“Captain, Comm, Message from the Communist Squadron Commander.”
“Ok. Weapons fire on schedule. Comm put him on but blank the damage control screens behind me. I don’t want him knowing how damaged we are… NO. Plaster the damage control screens all green. I want him to think he did not damage us.”
An Admiral appeared on the screen a few seconds later as the damage control screen turned green. “Admiral Turner I presume. Interesting tactics. Taking out my ships’ bridges so the low life crews can take over the ships and defect to the rebel side. Too bad I saw right through your attempt and have abandoned my bridge decks packing them with regular crewmen. The very crewmen you are trying to save. Tell you what I am going to do. I am going to give you a chance to surrender before I start killing crewmen and blast you out of this universe. If you resist or continue to fire, all you will be doing is killing the crewmen you are trying to save.”
“Captain, the Station is turning its weapons toward us now. Fifteen seconds before they are lined up to fire.” A voice said in his ears.
Jack grimaced as he tapped the screen in front of him and the 16/8’s started firing on the 24inch turrets of the Battleships still broadside to them with the 5/3’ joining in.
“Well I sure do not want to do that but the problem is that I cannot allow you to go on killing lifeboats. Which means if I have to, I will blow up all your ships. That is if I have to, to kill you. It will save many more lives in the long run.” Jack tapped the screen as he was talking.
Winslow’s voice came to his ears. “Yes Admiral, the transmission is from the ship we though was dead that fired at our broadside.”
The Congressional Communist Admiral turned red. “You lie. I have seen your files and the experts all agree that you are not a real Commander and lack the cold hard constitution to deliberately kill innocent crewmen even if they are the enemy. You stupid fool even rescued the enemy so they could use you against the Republic. But then that does not matter after all if the Spiders with their spy’s and your help bring down the Navy. No we will replace the Republic with Congressional Democrat Communism for the good of the people. The Republic is doomed. Give it up boy. Your ship is damaged…” The Admiral looked to someone talking to the side then back to Jack. “You ass hole. You fire on my ships while we talk surrender! I will see you burn in…”
As Red slid around the end of the ship that had fired at them, two God Guns with their beams narrowed back down fired down the throat of the ship penetrating every armored deck it had and kept going, gutting the ship from stem to stern. The Lieutenant slammed the throttle all the way forward. The Station’s 48 inch beams streaking all around the ship as the Red Pepper rapidly gained speed on its remaining good engine.
The Battleships thought they had lucked out with their 24 inch guns now pointed in the direction they thought the Red Pepper would turn to get away from the Station’s big Guns. They could not even fathom why the Red Pepper would turn toward the Station instead of away from it.
Then the Battleship Transport started firing at the Station and the Big Guns started to explode or go silent one at a time.
“Exec, you find that schematic of the damn station yet?
“Yes sir. Sending it to you now.”
“Hell yes. Send it to Weapons too. They are the ones that need it to target the damn gun control Center at the base of the Station.”
“Aaa. Admiral, you are not going to like this but the Gun Command Center is surrounded by birthing compartments for crewmen and their families. Some 10,000 crewmen live there with their families.”
“What the hell. Who puts weapons Control Centers in the middle of birthing decks? They are supposed to be surrounded by Cargo holds and vehicle decks.”
“From what it looks like Sir. They built the additional birthing compartments in the Cargo holds around the Center and added armor all the way around. Lots of armor. Though nothing that will stop our God Guns sir.”
They looped around keeping ahead of the turning guns as they slowly knocked one gun after another out while they dodged wreckage from previously destroyed ships. The New Battles barges firing their guns at the Red Pepper in a growing mass as they slowly turned them to bear. The Deluge of beams growing as the Red Pepper slid behind the station with hundreds of beams hitting the station before they stopped firing with the Station’s Admiral screaming at them to cease fire.
Jack looked at the tactical showing the 6 ships that had been taken over by crewmen approaching the cloud. “How long before the last of them get into the cloud?”
“Three minutes, for the shortest. Five, 9, 12 and 15 minutes until the last one. Three of them are just headed for the cloud and not the entrance cutting their exposed time down but that means they will spend hours in the cloud before they can penetrate into the clear. There are also still hundreds of lifeboats making their way towards the finger opening. The farthest is a half hour away still.” The Plotting officer said.
“Getting weapons fire from the back side of the Squadron. They must be targeting lifeboats and the ships making for the cloud again.” The Sensor Officer was shaking her head disgustedly.
“Shit, that is a damn long time to get shot at.” Jack watched the last of the Big Guns go silent freezing into place and took a deep breath. “Ok, Lieutenant now we play who can hit the dancing target. Take us out. Try not to get us killed. Weapons, there are 7 ships left. We need to knock out their guns before they knock us out. Time for the gun crews to have some fun. King’s rule aboard ship and a Queen’s liberty for the gun crews, 16/8’s and 5/3’s that knock out the most 18 inch guns. God Guns, if you get a broadside shot take out the main and auxiliary/emergency Command Bridges on the ones you have not hit yet.”
“But Captain! The Admiral said he had packed crewmen on the bridge.” The Comm Officer said.
Jack was pushed to the side of the Command Chair while the rest of the bridge crew tried to keep their hands on their controls as the ship made a hard sudden turn.
“He did not have time to do it Lieutenant. All he had time for was to get off the Officer and security decks and down to the emergency bridge. If taking out the main bridge on a few of the ships does not work then we can take out the emergency bridge just ahead of the engines below the fusion core and hanger. As automated as they are, without at least one of the emergency bridge control decks, I don’t think they will be able to control anything let alone shoot at anyone.” Jack felt light headed for a second as he floated up into his straps before being slammed back down into his Chair.
“Captain, life boats that have to be from the ship we gutted the core on are headed for the cloud. I think that is what the other ships were shooting at.” The Sensor operator said surprised as 24 inch beams started streaking past the Red Pepper. “They are shooting at us now with their 24’s but the 5 inch and point defense guns are still shooting at the life boats.” The Space around the ship looked thick enough with beams to walk on as they were thrown to the side again.
“Ok, well we are at extreme range of our point defenses but let’s see what they can do. Same prizes for the 3/2’s and below for taking out their 5 inch guns and below along with missiles and torpedoes. No sense in holding onto the small fighter attack missiles, they should be able to take out their smaller point defense turrets. Let’s get the torpedoes and large attack missiles going, on the 24 inch guns as well.”
The ship shook. “Hit in Cargo hold 23 C, the Core and 22 F, from a through and through Captain.” The Damage control officer said. “They have to hit us close to dead on at 90% to penetrate otherwise the beams just bounce or reflect off the Crystal Hull coating the ex-slaves put on repairing the ship 7 months ago Captain. Averaging 1 penetration in roughly every couple dozen hits sir.” Looking down at his screen. “The bots are already making repairs in the hull and holds.”
“How is engineering doing repairing the damaged Engine?”
“I am afraid it is total lose Captain. We were hit by 2 beams only feet apart that must h
ave been from one turret. We are lucky the beams did not cross and that the engine and the extra armor the slaves added absorbed all the energy before the beams got to the Fusion Core. Another couple of feet and we would not be here Captain. But the engine is slagged from one end to the other. No chance of repairing it outside of Space Dock.”
Jack cringed at that and then frowned as he realized that most of the guns were not firing and the ones that were only got a few rounds off at a time. It took Jack a few seconds to realize that the guns could not train fast enough to keep up with the rapid maneuvering the Lieutenant was putting the ship through as Jack felt light headed again growing taller in the seat for a second. “Lieutenant, you need to be a little less violent in your maneuvering the guns can’t keep up with you.”
“To bad Jack. Every time I slow down for the guns we get hit.” The Lieutenant barked getting a raised eyebrow from Jack.
Jack frowned. As he thought for a few seconds. “Damn, we were hit by the ship we blew the main bridge out of because it stayed put while we moved into its firing line. Yes that’s it. Weapons. Zone the guns.” Jack started taping on his screen which was made difficult as he was jerked from side to side and up and down.
“Zone Captain?” the Weapons Officer glanced at Jack baffled.
Jack tapped what he had done on the screen over to the Weapons Officer. “Yes, aim each turret and weapon around the ship in these fixed arcs according to their placement on the hull and enable rapid burst fire. When Red maneuvers around where that Zone points at the enemy ships, they shoot at their target using rapid burst fire then recharge when the ship maneuvers away where the turrets in the next Zone can fire their bursts before the ship turns away for another Zone to facing the enemy. Get the electrical Engineers on the boards to direct emergency power to the firing guns.”
It took a minute before everything was set up but finally a constant stream of laser shells streaked out toward the enemy ships and 24inch turrets started falling silent though it took several minutes before the torrent of laser shots around the ship lessened. The number of hits the ship was taking and bouncing off growing fewer and fewer as did the penetrations.
Jack grimaces as another beam penetrated the bow. “How long before the ships and boats are in the cloud Tactical?”
“With them concentrating on us Captain. All 4 remaining ships are now headed for the finger entrance instead of the cloud. Another 15 minutes Captain. The last of the original lifeboats are about the same distance except for the ones from the Gutted Battleship. I still don’t see how anyone survived that unless they were sitting in the damn lifeboats waiting for a chance to escape when our God Guns gutted the Command ship. Which I suppose is possible. Something I might do if I had been shanghaied.”
The God Guns fired as the ship finally out ran the stationary but turning Battleships. Finally getting broadside of them after closing the distance. The two ships targeted went silent as their main and auxiliary command decks where destroyed.
A few cheered at the sudden lessoning of the beams around Red. Then the bridge crew groaned as the 2 battleships started firing again a few seconds later. Though their shots did not seem to be as accurate.
Then Jack was almost thrown out of his chair as the Comm officer’s seat strap broke and was thrown across the bridge.
“Two. No, 3 hits Stern quarter Captain. Heavy damage to hanger deck and main gun deck, turret 162 has been knocked out. Damage control and repair crews on the way.”
A medic was suddenly running up to the Comm officer laying on the deck as she took out a bag that grew into a net with weights around the edges. Twirling it around to spread it out using centrifugal force of the weights, she dropped it over the patient. The mag clamp weights around the edges sucked themselves down onto the deck. Diving under the close side of the net before the mag clamps jerked it down over the two of them. The last magclamp jerked down to the deck just in time for the medic and here comatose patient both floated up away from the deck a couple of inches before being slammed back down without further harm. The medic then threw more clamps onto the deck attaching first her patient to the deck as she again drifted up into the net for a few seconds and then herself. She touched something on her arm and the net expanded out to let her kneel over her patient with the straps now holding her and her patient down.
“Damn it Lieutenant, we are getting to close to the damn squadron. Back us off and be quick about it.”
The God Guns fired again taking out a second set of Command decks giving them another few seconds of reduced laser shots streaking past the ship but again the 2 ships started shooting again to join the rest.
“Damn it Weapons, you were supposed to take out the damn Emergency Bridge on the two ships we just hit not 2 other damn ships Command decks.
The Red Pepper suddenly shook as the lights went out for a fraction of a second and half the bridge crew were twisted in their seats.
Jack immediately knew their last engine had been hit and knocked out even though they still had gravity but he did not know how bad the damage was yet.
“Engine 1 damaged and down Captain. We have no propulsion. Trying to contact Engineering Control now.”
Jack turned away from the damaged control board. He could not remember turning to look at it but he was looking at it before the ship had stopped shaking from the hit and from what the engine section was showing, it was going to take a while to repair, if it even could be without a yard.
“The ship was turned away from the squadron when a damn fricking 24 inch beam got lucky.” Jack growled in disbelief. “Lieutenant get us turned around facing the damn squadron. Weapons target the damn cores now before they can finish turning toward us. God Guns slag the Battleships.” The only crew Jack was interested in saving now was the Red Pepper’s. Wishing now he had thought that when they lost the first engine. The advantage of having 4 engines of the Battleships.
“Captain, without the engine cores, it will take 2 minutes to charge the God Guns.” The Weapons Officer said after changing primary targets for the 16’s.
Jack already knew that. “Well, hope we are still alive by then.” Jack suddenly realized that was the most stupid thing for a damn Captain to ever say to a crew. “Don’t worry. Now that we are not maneuvering all our guns can target the enemy. They don’t stand a chance.” Jack smiled as he watched beam after beam start hitting the Red Pepper and reflect off her crystal coated hull as she slowly turned back around taking her time now that she did not have a main engine for maneuvering power.
A sudden fusion explosion blinded Jack for a second since he was looking through the hull at the ship when it exploded trying to decide which ship was more damaged than the rest to concentrate their fire on. Slapping his hand over his eyes as he turned around away from the fireball he did not see the ships closest to it get pushed to one side by the expanding fireball. The problem with tight formations.
“One ship’s rear section has vaporized leaving the shield decks. Five ships left Captain. Two more are damaged and stopped firing.” The Tactical Officer said. “That leaves only 3 ships now firing at us.”
The ship shook again from another penetrating hit with another only seconds after that as a dozen more simply glanced off.
It took Jack a good minute to see again as the ship suffered hit after hit and damage reports flooded in.
And then the report Jack dreaded the most. “Port God Gun hit dead center down its throat. The beam went up the fucking center sir. It is out of commission for good. Other 3 God Guns 10 seconds from firing.”
The ship shuddered again from another hit and then the God Guns fired. The odd gun firing a fraction of a second ahead of the other two. The asymmetrical recoil without an engine to counter its recoil for balance, knocked the ship into a tumbling end over end tumble, dragging the other pair of God Guns on opposite sides just far enough off their targets to miss.
As the ship the God Gun had targeted exploded into another fireball that rapidly slid to the side Ja
ck turned to the Weapons Officer. “Zone the guns and burst mode again when the ship comes around.” Shaking his head. “And cross connect the number 2 God Gun to the destroyed gun’s capacitors. Number One do what is needed to get it done. Lieutenant, role the ship on its long center line access and put the number 2 God Gun on the opposite side lined up on the inside of the tumble. It is the only thing that can stop us from tumbling before the ship gets destroyed. We have to get the bow pointed at the enemy again.” Jack hit the ship wide comm. “This is the Captain. All none essential personnel prepare to vacate the bow of the ship on my orders. I repeat all none essential personnel prepare to evacuate the bow on my orders. Out.” The rebuilt bow after being destroyed in one of the first battles with the Spider Battleships (before Jack was given Command of the hulk to try to repair), was now the most armored part of the ship. But it had to be pointed toward the enemy to do any good. Which was when Jack would order the evacuation if they ever managed to get the ship stabilized again. At the moment sending the crew down the length of the ship through the lightly armored tank decks was far too risky.
The ship shuddered again from another penetrating hit amidships.
“Three point defense turrets knocked out. Deck 76. The beam entered at one turret and continued sideways knocking out 2 more before it hit the hull again and burned its way back out. Five dead that were reloading missiles reported so far. Sounds like they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time when a beam scored a lucky hit directly on the point defense turrets weak point instead of being deflected.”
Another direct hit shook the ship as beam after beam with glancing hits was reflected off the hull. The glancing hits coming more rapidly by the second with the limited fire the Red Pepper was able to put out against the remaining 2 Battleships that were now able to present the thick multiple armored decked bows to target the Red Pepper, allowing them to fire all their guns with no restrictions.
“God Gun lined up on Weapons mark Captain.” The Lieutenant said. “When the cross connect is in, we can take out another bad guy and stop the Tumble Sir. Should leave us pointed at the squadron.”
Battleship Destroyer 2 (Battleship Destoryer) Page 124