Chapter 8

"So how many ships?" I asked the Base commander.

"Three big battle stars," he said. "The Enterprise, Valley Forge and the Yorktown and the Brits are sending along the Ark Royal for fighter support."

"And what else?" I asked.

"Lots of Battle Cruisers and support ships," he said off hand.

"How many fighting ships all told?" I asked.

"15," he said.

"15," is that all," I sighed. "Shit they've got that many in their outpost defence base."

I had been making forays into their system to watch and I found that they had this outpost on one of the moons of an outer gas giant.

"These guy are fanatics," I said, "Fight to the death, that sort of thing."

"I've told Navy Central that many times but they just can't get their heads around it. They think they will just give up when the fleet arrives."

"Give up, it's going to be a blood bath and I not sure which side is going to come out on top," I said.

"Look, those torpedoes have taken a heavy toll on their ships," he said, "Probably as much as half their fleet have been destroyed or damaged."

Yes, it was true that they had suffered losses but they hadn't been idle these past few months.

"So how many of those torpedoes have you nicked?" I asked Lila.

"Nicked!" She said with a raised eyebrow. "I earned every one of those 10 beauties."

"Yeah, I'll bet and, no, I don't want to know what you did to get them," I said. "I just want to know what you have done with them."

"Well, Candy and me have been working like slaves in the space dock and we've managed to fix them all with pneumatic firing systems that will shoot them off without any flash to betray our presence."

"Good," I said. "It's looking ever more likely that we may have to be in this fight."

"We're ready for anything," said Candy who was naked as usual.

"So, what are you ready for now?" I leered.

"The usual," she said with a giggle.

"No, you don't," snapped Lila. "You always get to him first. Today, I'm having first crack."

"Girls, girls," I said. "There's enough for everybody."

"No, there isn't and that's the problem," snapped Lila. "Miss goody-goody, here, usually drains you dry and then you're no good for hours after."

"Fine, fine," I said, "but I need to be on top, you know how heavy you are. Last time, you nearly suffocated me."

"I like being on top," she snarled.

"I don't," piped in Candy. "I like it when you're on top, Captain."

"Shut it," snarled Lila.

"Look, girls you two sort it out while I go and have a cup of coffee," I said.

"No, you don't," snapped Lila. "I've been working my tits off and now I want some fun."

"There, do you see anything?" I asked Lila who was head was deep inside the scanner hood.

"Yeah," she said.

We had been scanning only the visual frequencies, so as not to give ourselves away.

"Looks like 4 or 5 battle Stars to me with a shit load of support ships, too," she said. "They're not radiating at the moment so we can't fire off our homing torpedoes."

"Yeah, it looks like they've learnt," I said. "But they're going to have to switch on their active sensors when the Navy gets here."

"So we wait," said Lila.

"Yeah," I agreed.

"Candy, get your arse down here," shouted Lila. "Captain's waiting."

"What?" I said.

"Well, as we've time on our hands, might as well enjoy ourselves," she leered.

"Captain, you wanted me?" said Candy.

She still looked so young even though she been there and back now.

"Yeah," I said my voice going hoarse.

Today, she was wearing a one piece suit that didn't cover much especially at the sides. It took her only two seconds to remove it.

"Come here," I ordered and I settled between her slender legs.

"Give us a shout when you've finished, Captain, then I'll have a go with her," said Lila.

"Shit, I've got pluses all around," shouted Lila. "The Navy has started to make its move at last."

"Ok, let's get out in front," I ordered. "Full ahead impulse."

"They can't possibly not know that they are here," said Lila, "what with all these active sensor scans."

"Oh, they know all right," I said, "I'll bet there're powering up ready to leave dock."

"Shit," screeched Lila, "There must be 8 of them and fucking big bastards at that."

"Shit, 8 battle stars," I repeated. "The fucking navy's going to have it's hands full just with those buggers, never mind any that come up from their home world. We need to get in behind them."

"They're still not scanning," observed Lila.

"Never mind for now," I said. "Let's get moving. Impulse power only."

"What's going to happen?" asked Candy, who was sitting up in the front turret.

"The navy's going to get its arse kicked," said a very serious Lila.

"Fucking right," I said. "Let's hope nobody sees us out here."

Slowly, we manoeuvred around the advancing Battle fleet with more than a little luck and our new matt black paint, we weren't spotted.

"What can we do?" asked Lila. "The bastards are still not broadcasting."

"I really don't know," I said at a complete lose at what to do.

I knew that our weapons where too small to have any effect at this sort of distance and we would have to get within suicidal ranges to have any chance of causing them any damage. Our only chances were the homing torpedoes slung under our hull but the bastards weren't playing to my rules.