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.
Down we went, slowly but surely.
At last, with five minutes left, we reached the bottom. I was exhausted now, and inflamed. The only thing I felt was pain. Pain is good I said to myself. It means I’m still alive.
I stood again with no small amount of trouble, and grasped Queen Liz by her right arm, and pulled her along after me as I made my way into the Armoury.
Two minute warning.
The combat suit was on i
ts side, having been thrown out of its charge slot. I connected to it, and powered it up. The back opened. I used my remaining strength to push her Majesty roughly inside as fast as I could. The back closed, and I checked on its life support. Good for five hours. She at least should be rescued. I switched her suit to ‘slinky red’.
One minute warning.
I looked around for the air backpacks, but couldn’t see any. There was only the single combat suit in the Armoury, with its Heavy Pulse Rifles, which were still in their charge racks.
Life support failure.
I sat next to the Queen, and let my last few breaths flow through me, stopping the mantra, and simply entering a deeply meditative state.
Give yourself to me.
Kali again. I looked around to see if I was in my Ready Room again, but no. I was gasping my last in the wreckage of Gunbus.
Give yourself to me!
“I give myself to you,” I parroted, my eyes losing focus.
My pain stopped.
My breathing stopped.
My heart stopped.
Thirty Two
I burst out of myself as some sort of incorporeal entity, flowed out of the wreckage of the ships, and into space.
I looked around.
Time had stopped. Nothing moved.
Jane was not far off the side of the Battleship. She looked like she was firing her guns behind her, perhaps using their slight recoil as a propellant. I was relieved to see her okay. It might be a droid body and expendable, but she, it, she, was my friend.
I moved to a position where I could see the whole battle site. Four Guardians were visible. All four were damaged, but only one was extensively damaged. There were the hulls of one Cruiser and one Destroyer, both appearing dead.
I looked back at the Battleship. It appeared to be functional. I moved inside and sought out an area where there should be live people. Towards the center, I came across the CCC. Everyone there was down. They looked like they’d been asphyxiated. I continued through the ship and found the same everywhere. Curious. There was no apparent cause of life support failure. There were many damaged areas, but all of them were closed off from the rest of the ship, so no particular hit had caused the crew to die.
I moved out of the ship and headed towards the station. BigMother was a short way away from it. Custer had undocked, and was on her way towards the Battleship. I moved through her, but no-one was aboard. I moved on to BigMother, but only Angel was there, and she was safely in her carry cage, being held next to an air connection point in my suite by one of the butler droids.
The Mercenaries were still flat on the deck just inside the airlock from the Flight Deck. Outside, the captain of the Military Transport wouldn’t be looking up my record after all.
On the station, the battle for Operations was still in progress, but Jane was almost through mopping up. I went back to check BigMother. The docking clamps had been cut, not released. But she hadn’t been let loose in time to join the battle.
I headed down to the planet.
Amanda and Aleesha were inside the Palace, blazing away with their combat suit stunners. Pulses hung in the air leaving their guns on a line towards hapless troops. A line of bodies extended behind them, mainly alive, although one had its face smashed in. British troops were spread out through the building. BA and Annabelle were in the Parliament building, with more British troops. I found the other team members scattered across a number of other government buildings, all acting as lead combat suit for at least a platoon of troops.
Bigglesworth was in his office at the Admiralty, firing a gun across the top of his desk, unaware Aline in her combat suit was about to remove his problem for him.
George and the other pilots were at the RAF hangers. They were all down, but appeared to be alive. It made sense to stun all the pilots before you brought in a fleet to attack the planet. Royal Air Force might be an obsolete name for a space travel age, but the name was traditional, and like so much else which was traditionally British, had been retained along with the Monarchy.
I couldn’t help anyone, so I launched myself back up into space.
With nowhere else to go, and no concept of why I was in this form, apparently timeless, I returned to Gunbus. I found Jeeves in my suite, pinned under some debris. I had no way of telling if he was still active or not. I found the Duke of Norfolk still in the remains of the Brig. His body had been torn in half.
I returned to where I’d left my body.
I discovered a figure approaching where I’d left myself. I circled around it, discovering it was a suited man, wearing an air backpack, who looked disturbingly like his pirate-ness. He was carrying a handgun, and it was pointed in my general direction.
I didn’t know what else to do, so I tried to re-enter my body.
Time started up again.
My heart gave a beat.
I took a breath of almost unbreathable air.
Pain smashed at my consciousness.
Thirty Three
My suit generated an air connection and smoothly connected me to the combat suit’s external air connection point. In seconds, it regenerated its ability to sustain me for another half hour, and disconnected. It shortened the time Queen Liz could last by that amount, but it kept me alive a bit longer.
I pulled myself back to my feet, and faced towards the oncoming figure.
A channel opened between our suits.
“So boy,” he smirked at me. “You’re still alive.”
“Damn right I am,” I responded. “But how are you? Your Bridge crew are dead. Were you the only one to have a suit belt on? Did you run out as soon as you saw the torpedoes coming? So the coward makes sure he lives when his crew are all dead!”
“I took steps to ensure I survived, yes. Anyone in my position would do.”
A phrase came to me from an old flat screen.
“I have given a name to my pain, and it is Abbott!”
“What?”
“You heard me arse-hole. I choose to call my pain your name, because that’s all you are. Pain for other people. You’re a parasite on society, and give true parasites a bad name.”
His face went bright red, his gun jerked, but before he could fire, I drew my Long Gun and fired first. The shot took him in the forehead, and he went over backwards, his own shot coming nowhere near me. I holstered my gun, and hobbled over to the gun racks, where I pulled a Heavy Pulse Rifle down.
In my weakened condition it was almost too much for me to manage, but I swung the muzzle towards my enemy, and lined him up.
He was just getting up, bringing his gun around at me again.
I fired the Pulse Rifle. The pulse took him in the middle of the chest, and he went flying backwards to crash into the wall behind him.
I hobbled after him, keeping the Pulse Rifle lined up on him. He was struggling to rise from the floor, as the next pulse hit him.
I debated hitting him again. If he had a standard suit belt, one more pulse would probably shred it. If it was boosted, he could take it.
He stirred and fired at me again, the shot taking me in the left arm, and bouncing off harmlessly.
I gave him another pulse. His suit held together, but he passed out. He’d taken three bruise-worthy hits now, so he was going to be sore when he woke up in a cell.
A stun pulse came from behind me, hitting Abbott in the middle of the chest.
His suit shredded.
His body explosively decompressed.
I looked at the mess in surprise. He must have had some sort of skin break somewhere to cause it. Too bad.
I turned to look where the stun shot had come from. Jane was standing there. She holstered her guns, and started over towards me. I dropped the Pulse Rifle.
“Why did you do that?” I asked her via PC coms.
“He had it coming,” she responded.
“How so?”
“While I was out there, I had the chance to access the ship’s computer. Even his own people hated him. As f
ar as anything good about him is concerned, he’s been running on empty for a long time. He was seriously overdue for someone to take him out.”
“So you happened to the crew?”
She grinned, and nodded.
“How were you able to take the computer over? Wasn’t there another AI?”
“There was, until the Bridge was destroyed. It must have been on the Bridge, because after Gunbus crashed, the ship’s computer was wide open to me. I took it over, and turned off the life support.”
“Do we have engines?”
“No. One of the Guardians destroyed them to stop the ship from escaping. If I’d realized I had access to the computer a few seconds earlier, I could have saved us some trouble. But Custer will be here in two minutes, so you won’t be on suit air for much longer.”
“Good. Can you control the combat suit with the Queen still in it?”
“Yes. She’s unconscious, but doesn’t appear to be injured.”
“Okay, let’s move to where Custer can get to us. You’ll need to give me some support.”
She moved over beside me, and I put my left arm around her shoulders. We shuffled along with me holding my left leg out in front slighting and hopping each step. The combat suit followed along.
Outside of Gunbus’ hull, she had to lift me over a lot of the debris.
We waited for Custer at a point where the ramp could extend to us. She came in slowly, stopping with the ramp extended. Jane lifted me off the ground, and jumped up to it. She carried me to the top, where Jarvis was waiting. He gave me a pain shot. The suit took the medication, and delivered it to my skin.
After giving it a minute to work, I put my left foot down on the deck, and found I was able to manage a hobble. By the time I arrived at the rear hatch, the airlock was closed and the bay aired up and warm again. I switched to ‘slinky red’.
We started towards Deck One. I definitely need to get an access shaft put in.
Hunter Legacy 5 Hail the Hero Page 19
