"Yes sir. I have General Hobbs with me now, and he's been listening in. The SAS will take my orders, and are preparing to move out now. The Dropships are coming in as we speak."
"I sent six of Jane's special suits."
"Understood."
She started bellowing orders.
"Hobbs?" I said to Queen Liz.
"Two star, very reliable."
I nodded, and turned my attention back to the Orbital station, which was coming close now.
"Jane, sitrep."
"Battle is still occurring around Station Operations. BigMother is secure on the station side, and the airlocks are closed. Still unable to undock."
"Military Transport?"
"About to touch down on the Flight Deck."
"Can you identify who it is?"
"Mercenary unit. Hell's Sword."
Great, another dark merc unit. I brought up a screen from a Flight Deck cam. The transport touched down, and combat suits emerged.
"Analysis of their combat suits?"
"Bottom of the range," she said with a smirk.
"Any tactical difference we can exploit?"
"Main differences are how much damage they'll take. Their sensors are nowhere near as good either. In fact, I just jammed them. They have no sensors or coms now."
A smile came over my face. The Queen had her first look at the expression Alsop hated so much.
"What's the difference in terms of how much gravity they can take, and still move?"
"Basic suits can still move in five gees. Ours can take ten gees. They're gathered outside a single airlock, preparing to enter."
"Unlock the airlock, back our forces out of weapons range, and let them in."
"Let them in?" said Queen Liz, a look of amazement on her face.
"Yes. Jane, once they're all inside, turn up the gravity to eight gees."
"Confirmed!"
"If you have to, go as high as you need to immobilize them completely."
"Confirmed."
Gunbus slowed as we came near the station.
I took manual control, and brought us around the rear of BigMother, and we looked down the Flight Deck.
The Military Transport was sitting square in the rear entrance, and as we watched, the last combat suit disappeared through an airlock. It closed behind the suit.
"Mercs immobilized," announced Jane. "It only took five gees too. Suggests the suits were old."
I grinned at her.
Now for the transport. I opened a channel.
"Gunbus to Hell's Sword."
"What have you done to my team?"
"Neutralized them. Stand down and you get to live, otherwise I'll blow you where you are."
"You wouldn’t dare. You'd damage your own ship."
"Not really. You don’t have shields. One torpedo will tear you apart enough you won't be leaving in a hurry."
"Huh! You wouldn’t."
"Are you basing this on what you see on your vid, or have you actually viewed my Mercenary record?"
"You’re a kid. What record could you possibly have?"
"Fine. With luck, you'll still be alive to look it up."
I closed the channel. I looked at Queen Liz, and raised my eyebrows several times quickly. She grinned.
I took a careful bead on the middle of the transport's engine, and fired a single torpedo. The back end of the ship exploded, spraying ship fragments in all directions. I backed us away, and turned to see what the pirates were doing.
They were in a V formation with the Battleship in the middle, and now less than a minute to orbit. I moved us away from the station so I'd have room to maneuver if I needed to.
"SAS barracks secure," said Annabelle over team coms. "Moving out now."
"Fighting continues on the station," said Jane. "I still can't undock."
"Bugger it," I said. "Get those Meson Streamers which almost killed me, and cut her loose from the station." I looked at the Queen. "Sever the station side connections." She nodded approval.
"Confirmed."
A channel opened from the Battleship.
"Last chance to surrender, kiddies. Bad enough having a girl in charge of the government, without a boy pretending he can protect her from us."
"Jane," I said deliberately into the open channel, "take aim at the Battleship. Full broadside. Target the Bridge."
"Confirmed."
The High Admiral of pirates laughed. The rest of his Bridge crew laughed with him.
"What do you intend to fire at me boy? Your anti-fighter missiles can't hurt my shields, and you know it. The only missiles you have which are any threat are on your Carrier, which can't fire while docked."
"Do you have a parrot?" I asked him.
"Parrot? What are you babbling on about?"
"All good pirate captains should have a parrot. And a wooden leg. I ask because I’d hate to kill an innocent parrot."
He laughed hysterically, and his crew followed his lead.
It took him a minute to calm down.
"No boy, I don’t have a parrot. You've been reading too many kids books."
I grinned at him.
"Maybe so. And I'm relieved to only be killing vermin."
His mirth changed to malice in an instant.
"Target that ship," he ordered.
"Mr. Pirate," I said. "You're wrong about something important."
He laughed again.
"And what would that be?"
I looked at Jane.
"Fire."
Thirty
Three hundred missiles launched downwards from BigMother, arced around her hull, and headed for the Battleship.
"Launch."
Four white dots appeared on the scanner, as the four Guardians disconnected from BigMother. They moved into a position flanking Gunbus, and we moved to intercept the pirate fleet. For a moment I seriously thought about launching Custer as well. But she didn’t have the offensive firepower to help much, and there was no way we could move to her safely. Besides, Gunbus made a smaller target to hit.
"Launch the Hives."
Twelve Hive clusters detached from the upper hull, and moved into flanking positions as well.
"Missile launch," said Jane. "They have the Mosquito system!"
Seven hundred tiny missiles had launched, showing they had a single Mosquito launcher on each ship. As we watched, most of my missiles were destroyed, and only a handful hit the shields of the Battleship. The fact of any getting through at all suggested they were using only a single medium level AI to control them.
"Guardians to attack the Destroyers one at a time. I want them destroyed to remove their Mosquito launchers. Hives to co-ordinate with torpedoes."
"Confirmed."
My ships moved. I bucked Gunbus away from the first laser salvo coming from the Battleship. The enemy formation changed to line abreast, and then fell apart as each ship moved differently to counter the speed my ships were moving to intercept them at.
Laser pulses crisscrossed the area. I had to concentrate on keeping Gunbus clear of them.
Part of my mind went into staying clear of the pulses. The rest of my mind analyzed the best course of action.
Abruptly, I flipped Gunbus end for end and started heading away from the fight at full speed. Pulses followed me, so I had to continue juking erratically.
"What are you doing?" asked Queen Liz.
"Getting you to safety Majesty."
"You want me to be known as the Queen who ran away?"
"You want to be a dead Queen?"
She glared at me for a moment.
"No, I don’t want to be dead. But I also don’t want to be the Queen who ran away."
"Trust me."
"To run away?"
"No, to know when running is the only rational thing to do, and when fighting is the proper logical choice."
A pulse almost got us, as my attention had wandered from the battle behind us.
"Don’t jog my elbow Majesty, please."
> The Guardians and Hives were firing on the first of the Destroyers, using guns, missiles, and torpedoes. They were all taking hits from the other enemy ships, but shields were holding for now.
She glared at me again, but didn’t say anything more.
I dodged another set of pulses, and we kept on running away.
A channel opened.
"And so the boy coward runs," gloated Mr. Pirate Abbott. He laughed, until something caught his eye. "What the hell was that?" he asked someone off screen.
"That," I said, "was one of your Destroyers turning into confetti."
The Guardians and Hives turned their attention on the next nearest Destroyer. Shields were down round the eighty percent mark now.
There was a bellow of outrage from his pirate-ness, followed by orders.
The Battleship turned away from pursuing us, and started towards the fight behind it.
I flipped Gunbus again, now heading more up than back. First I wanted an angled line so the pulses still coming from some of the Battleship's guns would have the hardest time hitting us, while at the same time, I wanted to position Gunbus for the attack I had in mind.
A second Destroyer exploded. The Guardians started shooting at the next closest. Shields were now in their seventies.
The Battleship entered range of the Guardians about the same time I reached my turning point. All her guns now began to fire at the Guardians. The drain on their shields increased, but the enemy ships were trying to fire on all of them, where my ships were only firing on a single target until it was destroyed.
The third Destroyer staggered and went dark, as a missile salvo mostly hit it. There weren't enough Mosquito missiles being launched now to fully counter the Guardian's full broadsides, and the missiles still coming from BigMother. Their AI obviously couldn’t cope. The Guardians shifted target to the last Destroyer.
Gunbus was halfway to its target now, hopefully forgotten. I grouped up all the main guns, both the fixed forward ones, and in the side turrets, and waited for target lock on my target.
My finger itched next to the trigger, and my thumb hovered over the torpedo button.
"What's that dot close to us," came the bellow through the still open channel.
I had target lock now.
The last Destroyer exploded, and the Guardians, with shields now down in their thirties, opened fire on one of the Cruisers. The Hives followed suit.
At the longest range for accurate firing, I pulled the trigger, and began pumping out torpedoes. I kept at it as long as I dared, and then pulled Gunbus right to turn back the way I’d come, aiming for a narrow miss of the Battleship's side.
I waited one second too late.
Just as the turn began, a pulse from the Battleship tore down Gunbus' left side, and opened the ship to space from front to back, as if a hand had simply ripped the side off her.
Our suits snapped into space suit mode, and connected to the nearest air connections.
Jane was gone. Her side of the console was ripped away with the hull.
Everything went dead, and Gunbus pin-wheeled, completely out of control.
I looked at Queen Liz. Her eyes were closed, but I could see she was still breathing. Most likely fainted. Just as well, as she was going to miss the next bit. I desperately wanted to miss the next bit.
I sat there, unable to do anything, the view spinning crazily, as Gunbus followed her torpedoes into the Bridge of the Battleship.
Thirty One
We got lucky.
Gunbus hit rear first, crashing into the now destroyed Battleship Bridge and it's under areas, like someone doing a flop over a high jump.
I sat there stunned for several minutes. Pain was shooting up my leg, and when my wits returned, I could see the leg support had been torn off my chair, and my leg had dropped into a more normal position.
The knee was now bent, which mainly accounted for the pain. The doctors were obviously wrong in their prediction of no knee movement for five days, but this wasn’t the way I wanted to find it out.
The Queen was still in her seat as I was, bent over to one side, and still breathing, although apparently out cold.
The Bridge itself was a wreck, although in the best condition along the right side.
A warning message popped up. I was on suit air. The ship was dead, including life support. However, I had more time than I expected. Merging three suits seemed to also merge and improve the basic air time. I had about half an hour to find an alternate source.
I looked around for my scooter. Gone. It must have been sucked out when the side was ripped away.
I called for Jeeves. No answer. I couldn’t recall if he'd followed us onto the Bridge or not.
I sat for a minute and tried to think of options.
Medical was out, since the care units required ship life support.
My combat suit was down in the Armoury. It should be able to keep one of us alive for hours if need be. There might also be air backpacks down there. I honestly didn’t know if there were or not. They might have been transferred to Custer when we'd made the move, or left there. I'd have to hope they were left behind.
I took stock of myself. My suit was functioning perfectly. I’d not taken any injury, in spite of the damage to my chair. My gatling stunners were gone. But the Long Gun was still on my right thigh. I plucked it out and checked it. It was fully charged and interfacing with my PC correctly. I took the laser bolt off the holster, and plugged it into the gun. I had no illusions. I was on board an enemy ship, and the chances were high someone would be looking for survivors of the crash area. I doubted they would be looking for prisoners. If I had to shoot, I wanted to be able to put them down properly. I holstered the gun.
So, Cargo Deck. The immediate problem was how to get there. I was going to have to walk, or maybe crawl. Worse, I was going to need to carry Queen Liz. I couldn’t leave her behind in case something happened to prevent me getting back. I had no idea what the condition of the ship was below me. It might be a one way trip.
Or no trip at all, if I couldn’t move.
Suit.
That was Kali. I thought about it.
The obvious thing was to merge space suit mode with protection mode. The suit changed as I activated this. It became more bulky, and stronger. I straightened my leg, gritted my teeth and held it straight, while I changed the suit leg to a solid unbending brace. I eased my leg down again, now perfectly straight. The pain spike subsided.
The next step was to put some weight on it. I eased out of the chair and gently put my left foot on the deck. I almost passed out, but didn’t. I waited for my vision to clear.
Suck it up! I had to walk, or we'd both die here. I stood, letting the wave of pain wash over me, although my weight was mainly on my right foot.
Embrace the pain.
Kali again. Easy for her to say. I took a deep breath and deliberately invoked meditation mode. I embrace my pain. I embrace my pain. I embrace my pain. It became a mantra I repeated over and over, drowning out all other thoughts. I moved towards Queen Liz, still unmoving in her chair. Fire burned up my left side with each touch down of my left foot, but I slowly moved across to her.
I unbuckled her from the chair, and pushed her upright. Next problem, how to move her without any ability to bend my knees? Fortunately, she wasn’t a large girl. I pulled her up towards me, and held her up once she was on her feet. I twirled her around me, putting my back to the chair, and allowed myself to fall back into her chair, right leg bent, left leg outstretched, guiding her over my right shoulder. I shifted both hands to circle around under her butt, and lifted her over my shoulder properly. It wasn’t a classic fireman's lift, but it was close.
I took a big breath and stood up, shrieking as agony took my left side. In space, no-one can hear you scream – it didn’t leave my suit. I stood there muttering my mantra, letting my breathing settle, as the meditation energy I was invoking calmed me down.
I took a step towards the door, right foot
forward. Then a left, followed by a quick right. I could manage a hobble, so hobble I did, getting to the doorway, now missing its door.
"Small steps", I said to myself. Each step would get me further, just take them one at a time.
I moved slowly to the top of the stairway, and looked down. It looked relatively intact. I eased down a few steps, and allowed myself to sink to the top step, sitting with left leg outstretched, and right supporting me. I let the Queen down next to me.
I began the long rump-walk down to the Cargo Deck, sliding her down beside me. Each step was a jolt for her, and she was going to have problems sitting down for a while if she survived. For now, the jolting didn’t wake her up.
Half way down I received a fifteen minute warning pop-up. It had taken me as long to get this far. The Battleship hadn't been destroyed, so I had no idea how the space battle had ended, as it surely must have by now. Someone must be coming to find out what happened to us.
I put it out of my mind, and concentrated on moving us faster down the stairwell, bringing us both one step at a time. Oh what I’d give to have an access shaft right now. Mental note if I lived long enough, have access shafts put in all ships from now on. Stairs might be better exercise, but it simply wasn’t a focus at the moment. I giggled and caught a hold of myself. A ship with no power wasn’t going to have a useful access shaft, just a hole to fall through. My mind wasn’t thinking too well it seemed. I wondered why we had gravity at all for a moment, but had to assume the Battleship still had power, and its gravity field was holding us now. I returned to my mantra.
Hail the Hero (The Hunter Legacy Book 5) Page 18
