Make or Break the Hero (The Hunter Legacy Book 4) (26 page)

Forty Three

With about twenty minutes to go, I visited
my bathroom, and had Jeeves bring me a bottle of water.

Back on the Bridge, I emailed Admiral
Jedburgh we were fifteen minutes from scanner range of the jump point, and to have
his forces standing by.

The waiting started again, as we drew
closer. The team started filing in. The pilots began checking in as they
arrived at their ships. As before, Slice was in his Apricot One, still docked
to Custer. Lacey had the pilot's chair in Custer. George was in Gunbus. Annette
was in Unthinkable. Eric was in Camel, and Brown was in the other one. Jones
had Excalibur, with Taylor in the second one. Williams was in his Centurion.
All remained docked to, or on the Flight Deck of, BigMother.

"Jane, connect the coms of all ships into
fleet coms please, and turn team coms on. Add the 266 pilots to team coms."

"Confirmed. Done."

"Team coms is active. Fleet coms is
also active. All ships check in please."

The litany of check-ins began.

"Jane, when we're close enough, can
you include the AI's on the other side of the jump point in fleet coms?"

"There will be a second or so lag
between messages, but yes."

"Do so please."

"Confirmed."

The wait continued, as time seemed to go
slower and slower.

"We have contact with Miami. Fleet
coms expanded."

"Attention American sector ships. I'm
Admiral Hunter. Welcome to fleet coms. The multi-sector fleet is approaching
the Miami jump point. Five minutes to contact. Standby for instructions."

A screen popped up with Admiral Jedburgh
and Admiral Hallington showing.

"Welcome General Wellington, Admiral
Hunter, and all ship crews. I'm Admiral Jedburgh, and I officially take command
of this multi-sector force. Admiral Hunter has operational command of the jump
point until the battle is resolved. We await the order to jump in and join you
in the fight."

The screen closed.

"Time," said Jane.

"All stop," I said.

The scanner showed all ships stopping in
their correct positions. We were still in a wall formation.

"Jane, can you access the scanners
from the other side of the jump point?"

"Confirmed."

The side screen showing ship movements all
the way back to Cobol, changed to also show the other side of the Miami jump point.
There was a mass of green dots right on top of the jump point itself, and many
more in defense positions further away. I quickly checked what was at the jump
point, and it seemed they'd taken my suggestion to heart.

"Send in the comnavsat."

"Confirmed."

The salvage droid launched. It took only a
minute for it to stop, and the scan data of the jump point on this side to be
added to the rest.

I expanded the new data, and stared at it.

"Oh hell no!" I exclaimed.

… To Be Continued.

Jonathon Hunter

will return

Hail the Hero.

Acknowledgements

Once again, a big thank you for Helen
Ellis. My sounding board, ear that listens, and experience which talks.

Also thanks to Egosoft, for allowing me to
use photos from their games, to make the cover of this book.

Special thanks to '
pref'
from the Egosoft forums, for the specific image used for this book cover.

A Message to my Readers

I’ve had a lot of fun writing this novel.
There is still a lot of story to come, and I invite you to come along for the
full journey with me.

If you've enjoyed this novel, I hope you
will take the time to leave a review on the Amazon site. All reviews are
greatly appreciated, as they help assist purchasing decisions by other readers.
Sales and reviews will help me to focus on the next book in the series, which
impacts how fast the next installment is released.

Please join me on the series Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/TheHunterLegacy

Feedback is welcome on my Games Forum.

http://apricotmappingservice.com/X3forum/viewforum.php?f=46

If you would like to be kept informed of
new eBooks, updates and information from The Hunter Legacy universe, join the
mailing list at
http://eepurl.com/bqMgVz

The Apricot Mapping Service exists as the author's personal in-game
entity, for the computer games in the X3 series, by Egosoft. John Slice and
other AMS characters, were originally used in fan fiction for mods,
walkthroughs, and guides for the games.

http://apricotmappingservice.com

The Egosoft website is at:

http://egosoft.com

Thank you.

Also by
Timothy Ellis

These Kindle eBooks can be found on Timothy Ellis’
Kindle Author page
.