Battleship Destroyer (93 page)

Taking a deep breath Pan raised her chin a fraction and held it there as she answered without looking at him.
"Roughly three thousand Captain if they have time."

"Christ all mighty. What have I agreed to?" Jack knew they not only did not have room for that many but they definitely did not have the time to pick that many up let alone get them loaded and still make an escape." Closing his eyes
, dread was quickly overwhelmed with fear at never getting out of there.  "Well anyway get those guys at the reactor up here. I don't care if they salvage this hulk or not."

Pan turned to Jack. "We do. This was our home for our entire lives going back to a hundred generations. When other ships come to strip our souls, the armored decks, weapons, engines and anything else they can find that still works; the Fusion Reactor Chief will detonate the core with the other hulks of the squadron and take out many more Godships at their weakest. It will keep them from finding out we are gone while weakening the Godfleet a little
, increasing our chances of survival with you humans."

Opening his eyes he watched the child wait inside the elevator core as the Apes around her ran out and then slowly she followed looking around the inside of the core at the other elevators  discharging Apes.  Telling himself to breath he waited for her to slowly walk out of the core and looking around. While he could not be sure, it looked like she was crying. Finally she faced him and the boat hundreds of yards away. Turning to the Red head. Is their someway for you to tell her to run here damn it?"

Red
smiled then jumped down to the foot of the ramp in a hail of gunfire and shouted loud enough for Jacks earphones to block out most of the decibels.  "Wiggle Butt! Get over here! Run fast sister. Run as fast as you can."

The little girl waved and then started running. Her butt wiggling as fast as she ran with the pet in her arms. The Lizard Apes
ignoring her as they fired at the boat or charged by the hundreds only to be cut down. The tail guns and Red Apes taking an incredible toll on the enemy apes who replacements simply climbed across the dead bodies ahead of them picking up their weapons to take their place to fire or continuing the charge.

The Red head suddenly fell
backwards onto the ramp. A big black spot on her chest between her breasts sticking out of her open suit. Jack found himself jumping off the catwalk and down onto the ramp beside her. Then trying to drag her back into the boat but her size and weight was making that hard even with the help of his powered suit.

An old
knurly hand reached down and gently pushed Jack aside then two arms picked her up turned his back on the steady stream of fireballs and walked back into the boat as several black splotches appeared on his back.

Turning around to see the little girl still
running, still several hundred feet away with plasma streaks flying past her. Jack suddenly felt very exposed and ducking he ran back up the ramp behind the Green Giant and into the boat around the corner of the hatch as the Red head was deposited on a pallet and the ship's doctor and  several Greenfoot women clustered around her.  Turning around to peak out the hatch he watched the little green girl trip on the remnants of a blown away bulkhead about half way to the boat losing her grip on her pet. The pet bounded away and into the air as huge wings sprang from the back of its body.

The little green girl started crying as she watched the pet fly away around the lock. "Shit damn it all anyway
!” Jack said as he started down the ramp only to be picked up and deposited back into the boat's hold as the old knurly Green Giant stepped down the ramp and quickly bounded to the little girl letting out a loud whistle as he ran.

The flying pet dove from the overhead to land on the
Greenfoot Giant’s outstretched hand where a short line was attached to a vest around its chest by his other hand. Picking up the girl as he reached her, he turned his back to the enemy and clipped the line attached to the flying six legged dog around her chest under her arms. The Giant started running back to the boat with her protected in his arms but quickly slowed to a fast walk that just kept getting slower as his body kept shuddering from the mass of hits to his back. The enemy Apes or their Godofficer had decided that it did not want that big Greenfoot escaping for some reason after ignoring all the other Greenfoots up until then.

"Run damn it. Run!" Jack yelled ou
t the hatch but the Giant continued to slow down as his body kept shuddering.  "Damn the ass holes are targeting him." Jack said in exasperation. The constant pom, pom, pom, of the side turret
s
with the mass streaks of Red Ape assault weapons back past the Green Giant did not seem to slow the growing mass of fireballs streaking into his back
.
Though why they suddenly decided the slaves were worth shooting at was beyond Jack. Unless it was simply a matter that they could fire on him without exposing themselves to fire from the boat.

He crossed the last few feet in agonizingly slow steps un
til he was just 10 feet from the bottom of the narrow ramp and with a smile he threw the little girl and her pet. The pet’s wings springing apart with the girl clipped to its chest and they glided into the back of the boat. "You take care of my people Captain. They are all yours now." The Green Giant's eyes went vacant as he fell forward onto his face with an out stretched hand on the ramp, his chin on the deck holding his head up with his eyes staring up at the Jack.  He had no back left. Just a huge vacant hole where thousands of shots had eaten away most of his chest from the backside in.

The hatch closed as Jack
stared until he could not see the body. Turning around he glanced up at the crying child as tall as he was and her strange pet and tapped his comm. "Pilot, cut the landing lock and full thrust on the main engines. Now." With some satisfaction Jack watched the entire lock deck turn into a cauldron of massive flames and melting slagged metal that started flying out the other boat lock on the other side of the ship. That end of the ship continued to burn as the hulk fell away into the distance.

Jack climbed up onto the catwalk platform around the upper part of the hold and made his way up to the bridge.
Finally having to be a little rude when troops both marine and Ape along with the Greenfoots kept trying to talk to him. As he kept seeing glimpses of boats leaving the other hulks. Fearing an ape assault.

Tapping on his comm as he stepped around a wounded marine wishing he had time to check on him and the rest. "Number One
, make sure no Apes are on those boats. How are things going?"

"I have two boats out rounding up
and checking life boats now Captain. The others will join them as soon as they are empty. We are just having a hell of a time trying to find room for everything let alone move it there."

"You will have help moving cargo as soon as we dock. I have a hundred
plus forklifts ready to go. Though our short compartments and passageways may prove a problem."

"Sorry
but our shuttle bays are packed with barely enough room for them to get in. Our sensors are telling me that boat you are in is a lot bigger than our boats. We don't have room for you to dock until we get one of the bays unloaded if it will even fit in."

Jack
finally walked onto the Assault Shuttles Bridge taking the command chair. They were approaching the Red Pepper. A large crystal white cloud drifted around the ship from the tanks that had already been dumped. It was slowly spreading around the hulks. The 4 big 500 foot long main battleship guns were strapped to the outside hull along the tank section. The forward half of the ship had equipment stuffed into every available open deck that was not completely destroyed. The Admiral’s barge slipped out of a bay heading for a cluster of lifeboats near one of the hulks. Through the open hatch Jack could see crates stacked around the bulkheads of the lock making him wonder how the barge had managed to fit into it. Shaking his head he turned to the pilot. "Does this shuttle have that air curtain field I saw on the ships boat bay lock hatch?"

The pilot turned around to look at Jack. "Yes Captain Turner. We can open any hatch on the boat without
losing air. That is why you cannot see any emergency double hatch locks though the Assault boat has them."

"Good I want you to back up to the open lock in front of the boa
t." Slapping the comm. "Number One, we are going to back up to the lock long enough to unload you some help along with some cargo. We are going to need some emergency bubbles to get the wounded off. Blow off all the mass tanks on the lower tank deck to make room for everything."  Jack hoped that would be enough room.

The pilot swung the shuttle around and kissed the lock. Just placing the stern inside the hatch even though it barely fit.
Turning to Pan. "Ok the lock is still in vacuum but we can get most everyone and some cargo out. We have bubbles we can bring in for the wounded after we make some room for them." Stepping to the back hatch of the bridge he was surprised to see the hold was half empty already with the boxes that had been shoved in last with the refugees sliding down the deck of the lock surrounded by Greenfoots and Red Apes throwing pallets around like balloons stacking them to the overhead. Smiling Jack started through the hatch to help when his comm beeped frantically.

"Captain an
Assault Shuttle just left hulk number 4."

"Shit." Jack turned around and ran to the front of the cockpit. "The last thing we need is
trouble. Number One, fire on my command." Then the shuttle did something not expected. It slid over to hulk number 2 and latched itself to its side. Belly to the hull of the hulk.

"Pan!"  Jack turned around and ran into her
as she came up behind him from the cargo bay. "Pan what is going on?"

"The boat has docked with the hulk to take off its few survivors. All the
life boat bays have been destroyed so it had to use its assault mag to lock it to the side over a hatch. Though it could make its own opening in the hull if needed."

"Ok." Jack studied it for a few seconds then started looking arou
nd at the mass of boats." Will it stay locked to the side of the ship under power?"

"It would not be worth much if it could not."

Tapping his comm again. "Number One open the hull hatch on one of the empty mass tanks on the lower deck on this side." Crystals started spewing from the ship around the opposite side  and then a few seconds later a large hull hatch opened up on the close side as it slide into the already empty tank leaving a large 20 by 20 square rounded corner hole. Turning to the pilot. "Can you dock against the hull over that hatch with an air tight seal to allow the transfer of cargo and passengers?"

The pilot looked up and turned to Jack. "Yes Captain by your Command."

"Good." Turning to Pan. "Throw the cargo back into the boat including the refugee canisters and we will dump them directly into the tank. Pack it in leaving the belly hatch free." Walking to the back of the bridge again he frowned seeing the boats hold almost empty as the chain gang stopped and looked around towered the bridge as one. Then looking at each other the chain started back up stacking pallets crates back into the boat. Tapping his comm. "Hold the bubble wrap. We will transfer the wounded into the tank once it is repressurize. Should be a lot safer." Tapping his comm again. "Number One how is the pickup going?"

"Fine except we are running
out of room in our boats and having a hard time keeping track of the ones we have already been to with them moving around."

"Hold on a second."  Turning to pan. "Have the boats that still need picked up turn their navigation lights on or some kind of lights." Then looking out the
bridges ports he could not help seeing way too many turning on flashing lights still needing picked up. "Damn it!" frowning he looked up at the open hatch in the tank. "Have your boats head for this ship. I think most of them are small enough to fit inside the tank hatches. That should get us out of her a lot faster. That is if they can move on their own." Thinking about it for a few moments. "Ah Number One. Dump the upper most deck tanks still intact. We can land them in there far enough away that if they have any unwanted guests we can take care of them without wrecking any of the remaining operational parts of the ship." Turning to look back out at the other shuttle. "You can open a tank on the other side down here to balance out this one to put the other Assault Shuttle against. I will be in directly."

A
Dozen torpedoes streaked through the throng of boats and hulks as Jack surveyed the mass of boats. Most of the torpedo's hitting the hulks but a few targeted boats at the last second. The huge torpedoes the size of fighters staggered each ship with a massive explosion blowing whole sections out of them. The boat's they hit simply disappeared in a fireball hundreds of feet across.

"Captain!"  Came the First Officers voice. "One of our boats has been hit." Hold on for details. Jack could see the boat that was hit as it started to slowly tumble. It had ventured out from behin
d the hulk designated Charley who's boats it was picking up. A torpedo had hit the boat it was heading for, sending a chunk of shrapnel big enough to see from this distance thrusting through the boat's mid-section. Gas and bodies came tumbling out of the hole punched through it for a fraction of a second and then stopped. Several of the other small boats scattered between the hulks exploded or simply fell apart as torpedoes hit them or a boat close to them. It was impossible to tell if they had already been emptied or were full of refugees unless you had been looking at each boat before it was hit to see if it had any lights on.