by Chogan Swan
Though rosy-fingered dawn was beginning her ascent of the eastern sky, the skies above Heroica Vera Cruz were still dark enough to see a few stars to the west. He took another breath of fresh air then turned and followed Amber into the building. Ayleana, Kaitlin and the others were close behind him, and they all hustled to catch up to HumanaH who was tapping a combination into a door. The lock accepted the combination, and the door opened. At the same time, the rollup door next to them began to clatter upward. Their driver pulled into the building before the door had stopped rising.
They were at the back of a cavernous drive-in storage area. HumanaH was already disappearing through the door when Ayleana passed Kest and managed to get to the door before it closed. Kest was right on her springheels, following her down three flights of concrete stairs and along a battered but recently cleaned hallway. At the end of the hall, they stepped through an open door and into a long room with ceilings about 3-meters high. The concrete floors, ceiling and block walls had been sealed with a glossy white, plaster-like material. The light fixtures were new, daylight-spectrum LED panels, and twenty ‘cockpit’ flight-control stations circled the room.
“Kestrel and Amber, your station is number 2. Ayleana and Kaitlin, number 3. Caly, you’re in station 1 with ShwydH.”
Kest ducked his head into his station and looked over the setup as he slid into the pilot’s seat. There was room for a co-pilot in the cockpit, but all the flight controls were at the pilot’s seat.
This was his first time in an actual control module for a real aircraft. The simulators he’d used in the past had simply been run on powerful, networked PCs with four monitors for viewing the friendly skies—two in front and one on either side.
The pilot’s seat for the Falcon’s control module sat a bit higher and ahead of the co-pilot chair, giving the pilot an unobstructed view to the sides. The monitor in front was more than double the height of the side view screens. The lower part of the screen could toggle to a rear-view mirror and did so automatically if there was anything in sensor range behind the aircraft. The screen behind the seat curved up above the seat for a full cockpit experience. HumanaH had assured him the setup would actually be easier to use than the cobbled together setup he was accustomed to.
He slid into the chair and put on his headset as Amber slid into the module from the other side. He listened on the command frequency waiting for instructions.
“Falcon Flight, this is Command,” HumanaH’s voice said in his ear. “Check in.”
ShwydH’s voice spoke up a moment later. “1.”
“2,” Kest said.
Ayleana checked in. “3.”
HumanaH spoke again “Reading you all, 1, 2, and 3. In a second, I’ll be turning your assigned Falcon’s sensor data over to your stations, but I won’t be turning the controls over until I finish orienting you. I’ll be updating you on your position and your targets first.”
Kest’s screens lit up with a view of the gray inside of a cloud formation. But he could see their three Falcons flying in tight V-formation his was on the left, behind ShwydH. In his head, he established his distance and angle on the leader for position keeping then checked his instruments to be sure of his orientation and airspeed.
HumanaH spoke again. “Your command station should have your flight information now. We’re currently using a satellite uplink for aircraft control. Your aircraft took off at oh seven thirty and crossed behind your targets as they were headed south in close formation. Current distance from your targets is 90 nautical miles. Your Falcons have a full loadout of 10 air-to-air missiles, and with your low stealth profile and the cloud cover this morning, you should manage to reach attack range without being spotted by either hostile satellite or their on-board sensors. We don’t know for certain, but they are most likely fully-loaded with 4 bunker busters each with the notion of destroying the Valishnu. The Gray Eagle was designed for stealthy attacks on ground targets, but they’re only powered by a turbo-prop, and have a maximum airspeed just over 150 KPH so they won’t have a chance to evade our pursuit. We expect they’re hoping to get lucky and take out that which they fear most.”
HumanaH stopped talking abruptly. Kest could hear someone speaking to her off mike, but he couldn’t make out the words.
“However,” HumanaH continued, “Bear in mind it’s possible they’re also carrying air-to-air stinger missiles. Those could destroy your aircraft, if things go sideways. But unless they break into multiple formations soon, your mission is simple. Sneak up on them and take them out before they have any sensor data on who did it or how. The only thing their cameras should see is seven rocket plumes in the rear view feed for a brief instant before they need to go explain to whoever ordered this that they just lost seven drones at a total cost of about 220 million US dollars.”
She paused for a moment. “I won’t go into all the branches of what might happen next or all the diplomatic efforts going on across the world. It’s not your concern now. None of that could come in time to prevent this event anyhow. You can consider what we’re doing today a favor to the people who were once citizens of the United States. By that, I mean getting rid of a few outdated drones and hopefully keep what’s left of their country from getting embroiled in another pointless attack on Vera Cruz. I happen to remember the last time as if it was yesterday. It wasn’t pretty and did nobody any good. We are buying time for diplomacy, everyone. Let’s stay focused on that.”
In the view screens, Kest watched as the formation drifted out of its tight grouping. HumanaH’s voice came over his headset again. “1, take control of your aircraft when ready.”
“Roger, Command. This is 1. I have control.”
“2, this is Command. Aircraft control unlocked. Take control when ready.”
Kest rolled his shoulders to relieve their sudden tension, took the joystick and toggled his control switch to ‘On’. “Roger, command. This is 2. I have control.”
He was flying.
“3, you are go for pilot control.”
“Roger, Command,” Ayleana answered. “I have control.”
After a few minutes, ShwydH spoke. “Falcon Flight, this is 1,” “Echelon right, go.”
Ayleana slid to her right, back and down, leaving her spot open for Kest. Kest dropped back then right and forward to slide into her former spot.
“Falcon 3,” said ShwydH. “Take the lead.”
“Falcon Flight, this is 3,” said Ayleana. “Retain call signs.” She paused for a moment. “Falcon Flight, echelon left, go.”
Kest smiled.
“What’s going on?” Amber whispered in his ear.
Kest muted his microphone. “ShwydH handed flight-leader position to Aylie, but she retained the call numbers.”
“I got that much.”
“ShwydH showed her he has confidence in her leadership and flight skills. She kept the call signs the same, demonstrating she considers him competent as well.”
Amber snorted softly. “It’s like politics in the air.”
“Command, this is flight leader 3.” Ayleana said. “Do you have an airspeed solution for optimum intercept?”
“Roger that, Flight Leader,” HumanaH said. “Solution is Mach 1 point 2.”
“Roger that command. Falcon Flight, in-line abreast, triple spread, go,” said Ayleana.
ShwydH moved his position further left, and Kest planted his Falcon midway between the other two then eased forward, abreast of Ayleana.
“Okay, boys,” Ayleana said. “Maintain in-line abreast positions on me.”
With that, she began building speed in a smooth acceleration arc that took them from 200 KTS to MACH 1 in 60 seconds. When they reached MACH 1.2—seven blips showed up on Kest’s sensor screen.
“Command, this is Falcon Flight leader. We have them in on sensor now, and we are coming out of the sun. If you can give us a good firing solution split between the three of us, I’d like to drop on them at subsonic right before we fire if you’ll be so kind as to give us
a count for clean shots.”
Three designated targets lit up on his control screen, and Kest locked on them one at a time as fast as he could.
The air-to-air missiles maintained the lock as HumanaH started the countdown. “Firing solution ready in, 15, 14 ....”
“Falcon flight, this is 3. Head down with me on the targets and slow to 6oo knots, go.”
Kest matched Ayleana’s speed and attitude as they dove through the clouds toward the Gray Eagles.
“... 5, 4, 3, 2, 1….”
Kest hit the fire button as HumanaH said, “Zero.”
Three of the A2A missiles left his hardpoints and streaked ahead, accelerating quickly to MACH 4 and disappearing into the clouds below.
They already had a good head of steam going.
“Flight, slow to 300 KTS and maintain formation … go. 1, get ready to target if any got lucky on your side,” Ayleana urged softly.
“Wilco, 3,” ShwydH responded.
A moment later, they broke through the clouds, and Kest could see the contrails of the seven missiles closing on the drones. Then fire flashed in the midst of a line of billowing smoke. None of the Gray Eagles flew out of the smoke … at least not intact.
“Targets destroyed,” HumanaH confirmed.
“Level off … now,” said Ayleana.
Kest pulled back on the stick.
“Left echelon … now.”
He dropped back, forming up on Ayleana.
“Bank right 90 degrees … now.”
Kest followed Ayleana through the turn.
“Command, this is Flight Leader. Falcon Flight returning to base. Do we have permission to engage auto return?”
“Flight Leader, this is Command. Permission, granted. Good work Falcon Flight.”
Kest flipped his controls to auto and leaned back with a deep breath. He was shaking.
“How does it feel to be personally responsible for the loss of 6o million dollars’ worth of equipment to the Army your dad worked for?” said Amber.
Kest rubbed his eyes. “Died because of,” he corrected. “I think he would probably understand my position. I’m just glad I haven’t had to kill anyone so far.”
“Got that right.” Amber pulled him into a hug. “We should probably see if we can find a place to nap so we can be ready for the next thing.”
Kest nodded and crawled out of his side of the cockpit.
CHAPTER 39 – APPEAL
Kest found himself suddenly awake and alone on one of the military cots in the rotation room. He scrubbed his fists across his eyes and sat up, wishing he could scrub away the dreams of falling through a sky filled with flaming aircraft wreckage. He fished his drinking bottle from beneath the cot and rinsed his mouth with lukewarm water.
A television newscast was playing in the situation room, as it had been for hours, droning in the background, repeating speculations and what little the newscasters knew over and over. But then it came to him. He had snapped awake because all the other sounds had suddenly stopped. Ears at attention now, Kest pushed off the cot, aiming his body at the door.
It seemed more people had been showing up at the command center while he slept, and most of them had moved to a position where they could see one of the four back-to-back display screens that hung from the ceiling in the middle of the situation room. Kest glanced at the screen as he moved through the sparsely populated room to where Amber and Ayleana stood between cockpits #2 and #3, watching the BBC broadcast.
At the moment, the newsreader was saying, “We return now to Puerto Peñasco where Senana Tiana, the Nii Federation ambassador, will be speaking to the international press from the Nii Embassy. We’ve just heard the ambassador is on her way to the briefing room.”
Amber and Ayleana both reached out and pulled him between them.
Kest looked up in time to see Tiana wearing her formal cape, a bikini and her stripes stepping up to the podium. “Ladies, gentlemen and gentle sentients, welcome to the Nii Federation. Please be seated. I have a prepared statement. After I’ve given that, I will answer a few questions. You will all receive a press package with further information. So, if I don’t respond to your particular question, that may well be the reason.
She paused for a breath. “This morning at 0400 local time, a squadron of 7 Gray Eagle class fully-armed hunter-killer drones—apparently under control of a military force based in the middle-northern segment of North America—took off from an airstrip just north of the border of Mexico near Matamoros and proceeded south on course for Heroica Vera Cruz. This embassy immediately informed our host nation, Mexico, that an incursion by uncertain elements into our shared airspace was underway with evident hostile intent. In addition, we pursued all options available in an attempt to contact those responsible for the flight’s incursion but received no answer. Therefore—with our host country’s complete support, and to protect civilian lives and the valuable assets of Mexico and other Nii Federation allies—I ordered my security team to destroy the radio-controlled drones. That order was carried out this morning at 0712 hours.”
Tiana paused while the room buzzed with discussion. When it quieted, she continued. “I’ve been informed by many in the international community that many parties who were once connected with the United States military, before that government fell, have been lobbying the governments of the world. They have been urging the international community to make unprovoked attacks on us and our allies. Without a governing body, these rogue elements have been encouraging unprovoked acts of war within the international community.”
She paused again until it became quiet. “Now I want to point out publicly what I have been saying individually to the representatives of all nations.”
Tiana raised her voice a fraction. “The situation has come to the point where I must be blunt as I lay out the truth to you. People of Earth, you are not alone in the galaxy, and the galaxy has found you. Making enemies—or allowing others to do so for you—of those who have demonstrated the ability to surmount engineering challenges that you have not yet touched would be the highest form of stupidity.
“These acts put your entire world in a position where no peaceful member of the galactic community would consider you as a potential ally. It would mean that no one would consider you worth protecting from powers that would treat you the way all the conquerors of your own history have treated their conquests. The galaxy has seen many worlds that were either too destructive or too negligent to prevent their own destruction. In this, you would not be unique. But neither will the galaxy continue ignoring you. Will you have friends? Or will you be alone?
“I’m not going to bluff you for my own personal safety. I could claim that an armada of Federation ships is ready to come at my call in an instant, but the truth is that there are only a small number of us here on your planet. We have been learning about you for centuries, but we few that are on your planet are not invulnerable. We came here knowing we risked our lives, because it seemed worthwhile to us … because we saw potential where our enemies only saw cattle. While we are here, you have the federation’s protection from our enemies. If we die, our mission fails, and you will have it no longer.”
She looked around the room then nodded. “If you have a question, please stand now.”
The cameras panned the room. It looked like almost everyone had a question. Kest could certainly think of a few himself.
Tiana spoke again. “When I raise my hand, speak your question in a normal voice. Don’t be concerned that I won’t be able to hear or understand your question just because someone else happens to be speaking more loudly. Yelling your question will only lower your chance of me responding to you. And yes, Mister William Overstreet of the Economist, I am serious. But I won’t count your jumping the gun against you this time.” Without smiling, she raised her hand, and the reporters began to talk.
After a few moments, the room started to quiet. “Just one question each, please,” said Tiana, and the room fell quiet.
Sh
e turned to her left and nodded. “Mister Overstreet of the Economist, would you please repeat the question about our current allies? I thought that was a good one, and I’d like everyone to hear it.”
“Uh oh,” Ayleana said, but when Kest looked at her, she wasn’t looking at the newscast. Instead, she’d turned to where HumanaH was monitoring the command station. Tugging lightly on Kest’s arm, she started toward HumanaH.
Kest followed. Behind him, the newscast continued, and he continued focusing on it as she dragged him through the crowded room. “Thank you, Ambassador Tiana,” said the reporter. “Though it’s general knowledge that you’ve been meeting with heads of state from all over the world, most people have yet to hear about which countries have formally allied with the Federation. Can you tell us more about that?”