Trampship Wars 2
Trampship Wars 2
By
L.D. Roberts
All rights reserved
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to people, places, names, incidents or works is wholly coincidental and in the mind of the beholder. No dogs, cats or mice were harmed in the writing and production of this book. Thank you and enjoy.
Contents
Scouting mission
Chapter 2, Doomed ship
Chapter 3, Taking back the bombers
Chapter 4; Recognizing junk when you see it
Chapter 5; Dead killer pipe
Chapter 6: Mess deck murders
Chapter 7: Feel-good deadly weapons
Chapter 8: Shot at again
Chapter 9: Death of the State
Chapter 10: Toys are us
Chapter 11: Orbital fiasco.
Chapter 12: The Cavern Priestess
Chapter 13: Our Damn Trucks
Chapter 14: Assaulting the English Base
Chapter 15: Looting the warehouse.
Chapter 16: Where did it all come from?
Chapter 17: Falling without wings
Chapter 18: Hurry up and twiddle your thumbs
Chapter 19: Best laid plans of mice and men
Chapter 20: The Attack
Chapter 21: Death of the Queen
Chapter 22: Getting rid of a piece of junk suit
Trampship Wars 2
Scouting mission
Mark jerked his torpedo bomber’s side control stick back pulling the nose up. Not quite over controlling this time but close as he followed the English Captain through the Gas Giant’s Asteroid Belt. He thought he was good flying fighters in the club house Sim m back on the Star Queen but this guy was wringing sweat from him after a half hour and now this had been going on for almost two. He thought this was just supposed to be a simple test ride and k now they were deep into the damn rings. They curved around another big rock as Mark noticed a blip appear on the Tactical screen between him and the Weapons officer sitting to his right a little lower and slightly behind (giving him a good view out the cockpit around the right side of the bomber) but did not have time to take more than a glance at it let alone worry about it.
Suddenly the fighter ahead pulled up and stopped against a big rock. Not quite landing on it but as far as Mark was concerned, he might as well have. Mark pulled up to a stop beside the smaller fighter his torpedo bomber dwarfed. Taking a deep breath, Mark was glad to be able to relax for a few seconds.
“Damn Captain , why are we so deep into the damn rings? I thought this was just going to be a short test ride.”
The English Captain chuckled. “You already know most of the basics so I am showing you how to do a little recon where we the military, can’t go. T here is a Pirate Transport cruiser a few thousand miles away on the other side of this rock on picket duty . Guarding this section of the rings that has a pirate base in it somep lace. It is also waiting for any civilian transports that happen by. We are going to stick our torpedoes up its ass and see if we can knock out its engines. Preventing it from slipping back int o the rings and hiding. To do that we are going to have to sneak up on it using these asteroids as cover. To do that you are going to have to keep close off my wing. If you start streaming all over the space behind me again like you have been doing, they will see your bomber popping out from the rocks I am going to be coming up behind using as cover . Now I know you tramps don’t train formation flying or have any use for it but try to keep within 50 feet of me anyway. And please don’t scratch my paint job. We still have a ways to go before we can launch our torpedoes up the ship’s ass. We just have to get your Torpedo bomber there and your weapons officer will take care of the launches.”
“Ok Captain , but we are thousands of miles away. How are you going to tell which is the stern? If you get close enough to see their ass they will be close enough to see us and turn away long before we get there. Or hell, even just run away. This is reality and not a game or movie. Starships that can reach the speed of light, even freighters, can run away from any system boat with ease if they want to. Why would they hang around long enough for us to put torpedoes up their butt?” Mark said sarcastically without thinking .
“Come Tramp. Torpedo bombers would not be much good if they couldn’t out run a ship for at least a while and our new bombers can out run even the fastest for quite a while. Espeacially once you add your new engine fusion core upgrades. T hough if we are close enough. They would not be stupid enough to run if they know anything about torpedo bombers. T hey would have to present their butt ’s to us to stick our torpedoes up. Now use your head. They are in a cluttered ring on picket duty. They can’t sit there with their engines hot without presenting one hell of a target but if they completely shut down their engines it would take an hour to light off the fusion cores and heat the engines back up again leaving them vulnerable to random rocks not to mention any ship that came along.”
“Ooo, Kay? So they have to keep at least one of their fusion cores lit and a little plasma leakage out their engine to keep them warmed up enough to light them off in only a few minutes . Can you detect that little bit of plasma this far away?”
“We wouldn’t be much of a fighter or torpedo bomber if we couldn’t. We can even detect the ass of a cold ship sitting out in the middle of space waiting to ambush the fleet if we get close enough. Or in your case, a transport. That’s what patrols are for” The Captain chuckled. “That is for a later lesson if I decide to let you keep th at bomber and its mates. ”
“ Captain Summers ordered me this morning to take back the fighters I left behind on your Star Queen last night. I don’t even want to know why she changed her mind after using the Admiral’s name to order me to leave my whole section to replace your old destroyed fighter. But I technically out rank her and after reading reports on you taking on the pirates in your ship’s hold in our main space port and then watching you take out those boats coming in from orbit last night from too far away to help, I like the Captain’s idea of giving your ship a hand. ”
Taking a breath the Captain smiled at Mark through his cockpits canopy .
“ T Even t hough I had to take a demotion to stay in the service when the war ended , I still hav e that damn medal they gave me and it gives me some pull in this navy. But I do agree with the Captain that you don’t need fighters since I have never heard of Pirates having anything but a few well-armed civilian boats. What you need is something that can take out boats and armed transports as far away from your transport as possible as well as drop down into a planet’s atmosphere to scare the hell out of the local population if they start giving your ship a bad time. Then climb back up to orbit to make sure no one is thinking about shooting at you when your transport is slow and vulnerable when it climbs back up out of the hell hole s you are headed for. And that means torpedo bombers.”
The Captain chuckled. “Now follow me Tramp.” The English fighter with one of the small torpedo’s tucked to each side of the fuselage under each of its wings, took off around the rock and headed for the Pirate ship , sliding up behind another rock .
Mark glanced at the large tactical screen between the seats as it changed to show what the fighter could see of the distant ship in the infrared spectrum and a stream of hot particles streaming out one end. “Ok now that is interesting.” Pushing the throttle forward Mark slid the big torpedo bomber out from behind the rock and quickly caught up to and tucked in close to the fighter, (at least what he considered close).
Mark watched the Captain bring his fi ghter around slowly to head around toward the stern of the Pirate ship while keeping his distance. Mark finding it easy to follow him as slow as he was changing course this time as Mark tucked up within 50 feet of the Englis
h Fighter. Nervous about getting any closer.
“Come on Tramp.” The Captain said over the secure laser comm between the fighters. “You can do better than that. Get your nose over here off my wingtip. Don’t worry, I will give you plenty of time to turn with me. Beside the closer you get, the easier it is to see my control inputs, giving you time to start your maneuver before my fighter actually moves.”
Fifteen minutes later Mark was starting to find it easier to stay only some 20 feet off the Englishman’s wingtip as they threaded their way through the mass of rocks. Though he was having a hard time figuring out why anyone would need to stay so close but then he did not have much time to think about it as he turned his suits air-conditioning up to get rid of the sweat building up in his gloves and helmet.
Another 15 minutes later after telling Mark to get closer several times, the Captain came back on the comm. “Not bad Tramp. Another couple of weeks and I might be able to teach you to fly formation once you stop flying scarred. I might even get you to tuck in close where you belong instead of in orbit. But for a newb i e e, it was not too bad.”
The Captain looked at Mark from his cockpit. “We are behind the Pirate and 1,000 miles away. Time to split up. I want you to drift out and maintain 100 miles to my Starboard side staying behind rocks as much as possible until we reach 2 5 0 miles and then we can make our attack runs and fire your 4 fleet torpedoes a few seconds after I fire my 2 fast light weight torpedoes at point blank range that should knock out enough of their maneuvering t hrusters to give you time to put your torpedoes up their ass . Try to stay behind rocks as much as possible. If I get intercepted before I can launch my torpedoes, you will take the lead until you fire your 4 heavy fleet torpedoes at less than a 50 miles to reduce the chance of them hitting an asteroid and then drop your bombs at 5 miles . Then if I need the help, you can swing back to cover my tail while I make my run if you have left any engines still alive. Got that. Getting our torpedoes and your bombs up that ships butt is top priority. If you get intercepted, use these rocks to keep them from getting a lock on you until I can get back from sticking my torps up it ’s butt to at least slow it down and hopefully, kill its core and then cover you so you can do your run.”
The Captain took a breath. “Remember stay under cover of the asteroids as much as possible. Once they know we are here, it will only take a minute for them to turn the ship’s ass away unless one of us can get at least one good hit shutting down their single hot engine ’s power core and their maneuvering thrusters before they can light the rest of their engine cores off. Giving us time to finish our attacks.”
“Ok Captain, but why are we taking out their engines and not their weapons? Seems like weapons would be a higher priority.”
Mark could hear the English Captain’s chuckle. “Taking out their engines allows other bombers a free ride taking out their weapons not to mention leaving them a sitting satellite for the rest of the fleet. As far as you Tramps go. Even if you took out half their weapons, they still would be able to run your transport down. A Pirate with dead engines can’t ambush your transport, allowing you to go on your way delivering your cargo unmolested and undamaged without them even getting close. That a fter all , is your job isn’t it Tramp? Keep the pirates far away from your transport. You can come back later and earn some bounty destroying the pirate once your ship is safe. ” Mark could hear the Captain taking a breath. “Now if this was a whole flight, I would count down and say, “Break!”, so no one collides as we split up to attack. But since it is just you, peel off when you are ready to take your position 100 miles off. We will work on you flying a much closer formation on our way back to the ship after we take care of this little pirate. Out.”
Mark looked over at the already much too close fighter not believing that the Captain had wanted him to get even closer. Shaking his head he let the fighter drift away breathing a sigh of relief and said to himself . “Just how damn close did he want me to get?”
“Until he could read the maintenance stencils on your nose without turning around Tramp. That makes it easier for him to help you maintain a tight formation if he can see your nose.”
Mark turned to his Weapon’s Officer surprised that he had said anything. Mark had not even gotten an answering, “High,” out of the guy when he had climbed into the cockpit after it had landed next to the Star Queen and the pilot had climbed out. Mark started to say something about him not being a dummy just filling the seat after all. Even if he had watched the guy working at the sensor controls aiming the self-defense guns and tuning the engines since he climbed in. But he bit his tongue. After spending the last several hours trying to keep up with the Captain and feeling like a moron about so much he had not known, anything he could say to the guy would just make him sound even more stupid. Especially after complaining about having to fly a damn Torpedo Bomber when he wanted to climb into the fighter as when he walked up to them sitting in the pit next to the Star Queen. But the Captain had told Mark that the Torpedo Bomber was a lot easier to fly and if and when he passed the basic s test s including simply getting the bomber off the ground , he would think about letting Mark behind the controls of a fighter that was twice as hard to even get off the ground let alone fly.
Mark had started to tell the English Captain that he had already flown a fighter to orbit and back the day before but was cut off in mid word and told to get in the damn bomber.
Mark let the torpedo bomber drift away from the fighter as he studied the tactical screen and the mass of rocks between them and the Pirate ship sitting in the open, planning a route through the thousands of asteroids.
Then the Weapons Officer spoke up again. “Just plant yourself off the Captains wing where he told you to be until you peel off and then follow my course until it is time to attack. That is unless he or we run into trouble.”
Mark looked at the helmeted man and frowned. “Ok. But that large rock just drifting in from the side up close to the ship, looks like a good shield to hide behind as we make our run in. Even though it It is a few miles farther over. That also avoids that group or pack of rocks the Captain will pass close by that would be good for hiding a boat or even fighters. I know if I was out here on picket duty I would at least put a boat there with a couple or three more scattered around on the other side and far out front at similar groupings here, here, and there on the edge of the ring.” Mark pointed at spots on the tactical screen with clusters of rocks. After all he had played enough battle sim games to know basic tactics. “Perfect places to keep ships from sneaking up on them from the sides or behind like what we are doing but easy to keep from being spotted until they you are right on top of you them .
“Are you daft boy? Since when do pirates have fighters and why do you think we have been skimming along a couple thousand miles just inside the damn ring in the first place for the last hour. There is no reason to think that a pirate ship will even be expecting us since the police never patrol this section of the rings without enough sensors and beacons to alert any moron with a radio they are coming. The Captain is taking advantage of your training mission to show you what we are not allowed to do by law. You being a civilian and these are technically civilian ships. Now shut up and follow my course. The Captain knows what he is doing using that group of rocks to hide behind as he we close s without losing sight of the ship which we would do coming up behind that big rock you got the hots for. Just trust the Captain that used to be a R r ear Admiral , That is one star for you civilians, commanding a fighter wing in the war as well as a th e Kings Cross recipiant recipient . Once you take out those engines you can call in a bunch of police cruiser s to finish them off since they won’t be able to run. And maybe the next pore Tramp that decides to take a short cut through the ring from the nearest Transport Lane , won’t get their assess shot off or taken. Should be a piece of cake for someone that shot down 4 armed Gunboats in 30 seconds.”
Mark swallowed at hearing the Captain was a Kings Cross recipient and still alive. He had pai
d enough attention to the little war between the English and Russians in this part of the Empire to know what an honor that was. But then things made even less sense now. Why was a War Hero Admiral giving him a simple check ride to see how well he handled the ship’s new torpedo bombers he was not even sure he was giving the ship . But then every time he had turned around for the last two hours he was running into something new as they orbited and then approached and then flew through this stupid ring of rocks. Mark had thought he had plenty of time to learn all the crap he had been subjected to over the last couple of hours, later. That is when they finished repairing his shot up hulk fighter hulk in the transport shuttle lock. He figured he would have weeks of training flights before they tried anything like this.
Sure, he had flown an old fighter and orbited up to the planet’s main civilian space station trying to impress Dian his bunk mate, while out testing the fighter (that was supposed to be a sports aircar based on the fighter) he had bought at an auction the day before . Only to have the fighter confiscated when the auto landing trap had deemed the fighter obsolete and beyond repair . Junking it while Mark watched, almost taking Dian with it to the furnace. Stranded, Mickey help ed Mark replace it f rom the Stations old stocks of fighters buried deep inside th e station. Mickey had used a glitch in the system to add the number 52 to a Star Queen that was on the English ship’s reserve l ist a hundred years before getting Mark a replacement fighter comp leter with a full load of weapons to Marks surprise .
Then while reinterr ing ed the atmosphere on their way back to the Star Queen, Mark had to destroy ing 4 of 6 well-armed gunboats (owned by Blackbeard a respected businessman ) trying to kill him (forcing a 5th to surrender before Blackbeard it blew it up). But then he had Mickey, (his 1,000 year old personal A.I.) telling him what he needed to do to stay alive while helping him fly the fighter.