Read Online Hunter Legacy 9: Hero at the Gates by Timothy Ellis - Free Book Online Page A

still holding my sword,
and sheathed it. It vanished from my back. I walked into Gunbus' Armoury,
parked in a recharge slot, and backed out of the combat suit.
    The medical team were still working on
people. I stood at the top of the ramp, looking out. A combat suit came out the
door, carrying the girl. Carter followed. When she saw me, she stopped, gave me
a very strange look, got a hold of herself again, and continued up the ramp
after suit and girl. I turned and watched them place her into one of the care
units.
    A group of people were approaching from the
other end of the building. At their head walked a man with barely recognizable
captain's bars on his shoulders.
    "Young man," he said, "I
need to speak to your leader immediately."
    "Jon Hunter," I said.
"Admiral."
    "I thought you'd be bigger," said
someone back in the group.
    He was immediately silenced by a woman next
to him.
    "I thought you’d be older," said
the captain. "Never mind. This was good work tonight son. But have you
taken the main bunker?"
    "What main bunker?"
    "I knew it," said the man behind.
"It's too well shielded to be detected from orbit."
    "Where is it?" I asked.
    My suit changed to full protection mode in that
instant, and the Meson pulse hit me square in the middle of my forehead.
     

Ten
     
    I drew my Long Gun as I was lifting off the
ground. I twisted and sighted in on my assailant before reaching the top of the
hop, and fired just as I achieved non-motion. The target took the hit on his
combat suit, which wouldn’t have done him any real damage.
    By the time I was down again, I’d holstered
the gun. I was the only person standing. Everyone around me was lying flat on
the ground, looking up at me in wonder.
    "Get inside," I said quietly.
    They began to crawl up the ramp as fast as
they could.
    "So," said an amplified voice.
"You can take a Meson hit and survive it. They said you were invincible.
They said that even in death, you couldn't die. With all the hype, I thought
you'd be bigger too. But all I see is a boy."
    I looked around for the audio pickup, since
he had to have heard what had just been said to me. Wherever it was, it wasn’t
obvious. There was a clanking noise from behind me, but I didn’t turn. I faced
towards the voice.
    We'd goofed. Again. Along one entire length
of the wall in front of me, the facing had dropped forward onto the ground,
showing the wall itself to be hollow. Lined up along the whole length were
combat suits. The entire area was now lit, forming a killing zone.
    "Jack," I sub-vocalized.
"Form a skirmish line in the dark, in front of the civilians. Get them
loaded onto the ships and out of here. Have the teams go to code red, and
execute kill mode."
    "Roger that."
    "What, no reply from the great Admiral
Hunter?"
    The voice was booming now, and totally full
of itself.
    "My apologies," I said. "A
Meson to the face does tend to disorient one. Would you care to enlighten me as
to whom has the drop on me?"
    He laughed.
    "The drop, yes. You are outnumbered
three to one. I am General Maxim Ubuntu. Perhaps you've heard of me?"
    My combat suit stopped beside me. Jane's
twelve were coming up behind me now, previously unused.
    "I'm sorry, no. Should I have?"
    I hadn't actually. So far I’d only come
across ship officers.
    "Yes, you should have. No matter, now
you know who defeated you, we can get on with ending this."
    I took a quick step back, and sideways, and
entered my suit. It closed behind me, and the systems came up. I activated code
red. An armband on the left arm, shifted to a full suit, and the combat suit
itself took on my likeness.
    "Does this meet your expectations more
General?" I asked, now using the external speaker.
    The suit shifted again, 'slinky red'
becoming blue jeans over combat boots, bare chest with bulging muscles, and a
white sweat band tied around the forehead, and dangling to one side.
    "Don’t play games boy. You can't win
this. Why throw away your lives? Lay down your arms, leave your