Battleship
Destroyer
2
By Larry D. Roberts
All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. Any similarities to actual events and or people are coincidental.
4-22-2015
Table of Contents
Chapter 1, Assault
Chapter 2; Something horribly nasty this way comes.
Chapter 3; Mind attack
Chapter 4; Catching a Currier
Chapter 5; Bad maintenance
Chapter 6; Ship of food
Chapter 7; Bored to death spying
Chapter 8; Lost Transports
Chapter 9; Mutiny on the Bounty.
Chapter 10; Hide and seek
Chapter 11; Yet another mutiny
Chapter 12; The Gundeck battle
Chapter 13; four seconds left
Chapter 14; Mass murder
Chapter 15; The Skeleton Crew
Chapter 16; Saluting until it comes to Attention
Chapter 17; To Desert or not to Desert.
Chapter 18; Change of Command
Chapter 19; Fleet Trap
Chapter 20: The Trap
Chapter 21; But Crewmen continue to die.
Chapter 22; Eye’s turned vacant
Chapter 23; Long way to go and little time.
Chapter 24; Not that dangerous of an Occupation
Chapter 25; Killer Ice Queen
Chapter 26; The First Maze Battle
Chapter 27; Enemy Reinforcements
Chapter 28; Last of the holdouts
Chapter 29; Moronic low class officers and crews
Chapter 30; One Hundred Destroyers for the taking
Chapter 31; The Death of the Red Pepper and the Republic fleet
Chapter 32; Total Defeat
Battleship Destroyer 2
Chapter 1, Assault
Jack turned and looked over his shoulder at the flight of Enemy Spider Assault Transports lined up behind him in a large V formation. No… Ex-Enemy Spider Assault Transports with several times the armor and weapons as any Republic boat ever thought of carrying. Twelve of them counting the one he was piloting. He looked down at the screen showing the half empty Assault Transport's hold. Each of the Assault Transports were partially full of about a hundred Ex-enemy Ape troops, now called Red Apes after Jack had started painting them red to tell the difference between them and the real enemy’s Black suited Apes. The Red Apes had been disgraced and condemned to death with the thousands of maintenance slaves that Jack had managed to free from the first Spider Battle ship he had managed to strip a ship load of advanced technology off of before running for their lives only some 6 months before. Then proceeded to pick up thousands of more slaves and Red Apes while destroying a good portion of a small fleet of Spider Battleships.
Each Ex-enemy Assault Transport also had a mixed Company of Human marine and planetary combat troops (quickly becoming marines themselves), most of them also liberated from destroyed Spider ships after being pressed into slavery after the planetary systems they had been stationed on were taken by the Spider Battleship’s Ape troops. Each Assault Transport could hold several hundred of the big well equipped Red Apes along with the much smaller human troops. But not wanting to put all his eggs in one basket to keep casualties down, Jack had decided to take every Captured Enemy Assault Transport he could find a human pilot for. After dividing up his troop’s, that only left about a hundred Red Apes and roughly a hundred human troops for each Transport. At least they were all equipped with the Ape Assault Weapons and not the piss ant toy equipment the Republic troops and marines had come equipped with that just bounced off the Ape armor. That also meant the marines were equipped with the improved Ape armor that was better than the original ape armor (thanks to the ex-slaves) offering some protection against even Ape weapons.
Still 200 troops seemed like a lot to lose if one of the Assault transports were taken out during the assault before they even managed to get onto the damn Spider Battleship. A Spider Battleship now stranded on the outside of the damn diamond bubble created when one of the battle ships Jack was trying to rescue the slaves off of detonated its engines and a hundred years’ worth of fuel into a super fusion bomb inside The Cloud. The fusion explosion had compressed and fused the surrounding nebula cloud into a carbon diamond bubble that had almost trapped Jack and his ship the Red Pepper inside with a virtual sun in the middle turning it into a huge roughly hundred thousand mile diameter, thousand degree oven.
The Red Pepper (after surviving the plasma shock wave washing past them), using its new Spider/exslave improved guns and every torpedo and missile left on board, had finally blasted their way out of the bubble before the ship and its crew were cooked alive. Though once out of the trap and safe in the Spider Battleship hulk turned into a station, it had taken weeks for the ship to cool enough so they could get back into and even think about making repairs. Repairs that were still being performed.
Now they were assaulting the last surviving Spider Battleship in the quadrant before it could report back to the Spider Invasion Fleet making its way across human space. The Republic Navy needed time to rearm, upgrade and build more Republic Battleships to take on the monster Supper Battleships the Spiders had tens of thousands of. No, they had to take out this Spider Battleship before it could report or they were all dead. Wishing again for a second that he had brought more Ex-enemy Assault transports even if it meant using ex-slave pilots and crews. Jack quickly shook his head and rejected the thought for the hundredth time.
Not that he had anything against the ex-slave crew pilots but they had a problem of being too damn slow and carful when flying. The slave, or ex-slave pilots were basically maintenance and shuttle pilots and had an ingrain habit of being overly cautious when landing and taking off as well as flying. But then he could not blame them, any slight mistake when flying for their God Officer’s would have resulted in immediate execution. Jack could not blame them for not wanting to take chances but right then he needed pilots that could slam their Assault boats down onto an enemy ship before the enemy defense guns had a chance to blow the Assault Transport into scrap. He did not care if it got scratched, dented or ever took off again.
The best part was that the enemy built their Assault Transports with a hell of a lot of armor and stouter than the Republic boats even if they were a little heavier. They also had bigger more powerful weapons on them. But then the Spider Enemy had Tens of Thousands of years of experience to get it right. Humans were just babes when it came to making war and trying to keep from being conquered. Well not babes’ maybe, since humans had been battling humans since time began but still our weapons and ships had been toys compared to the Spider fleets swarming into human space.
Luckily they were taking their time stripping each star system as they came, giving humans time to grow up if they could. Jack, the grandson of one of the smartest professors in the Republic had seen the enemy technology during the last Fringe Battle that had cost half the Republics fleet and now with the help of some ex-enemy slaves, was quickly developing weapons and technology to do just that. If he lived long enough that is.
He had his doubts about living much longer as they approached the monster Spider Battle ship ahead but there simply was no one else around that could do it before the damn ship managed to make repairs and escape to report back to its fleet that humans in this small sector were actually managing to fight back successfully against the small enemy fleet that had stupidly let itself get broken up into small squadrons that was relatively easy to take out with overwhelming numbers. Well in Jack’s case, overwhelming ambush tactics in the cloud by his one Battle Trans
port with greatly improved weapons that wasn’t even a Battleship. Which at the moment was still being resurrected from being a hulk after almost losing its last battle. Leaving only this one chance at an assault to stop the enemy Battleship from repairing itself and reporting in and telling their fleet what had happened here and just as important, where here was.
All the enemy had to do was send a somewhat larger but still small 1,000 ship fleet to this sector and it would be all over for humanities attempt at resistance. That is if the enemy found out what had happened to their lost fleet. The Republic needed time to build the new ships with the new weapons and engines and train the crews to take on 10,000 monster Spider Battle ships with a 100,000 smaller cruisers, destroyers and auxiliaries slowly flooding across the Republic escorting a monster factory ship a thousand miles long and 10 Ultra Battleships a hundred miles long. Keeping the enemy in the dark as to what exactly happened for as long as possible was paramount.
Jack turned and glanced at the Ensign sitting next to him in the copilot/navigator's seat. He had tried to leave her behind on the Captured Spider Battleship Hulk they had made into a forward repair base but caught hell as soon as he opened his mouth to tell her to stay. But then if he had not opened his stupid mouth the week before to the Rear Admiral of the Destroyer Wing scouring the cloud around the newly formed bubble for Spider ships, he would not be in the stupid predicament of assaulting the Damn enemy Battleship in the first place. The Rear Admiral had heard that Jack's Captured enemy Battleship Hulk was repairing Jack's Battle Transport and wanted to know if he could send some of his Destroyers over for repairs as well. Damage they had taken while shooting up an Enemy Battleship they had found embedded into the back side of the Carbon/Carbon Diamond bubble the Battleship hulk Station was stuck on as well.
The Vice Admiral had complained to Jack that after spending weeks firing thousands of the Destroyer's squadron’s 8 inch guns and hundreds of the old conventional torpedoes into the Battleship, it still would not die. Though they were no longer getting much accurate return fire from it. They could not afford to just leave it while it showed any signs of life and he knew that Jacks Battle Transport the Red Pepper had big enough guns but was still weeks away from being space worthy again if ever. The Admiral had his doubts the Red Pepper would ever fly again and knew that the only thing left was putting troops on the hulk.
And of course thinking that the Vice Admiral was talking about putting the marines from his Destroyers onto the hulk, Jack had said. "Ya, we assaulted a hulk like it a few months ago and it was not fun. I was lucky to get most of my men out alive. I now have some damn good Spider Assault Transports we found in this Spider battleship hulk and the ex-slave refugees had taken from many of the other Spider battleships we destroyed. If the Admiral needed their help landing his troops Jack would lend them to him."
And of course the Vice Admiral had smiled and said. "Good, then I will leave it to you to assault the damn battleship and finish it off. I will send the orders over immediately." Leaning back as he stretched. "I will leave a couple of squadrons of Destroyers and a Supply Tanker to support you but I need that Damn Spider ship taken care of before the end of the month. We need to start bringing transports in to your new Battleship Hulk Station to start building it up to house research scientists that will be arriving in a few months. Until then no transports are getting near this area. Not to mention not letting this second Spider Battleship report back to the enemy fleet."
Jack’s mouth dropped open for a second and then. "What? Is that why we can't get any supplies delivered?" Shaking his head. "We lost most of our rations during the damn battles Admiral. We are starving to death over hear."
The Vice Admiral frowned. "I will send some emergency rations over with the Destroyers to tide you over until the transports arrive in a few weeks. That is if you get that damn enemy Battleship taken care of. How is your supply of reaction mass for the Red Pepper?"
Jack smiled. Evidentially the Vice Admiral did not know about the new Reaction massless engine upgrade they had rebuilt the Red Pepper's and half the fleet’s engines to. That information was evidentially above his pay grade since he did not already know, so Jack just smiled and said. "Well. Reaction mass wasn't a worry for them."
"Good, I was hoping the Red Pepper had plenty of reaction mass since it is a tanker. I will let you remass the Destroyers I leave behind and take the..."
"Whoa Admiral. I did not mean… We are damn near out of reaction mass. We may have enough for the Red Peppers needs but not even close to getting the Assault Transports to the other side of the bubble let alone back again. Not to mention supplying the needs of two squadrons of Destroyers for the attack and patrols."
"But you said you had plenty for the Red Pepper. You are just going to have to use your ship's reaction mass since it is not going anyplace for a very long while. My orders are to make sure you do not leave that hulk you call a Station anyway."
"Well Admiral. Aaa. Let's just say, that I knew that already and you are going to have to supply everything we and your Destroyers need for the assault and operational patrols afterwards. For that matter we are going to need quite a bit of reaction mass for returning casualties. I am going to have quite a few casualties and the faster I get them back here the more will survive." Jack was beginning to hope that the Admiral would change his mind about ordering them to assault the damn Spider Battleship hulk and let The Rock’s Marines come and take care of it. After all it was on the other side of the damn bubble and his troops had done quite enough already.
But Jack knew he could not leave it to report back to its fleet while they waited for The Rock to send troops. Not to mention not getting any supply transports until the damn Battleship was taken care of. He had no clue how far away The Rock (the Republic’s main supply and construction base hidden in the light year wide Nebula cloud) was. Which meant that it could take weeks after they finally took care of the Spider Battleship before their first supply transports started arriving.
"Very well Commander. I will leave a partially full tanker behind and my marines to help you. You just remember your orders and since you are stuck here anyway, I will make you the Commander of the Battleship Hulk Station since it isn’t going anyplace stuck on the side of bubble. That makes you a Commodore or basically a temporary Rear Admiral. I will put it down in my report as the Gama 13 Hulk station since that is the name of the entry maze you are at. Well what is left of it anyway? We still have not found a way out of the cloud again and the old corridor, hell most of the Maze is gone thanks to you. And if it was not for that damn finger punched in the cloud by the gas jetting out the hole in that damn sphere intercepting a natural bay, we already had access to, you would still be isolated."
It turned out that the Destroyers only had a marine damage control and security squad aboard each ship instead of a platoon. Jack only got a few hundred reinforcements to help but they were better than a kick in the butt. Almost, since they knew nothing about the new heavier Ape weapons and armor he had re-equipped his marines and troops with. Nor did they know anything about working with the Red Apes and the new Tank/medic/supply Bigfoots. Jack had delayed the Assault for a few more days to get them at least familiar with the new weapons, the improved armor and operational procedures. His attempts to train the slave pilots to fly assault maneuvers in the few days he had, had been an utter failure. Their in grown fear of making any mistakes and death made them useless.
Jack looked over his shoulder again down onto the cargo deck. The only thing he felt good about was the huge crew served Cannons most of the giant 16 foot tall Bigfoots carried over the shoulders of their fully armored suits, with the standard issue Ape Assault weapon with cut down barrels and huge pistol grips added to fit their hands in holsters as sidearms. Better equipped and more versatile than a tank Jack thought. Though he wished they had more training even if they had finished what amounted to a basic Marine boot camp using a portion of the mile wide little bubble the Station Hulk was attached to
that was itself attached to the outside shell of the huge bubble they had originally been trapped in only months before.
"We are a half hour from the target Captain."
Jack started to growl at the Ensign for calling him Captain since he was only technically a Lt. Commander and then only one for a few hours after so many officers had been killed in the battles with the Spider Battleships 6 months before. Then he was put in Command of the Red Pepper’s hulk, with orders to simply make repairs and get it back to The Rock if possible or blow it up if not. But he had been telling everyone that for months and they refused to listen. Including the Red Peppers First Officer a real full fledge Commander, that should have taken over Command when he was finely rescued from the dead of being trapped in the horror that was the destroyed bow of the ship the day Jack had been given Command of the Red Pepper. Even the Captains he had rescued from certain death as prisoners on Spider Battleships Jack had destroyed and then picked up the slave crews that had escaped, had refused to take command when he demanded that they relieve him as the Red Peppers Captain and continued to call him Captain, jumping at his every suggestion as if they were orders. He still could not believe it every time they did. He was just getting used to being an Officer and now everyone kept calling him Captain of all the stupid things. He wanted to look over his shoulder for his father every time he heard the tittle.
Not even the Ensign charged (by the Admiral of the supply fleet Jack and the ship was originally part of, with keeping an eye on him because he originally was only an enlisted crewman which needed an escort in Officer’s country anyway and had a psych Red flag attached to his records), would at least have enough sense to call him Lt. Commander or at least Commander when not formally addressing him. But she pointedly refused to and simply smiled at him each time he brought it up. But then the fact that she turned out to be an old friend that had wanted to kill him for years, could have something to do with that.
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