Forge of War (Jack of Harts) (45 page)

Jack pulled in a deep breath, filling his nose with the scent left after the water washed away all the perfumes.  He loved that scent.  “No, Ma’am,” he whispered with another wink.

She nodded in approval and patted his arm.  “Then…” her voice faded away and she cleared her throat.  She released her hold on him, reached for her neck, and slipped her necklace off.  She quickly slipped it around his neck and clasped it.  “Bring it back,” she ordered.

Jack almost saluted her on the spot.  “Yes, Ma’am,” he said, acknowledging the order.

She smiled in approval, turned him to face the administration building’s door, and pushed him forward.  He did not resist and did as she ordered.  Beside him, Betty and Jasmine flickered back into existence and followed him into the building where the Cowboys were to assemble one last time.

The War was waiting for them all, and it was past time to get back into it.

His eyes adjusted to the relative gloom inside the building, and he saw that he was the last to arrive.  Then the lusty cheers started, reminding him that the walls were clear.  He groaned as Jay walked up to give him a hearty slap on the back.  The other Cowboys followed his lead, and once they realized Jack was genuinely in pain, they of
course
redoubled their efforts to congratulate him on his luck with crocodile smiles.

They were real bastards.  Jack smiled and weathered the abuse without complaint though.  They were
his
bastards after all.  He would remember them all.  And paybacks for something like this…well…there was a word for that, and as Jack weathered their friendly ribbing, sometimes literally, he made mental notes, his mind already planning his sweet, sweet revenge.

THE WAR

Jack sat down in his cockpit as the canopy lowered to seal him in, eyes scanning his surroundings.  The three suns of the Alpha Centauri system shown down on Leif Erikson Spacebase, their light glinting off the pavement scowered by the morning thunderstorm.  Leaves and tree branches lay strewn throughout the base beneath power washed buildings, and the sunslight gleamed off them for all to see.  Around him on the landing field, spider-like shuttles, Avengers, and Hellcats gleamed like the day they were built.  Jack scanned the retreating the ground crews, their work cleaning debris off the shuttles, fighters, and landing field complete. 

He carefully snapped his restraints in place, not wanting to aggravate any of his bruises, before nodding to the twenty-centimeter small version of Betty sitting on the console.  As usual, the moment the cockpit closed, she reverted to her favorite yellow sundress.  Well, to be fair, it was
his
favorite too.  It fit her in a way the Marine service uniform
never
would.  “Cowboy Five, ready,” he said after a quick scan of the instrument panels showed that they really
were
ready.

Betty was on the ball as usual.  She smiled and crossed her legs, leaning back on the console.  She was home, literally, and she relaxed into it fully.

“All Cowboys,” Charles’ voice came over the comm. system, “launch and maintain overwatch positions over the shuttles.”

“Roger that,” Jack answered before nodding to Betty.

Betty sat back up straight, crossed her arms with a nod, and Jack felt New Earth’s gravity melt away as the Avenger’s grav plating powered up, making the massive fighter as light as a feather.  The barest hint of maneuvering thrusters pushed them away from the ground with ease, and he kept his eyes pealed as they rose up into the air in near silence.

Jack looked down on Leif Erikson Spacebase with a critical eye.  Litter floated in pools of water, clogging up drains.  More than one vehicle huddled against the ground, smashed by a falling limb.  And now that he could see the forest surrounding the base, he winced.  Limbs, and even entire trees, littered the outskirts of the base, torn down by the mighty winds of the night before.  They would be cleaning the mess up for a while.

But it wasn’t his home anymore.  He would have nothing to do with the cleanup.

The shuttles floated up into the air, huddling under the protection of the fighters, and Jack felt a faint acceleration.  The shuttles and fighters pulled up, main engines engaging as they left the ground behind, and rocketed up through the planetary soup the locals called an atmosphere.

The air soon began to darken as they approached vacuum and the air became sparse.  The Avenger’s engines split away from the hull, giving her better maneuverability in space.  Jack looked around to see the other Avengers doing the same.  As the last vestiges of atmosphere faded away, the main engines came to full power, and the formation of fighters and shuttles accelerated away from New Earth, making for the Peloran task force in high orbit.  Jack scanned the displays, and they came to life with the identifications of dozens of warships.  British, American, German, and even French cruiser and destroyer squadrons screened the formation, surrounding the six surviving ships of the Peloran Battle Squadron.  He even saw two British light carriers flanking the
Guardian Light
and nodded in approval.

As the formation approached, the engines went silent for a moment before firing forward, slowing them down to match the orbital speed of the massive warships.  They passed through a wall of Peloran interceptors, parasite fighters deployed to watch the flanks of the task force.  Betty nodded in time with a flashing display, bringing to his attention that the interceptors accepted their friend or foe identification.  Once through the wall, most of the shuttles broke away from the Cowboys and made their way towards the warships their orders tasked them to supply.  Only a single shuttle held formation with the Cowboys.

They passed by the bone white spire of a Peloran destroyer covered in golden runes, and Jack focused on it, trying to read the name buried in there.  He frowned as he couldn’t find it and grunted in annoyance.  He’d even been practicing the Peloran runes.  He’d made progress, but obviously still just couldn’t read Peloran in the wild.  They left the destroyer behind and the massive kilometer-long battleship it escorted began to fill space before them.

A final burst of engines brought them around to match course with the
Guardian Light
and the fighters came to a halt relative to the task force command ship.  The shuttle pulled ahead and slipped into the large, bone-white landing bay in the rear of the battleship, slowing to a halt before lowering itself to the deck.  The new recruits, several Hellcats and a couple Avengers, followed the shuttle in first, leaving the original Cowboys to cover them.  Nobody really expected an attack at this moment of course.  They were just being careful.  Then the veterans flew in on blue-white puffs of fusion rocket power, piercing the energy wall covering the landing bay with their long noses.

Jack and Betty’s Avenger slowed down to a soft landing, landing gear taking what little shock there was with ease.  Jack breathed a sigh of relief as the canopy opened to let in the
Guardian Light’s
air.  A deep breath of the air brought him home with its familiarity.  He unbuckled his restraints and pushed himself gingerly to his feet.  It was easy.  The gravity was neither too strong nor too light.

“Well give me pigtails and call me Goldilocks, but this is
just right
,” he whispered, stepping up out of the cockpit.  He looked and saw a full-sized uniform-wearing Betty laughing at him with a wicked glint in her eyes.  “No!” he added, stabbing her with a finger that went through her chest without any resistance.  “Bad Betty!”  She just laughed harder.  He raised an eyebrow at her.

She continued to laugh, not mollified in any way by his scolding, and nodded towards the floor.

Jack stifled a snort, a snort would hurt after all, and jumped off the fighter.  Betty’s grav plating generated an invisible wave of gravity he surfed down to the deck.  He stepped off with an easy gait and turned to see the rest of the pilots climbing out of their fighters.

Jack moved away from the fighter, looking for Hal.  The holoemitters in his uniform hummed to life as Betty transferred to it, and his eyes scanned for the ship’s cyber.  Finally he saw the
Guardian Light’s
cyber in the distance, walking out from under the giant tree at the end of the landing bay.  Jack focused on the cyber, saw the soft edges of his form and the way the air moved around him.  It was Hal’s real physical avatar, not a holoprojection.

“We should…form ranks and stuff,” Jack whispered to Betty.

“Agreed,” she answered and cocked her head to the side to signify that she was passing the message on to the other cybers.  Every other cyber leaned in to their pilot and whispered to them in unison, and Jack smiled as the pilots turned to look at Hal.  Then they allowed their cybers to shoo them into formation.  Jack suppressed a chuckle at how easily they allowed themselves to be handled by their better halves, even Charles who took up his position ahead of the Cowboys without hesitation.  Any thought of laughing ended when he caught Betty’s look and stepped into formation before it got any more deadly.

Jack cleared his throat, looked at Hal again, and caught a smile.  Jack’s eyes narrowed for a moment, then he smiled back with a shrug.  He looked around to see the shuttle’s ramps lowering, and nodded slowly.  He still had a little time.

“I’d like to talk to you about something,” he whispered low enough that even the pilots around him could pretend they hadn’t heard, glancing back to Hal.

Hal’s avatar nodded back, acknowledging that the ship heard and understood.

“
Guardian Light
,” Charles said, stepping forward as Hal approached with a waved hand aimed at the Cowboys.  “I present to you, representing the United States of America, the Republic of Texas Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 112, the Cowboys.”

Hal smiled at the assembled pilots.  “You are well presented.  Your base of operation welcomes your return.  I look forward to knowing those of you I have never met before.”  A holoform flickered into existence next to the avatar.  “If you will please follow me to Cowboy Country,” the holoform asked and waved for the Cowboys to follow.

Jack began to move with them, but stopped when the avatar caught his eyes, giving him a slight shake of the head.  Jack nudged Jessie, glancing towards the Cowboys, and Jessie accepted the command with a tilt of his head and a smile.  He helped escort the Cowboys after Hal, leaving behind only two other pilots.  Jack raised an eyebrow at Charles and Jay, wondering what exactly was going on.  They shrugged and turned to Hal, waiting for the cyber to tell them.

“Aneerin would like you to join him on the observation deck if you are willing for a…planning session,” Hal said in explanation.

Jack looked at Betty in surprise and she smiled back, letting him know she wasn’t concerned.  Or surprised.  He frowned at her, wishing she’d told him this was going to happen.  Her expression took on an innocent look.

“We would love to,” Charles said to Hal.  “Come on boys and girls,” he added and stepped off to follow Hal’s avatar.

Hal and the cowboys stepped onto a lift, the door shut, and Jack felt it accelerate for the kilometer-long run from one end of the battleship to the other.  He felt it vibrate slightly as it hit terminal speed of just over 100 kilometers an hour before beginning to decelerate.  Jack swallowed and felt his ears pop.  Even with complete command of gravity, the Peloran still hadn’t licked that little side effect.  The lift slowed to a halt, the doors opened, and they stepped out into one of the largest cabins on the battleship.  The clear forward bulkhead showed them star-filled space ahead of the flagship.

Despite the thickness of the clear armor, Jack felt exposed.  In his fighter, at least he could dodge.  Here, he would be a sitting target if something shot at them.  Intellectually, he knew he was safer now than he had been on Leif Erikson Spacebase, but that didn’t stop the inner paranoid from gibbering in terror.  Jack stuffed the inner paranoid into a deep, dark hole and smiled as if there was no other place he’d rather be at the moment.

Aneerin, wearing the normal Peloran white uniform that blended into the white walls, cleared his throat to get their attention and waved them into the large empty cabin.  “It is good to see you again,” he said in his calm tone.  He turned to face the stars with a smile.  “We shall see battle soon I think, and viewing hyperspace with friends is always preferable to doing so alone.”

Jack blinked in confusion, looking around to see the other Cowboys doing the same.  Aneerin considered them all friends?  For the first time Jack wondered how many people Aneerin counted in that column.

“I am sorry,” Charles said and cleared his throat.  “We are leaving
now
?  I thought we were planning an exercise with all of the squadrons in the task force.”

Aneerin chuckled.  “We are entering
hyperspace
now,” he said with a smile.  “We are not
leaving
.”  He aimed a look at Jack.  “We will I think be here for at least another day or two.”

Jack’s instincts started to tingle, and not just because Aneerin wanted to talk to him.  Something was going on here, something he’d not considered, and now his subconscious was trying to alert him to it.

“Hal?” Aneerin asked with a smile.

Hal nodded, and then his eyes began to flicker back and forth as he communicated with the other ships in the task force.  “We are ready to dive,” the cyber finally announced.

“Then dive,” Aneerin ordered.

Jack closed his eyes, a bright flash turned his vision red through his eyelids, and darkness returned.  He blinked stars away and peered into the chaotic, twisted rainbow of colors that was hyperspace.  Gravity itself flowed and rippled here, eddies brushing up against the warship viewable to the naked human eye.  It was truly beautiful.  Jack pulled in a deep breath and nodded.  It was almost as beautiful as a morning sun bouncing off a mist-covered lake.  Almost.

“Plot a course for the Hyades Cluster,” Aneerin ordered, pulling him out of his momentary lapse.  “Maximum depth, maximum speed, and engage,”

“Engaging,” Hal answered.

Jack felt the ships go deeper into hyperspace, away from the wall that separated them from normalspace.  The multihued colors of hyperspace grew more muted as they moved farther away from normalspace, deeper into the regions were hyperspace acted less like anything humanity naturally lived in.  He felt the ship shudder around them as a band of stressed gravity smashed into them.  And then they were moving forward into a mass of gravity bands so tight Jack couldn’t imagine how they were moving between them.  And more than once the ship shuddered as Hal
failed
to completely avoid them.

Jack licked his lips, forgetting the beauty of a few seconds ago.  “I thought we weren’t leaving yet?” he asked, really hoping for some encouragement.

“Oh we are not,” Aneerin answered in a brisk tone.  “We are simply going deep to avoid Shang scouts.  They cannot follow us this deep.”

“Of course, we
did
lose the couriers from Independence,” Hal supplied.  “So it would seem they
can
now.”