“Very well. Number One how long for the Cross Connect?”
“Should be just about…”
The Bridge shook violently. Alarms started going off.
“That just missed the Bridge Captain.”
“Hold fire.” Shouted the Lieutenant. “I am having to realign the ship.”
“We have the cross connect Captain. Ready to fire Starboard God Gun on your command.”
“Lieutenant. Get it together.”
“Working on it Jack, damn it. Just give me a few fricking seconds.”
The 2 remaining ships of the Squadron were joined by the 2 battleships that had been knocked into a tumble by the fusion blast of the ship next to them now that they had stabilized and was pointing back at the Red Pepper. The guns of the 4 ships swept past the bow with a hundred pin lights flashing around the rims of their armored shield decks and flashed past the Red Peppers tumbling bow again as hundreds of beams continued to streak past the ship.
“Ok got it. You can fire on this pass.”
“Weapons, fire when the target bears.”
The ship whipped around and the God Gun fired stopping the ship’s tumble, pointing directly at the squadron. Another ship grew a bright spot in the center of its bow and started to slowly tumble away from facing the Red Pepper. Its guns going silent.
The Tactical Officer spoke up. “Target 11 has stopped firing and shows the core flooded with plasma spewing out the ends. That leaves 3 Battleships firing at us again. Lifeboats are springing from the ship we hit and are trying to keep one of the other hulks between them and the other ships as they leave the area.” The Sensor Officer leaned closer to the screen. “Sir. The other hulks are now puking lifeboats out like pissed off bee hives.” Shaking her head. The damn point defenses of the 3 Battleships are firing at them like crazy. The lifeboats are following the others trying to put the hulks of other ships between them but they are not being very successful.”
“Damn. We are in a terrible place looking down their armored decks for taking out their point defenses. Hell we will be lucky to take out their 24’s. Weapons fire what missiles and torpedoes we can to go around the sides to help. Though we should be using them to take out the damn 24inch turrets.” Shaking his head. “Weapons. Good job on the cross over. Number one, we need to evacuate the bow of all unessential personnel. It is going to have to absorb a hell of a lot of damage. I am now glad the exslaves insisted in slapping lots of armor on so many of the upper decks.” Taking a deep breath. “Ok Weapons how long to recharge the God Guns?”
“The 1 and 3 Pair are charging off the emergency power generators that have been switched to them and number 2 gun cut out now that we are stable. They will be charged in 3 minute sir.”
“Very well target each gun down the throat of the each of the last ships. Put an end to this shit.”
The ship shuddered. “No!” The Weapons Officer almost screamed. God gun 3 has been hit down the throat and has been destroyed.”
“Captain. With the surviving God guns on the same side of the ship they will just put us back into a tumble.”
Shaking his head. “Not if you bring them in close and aim each threw the mass center line of the ship. Youse your head Lieutenant. How long to recharge them?”
“Aaa we lost the emergency generators when the gun shorted out taking the full charge of the Capacitors and burned out the emergency Generators attached to it. With the loss of half our emergency generators and the 16/8’s firing and no main engine cores. At least 5 minutes to recharge both remaining guns sir.”
Jack grimaced as he looked back at the damage control screen and realized that the coils of the engines were the only thing that was damaged and not the cores. Slapped his comm to engineering. “Chief, I need the engine cores lit off and the power sent to the 16/8s and the remaining God Guns.”
“Well Captain that is a lot of power to be sending to the guns, I don’t know if the plasma lines can take the power. We have not been using them that long and never tested them for that. Hell, we are still testing the whole plasma distribution system. Trying to find out what it can do and can’t. Hell half the system is still a bread board sir.”
“Well we have to get power to the weapons Chief or we are dead. Which brings up another topic. Any possibility of getting that last engine running?”
“Sorry Captain. We took one directly on the sides of the engines at the cooling fines opening in the hull, half the coils are slagged. No. we are a barge until we get to a ship yard and replace the engines. Sorry Captain. We will relight one of the engine cores and see if we can feed enough into the system to keep it going.” The Chief turned and looked up for a second as a half-smile came to his face. “You know Captain we could simply vent the excess plasma down the engine. It is already slagged so a little more plasma won’t hurt it any more than it already is. That will reduce the plasma stream down to something the conduits can handle.”
“Well give it a try Chief and get me some power. Out.”
“The non-essential personnel in the bow have been evacuated and are moving to the stern Captain.”
“Very well Number One. Damage Control, how is the bow holding up?”
“Number of hits have gone down Captain with the smaller frontal area we are presenting to the enemy. We have not had a penetrating hit since we stabilized.” The Damage control officer smiled. “The slanted bow with the thick Crystal covering is doing its job reflecting the beams Sir.” The ship shuddered a little and the lieutenant looked down at his screen. “Talked to soon Captain. A 5 inch turret took a direct hit in the wrong place and the beam penetrated 6 decks. No reported casualties with no missing suit transponders. Damage control teams are headed that way. We will see how well the crystal hull plugs work now.”
The Weapons Officer turned around. “Captain the main power is coming back up. With the cross over in and this rate of charging, we will be able to fire the God Guns every 15 seconds sir. I can’t believe how much power is coming up the plasma line sir.”
The Engineer turned from his console all smiles. Give us another minute to check the plasma lines at this power level and we will up it again Captain.”
Jack looked at the stern screen and saw a stream of plasma shooting out one of the stern engine ports.
“Captain, Fin 3 has taken a direct hits half way out and the end is floating away.”
Jack glanced at the fin drifting slowly from the ship and shook his head. It was needed with the core going even if the plasma was dumped down the dead engine.
“God Gun 4 taken out Captain. Another shot down its throat.” The Weapons officer said painfully.
“Now we know why the damn Spider ships hide their guns between shots.”
“Ready to fire our last operational God Gun Captain. Ship moving to the side to line the gun up with the center line.”
“16-1 knocked out Captain. That side of the ship is exposed.”
Jack could see lasers hitting and reflecting off that side of the ship as the ships ass stuck out from behind the bow to fire the God Gun down the mass center line of the ship. The God Gun fired and another Battleship stopped firing but still leaving the guns from the last two remaining Battleships shooting at them.
And then suddenly the sole remaining working God Gun in the Fleet, left the side of the ship tumbling away on its own dragging the arm with its attachment base. The Red Pepper had barely turned bow-on to the incoming fire when the base was hit by several 24 inch beams in only a few seconds tearing the base off at its weakest point. A second later another beam hit the gun. As the gun drifted away it seemed to attract the majority of the beams from the remaining Battleships leaving the Red Pepper completely isolated as the big 400 foot long 40 foot wide gun was plastered with shot after shot though they bounced off the casing sides.
The Lieutenant brought the stern back behind the bow as she watched their last remaining hope being destroyed. Shaking her head. She could see the streams of 16/8 and 5/3 beams streaking into and back
along the sides of the Battleships but knew the remaining turrets of the ships were fighting a very steep uphill battle. At least half the guns on the enemy ships were still working while they only had 4, 16/8 turrets remaining and 8, 5/3’s. It was only a matter of time even with half the enemy guns still targeting the tumbling God Gun.
The enemy 24 inch beams kept slamming into the tumbling God gun as its stern turned toward the beams hitting it and bouncing off. Then suddenly the beams started penetrating the wide flat stern plate that was not as armored as the rest of the gun and things started spewing out the end as the coils and equipment inside of the gun turned to pure plasma, expanding into unheard of pressures. The plasma squirting out the back powering the gun like an engine sending it careening off across space twisting around wildly out of control away from the Red Pepper and the remaining enemy Battleship toward the Station before arching back toward the Maze.
The ship shivered as a mass of beams were retargeted onto the Red Pepper and one of the first beams penetrated the bow. Fin number 5 tipped over to the side exposing its flat surface to the beams and holes started being punched into it at a rapid pace. The fire from the Battleships starting to become more accurate with time, practice and the fact that the Red Pepper really had nothing to threaten them with any longer while it sat like a rock asteroid slowly drifting in the general direction toward them.
Jack watched the majority of the beams slowly get closer and closer to the ship.
“Captain. The bow hull temperature is going up from all the grazing hits.”
The ship shuddered again.
“Penetration on a 3/2 point defense turret, 6 decks deep.” The ship shuddered twice in a row again as the Damage control Officer took a breath. “Penetrations on turret 312 and 4005. Six decks on each. Shit, Damage control crew 7 wiped out with a direct hit on their Damage control locker Captain. I don’t think they even felt it Sir.”
“Damn it. Number one spread the DC crews out so one hit does not do so fricking much damage. SOP from now on.”
Jack heard what he thought was a pop in his ears.
“Turret 164 direct hit with the capacitors fully charged is now slagged. Gunners are gone.” The Damage control Officer shook his head. “Five Zero Nine just popped, 6 decks again only casualty is the gunner.”
“Shit… Weapons. Pull the gun crews out of them now. With fixed targets and us a sled they are just as accurate fired remotely.”
“Eye Captain. Pulling crews now.”
Jack caught something out of the corner of his eye and turned to a screen to see another God Gun that had already been taken out drifting away from the ship and suddenly it was getting all the attention of the attacking ships giving the Red Pepper a brief respite. Though Jack found it a little strange that the gun seemed to be falling away behind the ship. “Plot what is going on? Why is that gun falling away behind us?”
“Captain, plot. We are being pushed by something toward the Enemy Battleships at an increasing rate. Do they possess tractor beams big enough to pull us toward them from this distance?”
Jack’s eyes narrowed and then a smile came to his face as he turned to the stern screen and a good sized stream of plasma shooting out the engine nozzle. Looking back around the 3 remaining 16/8 gun turrets with a constant stream of shells headed toward the Battleships. Shaking his head. He started to ask Weapons how the 16/8s were doing firing so rapidly were doing, thinking they were probably going to overheat rather quickly.
Then the deck shuddered again and he closed his eyes as the Damage control officer made his announcement. “166 has just been destroyed with a direct hit between the barrels. Same place the last one got hit after deflecting a dozen hits on the sloping sides Captain. Makes sense the flat plate between the guns is the weakest point on the turret. That’s where most of the guns have been hit at, knocking most of them out. We need to reinforce the armor on the rest of the turrets sir when we get back to Space Dock.”
Jack could see that the remaining guns were running in the red but little did it matter if they got knocked out before they burned up.
“Captain, Plot. We will be hitting the enemy ships in an hour at this rate of acceleration sir. I can’t believe they have a tractor beam this strong. Do they plan on boarding us?”
Jack smiled. “No Lieutenant. They do not have a tractor beam. We are venting plasma out are ass to keep one of the main cores running to provide power to the guns. The few we have left that is.” Jack frowned. “But you just may have a good idea there Lieutenant.” Turning to his comm screen for the Chief engineer. “Chief, I need the other core lit off and vented down the engine and pour the coal to it. We have a ship to ram.”
“What the hell Captain? Did I hear you right? You want to ram a ship?”
“Well Chief, we don’t have much of a ship left here so it is time to take another ship that is in better shape. The plasma you are venting is already accelerating the ship so let’s pull the stops out and see what the plasma drive can do on its own. I am starting to think up ways to make it a lot more efficient but that is another project. Let’s just see how much thrust you can produce with what we have already.”
“Well you know sir that one of the original space drives was an electric plasma drive that was damn efficient for its day. With our tech we should be able to do a lot better. I will have the other engine’s core lit off in a few minutes with a different vent and we shall see. Out.”
Jack turned and looked at the Damage control board as the ship was hit again and then the outside screens focused up along the hull with plasma streaming out of the God Gun base on that side. “All weapons cease firing.”
“What was that Captain?” The Weapons Officer turned toward Jack.
“You heard me Lieutenant. Cease fire immediately and turn the guns that are still operational away from the enemy. Face the turret’s assess forward. Number one shut down all transmitters, passive sensors only. I want this ship cold now. Damage control, we are venting plasma out the Port God Gun base. I want you to increase the flow and start venting the plasma lines on the other God gun bases as well. See what you can do to rout the other generator plasma lines in the bow and the gun deck’s knocked out 16/8s out of the hull as well. Helm, start rotating the ship around its long access to keep us pointed at those damn Battleships without thrusters then shut everything down. Number One start preparing the marines and crew to board that damn Battleship when we collide.”
Jack turned to the tactical screen and frowned. The 3 Battleships still running for their lives were now 5 to 10 minutes from the cloud. Even if the enemy battleships started firing at them in 5 minutes they would not do that much damage but then it did not look like the fire directed on the Red Pepper was slacking any so they should get away easy.
“New ships coming out of the Maze Captain. I think they are coming out of one of the corridors to The Rock. I count 20 of them so far and more coming out the corridor.”
“Picking up and tapping into a comm using fleet standard codes from the new ships to the Station, Captain. Do you want to view it?”
“Sure put in on the screen.”
“A 3 star Admiral and the Station’s 1 star Rear Admiral came on the split screen.”
“What the hell is going on here? They could have heard you screaming for help clear back at The Rock. What is this about ships mutinying?”
“A God damn Republic ship destroyed my whole fucking squadron except the ones that turned and joined the Republic side. You have to kill them all before they escape. Shoot! Damn it! They are getting away.”
The new Admiral turned and issued orders. “Fire on every ship out there now.” Then turned back to the Station’s Rear Admiral. “Where is the main fleet we were supposed to join?”
Jack turned back to the tactical as some 25 ships that had come out of the maze by then and were only a couple minutes from the 3 remaining ships that were about to enter the finger and broadside on suddenly started taking massive amounts of fire and started disin
tegrating. Then one of their cores blew.
Jack could not believe what was happening and then the Battleship they were headed to collide with, blew up as a growing number of laser shots hitting the ship’s broadside found the core at full power and detonated.”
Jack had to shield his eyes even through the Red’s armor.
“35 ships have come out of the corridor Captain and still counting. They are coming out faster and faster and firing as soon as they clear the cloud.” Came the tactical officer in Jack’s ears as he scrunched his eyelids shut while covering his eyes and turned away as another ship’s core blew but he could not tell where it had come from. Betting that it had been one of the ships attacking them since all firing at the Red Pepper had stopped. “The detached God Gun running wild spewing plasma is headed for the damn Congressional Fleet Captain. The God Gun case is receiving fire from half the Congressional ships now sir. The rest are divided amongst the hundreds of hulks around the Bay.”
“Number One, make sure we look damn dead. Reduce the cores to minimum to feed the plasma streams.
“53 ships total now Captain. I don’t see any more coming sir.” The Sensor operator said.
“The 2 surviving refugee ships have stopped accelerating but are only minutes from the cloud Captain and still being fired upon and spewing life boats. Shit I hope they scrammed their cores.” The Tactical Officer said as another ship blew up in the distance.
“Captain the 2 surviving refugee ships have powered down their cores.” The Sensor Officer said. “Life boats are launching and disappearing into the cloud.
Jack turned back to look just as another one of the Battleships only a few hundred miles directly in front of them blew its core right into Jack’s eyes again even though it had stopped firing when life boats had started sprouting from it. They had not scrammed their core before ejecting life boats.
“Damn, they are shooting lifeboats.” A shocked voice said over the suit comm. “They are sitting ducks. Hundreds destroyed already since the Fleet came out into the middle of a large mass of them headed for the cloud.”
Battleship Destroyer 2 (Battleship Destoryer) Page 125
