by Ricky Sides
“She’s going down, pick another target,” the captain ordered.
By now, the ships were sailing away at top speed. Namid accelerated toward the rear of the armada. David opened fire on the stern of the cargo vessel at a point near the waterline. Three drones similarly attacked the vessel. Secondary explosions were detonating at all four attack points.
When Lieutenant Rockwell ceased fire, Namid moved the Arizona into position to attack another ship. This one was a heavy freighter.
“Captain, the doctor is reporting a medical emergency. He says he needs to perform surgery on Rufus at once, but he can’t with the ship executing such violent maneuvers,” Sharon reported.
“Helm, all stop,” Jack ordered.
“Aye, Captain,” responded Namid.
“Drones, you are clear to pursue and attack at will,” the captain ordered.
“Sir, requesting permission to land my drone and get a replacement. This one is low on power,” one of the operators said.
“Granted, and if any of the rest of you need another drone, do the same,” Jack ordered.
David continued to fire until the flotilla was out of effective range, which only took a few more seconds. “I was hitting it, but I think I was too far away to penetrate the hull,” David said.
“Captain, you are needed in the infirmary,” Sharon said. From the washed out look on her face, Jack knew something was wrong.
“I’m on my way,” Jack said getting to his feet and running through the ship. He scrambled down the spiral staircase, which was closer to the infirmary than the fireman’s pole. Soon, he entered the infirmary.
“You sent for me, Doc?” Jack asked.
“Captain, I need to perform surgery on Rufus at once. I missed something in my preliminary examination. A piece of the cockpit glass is embedded in his thigh. It’s near a vein. If the ship moves violently at the wrong time it could cause me to cut that vein in which case he could bleed to death,” the doctor explained.
Jack walked over to the intercom and activated it. “Helm, hold us stationary. The Doctor has to perform delicate surgery. Lieutenant Farns, get your medics to the infirmary. The Doctor might need an additional pair of hands. Then I want you to get some men on the repairs to our fighter,” the captain said.
“Thank you, Captain. I’m sorry I missed this wound,” the doctor said.
“You did your best, Doc. It wasn’t bleeding heavily or you’d have caught it,” Jack said. He didn’t take the doctor’s feeling of guilt lightly. He knew that such matters could weigh on a man’s spirit and adversely affect his performance.
The two medics entered the room as Jack was getting the word from the doctor that Rufus would be off fighter pilot duty for at least a couple of weeks, perhaps longer. He also stressed the importance of some advance warning if the ship was going to have to maneuver violently. Jack promised to do his best, and then he left to go to the cargo bay.
“Captain, how’s Rufus?” asked Lieutenant Farns as Jack walked into the cargo bay.
“I think he’ll be alright, provided we don’t have to take evasive action at the wrong time,” Jack said with a frown. He stepped over to the intercom and activated it. Speaking into the wall-mounted microphone, he said, “This is the Captain. Have the drones caught up to the flotilla yet?”
“No, Captain. They are executing a search pattern. The ships changed course once they were out of view,” Sharon responded.
“Pull back and form a buffer around the Arizona. We’ve taken out our primary target. The doctor needs some uninterrupted time for the emergency surgery. If any pirate vessels approach us, the drones are to engage and sink them, or drive them away,” the captain ordered.
“Understood, sir,” Sharon replied.
Turning to Lieutenant Farns, the captain said, “You’ve seen the fighter. In your estimation, if we replace the cockpit canopy, can we get it airworthy?”
“I’d say so, sir. But we’d need to be stationary at least a couple of hours to clean it out and replace the canopy.” Looking at his watch, the Lieutenant added, “We have time before we lose the daylight, but just barely. We need to start at once.”
“Do it, but I want every man who’s going to be outside wearing their life jackets. I didn’t say anything before, but I saw two men without theirs when your team came back inside with Rufus,” Captain Wilcox stated. “And God help the man I catch outside without his body armor. If one of the ships catches us while we can’t maneuver…”
“I’ll see to both matters, sir.”
“Good. I’m going back to the control room. Let me know if you need anything, and since your men will have to be outside so long, I want a man here to open the inner door, and at least two heavily armed guards near the exterior door at all times. I’ll also station two drones near the bay door,” Jack said.
Chapter 12
The Peacekeeper flew at the head of the aerial armada. Behind the flagship of the peacekeeper fleet, flew an impressive number of patrol ships, APCs, and fighters. Drones buzzed past the manned vessels as they prepared to play their role in the coming attack.
Just a few hours earlier, a patrol of fighters had located what appeared to be a main body of ships heading for the Gulf of Mexico. They were located approximately eighty miles off the coast of the eastern seaboard.
Patricia had contributed to locating the fleet. She had been working on a hunch when she had queried the computer for the most common route to the Gulf of Mexico utilized by western European seagoing vessels. The computer had correlated its available data and produced a map with the two most common routes. Tim had then dispatched two squadrons of fighters to fly reconnaissance missions along both routes. The easternmost route had yielded results.
The reconnaissance fighters had documented the presence of the fleet, and then they had received permission to begin attacking some of the lighter armed stragglers while the main peacekeeper task force flew to intercept the pirate armada. The fighter squadron succeeded in sinking several of the vessels before they had been forced to break off and return to base for rearmament.
Now, the Peacekeeper led the Alabama, the Louisiana, the Mississippi, the Georgia, the Nevada, and the California on a mission to attempt to sink or turn back as many vessels as possible. With them were ten APCs, forty fighters, and twenty combat drones.
The intent of the peacekeepers was to cause as many ships as possible to break off and run back to Europe. To that end, they planned to attack hard and fast. In the opening minutes of the fight, they wouldn’t be attempting to sink vessels. Instead, they planned to inflict as much damage as possible while utilizing strafing runs. They intended to spread out in such a manner that they covered the width of the flotilla, and then begin their strafing runs. In this way, they hoped to initiate a widespread panic, which could lead to collisions between the vessels and extensive desertions.
The APCs and drones would go in first, followed by the patrol ships, and finally the fighters. All of the peacekeeper aircraft in the attack group had been coated with the Reager Industries developed additive that made the Huxley alloy much more bullet resistant. It wasn’t as good as the lamination process that Pol had discovered, but it was significantly better that the untreated alloy. This improved armor would prove much more problematic to the enemy vessels than had been the case in the war against the drug cartel. In addition, the drones had been completely redesigned. They were now faster, more maneuverable, and as a result, they would be significantly harder to hit. The fighters had the least armor protection of all the manned vessels, which was the reason they would be going in last.
The plan was simple. As the APCs and drones attacked, they would create weak areas in the defensive and offensive capabilities of the armada. The patrol ships would seek to exploit those weaker areas and enlarge them. The fighters would do the same. Then they would begin the cycle again from a different approach vector. As Tim explained to the other captains, this would be a battle of attrition. They weren’t trying for a
knockout punch. They were trying to wear down the defenses of the pirates to the point that the civilian boats would stand a chance of successfully combating the menace. The peacekeeper council was counting on the support of the civilian boat owners in helping to turn back a portion of the pirates.
A troubled Tim stood just behind the windshield of the Peacekeeper staring out at the ships of the armada that were just coming into view. Noting the expression on his friend’s face, Pol stepped up beside him and quietly asked, “Is something wrong, my friend?”
Tim glanced at Pol and then turned back to the view of the fleet spread out on the surface of the sea before him. For long moments, he didn’t answer. Pol was about to turn and walk away, but Tim asked, “Pol, do you recall the night in Texas when we spoke of killing?”
Pol nodded his head, and said, “That conversation helped me a great deal. I doubt I’ll ever forget it.”
“I meant every word I said that night,” Tim said with conviction. Then he gestured at the assembled ships on the surface of the sea below. “But my God, man, I am about to order the attack that will send more people than I can count to their deaths.”
“What is the alternative? What would happen if you didn’t take this action?” Pol asked.
“At the very least, they’d seize the oil wells. But in reality, I think it safe to assume they would do to us what they have done to the western European coastal cities,” Tim said.
“Then you have a difficult decision to make. Your brother often faced such difficult options. Perhaps that is why he favored offering the enemy the chance to stand down before waging such massive attacks,” Pol said thoughtfully.
“I could do that,” Tim said. “But I won’t,” he added with an air of finality. “I can’t, Pol. I saw the evidence that the British emissary presented during our meeting. The men of this fleet have slaughtered entire communities of survivors. If I give them that option, before reducing their ability to prey on innocents, I’ll feel responsible for their future victims.”
Nodding his head, Pol said, “Yes, a man such as you would be inclined to take that viewpoint on the matter. But you must surely realize that no matter what we do, some will escape, and some of those who escape will indeed go on to attack other people in the future.”
“Yes, Pol. I know that’s bound to happen, but a man can only do his best, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do now,” Tim said with deliberation. Smiling at the scientist, Tim added, “I’m glad we had this talk. Thank you, Pol.”
“It was my pleasure,” Pol replied.
Pol walked back over to his station beside Patricia. He was executing last minute checks on all power levels when Patricia leaned toward him and whispered, “Thank you, Pol. I knew you could snap him out of that funk. He has a very high regard for you, you know.”
“And I have the highest regard for your husband, my dear,” Pol whispered back.
Tim didn’t see the two whispering as he sat down in his captain’s chair. “Patricia, open the fleet command channel for me,” he said.
“Done,” responded Patricia almost immediately.
“This is Captain Tim Wilison. Everyone remember your orders. Don’t get bogged down trying to slug it out with any of the vessels. Stick to the plan and watch for friendly aircraft before you fire. Remember, if you see a fighter go down, you need to report it immediately on the designated channel, so we can initiate a rescue. APCs and drones, you take the lead. Good luck, everyone,” Tim said.
Aboard the ships of the pirate fleet, the first sign that the coming raid would be worse than previous peacekeeper raids came when observers lost count of the aircraft attacking them. By now, they had all seen what the tough little fighters and drones could do to a ship, but none of them had ever seen the APCs. The very fact that the peacekeepers had aircraft at their disposal that the pirates hadn’t even seen was more than a little disconcerting.
The pirates were far from defenseless. As the APCs and drones began their attack run, the air was filled with projectiles, fired from a multitude of directions from countless ships.
Aboard one of the APCs, the gunner turned to the pilot and said, “My God, would you look at that!” He was referring to the tracer rounds rising up to attack the drones that flew in zigzagging patterns to make it more difficult for the ships to hit them or even anticipate where they’d be in the next few seconds. The gunner fired his main laser at a deck gun of a cargo ship. That gun was relentlessly pursuing a drone in an attempt to force it into the field of fire of another ship. “Got it!” the gunner exclaimed.
“Beginning our attack run now,” the pilot stated calmly.
All across the pirate fleet, the peacekeeper drones, and APCs advanced into the teeth of the massed firepower of the pirate fleet. The first attack approach was from the starboard side of the armada. The peacekeeper APCs came in low with just enough clearance to avoid hitting the ships. In this way, the ships on the port side of the outer vessels had to wait until the APCs were clear of the pirate ships before they could open fire. The drones came in higher than the manned ships in the hopes of drawing fire that could otherwise shatter the windshields of the APCs.
Following the APCs by a few seconds were the patrol ships, which hammered incessantly at any personnel foolish enough to be on deck during the battle. They also sought to widen the damaged sections of the enemy armada. The fighters came last. Just as the patrol ships before them, the fighters sought to widen the damaged sections of the fleet.
Once the peacekeepers passed over the pirates, they flew a circular course that brought them to the fleet from the stern. This time, their airspeed was slower. Coming at the fleet from the stern meant that the majority of the enemy vessels would have to wait until the aircraft were flying past them before they could open fire. The peacekeepers laid down such a heavy barrage of weapons fire that they left several of the ships with fires raging on their decks. Seeing this, other ships in the armada sought to maneuver out of the line of fire of the approaching aircraft. This caused numerous near misses and several collisions. Seeing the confusion and panic in the midst of the enemy, Tim ordered the patrol ships to slow their flight speed even further, thus giving the gunners more time to attack the fleet in a selective manner. His goal was to inflict damage to every ship they had the time to hit. Slowing their airspeed made it possible to increase the success of that endeavor. The fighters also slowed their airspeed, but they lacked the armor to withstand the punishment that the patrol ships could take.
When the peacekeepers cleared the fleet, there were two maydays from fighter pilots. Their aircraft had taken multiple hits to their battery compartments and they were losing battery fluid at an alarming rate.
Tim ordered the Peacekeeper flown away from the enemy with the fighters behind the ship. He also ordered the stricken pilots to determine which of the two had the most severe damage, and he ordered that fighter to land first. The bay door of the Peacekeeper descended and the pilot managed to land inside the bay. The moment the pilot was out of the aircraft, the strike team turned the fighter around in the cargo bay. In order to make room for the other fighter to land, the strike team pushed the damaged fighter out the open bay door. The fighter tumbled down into the sea. The second fighter performed a similar maneuver and soon, he too watched as his fighter was shoved out the door by the strike force team. As the bay door was closing, the pilot heard the unmistakable sound of lasers firing and knew other fighters were destroying the two damaged aircraft. David Thompson, the strike force leader aboard the Peacekeeper, ordered his men to clean the deck of the cargo bay, which was now contaminated by the battery fluid.
The Peacekeeper returned to the formation, and the drones were given clearance to lead the next attack run against the pirate armada, but this time there would be two fewer peacekeeper aircraft. Tim knew they couldn’t defeat the enemy if they lost a pair of aircraft on every attack run, so he ordered the flight speed increased. Flying faster would give the enemy less of an opportunity to hit
the peacekeeper aircraft. Unfortunately, it would similarly hamper the peacekeepers. Tim amended the orders, instructing the gunners to aim further ahead of their aircraft, so the peacekeeper weaponry would have longer to disable the enemy guns before they flew past the ships. They were to concentrate on eliminating one deck gun per pass.
That strategy paid off, but that success came at a price. A drone was shot down when the operator concentrated on his target so long that he failed to see the tracers in his flight path. The drone was hit several times and for ten seconds it spun out of control. By the time the drone operator regained control, it was too late to avoid a collision with one of the pirate vessels. Fortunately, the pilot was able to direct his drone straight at the wheelhouse of the fishing boat. The tough drone penetrated the glass as if it were made of paper; then slammed into a wall with such force that the operator lost all guidance control. Pol stepped behind the operator and looked at his monitor. The drone had come to rest partially embedded in the wall. “Fire the laser,” Pol advised.
The operator said, “Sir, embedded in the wall as it is, the laser will set up a feedback loop and the intense heat will cause an explosion.”
“I know. It is an enemy vessel and we can’t permit an enemy to capture a drone,” Pol stated.
“Roger that, sir. I just wanted clarification that it was alright to self-destruct my drone,” the operator said as his fingers manipulated the laser firing controls. The video feed died instantly.
Turning to face the windshield, both Pol and the drone operator were hoping to see what had happened inside the ship, but they weren’t within sight of the vessel. However, just a few moments later, the peacekeeper flew over a fishing boat whose wheelhouse was a blazing inferno.