Tramp Wars: The Enemy Read online

  Tramp Wars

  Book 1

  The Enemy

  By L. D. Roberts

  Text copyright @ 2014 LD Roberts

  All Rights Reserved

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events are the products of creative writing and the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual people living or dead, places or things is entirely accidental coincidence and solely in the imagination of the reader.

  All rights are reserved. No portion of this book may be used or reproduced in any way or manner whatsoever without explicit permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in fluffy articles or reviews. As long as they are glowing, totally flattering, positively favorable, gloriously praising, magnificently fawning and admiringly beneficial to the author and book.

  To my Father who took my flights of fantasy all too serious once in a while.

  May he fly the clouds he loved and rest in eternal peace.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1 Pirates

  Chapter-2 An Old Enemy

  Chapter 3 Suicide Missions

  Chapter- 4 Death of a Trampship

  Chapter 5 Sight

  Chapter 6 Rejection

  Chapter 7 Drop Dead Beautiful

  Chapter 8 Fixing Problems

  Chapter 9 Hanging together

  Chapter 10 Kicked Out the Lock

  Chapter 11 Trying hard to make Enemy’s

  Chapter 12 To many Suicides

  Chapter 13 The Hold Battle

  Chapter 14 Big Bomb

  Chapter 15 The Mess Deck, Nowhere to Run

  Chapter 16 Engine Room #3 (MP-3) New Commander

  Chapter 17 All a Tramp Can Be

  Chapter 18 Romantic Night Fight

  Chapter 19 Trapped

  Chapter 20 Acid Bombs

  Chapter 21 Lock Down

  Chapter 22 Taking the Engine Deck

  Chapter 23 Replacing the Replacements

  Chapter 24 Dead?

  Chapter 25 Kicked Out Again

  Chapter 26 Fools Auction

  Chapter 27 Recon Death Trap

  Chapter 28 What Godstar Damn Fighter?

  Chapter 29 Taking Prisoners

  Chapter 30 Death Lock

  Chapter 31 Wrecked Beyond Repair

  Chapter--- 32 The Forever Watch

  Chapter 1 Pirates

  The pilot came on the Gunboat’s Comm. “The Pirate has increased closing speed, Launching in 3, 2, 1, Launch.”

  The big hatch on the upper side of the Tramp Transport Star Queen 52, flew open and the Gunboat was flung out of the lock as the pilot hit its thrusters bringing the boat around parallel onto the ship’s course. The pilot carefully brought the Gunboat in close to the ship allowing its gravcoils while close to the hull to drag the gunboat along with the ship instead of being left behind. The Captain was hoping to use the Gunboat when the pirate got closer in a surprise attack if they got a chance before the pirate could launch its boats. Mark had barely had time to get strapped in after jumping aboard and running down the crowded cargo hold of the boat. They usually had plenty of time to get strapped in and ready. This mission was already starting out bad.

  Mark immediately hit the Gunboat’s forward portside cargo hatch release and the hatch slammed out and down until it was level with the Gunboats cargo deck. Immediately Mark hit the release and his crew started pushing the big 3 inch gun on its deck rails out the airlock onto the ramp until it hit the end and stopped with a lurch. The solid thunk through his boots and gloves as it stopped, telling him that it was locked in place and not hung up short of the end. The rest of the Gunboat’s crew was already busy at their assigned tasks. Mark slid out onto the end of the hatch/ramp and shoved his speed wrench onto the bolt on that side and started cranking it into the ramp, bolting the base of the mount onto the end of the open hatch. One of his crew was doing the same on the other side of the mount.

  Having done the same job a hundred times on the boats smaller 20mm Quad open gun mounts the hatch was usually equipped with, made bolting down this larger mount easy even though the mount weighed a bit more. The new single barreled 3inch auto open hull gun mount Mark and his friend Tom had managed to shoehorn into the Gunboat Shuttle was fitting into place better than he had hoped. This was the first time they had jumped into combat with the new 3 inch mount and he was expecting great things for their efforts.

  With the heavier mount requiring more turns on the bigger bolt making him work harder and longer, Mark found himself looking around to see if he could see anything of the enemy while he cranked. Looking up, the first thing he saw was the Star Queens own 5 inch 38 caliber, medium range, twin gun turret on the shoulders of the bow above him where it started tapering toward a rounded blunt prow with a small dome on top. The gunmount poked some 20 feet out the side of the two deck tall mess deck window/ports circling the ship with a copy of the turret 180 degrees around the hull. The 2 twin gunned turrets were mounted with their charge magazines taking up sections of the mess deck's previously wide open donut shaped outer hull to core hull compartment. An unusual arrangement with most Tramp ships putting all of their weapons on the Life Boat and Shuttle lock deck far below the passenger decks, out of sight and out of mind. Simply because the lifeboat hatches made it easier to place and get at the open hulled weapons most Tramps carried stored inside the empty lifeboat locks when not needed. The life boat locks hiding the weapons as well with the Inner Core Worlds of the Empire frowning on ships with Weapons. Especially Tramps. But then the Inner Core worlds did not have to worry about Pirates though that was starting to change even there thousands of light years inside the heart of the Empire. Some said the Empire was dying. But they were called crazy alarmists.

  Besides, the life boat decks were not being used for anything else important. Lifeboats on Tramp Transports were a luxury most could not afford to maintain even if they had enough. But the Queen’s Council had decided (after being slapped in the face with all the disadvantages of the amidships mounts during other costly pirate attacks) to spend the credits and place her main gun turrets bought some 10 years before, where they had the largest firing arc around the bow of the ship. Able to shoot well across the bow so the ship did not have to point directly at the enemy pirates to fire both of her main gun turrets at them. Allowing the Queen a good leeway to maneuver and present a smaller target. Besides it was impossible to hide the big ugly mounts that turned out to have a marked advantage. Few Pirates persisted in even trying to run the ship down once they got a look at the big old, heavy cruiser mounts.

  It also left the Lifeboat deck free to leave the old existing short barreled short range low powered open mount 5 inch hull guns in place on the empty lifeboat lock hatches the ship had used for years. The short ranged weapons (useless unless a pirate got close enough) being relegated to taking out the boats used for the initial landings onto a ship and the torpedoes usually launched in desperation when the pirates finely gave up and decided to run for it after suffering multiple hits from the longer ranged 5inch 38 caliber gun turrets. Though the open hull mounts did serve as backups against ships if they got close enough. Mark watched the crews running in and out of the open lifeboat locks getting their 5 inch short barreled 21 caliber open hull manually loaded charge-cased guns ready. The big heavy guns were still being run out onto the end of the lifeboat lock hatches and bolted down as enough of each gun crew finally showed up to manhandle the big mounts after the general quarters alarms had sounded throughout the ship. The lighter smaller Quad 20 along with the newer 3inch auto guns were already in place searching the space around the ship. Even though they would not be used for hours if at all. That is if the long range guns d
id their usual job and hopefully the Gunboats managed to get a hit or two with their torpedoes.

  The Gunboat’s torpedo’s were another recent addition after a large ill prepared Pirate ship had finally given up after the two turrets had put several hundred 5 inch shells into them knocking out several of their engines. The crowded Trampship’s Captain Cook had realized, (after the half dozen pirate boats packed full of troops but few heavy weapons, were destroyed and the two Gunboats of the Queen had strafed the ship several times knocking out the last of the pirate ship’s open hull weapons), that if the Gunboats had some weapons a lot more powerful like a few of the cheap torpedoes the ship carried, they would have been able to stop the big empty pirate ship from running away by taking out the last of its engines. The Captured pirate ship would have allowed the Star Queen to split its crew. Negating the need to buy a used ship they did not seem able to save the credits for. Either by simply moving in after making repairs or buying one outright, depending on what Salvage agreement was finally reached with the prated ship’s original owners. The Star Queen had managed to construct simple torpedo launchers to strap to the two Gunboats within a couple of weeks. But as so often happens, the opportunity had never again presented itself. Though the torpedoes on the boats had been used to good effect several times.

  Mark watched the twin 5 inch 38cal gunned turrets send another salvo of their bright yellowish white plasma balls streaking down the length of the Star Queen toward the Pirate ship still far off the stern as the Queen slowly maneuvered trying to avoid the enemy fire streaking back past the big ship. The outgoing shells telling Mark where the pirate ship was. The incoming streaks being hard if not impossible, to get an accurate bearing from without taking time to actually trace them back into the distance.

  They just needed to get the two Gunboats down where they could hide them behind the hot spread out engine exhaust for when the Queen made her turn toward the enemy in a few minutes. Ready to attack long before the Pirate ship could launch her boats after shutting down its engines. But to do that the little Gunboats had to thread their way down the length of the Queen without getting their assess shot off by incoming pirate shells or their own 5 inch Guns shooting at the Pirates. Not that hard a job with only the Star Queen’s 2 turrets firing their twin guns some 90 degrees to both sides of the ship’s hull from them. Except the incoming fire from dozens of pirate guns was making space around the Queen look like a rain storm.

  An enemy 5 inch shell hit the side of the Queen not far from Mark’s Gunboat, sending molten metal spraying off the hull. Mark turned instinctively away from the hit to shield his visor from getting coated by the fine spray. He only had a couple of the polycarbonate shield protectors slapped over his faceplate and he was going to need them when he was stuck in the gunners chair and couldn’t duck. Glancing back at the crater on the hull Mark realized that the shell had been from a 5 inch 21 cal. hull gun since it did not penetrate the hull but it had made a good sized crater. That meant the pirate was closing fast.

  Actually Mark’s biggest worry was that the damn 5inch 38 gun turrets and finally the torpedoes when the pirate ship got close enough for the Queen to fire at them, would do enough damage to make the Pirates give up and run. Then all he would get a chance to shoot at were a few torpedoes if he got lucky. A target the 3 inch guns with their crude basic electronic sights were not really designed for. But just about anything else the 3inch (76mm) gun would put the 20mm’s to shame. He hoped anyway. He watched the ships big main gun turrets fire another salvo of rounds down past them as his geared speed wrench jerked to a halt. Seeing the crewman on the other side of the mount holding up his speed wrench signaling that he had already finished Mark held his wrench up and then shoved it back into the holder on the base of the mount, letting it hang. He reached around and unlocked then pulled the retaining pin from the base of the mount and yelled, “Go!” With the help of his crew grunting, they rotated it out over the lip of the ramp until it hung 90 degrees over the edge of the ramp in its firing position. Able to shoot both up and down as well as forward and astern from the end of the ramp in a 360 degree arc as well as most of the way across the top and bottom of the boat. Leaving only a thin wedge of the boats fuselage in its arc it could not fire at.

  Swinging over the edge Mark twisted under the ramp into zero Gee out of the influence of the ramp’s grav coils and slide the locking pin through a hole in the mount into a bracket welded onto the outside of the ramp to hold and lock the mount in place. Then pulled himself up with his feet dangling out into open space for a second to sit on the gunners chair and strapped in as his crew readied the first reloads for the magazine hanging off the other side of the mount from him.

  Looking down past his legs through the open hatches he watched his friend Tom’s mount just going over the edge of the other forward cargo hatches lip, Mark smiled. “31 Mount in place and ready to fire.” He practically shouted since he had beaten the others even though it was their first time deploying the new 3 inch gun on one of the gunboats. The short cuts he had designed to make it easier to deploy working better than he had expected. The 31 mount simply meant that Mark's gun was the first of the 3inch gun mounts on the hundred foot long boat and had nothing to do with who deployed their mount first even though Mark felt that way.

  A second later “20quad5 in place and ready to fire.” Came the announcement over the comm. Mark looked to his side down the length of the Gunboat to see the Quad 20mm mount sitting in place off the end of the rear port side cargo ramp like he was. Its four long 20mm guns surrounded the gunner with the ammo feed boxes on the outside of each gun. The gunner waved. Mark returned the wave as he watched the 20mm ammo feed crew started lining up ammo boxes on the ramp’s storage clips next to the mount ready to replace the boxes already hanging on the guns. He felt sorry for the ammo handlers having to constantly line the boxes up ready to use only to unclip them again and pack them back inside each time the deployment turned out to be a drill or the Pirate ship turned tail and ran with the crews never firing a shot. Though the Captain was pretty good about deploying balloons for the crews to target practice on regularly.

  “Mount 32 in place and ready to fire.” Marks friend Tom reported from the other forward hatch and then a half second later. “20quad4 in place and ready to fire.” As the other quad 20mm on the other stern side cargo ramp reported ready.

  Mark turned to look down past his feet through the open forward hatches to the other side of the Gunboat at Tom sitting in his gunner’s chair. “Well at least you weren’t last this time.” Mark said over their private channel.

  Tom held his hand out to his side as he looked down from his seat hanging out over the side of the hatch and gave Mark the finger. “Ya. Replacing that bolt on the base with a pin to lock it in both positions speeded things up considerably. I still think the recoil shock of the bigger gun is going to break it loose and then we will be flopping back and forth between the end and the side of the ramp. Should be really fun.”

  “Oh ye who hasith little faith. Relax and just try to hit something that isn’t at point blank range of the 20’s.”

  The Gunboat drifted down the hull of the Queen, leaving behind that sides line of 9 old short ranged open hulled 5 inch 21 caliber guns, 6 of the new 3inch auto mounts like Mark had finally mounted on the gunboat he and his friend were manning and a half dozen more of the 20mm quads on the life boat deck of the ship. Another matching set of guns were mounted on the other side of the ship’s lifeboat deck with a bunch more of the 20mm quad mounts around the stern to protect the engines. Then the 5 inch 21s started flashing, sending their pitifully smaller deep yellow tinged red, short ranged plasma balls racing down along the hull toward the enemy. Followed seconds later by the bright yellow white 3inch 70cal guns shells streaking past the boat. Mark suddenly felt like he was in the middle of a firing range with him as the target.

  Mark swallowed. That was too damn soon for them to be opening up as short of a range as they had. It meant the
Pirate ship was closing faster than normal. Not good. The fact that it was ignoring at least 30 solid 5inch 38 caliber shell hits that had already been reported over the comm, could only mean it was a cruiser with enough armor to have some protection against their hard hitting 5 inch 38 weapons not to mention the speed. Though the 38cal 5 inch guns did not have true armor piercing rounds. Were they going to find out that their medium barreled 5 inch 38s were now as toothless as they had found out the short barreled 5inch 21s were some 12 years before, the last time the ship was boarded? Not fair at all. Planet militaries did not like parting with their really long ranged and hard hitting new 5 inch 54cal. turrets. Especially to Tramps.

  The Star Queen had found out about the impotence of their old short barreled guns the hard way as it worked its way toward the outer Empire worlds seeking cargo, that the short range 5 inch 21s were only good for knocking out boats and torpedoes and transports at close range. The Average armed transport pirate ship was pretty much immune to the short barreled gun’s little explosive shell except at extremely close range (the gun barrel being too short to compress their plasma shells into a dense long range armor piercing ball). What was worse was that most experienced pirates could sit back with their 3 inch 70cal. long barreled guns (if they had them), far out of range of the 5 inch 21 cal. open hull guns, or race in using overwhelming numbers of their own 5inch 21’s along with their assault boats to over whelm and take out the open hulled guns by killing the gun crews even if they could not hit the guns directly at long range. Giving the pirate ship and its boats time to close and board the helpless Transport ship.

  The Star Queen being lucky to have a large enough crew when that happened to fight off the pirates attacking through the passageways and decks of the ship even when the pirates as usual, used their gun crews to help take the ship once hard docked alongside. The Queen then being able to retake and re-man the 5 inch 21’s and finally shoot the shit out of the attacking pirate’s now defenseless ship at point blank range. The pirate then abandoning its assault crews to save their ship before the Queen could take the locks and enter their ship. One advantage to having to damn many family crewmen aboard the crowded Tramp. Though each Victory still cost a lot of damage to the Trampship and far too many deaths.