Battleship Destroyer (67 page)

The First Officer turned to the Captain.
"Now why would he do that when he knows we will destroy ourselves if we hit the cloud at that velocity and he has additional ships already vectored in to intercept us if we continue? He has no need to follow us let alone intercept us."

"Well Mr. Turner. Can you answer Number Ones question? I kind of wonder
ed that myself even though I saw them chance course to intercept us time after time in the simulations you ran in The Game?"

"Because the enemy Commander cannot be certain that we do not have a fleet waiting in the cloud for us to combine with and destroy the picket ships and then
either disappear into the cloud or turn and destroy him if he tries to stop us.  And second, he knows we have only so much reaction mass which is why we were headed straight for the cloud in the first place, so we would have enough mass to slow down and enter the cloud safely. The fact that we have speeded up now after talking to the cloud for the last few days, can only mean we are expecting help of some kind farther around the cloud probably closer to our base. Weather it is a battle fleet or just transports does not matter. He must catch us before we get there if he can. Which is why we are accelerating away but I have decreased our thrust to half the old ships power. One is to conserve reaction mass even though we don't need to for his benefit but it is mostly so he could catch us when I want him to." Jack turned back to the Captain. "He has no choice Captain but to chase us sir. Eventually but not too soon as you said."

The bridge grew
quiet as everyone did their jobs. An hour later Jack started looking at his wrist even though the bridge clock was on the bulkhead for everyone to clearly see.

The Ensi
gn hit an icon on her screen as the enemy fleet changed course. "Enemy fleet starting to change course sir. They are having to continue spending most of their thrust stopping their plunge toward the cloud instead of running after us.  Their best possible intercept time if they continue is 7 days. One hour from entering the cloud again sir. Right on time as we expected."

T
he First Officer turned to Jack. "What are you going to do when we reach where we would have run out of reaction mass?" He thought for a few seconds. "That is it. We will have to re-mass and that will take tankers. Is that what you are doing, closing the distance to rendezvous with tankers the Rock is sending us? I know they don't have any Battleships conversions finished. You are going to risk wasting tankers just for a ruse."

Jack just smiled at the First Officer. "Yes Sir.
But not for a ruse and for that matter the enemy cannot know how many of our ships are actually transports and how many are tankers. Over the next few days we will shuffle the fleet around to make it look like we are redistributing mass between the ships of the fleet."

A good hour dragged on with nothing
really to do but sit and wait.

The
Ensign finally spoke up.  "Mr. Turner the enemy is starting to mass their picket ships to intercept any transports or tankers that may make a run for the fleet." She studied her screen for another few seconds and smiled as she tapped another icon. "They are bringing the picket ships from around the back side as well. At full thrust sir."

The
Captain shook her head. How long for them to mass into another fleet Ensign?"

The Ensign's fingers flew over the control top and
finally turned to the Captain all smiles. "Predictions hold at them massing into a spread out fleet around that area of the cloud in 4 days sir.  Nothing is going to be able to get out of that area without being intercepted and if a transport gets out of anyplace else on this side of the cloud they can be easily intercepted before they can rendezvous with this fleet."

"Captain!" The First Officer turned from the Helm. "This is stupid. The Lieutenant is just giving them time to mass another fleet that will
more than double the number of enemy ships we will have to face before entering the cloud making any attempt suicide not to mention the fact that we will have no choice but to show the enemy all about our new engines capabilities when we go beyond our old fuel mass range."

"Don't worry Number One.
The enemy cannot know our exact range that is why we will be shuffling ships around to convince him we are short on reaction mass but not that short. It is all according to plan." The Captain said getting up. "Stand the ship down from Maneuvering Stations Mr. Turner when you are satisfied the enemy has done everything he needs to do.  You can give the Conn back to the First Officer. This is going to be a long week." Then left the bridge to the announcement. "Captain leaving the Bridge."

"Mr. Turner. Just why the hell are you taking us into a trap that w
ill get the fleet and everyone in it killed?"

"Sorry First Officer but I am not suicidal. The fact is
, with the enemy fleet massed in front of us, the Rock can get supplies.  In about 3 days several hundred transports that have been waiting hidden, orbiting out of range of the enemy will start arriving on the other side of the cloud with enough materials and supplies to last the Rock a year of construction. Including the much needed big new 26 inch high temperature guns that should be able to take on the enemy ships with some equality. Along with new recruits for crews."

"So we are giving our lives so they can finish the new battleships. At least I can understand that. Why didn't the Captain just say that?"

Jack smiled. "Because we are not giving our lives First Officer. The Rock has a lot of other weapons and hundreds of destroyers and fighters and transports.  We are going to use them all so just relax and pray that the enemy walks into our little trap and that the Captain can talk the Commanders in the Rock into doing what we need done when we need it to break this blockade for more than just a few days and yes to save our lives if things don't go right."

"Oh great." The First Officer said disgusted.  "I have never seen an operation as big as this is looking
to be, put together this fast as this is being clobbered together, without half the forces even being able to practice together, let alone knowing each other; work.  We are dead. Just what the hell is your plan Lieutenant? You have a whole week to explain it to me by the looks of it unless you plan on running off in some other direction half way there."

"Well First Officer
that is a possibility, but as soon as you are off watch you have my permission to access the basics but as you said, it is going to change as the enemy reacts to what we do. Go through it and then I will answer any questions you have."

Jack watched 4 days pass agonizingly slow as the main enemy fleet dipped close to the cloud before arching back up toward the Republic fleet as the picket squadrons grew closer together.  He continued with his new duties and making the rounds in the research departments giving help where he could while keeping a close eye on Director Johnson.  The ship ran drill after drill around him. Taking time in the evenings to play The Game along with a large portion of crewmen from the fleet. Though with Jack being killed when his brother self-destructed his ship, he was sent back to start over as an ensign requiring him to work his way back up through the ranks to even be able to pilot. He worked hard at it as the ship the battleship he was assigned to participate in battle after battle with the Spider ships and always lost, limping out of the battle field system as Jack and the crew worked hard keeping the ship in service through battle after battle in only hours.

It was ago
nizing to then go back on watch on the bridge and watch for hours with nothing to do as the real enemy made little adjustments in both there fleet and the picket ships massing into squadrons to intercept any resupply ships that may decide to try to reinforce the Republic fleet.   Ready to mass as well if a human fleet appeared from the cloud.  Jack spent most of his watches trying not to go crazy from boredom, (even looking around the closest decks with the low light levels of the bridge), got boring after a few minutes of watching people walking around doing their jobs in the many sub control rooms surrounding the bridge. As time passed he was starting to look forward to the Ensign being around. Especially at night in the rack oblivious to the fact that she was on pins and needles around him. They both were afraid to say or do something wrong, so they said and did little except screw every chance they got. It was hard to go wrong there. Both being too immature to break the destructive circle of tension on their own no matter how loving it was.

------------------

The Republic Fleet was again decelerating, one day from the enemy's main fleet intercepting them at the edge of the cloud, with the newly formed picket squadrons rapidly approaching the intercept point from half a dozen directions. The two enemy fleets getting ready to combine into a pincher attack onto the Republic fleet only hours from entering the cloud.

The Republic fleet
faced certain destruction by two overwhelming superior fleets attacking at the same time.

Jack sat in the Command Chair with the Captain behind and to the side, the Ensign at the Science terminal and t
he First Officer at the helm. Jack took a deep breath. "Helm you may start our turn to come parallel to the cloud now. It is a shame we are not a fighter. We could use our wing maneuvering coils to sharpen the turn but thrust will have to do. Go to 350 Gee's thrust if you please. Counter measures, release 2 full sets of decoys and emitters."

"This is not making any sense why turn parallel to the cloud this high up?"
The First officer shook his head again. "I know this is according to plan but I still do not understand why we don't just go on down and take on the squadrons as they attack one at a time when we can overpower each of them easily before the main fleet arrives?"

"Sorry F
irst Officer but they are already starting to mass into one big fleet the closer we get to the cloud and by the time we got down to them in a day they would have been massed into a second even bigger fleet than the one chasing us with the other enemy fleet coming up are assess." Jack was trying to be patient. "No. We still need to get the main fleet trailing us into the right position behind us and the picket squadrons massed close to the right place over and even closer to the cloud."

Time passed slowly as the fleet pulled
up from diving at the cloud to finally running parallel to the cloud. Rushing along it with only the occasional quiet whisper as reports were made. "You may reduce thrust to 150 Gee's again Number One." Jack said as he watched the tank as they continued to accelerate away from the enemy fleet still approaching the entry point they had been headed for. Seeming to be oblivious of their victim's course change.

 
The bridge remained silent for a good hour as everyone watched their screens. The Ensign suddenly started tapping Icons. "The enemy fleet took an hour to respond to our change in course but they are now coming around. Two point six days now to intercept Mr. Turner. The enemy fleet went from taking a short cut and cutting us off at the pass an hour from the cloud, to being directly behind us and going too fast the wrong way.  Again they have to use a good portion of their thrust to stop their head long plunge toward the cloud instead of chasing us allowing our fleet to gain over another two days lead. Sir."

"Damn that was good but it only delays the inevitable
Lieutenant." The Frist Officer said. "The picket fleets are turning to follow along spread out below our fleet above the cloud. They are just waiting for the fleet following us to close up so they can all attack at one time slaughtering us. At least increase our acceleration Captain. At 350 Gee' thrust, we can easily out run the trailing fleet with these new engines. Why should they let us lead them into a trap anyway?"

"Why wo
rry First Officer, when they have us right where they want us. Flying right into their trap running out of fuel. Besides if we increase our thrust to out run them, all they will do is have time to consolidate their fleets into one massive attack force. Which would be nice if they would do it before we had to spring our trap. But we can't wait that long so we have to take care of them while they are separated. "

---------------

Nothing happened as they slowly orbited around the cloud only a day's old engine maximum acceleration away from the gas, dust and rocks of the cloud. The picket squadrons less than a half day's acceleration below, half way between the cloud and the Republic fleet, spread out to keep any resupply ships from getting past them. The main enemy fleet rapidly accelerating now assured of catching the Republic fleet even if they went to maximum 350 gees thrust. The enemy fleet was within 12 hours of intercepting the fleeing Republic fleet in a rapid high speed fly by that would probably spell the doom for most of the Republic Fleet. Jack could not believe that the enemy was right where he wanted them to be.

"Captain. Are you sure the Rock has everything set up for us at the coordinates? If we start this and they don’t' show up we are screwed."

"They said they will be ready Mr. Turner. That is the best I can tell you right now. Follow the plan Lieutenant. Follow your plan."

"Mr. Gagnon,
time to scare the shit out of one of the Enemy squadrons below us. You may start your turn. Come to course 354 mark 87 at 200 Gees. Weapons, prepare Torpedoes for mine attack Delta 5." The First and Weapons Officers already knew the plan but Jack repeated the details from habit.  In The Game you never knew when some artificial crewman would be replaced with the real player that would simply not have bothered to read the crewman's turnover order sheet before entering The Game or someone simply got busy and forgot.