by Ricky Sides
“I’ll do my best.”
“You be careful. The video footage Lisa sent proves that they have reproduced our drone lasers. That means that you may face lasers at the base, but they should be attached to the flying autos, unless they have a power supply at the base. They seem to lack the ability to aim the weapon though, and they are using simple line of sight attack tactics. It’s still dangerous, but that gives you the altitude advantage. Remember Kansas?”
“Yes, sir,” Evan said thoughtfully.
“I suggest meeting with your fighter pilots and working out a strategy that maximizes your chances of victory, and keep your remaining drone airborne tonight, just as a precaution.”
“Thank you. I will.”
Jim said goodbye and turned to the communications officer. “Sound recall to all Damroyal personnel on the ground in Houston. I want a meeting with the flight leaders in the conference room in twenty minutes. Send a transport down to bring Commander Finch aboard as well.”
“I don’t think they can all make it back by then, Admiral. Some of the fighters are on extended recon flights,” the communications officer stated.
“I know, but this can’t wait.”
“You wanted to see me, Admiral?” asked Ramon who had just entered the control room.
“Yes I did, Captain,” Jim responded. He quickly explained what had happened.
“Have you transmitted a warning to El Morro?” Ramon asked.
Jim shook his head, indicating that he hadn’t, and then he said, “I felt it best that such a warning come from you. How do you and the Cuban fighter group feel about going to Cuba? You can remain offshore, use a drone to warn the base, and intercept the enemy over the sea.”
“We can leave immediately,” Ramon stated.
“Good luck. We’ll do what we can here, but we have several areas where the enemy flight path comes near, which we will need to protect. I’m sending the Alabama and the Georgia to assist you. I’m also sending an additional twenty fighters from the Damroyal with you as you leave.”
“Thank you, Admiral.”
“Admiral, Captain Wilison of the Peacekeeper is calling for you,” the communications officer reported.
“Tim,” Jim said when he had his brother on the radio. “Have you seen the map of the flight plan the enemy is using?”
“I have and I’m afraid I’m out of position to intercept them. I was thinking that it might be best if I hit their base.”
“I have the Valiant and her air assets assigned to that, but they’ve already lost a fighter and a drone during the attack. I’d like it if you would coordinate with Evan. I’ve got a bad feeling about the base.”
“Will do, my pilot tells me we can make it to that area by sunrise.”
“Remember, they have lasers now, and we have no way to know with certainty that they can’t target high flying targets, but during the encounter with the APC, they used a line of sight firing strategy.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever forget those lessons learned from the Kansas war,” Tim responded. “I’m betting they can’t aim the lasers in their flying vehicles, but if the base has a power source, then they could target the defensive position weapons manually, assuming they tripod mounted them. There’s no way they could create a rifle-type, handheld weapon, because of the extreme heat generated, but Pol once told me that they could be tripod mounted with a Plexiglas heat shield to protect the operator.”
***
The Warlord, who was aboard his APC, stared at the map in consternation. “Still no word from the scouts?” he asked the communications man.
“No, sir.”
“Then we can assume all is well.”
The air armada continued their southeasterly course through the night sky. They were flying under blackout orders in order to prevent detection. Thus, when they flew over the wreckage of their downed scouts, no one saw them in the moonless landscape below.
Chapter 7
“Congratulations, Lina. You’re pregnant,” Maggie stated.
“Really?” Lina asked in surprise.
“Yes, really. The egg has successfully attached itself to the wall of your uterus. You’re as pregnant as a woman can get.”
“But I thought you said it would take a couple of months. I’m happy to be pregnant of course, but I’m surprised it happened so quickly. It’s only been a little over three weeks.”
“Frankly, so am I, but it happened. All six eggs are thriving.”
“Six. What? You mean...”
“Not really,” Maggie said with a mischievous grin. “I just thought I’d tease you a bit. You’ll just have one baby.”
“I don’t know how to thank you. Jim will be so pleased.”
“For your sake, I hope you’re right. You should have consulted the man. I really hope this doesn’t backfire on you.”
“Why wouldn’t he want a child? He has told me how much it hurt when his first wife miscarried, and I know how much what happened to Lacey hurt him.”
“That’s precisely why I was worried. Sometimes people in that situation don’t want to try again, because they are afraid of the same thing happening. They would rather not risk enduring the pain all over again.”
“You didn’t explain that to me when I asked you to do this. Now you’re making me nervous.”
“I did say I thought you should discuss it with Jim. I really don’t think you have anything to worry about, Lina. Just don’t be surprised if he is less than enthusiastic at first. He’ll be fine once the baby is born and he sees he’s not going to lose it.”
Lina left the infirmary and went in search of Jim with the intentions of telling him that she was pregnant. However, along the way, she saw fighter pilots squad leaders running down the corridor and going into the conference room. Wondering what was going on, she entered the room just as Jim began to address the assembled pilots.
The admiral briefed the pilots on what had happened in Montana and what the crew of the Valiant had learned, and then he informed them that as of now, all peacekeeper ground bases were in blackout mode. Jim further revealed that the Valiant and the Peacekeeper were going to attempt an early morning raid on the pirate stronghold, assuming that the map they had captured would lead them to it. Then he revealed that the Havana, the thirty Cuban fighters, and a complement of twenty fighters from the Damroyal were already en route to Cuba to meet the pending air raid. He added that the Alabama and the Georgia were also on the way to the area.
In conclusion, Jim added, “The fighters of the Citadel and the remaining fighters of the Damroyal will be on standby. Scout drones, concealed to the best of our ability, will be maintaining a watch for the expected enemy air armada. Once they pass south of us, all of the aforementioned fighters will pursue at best speed. Our fighters are several times faster than their aircraft, which telemetry from the Valiant indicated have been tweaked to one hundred fifty miles per hour. It shouldn’t be a problem to overtake them in the Gulf of Mexico and deal with them there. Meanwhile, you are all restricted to the ship for the night. You need a good night’s rest, because it’s going to be a long day tomorrow.”
When Jim dismissed the pilots, Lina tried to make her way to him, but she saw Commander Finch approach her husband and begin speaking with him. She waited, intending to speak with him after the commander left, but then he was called to the control room by communications.
Sighing, Lina decided, tonight wasn’t the night that she wanted to break the news to Jim. She wanted his full attention when they had this particular discussion. Ordinarily, she wasn’t jealous of the time required for him to do his job, but tonight she found herself resenting it.
It was almost midnight when Jim slipped quietly into bed with Lina. She was awake, and for a moment, she considered telling him the news. However, his exhausted sigh of relief at finally getting to bed told her that he was too tired for this sort of news. So instead of telling her husband that he was going to be a father, she leaned over, kissed him, and then laid her
head on his chest. Within moments, she heard the rhythmic sound of his breathing and knew that he had already fallen asleep.
***
At 2:00 a.m., the Warlord said, “Something’s wrong. I feel it in my bones. Break radio silence with the message for the scouts to report in for a radio check.”
The radio operator sent the message three times. Only dead silence greeted their waiting ears.
“I knew it!” the Warlord said, and then he slammed his fist into a wall. “Where the hell are we anyway?” he asked the pilot.
“Southeastern Kansas, sir,” the pilot reported.
“That’s not too far from the Salina base. We have to assume our men ran into the peacekeeper ship that has been in Montana for weeks. That means they probably know about Cuba. The Cuban base will have to wait. We hit Salina tonight.”
“That sounds good to me, sir. I’m not familiar with that base. What assets do they have?” asked the pilot.
“They have twenty fighters and a patrol ship in Salina. They also have a ground base set up at the airport. That’s where the aircraft will most likely be, unless they are out on a mission, and they may well be on the way to Montana. If they captured our scouts and got the maps, then they’d probably assume that the northern end of the flight plan is where our base is located.”
“Are we going in hot or do you want to try to steal their aircraft?” asked the pilot.
“I’m thinking on that at the moment. Meanwhile, break radio silence again. Tell the others that we are coming to a new heading. Set a new course for Salina, Kansas.”
“Already laid in, sir, and bringing us about now.”
***
The guard looked at his watch and sighed. It was just 4:23 a.m. He still had a couple of hours to go before his turn at guard duty ended and he was bored to tears. Nothing ever happened in Salina. He had just finished thinking that thought when a hand reached around and covered his mouth. He felt something sting his throat, and then he was forced to the ground, until he stopped moving.
Shadows moved forward from out of the night. They advanced on the line of fighters that were sitting on the tarmac. One by one, ten men entered the cockpits of the grounded fighters as they were freed from their moorings.
The pirates might have succeeded in stealing all twenty of the grounded fighters if the Kansas hadn’t been out on patrol. As they were coming in for a landing, the Captain spotted the activity at the fighters and asked the base radio operator what was happening, and why people in street clothes were working the tarmac.
The radio operator immediately sounded an alarm. The ten occupied fighters lifted skyward, swarming away in all directions, as the Warlord had ordered in the event that they were discovered. The Kansas gave chase and managed to shoot down one of the fighters, but the other nine made good their escape. It hadn’t been easy for the patrol ship to shoot down the fighter. Directly targeting it was impossible as long as the transponders were working. Therefore, the creative gunner had been forced to fire his laser ahead of the aircraft. The unskilled pilot flew right into the beam.
Although, none of the Warlord’s men in the fighters was experienced fighter pilots, all were skilled at piloting the flying civilian aircraft. The simple flight controls of the fighters were not that difficult to manage. The transponders, which let the peacekeepers track their air assets, were a problem, but only briefly. Once the men figured out which switch deactivated them, the fighters disappeared off the peacekeeper network, one by one.
***
Jim awoke to an insistent knocking on the door to his cabin and briefly wondered why they hadn’t paged his room. “Yes?” he said as he staggered toward the door in the near darkness of the night lighting, still half asleep.
“Admiral, the base at Salina has been raided. Someone has stolen ten fighters,” a messenger stated. “The control room says that the Salina base commander is trying to reach you, sir.”
“Thank you, I’ll check in with them,” Jim said through the door.
Jim walked over to his desk and sat down in the chair. He turned on the wall-mounted light above the desk so he could see what he was doing. The subdued lighting in the cabin gave off enough light to see to get to bed, but that wasn’t enough for what he needed to do now.
He discovered why he hadn’t been awakened by the intercom in the room, as would normally have been the case. He had been so tired when he had checked in with the control room before going to bed that he had accidently flipped the switch to off instead of standby mode.
Twenty minutes later, Jim left the cabin in full uniform. He made his way to the control room and put calls in to the Valiant, the Peacekeeper, the Havana, and to Pol who was at Base 1. He informed all parties that Salina had been raided, and that the culprits had gotten away with nine fighters. Then he gave them the worst news. The aircraft had disappeared off the peacekeeper network, which meant that the pilots must have deactivated the transponders. In turn, this meant that they could target peacekeeper air assets and ground installations. It also meant that identifying friend and foe was about to become a major issue.
***
An hour before sunrise, the Valiant was sitting on the ground. Around the vulnerable ship hovered the other three fighters of the battle group and her remaining drone. Evan watched as Engineer Gene Sparks put the finishing touches on the emergency repair to the fighter that had taken the laser hit to its wing. “There, that will stabilize the flight. I wouldn’t call it as good as new, but it’s a good field repair.”
“It’s better than that. It gets me back in the air for a little payback when we reach the base,” the eager pilot said.
Evan was impressed with the pilot. Although his fighter had been hit in the wing at the outset of the fight, Sergeant Charles Lee had kept it airborne and taken the fight to the raiders. In fact, he had taken out two of the six aircraft they had engaged, and assisted in taking out three of the others, despite having to fly an aircraft that maneuvered like a drunken duck in flight. He had fought so tenaciously that one of the other pilots had called him Hawk in the wake of the brief but intense air battle. Now that the repairs were completed, a strike team member stepped forward and pressed a stencil against the side of the fighter, just below the canopy. Another approached with a can of spray paint and quickly sprayed the template with flat black paint.
Evan wasn’t surprised when the two men walked away and he saw that they had named him Hawk. The crew of the Peacekeeper had started that tradition when they had named Namid, Phoenix. Since then, most crews had given their escort pilots nicknames.
Sergeant Lee stared at the name for a moment, pleased that the crew had so honored him. “I’ll try to live up to the name guys,” he said as he opened the hatch to climb into the cockpit.
“Try it and give me a status report,” Evan ordered.
“Yes, Captain,” the pilot said. Moments later, he lifted his aircraft off the ground and executed a series of aerial maneuvers, which included G-Force accelerations and high-speed turns. Minutes later, he flew back and took his place with the rest of the small squadron. Evan heard him report through his external speaker that the fighter handled well and he was ready to proceed with the mission.
“Let’s go hunting,” Evan said, and then he turned and boarded the Valiant.
They turned to a northwesterly heading when they reached the aircraft they had shot down the previous afternoon. As they reached the northernmost section depicted on the flight path map, the sun was just becoming fully visible. There was nothing there. As far as the eye could see, not a single structure was in sight. Evan stared out at the landscape and thought that if it weren’t for the distant mountain to the north and the sparsely spaced trees below, the area would appear empty.
They waited at their location for the Peacekeeper and her escort, which was half an hour out. While they waited, Evan decided to send his drone toward the mountain on the hunch that it wouldn’t be necessary for the enemy to detail the flight from this point to the mounta
in because it was clearly visible. He had his fighters deployed in such a manner that no one would be able to approach the air group unobserved. For that reason, one of the fighter pilots reported the arrival of the Peacekeeper a minute before the ship arrived.
“I sent my drone on ahead to scout out the land between here and the mountain,” Evan said to Tim via the radio.”
“Good. That makes sense. They wouldn’t need a course to find that destination. We might as well fly in that direction and see what we can find,” Tim responded.
The two ships had been underway for five minutes when the emergency call came in for all Peacekeepers air assets in the vicinity of Nebraska to make their way toward the base, which was located in the eastern section of the state. The base was said to be under attack by raiders, some of whom were flying the stolen peacekeeper fighters.
“Recall your drone, Captain. I’ll turn about now. You’ll pass me as we fly for Nebraska anyway,” Tim said with a sigh. “Peacekeeper out. Damnit, I’ve got to get Pol to upgrade the speed of this ship,” Evan heard Tim say before he released the microphone switch.
“How far out are you?” Evan asked the drone operator.
“I’m almost to the mountain, Captain,” the pilot of the drone stated. “I can be there in another five minutes. Should I proceed?” he asked hopefully.
Evan was tempted, but the standing orders were clear. All ships must answer distress calls when they were in the geographical vicinity. “As much as I’d like to permit it, no, you need to turn back at once. We’ll fly toward you to take your drone aboard and then head for the base.”
“Aye, Captain, executing my turn now,” the drone pilot replied.
Fifteen minutes later, the drone was back aboard the Valiant and the air group was headed on a course that would take them past the Peacekeeper on the way to the Nebraska base. They were just beginning to close with the Peacekeeper, when the Nebraska base announced that they had successfully driven off the attacking raiders with little damage. “It looked to us as if they didn’t know how to target us with the targeting system. They kept trying for line of sight targeting vectors, which suited us just fine. We knocked three of the fighters out of the air with our laser defensive screen and the rest bugged out. We also got several of the flying cars they are using,” reported the radio operator from Nebraska.