Hunter's Terminus

by Timothy Ellis

  The three titan class ships and Redoubt were positioned on the four corners of one side of a cube, pointing diagonally inward to where the jump point down jump lane began, about two seconds pulse range from the emergence point. Redoubt though was aligned so its length could shield the smaller ships if need be, while still allowing the battleship turrets on its top surface to all be on target.

  Sato was sitting the captain's chair on Redoubt, but Janet, the AI, would be doing all the shooting. Renaud was in the captain's chair on Orion, and looked a bit nervous. I'd made sure Lacey had spent time with him, so he knew how to get the best from Orion. But he'd spent too long as a proper captain, with a crew around him, to be comfortable going back to his own helm days. Chet had every confidence in him, but I was hoping he didn’t choke.

  The two dreadnaughts, Relentless and Dauntless, were on opposites sides of the square from each other. Annette Bronson and Ron Greer had orders to pull out if they were targeted. Of the smaller ships, they had the best shielding, but I had my doubts they could take a proper targeted attack on them by multiple plant ships.

  I'd had to explain the dreadnaughts and super class ships to our five guests. They'd all started out as conventional ships. All came from the original Earth navy designs for water ships, adapted for space, but reverse mirror imaged, so they had a top and a bottom, with secondary turrets and missile launchers along the sides. So effectively, the standard space ship design was twice the original water design, one flipped from the other, so where the original battleship had two turrets forward, and one aft, the flipside had one forward and two aft. The result gave three turrets pointing both forward and aft all the time, and six turrets to each side. Over six hundred years later, designs hadn't changed much, just made bigger.

  The two dreadnaughts had originally been four battleships. Each had been cut in half lengthwise, so they once again looked like a wet navy ship, and had been reattached to a new central full length oblong section, using four of them instead of two. From front and back, they looked like a cross. The new sections contained additional power generators, engines, and shield emitters. During the Darkness War, a lot of the smaller ships had been reconfigured the same way, and re-classed as super.

  The other innovation I'd had to explain was also done during the war, giving all turrets the ability to change their height, allowing for all the main turrets to fire in any direction, often over the top of other turrets. The Darkness War had demanded innovation which allowed maximum firepower, with minimum silhouette.

  I could see a similar reaction on all their faces, being an expression of 'are you crazy?' thoughts. All of it had been, but survival drives you to do crazy things. We didn’t have the time to develop new ships in any number, so Jane and I worked with what we had.

  BigMother, with Lacey in the captain's seat, under protest, was in another of the midpoint positions, with the same orders. Unassailable, my drone battleship, filled the remaining position. Jane had identical orders. Her seven hundred and twenty medium drone fighters were all sitting in launch tubes on Orion's Belt. But the battleship still had all her main armament, and this is what I needed.

  Orion also had my main squadrons on board, with every fighter sitting at the end of a launch tube. 266, 666, and 287 squadrons were all twelve ship Privateer heavy fighter squadrons, although three different types. 617 Wing comprised forty eight of a number of types of short range heavy fighters. John Slice's drone fighters, and several wings of mercenaries brought the number of fighters to one thousand. None of them had anything heavy to shoot, but most of them had torpedoes, with those who didn’t having missiles, and with Orion aligned with one of her launch sides pointed at the jump point, every single fighter was also individually aligned to fire at the same small zone. Quantity of fire instead of quality of fire.

  Five incredulous expressions told me only a madman could think up a ship like Orion. But what I didn’t tell them was the carrier was only half loaded. And as yet, they hadn't seen the other two titans up close and ready to fight.

  Above and behind Redoubt was John Wayne, and my other seven pocket battleships. Being Cruiser sized with two battleship turrets each, their lack of shielding made them vulnerable now. O'Neil was under orders to duck all of them behind Redoubt if they seriously came under fire. JW, his AI, had control of all eight ships.

  Below and behind Redoubt was John Slice's Apricot, which as a standard Cruiser, was the most vulnerable ship in the fleet, but telling Slice no wasn’t something worth devoting time to. He was a civilian now, but his military background refused to allow him to stand down from a fight.

  Around his ship were my twelve missile cruisers, which were also as vulnerable as Apricot was. Janet was also controlling these, and had orders to protect Slice at all costs, even if it meant sacrificing the missile cruisers. Not that I’d told John that. Old warriors don’t like young ones trying to protect them. At least he'd left his family back on Haven.

  The last ship in the fleet on the battle line was Miriam Young's. But Defiant wasn’t really Defiant any more. I had two more super-cruisers which no longer had crews. Courageous and Undaunted were now attached to Defiant, creating a super-duper-cruiser, which looked really weird, since the ships had been locked together at points where their main turrets and missile launchers remained fully operational. She lost use of a lot of her secondary turrets and launchers, but Jane had made sure she still had enough mosquito launchers for her own point defense.

  It had taken Jane some actual real time to figure out how to do the join, and then reconfigure her maneuvering thrusters so she fought like a single ship, and her shield emitters so all three acted to provide a single shield set. The repair droids had taken a lot longer to do the work, but Miriam had indicated she was happy with the result. Defiant was now above and behind Sceptre, with the same orders to pull back behind me if she was actively targeted.

  Slice was an old war dog, but Miriam was a loose cannon, so I had my doubts she'd follow orders when it came to the crunch. It was true she'd stopped taking major risks when I'd promoted her from a squadron leader to a cruiser captain, but Chet and I both still worried about her. Jane however would take control if she refused to pull back. Miriam was another person on my list to talk to, but being my ex-girlfriend, and me being the reason she'd become a loose cannon in the first place, made the task a bit awkward.

  Docked to Redoubt were six super-destroyers. Lacey's Crusader, Greer's Chivalrous, and without crews, Whirlwind, Wizard, Zealous, and Vigilant. Also docked, and again without crews, were the super-corvettes Tenacious, Redoubtable, Paladin, Pathfinder, and Rigorous. None of them would survive this fight if fired on, but Janet could line them up along Redoubt and use their torpedo launchers from within the station's shields, if we had need. Given the number on Orion, I didn’t see this happening, but it was a tactic which could be used, and had been successfully in the past.

  Back with Hunter's Haven and the combined Shipyard, were the three Explorer ships, Galactica, Enterprise, and Prometheus. Also there were the escort carrier's Preserver and Deliverer. All 5 ships lacked the shielding and guns for this sort of fight, and were going to be the first ships upgraded. All of them were rigged for the collection and transport of refugees, and needed to be turned back into proper warships. There were also a collection of super-Gunbus, belonging to some Japanese pilots who'd stayed with Sato, but they were all out of commission for one reason or another and waiting on the shipyard. But being on the lowest priority, the pilots were on Redoubt instead, each of them taking one of the smaller ships there.

  Thinking about them, the word 'refugees' rang a bell in the back of my mind, but I put it aside for a time when I could think it out properly.

  A half hour before crunch time, my team straggled onto the bridge again, this time looking like the marines they were. Annabelle sent them straight to Custer, which was now internally docked within Sceptre. Grace went with them. Five minutes later, George checked in as ready to deploy, and I found out wh
ich teams were on board. All six teams were mine, but the real surprise was General Jack O'Neill was in the python with his wife's team six. Perhaps it wasn’t a surprise after all.

  Jane informed me through my PC Amanda and George had spent time in care units, making sure they were combat capable as fast as possible. I'd refrained from smiling.

  Ten minutes later again, Arthur's crew turned up in the CCC of Redoubt, scaring the hell out of Sato. Turned out they'd been using one of the empty hotels as accommodation, and only just awoken to find a combat situation. Janet had directed them to the CCC, but omitted to tell Sato they were coming. They took seats where they could watch what happened, after Jane sent a hollo of Arthur sitting on Sceptre's bridge so they knew what he was doing. None of them looked half as comfortable as he didn't. And if it had been me on his bridge with nothing to do, I’d have been the same.

  The plants hadn't changed their formations, and were still coming on, obviously with no idea we could see them coming.

  I did a quick check of all ships. All of the pilots were now showing as three-dee hollos now. The orders had been given, they were all watching their HUD and navmap, and fingers were itching.

  We were ready.

  Twenty Four

  "One," I commanded.

  "Confirmed," said Jane.

  We waited the final seconds.

  "Fire," said Jane, and three fingers jerked.

  Relentless, and Dauntless fired everything they had, and Defiant fired everything except her missiles. Jane had given the fire command because seconds counted here, and she had it all calculated to ten decimal places, including human reaction times.

  One and a half seconds later, the first three plant ships appeared, and half a second more, each ship took the full broadside of one of mine. All three lost shields immediately, two of them taking hull damage.

  "Two, fire," I said.

  Redoubt and the eight pocket battleships all fired, turrets divided up among the three ships. Two seconds later, all three of them were a single debris field, moving down the jump lane on inertia.

  "That went as expected," said Susan.

  "Agreed."

  It had been a deliberate test. The cruiser guns of Defiant, although a lot of them, hadn't been enough to do more than knock a shield down for a fraction of a second. The dreadnaughts with twelve battleship turrets each, had been able to damage the ships, but not destroy them. Another twelve turrets aimed at Defiant's target had been enough to remove the slightly regenerated shield, and destroy the ship. Ten each at the other two ships had also been more than enough to destroy the ship.

  I'd been expecting a worse result, but it did prove at a pinch, and with only three ships jumping in at a time, Redoubt, the two dreadnaughts, the pocket battleships, and the super duper cruiser, should be able to hold the jump point on their own against battlecruiser sized enemies. Defiant now also had a missile cruiser broadside of capital ship missiles, which we hadn't used, since Undaunted had been a cruiser missile cruiser hybrid super. It looked like she'd need to use them.

  "Three," I commanded.

  The twelve drone missile cruisers each fired off fifty capital ship missiles. Two hundred each for each plant ship, arriving once again a half second after emergence. They were slower than the pulses to arrive, but did the same job. More debris. Their point defense had been completely overwhelmed. As a backup to the other ships, they would allow for a faster jump through rate, providing gun recharge time if need be.

  So far so good.

  "Four," I said.

  "Ready," answered Chet.

  "Ready," echoed Renaud, after checking his HUD.

  "Fire," said Jane.

  One thousand fighters all fired their front guns more or less at the same time, and a ragged blaze of pulses crossed space, intersecting with the next three ships, which lost their shields, but suffered no hull damage.

  "Five, fire," I ordered, and the same thousand fighters all fired a single torpedo, or a fire and forget missile.

  A third of them missed, since torpedoes are dumb fire, and this was blanket fire rather than exact aiming. All the same, all three ships vanished, generating surprise noises from all five of our guests. I was used to twenty torpedoes making a significant hole in a battleship. Maybe this was a little overkill, but several hundred torpedoes each was also a kill number, and torpedoes came in magazines of one hundred. Orion was capable of holding the jump point by herself if need be, especially since torpedoes could be rapid fired.

  "Six."

  "Fire."

  BigMother fired a complete broadside, while at the same time, both Dreadnaughts also fired again. A second later, Redoubt fired again as well.

  The center ship almost vanished, the titan turret doing most of the damage. The two outside ships took damage, but each received half of Redoubt's firepower that second later, and turned into debris.

  "Hammer, battle mode."

  "Confirmed," said Susan.

  A side screen popped up, showing turrets rising from the top, bottom, and front of the box like ship. I was watching our guests, and having a minute, told them what they were seeing.

  "On the top are six rows of four titan turrets. Each row can fire over the top of the ones in front of it, so all of them can fire at once if need be, all firing forward. Like the dreadnaughts and supers, they can all be changed to fire to the rear, or one side, as necessary, without changing the direction the ship is moving in. Each turret has three titan guns. Also on the turret mount, are four battleship turrets, three of which can fire in the same direction as the larger guns at the same time, with the fourth there to provide covering fire above the turret. Each has three guns. Between them are turrets for the smaller gun sizes. Between the mounts, are hundreds of Mosquito launchers, hundreds of capital ship missile launchers, and I'm not even sure how many standard launchers."

  "And that’s on each side," added Jane, eliciting gasps. "Not to mention the front facing battleship guns and torpedo launchers, and the thousands of point defense turrets all over."

  "Seven."

  "Ready," said Susan.

  "Fire."

  Jane's voice seemed to quiver a bit this time, and I didn’t blame her.

  From the top of Hammer, two rows of main titan and battleship turrets fired, along with a single row from the underside of the ship.

  Half a second after the three plant battleships jumped in, all three were dust.

  "Eight."

  Susan could be seen changing fire presets.

  "Fire."

  The next three battlecruisers took a titan turret, and its three battleship turrets, each. All were destroyed, but the debris was in a lot bigger chunks. The extra titan gun BigMother had, made a difference.

  Susan changed her preset again without being prompted.

  "Fire."

  Same fire pattern, different turrets. Same outcome.

  Susan changed the preset again.

  "Nine."

  "Fire."

  Two titan turrets and their battleship turrets fired. Relentless and Defiant fired as well, the latter a full second later.

  The two outside battlecruisers became chunky debris, while the middle ship lost its shields and took some damage at the rear, which a second later turned into destroyed engines. The crippled ship continued to down jump.

  "George?"

  "Boss?"

  "You can launch now."

  "Launching."

  "Jack?"

  "Sir?"

  "Use all teams, and see if you can get me some prisoners. But no unnecessary risks."

  "Yes sir."

  He could be heard in the background assigning his team's entry points. I turned to see how everyone was coping. Shocked faces stared back at me.

  "What?"

  Twenty Five

  "That was outrageous!" blurted Hobbes.

  "Mother of god," said Roo, for the first time indicating his people had religion.

  "I want one of those," said Arthur.

&nb
sp; "Can't have one," I said. He looked pained. "I only managed to get two full titans built, and the one carrier. We have stations with the same turrets on them, so if we fall here, nothing is going to get into our new home system, but no spare ships. I've only had these for a matter of weeks, and any ability to build more was interrupted by the need to move."

  "Can I buy one?"

  Annabelle started laughing. He had a sort of hang dog look about him now.

  "Maybe in the fullness of time I can get one built for you. My first priority is gun and shield upgrades, so what we have now is more effective. After that, I'll figure out what ship is best to mass produce."

  At the back of my mind, I was already thinking about battlestations as well. Redoubt was cobbled together, and under gunned for her size. What I needed here was a true battlestation, or a set of them, freeing up the ships for other things. Things not yet defined of course. Needed much more thought, but for now, my eyes were drawn to Custer, now coming alongside the drifting ship.

  We watched the dropships launch from Custer, continued watching cams as the troops streamed on board through the wrecked engine spaces, and shortly after through blown airlocks.

  "All dead," said Jack.

  I'd figured as much, but confirmation was good.

  "Any idea why?" asked Annabelle, before I did.

  "As far as I can see, the ship didn't have any closed bulkheads. So the hull breach destroying the engines killed everyone on the ship. But in a weird way, it makes sense, as the floor is dirt, and the carcasses we pulled out of it have roots, and where they were indicates they do move around. A closed bulkhead hatch for something as complicated as roots, would be too difficult. Bad practice to leave them open, but much easier movement for them doing so."