by Danny Dunn
Go ahead and take them out now and get them secured and tied in a group. The drones dive bomb the recon snipers and taser all four per each camp. The Zari bots run to each one and tie them up and then tie them all together back to back.
There are several drones providing video from a few hundred feet from the tree line. They infrared shows lots of activity at both sites. The four drilling sites are about 5 miles apart each, but David sees that they are clearly taking orders from one commander as they are all carrying out the same orders and in complete unison. Each site is going through the exact same sets of activities in preparation for their attacks.
David has all of the villagers evacuate the tents, and they relocate to an area about 500 yards from the tents in a grassy area. They all lay down and are being very quiet. There are only 50 bots, but the 800 yards are going to enable them to even up on odds as soon as the attackers get out in the open. David wants to let them get out to about 300 yards beyond the trees before they start picking them off. As soon as we attack, I want 5 drones to head into the jungle to pick off anyone left behind so they can’t radio in what is happening.
Our goal is to give them no clues at all as to how we got the best of them. Anything they learn will help them with future attacks.
There are 500 drones per site, and the Zaria’s, Pong, and the 50 Pongettes are all ready to control them.
David tells Pong it seems like a good time to tell you about one of the things he spent the $5 million she gave him to spend on defense. We added a feature to the drones you are about to like a lot. Every drone can now pop tires. Each droid can pop 2 tires from 50 feet away. Just hit the TP button when you are lined up. I came up with it on the M3 operation.
A few minutes later, 10 vehicles come flying out of the trees at all 10 sites. At that very moment, the trucks armed with machine guns mounted to the beds of the trucks head out of the trees the drones take off and head at them. They are traveling at top speed in two formations and are each traveling down toward them but at about 2 hundred yards to each side and none straight on. When the vehicles are 2 hundred yards out of the trees, the two sets of 100 drones per side turn inward toward the line of trucks. It is dark, and the trucks are loud, so the attackers have no idea the drones are zeroing in on them. They are traveling at about 50 MPH, so they are coming onto them fast. Drivers and tires first. If the windows are closed, then use a tire popper to hit them.
The Pongettes announce they have the tires, and they each take out all 4 tires on every vehicle as well as all 10 drivers. They have time to pick off two men per vehicle on the first pass, as well. The vehicles come to an immediate halt with all their tires popped. Before the men can even react, the first 100 drones pick the men off while they are still in the truck. Only a few make it off the truck, but they are hit the moment they hit the ground.
In the jungle, there are two or three soldiers in the jungle at each site, and the drones pick them off. They are the very first targets at each site. David orders that they send some drones to patrol the area between the trucks and the jungle. And some more immediately around the trucks, no one gets shot at tonight, he orders.
The droids arrive and tie up the attackers and throw them into their own trucks and drive them to their site. David has the droids load up the rebel’s weapons, and they bring them all back to the camp.
The government shows up per David’s plan, and David is talking to the commander on the phone and says to the commander of the government-force.
They are yours now, David tells the Government commander. My only request is that while we are drilling, none of them be allowed to communicate what happened here to anyone. The government commander says, “so you don’t care if we shoot them.”
David replies, “They were about to murder my friends and women and children so no. However, if you shoot them, make sure every single one of them gets one shot in the forehead, please.” The commander asks David if he is a neat freak and laughs. David replies, maybe a little, but adds that the one in every forehead sends a message not to mess with us and that there was nothing even about this fight.
The commander nods his head, and his men walk around, shooting them all dead center in the forehead. David hears the shots. Could you do me a favor and throw them back onto the trucks as if they were just heading out and back the vehicles into the jungle to make it look like they never made it out of the jungle, please? The commander laughs and says, you just killed two hundred of my enemy. Yes, I think we can do that in return, and he laughs. David asks the commander how many rebels are in the area. The commander says that he believes there might be another 2,000. David tells him thanks for everything and to please have his men keep this all quiet, and maybe I can have a few hundred more for you. The commander agrees, and his troops pull out.
David asks his team to ready the droids for the next attack.
Pong says that well, it looks like the swing shift dished out some Peace and Equality for all tonight. David laughs and says, yeah. Have Peace will travel.
The team gets the villagers back into their tents and assures everyone they have the attackers under control. The villagers have all seen many of their family members and friends murdered time after time and tell the Zarias this is the first time the rebels have ever been surprised. They are so happy and thankful.
Zaria and her team land at the airport and take vehicles out to the drill site where her family is. They embrace and regale yet another victory. Zaria introduces the village to Zaria 1 and the new team members who all are happy to be helping. Michael is in charge of the security end of things now while David goes home to get some sleep.
The Pongettes are there 24/7, and there are now three 8-hour shifts. David has them patrol the immediate area as well as having some drones do a wider scan. He also uses Google live to look for movement of convoys in a 200-mile radius.
The UN arrives the next day, and they add to the presence. David tells pong he almost wishes they didn’t come. He tells pong that all the rebels need to do now is wait until the UN leaves, so they can come to slaughter the villagers. That is why I wanted to keep this a very low profile, I wanted to get them all now while we are there. Pong tells David, I can get them to leave if you want. David tells pong well, from a Peace and Equality perspective, what is best for the villagers is that the UN leaves, and we take down some more of these guys while we are here. Pong says, ok. Two hours later, the UN is gone.
The Pongettes see a convoy of 20 vehicles heading in their direction. The vehicles are pickup trucks, and most have a tarp covering the back, and it is pretty obvious there is a machine gun on the back of each one.
David messages the government commander to ask if they are his guys, and he says no. David messages back and says that it looks like 20 vehicles are headed in the direction of the diggers. At the moment they are together, but there is a road coming up soon where they might split up.
The commander offers to help. David says he will take him up on it but just needs a few minutes to come up with a plan after they reach the fork in the road, which is about 50 miles from them.
David and Michael talk about their situation. David tells Michael they have lots of drones now but adds that he is worried about machine guns and RPGs firing from the jungle. Michael suggests that armored vehicles are more of a liability than protection. They are great RPG practice-targets. Let’s move them to the side and way back and write the UN or USA on them and laughs. Michael says that sounds great. We will get them to draw fire. Also, Michael, on any situation where you can move back even farther without moving toward other trees do it. Also, let's move the digging machines over behind the armored vehicle. They want the drilling machines for themselves, so they won’t want to risk destroying them.
Back at the office, David quadruples the number of Pongettes onto the water project and is running three shifts of 150 per shift starting next shift.
The trucks reach the fork and all head away from them. David and Michael look at the maps and
where there drilling sites are, and they are a couple sites Michael can’t reach in time. David calls the General. David tells the general all 20 trucks are heading away from them and asks what resources the general has over there and asks if he has choppers. The General replies that he has several. David asks what the General can have at the farthest digging site. David says he thinks their new strategy is to hit the end site hard and take them one by one. David asks if he can have two choppers at his site in the next 30 minutes, and the General says he can. Great. We will see you then.
David asks Michael where the 10,000 drones are and if they are ready for action and if they all have the tire poppers. Michael tells him they are with him. They are ready for action, and they all have poppers.
David tells Michael that the General has two choppers on the way. David tells Michael to come up with a way to release the drones while airborne or to set down and release the drones there. Michael tells David he doesn’t think they can release very many from the choppers, but they can bag them all, tow them and set down and release a lot of them pretty quickly. David tells him that is the plan then.
David tells Michael to take as many drones as you can and to get the hell out of there the moment you have the drones ready. Do not stay there a second longer than is necessary. And Set the drones down away from the action. In fact, stop a couple miles from where we know the action is going to be and set them loose. Michael hears the stress in David’s voice and knows he is headed into a very bad situation. Roger that Michael says, and everyone starts gathering the new drones, turning them on, and bagging them. He asks Pong to put them in a mode where they are on but won’t fire or try to fly in the chopper. Pong turns them all on standby.
Michael and everyone run wire and string they find through big batches of them and make circles of the wire and string. They have about 2,000 done by the time the two choppers arrive and load them onto the choppers. Michael takes Joe and 10 bots per chopper, and they take off. As they are flying, Michael is getting updates from pong and David as to where the trucks are headed. It still looks like they are headed toward the farthest site, and David is suggesting that they land and release at the site before the blast site, which is only a mile from the end site. The trucks are about 15 minutes away, and the chopper is 10 minutes away from the landing point. At the last minute, the trucks split up, and 10 continue onto the farthest site, but 10 trucks head for Michaels landing site. David is upset and tells Michael to put it down a mile before the landing point. Michael tells David they will be in the jungle as they are passing the landing point, and he can make it to between the two sites so that the drones are not wasting their batteries getting to the farthest site. David agrees. But Michael, drop them off and fly straight back away from the action.
As they fly by the second from the last site, Michael sees that the villagers are far from the drilling site, and the drilling machine is way back with the armored vehicle. The villagers are all far from the site. The chopper drops down between the two sites, and they all spread out the drones. They can hear the trucks racing through the jungle and start to hear gunfire. Michael tells the pilot to stay low and to dodge back and forth. A bot yells RPG. The chopper hangs a sharp left, and the RPG goes flying by. Michael looks at the bot and salutes him and smiles. The choppers zigzag away from the rebels. They fly a couple miles away and take a very wide path back to their base site.
Each site has 500 drones. Plus, each will now have another 1,000 drones.
David has the Pongettes send the ground recon drones looking for crawlers, and they send up 10 up high to see where they are. David realizes that he made the first two looks like the rebel teams were ambushed in the jungle and that these guys are most likely going to blow right by that part. David tells everyone to get ready and to have the side squadrons ready. That moment at both sites, the tucks come blasting out of the jungle and are coming at the sites at full speed. Everyone puts their drones in the air and sends them down the sides like before. Again, they have no clue drones involved, and they think they have the element of surprise on their side. This time, however, the trucks still all have their covers over the tops of the trucks. David orders them to pop every tire and kill the drivers now. The Pongettes go right at them and knock out the tires and the drivers on the first pass. The trucks come to a stop, but the men are all still covered by the tarps over the backs of the trucks, so this time victory is it not quite as immediate. The trucks spread out a bit when the tires were popped. They throw open two tarps and open fire. The machine gunners are firing in the air, but it is dark, and they can’t see the targets. The men are jumping out of the trucks and are running forward toward the camp but are still another 500 yards away and don’t stand a chance. There are 150 drone pilots, and their experience is dramatically enhanced over the last attack, where 30 pilots were handling a couple hundred drones. The men don’t realize the drones have infrared cameras and try to hide, but the drones dive bomb them and in a few minutes, have them neutralized. Once the drones run out of targets, they go hunting through, under, and around the trucks, and there are a few fakers and some that fire as the drone comes near them, but they get all the ones out in the open. David orders 20 per site to go into the jungle to look for the ones sitting back, and there are 6 in one site and 5 in the far site. David tells them to stay at it for a while, and they come up with two more in the jungle. David radios the general and tells him they have about 300 more for him. The general tells him they are on their way. OK, everyone, great job, Bots, same as before. Tie them up into groups and gather their guns and weapons. We are going to teach the villagers to defend themselves. Check for fakers first, though. No one gets shot by a faker tonight. The drones make one more pass and catch that one guy is still breathing. The drone tasers him, and they put him with the others.
After both attacks, David has the bots fly drones to a remote spot and has the local bots hide all the guns, ammo, and weapons as well. He tells Pong that today the General is benefitting from our activities, but we never know about tomorrow.
By sunrise, the drilling machines are back at it again, and David spends time teaching the villagers how to use the weapons. The rebels seem to have plenty of ammo, so they are stocked up for a while.
David and Michael discuss what they expect tonight. Michael tells David he was surprised they came at us in the same way after 300 of their rebels just vanished after the first attack. They must have lots of volunteers, and they both laugh. Michael says that he is concerned they may go all out tonight. David tells Michael he has the same concern and that he will speak with the general asap. It would be nice to know where they are based and send a couple of droids over to gather intel. If we know they are coming, we can meet them with drones partway there at a spot of our choosing. Maybe the General can help this time. I will call him now.
David calls the General to tell him what they are thinking and asks the General if he knows where the rebels are based. The General tells David they are based in a city about an hour from their drilling sites and give him the area where he thinks they are based. David asks if the general would want to help tonight, and the General tells him yes. David lets him know that he will conduct reconnaissance there and see if they can determine if they are preparing for another attack.
Pong is enjoying the drilling. Zaria 3 is bubbling with pride. They are getting ample water production water at 500 feet deep and are going down another 300 feet for good measure. They have completed 100 of the 250 wells and are making excellent progress. Time Magazine, Rolling Stone Magazine, National Geographic, and The Wall Street Journal are all there. They have been there since the first day and are very impressed with their commitment and are very aware of David’s abilities after the London operation.
David tells pong he would like to leave a hundred drones for the villagers. Pong tells him to make it a thousand. David smiles and says, great. David has the bots teach the villagers how to use the controls and tells them that if they find the rebels are coming to l
et my team know and we will take over the fighting for you.
David spends some time using a satellite service to see if he can find preparation activity. David sees a huge force getting ready for a major attack. David counts 100 vehicles, and he assumes there will be the usual 10 men per vehicle. They are going all out. David tells Michael to stay away from the cans, they hate the cans. Michael laughs. They are prepping 100 vehicles, David. They are going all out tonight, Michael. I found a bridge on the way. I would say it is about 10 vehicles long. If we put up a heavy cable across our end of the bridge and pop all the tires the moment the lead vehicle reaches the cable, we could let the General attack from behind and set up on the flanks to pop up as soon as we have them immobilized. If the trucks are covered again, we can hold back with the drones until they all get out in the open. If they don’t come out, the general can open fire on them. We can pick them off with the darts this time. The tasers won’t put them out long enough.
David “How soon can you have the drones ready for action.
Michael says he has the villagers, and the bots are on it. They should be ready in about an hour. The Drones can fly for about 2 hours on a charge.
Ok, I will talk to the general and get them on board. The general gets his men into position on the flanks starting at both ends of the bridge and working back several hundred yards. He also has several machine guns positioned behind some rock formations about 200 yards away from the road.
Right at sunset, the convoy of rebels leaves their base and head for the drilling sites. The Pongettes in New Mexico put the droids into action, and they make a beeline for the bridge. The trucks reach the cable and call back for cutters. As before, the droids approach the convoys from the two sides, about 200 yards to each side. As they reach the convoy, they start turning in and target the drivers then the tires. In less than 30 seconds, they have popped every tire and killed every driver in every vehicle.
