Make or Break the Hero (The Hunter Legacy Book 4) Read online

  Make or Break

  the Hero

  By Timothy Ellis

  The Hunter Legacy, Book Four

  Copyright © 2015 by Timothy Ellis

  Cover Photo from the Egosoft Game, X3 Albion Prelude.

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and events are fictional and have no relationship to any real person, place or event. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is purely co-incidental.

  The author has taken the liberty of using some recognizable names in a historical context or projected into the future as if such entities survive into the timeframe of this work of fiction. Such references are intended solely as a tribute to the entity so used and all such usage has an intended deep respect. The author has also deliberately chosen names for characters in tribute to the science fiction genre in all forms of media. Some may be obvious, others will not be. There is no implied connection, other than what the reader may make for themselves.

  The author is Australian and the main characters in this book are of Australian origin. In Australia, we colour things slightly differently, so you may notice some of the spelling is different. Please don't be alarmed. If you do suffer any discomfort, please take it out on the nearest pirate.

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any manner whatsoever without the written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  Contents

  Contents

  Sector Maps

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty One

  Twenty Three

  Twenty Four

  Twenty Five

  Twenty Six

  Twenty Seven

  Twenty Eight

  Twenty Nine

  Thirty

  Thirty One

  Thirty Two

  Thirty Three

  Thirty Four

  Thirty four

  Thirty Five

  Thirty Six

  Thirty Seven

  Thirty Eight

  Thirty Nine

  Forty

  Forty One

  Forty Two

  Forty Three

  Acknowledgements

  A Message to my Readers

  Also by Timothy Ellis

  Sector Maps

  One

  Hunter's Redoubt was the largest Battleship ever built.

  It hadn't started out as a Battleship. It was a station I'd been given as compensation for effectively ending the Pompeii civil war.

  I'd fallen asleep in the Admiral's chair, in the Combat Command and Control (CCC). As I was the Admiral, this wasn't a problem.

  It was fitted with tugs to move, and Battleship guns to fire, in a desperate attempt to stop the invasion of Avon by the Midgard fleet.

  We'd won, but only just. Not a single surviving ship had escaped damage. The station had damage to its Docking Deck, where Assault Shuttles had poured in troops to capture it. I'd decompressed the entire deck to stop them. It wasn’t a pretty sight afterwards.

  Those of us who'd returned to the station after the morning's battle, were mostly asleep now. I'd been finishing up messages to the outside galaxy, letting superiors know we'd triumphed, before succumbing to the need for sleep myself.

  It was a very comfortable chair, and sitting in it had been a mistake.

  "JON!"

  I jerked awake, and almost fell out of the chair. It was Jane and Janet speaking together. Jane was my ship's Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Janet was the stations.

  "What?"

  "Look."

  The view screen was showing the nearby Atlantis jump point, with the scanner overlaid.

  Six dull red dots had appeared at the jump point. I could actually see the small shapes of Missile Cruisers in the distance.

  "You have got to be fucking kidding me!" I yelled.

  Four hours ago, we'd fought off a fleet twice the size of what we'd expected. Now, against all expectations, another fleet had jumped in. The next attack was not expected until the following day.

  Until this morning, the Midgard commanders had been very predictable.

  Now, our complacency was about to bite us on the arse.

  We had brand new reinforcements on the way. I quickly calculated the ETA's. As I'd thought, about three hours after we'd be space dust. I sighed.

  I opened up station coms.

  "NOW HERE THIS," I bellowed. I continued in a more moderate voice. "Evacuate the station immediately. Proceed to the nearest ship to your location, and board it. Do not stop to take anything with you. You have five minutes. Anyone still here after that time will most likely die."

  "This is not a drill," I added, thinking of all the flat screens and hollo's I'd watched, where that had been said in the same situation.

  I closed station coms and opened a channel to the Battleship Repulse. While damaged, she was still operational, although I assumed her crew were also mainly asleep.

  "Station to Repulse. Emergency. Enemy at the jump point. Get that ship moving to top speed, and head towards the Shipyard. Further orders will follow. Hunter out."

  I didn’t wait for a response, and closed the channel.

  "Janet. Get us moving away from the jump point as fast as you can. We need to delay them firing missile barrages at us for as long as possible."

  "Yes my Lord."

  "Jane, launch the drone clusters. I want them attached to the side of the top level of the station as soon as possible. Aim their Point Defense turrets aft. It’s the only defense we have back that way."

  "Confirmed. Most of them are still not repaired yet."

  "Can't be helped. Mostly what I need are torpedo launchers."

  "Those have already been repaired."

  "Are we running or fighting, my Lord?" asked Janet.

  I sometimes wondered if she'd actually been cloned from Jane, or from my butler droid Jeeves, who calls me the same title.

  "Fighting. But we need to get everyone off first, as this could get messy. Shit! I should've thought of this."

  I'd been having dreams lately, where there was a dream, within a dream, within a dream. Three levels. Three fleets to face. I'd also, once again, missed the exceedingly obvious. The Cobol system had three jump points, meaning it needed two fleets to cover the other two, as the third led back to Midgard. Cobol had received two fleets. Avon had five jump points. That meant four fleets were needed to proceed outward from this system. Four jump points out, four fleets on their way? This was the third. It was very likely the fourth fleet was behind this one somewhere.

  It had taken everything we had to beat the first and second, combined fleet. One station and one Battleship was all we had left in fighting condition. The latter was lacking enough Point Defense to defend against a two hundred missile barrage, which the Midgard Missile Cruiser's fired. We'd defended her with fighters last time, but even then, she was holed. The other Battleship, Warspite, was limping home with huge rents in her side, and an entire main turret missing. The station might be able to take care of itself, but Repulse was toast unless I came up with tactics that would save us. And soon.

  "You will need this then, my Lord," said J
anet.

  "What this is that?" I responded automatically.

  I found out. I'd wondered why the area behind the command chair was so empty. Doors opened in the floor, and another chair rose out of it. Set on a platform, it loomed above the command chair. It was fitted like the pilot's chair on my Corvette, Gunbus. Gunbus was unusual in she could fly and fight better than any fighter.

  I stepped up and sat. On my right was the joystick. On my left was the speed slider. It was showing full speed, as Janet raced us away from the impending doom at the jump point.

  "Jane, how is the evacuation coming?"

  "Slowly."

  I opened station coms again.

  "Three minutes to all ships undocking. Move it or lose it."

  I turned off the coms again.

  A ping came in from Amanda. "Where are you Jon?"

  Team coms came on. I disconnected myself. My crew had once been a Mercenary team that I'd saved accidently from imminent death. With our adventures since, we'd become close. This wasn’t the time for their protectiveness though. They didn’t know it, but this time, I had to protect them, by keeping them away from what only I could do.

  "Jane, the moment the team are all on Gunbus, close up and undock. Don’t give them the chance to come looking for me. I want them safe. Make sure all ships head for the shipyard at their top speed. No heroics. If you have to, take control of them, and keep them heading away from here."

  "Confirmed."

  "Janet, what guns does this station have?"

  I'd been instrumental in getting the station armed, but I'd left it to the engineers to actually do it. I knew she had Battleship guns mounted up top, along with Point Defense turrets, and missile launchers. I'd seen the initial designs, but I'd no clue as to how many of what, and which else, had actually been mounted and worked.

  "Eight Battleship turrets, sixteen Cruiser turrets, twenty four Destroyer turrets, eight Missile Launchers, three Mosquito Launchers, and thirty two Point Defense."

  "Give me a normal Gunbus Heads-Up-Display." My HUD was unique. "Add to it recharge sliders for each type of gun, so I can see at a glance where the charge of each gun type is." They appeared in an unused spot on the HUD. "Bigger." They doubled in size. "Thank you. Rear view please. When we turn, keep the view on the Missile Cruisers."

  The view changed to show six Missile Cruisers coming after us. Behind them was a cloud of Talon (medium) fighters. If they were true to previous fleet sizes, it was fifteen squadrons of twelve. They were falling behind slowly. I was gaining us precious seconds.

  I opened station coms again.

  "One minute to all ships undocking. Run faster, or kiss your arse goodbye."

  I closed the coms again.

  I began to slow the station. Repulse was behind us, but as we slowed, she began to close the gap.

  I opened ship coms to all docked ships.

  "Station to all ships. As soon as it's safe to undock, do so immediately. You are ordered to proceed at your top speed to the Avon Shipyards. Hunter out."

  I closed the channels. I didn't want anyone questioning the order.

  The station was almost stopped now. White and green dots appeared on the scanner, showing ships departing the station. White ones belonged to me, green ones were friendlies.

  "Janet, is there anyone left on board?"

  "Yes Jon," came a voice from behind me. I jerked around, and found Alison looking up at me. Wounded in the last battle, she was still wearing a hospital gown. I looked at her in astonishment, and she grinned at me. "I simply knew you weren't abandoning the station, and this was where you'd be."

  "No-one else on the station my Lord," interjected Janet.

  "How did you get left behind?" I asked.

  "I didn't. I lied to the team, and told them the medics took me to a different ship which was closer. They're still trying to find out where you are. Actually, I guess they know now. They just heard it from me. Oops."

  She giggled. I sighed.

  "What on Outback made you stay?"

  "The safest place is with you."

  I looked at her as if she was stupid.

  This was obviously a whole new meaning of the word safe, one I hadn't come across before. Or it was female logic. Either way, it made no sense to me.

  I waved her in.

  Alison limped tentatively in the door, and sat in the Admiral's chair. Jane's avatar entered after her, and took a seat at a control station, where she connected to a data port.

  I looked at the HUD again. All ships were clear.

  "Janet, spin us back towards the jump point, and bring us up to half speed. Vent the air on the Docking Deck into storage, and open one of the airlocks to space."

  If Midgard soldiers wanted to board us, they would have to do it the hard way.

  "Yes my Lord."

  I opened a channel to Repulse.

  "Repulse, swing around behind the station. You've rearguard duties. Stay behind the station, and pick off anything that comes past."

  "You're going to attack them with only the station?" Admiral Bentley sounded a bit surprised.

  "Oh yes," I said. "They've a nasty surprise awaiting them."

  "Why did you evacuate the station?"

  "Because it might not work."

  "Oh. Good luck."

  Hunter's Redoubt, the largest single seat fighter ever built, moved to engage the enemy.

  Two

  I linked up all the capital ship guns so they would fire from my gun trigger. All at the same time.

  "Janet, concentrate on the Mosquito defense system. When the barrages enter the range they can be intercepted from, fire all three. Take the time to direct all three hundred missiles at the capital ship missiles coming at us, reload and repeat with what's left. If they get any more barrages off at us, repeat. That's your main task."

  "Yes my Lord."

  The Mosquito anti-missile system was new. It was a magazine of one hundred small missiles with a guidance system, which only a top level AI could handle well enough to lock each outgoing missile onto a specific incoming missile. It could launch singly, or the lot at once. In the latter case, it took a second of dedicated AI time to assign targets. I was asking her to spend three seconds totally dedicated to one task. During that time, she would be able to do nothing else. During the first battle, she'd fought the station by herself, guided by Commodore O'Neil, who I'd left in command, while I fought from Gunbus. Dedicating whole seconds to the Mosquito system had been dangerous then, as during that time, nothing else could fire, but the station hadn't been alone. The station now, couldn’t afford Point Defense turrets to not be firing.

  Fortunately, I had Jane as well. A second AI was going to make a huge difference to the defensive capabilities.

  "Jane, you take Point Defense. The fighter missiles, and any capital ship missiles that get through, are your responsibility."

  "Confirmed."

  Each Point Defense turret had four quick firing guns, designed for knocking down missiles. The station also had missile launchers of its own, but these fired two types of anti-fighter missiles. FF, was Fire and Forget, a missile that only targeted an enemy generally. Once you fired it, you had no control over it. It picked its own target. If the target was destroyed or stopped being an enemy, it went after another one. IR, or Image Recognition missiles, took the data from your target lock, plus any pre-given instructions, and only went after that specific target. You fired them at a specific ship, or a specific place on the ship. The main use of these was to kill the pilot of fighters without unduly damaging the ship itself. The pilot was the weak link in fighter systems. Take out the engines, and the pilot is still free to fire guns and missiles at you. It wasn’t exactly sporting, but war wasn’t sport. A ship with a dead pilot didn’t fire anything at anyone. And you were able to salvage the hull for repair, use, or sale.

  The IR was about a third the destructive power of the FF, but much more accurate. Three IR's would take down the shield of a standard fighter, and d
o some damage, while a single FF could do the same. But it was extremely unlikely two FF's would ever hit in the same place, where the IR's were programmed to. FF's were useful for distractions, especially at the beginning of a battle, as they were dangerous to those who ignored them. IR's were more of a surgical strike weapon, and more use later in a battle when you had time to think before selecting targets.

  IR's were pretty well useless against a Cruiser, while it would take a lot of FF's hitting close together to damage a Cruiser. Both however, were deadly against medium fighters. But for now, the fighters were only secondary targets.

  Without having to worry about the defense, I would be able to concentrate solely on offense. And I intended to be unexpectedly offensive. I might swear at them as well. Never know, might help. I smiled in spite of myself.

  "Janet, can you redirect all available power outside this room into shields? Use life support if you have to."

  "The system is not designed for that, but I can redirect some power."

  "Do what you can."

  I checked my joystick. It had my standard buttons for missiles and torpedoes.

  "Jane, can you link torpedo firing on half the drone clusters to my torpedo firing button on the joystick, and the other half to the missile firing button? Alternate the clusters to each button if you can."

  "Confirmed."

  "Align the clusters so the torpedoes fire inwards, coming together at two thousand meters."

  "Confirmed."

  This wasn’t going to be very accurate. Torpedoes had no guidance. They went exactly in the direction you fired them. If they missed, they missed. And because the launchers were nowhere near central to my gun sight, they were going to only be approximately aimed. But each cluster had twelve launchers, and there were twelve clusters. So a touch of each button was going to fire seventy two torpedoes. If only a dozen hit, a Cruiser should die. Magazines held a hundred, so I had plenty to waste. They also fired much faster than missiles did.

  I strapped in to the chair and told Alison to do the same.

  Belatedly I asked if she had a suit. She shook her head.