"The Battle of Michael's Push," Hunter put a name to it. "A big victory for him and his goons. Caught the 36 Coalition forces as they were reassembling their fleet. A total disaster for the good guys…"
Flash!
Same hill. Many months later. The night air, cooler.
Joxx didn't need Hunter to point out the location of the next battle.
It was very bright and very violent — and going on right over their heads.
"The Battle of the One Arm Frontier," Hunter explained. "Michael's forces thought they found a seam in the Coalition's defense line and sent their fleet streaming through."
The flashes overhead continued unabated.
"Michael's fleet was made up mostly of his frontier forces, or dregs picked up along the way — people he knew would be most loyal to him," Hunter explained. "He had so many ships under his command by now, he was able to break through part of the defense line set up by the 36 and their allies. Michael began descending on the Solar System itself at this point. After this battle, he broke in on all viz-screen lines on Earth and vowed he would be returning very soon."
Joxx could tell now that with each flash, its was obvious that the battles were getting closer to the Mother Planet.
"It looks as if he's making good on that promise," he said.
"Perhaps, but rarely is anything as it first appears," Hunter replied. "Actually, the 36 got real smart, real quick. They had left a hole in their line on purpose. They were setting him up for one decisive battle."
Joxx scoffed at that. "And will this be presented to jne in the same way again? In the form of another one of your lectures? With my neck hurting from looking too long up at the stars?"
Hunter just laughed at him.
"Not exactly," he said.
Flash!
"Set up!"
The forty-five space soldiers immediately jumped to their feet.
"Jet pack… check!"
"Squad One… check!… Squad Two… check! Squad Three… check!
"Weapons… check!"
"Weapons checked sir!"
Hunter looked down at his hands. As always, there was a blaster rifle cradled in them. A huge one. Multitubed, and very heavy. Probably three times as heavy as any blaster rifle he'd had the pleasure to know.
On his head, a very bulky helmet. It was of such ancient design, there were several tubes inside that were touching his lips via a mouthpiece. One contained water; one contained an elixir of supervitamins; the third was filled with painkillers — more than enough to kill you, but pleasantly.
Hunter knew all this because he'd been here three dozen times.
"Squads… get ready for jump."
"Ready here, sir!"
Hunter glanced down the long, tubular compartment. He was inside an enormous spaceship, along an extended metal railing, beyond which the gigantic maw of the ship could be seen below. He was second to last in the line of heavily armed, heavily suited soldiers.
Joxx was standing behind him.
Once again, the Solar Guards' officer was petrified. "I must admit I am more used to doing combat from behind the wheel of my ship," he told Hunter sharply. "If my ship had a wheel, that is…"
"You're the one who didn't want a lecture," Hunter called back to him.
"But what's going on here?" the SG officer pleaded with Hunter. "You have to tell me this time, especially after all I've been through…"
"Sorry, no time," Hunter replied quickly. "This one will be learned on the go."
"Squads… forward!"
Suddenly, the line of soldiers in front of them started moving. A man was shouting orders at the far end of the compartment. He was positioned next to a huge doorway ringed with blinking lights. He was dressed just as they were, but his spacesuit was much bigger, much bulkier. This man was obviously an officer. He was looking at an ancient timepiece attached to his wrist.
"Squads… get ready for decompression in three… two… one… now!"
"Decompression?" Hunter heard Joxx practically scream in his earpiece. "What does that mean?"
Again, Hunter didn't have time to reply. Joxx found out a second later.
The officer hit a button, and there was an incredibly loud rush of air throughout the compartment. As always, Hunter's spacesuit suddenly didn't seem as heavy as before. The officer hit another button, and a large panel next to him blew free. There was an even louder whoosh! and instantly Joxx knew what decompression was all about. The breathable air inside the compartment had all been sucked out. And through the hole in the compartment wall now left by the swiftly departing panel, both of them could see only millions of stars beyond. That's when it all made sudden, startling sense to Joxx. He was on a troopship of some kind, and they were going to be expected to jump out of the craft and into space.
But why?
He found that out soon enough, too.
The line of soldiers moved down the compartment very quickly, with the officer positioning each man onto the step and then pushing him out into the void beyond. Hunter might have yelled something going out the door. So many things happened right after that long step into space, he knew he wouldn't be able to hear much of anything in the next few seconds.
What always astonished him at this point though was the first glimpse of the ship they'd just tumbled out of. It was enormous. Not quite as big as a Starcrasher, but big enough. Blunt, pointed snout on one end and tiny almost comical fins sticking out of its back. A huge fuselage in between, with thousands of portholes.
This monstrosity always held his attention for a few seconds; it took him that long to realize that the vessel was adorned with the skull and three-leaf clover, the symbol of Brother Michael's forces. That image was plastered all over their spacesuits, too.
Then again, as always, he saw that there was another spaceship nearby. This one was just as big.
Joxx somehow made his way up to Hunter as they fol-lowed the long string of soldiers zooming through space.
"Can this really be?" he yelled through their primitive intercoms. "Have we really gone over to fighting for Michael's side?"
At the moment, that seemed to be the case.
There was a huge space battle going on all around them.
For as far as the eye could see, there were starships of all shapes and sizes blasting away at each other. In the distance, maybe a quarter million miles away, there was a small planet with a tiny moon. This was Pluto: habitable, puffed. There were battles taking place on it now as well as on its miniature moon.
Hunter never failed to be astonished at this point, either. This battle must have had millions, if not tens of millions, of combatants. Entire armies of starship troopers zooming everywhere, firing their huge blaster rifles, trying to avoid collisions with smaller interceptor craft weaving their way through the vicious close-in combat, some going faster than the speed of light.
But the line of troopers Hunter and Joxx were following was not heading deeper into the morass of the huge engagement. They were heading for the nearby ship instead.
This ship in front of and slightly below them was not a typical one, either. It didn't have one-hundredth the number of portholes as the troop carrier they'd just fallen out of. It was more ornate, with gold scroll designs flaring back from its cockpit bubble and flame decals stretching the rest of its entire length. It was obviously a command vessel of some kind. And the first wave of troopers from their ship had located a huge hole in the side of it and were pouring in, blaster rifles blazing.
Hunter caught a glimpse of Joxx's face behind his air mask and saw the SG officer's eyes were about twice as wide as usual. He'd just realized what Hunter had learned during his first dip into this part of the mind ring trip: They weren't fighting with Michael's forces; they were just dressed that way. In fact, they were part of a special operations team, the best within the 36 Coaltion forces. The vessel they'd just been ejected from was a Q-ship. Dis-guised as one of Michael's ships, it actually belonged to the 36 Coalition as well.