Black sheep, p.1
Black Sheep, page 1
Black Sheep
By Timothy Ellis
Killer Bunny, Book Two.
Copyright © 2023 by Timothy Ellis
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and events are fictional and have no relationship to any real person, place or event. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is purely co-incidental.
The author is Australian and the main characters in this universe are of Australian origin. In Australia, we colour things slightly differently, so you may notice some of the spelling is different. Please don't be alarmed.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any manner whatsoever without the written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical articles or reviews.
Contents
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty One
Twenty Two
Twenty Three
Twenty Four
Twenty Five
Twenty Six
Twenty Seven
Twenty Eight
Twenty Nine
Thirty
Thirty One
Thirty Two
Thirty Three
Twenty Four
Twenty Five
Twenty Six
Twenty Seven
Twenty Eight
Twenty Nine
Thirty
Thirty One
Thirty Two
Thirty Three
Thirty Four
Thirty Five
Thirty Six
Cluster Map
Acknowledgements
A Message to my Readers
Also by Timothy Ellis
Read the universe in this order
The Hunter Imperium Universe Series in the order written:
One
“Squadron Leader Pound, reporting as ordered, sir!”
For the first time in twelve days, I’d woken up feeling good. Admittedly, that was because I’d spent the night in a care unit. But I was surprised at the difference.
Doc Carter had been there when I woke, making me think she’d triggered it, and given me a lecture about eating food you knew nothing about, because as a result of eating fox food, my hormones, trace elements, and other things had been ‘all out of whack’. But my bruises had healed up as well as could be expected, and there hadn’t been any other problems other than exhaustion and bad food.
She made it quite clear that the next time I crash landed on an alien planet, I was to eat the ration bars, and nothing else. And if the gravity and oxygen were wrong there too, I was to take better care of myself. ‘Yes, sir’, was the only response, even when you disagreed. She was a Brigadier. I was just a lowly green squadron leader.
By the time she certified me fit for duty, I’d missed training, and was going to have to hustle to get to breakfast on time, once I found out where breakfast was. I’d shifted into uniform, installed the new jump button she’d given me, and jumped to my quarters, which I found completely empty. I mean gutted down to new paint empty. A ping came in from Zac with a new icon, so I jumped there, and found bigger quarters suitable for a squadron leader, and all my stuff.
I’d had a long hot shower, donned brand new underwear from the dispenser in the bathroom, and gone out to find Zac standing there with breakfast on the small dining table. He’d been promoted to flight lieutenant during the night, and after hugging, he regaled me with the promotion ceremony as I ate.
Admiral Leanne Waters had promoted him as the senior League of Worlds military AI, for his performance supporting me over the last eleven days. He was even wearing a purple heart on his uniform for being a ship AI which crash landed on a planet and survived, after not being able to AI-bail.
Breakfast was bolted down while he talked, then I’d used the icon for Knight Marshal Bud’s outer office, and been waved straight in the moment I got there.
“Have a seat, Liza.” He waved to the chair opposite him at his desk. “You have some decisions to make. Depending on what you decide, I might need to make some.”
“Decisions, sir? I thought I was going to continue leading the Black Sheep.”
“And so you are. But the main decision is about the role the squadron performs.”
“No, I don’t want to be back in bombers, sir.”
He laughed.
“That’s not what I meant. How much do you know about what Rockmonster did near Kelewan before the Keerah war really kicked off?”
“Just what was in the media. So not much. Didn’t she pretend to be a mercenary company for a while?”
“She did, and very successfully. How would you like to do something similar?”
“I’m not following you, sir.”
“Okay, let me ask you this, then. You have a nice collection of thirty seven ships. What would you like to do with them?”
“They’re hardly mine.”
“They’re most definitely yours. Under Imperium, and now League, salvage laws, those ships belong to you and Zac. You are free to do what you like with them, including selling them. I’ve already spoken to Zac, and he’s happy to leave the decisions to you.”
“Are they worth anything? The destroyers should have been scrapped fifty years ago, and the freighters are pretty old as well.”
“They’ll all sell quite readily, I can assure you. The hulls are sound, give or take a few holes you poked in them, and all of them could be easily converted into modern freighters. Say the word, and I’ll have Aisha list them for sale, and I’ll bring them back immediately. Or you could sell them where you were heading before the battle, where I’m pretty sure the foxes will be happy to buy them back.”
“Sorry, where are they now?”
“Still where they were when you left them. Or rather, they’re in the porcupine system at the moment, except for your one freighter which is still limping towards the fox planet, which I’ve not included in the count. But I can move them all here if you want them sold. Or they can stay where they are, and you can sell them there as you intended.”
“But there’s no reason for doing that anymore.”
“Actually, there is. Want to hear about it?”
“Can I say no?”
He laughed.
“Yes, but then you’ll miss out on an opportunity.”
“Okay then, yes, please tell me about it.”
There wasn’t much enthusiasm in my voice. Truth to tell, I really needed a few days off. Shopping therapy beckoned. In fact, I probably needed some actual therapy.
“You started something. Do you realize that?”
“Not really.”
“Well, you did. The thing is, all across Keerah space, we’re finding clusters where the tigers are in a state of civil war, and those they were controlling now have their leashes removed.”
“Like the foxes.”
“Yes. And others. That cluster where you were has six major Keerah planets vying for dominance with each other, and the entire cluster is now dealing with the foxes, and a general increase in piracy and opportunism. You know of about thirty five systems, but the cluster has several hundred, and there are other Keerah planets further out from those six causing chaos as well. And the foxes are just one of those causing chaos.”
He’d obviously been doing some checking since he’d saved my bacon.
“So?”
“We don’t have the resources to properly police the amount of Keerah space we already know about. We’re committed to removing the Keerah’s ability to build massive numbers of ships, but that doesn’t leave much we can do in areas where they don’t have massive shipyards. And that includes where we found you.”
“Again, so?”
I felt like I was on thin ice, but I had no idea where he was going with this, or why he was telling me about it.
“You’ve done the groundwork for helping that cluster. I’d like you to continue what you started.”
“To what end?”
“Stabilizing the region?”
“Just how do I do that?” He opened his mouth, but I interrupted him. “Look sir, I just got my third stripe, making me a rookie squadron commander, and I’m on the back end of something I’m not going to forget in a hurry, and which probably screwed me right up. None of that makes me the right person to continue anything.”
“Rockmonster had the same sort of feelings when she was assigned to be a mercenary, without the hard experience. But she went through other things before then, including nearly dying in a landing accident. She’s gone from squadron leader to group captain in rapid time as a result of taking that command.”
“I’m not her.”
“No, she’s the Rockmonster, but you’re the Killer Bunny.”
He obviously said it to see if I’d flinch, but I was beyond that now.
“And what if I am?”
“That cluster needs one. Let me explain what I want you to do, and you can think about it.”
“Okay.”
“Your fleet is on course for the porcupine shipyard. I want you to sell all the ships to them, and buy a mothballed Keerah cruiser. They have one which has already been converted to launch fighters like the destroyers the foxes use, and you’ll buy it. Once you get it away from the planet, I’m going to replace it with a recently upgraded front line cruiser, which we’ve converted into a carrier as well. It’s fully to Imperium standards in all things. But the external appearance will look like the old wreck you bought.”
He paused, but I said nothing.
“You’ll also buy twelve Keerah fighters. They’re the same second generation fighters you faced, and I’ll replace them with upgraded front line fighters that look the same, but will perform much the same as the Spitfire does. The Black Sheep will fly those fighters off your cruiser carrier, pretending to be a fox hunter force.”
“What will the foxes say about that?”
“Not a lot. They know someone claimed the ships lost to the Imperium pilot, who was rescued by the Imperium when they trashed four Keerah fleets. They think they know that a hunting party seized control of the fleet after the Imperium forces left. Under fox law, that’s perfectly legal, and when that fox leader comes back with a cruiser, there will be some big celebrations that someone has finally been able to get together the resources to do that. Of course, some will probably not like that at all, since it won’t have been them.”
“Impersonating foxes isn’t possible.”
“Yes, it is. The only problem is speaking their language, but a little translation magic can fix that. In addition to your squadron, who incidentally have been trialling the new fighters in the simulator between missions without knowing why, you’ll get an actual mercenary company to back you up with troops. And they will look like foxes.”
“Avatars?”
“Yes. You’ll all get fox suits, but there’s an actual fox avatar available now, so the AIs with you will have both human and fox avatars. They’ll be the ones on show whenever you need to be convincing about being a fox hunter team.”
“I’m still not sure what this is all about.”
“I want you to lead a team in that cluster, and clean the place up, while the Keerah sort out their differences. You’ll be trialling a concept which could be tailored in the future to whatever hot spot needs our presence, but we can’t afford the resources for it.”
“But you’d be losing a squadron and a marine unit.”
“Only partially. You’d still be able to button jump to where you’re needed, during your down times. You’ll still have Spitfires with your names on them waiting for you on Hekule. You’re going to spend a lot of time travelling conventionally, and your people will want something else to do between hot spots or planets. But you’ll live on the cruiser, which I’ll remind you is a kilometre long.”
Keerah ships were all bigger than ours for the same class. Their cruisers were the size of our battleships. He was giving me a battleship command. That made no sense.
“I’ve no skills for captaining something that big.”
“You’ll learn them. Or you can recruit someone who does, and learn from them. You’ll be taking missions, capturing pirates, going on hunts, and doing whatever comes along for a fox hunter to make a living from. And you will be making a living. We’ll set you up a proper mercenary company, and Zac will run the admin side of it for you. You’ll pay your squadron and troops from the profits, in addition to your League pay, and those profits will include the proceeds of being a privateer.”
“How is the updated cruiser paid for?”
“It isn’t. I took it from the Keerah. The cost of the upgrades is negligible for my shipyard, and I get the old one anyway, which we’ll fully upgrade as well in due course. If you make a profit on the sale of your fleet and the purchase of the cruiser and fighters, that’s seed credits for your mercenary company. If you need anything more, ask for it, and we’ll work something out.”
“How much does Zac know about this already?”
“Very little. I confirmed he’ll remain with you regardless of what you decide to do. And he knows I needed to bounce something off you first.”
“And if I don’t want to accept this insanity?”
“Then you go back to Hekule with your squadron, and you get on with moulding them how you want them to operate. There’s no problem with wanting that.”
“But will someone else be doing the job if I don’t?”
“Not at this stage. I’ll bring your ships back here as I said, and you’ll sell them with Aisha’s help. They will make you and Zac quite well off, and you’ll probably buy yourself a luxury apartment somewhere, or a big house with a lot of land attached on a planet. Your career will proceed according to events that occur, and no-one can predict those.”
“What makes you think I can run a mercenary company?”
“You already did, except it was just you and Zac. As soon as you claimed that first ship, you started down this path. I’ve talked to the Imperator about this, and he’s on board with it as well. He started out the same way. He and Jane, salvaging ships. It’s a proven concept. Rockmonster did it. Eagle is still doing it.”
I’d forgotten about Eagle. He’d once been the Imperium CAG, but had gone off on his own, and was exploring up one of the arms of the galaxy now with 266 squadron as a mercenary squadron. Rumour had it he did a lot of trading, and selling of captured ships. Rockmonster had been one of his pilots for a long time.
“How long do I have to think about this?”
“Do you really need to?”
He grinned at me.
Two
I surprised myself by not needing to.
Part of me just wanted to ask for a few days off. Part of me wanted to go back to medical and schedule a therapy session. Part of me just wanted to be the squadron leader I’d always wanted to be. But the part that answered him had said no, meaning yes, I’d do it. And that convinced me I really did need therapy.
“How do I start?” I asked him.
“Some of that has already been taken care of. Zac has an avatar on your flagship destroyer now, along with a fox avatar. The mercenary company who’ll be joining you are scattered across the ships already, and a mage has been to each of them doing patch jobs to make them air tight again. They’re really bad patch jobs, but they will be good enough to fool people that pilots flew them to the shipyard.”
“How did they get aired up?”
“Magic. I put a rift from each ship still functional to the bunny planet, and so the air is what they would have had when they left.”
“How do we impersonate a fox team without being easily revealed as not foxes by the foxes?”
“There’s AI avatars on the fox planet now doing research. By the time you get near the shipyard, we’ll know of a team which went missing sometime recently, and all the fox suits will be tailored to everyone on that ship. Your little fleet already has another ship of the same freighter class, which is intact and supposedly what you were on when you happened to stumble on a derelict fleet while making your way home.”
“What about families and friends? Won’t they be a problem?”
“That’s part of the research being done. If possible, you’ll use a team with as few connections to anyone still alive as possible. But it does seem as if a lot of the hunter teams are loners who either cut ties and went off to hunt, or didn’t have any to start with. It’s a hunter culture, and that sort of thing is quite normal for them.”
“What do my squadron know?”
“Nothing. They’re waiting for you in your squadron lounge, and wondering what the hell is keeping you.”
He seemed to think that was funny. And I guess it sort of was.
“What do I tell them?”
“Enough for them to make a decision to join you or not. Some of them might not, and in that case, we’ll find replacements. But basically, it’s an independent command with the potential to earn them well, but it carries its own risks, since while you can call for help, you’re going to be in harm’s way twenty four seven, and walking around on stations which are probably going to be hostile. Certainly for humans, and even for the foxes you’ll be pretending to be.”
“Once they sign on,” he went on, “then you can give them the rest. That includes flying a new type of fighter, which they already know how to. Anyone who pulls out after that will get a blot on their record. It won’t stop them advancing, but it will limit opportunities for them in the future. But you don’t say that, of course. This has to be a volunteer mission. And they have to like flying what they do.”
