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“Open hailing comm to the Squadron.” Jack said after taking a deep breath.
“Hailing Comm on Captain.”
“Vice Admiral Ditzen. This is Temp. Vice Admiral Turner, Commander of Research Basestation Hulk of the Gama 13 Entrance Way. You will prepare to be boarded for inspection according to Republic regulations.”
The Vice Admiral appeared on the comm screen. “I am Vice Admiral Ditzen. You will surrender your ships and your crews or we will destroy you. We are directly over you so you cannot escape. You have 30 seconds to comply.”
“Republic stations do not surrender even to friendly forces. If you fire at us we will defend ourselves Vice Admiral Ditzen, if that is truly who you are. All you have to do is let us confirm your identity and that you are not under duress and you can dock with the station. We do not need to surrender to you.”
“You think I am stupid boy. You are on an Enemy Battleship being forced to betray your planet. Tell your captors you call Spider Gods, we will not be fooled. Surrender your slaves or die. I know from your own reports that your monster guns do not work. We will destroy the enemy battleships and then hunt down your other ships that have run away like the yellow pigs they are and kill them as well. Surrender your slaves and you can survive for a few days until your court-martial on charges of treason. I am looking forward to presiding over your Court-martial and then your execution.”
“My, you have a twisted mind whoever you are. You won’t even let a little innocent shuttle dock to examine your identity but we are supposed to surrender to you. It sounds like you are the one being forced to betray the Republic. Are you a lying traitor Ditzen if that is truly who you are?”
“You are the traitor you bastard. All Battleships open fire!” He screamed.
With the 8 Battleships pointed at the newly Commissioned Base Station, they were able to fire a total of 480 guns with 24 inch beams that immediately hit the hard armored top deck of the Ex enemy Battleship that was facing them. Twenty four torpedoes left the tubes of each of the 8 battleships sending 192 torpedoes streaking out and then down toward the Battleship station. The little signature on the nose cone of each torpedo faithfully reproduced from the construction plans used to produce them. The torpedo’snew black hole warheads guaranteed to do tremendous damage to the Battleship Station below them. With the little 2 inch long signature (Designed to get the job done by Jack Turner and Carle Hooch) etched around the little sensor dome put there late at night for a laugh, not expecting it to be left there for production.
The 480 beams of the 24 inch guns lanced out hitting the shield deck without doing more than pockmarking the face of the shield deck with small craters the diameter of the 18 inch beam but less than an inch deep.
The Torpedos were programed to ignore the shields decks after the failures of the old torpedoes to damage them during the failed fleet attack a half year before. The Torpedoes were programed to hit the sides of the Battleship Basestation. The 192 torpedoes rapidly accelerated taking themselves far out and around the shield decks. At hundreds of Gees of acceleration, it only took a quarter minute for the torpedo’s to arc out a thousand miles to the side and then back toward the Station only 500 miles below the Squadron of Battleships.
“Captain Turner, the point defenses on both battleships are shut down.”
“What the hell? Get them back up. Those new torpedoes will tear this station apart.”
Jack and the bridge crew watched the approaching torpedoes as the weapons tech’s work with their fingers flying over their consoles.
Hitting the Base station’s comm. “Crew, brace for impact. We have a couple hundred torpedoes headed for us.”
The torpedoes were only a second away as Jack cringed trying to brace himself for the impact. “
Suddenly 910 Heavy Armored Gun Sleds fired up from prepared positions in the rocks in a two mile wide ring around the Station. The plasma balls streaking up to intercept the torpedoes ignoring the flares and chaff and counter measures designed to foil the sophisticated sensors of normal point defenses. Only the sleds were not using normal sensors. The Mark One Eyeballs of the gunners assisted with the best targeting computers Human and Slave engineers could make grouping several widely spaced sleds onto the same target providing the pin point position and speed of each torpedo, allowing the cooperating computers to started taking out each targeted torpedo in only a few shots. Allowing the gunners to go onto the next except there were no next. None of the torpedo’s made it closer than a hundred miles to the Station.
Thirty seconds later a second salvo of 480 guns again fired at the shields and again they did no appreciable damage.
After two more wasted torpedo salvo’s over the next 10 minutes with the closest not getting within 300 miles of the Basestation, another 190 (2 launch tubes getting fouled during reloading) torpedoes were launched but this time they raced away from the ships. Streaking up away from the Station and then turning around and slowing to a stop and then turned off their engines. Thirty seconds later another salvo of guns streaked away from the ships. It took 3 minutes before another salvo of torpedoes were fired as the guns kept hammering away. The guns still doing no appreciable damage while the torpedoes joined the second salvo and sat there.
“Captain Turner, we have isolated the problem with the point defense guns. The control and sensor programs have been wiped. Another program has been downloaded in its place but has not been activated.”
“Well activate it then.”
“We are trying but it looks like something happened during the down load as pieces of the program seem to be missing. We can’t activate programing that is not complete. We are trying to fill the voids, the missing pieces but it will take time since we don’t know what all is missing. We are having to go from one stoppage to the next filing in the gaps as we go.”
After the 13rd salvo with the 24inch guns, the smaller 5” and 3” guns of the Battleships started plastering the 2 mile wide ring around the Basestation but the area had already been cleared by the Heavy Armored Gun Sleds as soon as the first waves of torpedoes had been eliminated and the torpedoes started massing. The gunsleds moving deeper into the rocks between each of the first salvos. The mining equipment long moved to other mining sights in preparation for the battle the day before. Not one gun had yet fired at the attacking Squadron as Admiral Halsey started screaming at the tactical screen. “Fire on the damn son of a bitch Turner. What are you waiting for?
“Zoote put me through to Turner for crying out loud.” Looking up across his desk but the Hippie Zoote had disappeared during the first torpedo attack.
The 17th salvo of 18inch guns suddenly streaked down missing the shields and joined the smaller 5” and 3” guns hitting the area close around the ship where the gunsleds had been. The big 24inch gun’s defused beams designed to destroy light armored targets over a large area, melted an area of rock and metals some 50 feet in diameter and 20 feet deep. Vaporizing the lighter softer materials and slag off into the vacuum of space and leaving the heavy liquidized metals to be sorted by the electronic meteor and rock shields of the Battleship Station as they started to cool and solidify at different temperatures, clumping them into parallel line streaks by weight. In short, refining the ores in each melted pool for easy retrieval later by simply pulling up the whole solidified melt and peeling off the layers.
Twenty Five more broadsides turned a ragged 2 mile diameter ring around the Station into a cauldron while the mass of torpedo’s sitting some Five thousand miles to the sides around the Squadron had grown to over 1700 torpedoes.
“Where the hell are the point defense guns?” Demanded Jack. There was no way only 910 gunsleds could take out almost two thousand torpedoes in only the 15 to 20 seconds it would take for the torpedoes to reach the station without the help of the point defenses of the station.
Jack had been hoping that the Vice Admiral would simply give up but with the mass of torpedoes growing every three
minutes, Jack finally gave that hope up. The problem was he had planned on the Vice Admiral wasting his torpedoes’ sending salvo after salvo at the Battleship Station with the gunsleds and the point defenses taking each salvo out over a long period of time. Then when the Vice Admiral ran out of torpedoes, Jack would order the ships in to take out the 8 Battleships engines and 24inch guns safe from torpedo attacks. He had been pleasantly surprised when the Gunsleds took out the first salvos on their own. But knew as the number of torpedoes grew waiting to attack in one mass, that even with the help of the point defenses of the Battleship Station (even if they could reactivate the targeting system), taking out that many torpedoes in the few seconds they had was impossible. Yet if he ordered the ships and fighters in to attack now. Some of the torpedoes would likely be retargeted and hit the refugee packed ships. If something had to be destroyed, he decided that the all but empty station with only a skeleton crew had to be the one that suffered. The irony of the bare bones crew running the station being called a skeleton crew before they were even dead making him chuckle. At least they would all die to become their name sake together.
Jack hit the Comm trying to keep his hands from shaking and his voice level as terror raced through him. “Captain Glenn. You may start your attack as the torpedoes hit the Station. Don’t limit targeting to the guns and engines as planned. Take that son of a bitch out including the assault transports, so they can’t follow or report you. Then pick up the ground forces and head for Earth and the Asteroid Basestation Factory. Admiral Halsey should protect you once you get there. You are going to need to upgrade and improve the new Battleship Destroyers coming out of the factories there.” At least he had finished the design for the new Destroyer.
Jack knew that if they built enough of them and they found competent Commanders, they could defeat the enemy. At least he hoped anyway. He would just have to settle for believing that when the torpedoes’ hit. The fact that he had helped design the torpedoes that were going to kill him making him smile again as he shook his head.
Tapping the Station wide Comm. “Now here this, our point defenses are out and we have no defense against the Torpedoes massing to attack the Station. Torpedoes I am sorry to admit I designed with new black hole warheads that should tear these Battleships apart though they have not been tested yet in live combat. This will be the first time against a Spider Battleship so at least the Republic will benefit in some small way though I wish we weren’t here to see it firsthand.” Jack studied the ring of fire hitting the surface of the bubble around the station. “I won’t order the Station abandoned since I don’t think any escape pods would make it through that deluge surrounding the station. You have my permission to abandon your posts and seek shelter in the core wherever you think may be survivable. It has been an honor serving with you. Good luck and my Godstar be with you. Captain Turner out.” Jack headed for the exit with the bridge crew starting to follow and then stopped at the hatch. Letting out a little Growl he turned around and headed back and sat down at the empty point defense station.
“Captain, what are you doing? The Sick bay is the best protected compartment in the ship. We only have a few minutes to get there.”
“You all go. I hate just sitting around. I am going to see if I can’t get the damn point defense systems running. If I can take out a few of the torpedoes it may allow you guys to survive in Sickbay. Now get going.”
The Point defense Officer stepped up to Jack. “Captain if you please. I know a lot more about the system programing than you. Please let me do my job.”
Jack looked up at the Officer and shrugged as he smiled. “You do have a point.” Then got up and retook the Command chair and tried to access the Point defense systems from there. Something the God Captain’s evidentially felt was beneath themselves.
The weapons Officer walked back to his console. “Hell Captain. I never liked the smell of sickbay. Too much sickness around and all that. Besides, the Point defenses work better when they have someone to point them in the right direction and prioritize targets. Jack shook his head since there were torpedoes ringing the enter ship. Pointing them in the right direction was not likely to be a problem. “Records show they have a habit of ganging up and overkilling some targets while letting others through.” Answering Jack’s unspoken thought.
The Engineer walked by on his way to his console as Jack gave him a puzzled look. “Points won’t work without power when they get them going Captain. Especially when the ship starts taking damage.”
“Hell Captain. They need the sensors working too. I may be able to filter out most of the counter measures since I know what they are.” As the Sensor officer sat down.
The rest of the Bridge crew returned to their stations making excuses as they passed Jack or sat down at their consoles.
The number of torpedoes hit over 2,000 and suddenly they all came to life and streaked toward the Battleship Station and its skeleton crew as the last tech took his seat.
Jack watched over 2,000 engines come to life creating thousands of pin point stars around the station replacing what had been a solid gray and black universe for the last 7 months as another 480, 24inch beams streaked down amongst the downpour of flashing 5” and 3” beams.
“That is the squadron’s full complement of Torpedoes Captain Turner. Every fucking one of them coming to say high to us. Makes me feel kind of special.” Said the Tactical officer before he jerked his head closer to the screen.
“The Red Pepper and Paprika firing from the cloud Captain and are powering out of the cloud. The Red Pepper is taking out the engines of all 8 battleships. Now they are passing the Battleships and going after the torpedoes with all the fighters jumping ahead of them targeting the torpedoes as well. The 24 Destroyers are making a pass at the Battleships from behind taking out the 24 inch guns sir. With the Bombers alongside helping the DD’s 5 and 3 inch guns take out the 5 and 3 inch turrets with their guns and missiles. I am not detecting any of their torpedoes. They must have jettisoned them in the cloud.”
Jack glanced at the Red Pepper and Bounty as they dropped rapidly past the Battleships and started hammering the mass of torpedoes from opposite sides of the Base Station. The fighters racing out towards the torpedos. “Damn it, if the Destroyers miss even one 18 inch gun turret, thousands of refugees could die, maybe even one of the damn ships could be destroyed.” Jack barely noticed when the gunsleds opened up on the mass of torpedoes as they reached 500 miles from the Station. He waited holding his breath for at least one of the 18inch turrets to open up on one of the ships dashing down toward the rapidly closing ring of torpedoes. He knew even with the help of both ships and the fighters, they did not stand a chance of intercepting all the torpedoes as they rapidly picked up velocity. The faster they went the harder it was for even the advanced targeting of the Gunsleds to accurately follow and hit the rapidly maneuvering torpedoes crossing in front of them.
The only ones that stood a chance were the point defenses on the targeted Spider Battleships that was now the Gama 13 Hulk Base Station the torpedoes were headed for since they did not have the added difficulty of tracking a rapidly crossing target amongst all the other problems. A quick glance at the once frantically working technicians that suddenly sat back from their consoles in terror told Jack all he needed to know even before one of them blurted out. “Something just wiped out all our fixes in the programing Captain!”
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Admiral Halsey looked up in despair from the massive torpedo attack. He was expecting at least a couple of turrets at any second to put death into the two ships trying to rescue Jack as Zoote appeared in front of him. “Sorry Frank but it took me a while to get out of that damn computer after it crashed down to minimum power. I guess I am lucky to make it out of that dying core and back here to The Rock and my backup cores. I am distributing myself across several cores this time to keep from losing myself again or getting stolen. If not for this new Comm I would have all but died but I will have to fill you in abo
ut that later. Now I have some work to finish and from long distance even over this Comm with the incredible band width it has, it is taking me a while so I may have to cut your feed for me to use. Aaa… Yes… Bye. Bye.” And disappeared.
The Admiral turned back to the screen to wait for the inevitable deaths of both Jack and the refugees and any chance the Republic had of surviving the Spider Battleship invasion and the remnants of the Human race turned into slaves. He watched the ships point defense missiles leave the squadron of Battleships. Normally used for close range engagements as they were maneuverable and fast to accelerate, they were good at taking out fighters and smaller ships. All the Admiral could do was watch in horror as they went after the bombers and destroyers already dropping decoys and countermeasures. “Why didn’t you follow orders damn it and take those suckers out when you had the chance?” He knew that the Red Peppers God guns as well as the 16 inch guns upgraded to only 8 inch bores could have lanced right up through the middle of each of the Battleships firing from behind. Killing the ships and eliminating any threats from all 8 of them in seconds. Now there was no way more than a handful of fighters and Destroyers could survive long enough to take out all the 24 inch guns sealing the fate of both refuge ships since neither of them were paying any attention to anything but the torpedoes racing past the front of the two ships toward Jack and the new short lived Gama 13 Basestation. The Admiral could only shake his head as the human races only hope was about to die in front of him as torpedo’s raced toward the Base Station only seconds from hitting and then the screen went blank.
Battleship Destroyer 2 (Battleship Destoryer) Page 66
