Jack was sitting and admiring his work when Pan and Chump noticed that Red was cataloging element deposits on the surface of the bubble and started arguing about mining them including how many mines would be needed and how far would they have to go to find what the factories needed. Asking Red to bring up a map of what the shuttles had found on the way over during the attack on the battleship and then the search for the missing God Currier ship the week before.
Jack quickly realized that the half a dozen smaller transports he thought they would need with another half dozen as a reserve was not going to be near enough with all the mines they were talking about establishing. Not when they had a fleet to build for the war they were in. Taking a deep breath he sent orders off to increase the number built of the much bigger transport to a hundred and hoped that would be enough to get them going. Then took another look at the upgraded plans and added more hard points for more weapons just in case.
Suddenly not sure about his plan for an elevator cargo and weapon’s deployment system. It was cute and easy to fall in love with but complicated and if damaged would prevent any weapons from being launched and probably could not be deployed in an atmosphere. Cursing himself Jack decided to play it safe and scrapped the elevator and went back to 4 narrow slits in the deck for deploying weapons and jerked out the tail turret and added the classic ramp hatch for cargo. Though he did barrow his small top/bottom point defense turret he had designed for the DDs using the much more powerful god guns to replace the original Republic guns. Slapping one at the end of each wing in a reaction mass tank. Their guns able to shoot forward, backwards or to the sides, while still leaving the big main guns the original bomber had in front of the engines.
Jack suddenly realized with the way Pan and Chump were talking that they needed to get the mines going as soon as possible even though all they would be doing is skimming metals off the surface of the bubble and that meant using the larger assault shuttles until the new bomber transports could be built in the numbers needed. The problem there was that most of the Assault shuttles and even the large Transport boats were out serving as forward bases for the squadrons of fighters and bombers patrolling space around the Battleship and Hulk Station. The only free Assault Shuttles were the half dozen now headed for the Hulk Station loaded with food.
“Captain.” Red said from behind Jack. “If you could change coarse up into the edge of the Cloud I could start scooping up reaction mass so we could stop wasting what we have aboard and even refill the tanks. Though we have only used some 5 % so far. The Shuttles and boats serving as patrol basses are going through a lot of mass and with the last tanker getting ready to leave we should save as much for them as possible.”
Jack wanted to kick himself for forgetting about the Bombers mass scoop and immediately pulled back the stick to head for the cloud deck above them. Tell me when you get a good scoop established Red and thanks for reminding me.” Jack shook his head. That was something else that was going to screw them. Losing the last tanker to head back for The Rock to supposedly remass. Only they had already sent their other two tankers off to remass and hadn’t heard a word back from either of them let alone returned with fresh reaction mass. But then they had not gotten any supply transports either. They were damn lucky Tweed had seen the opportunity and tried to run a conn on them. Jack was going to have to talk to him some more about what he knew about why he knew the Transports would not come and maybe why their Tankers were not returning. But one thing he was sure about was that he did not want their last tanker leaving until one returned and that they better damn well start coming up with alternatives to using the Shuttles and Transport boats.
“Got the scoop going now Captain? We will be topped off in some 15 minutes.”
“Damn! That’s it Red.”
“Aaaa, is something wrong Captain?”
“Ya, I can be an idiot some times. I should have thought of this a week ago.”
“Thought of what Captain?”
“Adding scoops to the damn Assault Shuttles and Transport boats. Get me the Hulk Station Red and Overseer Yarr.”
“Aaa yes sir. Just one minute please.”
It did not take Red a minute before Yarr was on the Jack’s screen. “Yes Captain. How may I help you?”
“I need you to add Buzzard Scoops to the Assault transports now headed your way when they land. You can take them off your fighters. Leave them on the bombers just in case the patrols uncover an enemy ships. We have got to start saving reaction mass since we have not gotten any of our tankers back. Then I need you to set the Assault Shuttles up to start making runs to the new mines we need to establish for production materials. You can get with Pan and Chump aaaa…” Jack suddenly wrenched his mind around to a stop. He was not supposed to know they were talking about mining yet. Their whole mining argument had been subvocalized in their minds in Dumonties and not English or even God speak. “Aaa?”
Yarr jumped in while Jack was thinking. “I have been talking to Pan about starting some mines away from the Station. We are already mining around the Station but they lack some of the rare metals and elements.”
“Good then you can start with the shuttles as soon as you get the Scoops pulled and mounted. You can also start sending boats that are not busy out to start surveying the bubble for possible mining sights. Damn the fighters would be good for that with the right sensors but we need their scoops.”
“No Captain.”
Jack did a quick double take in his mind.
“We do not need to pull the scoops off the fighters. I will have new scoops built that are the proper sizes for the different classes of boats by the time they land.”
“Ok Yarr.” Jack’s mind ran down the list of critical equipment he knew the factories of the Hulk Station was already building. “Sorry Yarr but I really don’t want you to stop production on any of the critical equipment your factories are now producing. Just take them off the fighters.”
“Captain, no need to stop any of the critical equipment. I have a factory Core just coming off the production line that I will put on the Scoops.”
“Ok? What was the factory core producing before it stopped?”
“You miss understood me Captain. This is a brand new Production Core I will set up with one of the proper modules we already have sitting idle that is not needed for any of the equipment already being produced.”
“Aaa. Ok.” Jacks mind suddenly filled with facts about the production cores. Mainly with the fact that in order for a factory to build new production Cores, it took at least 8 other production Cores working together to produce the complicated cores and Battleships only came with two cores along with a set of all the possible modules that allowed the production cores to produce just about anything. One of the dozen basic modules would plug into the production core depending on what the core needed to produce. Jack new they had a couple of extra cores Pan had taken with them when they escaped their dying Battleship and that was why they were able to have 4 production lines turning out critical equipment at the moment. But they need 8 to produce a new core… “Yarr, where did you get the extra Cores?”
Yarr smiled a Dumont smile. “Every group of slaves that managed to get off their Battleship before it died managed to take at least one core with them with several their whole entire manufacturing sweat. I have been using the excess cores to produce new cores Captain.”
“Ok Yarr. Aaa why are you producing new core factories if you already have too many?”
“Captain?” Yarr looked at Jack strangely. With Yarr not being close by, Jack found himself missing being able to understand what the Dumont was feeling or what the expression meant but he took the expression as not good. “You can never have too many Factory Cores Captain. It takes multiple cores to produce the more complicated equipment and many more to produce ships. Since we do not have a large supply of materials and rare elements, I am taking this opportunity to produce them for when we will need all we can get our hands on and have a ready supply o
f materials. We will double our number of cores by the end of your human month and then again in another month even while using some new cores for critical equipment such as the Mass Scoops. That is if as I believe and have now planned for, you do want to continue scoop production to outfit all the Assault Shuttles and Transport Boats with scoops. Though that will require delaying using the Assault Shuttles for locating and establishing mines while we use them to replace Shuttles and Transport boats serving as patrol basses as we rotated them through the Station to be outfitted.”
Jack cringed at the amount of time that would take. Not to mention the waste of reaction mass to rotate them all through the Station even though once outfitted, mass would not be a problem as long as they were operating near the clouds. That was just it. As long as they were near a cloud. Jack did not like having his forces strategic moves hampered by not having the flexibility to operate outside the Nebula clouds. A limitation that could mean the death of thousands. And yet no matter what he did his last tanker was only days away from leaving empty by the time he got everything equipped with scoops. Jack swallowed wanting to pound his head against the instrument panel for his stupidity.
“Yarr, I want you to hold the Tanker docked to the Station and add scoops to it so it can refill its tanks skimming the cloud around the bubble.”
“But Captain that does not make sense. Why bother outfitting the Tanker? Once all the Shuttles and transports are outfitted with scoops, the Tanker is redundant.”
“Come Yarr. The Battleship will still need reaction mass for its maneuvering thrusters until it gets docked and then any visiting ships. I want the mass tanks in the Station filled just in case we get a couple of squadrons passing through. After all this is a forward deployed Station and I can’t imagine the powers that be not using it as a staging base. Though I am starting to wonder why they are not using it already.”
Yarr made a face and again Jack could not understand it. “Fear is a very powerful emotion and policy maker Captain. It has lost more battles than anything else in all of history. We will have the tanker scooped up in a couple of days. But there is one problem Captain. We have been converting the Station’s mass tanks into living quarters and other uses but we will curtail those operations now. Is there anything else I can help you with? You have given me much that must be done now.”
“No… Yes there is. You said the cores could produce ships. Right?” Jack ran a few things over in his mind. “Aaaa. How big of a ship can you make and how fast can you produce them? Aaa a ship about the size, no. Twice the size of the Destroyers now powering the Battleship. We are going to have to get some bigger guns mounted than the 8 inch guns those are carrying.”
Yarr sat back thinking for a good minute then leaned forward again. “The basic hull and outfitting will take 8 cores about a month for the first, though engines and weapons are extra and right now we do not have the rare elements and metals to produce either large weapons or engines. Producing multiple hulls is just a matter of how many Cores and construction bots do we have to dedicate to the production.” Jack at least understood the smile Yarr gave Jack. “See. Now you understand why I am concentrating on Core production Captain. Give us time and we will be able to produce a fleet for you. Though we will need much more room. Much, much more room Captain.”
“Aaaa Yarr? Just how many Cores did the other refugees manage to take with them?”
“32 Captain.”
“Ok. 32 plus your two and Pan’s two and the four on the Battleship we just took gives 40 to start with so you will have what 80 by the end of the month. Not bad.”
“No Captain. We have been producing cores for months now. We will have about a hundred and fifty by the end of this month. Once the Planetary Attack ship docks, we will be able to convert its thousands of salvage bots to construction bots speeding up things considerable. Then with the needed elements and metals once deposits are found and the mines start shipping, we will be able to produce our first Supercore that will be able to produce weapons and our most advanced computers though I must admit that you humans seem to have more advanced electronics and lighttronics after repairing your Red Pepper. Even our Supercores cannot replace most of your advanced lighttronics damaged when you and your ship was trapped in the furnace inside the bubble. Though much of the rest of your ships equipment we can copy and improve upon.”
“Ok. Jack had not even asked if they could repair the equipment aboard the ship that had been damaged by the heat and battles before that. Though they had done a wonderful job repairing the hull and structure of the Battletanker and turning it into a Battle Transport with most of the refugees they had rescued off that first Battleship hulk Jack had tried to raid for information about the up until then secrete mysterious enemy, preferring to stay on the Red Pepper instead of moving onto the Hulk Station once the hull had cooled down and been repaired.”
One reason Jack had been so impatiently waiting for a supply transport was all the equipment and electrical and lighttronics that needed replaced. Though the ship was operational again using the secondary less capable emergency backup systems that lacked most of the more advanced and sophisticated abilities of the front line equipment. Making the Red Pepper a hard ship to fight if it had to go into battle right then. With the targeting of its weapons considerably reduced to almost point blank range. Jack was not even sure the damn engines would work unless they stripped out the ion coils and started stuffing mass down their throats again. One reason he was holding off even taking it out of the dock they had built around it. Waiting for a Transport to deliver the needed engine replacement parts and computers. Though his First Officer was more confident in the Ion engine working with the backups than Jack was. Not wanting to risk damaging the engine any farther before having the replacement parts on hand after watching one of the prototype engines turn into a black hole and eat the boat it was in. No, the last thing Jack wanted to do was light off an engine that could destroy everything within a thousand miles unless it was absolutely imperative the Red Pepper had to go into battle. But then that would be the worst time to find out just how bad the engines were with no time to even make crude repairs. Jack just kept hoping the damn transports would start arriving from The Rock as the Admiral had promised. But each day the Transports did not start arriving he became just that much more disillusioned with The Rock.
Shaking his head he looked at Yarr. “You really think you can replace and even improve most of the damaged equipment on the Red Pepper?”
“Yes Captain we have studied your ship extensively except for your engines which you told us not to touch. We have working prototypes of all the damaged equipment and systems we took out of your ship. They all out perform your original specifications Captain. Greatly exceeding what either of our technologies can do alone. That is except for the computers. We simply cannot build circuits close to as small, compact and fast as yours. We do not even understand the technology though we are making progress. Our experts tell me it will take decades and much work to come close if we even can figure out how you produce them. We cannot even get a definite break down of what they are made of let alone how.” Taking a breath. “But then we have much your scientists would probably have problems understanding as well. Which is why we are both better cooperating hey Captain.”
“From what I can see. You have my permission to do what you can replacing damaged equipment on the Red Pepper. We have got to get that ship battle ready again. I will send my First Officer a message to expect your people. If I have time I would like a look at what you have been talking about. Until then I am going to call back the inner patrols to start scanning the bubble for what you need for the factories. Aaa that is if you can equip them with the sensors they need to do that. Can you?”
“Sensors need the same rare elements as the big guns do so we lack what we need Captain until we find them.”
Jack could not believe what he had just heard. “Aaa You need the same elements for the sensors as for the God Guns so you have none.�
�� Jack took a breath and forced himself not to yell. “You have 6 junk God Guns hanging off the damn Station. Gut them for what the hell you need.”
Jack guessed that Yarr’s next expression was either shock or hate. “But. But Captain it is death to tamper with God Guns. To even touch one will insure your whole family dies horrible deaths by the God offi… cers…” Yarr looked down with a completely different expression before looking back up at Jack and kind of smiled Jack thought but he wasn’t sure. “We will start aaa. Gutting the God Guns immediately Captain.”
“Very well Yarr. Report to me with your progress when I land. Out. NO wait! I have the Battleship using one her factories to produce a Transport version of the bombers. I need you to take over production of its other 3 factories critical production so they can cooperate on getting as many Transports out as possible as soon as possible. Get with the Production Overseer Harlem and get it straightened out. Out.”
Battleship Destroyer 2 (Battleship Destoryer) Page 32