Battleship Destroyer (54 page)

Everyone's attention turned to
the torpedo streaks headed for the enemy ship. Three hundred and sixty torpedoes raced toward the enemy ship. And then one of the torpedoes turned to the side away from the enemy.  Then another and another. Their bright tails pushing them off course in random patterns. 

"Captain! Several torpedoes have turned back towered the fleet."

"Well hit the self-destruct on them."

"I can't sir. I don't
know which ones have turned back. The majority are running true. They have all locked onto something but there is no way to tell what anyone specific torpedo has locked onto unless we check each separately and there are just to many and no time sir." The officer swallowed licking his lips. "Do you want me to terminate the entire torpedo launch sir?"

"Hell no. We are just going to have to hope we can take them out before any of them hit one of our ships.
But I don't understand why their friend or foe system is not working."

"Ten seconds to impact sir."

The enemy ship lit up as its guns started taking out torpedoes.

"Five seconds to impact sir. 30 some knocked out already."

"Three."

"Our rogue
torpedo's have not responded to jamming but are not targeting our ships."

"One. A hundred gone."

"Impact on the enemy. Registering damage but no details sir."

The Ensign spoke up from the science console. "Looks like over half have hit the enemy ship."

"Captain. More hits sir." The weapons officer said surprised. Then. "No! Captain. The rogue torpedoes hit 3 life boats and the Captain's Gig… Destroying them sir." He turned around to look at the Captain. "Sir. The boats where too far away to protect Captain."

"Lieutenant! How long tell we are in weapons range?"

"Ah. . . 76 seconds sir.  The other rogue torpedo's sir have responded to the explosions, reset themselves and relocked onto targets. Most are now headed for the enemy, though a few seem to still be headed this way. Going through their targeting sensors now."

"
No. Lieutenant. Let the torpedo control do that and concentrate on making sure our guns hit their targets."

"Yes sir.  55 seconds now sir.
Torpedo room reporting ready to fire second salvo sir."

"Well we were not planning on a second Torpedo shot but we had not planned on launching the first strike so soon. Launch second fleet
wide strike when ready." The ship shuddered as 12 more torpedoes left the ship.

The enemy ship lit back up as
two long lines from big lasers streaked past the central ships of the fleet. Missing the Parsley and her squadron by some 50 miles.

"What the hell was that?" Exclaimed the First Officer.

"Captain.” The Ensign had taken over the science station shoving the lieutenant out of the way.  "Registering 2 laser cannons peeking out from the sides of the Enemy ship just before firing. They have now retracted behind the hull in front of them. It was this hull that all our torpedoes hit. They knocked off most of the junk bulkheads and the remnants of the deck above leaving a clean deck that appears to be heavily armored. There is no evidence that any penetrated the armored deck itself sir. They all exploded on or in the deck. I see only a few small craters. That has to be tough shitting armor since they are designed with armor piercing shaped charges and can penetrate 60 feet of hard carbon steel armor sir."

"Weapons; how long to reload torpedo tubes?"

"Another two minutes. The battle will be over by then sir. 45 seconds to range sir."

"The guns are appearing again around that damn deck sir."

Jack turned the ship hitting the throttle changing course with the rest of the squadron following in perfect formation.  Two laser lines streaked past the Parsley and through the squadron without hitting any ships. One coming within a half mile of the trailing ship.

"Very well Ensign. Navigator. At
tack plan Charlie. That is your air show maneuver Mr. Turner. I hope it gets enough hits behind that damn armor to take that bastard out. Though it means we have to hold their attention while the rest of the fleet's squadrons hold their fire until they get a clean shot at the sides and rear."

"30 seconds to range sir."

"Very good lieutenant. You and the command squadron can commence firing now instead of waiting."

The 16 inch guns of the squadr
on opened up immediately.  The 12 guns from each of the 6 ships sending 72 yellow beams into the enemy ship hitting the armored deck in front.

"No damage to the deck sir." The Ensign said mat
ter of factually without emotion. May I suggest Captain that we aim for the cannons the next time they appear?"

"Weapons, the cannons. Hold the next squadron salvo for them."

The enemy beams streaked through the squadron again before the guns could recharge. Coming close but not hitting any of them as Jack maneuvered into a tight turn just before they fired, then straightened out toward the enemy again.

"Our guns are recharged now sir. Waiting for targets. Are you sure about targeting the enemy guns sir."

"Yes lieutenant. Patience. "

The seconds
seemed to drag on as the enemy ship got closer, rapidly growing in the screen. Every fiber in him wanted to take the ship and run but he had to keep it locked onto a course as they decelerated. Straight and narrow so all 6 turrets ringing the stern could fire back past the Cooling /Landing fins unobstructed. Though he wished their pedestals were a lot higher to give him some maneuvering room. Though he had made sure the squadron had moved well to the side and not lined up with the life boats and gigs as they continued to fall toward the enemy ship. Though he knew the little fleet would miss the enemy ship by miles. He just made sure the Squadrons guns would miss them as well.

"Enemy guns appearing Captain."  The Ensign said.

"Weapons Fire when ready."

The lasers flared from the squadron the same instant the enemy ship's laser
s streaked back across space.

"
Captain!" The Comm officer yelled. "The Mustard has been hit. They are losing power. Heavy casualties."

The screen shifted to show the
Mustard as it puked gas and materials out both ends. The enemy beam had gone completely through the ship from stern to stem (Bow). Some of the debris looked like unsuited crewmen. The ship immediately started slowly tumbling as the out gassing and exploding ordnance pushed the unpowered hull around.

"
Gentlemen we still have a job to do. Time to target?"

"15 seconds sir. Time for one more shot from them before we pass sir.
The ring of squadrons are opening fire in 3, 2, 1. 

Over 300
beams converged on the enemy ship from the sides. Suddenly the sick yellow color of the fleet's main 16 inch gun beams became glaringly cold after seeing several broadsides of the hot eye hurting deep White, Bluish tinted beams of the enemy.

"Captain." The Ensign turned around. "I am getting feedback from a comm beam pointed back into Republic territory. Back from where this enemy ship just came from sir."

The enemy ship raced toward them seemingly un hurt and then it fired again as the squadrons guns tried again to pick off one of the guns. One beam looked like it hit them filling the screens until the pickups burned out. Jack waited for death but the ship did not shake or jerk from a hit. No casualty or damage reports flooded the bridge.

"The
Chichimec has been hit sir."

The screens came back on showing the closing en
emy as the ring of ships again sent beams into it as fast as each ship could recharge it's guns. Creating longer and longer bursts of streaks each time the fleet fired.

The enemy ship fired again
without hitting any of the squadron as the second wave of torpedo's streaked in to its sides this time, combined with another fleet wide gun salvo and then it simply blew up as it passed filling most of the bridge's main screen in an expanding fireball as hull sections and engines and gun pods went spinning off into a donut ring around it.

Jack waited for word of another hit ship and dead crewmen but none came as the
Bridge exploded in shouts. The cloud of expanding gas and particles rushed past the bow of the ship then away disappearing in the direction the fleet had come from. Jack caught a glimpse of a tumbling plate disappearing in the same direction.

The Captain raised he
voice without shouting. "Ok enough celebrating. We have work to do. Three damaged ships to take care of. Tracking, where are my boats?"

"Only the Admiral's barge is still on the screen Captain. The expandin
g enemy wreckage cloud took all the rest out sir. If the enemy had been a little better shot, the Barge would not be there as well."

"What the hell! All the
launched life boats and all 4 gigs were destroyed?"

"Yes sir the gigs stayed with the life boats trying to keep them grouped together to keep them from drifting away while the barge ran
putting as much distance between it and the battle."

Turning to the Ensign the Captain looked baffled. "Ok,
you said that the enemy ship fired its last volley at the barge? Don't get me wrong, I am glad or it would have hit another one of my ships. But Why?"

"Only thing I can think of sir is that it was easy to lock onto with it transmitting in the open to the enemy. Sounded like the Director was trying to negotiate a deal
to be the enemy’s personal representative to the human race and control the transferring of new technology from them even though they evidentially did not want to talk to him. You are not going to believe what he was telling them. Even said that the fleet attacking them at the front are our last new ships and it will take years to replace them so once they are destroyed they have nothing to fear from us. Do you want to hear the recording sir?"

"No. Not now. Later. We have too much to do. Comm tell the squadron commanders to maintain position but send a ship in to help with rescue and recovery efforts along with as many boats as they have pilots for and their damage control marines." Turning to the damage control board. "Any damage on this ship?"

"No sir. Not enough to speak of. Burned out sensors that have already been replaced by
backups and the paint burned off the hull making the ship nice and shiny on one side."

"Very well." Turning around. "Exec
, get me damage reports from all ships as soon as possible. Comm tell the Lettuce to go retrieve our wayward Barge and arrest the idiots in it. Don't be too polite to the traitors either."

"Now Ensign. What was this about the enemy ship sending a message back into the
Republic? Makes more sense if they sent a message toward their fleet in the opposite direction. The direction they were headed in."

"Yes sir but it would have blasted our ears off even
though it is at a frequency we have never heard before or can transmit at. All we would have heard was the carrier wave washing over us and not be able to understand a word even if it was in English sir. No, this was just the negative back wave wash of a message headed in the direction we are going sir. At least now we know how they communicate, now we can figure out how to listen." Looking over to the plot navigation screen she frowned. "He could have been calling for help from the guy we were approaching from behind sir."

Jack spoke up. "No. He was probably
telling someone we are coming. There was no way he could have knocked out the whole fleet and he knew it. Probably why he was concentrating on what he thought was the Command ship before he continued on to his home fleet. He did not expect to be destroyed and I agree. He shouldn't have. I think we got lucky. Like he was one of those ship's the Ensign had talked about with a lot of old unrepaired damage over a vital area like the Fusion Reactors that we just happened to hit that our pitifully Yellow guns were able to penetrate."

"Well
, if that was the case we need to figure out how to get around that shield and upgrade our guns. At least we have sensors that can see them coming." Looking up at the three damaged ships in the screens. "We are going to be here a couple of days at least making repairs or abandoning the damaged ships. It will make us late getting to the Rock but I will not leave good ships behind unless I have to." The Captain studied the star charts. "Comm, are we in comm range of the Rock yet?"

"Not for reception sir, but they should have no problem receiving
us with the monster Array they have. They need to know about killing our first enemy ship sir. That it can be done."

"Very well Comm. Send
using the new Code Charlie 5 rotating through Navaho, Pigmy and Ancient Egyptian, Sumerian and first Dynasty Chinese. Use name transposition, Johnny 3 and ham it up."

"Sir. Johnny 3 was used last month. How about Johnny 4 sir?"

"Very well Comm. Send everything we have in my approved bin. I will add to it in a couple of hours." Turning to Jack. "Mr. Turner take us up next to the Shichimi for docking. They seem to be in the worst shape." Then hitting the comm on his chair. "Attention. We are going to dock with the Shichimi. I want all damage control, medical and maintenance teams ready to go as soon as the hatch opens. Hull and system techs, I want air restored as soon as possible. You all know what has to be done and I know you will all do your best. Out."  Hitting the comm screen again. "Chief Dodson. I need you to tell me as soon as possible if we can restart her engines."