Battleship Destroyer (91 page)

"No. You will earn your place in heaven later Worrier. I need you alive now to fight a much more important battle another day."

The Red Ape's voice almost deafened Jack. "What more important battle could there be than to rescue your men?"

"
Hopeless causes or throwing your lives away stupidly do not earn anyone a place in heaven or recues trapped brothers or win wars. Get your butts aboard this boat now."

"Yes Captain Sir!" The
Red Ape said disgustedly with a growl. "You abandon your Marines Captain so light heartedly is not good or honorable."

"Don't tell me your God Officers have never abandoned your troops. I know better."

"Yes they do but only when the troops have failed." The Red Ape said proudly.

"I would be willing to bet that it was the God Officers that failed and not the troops. Like I have failed here.  But it does not matter. Get your Red suits on this boat now. I will not fail with you.
And while you are at it you can figure out how to man the weapons on this assault boat. Especially the stern guns before we get overrun."

The Red Ape said several names of
species reproductive and eliminating organs Jack could not believe the translator understood as the comm went dead.

Turning t
o the Ensign as they walked up along the catwalk with the packed suddenly silent cargo bay below them. The Greenfoots packed into the passageway between cargo boxes, and wounded Red Apes laying on the cargo boxes stared at them as they passed.

One of the biggest Greenf
oots he had yet seen with knurly wrinkled skin reached over blocking Jacks' path. "Normal Lizard Ape weapons do not penetrate our hides very well and I have not seen any heavy weapons on them yet. We can get through to help your marines trapped in the other bay and bring them back."

Jack looked at the old haggard Greenfoot
staring at him determinedly. "Thank you for your offer but I will not risk losing you for a few humans that would not survive the trip back if we could even last that long to get back here." Shaking his head. "No. I wish there was a way we could break through to them now but there is not. No matter what we tried, more would die than would be saved even if by some miracle we did not all die."

Jack pushed past the giant
and noticed they had not left passageways through the stacks to the forward side hatches. "Damn." As the Ensign caught back up with him she sniffled as tears streamed down her cheeks. "Jack! There has to be something we can do to save them? Some way to break through to them damn it."

"No love. Everyone here would just wind up slaughtered. No. We have to get this boat and the survivors we have out of this lock now while we can."

Jack walked onto the bridge as his suit comm beeped. Tapping it the voice of the Marine Commander Murphy filled his ears. "We have been driven into the lock from the surrounding decks but I am almost ready to start a push toward the other lock.  I need your help from that end Captain."

"You have 3,000 enemy troops between us and you
, with hundreds more arriving down the core every minute. Luckily they are all massing around the core for now and not attacking but you would never make it to the core let alone past it to this lock. Sorry Commander but you are just going to have to hunker down in the defensive positions the alien slave crew made for you. No assaults or attacks. Just hang on as long as you can. That is an order. Out."

Jack watched the last of the Red Apes run up the stern ramp in a hail of gunfire with the
ramp slamming up shut behind them. "Ok Pilot get us the hell out of here now. Blow the hatch."

"Damage the Ship intentionally Captain?" The hatch in front of them slowly opened as the Air curtain formed keeping the ships air in. "We have spent our lives maintaining
this ship not destroying it." The boat slid out of the lock on one engine in a hail of small arms fire as the pilot announced. "Engine number 2 coming on line now Captain."

"Good
, swing us around to the other lock." Slapping his comm. "Gutner Dank. I asked some Red Apes to get the shuttle weapons manned but I have not seen them fire yet, see if you could give them a hand and make it fast. We only have a few minutes to rescue the marines in the other lock. Out."  Slapping his comm again. "Number One, I need you to shell the Core of this ship down here to buy me time to get our guys out and don't give me any crap about the enemy torpedo's targeting our gun flashes. Shoot and scoot. Got that?" Slapping the comm again. "Commander get your men ready. I am going to back this assault shuttle into your bay but we are only going to have a few seconds to make the pickup or we will all be dead once they figure out we are stealing their bait. You will have only the stern ramp to load. Got that? But stay inside protected in your redoubts until I tell you to board the boat. Things are going to be very nasty in that lock for a few minutes after we get in there. Good luck. Captain out." Turning to the pilot. Can you make everyone aboard the boat hear me Pilot?"

The Pilot turned to Jack and looked at him for several second as the boat slowly arced a
round the enemy ship's hulk. 10 bright yellow and one white beams sliced into the side of the hulk as Jack jerked his eyes out the boat's view ports. All but one of the beams did not penetrate very far into the ship. The pilot finally answered. "Yes Captain Turner but I do not understand why you need to talk to everyone on the boat. I have never even heard of the God Officers doing that before even though the ships and boats are equipped with hull wide announcing systems."

"Just put it down to us strange humans Pilot and open the comm."

The Pilot turned back to the console. "Open Comm to the boat Captain."

"Your attention please. This is Captain Turner. We are about to back into the other lock. We only have a few minutes to load the stranded troops there and leave
. Do what you can to form a protective barrier at the stern of the boat without hampering the loading but I am afraid that casualties are unavoidable, do your best for them until we get back to the ship. God help us all. That is all."  Tapping his suit's comm. "Number One that last barrage was a waste. It did not penetrate through to the core.  Double up on the capacitors and try it again. Out."

The boat slowly turned to line up with the lock as Jack watched the pilot. Tapping his fingers on the chair arms as he leaned forward to see over the pilot's shoulder.  Wishing he could read the pilots damn board, Jack suddenly sat back in the chair frustrated. Turning to the Ensign. "Didn't you say you had a translation program on the suits like you showed me on the Tactical screen?" Without waiting for an answer Jack closed his helmets
visor. "Get me that program on my visor."

The Ensign leaned over Jack taking his arm in her hands and started scratching on his forearm screen and suddenly he could read the
symbols on the chair's arms and around the bridge. "I could kiss you right now Ensign but I am busy." Pushing her out of his way as he leaned forward until he could see the Pilots control board, Jack smiled as he got up. "Excuse me Pilot but let me try flying this thing if you please. We don’t' have the time to follow all the safety rules."

The Pilot turned to look up at Jack for a few seconds before getting up and standing aside. "
Your honorable Captain Turner, I must protest. You are not familiar with the controls and could damage the boat. Please let me continue. I will dock the boat safely without any damage."

"Sorry Pilot but we don't have time for safety. You just stay next to me and prevent me from doing something to stupid but speed is not one of them." Jack sat down and
hit the thrusters tentatively, thrusting the boat speeding toward the ship's lock.

Taping his suit's comm. "Commander,
Make sure you troops are all in the redoubts with the hatches closed as we back into the lock and keep them under cover until I give you the word. I am going to hit the main thrusters as soon as we are locked down to help clear the hatch towered the core. The redoubts the aliens built you are plenty strong to protect your troops from the blast. It will give you more time to load. Out." 

Hitting the side thrusters Jack fine-tuned
the boats rapid approach to the lock as Jack glanced around him. "Weapons, have they got at least the stern guns working yet?"

"Sorry Captain but the God Officers are the only ones authorized to use them." Jack did not recognize the alien talking and the program
seemed to lag behind its voice more than the others.

"You must have a way to test them after repairing them do you not?"

The Alien with bright red skin and horns looked at Jack. "Of course Captain but the God Officers have the codes for operating the targeting system. We can only test each individual gun one at a time on manual control and then only at specific target areas."

Jack looked at the alien in disbelief. "Then go show the Red Apes how to fire the guns on manual control. Please." Jack bit every word trying to maintain control.

Dozens of explosions started going off around the hulks and the boat lighting up the bridge making Jack's eyes dazed and then blind for a second as his visor darkened down automatically to protect him from the glare.  "Shit!" Expecting something to be destroyed from all the torpedo hits he suddenly regretted telling the ship to shoot no matter the consequences as he looked around and finally spotted the Red pepper in the distance still safe and sound.

The alien pilot started
yelling. "You are going too fast. We are going to crash into the lock."

Turning back around Jack quickly started hitting thrusters lining the boat back up on the lock again just in time to slide into it. The locks grav beams rapidly slowing the boat as they streaked into it
sliding across the deck. Jack was hopping the extra speed would put them at the far end of the lock by the time they stopped but the grav beams still stopped them perfectly in the middle. "At least this bigger shuttle sticks farther in than ours."

He watched enemy Apes pouring
through the large hatches at the end of the lock now that the marines were all under cover and not able to fire at them. "Get this boat anchored down now!"

The Alien Pilot reached across Jacks arm and hit a large button between Jack and the Copilots console next to him. "Boat Anchored down Captain."

"Permission to secure the main engines Captain." Said the Alien Copilot.

"No. leave them running
and the ships lock hatch open. I don't care if it is wasting energy. I want to be able to leave at a moment notice. Got that." Jack checked the main screen showing the lock to the stern of the boat. Seeing only Apes and thousands of them he hit the boats main engines at full power without thinking, slamming them up to their stops before bringing them back to idle.

The stream of ultra-hot super velocity gasses clouded up blocking out the screens view of that end of the lock. Slapping at his suit comm.  "Commander get your men on this boat now."

Jumping up from the Pilots chair jack headed for the
back of the bridge, past the ladder to the lower decks and up to the hatch out into the upper hold only a few feet away. Glancing out the port he threw the hatch open and stepped out onto the deck grate running around and down both sides of the 20+ foot tall hold.  Cargo boxes formed another deck some 7 feet below running down the sides as well. Packed with Apes and human wounded on pallets at the front end and combat ready Red Apes crowding to the back trying to push the Greenfoots out of the way and behind them for protection forming a shield wall as they shot out through the stern hatch. The Greenfoots not taking kindly to the Red Apes trying to protect them weather they wanted to be protected or not.  Jack was glad to see the grated decks running high along the sides where empty waiting for the stranded troops to fill them up.

Taking off
at a jog he ran down the side of the hold. Clambering on the grate with every step from the heavy suit. As he reached the stern he could see marines headed for the back of the boat carrying their wounded on stretchers.  Several pairs of Greenfoots suddenly pushed their way through the Red Apes blocking the end of the boat's hold and ran out carrying long pallets and quickly reached the wounded coming out of the redoubts. Throwing the ones out in the open onto the pallet they grabbed the edges of the redoubt hatch and tore a good hunk out of the side of each redoubt and then reached in and started dragging wounded out and onto the pallet stacking them side by side. After sticking a head in through the opening one last time, they started their run back toward the boat. The Pallet seeming to float as they took their long running strides leaving the healthy troops running along behind them.

Jack reached the stern of the boat as the smoke and dust cleared from the far end of the lock revealing a long tunnel blasted
through a dozen bulkheads to the core hull of the ship and the big armored hatch facing them in the armored hulled core. The hole in each blasted bulkhead a little smaller than the one in front of it forming a reducing cone of bulkheads all the way to the armored core.  Half a hundred perfect protected firing positions for enemy Apes to fire directly through the open stern hatch and down the full length of the boats hold packed full of refugees.  "My God did I fuck up this time. It was supposed to collapse a few bulkheads forming a barrier not a fucking cone of death. I should have nosed the damn boat in but then we may have been over ran before we finished loading. Damn it."