Hunter Legacy 11: Home Is Where the Hero Is (18 page)

"Let's see what we can see," said
Slice, rubbing his hands together. "Launch the Hives."

"How many?" asked Apricot.

"All of them."

"You got it."

I watched his face, waiting for it. Jane
was doing the same, trying hard not to smirk.

The first twelve Hive fighters launched.
Followed by the second twelve. And the third twelve.

Slice's face changed from satisfied to
amazed. When the fourth twelve launched, he turned to us. We grinned at him.

"Merry Christmas," I said.

"Happy Birthday," Jane said.

"Which one?" he asked.

"All of them," said Jane.

We kept watching until the one hundred and
forty fourth fighter was out in space, forming up in the last squadron
formation.

"They don’t launch as fast as we'd
like," said Jane, "but they do launch. However, if you form them up
into Hives before recovering them, they'll launch a lot faster."

"Noted," said Apricot.

"Is the new recon pattern ready?"
Slice asked her.

"Just updating it for significantly
more ships."

"Set them loose when you're
ready."

"You got it."

Barely a few seconds later, the squadrons
broke up, and ships headed in every direction.

"What did you decide to call the
Cruiser?" I asked Slice.

"Guess."

"Apricot Two?"

"Close. Apricot Too."

"You didn’t?"

"No, I didn’t."

He laughed at me, and even Apricot
chuckled.

"Ship isn’t named yet. But I might go
with Apricot Blossom, as you suggested."

I stifled the urge to face-palm. His grin
vanished, and he was all business.

"Tactical."

A popup now showed the system as a three
dee map, with the position of each of the Hive fighters marked. We watched them
as they expanded into the whole system, and way out beyond the ring of jump
points. The Cruiser itself, headed for Hunter's Haven.

"These Hive fighters," said
Slice. "Are they fully capable, like yours?"

"Confirmed," said Jane.

"You gave me more firepower than an
American Fleet Carrier projects?"

"You have a problem with that?"

"Oh no. Very happy."

The grin was back again.

We settled in to wait. Even with so many
fast ships doing the recon, it was still going to take time to see any results.
Especially since Nexus wasn’t a normal system.

Lunch time came and went, and we docked at
the Hunter docking side of the station, at the dock nearest the Australian
Militia tower. Still we waited. I really did want to know if there was anything
more to discover about Nexus. Especially if it was going to help us, or make
our task harder.

In the end, it was an anti-climax. Slice
sent the ships way out further than he had ever looked before, and found
nothing.

Jane brought us a trolley, and took us to
access points for our various quarters. I dropped off Angel in my suite, and
continued on to my office in the admin tower.

I settled myself for a minute, forming in
my mind what I wanted to say, and opened a vid.

"Marshall, Generals, Admirals. There
is good news, bad news, and good news. The good news is, the system data has
confirmed the Pestilence system as where my nightmare happens. The three of us
agree without any doubt, that is where the nightmare occurs, looking towards
the Death jump point. The bad news is it has also provided us with a time
frame. Six months is all we have to prepare. The actual date is not precise,
but I'm aiming to be there with a battle fleet in five months' time. I'll have
ships in the War system very shortly in any case."

"Slice's new Recon Cruiser came out of
the shipyard this morning. The other good news is the testing of its systems on
Nexus resulted in the correct identification of known jump points, the
identification and tracking of all system bodies, and finding nothing we didn’t
know about. It's the first confirmation on the system data. Slice will be
leaving here in a couple of days to recon the other four systems, to at least
confirm they contain no additional jump points through which the Darkness might
come."

I paused, and sighed.

"Six months is a lot less time than I
was hoping for. My plans will not be complete by then, but I'll be there with
whatever I have. The object will be to hold as long as possible at each
rearguard point. And hope we can hold the line long enough to get the next
generation of ideas into reality. In any case, the defense of the Hawaii system
must be the priority for now. Everywhere else will have more time, assuming we
can hold at Hawaii for long enough. We can hope it will take years to fall back
that far up the spine. But we have to plan for the worst case scenario, which
is I lose it badly early on, and whatever remains of my force and the sector
forces at that end of the spine fall back almost as fast as they can
move."

"I'll be revisiting some ancient history.
I suggest you all do the same. The Alamo comes to mind. They lost. Why they
lost is important. Why everyone who ever defended a fixed position lost is
important. Maybe they all lost for us, to provide us with what not to do. Learn
the lessons or be doomed to repeat the past. If you have military historians
who understand battles as well as history, turn them loose on defense options.
We need to develop all the ideas we've had so far, and we need new ones. I'll
be working my people hard, but I'm the one with the least time."

"I'll send more as I have it. And I'll
touch base with you as I head down spine again."

"Ka-Plaa!"

I closed the vid, viewed it to make sure
I'd not missed anything important, and sent it off.

Then I did another similar one, but aimed
at the few allies I’d made at the meetings held as I'd returned up the spine.
They needed to know, in order to make their own preparations. It went off as
well.

"Janice?"

"Yes my lord?"

"Can you get Amy in here please?"

"Now?"

"As soon as. While I'm doing vids, I
may as well do the Gaia one as well."

"She's on her way."

While I was waiting for her, I made notes
on what should be said, and how to back drop them.

"Boss?"

Amy came in and sat opposite me.

"We need to do an announcement vid to
attract people up to this end of the spine."

"I've been thinking about it. What did
you want to say?"

I told her. The discussion went on through
dinner, which Jeeves brought us. After three hours, we figured we'd covered all
the angles, and we began recording. We used images of Gaia Five, including the
natural wilderness areas, and the partially built cities. When we finished, we
played it back. I started off sitting in my office, with an image of the planet
behind me.

"Hello. For those who don't know me,
I'm Duke Hunter, of the new Duchy of Hunter's Run. I'm addressing you from my
office on the station Hunter's Haven, in the Nexus 618 system, at the top of
the spine. I'm delighted to announce that the Apricot Mapping Service have
discovered a new jump point in the Outback system which is now part of the
Duchy. In this new system, claimed by me for the Duchy and named Gaia, is the
Earth type planet shown behind me. It is currently almost uninhabited, but the
good news is it is capable of supporting more than five billion people without
compromising the natural wilderness areas."

I paused a moment to let that sink in.

"We will have the planet ready for full
scale colonization, at a high tech level, in one year from now. We invite
anyone who wishes to emigrate to Hunter's Run, to apply now. The order
applications are received will determine the order accommodation, land, and
resources, are allocated to settlers. It's strictly a first in, first served
basis. The sooner you get your application in and processed, the sooner you can
travel here. The first to arrive, will have the best picks of where to live.
You will need to rough it a bit for the intermediate year, but the rewards will
be worth it."

"We want you here now. Are you out of
work and willing to come here for it? We can guarantee you work. Much of it is
initially in the Outback system, on the planet Outback itself. While not a
paradise, the work you do there will guarantee you priority selection of
accommodation on Gaia. Do you run a business which isn’t doing so well where
you are? Move to Hunter's Run, and the first here will have the best
opportunities to corner the new markets availed by the new cities."

I went on like this for a bit, targeting
different segments of human society.

"For details, contact the Hunter's Run
colonization office. We want you here now."

No, I wasn’t doing an Uncle Sam
impersonation, but I have to admit, the image had crossed my mind.

The day Annette had waited for since losing
Unthinkable, arrived the next day. Jane took us to the Shipyard in Gunbus, both
of us going to sleep in suites on board, to allow us to be there first thing in
the morning. Jane slid the new Super-Cruiser out of its bay, and we stood off
and looked at it.

Bob had used the same template as the first
of the Dreadnaughts we'd seen on our way through to Gaia. It was back in its
bay, still being fitted out internally.

He'd taken two of the badly damaged Cruiser
hulls, cut them in half down their long length, and created four half ships, or
what ships had looked like back in Earth water days. He'd then built a long
thin rectangular central hull, the same width as the Cruiser hulls, and to each
of its four long sides, he'd attached one of the half hulls. In effect, he'd
merged two full Cruisers into a single ship, with the same length and width,
but half again the depth. The central section provided the same space as a
third old Earth ship, allowing additional engines, power plants and shield
generators. With capital ship missile launchers, Mosquito launchers, and as
much Point Defense as could be added, the result was a ship with the defenses
of a Battleship, and the offense of two standard Cruisers and a Missile Cruiser.

Very little of the ship was habitable. Like
Slice's new Cruiser, the Super-Cruiser had a single deck in the top hull
section, with CCC and living accommodation. There were four aired up Cargo
Decks, and two Hanger Decks capable of docking a standard Corvette each, or a
small selection of fighters and shuttles. The habitable decks and associated
airlocks, were joined by access shafts.

This was the first of its class to be
built. We had Cruiser hulls for several more, and these were already in
progress. After them, the same design was going to be used for some
Super-Destroyers, and Super-Corvettes. The priority was on the larger ships.

We no longer had the luxury of time to test
the design. We had to go with it, and hope it did its job. The object was to
create a ship which could survive passage across the Death system if necessary,
even the smaller ones. And fight while doing so. If things happened as we
believed though, the added shielding should enable the new ships to fight
longer and harder.

Annette's face was a picture of excitement.
I waited until she'd had her fill of the externals of the new ship, and told
Jane to dock us. We exited Gunbus into the lower hanger bay, and the access
shaft took us straight to the main deck. I waved Annette into the CCC ahead of
me.

A security droid awaited us, standing next
to the XO's console. I connected to its belt, and shifted it into the shape of
a man in 'slinky red'. He was of average height and dark skin, with bald head,
and a dark goatee style beard. He smiled at us.

I waved Annette into the captain's chair.
She sat, almost reverently. I stood in front of her.

"Commander Bronson. You are hereby
assigned as Captain of the Hunter Security Super-Cruiser, Defiant. You may
appoint crew as you wish. You may dock Nightshade in one of the Hangers. Once
you complete acceptance trials, you will dock at Hunter's Haven for final
fit-out and supplies."

"Admiral, I accept command of
Defiant."

I nodded towards the droid.

"This man-shape has relevance to the
name Defiant. You are at liberty to shape the ship's avatar any way you wish. I
thought this might be appropriate though. You can look up the original name if
you want, but the avatar is usually the ship name. It's your choice."

"Thanks Sir, I'll see how we go
together. What do we do when the ship is ready for space?"

"I have two sets of orders for you.
Firstly, you are to escort Slice as he recon's the four other sectors we marked
as possible Darkness entry points. He outranks you, but if it comes to a fight,
you have command. Your mission is to ensure his is completed. Don’t let him
linger anywhere. I need you down spine as fast as possible. Once he completes
the final system, he returns to the AMS, and you are to proceed as fast as
possible to Treasure Chest, where you will form a fleet out of whatever
refitted ships are available there. You will need to leave enough in place to
protect the shipyard, but everything else goes with you to the War jump point
in Last Hope. You will blockade the jump point into War, and not allow anything
to move either way."

"Understood Sir."

"I'll be sending ships down to you as
fast as they come out of the bays here. The first Dreadnaught will probably
have a more senior officer aboard who will take command from you. But you will
then form a small fleet of your own for detached duty. At some point, someone
has to go into War and find out what happened to that Battle…"

I stopped abruptly as a thought occurred to
me.

"Oh FUCK!"

"Sir?"

"Sorry. I had one of those thoughts
you never want to have. It shouldn’t affect your orders though. At some point
we need to find out what happened to that Battleship which got past us, and if
need be, destroy it. But that won't happen until we have a big enough fleet
there. But it also needs to happen sooner rather than later, so we can safely
go into War, and start moving asteroids away from the jump point. Anyway, until
someone senior arrives, or you get new orders from me, you will command the
blockade of the War jump point."

"Yes sir! May I ask a question?"

"Sure."

"What happens if Doctor Magnus turns
up and wants to go through?"

"String her along with official
nonsense while you get a grav sled attached to her ship, and then have her
towed back to Treasure Chest. Put her in touch with me. Worst case scenario? No-one
goes through that jump point without my explicit permission, and you will check
with me first. Don’t take anyone's word for it, and don’t trust anything which
is supposed to be from me. Send it through your AI to Jane, and don’t accept
anything back without it having come from Jane through your AI."

"What if someone goes through
anyway?"

"You go through after them, and you
shoot to disable. If that isn’t possible, you destroy the ship, and bring back
any survivors. Can you do that?"

"Yes sir. If I couldn’t, I’d never
have joined the military in the first place."

I nodded to her. Circumstances had led me
there. It was nice to know someone had actually considered such things before
choosing the life.

"I'll let you get acquainted with your
new ship. Take as long as you need for trials, and make sure everything works
before you accept the ship from Bob. I'll get you together with Slice before
you both leave, and make sure you're both on the same page."

She arose, and saluted me. I returned the
salute, and left the CCC.

I let Jane fly Gunbus back to Hunter's
Haven.

It was a beginning. But there was so much
to do in so little time.