Make or Break the Hero (The Hunter Legacy Book 4)

by Timothy Ellis

  "Confirmed," said Jane through ship coms.

  We both laughed.

  "So," said Vonda, going serious again. "How are we going to do this next action, without being killed?"

  I looked at her.

  "Oh," she said. "You don’t know."

  "Yet," I added.

  "What's the problem?"

  "Nothing has come through this jump point, or through to Miami, for two days."

  "You think they're massing on the other side?"

  "Most likely. And in strength. The last time we did a jump like this, we nearly bought it, because I guessed wrong about their deployment."

  "Well then, we just have to play the percentages, and plan for as many deployments as we can think of."

  "Compromising could kill us just as fast as getting it wrong."

  "What else can we do?"

  "That’s the question I'm pondering."

  "It’s a pity we can't get a look in there first, before we jump."

  Bingo! I grinned.

  "Jane, whisper in John Slice's ear, and ask him to join us please."

  "Confirmed."

  Thirty four

  After Vonda and Slice left, and I'd paid the invoice I finally extracted from him for the comnavsats, I spent some time on my HUD overlay. By the time we reached the jump point, I was satisfied there was nothing more I could add to it, and I’d had Jane install it on all my ships.

  The Bridge was packed when Angel and I went back out. Well, not exactly packed, considering the size of the Bridge, but only the three pilots were missing. Vonda, Alsop, Slice, Lacey, George, and Annette, were in the VIP chairs. Annabelle was in the XO chair, and Abagail was at Coms. Jane had the helm. Everyone else was around the wall surrounding console.

  I took my place in my captain's chair. Or should that be on? No, in. It was almost as comfortable as my lounge chairs, and I sank into it, while still being a supportive chair for piloting operations. Angel went to her pad. The twins, on each side of Jane, reached over and tickled her, eliciting a purr.

  I looked towards Slice and nodded. He stood, and left.

  Jane brought BigMother to a stop not far from Repulse. Shuttles launched from both Repulse and John Wayne.

  "That's a sight, isn’t it," said Aline.

  Everyone was staring at the fleet deployed around the jump point. It made an awesome sight.

  We waited for Bentley and O'Neil to join us.

  They strode on to the Bridge a short time later, and stopped short when they saw all of us sitting there. Annette stood, giving her seat to a more senior officer. She moved to a spare one.

  "I was going to say nice flea trap," said Susan, "except she gets better as you come up. Where did you get this ship from? And what's with the red paint?"

  "Long story," I said with a sigh.

  Was everyone going to ask me the same questions?

  Probably.

  I sighed again.

  "Sitrep," I said.

  O'Neil looked to Bentley, and she responded.

  "Nothing has come through this jump point since we arrived here. Nothing else to report."

  "That’s good isn’t it?" asked Alana.

  "No, it's bad," said BA.

  "I wish you'd stop saying that!" exclaimed Alison.

  "Unfortunately," I said, "she's probably right. They've had two days to consolidate on the other side of that jump point."

  "Or they've given up and gone home," suggested George.

  I chuckled. It freaked out Alsop, who wasn’t looking at all happy.

  "We should be so lucky," said Vonda.

  "Nope, I don’t think so." I was still chuckling, and Alsop wasn’t the only one looking freaked out now.

  "Jon," said Jane, "stop chuckling like that, or I'm going to come over and slap you."

  I stopped chuckling as everyone else laughed.

  A channel opened from Apricot One, and Slice's face appeared on a side screen.

  "Ready to depart, Admiral," he said.

  "Go," I responded.

  Another screen popped up, and we watched as Apricot One undocked from Custer, and headed towards the jump point. A small shape shot out of her airlock, and started upwards.

  "Comnavsat," I said generally. "Jane, throw up the network please."

  A screen popped up showing the Cobol, Atlantis, Midnight and Avon systems. There were a number of white dots between Midnight and the Cobol planet, and some green dots in Atlantis heading towards Cobol. Neither side of the Avon jump point was covered, but most of the rest of Atlantis was.

  "What you're seeing," I said, "is all traffic in Atlantis and Cobol at the moment. This is more or less real time. The ships coming from Midnight are my small freighters, bringing supplies. They're small enough to land on the planet. The green ones coming from Avon are also relief ships."

  "How?" asked Annabelle.

  "We incorporated the ship scanner tech into the comsats, so they not only conduct com traffic now, they'll transmit ship movements with the correct request. Are you ready Wing Commander?"

  "Ready sir."

  "Stand by Jane."

  "Confirmed."

  "Go," I said to Slice.

  Something shot out of the Cargo Bay of his ship and sped towards the jump point. In seconds it was gone.

  The display of systems changed, with the other side of the jump point now visible. There were two lines of dull red dots and a solid blob of bright red ones.

  For about twenty seconds, the image lasted, and suddenly, it was gone.

  "Put the last image back up Jane, and enhance it."

  The image returned to the screen, and zoomed in to just the Azgard side of the jump point.

  "Oh Shit!" said O'Neil, summing it up for all of us.

  "Re-dock with Custer, Wing Commander."

  "Aye sir."

  The Bridge was silent.

  "Game over," said Alsop.

  I turned to him.

  "Come now Commander, let's be positive."

  "I'm positive it's game over. The only course of action we have is to blockade this jump point for the rest of time."

  "Won't work," said Susan.

  "Why not?" asked BA.

  "Because," I said, "every day we give them, they grow in strength. We've nothing more coming. If we don’t go in there today, tomorrow they'll throw everything they have at us, figuring we're not strong enough to hold them. And tomorrow we won't be."

  "How do we win against THAT?" asked Alsop.

  I started chuckling again as the idea hit me.

  "Oh hell," said Alsop. "He has that look on his face again."

  I gave him the Maniac grin.

  Thirty Five

  It took two hours to set it up.

  Everyone had eaten lunch, and then moved to their assigned places.

  O'Neil had returned to John Wayne, and Bentley to Repulse.

  Slice was still in Apricot One, but docked to Custer. Lacey had the pilot's chair in Custer. George was in Gunbus, Annette had Unthinkable, and Eric was in Camel. The senior 266 pilot was in the other Camel, one had Excalibur, another the second Excalibur, and the other pilot was in his Centurion. All remained docked to BigMother. The team, Vonda, and a traumatized looking Alsop, were still on the Bridge.

  I nodded to Abigail, and team coms came on.

  "Team coms is on, everyone check in please."

  The 266 pilots and Eric, had all been added to team coms. Everyone checked in according to rank.

  "Jane, move us into position ready to jump."

  "Confirmed."

  We were going in with all the capital ships above Cruiser size. The rest would wait for my signal to join us.

  "One minute to jump."

  I was deliberately timing the jump to an almost random time, so we couldn't be predictable.

  "In position," said Jane.

  "Everyone hold onto your lunch," I said.

  Alsop groaned, and passed out.

  "My hero," said Alana with a grin.

 
We waited.

  "Ten seconds," I said.

  Jane had put a count clock on a side screen. I watched it wind down.

  "Jump."

  Thirty Six

  One second after jumping, every capital ship missile launcher we had, belched a missile. Warspite sent fifty in two different directions. The seven Guardians and BigMother, fired their thirty missiles on each side, at different targets.

  At the same time, six Hive fighters crammed into each of twelve launch tubes down each side of BigMother, spat four torpedoes each, as fast as they could fire.

  Also at the same time, every capital ship turret that could, fired on a target not receiving missiles or torpedoes.

  It had all been exhaustively calculated in advance. Jane joked it was to ten decimal places.

  For three long seconds, nothing happened.

  Almost together, forty two Missile Cruisers exploded.

  Six seconds.

  Six missile barrages appeared from the last six ships and twenty Mosquito launchers belched a response.

  Eight seconds.

  Mosquitos met capital ship missiles and annihilated each other.

  Nine seconds.

  As a single entity, our ships continued forward, bringing us into line with the last six Missile Cruisers. More missiles spat at them.

  Twelve seconds.

  The last six Missile Cruisers exploded.

  "Turn us Jane."

  Repulse slowed, turned to the right, and rolled. The upper surface of every ship was now aligning with one thousand, four hundred and forty Talons. Every Point Defense turret we had which could come to bear on the Talon cloud, aimed at the anti-fighter missiles now coming at us.

  Every anti-fighter missile launcher we had, started spewing out FF missiles as fast as they could. The Mosquito launchers belched again.

  Twenty two seconds.

  The first wall of missiles from the Talons exploded against our Point Defense. Our shield started taking hits, but held solid. Again the Mosquito launchers fired.

  Thirty seconds.

  The second wall of missiles coming at us started exploding.

  Talons were winking out now at a furious rate.

  Forty seconds.

  "First wave, break and attack."

  The seven Guardians and John Wayne, attached to BigMother by grav sleds, shot away from the Carrier into the cloud of Talons. The attrition rate of the Talons increased exponentially.

  Fifty seconds.

  "Second wave, go."

  Warspite, attached to the front of BigMother, shot forwards and started to circle around the Talon cloud.

  Repulse, attached to the back, backed off as fast as she could, and turned to circle the other side.

  One minute.

  "Third wave."

  One minute ten.

  The remainder of our ships started jumping in behind us, after receiving a signal from Jane. BigMother moved out of their way, and let them go after the remaining Talons.

  One minute thirty.

  Grey dots had overtaken red dots as the primary colour on the nav map.

  Two minutes.

  The last red dot winked out.

  Cheering erupted through team coms and the Bridge, and I had to turn the volume down. More cheers came up the stairwell behind us, as the troops below expressed their feelings as well.

  I sat there, completely and totally exhausted.

  Amanda hauled me out of my chair and hugged me, and everyone joined in.

  As soon as I could extricate myself, I sat back down.

  "Commodore, picket at five minutes please."

  "Yes sir."

  The Guardians formed up into line abreast formation with John Wayne, and moved off to cover the line to the planet Azgard.

  Jeeves dropped a bottle of water into my hand, and I drank deeply, emptying the bottle. I handed the empty back to him.

  I opened a vid.

  "Marshal, Admirals, Generals. The Azgard jump point is ours. We encountered forty eight Missile Cruisers, and one thousand, four hundred and forty Talons, making up eight full fleets. The Missile Cruisers were lined up in four rows of six, on each side of the jump point, waiting for us to jump in. By using grav sleds, we attached Warspite to the front of my Carrier. The eight Pocket Battleships were attached to the underside surface, each pointing sideways. Repulse was attached as our propulsion unit. We jumped as a single ship, and fired one second after jump, in a precisely calculated way. Forty two of the Missile Cruisers died within four seconds, so close were they, and such was the precision of our attack. The rest died shortly after. The last six managed to fire barrages, but it took them six seconds to fire, at a distance of three seconds to hit. We overfired Mosquito missiles, which took one second to aim, resulting in the entire destruction of the barrages a second away from us. The combined shield of all ships, held so well, we were in no danger. The Talons took a few more minutes."

  "We were able to do this because we sacrificed a salvage droid to carry a comnavsat into Azgard, so we could see what was there in advance of jumping in. It also helped that the Midgard formation wasn’t changed during the next two hours as we organized the attack. They obviously didn’t know what we sent in, nor guessed it gave away their defense strategy. We suffered no damage to any ship. I am however of the opinion, the worst of the Midgard commanders are now dead, and we're facing some very bright, recently promoted, junior officers now."

  "The trap they laid had only one real flaw. They were too close to the down jump line, and too close to the jump point itself. I speculate the commander wanted to minimize his own casualties by ensuring we'd be hit by everything they could fire at once, within four seconds of firing, with the hope we wouldn’t get off a shot first. Unfortunately for them, taking six seconds to fire, was way too long. However, six seconds for manually operated ships, indicates well drilled crews. The position was also gutsy, as they were in serious danger of taking hits from their own missiles, if they missed us. I'd have arranged it differently, and also made it harder for us to respond. All the same, the result would have been the same. We'd pre-determined every missile and torpedo we fired, and aligned the ships so they fired on the shortest distance to target, one second into the jump. This was especially necessary for the torpedoes, which accounted for twenty four of the Missile Cruiser kills. The Hive ships firing them had to be precisely aligned in advance, and only had that one second window to fire accurately in."

  "All in all, I can happily say, I love it when a plan comes together." I said this last with a grin.

  I paused and took a deep breathe. Vonda spoke instead, from just behind my chair, moving to be beside me.

  "Gentlemen. A miracle occurred here just now. We were seriously outgunned, and had we jumped in separately, with normal tactics, we would have been slaughtered. Admiral Hunter came up with the brilliantly unorthodox attack strategy, and masterfully carried it out. I've never seen anything like it, and I doubt any of you will have either. We also had no choice but to attack, or risk being overrun tomorrow, as they accumulated more fleets. The day belongs to Admiral Hunter. I'll be recommending to SFSF Command that he immediately be advanced in rank to Vice Admiral."

  I looked at her with a stunned look on my face, as the rest of the Bridge cheered again.

  "We'll now evaluate our options, and decide the next step to take. We'll advise you as soon as we decide. Wellington and Hunter out."

  I stopped the vid, still in shock. Vonda looked at me.

  "Please send that to General Chandra as well."

  "I was going to," I responded.

  Jane sent me the battle feeds from each ship, I assembled the emails, and sent them off.

  "Everyone stand down," I said. "Admiral Bentley, please join us in my Ready Room. Ship crews can be given time to refresh themselves, but please be ready for orders in about two hours."

  I nodded to Abagail and she turned team coms off.

  "Jane, salvage droids to clear the jump point please. Salvageable
hulls first, clear the down jump line completely, then make a mountain of the rest of the debris well off to the side. Pack the hulls into the Guardian cargo holds."

  "Confirmed."

  "Someone wake up Alsop," said Vonda.

  Thirty Seven

  By four in the afternoon, we were on our way to the planet Azgard. The eight Pocket Battleships were with BigMother. The two Battleships, and the rest of the fleet, were matching our position, on the line to the Midgard jump point. We'd decided to press ahead, leaving the cleanup of the jump point only partly done. The down jump line was clear, but the debris field on both sides was still huge. We were taking the chance there was nothing else in the system, which could get behind us. The scanners could see a reasonable way away, but by no means the whole system. Slice had deployed another comnavsat, so Jane would know immediately if anything intended to jump out. If need be, we could send a fleet back, and chase whoever it was down. I didn’t think this was going to happen, as it simply wasn’t the Midgard style.

  The planet was not far off the direct route to the jump point, so the two fleets could move relatively quickly to support the other, if necessary.

  By five thirty, we knew there were no enemy ships in orbit over Azgard. The Pocket Battleships peeled off, and moved to join the rest of the fleet at the Midgard jump point. BigMother continued on alone.

  With nothing to do now until we arrived at the planet, we all gathered in the Deck Two Rec Room. Everyone seemed in high spirits.

  Alsop was looking better. No-one blamed him for his embarrassing display on the Bridge. He simply wasn’t a combat officer, and had never expected an aide of a three star General, to be in actual combat. The wonder was, he hadn't cracked up completely.

  He stepped up onto a chair, and said loudly, "Attention to orders."

  He jumped back down and assumed attention next to Vonda. The room braced with him.