Hunter's Terminus Read online

  Of the three major fleets engaged below us, only the plants were leaving the area of their jump point. But all of them were throwing missiles at everyone else. Including now, us. And while we were a good distance away, their missiles were coming at us considerably faster than ours traveled.

  The mosquitoes intercepted the missiles coming at us, and the expected, and hoped for, explosions occurred. I looked at Jane.

  "The missiles varied in explosive yield, all more than twice our capital ship missiles. Also harder to kill. It took three mosquitoes to kill each missile."

  I was used to it taking one. Just as well we had a redundancy factor which could cope, and I’d brought the size of ship I had.

  "What about their other weapons?"

  "Unknown."

  So getting close was taking a risk.

  "Can you gain access to their computers?"

  Both our large new friends looked shocked.

  "Already in." Which explained part of her distant look. "But it's going to take time. We don’t have even a basic translation matrix yet, so I'm going to have to build them from scratch, while hoping they don’t notice me."

  She was gently reminding me we were communicating only because one of our two other new friends was facilitating it. I threw a glance back at Tanith, who nodded to me. His magic was the only reason the four of them, who each spoke a different language to us, were able to communicate at all, let alone with us.

  "Open a voice channel to all ships," I said to Abigail, at the coms station next to Aleesha.

  "Open," she said.

  I got another nod from Tanith. Whatever I said would be going out in each of their languages. It was a handy trick to have.

  "This is Admiral Jon Hunter to all ships in this system. I appreciate the first missiles were a hello of sorts, but if you fire on us again, I will consider you hostile, and you will not enjoy me firing back. We come in peace, but will shoot to kill if we have to. You will notice we have the biggest ship in the system, and have so far not fired at anyone. My preference is a cease fire, while we sort out what actual problems may exist here. You will please remove your target lock on my ship, signifying you wish to talk instead of fight. What say you?"

  They all fired again.

  Two

  I looked at Hobbes.

  The tiger nodded, and Abigail opened a channel to his people. The exchange was short, and rattled him. They didn’t know who he was, and effectively told him to do something anatomically impossible.

  Not unsurprisingly, Roo had almost an identical conversation. It cleared up something we'd expected though. The timeline shift of a week ago hadn't only left us humans as anomalies, but both of them as well. None of us were supposed to exist, but here we were anyway. I expected our other two new friends to find the same thing, when we were finally able to contact their people.

  All four of them were looking rattled now. Up until now they'd held on to a superior attitude, but it was already slipping.

  I turned back to Jane.

  "Let me see if I understand things right. All three species are firing more powerful missiles at us than ours are." She nodded. "All three have a strength over each other, but otherwise appear to be evenly matched." She nodded again. "All three most likely have much more powerful guns than we do." Another nod. "And even though we're bigger than they are, we're still outnumbered three dozen to one."

  "Pretty much."

  "You forgot one thing," added Hobbes.

  "What?"

  "You revealed to them you're human. So even with a bigger ship, they're laughing at you."

  "Why?" asked a bristling BA.

  "Because no human society known, has ever had a decent space force," said Roo.

  "None at all?" asked Amanda.

  Hobbes hesitated.

  "There is one human group of planets with a half decent space force. But their ships and weapons are not why they got left alone."

  "What was?" asked Alison.

  "No-one knows."

  There were chuckles from the rest of the team.

  "Let me sum up then," I said.

  "You mean sum up a second time," mumbled Aline.

  I shot her a look, and she grinned at me.

  "We're outnumbered, outgunned, they think our mosquitos are the biggest missile we carry, and our big guns are probably something akin to railguns, and thus we're no threat to anyone?"

  "About sums it up," said Tanith.

  "And we're in their warzone without an invitation," added Syrinx, next to him.

  "But in reality, we match them for number of missile launchers, beat all of them for ship speed, and our shields are going to be far superior."

  "Confirmed."

  Jane looked steadily at me. I kept going.

  "So we can depart, and they won't even notice we're gone. We can swan in and take a shot, figuring we have enough firepower to at least bother them. Or we can take the refugees as a serious situation, and go piss off everyone all at the same time."

  There was silence for a moment.

  "Refugees," prompted Thirteen.

  "You don’t get a vote," said BA.

  There was a general mumble of agreement. Thirteen mimed shutting up, but I swear he was enjoying himself.

  The silence returned, everyone looking at me.

  I really hate rescues!

  "Is it too much to ask that we meet up with the locals, and all have a nice peaceful drink together?"

  Noises came from Hobbes and Roo I assumed was hysterical laughter. Maybe not hysterical, but certainly mirth.

  I looked around the bridge. Everyone else had their game faces on.

  "Fuck it," I said loudly.

  No-one laughed, but people started checking their seat belts were tight. The rest followed. I thought for a moment the tiger was going to tough it out with no restraint, but with a sound I assumed was tiger for a sigh, he buckled up as well.

  I looked at Jane. She looked at me. I nodded.

  BigMother began accelerating down towards the plant fleet. As we did so, the missile explosions began to first creep closer, and as the mosquitoes spread out to cover us, further away. Jane was overcompensating with her firing of them, but it was one thing we didn’t need to take chances with, since the launchers were dotted all over the ship, and there was no danger of running out of the missiles themselves.

  One of them came through the mosquito net unexpectedly, but was picked off by a point defense turret. But it was close enough the explosion caused a flutter in our shields. Noted.

  "I have the ship," I said generally, my left hand going to the speed slider, and my right to the joystick which had been custom made for me.

  BigMother might be battleship sized, but she flew like a fighter. My fighter. As well as being over gunned for her size, she was over engined as well, and a lot of that power generation and engine thrust was directed solely towards the maneuvering jets. All the flat panels on the bridge were turned off, with the exception of Abigail's coms panel. You don’t fly a fighter using a flat panel, unless you're not actually a fighter pilot. The grip and slide were the only way to go.

  Besides, Angel had a habit of walking on those panels, and she was the only kitten with confirmed kills as a result. As an adult puss, I kept them turned off so her kill ratio wouldn’t improve by accident. And besides, there was no way I wanted to have to explain a friendly fire accident, by explaining a cat had shot at them.

  The speed slider was at normal cruising speed.

  "How's our speed compare?" I asked Jane.

  "We're faster than the plants are now."

  Since we didn’t know if they were at top speed, it wasn't particularly useful information. But it was a guide, and I’d take anything I could get at this stage. Besides, they were in pursuit. And you don’t pursue at less than your top speed. Well I wouldn't. Who knows how a plant thought?

  In spite of being faster, it was taking too long for us to get there. The refugee ship, in spite of some impressive flying b
y the escort fighters, took a missile, and the whole ship staggered.

  "How big a rift can you open?" I asked Syrinx.

  She and Tanith were both magicians, but with different skill sets. Both looked human, but he was void black in colour, and she was ceiling white. Tanith was using magic as a translator. Syrinx had a better skill for right now.

  "Big enough to get this ship through, but I’d rather not."

  "Problem?"

  "I'm not powerful enough. Your other ship, fine. But this ship has a really fat arse. And the last time I did it, I was wrecked after."

  There were a couple of titters from the rearward chairs on the left side. My other ship, the only other one she knew anything about, was Gunbus, my personal corvette. She was parked on the left side flight deck, quite a ways below us.

  I thought 'sword', it appeared on my back, and I drew it. I held it out in front of me blade down for a moment and tossed it over to her. Midway across the bridge, it turned into a staff, with a glowing red crystal on top. It wasn’t a staff, but the Sceptre of Kali, entrusted to me as its bearer. She caught it, and her eyes opened wide.

  "Where?" she asked.

  "Jane, show her where to put us so I can fire up the arse of the plant flagship."

  "Confirmed."

  An X appeared on the HUD, and the navmap, and the navmap went through a full all around viewing, so she could see where in all directions.

  A grey oblong appeared in front of us, not much bigger than the cross section of the ship at its widest point. My eyes met Janes, and she nodded.

  BigMother dived into the grey.

  Three

  And came out, still at cruising speed, right behind the biggest ship in the plant fleet.

  I pulled my triggers. All the fixed front guns fired, all fifty torpedo launchers fired a single torpedo, and all the cruiser turrets on the top hull fired as well. The front guns were mostly about the same as cruiser guns, and while some of the torpedoes missed, this first salvo knocked the enemy ship's shields down, and did some minor damage, enough the ship began to slow.

  I rolled us up onto BigMother's thin edge, and pulled us right of where we were. As I did so, the titan and battleship turrets underneath fired, controlled by Jane. She knew the way I fought, and had waited for the moment.

  The plant ship disintegrated.

  "That should get their attention," said Amanda, high fiving with Jane.

  I was too busy to comment. Jane should have been as well, but she was, well, Jane. As I lined us up on one of the other plant ships, Jane was firing capital ship missiles at two others. Eleven plant ships launched ten missiles each at us, all of which were intercepted by mosquitoes Jane had already launched in expectation, while the fifty of ours launched at each of the nearest ships away from where I now had us heading, lost only five between them, before tearing both targets in half.

  "Meow!"

  I hadn't even noticed my lilac point Siamese cat, Angel, take her normal position on the main console, but I never ignored her warnings. We were taking hits from some sort of energy weapons, and our shields were slowly going down.

  I pushed the speed slider to the stops, and we leapt ahead, the guns all now missing behind us. Shields were down to sixty five percent, but recovering nicely. I glanced at Jane, while also changing our course upwards and away. She was still firing missiles, as were all the enemy ships.

  "Their guns are way ahead of ours," said Jane.

  "Stop trying to get an interpreter going, and see if you can get the specs."

  "Confirmed."

  Specs looked like specs, even if the language was indecipherable. And the language should be obtainable at some point.

  We were still launching mosquitos, as well as the big missiles. I felt an itch begin at the back of my head, and between plotting the course I wanted to follow for the next attack, I swept my eyes over the HUD and navmap looking for what the itch represented.

  And found it.

  "Jane, those fighters are taking hits from anti-fighter missiles. More mosquitos please. Let's take the heat off them."

  "Confirmed."

  "You did notice we have a tail?" asked BA.

  No, I hadn't noticed. Too long away from conventional furballs, since the Darkness had required a totally different fighting style. We did have a plant ship following us. Only one though. I was almost insulted.

  Speed off, flip over, and back to the stops. Now we were going back the way we came, and head to head with the plant ship which had come after us.

  I waited for the titan lock to flash, and nodded to Jane. The four big guns fired, and a good five seconds later, the plant ship came apart. I pulled us away from the debris, and pointed us back towards what was now only half a fleet.

  "Another hit on the refugee ship," said Jane.

  "Syrinx? Can you put us between the refugee ship and the nearest plant ship, pointed at the plants please?"

  "On it."

  The grey rectangle appeared again, and Jane dived us in. As we came out, the nearest plant ship was in battleship gun range, and the sixteen guns fired, along with the topside cruiser guns. The ship staggered, its front shields gone, but it suffered only minor damage. A few seconds wait though, and it took the combined front guns and torpedoes, and came apart.

  I pulled our speed right off, and let us sit in their line of advance. They kept on coming.

  "Boss?"

  "Yes George?"

  I didn’t look at him, calculating when the next ship would be close enough to fire on.

  "Shouldn’t we be trying to take one of these?"

  Now I did look at him.

  "Go. But wait for me to tell you to launch."

  BA was out of her seat before my head was facing front again.

  "Let's go!"

  She ran from the bridge, and all of the team except Grace and Annabelle followed her out. Jane was concentrating, presumably trying to crack firewalls or something. Annabelle looked at me.

  "Is that wise?"

  "Probably not. But Custer will only launch if there is only one ship left, and it's disabled. Not taking risks. Wasn’t going to say no to George either. Must be frustrating for all of them, me and Jane doing all the work."

  "Got that right," muttered Grace, sitting there with nothing to do.

  General Custer was an assault frigate, docked above and behind the bridge. On both sides were custom marine deployment decks, where the team's combat suits and weapons were stored.

  I looked at Grace for a moment, decided not to say anything, and linked in the underside turrets, since Jane still had a faraway look. Another few seconds wait, a slight adjustment to bring us into line properly, and I pulled the trigger, giving the next closest ship the full broadside. It vanished into chunky debris.

  BigMother took a near miss, the rising shields paused, went down a few percent, and started rising again.

  "One from the Ralnor nearly got through," said Grace.

  I sighed. Looks like I’d have to deal with them next.

  Four

  I don’t know why the plant ships had been strung out so much, but the next two were together.

  The one on the left took the next titan salvo, and the one on the right got everything else which could range. Both came apart. The remaining three ships started turning away.

  I looked over at the two big aliens.

  "How do the plants react to losing a whole fleet?"

  "Badly," said Hobbes, Roo nodding agreement.

  "Come back with a bigger fleet immediately badly? Or cautiously try to find out what happened without losing another fleet badly?"

  "Yes," they both said together.

  Grace chuckled, and Annabelle was smiling. I sighed.

  "Do I kill the rest of this fleet? Or let one ship go."

  "Why would you let one go?" asked Roo.

  "Letting one go can generate fear of the new threat. Reactions to nothing coming back depend on what they fear most."

  "The plants don’t fear
anything," said Hobbes. "They just keep coming no matter what you do."

  "Thanks."

  Not really. But one has to keep up the niceties.

  I pushed the speed slider up to the stops again, and started after the nearest of the now fleeing plant ships.

  "Are they fleeing?" asked Grace. "Seems like fear to me."

  She had a point. I looked back at Hobbes. He shrugged. Roo's tail was thumping the deck much like Angel's did sometimes. Except his tail was bigger than Angels was, and even the tip was making more noise.

  "This is new," said Hobbes finally. "But I don’t for a second think it's fear based."

  "Tactical retreat?" offered Annabelle.

  "I've never seen them retreat before," admitted Roo.

  It was possible we were seeing something different because of the timeline shift, but there was no way to know for sure.

  My finger twitched, the next ship died, I shifted course to go around the debris, and settled on course for the next one.

  "Boss?" asked George.

  "Wait. You're not to launch until I reel in the last one nice and close."

  "Understood."

  I could hear the frustration in his voice. But it wasn’t safe. One on one, Custer was no match for these ships. BigMother was, but only because we had superior shields, and she was only one of four ships I owned which had this level of shielding. The titan guns made all the difference as well, but I only had two other ships which mounted them. The last thing I wanted now was to telegraph my smaller ships were vulnerable, and losing my team stupidly was unthinkable.

  Jane was still looking into the distance. It was a big ask, even for her. But if we could take a ship intact, her job would not only be easier, but she could take her time, and do it right.

  It was only now as I was waiting to fire on the next ship, I took a moment to actually look at them. Size wise, most of the ships in the system were about what I considered battlecruiser size, being larger than our cruisers, but smaller than a battleship. My ships carried more missile launchers, but all theirs had more punch to them. Only I had a missile based anti-missile point defense, and all of us had gun based point defense. None of their point defense worked as well as mine did.