The FTL drive was spooling down after a long jump, it would take the better part of a day for it to be ready for another.
Jessica took a look at the PI troopers, they had come along well and she could tell that Captain Hank Choi was pleased with their progress.
Former Marine Captain Miller had been the one to insist that the Planetary Infantry be brought up to Marine standards.
Before being demoted, he had arranged for the taking over of Cargo Bay fourteen, turning it into a temporary 'Marine Boot Camp' that the PI troopers attended when not training in the Simulation chambers.
There had been a lot of grumbling about it from the PI, unaware of just how out of shape and undertrained they were when compared to the Marines.
Choi had let them try out against Jess, 'Corporal Jessica Davis' and her squad. It hadn't taken long to prove the point. Planetary Infantry were outclassed by miles.
After a few more embarrassments at the hands of Jessica and her squad, the PI troopers had sullenly accepted retraining and what amounted to another stint as raw recruits.
Two weeks later, they weren't just fitter.
Fleet Marines had developed various tactics and strategy's that enabled them to successfully work in small teams, independent from the whole yet with a view of what was best for the Corp as a whole.
A sense of family was also ingrained into them at a new level that the standard Infantry had now embraced.
********
Jess took her squad back to the Sim room, they had run the boarding simulation for the last week and were more confident of their ability's.
She lead twenty troopers in all, mostly Marines, but mixed in with her squad were five PI troopers and four Pleasure Girls.
The PG's were ones from the Corp and already had the better Zt-360 chips.
The last few sim runs had been very successful, all of her squad where working well as a team now and the PG's were being treated respectfully by the other troopers.
They ran the boarding sim three times, this time though it was programmed to assume that only her squad made a successful breach. As a result she had to split her troops into two teams, one going for the bridge and one for the engine room.
She put Ramirez in charge of the engine room team, the pixie sized girl still looked ridiculously young, but had proven herself to be bright and able to make quick and decisive decisions. Having fought through the streets of Uraisa Six's cities, Angelina Ramirez was now a combat veteran.
The first two simulations ended with complete defeat for one and a heavy casualty win for the second.
They switched out the teams a bit, giving Ramirez an extra RFRG gunner and tried again. This time they managed it with only two 'dead' on Jess' half and three on Ramirez's.
They wanted to try again, Jessica was pleased to see the enthusiasm and professional attitude from every single one of them.
"Sorry guys, no time for another run. Wash up and take thirty. We are on standby at 1700." She told them.
They headed off at a fast pace. There would be few chances for rest over the next few weeks.
*******
With the most recent jump completed, the 'Jean-Paul' was in the area where other ships had been hit.
Captain Rawlings had placed everything on a wartime footing. Rotating crew on all stations, weapon systems already on alert status.
Hornets had launched the second they had come out of FTL, the small fast single seater fighter ships taking up a roving patrol. Scanning for hostiles and anything untoward.
Working in pairs while on patrol, the Hornet class fighter was a deadly and necessary weapon in any cruisers arsenal.
Any enemy ship that dropped out of FTL near them would get a warm welcome, but for the newer class cruisers it was all very much what a good Captain would expect and be ready for.
Rawlings real kicker was the Marines, four teams of boarders, two already in Cutter ships at all times, they could launch within sixty seconds.
The other two teams on standby alert, they rotated out of their assigned 'Cutters', grabbing what rest they could between alerts.
Each 'Cutter' had been stripped down and made to give off a similar signature as a Hornet, scanners would pick them up, there was no hiding an approach from the latest scanners.
However, each Cutter would fly with a Hornet escort, the hope being that anyone scanning would see a suicidal attack by single seat fighters.
Even with twin forward mounted RFRG's firing the much larger 11.5 round, a Hornet would do little damage to one of the heavily armoured modern Cruisers or Destroyers and next to nothing against a Fleet Carrier.
Fast enough to evade the large Cannons of a destroyer or Cruiser, the enemy would react two ways, concentrate fire on the 'Jean-Paul' and launch its own Hornets.
Rawlings and the Fleet pilots had come up with their own plan. Each Hornet now carried one of the outdated Hellcat torpedos, they wouldn't penetrate the armour of a cruiser, but they would make a mess of a few Hornets if fired and detonated at the right time.
It was all new and risky planning, done on best estimates and with the view that they had nothing to lose.
*****
The wait for the FTL drives to be ready was fraught with tension as the crew of the 'Jean-Paul' stood at the ready.
His engineers worked as fast as they could, but the ship was old and even with the replacement parts they had taken from the Francis V, it took nearly twenty two hours to get the FTL ready for another jump.
Rawlings sat at the bridge the whole time, unwilling to let anyone else be in charge if things went bad.
He constantly checked the readiness of his crew, especially the Marines in their Cutters.
The Hornet pilots went without sleep, changing out, but remaining on alert, they only had Eight that were fully serviced and Four were constantly out there. Scanning and waiting. While the engineering crew worked tirelessly to get the last two up and running, with more parts and one older Hornet that they had taken from the Francis V.
Connor refused to rest, taking his post in his Drop ship/Cutter with a mad glint in his eye, almost hoping for the launch alert.
He popped a stim pill to ward off his exhaustion as they entered the last few hours, tactically if they were to be hit it would have been earlier, while their FTL was well away from being ready, but they couldn't assume that.
General Niles seemed to have good intel, but nothing was predictable.
The Alarms sounded and Mark Connor went into a frenzy of action, spooling up his ships engines as the deck crew opened up the launch tube in readiness for his take off.
Captain Choi and his team were prepped and ready, suddenly fully alert, dry mouthed they rechecked their weapons waiting for the 'go' command.
On the bridge, Rawlings had been told the FTL was ready, he took a snap decision.
"Recall the Hornets. Evasive pattern Delta Six, Fire main Rail Guns." His tone calm and reassuring for the benefit of his crew.
The 'Jean-Paul' was already firing it's side mounted Gatling's, filling the dead space between it and the sleek destroyer class vessel that had dropped out of FTL less than a mile away from them. It's own cannons rotating towards Rawlings ship as it too fired a steady stream of high velocity Gatling rounds towards his vessel.
The Hornets flew in fast, combat landings were well practiced, even with the massive cruiser in evasive manoeuvres, they landed safely and the bay doors started to close up behind them.
Connor ground his teeth in frustration as he was told to stand down, watching as his launch tube was closed up for FTL jump.
"Lancers away." Said the tactical officer with a steady and professional tone. The independent use was authorised and since the torpedoes were already on standby, their engines already spooled up and hot, the tactical officer had used a best estimate and taken the action.
Rawlings nodded.
The 'Jean-Paul' winked out of existence as her FTL took them into the jump. Two large rounds passed harmlessly through the space they had just occupied while one, impacted with the heavy armour and shielding but did minimal damage.
Six Lancer torpedoes flew in an arc towards the Destroyer which belatedly tried desperately to pull off an evasive manoeuvre, the torps had been launched without warning and so fast that it's captain had been caught off guard for the manoeuvre.
Young and overconfident, he had seriously underestimated the old cruiser, the sight of it's Hornets running away had reassured him of an easy victory.
His ship was fast though and they managed to evade three of the Lancers and destroy two more with the curtain of Gatling gun fire. But he had used the wrong pattern for what was incoming, leaving his vessels stern without the protection of his Gatling's and open to the remaining Lancer.
The Destroyer lurched as the Lancer hit, it's anti shielding burners shore threw the outer shield and its heavy armour piercing warhead smashed home with devastating effect, the high explosives did their work and blew away six decks and set off secondary explosions and fires.
Her Captain, yelled out orders and the Destroyers crew scrambled to work damage control. His ship was disabled, engineering had been hit and he wouldn't be going anywhere for a long time.
Frustrated and angry, he made his report to General Niles' command group. He would be the laughing stock of the New Order Fleet for letting some old cruiser do this, but he still followed protocol. His report on how fast they had launched Lancers would be important.
*****
They had three days in FTL, so the ship stood down on most counts and readied itself for the next encounter.
Rawlings sat with Choi in his office, now a Marine Captain, Choi had his own office and was on a much more equal footing with Rawlings, it was no longer a case of respected NCO and a Fleet Captain.
Rawlings liked that, he had known Choi a very long time and it was good to be able to talk to him more as a friend than as a commander. The difference in rank was still present, but not so wide that he felt uncomfortable.
"I had to do it, we get one chance at total surprise with this." Rawlings said.
Choi nodded his agreement.
"Yeah, toe to toe, this old girl could probably still take one of those new Destroyers, but if we really want to teach them a lesson, we wait for a bigger prize." He said with a shrug.
"Exactly. Without wasting men and risking damage on what would have been a small victory." Said Rawlings with a smile, pleased that Choi was in agreement with his quick assessment of the situation they had just had.
The two men sipped at their E3 whiskey and smoked a stim stick each, it was the last of Choi's packet, but he was in the mood to be generous, his teams had been ready and shown that. Best of all, Jessica hadn't been put at risk and her own team looked pretty dammed good from the Sim reports he had seen.
******
Jessica laid in bed with Angelina Ramirez, the tiny dark haired girl was exhausted and happy from the sex they had just enjoyed.
"Jess, why don't you take more? I know you are still needy." Asked Angelina softly as she nuzzled at Jess's soft and large breast.
Jess laughed softly, "TomTom is waiting for you to get out, he's next."
The small girl shook her head.
"That's not what I mean, we all know you run off your excess energy, three, or four of us aren't enough." She sat up in the bed and looked down at the naked and perfect body of Jessica.
Jess liked Ramirez, but wasn't ready to discuss the way she was feeling or explain about Hank.
