Hunter Legacy 9: Hero at the Gates (8 page)

"Jon!"

It was Amanda. For a moment, I was confused
as to how this could be. She'd been at the center of the blast.

I opened my eyes. Amanda stood over me.

I was lying on the grass.

"You went to sleep Jon," said
Amanda.

"Found the entrance," said Jane.

"We got this boss," said BA.
"You rest. We'll take a look downstairs."

"NO!"

I leapt up. Startled looks came from
everyone.

"Immediate evac. I want this entire
area clear of people as fast as it's possible to do, and within the next half
hour maximum. Jane, the cargo droids can clear the area of all suits, but they
don’t have time to process them here. Use Camel and Unthinkable to load everything."

"Confirmed."

"What did you see Jon?" asked
Aline.

"The General is downstairs waiting for
us, and he has a bomb."

"How do you know that?" asked
Jack.

"He fell asleep," said Aleesha.
"He sees the future when he does."

Jack looked skeptical, but started giving
orders. Within minutes, Unthinkable was down again, but landed well away from
the combat area. The giant suits were walked onto Camel, and the remains of the
battlefield was rapidly moved to Unthinkable. The last few civilians were found,
and moved to Gunbus.

Twenty minutes was all it took, and the
three ships lifted off. I took Gunbus up to Custer, and docked nose to nose.
The civilians and medical team were transferred to Custer.

"Jane, how many combat droids do we
have with us?"

"Only a dozen."

"That’s enough."

I told her what to do. We undocked again,
and I brought Gunbus back down to the demolished wall. Jack and the alpha team
emerged in 'slinky red', and proceeded to the entrance to the bunker. They
headed down. I lifted Gunbus again, and climbed up to a thousand meters, where
I had a good view of the entire area. Custer was still at five thousand, and
still scanning for a second entrance. We hadn't found one in the buildings, but
it wasn’t conclusive, since one could have been hidden anywhere. For that
matter, there could be another entrance in the mine.

I waited. The team below slowly searched
the complex down there, with Jane mapping their progress from up here.

I started doing releases, but was told they
had already been done.

"Took your time Hunter," said the
General eventually. "You did well above. But here, I win. Goodbye."

There was a massive explosion, and the
entire battlefield area fell into the crater which was all that remained of the
complex underneath.

"Wasn’t that a waste of good combat
droids?" asked Amanda.

"Maybe, but it made him reveal his
last play. It also gives him nowhere to go, but out."

"Or up," said Jane. "Hanger
doors opening on the south side of the walled area."

I brought us around, and painted the
opening doors with a target lock.

Before the doors had stopped moving, a
Corvette sized ship began to rise up. I opened a channel to it.

"Sorry General. You missed."

"What? How? I saw your party in the
operations room before I blew it."

"No, you saw what I wanted you to see.
Land on the ground outside of the hanger. If you attempt to escape, I'll blow
your ship."

"Fuck you Hunter. Open fire!"

The channel closed. The ship continued to
rise, and its guns opened up on us. I side slipped us away from the fire, lined
them up, and fired ten torpedoes. The shields failed with number six, and the
next four destroyed the Bridge. The ship, no longer under control, fell to the
ground, and exploded.

I brought us down again a short way away.

"Jane, send your suits to do a quick
explore of the hanger, and whatever is still accessible beyond it. It would be
just like the General to have left some people behind, or even still be down
there himself. If any of the combat droids survived the blast, see if you can
get them out."

"Confirmed."

"Anyone want to check the
wreckage?"

Alana and BA were the first out the door.
The rest of us followed. At the bottom of the ramp, we stopped.

The sun was coming up.

Aline grabbed me by the arm and stopped me
falling down the ramp. The two of us stood there, observing the sunrise, while
the rest of the team searched the wreckage. It didn’t take long to confirm the
General was indeed dead, along with a dozen others. Not long after, Jane
confirmed the remaining part of the complex was empty of people. These releases
I did do, standing there in the light of the new day.

By six, we'd all docked back with
BigMother, and offloaded. I left dealing with the remains of our enemies to
Jane and the medicos. All we needed was enough of a bio-sample to confirm
identity. The rest was to be extracted from suits, and returned to the planet
for burial. Jane was going to recycle the suits.

Angel wasn’t impressed I'd been away all
day again, but she was very affectionate. I took her to dinner with me, and she
purred away on my lap while I ate.

Amy sat near me during dinner, giving me
the eye now and again.

"What?" I finally said to her.

"How much of the events here can I
give to the media?"

I thought it over while enjoying another
spoon full of dessert.

"Hunter Security, with the help of the
Apricot Mapping Service, discovered the long sought after pirate base, in an
unknown system one jump from Libya. The system is currently being explored for
other jump points, and is being claimed for the Duchy of Hunter's Run. Battles
were fought on the station being used as the pirate main base, the Shipyard they
had been using to build Battleships from, and the planet below, being mined by
slave labour. The slaves have all been rescued, and will be returned to Libya
shortly, where they can decide what they wish to do next. Details of pirates
killed will be released in due course. Ships captured include two older
Battleships, and a number of lesser class ships. These will be refitted, and
used to protect Hunter interests in this area of the spine."

"Does this system have a name?"
asked Amy.

"Treasure Chest," said Jane.
"I found it on the ship databases."

"Fine with me," I said. "You
can use it." I turned to Jane. "How are we for ships you can use to
defend this system with once we leave?"

"I can have the Shipyard operational
by morning if I strip the computer out of the Trojan Cruiser. Once I clone
myself to the Shipyard, my clone can begin upgrading the ships here with the
usual features. It'll take a few days to get the fabricators ready. In the
meantime, the Battleships and several of the others should be quite adequate as
they are, at least for defense of the system."

"Should we leave a squadron of
fighters here as well?" asked Lacey.

"Annette?"

"Boss?"

"Would you like to take command
here?"

"For how long?"

"No idea."

"Then no."

"No?"

"I don’t want to miss Outback."

"Fair enough. What do you think
Jane?"

"We'll be close by for the next few
days, and by the time we head back up the spine, I'll have the Corvettes rigged
like Unthinkable anyway. All they really need are pilots."

"We have some I think," said Jack.

"How so?"

"I was talking to some of the
survivors of the mine on the way up the first time. A lot of them were captured
on their ships, and are experienced ship crews. A few of them asked what things
were like out there now, and how difficult it would be to find ships to work
on."

"You think some of them might stay
here and form the core of a defense force?"

"Can't hurt to ask them."

"Do so then. If they want to sign up
with Hunter Security, and they check out, I've no objections. But make very
sure none of them are pirates hiding among their victims."

"We’ve found a few," said Dick.
"Not as many as I expected to actually. D-Jane is still processing people,
but we should be complete by the morning."

"Good. I want to be on the road home
first thing."

There was the sound of a throat being
cleared noisily. Almost a cough, and not quite a choke.

Eyes turned to Magnus.

"Aren't you forgetting
something?" she said.

I sighed.

"Probably."

"Prometheus?"

"Ah."

After the last couple of days, I'd begun to
hope we'd not have to go there after all. It wasn’t as if our luck was solid at
the moment.

Necessary.

"Did you find your people?" She
nodded. "Can't you go after her yourself?"

"With what ship?"

"Jane can put it back together for
you."

"Ah, no," said Jane.

"No?"

"No. I did an inventory of the ship
parts, and it seems the special emitters are not here, and some other key
sections are missing. There is no record of where they went, but I can only
assume they were fitted to a ship which left before we arrived."

"So we can only use your ship,"
added Magnus.

"What about the special shield
modifications?"

"We have the specs."

"I've already started modifying a
standard emitter to the new specs," said Jane. "I think we can use a
multi layered approach, by channeling the smaller ships into the special
emitters, leaving our normal shields at full strength."

"I want to see the simulations."

"Now?"

"Hell no. In the morning."

"Confirmed."

"So what's next boss?" asked BA.

"Sleep. Tomorrow we take those who
want out of here to Libya. If Ms. Ball has discovered a new jump point by then,
we'll go see where it leads, otherwise we head for Last Hope."

"And hope it's not our last
hope," said Alison.

No-one took her up on that conversational
gambit. It didn’t even rate a chuckle. I looked around the table, and saw most
of them were as tired as I was.

"Bed," I said. "Your
own," I added.

I picked up Angel from my lap, draped her
over my shoulder, and left them there.

Alone in my suite, I managed to get into
boxers and t-shirt, but was asleep before Angel had completed her pre-lying
down circles.

"What part of your own beds did you
not understand?"

Aline gave me the don’t-be-stupid look.
Amanda gave me the smug look, while Aleesha batted her eyelids at me.

Angel opened one eye, stared at me for a
moment, and closed it. She at least was in the right bed.

I opened my mouth to say more.

"GOOD MORNING TREASURE CHEST!"

I thumped back down on my pillow, and
pulled the sheet over my head.

There are some days when you shouldn’t get
out of bed. Yesterday had been one of them. Today, the feeling was even more
intense.

"Are you joining us in the shower
Jon?" asked Amanda.

"No."

"Are you going to training?"
asked Aleesha.

"No."

"Are you going to get up at all?"
asked Aline.

"No."

Someone tugged on the sheet, and it was
yanked off me. I sat up, reached down for the sheet, and tugged it back over
me, thumping back onto my pillow again.

"Go away," I said.

They left. I heard them laughing in my
shower, and the footfalls as they left the room after.

Sometime later, droid tread approached.
Footfalls and droid tread are basically the same thing, with the former being a
flesh and blood person, the latter being a mechanical person. I'm not sure why
I differentiate, but it seems I do.

"Breakfast my Lord?" asked
Jeeves.

I could tell it was Jeeves. While the
butlers were all supposed to be the same, Jeeves had had the most interaction
with Jane, and he sounded different to the rest now.

"No thanks."

"Yes, my Lord. There is water beside
you, my Lord."

"Thanks. Bugger off."

"Yes my Lord."

"Wasn’t that a bit rude?" asked
Jane through coms.

"Probably."

There was silence. Angel snuggled closer
again, and the two of us went back to sleep.

"Ready to depart," said Jane.

"What time is it?"

"Ten, my Lord."

It had obviously taken all night, and half
the morning, to process people. Just as well I hadn't been dead set on leaving
first thing.

"Go."

"Going. You want the Lightnings
trailblazing again?"

"Yes."

I flopped a hand out above the sheet to pat
Angel, but she wasn’t there. I pulled it back in, and turned over.

"Lunch my Lord?"

"Finger food."

I said it without pulling my head out from
under my sheet. I turned over again.

"Your lunch my Lord."

I pushed up the sheet on that side of the
bed, and Jeeves slid a plate of food and a bottle of water in through the gap.
I let the sheet fall again.

"Thanks."

"Should I bugger off again my
Lord?"

"Please."

When the droid tread footfalls were gone, I
sat up under the sheet, and let it form a tent above me. I munched on my finger
food and drank my water. I tossed the empties out onto the floor, and lay back
down again. I could remember tenting as a kid, back when I was reading books
when I was supposed to be asleep. I'd been fifteen before I found out my
parents knew all about it, and had simply made sure I had enough light to not
damage my eyes, and enough sleep so they didn’t have to actually notice my
nocturnal activity formally.

"Pirate alert," said Jane.

I startled awake.

"Huh?"

"Melissa just reported a pirate
Cruiser in the Libya system. They overflew it per orders. What do you want to
do about it?"

"Let me know when we catch up to
it."

"Confirmed."

I turned over again.

"Five minutes to combat."

"Ugggggggg!"

I jerked awake again, almost losing the
sheet, but settled it back over me.

"Jon?"

"What?"

"Are you going to the Bridge to deal
with the pirate?"

"No."

"Would you like Lacey to handle
it?"

"No. Give me a hollo combat system
down here."

"In your room?"

"In my bed, under the sheet."

"I'd have to route it through your
PC."

"Yes. Get on with it."

I sat up, adjusted the sheet back into a
tent, and the hollo controls appeared before me. I had an intense feeling of
déjà vu, and remembered the times when I'd been playing computer games under a
sheet tent in the middle of the night, when my parents thought I was asleep. Or
at least when I thought they thought I was asleep. They probably knew those
times too.

The pirate Cruiser was coming head to head
with us. I goosed the controls so we would pass over the top of it, and lit up
the weapon systems. At maximum range for the Battleship guns, I opened fire.
Before those pulses arrived, I fired off the Cruiser guns, and then the
Destroyer guns.

The Cruiser must have had a death wish, as
it made no attempt to change course, and avoid my fire. By the time the
Destroyer pulses had hit, it was badly damaged, but still coming on. I put us
back on a head on course for just long enough to send off a full salvo of
torpedoes, after which I swung us well off the line the Cruiser was on. The
torpedoes hit full on the front of the ship, and it simply disintegrated. It
had made some hits on us, but our shields were only down ten percent.

I put us back on course for Libya Orbital.
I'd not changed our speed at any time.

"Clean up Jon?" asked Jane.

"No time."

I switched off the hollo controls, and made
myself comfortable again.

"Arrived at Libya Orbital," said
Jane.

"Shit!" I yelled, as I fell out
of bed, landing on my left side.

"Don’t roll in it."

"Won't."

"Ships undocking to transfer
people."

"Fine."

I crawled back onto the bed, located the
sheet, and pulled it over me again.

"Transfer complete."

"Can we go now?"

"Going. Where to?"

"Home?"

"Wrong direction for Prometheus."

"Oh that."

"Yes. Which direction should we
take?"

"Which is fastest?"

"Jessie Ball found another jump point
on the other side of the Treasure Chest system, leading directly to
Morocco."

"Fine, go that way."

"Confirmed."

There was a light thump on the bed, as
Angel jumped up. She curled up in her normal spot.

"Dinner my Lord?"

"Finger food."

"As you wish, my Lord."

There was the sound of Angel jumping off,
presumably in search of her own dinner.

The sheet was lifted, and a plate of food
and a ginger ale were pushed through. I ate without any enthusiasm, finished
the ale, and chucked the empties on the floor again.

When I woke next, Angel was back in her
usual spot. I cuddled her for a bit.

I wasn’t sure how much later it was, when I
became aware of warm skin against my own. The sheet was still over me, but
there was someone on top of me, also under the sheet. It was dark, so I must
have slept into evening at least, when ship lighting was dimmed to simulate
night time.

"Whose there?"

"Me."

"Me who?"

"Little red riding hood."

"Huh? What are you doing here?"

"Riding you."

"Oh. Okay."

I let my hands wander, but for the life of
me, I couldn’t find a hood, red or otherwise.

But what was happening felt pretty good, so
I let it happen.

I woke the following morning feeling great.
I was instantly alert, and was the proverbial bright eyed and bushy tailed.

Angel was in her normal place, opened one
eye, opened the other, and started purring. I obliged her with a good rub up
the wrong way.

Aline woke on the other side of Angel. She
smiled at me, and sat up, sheet flopping down to show me her naked breasts.

"I had the strangest dream," I
said to her.

She laughed so hard she fell out of bed.

I'd have gone to check on her, but my
medical monitor popped up an emergency red for my bladder. I jumped up and
raced into the bathroom.

The laughing behind me intensified.