Hunter Legacy 9: Hero at the Gates

by Timothy Ellis

  Put that way, it wasn’t quite the ego stroke it had started out being.

  What it was though, was a start, finally.

  The Germans of the Fourth Reich surprised me by taking the same stance as their relatives. Except for putting their forces under anyone else's command, where they assured me they would take suggestions from me seriously, but wouldn’t take orders from anyone.

  Never look a gift Nazi in the mouth. But I’d take their ships if I needed them. And when the chips were down, a Nazi following my suggestions was much more use to me than an Admiral Git working at cross-purposes for nothing other than ego reasons.

  Czech, Slovak, Croatia, Serbia, and Poland, were repeats of other small systems, again with little or no space naval capability. In a strict sense, they were part of the Earth sector, so would normally call for sector forces to defend them. But realistically, they were likely to be on their own. Serbia and Poland promised to pass the information on to their neighbors.

  In Athens, we picked up a Greek sub-sector delegation. They were gone before we jumped out, promising to at least consider their options, and discuss them with Earth sector.

  We headed down the side of the V. Sparta, Crete, Cyprus, and Malta. And up the other side of the V, Bulgaria, Romania, and Cuba, who all received the package without comment.

  Jamaica promised to pass the package on to Dominica and Puerto Rico. Bermuda promised to on-send to Barbados and Trinidad, the former to pass it on again up that sub-arm.

  As we down jumped into Hawaii, I breathed a sigh of relief we were back in 'our end' of the spine at last.

  The Canadians came aboard.

  Thirty Two

  I'd not dealt with Canadians before. And I wasn’t expecting them to come in force. There were three shuttles. The first had the diplomatic team, including a four star Admiral, and a one star General. The second was a Marine unit. The third was their elite fighter squadron pilots.

  The diplomats and brass were taken through the whole presentation, with the diplomats leaving before we were across the system. The rest were assigned accommodation on Unassailable. The Marines and pilots in the barracks, with the Admiral, General, Wing Commander and Squadron Leader being assigned suites.

  Jane had already crunched the anticipated lists of who we expected from now on, and had accommodation assignments already made. Names were on doors already, and Butler droids assigned. We'd not expected pilots, but there were enough of the appropriate sized suites unassigned to not be a hassle.

  I'd deliberately chosen to house most of those coming aboard to Unassailable, as it would give them the chance to talk amongst themselves, without feeling like they were being observed. Of course, Jane would be, but so unobtrusively that only the paranoid would notice.

  Annabelle took over host duties for the senior officers, allowing me to swan in and out as I pleased. Mostly it was out, as I was spending a lot of time on the Bridge, especially for jump transitions. It meant I wasn’t getting enough contiguous sleep. But far from going all Grumpy Cat on people, as I had going the other way, the closer we got to home, the more my spirits soared. I was still joining in group spas when called, and Aline was doing a good job adding to my sleep deficiencies.

  While I wasn’t spending as much time in training as I once had, I was doing some. I was mentally and physically fit again, working to keep it, but not training for the sake of it like the Marines did.

  But I still limped. Maybe I always would.

  On the morning after the Canadians arrived, Jane told me to get down to the ranges. There I found what looked like some very unhealthy competition going on between my teams and the Canadian team, most especially between BA and the Canadian Sergeant Major. It took me a while to figure out what looked like outright hatred between them was in fact a competitive friendship. I laughed my way back to the Bridge, where I wondered what the pilots were doing. I should have known they'd all be on the simulator, fighting each other. I laughed some more.

  By the time we'd passed through Los Angeles, and were half way across Vegas, the Canadian senior officers had discussed the system in their space we now considered one of the six vulnerable prophesy sites. They unofficially called it Victoria, in spite of there already being a Victoria system in the Earth sector. It was inhabited by a number of mining operations, and the four star started giving orders for the movement of ships to the system.

  If the worst happened and prophesy did in fact appear, the forces there had to hold a long time in order to allow their population to flee through Vancouver, only one jump away. If the shit hit the fan anywhere else, they had time to move forces, but if they were the ones facing prophesy first, they had no time to move ships anywhere. Their main fleet was based in Vancouver, so it was only a short distance to send them.

  We discussed the possibility of Hunter ships joining their defense force. I promised to see what I could do, but I had three such systems to put forces into now, and until my upgrade program was complete, I wouldn’t be sure what I had to divide up. And who knew if I actually had enough for one system, let alone the three, or a fourth.

  We discussed the Americans as well. They didn’t have to worry about an entry point, if my nightmare was correct. And this was a worry of mine, that the nightmare wasn’t being correctly interpreted at all. But it was a worry I kept to myself. We needed something to plan to. If it turned out to be wrong, at least we had forces in place we could move.

  Of all the sectors, the Americans were the best armed. And they were in the process of modernizing, which was even better. We discussed the ways me might influence them into sending a force to bolster the Canadian defense. If the threat came through Dead Man's Chest, both fleets would be able to move to block it at Hawaii in time to be useful. If the threat came up the spine from lower down, they had plenty of time to move.

  On the other hand, if the threat came through Nexus, the Americans would need a blocking force to bolster the British at London, and the SFSF at Miami, making three block points they needed to cover to protect their own space. Better if the Miami force was in Cobol, where they could help defend Sci-Fi space.

  At the back of my mind was the problem of what might happen if prophesy came through Nexus. Losing Nexus would cost the entire Australian sector in one stroke. And if that was the case, it was likely I'd die there. But for some reason, I didn’t think it would be Nexus. I couldn't tell you why I felt that, I just did.

  I also couldn’t shake the feeling prophesy would kill me. In the course of a year, I'd gone from a scared kid in over his head, to the owner of large sections of mainly worthless, but highly strategic sections of space. I'd built a fighting force which rivaled even the American fleet, if for now under matched, but which when fully upgraded could be considered a threat to any and all sectors.

  As such, I now carried the burden of responsibility, which went with being the messenger. I was the one pushing the same thing Midgard had been trying to do in their own warped way. At some point I would have to put up or shut up, and it meant when the shit hit the fan, I had to be in the thick of it. And being there, always carried the risk of dying there. My recent dreams also didn’t bode well.

  Ah well. A short but entertaining life for me.

  I could hear Kali chuckling in the background. Not going there.

  As we were approaching the Salt Lake jump point, Jane pulled the nav map for Salt Lake out, for a better view close up. Her mouth made the shape for the letter O, but she didn’t say it.

  "Whatcha got?" I asked her.

  There were three green dots on the far side of the system, heading towards us. Nothing out of the ordinary though, as far as I could see.

  "Something odd."

  She pointed to a grey dot near the jump point. It wasn’t a ship, but it was moving.

  "Definitely odd," I murmured. "How are we picking it up?"

  "Mass detection. Plus its mass moving without any ID."

  "Did you get that up and running?"

  "Abigail did
most of the work. She had it done before we left Treasure Chest. I sent it up the line as a code update, so all the comnavsats in the entire arm should be able to detect mass on the move now."

  "Any movement in War?"

  "Plenty. Unfortunately, that's one system where a ship without an ID would be hard to detect. And it applies everywhere. A ship without an ID showing could hide in any moving asteroid field, and as long as it wasn’t travelling faster than everything around it, it wouldn’t be detectable."

  I nodded, as this seemed reasonable.

  "So what do we have ahead of us?"

  "Like as not, it’s a pirate, trying to hide itself. The fact there are three PB's coming up behind it suggests they were identified anyway, and the Americans are hunting them."

  "Let's be friendly as we blow past, and lob them some play toys."

  "Confirmed."

  Word passed around the ship fairly rapidly, and the Bridge filled up well before the jump.

  The ship turned out to be a Cruiser. We had a few minutes to wait after jumping, but at my nod, Jane fired off a full broadside of missiles.

  A voice only channel opened.

  "Don’t shoot! We surrender."

  "Shit," I exclaimed. "Jane, disable the missiles."

  "Confirmed."

  One after the other, the missiles impacted the shields of the Cruiser, but didn’t explode. I sighed. Waste of missiles. But then, who'd have thought a pirate would just surrender like that?

  "Damnit!" I said suddenly.

  "What?" asked Amanda.

  "Now we have to stop."

  "Oh," said Aleesha with a grin.

  The Cruiser was already stopping, and I pointed a finger at Jane, and drew it downwards. BigMother began to slow also.

  The channel was still open.

  "Identify yourself," I said. I changed my mind suddenly. "No, don’t bother. Are you pirates or what?"

  "The Americans think we are. The pirates thought we were."

  "What do you think you are?"

  "Mercenaries."

  "Is that you Bonko?" asked Jack.

  "O'Neill? Oh Lord, protect us from avenging ghosts!"

  "It's really me Bonko. Nothing dead about any of us. We just got lost for a while."

  "Hell Jack, after you vanished, times got tough."

  "I'm sure they did," I interrupted. "But you can catch up at a later date. You will disable your ship AI, and allow mine to take over your ship."

  "No AI. No protection either. So go for it."

  I nodded to Jane, and she nodded back.

  "Dock it to the front airlock."

  I turned to Jack.

  "I don’t care what the story is at this particular moment. I want the lot of them in the Brig as fast as you can get them there. You can sort out the story later. The fact they have Pocket Battleships after them means the Americans want them for something, and until we find out what, and if we need to hand them over, they stay in lock down."

  "Yes sir."

  He and Sam rushed out. I looked at Amanda. She and Aleesha rushed out after them, followed by BA and the rest of the team. I looked at Jane.

  "Can we dock the Cruiser the same as we did the one we used for trojaning the pirate station?"

  "Confirmed."

  "Do so then."

  I sat there fuming over the wasted minutes, waiting for us to start moving again. It didn’t really take that long to offload a small crew, shift the ship to a more secure dock, and get moving again, but I was starting to worry about time ticking away.

  We were barely back up to top speed when we received a message from the lead PB. I threw the vid to a side screen. It was Captain Johansson, of the Harrison Ford.

  "Admiral, I see you stopped and picked up our quarry. Care to let us know what's going on? The ship is suspected of being a pirate, having been reported as running without a ship ID. If nothing else, it's in violation of Guild law, requiring all ships to operate with a functional ship ID. Please let me know your intentions. Johansson out."

  "Jane, do we know anything about the ship?"

  "The ship ID is there, but it's not broadcasting as it should be. However, it was accessible to me as soon as I took over the ship. It is registered with the Mercenary Guild, but it's tagged as having gone rogue, possibly even pirate."

  "So at best, dark merc. At worst, pirate pretending to be dark merc in order to avoid worse consequences."

  "Indeed. I'll see what the computer has to say for itself."

  "Do that."

  I opened a vid.

  "Captain, nice to see you again. The Cruiser surrendered to us after we opened fire, but in time to disable our missiles. They claim the pirates thought they were pirates, but they are in fact mercenaries. The ship ID confirms they are Guild mercenaries, but they are tagged as possibly gone dark, or being pirate. At the moment, I don’t have enough information to judge one way or another. For now, I have the crew in custody. I'll let you know as soon as I know anything more. In the meantime, I'm on a speed run to Nexus, and will be meeting up with your bosses in Washington. I'm claiming the ship, and can drop the crew off in Washington if you want them. Hunter out."

  The reply came back quickly, saying he'd ask for orders up his chain of command and see what came back. In the meantime, he was standing down, and returning to his patrol.

  I waited a good while for Jack to come back, and moved into my Ready Room to wait more comfortably.

  Jack and Sam finally entered and sat down, with big grins on their faces.

  "Well it's definitely Bonko and his crew," Jack announced.

  "What the hell is a Bonko?"

  "That’s his name. As far as anyone knows, it's the only name anyone has ever known him by."

  I gave him a steady gaze, waiting for more.

  "Bonko's been a merc all his life, born and raised on a Dropship. He had a Destroyer last time I saw him, but that was a dozen years ago now, normal time wise. No idea how he came to have a Cruiser, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find a Destroyer docked inside it, a Frigate inside that, and a Corvette inside the Frigate."

  "Not possible," said Jane through the room coms.

  "Not for normal people, but Bonko isn’t normal."

  "Normal or not," said Jane, "it’s a standard Earth type Cruiser. You could fit a Corvette in the hanger, but nothing bigger. There are several shuttles, two Dropships, and a gig in there now."

  "I'm disappointed," said Sam. "Not like Bonko to not have a rabbit in his hat all ready to go."

  "Jane?"

  "Yes, they are locked down, and no they can't get out, and no they can't do anything which might interfere with the ship."

  "Just checking."

  "Confirmed."

  "So what's his story?" I asked Jack.

  "Essentially, he was employed by someone called Norbett, to infiltrate the pirate outfit run by an Admiral Abbott. Norbett stopped sending orders and money, Abbott died over London, and they narrowly missed being caught up in the mess near Earth, while seeking out the next nearest pirate group. When he heard they were pretty well all been wiped out recently, he tried contacting whoever was left of them, without success. Figuring there was nothing left to infiltrate, and having no way of verifying anything, Bonko felt the only chance he had was to find you before anyone else found him. Not knowing you were down spine of Earth, he's been going the wrong way, at least until the media started pointing out you were on a speed run up spine, after which he turned around to try and meet us. Unfortunately, someone must have spotted his ship and told the ASF, because suddenly he had Battleships on his arse. He's actually very glad he found us first, and his ship was faster than most Cruisers."

  "Why me?"

  "Your reputation as a spiritual warrior. He figured you’d ask questions before shooting."

  "Almost his last mistake, wasn't it."

  "A number of his crew needed new underwear. Bonko though is made of sterner stuff."

  "Summarize all that, and send it off to Captain J
ohansson. Let them decide what to do with Bonko and his crew."

  "Sir? He's not a bad sort. And like all Mercs, sometimes they take the wrong missions because they have no choice."

  "I know. But this is ASF jurisdiction, and they could have demanded we hand over Bonko, crew, ship and all."

  He nodded, and the pair of them left.

  We blew through Denver and Kansas with no further incidents, other than a brief message from General Patton to the effect Bonko and crew were to be left in the Washington system for a debriefing about their knowledge of pirate activity.

  Waiting for us in Washington were three Lightnings. They were lined up from the down jump, enough apart to safely take each one on board without slowing down.

  Annabelle, Jack, Jane, and I, waited on the Launch deck for the Lightnings to come down from the Flight Deck.

  The first had General Patton and his aides on board. We did meet and greet in an official capacity, and the General and his party were taken to their accommodations on Unassailable, detouring via the Brig to talk to Bonko on the way.

  The second had Admiral's Jedburgh and Hallington, and staff. Again, we did meet and greet, but this was a little warmer and less official. They also were taken off to their accommodations on the Battleship.

  The third had brought General Wellington from Midgard. She stepped down, we did a formal salute, after which she hugged me.

  Behind her, stepped down Greer.

  And behind him, was Miriam.

  Thirty Three

  Both of them saluted me with big grins on their faces. They still wore Commander's insignia. I knew they were still new in grade, but I wondered why the American brass hadn't moved them up again already. Possibly for the same reasons I hadn't moved Annabelle and George up yet.

  Wellington and Greer were taken off to Unassailable by Annabelle, but Miriam just stood there in front of me.