Hunter Legacy 5 Hail the Hero (4 page)

I’d barely sunk into a lounge chair, when
three Commanders turned up at my door.

“Can we have a minute sir?” asked
Miriam.

I waved them in, and into lounge chairs.

“We need to thank you sir,” said
Commander Bowrey.

“What for?” I responded.

“You saved everyone on Yorktown and
the ships on her hull, when you told them to push us down. If you hadn’t
ordered that action, the first ship through would have torn us apart.”

Greer and Miriam nodded.

“I’m also the one who put you there in
the first place. I think the one negates the other.”

“No sir,” said Bowrey
emphatically. “We’d been on the ready line since seven in the morning. We
were all lined up until your suggestion changed our deployment. Without that
change, none of us stood a chance. The first two ships were designed for
tearing debris fields apart, and pushing the bits out of the down jump area.
They would have torn through most of us before we even knew what was happening.
The next wave would have down jumped into what was left, and completed the job.
Until your suggestion changed things, we were already dead, and didn’t know it
yet. You gave us all a chance to survive.”

“Thank you,” they all said
together.

I looked at them with a lack of
understanding. I’d almost killed them, and they thanked me for saving them?
What sort of logic was that?

“You’re welcome,” I said.
“Please don’t make me do it again.”

They laughed. I looked at Greer.

“You look like you need some sleep
Commander.”

“Ah, yes sir. How long before our
ships will be ready to fight again?”

“The parts they need should be here
soon. The repairs will begin with the Corvettes, followed by the Excalibur’s,
and finally the fighters. You have time to get some sleep. Jane will wake you
when your ship is ready for you, or team coms will wake you if something
happens. In the meantime, I need you rested for the next phase.”

“Yes sir.”

The three of them rose, saluted, and left.

I assembled an email for Lieutenant Colonel
Ashdale, including a brief summary of what I’d heard, and the recording of the
meeting. The reports from all the captains would fill in the blanks.

Not long after sending it off, the
freighter landed on the Flight Deck, and was transported down to be unloaded.

Jane and I discussed how to go about
finding the other habitable planet or moon, and any other inhabited structures
in the Midgard system. Especially given the nav scanners didn’t work properly
there.

An hour or so later, she informed me the
last of the captains had left, as had the freighter on its second run.

I moved back to the Bridge.

“Where are we at?” I asked Jane.

“The three ships you wanted in Midgard
have jumped. The remaining Gunbus went with them. Repairs to Greer’s Starman
have begun. She should be ready to undock, and give her place to the last
Gunbus, in an hour or so. We are go for returning to Midgard.”

“Starman?”

“They went with using their call signs
as ship names.”

I smiled at that. Easy solution. Fighters
generally weren’t named. But Corvettes always were, and so usually were
Privateers. Although Gladiator convention was to tag a number on the end. All
ships were named with the class and a number to start with, but this was
changed when the owner took possession. The two Camels for example, were
currently named Camel 01 and Camel 02, since they’d been pressed into war
service instead of me taking delivery normally. Among capital ships, the first
in the class was named a way the rest of the class would follow. Hence the
Actor class, with the names of ships being past actors who were now immortal. Using
call signs to name what were larger than usual fighters, was a great idea.

“Jump us out of here Jane.”

“Confirmed.

We jumped back into Midgard, and I called a
senior officers meeting for as soon as everyone could arrive. I told Jane to
specially make sure Greer wasn’t woken up. He needed the sleep, and he wasn’t
going to be needed for what I had in mind.

I was sitting in the Conference Room as people
started to come in. Miriam was first, and she was going to be the most junior
present. She sat as far away from me as she could get, knowing her place in the
ranks. General Wellington took her place to my left.

The room quickly filled. Admiral Bentley entered
last, slightly behind Admiral Dingle, and General Smith, who was talking to
O’Neil as they entered. I shook hands with Dingle for the first time, having
never actually come face to face with him before. For an officer I’d first
considered promoted too high, he’d certainly performed as well as could be
expected so far. There were many captains I’d not met before, from the Cruisers
and Destroyers of the combined fleet. Alison closed the door behind her, and
stood just inside the door, next to Alsop.

I stood.

“As of this morning, the command of
the multi-sector fleet has passed to me. General Wellington has been appointed
Military Governor of the Midgard system.”

There was a general stir around the table.

“We have several objectives now. The
first is to pacify the planet Midgard, in preparation for the diplomats. The
second is to ensure the entire system is disarmed. The Shipyard was neutralized
yesterday. We suspect there’s either a second habitable planet in the system,
or a moon. Midgard itself ought to have an Orbital station, but it doesn’t. So
we need to look for it.”

“Admiral Bentley will be breaking the
fleet up into small groups. Each group will be assigned a patrol area. If you
come across a planet or moon with life signs, or any kind of station, you will
inform me immediately, and take no further action except observation. Our
response will depend on what we find. I want no one biting off more than they
can chew because they find something which they think they can handle. If there’s
another Midgard force in this system, and there could be two of them, we handle
them with our full force, not piecemeal. I don’t want to be forced to explain
the loss of one of our ships, because the captain proved to be overly gung-ho.
If you find a fleet, you back off and shadow, until the main force can arrive.”

“Let me be clear about something.
There will be NO retaliation against civilians. We’ll need the planets’ station
back here for General Wellington to use as a base. There will be no accidents.
Understand me?”

I looked everyone in the eyes, one by one.
Most of them nodded as I looked at them.

“Wing Commander Slice.”

“Sir?”

“You will deploy a comnavsat in orbit
of every planet in this system. You will also check for areas where one is not
enough. We can’t cover the entire system, but we can cover all the real estate.
You’ll have an escort to watch your back. No unnecessary risks. If you find an
opposing force, you will deploy a comnavsat and get the hell out of there. Even
if the comnavsat doesn’t last long, we’ll get enough to plan an attack.”

“Yes sir.”

“The main force will be heading
straight to Midgard. That’s where I expect any remaining fleet to be. But don’t
assume it. There’s at least one other inhabited location in this system, and it
could also have a significant fleet there.”

I looked down the table at everyone.

“Let’s get this finished today. No
last minute casualties please. There have been far too many already. Admiral
Bentley will give you your assignments shortly. Dismissed.”

I looked at Susan, Vonda and Annabelle, motioning
them to stay. The rest filed out.

“Jane will give you the patrol areas
we worked out, Susan,” I said. “Divide up the Sci-Fi and British ships.
Slice needs a bigger escort, as he’s most likely to come across something
interesting. Better give him at least one Cruiser, with a sensible Captain who
will let him lead. He doesn’t have the rank the Cruiser captains have, but for
the job I gave him, he is the most experienced person in the fleet. Exploration
is his mission.” She nodded. “The idea is, we cover the entire system
as fast as possible. So if you see something we missed, by all means tweak the
plan. Emphasize the no action directive. I want to find out what’s here, before
we blunder in and do something stupid. There have been enough surprises in the
last few days. I don’t want any more.”

“Agreed,” they said together. We
all laughed.

“Annabelle, it’s about four hours to
Midgard. Prep the troops. I’m hoping we can take out the missile sites from
orbit, but if not, you go in and neutralize them.”

“We’ll be ready.”

“Have I missed anything?” I asked
Vonda.

“I don’t think so.”

“Admiral, form up the main fleet into
line abreast formation. Have BigMother’s support ships form a second line above
the main formation, and get the rest moving. I fancy dinner at Midgard.”

“Confirmed,” answered Susan, and
we all laughed as we stood, and left.

Once the fleet was moving, I sent off a ‘We
are moving to Midgard’ email, and we went down for lunch. Greer turned up
looking a lot better than he had earlier. He took me aside.

“Jane told me my ship has been
repaired, and swapped for the last Gunbus. What did you want me to do?”

“Relax for now. Go back to bed if you
still need sleep. As the Corvettes and Privateers are repaired, their pilots
should launch them, and join the line formation above the main force. Re-dock
yours when you can. You and Miriam stay aboard until just before we get there.
As soon as the underside airlock is clear, tell Lacey to dock.”

“Yes sir.”

I waved him towards the table, and we took
seats.

After lunch, Miriam found me playing with
Angel, and joined in, until Angel lost interest, and went to sleep on her kitty
castle. I introduced her to ‘Who’ episodes. She didn’t really follow what I
tried to tell her about the backstory, but she enjoyed the actual story itself.

BA dropped past to ask a question, although
I never found out what it was, because she became engrossed with what we were
watching.

I looked around at one point to find Alison
in the next chair. Sometime later, the twins were lounging on the floor.

As one episode finished, Abigail asked what
this was, so I went through the backstory again. To my surprise, she understood
the basics, and started explaining it a different way to the others. Even
Annabelle seemed to understand time travel was involved, by the time she
finished.

Jane kept me updated with the repair work
through my PC, as the afternoon wore on. By the time the next episode finished,
all the Gunbus’ were on station in the line above us, with the exception of
Greer’s. Several of the Excalibur’s were as well. Miriam’s was ready for her.
All I had to do was get her away from the entertainment.

“Time to go back to work people,”
I announced.

“We have to do this again,” said
Aline. “I never knew the old stuff could be so interesting.”

“Me either,” said Alana.

The whole team seemed to have wondered in
without me noticing.

I shooed them out. They needed to prep for
possible ground combat. I needed to get to the Bridge.

Angel beat me up there, even though I’d
started well ahead of her. She took her place on her console mat.

Miriam and Greer undocked, and the three junior
266 pilots landed, so they could pilot the drop ships if needed.

Alison, Vonda, and Alsop, joined me on the Bridge.
Jane was there, as usual. Amy ran in a few moment later, and took a seat at the
back.

As the time clicked over past four in the
afternoon, the planet Midgard was large in the view screen.

“Jane,” I said, “deploy a
comnavsat please.”

“Confirmed.”

The comnavsat exited through a droid
airlock on the Cargo Deck, and took up an orbit around Midgard.

“Hey,” said Jane, with a laugh in
her voice. “They put their beans in upside down!”

We laughed, although Alsop looked like he
really didn’t get the joke.

“What have we got?”

“One hundred and twenty missile
launchers, all grouped in a series of compounds, well away from any population
center.”

“Any ships?”

“Negative.”

“Ready for the meet and greet?”

“Confirmed.”

“Meet and greet?” asked Vonda.

“Jane has a greeting in their own
language prepared to send.”

I opened a channel to the planet.
Immediately we received their answering service.

“Die Heathen, thou who would bring
Ragnarok upon us. Those who worship technology will bring the end of all, if we
do not stop you. Die Heathen…”

I muted the channel, and nodded to Jane.
She nodded back, and threw the just sent message translation onto a side
screen.

Government of Midgard, you have
committed acts of war against the Sci-Fi and American sectors. You will
surrender to us now, or face the consequences.

“Missile launch,” announced Jane.

“Surprise, surprise,” I said.
“Mosquitos please.”

Two hundred Mosquito missiles met one hundred
and twenty capital ship missiles in the upper atmosphere.

“I wonder how they’ll explain that to
their people?” asked Alison.

“Or this,” I added.

One hundred and twenty missiles launched
from Guardians, and headed down to the planet. After a short pause, there was a
noticeable plume on the surface, where each of the compounds had been.

“All sites destroyed,” said Jane.

“Send the message again.”

“Confirmed.”

A side screen popped up with several people
showing, next to the screen with the translation from before. One of them spoke
in what we assumed was Old Norse. The translation went up on the other screen.

Who are you to defile our planet?

“Vice Admiral Hunter, of the
multi-sector fleet. You have waged war against us, and you lost. You will now
surrender.”

I nodded to Jane, and she translated it.

The effect was instant and completely
unexpected. One of the men turned to the other, and struck him across the face.
The man reeled back, and fell.

The Hunter! You told us the wrath of the
hunter was of no consequence. We took you at your word. The hunter was of our
own people you said, and his wrath was meaningless. You fool. We are now
doomed!

“Jane, ask him what he’s talking
about.”

The man still standing, bowed.

The prophesy of Ragnarok has a little
known codicil. This warns of a special doom if we leave our planet before the
dawn of Ragnarok itself. The wrath of the hunter would descend on us, all who
left our system would die, and we would suffer as no others will. Our Seers
told us the hunter was one of us, and as a simple woodsman, could not do
anything to hurt our people. Tell me truthfully, what of those we sent out on
Crusade?

“All dead. Many of them took their own
lives rather than be captured.”

We have been deceived by those who
interpreted prophesy. You are the Hunter. Are you to be our doom ahead of the
rest?

“What is the prophesy of
Ragnarok?”

Forbidden. Those who must know, will
know. Those who follow, must follow on faith alone.

“I need to know.”

He looked at me, as if really seeing me for
the first time.

You are the Hunter. You will know. But
it’s not my place to be the instrument of enlightenment.

“Fine.” I was getting tired of
this. “Do you surrender?”

Midgard is at your mercy. But I cannot
surrender to you. I am but the humble caretaker of this planet. Those who rule,
removed the abomination from the sky. To where, I do not know. They make their
will known through Seers.

I could see Vonda’s sudden smile, and the
shake of her head. Her understanding hit me as well, and I couldn’t stop myself
from snorting. It sounded like a classic political scam. The Seers were the
real rulers themselves, with people they could manipulate doing the talking for
them. They send people off on a grand crusade, thus ridding themselves of all
the troublemakers.

I indicated Vonda.

“This is General Wellington. She is
the new Military Governor of Midgard, until the Sci-Fi sector government
decides otherwise.”

I waved Vonda forward. The Midgard official
bowed to her.

“You will place all Seers in
immediately detention,” she said, “and surrender them to me, when
ordered to do so. Diplomats will be arriving soon. You will prepare a place
where we can meet to discuss peace, and the future of Midgard.”

We await your diplomats. I ask only one
thing.

“Which is?”

Return to us those who have been sent to
the embarkation point, that they should avoid the Hunter’s wrath.

“Agreed. Where is this place you speak
of?”

The first man savagely kicked the second
man, who was still on the floor.

Tell them.

The fourth moon, of the fifth planet.

“Thank you,” said Vonda.
“Lock up all the seers. I’ll be in touch with you again soon.”

Your will be done. Will you send the
Hunter away before he destroys us?

The man was terrified of me!

“I cannot send him anywhere. However,
he will be leaving soon.”

I await your next command.

He bowed low, and the channel closed.