Hunter's Terminus

by Timothy Ellis

  Skrying. New word for the day. I gathered Thorn could do the now looking in his head, but wasn’t able to show anyone else, where the skrying dish could. Or at least, that's what he wanted me to think. I think. It was just a hunch.

  BigMother led the way through, followed by Scimitar, Katana, and Unassailable. We formed a line abreast, pointing towards the enemy fleet, and began launching fighters. It hadn't taken much to get Lacey back in his Gunbus. It had started out life as a Camel, the civilian version of the corvette, been upgraded to a Gunbus during the war, and now you could call it a Gunbus MkIII.

  The bridge was packed with the usual suspects, except Thorn had the seat next to Jane, and Syrinx on the other side of Grace. The twins had moved everyone else along, and Thorn had added a few more seats. I nodded towards Jane. A channel opened.

  "Ralnor fleet, this is Admiral Jon Hunter. You have entered human space without an invitation. I invite you to depart in peace. Should you fire on us or the planet, we will respond in kind. Should you wish to meet and discuss things, stop your advance where you are, and we'll discuss how to meet. You're choice."

  The channel closed.

  "That was your response," said Roo.

  I sighed. Just once it would be nice if the opposing force stopped and decided to talk.

  "Ok. Plan B. Grace, you have the ship. Jane has the command."

  "Confirmed," she said, rising.

  I rose as well, and she took my chair. Thorn, Annabelle, Syrinx, Tanith, and the twins, all rose as well. An eye blink, and we were on the planet.

  In front of us was a group of twelve women, of varying ages.

  "Welcome," said the oldest, who was also the one in front. "We've been expecting you."

  She turned to Thorn.

  "You are the one called Thorn?"

  "I am."

  "You may leave."

  I didn't see that coming.

  "As you wish."

  He gave her a short bow, and vanished. Almost immediately, I felt a hand on my shoulder, and had to suppress a laugh. She turned to Syrinx.

  "You share our colour, but I do not know you."

  "Syrinx, from the line of Mydra."

  "The line of Mydra died out centuries ago. Are you claiming to be centuries old?"

  "Of course not. Did you not sense a change in things about a week ago?"

  "There was such a change, but no-one could determine what changed."

  "I am from before the change, protected from it by the one who made the change?"

  "And who would that be?"

  "Me," I said.

  "You are Jon Hunter, according to your own words. By what right do you claim this as your space?"

  "I don’t. But the Ralnor don’t appear to be making any distinction. Neither are the Keerah. We've joined up with three other human societies for protection reasons, and skrying suggested you were about to be attacked. I came here to help you if you so wish it."

  She looked back at Syrinx.

  "You skry?"

  "Hell no. I'm a rift specialist."

  The word rift obviously meant nothing to any of them, but nothing was said. The Matriarch, for this is what I assumed her to be, turned back to me.

  "You do not radiate the power like Thorn does, although I sense you have some. Do you skry?"

  "Hell no, I'm an Admiral. My people have no magic. I brought the three with me who do. But all three are from different societies."

  She turned to Tanith. He preempted her.

  "No, I don’t skry either. I'm a teleporter."

  This caused a bit of a stir behind her.

  "You are of Kelewan?"

  "I am."

  "Interesting. Your people have also undergone a skin colour change, as have ours."

  Which I assumed, meant they'd all started out looking like Thorn did. Five societies, four colour ranges. I’d have to ask Jane about it sometime.

  "You may leave also."

  Her voice sounded cold. I had the feeling the longest held grudge in history was operating here. He also gave her a small bow, and vanished.

  "Tanith just returned to BigMother," said Jane, through my PC.

  The stern eyes turned to Annabelle.

  "How is it you do not rule?"

  "I'm a general. My expertise is ground and station warfare using space marines. When I met Jon, he was a wet behind the ears pilot with delusions of normality. We spent a good part of two months trying to recruit him into my mercenary outfit. In that time the local military drafted him, put him to work as a basic pilot, and within that two months, he rose to be a Lieutenant Commander flying the fastest ship in known space."

  She paused, but everyone appeared to be waiting for more.

  "We joined him. A war broke out a week later, and within another month Jon was an Admiral commanding a fleet. He won the war. He promoted me three ranks in the last two years, when I'd never thought I'd rise any further than Colonel. He's young, but he is the real deal. And my team and I will follow him into hell if need be."

  "You already did," I muttered.

  They'd known I was flying a suicide mission into a sun. They'd made sure I didn't go alone.

  Those eyes fixed on me.

  "Reveal!" she commanded.

  My staff appeared in my right hand, and I couldn’t stop it going vertical, and grinding down into the dirt. The crystal glowed a bright red.

  This startled some of the twelve, but when Thorn appeared behind me holding an identical staff, with an identical red glow, some of them drew back in fear.

  "Oops," said Thorn.

  The twins giggled, drawing a severe look from the Matriarch. They made an effort to be serious again.

  "What part of leave do you not understand?"

  "I'm their transport."

  She didn’t look like it was an acceptable answer, but let it pass. Her gaze went from me to him.

  "Ah. I understand now. Master and apprentice."

  I looked around at Thorn, and he smirked back. Without a thought, my staff changed into a sword. I held it there, shifted it to a more sword holding like position, and watched the women watching the sword. When no-one said anything, I sheathed it on my back, and it vanished.

  "Maybe not," said Amanda softly.

  "Time is wasting," said Jane, in my ear.

  "Time is wasting," I said. "We came because you were skryed to be in trouble. Part of that is on us, since we bloodied the Ralnor nose when they came for us the first time. Now the three powers all seem to be coming down on humans generally. I've seen what happens without us here."

  "As have I."

  "But the choice is yours. We would have you as a functioning society we can trade with, joined up with all human societies, or at least the ones in this area of the galaxy. But say the word, and we will leave."

  "I know you will. I saw that as well. And the consequences. Hear me well. We will not allow others into our society. But by the same token, I will not allow us to be destroyed. How can this be done?"

  "Simple. We'll connect your station up there to ours. You can designate some of your people to go forth and trade with all of us, and what you buy comes back to your station. Having the connection does not mean anyone can wander through to your space. You will need an embassy. We can ensure no-one goes through to your station who is not invited by you. You stay insular, but still have the benefits of trade. In the fullness of time, when we can discover all of the magic skills possessed by three of the societies, it may be some of your battle magicians will supply services to our collective defensive fleets."

  "This sounds appealing, if it can indeed be done. Yes, we have battle magic, but it cannot protect us from weapons in space. We can hide ourselves, but not from what is coming now. We have no choice."

  "There is always choice. It is up to you to make a good one."

  "Then we choose to join you, subject to the conditions I've specified."

  "It's your system. How would you like us to proceed?"

  "The Ralnor hav
e been an irritant for centuries. And yet, we have always stood apart from them, mainly because I suspect, we never posed a serious threat to them, since we never showed them what we could do. Young man, do what needs to be done to remove them from our system, and keep them out. Our society is insular, but we are not without resources, and we will pay what it takes to keep what we have."

  "Will you accompany us back to my ship?"

  She motioned to two other women, who stepped forward.

  "We three will accompany you."

  In a blink, we were back on the bridge.

  Fifty Five

  Grace rose, and returned to her helm seat, letting me sit in mine. Syrinx offered her chair to the Matriarch, and sat where she normally did. She made eye contact with me. I nodded to Jane, a channel opened.

  "This is Admiral Hunter again. This is your last chance to stop and talk."

  Nothing. I nodded across to the Matriarch.

  "This is Matriarch Ainsline of the Sisterhood of Karn. Your presence in our system will be considered an act of war if you do not turn around and leave now. We have no desire to take lives, but we will defend our homes. We would prefer to talk with you, but I know the Ralnor are not known for talking. Still, we can see a mutually beneficial arrangement stemming from talks."

  She floundered to a stop, with no response of any kind coming back. The channel closed.

  "My people are not going to talk," said Roo, and Ainsline literally jumped when she turned and saw what he was.

  "Roo is with me," I said. "As is Hobbes next to him."

  She flinched seeing the tiger. Of the two, Hobbes gave off more of an 'I'm dangerous' vibe. It might have been the visible fangs. Or the claws.

  I looked at Thorn.

  "You sure you don’t want to just throw them back?"

  "Won't solve anything. They'll just come back."

  "They'll just come back anyway."

  "But by then, we'll have linked up and be monitoring."

  "Jane, captain hollos please."

  "Confirmed."

  Four hollos popped up instead of three. George was looking ready for a fight. Miriam was looking bored. Lacey was talking to his pilots. The fourth was Jane, sitting the center seat of Unassailable.

  The hives had deployed above and behind the squadron formations, which were slightly ahead of and above the four ships. Lacey's Gunbus had the lead position.

  "Thorn, better take the Matriarch back to her people."

  "Thank you young man, but I'll stay."

  "As you wish. Jeeves, a belt for the Matriarch and her people please."

  "I do not need decoration."

  "If you stay on my ship as we head into battle, you wear the same protection the rest of us do."

  She stood, and a shimmer appeared around her.

  "Can that protect you if we lose part of the hull, and find ourselves with no air?"

  "Of course. I've explored the bottom of our oceans. Space is not going to be a problem."

  "Jeeves, cancel the belts."

  There was the hint of movement over by the door to the bridge, as I assumed Jeeves turned around and left, before getting fully in. The Matriarch sat again.

  "Jane, move us out on an intercept course."

  "Confirmed."

  As one, the entire formation began moving towards the oncoming Ralnor fleet, which started opening out in response to our formation.

  "Space Commodore."

  "Sir?"

  "Jane will allocate each ship a target, doubling up. Prepare for ten rapid torpedoes, followed by a change of target."

  "Already set up. But we only get ten shots like that."

  "If we need ten, we're in trouble."

  "There is that. Sir."

  "Captains?"

  "Boss?" said George.

  "Yes?" said Miriam.

  "Jane will give you multiple targets. Titan turret for one, battleship guns for another, torpedoes for a third. Aim the turret, align on target 2, and shift to target three as soon as we fire."

  "Ready," said George.

  "On it," said Miriam.

  "May I make a suggestion?" asked Roo.

  I turned to face him. We still had a little time before battle was joined.

  "Sure."

  "My people may be here to land troops. If so, they will have troop shuttles. Some of them may try to board us. And given all four ships have these big holes down the middle of them. It might not be so difficult for them to do."

  "Generals."

  "Saddle up people," said Annabelle.

  The bridge emptied rapidly, leaving only those who didn't have a combat suit to use.

  "Better get the combat droids deployed on the other ships Jane."

  "Confirmed. They might get aboard, but they won't get in. If so, do you want prisoners?"

  "Preferably. But case by case. If they pose a real threat, take them out."

  "Confirmed."

  I didn’t have to look at Roo to know how unhappy he was. But he said nothing, and stayed where he was. I wasn’t happy myself. The Darkness I understood. They'd been escaping a prison, and backing off had not been an option for them. But here? Were all three apex predators so arrogant they couldn’t even think of backing off after getting their noses bloodied unexpectedly? If so, the only real response was something I didn’t want to do.

  "Missiles launched," said Jane, snapping me back to reality. "Mosquitoes launching."

  We were close enough to be within range for the mosquitoes. Not close enough for guns to come into play yet.

  "Launch," I commanded.

  Thirty six ships verses four, and eighty five fighters of three different sizes, and six different classes. In terms of missile capability, we were about even. Theirs were more powerful, but ours were pumping out more often.

  The two fleets closed, the first of the missiles aimed at us being intercepted by mosquitoes, and space began to boil. Jane looked at me as if wanting to shift our heading to avoid the missile death zone, but I shook my head. It would walk back as we approached, and our shields wouldn’t notice the debris. Except the fighters might.

  "Thorn?"

  "Jon?"

  "Are you observing, or are you going to help?"

  "What do you want?"

  "Remove the missile debris ahead of the fighters. We need to keep their shields as high as possible in case of missile or gun hits."

  "I can do that."

  Almost immediately, the zones of debris showing on the HUD began to vanish shortly after they appeared. I wondered how he did that. But only for a moment.

  "Everyone standby," I said.

  I watched the range to the lead ship, waiting for the battleship reticle to go green. The titan in range green came and went, and I held our fire.

  "Boss?" asked George.

  "Wait."

  I could hear some muttering coming from some of the fighters, but ignored it. The pilots desperately wanted a fight, and being held back was frustrating them. I understood it, but this was combat 101.

  At last, the battleship reticle turned green.

  "Fire!"

  Fifty Six

  Titan pulses left three ships, and battleship pulses left all four.

  One hundred and fifty torpedoes shot away from the three carriers, and eighty five more from the fighters. A second later, and nine hundred launched from the hives. Fingers continued pressing the torpedo fire buttons, until ten full salvoes had fired. The battleship guns fired again, and shortly after, BigMother's titan guns.

  We paused, waiting to see how effective this tactic would be. I paused, an itch I couldn’t scratch running up and down my spine. Why hadn't they fired first? Missiles were still launching, but the much vaunted Ralnor guns were silent.

  A ripple of gun fire from the entire fleet answered my thought.

  "Break and attack!"

  "About bloody time," said someone, but I let it pass.

  Squadrons broke into sections, and fighters shot off on different vectors, neg
ating most of the fire heading their way.

  George took Scimitar diagonally up, while Miriam went the same angle down. Unassailable shot off wide. With our superior shields, I kept BigMother on a head to head with the lead Ralnor ship.

  The first ranks of enemy ships seemed to be caught off guard by our volume of fire, and juked too late to save themselves. The titan pulses all hit something, and even if not fatal, the battleship pulses with them were. Torpedoes hit and missed, and hit something else behind the original target. The first rank vanished, and part of the second.

  In spite of breaking, enemy pulses struck home on our four big ships, and shields started going down. All of the other ships and fighters being off axis to the enemy ships, only BigMother fired again when her guns were recharged. Missiles continued to be fired by both sides, and I felt the hits as the Ralnor guns found us. The shields wavered, went down, steadied, started back up.

  One of the fighters winked out.

  "Got her," said Tanith, and I assumed he'd moved the pilot somewhere safe.

  Another fighter winked out. And another. Too much happening too fast.

  "Grace and Jane, fight the ship. Thread the needle."

  I didn’t wait for them to answer and didn’t actually hear one. I held out my hand, and the staff appeared in it. Like Tanith tended to do, I ground the staff into the deck and closed my eyes. Awareness flooded me as I now saw from above the battle, and it seemed like time slowed down. Now I knew how I’d been able to do this before. But this time, I could also act. Maybe. How?

  I reached out for Syrinx and Tanith, and etherically rested a 'hand' on their shoulders. Their awareness joined mine. I watched as Tanith moved another pilot from the wreckage of his fighter to BigMother's medical bay. I felt Syrinx's frustration of everything happening too fast for her to help.

  I saw the Ralnor pulse reaching to intercept another fighter, and put a rift in front of the fighter so it vanished before the pulse could hit, coming out in a safe spot on the other side of the Ralnor fleet. Another fighter died, and Tanith moved the pilot again.