by Ricky Sides
“Can you tell if she’s alright?” asked Jack.
“Checking, sir. No, Captain. Namid needs help. She’s slumped over in her cockpit, and she isn’t moving,” the man reported.
“Doctor Smith to the cargo bay for a medical emergency,” Jack heard Sharon say on the intercom.
“Mark, fly us a safe distance from the pirates, but take it easy. We’ll be attempting a rescue. I want the drones to form a buffer zone between the pirates and this ship. Lieutenant Rockwell, you have command until I return,” Jack said in a rapid-fire burst of instructions, and then he was up and heading for the cargo bay.
“Hold her steady, Mark. If I know Lieutenant Farns half as well as I think I do, by now he’s climbing the ladder to reach the top of the ship,” Lieutenant Rockwell stated.
“He is,” reported the same drone operator who had reported the landing of the fighter. “He just made it to the top, and here come his men. They are opening her cockpit. Something’s wrong with her. The lieutenant is standing on the wing of the fighter and pulling her out. It looks as if she is in one piece. The impact may have knocked her out,” the man said.
The lieutenant said. “In my monitor, I think I see two speedboats heading our way.”
“I see them, I’ll get the one on the left,” said one of the drone operators.
“I’ll get the other,” one of the other men said.
“Drone operators, you have to get those boats. I can’t fire our aft laser with personnel out back and we can’t maneuver with a rescue in progress,” said Lieutenant Rockwell.
“Splash two speedboats,” a drone operator reported moments later.
The instant that Namid was brought aboard the ship, Doctor Smith went to work checking her over, but it turned out that the drone operator was right. She had indeed been knocked out by the impact of the crash landing. The helmet protected her head from crushing injury, but it couldn’t protect her brain from the sudden impact inside her skull. Namid had suffered a concussion. She would be confined to the infirmary for a while, but he assured a very nervous Jack that his wife would live.
Chapter 13
Standing, Tim looked out the window of the Peacekeeper at the assembly of patrol ships, APCs, fighters, and drones that would participate in the battle against the fleet they had fought the previous day.
Reconnaissance flights had kept watch over the fleet on an almost continual basis since the peacekeeper air armada had broken contact with it the previous evening. Those recon pilots had reported that dozens of ships had broken away from the fleet and turned east. Presumably, they were heading for European waters where they were a dominant force. However, the peacekeepers couldn’t afford to make that assumption when the ships could just as easily take another course and come back at them from another direction. Therefore, it had been necessary for a pair of fighters to shadow the ships until the peacekeepers were certain the men aboard those vessels were no longer combatants.
The strategy of hammering the offensive capability the previous day had worked well. After reviewing the battle footage of the last sortie against the enemy armada, Tim had determined that nearly every ship in the fleet had suffered damage to one degree or another, but the strategy today would be much different. The next mission would be to destroy as many ships as possible. The latest estimates indicated that by nightfall, the enemy fleet would be approaching an area of ocean adjacent to several of the coastal cities of Florida. The citizens of those cities were ready to defend their communities. However, unless the peacekeepers managed to destroy a substantial number of the pirate vessels, the citizens would be hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned.
“All sections have now reported that they are ready to go on your command, Captain,” Patricia informed Tim.
“Thank you. Please inform the fleet to follow us,” Tim responded. “Helm, take us out at the designated course and speed.”
“Aye, sir,” the helmsman responded.
This time, the flight to engage the fleet was considerably shorter. “I wonder how history will judge us for what we are about to do?” Tim asked speculatively. Then, without a moment of hesitation, he gave the command to commence the attack.
Aboard the ships of the pirate fleet, men blanched as they saw the peacekeepers coming in wave after wave. There were an impressive fifty drones in the battle formation, followed by ten APCs. Behind the APCs flew the patrol ships, but the most significant addition to the peacekeeper armada for this day’s mission was in the form of fighters. There were one hundred sixty-two fighters.
The peacekeeper air force began the attack as they had the previous day. The drones went in first, seeking out ships with formidable offensive weaponry intact. When they located such ships, the drones concentrated their fire on them in an effort to minimize the damage they might inflict upon manned aircraft. The APCs had a similar mission, but they were also to target as many wheelhouses as possible with their lasers as they sought out the heavily armed ships. The strategy with the wheelhouse attacks was to cause widespread panic, which could in turn lead to many collisions among the closely spaced enemy ships.
The moment the peacekeepers appeared, the ships of the pirate armada began to spread the fleet out over a wider area. They had learned the previous day that staying closely packed just made it easier for the peacekeepers. Their strategy for this battle was to spread out as widely as possible, and maintain a course for the Gulf of Mexico.
Many of the captains had wanted to disperse the fleet after the encounter with the peacekeepers the previous day, but Captain Lynch had given them orders to maintain their fleet cohesion until they were past the southern tip of Florida. In that way, the peacekeepers would be certain to commit most of their assets in their efforts to protect the Gulf. This was a critical part of Lynch’s plan to seize Washington D.C. Once that was accomplished, he could systematically loot the national treasures of the United States.
The maneuvers by the pirate fleet hampered the efficiency of the peacekeepers, despite the fact that the vessels were grouped in relatively close proximity. Nevertheless, it did not deter the peacekeepers from doing their best to sink great numbers of the ships.
One means of sinking the smaller boats of the fleet took the pirates by surprise. The sinking of the frigate with the electromagnetic drive of the Arizona had been reported to Captain Cliff Barnes, who had in turn informed the patrol ship captains of the technique. During the battle at sea that day, numerous smaller boats were sent to the bottom by the drive systems of the patrol ships. In one incident involving a particularly troublesome midsized vessel, three patrol ships hovered near the deck and then performed the maneuver. That ship was submerged, but it promptly popped back out of the water. However, the vessel was taking on water, and soon it began to list. Ten minutes later, it sank.
Hour after hour, the peacekeepers engaged and sank the ships of the enemy fleet. They were winning the battle, but they were losing the war. “We must have sunk seventy ships, but they refuse to turn and leave. It just doesn’t make sense!” Tim said in frustration.
“Perhaps, we should consider adjusting our strategy,” Pol said.
“I’m open to suggestions,” Tim responded.
Pol said, “We have been targeting the small to midsize boats in order to rapidly sink sufficient numbers of the vessels that would cause the fleet to turn aside, but what if those boats are owned by unimportant members of the pirate society? Would their loss deter the leaders?”
“I see what you mean,” Tim said thoughtfully. “They’d probably view those ships as acceptable losses, because they don’t own them.” Smiling at Pol, he added, “Thank you, Pol. What you’re saying makes a lot of sense.”
Turning to his wife, Tim said, “Patricia, I need the command channel.”
In the next few minutes, Tim ordered a drastic change in their tactics. They were now to ignore the small to midsize vessels, and concentrate their attacks on the large to supertanker class ships, and the two cruise ships.
&n
bsp; Tim was about to take the Peacekeeper into the battle, when they received multiple distress calls from fighter pilots whose aircraft had been hit. One fighter was able to make a landing in the bay, but the other two had already ditched in the sea.
Pol dispatched his newest invention in the form of a rescue drone. It was one of the older drones, and its engine had been replaced with a more powerful engine that was capable of handling the weight of a pilot. The drone was equipped with a camera, a rope, and a safety harness. The rescue drone was able to retrieve the two downed fliers.
With the pilots now safe, Tim turned his attention to the ongoing battle. He ordered the drones of the Peacekeeper to seek out the biggest ship they could find, and then he tracked them to the target. It was a cruise ship, and it still had numerous gun emplacements on its deck.
Photo by Robert L McCullough Noël Baba’s Fotos, Weatherford, TX
The drones attacked the deck guns while the Peacekeeper was en route to the vessel. When the battleship module made it to the scene, the drones backed away.
Inside the cruise ship, hundreds of men stared out the windows at the huge aircraft hovering off their port side. One pirate fired a rocket-propelled grenade through a broken window. The crowds of pirates cheered as they watched the projectile lance out and slam into the side of the peacekeeper vessel with a fiery explosion, and dozens more opened fire with their pistols and rifles. Then the conventional minigun of the Peacekeeper opened fire with a broadside volley that stitched the cruise ship from stem to stern. The big lasers soon followed, striking the waterline of the pirate ship in two separate locations.
Inside the Peacekeeper, Tim said, “Helm, put us over the port side of the enemy and execute a bounce maneuver. Let’s shove her port side deeper into the water.”
The Peacekeeper executed the drive attack to good affect. The port side of the cruise ship was pushed deeper into the sea. Ocean water poured into the gaping holes, causing the ship to sit deeper into the water, but the holes remained a mere inches above the waterline. Even so, in Tim’s estimation it would only take a few more bounces to cause the ship to flood sufficiently to cause it to sink.
“Captain, we are receiving a message from the captain of the cruise ship. He is asking us to break off the attack. He says he will turn back for Europe if we let them go,” Patricia reported.
“Helm, break off the attack,” Tim ordered, thus preventing the pilot from initiating another drive attack.
“Patch me into their channel,” Tim ordered.
“Done, sir,” Patricia responded professionally. Despite the fact that the captain was her husband, she felt it best to maintain a professional demeanor when they were on duty in the control room.
“Enemy captains, a cruise ship has just promised to leave, if we break off the attack. I am about to order a ten minute cessation of the battle. If you want to save your ships, then I suggest you turn about and leave American waters. All ships maintaining their present course will be subject to attack when the time elapses.”
Turning to Patricia, Tim said, “I need the peacekeeper command channel please.” When she nodded, thus indicating that it was ready, Tim said, “All peacekeeper forces, back off the enemy for ten minutes. If any of the enemy ships attempt to leave the fleet on an easterly heading, let them go in peace. At the end of the ceasefire, we will resume the battle.”
Tim watched out the window of the Peacekeeper. The peacekeeper forces within his view stopped attacking the enemy ships. He was curious to see how many might take advantage of the temporary cessation of hostilities and leave the armada.
“Captain, we are getting reports from several elements that the pirate vessels are leaving en masse,” Patricia reported.
“They are,” Tim confirmed. Then he said, “At least they seem to be doing so, but this could just as easily be them running from their imminent destruction.”
However, it wasn’t a trick. Nor was it a simple redeployment of the fleet. The peacekeepers didn’t know it, but Pol’s plan had worked. They had already sunk the ships of the most powerful captains of the fleet who were in the southern armada. The majority of the remaining captains were ready to head back to Europe, where they assumed it would be just a matter of time before they could conquer Great Britain.
The few hardcore pirates, who didn’t want to break off the planned attack, knew that if they maintained their course, their greatly diminished fleet would be sent to the bottom of the sea before the end of the day. Therefore, they too were forced to turn east and sail toward Europe. However, the captains aboard those vessels had plans to break away from the retreating main body, just as soon as they were out of sight of the peacekeepers. The lure of a portion of the riches of America was just too great for many of the pirates, and those who left the conflict would get nothing.
***
Jim stared out the windshield of the Valiant as they flew toward the assembled northern fleet of pirate ships. Behind the Valiant flew the Constitution, forty fighters and twenty APCs. Darting in and out of the formation of the manned aircraft, were dozens of drones. Extra drone operating consoles had been added to the two ships. The APCs had been similarly outfitted.
The main plan the council had opted to utilize to deal with the northern fleet would be put into motion when they were closer to the mainland. Nevertheless, they were determined to meet the enemy at sea to inflict as much damage as possible before they reached American territorial waters. Their attack coincided with the attack on the southern fleet. In this way, they hoped to minimize the coordination of the two fleets, because they would be too busy for much in the way of communication or coordination.
The Arizona was pacing the enemy to the east, but otherwise conserving her power. Jim wanted an all out simultaneous attack on the pirates from multiple directions, and he was counting on the Arizona to be battle-worthy when his battle group reached the scene.
As he stared out the windshield of the Valiant, his patience was rewarded as first one ship, and then another, appeared on the horizon.
Coordinating with the others members of the battle group, Jim sent the drones in first. Adopting portions of his brother’s plan utilized against the southern fleet the previous day, Jim sent the APCs in a wave behind the drones, but he had them attack the vessels firing on the drones. He planned to use the drones to take out most of the heavy guns. The armored personnel carriers would attack gun emplacements as well, but their primary mission was to protect the drones, which would be needed to defend Washington.
The Valiant and the Constitution would fly in behind the first two waves of aircraft. The fighters would follow in their wake.
The Arizona and her complement of drones would simultaneously attack from the east and make their way toward the center. The Arizona would be fighting without a fighter escort. Their fighter had been damaged beyond the ability of the crew to repair it in the field.
Jim knew that the battery compartment areas were the Achilles’ heel of the fighters. The council had already issued orders for all fighters to have additional layers of alloy laminated to those critically important areas as soon as possible, but that would have to wait until after the current war. The engineers had speculated that over a period of time, the landing stresses on the sections of the hull adjacent to the battery compartments caused minute fractures in the alloy. This made them less bullet resistant than the rest of the aircraft, which was the reason so many fighters were being incapacitated by hits to that vital region. Jim had asked the engineers why the electrical charge flowing through the hull didn’t cause the fractures to seal. They had explained that the voltage required to seal them wasn’t being conducted through the ships on a normal operational basis, and advised adding it to the routine maintenance schedule.
As the battle commenced, Jim was astonished to discover that the enemy had once more formed a massive armada. They estimated they were facing almost twelve hundred ships of varying sizes.
The first twenty minutes of the battle went well f
or the peacekeepers. They succeeded in disabling hundreds of deck guns, and sinking dozens of ships, but then disaster struck. They had a minute of warning when a terse message was intercepted. “Release the hawks,” a male voice said over the radio channel the enemy was using to coordinate their fleet.
That message was dutifully reported to the captains of the three peacekeeper ships by their communications officers, but it meant nothing to either of the captains.
A minute later, when missiles began to rise toward peacekeeper aircraft from dozens of positions in the fleet, the peacekeeper captains knew what the cryptic message meant. The air was alive with contrails as the rockets closed on the peacekeeper aircraft.
Jim felt the impact as a shudder transmitted through the soles of his boots, and then he heard the deafening explosion inside the Valiant. Smoke began to pour into the control room. Behind him, he heard men shouting.
“Helm, hard to port. Get us away from the enemy,” Jim ordered calmly, as he got to his feet to go examine the damage.
As he stepped into the passenger area, he saw that the smoke was thicker. Stepping back into the control room, he instructed Lina to inform him the moment they were clear of the enemy, and she quickly responded that they would be clear in ten seconds.
He turned to the communications officer, Lieutenant Teresa Connors, and saw that she was unharmed. “Order a retreat of all peacekeeper forces,” he ordered.
“Yes, Captain,” responded the lieutenant.
Looking at his engineer, Jim asked, “Max, are you alright?”
The man was holding a rag to his forehead, and he seemed to be dazed. Jim noted that he wasn’t strapped in, so he slipped the man’s harness over him and locked it in position.
By now, the smoke was even thicker. Jim moved back into the passenger compartment where he went directly to the door. He opened the door and held on to a nearby chair arm while the smoke vented into the atmosphere outside the ship. When the air quality seemed normal once more, Jim closed and locked the door.