Battleship Destroyer (94 page)

A few seconds later
the Red Pepper's boat’s damaged thrusters fired, sending it back into the shadow where it should have been in the first place.

The First Officer came back on the line.  "It went
through the cargo hold killing everyone around the transit point but the lieutenant had the brains to pull and leave the damage control curtains up and they only lost the ones not in a suit and tied down in that section not actually killed by the shrapnel. It was pretty packed but the lieutenant could only give me an estimate of possibly 30 killed with 15 or 20 wounded. "

“
Affirmative Number One. I only counted at most a dozen blobs or bodies floating out with the gas. Hopefully some of that was cargo. But that is enough. Recall our boats. The rest can make it here on their own or stay, I am not risking anymore of ours.” Turning to Pan. “Ten minutes Pan. Tell your people to get their butts in gear and head there boats for the open hatches on our upper tanks. We are leaving before we get trapped here by your Godfleet."  Jack left the boat ignoring everyone around him as he walked through the lock and headed up for the bridge as cargo continued to stream into the cargo hold of the boat.  Pan and the Ensign rushing trying to keep up with him.

"Captain on the Bridge." Bellowed
a voice across the bridge as Jack entered.

The First Officer jumped up out of the Command Chair. "The Admiral has b
een trying to get you for hours now sir. Calling every 5 minutes now for the last quarter hour. I am afraid my carrier is shit by now but I knew the last thing you needed was talking to the Admiral while you were over there Sir."

"Very good thanks Number One. I have the Conn.
You’re our pilot now. Take us over behind hulk Alpha and be quick about it."

The First Officer tapped the pilot on the shoulder taking his place and hit the thrusters before he strapped in. Keeping them on as he belted in. "One minute to intercept
Captain." Flipping the ship around half way there.

"Range to the
approaching enemy squadron Tactical?" Jack looked around across the squadron of hulks at Echo, hoping the volunteers manning the fusion reactor would not get in a hurry to set it off. 

"Ah.
4 hours until they are in gun range if we stay here and they continue to decelerate at this rate sir. Though they will still be going at quite a clip when they pass. They are more interested in getting here than staying Captain. Fact is they are on a collision course with the cloud if they do not pull up soon.  If they wait until they pass us and the hulks, they will have to use maximum thrust to miss the cloud. They will pass one light second away. Why they are not headed straight for the fleet is also baffling to me. It's like they are going to check the battlefield yet they are going much too fast to shoot much or even stop."

"What the hell? We were in that ship for that long?"

"Ah yes and no Captain." Said the First Officer.  "They just did not turn over to slow down when we expected them to. Cutting off more hours from our original estimate sir. Fact is sir I think they are chasing the fleet and not us. It is possible they did not even know we were here. Though you were aboard the Battle ship for 6 hours and 37 minutes sir."

Jack studied the distant squadron growing in the screen and marked the largest ship in it having the most guns and
seeming to have the largest number of armored decks from what he could see looking at them from an angle on the bow. Thank Godstar we do not have to shoot threw all those armored decks. If they are going to pass that close to us that fast we should be able to get a couple salvoes at them and maybe even a torpedo hit or two." We have a few minutes before then so let's get these boats loaded."

Weapons, I want a full
spread of torpedoes at those monsters on my command when we are in position. Do your best to position the torps to attack when they have to turn their ships to miss the cloud presenting their sterns at the torpedoes when they pass. Though they will be at extreme long range the enemy is not maneuvering so it should not be too hard. This may be the only torpedo shots we get at it. It is a shame we don’t' have any of those new torp warheads my guys designed for them. Or for that matter the new torpedo engines. "

"Captain!" Comm said. "The
Admiral again Sir."

"Put him on the main
screen Comm."

The Admiral popped
onto the screen. "I want to talk to Captain Turner Now Commander or…" The Admiral caught sight of Jack sitting in the Command Chair still in his scarred combat suit covered in bright red paint, with yellow, green and blue blood of aliens splotched around it and fireball blackened craters. "What the hell have you been doing Captain?  I send you over to get a little intelligence on the enemy not take the damn ship. Now it is too late to make the cloud entry point I assigned you even if you did not have a fleet breathing down your neck. You are going to have to let them pass you by. Since they probably don't know you are there. Staying hidden should be easy, then make for Earth before the second fleet intercepts you. If you can make earth their defenses should make short work of the few enemy ships now they are increasing the heat in their guns. Though I cannot see how you can get out of there now without using full thrust on your engines if they are even fixed. Just to remind you. If you blow the secret of our new engines I will execute you myself."

"
Sorry Admiral they already know we are here. There is no other reason for them to do this close a fly by and what second fleet sir?"

"The squadron
getting ready to pass you has left the main fleet behind. The Fleet is still slowing down and will stop in your battle field in 10 hours when we had expected the fleet too arrive. The main fleet is what you have to avoid to get your butt out of the ringer. The squadron passing you is going too fast to be a threat to you if you head straight for earth instead of slowing down to enter the cloud. The enemy will just have to believe you found enough reaction mass on the hulks to allow you to get there before they can catch you. My navigator says you can get past their fleet if you leave now and if you can do 350 gees on your one good engine. Thank Godstar we have a wealth of information about the enemy thanks to you already even if you have to destroy yourself. It will be a shame if you do from what we have seen you load into your ship but I have my own problems. The Squadron I sent out ahead are having problems maintaining thrust from even one engine on several of the ships and the enemy squadron passing you is close enough to track them into the cloud if they don't catch them first. I may lose them as well. But even then loosing 5 ships is better than 20 or the whole fleet."

"Ah yes sir but l
oosing no ships is better than 5 and I do not plan on being one of the losses. I am already trying to get the attention of the squadron running after the slow squadron.”

With the comm in contact with the fleet, Jack had an up dated Tactical screen
. Now that he had time he could see both the enemy fleet and squadron as well as the main Republic fleet well up the cloud heading for their entry point in a week or so and safety. He could also see the lone Republic squadron limping towered the cloud with the enemy squadron that was getting ready to zip past the Red Pepper at point black range in hot pursuit. The enemy squadron able to catch the damaged ships shortly after they reached the cloud two weeks from then. Following them in close enough to track and eventually kill them unless the Republic Squadron Commander was very smart and lucky.

The
fast enemy fleet could have easily caught the slow Republic squadron before they enter the cloud if they had not taken a detour to run so close to the destroyed squadron and the Red Pepper looting it and risk hitting the cloud. No there is no way the enemy did not know Jack and his ship was there. They were not going to take a chance the Red Pepper was going to escape before the main fleet arrived. As Jack counted what looked like some 30 torpedoes headed his way.

The Interpreter Pan walked onto the bridge
, stepping over beside the Command chair and Jack. Followed by the Ensign.

"What the hell is an alien doing on your bridge Captain and where the hell did it come from?"

The ship drifted toward hulk Eco’s armored decked bow. The hulk had the most armored decks of all the hulks on that end of the row of hulks, offering the most protection from the approaching enemy torpedoes as it slowly tumbled. "She is part of that intelligence you sent me after Captain. Along with about a thousand other refugee slaves that maintained the ship. We also managed to strip most of its secrets except taking a God Officer alive or dead. Though we have plenty of their Lizard Ape solders. It seems the God Officers like to command behind the protection of a couple thousand Apes. Though we even managed to grab a company of Apes sentenced to death that defected to help us get off the ship alive when 10,000 Apes started waking up from cold storage." Turning back to the control console on his chair Jack said. "Weapons, Shoot when ready."  1 torpedoes streaked toward the enemy's closest intercept point. The little thump was only heard not felt with the tubes on the opposite end of the ship.

"What the hell are you doing now Captain? You are supposed to be
hiding and getting ready to leave not fighting the fucking enemy squadron. And make sure those alien refugees are locked up and not running around the damn ship. I don't need them taking over the ship." Jack suddenly felt like a Space Pirate.

"Yes sir
, but it is a bit too late for that. We don't have any one place to lock them up in. Too much damage and definitely too much booty striped off the enemy ship. The refugees are scattered all over the still operational end of the ship since this is a Currier/tanker and not a Cargo transport. Just a bit crowded at the moment especially for the 16 foot tall Greenfoot's." Turning to the cargo master Jack was interrupted as his mouth opened to talk.

"Captain we have in coming. Looks like
more torpedoes. Intercept in 5 seconds. I do not understand why we did not see these coming minutes ago with all the rest much farther out. Even with the hulk blocking our sight in that direction for a few minutes."

"Damn!
Number One, get us back behind this hulk. Weapons activate all point defense weapons."  Then turning back to the Admiral. "Just tweaking what I think is the squadron's command ship's nose Admiral. Or should I say ass, since hitting their nose is a waste of time.

"Captain
. One of them is headed for the hulk we are approaching sir. "

"What?" Hitting the ship wide comm as he
looked at the forward screen that was supposed to show the enemy but with the cloud of reaction mass around them it was impossible to see anything. "All hands. Prepare for impact. Incoming torpedo."

 
A giant fireball erupted in the hulk's shield decks on the side facing the enemy fleet as a torpedo hit the hulk. Pieces of the hulk flew off scattering out from the opposite side of the hull from the explosion and toward the Red Pepper.

The bridge shook, knocking Jack half out of the command chair since he had forgotten to strap down.

"Solid hit in Tank B and E on cargo deck 43 Captain but the reaction mass seems to have absorbed most of the energy sir.  We are losing most of the reaction mass in those tanks." The reaction mass quickly adding to the vapor cloud engulfed the ship and hulk. "Damage control is headed up to try to control the leak."

"No. Fini
sh dumping that deck along with tank decks 44, 45 and 46. Emergency dump. I want them dry now. Pilot make sure we stay completely behind the hulk this time during the next attack please.  Weapons, I want you to launch every remaining torpedo we have to intercept that fleet. How long before our tubes are reloaded?"

"All
tubes reloaded in 45 seconds Captain. We have 36 torpedoes left in Magazine A to launch, they can't miss hitting vital areas and doing some damage now that we know where to hit them while their assess are pointing at us as they turn away from the cloud." A cloud continued to form around the ship. “They can’t turn their shield decks towards the torpedoes without hitting the cloud.”

"Tank
decks 43, 44, 45, and 46 will be empty in 10 minutes Captain." Said the Cargo Officer.

The Admiral shook his head. "Captain Turner, what are you …"

Jack looked at the tactical tank as another group of torpedoes arched toward the squadron of hulks. Turning back to the Admiral. "I have several departments sending you a stream of data about the enemy ship and what we have taken just in case we do not make it. It will include the masses of records and specs our new friends have supplied. That will have to suffice for now Admiral."

"Enemy torpedo
expected in 5, 4, 3, 2, and."

Space was again filled with a
huge explosions with ship shrapnel from the explosions flying across space and seeming to hit other hulks this time miraculously missing all the boats and the Red Pepper. The Cloud of mass vapor expanded around the huge chunks of wreckage orbiting the hulk they were behind including an engine module.

"Ok Number One. Keep it as close to the hulk's stern as you can.
How many boats are left to land?" Jack studied the tactical again. "Cargo, Emergency dump tanks decks 47, 48, 49 and 50. Unzip them guys. Weapons, fire torpedoes when loaded. I want our magazines empty as soon as possible."