Blind into the Breach (The Hunter Imperium Book 4), page 16
"Yeah. Just don’t need this at the moment. I desperately want a long hot shower, and a longer sleep."
"I know the feeling," she murmured.
A banging came from over near the bar, but I didn’t look up. The CAG was getting everyone's attention again with his tankard. I really didn’t want to know.
"Your attention please," I heard Eagle say. "The Imperator."
"What's he even here for?" I heard myself mutter.
"Jon was flying Gunbus."
"Oh."
Of course he was. I banged my head on my hands a few times, and stayed where I was.
"Orion's Belt," I heard him say. "Well done! In spite of what you think, this was a great victory. Our fighters took out twenty four hundred enemy fighters for the loss of a hundred and nine of our ships, mostly Brawlers, and no pilots. The mages were responsible for none of the shipless pilots being in space for more than a minute."
He started clapping, and the room joined in. I didn’t. The room stopped when he did.
"The Trixone dropped an entire army on this planet. And they did so on the first day of their attack. Our marine teams, with help from a brigade of combat droids, and the guns of our corvettes, cleared more than three quarters of that army from the major cities and towns in just over six hours. The remainder should be dead in the next day or so as the combat droids hunt them down."
Clapping started up again, and I continued to ignore it. I just wanted this over, so I could leave.
"We all feel this loss. But I repeat. There was nothing we could do about this. And it's not the only planetary loss. Nine other planets fell to the Trixone that we know about. We stopped another six on our first day, but were too late for the others. No-one bears any fault for the billions of lives lost. This is galactic war, and we simply don’t have enough ships to be everywhere we need to be. Or even on time, anywhere."
He paused, and there was silence.
"The Ralnor are singing our praises. We've stopped the Trixone advance on some of their key worlds, and given them time to move fleets around. Orion's Belt will be moving to the Trixone frontier next, pending the arrival of a Ralnor fleet to hold the jump point. We've done as much as we could do. The Ralnor have lost systems across about five thousand lightyears of frontier. They are stretched thin, but have fleets moving to fill the gaps. This war isn’t going to be over any time soon."
Silence.
"We however, have other concerns. The Keerah have fared worse, and didn’t ask for our help. As a result, as soon as Orion's Belt is relieved by the Ralnor, she will be moving to help defend Imperium space within Keerah territory. But we have time. For now, job well done, and we don’t anticipate further action today. My task for the afternoon is wading through after action reports, and the recommendations of CO's." There was a titter of laughter at last. "CAG."
"I know some of you are wondering where the kill board is," said Eagle. "Before we put it up, there is a little matter to address. Yesterday, a pilot made the comment he'd rather fly a dropship into the next fighter furball, than one of our Excaliburs."
I groaned quietly. There were more than a few negative suggestions made.
"He went on to suggest we needed to properly test what our corvettes could do. In fact, Orion only had four on board, and two of those were marine dropships. His comments went up to the Imperator. The rest is history. We don’t have the massed corvettes we used to, as most of them went to Gaia. The ones left, until very recently, were so inadequately shielded as to be completely useless against even the local destroyers. But with the tech upgrades which allowed the Brawler to hold its own, so too did the Corvettes become a useful ship again."
Silence again.
"You all saw what happened. Four of us went in, with an understrength squadron of Excaliburs flown by your squadron leaders. We broke the back of the enemy forest, and left the rest for you to complete the burn. But how did the corvettes perform?"
"Squadron leader Simhausen made sixty five confirmed kills, in a dropship she'd had only a half hour of simulator time in. Wing Commander Brown had seventy nine kills. I made one hundred and two. Given the corvettes carried considerably more torpedoes and missiles over the Excalibur, and much better shielding, our performance was within my expectations."
He paused, and I suspected he was looking around for me. There were suitable noises indicating surprise.
"The pilot who started this test though, did something even more remarkable. He made two hundred and forty three confirmed kills, expending five hundred torpedoes, three hundred each of FF and IR missiles, and every single mosquito missile the ship carried. And those were just the confirmed kills. Not to mention he was still calling out break warnings until he lost sight of the rest of us."
Shocked silence turned into wild cheering. My jaw would have hung open in shock, only it was still pressed into my hands. I'd had no idea at all how many kills I’d made. Eagle waited until the noise died down somewhat.
"And that wasn’t the end of it. This pilot kept flying towards the Trixone battleships. When challenged, he suggested we crack on, and as you know, the Imperator brought the Divine Wind corvette squadron to join us. Twelve of us, including the Imperator and this pilot, destroyed a battleship each, while the other five destroyed cruisers. Two corvettes were damaged, but are being repaired right now. The rest of us had tissue paper for shields left by the time we cleared Admiral Hallington's line of fire, and Orion took out what we left behind."
He paused again, and I was sure he was looking for me this time. But it wasn’t his voice which went on.
"Flight Officer Ecclestone," bellowed Jane. "Front and center."
I didn’t move. In fact, I slumped further forward. Hands grabbed me around the shoulders, hauled me out of my chair, and faced me towards the brass. Grace finished with a small push, and my legs started carrying me through the crowd, which parted to let me through.
I braced in front of the Imperator.
"Attention to orders," bellowed Jane, and the entire room braced.
"Flight Officer Ecclestone," he said. "You are promoted to Flight Lieutenant, and appointed captain of the Cobra class dropship Dreamwalker. Congratulations."
He held out his hand, and we shook. The pulse came in, my flight suit shifted into uniform with the new double bar insignia, and the cheering began.
"We need to talk," he murmured so only I could hear. "But after we get some sleep first."
I saluted him, and he returned the salute.
"The Kill Board is up," said Eagle.
A much as I didn’t want to look, I pulled up a hollo, and looked.
My name was on the top.
Thirty Eight
I tried to sneak away.
But getting to the door without being congratulated constantly took a while. I managed it eventually, and spent the next half hour under hot water in the shower. I left my hero mask on, and so could see when I really didn’t need to. In the mirror, while drying off, I pondered the mask itself. It was still black, and I thought I looked ridiculous.
I changed it to as close to my skin colour as I could manage. Now it just looked strange.
I was suffering from serious droop now, so I padded naked from the bathroom, and pulled back the sheet. Sliding in being able to see myself doing it was different, and I lay there pondering my new status as top gun.
I felt like a fraud. I’d used an advantage no-one else had. Then again, I’d shot my mouth off, been told to put up or shut up, and had delivered. So I wasn’t sure why I felt so down, except it could be the exhaustion factor.
My eyelids closed, but the room was still there. Damn, no off switch. I triggered the lights off, and found I could see perfectly well in the dark. In the end, I shifted the mask to glasses, and simply took them off.
Black.
"Sir?"
I bolted upright, cowering away from the noise, and almost fell off the bed. Belatedly, I recognized Kat's voice, and rolled back into the middle of the bed, from where I could reach the bedside table where my glasses were. With them back on, I could see Kat standing next to the bed, and after turning the lights back on, began to get a grip.
"Sorry sir, but you have a dinner engagement. Dress uniform, and you need to leave now."
I sighed, and checked the time. I'd slept the entire afternoon away. Reluctantly rising, I moved back into the bathroom, shifted glasses to mask, used the facilities, and had another shower. After toweling off, I shifted into dress uniform, which was identical to my normal uniform given I had no decorations, donned my armbands and cap, and left for a travel car.
I was deposited in yet another part of the ship I'd never been to before, and a butler ushered me into what was obviously a senior officer's mess. I was obviously late, as everyone was standing around in groups. Eagle, Buzzard, Chaos, and Knüppel were talking to the Colonel's Peck, General Smith, and Lieutenant Colonel Vogane. All twelve Japanese pilots were in their own group, and I noticed they were all Lieutenant Commanders.
Knüppel waved me over.
"You never gave me a starting to strafe signal," she exclaimed.
I was caught by surprise, and the rest of the group were suddenly looking so serious.
"Um."
"Hell of a way to treat your wingman," she went on.
"I didn't use strafe at all."
"Told you," said Eagle, and the whole group laughed.
"Gotchya youngster," said Knüppel, and she laughed harder.
I felt my face go red.
"I still don’t get how you fought the way you did this morning," said Buzzard. "I'm getting on for pasture age now, and I've never seen anything like it in my life."
They were all looking at me. I shrugged.
"Come on youngster," said Knüppel, "You don’t get away from answering that easily."
There were nods from everyone.
"I had no idea I'd killed that many. I was just in the zone. The vision Jane gave me seems to become much more detailed as the number of cams and sensors increases, and I could see all around me out for a fair distance, and be able to pick and choose targets much more easily than when I was in the Brawler. That’s all I did. Identified a target, chose how to fire at it, did so, and moved on to the next one."
"Well you seriously cramped my style. I kept lining up shots and finding them disintegrating before I could fire. I was supposed to be protecting your wing, and you were picking everything off me instead. Hell of a thing."
"For a rookie?"
I was surprised at the tone of my voice.
"Hell no," said Eagle.
"You ceased being a rookie after your first fight," added Chaos.
"Any tips?" asked Buzzard.
"Seriously?"
I seemed to be the only one surprised.
"Seriously. How do we do better?"
They were all looking at me.
"How many cam views do you use?"
The pilots all looked confused for a moment.
"The main view and rear view," answered Eagle. "What else is there?"
"You better talk to your AI's. Each ship has all round cam coverage. The upgrades Jane did for me seem to dump all of them into my PC, and integrate them into all round vision. But you should be able to build extra cam coverage into your HUD, or around the HUD, which at least shows you what is nearby in every direction. Then it’s a matter of how many you can cope with without overloading."
"I'll try that," said Eagle, and the other pilots nodded.
"So will I," said Jon Hunter, from behind me.
Behind him was Admiral Hallington, and Jane.
"Attention to orders," bellowed Jane.
I swear she loved bellowing, maybe even more than BA did.
Everyone braced to attention, and the Imperator moved back away from us. Which was when I saw two butlers enter carrying trays. One of them was in uniform, and the other was Kat. They moved to stand next to the Imperator. I noticed the marines and Admiral Hallington taking several steps back, leaving only pilots before him. He cast a quick glance at Chaos, and she also took a few steps back. It left sixteen pilots at attention.
"There's a number of these going out to pilots about now," said the Imperator, "via their CO's. And even more of the medal version, as well as bronze and silver stars. There isn’t a pilot on this ship now who isn’t an ace, even the cadets, and it's been decided all pilots achieving ace status are being awarded a Bronze Star. On my recommendation, all sixteen of you are being recognized as suicidally insane for attacking battleships in corvettes, and are awarded the Imperium Distinguished Flying Cross. Jane will pulse you the ribbon changes, and Jeeves will hand you your medal."
The pulse came in, and I shifted my uniform to include the new ribbon. The others did the same. The butler walked down the line, handing each of us a box. The last one was handed to the Imperator.
"Does that make you officially suicidal as well Jon?" laughed Grace.
The marines started laughing, and quickly cut themselves off.
"Apparently," he said, grinning. "Congratulations all of you. If all but Dreamwalker would step back please."
I was suddenly alone. He motioned for me to move in front of him, and so I did.
"Flight Lieutenant Ecclestone. You missed the Darkness War because of a technicality. During that war, even corvettes were credited with hundreds of kills for each engagement, but the volumes of ships involved made keeping score ridiculous. We killed by mainly staying in one place behind heavy shielding, and just pouring firepower at one spot. Followed by running away as fast as possible. In no way can this be called combat with enemy fighters."
He paused, looking me in the eyes.
"What you did this morning broke all the records. Even without the attack on the battleships, you'd earned your Imperium DFC against the fighters. Therefore, you are officially awarded a second Imperium Distinguished Flying Cross. In addition, belatedly, there is your Bronze Star for making ace, and your actions on the ground yesterday are being recognized with the Silver Star. Congratulations."
Once again he offered me his hand, and we shook, while the marines were cheering.
This time it was Kat who offered me the medal boxes. The pulse came in, and my uniform shifted to show the same DFC ribbon, but with a crystal on it showing the second award. A popup on the box told me it wasn't a crystal, but a diamond. Next to it, the Silver and Bronze Star ribbons appeared.
I wasn’t game to say anything. And didn't have to.
"Let's eat," came the Imperator's command.
Thirty Nine
I found myself sitting to the Imperator's left.
"How did you sleep Chris?" he asked me.
"Fine sir. Lost the whole afternoon."
"At the dinner table, I'm Jon."
"Ah, yes sir. Err, Jon."
"I did too. I watched your whole battle from Gunbus in the Redoubt system. I'm not sure I could have done what you did."
I had no idea how to answer that.
"Leave him alone Jon," said Jane, from further down the table. "He can't answer that, and you know it."
Jon grinned at her, before turning back to me. A popup informed me Jane was his sister. I guess that explained her being able to talk to him that way. It didn’t explain how that was possible though.
Butlers were pouring champagne into crystal flutes. But Kat dropped a glass of water in front of me, and Jeeves dropped what looked like ginger ale in front of Jon. Both of us reached automatically for our glass, and sipped.
"When Orion is back in Imperium space, you'll get orders to come see me. Start thinking about what you want to do."
"Do?" I stammered.
"Do. The twins down there want you as their team pilot. Your CO wants you as A-flight leader. We need you training pilots in how to use their ship cams. I want you on the team designing the next generation of corvette. The CAG wants you trained to be a future squadron leader. And all of us want to see what you'd do in a much bigger ship."
"Bigger?"
"Lacey, you really don’t want that destroyer of yours, do you?"
"Hell no, boss. I'll take a next generation corvette though."
"Thought you might." He turned back to me. "Grace there hasn’t matched your score flying a cruiser, in spite of cleaning up the fighters before you went down to rescue the roos. I've a number of destroyers sitting there doing nothing at the moment. You can have one right now if you want. They're being upgraded the same way the Japanese super-Gunbus are, and more so. But I don’t have anyone to fly them. That lot," he indicated the Japanese pilots, "like their corvettes, as does your CAG. And we just proved a squadron can do a lot of damage."
"That was my thinking," I said, without thinking.
"I know. And in this situation, it worked. I'm rethinking fighters as a result, and we may well drop the Brawler as a front line fighter, and do what the Americans did during the Midgard War, and form squadrons of Excaliburs and Corvettes. Massed on a carrier like the Orions…" Orions Plural? "…they could be really effective, and even without the carrier, a wing could handle modest Trixone fleet sizes on their own. Put a destroyer in the lead with them, supplying mosquitoes and extra missiles, and we might have an offensive force winner."
"There's only one problem Jon," said Amanda.
"And that is?"
"You can't give a destroyer to a lowly flight lieutenant."
Pretty well everyone chuckled, but I could feel my face going red again.
"You seriously think he's going to stay a Flight Lieutenant for long?"
"You have a point," said Lacey. "But I’d hate to lose him."
"Unavoidable," muttered Buzzard.
Butlers began laying plates of food in front of everyone. Jon picked up his flute, and everyone followed suit.
"The hero of the day, Dreamwalker."
"Dreamwalker," repeated everyone, and sipped.
"The Imperium," said Jon.
"The Imperator," repeated everyone else, except me who said what he did.
My face went redder, and Jon waved away the altered toast.
We set to eating.
With the main course dishes removed, and waiting for the dessert to arrive, Jon turned to me again.
