Return of The Red Devil Page 8
So then Kyp made the call to charge, her voice descending into almost a growl, ‘Sail with me into this battle then, Lads! For tonight, WE--TAKE--NO--PRISONERS!!’
Then the new counter attack plans to the other five destroyers were sent out by laser comm.
The ships all split up and circled back towards the enemy ship formation while coming in from all different points of the compass.
Each destroyer captain made a carefully choreographed slashing attack pass through their formation, ripping through their ships, shooting them up and then running away to a great distance then to come back in for another pass from a completely unpredictable direction.
The bugs were still seeming to be in disarray because there was only got a small amount of return fire from a few point defenses that fell silent after the second pass.
Kyp added. ‘I suppose we must have taken out their power distribution busses.
Once we saw that they could not fire back we moved in close and opened up at point blank range with rail guns, chain guns, large caliber cannister shot, armor piercing, high explosives mixed in with thermite warheads.
The smaller enemy ships were ripped open stem to stern like bean pods.
We managed to destroy their space station, four cutters, six frigates and severely damaged five of their destroyers that we left still burning before departing.
On the final outbound leg we let loose with several salvos from our stern tubes and sowed our path of retreat with seeker mines before we ran for it.’
‘As a follow up, we tracked down the location of one of their bivouac hive planets and directed a task force over there and burned the planet's surface to the ground.” as Circe finished her narrative.
Circe took a deep breath, visibly shaken, and looked at all the faces in the room while Kyp slept.
“You people are amazing.
Thank you all for your cooperation.” she added somberly.
Circe whispered to Kyp, “You will awaken and feel refreshed and relieved of the heavy burdon of this memory. You did everything possible to save as many as you could. Sometimes that the best you can get.”
Then Circe gently broke the connection letting Kyp sleep a few more seconds before snapping her fingers.
Kyp’s eyes blinked open, “Oh. Did I fall asleep?”, looking dazed but not uncomfortable.
“Just for a moment,” Circe answered, giving Kyp a pat on the shoulder.
Circe came to her full height and produced a photograph from one of her pockets, “Did the enemy look like this?” She held it up for Kyp, Mal and Fang to see.
“OH MY! Yes!” Fang nodded in the affirmative.
“That's them!” Kyp snarled.
“Yes, Ms. Smith, these are the same ones that tried to kill us!” Mal hissed back with an angry growl.
“Well, I think we have arrived at an agreement as to having a common enemy,” Circe remarked, “I don't understand why we haven't run into them earlier here in Sol-Terran space.”
Return of the Red Devil
Chapter Eight: What Transpired at Asteroid 279 Thule:
“Well, uhm...yes. Perhaps, Madam, they must have interrogated some of ours that were captured four hundred years ago and were under the impression that Sol was a dead system.
I must say it came as a complete surprise to us when we stumbled in here too, quite by accident!”
Fang mused, “The bugs seem to have been avoiding our star kingdom ever since.”
Circe pondered, “Interesting. --And disturbing that I was given the message that they were on their way to Sol. They must have sent some scouts through our neighborhood recently and picked up on new developments here.”
“So, you think they may be biding their time for a surprise attack on your systems later on, Captain?” Circe inquired.
They all nodded, “Just a matter of time as to when, Ma'am,” Fang answered for the group.
“Tell you what Captain, how would you like a chance to strike back at these bastards again?” Circe asked.
“A pre-emptive strike, perhaps?” Kyp perked up.
Circe, having removed her shades, leaned in and narrowed her eyes, “Almost. What I need is a commander of a squadron of ships that will be functioning as a wolf pack to go after these bugs and take them out with surprise attacks.
With your experience commanding a destroyer squadron, I could offer you a Rear Admiral's position with twelve of our new Aguila class, ship destroyers.
They are as nimble as the fighters but pack the firepower of the largest heavy cruiser. What do you say?”
Kyp sniffed, “You want me to command a bunch of MULEs? The space craft equivalent of a dump truck?”
Circe tilted her head and explained, “These will not be MULEs. The MULE is not a pretty ship, perhaps.
But there have been many craft that were ugly, but fearsome on the field of battle.
On old Earth there were warplanes that were not good looking at all, one was so ugly they nicknamed it 'The Warthog'. It was indeed hideous to look upon.
It didn't make a lot of noise in passage so its adversaries nicknamed it 'Whispering Death'.
It dispensed massive amounts of damage, but it was also able to absorb a tremendous amount of punishment and still bring the flight crews back home again.
I digress again though.
The Aguila class ship destroyer is much more. Like the Scorpion fighter, it is hideous, and it is extremely tough to knock out.
It has been finally married to a good powerplant.
It may have started out as a 'dump truck' but now it deals out massive destruction as a gun and missile platform.
It is a blend of older, proven technology as well as the new. It will strike terror into the hearts of your enemies!”
Kyp glanced over at Fang with a look, Is she trying to bullshit me?
Fang looked back pleadingly and nodded to her like: Please! Just go along with the offer?
Kyp looked thoughtful now, “I do like the striking terror part.
Hmmm! Well, perhaps I *could* look one over more closely before I make up my mind.
It has the firepower of a heavy cruiser, you say?”
“Yes indeed it does, and thank you, Captain!
I'll see to it you get the cook's tour as soon as we land at the ship yard!
While we are waiting perhaps you'd like to have a look inside the Fer-de-Lance, Diane has her docked with you right now,” Circe smiled and gestured to the airlock.
They all climbed through the airlock into the Super MULE.
Diane started up, “Welcome aboard Fer-de-Lance. She isn't very pretty, but she is all business!”
Circe hung back a moment and stubbed one of her fingers into two small sprigs of fur that Kyp and Mal had shed during the more intense moments.
Hmm! Very interesting..! she thought to herself and quickly analyzed their genomes before catching up with the others going through the airlock.
She quickly palmed the sample to Diane and flashed her a mental message as to their purpose.
Diane acted as nothing happened and then gleefully showed Fang, Kyp and Mal the different weapons and fire control systems in Fer-de-Lance.
“This is Cindy. She sometimes flies with me as pilot in case I need to be delivered somewhere.”
Cindy smiled and fluffed her bushy squirrel tail in greeting while shaking all the visitor's hands and making polite noises.
“This panel is fire control for the four, chin mounted, 20 mm cannons, each with two thousand rounds of ammunition.
Then there are the upper and lower 40 mm autocannons in flexible turrets.
Cheek blisters for 288 mm rail guns for shredding armor, coaxially mounted with 155mm neutron cannons, just a larger version of our own side arms.
The entire after section is made up of missile pods, six 535mm torpedo tubes, dispensers for seeker mines, carousel bomb racks, thermal flares and ECM pods.”
Kyp was transfixed by it all, soaking it up like a sponge, “Interesting
! Are there point defenses too?”
“Yes, Ma'am. We have several turrets with 500 megawatt pulsed lasers and 30mm gatling guns with 5000 rounds each.”
Mal was even impressed although trying to look non-plussed, “And where is the propulsion system? All I see is tons of weapons, but what makes this boat go?”
Diane flipped open an access panel in the floor exposing a device the size of a steamer trunk.
“Welcome to the Engine room. There you are.
We also retain full use of all the legacy thrusters as well.”
Kyp was fascinated, “Really! Where is the fusion reactor to feed this?”
“You're looking at it. It's integrated into the package.
This is the Null Inertia Transport Engine with integrated anti-matter fusion reactor. We just call it NITE," Diane beamed.
“Circe did all the hard work of transcribing the old plans and actually coming up with an implementation program. Since they are so small this boat has three more as backups or for short bursts of speed.”
Kyp, Mal and Fang all traded a few double-takes.
Fang chirped, “This is most amazing! Most amazing indeed!”
Kyp followed in surprise, “I thought you said you didn't have any destroyers built yet?”
Circe smiled, “We don't. This is one of the 'Reconverted Garbage Trucks' we spoke of earlier! This is nothing compared to what the Aguila class boats can handle. We also have several other of these Super MULEs in Q-ship configuration and even a luxury liner that also doubles as a ship killer.”
Kyp quelled her blatant astonishment and tried to look unimpressed again but it was only a thin disguise, the intrigue of the staggering technology was taking its toll.
“And you want me to command a wolf pack of twelve of these boats?” Kyp was starting to cave in.
Circe nodded, “Until we can get the Aguila class built.
It would be an honor, Captain!
I'll even throw in twenty four fighters as escorts and for what ever nasty surprises you'd like to use them for.”
Diane grinned.
“Soooo....what's the catch?”
“Just one, Captain. It requires special knowledge to pilot one of these. So if you allow Diane to imprint you with that information, Mr. Easton and Fang too, just in case either of them ever needs to do any piloting. Who ever else you choose to have as crew.”
Kyp blanched, “Erg, I hate telepathic stuff!”
“Well, I'm sorry about that but its the only wait you can get years of experience in less than two minutes. It's very quick, only about ninety seconds and maybe some slight dizzyness afterwards. It does cover about 5,000 hours of flying experience though.” Circe added.
“Hmmmmm..”, Kyp mulled that over, “I will still like to see your ship yard first and then decide...”
“Fair enough then!” Circe smiled and shot Diane a glance while yoyo-ing her eyebrows, wherein Diane had to quickly stifle a giggle.
“Alright, but I still don't like any of you very much!” Kyp shot back with half a smirk.
The Super MULEs formation with Dragon Lady in tow, pulled into a parking orbit around asteriod 279 Thule.
Kyp was looking out the window and seeing just a plain asteriod, commented, “Ok, Ms. Smith, where's the big shipyard and repair facility?”
“They are there. They see us, Captain but they will not respond in any way until they get the right passcodes. Just watch a moment,” Circe smiled and keyed her com unit.
“Thule Approach, this is Pine Tree Leader authenticating with Zeta, Omicron, Sigma, Niner, Seven Two, For a landing.
We will be needing repairs.
Have you got a repair bay free at the moment?”
The radio crackled to life, “Pine Tree Leader, Thule Approach. We copy and authenticate.
We just happen to have a slot open for you, Ma'am! No waiting!
You are cleared to land on pad six. Thank you, Ma'am and have a nice day!”
A circular pattern of strobe lights appeared on the surface of the asteriod.
“Roger, Thule Approach and thank you! We have visual.”
Tiggy conned them in and hovered over the landing circle for a minute in the asteriod's micro gravity.
The entire area under the landing spot subsided about six feet and breaking into sections, slid open like a huge hanger door revealing large adjustable docking cradle apparently designed to accommodate ships that had been severely damaged.
The large mass of articulated girders reached up out of the pit and gently formed itself around the Dragon Lady so she was firmly secured in its grasp.
Tiggy then disconnected from Dragon Lady and retreated off a short distance to a holding pattern.
The group then made their way out of the Fer-de-Lance and into Dragon Lady.
Diane and Circe then radioed their respective flight crews to disconnect their airlocks from Dragon Lady and they drifted over to the holding area where Tiggy was stationed.
The entire gantry and cradle carrying Dragon Lady descended into the body of the asteroid and the hatch/ceiling closed over it.
From the point of view at the artificial surface there was no trace anymore that Dragon Lady had ever been there.
Kyp and Mal looked up from inside Dragon Lady as the shipyard hanger gantry complex lowered them to the floor.
Kyp tried to look stoic but it was clear she was impressed, “This is a pretty slick little operation you have here, Ms. Smith.
What would have happened if there were suspicious craft nosing around?”
“Well, Captain. If playing dead doesn't work then there is Plan 'B'. We grab them out of the sky and abduct them for a good talking to.”
“And if they were hostile?”
“We use Plan 'C'. We give them a good smack with a rolled up newspaper.
This station is also a fairly well equipped fortress. Thule can vaporize a sizable task force and keeps a complement of fighters and soon to be, ship destroyers in ready launching bays at all times.“
“I see.”
Circe smiled then and offered, “Well Captain. Welcome to 279 Thule. This is one of our little 'Bolt Hole' pirate hideouts, if you will.
As soon as the concourse mates with your outer hatch we can see about you and your crew coming on board to enjoy some of our facilities.
We have an excellent galley and crew quarters for 'stay overs' until your ship is fully repaired.
Please feel free to enjoy our hospitality and we can catch up on some back history.
When you are rested we can let you have the cooks tour of the facility!”
Mal, who still was not sure about all these goings on. “I knew you were all a bunch of pirates!” he hissed.
Di just winked back at him.
The blonde cheetah-tigress-lapine smirked and corrected Mal, “Privateers. Terra issued us a license to be pirates.”
Mal fumed.
“Ms. Smith...might I ask a question?” Fang chirped.
“Why yes, Mr. Silverclaw.”
“Your creators, the ancient, Galactic ones?”
“Yes?”
“Did what do they have for you, position wise?”
“Position wise?”
“Yes, what is your designated title, from their point of view? What do they call you and your sister?”
“They call us, The Sentinals and Watchers, the System Guardians were ancient ancestors.” Circe responded, matter of factly.
Fang was visibly staggered and pulled Kyp aside, “If I may confer with my Captain and the First Officer a moment?”
Circe chirped back, “Certainly!”
Fang huddled together with Kyp and Mal.
Fang whispered, “Madam, Mr. Easton, they are much more powerful than I ever first imagined!”
“But you did say they were powerful, and they do seem to be pretty good with the parlor tricks. So?”
“By the whiskers of Garthantia!
They are no less than the legendary System Guardians!
“Mmmhmm, so that would mean..?”