by Ricky Sides
By 8:00 P.M., the day of Jim’s wedding, the repairs had been completed, and the Arizona was ready for duty.
***
“As I see it, the battleship is the biggest threat,” Jim stated unequivocally. “We know that one of the battleships survived the encounter with the Arizona. That ship can shell cities from fifty to sixty miles away. It alone could destroy Washington, and it wouldn’t even need to enter the Potomac to do so.”
“Alright, Jim, I see your point, but what do you intend to do about it?” Pete asked.
“Let’s send the Arizona after that ship. Let that ship be the prime target. I’ll tell Jack to make her his top priority. The remaining frigate is a lesser threat. I’ll order the Arizona to hunt down that battleship and send her to the bottom. If they can also take out the remaining frigate, so much the better, but the battleship must be dealt with before it closes with our coast,” Jim said with conviction.
“That may be a hopeless task,” Pete said. “We don’t know where the battleship is located.” Shrugging, Pete added, “It’s a big ocean. The Arizona could come within a mile or so of the battleship and never even see it.”
“Not if we pull a Jewel,” Jim said with a grin.
“Huh?” Pete asked with a confused expression on his face. “I’m afraid you lost me.”
“Remember Jewel, Mississippi?” Jim asked.
“Oh, so you mean to use a decoy radio transmission to cause the battleship to break radio silence?” asked Pete.
“Exactly,” Jim stated. “And at the same time, we’ll make any potential landing force come to us where we want to fight them. But for this to work, I need Bill’s men to get that huge American flag they located in storage. I want that flag erected near the Washington Monument. Then we’ll broadcast that decoy message. I’m betting that the battleship will break radio silence and issue strategic orders before they close with the coast.”
“Alright, I’ll contact Bill. He said he’d already found a pole that would accommodate the giant flag and it isn’t far from the monument,” said Pete.
“I’ll radio Jack and get him started back for the Atlantic. Then I’ll get Tim on the radio and give him the instructions we agreed upon earlier. Then I’ll work up the wording for the decoy message,” Jim said this last with a smile.
“All right, Jim. I’ll be at the battlements we’re putting together if you need me,” Pete said as he stood to leave.
“I’ll join you there as soon as possible,” Jim promised.
***
Aboard the Arizona, the ship was well out to sea when the decoy message was sent. Communications specialist Sharon Winters had standing orders to put the message through the intercom system so that the captain could hear it live. Jack was sitting in his seat reading a report when the transmission began. He listened attentively to the message.
“All Peacekeeper ships and personnel should exercise caution in the Washington area. We anticipate a large-scale pirate invasion of the city within a matter of days. Therefore, we have set up a defensive position in the city near the structures where we have been storing many of the priceless historical relics. A giant flag marks the location, so you can easily see it from the air. Do not fire in that direction. You could damage or destroy priceless historical items. I repeat, do not fire near the structures close to the flag,” the radio operator said.
Jack thought it a convincing ruse. Of course, the area would be pinpointed by references to the giant flag, but the radio operator hadn’t pinpointed the exact locations where the relics were supposedly stored, so the pirates would find it difficult to fire the big guns at the structures near the battle fortifications. Now it was a waiting game to see if the battleship took the bait.
While they were waiting to see if the battleship would break radio silence, Captain Wilcox had the drone operators busy drilling by executing right angle turns on command. They had been practicing off and on since the Arizona had departed from Base 1. One of the drone operators made the comment that if they had been that skilled with the drones when they had encountered the ship, then their drones would have survived the encounter. Jack didn’t say anything when he overheard the man making the comment, but it caused him to pause and think about the matter. He should have anticipated the need for orientation with the new hardware. If it had been a new item being incorporated into his old strike teams, he’d have insisted on such orientation training, but he’d set aside a lot of his methodology as being incompatible with the captaincy of a ship. Now he was rethinking the wisdom of discarding too much of what he learned as a strike team leader. He began to think along a new path that merged his strike team leadership skills and knowledge with the new position. Within moments, he reached a conclusion that he acted upon at once.
“Helm, all stop. Bring us to a hover as near the surface as possible. Communications specialist, get Rufus to the cargo bay in flight gear. Drone operators, and gunner, watch for the enemy. I don’t want us to come under attack while Rufus is getting aboard his fighter,” the captain ordered.
“Aye, Captain,” came a chorus of responses.
“Abe, you’re with me. I’ll be in the cargo bay,” the captain said, and then he exited the control room with the engineer a step behind him.
As he walked briskly through the ship, the captain outlined the plan that he wanted to try to implement. He paused at the fireman’s pole and asked, “Will it work?”
“Yes, Captain, it should work just fine, but the pilot’s air to air visibility will suck, as will his peripheral vision.”
“But those issues aside, it’d greatly reduce the risk to the pilot?” Jack asked for clarification.
“Captain, to be honest I think it’s a bad idea because it’s too dangerous. It too severely limits the pilot’s vision, and as a result, it could lead to friendly fire casualties,” the engineer said with a troubled expression on his face.
“Relax, Abe. I wanted the truth and you gave me what I wanted. Never be afraid to shoot down a bad idea, especially mine. I’m not the engineer, you are. Part of your job is designing equipment upgrades that are safe and functional. We’ll go with the fighter as is this mission, but I want you to work on something for future use. Maybe something along the lines of the panic button that the flying trucks utilize would be more appropriate. A shield that can be deployed for emergencies, and then retracted once the emergency passes,” the captain explained.
“I’ll get right on that, captain, but I should tell you that such a system in the fighters would be a major pain in the butt. It’d be easier to coat the pilot in a layer of alloy,” the man said with a frown.
“What did you just say?” the captain asked.
“I’m sorry, sir. I was just running my mouth. I meant no harm,” the engineer apologized.
However, Captain Wilcox was grinning. He said, “Abe, do you remember the alloy coated armor Pol experimented with last year?”
“I sure do, that stuff was tough as hell, but too heavy for…” Abe’s eyes widened as he realized what Jack had in mind. “We have a set onboard. Pol wanted me to try to figure out a way to modify the armor so that it was acceptable. He’s too busy on the battle fortress. Well, he was until this crisis came along.”
“Thigh, chest, side plates, and the full face helm. Get them and report to the cargo bay,” the captain said.
“Right away, sir, but they are stored in the cargo bay,” Abe stated.
“Good,” said Jack. He grabbed the fireman’s pole and slid down.
In the cargo bay, the captain found Rufus equipping his body armor for the flight. “Belay that, pilot,” Jack ordered. Then he said, “Abe’s bringing your new armor. I want you to test this. If this works out, it could become standard gear for you fighter pilots.”
When Abe joined them with the armor parts, Rufus asked, “Where did you guys get the fancy armor?”
“Pol made it. Just put it on and get to your fighter. I want you to try a full battle test with the gear equipped. If there are pr
oblems, report them and then land on the hull,” the captain ordered.
“Yes, Captain,” responded the pilot.
Thirty minutes later, the pilot landed on the hull and requested permission to come aboard. Once aboard the Arizona, Rufus said that the armor tested fine with one exception. The eye slot needed to curve around the side of the helmet to a point just past the pilot’s eyes.
“You lost peripheral vision?” asked Abe.
“Yes, but other than that, the armor’s fine once you’re in your bird. Getting to the top of the ship’s a pain, and climbing inside the fighter’s more of a chore, but this armor’s worth that inconvenience, if it’d stop a large caliber projectile,” Rufus stated.
“It will. I’ve seen it tested against a fifty caliber. That round dents it up. You’d be sore. You might even get a broken rib or two, but you’d live,” Jack explained.
“I can fix the helmet in just a few minutes,” Abe said. He quickly took some measurements, walked to a workbench he had set up, and began the refinements.
Fifteen minutes later, the engineer returned with the helmet. “Watch the edges. I smoothed down the jagged ends, but the cuts I made are still a bit sharp,” he said.
“It’ll do for the test,” Rufus said. Sliding the helmet on his head, Rufus said, “I’ll get back to testing. Thanks, Abe.”
“Captain, the battleship has just broken radio silence,” the three men heard over the intercom.
“Get your bird airborne, pilot. Abe, secure the bay door please. I’m heading to the control room,” the captain said.
“Aye, Captain,” replied the two men in unison.
***
Captain Bran Lynch listened to the intercepted message the peacekeepers had sent. “That’s good to know,” he said to himself.
“Do you want a message sent to the fleet warning them not to target those buildings near the flag they are referencing?” asked his first mate.
“Not yet. We’re still refueling. I want to have that completed, so that we can take evasive action if necessary. There’s no rush. We’re still a day out from their waters,” he added.
“There’s been no contact from the advance ships we sent. That makes me wonder if they were discovered and sunk en route,” the captain said. Shrugging, he said, “It doesn’t really matter. I’ll be issuing orders soon that will redeploy our forces.”
“Are we still sending the bulk of our fleet south?” asked the mate.
“No, I think we’ll use another plan I’ve been working on the past two days, but we need to board the munitions ship before I make up my mind. I want to see if some weapons I recall seeing are still in the hold or if the captain sold them on the black market,” Lynch explained.
“I’m surprised you let that scurvy dog live. I know he robs you blind,” the mate stated angrily.
“Relax, cousin,” Bran said. “The man has his uses. He has found us ammunition and spare parts several times and kept my fleet well supplied. I permit him his graft because he is useful to me. But if he sold those missiles, then useful or not, he’s a dead man,” Lynch vowed and laid his hand on the grip of his pistol.
“Signal the munitions ship to stay near and come alongside us the moment that the refueling process is complete,” Bran ordered.
“Aye, Captain,” the first mate said. He left to see to his orders.
Captain Lynch wrote a carefully detailed message, which told the various elements of the fleet where they were to go. The message used keywords for the assorted targets that only the captains would understand. He then included a warning saying that, ships participating in the Washington run, must not fire on the buildings in close proximity to the giant flag, which was reputedly flying in the city. The captain left strict orders with the radioman that he was to broadcast that message only upon the order to do so, which would come once the captain and his party had boarded the munitions vessel.
***
Jim and Pete walked the fortified line that would be the defensive works for the ground forces in Washington. Both men knew that this war would be won or lost on the ground. It simply wouldn’t be possible to target and sink all of the ships that they expected to attack the city with the fighters and ships they’d have available. Not that they wouldn’t try, but the odds were against success in that venture. Now they knew that numerous battle groups were converging on the city.
When the pirates broke radio silence to broadcast the coded orders, Pol and Patricia had set to work immediately to break the code. So far, they’d had little luck, but they had worked out that Washington was code named Golden Court, because the man sending the message had made a mistake. He referred to a designated set of battle groups heading to Golden Court, and later, when he mentioned the flag, it was in reference to it being located in Golden Court. Their decoy message had had an unexpected benefit in that it helped them to break a portion of the code.
“It’s a strong defensive line,” Jim noted.
Pete nodded his head in agreement, but then he said, “We’re going to be stretched really thin. The surprises we’ve rigged will help, but make no mistake about it; we may have to retreat in order to keep our people from being slaughtered.”
Jim sighed sadly. Turning to look at the monuments in the vicinity, he said, “I know, and I can’t help but wonder what will become of these monuments once this war starts.”
Chapter 11
“Course plotted and laid in, Captain,” Namid said as Captain Wilcox strode into the control room.
“Distance to target?” queried the captain.
“We are approximately two hundred miles from the battleship, sir. You got us in the neighborhood,” Namid replied with a smile.
“Communications, feed the course to Rufus when he’s ready to launch his fighter,” the captain said. “Hold position until he is safely clear, and then take us to top speed. I want a drone to escort Rufus, just in case he has any problems. At our speed, he’ll fall behind.”
“Aye, Captain,” responded those who had just been issued orders.
“Drone is away, Captain,” one of the drone operators said.
“Rufus is airborne,” communications reported. “He has the coordinates and has confirmed them,” Sharon added.
The captain depressed the intercom button and issued the standard g-force acceleration warning. He added, “Lieutenant Farns, once we have accelerated, I want your men at the conventional weapons reload stations in their protective gear. This time, we won’t break off the attack until the battleship is going down. If that means reloading during battle, then that’s what I’ll have to ask your men to do.”
“Understood, Captain,” the lieutenant replied moments later via the intercom.
“Thirty seconds to acceleration,” Namid said.
The captain repeated Namid’s warning over the intercom. He then sat back in his chair and prepared himself for the gut wrenching full G acceleration. His body was pressing back into the seat. It felt to him as if the air directly adjacent to his body had turned to a solid mass and was pressing him against the chair. He felt a moment of vertigo, which soon passed as the pressure from the acceleration relented.
Fifteen minutes later, Namid reported, “Captain, we are approaching the coordinates, but I don’t see the ship.”
“It’s already been twenty minutes, so they would have left this area. Slow to three hundred and begin our designated search pattern,” the captain ordered.
Moments later, Namid reported, “Airspeed three hundred, sir.”
“Launch all drones to assist in the search effort,” Jack said.
The Arizona and her five drones spread out to cover a wide section of the sea. They were traveling in the direction they thought the battleship might take. “We should have seen them by now, sir,” Namid reported.
“I was just thinking the same thing, pilot. Now I’m wondering if the ship might have reversed course for a few minutes and then turned north or south before resuming a westerly heading,” Jack speculated alou
d. He ordered a spiral search pattern.
Rufus had drifted a bit north on his flight to the coordinates. He was just about to make a course correction when he spotted something further north at the extreme range of his vision. He thought it was a warship, but was so far away that he couldn’t be certain. He reported the sighting and requested permission to change his vector to investigate.
He was informed that the Arizona hadn’t located the battleship yet and given permission to alter course. Rufus edged his fighter a bit closer, and swiveled his camera around toward the target. Zooming in on the ship, he saw that it was indeed the battleship. Behind that vessel, he saw others. A munitions ship was closing with the battleship. Rufus radioed the Arizona, saying, “I think the battleship may be about to take on ordinance. Isn’t that the ship we already identified as an ordinance ship?”
A moment later, the captain radioed back. He said, “You’re right Rufus, but we have our orders. We are to sink the battleship and then take on the rest of the fleet that we can find, but the warship is our top priority.”
“Roger that Captain. “I’m about to light her up,” Rufus said. He fired his main laser at the wheelhouse in the hopes of disabling the controls. The drone opened fire as well, targeting a gun turret that was spinning around to face the peacekeeper aircraft.
As they flew toward the battleship, the red pulses raced down the laser beams, causing secondary explosions. Bit by bit, the lasers were boring through their targets.
However, by then, several of the other turrets had begun to fire at the two aircraft. “Breaking hard to starboard,” Rufus shouted. The drone broke hard to port and soon both peacekeeper aircraft had escaped the onslaught of firepower that the battleship had unleashed.
“Rufus, break off your attack until we get there,” Jack ordered. “It’s too dangerous with only two targets to draw the fire. We’ll be there in minutes.”
“Roger that, Captain. It is getting pretty hairy out here,” the pilot responded calmly.