Make or Break the Hero (The Hunter Legacy Book 4) (11 page)

Jane had me out of the spa before the
cleanup ended. I had time to shower again, and visit the Medical Bay for
another pain killer. The spa was helping, but not enough. What I wasn’t
enjoying was being prune wrinkled from the long time spent in hot water.

With Angel on my knee, purring madly as I
patted her, I pondered what we were likely to face at Cobol.

If it was me, I'd have left a Talon on the
edge of scanner range, with orders to watch what happened, and report the
outcome. In which case, they would know we took no significant damage. Scanners
couldn’t tell them at that long a range, but eight ships moving a half hour
away, would definitely suggest nothing more than minimal damage, if any. In
ordering the picket line, I’d inadvertently tipped our hand. They most likely
now knew we were much more powerful than we looked. In which case, the response
had to be even more powerful.

I needed more fire power.

I chuckled to myself. Then laughed out
loud, which stopped when my temple throbbed. A headache wasn’t something I needed
right now. My medical monitor adjusted my pain killer meds to reduce it down to
a minor ache. I could think fine, but only because the pain was being
suppressed, without inhibiting brain function. I wasn’t happy with my system
full of medications, but it was that or sleep for the next week. There wasn’t
really a choice.

I needed more firepower.

The joke was on me. I had eight Pocket
Battleships, seven of which fired lethal salvos of capital ship missiles. It
worked fine when we'd surprise on our side. And it worked well without
surprise, but not as effectively, on fleets that outnumbered us around two to
one. Between missiles and guns, we could take out eight enemy Cruisers quickly.
Without surprise, they could fire before they were hit. It still left another
four free to fire twice, or even three times depending on the range. If we
faced three Midgard fleets at once, which hadn't happened yet, I couldn’t see
how we would avoid taking serious damage.

What I needed, was to be able to take out
twelve or more at once.

I had no illusions. Every book on warfare
I’d read, showed when you were expected, somewhere along the line of march, you
ran into a meat grinder. A position so well defended, you took it only through
serious casualties. Midgard had run into ours. Now I worried Cobol would be
theirs for us.

There was another question too. Should we
walk in through the front door as they should expect? Or would it be better to
take the Midnight jump point first, and come at them from another direction? Or
should we do the really unexpected, take the Azgard jump point now, and stop
any reinforcements coming through?

There was also the burning need to find out
what had happened in Midnight. Did the defenses there even hold? If not, the
Australian sector's need would be for us to go there first.

Toxic option syndrome.

I went looking for Vonda. She was in her
office, so I only had to limp a short way. I rapped on the door, and went
straight in, sitting at the conference table. She joined me there.

"You look like you've a problem,"
she said.

"I do. Where do we go from here, and
in what strength?"

"What are the options?"

I explained my thinking to her.

"I see your dilemma. We seem to have
four conflicting objectives, and not enough forces to do more than two of them
at a time. One, we need to stop the flow of ships from Azgard. Two, we need to
find out what happened at Cobol, and deal with any build up there. Three, we
need to find out what happened in Midnight, especially if we've a bigger
problem there than we would like. And four, we need to protect the way back to
Avon, in case a Midgard fleet comes here, while we're elsewhere."

"That about covers it. The trouble is,
the longer we leave going to Cobol, or blocking the door from Azgard, the more
fleets they can gather. The larger the force, the more difficult it becomes to
take them. On the other hand, if Midnight held, we should be able to bring that
force to Cobol. With luck, my Carrier should be there by now."

"Carrier?"

"A very old Escort Carrier I captured
from pirates before I went to Pompeii. Sydney Shipyard had begun upgrading it
before the Door closed on Midnight. The last I heard from Bob Derr, he expected
to have the main upgrades complete in time to assist in the defense of
Midnight, assuming they held a few days first. Most of the work wasn’t going to
be done in time, but he did promise speed, shielding and guns. So assuming it
was done, and she is there, and not been blown away by a missile barrage, she
should be as much of an asset as a Cruiser, only with more Point Defense."

"What else was going to be
there?"

"Three Corvettes, a squadron or so of
mixed Privateers, including one of my Excalibur's, and anything else they could
get repaired in time to be of use. I sent another squadron of Gladiators, those
aren't real good Heavy Privateers, through to Sydney Shipyard, on my way to
Avon, so they should have been repaired, and be at Midnight as well. They could
also have a lot of Talons there too, assuming they figured out how to support
them without a Carrier. But the main thing is not what went there, but what
still survives and where."

"Jump point is clear," announced
Jane.

"Have Janet tell Admiral Bentley to
bring her fleet through, and have the station follow."

"Confirmed."

A screen opened on the wall, showing the
jump point.

We kept up the discussion of options while
we waited for the rest of our forces to come through.

The first through was a Battleship.

"Isn't that Warspite?" asked
Vonda.

It sure looked like her, but she was
radically different looking now. I brought up the scanner data.

It was Warspite!

Repulse came through next. Followed by her
fleet. A dozen more ships came through after.

"What on Earth are those?" asked
Vonda.

I started to laugh. It was a motley collection
of differently shaped ships. If Vonda had been an Admiral, she would have
recognized them.

"The Sci-Fi sector looks like it's
finally convinced some of its system defense forces to join the party. The ones
lost in Azgard were its sector fleet. They were conventional ships. These
belong to specific planets, and follow the science fiction the planets were
colonized around."

I recognized quite a few of the designs
from the old science fiction I watched, but I’d never seen any of these ships
flying around. They were all Destroyer or Cruiser sized.

One looked like a fish. There was one which
looked like a large brown block. Another was all pointy bits. One had a large
rear section, with a long thin center section, ending in a round pod like
front. There was one looking something like a white swan, and another in the
classic UFO shape. The triangle shaped one was distinctive. Several were
variations of a disc joined to a smaller oval section by pylons. It was like my
childhood viewing had just become real. I recognized them all. Sometime, I'd be
wanting to buy a few of those for my own collection.

I grinned at Vonda, in spite of the pain
that caused, and tried to explain them to her.

Lastly, the station came through.

I opened a channel to Repulse.

"I see you've been reinforced," I
said. "You might have sent word."

Susan Bentley laughed.

"Wanted to surprise you," she
said.

"You did. Come on over please, we need
to talk. Use Custer's external airlock."

"Yes sir. Be there shortly."

The channel closed.

"Let's move to my Ready Room, it'll be
more comfortable there."

Vonda nodded, and followed me.

It was just after eleven when Susan Bentley
entered my Ready Room. There was no sign of any new Midgard fleets. This boded
badly for a buildup happening at Cobol.

The question was where we went next.

"What did they do to Warspite?"
asked Vonda.

"Replaced the destroyed turret with a
missile turret instead," answered Susan. "She looks so different now,
because instead of a conventional turret, they put in a large missile box. It
actually allows ten capital ship missiles to fire in five different directions
at once. They can all be fired simultaneously at a single target, or up to five
different targets. Fired together, they're not going to hit all at once, but the
stagger won't be more than ten seconds apart from first to last. She was also
given eight Mosquito launchers, and as much Point Defense as they could fit.
She now matches Repulse for speed, so she'll be able to keep up."

"What about the Defense Force ships?"
I asked.

"They were all upgraded as well, which
is why they're so late to the party. The systems sending them all collaborated
in the planning. Whoever the mover and shaker was, insisted they weren't cannon
fodder, and needed to be able to protect themselves before being sent."

"Well their arrival is timely. It
solves one of my problems."

"Which one?" asked Vonda.

"The blocking force to leave here.
Repulse's fleet should have no real difficulty now in dealing with a standard
Midgard fleet. I'll leave George in Gunbus, with Slice in his, to provide
torpedo support as well."

Torpedoes. The word reverberated around my
brain like an echo.

"The question then, is where we
go," stated Vonda.

We spent the next hour discussing it. I
wasn’t concerned about the hour. In the scheme of things, an hour wasn’t going
to make a lot of difference, and it gave us the time to plan the next step much
more carefully than I had the last.

Susan Bentley left to return to Repulse.
Vonda and I went onto the Bridge.

Jane docked Custer at the station. I had
Slice send over several dozen comnavsats, and he left to join Repulse's defense
line. George was brought up to date, and Gunbus also left to join Repulse,
after sending the Dropships to the station.

I made an announcement to the station,
letting people know it was again going into battle, and anyone who wished, should
move to the Liner immediately, which would remain here with Repulse. I was
somewhat surprised when only about half the people chose to leave.

Within the hour, the station moved out to
form up with the Pocket Battleships.

On the way, Jane and I discussed ways of
increasing effectiveness.

On arrival with the fleet, we formed up
into line abreast formation, with the station in the middle. Our destination
was Cobol. Jane cloned herself fully onto the Guardians. This would allow the
clones to concentrate on defense, while Jane herself could fly the ships, and
fire offensively. JW was also tasked to defense, with O'Neil retaining command
and movement control.

Almost immediately, scanner data showed
four full Midgard fleets between us and the Orbital station.

Belatedly, I ate lunch in my Dining Room
alone. When I finished, I went into my Ready Room and tooled up. While I’d been
in hospital, my guns had been brought here. When I returned, I'd put my new
Long Gun with them. Now, I put on one of my normal Gatling stunners for my left
hand, and the Long Gun for my right.

On our way out, Jane and I poked our noses
into the Deck Two Rec Room. About half the team were there, so I announced I
was moving to the CCC on the station, and anyone was welcome to join me there.
Custer was staying docked for this one. I asked for the word to be passed, and
Jane and I left.

Once in the CCC, Janet activated the
pilot's chair. I took my seat, and checked everything was working. I used the
same setup as last time. Jane plugged herself into a data port.

The sixteen Hive clusters launched from the
station, and once again attached to the ring of the top level of the station,
aligned the same as last time, so at longest range, torpedo fire would merge on
the target.

This time however, each cluster was given a
number, and Jane would connect them individually as I asked for them. An aim
sight would appear on the HUD, changing as I changed the cluster in use. It
meant twelve torpedoes per salvo, but I should be able to fire them a lot more
accurately this time.

Too Slow.

What's too slow?

Think overkill.

Overkill?

Right, overkill. The Midgard two hundred
missile barrages were overkill. They would be just as effective firing fifty at
a time, but they obviously lacked any ability to fire limited salvos. So they
were using overkill to bludgeon the target, rather than finesse to minimize the
use of missiles. If I tried to be too subtle, it would take too long, with too
much room for mistakes. Overkill on the other hand, was quicker to do, and
guaranteed results.

This was going to be a slug-fest. There was
no other way it could go. We could see them. They could see us. Both sides knew
down to the minute when battle would commence. They would launch everything as
soon as we came in range. We had to respond in kind.

Which meant, I'd been thinking badly again.

For the first time, I wondered just how much
my mind had been affected by the blow to my head. Or was I just out of my depth
now? The old adage says people rise to their level of incompetence. Had I
reached mine?

Get a grip.

I had time. I sat there, and rethought the
entire battle.

I told Jane the changes I wanted, and how
we would play this out.

Finally, I opened a vid.

"Marshall, Admirals, General. Repulse
and Warspite, with the combined Sci-Fi and British fleets, guard the Atlantis
jump point. The station and Pocket Battleships, are moving to retake Cobol.
Four full Midgard fleets await us. You will hear from me in about an hour and
half, or not at all. Hunter out."

I sent it off.

Annabelle came in not long after I pinged
her.

"General, I've changed my mind. I'd
like your team on Custer for the attack. Prepare for an assault on Cobol
Orbital. I think we can assume it's not going to be in very good condition. I
also think you need to plan a ground assault."

"Ground assault?"

"There are seven hundred and twenty
Talon's ahead of us. That’s an absurd number of short range fighters.
Logically, the only place they can be supported is on the ground. So they must
have a ground presence, and the locals cannot have been able to stop them. At
the least, we'll need to go in, take out the defenses, and open the gates, so
to speak."

"Makes sense. I'll get on it. Alison
should stay here. She isn’t fit enough for any kind of action. For that matter,
neither are you." She grinned at me.

"I know. I've just had a reminder that
I'm not thinking as well as I should be. And I'm still moving very painfully.
I'll be sitting here the whole time."

"Good. I'll get on with troop
deployments."

"Take Vonda and Alsop with you. If
this goes badly, she'll need to be far enough out of it to keep command."
She nodded. "Jane will dock the Dropships in Custer for you. She'll assign
a security droid to act as an avatar pilot for each. Doing it that way gives
them more autonomy, and makes it look like there's a real pilot."

"I wish you hadn't left George
behind."

"I know. But if the shit hits the fan
there, he and Slice are the most likely to torpedo the Cruisers before anyone
else gets seriously hurt. We don’t know how effective Warspite's new missile
system is. And we know a Gunbus can take out Cruisers, when it doesn’t have to
worry about being defense for other ships. Jane will do fine, just call out the
orders to her. Jane?"

"Confirmed."

Annabelle nodded and left. A short time
later, Alison limped in, and silently took the Admiral's chair. I sent for a
butler droid to bring us both pain killers. The last thing I needed for the
next few hours was a rising level of pain, and I judged pain to be worse than
pain killers on my mind. Alison looked like she needed it as well. The droid
came and went, leaving us both feeling better.

A half hour out from Cobol, the fleet
stopped. Jane needed to make changes to the station's Tugs. Custer undocked,
and moved a short way away.

This close, we could see the Midgard
Cruisers clearly in the distance. They'd formed a wall formation, with four
lines of six Cruisers, blocking the way to the Orbital station. Behind them,
were sixty squadrons of Talons, arrayed in a giant cloud, allowing them to fire
missiles through the gaps between the Cruisers, and around the outside of the
Cruiser wall.

In response, we formed a circle formation,
with the station at the top.

Every ship in both fleets was aligned so it
could fire at the same time, at the same range. If ever scanner tech was to
fail through sheer numbers of contacts, the moment we all fired the first time
was going to be it.

When all was prepared, we continued the
advance on Cobol, albeit more slowly. Custer followed along behind, but she
wasn’t going to be joining the fighting.

Fifteen minutes before the firing line, I
opened station coms.

"Fifteen minutes to battle
commencement. All civilians are to move to designated safe zones, which will
display on the monitors near you. You've ten minutes. The Docking Deck must be
completely evacuated immediately. It's about to be opened to space, to make
boarding more difficult for the enemy. Anyone remaining outside of a safe zone
in ten minutes time, will be in grave danger. The responsibility is yours.
Hunter out." I closed the coms.

"Are we safe Jon?" asked Alison.

"Do you want the official version, or
the truth?"

"Never mind." We both smiled.

My nerves started showing, and I made a
quick trip to the nearest bathroom. I returned to my chair to find a bottle of
water in the holder. I gulped a few mouthfuls.

Time seemed to slow down, as the minutes
ticked by.

Finally, we were almost in our firing
position.

"Battle alert," I said into
station coms. "Whatever happens, please stay calm. Those who wish to
watch, can ask for a screen now. Hunter out."

"Firing position," announced
Jane, and the fleet stopped.