Trampship Wars 2

by L. D. Roberts

  Captain Summers turned back around to face Captain Cook. “And there is nothing either of us can do but wait and hope and try to help keep as many alive as possible until it is over Captain.” She turned around to face the banks of screens again as she took a deep breath. The scenes of English troops dying in the core as they pushed the bots down floor by floor and Star Queen Marines charging down hallways and breaking in doors and shooting bots and bots shooting marines and things blowing up. And several one screen s in the corner that seamed blank most of the time but showed pictures flashing occasionally on them it of a dark gloomy basement and concrete tunnels being fought over searched . .

  The General burst meandered into the Control room. Taking his time. "Now that I've had a nice lunch and a healthy shit. Tell me what the hell is going on Captain Summers?"

  Summers turned from the screens shaking her head before going back to them. "The Star Queen ’ Tramp s marines are helping your reservists fight back a bot advance that started in the Core a little over a half hour ago. Luckily the Tramps had the troops and equipment to help repel the bot assault up the core or thousands of civilians would be dead now. All attributed to your mismanagement General. ” She knew that was a lie about the bot attack but it was enough to justify what was going on without having to get into more details including the General’s incompetence. “The Tram p’s marines p Troops are in the process of evacuating the building before a fire the AI started, reaches the bombs it planted and the building comes down." Again a lie to facilitate the political status quae.

  "Oh , well , if it is in response to a bot attack. I will allow it." The General was clearly over whelmed without a clue and was just letting whatever was happening happen since he could blame others for a ny failure s . Satisfied that whatever did happen he could blame the Fleet Captain calling the shots for any deaths or claim the credit if it succeeded. Not giving a rat’s ass for either his troops or the quarter million hostages as long as it did not tarnish his reputation or position. He had no clue that the Queen would promote him to a ceremonial post within two weeks that had neither power over anyone or access to credits while his bank accounts were stripped and his many properties acquired by kickbacks and siphoned cridits credits during his time in office, were confiscated, all behind the scenes out of public sight. His long forgotten troops getting the personal attention of the Queen to make sure that they and the families of the casualties got everything they needed and then some.

  Captain Cook finely sat down at the center of the Command Center and pulled out a fresh cigar as Captain Summers took a seat beside her. Captain Cook looked over at her as she bit off the end. “I am still going to kill that boy if he lives through this you know.” Then put the cigar to her lips and held a lighter up, to it puffing it into life. Captain Summers looked over at her and smiled . She did not believe it either .

  The Transport Boat finely arrived delivering 12 addition guns and enough ordinance for a half d ozen squadrons of bombers. The SPG’s were placed the m next to the ones already spaced around the building as the bombers landed on top of the transport to re arm. . The SPG’s They were ready to fire within minutes. The Bombers a few minutes after that as they climbed for altitude to wait for permission for their bomb runs.

  Captain Cook was very familiar with fire aboard ships and by consequence the enclosed space of buildings, only it was impossible to starve a fire of oxygen in a building simply by blowing the locks or holes in the side of the ship. There was no vacuum to help. In this case the fire had all the oxygen it needed. She was also very familiar with how long it took to unload and load transports.

  Getting on the comm. “Number One; the guns are too late. The transports cannot unload in time to return for another load before the fire reaches the bombs with the fire spreading in the lower floors so fast. We only have time for this one trip off the building now so start packing them into every compartment and passageway no matter how small including the voids between hulls and the troop decks above . Hell; rig up the work safety fences along the side s of the hull on top and start putting them there. I will pass the word to the other transports to pack them in as well Commander.” Looking at the screens with the fire still raging even with fire fighters trying to slow it down. “You only have about 15 or 20 minutes before we are going to have to pull everyone out so get busy. Good luck Commander.”

  Hitting the comm to include the rest of the transports in one conference call, she repeated what she had told her first officer as word came that a marine was down wounded in the sub-basement. An emergency beacon had started transmitting. Dozens of other marines had gone down with their emergency beacons calling for help already but that was the first from the sub-basement indicating that they had run into problems with no word if Mark had found the AI yet and weather he could neutralize him or if the transports where just going to have to leave. Hitting the comm button again for the Assault Shuttles , and APCC’s and APC’s she realized that they were already headed for the lower tower .

  Captain Cook watch ed the last of the bombers lift off the top of the newly arrived transport as it lifted off and headed for the tower. Hitting the comm for that transport. The Transport Commander that had delivered the guns, came on the screen as Captain Cook smiled. “I see you are already headed for the tower.” Looking at Captain Summers getting the whispered answer she needed. “Land on the middle industrial platform with all your hold personnel deck grates down and be quick about loading. Just get them on. You only have minutes before we will have to pull everyone off the tower . Anyone left on the building when the bombs go off is dead so don’t delay when I pass the word to leave. ”

  Then turning to the Shuttles and Armored Personnel Carrier pilots on the screens she tapped the comms to them and waited for them all to get on the line she had originally commed . “ At least the battl e seems to be over above ground.” . She watched the marines and bots pulling back from the lower above ground floors that were now quite of all shots and explosions and out of the building heading for the sub-basement as she turned to Captain Summers. . . “At least the battle seems to be over above ground.”

  Then as the comm icon lit up showing that all the pilots were on the l ine including the Marine Com m andan t . “Start Evacuating the English wounded but you don’t have much time , so pack them in and see how many trips you can make until I call a halt. You only have 1 0 5 minutes I think, maybe at most 15 2 0 , just keep at it and dump them at the closest English Aid station if you can but if you have to, just dump them out of the danger zone into the park to save time. Most of our troops have flight packs so concentrate on the English after you get the wounded out. Good luck . Out. ”

  Captain Cook turned to Captain Summers Command er . “ I just hope that AI doesn’t mind us evacuating troops now that he has no bots above ground level is pulling his bots back below . Out. ”

  Captain Cook turned to the side blowing a smoke ring past to Captain Summers. “Have your troops ready to board Captain. No equipment just troops. If it takes longer than 30 seconds per load, some are not going to get out in time.” Blowing a nother smoke ring from the corner of her mouth away from Captain Summers. "Damn! If we were at the Port, I could get a thousand Tramp airtrucks here in a few minutes to help. ” Taking another puff and letting it out slowly. “ Summers, I don't care how you do it but get every city bus, taxi and delivery truck to this building now. Anything that can haul cargo or people. Got that? Now!" Sitting back as Captain Summers went to work yelling at the controllers around the Control room. Captain Cook watched the Assault Shuttles and APC’s disappear into the base of the tower as smoke continued to bellow from one side starting at the 4 6 th floor and spreading up through the surrounding battle damaged floors toward the corner and one of the bombs.

  Captain Cook suddenly leaned forward toward the huge screen. Little specks seemed to be trailing the shuttles and APC’s but most of them headed for the upper floors of the building. Standing up she took a couple steps forward as she tr
ied to look closer. “What the hell are those. those? ”

  “Captain Summers glanced up from her console screen. “Oh; aaa. Those are robotic transport platforms. Each can hold 10 or 12 fully armored troopers or 5 tons of supplies and should be able to haul at least 25 to 30 civilians easily if they pack them on. ” ” She tapped on the screen for a couple of seconds. “Evidentially that last transport boat had room for about a thousand of those stacked alongside the ordinance SP’s . Someone was thinking when they grabbed them though they usually take a lot of training before the troops can use and program them properly and efficiently. Whoever it was, I am going to give them a medal for it. That is if they can program and use them effectively. I don’t think the reserve troops have ever used them so they may not be much help.”

  The wall screens were showing mostly evacuation scenes of the building as civilians massed toward the landing platforms from all over the building. Riot troops making them toss some very expensive large suit cases and trunks leaving each with only a single backpack or small bag as they lined up to load the transports. Down in the lower decks, English troops lining up 5 abreast were ready to run up the ramps in lock step (the fastest way to move large numbers of troops in a hurry), and into the Assault Shuttles as they arrived on the larger landing zones. The upper grated platform running clear across the hold to accommodate as many troops as possible. Squads of a dozen troops jumping as one complete with their wounded up onto the ramps into the smaller APC ‘s as they backed into the smaller holes around the lower building. Some of the APC’s The newly arrived platforms with upgra ded bots did not seem to stop before racing back out of the building full. The APCC’s taking a little longer to load with one taking the longest as it loaded up the last of the casualties from the Main MASH Aid Station .

  Then suddenly half of the screens changed to show a battle in a cavern and the surrounding tunnels. A cavern basement full of captives and explosions and bots and icons of invisible marines hovering in midair or firing around corners. Mark was sitting on the edge of a pit standing in front of a large cabinet post with a dome on top of one end with eyes at the end of flexible stalks . It looked like the Commander was , talking to it but they could not hear him . , surrounded by w W ounded English troops and civilians surrounded the Commander and the AI cabinet . Rescue d English troops with weapons taken from killed bots could be seen in the distance shooting up the tunnels from makeshift cover a ways from the tunnel entrances.

  Most of the With the APC’s and APCC’s , the troops were evacuated from the lower building within a single round. That is except for the fire fighters. Then the the APC’s , and APCC’s and most of the Assault Shuttles joined the platforms, Assault shuttles and Transport boats landing on the upper stories.

  Captain Cook could not believe that everyone was out of the lower stories so fast and comm'd C ommandant aptain Sounders of the Marines. “ Commandant , Captain are you sure we have gotten everyone out?”

  “Yes sir. I have squads running a quick search pattern looking for stragglers. Though I am afraid we left a lot of the bodies behind. The English troops took it in the shorts suffering almost 50 % casualties by the looks of it. We will go back once we get the living off the building if we have time.”

  “Good then. All of our marines but a few squads then. But I want even them out when I order recall.” . I

  “Ah Captain. I am afraid most of our marines have gone back into the basement after Commander Collins and the hostage’s sir. I got a burst com from him. He says he has disconnected the bomb from the AI and will have the Professor taken care of in a few minutes. We can launch any time.” The basement screens suddenly showed hundreds of bots standing frozen in place.

  “Talking about a little late but then better than never. Shame we can’t launch yet.” The screens showed masses of people still outside the transports with the little platforms seeming to be taking more people than the transports as people stood waiting on the transport boat's loading ramps for people to make their way to the tops of the transports using the few narrow ladders up through the hull that were available. Captain Cook found herself trying to relight her stogy every few seconds. Forgetting to take more than a puff or two as she waited and watched the line of APCC, APC’s and the little platforms load and leave beside each of the transports and race out across to the nearest tower or beyond the safety circle of flashing strobe lights. The Assault shuttles taking a little longer. Though they all took minutes to dump the load of refugees and make the round trip. Then suddenly standing up she practically yelled. “Tell the damn platforms to start lifting the people to the tops of the transports!” Half the controllers in the room turned to look at her and then hurriedly back at their screens repeating her orders over and over while punching buttons.

  A few seconds later the platforms started doing just that. Finding room around the edge of the masses to practically scoop up as many people as could fit and then lift them up to the top of the nearest transport to bank to the side as they touched practically dumping the people before going back to the first open area to scoop up another bunch and repeating the process. After a few minutes Captain Cook spoke up again. “Tell the transports to close their hatches and lift off and hang next to the building’s loading ramp they were on . The platforms are doing most of the work now. This way they can stay longer as the platforms continue working. And here I thought Mr. Collins was crazy putting class 4 3 AI's in those damn platforms but it is paying off big time now.”

  "What the hell!" Captain Summers turned red as she frowned. Her eyes turning from Captain Cook to the little platforms rushing people smoothly to the tops of the transports. "Ok. Well, at least the class 4 3 's are not that expensive." She leaned back in her seat. "Though, who do you have them slaved to?"

  Captain Cook smiled. "Since they aren’t weapons. Any Star Queen officer Officer according to rank. The boy had all the ship's officer bio's down loaded into all of them. Though I did not know we had gotten a thousand of them." Marines and bots started flooding out of the basement. It took a few seconds for the Captain to realize that there seemed to be hundreds of extra bots that had not been run through the suit pods, running out of the basement across the ground at 35 or 40 mph with one or two humans in their arms or over their shoulders. Most headed for one of the subway stations a half mile from the building that had been the forward line of the English Guard troops. Making the run in only less than a minutes and then running even faster back into the tower. "Summers, you better start pulling your surface troops back. Anyone above ground within a mile of that building when it goes down is likely to be killed. And get the APC’s down there to pick up the refugees coming out of the basement so the marines can go back in for more."

  Most of the big boat transports lifted off the building landing platforms with their rear loading ramps out and open (in spite of the Captains orders to close them up), to carry more people. Though some didn’t as they lifted off to hoover next to the building. Leaving hundreds of people behind th ey e y could have picked up. The little platforms not seaming to skip a beat as the transports moved. Though the people left s tarted to panic eamed (understandably) , to panic even with the riot control troops still there amongst them, trying to mob the little platforms even though by lifting the Transports out of the way , more platforms were able to could get in to lift at the people out .

  Many of the platforms started lifting with people hanging off the sides. Some of the desperate people , even with others on the platforms trying to hold them , lost their grip and fell off plunging down between the boats and the tower as the platforms made the short trip to the top of the transports, ignoring the ones hanging on except taking care to lift high enough over the rails around the hull of the transports for the hanging people to clear before dropping down to deposit their loads. But they did not slow down or stop because of a few stupid panicking people were crazy enough to crab onto the sides. Even when they fell off to make the drop thousands of feet down to their deaths .
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br />   Though once the big boats remained hovering beside the building for a good minute with the platforms making the round trips even faster with the transports out of the way, most of the panicking stopped. Then the city busses, cabs and delivery trucks started arriving in mass. Even private cars and vans could be seen mixed in. Then a minute later military trucks started to arrive m .

  The hundreds of small fancars and fantrucks landing long enough to grab a full load as the riot troops made sure none of them were overloaded when they lifted off. The fan trucks and cars were drastically limited in how many people they could lift.

  Finely as each transport’s hull became packed on top, most of the transports eased away from the building leaving the little platforms and the thousands of private cars, taxies and delivery vans the only vehicles left for the stragglers on most of the landing platforms. Then the panic really started as the people left behind watched the transports one by one fly away. The riot squads started having to shoot people to keep them from overloading the cars, aircabs and airtrucks who simply could not fly with too heavy a load.

  Then the transport that had been driven out by the fire some minutes before suddenly zoomed up next to the building half way up the side. The platforms automatically like little bees started shuttling to it to dump their loads onto each of the extended loading ramps that had been extended from around the transport and on top. The big rear ramp roof was the main dump with the roof big rear ramp of the hull the second, followed by the midsized nose ramp and the little ramps two to each side just big enough for one little platform to nudge up against at a time.

  Captain Summers shook her head as a lone transport came out of the building to hover next to the one that had just arrived. “Damn. That's one of the damn short ammunition/ heavy equipment transports Cook. It can’t carry half what the longer transports can. Who the hell grabbed it?"