Make or Break the Hero (The Hunter Legacy Book 4) Read Free

well behind now. I
slowed us down. I wanted to meet the enemy far enough ahead of Repulse that she
wasn’t targeted, but not so far as she couldn’t help if things went pear
shaped.
    We waited, the range closing.
    A security droid rushed in and handed it's
belt to Alison. Like Jane's avatar, which was usually an early twenties girl,
my security droids emulated human males. Their suits were thus available in an
emergency to be used by someone else. She put it on, and seconds later was
dressed in her 'slinky red' uniform. At least now she was protected if the hull
was breached. Both our suits would turn into full space suits, and plug us into
the chair emergency air feeds, if that happened.
    One worry out of the way.
    I locked up the middle right Cruiser. It
was not in range yet. The moment to fire was when it started to turn, before it
could fire its first barrage, assuming it was in range then. The range was
dropping rapidly now. I eased back on speed again.
    There. They were slowing.
    My Battleship guns were in range. Cruiser guns,
wait a bit longer, yes. Destroyer guns, waiting, waiting.
    The Missile Cruisers came to a stop, and
began to turn broadside on.
    The Destroyer guns came in range, and I
ripped back the speed slider to bring us to a halt at long range.
    I pulled my trigger.
    Forty eight guns fired.
    I shifted target to the Cruiser to the
right, and locked it up, being quick but careful, to get a full bead on it. I
pressed the missile launch button, and seventy two torpedoes headed for it. I'd
goofed on the range though, I was much further away than I'd thought.
    "Jane, realign the clusters for this
range."
    "Confirmed."
    The first Cruiser exploded.
    Destroyer guns came back online.
    Most of the torpedoes missed but a number
of them impacted the shields of the second Cruiser, and they failed.
    I pulled the gun trigger again, hoping
twenty four Destroyer guns were enough against no shields.
    "Realignment complete," said
Jane.
    I locked up the last Cruiser on the right,
aimed carefully, and pressed the torpedo firing button.
    The second Cruiser exploded.
    Four barrages of two hundred missiles each,
launched from the remaining Cruisers.
    The Mosquito system fired all three
launchers at once.
    Point Defense was firing now, and I took my
attention away for a second to notice that the Talons had already fired
anti-fighter missiles at the station. Jane was systematically destroying them
at long range.
    I locked up the first Cruiser to the left,
and waited for the Battleship guns to recharge. Destroyer guns, yes. Cruiser
guns, yes. Waiting. Yes.
    The third Cruiser exploded.
    I pulled the gun trigger again.
    I lined up and locked the second last
Cruiser, and fired torpedoes.
    Another three barrages left the remaining
Cruisers. They'd wised up at last. They carried missile launchers on both
sides. To bring the other side into play, all they had to do was roll the ship.
For the first time, they had.
    Missiles were exploding all across the
front of the station now, in a fiery display the likes I'd never seen before.
And that was saying something, since I'd already thought I'd seen the maximum
display possible in an earlier battle. Some were hitting the shields, and they
were slowly going down.
    The fourth Cruiser exploded.
    The Mosquito system fired again. But this
time, many of them detonated prematurely as they met explosive residue from
other explosions seconds earlier.
    I send another salvo of torpedoes at the
last Cruiser. Some of them exploded in the residues as well. Most went through.
    I shifted target now to the Talons.
    They were a cloud of ships, one hundred and
eighty strong, still firing from beyond the Cruiser line.
    I lined up on the left end of the cloud,
and fired a salvo of torpedoes. I moved aim to the right and fired again. And
again, and again, and again.
    The fifth Cruiser exploded. The Talons
surged forward. They met a wall of torpedoes.
    A group of the last capital ship missiles
struck the station