Tramp Wars: The Enemy

by Larry Roberts

  “Mickey, those last two batch of missiles are coming in very hot. I am going to try diving under them at the last second like you said the other boat should have done?”

  “Yes mark but the second batch is coming in fast behind it. You can dive under the first but the second will fallow you down. You will then have to pull up into them faster than they can turn. You may not be able to pull enough Gee’s to avoid them. Calculating, yes it can be done. If you do not dive hard enough the first batch will get us. If you don’t pull up fast enough or have to wait too long to pull up, the second batch will get us. Either way it is going to be close if we can do it at all.”

  "Ok Mickey we don't have much choice." Mark tried to line up on the closest boat again but as soon as he smoothed his approach out to aim, multiple lasers started passing close to the canopy forcing him to start maneuvering again. "Damn." Then sub vocally again. (Mickey, target these ass holes with our remaining short range missiles."

  Mickey said. "Dian Fire. Fire. Fire. “Dian pushed the fire key each time Mickey said fire. Three missiles streaked away from the cork screwing fighter.

  “You can relax now Ensign Abraham. You fired the last missile. Now the ball is in my court.”

  “Mark I have calculated the optimum time for you to dive. You will have to roll over and pull 27 gee’s for 15 seconds then role 180 degrees and pull up at 30 gee’s or above. If you take more than 2 seconds to role upright the second time or are more than 20 degrees off on your dive or pulling up into the second wave of missiles or do not pull enough gee’s we do not stand a chance Mark. Even laying in these acceleration tubs you must tighten all your muscles especially pulling in your gut and leg muscles in as hard as you can as if you are going to get hit in the gut while clenching your butt like your trying to keep from shitting, while taking fast shallow breaths off the top of your lungs because if you pass out we are dead.”

  “We have a few seconds so practice both of you.” They both started grunting. “No!” said Mickey. “You can do better than that! Do it! If you start to gray out, your vision starts to tunnel that is fine and normal just grunt and tighten your muscles more and breath faster. Now let me hear you grunt while you are doing it. Harder… Harder… Ok relax. You must listen and do only what I say Mark even if it does not make sense when you are tunneling. Things won't make sense but you must do what I say until I say you can stop. Ok. Now put on the oxygen masks from the compartment in the side of the seat and pull the straps tight until they hurt.”

  “I asked you a question Commander!” Taken back by Mickey’s demand Mark repeated what he was supposed to do while he dodged another laser streak. And with Dian’s help finely got the oxygen mask on. "Now start hyperventilating even if you get a little dizzy. It will help make up for your lack of oxygen later."

  Mark felt something prick his shoulder. He glanced around at Dian as she injected herself. Catching his glance as the fighter jerked around again. "It is a shot of the Oxygen infuser I gave you in the hold Mark. It should help us both tolerate the Gee's better."

  "Did anyone in those other boats survive Mickey?" Dian asked trying to look over her shoulder.

  "5 seconds to dive on my order. You can roll over upside down know Mark."

  Mark rolled the boat over on its back as Mickey answered Dian. "No Dian no one on those first 3 boat will survive the 5 minute plunge."

  "3 seconds. Take two quick deep breaths and then start breathing off the top of it. One second. Dive!" Mickey shouted all too human and Mark pulled back for all he was worth into the dive. At Mock 10 it was not much of a dive even as the Gee’s quickly built up.

  “Twenty Seven point five gees Mark good keep it up.” Mark and Dian both grunted and groaned in shallow hard breaths as the seats engulfed them like a cocoon with Dian settling deep down into her’s, allowing the tub to do most of the work. While Mark had to leave his Oxygen masked face and hands attached to the control side sticks out above.

  “The more you pull know the easier it will be later. But not too much, you still have to role in 10 seconds. Your signs are good, try going to 30 gee’s now. 8 seconds good. 5 seconds. You are doing well. They could see the missiles chasing them on the screens.

  The first batch of missiles are dropping off lock fast... 3.... 2..... There goes the last one role Mark role. I have fired the last of the decoys. Now pull Mark. Harder 28 gee’s good but you can do more toughen that gut up, come on tighten those muscles and breath Mark, breath. 32 gee’s yes! Do it! 35! Good hold there that is fine hold it just hold it.”

  Mark started to see a long tunnel with a light in the distance as he fought to stay awake. “They are starting to drop off. Three missiles left. Come on. You can do just a few more seconds. There goes another."

  They watched 2 missiles fallowing them around and then one just seemed to fall out of the sky and away.

  "That’s number 2. One more left Mark. Come on pull just a little harder damn that last one just won’t give up…come on; give it up."

  The tunnel started narrowing into a long tube as Mark pulled back harder on the control stick. The Gee meter creeping up to 40 gees as the tunnel shrank to a straw.

  "OK! It is Gone! That’s it Mark you can stop know. As the last missile streaked by a couple hundred yards behind them and exploded, Mark rolled the fighter back over.

  “Our last two long range missiles have gone ballistic at Mach 20 Mark and Dian. Our short range missiles are about to hit the closest boat. "

  "What! You promised that you would not target any of the boats again!" Dian screamed.

  The boat in question flipped over and dove towards the ground as the lasers started going after the missiles streaking strait at it. "Wrong maneuver." Mark said as he rolled back over to watch, not having to dodge.

  The lead missile suddenly blew up as one of the mass of lasers firing at it hit, raising Marks eyes in disbelief. As the second missile rapidly closed with the diving boat he heard Dian say. "Good they got one, now get the rest."

  When the remaining missiles were so close Mark could not believe the missiles would miss, the boat turned back hard pulling hard around in the opposite direction. The lead missile tried to turn in the thickening atmosphere but then started tumbling as the side wind forces over powered the missile's stabilizers. The second missile came around with the boat but could not quite turn fast enough. As it started to pass the boat's tail its proximity fuse detonated its warhead.

  "You made me kill those men Mark!" Dian screamed.

  Mark started to pull back into the 4th boat to line up his cannons but they suddenly decided that attacking one of his majesties' fighters was not such a good idea after all and dove for the deck trying to escape. “Mark if you pull on around into a climb you can leave the engagement. The two closest bouts are out of missiles and the 6th and last bout is too far away to even threaten you with a long shot before it is hit.”

  “How long until the long range missiles hit Mickey?” Dian asked as tears came to her eyes. “Activate the missiles self-destruct Mickey. We can dodge those missiles too without having to destroy the boats killing the crew.”

  “5 seconds. Do you want me to activate the missile’s self-destruct Mark?”

  “No Mickey. I am not about to risk our lives on successfully dodging their fucking missiles again. We may not be that lucky again.” Mark took another deep breath, still feeling like he was out of breath. “Besides the last short range missiles pretty much missed, these could too.”

  “Not very likely Mark. The last boat does not even know the missiles are headed for it since they are ballistic and cold. They are not even doing any basic evasive maneuvers. Though at this angle and closing speed they would only have a few seconds to act.”

  “Good. Then they both should hit them and we can go after the other boats and find out who the hell is behind all this.”

  “IMPACT!" Mickey said as something streaked into the stern of the distant boat and exploded.

  A half second later the sec
ond missile hit the boats bow section that was already starting to tumble. "The second missile impacted what was left Mark. The target has been destroyed.”

  Dian’s screen clearly showed that fact. The corners of her mouth trembled as her expression changed a dozen times and tears streamed down her cheeks.

  At a mild 2 gee’s the nose of the fighter dropped below the horizon as the number 5 boat turned over and dove for the ground, its cannons shooting wildly in all directions afraid of a cold missile as well as the fighter. Dropping the fighter's cannon sight onto the rapidly dropping boat he touched a button on his stick and a box appeared around the boat with all the targeting information he needed. From 50 miles away he rolled level and lined up the nose of the fighter placing the pip of the targeting lead icon on the boat and pulled the trigger sending a stream of laser bolts chasing the enemy boat as the fighters engines started to whine up to speed. Mark checked his throttle to make sure it was still in idle. The maneuvering in the thickening atmosphere had bleed off most of their speed already. The last thing he wanted was to close with the 5th boat yet. He just wanted to damage it.

  "The 4th boat is below us and still diving isn’t it Mickey?” Then he realized the engine had speeded up to power the laser cannons.

  “You are passing over the 4th boat now, 4 miles below. Mark at this rang this deep in the atmosphere, a killing hit on the 5th boat is not likely. ”

  “Well excuse me for trying.” The burst lengthened into 5 seconds with Mark keeping the pip on the target as the computer made corrections sending the shots chasing the boat from behind, the shots getting closer and closer. "I don't want to kill it. I just want to force it down."

  “Mark the cannons are over heating please stop.”

  “Ya boss; just a second.” At 10 seconds, pieces of boat started falling off as Marks cannon started making hits with a trail of smoke growing bigger by the second. But finely in the red with the overheat alarm blaring in his helmet he let off on the trigger. “Well hell, at least I branded it.”

  Flipping back over, he headed for the deck and after the fleeing boat number 4 below him. Still way to fast even after bleeding off all the energy firing on the distant boat Mark flicked on the speed brakes no longer worried about the enemy tracking a slow fighter. But needing to slow down to engage the one remaining boat without over shooting as the fighter dove after it.

  “Mark I want to go home.” Dian said. “You don’t need to kill these guys. It is senseless to continue.”

  “I do not plan on killing anyone but they are going to land where I can find out who is behind all this. Then arrest them or have the local authorities preferably anyway.”

  “You just want an excuse to kill them is all. There is no reason to force them to land. We can go straight home and let the authorities take care of them.”

  “No! Once they get into the truck skyways with thousands of trucks as big as they are and bigger, no one will be able to find them again.” Approaching the boat from the rear with the big engines blinding the boat from shooting at him. He was not worried about cannon shots. “Dian we need to find out what they are going to do next. It must be something big or they would not have risked taking a star fighter out. That means the ship is in danger. Serious danger and the only people with the answers are down there in that boat.”

  "Four miles away and closing fast." Mickey said.

  Looking at the cannon heat gage still deep in the red zone. “Mickey can’t you make these cannons cool any faster?”

  “Yes Mark but if I activate the active cooling system, it will more than triple our heat signature.”

  “So? The only boat left is straight ahead and out of missiles. So cool away girl.”

  “Yes Mark but if there is another enemy boat we do not know about. We would be a sitting satellite.”

  “I will need the cannons shortly and that means you need to turn the…” The cannon heat gage dropped out of the red as it rapidly declined with the words (COOLING ON) across the bottom. "Hell you could have activated the damn cooling when I was shooting at the other boat Mickey. Another few seconds I would have damaged it enough to force it down. And you had to have known it damn it. Don't do that again."

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  Blackbeard watched his boats disappear one at a time until he realized that the fighter was out of missiles and he still had one fully armed boat with enough missiles to take it out no matter what the stupid fighter did. That is as long as they did not fire until they were well within rang instead of wasting them on a long ballistic shot that proved to be a waste of missiles. Who could have known that the Mustang could maneuver that fast? Excusing his own orders to launch the missiles too soon. Talking to the pilot Blackbeard was making sure they understood what and how to take this lucky bastard out with the missiles they had and not waste them. Then; in the middle of a sentence the screen went blank. Not only of the pilot but of the targeting computer and boats maintenance computer. Just nothing at all from the boat. Getting the closest boat number 5 that was headed for the deck on the screen. The pilot told him the bad news. All that was left of number 6 boat was a ball of expanding gas and junk.

  After screaming obscenities for a few seconds Blackbeard realized that he still had two boats with good Laser cannons and that if they co-operated they could still take this ass hole and his fighter out. It took threats and money and promises as he talked to both boats at the same time and then boat number 5 started taking hits from laser cannons knocking out cannons and killing personnel as a bolt shot through the open cannon hatch. With a dozen bolts streaking past, another bolt shook the stern of the boat setting off alarms as one of the engines flew apart. A bolt glanced off the canopy as more surrounded the boat until another bolt knocked out control services making the boat difficult to control as another blasted a hole in the side behind the cockpit. Then when most of the bolts started hitting the boat they suddenly stopped.

  Blackbeard said good. Now boat 5 could turn around and attack the fighter with boat 4. The pilot with smoke and air whistling through the cockpit and having problems even keeping it in the air and half his crew dead told Blackbeard to go fuck himself. What Blackbeard did to the pilot when they finely got back to the old Space port was lost to the record books as too far beyond believable to be proved or written down.

  -----------------------

  The Supreme Admiral sat at his desk. The re-entry ionized gasses cleared outside his large porthole without him noticing they were there in the first place as he worked at his desk. He had done too many reentries to even notice anymore.

  His com unit came to life. “Admiral we are picking up Commander Collins fighter in combat with 6 boats over a thousand miles ahead.”

  Looking up from his work, puzzled. “Say that again Captain.” Tapping the screen controls he brought up the cockpit tactical and targeting screens.

  “The Commander just dodged several missiles and is firing on the boat that launched them. GOOD shooting Commander.” The Captain shouted surprised as the first boat disintegrated.

  “Yes I have it on my screen now. Can we help Captain?”

  “No sir, we are too far away for our light weight defense cannons to help and he is already deep in there kill zone. It will be over in just a few seconds if that sir. Against the 5 remaining bouts with missiles and lasers cannons we are detecting, I cannot see him surviving. Hell I don’t think I could get out of his situation sir.”

  “Well arm up Captain I don’t want any of those boats getting away. Start putting on the breaks I want to capture at least one alive. And see if there are any defense fighters around on maneuvers that can lend a hand.”

  “The Vice Admiral is already on it sir.” The fighter flew past the first boat as it was falling apart from Mark's cannon rounds at close range.

  The Admiral sat back shaking his head; surprised at Mark taking out the first boat as well as the attack happening to begin with. They had to find a way to protect the trade in the neighboring
sectors within a hundred light years of England and could not even protect the re-entry lane of a space station to their biggest city on their own Capital planet. Well. It was a shame the Captain had put so much stock into this boy. He must have been something to have someone risk this much to take him out. And then watched in amazement as the boy proceeded against all odds to dodged missiles and take out boat after boat.

  Chapter 29 Taking Prisoners

  Mark dropped from 60,000 feet to 20,000 in seconds. Within a thousand feet of the number 4 boat Mark put on the breaks by energizing the grav coils. Approaching from behind the boat as they plummeted at about a 45 degree angle, he lined up on one of the engines and then fired one shot taking it out without undue damage to the boat. Then slid the piper over to take out the second Main Engine. He spent another minute closing in on the boat until he was within a hundred yards of the stern as it descended. Kicking the rudder, he slid out to the side as a cannon was swung out to fire at him. Mark kicked the opposite rudder to crab the fighter to the side so he could line up on the side cannon and fired again. The short burst taking it out with its crew. Pitching the twin cannons and two of its crew out into open air. Mark hopped they were already dead and that the rest of the crew was ok inside the boat. Kicking the rudder again he slid over to the other side and lined up where the cannon would be only to watch the hatch remain clear. Crabbing around farther until he was flying at almost a 45 degree angle to maintain his cannons on the open door he could see the cannon locked into its storage recess against the front bulk head. A man with a bloody arm held onto a hand grip at the edge of the door with his good hand. Starring back at Mark and Dian. Mark straitened the fighter out and pulled up beside the boat.

  “Mickey can you put me in contact with that boat?”

  “Yes Mark, I have been listening to them talk to their base. The other boat was planning on teaming up with this one until your laser blasts damaged it severely. You have an open channel.”