The Red Peppers guns barked flashing out to hit DD-1717 and then the other DD. “Damn that was easy.” The Weapons Officer said.
“Pan it looks like we are getting a breather here but get that squadron headed this why as soon as possible. That’s a go on the Bulk Container Transport with the Torpedo Bombers and Pack the Battletransports with anything anyone thinks we could use. It looks like I have some time to do some training here and I need to get at it. Out.” Starting to cut the comm again. “Oh. By the way I have a Battleship hulk headed your way to arrive in a week.” Sending her the coarse details. “Send something out to intercept it just in case our calculations are off or something nudges it off course. Out.”
Shaking his head Jack brought the screen to the DD’s back up. “That attack was pure shit. Try it again.”
“DD’s 18 and 21 are returning Admiral. The Hulk battleship is on its way through the cloud.”
“Very well give them the recording of what has happened with these DD’s and tell them to join in the game. Then add them to the DD’s Comm Screen.” Turning to the pilot. “Mr. Black, hand the ship over to the copilot and get into The Game. I want to see if you have learned anything from The Game you have been practicing attack maneuvers in. The ship and our lives will depend on you fighting this ship effectively and not getting our butts shot off.” Looking at the tactical and the Battleships starting to pile up behind the lead ship.
“Flight, what has happened to the Recon bombers we sent to the other side of the Maze?”
Admiral we thought we had plenty of time so we plotted them courses to surround the Staging area and reach the open area at the same time. They should have just gotten there with their first solid looks. We won’t get a Comm torpedo back from them to report for another 15 minutes.”
“Next time Flight, let’s remember to send at least one strait to the target if the rest are going to take long so we have at least the basics as soon as possible.”
Rubbing his face as he tried to think.
One of the turrets fired sending a beam away from the ship.
A second later damage control reported. “Hit on our stern Admiral. Simulator registers an engine knocked out. Sending Damage control parties now to simulate making repairs Admiral.”
The Weapons officer turned to Jack. “Admiral, we got 15 but 17 scored the hit and got away before we could lock onto her.”
“Jack tapped up the DD screen. “Much better 17. That’s how it is done. Now do it again. Both of you. Eighteen and twenty-one will be joining you in a minute. Coordinate your attacks. Three strikes you are out Commanders. 15 you have one strike against you already, smarten up.”
Jack turned to the tactical screen again as the DD’s disappeared from the screen to make their next attack. The only enemy ships on it were the 40 battleships in groups of 4 or 5 within sensor range of the fighters and their sensor torpedoes. All of them now stopped where they were stretched out along the passages of the Maze. “Damn it. I need to know what is going on at the other end not to mention that we need most of the damn bombers back here now.” Jack noticed the tumbling DD’s that had been knocked out only minutes before as their life boats were jettisoned and headed for the nearest cloud and safety.
Tapping his chair’s armrest Jack turned to the copilot after glancing at the screen showing the pilot in his Simm putting the Red Pepper in a good position to attack one of the Battleships along the maze from its stern just long enough to fire a barrage up its ass then moving back into the cloud. “Adams, take the ship…” Jack just realized that if he took the Red Pepper up 100 miles into the cloud the DD’s would not have a target to train against in the open. Nor would the ships main gunners be able to train against the DD’s. But he still needed to get above the damn Maze to see the other end and any ships that were maneuvering. Now that he knew some were maneuvering and not just sitting at anchor in the Staging area at the other end of the Maze. He did not need the Recon Bombers to tell him where ships were once they started using their main engines. Each Battleship would stand out like a beacon to him. That is if he got far enough away to the side or above the Maze. Right now all he would see from the end were masses of blobs without any way to tell exactly how many, where they were or how far away they were. Not to mention that the fact that the engines would be on the back side of the Armored ships making it harder to see the exhaust in the first place. “Never mind Adams, just keep her here for now but be ready to run for the cloud if the enemy decides to rush the open entrance.”
Turning to flight. “I need a fighter, Flight. I need to look around.”
“Aaa Admiral, all the fighters and bombers are out on missions. All we have left are Assault shuttles, gigs and a squadron of transport bombers.”
Jack smiled. “A transport bomber will be fine Flight. I will be down in 5 minutes have one ready with full weapons. Oh and recall the fighters. No. They do have some short range anti-ship missiles don’t they? Have them pick out a battleship and see if they can knock out an engine or two on it. No risks, I don’t want any losses got that. This is too damn early in the campaign for that. No don’t target engines. I can’t see their missiles damaging an engine. Have them target the point defenses or the navigation shields on their asses. Then when they return arm them up with Long Lance missiles and a conventional torpedo under each wing and a Black Hole Torpedo with the new proximity fuse under the center line. Hit them with the conventionals and then the BHT up their ass. With them just sitting, they may not have their navigation screens up. And while you are at it send a Comm torpedo to recall the Scout Bombers. Have them leave all their remaining sensor and relay torpedoes, coordinating the timers to have one return every half hour. They can use their own discretion on firing their torpedoes up the ass of any remaining battleships around the Staging Station. But again no risks. I want them all back.”
Jack turned to his First Officer. “Number One, you have the con. I should not be gone long. As I said this is early in the Campaign so no heroics. If they rush, take out a couple if you can safely as you slide into the cloud. All we can do is harass them by sniping and picking off ships one at a time from their flanks for the next 24 hours which should slow them down. Which will be easy if we can keep our casualties down. They take out the Red Pepper now and it is all over. Got that? If you are still hear in the open when a dozen Battleships come out into the Entrance, the Red Pepper is Dead. Keep training the DD’s as long as possible. But like I said, I should be back before shit starts hitting the fan. But if I am not, the Safety of this ship is top priority. Run if you have to and don’t give it a second thought. We have to attack when we plan to, not stand when they are calling the shots with overwhelming numbers.” Jack slapped her on her shoulder and left the Bridge.
Jack walked into the hanger bay with a Transport Bomber already sitting waiting for him next to Flight operations. Rows of Transport Bombers were lined up along the back bulkheads of several of the side storage hangers that had their hatches open. As far out of the way as possible. Commander Wigs, Chief of flight Operations met Jack as he approached the bomber. “We have it fully loaded with external city killer torpedoes and conventional torpedos with the new enhanced warheads in the bomb bay. Though I do not understand why you would want the Black hole warheads Captain. Your pilot is…”
“Don’t needed a pilot Chief. I will be doing my own piloting.” Jack glanced at the rows of transport bombers then hooked his thumb towards them. “You missing pilots for them?”
“Aaa No Admiral. They are not that stealthy as big as they are and the alien and human pilots are not well trained yet.”
“Really? Did you know Chief that one of the most famous battles in the first real air war on earth (I think they called it World War 2), half the dive bomber pilots had never dive bombed before even in practice and they still sank the enemy carriers. Zoote! You around down here or not?” Jack said to the Air.
A crude hologram of the Hippie woman sitting on a flying carpet that was easily
seen through and filled with static appeared. “Yes Admiral.” The speakers across the hanger blared. “Sorry for the crude appearance but it is the best I can do with the equipment in the compartment. I am guessing that you are inquiring about the proficiency of the new pilots flying the Transport Bombers and I can assure you that they all have been busting their butts on the Simms. Some putting in as many as 16 hours a day. Most of it combat training that I have been supervising. I believe that they are as qualified as most of the Commander’s regular pilots and some a lot better. You need them out there Admiral.” Zoote turned to the Chief. “My apologies Chief if I am stepping on your toes.”
“Just who the hell are you anyway? I have never even heard of you before let alone seen you.”
“You have never asked to see me or talk with me Chief. But then like most Officers. You have never been told that I was anything more than a stupid game. Let me introduce myself to you Commander. I am Quinta Core Z001E. E as in Experimental Artificial Intelligent sentient, identification number Z001. Assigned as the Matrix of The Combat Ship, Crew, Training and Tactics Development Game. Or simply called (The Game), to keep it stupidly simple and to hide its true purpose.” The scratchy hologram bowed to the Chief. “I have helped train you since you were in the Bootship Everest County 23 years ago Chief. I am sorry that The Game was not released to the public when you could have benefited from my help before you entered the Navy but Jack’s Grandfather did not release his stolen copy with the needed additions to its program until some 4 years after you enlisted.”
“His Grandfather stole the Navy’s most secret training program and released it to the public? His Grandfather is a traitor?”
“No not in the least.” Zoote’s voice boomed across the hanger almost defining Jack. “His Grandfather was in charge of the finale stages of creating and deploying the program that had taken hundreds of years to complete. The Game. Basically I, calculated that the only way for the Game to have the most impact on the Quality of the Navy both in crewmen, ships and tactics was to be able to access the majority of the Republic. I needed to have the widest exposure to the available recruiting pool possible and at a young enough age to train and evaluate and obtain the best Candidates to maintain, fight and command the Navy in the future. To put it simply, having access to the public more than tripled the effectiveness of the future Navy in any Combat situation ever likely to be encountered. Including the dreaded super-secret Extinction Scenario which the human race is now facing.”
Zoote floated over to the Commander. “It is also the only way the Republic can survive (as a democracy), the Civil war the Congressional Communist Earth is starting against the Colonies.” Letting that settle in the mind of the Commander from Alpha Derann (a colony on the fringe not far from the already taken star systems) for a few seconds. “Jack’s or Admiral Turners Grandfather deliberately allowed himself to be retired from the Research Directorate to allow him to introduce The Game to the General Public after demilitarizing it. Or to put it a different way. He created a sophisticated firewall between the two halves of the Game that I can still control. Not an easy task that took him over a decade even with the help from me and thousands of Navel programmers and scientists still in the Navy.”
“The shame or wonderful thing was that when the Democrat Congressional leaders found out what he had done after they had thought they had gotten rid of him. Arranged to have his ship the Turner Joy stranded in a Neutron Star system knowing the crew and the old man would never live long enough to get out, hoping that would kill The Game. But by a miracle and throwing away half their cargo as reaction mass, the Turner Joy was able to get to an ice comet and then out of the system. The Wonderful part is that Jack miraculously managed to be born and survive with a couple of genetic abnormalities that has proved very beneficial. The Shame or sad part is that his grandfather’s mind has never been the same since and is in fact continuing to slowly degenerate over the years with an incurable form of Alzheimer’s disease even though the original disease was cured thousands of years ago.”
“Pop is dying?” Jack blurted out.
“Yes Jack, Pop will be lucky to live another decade maybe two with his mind going long before that. A result from long exposure to the neutron star. I am sorry. He was one of the greatest minds in the Republic. Possibly human space.”
“Well I don’t care how great a mind he was or what some stupid training program AI thinks. I am the one that will decide what crews fly off this ship.” The Chief demanded.
Pulling himself together. Jack had known Pop was losing it for some time. He had noticed how confused he was getting at times and forgetting things he shouldn’t have or hadn’t before. Taking a breath as he locked the information away for later. “Well. Actually Chief. No you aren’t. You serve at my discretion and orders. And well, with that huge cargo bay made into a Bombay that can carry one hell of a load as you just got threw telling me about. Get them out the damn hatch Chief. I don’t plan on having them do anything fancy but launching their torpedoes from long range hidden in the cloud. Fact is we need everything we have. Which reminds me. Tell Comm to send a message to New Home to include every TB they can get their hands on in the Carrier’s squadrons and to restart full rate production of the upgraded version they will find in my files. It has bigger guns and a slightly different sized cargo compartment that is lower but wider and longer that can carry more of a wider range of cargo and weapons including two City buster Torpedoes internally instead of just conventional torpedoes.” Patting the Chief on the shoulder. “Chief. This won’t work if you aren’t behind me. We are outnumbered 137 Battleships that we know about, to ONE. We need those Bombers or we are not going to survive this. I meant it Chief. Only you can make it work.”
Jack started to climb up into the TB’s belly.
“Admiral Turner.” Zoote’s voice stopped Jack. “With the Chief’s permission I would like to make a duty Change. Weapons and Sensor operator Winslow is the best WSO in the group. She can pull data almost out of thin air. She routinely doubles the range of her sensors over the others.”
“Now I have to put my foot down you shit pile of electrons. Winslow has been nothing but trouble since she reported aboard. She is insubordinate and has violated half the damn rules on the books. Hell, I caught her tearing down here weapons console just yesterday in spite of my direct orders not to touch it. To wait for permission. That is if the engineers decide her ideas are any good after I get around to passing them up the line.”
“Chief.” Zoote seemed to role her eyes making Jack smile. “Winslow holds 5 electronics degrees including Doctorates. She is a top rated research engineer that had some of her credits from her pre-university Community College courses disallowed by the Navy reducing her to the enlisted ranks when she had been promised much more. So cut her a break Chief for being a little disgusted with the Navy. Start letting her use her brains and I will guaranty that you will be surprised.”
The Chief Growled and then patted his Comm. “Winslow get your Butt over here in flight gear immediately. Pilot Summers report to TB-238 instead of 237.” Shaking his head as he looked at Jack. “Fine Admiral, you can put up with her crap then. Good luck sir. You are going to need it.” The Chief turned and walked away.
Jack smiled. “Oh Chief.”
The Chief stopped and turned back around and looked at Jack.
“Spend some time with Zoot and take her suggestions to heart. The Navy spent a few Trillion credits on The Game and for once I think they got their money’s worth. I expect to see the first of the TB’s out the hatch in less than a half hour. Thanks Chief. Oh and I had the same thing happen to me and they put me in as a 3rd class grav-tech moping out mass tanks fresh out of A-ship School and look where I am at know. Have Winslow bring her tools along and grab an OS-5 module and anything else she thinks we will need just in case and immediately forward her sensor suggestions to comm to send to New Home with my recommendations for all the bombers.”
“Shit Admiral! Yo
u don’t even know what they are or if they will even work. They are probably all nothing more than fantasy crap.”
“Possible Chief but I have confidence in my people, Zoote’s statements and my people back at New Home that know a hell of a lot more than me or you to tell the difference. Including confidence in you to get the damn TB’s out the hatch even if you have to pilot one yourself or put two pilots into each ship. One that can fly and one that knows tactics. Zoot will tell you who the best crews you have are so listen to her and get them out the fucking hatch. Then you can access my Omega files and start arming the shuttles and gigs into launch platforms. They may not be the fastest out there but they can carry torpedoes and missiles with enough point defense guns to make a difference with fighter cover. You can pass that order on as well.”
Without saying another word. The Chief saluted and then turned around and hurried off before the Admiral could burst any more of his bubbles or add more impossible tasks.
Jack paused at the bottom of the ladder. “Zoot, how far has Winslow gotten in The Game?”
Zoot appeared on Jack’s wrist comm. As the hanger stopped echoing her voice. “Sorry Admiral but she concentrated in her studies and research since she could read at the age of 3. Graduating with her first college degree when she was 8. Her parents were college professors that went out of their way to help and encourage. They both were also particle physicists that went out of their way to discourage her from following in their footsteps wanting her to become a doctor of all the things. Saying it paid better and was more rewarding. But she had her own ideas. They even knew your grandfather.”
“What? She is from the Turner Joy? I don’t remember her. Why don’t I know her already?” Frowning at the little pixie on his wrist. “Oh and why didn’t you use my wrist comm before?”
“I wanted the whole ship to hear of the importance of The Game and the new flight crews that have been treated like shit to know that they really are good. As for her being from the Turner Joy? No. She is not. Her parents knew your Grandfather from the Research Directorate before he left it. Your grandfather’s replacements treatment of the institutes thousands of scientists and claiming most discoveries for himself is why they tried to influence their daughter to take up medicine to get her out of the institute. Though her brother who is almost as smart as her went the other way rejecting academia entirely becoming an engineer. He even spent a considerable amount of time immerging himself inside the Game and even buying your DD from a Republic wide auction when 5 of your captains enlisted with you, leaving their ships abandoned for 30 days. Though I cheated and didn’t wait 30 days and have since sold your DD’s to thousands of new Captains at mass production prices. You have 123,000 copies out running around The Game universe with more and more learning how to attack Spider ships now with a pair of 24 inch guns strapped under them already in the few weeks the 24 inch upgrades have been available with thousands more every day. Winslow’s brother was one of the first to upgrade increasing the number of 24 inch guns on his DD’s to 4 and is getting good at killing God Spider Battleships with his squadron. Why I helped New Home using his design upgrades to slap 4, 16 inch guns under the DD’s you have and put 8 of the new 24 inch guns in the new larger DD you just finished designing.”
Battleship Destroyer 2 (Battleship Destoryer) Page 100
