He sneered, “Striking an officer is a court-martial offense, too. Now we’ll see who’s thrown out of the service!”
I turned on my heels and left him there gloating. If nothing else, I had to report the incident. I did so by going directly to Headquarters where the Fleet Admiral was still in his office.
I said, “Sir, I just had to punch Captain Bleyer when he came at me for the second time. Both times, he missed with his punch. I backed off from him after he threw and missed with his first punch. When he came at me a second time, I reasoned that no amount of backing up would stop him, so I decked him with one punch. I imagine he intends to press charges for striking an officer. I will counter his charges right now by charging him with attempting to strike a superior officer.”
He said, “All right. Seems like we can’t keep you away from courtrooms. No matter. I know how to deal with him. Don’t worry about a court-martial. You should have taken the opportunity to hit him a few more times, though. No more severity in the penalty for that even if you did have to face a court-martial. Go on about your duty. I’ll see Captain Bleyer shortly. He’ll be off base before the day is through. You have my word on that.”
True to his word, the Fleet Admiral did get Captain Bleyer off the base and out of uniform before the day was through. From what I understand now, the Admiral managed to walk in front of a basketball and get a bruise on his face. Then he met later with the Captain and told him that he was going to be charged with striking a superior officer, namely the Admiral himself. Furthermore, the Admiral’s aide was going to testify that he saw Captain Bleyer punch the Fleet Admiral. In essence, the Fleet Admiral convinced Bleyer that more than one could play at the game. Bleyer would spend a guaranteed ten years in a military prison, where money wouldn’t do him any good, unless he had Bleyer’s resignation of his commission in hand within an hour. The Fleet Admiral had Bleyer’s resignation in hand within ten minutes. Bleyer was off the base within the hour.
Chapter 16
I moved Millie up to become Captain on my ship and had a new officer brought into the squadron to replace her as First Officer. We still had two weeks to practice and plan for what I knew was to happen. No one else in the squadron knew that we were going on that mission in less than two weeks. They still believed that we would be doing routine patrols for quite a while. Regardless of what they knew, the Mad Dogs Squadron was making a name for itself. Our personnel were able to walk about with pride wherever they went. They had met the enemy several times and won. No other squadron in the Navy at that time could boast of winning all their engagements. Even when the extra rations were put on board the squadron ships, I didn’t tell anyone that we would be leaving the next day, not for an extended patrol as they were guessing, but for the home planet of the Ape-oids.
My squadron captains and I, along with the other officers, had gone over various ancient naval battles and the tactics they used in preparing for the mission we were now on. For a change, we didn’t scramble into space. I handed each officer a sealed envelope before he or she boarded his or her ship with instructions not to open it until I ordered it opened.
Then I led the Mad Dogs Squadron into space where each ship did a test drill of battle stations and fired its weapons. We then set course for what was our usual patrol area, doubtless with every ship’s captain wondering what was in the envelope. When we reached the patrol area, I communicated to the ships to open the envelopes. We continued on past our patrol area and headed at top speed for the Ape-oids home planet to attack and destroy as much of their military as possible. While we moved through space, we maintained strict communications discipline. Not one word was passed over the lightbeam radios from any ship.
The Mad Dogs Squadron swept into the near space of the enemy home planet and found itself facing only three heavy warships detailed to protect their planet because of my previous successful attacks on them. My squadron drew up into a line formation as we moved toward the enemy home planet. The three heavy warships turned towards us and communicated with the rest of their fleet to come and offer assistance. I yelled, “Charge!” over the lightbeam radio to all the other ships of the squadron now that our presence was known.
With our new Mark IV quads on each ship, we were first to fire. We immediately scored hits on the three enemy ships. It was an easy victory despite the fact that the three alien ships didn’t retreat. They stubbornly tried to resist the unfavorable odds of my ten ships to their three. It was exactly the kind of initial skirmish I anticipated as we destroyed those three ships completely. We swept past their battered hulls to the enemy home world to begin a systematic bombardment of the military installations.
Five ships of the squadron remained on orbital patrol against enemy reinforcements from other areas while five ships went into the atmosphere to destroy each and every military installation we could find. I had all the ships take turns at patrolling and bombarding so that they all got in some practice and gained more confidence. We had almost a full day to bombard the military installations before enemy ships from other locations in space finally showed up to defend the planet from attack.
All ten of my ships regrouped as soon as the patrolling ships picked up the incoming enemy ships on long range sensors. We were fully lined up before they got into range and moved out toward them with every intention of facing them down and destroying them, even though there were twenty of them to our ten. Just before any of their ships got into extreme weapons’ range, I ordered the charge. I was pleased to see all nine other ships abreast of mine as we went into top speed and fired our weapons. It didn’t matter to me that the enemy was just barely out of range. I wanted my ships to score the first hits, even if they only caused minimal damage. We were outnumbered. Any damage we could inflict on the enemy was to our advantage.
Because of our longer range Mark IV quads on each ship, we caused the first heavy damage to the enemy ships before their own weapons could affect us even minimally. By the time we were in range of their weapons and also of our remaining on board weapons, two of the enemy ships were permanently disabled. The odds were turning in our favor. The heavier Mark IV quads only became more effective as the range decreased. We had more impact on the enemy than his ships were having on us. We were receiving only light damage compared to the heavy damage we inflicted on him.
As two more of the enemy ships were destroyed or disabled, one of my ships was likewise destroyed. Still, we charged at top speed as our shots’ accuracy continued to tear at the heart of the enemy squadron. Then two more of the enemy ships stopped firing as their hulls were penetrated fully by our weapons fire. Some more of my ships were hit, but they all pressed forward. We continued to use whatever weapons were operational against the remaining ships of the enemy squadron.
Then we were suddenly into a melee situation as both squadrons came up to each other. The training I put my squadron through of using individual initiative paid off. I was able to notice that some of the ships of my squadron took advantage of opportunities to slip behind some of the enemy vessels, where the enemy’s guns couldn’t reach, and put massive T-shots on the enemy. Quickly, in the space of less than a minute, three more enemy ships were out of action as the odds continued to improve in our favor. One more of my ships was destroyed, but the remaining enemy ships were already doomed as the rest of my ships ganged up on the enemy. The massive firepower of the Mark IV quads at extreme close range instantly disabled or destroyed any enemy ship hit by them.