The Sgt’s eyes grew big as a smile crossed his face. “A small company with a heavy weapons reinforced platoon with all the explosive I see around here should just about do the job lieutenant but has Cmdr. Glenn given her approval Lieutenant?”
“I am Captain Turner Sargent. I only borrowed this suit and yes Cmdr. Glenn is aboard. Now get your ass in gear, we are running out of time.”
Cmd. Glenn came up behind Jack. “Ok what am I aboard?” As the Sgt. started assigning his squad to their jobs.
“We are getting out of here while the Sargent Dundy here takes care of the rear guard. Give him all your men with weapons training or experience including the women. The women can take one of the men’s suits from crewmen that can’t even put a mag in right.” Jack turned Cmd. Glenn around to face the cluster fuck around the heavy weapons.
“Ok Captain. Just where the hell do you think we are going. The bottom of that shaft is a death trap and as I said I can’t disarm it from this side or get in contact with my crew.”
“I heard the engine room is a good place to hide.”
“Shit that whole end of this ship is nothing but wreckage where the bow of my ship tried to occupy the same space as the ass of this one including the Engine rooms.”
“Precisely Commander. Should be perfect and I know someone that is very familiar with the area. Now get the Sargent the men he needs and call in the Upper bay catwalk snipers with all the suits making up their shields. We need them for the women. I am going to grab Wolf and his little band up on the platform and find out where we are going.”
Jack tapped his Comm. “Wolf, get your butt down here to the pit by the cut out deck plate with your 3 buddies now.”
Four suits dropped off the back side of the platform trailing the ropes Jack had sent up. They landed softly on the deck startling several crewmen sitting on the deck leaning against the cargo container. A beam streaked across the compound to hit the top container burning a hole in the side. Wolf bent down and grabbed the pistol from the man, flipped out the power pack, putting it on the safety before handing it back to him then started weaving his way with his buddies over to Jack.
The Sargent turned from assigning one of his men to set up a shooting range to Wolf as he walked up to Jack. “I have watched you shooting out the lights around this end of the bay. You guys are some damn fine shots. You guys are going to come in mighty handy including helping me teach a bunch of morons to shoot.”
“Sorry Sargent.” Jack said. “I am going to need them to help me scout a safe haven down in the wreckage.” Turning to Wolf. “I heard that there are great places to hide an army down around the engines. I was hoping your group would know about them. You being a Machinist Mate Wolf.”
“Aaaa. Yes sir. I was down in engine room 2 when the ships collided. Think I was the only one that survived but don’t ask me how. Things are a mess down there.” Shaking his head. “But you are right you could hide an army down there if you know where to go.” Looking around the compound. “I take it you want to do just that instead of fighting Mechs. I don’t blame you.”
“Yes Wolf, I need you guys to show me where so I can decide if we can use it or not.”
“Well I can guaranty it is easier to defend than this place but you don’t need us all. It would be quicker and safer with only the two of us. These others don’t know anyway. I have been the one going down to explore looking for a way into the other ship while these guys covered my ass at the shooting gallery. They can stay and help the Sargent. They are better shots than me anyway.”
After Telling the Sargent he had 3 volunteers Jack turned to Wolf. “Ok. Lead the way Wolf.” Jack started for the Gate out of the Compound.
“Aaa Captain. This way. The deck cut out opening up the shaft here saves having to work our way down the decks below and sneaking back into it.” Wolf stepped off and glided over to the catwalk below dropping smoothly onto it feet first below the line of women still coming out the hatch and walking up.
Jack shook his head and stepped off hoping he did not make a fool of himself. Expecting to fall straight down he drifted across while only picking up speed slowly in the reduced gravity of the shaft. Just missing one of the gals coming out of the hatch Jack grabbed onto the catwalk’s rail and dropped himself down onto the narrow plank running down the shaft. Apologizing for scarring the woman, Jack tapped his Comm. “Pan, we are going to start evacuating the Compound shortly. I need you to hold as many of the new prisoners around the shaft on the deck below the gun deck until I check where we will be evacuating to.”
“Yes Captain.”
Jack caught up to Wolf as Pan raced up the shaft past him carrying at least a dozen packs by the straps. She deposited them next to the cut out deck plate and then dropped down to the hatch the women were coming out of and disappeared.
Jack followed Wolf down past the last of the women walking back up the shaft with disarmed packs. With his visor down and blackened Jack could see the emergency power lines running down the shaft powering the lights and grav-coils in the shaft but the thick main power lines were cold. Jack could even see the basic power lines to lights and some equipment on the decks around the shaft until the shaft bulkheads got too thick to see through to Jacks surprise. Jack was starting to worry about getting to far down and setting off the trap Captain Glenn had told him about when Wolf stopped at a hatch. Tapping in a code, the hatch opened inward and Wolf walked through.
Stepping through the hatch Jack was surprised to see the engine head deck with the series of coils he had designed to crush reaction fuel matter down to basic ions for the engine to accelerate. Control consoles were grouped over to one side with acceleration chairs at them.
“I was strapped in at my station when it happened. The others weren’t.”
Jack barely heard him as he looked around at what surrounded him. Instead of a wide open deck some 300 feet across (the inside width of the ship). He was in the middle of a round space only some 30 feet across with what looked like some 20 decks pancaked together on one side leaving a gap of only a foot or two between decks and on the other side he could see the slopping bow hull section of a ship with more pancaked decks above it.
“The armored engine casing below us and the attached armored power shaft punched through the bow of the other ship leaving this little bubble when it stopped. Everyone below here and the decks above pushed up into the lower gun deck are all dead. Crushed.” Patting one of the chairs as he shook his head as he stared at it for several seconds. “The rest of my crew were thrown around impaling or breaking every bone in their bodies. One survived a few minutes before she died. Then turning around he headed for the edge of the hole in the deck and the engine that disappeared down the casing. Stepping off, he floated across until he could grab a brace on the side of a small coil and turned to Jack. “This way to purgatory.” Then flipped over upside down and pushed off down alongside the engine coils.
Jack followed. If not for the emergency lights Wolf kept turning on as he went, Jack would have not been able to see anything (except for the man himself shining bright) as dead as the machinery was around him. Not one power line was active. Jack had to flip up his visor to use the visible light from the emergency lights strung out ahead of him to keep from bumping into things as they worked their way down between the thick engine casing and the coils stacked as far as the eye could see.
Wolf finally stopped at a hatch that Jack had never seen before and he thought he had seen them all on the Red Pepper and tapped in another code. The 3 foot thick hatch opened in toward them and Wolf pushed through the 3 foot thick engine case hull and dropped gently down to the deck on the other side of a small compartment as the lights came on in the passageway outside an open hatch. “I got an emergency generator working but kept the gravity down to minimum to keep those above from noticing.”
Jack dropped lightly down several feet to the deck next to Wolf in what looked like a living room of an officer’s cabin. Dropping his visor back down Jack
started gazing around him in wonder as Wolf continued to talk.
“You should have been in here 3 months ago when I found out how to get in. I puked the first time from the smell. I have only been able to get in here for the last few weeks without the smell making me sick without a vacsuit after cleaning the air purifying system every week since then. Simply too many bodies for me to clean up on my own even if I had the time. So I had to set the air down to 0% moister and let them mummify.” Insco started walking. “So don’t be shocked at what you see, most of it is not pretty but I had no choice. I will show you why we can’t get to the rest of the lower ship anytime soon.”
Jack could guess but followed anyway, realizing they were running out of time. “If it won’t take more than a few minutes and you are sure there are no other ways into the ship for now, we need to start getting people headed this way.” They rounded a corner and Jack came face to face with a woman embedded into the side of the passageway’s bulkhead after flying down a connecting corridor. Another down a ways was bent into a pretzel with her head at a 90degree angle from between her boobs. Both their bodies were shriveled up onto their bones.
“Only take a few minutes Captain.” He stopped at the elevator platform and an open maintenance/ access hatch to the 2 side by side shafts and started jogging down the up shaft. “The down shaft has a car stuck half into a deck platform blocking it.” As if Jack needed a reason why they were using the up shaft to go down.”
Jack saw the bottom of the shaft as Wolf slowed to a walk. Instead of going on for another thousand feet or more into the rest of the ship, it ended abruptly. He could see a man sized hole cut deeper and deeper into the decks that were only a couple feet apart until the hole stopped. “I ran into vacuum on the 15th deck with I don’t know how many more I need to go through. I have not had time to build an air lock yet. Maybe with your crew you can get through.”
“Ok and there are no more openings or ways to get into the bow section of the ship from the ship above?”
“None that I have been able to find after 3 months of looking. Though I was not able to get into all the sections of the bow due to wreckage. The hatch into the other engine case won’t open and there is no gap between the engine cases and the hull of the bow section that I can see. Fact, it looks like they were welded together from friction.”
“Very well then let’s get back. We are running out of time.” Jack took off jogging back up the shaft with the low gravity allowing the long stepped low gravity jog to cover the distance in less than half a minute as the steps grew longer and longer with their increasing speed. Finally sliding to a stop outside the open emergency hatch.
They were back up to the Compound in only a few minutes now that Jack knew the way.
Going to Commander Glenn Jack took her aside. “You not only know your crew better than I, you know the bow section that is in damn good shape, better than me since my ship the Red Pepper had its bow pretty much destroyed in battle before I took Command of it. I need you to supervise getting everyone into the bow section of your ship and see if you can break through to the lower decks. Wolf had to stop when he ran into vacuum at the bottom of the elevator shaft. Wolf knows all the details since he has been exploring it for the last 3 months.” Pointing at Wolf. “Get going. I will take command up here.”
Within 5 minutes they had a stream of people headed for the bow of the other ship with Wolf leading the way and Commander Glenn leaving people at every turn or difficult spot to direct or help the following.
Jack turned his attention to the Company the Sgt. was putting together with the help of the now returned Shepperd who had not only came with another dozen crewmen and marines but a string of carts full of grenades and weapons as well as suit repair kits but minus anything that could take on the mechs such as anti-tank missiles. She had forgotten about the mechs since she knew little about them in the first place. Though Curry the Weapons/bomb specialist with Commander Glenn’s specialist and a few of the women that had helped deactivate the packs were getting exited building mines and booby traps to take out the mechs and anyone else that might give the retreating forces trouble. That is if they were given time to finish the preparations.
The last of the sniper nests were being disassembled with the suits being brought down for the newly released prisoners that had demonstrate their abilities to handle a weapon. Most of the suits not having any holes in them made them preferable to the rest. Jack watched a line of men and women target practicing, standing on a long platform made of storage bins, firing from one side of the compound to the other across the open shaft over the heads of the hundreds working below them. Not the safest firing range but all they had. Jack watched becoming much happier that they seemed to be able to handle their weapons better and even hit the targets in good tight groups as they repeatedly changed out magazines between each shot. The scores of dumb rubber riot grenades now coming in handy as they were used as target practice ammunition for the thumpers. The graduate thumpers getting to shoot out of the gate at a few targets along the hull across the bay to hone what they had learned at a longer distance. Jack sighed with relief as he watched rubber bullet after bullet hit the piles of junk placed where the bodies had been picked up and trash cans the instructor designated as the flash targets they had only a second to hit after turning around from facing the fort.
With the return of the plasma torch Jack had them cut the ladder off of the outside containers and attach it to the inside allowing access without having to be exposed to enemy fire. Then bringing in anything that could be used as cover from that end of the bay they welded barricades with firing ports around the top deck as well.
What surprised Jack was that no one seemed the least bit interested in their activities in spite of all the Blacksuited crewmen walking past from hull and core hatches to the other side of the Bay. Even when a rubber bullet missed its target and hit a squad jogging around the outside of the bay. All the man that was hit did was stagger a little and continued jogging without losing his place or even looking over as the horrified thumper ducked for cover.
Happy with how things were progressing with the Company and the evacuation, Jack decided he needed to find what was going on, on the other side of the core and the other shaft. Taking a stroll he headed for the side of the Bay and the cages knowing that he would be able to disappear along the fencing and darkened ports as long as he maintained his distance. Figuring he would go around just far enough to see what was happening.
Acting like he was inspecting the cages just in case someone did notice him Jack worked his way around until the Shaft head and most of that end of the Bay was insight. Noticing that he could only see about a hundred suited men with weapons he started wondering why he was running away. Hell the 60 or 70 men with the marines could take them out if they attacked. Hell he could probably wipe them out in just a few minutes if he attacked now before they were ready.
Then a big hatch opened in the core directly across from him and out clomped 8 mechs with thick armored shields across their fronts and sides. Heavy point defense weapons from the ship’s hull hung on an arm of each of them with their power packs on their backs. A small squad machine gun was attached to the other arm with a line running up the arm to the power pack on the back of each of them.
Shaking his head as he stared. “Crap. We would lose half or all our forces just taking on those damn things.” He said disgustedly.
Turning to head back to the other side as movement caught his attention, he spotted what he thought was the Commander headed for him in his cart from the hatch the mechs had come out of. But quickly realized with all the flashy ribbons and the crown on his head that it had to be the Commodore King. Old Robinson himself.
Swallowing since it was too late to run. “Damn, talking about stupid. I should have stayed on the other side.” And then. “Damn. With my visor up he will certainly recognize me and I don’t dare close it now.” Jack stared at the Commodore King as he tried to find that place deep ins
ide his mind and started chanting, trying to fight down the panic that was welling up inside of him. ‘You know me. You know me. You know me.’ Glancing down at the name on his chest. ‘I am Zeek, I am Zeek, I am Zeek.’ As the Commander approached. ‘You know me, I am Zeek.’
The smiling Commodore swerved around placing the carts passenger seat next to him in front of Jack.
“Jump in Lieutenant.” And sat looking at him still with a smile.
Not feeling any malice as the Commodore King commented to himself about his new Mechs and how beautiful they were, as well as having little choice, Jack sat. Fingering his blaster at his waist as he sat.
“How do you like our new Mechs Lieutenant Zeek?”
Jack swallowed and smiled the best he could. ‘I am Zeek.’ Then out loud. “Damn fine Mechs Commodore. More impressive than I thought they would be.” Chanting in his mind again. ‘I am Zeek. I am Zeek.’
“You should know lieutenant, you helped build them. Your shields are what did the trick.” The Commander said puzzled.
‘I am Zeek.’ “Yes Commodore but now with them out in the Bay ready for battle, they are much more impressive than I expected them to be by the reactions of the troops. Sir. They are beautiful are they not Commodore?” ‘I am Zeek, I am Zeek.’
“Yes they are. You ready to take command of them?”
Jack started to panic as his mind raced. Swallowing he took a deep breath and said the first thing that came to his mind. “Aaa sir. I have to finish what I am doing first. Sir.” ‘I am Zeek.’
Battleship Destroyer 2 (Battleship Destoryer) Page 48