Hunter's Will (Colonial War Book 9), page 1
HUNTER’S WILL
Richard Tongue
HUNTER’S WILL
Colonial War: Book Nine
Copyright © 2023 by Richard Tongue, All Rights Reserved
First Kindle Edition: April 2023
All characters and events portrayed within this eBook are fictitious; any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.
Prologue
The explosion echoed across the icy plain, a fireball rising high into the sky as the roar of engines swept overhead, a pair of unfamiliar shuttles flying over the desolate white wasteland of Nova Thera. On instinct, Doctor Melinda Dietz, dived to the ground to find cover, turning to watch as the base she and the rest of the team had spent the last month building reduced.
In her headset, she could hear an offer to surrender issued by one of the researchers, and she reached for her binoculars, raising them to look at the distant structure, a dozen miles distant. She could make out the two shuttles more clearly, watching as they landed next to the intact dome. The invaders, whomever they were, had taken out their transport with a single shot, but had left the rest of the base intact.
Which at least meant they probably wanted them alive. She looked at Huang Zhi, her colleague, lying prone in the snow, and after waiting for a brief second, crawled over to her, tapping her on the shoulder.
“You hurt?” she asked.
“What the hell is happening?” Huang asked.
“We’re under attack, though I can’t work out who by. Someone who doesn’t have happy ideas about our expedition.” She looked at the shuttles again, pulling out her binoculars in a bid to get a closer view, increasing their magnification as high as she could. “I don’t recognize the design, but there are two of them, and it looks like they’re unloading troops.” She reached for her communicator, then cursed, saying, “Jammed.”
Shaking her head, Huang said, “What do we do now?”
Dietz struggled to her feet, shaking off the snow, and looked at her watch. There were still a few hours of daylight left, but the weather was slowly worsening, and there was a storm forecast in the near future. She turned to the north, to the mountains that had been the goal of their impromptu trip, and pulled out her tablet.
“Well?” Huang pressed. “Can we reach our ship in orbit?”
“All communications are out. They probably took down the relay first thing. Though if they’ve got ships up in orbit, it doesn’t matter. There’s no way anyone will be coming down for us, not anyone we want to see, anyway.” A new explosion resounded in the distance, a second cloud of smoke and flame over the base. “Our buggies.”
“Why would they destroy them?”
“They didn’t. We did. To keep them from using them.”
“Great, that means we’ll have to walk back to the base before we can turn ourselves in,” Huang said, shaking her head.
“Who said anything about turning ourselves in?” Dietz replied.
Huang frowned, then said, “What else can we do?”
“There are caverns in those mountains, and we can get to the nearest in a couple of hours. It’ll take at least that long for the enemy, whoever the hell they are, to secure the base, and by then we might have some sort of idea about just what is going on.” She nodded, then said, “The last expedition left a lot of supply depots out there. With the supplies we have and what we can scavenge, we can keep going for a long time.”
“For what?”
“Help will arrive,” she pressed. “Don’t doubt that. Our people will send another expedition sooner or later, and when they do, we need to be here, and we need to be free. Unless you’d be happier subjecting yourself to the tender mercies of an enemy we know nothing about.”
Looking at the base again, now framed by twin pillars of smoke, Huang said, “Won’t they catch us? They’ve got to be looking for us…”
“Not yet they won’t. Not until they work out that they’re two short, and by then, we can be under cover. If the bad weather is anything like we were expecting, then they’ll never be able to get their shuttles up.” She smiled, then said, “And besides, we came here with a job to do, and I’d like to take a crack at trying to carry it out. We can’t do that if we’re in some sort of prison camp, can we?”
“You want to complete the mission?”
“More than ever, unless you what whoever those guys are to find whatever the aliens left lying around down here.”
Shaking her head, Huang said, “Three weeks we’ve been on this ball of ice, and we haven’t seen a damned thing yet. All we’ve got are the rantings of that madman Luther, and a few odd notations from an expedition that got back to Earth more than a century ago.”
“Fine!” Dietz said. “You want to turn yourself in, then you go right ahead and do it. I won’t stop you. If you hustle, you ought to be able to get back to the base within the next hour or so, and they’ll probably spot you when you get close anyway, send someone to help you in.” She turned away, leaving Huang behind her, starting towards the mountains in the distance. After a moment, she saw a figure moving alongside her, struggling to catch up.
“Wait a minute,” Huang said. “Look, I didn’t say I wouldn’t, it’s just that it’s hard to get used to new ideas sometimes.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Dietz replied. “As long as we keep moving.”
“Just what is the end goal in all of this, anyway? What if we do find something up in those mountains? Sure, they might send a rescue mission, but unless you know something I don’t, this was all off the books, and if our ship didn’t get a message away, nobody knows we’re here.”
With a smile, Dietz replied, “Just relax. The cavalry will get here, sooner or later. All we have to do is stay alive until it does.” She chuckled, then added, “Or die trying.”
Chapter 1
Nick Kozak stormed out of the conference room, Terrance Cortez, now Ambassador from the Rim Confederation, struggling to keep up. Kozak stabbed a control to call the elevator, tapping his toe impatiently while waiting for the door to open, finally stepping inside when it did.
“Those damned fools,” he said, shaking his head. “Ten weeks. They’ve had ten weeks to work out what they want to do…”
“And it didn’t take ten hours for them to decide that what you brought back was too important for anyone other than themselves to take possession,” Cortez said. “Come on, Nick, you knew that going in. Did you really expect them to just agree to share the biggest prize in history?” He grimaced, then added, “The latest news from Earth isn’t good. There’s no Republic, no Federation, and each of those delegates thinks that they have a chance of becoming the next great galactic power.”
Nodding, Kozak asked, “And what do you think?”
“I think if they don’t hand the prize over to the Guild, they’ll end up starting another Colonial War, and I’m not sanguine that we could live through it, especially if they start throwing hyper-weapons around. Hell, the last big fight gave us the theoretical ability to build planet-killer bombs. We can’t have another war.” With a sigh, he added, “Not that they seem to get it. Something has to be done, Nick, and soon.”
“Got any ideas on that?” Kozak asked. He pulled out his datapad and tapped the display, saying, “Samarkand’s still weeks away from being ready to fly. My guess is that the yard’s stalling. I haven’t even heard anything from Pat Flynn for days, and…”
“That’s my work,” Cortez said, reaching across to change the elevator’s destination. “I’ve got something in mind, Nick, but I needed time to get it all ready, and I figured it wouldn’t hurt to at least try to talk some sense into the rest of them.”
“Just what is going on in that devious little brain of yours.”
“I object to that,” Cortez retorted. “My brain is not little.” He looked at Kozak, and said, “The Rim Confederation is willing to support you.”
“Just what does that mean?”
“That we don’t want to be a battlefield in the Second Colonial War, and we don’t want to be conquered by either the Cartel or anyone else. If they get their way, either we have a final war that will wreck interstellar civilization for centuries, or we end up with a despotic hyperpower.”
“Not a satisfactory state of affairs, but the Rim Confederation basically just exists in name only, just to give the outer worlds a seat at the peace talks. There’s no combined government, just a trade and mutual defense agreement, and neither’s ever really been tested.”
“We don’t want control of the alien technology,” Cortez said. “We just don’t want anyone else to have it. Or we want everyone to have it equally. And the Guild has to be dealt with. We’ll get the brunt of it first.”
“Nice in theory,” Kozak replied, “but if I can bring in purely practical problems to this plan, I just told you, Samarkand isn’t ready to fly, and if I was to make any sort of arrangement with you, they’d impound her.” Shaking his head again, he added, “I suspect that they’ve already done that, for all intents and purposes.”
The door slid open, and Cortez led the way to a transfer shuttle. He ducked through the hatch, dropping into the pilot’s seat, Kozak following, almost tripping over a familiar holdall sitting on the floor. His holdall.
“I packed for you,” Cortez said. “You didn’t have much on Samarkand.”
“Better to fly light right now,” Kozak asked, taking the co-pilot’s seat. “I’m scared to ask where we’re going.”
The shuttle’s engines fired, taking them away from the station, and Cortez said, “Back during the War, there were a lot of plans in the works, just in case we had to take more direct involvement one way or another. We have a few friends back in the Republic, some of the minor corporations who didn’t like having to play second fiddle to the Cartel, a few of the separatists.”
“Low friends in high places.”
“That’s about right,” Cortez said, as the shuttle swept out towards the construction frames, speeding down the line. Samarkand was in the nearest, and Kozak looked at his ship, sighing as Cortez continued, “We’ve got funding, as well. Nowhere near as much as the Free Worlds, but more than you might think. Some of the outposts we work with were settled by surprisingly wealthy groups wanting to break away from government control.”
“You’ve got a ship.”
“Not just any ship,” Cortez replied. “That one.” He pointed at a sleek, nimble vessel, dwarfed by the construction frame, and Kozak looked over it, familiarity suddenly hitting him. He’d seen that class of ship at the Academy, read about its exploits in the history books, and finally served under its most famous commanding officer.
“Schenectady?” Dietz asked. “Commodore Hunter’s first command? I thought she was destroyed in the Battle of Tau Ceti…”
“Not destroyed, damaged, badly enough that they decided not to try and salvage her,” Cortez replied. “Though I have a feeling that there was more to it than that. Jack Hunter didn’t have many friends in the higher echelons of the Fleet back then, nobody to advocate for his ship.”
“How the hell did the Rim Confederation get their hands on her?”
“We didn’t just buy her, actually. In fact, she’s not really one ship at all. We bought four of the old frigates, the four in worst condition, ostensibly for scrap and salvage, but between them we were able to put together a fully functioning frigate, with a little bit of help from some friends.”
Kozak spotted the cannons mounted forward, running the length of the ship, and asked, “Proton Cannons? They’re only theoretical…”
“Built by a non-Cartel company eight years back, and blocked for any general release. To be fair, they were a beast to tame, and by the time they’d gotten anywhere, the company had just about gone bust. The owners moved out to the Rim with the prototypes, as much to keep them out of the hands of the Cartel as anything else.”
Frowning, Kozak said, “The warp ring looks different, as well.”
“She’s got a Warp-Two drive unit.”
“How in the name of Hell did you pull that off?”
“Salvage from a Federation prototype that we were able to get hold of. This ship needs to have a long, long range, out here, and what that means is that she is about the fastest ship in this part of the galaxy that we know of.”
Looking at his friend, he asked, “Just how have you managed to stop the other governments getting a little too interested in that beauty?”
“Admiral Webb’s still in command out here, and while he couldn’t do anything to get Samarkand freed, he has managed to make sure that our ship is overlooked. As far as anyone knows, she’s just another salvaged frigate, our attempt to get an escort ship for our transports. Though that won’t hold for long. The Cartel are beginning to get interested, so you’ll be leaving shortly.”
“Assuming I agree to all of this.” He paused, then said, “She looks like a fine ship, but she needs a better commander than me. There must be…”
“There isn’t,” Cortez interrupted. “Look, sooner or later we’ll have to bring in the Free Worlds at least at some level, even if it is just to present them with some sort of fait accompli, and most of the key players know you, and at least to some degree trust you. Your recent acts to put together some sort of alliance have at least convinced them that you’re neutral. That’s going to help in the long-term. And in the short-term, you know the enemy, the situation, and you know most of her crew.”
Nodding, Kozak replied, “Which is why Pat Flynn hasn’t been replying to any of my messages lately.”
“He’s been busy, and I ordered everyone on that ship to stay off the communications grid as much as possible. We didn’t want to attract attention unless we had no choice.” Turning to look at the ship, he said, “She’s just about ready to go. Full crew complement of twelve, including yourself, with room for eight more if needed. No Marines, I’m afraid, but we’ve got the kit for four on board, Republic surplus gear.”
“How many from Samarkand?”
“Flynn, Rogers, Clayton, Flanagan, Kumar, Zhou. The rest we’ve been able to recruit through other means. Some of them from the Rim, a few from, well, other sources. You’ll be meeting them soon.” He pulled out a tablet, then said, “We’ve even got you a place to start.”
“Oh?”
“I’ll give you and your senior staff a full briefing when we arrive.” He paused, then said, “We need you for this, Nick. We need you very badly. This is the mission you wanted, though I know it’s not in the way you had expected it to go. This ship’s better than Samarkand for this anyway. She ought to be able to manage twelve light-year hops, and Samarkand could barely manage eight on her best day. Eighteen-month endurance between resupply, with a full hydroponic module on board.”
“What’s the catch?”
“This.” Cortez reached into a locker and pulled out a brown uniform, covered in plastic, with a trio of grey stripes on the shoulders. “This is going to be a ship in the Rim Confederation Navy. Our first. It comes with a commission, full Commander. Right now that’ll make you the senior officer in the fleet.”
“A fleet with one ship.”
“One day it’ll be bigger. We’re actually working on a second right now, but she won’t be ready for at least four months, more likely six, even working flat-out. This isn’t just about the current crisis, Nick. You and your crew will be pioneers, building something new, something better.” Cortez gestured at Hyperborea, large in the viewscreen, and said, “The Free Worlds aren’t going to be the future. They’ll never stop squabbling. That kept them back before, and it’s going to keep them back now.”
“And you think the Rim Confederation just might be.”
“We want to be,” Cortez said, “and out there, out there we have room to expand, room to grow, without slamming into each other. To keep the flame alive for at least a while longer. The Guild could bring all of that to an end in a single day, and those long-dead aliens could end up doing a damn sight worse if their relics get out into the wider universe again.”
“Just who would I report to, anyway?”
“We’re working on that,” Cortez said with a smile. “For the present, I guess it’ll be me. I’ll be leaving Hyperborea in the next few weeks, regardless of what happens here, and heading out to Eudoxus Station.”
“Never heard of it.”
“Nearest thing we have to a capital, about twenty lights from here. Old relay station, and I mean old, but it’s got good strategic links to a lot of systems, and nobody knows anything about it. That’s where we’re building the second ship, right now.”
Nodding, Kozak replied, “So I’d have command of the only ship in the fleet, with no support, no help, no reinforcements, not for months, at least. No FTL comms either, so I can’t call home, not that I’d know just who I would be calling if I did. I’d be working for a government that effectively does not yet exist on a mission that is probably impossible.”
“Now just how can you turn down an offer like that?” Cortez asked.
“I guess I can’t,” Kozak said. He reached for the uniform, then said, “This had better be a damn sight more comfortable than Republic field dress.”
“Nice and stretchy,” Cortez confirmed.
Looking at the ship again, Kozak replied, “I’m not sure about this. Not at all. Taking over Hunter’s ship…”
“It’s what he would want,” Cortez said. “Look, until we got our hands on her she was scheduled to be ripped into pieces, turned into so much scrap metal. Now she has a new lease of life and she gets to continue precisely the mission he would have wanted her to undertake. All of our futures are on the line.”
“And you think I’m the man to guarantee them?”
