by Ricky Sides
“It’s not about you, Jim. It’s about a sick man needing to know that those he loves will be well tended, if and when, he dies. I need to hear it from you, Jim,” Pete explained.
“Yes, Pete. I’ll do my best for both your women, and I’m sure Evan will as well. So would Tim. You know he loves Maggie. They just clash at times,” Jim said.
A boyish grin lit up Pete’s face, smoothing the wrinkles that time had etched into his features. For a moment, Pete reminded Jim of the man he had first met, years in the past. At that time, Pete was a man at the peak of his vitality. “They are too much alike,” Pete said. Then he added, “But she loves you both, and Pol as well.”
“Well there you have it, Pete. Maggie and Lisa will always be well looked after by me and about a dozen others. Now, I would like to ask the same of you. If I don’t make it through this, would you look after Evan and Lina for me?”
“It would be an honor, Jim,” Pete responded.
“Now, maybe we should get ready for the war. I’d hate to keep the enemy waiting,” quipped Jim.
“I’m glad Bill thought to bring these,” Pete said as he shouldered his weapon. Looking at the wall, he noted that all of the preparations had been made, and the men were standing behind the wall with their weapons at the ready.
“The first ships are stopping beside the bank of the river, extending makeshift walkways between the ships and men are crossing them to get to the vessels closest to the shore,” Teresa reported via the hat radios.
“I expect they’ll bring other ships nearby to lay down covering fire before they begin to disembark,” Pete responded to Teresa. “Let me know if that starts happening.”
“It already is, sir. Ships are pulling up on both sides of the connected vessels,” she reported.
“Down everyone,” Pete shouted. Thirty seconds later, the ships opened fire. The enemy soon found, much to their disgust, that the wall they were facing was bullet resistant.
For a full two minutes, the ships maintained a steady barrage of machinegun fire in an attempt to destroy the defensive wall. The occasional round did penetrate the wall, but they were rare. A fifty-caliber or higher weapon aimed at a small section of the wall could penetrate it, but the trick to doing so was in hitting the same section several times in a second. Most gunners were taught to spray their weapons across the widest possible area for maximum effectiveness.
When the firing stopped, Teresa reported, “Their deck crews are reloading. I have no idea how long you have, guys.”
“Long enough,” Pete muttered. Standing erect, he jumped onto the three-foot high platform and aimed his weapon at the assembled ships near the bank of the river. All along the wall, other peacekeepers followed his example, as did Jim. Moments later, fifty rocket-propelled grenades were launched at the ships. The peacekeepers dropped back down to the ground behind the wall.
Before they had even managed to recover from their leap off the platform, the grenades began to slam into the assembled ships. The explosions and secondary explosions were deafening.
“Wow, guys, that was awesome,” stated Teresa. Then she reported in a more professional manner, saying, “The men who were assembling to charge were caught in multiple explosions. They all appear to be dead or unconscious with few exceptions. Many were blown to pieces.”
“Reload,” ordered Pete. All along the line, the men who had fired a grenade took their one precious reload round and reloaded their reusable weapons in preparation for another volley of RPGs on Pete’s command.
“They are bringing more ships into alignment for another attack,” Teresa reported. “These will be situated behind the first rank,” she added.
“Good. All ships, fire at the second rank,” Jim ordered.
From their defensive positions behind the wall, the men heard the sound of multiple lasers firing at the enemy fleet. “Now!” Pete shouted, and then jumped back onto the platform. Again, the rest of the RPG team followed his example, and again, fifty rounds flew at the first rank of ships. This time, they were attempting to set fire to the ships, so they aimed at anything they thought might be flammable.
Once more, Pete leapt back down to the ground after discharging his RPG, but this time, he tossed the now useless reusable weapon aside. They had expended all of the ammunition they had for the units, which Bill’s team had secured in Mexico the previous year while combating the rogue United Nations troops. He had just tossed the launcher aside when Teresa reported, “I see rocket launchers being brought on deck. You guys had better take cover.”
“Down on the deck!” Pete shouted. He lay down flat on his face, covering his head with his arms in order to illustrate precisely what he meant to the men behind the wall, and they quickly followed suit.
“Weapons, try to target some of the men firing the rockets. Maybe they’ll accidentally blow up a few of their own vessels,” Jim suggested hopefully.
The sound of explosives detonating against the defensive wall soon overwhelmed the sound of lasers firing. All along the wall, men cried out in pain. Getting to his knees, Jim surveyed the damaged wall. There were six gaping holes in the defensive structure that he could see. Those holes appeared to be a uniform three feet in diameter. Some were near the bottom of the wall, but most were located near the center, which would make it easier for the enemy to breach the wall. “Damage control teams, repair the breaches!” Pete shouted. “Medics, see to the wounded!” he added.
Medics carried the wounded peacekeepers to the field medical aid station.
A squad of peacekeepers, who had demonstrated their talent for working on the wall during its construction, had been selected to be the damage control unit. They paired up to carry four by eight sections of the alloy over to the damaged sections of the wall. With rubber tipped pieces of wood, they held the loose section in place while a man with an eight-foot long wooden pole with an electrical wire attached to it stood ready to administer the electrical current, which would create the seamless joint. When all six teams of the unit stood ready to seal the wall, their lieutenant shouted, “Clear the wall!”
The lieutenant glanced to the right and then to the left. Thus assured that no personnel were touching the wall, he shouted, “Seal the wall!”
A moment later, electrical sparks flew at the six repair sites as the teams applied the current that would seamlessly repair the wall.
“Teresa, what is the enemy up to at the moment?” asked Jim.
“Damage control, sir,” she responded. “There are several fires burning out of control on some of the ships closest to the shore. They are trying to put out those fires so they can advance across the ships. Max says to tell you that the enemy can’t get any undamaged vessels near the bank because of the damaged ships that are in the way. He says they’ll probably try landing troops down the river a bit.”
“Right, that’s what I’d do. Be ready. Hit them hard if they try landing on those banks and contact the Arizona. Tell Captain Wilcox that I need him to sink as many ships as he can to the rear of the enemy fleet. I want to confine them to the smallest area possible. It would be great if Jack could trap them and cut off all hope of escape back out to sea, but that may not be possible,” Jim stated.
“Will do, Captain, but Max says to inform you that we are low on energy, and so is the Constitution. We can’t guarantee how much longer our air support will remain effective,” Teresa explained. Then she added, “Sir, Captain Young wants to speak to you. I am putting him in the channel now.”
“Admiral, the way the enemy is bunched right now, I’d like to drop all my bombs. I think we can devastate a large section of the fleet, but it’s risky. If they fire just one of those rockets inside the bomb bay before we can release, then we’ll probably lose the Constitution,” Bill explained.
“Follow your instincts, Bill,” Jim replied. “If your gut is saying it’s too risky, then don’t do it.”
“My gut is telling me to do it right now, before they have the time to organize another of thos
e massed missile launches,” Bill replied.
“Good luck to you, Bill,” Jim said.
“Down all!” Pete shouted. He had no idea just what sort of secondary explosions might result from the detonations of the Constitution’s bombs released on the massed ships of the enemy.
In the center of the Constitution, below the deck was the bomb bay. Inside that bay, the ship carried its complement of bombs in their vertical racks. The bombardier could target an enemy and release as many or as few of the bombs as he chose. There were thirty of the small but powerful bombs located in that compartment. Theoretically, each of those bombs had the capability of inflicting massive damage on any ship they hit. Knowing the Admiral wanted the ships contained, Captain Young ordered the bombardier to target the ships on the southern flank of the fleet.
The gunners of the Constitution fired their weapons in an effort to suppress the deck gun crews, who might be able to hit a bomb inside the bomb bay, but the ship was low on energy, so the gunners had to be selective in their targeting. The conventional weapons gunners had it a bit better. They could have attacked a bit less judiciously, but the Captain had warned them that they had a limited amount of ammunition and that it would be wise to attack conservatively.
Soon, the bombardier began dropping his bombs. Working closely with the pilot, he was able to sink or damage numerous enemy vessels. When the Constitution returned to its place in the defenses, the enemy had been effectively contained with the exception of a narrow band near the east bank. “That’s fine, Bill,” Jim told him. “Let Jack know you’ve contained them to a narrow exit area. He should be able to plug that gap with the first ships that try to make a run for the bay,” Jim added.
“Will do, Admiral,” Captain Young stated.
Chapter 20
Bran Lynch stared at the carnage in anger. So many ships had been destroyed just trying to reach the city, and now that they had arrived they had suffered another defeat, but he’d figured out that the big ships seemed to be low on energy. They were fighting much differently than they had during the open sea encounters with his fleet. There, they had attacked with a wild abandon as if they had all the energy in the world at their disposal. Conversely, it seemed to Bran that they were now attempting to make every shot count. Therefore, Bran thought it would be best to attack the city during the night, while the enemy was still low on energy. Captain Lynch assumed that the peacekeeper ships received their power from powerful generators, and that the generators charged batteries that fed power to the weapons. He assumed that they had expended so much energy that the generators couldn’t keep up with the demand, and that they now needed a respite to recharge. He had no idea that they were actually solar driven. It made no difference to his strategy. He knew they were low on energy, and he wanted to attack while he had that small advantage.
Captain Lynch had the one remaining firefighting ship maneuver near enough that it could fight the fires on the ships near the bank. It took two hours to extinguish the fires sufficiently that men could be moved across the ships to the land. By then, it was full dark. Under the cover of darkness, the pirates began moving men and materials ashore.
***
“There must be nearly five hundred men and a lot of equipment gathered down there now,” Bill observed as he studied the pirate activity on the monitor. The night vision camera provided a good video of what the enemy was attempting to accomplish.
“Gunner, target the enemy group with the shotgun laser,” Bill ordered. He was afraid to wait for more of the enemy to arrive because they were showing signs of dispersing along a wide front. Currently, they were all within range so that one shot would eliminate the lot of them.
Bill waited several seconds, but when the gunner didn’t fire, he said, “Samantha, didn’t you hear my order?”
“I’m trying, Captain, but the laser won’t fire,” responded the gunner.
Pressing the intercom button on his chair, Bill said, “Mr. Boyd report to the control room on the double.”
“Gunner, use our conventional minigun,” Bill ordered.
“Aye, Captain,” responded Samantha, but then she turned to face the Captain in growing alarm. “I can’t, Captain. That weapon also refuses to activate.”
“What the hell is going on here?” asked Bill.
“I don’t know, sir. My board is showing the weapons as available and ready to fire, but when I try them, they won’t work,” the gunner explained.
“You called for me, Captain?” asked Peter Boyd, the engineer of the Constitution.
“Yes, Peter. It seems we have no weapons,” responded Bill.
Samantha explained the problem, and Peter began his investigation by checking the power flow readings.
Ten minutes later, he found the problem. “I found the issue, Captain, and it’s not good. The EMP fried a power relay. During the daylight hours, we have sufficient energy incoming from the solar generation to fire the weapons without the need to draw power from the battery, but at night, we have to do so. This particular relay transfers power from the battery to the weapons,” explained the engineer.
“I don’t understand, Peter,” Bill said. “I mean, I do understand what you’re saying, but all of the other systems are functioning. Doesn’t that mean the relays are good?”
“No, Captain. It’s a clear night, and the moon is near full. We’re gathering enough light to operate the ship under normal circumstances without resorting to battery power. Besides, a different relay supplies energy to those systems,” Peter explained.
“Are we flight worthy?” asked Bill.
“I’ll check, sir,” answered the engineer.
Minutes later, he reported that the flight control relays all checked out as good.
“Can you repair the damage to the weapons relay?” asked the captain.
“Sir, we don’t have a replacement aboard, but I can take a relay from a non-critical function system and replace the defective unit,” responded Peter.
“Which unit are you talking about disabling?” asked Bill.
“I would suggest environmental control, sir. We’d still have that during the daylight hours, but it’ll get hot at night.”
“Do it,” Bill ordered. “How long will it take?” he asked.
“Approximately six hours, Captain. I have to disassemble large pieces of equipment that are blocking access to the units, transfer the good relay and then reassemble both pieces of equipment,” the engineer replied.
“Just make certain that you get the weapon online first. It won’t be daylight by the time you’re finished, so it won’t matter that the environmental controls aren’t working,” Bill stated.
“Yes, Captain, I’ll do it that way, but it will take another two hours to reassemble the equipment to get the environmental controls functioning during the day.”
“Then just get the weapons online, and then get some rest. You can complete the repairs in the morning, and draw all the assistance you need from the drone operators. By the way, have you gotten any of those recovered drones repaired?” Bill asked.
“Three are now functional, and my assistants are still working to repair the rest, Captain. They know what to do. Both Lisa and Evan have a bit of talent for working with the technology,” Peter replied.
“They should. They played in Pol’s lab as kids. He used to distract them by teaching them how the technology worked. Alright, Peter, you’d best get on that repair. I’ve got to report the bad news to the Admiral,” Bill said.
***
“Thank you for the report, Bill. I’ll have the Valiant and the APCs discourage them from assembling on the bank,” Jim said.
“That’s a serious problem. Let’s hope they don’t figure out our biggest threat to them is now weaponless,” Pete stated.
“Maybe we should execute our next planned surprise attack early,” suggested Jim.
“Under the circumstances, I think you’re right,” Pete agreed. “Let’s gather a team and head out,” he said.
“I can’t visit Maggie, Jim. She’s aboard the Constitution. Bill isn’t planning on landing is he? That wouldn’t be a good idea. There’s no sense in advertising the fact that she is defenseless at the moment. The enemy can’t know that,” Pete said.
“I thought you knew. You mean she didn’t clear it with you that she’d be working the medical aid station down here at the defenses?” Jim asked.
“Hell no!” Pete said angrily. “I specifically said no to that arrangement when she volunteered. These pirates sell women into slavery. If they captured her and got her aboard a ship, there’s no way in hell I’d be able to rescue her. How would I even know which ship she was aboard if it came to that? Without a radio hat for its tracking capability there would be no way to know her location, and she left hers in the citadel.”
“Pete,” Jim said to get his friend’s attention. “Don’t you go and say anything to her you’ll regret,” he said firmly. “She’s a doctor. She feels a moral obligation to help the wounded,” added Jim defensively.
Pete sighed in frustration. When he spoke, his voice was calmer as he said, “You’re right, and I know it, but the thought of her being taken captive by the pirates terrifies me.” Frowning, he added, “I’m afraid I don’t handle fear very well.”
“Just try not to be a first class jerk, buddy. Now I’m off to get my team together. We’ll be back ASAP,” Jim promised.
“You be careful, and don’t worry. I don’t plan to make her angry. I’ve got enough problems without adding an irate wife,” Pete said smiling. Then he asked, “By the way, how’d you know she was working the aid station? We’ve been together since we arrived here, and I haven’t seen her.”
“I spotted her near the tent checking out one of the wounded men. That was when the repair team was charging the fence.” Shrugging, Jim added, “You know me. I’ve never liked looking directly at bright light, so I looked away while the electricity was arcing off the probes.”