Trampship Wars 2

by L. D. Roberts

  Mark could hear the Commandant take a breath as he made a sound deep in his throat. “What attack?” Said C ommandant aptain S ou nders Saunders of the Star Queen’s new Brigade of marines.

  “ Typical fucking dirtballs. What orders?” Said the First Officer on the screen .

  Mark opened his eyes and looked at the Commandant and then the First Officer. “Let me think a second.” Mark took a breath. 's see “ I talked to the Captain about getting as many transport boats at the military base warehouse ready to go as we had crews for. I did not think you could get more than a dozen crews for the 2 0 something transport boats at the base ready in time to move the Quarter million hostages off the building but I was sent out here for arguing.” Taking a breath. “You really have not gotten any orders yet? I was sure I saw all kinds of officers drawing up orders to send out to the troops.” Not a lie since he did see rows of officers giving orders to troops. English troops.

  “You said he wanted 20 more than a dozen crews?” The First Officer rubbed his chin. “Well that would be scrapping the bottom of the barrel but I think I can put together at least 1 2 6 crews. Hell I don’t need to sit here with the ship pitted and I bet half the retired officers would love to get into the game for this one .” He started to turn away and stopped. Turning back “I called because the 2 transport boats turned out to be 4 but we managed to get them crewed and they are ready to lift. What did he want to do with all the cargo that is ar e loaded in them now if they are needed to load refugees? ” The Star Queens First Officer frowned as he looked up thinking a few seconds before continuing . “Well. We have plenty of room in the cargo holds now with the new center support posts installed and we are still having trouble finding cargo for all our new tonnage we will be able to lift once the engines are upgraded . Is that what the Capta in wanted? ” Then looked back at Ma rk expecting an answer. ”

  Mark smiled. “ Well Commander. I think he wanted the boats taken to the Queen and unloaded Well , there you go Commander. You sure you didn’t get that order already while the other boats are prepared . ” Taking a breath as his mind raced ag ain. Then. “ The traffic control clearances for the transport boats back to the Star Q ueen as well as the remaining APCC trucks to and from the English Base and will already be in place if that is the case Commander. As well as preliminary sub orbital clearances for you to fill in the number of transports you can get manned and determine the time of departure. It would only take you a minute to check for the clearances that should include the bomber squadron loaded with flashbangs to escort the transports. Though the bombers would have to pick the flas h bangs up at the Ordnance Depoe a few miles east of the base. ” Mark yawned. Covering his mouth he asked Mickey. “You can get the clearances can’t you? Say round trips for the trucks and say all the transport boats around the warehouise warehouse if he can get them. Make sure they are the new 450 foot long stretched boats.”

  The C ommandant aptain of marines spoke up. “What is this about taking out the torpedo bays?”

  Mark frowned as he looked up at the C omman dant aptain as he stretched . “Are you sure you have not gotten any orders either? Well. Let me think. There are quite a few details that we talked about so let me go through them one at a time for both of you so I don’t miss anything because everything has to go like clockwork when the orders to attack are given or we are going to look like fools to the damn English and the refugee hostages are going to die .” Shaking his head disgustedly. “You sure you haven’t gotten any orders yet? ” With looks from the two officers that turned disgusted themselves Mark said. “ Damn English.”

  Taking a deep breath Mark thought about what he was about to do or attempt to do. All it would take is one word from anyone to Captain Cook or for that matter Captain Summers to derail everything and send him to the brig. Did he really want to even attempt it. After all it was not his responsibility to save those people. But then if not him, who? Surely not that Bozo General that had not been on a battle field in decades if ever and had no interest in saving anything but his own butt .”

  Mark took a deep breath. But then if he set things in motion, all he would have to do is tell the Captain Cook it was an option at the last minute and let her decide on whether to order the attack or not. After all, Captain Cook had asked the English Captain for help originally after hearing finding out about his spur of the moment plan. Besides it was very likely the Captain would show up here in the next few minutes or at least hours anyway. Long before everything was ready so why bother. ”

  Mark took a deep breath as indecision flooded across him. NO! Best if he just told them that he could not remember what was said and leave it at that. But then people would certainly die. Tens of thousands already have. Possible a quarter million more. Shit! He really didn’t have a choice.

  Chapter 19: Best laid plans of mice and men ------------- 296

  Captain Summers looked up from her screen as she switched it off. The Special Forces deployed to the 3rd moon had managed to disarm the scuttling charges on a couple dozen Battleships and some 50 cruisers grounded on the moon base before being discovered. That is until t T hey had lost a couple hundred dozen good men with a Battleship when the AI had finely discovered their tampering and detonated the ship's scuttling charges. That put an end to any farther attempts along that line. The message the AI Controller had sent after Destroying the ship had been disgusting to say the least. Though not entirely surprising. At least he confirmed that the Supreme Admiral was still alive but his patience was running thin. Fact was, so was hers. At least the reports of the ships still in the breakers docks were positive with full work crews reactivating the ships even if the Admiral had to put a lot of guards on the ships and docks to keep a certain Admiral’s men from interfering. Though that was before the Admiral had been taken hostage.

  Shaking her head she heard the General talking to his broker about trying to save his investments as the planets stock market panicked with the cutting off of all communications with the financial AI. They did not know or understand that the terrible shape the economy was in was due largely to the AI trying to kill the free market and capitalism by printing money while using lies and deceit , exploiting every trumped up or exaggerated excuse that would hold the minds of the masses to bring down and kill Corporations or anyone else with more money than the poor m . Everyone loved Robin Hood taking from the rich to give to the poor. Only the pore got only pocket change some of the money while the politicians grew richer stuffing their pockets and the economy grew poorer.

  It took money to run factories and create jobs. Taking the money away from the rich only killed jobs driving up unemployment while in time , those giving up even looking for work, redu cing ced wages. Even worse were those ( over time ) , giving up even looking for work to rely on government handouts forcing the government to spend more requiring more taxes. Making it easier to vilify those with good jobs and money in the name of those that didn’t. A vicious circle to steal from the rich that only fools could buy into but the masses with help of corrupt News Castors and Political criminals willing to steal in the name of “for the people”, eat up whole heartedly.

  She had seen it happen all to too many times on other planets and should have seen the signs here before they stumbled onto the A.I.'s flagrant interventions . The A.I controller had used trillions of credit s to and back ing of anarchy groups that included , anyone that was anti jobs or antigovernment or anti police . I , i ncluding paying for expensive lawyers for criminals to get them out of jail and prisons on technicalities while suing every lawman for every minor mistake hamstringing the police. The more successful the criminal, the more money was spent to keep them out of jail. By the same token the more successful an honest politician was , the more money was spent in dishonest political ads and even suing them for minor and even trumped up charges to bankrupt them out of office. She just hopped it was not to too late r for the economy to recover once common sense was restored. If it could be restored with so many people alread
y out of work made worse by the millions of vets coming home from the war with no employment in sight.

  Though the coming war would soon change that if the English military and the Government survived long enough. The fact that most of the veterans that had returned with no jobs in sight had gone back to college at the government’s expense to get degrees or job training, was the only good coming out of the bad economy and would help in the long run. The vets not putting up with the liberal professors crap against the rich and freedom while demanding big government fix all of societies real and imaginary ills , was a side benefit. Though it hurt their grades when professors retaliated, forcing some to drop out. The A.I. Controller again giving vast amounts of money to influence which professors were given tenor while making sure any professor that did not toe the line on liberal anti rich and government issues got canned reinforcing the ultra-liberal flood in the schools and collages .

  The General got off the phone, turned to Captain Cook who sounded very sympathetic to the General’s plight. She half admired the way the Captain Cook had spent the morning and early afternoon smoozing the general into becoming fast friends though the General continued to refuse any help from the Tramps. Facts was, the General had been refusing to even do anything that could interfere with the AI. Fact was, she was starting to suspect that the failed attempts to take the building was partly intentional. In spite of the troops losses. No one could be as inept and stupid as he was proving to be while the AI seemed to know ahead of time their every move and attack as if the AI Controler Controller was being told before each attack.

  The main entry hatch into operations opened and in walked Commander Collins who stepped in and stopped, staring at Captain Cook and the General. Something looked different about him as he fidgeted with the pockets on his suit. She looked closely at the Commander. Not quite familiar with the new armored suits and what was included inside them. And then it hit her. He had a lot of equipment added to his suit including an a ss ault gun over his back and then she saw the with a gravity and thruster vest she almost did not the most notice able . The thin layer around his back across his chest and shoulders with the sheathed thruster vents on his shoulders, belt and ankles was easy hard to miss on what she realized was a stealth suit trying to hid the thrusters and gravity coils . But since it was her job as intelligence analysts to keep up on things like that she spotted them when she did look . Chuckling to herself at the thought of him not taking any more chances of having to jump off a tall ship’s platform with just a Zero Gee safety line. But then why would he be worried about jumping off a tall ship. It was something he would not be stupid enough t o should n ever have to do again. Or was it a tall building he was worried about now? And why the hell did he have a damn stealth recon suit on?

  Taking a close r look , the Captain she noticed that the smooth lines of the stealth suit was covering a lot of hardware for assaults including grenades besides the and an assault gun across his back with a not only a holster with for a pistol but some kind of smaller pistol that resembled a spacer’s hand torch on his thigh. “What the hell was he up too?” and then she notice he was breathing a bit fast as he started towered Captain Cook and then stopped, hesitating before his face hardened into determination and he stepped forward again .

  Mark walked up to Captain Cook, came to attention and said. “Captain . sir Sir . If I could intrude sir.”

  Captain Cook turned around as the General’s face turned red. It was the General that quickly spoke up. “What the hell are you doing back in my Command Center? Get out now.”

  “Yes sir, just a second if you please.” The Commander’s stance eased as he spread his legs and placed his hands behind his back. “Captain Cook; it is well past lunch and the men are waiting for orders to attack and have not even had lunch yet. Sir if you could issue orders for them to stand down for a hot lunch it would be greatly appreciated.”

  Captain Summers noticed Mark’s hands turning white as he clasped his gloves behind his back. He seemed to rock forward and back on the balls of his feet. Looking like a cat that was about to run if anything moved.

  Captain Cook looked up at Mark with some relief. “Yes it is late. I should be getting back with my troops General before they starve to death.”

  Captain Summers’s eye brows raised as she watched a look of horror flick across Mark’s face and then the ever so familiar look of her child caught with his hand in the cookie jar before settling in to the resignation of the guilty. Then pulling himself together he took a deep breath summoning his courage. “Captain; you need not take yourself away from your important duties here sir. Just a simple order for the our troops to have a.. Hot lunch when ready , . Sir. Will shelve the cold sandwiches and make the cooks do their jobs now that we have plenty of time sir. Just order. Hot lunches for the crew if you please. Sir.” She watched Mark stand there with his whole body tensed up waiting.

  “Now Commander. Don’t you think I am getting a bit hungry. hungry? Let's go get the crew fed.” T t urning back to the General she begged his forgiveness for leaving. Obviously relieved at getting an excuse to get out of there. Mark’s whole body suddenly seamed to relax with the look of a boy relieved that he was not having to clean his room.

  Captain Summers smiled. If (Hot lunch.) was not a code phrase , she had never heard of one before . But for what? What really baffled her was , why is he so relieved at not getting away with whatever he was planning?” She turned back to her screen and punched up the Command APCC they had stolen along with everything else. Only the APCC Command Center was locked out. Smiling she tapped in the Admiral’s emergency command authorization code and the Command Center’s data base screen flashed into being. She started tapping rapidly through the pages of orders and plans and requests and maps and then the screen went blank as she was locked out again. But she had seen enough.

  Her photographic memory caught every detail of the pages for her to go over in her mind. “No wonder you are relieved boy." What looked originally like a simple raid had turned into a major attack plan. Something that had happened to her several times and each time she would have been just as relieved if it had been called off. Proposing a simple raid only to have it grow and grow out of her control until it looked nothing like her original idea even though she was still responsible for the outcome because her name was on the original plan . No wonder the boy was relieved to be out from under it. It was obvious that it could get the Star Queens whole detachment killed along with a quarter million innocent people in the tower.

  Watching Captain Cook gather her things as she offered the General her condolences at having to regrettably leave his wonderfully enlightening company to take care of her crew since the General really did not need them around.

  “Yes Captain Cook , tend to your crew. I have ordered the activation of two additional divisions and they are going to take a couple of weeks to assemble, outfit and deploy. So relax and get settled in. We will start negotiations with the AI tomorrow, maybe and see if we can get some food and medical attention for the hostages. Both in the basement and the quarter million in the tower. ”

  “After the critically wounded are dead and the week and young start dying.” Captain Summers said to herself. “ Two divisions of troops trained for disaster relief and riot control would only give the AI more hostages or bodies to clean up afterwards. ” She r R ealized that the old politically appointed General had no intention of ever attacking anything again after what he thought was going to be a cake walk only to have the first series of assault s turn deadly on wo r ld wide video , tarnishing his reputation . Though even then he had been able to blame the English Navy Captain as she pulled back the troops . Now he and was just buying time hoping the AI would give up and let everyone go while it went back to business as usual and the General could claim victory .

  The only hope, (even minor as it was), was what this kid had gotten organized. But then if they could not pull this off; they sure as hell did not stand a chance of rescuing the A
dmiral on the Third Moon or surviving pirates and such in the Outback. And if he fail s now it would save England money and give her the time and ammunition she needed to convince the Admiral if he survived or his replacement, that relying on just a single ship was ridiculous and that a broader approach was needed, such as a fleet of Tramps. Even more important, since she was basically powerless with the General running the show even though she was supposed to be the Crown’s representative after the Admiral had assigned her to make sure Mark took care of the AI’s as Ma rk ’s Co mmanding officer while he was working with the Englis h . S he had little power over local troops when not actually attacking anything. And after the last slaughter , t he General was not about to authorize any more attack s . But waiting was not an option since the AI Controller had already demonstrated that he cared nothing about his hostages’ lives. Summers knew that the AI Controller believed that the failure of the Government to save the hostages would only speed its downfall. He no doubt had someone in mind to blame but himself. That was how Communists ruled.

  Fact was and responsible in the end if a quarter million hostages were killed . T t he General was being more than ready to shift the blame to her again even though he was calling the shots. He had already made several comments to Captain Cook in that direction. .