The Chinese warship’s bombardment was fierce, and they watched as the hull of the Goeben was smashed with everything they had.
"They're not responding to the fire. They just keep hitting the barge," Capwell said in disbelief.
"They're hitting where they know they can do the most damage," said Taylor.
Huber nodded in agreement.
Thirty seconds of continuous barrage finally brought an end to the Goeben's weapon systems, but the Lo Yang didn't let up.
Huber took a deep breath and sighed in relief as he thought they were over the worst of it. He looked to the barge and could see holes over several levels of the hull and debris where people and equipment had been sucked out.
"They're still heading for the barge, Sir."
Huber looked back to his operations table and could see the Goeben approaching the barge at great speed. The Lo Yang's weapons continued to pour fire into the vessel, but its thick hull seemed to hold, despite chunks of metal being ripped off and leaving a trail of debris.
"It's too late," said Jafar.
Huber turned around, surprised that the alien had finally offered some information without prompting.
"What do you mean?"
"They are doing the only thing they can do. They will destroy the barge and all inside in any way they can."
"They're going to ram the barge," Taylor added.
Huber snapped back around.
"Tell them to put all power to engines, and get the hell out of there now!"
"They're already at full power, Sir."
"Shit, get me Admiral Huang, now!"
"He was projected before them within seconds.
"Admiral, the Goeben intends to ram the barge."
"The Goeben has now passed beyond the safe distance we can fire at, but I am already deploying marine forces to board the vessel and protect the civilians."
"But, Admiral..."
"Huang out," he cut in.
They all watched in horror as the Goeben crashed into the hull of the barge, but to their amazement it did not penetrate fully. A hole was torn several metres wide before the nose of the Goeben began to slide down the length of the massive vessel and crash in beside it, so that the two vessels now lay in parallel and were wedged together.
The Goeben was a quarter the size of the barge, but they all knew too well that only civilian authorities and police protected the space within the barges.
"Get me the Captain of that vessel!"
"Captain Dokgo, most of the people aboard are Korean," said Vega.
A moment later a frantic Korean man, who appeared to be in his fifties, appeared before him.
“Admiral, I have reports that alien robots have boarded this ship. What is going on?”
“Captain, you are under attack by hidden enemy elements within this fleet that have captured one of our vessels and boarded yours. We are doing everything in our power to protect you.”
Screams could be heard over the comms channel.
“They’re here. They’re killing everyone. There are dozens of them, maybe hundreds… Admiral, please don’t leave us!”
“I won’t leave you, Captain. We already have marines en route to help. Are you in a safe area?”
“The bridge is safe, yes.”
“If you have blast doors, seal them.”
“But all those people?”
“Captain, just listen to me. Close your blast doors. Lock down the bridge.”
“Yes, yes, okay.”
Now, do you still have power to your engines?”
“Yes…yes we do.”
“We are sending you coordinates now, reposition and await assistance.”
“But, Admiral, I am watching people die now. They’re being slaughtered. How…”
“Captain Dokgo, listen to me. Redirect the coordinates we are sending you. We are doing everything we can to help you. Now I have to get to work. Stay on this line. I am passing you onto my number two…”
Vega took over the conversation on his own handset.
“Huang’s marines, what chance do they have?”
“We have no idea of the enemy strength or firepower.”
“What are their chances?”
“It’s a big ship and a lot of civilians to get in the way.”
“What are their chances?” Huber yelled.
Taylor shook his head. “If his marines are equipped and experienced anything like the marines you had aboard the Washington when I got here, not great.”
Huber shook his head and began to pace up and down the ship.
“We’ve got twenty thousand people on that ship. God knows how many are already dead. And now you’re telling me the rescue operation is destined to fail? I will not lose those people. We can’t afford such losses! Taylor, how quickly can you get your people together for a full breach of the barge?”
“Admiral. Our Mastiffs are beaten to hell. We have one fully operational at best. You haven’t got enough transports to get us over there in any great number, and we haven’t got enough in my unit alone to get this done right.”
“You? You of all people can’t get this done?”
“Right now it’s about saving as many lives as possible. I can go in there, and sure we’ll kill every last one of those bastards in time, but not quick enough. We need a rapid response, and we need it now. We need the weight of numbers now. In short, we gotta get there firstest with the mostest, and we’re already failing on one of those things.”
‘Time is short Taylor. Tell me what you need, and I’ll do it.”
“Crank this boat up, get us over there, and dock with that barge. Arm everyone you can with a weapon and send us aboard en masse.”
Huber was shocked.
“Dock? When Mechs run amok?”
“It’s all or nothing, Admiral. We can go in with maybe sixty marines now, and everyone aboard that ship could be dead before we have the job done, or we can go in en mass. I have close to three hundred marines at my disposal, and you yourself can spare a couple of hundred. Find Major Moye and have him deploy anything he can at the same time. Admiral, we can be hitting back within ten minutes, or we can piss about and lose a shitload of lives.”
Huber did not reply. He was stunned by the situation.
“Don’t risk it, Sir!” Vega pleaded, “We cannot risk the ship for the lives of a few civilians!”
“A few civilians!” Huber repeated in desperation.
He turned back to Taylor.
“Get your people ready and make sure this works,” He looked back to Vega, “Do it.”
Vega shook his head at the order, but he did not dare defy it. Taylor raised his arm and opened a channel on his comms unit.
“Inter-Allied, gather your gear and prepare for immediate assault.”
"How long until we reach their location?"
"I can have us alongside in two minutes and docked a short while after that, Admiral."
"Short while?" Taylor asked, "People are dying in there, probably in great numbers, get in there now!"
He waited for someone to order the ship’s Marine detachment into operation, but it did not come.
"Admiral. I need every one of your marines prepped and ready to board that barge with us. Have everyone who isn't currently working a vital job to grab a rifle. You'll have to defend the access points once we get aboard by yourself."
Huber hesitantly put out the order.
"How many points of access will we have?"
Huber looked to Vega because he did not know.
"I believe we have three docking corridors that will align with the lower hull of the barges."
"Get me a layout."
On the project before him, Taylor could see the access points were almost equidistant along the length of the Washington, a ship that was only a little over half the size of the vast barges.
"For the length of this operation, these will be designated zones A, B, C, and D, Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta," he said, as he went from fore to aft and finally the landing bay, "Have your marines ready the forward and middle locations at A and B. My people will take C and D."