"Worth the risk."
"Confirmed."
"…how they like Hunter's tactics thrown at them. We'll jump through at full speed, and stop dead. Turn sideways to the jump point, and let them have everything we've got. They'll only have front guns, but we'll give them full broadsides."
Jane was translating the German for me.
"So the plan still stands?"
"Of course. Suckering Hunter was easier than I thought. His space is ripe for the taking. The whole Australian sector is defended by nothing more than light fighters. What survives the aliens will fall beneath our guns at a place of our choosing. Once we have full control, we'll purge the population of the lesser races, and take Gaia from those weak minded fools who control it now. The Fourth Reich will rise, and last a thousand …"
"Turn that off," I commanded, not needing to hear the next word.
The thousand year Reich. Ein volk, ein Reich, ein Führer. One people, one nation, one leader. The master race.
I should have seen that coming.
I stood, activated protection mode on my suit, and the sword appeared on my back. White fire felt like it coursed through me. Angry but calm. Rage, but icy. Total control.
Not on my fucking watch was Nazi anyone going to dominate anything, ever again. I'd tolerated them, allowed them to be independent, and respected their disparate beliefs. Bloody scorpions.
I sighed, and stood there, as we gradually caught up to the ships. Which was when I realized something else, which really made me angry. I resisted the urge to pace, and concentrated on getting my cool back.
"One minute Jon," said Jane eventually. "Side airlock. You'll be entering on the Bridge level. They'll know immediately someone's come on board."
I shifted my suit into chameleon mode, and walked back to the airlock, cycling in. A series of clunks sounded as the ship docked. The airlock in front of me opened, as did the airlock door on the other side. I walked through, and both closed behind me. The airlock cycled, and I stepped onto the Battlecruiser's main deck.
"Airlock opened alert sir," came through my PC, Jane feeding me the Bridge again. "You're personal airlock."
"If that’s any of Hunter's people, shoot them."
"So be it," I muttered to myself.
My PC was giving me directions. I sidestepped a squad of marines who headed past me on the double, and strode through the ship like I owned it. In a few minutes, I would.
"Airlock is clear sir. There is a ship docked, but we can't gain access."
"Intruder alert, shoot on sight."
Fine. We'll do it your way.
"Hit sir. One of the traitor ships lost its shields and took some damage."
"Concentrate all ship's firepower on the same ship."
I walked onto the Bridge, shifted back to protection mode 'slinky red', and started gunning down the crew. The pulses were white. None of them were wearing suits. Blood spattered around because I hadn't thought to change the guns back to stunners. Oops. Just as well I hadn't chosen to use the Long Gun. Instead of injuring people and putting them down, it would probably have killed most of them. Yay for the spatter-shot of my first choice in sidearm.
The last man standing wore Admirals insignia, and he was gaping at me.
"I think not," I said. "Jane, take control of every ship, and assemble them in a wall formation."
"Fourth…"
"No, all of them. Every ship here you don’t already have control of, take it now. If anyone complains, put them to sleep whichever way is quickest. This stops now."
"Hunter?" said the man in front of me, his eyes wide.
I stalked up to him, guns levelled on his chest.
"There are so many reasons why I should just shoot you. Not the least of which is, you're a fucking idiot who's given the enemy the direction to take to the next jump point."
I looked him in the eyes, making him flinch, but something lower caught my eye.
"You've never fought a war before, have you?" I asked him. "Nothing more than the odd pirate."
He nodded, his eyes looking at the barrels of my guns.
"So how does someone who's never fought a decent battle, get to wear the Knights Cross? With oak-leaves and diamonds too?"
He said nothing.
"Suck up to the boss, are you?"
He was getting more mad than scared now, but I wanted him to make a move. I holstered my right gun, drew my sword, and cut the medal from his throat, letting it fall to the floor. He flinched, and the sword cut him, drawing blood. I re-sheathed the sword before I used it for a more permanent cut.
"Sit or die, I don’t care which."
He sat. I deliberately changed my left gun to stunner mode while he watched, pointed it at his face with my right hand, and shot him. He slumped forward, and fell to the deck. I left him there. Moans were coming from all around the Bridge, so I shot each of them in turn, to shut them up.
"Jane, better get some cargo droids up here with sleds, and take these people to a medical bay for treatment."
"Confirmed. O'Neil wants to know what's going on. What do I tell him?"
"Tell him you've taken control of all German ships, and he should form up with them. Don’t mention me. You can uncloak the Lightning, so he can see where you came from. Tell him as soon as all the ships are formed up, the fleet is going back to the jump point, coming in on a different vector, in the hope the aliens think we simply pulled forces away to attack them in the rear."
"And is that what we're doing?"
"Yes, of course. Vector us away so we come around to the other side of the jump point and bring us in so we fire on the next ship mass from a vector we haven’t used yet."
"Confirmed."
I sat in the center seat, and watched the tactical display.
The anger started to leech out of me. I did releases for the damage I’d inflicted. A thought popped in after I finished.
"Jane?"
"Jon?"
"Check the Admiral's coms logs."
"Why? Oh."
"Interesting reading?"
"Yes. They've been planning this from the day they met you."
"Who else is involved?"
"All of them."
"Exaggerating?"
"You'd think so. But no. Would you like to know why they didn’t have troops to add to the German and American divisions?"
"Do I?"
"Yes you do. Because those troops are pretending to be civilians on their stations, until such time as they get the order to board every other station and take over."
"Could they do it?"
"Yes. The plans are extremely well worked out. But they have one flaw."
"Which is?"
"They assumed total surprise."
"When were the civilian targets to be hit?"
"As their fleet entered Nexus."
"Did they know about my comnavsats?"
"Apparently not. Which doesn’t figure since that was broadcast last year."
"So they assumed they could approach the Australian sector undetected, even if someone warned them they'd left the fleet?"
"The admiral even said as much."
"To whom?"
"Their Führer."
I sighed. The question now was what to do about it.
"Do nothing Jon," said Thirteen, materializing next to my chair. "It's not your problem. Dispose of these how you see fit."
He was pointing at the Admiral on the deck. I looked Thirteen in the eyes, nodded to him, and he vanished again. I was extremely relieved not to have to even think about what I was thinking of having to think about.
Thirty
We arrived back at the jump point in time to help destroy the latest ship mass. But several thousand ships slipped passed us. The position was becoming untenable. Jane was estimating close to twenty thousand ships now out in the system, spreading out as they always did. They knew where we were now, and were hitting a different ship every few seconds, although between ship masses, the cylinder continued a
t the normal flow rate, which we could handle. But shields were going down, slowly and steadily.
"Nice of you people to come back," said Bentley sarcastically, on a voice channel.
I opened a full channel up.
"It was the least we could do," I said.
"Jon?" Bentley was stunned. "You're alive?"
"Apparently so. Sorry I'm late, but I had to make a side trip to round up some strays."
"You could have said something."
"You had everything well in hand Susan."
"That's not the point."
"YOU BASTARD!" yelled Amanda as a screen showing her popped up.
"Hi Amanda."
I grinned at her.
"Don’t you 'Hi Amanda' me. Get your arse back here so we can kill you!"
The screen vanished. Susan was now laughing. I shrugged. I let the grin fade.
"Admiral Bentley, start preparing to pull out of here. Orderly retreat by fleets please."
"Aye sir. Where will you be?"
"In the dog house apparently. I'll be back on Sceptre shortly."
"Admiral Jedburgh wants to know about the Sphere."
"It's fully intact, but ballistic towards the LA jump point. Gunbus took a major hit, and needs a shipyard. As soon as we're out of the danger zone, I'll send it some tugs to take it onto where the admiral wants it next."
"Do you have a combat suit? I think you’re going to need it."
She closed the channel on her grin.
"Jane, Lightning please. I better go face the team before they launch a snatch and grab mission."
"Confirmed."
Her usual deadpan was marred by a giggle.
I was just making myself comfortable in the Lightning, when Jane spoke again.
"Jon, you have an urgent email from Walter Harriman."
"Thanks Jane."
I found it, and threw the vid to the wall. Walter looked stressed. Seriously stressed.
"Jon. We had a catastrophic failure of a whole group of stations a short time ago. Something like half a billion people are dead. It was the damndest thing. All the stations were linked together, and every single airlock on every one of them opened to space at the same time. Emergency bulkheads failed to close. Redundant systems failed. Everything failed. No-one survived on any of the stations. We have SR droids picking bodies out of space all around, where they were sucked out into space by the tens of thousands."
He looked into the cam.
"We suspect sabotage, but so far, nothing at all has been found to be wrong with anything."
"Jon, I have to ask. Could Jane have malfunctioned and done this? Or been corrupted to do this?"
He turned away, and I could hear someone's voice talking to him, but not what was said. He looked back at the cam.
"I've just been told the Fourth Reich fleet mutinied, and you stopped them in the middle of a full scale attack. Everyone who died here was a Nazi, Jon. Every single one of them."
He turned again, listened, and turned back to the cam once more.
"We have reports coming in from across Nexus and Outback, of more bodies being found on other stations and even a few ships. Most of them have been electrocuted. Again, all known to be Nazis, or when you look beneath the false ID's, turn out to be Nazis."
He looked scared.
"Jon. Did you order this? I'm sorry, I have to ask. I know you couldn’t. Not genocide on this level. But I need an answer for the record, so I can kill any rumours to that effect here. I need an answer now. Sorry Jon."
The vid ended.
"Thirteen?" asked Jane.
"No. More likely it was One. She strikes me as the kind of being who doesn’t take kindly to anyone buggering up her plans, especially for petty ideological reasons. Most especially when she's trying to save the whole species, not just a 'racially pure' sub-set of it."
"Bit harsh?"
I sighed. The warrior in me said they had it coming. The spiritual in me was appalled at the loss of life. The practical side of me said more people had been lost to stupidity. The empathic side said more people had been lost simply because they couldn’t escape. The part of me which valued order was happy a disruptive element would never cause trouble again. The part of me which loved all life was overwhelmed with grief for their passing.
There was no way to answer her question, so I merely shrugged.
I opened a vid.
"Walter. For the record, no-one here, especially myself, ordered anything affecting your end of space. For the record, Jane did not do it, and is in fact not in any way present on those stations. No corruption, compelling, orders, or anything to do with her, me, or anyone else here."
"Call it an act of God. Smiting writ big. It wasn’t, but it might as well have been. It came from upstairs, anyway. We have evidence the Nazis were planning to take over the Australian sector, purge the people to suit their ideology, and take Gaia when the Door opens. There will never be any evidence of who sabotaged the stations, so stop looking. If people really want an answer, tell them this."
"Prophesy came from somewhere. It was designed to maximize the number of people saved. Who or what created prophesy wasn’t going to like a group of people purging the rest. As soon as a group began, they were stopped."
"Maybe not palatable, but as close to the truth as we will ever know. And you never know, it might scare other people who were planning their own petty empires into thinking again. Why didn’t we get any warning? Probably because we'd have tried to stop it."
"Walter, don’t let it burden you. We were never going to save everyone, and quite frankly, some of those who didn’t deserve to be saved, have managed to weed themselves out by themselves. They're not worth getting upset about. Don’t drop the ball on this. Clean those stations up, and get those who are in terrible living conditions moved to them. This is an opportunity to help people, not a disaster. Jon out."
"Nicely put," said Jane. "Did you rehearse that?"
I shook my head. I would have if I'd known ahead of time. Jane knew me too well.
"Better organize the documents you found on the Nazi ship. Release them to Amy, so she can make a dignified announcement. She'll need to liaise with Australian sector media about the details there."
"Confirmed."
I walked into the CCC on Sceptre, and shivered. The frost level was tangible. Everyone looked at me as if I’d shit on their doormat. I looked around. Aline wasn’t there. I headed for my chair. No-one moved.
I sat, and took in the tactical display. The smaller ships were moving to their waypoints. George looked at me over his shoulder, with his eyes raised, and his face carefully neutral. He'd had time to get over whatever the team had thrown at him for staying silent, but he wasn’t happy about what he thought I was about to get.
"You're doing fine George. Tell me when you need a break."
He nodded, and went back to concentrating on the displays. I let Susan continue to give the orders, although she could see now, I was back in my place.
Satisfied with what was happening, I looked around the CCC again. BA finally took pity on me.
"Aline's in a care unit Jon. Jeeves had to sedate her. Carter's still on Redoubt, and it's not safe yet to get her here."
"Oh."
"Fucking hell Jon," yelled Amanda. "Is that all you can say? Oh?"
"What do you want me to say? What can I possibly say?"
"You can tell us what happened," said Annabelle quietly.
I told them. They didn’t like it. I didn't like them not liking it. No-one was happy.
Finally, it was George who said what they all thought. He swiveled around to face me, looking up.
"Jon, are we a team?"
"Yes, of course."
"Well pardon us for not seeing it. Every time there's a crisis, you rush off and leave us behind."
"I have to keep you all safe."
"No. You don’t. That’s not what being in a team is about."
"I'm sorry, I must have missed Teams 101. You
joined me. Remember?"
"We did. We thought you understood what being in a team meant. We go in at the shit end. We always have, always will. But we go in as a TEAM! We live as a team, we'll die as a team. And you trying to keep us safe at the risk of your own life is frankly insulting us."
"Here, here!" said Dick.
"No more lone wolf heroics, Jon," said Annabelle. "We all go in, or none of us go in. Deal?"
I looked around the whole room. Even Amy and Melissa were dead serious about this.
"Deal," I said.
"What deal?" asked Grace, as she wandered in looking fresh from sleep.
She took one look at the tactical display, and shot me an annoyed look.
"You could have woken me up for this! Right, which of you's off shift?"
"He is," said everyone else, indicating me.
Thirty One
I slunk into my Ready Room, and monitored the withdrawal. Angel padded in, jumped up onto my lap, accepted some pats, and curled up to go to sleep there.
Susan seemed to be doing fine, and needed to do it herself in the future anyway, so it was a good time for her to do the whole thing herself.
"What do you want to do with the Nazis on the ships?" asked Jane.
"As soon as it's safe, send shuttles with combat droids on them. Load them all onto their own shuttles, and land them on the planet as we go past. Blow the engines so they'll never fly again, and make sure critical tech is destroyed as well."
"Confirmed."
"Is the huge tug still available to use?"
"Yes. It's being prepped now. I'll send it off once Redoubt is clear. I'm using four Lightnings though."
"Fine. Whatever works."
Jedburgh popped up as a hollo.
"I hear you've had an eventful day?"
"Not any more than anyone else."
"How do you think Susan is doing?"
"As well as that third star says she should be."
"Agreed. Did you have to go off and pull that stunt yourself?"
"Who else would I send?"
"Your AI?"
"Hell no. She's not expendable."
"Neither are you."
"The buck stops here."
Hero to the End (The Hunter Legacy Book 13) Page 15
