The Commodore King turned and looked at Jack as they approached the mechs. Not believing what he was hearing and then his mood changed suddenly. “Oh, yes. We lost both officers for the diversion attack during that cluster fuck an hour ago. Damn, give some ideates guns and they will start killing each other every time over petty disagreements and most of them were our best men. The damn chicken shits ran and hid.” Stopping the cart and looking at Jack. “You know you have done a marvelous job getting them ready without having to be told. They look like they are actually excited to attack which is a shock to me. How did you do it?”
Taking a deep breath his mind racing. ‘I am Zeek.’ “Well sir… Amongst other things I told them that if they took the other ship, it would be theirs to rule with their own women.” Jack smiled at the Commander. ‘I am Zeek.’
The Commodore’s eyes grew big in disbelief and then he started laughing. “Damn you are good Lieutenant. This will get you Lieutenant Commander at least and a couple extra girls for your harem.” Chuckling as he slapped Jack on the back. “Damn good.” Turning to look over the troops that were now standing in ranks across that end of the Bay waiting for his inspection. “You know with the mechs now. We really don’t need the malcontents and chicken shits ruining things and slowing us down. Having to keep an eye on them has always been a pain in the ass.” Picking up his comm. “Command. I want all troops on our 5th rate list over here lined up in front of my cart immediately.”
The Commander turned to Jack. “We might as well get rid of all the dead wood at the same time. Lieutenant. Fact I have a spot for a commander opening up right now and it is yours along with the larger cabin. Though you will have to find more women for the number you are now allowed since that puke Nimitz refused to take any slaves. Just make sure Nimitz doesn’t live long but wait until the battle. No sense in upsetting all the work you have accomplished getting the prisoners cooperation.”
Blacksuits started separating themselves from the formations and smartly marching over toward the Commodores Cart. A Commander came out of the cargo container that was obviously being used as a Command center and started around the side where the cart was parked as well.
Sixteen Blacksuits lined up in a row as the Commander stopped in front of the Commodore and saluted. “Nimitz reporting as ordered Commodore.”
“I told you how many times to call me King, Nimitz?” Staring at the man for several seconds as his sudden fury subsided into anticipation. “Never mind Nimitz. Exchange collar pins with the lieutenant. You are now lieutenant Nimitz and Zeek is now Commander and Chief of Engineering and your superior.” The Commodore King smiled from ear to ear as he enjoyed himself. Then issued a command to the Mechs and then the nearest squad.
The Mechs lined up with their weapons pointed at the line of Blacksuits as the squad went behind them and started stripping assault guns and mag belts from each of them and dropping them on the deck in a pile. Leaving them only the laser pistols with no mags in the belts or pistols. Dumping them out on the deck in a pile as well.”
The Commodore smiled at them as he climbed out of the cart. “You ass holes are going over to help the new outfit. You will get new mags from them.” Then turned to the new lieutenant. “I have had it with your mouth always objecting to everything we do including taking the women and the way we treat prisoners. Hell, I even know you don’t have a single women in your cabin in spite of my telling you repeatedly to get at least one. No matter how much you think you have been hiding the fact.” Narrowing his eyes at the man. “Zeek has told me about you causing all the delays building the Mechs and even sabotaging them. It could not have been anyone else since they have been locked up for the last 3 months while he built them. Now we don’t need your stupid ass. Zeek will take care of the ship’s systems just fine without you getting in the way. Maybe if you survive the attack it will teach you to appreciate what we offered you. Now get out of my sight with these stupid ass holes before I order you and your stupid lazy malcontents’ executed.”
Jack turned to leave with the rest but the Commodore King stopped him. “Zeek! One moment please. How long before you are ready to attack?”
Jack grimaced. “Well I had to start from scratch Commander. They were damn fucked up but I think I will be ready in… (Jack started to say a couple, three hours but knew Commanders hated being vague). Two hours and we will storm down the Chase Shaft sir.” With the Commodore King’s impatience rapidly turning into fury Jack remembered about the way the backpack bombs were fused to go off once progress forward had stopped. “It will take me that long to get them bunched up close enough inside the shaft for the bombs to work properly when they run into heavy resistance at the bottom sir. The entrance to the shaft is small and if they are spread out, it will be a waste of our best opportunity and a waste of the bombs when they go off with men still topside sir.”
The Commodore King’s furry turned to fear when Jack said the bombs could go off early and be wasted. “Very well then. It is not your fault those two ideates got themselves killed though I think I will take that blonde Commander Henry had in his harem. You better be ready in two hours or I will take that promotion back. Now get out of here while I go in and rearrange the attack schedule.”
Jack smiled as an idea flashed through his mind as the cart started to pull away. “Your Highness. It would be a big help if we had some descent weapons in the assault to make it look more real. You don’t need them and we will get them back afterwards when we finely wipe the remnants of the other ship’s crew out.”
The Commodore King turned half around and waved. “Fine take them.” The cart drove away as Jack heard. “You Mechs start running around the decks perimeter so you can keep an eye on these ass holes. The show will impress the troops as well. Showing just how powerfull I am on this ship.”
Jack caught up to the squad and the new lieutenant and ordered the squad to go back and get their assault weapons and mags. As the squad walked back to get their weapons, Jack turned to Nimitz. “You know that I am supposed to kill you during the battle Don’t you? Orders from the Commodore.”
Without looking at Jack. “So what’s new? I have watched good officers over the last 6 months get executed without even the excuse of a battle. Why you waiting?”
“Look at me Commander Nimitz. You recognize me?”
Jack felt Nimitz’s overwhelming feeling of despair turn to bafflement as he said in his mind. ‘That voice does not sound like that puke Zeek.’ Looking around his eyes grew big. “You aren’t Zeek. But you were.”
“You’re right. You and the Commander saw what you wanted to see with my visor down.” Lying about the visor hoping it would explain his mistake identity to him. “I am Captain Turner of the Red Pepper. I heard the distress signal and now I am trying to save as many as I can before help arrives from my ship. I am evacuating a couple hundred prisoners to a safe location as we speak. Though we are not in contact with the lower ship yet.” Questions flooded Jack’s mind as Nimitz started talking to himself trying to put things together.
Jack smiled and figured he would explain the biggest problems to save time. “I did not know I was facing two separate ship’s crews in the middle of a battle when I came across this hulk, though I knew something was wrong so I brought my whole crew from the shuttle along to help.” Kicking himself again for not insisting that at least one of them, namely Pan, stayed behind in the transport. They could have gone around and contacted the other ship. Not to mention that the Bombers/transport’s Comm not being the standard transport Comm could not be activated or used if you were not in the damn bomber. Which meant there was no way he could call for help, find out if help was on the way and in comm range or even know when help arrived since they lost communications with the bomber/transport anyway.
Turning around Jack looked at the squad retrieving their weapons. “You must know most of those men. Are they really Chickenshit fuckup’s? Should I send them with the majority of the prisoners that don’t even know how to put
a mag in a weapon or find the safety? Or can they fight?”
Nimitz’s lip turned up into a sneer. “They have been drilled and abused for the better part of 5 months trying to make them into obedient solders while watching fellow crewmen that resisted or objected to the brutality and rapes executed at the least whim and still they refuse to kill and participate in rapes for that maniac King. No, the chickeshits are the ones that are going along following orders just to stay alive with most of them keeping a slave simply to keep from being noticed without forcing or abusing them. The last fucking thing these men are, are chicken shit Fuckups’. It takes some big balls to be on the damn 5th rate list. No Captain, they will fight against that damn self-proclaimed King. Whoever the hell made that monster a Captain let alone a Commodore, should be shot.”
Looking at Jack with a shit eating grin. “Now if you are going to kill me for what I said insulting his Majesty, just get it over with. Or is this just a way to provide an armed squad for the mechs to practice against, even though our weapons don’t have a chance of penetrating the armor since they were never trusted with frag or even flashbang grenades?” Narrowing his eyes at Jack. “Whoever the hell you are, don’t try bull shitting me with your lies anymore.”
The men started returning with their weapons.
“No lies Commander. As soon as we get around the core and out of sight, you can have your oak leaves back and I really am the lead of a rescue party that should not be too far behind me.” Then remembering Red’s problem with the reception in the cloud because he did not wait for a return signal before powering up into the cloud. Jack kicked himself again hoping he did have reinforcements coming. How many more things could he fuck up in one simple transport mission?
Looking at Jack. “What happened to Zeek? The last thing I heard he was chasing down Captain Glenn for the Commodore.”
“Well, he found us and from what I heard, a certain nurse that he had raped and killed the husband and boy of, stuffed him in the bio furnace still alive.”
Commander Nimitz smiled at that. “Good. That moron has been trying to get my job since the day he stepped aboard the ship. He was the reason the damn mechs took so long to build. He couldn’t blow up a fucking sex doll properly if his life depended on it. But then I let him screw with the mechs as much as he wanted knowing how crappy a Machine Tech he was. To tell you the truth I am amazed he managed to get them running.”
The Mechs had finished running their first lap around that end of the bay with Jack starting to notice something on the backs of the Mach’s. Their packs were hot enough for him to see even with the Bay lights as bright as they were in that end. Then one of them in the middle of the line started smoking and fell to the deck. The Mech behind it ran right into it, falling to slide a few feet along the deck beyond as the Mech behind him jumped over the pile before stopping and turning around to look. Ear splitting screams started echoing across the Bay from a speaker on the burning Mech.
The 6 upright mechs all turned around to stare at the smoking Mech laying face down as the hatch on top popped open and flames rushed out. The Mechs speaker screaming across the bay was enough to make most ears heart spreading the terror as the driver tried to climb out of the flames.
The Mech that had tripped over the flaming Mech climbed up onto its feet taking several steps back and away as it watched and then suddenly the top hatch popped open and out jumped the driver. Dropping to the deck he started walking back toward the core gesturing with his arms though Jack could not hear him over the flames and screams.
The screams stopped coming from the burning Mech with the flaming body half out of the hatch and then a voice echoed from a Mech with hash marks taking a few steps toward the walking driver. “Get back into the Mech this instant Dick!”
“Fuck you Ham!” The driver shouted back. “That was the third time one of these has caught fire and this time it killed Taylor. I am not getting back into that death trap.”
The Mech with the hash mark raised his cannon and a burst of one inch wide beams lashed out burning several craters in the deck before finally catching the man as he started to run. He was hit several times by the rapid firing cannon at point blank range knocking huge holes into him as the body fell to the deck in several large holes in his back.
The Mechs turned and started walking away. Now in no hurry, the sound of their power packs seemed like a whisper compared to when they had been jogging as the hot spots on most of their backs started cooling. That is except for the hash marked Mech who’s back took much longer as the heat from the cannon slowly dissipated up to the back of the Mech. Jack smiled and said. “Looks like someone put in too small a cooling system for the power pack and the cannon.”
“No daaa. Captain. Told you he was a moron. Would you believe he left out an active system entirely? Only using a thick aluminum plate attached directly to the power pack in the back as both heat sink and armor. Then using a convection pipe to transfer the heat from the cannon to the heat sink. Hell, not even using fins on the heat sink plate of aluminum because they made it look week.”
“What?” Jack did some calculations in his head as he watched the smoke raising up from the still burning Mech. No one was even bothering to approach let alone put out the fire. “A fixed flat aluminum plate using convection to transfer the heat means it will be limited to only a short burst or a few shots a minute in continuous operations with the cannon. Less if it does any fast or much moving around. Though that is not a problem with the light machinegun so it still has a sting. But not as bad as I had feared. Though we are still best running and not even taking them on except to delay them as long as possible.” Turning back to the Commander as the last of the men returned and took up a perfect formation. “Let’s get back and I will explain what is going on. Maybe you can figure out how to get us from the intact bow into the rest of the lower ship.”
“What you talking about Captain?” The Chief Engineer turned his head to look at Jack as they walked around the core with the squad behind. “Nothing survived above the 5th gundeck on the lower ship as well as nothing below the Auxiliary engineering deck on this ship. We lucked out that the Auxiliary power deck survived or we all would have been dead by now.” Grimacing he looked straight ahead. “There was only one survivor in the whole engineering watch section on duty at the time and that was Wolf on watch strapped into his seat in one of the Engine feed control centers. I still can’t believe what happened and it has been six months.”
“Well yes. I talked to Wolf. I will take you on a short tour.” Jack looked up at the Fort Compound’s Containers. A dozen guards patrolled the top deck. All in black suits that were mostly hidden behind welded barricades.
“Ya sure thing Captain.” The Commander looked at Jack in his red side striped suit. “What’s with the red Stripes?” Looking closer at it he shook his head. “It looks like you have a standard Republic armored combat suit over the top of something else that is red in color.”
“Oh yes Commander Nimitz. The red is my ship’s new combat suits. I was trying to blend into the crowd of Blacksuits.” Looking over his shoulder, Jack could see the ranks of Blacksuits around the core behind them and then up at the Apes on the core’s hull. “We started out painting the suits red so we could tell the difference between our Apes and the Spider Gods Apes. It just sort of got established as our colors now.” Looking back at the black suits around the compound Jack shook his head. “Kind of like the problem we have now.” As they marched up to the gate Jack looked at the Commander. “Halt here for a few seconds. I have an idea.”
The kid was still next to the paint pallet with his earphones on, his body jerking to the beat of something as he sang along to himself oblivious to the world around him with nothing better to do since no one else needed their suits painted black now. Not a white ship’s company suit in sight.
Jack smiled as he walked up to the kid and patted him on the shoulder making him turn around without jumping or even seeming to look surprised even tho
ugh there was no way for him to know Jack had come up behind him.
“Yes lieutenant.” He said grim faced as Jack again had a strange feeling. Even the kid’s voice sounded wrong. “How may I help you sir.” Then the painter saw the Commander behind Jack and he smiled from ear to ear but did not say anything more as he became confused. Glancing down at the name on Jacks suit and then up into Jack’s eyes and then back at the Commander.
Jack remembered spending years painting on the Turner Joy as well as a stint painting in The Game so Jack new well the capabilities of the equipment before him. The pallet used a basic white paint matrix and added color as the paint left the nozzle allowing changes in color with a push of a button. The computer keeping the exact shade needed coming out the nozzle without variations even when returning to a previous color.
“Third Class Olson. I need you to start painting the suits Red.” Jack pointed at the strip of red on his suit.
The 3rd class tech looked at the color and frowned. “Sure Lieutenant Zeek… Aaa you don’t look like Lieutenant Zeek.” Looking over at the Commander again and then the troops behind him. Recognition blazed across his face as he saw who they were. Looking in through the gate he saw the pile of bodies next to the shaft recognizing the faces of the ones he could see and then 2 crew served weapons being worked on beyond. The Marines were spread out around the hole seaming to yell at most everyone they came in contact with as they rearranged their gear or instructed them. A constant stream of laser fire streaked across over everyone’s heads. Then his eyes got big as he saw the 10 foot tall Red with the third cannon in her hands with the power pack on her back. The 5 foot long micronic blade hanging down the side of the power pack, the Assault blaster on her back on the other side of the power pack and finally the laser pistol under her arm. The relatively small pack of bombs under the power pack at the small of her back where they were easy for her to reach was completely missed.
Battleship Destroyer 2 (Battleship Destoryer) Page 49
