We made good speed, cutting the time between Beulah and the Ape-oid world almost in half. The planet seemed to be surrounded by a swarm of warships, many of them old ships from the first half of the war before the truce. There were also a lot of the newer ships. It made no difference to me. My orders were clear.
“Battle stations!” I ordered.
We went in fast with every gun station firing at anything that moved or shot at us. We took a loop around the planet as we stirred up the hornets nest to get everything they had after us. Then when they came at us, we shot them to pieces. Although we were faster and had longer ranging weapons, we weren’t invulnerable. I knew that when a sensor went red and stayed red at one gun station. I had lost a Mark III quad. Still, every other gun station was blazing away at the enemy, usually before he could get in range with his own weapons. We were leaving a trail of destruction behind us as we started circling the planet a second time. The whole time, my communications officer was doing her level best to keep up with the battle and broadcast what was happening while I felt useless again as Frank and the gunners did their jobs.
After two hours of intense firing, I realized that the sector of space surrounding the Ape-oid planet was ours. Nothing besides us moved on its own. I looked again at the sensor diagram to discover that I hadn’t noticed a second gun station go silent. We had taken another hit and I hadn’t even felt it because the ship was so large.
The communications officer looked at me for a moment as she switched off her transmitter. “Sir, what now? Should I broadcast as we go in for the rescue team?”
I thought about it for a moment. It seemed fairly obvious to me that the enemy knew we were here, but would our broadcast alert them to the presence of our rescue party down on their planet if we continued to broadcast? I decided not to risk other’s lives. I answered, “No. Wait until we have them secure. Then tell the story.”
“Yes sir.”
“Frank, good job! Now let’s go get our people!” I exclaimed.
“Right, Dave!” he answered.
A few minutes later, we were settling down to the planet surface after picking up the beacon signal from the rescue party. I thought that we would be taking them on board. Instead, they were waiting for us to escort them in their ships. The passengers were settled into their commercial ship once more while their pilot was staring at our dreadnought with his mouth open. Then I saw Captain Clark and realized that was the same man whom I called Sarge while he was at the Academy. Suddenly, I realized why I couldn’t reach him before. He was on his way to the Ape-oid planet to spirit away the hostages. I just hadn’t realized that he might be re-activated as an officer which he once was.
The bad thing about seeing him here was that I suddenly felt less secure about Annie and the children’s safety on Beulah since he wasn’t there participating in the action. I know that there were other fully competent non-coms at the Academy and some worthy officers as well. Still, I trusted him more than anyone. I wished that we had finished off the two squadrons of alien ships headed that way. I could only hope that what the Navy and Pennyweight had there was enough to stop them dead.
Then the Sarge, I mean, the Captain was waving the commercial pilot to lift off as he got out of the way. The commercial ship took off as the Captain disappeared behind a closing hatchway. Then his ship lifted off and we followed.
In space, we started talking using LOS so that our communications couldn’t be intercepted. “Captain Clark, funny meeting you here. I was trying to call you a few days ago. How can I help you?”
He answered, “Dave, it’s good to see you. Evidently, Penny got my message about the departing warships and got you back in time. How do you like your new ship?”
I replied, “Beautiful. I never dreamed something like this existed.”
He said, “Well, take care of it. For now, just pick the best position for escorting us back to Beulah. Once we get there, you can follow your orders.”
I answered, “Right. We’ll keep everyone off you. Have a good ride!”
The trip back took twice as long for us, but the normal amount of time for the other two ships since we were travelling at their top speed. With our sensors and long range weapons, we had to send them scurrying twice for cover as we left our position to take up the challenge of some alien squadrons that thought we looked easy. They found out that we weren’t easy and we certainly weren’t cheap.
I was never so happy as when I saw three of the Pennyweight gun ships meet us to take over the escort duty and free us to continue with our mission. Having monitored the communications net, I ordered the ship to head for Echo where they were still facing a stiff challenge. I could have gone back to the alien home planet and bombarded it again, but I wanted to help our personnel more directly before I took off on the other task. Moving out at top speed, we cut the time to reach Echo in half.
The squadrons at Echo were in the middle of a lull. They almost mistook us for an enemy ship until some of the ship captains who had served with me before recognized my voice and realized that the fancy, new, big ship was actually on their side. We landed at the Grim Reaper Squadron station where they were having the best luck against the enemy. They were so individualistic that they were actually holding their own against the enemy squadrons despite the speed and weapon advantage enjoyed by the enemy.
We got some quick repairs performed on the two gun positions while we were there and made some plans to surprise the enemy the next time he showed up. I shook a lot of hands before I left with my crew in the Rust Bucket to take my position where the enemy couldn’t see me, but I could see him.
We waited in hiding almost four hours before the sensors gently chimed. I smiled a sly grin as I saw the enemy ships moving into our pre-arranged trap.
“Frank, time to close the door. Battle stations!” I ordered.
The Rust Bucket moved into its next position where we did a single ship charge on the rear of the enemy as he started to approach Echo. As soon as we opened fire on their asses, Heather, our communications officer broadcasted the score. Those two actions of ours caught the enemy’s full attention as they forgot the squadrons on Echo and turned to meet us at odds of only forty to one.
That was what the squadrons on Echo were waiting for as they launched from their pads into space to catch the enemy from the other side where their engines now faced. Now the enemy was boxed in with almost nowhere to go since they were in my gunners’ ranges and the squadrons were closing in on them from several bases on Echo at the same time. The Ape-oids couldn’t outrun me and they couldn’t outfight all of us. Slowly, we began to grind away at them with more firepower than they expected.
I even got a chance to see some of the tactics get used that I didn’t get to use myself with the heavy cruiser squadron I had and which I never named. From my view, the action was impressive as they used their light scouts to keep up with the enemy ships and get in behind them while a heavier ship kept the enemy ship engaged in front with direct battle. The scouts had just enough punch to knock out the engines as long as the heavier ships kept the enemy off them. Now I knew how the squadrons on Echo had been managing to hold out against superior speed and firepower. It didn’t keep them from suffering losses, but they were making the enemy pay dearly.