Trampship Wars 2 Read online

  Now he did not have Mickey hooked up to the fighter or in this case the bomber to act as his Weapons Officer inside the fighter’s autopilot, helping him control the damn fighter. Now Mark was completely on his own flying this damn bomber thankful that it was supposed to be easy to fly, but still making him feel like he was one step from crashing every time he turned around, careening from one near disaster to another every few second s he was in the cockpit behind the controls but managing to keep on flying. Learning volumes with each near disaster.

  Sure, he still had Mickey in his or her glasses glued to his face over his eyes still helping . S , s howing and telling him what he needed to do . B b ut that was a long way from actually having the hours in the cockpit in spite of the hours of hypno-teaching M m ickey had given him the night before . F f lying a fighter in his dreams, s with a weapons officer in a cockpit like the one that was now a pile of shot up junk in the empty number 3 boat loc k k . Luckily the fighter cockpit in his dreams was close to that of the bomber he was now flying but then the English loved to standardize things as much as possible.

  Though his junk fighter did resemble the fighter he had been following for the last couple hours on the outside . The Captain’s fighter had been upgraded to a single cockpit trading the weapons officer for an AI knocking a couple thousand pounds off of its weight while adding range and maneuverability and a defensive gun system behind the pilot .

  Mark followed the weapons officers instructions , still wondering how the hell , ( after spending what seemed like days of sleep teaching each time he slept since he put Mickey on ) , he still woke up feeling fresh . Even after going to bed at 4 in the morning the nig ht before (when he finally had number 3 the tomb boat lock’s hatch closed after the last of the remains had been removed ) and then up again at 7.

  It was one thing hypno-teaching him a collage course in a few hours that he would have to recite and use at his leisure or even how to be a good ship’s officer after being a civilian a couple the week s before (even though he had been a ships cadet since he was 8) and another thing trying to teach muscle and reaction memory to respond to the universe around the fighter , rapidly and properly without over controlling or missing critical switches a trained fighter pilot would know where to hit without looking. That took a few more nights of hypno-teaching according to Mickey, which he had not had yet . Training that would take months if not years for a pilot to learn during normal training. That took a few more nights of hypno-teaching according to Mickey, which he had not had yet.

  Doing what his experienced Weapons Officer said, Mark planted the fighter 100 miles off the Captain’s wing and stayed there as he dodged around rock after rock trying to stay behind them as much as possible . After a few minutes Mark started to relax. Now flying around the rocks was easy compared to flying tight formation but then he had been flying around asteroid ring rocks since he was 8 years old . A a s s many of the mining stations Mark’s tramp transport (Star Queen 52 ) they had delivered cargo to over the years had been in rings or asteroid belts. Though he had forgotten about been thinking anything but that a half hour before. Not putting the two together as he seated bucke ts. After all, what could flying his rocket pod have to do with flying militar y bombers?

  Mark was starting to enjoy himself for the first time since he had climbed into the cockpit as the Captain’s fighter bomber slipped past the close group of rocks slowly orbiting each other M m ark had pointed at only minutes before and then kept his distance from. An icon flashed onto the Tactical screen showing a boat in the middle of that mass. The Captains fighter only a few miles away from the boat that had appeared, started maneuvering as lasers started streaking around it. The Captain not being able to use active sensors had missed the cold boat just sitting there like a rock.

  “Queen’s 2, head straight in on full afterburn er for your attack. They know I am here so you need to get in fast , arcing around their stern as they turn on me and hit them and try to do it without being seen until you launch are much closer . Go!”

  “What the hell?” Mark could only stare at the mass of beams streaking around the Captain’s fighter as its engines went into after-burner with three white hot tails from its engines suddenly streaking out behind it for a thousand feet. The Captain’s fighter/bomber whipped around to attack the boat almost too fast for Mark to follow.

  Mark suddenly felt his arm being slapped. “Damn it boy get your head out of your ass. We are losing seconds. Hit your throttles after-burner and attack damn it!”

  Mark did as he was told without thinking . Mark as he turned to look at his Weapon’s Officer for a half second as he slapped the throttles forward to the stops just shy of into the afterburner position and then he was slammed back into his acceleration tub by a hammer as the bomber started shaking like a paint mixer. In the vacuum of space away from the planets gravitational hole, like the ships main engines, the bombers engines were able to produce many time the thrust the fighter’s fighter’s engines had in the atmosphere the day before to Mark’s surprise. Though it shouldn’t have as sims where good at showing the differences but then like most new recruits, Mark was having a hard time translating sim time in to a real military torpedo bomber.

  Then But t h e engines as reality has a habit of doing, the engines being far out of tune started shaking the bomber to his surprise. Mark was suddenly careening down the side of a mountain with little control as he tried to gather himself together. The bomber missing rocks more from accident than his controlling the head long plunge. It took him a good 10 seconds to catch up and actually start weaving the ship deliberately past the rocks instead of his spastic hands trying to react to the acceleration jerking the bomber around with accidental panic from near crash to near crash.

  The Pirate ship started sending 4 exhaust streams out its ass as it tried to bring its engines up to power from idle much too fast. Mark expecting the plasma to start puking engine parts out with the unfocused streams that ran through the colors of rainbows while scouring metal from the tube wall s of the 4 engine ’s tubes walls .

  “Follow the damn course Tramp.” T Shouted t he Weapons Officer/navigator ’s voice boomed without shouting .

  Mark finally noticed the course on his heads up display and realized the Weapons Officer was taking them over behind the rock Mark had wanted to slip behind in the first place. Slapping the fighter around barely missing a large rock that had him gasp as they came so close he knew they had to hit until they missed, the grains of rock making up its surface only feet away frozen in his memory as he started following the course line. Weaving around it for a few seconds until he got used to the shaking controls at that acceleration.

  And then they slide behind the big rock into its shadow and then minutes later they were only seconds from the ship’s ass as they streaked out from behind the rock and the Weapons Officer said. “Fox four. Fox four. Fox four. Fox four.” As the fighter jerked with the launch of each of the 20 foot long 21 inch wide torpedoes. A targeting blip suddenly appeared on his screen. “You have four bombs to place on any engines the torpedoes miss. Though any bomb up the tube of any of the destroyed engines should put them deep enough past any armor they have , to take out their whole engineering section.” The Weapons Officer said.

  Streaks from the ship started passing the torpedo bomber fighter from the self-defense guns clustered around the stern of the ship as it started to turn its engines away from the new threat . Though they were targeting the torpedoes , Mark had to fight down the sudden terror at being shot at .

  The screen said they were still 30 seconds from releasing the bombs 15 seconds after the torpedoes’ hit . Taking a deep breath as he glanced at the torpedoes streaking toward the big ship’s stern, so Mark flipped the weapons switch over to his guns and sighted on one of the self-defense turrets . Mark and pulled the trigger while he pulled the throttles to the 4 big engines back off the locks that had kept them out of afterburner out of afterburner and the bomber fighter stopped shaking allowi
ng him to easily drop his sight pip onto the target .

  He watched the pulses of his 30mm beams walk across the hull and into the turret. The turret exploded and Mark let up on the trigger long enough to put the piper on the next turret. It was hit and exploded with the first shots now the targeting computer and his weapons officer had the fine tuning down. Mark took the few 20mm Gatling gun turrets out in as many seconds then went to the 3 inch open hull guns since they were the next biggest threat to his fighter. Taking the 3 in sight out in only a few seconds and went on to the pair of 5 inch open hull mounts on th at side of the e stern of the ship . B b ut his 30mm shells started bouncing off the shields. Without thinking Mark started targeting the base just under the shield of one of the guns and was satisfied when something behind the shield blew up and the gun stopped firing . Mark took out the other 5 inch gun on that side and then it was time to target his bombs.

  The Torpedoes hit taking out three of the engines after the defense guns took out one of his torpedoes before he had knock them all out on that side leaving those on the other side he could not see in one piece . Shoving his throttles forward again this time past the locks into full afterburner since they had been spotted , the fighters After-burners lit off again but this time he was ready for the acceleration even though it was a hell of a lot more than befo re as he flicked the weapons back over to the bombs and the reticle changed.

  Changing course he headed back around the stern of the turning ship now turning much slower with only one cold half lit power core powering the thrusters and one surviving still cold the engine. The ship’s remaining stern two other stern 5 inch , 3inch and 20 mm guns came into sight and started firing at the torpedo bomber with its 4 white hot exhaust tails making it an easy to track target. Mark tapped his ship to ship Comm. “How you doing back their Captain. Do I need to come back and give you a hand or do I finish taking out the last engine?”

  “I have already destroyed the boat. You worry about taking out that engine. I am headed around the other side to come in from his stern if you miss and he keeps turning. We will have him either way if you miss but don’t miss. These light weight torps would only be able to damage the engine and not take it out. Allowing them to repair it if they have enough time before the police get here with their cruisers . Out.”

  Mark raced around the back of the ship getting ahead of its turn before turning to make his bomb run . . It only took a few seconds to knock out the few remaining Not having the point defense guns targeting him which made targeting the ship’s last engine easy even with the stern’s remaining big manually loaded slow firing 5 inch hull guns that that had some kind of armor overlapping the base preventing him from knocking them out , trying to kill him. After the first few shots from the 5 inch guns he had knocked out before, Mark h e knew what sights the 5 inch guns y had and as long as he kept maneuvering smartly not allowing the gunners to lead him, he was not worried about them hitting him.

  “

  Fifteen seconds to optimum bomb release.” Came the Weapons officer’s voice.

  And then 20mm pulses started streaking past the fighter. “Hold steady Tramp we are almost there. Let or point defen se sive turrets take him out.

  Mark jerked the torpedo bomber off to the side as a big ball from a 5 inch shell exploded where Mark would have been as decoys and chaff started sprouting from the torpedo bomber at the Weapon’s Officers touch. Mark glanced at the rapidly closing boat that had evidentially been accelerating toward his bomber from one of the groups of rocks on the other side of the Pirate ship, while Mark had been going around the ship’s stern. Somehow the pilot of the boat had figured out where exactly Mark had to turn to make his bomb run.

  “10 seconds to bomb release range Tramp. Get your ass back on target and let the defense turrets take care of the boat. The se dumb bombs y can’t hit shit with you maneuvering so damn much.”

  Mark zigged to the side again to avoid another expected 5 inch sal v f o (timing the guns fire without thinking about it after thousands of hours in the sim) and then laid the bombers bomb sight back on the target. The Weapon’s Officer’s screen showing the bombers 50 cal defense guns streaking into the hundred foot long boat without seeming to slow the boat’s gun flashes as 20mm’s continued to streak close past them and then several of the 20mm shells stitched a wing.

  “Shit! This isn’t going to work.” Mark jerked the bomber around pointing it directly at the incoming boat and fired his 30mm guns. The dozen shells tore into the rapidly closing boat knocking large chunks off of it and opening flaming holes across the hull to Mark’s satisfaction silencing the incoming streaks.

  Whipping the bomber around again , Mark lined up on the engine (making sure he had negated all the side and up and down slips and forces that would have put the bombs off their intended courses) and hit the guarded button on top of his stick twice, pickling 2 of the bombs. Then slid over onto the biggest hole where an engine used to be with a direct line toward the center of the ship and dumped the last two at bombs. As soon as the bombs were away he jerked the bomber’s stick to the side hitting the throttles up into afterburner again . The bo mber ship lunched forward as the ship bomber shook from multiple 20mm near explosions and several solid hits from the boat that must have come back alive since it was from the same area . Two of the engines died with half the systems on the bomber as streams of shells continued passing the now sluggish bomber. The weapons screen showing the 50cals disappearing into the boat without seeming to affect it yet again , let alone silence the 20 mm streaks coming from it.

  With the bomber already turning, Mark brought it on around to point at the rapidly closing boat and pulled the trigger. Only 3 of the bomber’s fighters 6, 30mm guns fired from the undamaged side, tearing into the boat as he followed it around past the bomber, knocking holes into it while the inside started exploding puking its guts out into space.

  Pissed off at it firing after he had hit it the first time, Mark held the trigger down as he followed the rapidly retreating but no longer accelerating hulk. Watching things fly off if it as it disintegrated under his continued fire. Making damn sure it was dead this time after coming back to life the first time .

  Then a big bright ball flashed to one side of the fighter followed a half second later by another from behind as pieces of engines and wings came flying forward past the cockpit. Mark was suddenly surrounded by fire as he was knocked around violently and thrown toward his instrument panel. He had just enough time to see his bombs hit the ship out the side of his canopy, destroying the last remaining engine just before the other 2 bombs exploded deep inside the stern opening it up like a can. Sending one of the 5 inch hull guns spinning away just before everything went black.

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  Chap ter 2, Doomed ship

  Blackbeard slid up into his office a thousand feet above hi s Starport and started looking around the Port as soon as his eyes cleared the windows of the old Space Port’s control tower. Noticing something out of the ordinary , he picked up the binoculars sitting on his desk . Bla ckbeard and focused in on studied several cars grouped together on the street running along the side of the Port. Finely figuring that it was just a drug deal going down he relaxed a police patrol car with its lights flashing as it swoop ed down into a convenience store parking lot . The patrol car sending out capture lines to entangle two men running out of the store with bags in one arm as they pointe d what looked like weapons at the approaching police aircar . One of the laser beams hit the patrol air car as the other went wide.

  The balls at the ends of the lines the police cruiser had fired ignored the laser fire, exploding only feet from each of them to send sticky fingers out to wrap around their bodies that worked better than the old strait jackets let alone handcuffs (the lines preventing them from running even if the lines from the exploding ball only got ahold of an ankle) . The momentum of the running men with the sticky lines wrapping tight around their bodies sending them sprawling to
the ground fully entangled in the strands, p reventing them from shooting at the cops as well as running.

  Blackbeard shook his head as he rea lized it was a pair of cats from the slum neighborhood the convenience store served. The police aircar cruiser landed as the store owner came out waving his arms making Blackbeared smile . He had familiarized himself with every person in the businesses around his Starport to make sure the police could not slip spy’s into the locals to watch his port without him knowing about it.

  A car pulled into the parking lot sliding to a h a lt as a figure climbed out and immediately went to the s tore owner as the police officer was taking custody of the suspects. Blackbeard recognized the lion cat man as the local neighborhood thug that ran the area. The Lion grabbed the store owner by his front and lifted him up into the air slapping him several times before throw ing him to the ground to stand over him pointing at the cats on the ground screaming something at the man before hitting him again.

  Black beard knew the thug and could guess that he was convincing the man not to press charges against his catmen.

  The Police officer drew his weapon and shot the Lion Cat man in the upper back with what had to be his weapon on stun setting as t he lion started to swing at the proprietor again, stopping his swing but not affecting him in the usually manner. That is dropping him in his tracks. Blackbeard realized that the stun beam had hit the lion Catman in his main that provided a shield against most weapons , insulting him from the effects of the b eam.

  The Lion turned to the police officer and roared as his canines extended , ready to rip flesh. Taking a step tow ard the officer the officer shot him again hitting the main as t he Lionman lowered his head and started to charge. The thick main again protecting the lion from the stun beams charge.

  The lions claws came out lengthening out to s everal inches as he leaped toward the officer.