“Don’t bother. They are my fighters returning from a recon mission. They will follow after us to see how well we can cover our tracks through the cloud. We have to make it believable without losing them completely so they don’t look elsewhere. So it looks like we are going to have a good sized fleet after us. Good, the more the merrier.” Shaking his head sadly. “You will probably be lucky to assemble a couple dozen DD’s and hand full of old battle transports and a few hundred fighters. I think you have done enough son. Pull your ships back and let them come. If they do catch up with us we will give them a damn bloody nose before they take us out. I have a few tricks up my sleeve. Especially know that I know their weaknesses.”
“Damn it Admiral. With your Battleship fleet no longer with you, they will know you were just leading them away from the main fleet as soon as they catch up with you and eventually they will find the trail the others left behind. I have to stop them or weaken them so they can’t catch you to keep New Home safe.”
“Now how stupid do you think I am Boy. We have spent most of our time packing derelicts into the huge holds of this Dwarf and strapping them to the hull. When they start firing at us from long range down the strait Tunnel I will take a bunch of them out then they will start getting those same hulks to catch up to as mines. By the time they catch me, half their ships are going to be scrap themselves from those mines and my mega Cannons shooting back down that and other tunnels and the Commander will think they have destroyed the entire fleet because that is what he desperately wants to believe after all the losses he will suffer. To believe anything else he would have to admit defeat.”
Jack had been watching the training the DD’s and fighter had been doing as the first of the Battleships departed with Battleship Barges strapped to its sides. “Hold on their Admiral. I think I have an idea to take out the damn fighters so I can whittle down those squadrons before they get out of the Maze. Make your job easy enough that together we will be able to finish them off while they are attacking you.” Smiling at the Admirals. “Got to go. I have to go steal some ships.”
“Just wait right there a minute Turner. First this new sensor. Who knows about it and its capabilities?”
“Just me, the developer, my new Medical Censor Officer and now the Lieutenant.” Jack said as dread settled in.
“Good, I want you to keep it that way.” Taking a breath. “And I want you to put the same collar you put on Captain Lesley on everyone that knows about it including yourself. Is that clear Vice Admiral Turner.” Halsey said. “I also want self-destruct charges put on all pieces of its technology. Fact, build self-destructs into it from now on. Also add self-destructs to all the new Laser comms you are using now and again, build them into all new X-program constructs. In fact replace all old components with the new self-destructs built into the modules and destroy the old. And while you are at it. Let’s put collars on everyone that is in or knows about the damn X-Programs. Those programs are going to stay secret if the collars have to kill anyone that even hints about them. Is that understood Vice Admiral Turner?”
Jack frowned and said. “Yes Admiral. Self-Destructs built into everything from now on, melt down and destroy all the old and collars on everyone. Got it.”
“Very good. Now what is this plan of yours to take out the Congressional Communist fighters?”
Jack smiled. “I am going to steel a hundred DD’s hidden away at the other end of the Maze. The DD’s are not much good against the Battleships but they will play hell with the fighters if we get a few hours to upgrade their weapons.”
“What the… Are you sure of that Turner?”
Jack relaxed as he took another drink of his still hot tea. “Back in Earth’s history in the first air war on the planet. The Navy had fighter carriers and used DD’s that they dumped massive numbers of 5inch and other anti-aircraft weapons on for the sole purpose of protecting Carriers from aircraft attack. Every Carrier that was protected by several of these flack ships survived the war. What I am going to do is do the same with these DD’s that already have 4 twin 8inch gunned turrets and a dozen 5 inch gun turrets amongst other point defense guns and missile launchers. They were made for the job Admiral. They will clear a path with the help of the fighters I do have around one squadron at a time, allowing my big gunned DD’s and torpedo bombers to get in close enough to pick off ships like before as they make their way up the corridors.” Jack smiled. “That is if I have time to steel them before the bad guys get out of the Maze. If they make it out of the Maze, they will be able to form one big group that I will have one hell of a hard time penetrating without heavy losses even if they don’t have fighter support. If they still have a large group by the time they reach you, all I will be able to do is pick off a few stragglers that get separated from the pack by hits from you. So I must go Admirals. Turner out.”
Chapter 30; One Hundred Destroyers for the taking
The Cloudbank cleared from around Admiral Turners Flag Bridge and a hundred DD’s stretched out before him. The single engined much patched Battleship that was going to take the hard core Congressional Crews to Gama 13 slid down away from them now that it was out of the cloud as it headed for the end of the long tube the DD’s were docked to. Jack had decided to get rid of the hard core Congressional crewmen early by dumping them on the empty station once they got all the DD’s off. He could not see wasting a good ship as a prison barge. Especially after all the work they (the prisoners) had put into fixing it up. While dumping crews that included the crew that had repaired it, the ship was also dumping its load of reaction mass into the tube station and the DD’s docked to it. The ship had manage to get most of its surviving and repaired tanks filled using the scoops from the 2 DDs strapped clamped to its bow on the way down through the cloud. With the mass the Red Pepper had managed to collect on the trip down around the Maze he figured the hundred DD’s would have plenty to get them off the station and the first couple of operations attacking the squadrons in the coming battle. Though he was hoping that the station would have plenty of reaction mass in its storage tanks that were lined up along each side of an arm that took off at a 90 degree angle from the central control tower section. Then he wouldn’t have to worry about reaction mass period and save the mass in the Battleship and Red Pepper for later.
The Red Pepper headed for the central tower and warehouse tanks close to the stations control room. They would have to get into it without setting off any alarms and alerting the main Station on the other side of the Staging area.
“Winslow, how many battleships around the station do you read now?”
“Still 33 Admiral. Same as last time. Still 310 fighters patrolling the edges of the Maze. They have a couple hundred boats running back and forth to the hulks, transferring casualties to the Station would be my guess, though the station does not look in much better shape than the hulks. As close as we are, I am getting great details on the Battleships and most of them are badly damaged with multiple large holes in their hulls, some with missing armored decks. Many of their turrets are hanging at weird angles with many barrels registering as blown though I think they are replacing them. The new barrels have a slightly sharper image to them with the ends still plugged like they were shipped and have never been fired.”
“Yap, they figured they would always have time between battles to change barrels from what I understand. Their way of getting around the high temperature problems.” Jack watched the screen as a squadron of fighters flew past the entrance to the Frick U Finger and the Warehouse Station for the DD’s hidden around the knuckles. They did not even slow down or waver as the flight passed by.
Taking a deep breath Jack got up as one of the techs turned around as the Red Pepper slid up to the Central Transport Docks alongside the tower. The docks lining up with the side hatches on the Tanks/cargo holds down the outside of the ship. The cargo docks making it easier for the ship to unload the mass tanks using the stations pumps at each dock. Cutting down the time required.
�
��The Achilles is docked to the station and transferring mass Admiral.” Jack’s Adjunct Officer said. “The crews are spreading out to the ships on the North end. They are unloading the prisoners at the same time.”
Jack started to turn on the crewman to send a message for them to stop. They were not supposed to unload prisoners until the DD’s were ready to leave. But bighting his tongue Jack turned back away. The Captain and crew knew what they were doing and not having to unload the prisoners after the DD’s were ready was going to save time. Though he had not wanted the prisoners getting in the way of the DD’s preparing to launch but it had been taken out of his hands. Trying to put them back on would just waste more time slowing things down.
“Winslow I am going to the Station. Keep me informed of any changes as well as updates every 15 minutes.”
“Admiral.” The Lieutenant got in his way. “You need to change your combat suit. It looks like it went through hell.”
“It did. You get my pistol back yet?”
“Yes but you don’t want to know how many hands it went through. We lost a lot of guys holding onto those damn Fusion Cores and trying to get into the last one. Even after the Captain surrendered we still had to take the damn thing. There were some damn die hard ass holes in that last core. They were still trying to detonate it when we finally broke in with the help of the marines. Luckily they were too stupid to bypass all the safeties.” Reaching up she slipped a finger under the collar around her neck. “I can’t believe you are making us wear these things. I have to admit they are nice looking since they are pure gold but they are an insult just because of some new co...”
“Shut up damn it in public. I already told you. Everyone that knows or has contact with the X-Programs has to wear these and you say their name one more time and you are going to isolation before the collar blows your head off for saying it in public. Those are orders from the top so just deal with it.” Jack fingered his own collar. “Somehow I think Captain Leslie is going to have the last laugh if she ever finds out about these.”
Winslow turned around fingering her collar. “At least they are a little flexible and they are a lot better than having guards fallowing us around all the time or locking us away in some deep dark dungeon and never seeing the light of day again. The Research directorate was always doing that to people and then we would not see them again until the director announced a new patent he had researched. Though I thought it a bit strange to later hear about a few of my old friends dying of accidents or committing suicide out in the city after they showed up again. Especially if they started talking about the dungeons. And then one time I was attending a conference and bumped into someone I could have sworn was an old colleague but they turned out to be someone else and swore they had never met me before or was ever part of the Research Directorate. It finally downed on me how important is was to toe the party line mantra.” She turned white for a few seconds and then shook herself. “No. A nice little collar is just fine with me.” Then turned around back to her screens.
Shaking his head. He had figured Winslow would be screaming bloody murder for forcing her to wear a collar that could kill her while the person he figured would have no problem with it was ready to kill him. Though he had to admit it kind of pissed him off too if he thought about it much which he tried not to do for that very reason.
Jack grabbed his weapons out of habit as he left the Flag Bridge. Glancing out the view ports again at the strange station stretching out before him. Still not quite believing all the DD’s lined out along it. But a smile creased his face from ear to ear.
Captain Clancy had parked the Red Pepper facing what Jack had considered up, with its ass or stern toward the main station tube crossing below them and its bow up toward the control center modules at the top of the tower. The Problem was that when he walked out of the personnel dock hatch at the stern of the ship, he had a hell of a long way to go to the Stations Control Center. As the Lieutenant and Jack walked up the empty cargo handling tube dock, Jack could see the pumps hard at work under the main deck draining the ship’s mass tanks through 3 foot diameter umbilical lines plugged into each tank along the side of the ship. A dock side pump emptying each tank Deck at the same time beat using a single 6 foot connection from the ships own pump room above the Engine room to empty all the tanks decks one at a time that would usually take a full day.
Jack walked the full length of the ship to the Control Center of the Station with the Lieutenant beside him sulking, refusing to talk to him except short snarled answers to direct questions.
Walking into the Stations Control Center exactly like a hundred he had been in before, Jack found Captain Clancy now the Captain of the Red Pepper hard at work with a crew already ensconced at the consoles around the compartment.
The Captain turned to Jack. “We got into the Station’s systems without any problems but we have a problem with the DD’s. They have been mothballed. Not only are they in full vacuum but there is no mass in their tanks, even their Plasma batteries have been emptied and the lines disconnected. Not even the oxygen tanks are charged. It is going to take at least 4 hours just to get things put back together and the plasma batteries and tanks charged even with the help of the bots we brought along. We are not even talking about checking things out and that will take hours longer.”
“Shit...”
The Lieutenant spoke up interrupting Jack before he could say anything else. “I told you if they are mothballed it could take a week to get them operational again… Admiral.”
Jack gave her a dirty look as he grimaced. “Yes you did Lieutenant. Several times. Thank you for giving me time to think about the possibility ahead of time. Captain Clancy, have all the crews double up on the DD’s in the North end toward the Battleship and extend the Container arms on the Red Pepper out ahead of the bow and dock as many of the inert DD’s from the south tube to them as you can. We will worry about activating them later when we have time.”
“But Admiral. We will have to suspend transferring mass and undock to unfold the inner arms.”
“Foldout the arms away from the docks and load what you can then turn the ship around to unload from the other side and unfold and load the others. Should be some lock extensions around here someplace to keep the DD’s on the dockside from hitting the Station. Send the mass to the DD’s on the North end. Oh, have you found out if the Station’s storage tanks have any R-mass in them or not? We can simply suspend unloading mass if they can top off the DD’s in the North end.”
“The few Storage tanks are empty but most of what look like tanks are holds and according to the manifest, the station has a million tons of equipment and spare parts for the DD’s. But no Food or reaction Mass listed that we can find yet. Not even emergency rations or MRE’s” The Captain frowned at Jack. “I was so hoping to run across at least a few food containers of Steaks. If you will excuse me Admiral, I will start transferring DD’s and crews.”
Jack frowned at the thought of a juicy steak but then smiled. “You don’t say. Well. Well. Spare Parts. Talking about timing. The DD’s we have started running out of repair parts weeks ago. Let’s grab some while we are here. Let me take a look at the Warehouse inventory and the DD’s must have list, then we can go shopping. Hopefully they have some kind of cargo handling system here.” Jack sat down at one of the consoles and spent a half hour making up a shopping list.
The Lieutenant turned to Jack. “I have found the Supply handling system. All you have to do is enter what you want and it will be delivered to the Docks. I have also found 10,000 Maintenance and Construction bots and their Independent AI Central Controllers that were delivered 6 months ago. They were going to mechanize the DD’s to reduce their crew size to 40 but someone cancelled the program right after everything got here but didn’t bother to recall anything. It looks like they had everything here they needed to complete all hundred DD’s. Do you want me to include the upgrades in the loading list?”
Jack sat back and thought for a few s
econds. “I am not sure about the upgrades but the AI Construction bots would be a great help I would think. Sure if we have room.”
“Ok. Send me your list of repair parts for the DD’s and I will get everything delivered as the tanks empty out on both ships.”
Jack sent her the prioritized list and then got up and walked to the huge window ports surrounding the control center overlooking the Station. Tugs he had never seen before were busy moving DD’s from their perches at their docks on the south end to the lower half of the Red Pepper’s hull away from the Docks as 4 long arms that had been folded back along the Cargo Container rails slowly pivoted out and around to extend well over a thousand feet forward of the ship. The last 2 rails would have to wait until the ship moved away from the Dock. As the 4 rails reached their positions out ahead of the ship, cross arm braces unfolded connecting the 4 long tubes together to stiffen them up. Though it would take the additional 2 cargo arms to complete the job and bring the lattice work up to full strength. The long tubes looking much to flimsy to hold much weight even though they were Carbon metal composites. Even though he had seen the test ship do just that after his own calculations proved to him it would work. But still his mind kept telling him they simply looked to Damn flimsy.
“Admiral!” His comm shouted at him without him having touch it. “I have a flight of fighters headed into the finger towards the Station. 3 minutes until they see us.”
Battleship Destroyer 2 (Battleship Destoryer) Page 116
