“Oh shut up and hold this on your hip. I had them add a special holster for the butt.” The Lieutenant shoved the biggest Ape Cannon Jack had ever seen into the holster and slapped the handgrip on the barrel into his left hand. “Hold it out at about a 45 degree angle when you are up on the platform.
Looking down at the weapon he noticed his chest full of salad again. “At least take all this shit off my chest. I haven’t earned any of it.” He started to reach up with his right hand to take it off and got his armored hand slapped by the Lieutenants armored hand creating a bang that made Jack stop and pull his hand back even though it had not hurt.
“You have earned every one of those medals and awards. Leave them be.”
“Bullshit. What the hell is this damn gaudy thing?” Jack grabbed and held up a large gold and diamond medallion on a ribbon around his neck. “This looks like some stupid thing you got at a fucking fair for raising goats or something.” And started to jerk it off only to have the Lieutenant grab his hand firmly in hers and carefully take it out of Jacks hand and lay it neatly back onto his upper chest.
“That you moron, is the Republic’s Congressional Medal of Honor for planning and leading the assault that captured the first Spider Battleship long enough to recover the first credible intelligence on the Spiders and their Battleship’s weapons and crews. Rescuing thousands of slaves then going back and rescuing stranded marines all while being attacked by 10,000 enemy Apes.” Smoothing the Medal of Honor back down, she started straitening his other medals as she continued. “The Iron Cross is for the tactical plans that saved the Transport Fleet from certain destruction allowing them to escape into the Nebula. The Silver Cross is for taking control of the fleet and flying them around the cloud that could have destroyed half the fleet while the Gold cross is for destroying 23 enemy Battleships single handed during the Gama 13 Battle. With the attached gold bars for capturing an enemy Battleship 6 months ago. You should get another bar on that for the latest one. The Silver Star with the bars below it are for saving or rescuing the crews of half a dozen Republic ships as well as the Red Pepper itself. I don’t have time to go into all the other campaign and engineering design ribbons but you earned them all Butthead. Those crews and marines up there need to see them so keep your hands off of them.”
Pan at the front of the sled clapped her hands together. “Yes perfect. Very impressive.”
“This is getting ridiculous. Why the hell do I need all this crap to impress anyone anyway?”
The Lieutenant stepped back and looked at Jack and frowned. “That deck up there is packed with troops and crews that have been told you are a fraud, a traitor and public enemy number 1 along with enough propaganda to choke a thruster for the last 6 months. They have been ordered to kill you at the first chance. You are about to have your first and only chance to make those crews and marines think you are not only a Republic hero but a fucking God. Able to breathe fire and destroy Spider Battleships with a wave of your hand and kill hordes of Enemy Troops simply by looking at them with your eyes. If you don’t succeed in convincing them that you are capable of doing exactly what you have already done, they will try to kill you and us the first chance they get.”
The Lieutenant stared as Jack tried to think of an argument against what she had said. “Pan and I have written a speech for you to give before you even talk to anyone up there on that stage. Especially the Vice Admiral. Otherwise when you refuse to turn over Command of the Station to Ditzen, his loyalists will try to kill you and hand it to him.” Jack looked down at her skeptically before the Lieutenant continued. “They will try anyway but if the crews join in, 50,000 marines and ships crewmen will be slaughtered since we have enough firepower on the overhead deck to slag that whole cargo deck in half a second and still leave the stage and you untouched.” Letting that sink in a few seconds. “You have to make sure you are so scary that no one even thinks of trying to shoot at, let alone try to kill you no matter what Ditzen orders when you tell him to stuff himself.” Suddenly looking worried. “You do have a plan to tell him to stuff himself don’t you after 6 hours in the Simm?”
“Yes. But I look and feel like a fricking fool. How is anyone going to respect and be afraid of me?”
Relief flooding her face she smiled at Jack. “You just stand there and look omnipotent and Deadly and let us handle the rest and don’t forget to go to the podium and make that speech as soon as you step on the stage. We have talked everything over including the speech with Admiral Halsey and Zoote before we lost contact. We are hoping to have the long range Transceiver up and running on the Red Pepper anytime know. Oh and we have added a light to your palm grav-coil thruster. Be sure to use it when you salute and wave at the troops as we pass in review, it will help make an impression. Don’t forget the safety if you need your palm grav-coil blaster on stage. But if you look scary enough we hope you won’t need it.”
“Well if you want scary intimidation you should have gotten me a Gronk Battlesuit without these damn inch thick black armor blocks plastered all over it.”
“No. We thought of that and decided that it will be obvious to the crew and marines that the armor blocks are from Republic armor giving you a none Alien Spider connection to them to identify with. Now climb up, lock down your mag boots and don’t forget to turn them off when the sled noses up to the stage and a flimsy ramp appears for you to walk across or you will collapse it. It will look like you are walking on air to anyone more than a few feet away. It will be damn impressive subconsciously even though everyone will know it is just a flimsy ramp. And try to slap the Assault Blaster Cannon onto your back as smoothly as possible before you cross the ramp. You don’t need to look like you are assaulting the stage and the officers. We are supposed to all be friends remember.”
Jack shook his head looking at the Cannon. “Speaking of which, this monster cannon is twice the size of anything we have used in all our campaigns. What’s with it?” Jack slipped it over his shoulder and into the cradle on his back having a bit of a problem the first time getting it to seat until he found the right angle for it. Then repeated drawing it out and putting it back away several times.
“That is the new Mechsuit weapon the Tec boys have developed. You have the prototype just to help scare the shit out of anyone that doubts your abilities. It has multiple blast rounds that include armor piercing incendiary with a 1,000 rounds per mag, standard fletchet with 10,000 to 50,000 rounds per mag depending on how much power you put into each shot allowing you to shoot all day if you want, Blast shot gun Fletchet or Incendiary that will clear a passageway in one shot with a hundred round mag, Grenade launcher with Frag, Incendiary or smoke with a hundred rounds and a Mortar that is again Frag, H.E. or Incendiary as well but takes longer to recharge between shots and will use up a mag after only 10 rounds. The shell selector is on the fore grip with the safety and power lever above the trigger hand grip for your thumb. It has a full charge if you need it with extra mags on your suit in the usual places if you need them along with Hand grenades on your belt. The more compact production version of the Assault Cannon is now in the hands of the Mechs standing on the overhead if anyone down on the main Cargo deck starts any shit. The Gunsleds have a bigger 3inch version of the Mech’s 1inch weapon but the sleds have a mini core for power that can recharge the Mech’s mags during deployments. If anyone starts anything we are going to finish it. So you just be sure you intimidate and scare the holey shit out of them so we don’t have to kill them.”
“Oh… Come now, no one in their dress blues are going to start anything Lieutenant.”
The Lieutenant looked at Jack shaking her head sadly. “You haven’t even looked have you? Everyone on that deck is in Battle Armor. Republic Battle Armor but still Armor with weapons and after standing out there for 6 hours now with that SOB Ditzen whipping them into a mob, they are ready to kill something. That something is you.”
Jack turned pale as he swallowed. “Shit. And you are having me go through the middle of 50,00
0 armed crewmen and marines that hate me? Thanks. What did I do to piss you off this much? Tell me and I will apologize.”
“Nothing Love. Admiral Halsey is right. If you don’t stare down the Beast we will have to kill it and none of us want to do that. Luckily they are tired after 6 hours and should be easy to influence using basic fear to impress them before they can be given any orders to attack from Ditzen after you reach the stage.” Slapping him on the butt,(the only thing she could reach), the Lieutenant walked up and dropped into the large cargo sleds driver’s seat at the front left corner as Pan slid off the sled leaving only two skeleton R-bots sitting at the back corners facing forward with their weapons pointing up from the deck alongside their right legs.
As they pulled out from the Red Peppers Docking bay Jack looked down across the flat smooth mettle floored valley around the Station created by the Battleship bombardment with the beams of light shining up from their holes scattered across in front of him. He could not help noticing that a large block of Cargo Containers was being stacked as another block of Cargo Containers stacked 10 high a couple of thousand feet long and 400 feet wide, with the top open surface packed with equipment and building materials lifted off and headed away from the Station. It took a few seconds for Jack to spot the large poles running around the top outside edges of the block with one of the Assault Shuttles at the stern with its engines at full power pushing the huge block up and away.
“Damn Lieutenant, what the hell is that monster?” Jack said pointing at the block flying away.
“Oh that. Someone came up with the idea of stacking the containers out there while they waited for the Red Pepper and Bounty to get back with the lifting cradles for the container trains. Someone else came up with the idea that if they locked the containers together into one big block they could put those same cradles around the edges with a few lines down the center and form a lifting field between them and lift a lot more containers without making more cradles. The numbers showed that they could lift 16,000 containers that way easily but then after building the block they found out they did not have enough power left for propulsion leaving them with just a big barge. Then one of the Ground pounders remembered tugs pushing barges up and down the rivers where she came from and they grabbed one of the Assault Shuttles for a tug. That is the third barge leaving now, two more are building on the other side of the Station.” The Lieutenant looked around her as they lifted up along the hull past empty holes once housing gun turrets. “I really hate abandoning this Station after all the work we have put into it. It was starting to feel like home.”
Jack looked down at the back of her suit watching her looking around while she drove the platform. “Well, we will make another home. This time we will be staying if we don’t get hit by a meteor or I fuck up in the next few minutes.” Jack said as the sled slipped up over the edge of the cargo deck and some 50,000 crewmen and marines appeared in ranked groups lined up in a 3/4 circle around the center stage sitting in front of the core shaft reaching up to the overhead. The ceremony stage was in the center with a couple hundred yard gap between the forward rank and the stage. The ships crew formations made up the front row of formations closest to the stage with the marine formations in company rows behind the ships crews with a gap of some 30 feet separating the ship crew formations from the marine formations. Jack did not even notice the mass of troops and equipment now scattered across the overhead with their weapons already hot and charged. Fighters circling around the deck outside the station with half the Destroyers mixed in with their guns pointed at the packed section of cargo deck.
The sled drifted up to the first formation of ranks from one of the ships at head height. Jack found himself staring at the guy at the corner of the first rank as they approached. As the sled started to slide across about 30 feet in front of the formation Jack watched the guy role his eyes and say to himself. ‘Hell he is a kid dressed up like a clown. God if this dressed up stupid bozo salutes I am going to puke. Looks like one of those morons that think if they plaster enough fake Geedunk medals across their Chest, crewmen will respect them. I know what. I will give him the middle finger salute in return if he salutes. That is if I salute at all. There is so many around me the traitor won’t notice little old me.’
“Jack, salute them as we pass reviewing them.” The Lieutenant said in his ears.
Jack started to follow her order but stopped with his hand half way up as he stared at the man calling him a stupid bozzo in his mind. Getting pissed at being in this stupid predicament wearing the stupid medals. Suddenly the palm coil light from his open hand flashed out hitting the man he was staring at dead center.
‘Shit he sees me.’ The man blurted to himself. ‘He is looking straight at me. Shit he looks like he could kill me right now with that monster cannon. Damn that armor looks like he could take on a fucking tank and win. My god he is still looking at me. He doesn’t need that cannon to kill me.’
Jack felt the panic start to take the man over as the man started screaming at himself to run and hide as Jack looked away. “Lieutenant Stop. Now.” Jack said as his eyes started to look at the rest of the crewmen lined up in the formation. The light following his gaze without thinking about it. Jack’s memory flashed on all the times his older brother twice his size had stared at him when they were in public with the promises of death later in private, terrorizing him. Jack knew that groups of men and women were always braver than individuals which was why mobs and armies were so dangerous. As his light and eyes traced over the formation he could feel the group’s fearless hate turning into individual terror at the sight of him picking them individually out. He did not need to linger. He just needed for them to think he looked at them for them to see that he was a force to be reckoned with and not what the Admiral’s propaganda had said he was. That maybe he could have done what the news reports said he had done. That was all he needed.
“What? Why?”
“Just follow orders Lieutenant. Now stop or I will get out.” The sled came to a halt giving Jack time to finish glancing at everyone in that section of the 10 rank deep formation. “Now you can slowly pull ahead no faster than a walk and stay about 20 feet from the front rank.” The sled started forward again with Jack looking at about every tenth crewman while just glancing at the rest. The loathing hate turning first to surprise bafflement and then crossing fear into thinking that this guy was a bit scary and just maybe he could fight. Most knowing they didn’t want him looking at them. Most suspecting that they had been told a bunch of crap about the man in front of them by the time he passed.
The marines and crewmen in formation down the lines could see Jack eyeing the troops before him with glances farther up the line. Knowing he was actually looking at the crewmen and marines instead of simply passing in review started many thinking long before he got to them. Started them looking at him for what they could see knowing that someone with fake medals or could not fight would not be staring at people daring them to say or do something anything to displease him.
By the time the sled reached the end of the crewmen formations, Jack was starting to get the hang of knowing how long he needed to look at any one group before moving on allowing him to look at more and more instead of simply glancing at them.
“Lieutenant, now we can go around and down the line of marine formations. I may need you to slow down even more. I don’t know how hard these marine nuts are going to be to crack. Though I don’t feel as much hate coming from them as I did before but that just may be me getting used to it.”
“But Jack they are waiting for you on the stage. I don’t see the reason. Technically you reviewed the marine formations behind the crew formations on the first pass.”
“Just follow orders damn it Lieutenant. I was too far away for them to see more than a fucking G.I. Joe doll. Now turn outward.”
Jack found the marines to be more stubborn and harder to impress but slowly they got a good look at him and realized something was not right in Georgia. When Jack fi
nally stepped onto the stage the mass hysteria of hate had been reduced to small pockets with most being individuals. The majority were mostly baffled and at least ready to listen. It is hard to hate someone looking you in the eye when they look and act nothing like you were led to believe.
Jack started for the podium as the Vice Admiral stood up to head that way as well. “It is about time you stopped stalling Turner and handed the Station over to me. Now let’s get it over with.”
Jack smiled as he changed course to intercept Ditzen half way to the podium. “Excuse me Ditzen but regulations state that the outgoing Admiral should introduce the new Commander while going over his accomplishments and the condition of the Station. Please take a seat. It should not take long.”
“Damn right it won’t take long, you have only been a Captain for a few weeks. And where the hell did you get so damn many fucking meddles.” A smile crossed Ditzen’s face. “Don’t bother, I will bring you up on charges of fraud for wearing decorations you are not authorized for and being out of uniform amongst others including firing on Republic ships as soon as I take over Command. By the time I get done, you won’t even be in Command of the Red Pepper.”
“I seem to remember you firing first Ditzen. Even after I begged you not to.”
Ditzen stepped up to Jack. “Don’t be stupid Turner. I was The Rock’s Chief of Security for 2 years. When I get done, the only record that will ever reach The Rock will be of you and the Spiders destroying six Republic Battleships before my brave marines succeeded in capturing them and making this nice Station out of them.”
Battleship Destroyer 2 (Battleship Destoryer) Page 72
