Minutes later, I stood among a pile of unconscious bodies. Don’t ask me how I did it, I just did. My left side in particular ached badly. As well as constantly shooting me, some of them had fought. My suit changed back to normal fatigues. I checked its integrity. It showed thirty six percent, but as I watched, this improved.
I idly counted the lumps on the deck. Sixteen male soldiers, four female, three male officers. One of the officers had a Colonel's bird on his shoulders. I picked up the nearest gun, changed it to stunner mode, and shot them all one by one, with the exception of the Colonel. He was out cold anyway.
"Janet, send me a grav sled please. I have some trash to take out."
"Yes my Lord."
"Who are these bozos?"
"Mercenary team. Valentine's Dark Shifters."
"How long have they been on the station?"
"Only a few hours. They came with two other mercenary companies."
"Have BA assemble the troops in the mess please. Also have Annabelle assemble the officers. Show them what just happened. Then show them what I'm about to do."
"Yes My Lord."
While I waited I checked each person for a suit and removed it. Some of them returned to being a belt simply by pulling on the buckle, after which they simply unclasped. Others I had to pull the belts down their bodies to get them off, as they had obviously been code locked shut. I also removed any remaining weapons they carried. I piled suits, guns and knives out of the way. I checked the Mercenary Guild record for this team. Interesting, I thought. Every mission they had been hired for had put them on the side I considered to be the dark side. I wondered who had hired them this time.
A cargo droid arrived with a sled big enough for the whole platoon. I had it load them all on.
"Janet, send the cargo droid to the nearest airlock. Have it pile the bodies inside the lock. Leave the cam feed on the outside of the lock as I go in, and wait for me to come out. Have another droid collect the weapons and take them to the station armory. And another to take the belts to Gunbus. See if Jane can unlock the ones I couldn’t open."
"Yes my Lord."
I followed the droid, making a decision on the way. I was sick and tired of people shooting at me. No more Mr. Nice Guy.
The airlock next to Gunbus opened. The droid moved the platoon inside, and left. I walked in after them and closed the airlock doors behind me.
I waited for the Colonel to awaken. His eyes fell across the rest of his team, lying prone on the deck, in their underwear. They took in the confines of the airlock. He looked at me, horror on his face.
"I want to know who hired you," I said.
"How are you even alive?" he asked me. "No-one can live through what we hit you with, let alone take us all out. What kind of demon are you?"
I gave him the Maniac grin.
"The name," I repeated. "I don’t have all day."
"He never gave his name. We were hired by a recruitment agent."
"Who?"
He gave me the agent's name and contact details. I pinged them to Abigail, asking for as much information as she could dig up.
"You'll let us go now?"
"Sure."
For a moment he looked relieved, until my suit changed into a full space suit. He had about five seconds of horror, before I hit the button to open the outer doors.
Twenty two bodies ejected into space. One must have had some kind of wound, as it explosively decompressed. Blood and gore splashed the entire airlock, me included. I closed the outer doors. When the lock cycled, my suit went back to fatigues, and still covered in blood, I walked calmly out of the airlock and back to Gunbus.
On the way, I pinged Abigail to make an edited version of the event and send it to me.
I walked up the ramp into Gunbus without a word to the several people gathered there. I walked through the Armoury in silence, passed through the common room without even looking to see who was there, and through the barracks into the bathroom. There, I showered in full suit. The blood and gore washed off. I stepped out of the water flow, and let the suit change back into a belt. It was dry already. I went over to the mirror and looked at the new bruises I'd picked up. I changed into 'slinky red' and walked up to my suite. Angel looked up at me, did a double take, and quietly climbed to the top of her kitty castle. I continued through into my bathroom, where I stripped off and stepped into the spa.
Amanda and Aleesha found me there about ten minutes later. They silently joined me, and both hugged me under the water.
While I soaked, I sent an email to the mercenary guild explaining what had happened. Abigail sent me the vid, and I included it for them.
I accessed my Mercenary Guild record. I uploaded the vid to the section about combat skills. I left a simple message. "I no longer take prisoners. You want to die? Come after me. Better yet, shoot yourself and save me the trouble." I did the same on my Bounty Hunter record.
We sat there and soaked in silence.
Thirty Four
Eventually, Amanda broke the silence.
"How did you do that Jon?"
"Do what?"
"Take down a whole platoon of Mercenaries."
"I set your unarmed combat routines to primary and let them do the work."
"No Jon."
"What do you mean no?"
"She means no, Jon," said Aleesha in support. "Nothing you did is part of those combat routines."
"That was all you," said Amanda.
"Rubbish!"
"We checked," they both said together.
"Well don’t look at me. You’re the one who taught me to fight."
"You created a monster sis," said Aleesha to Amanda. They both giggled.
I looked at them as if they were nuts. Maybe I was nuts. Nuts. Food. My stomach gurgled. Early for lunch, but a little exercise in the morning does wonders for the appetite.
I thrust out of the spa, grabbed a towel and started drying myself. The girls did the same only more sedately.
We had lunch together for the first time in I couldn’t remember.
An email from Miriam took me back to my office.
"Oh. My. God. Jon, please tell me you didn’t? What were you thinking? I don’t mean just what you did, but uploading to the Guilds? Are you crazy? Your vid has gone viral. I was the last person in my squadron to see it. What sort of message did you think you were sending out? No-one in command is going to take you seriously after this. And I really don’t know if I want a boyfriend that can do that sort of thing. Seriously Jon, what were you thinking?"
There was a cough from the doorway. BA walked in as I looked towards the door. She was grinning from ear to ear. She raised her hand, and we high fived.
"Way to go, boss. Just what we needed."
"How so?"
"You sent the troops the messages they needed to hear."
"Hate and fear me?"
"Hell no boss. Respect."
"What are you talking about?"
"Forget about what you just heard. She's an officer. She doesn’t get it. You just proved two things to the troops."
"And what were they?"
"First, you're no ordinary officer. Most officers in that situation would be dead. Those who survived, would have because they found a hole and crawled in, before hollering for help. You didn’t. You stood up, and calmly took the fight to them. It didn’t even occur to you to call for help. Did it?" She grinned at me.
"No. Your right, I didn’t even think of it."
"So the first message was – don’t mess with the boss, he's tougher than you are. At the same time, they got the message that you get it. You know what it's like in the trench fighting hand to hand. Most officers lead from behind. You proved you lead from in front. Soldiers respect that in an officer. And most officers will never understand that. Annabelle does, but she leads the team into the shit end of things too."
"What was the other message?"
"That you mean what you say, and when you say something, you will do it. You
told the troops that the next instance of violating the chain of command would result in the offender doing guard duty outside without a suit on. Troops contracted to you tried to kill you. That’s about as bad a violation of the chain of command as you can get. Every single one who shot at you, is now outside doing guard duty. And you did it without thinking too hard, without any observable emotion."
"So now they hate and fear me."
"No boss. The troops on this station will follow you anywhere now. Not because their officers tell them too, not out of fear of what you will do, but because your leading by example. They know you don’t have their back, because you're out front. Now they have your back. I couldn’t have organized this better if I'd choreographed you."
She raised her hand again, and this time we high fived with much more enthusiasm from me.
"What do I tell Miriam?"
"Want my advice? Send her the earlier vid with those idiots calling you a kid. It adds some context. I doubt anything you say will help her get it. It's something only those in the trenches understand. And I'd tack it on that vid you uploaded as well."
I sighed.
"Ok, have Abagail do that and upload it for me."
"Yes sir."
She stood at attention and saluted. I waved her to the door. She grinned again, and strode out.
I replayed Miriam's vid. Something I'd missed the first time caught my attention.
Boyfriend? When had that happened?
"Jon."
"Yes Janet?
"The new tugs have arrived. I'm repositioning all of them now."
"How many did we get?"
"Thirteen."
"So sixteen total now? What will that do for the station?"
"Serious increase in speed, better acceleration, and I'm tasking some of them for sideways movement so we can maneuver if need be. I can simulate the actual increases, but only using them will show for real."
"How long before we can move?"
"Station will be ready in about three hours."
"Good."
"By the way, I used your name to authorize some work in the command area. It's currently off limits while the droids do the work."
"What are you doing?"
"Well…."
Who'd have guessed an AI could prevaricate?
"If the station is to act like a Battleship, it really needs some sort of proper command area like a Bridge, or Combat Command and Control room. With all the guns and ordinance going in upstairs, I couldn’t see the point of not having a proper way of controlling it all. I assumed you don’t want me controlling all of it all the time?"
"True. What if you were to go insane under the strain? Anything could happen."
"Ha. Yeah right, as if that will happen."
"Good thinking though. We may well need to be able to control things manually. When will it be complete?"
"Around midnight."
"Great."
I thought about guns and ordinance. I pinged Alsop to ask how much ordinance was being delivered. He answered with numbers that convinced me we would probably have more than enough.
"Jane?"
"Yes your lethalness?"
"How many clusters do we have now?"
"Eight. We'll have twelve full clusters and six extra drones by six tonight."
"Thank you. Let me know when the last drone is delivered."
"Confirmed."
Lethal. Not a word I'd have normally used about myself. But I'd killed again. Damn. More releases to do. Best get them done while I could. Divine knows how many I'd be doing tomorrow.
I settled into a meditation state and started on the releases.
When I completed them, I kept on meditating.
After a while, I became aware of Alison sitting at the conference table watching me. I came fully aware again abruptly.
"Sorry," she said. "Did I disturb you?"
"It's ok," I responded. "Stealing meditation time. Where have you been lately? I don’t recall when I saw you last."
"Who do you think has been running your station since you left it with Annabelle in charge?" she said laughing.
"Running it?"
"You sent the entire administration staff down to Pompeii, remember? Someone has to administer it. Being the only one on the team with any experience, it was left to me to handle."
"Sorry. I didn’t even think about it."
"I know you didn't. You went haring off to play Hero. Someone had to take up the slack."
"I am not a rabbit," I said deadpan.
She giggled.
"Yes you are. You’re the Easter Bunny."
The giggle lost control and became a full laugh. I sighed. As a joke in the middle of a crisis, I'd said "No, I'm the Easter Bunny", when asked if I was me. I'd used it again pulling the team out of the Pompeii civil war, not knowing at the time if it was really them or not.
"I need some authorizations," she said, when at last the laughing stopped.
"What sort?"
"Food requisitions mostly. We need to feed the troops, and give them somewhere to bed down. The station has enough beds, but we've run through all the available food, without violating resident's personal and business stocks."
"Follow," I said.
We went downstairs to Vonda's office. Vonda and Alsop stopped discussing whatever they were discussing as we appeared in the doorway. Alsop gave me the strangest look. I motioned for Alison to voice her request.
"Sorry to interrupt General. I'm acting admin on the station and we need food for the troops. I was wondering how I requisition said food, and who signs for it?"
Vonda looked to Alsop.
"Sorry, err…" started Alsop.
"Lieutenant Alison Vogane," she filled in.
"I meant to come find you Lieutenant. We have supplies arriving in about an hour. Can you arrange for them to go where they're needed?"
"I can do that. Ping me when the freighter arrives."
They exchanged contact details. I headed back to my office. Alison stopped me at the stairwell.
"The twins told me about your new bruises. I watched the vid. That took balls doing what you did. Both parts. I hate seeing you limping though. Want me to come by after dinner and give you a massage and some reiki?"
"I’d like that. Thanks. In fact, why not join me for dinner?"
"I will. See you then."
She went down and I went up.
I had this niggling feeling I'd missed something.
Thirty Five
I was watching Jane playing with her new toys, when Vonda came in. She sat at the conference table and I joined her.
She sat there and looked at me. I waited.
At last, she sighed heavily.
"You don’t look like a homicidal maniac."
"I don’t feel like one. Should I?"
"The consensus among the officers is yes you should. But I don’t pay much attention to what officers say on such matters. It’s the troops you pay attention to with this sort of thing. And the troops have received a morale boost like I've never seen before. Is that why you did it?"
"Well, no."
"Why then?"
"Because I'm sick and tired of being shot at. If I'd had guns on me at the time, I'd have just stunned them all. I didn’t, so by the time I'd subdued them, some emotion had crept in. I chucked them out the airlock because I wanted anyone else considering coming after me for the bounty, to know they would be toast if they missed."
"What bounty?"
"I'm here because I killed a pirate who had been attacking shipping in the Australian sector. If he'd not been there that day, I'd still be an apprentice spaceperson, now back home, living the quiet life."
"Sounds boring. But go on."
"Before long, I'd killed the entire pirate group, because they just kept coming at me. But someone I haven't found yet, posted a bounty on my death with the first one. And every time someone misses me, and a lot have now, it keeps on going up."
"How big?"
<
br /> I looked up my Bounty Hunter record. Even I was surprised.
I was worth a cool one hundred million dead. And only half that if taken alive.
Vonda was astonished.
"Now I begin to understand," she said, when she had control of her jaw again. "If anyone comments in my hearing, I'll tell them to look this up."
"Thanks. I'm pissed off with it. All I want is to get this war done with, so I can go home and find who wants me dead so badly."
"And kill him?"
"I won't know until I get there. Depends on the situation when we meet."
"Any ideas who it is?"
"The Santiago family were the first thorn in my side. It's most likely a family member I haven’t come across yet. Although that is serious money for even a pirate family."
"Good luck with that."
"Thanks. Anything else we need to talk about?"
"No, I think we have everything ticking over as it should be. When will the station be ready to leave?"
"The station, very soon. The last of the fighter drones will be here around six. If the food and ordinance is all on board by then, we can get going shortly after."
"Good. Keep me informed."
I mock saluted her, and she left.
Feeling restless, I decided to take that walk I'd not had the opportunity of finishing last time I'd tried.
This time, I tooled up first.
I checked in the Common room as I went past, but there was no-one there.
The Cargo Bay was also empty, except for Jarvis at the top of the ramp.
Send in the Hero (The Hunter Legacy Book 3) Page 22
