Shield of Humanity (The Last Hunter Book 7) by J.N. Chaney & Terry Mixon

Author:J.N. Chaney & Terry Mixon [Chaney, J.N.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Variant Publications
Published: 2023-02-19T00:00:00+00:00

16

Jack sat in his command chair and watched the screen as it showed what they were picking up with the hyperspace detector. They’d been inbound to Vesuvius for a dozen hours, and the enemy had definitely spotted them. In fact, they were now lying in wait for their arrival.

Being as they were coming from the same general direction as the other colony ships would’ve come from, he was relatively certain that’s what they thought Hunter was. The sensors wouldn’t tell them anything more than the speed of the hyperspace drive, and it had come from a Tardan colonization vessel, so they’d see what they expected. Maybe they thought this vessel had fallen behind the others they’d already dealt with.

He and his people spent the time refining and expanding on Amanda and Derek’s battle plan. Many of the contingencies would really depend on how many ships—and what types—came out to meet them. He’d doubted they would delegate any of the larger vessels to deal with a single colony ship.

And it turned out he’d been wrong. Based on their hyperspace detector, the Novarites had sent two forces consisting of a large ship and two cruisers apiece. The first group was at what would be a perfect ambush site for a ship coming in without a worry in the world. The second was off to the side and out of weapons range but close at hand in case more force was needed.

If they thought Hunter was a colonization vessel, this was overkill. Then again, the Novarites were the most xenophobic species humanity had ever heard about. Surrender was not an option for these people, and slaying anything that stood up to them seemed to be the order of the day. That didn’t speak well for what was happening down on Vesuvius and only made their task all the more important.

They were at battle stations and waiting to make the magic happen. Since the enemy had never encountered Hunter, this would be an ugly surprise for them. The plan was for his ship to exit hyperspace well short of where the enemy could engage and then use the independent quantum drive to pop out beside them before they could react.

That would get Amanda into point-blank range for their missiles without having to come under fire by the antiproton beam. The phased packet plasma guns would still chew them up, but his hull could withstand that kind of abuse. So long as they kept the rather large hole in the side of their ship turned away from the enemy, that wouldn’t be a problem.

“Thirty seconds until we drop out of hyperspace,” Derek said. “All sections report ready for combat.”

“Seal all critical areas of the ship,” he ordered. “Amanda, what’s the status on the Marines?”

“Colonel Turner says they’re ready for action and can deploy as soon as we disable the big ship and take out the cruisers,” the blonde tactical officer said. “If we pop out where I expect, we should be able to fire before they even realize what’s happened.

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