Battleship Destroyer (78 page)

The
First Officer looked at Jack baffled. "I did not know the Chief even knew where the engine rooms were. Hell, I was on my way to shoot the son of a bitch chicken asshole for taking over the ship from auxiliary control, when we got hit. And you left him in Command of the engine rooms?

"No Commander, I fired the Commander and prom
oted First Class Quincy to take his place in command of the Engine rooms along with a fleet engine room crew to replace the crewmen lost on the boats. You can shoot the Commander if he steps back into any of the engine rooms. I was going to put him in charge of auxiliary maintenance. It is as bad as the engines. But I will leave that to you now. Rearrange the crew as you see fit."

"Fine I will shoot him for mutiny and causing the deaths of so many crewmen including Captain
...”

"No Commander. We are short on trained crewmen as it is and one thing he was good at
(according to his tests), was maintaining the auxiliaries on his families transport, which was why he was promoted to Engineering Chief.  Hopefully he is competent, there is a lot of work to catch up on. Half the crew is only a few breaths from suffocating as it is. We will never make it to the Rock without a lot of auxiliary repairs. I motivated him so well he almost destroyed at least one engine.  I will leave any farther motivation attempts to you." Jack squeezed pass the Command Chair. "I have left our attack plan on the tactical. You can go over it as we depart and make any changes you deem necessary then send it off to the Admiral and have a chat with him about taking over the Command of the ship." Jack smiled over at the Commander. "Frankly Mr. Wilson. I hope he does give you the ship but whatever happens, keep your eyes on the enemy while we are over there. We may need your gun support in a hurry just to get aboard let alone when we leave. You have the Conn Number One."

Jack left the bridge to the announcement of.  "Captain leaving the Bridge."

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

Jack walked onto the crowded shuttle's cargo deck to the announcement of. "Attention
; Captain on the deck!" The marines jumped to the sides of the long cargo bay coming to attention in front of the seats lining the sides with piles of weapons and equipment in front of them.

Jack looked down the rows
of marines uncomfortably for a few shocked seconds then hurriedly returned their solutes and said. "At ease. Carry on." He wondered who was left to do the rescue work and then realized that the shuttle gig or boat would only carry a hundred marines at most as he walked forward headed for the shuttles bridge at the far end of the cargo bay, only a small fraction of the marines that had descended onto the ship from the rest of the fleet. Almost a hundred pairs of eyes followed him. Finally he could not take the silence and scrutiny anymore and The Game kicked in pushing the fact that these were his troops headed for a battle that could get them all killed. He had sent troops into ships before in The Game and while training was important he had found out the hard way that simply talking to the troops for a few minutes and telling them what was needed of them and why made a big difference whether or not they won or suffered a lot of casualties in defeat. Not that victory was assured but he wasn't about to take the chance in the real world.

Taki
ng a deep breath Jack stopped half way up the bay tapping his comm so they all could hear him without having to yell. "No Republic ship since this envision started 2 years ago has ever gotten close enough to see let alone board an enemy ship and finally find out who the hell we are fighting. We are going to remedy that. We are headed for a fast raid to find out just who the hell we are fighting. We have no idea what their strengths are or their weapons or even what they look like let alone how many that may be still alive aboard that ship. But we have to find out no matter what it costs. If we can survive long enough on that ship to send that information back to our ship and the fleet then whatever happens over there will be a success. Not that we are on a suicide mission but I do not expect that many of us including me will return. But whatever it costs, the information we find on that ship will save the lives of millions."

Jack tried not to puke as he suddenly realized that what he was saying was facts that he had not thought of before or realized.
Looking around the bay he tried to speak several times but finally swallowed licking his lips and continued.  "Once we land, move out quickly. Secure the perimeter then move your search attack teams to your objectives. If you can, take prisoners but do not risk your lives to do it. At this stage even bodies will do. Get your objectives secured and then get out using a different route if possible.  And one last thing I hate to add but I must reinforce the order with no exceptions. We do not have time to take out our dead. A piece of equipment or alien body is too valuable to leave for the dead that died to get it. Is that clear? We have to strip as much information out of that ship as possible as fast as possible. Is that understood?"

Jack could not believe he was saying those words
but because of The Battleship Game he knew he had to say the words. Had to give the orders if the mission had any chance of success. He could hope that his original thoughts and ideas for the mission was correct and they would just waltz onto the ship, get what they wanted and leave without any casualties. But he suddenly knew that was not likely with the large heat sources still on the ship. That they really would be lucky to get back off that ship but he also knew that it was a thousand time more important that they try and get something than he had suspected at first. Jack suddenly wanted to run. To cancel the operation. Do anything but...

"Yes Captain Sir."
The shouts of a boat load of marines almost deafened Jack as they stared at him shouting. "Recon, Recon!" He turned and looked back at the stern of the shuttle thinking seriously about making a break for it until the ramp suddenly rose up to close off the end and easy escape. A marine Lieutenant walked up to jack. "We will complete the mission even if it kills us. We will get the information Captain Turner sir. You can count on us Sir."

Jack smiled as best he could. "That won't take much Lieutenant." Then
continued up the bay noticing the side hatches and wishing they were open so he could leave but continued to the bridge.

"Captain on the bridge."
Jack sat down in the Command Chair and looked around spotting the Ensign sitting in the Pilots seat. "What the hell are you doing here? Get your butt off this boat now. It is bad enough I am being stupid, you don't have an excuse."

"Sorry Captain but I have orders from the Admiral. I am staying. Besides you need a second set of eyes that can see where the enemy is and isn't.
  You go with one section and I will go with the other and maybe we can keep them both alive and get off that piece crap hulk."

"You are assuming that we can even make it onto the
enemy ship. It would only take one good hit from one of their medium sized guns to make it a short trip to nowhere."

The
Weapons Officer Mr. Parker turned around and smiled. "At least at this range it will be easy to see what size of medium guns they have. Something no one knows yet so it would not be a total loss."

"
The lock is evacuated Captain." The Ensign said. "We are ready to launch by your command Captain."

Jack felt like he was riding a freight train careening down the tracks
as The Game took over. "Launch when ready Ensign. Mr. Parker be ready on those weapons."

The
shuttle gig flew out of the lock at full thrust and headed for the enemy ship.  Weaving back and forth trying not to present too easy a target.

"Captain Turner. This is First Officer
Wilson. I did not understand what was going on until I heard your briefing to the shuttle crew. I suggest you change your landing site on the ship to a hole I will blast in the enemy ship's hull next to the middle hot spot with a couple of the ship's guns just before you make contact. It will allow you to take that part of the ship by surprise after we have destroyed most of the local resistance and put you half way between the other two objectives of your search.  The low heat of our single capacitor guns should leave plenty of intelligence for you to gather.  I will move the ship around where I can support you better before you move out of your landing zone."

"Very well Number One. Ahh. I take it the Admiral would not relieve me? Sorry. You should have it shortly anyway. Out."

"Not if I can help it Captain. I did not even talk to the Admiral besides I have had my hands full. I just passed along the battle plan for the record along with your briefing. You will be landing in 30 seconds Captain. Our main guns will open up your landing zone seconds before that. Good luck. Out."

"Well Ensign. Head for the new landing zone and pray the guns open up a
big enough landing hole in the hull or we are going to be one big bug splat."

The boat
rushed toward the enemy ship as Jack stared out the bridge viewing ports. "Weapons, make sure your guns are set on point blank range and manual targeting when we approach and enter the hull. It looks like a good sized compartment." Slapping the comm on his chair. "Marines, we are about to hit a vacuum landing zone, the hull will be melting hot just after it is hit by our big guns. The enemy should be shocked for a few seconds with bodies still alive or not and equipment expelling out the hole. We will be landing with our ass hanging out the hole and only our forward side hatches usable. Crewmen try to catch what you can of what comes out past the boat. Marines establish a perimeter as fast as possible while leaving fields of fire open for the boat's forward guns.  All of you take advantage of the confusion and get me a live prisoner in one of your sealed cans but be careful."

"Mr. Turner!" The Admiral's voice suddenly intruded into the bridge. "What the hell do you think you are doing
Mr. Turner?"

The
ship's gun's beams appeared hitting the hull of the enemy ship just before the shuttle slammed into the half dozen holes stitching the side into one large landing zone that appeared there.

Coming to rest as gasses rushed out pushing blobs moving
too fast to tell what they were, out past the boat. Rescue guns puffed from the open stern ramp sending balls at the end of lines streaking out to intercept the flying blobs. Only half the balls came near enough to the blobs to open up into nets and catch the blobs at the end of the lines and then became bodies and equipment that was hauled in.

Jack
cut the connection to the Admiral as he watched space disappear and the compartment's overhead and bulkheads replaced the empty void. The last thing he needed was the Admiral distracting him the next few minutes. "Someone kill the lights." Looking around him as the lights dimmed, he let the enemy ship appear to him as he watched the energy signatures of the marines take the compartment then branch out into the surrounding hull without running into any of the enemy crew alive. He realized that if there had been enemy crewmen alive the laser main gun blasts and sudden vacuum had killed them.

"Captain, the energy signature was coming from a power
or signal transmitter of some kind on the other side of the Compartment. It probably goes with the tower hanging out from the hull on the side of the compartment. It could be part of their comm equipment." The Ensign stood at the front of the bridge looking out the forward view ports.

Jack looked
where she had said and quickly found it. "Good let's get down there and check it out. I see enough bodies around here to call the mission a success already. We may not have to search the ship any farther."

"Captain."
Said Lieutenant Parker. "The Admiral is on line again, asking for you sir."

Jack turned and punched the comm icon on his chair. "Yes Admiral we have landed on the enemy ship and found the mother
lode of equipment. We should be leaving here shortly with no casualties."

"What the hell.  I did not authorize an attack. But since you are there and not running into any resistance
, I want you to search that ship for everything you can find that can help us. Your little speech is right on. You and your crew are now expendable. I want to know who we are fighting and for you to get as much equipment out of that ship as possible. Even if it takes all your lives"

Jack looked around the compartment and the mass of equipment already there and flooding in from around them as the marines slowly penetrated deeper into the deck
s around them.  "It looks like we already have a boat load of equipment to take back to the ship including what looks like a comm terminal. We don't have room on the boat or need to head for the other hot spots Admiral."

"Captain Turner, the
closest hot spot above you looks like some kind of weapons center while the one below you could be their command center with all the warm heat sources that look like bodies. We also need live prisoners. See that you get some. As for room on the boat. I sent you 2 Captain's Gigs and 3 transport gigs along with the Admiral's barge I left behind with the power and room to help evacuate the ship if you failed to get the engines going. Use them to strip that ship. You have 3 hours."

"Admiral…. Damn it Admiral, we don't have the time."

"You have an hour before we leave and 4 hours before you have to leave to out run the enemy if you have both engines.  You said you could get the other ships engines running, so use the time. Use all the time you need and get me their secrets Captain Turner. I want to know what the hell we are fighting and witch orifice they shit out of. Admiral out."