing a few drops.
I remained there, while all three loaded with troops. Naturally, my team came aboard my Dropship. Most of them clanked in wearing their combat suits.
George signaled he was ready to go, but I had to wait for Slice, who I presumed was doing some simulated drops to get used to the craft.
Jane had us over the capital city and ready to go. The hanger doors were open.
Slice signaled he was ready, and I told them to go.
Three dropships fell out the bottom of Custer together, and we screamed down towards the planet.
Once through the atmosphere, I started scanning for any active coms. Silence. I activated the anti-jamming device in Jane's combat suit, but there was still nothing.
The city was coming up fast, and almost together, we pulled up above building level and split up, each going a set direction, looking for either friendlies, or enemy.
It was eerily unmoving down there. Nothing at all greeted our presence.
I slowed us down near the capitol building, searching for anything that moved. Still nothing. Giving up, I set off for the space port, not hurrying, since there seemed no need to hurry.
The space port was also deserted. The few shuttles on the ground, were gutted wrecks.
I pulled up to gain height, heading now for the technology centers.
The first of these came into sight. Except it didn’t, since it was no longer there. A large hole was all that was left. George reported in with similar news from another tech site. Slice followed not long after, with the same. My second site was the same as the first.
I climbed again, going for the underside of the clouds, so I could see fur
ther. George and Slice joined me, forming a standard three ship V formation.
In the distance was a line of hills. I headed that way. Nothing was showing on scanner, nothing moved on the ground as we flew over.
We went up through the cloud cover to go over the hill line, now on scanners alone. On the other side, I eased us down under the cloud layer again, and we kept going.
The scanner was suddenly full of red dots. In the distance, I could now see a large walled compound. Sitting on the ground inside were two Cruisers and sixty Talons, but with the amount of space left over, all the Talons we'd just killed in space could have landed, with room to spare. As we approached, Talons started to take off, and the yellow dots of missiles lit off towards us.
The three of us started firing IR missiles, letting Jane target them.
Suddenly there was a voice channel open.
"Help them!" someone screamed. "They're being held…" The channel cut out.
Missiles were exploding everywhere now, as our IR's and Point Defense turrets hit them, the range shortening all the time.
A new line of yellow dots started towards us.
Our shields were only just coping with the hits which made it through.
I was starting to think we needed to get out of here, when George took a series of hits, his shields went down, and the next one blew his Dropship apart.
Slice went down seconds later, his ship in an uncontrolled spiral, which ended in a huge explosion when it hit the ground.
I pulled us up, and turned away, pushing in full speed. Point Defense was still hammering away at the missiles coming towards.
The explosions suddenly became much bigger, and I realized they were capital ship missiles.
The next explosion shredded my shields.
"Oh Shit," I said, watching a missile lazily breeze through the laser fire, and come straight at me.
Twenty One
I jerked violently, propelled out of my chair, and onto my left side on the floor.
Vonda and Annabelle looked at me in amazement, from where they sat at the conference table.
"You okay Jon?" asked Annabelle.
"Shit, shit, shit," I said.
"I assume that means no," said Vonda.
I lay there on the floor, trembling.
It had been so real. If that had been a nightmare, I'd never, ever, had one as vivid as this one before.
Annabelle came over, and helped me back into my chair. I couldn’t stop trembling.
Amanda and Aleesha came running in, stopping dead when they saw me.
"Shit," they both said together.
They came over, and sat next to me.
"Your totally white Jon, did you know that?" asked Amanda.
"He's shaking too," added Aleesha, wrapping her arms around me.
"What's going on?" asked Vonda.
"We all just died," answered Amanda. "The team and all the troops, I mean."
"Died? How?"
"We shared another nightmare. We were in the Rec Room relaxing just now, after getting back from the hospital. We must have fallen asleep."
"We went down to the planet in the Dropships," added Aleesha.
"The city was deserted," said Amanda.
"Over the hills was an enemy camp," said Aleesha.
"They killed us with missiles," finished Amanda.
"But this was a dream?" asked Vonda.
The girls looked at each other, and then at me.
Go look.
Where?
You know.
I forced myself to my feet, and started limping for the door.
"I'll be back shortly," I said as I passed Vonda. "I need to check something."
Amanda and Aleesha followed me out.
We went all the way down to the Hanger Deck, and through into the nearest Dropship.
No-one had been in one of these yet. Jane had moved them around, but no person had so far used one for any purpose.
I sat in the pilot's seat, with the girls standing behind me.
"What are you looking for Jon?" asked Aleesha.
"It was just a nightmare, wasn’t it?" asked Amanda.
I looked at them for a moment before I brought the Dropship systems online. I brought up the HUD. A set of white dots were moving away from the planet. A white dot and a green dot were incoming. The white dots should've been green on the standard HUD these ships had. I opened up the code just to be sure.
"Shit," I said again.
"Jon?" they said together.
"Jane, have you or Janet changed or installed anything on this Dropship?"
"Negative."
"You're sure? Nothing at all, except yourself?"
"Yes Jon. Why?"
"And no person has been in here, since we took delivery?"
"That's correct. You three are the first people to board this ship."
"My HUD is loaded on this ship. How can that be possible?"
For the first time, Jane didn’t answer.
The girls looked at me in amazement.
We waited for Jane in silence.
After a good five minutes, Jane spoke again.
"I cannot explain it. There's no known way your HUD could be on this ship. To make matters even more unexplainable, the other two Dropships also have your HUD loaded."
"That’s only half of it," I said.
"Half?" echoed Aleesha.
"The time stamp on the last HUD modification is an hour and a half from now."
"What does that mean?" asked Amanda.
"I don’t know," I said. "In the nightmare, I prepped all three ships myself. About an hour and a half from now."
"Was it real?" blurted Aleesha.
We looked at her.
"How can it have been?" asked Amanda. "We were asleep in two different places, and people saw us the whole time."
"Do you remember going to sleep?" I asked them.
"No," they both answered.
"Me neither. I felt like I was nodding off, but I don’t remember actually going to sleep. I was waiting for the Generals. Suddenly I was on the floor."
"Same for us," said Amanda. "Except for the floor bit. We were in the Rec Room. Half hour before the drop, we did suit prep, weapons checks, visited the bathroom, entered our suits and walked into the Dropship. We watched what you saw from the cockpit on pop-up screens in our suits. The missile was about to hit, and suddenly we were back in the Rec Room. If we were dreaming, we weren't aware of being asleep. We looked at each other, and saw the same horror we each felt on the face of the other. We even spooked BA, and I didn’t think that was possible."
I sighed heavily, and stood back up. I nodded to them both, and started the trek back up the ship.
Twenty Three
Vonda and Annabelle hadn't moved. The twins had returned to the Rec Room on Deck Two, so I entered alone.
"What's going on Jon?" asked Vonda.
"I don’t know," I said. "This bizarre connection the twins and I have, just took a leap into the dark."
Annabelle looked at me strangely. It wasn’t the first time I’d received that look.
"Do you believe in time travel?" I asked them.
They both looked dubious. Even in the Sci-Fi sector, some science fiction still wasn’t given much credence. Time travel had been attempted for years, and killed a lot of people in the attempts, without a single demonstrable example of it having occurred. We'd adjusted to the fourth dimension of space, both outwards to the stars, and inwards to the sub-atomic level. But the fifth dimension of time, still eluded us. Or had it?
"Forget it," I went on quickly. "We had one of our shared dreams again." Was it really just a dream? "We went down to the planet in the Dropships, and had our arses handed to us before we even realized we had a problem. Call me nuts, but I'm treating it like a warning."
"Your nuts Jon," said Annabelle with a grin.
"Let's just accept that as given, and move on."
I joined them at the conference table.
; "We need to adjust our thinking," I went on. "Whatever it was we experienced just now, it suggested our course of action. The city is empty, the tech centers destroyed. On the other side of the mountain range is a walled compound, large enough for a thousand fighters to land. It currently has two Cruisers and sixty Talons parked there. Ok, I know how that sounds."
Their faces showed their disbelief. Even I had trouble believing a Cruiser could be safely parked on the ground. But I knew what I'd seen.
"On one side is a series of prefab buildings, presumably being used as barracks for troops and pilots. I wasn’t close enough to see how many troops were there, but we can assume there are at least twenty four Cruiser's worth of them. That'll outnumber us a great deal, although we'll have the edge technologically."
Annabelle nodded.
"The worrying thing though, is the message I received."
"Message?" asked Vonda.
"It was cut off, but seemed to indicate there were prisoners in the compound, and they needed urgent help."
"This just keeps getting better," said Annabelle.
"Yes," I said. "We need to neutralize the Cruisers and Talons without damaging the buildings. We also have an unknown number of troops to deal with, whilst rescuing prisoners, who could be located anywhere."
We talked for an hour.
"Gunbus and Apricot One are here," said Jane through the coms.
We all stood, and went out onto the Bridge. The two Generals kept walking out, while I settled into my chair. I opened a channel to both the approaching ships.
"Gentlemen, please dock with the station, and come aboard Custer. I hope you're rested, because we've work to do."
They both responded, and I closed the channel. Neither said if they were rested or not.
"I wish we had another pilot," I said to Jane, who was sitting at the XO's station.
"You do."
"Who?"
"Eric."
I'd completely forgotten he was back.
"Where is he?"
"In Medical. He'd been on minimal life support for too long before George rescued him, so he's been in a Care Unit ever since. He's due to come out any time now."
Make or Break the Hero (The Hunter Legacy Book 4) Page 12
