by Ricky Sides
The medic arrived at the location where the other strike team medic had been hit by the sniper. He found the man who had tried to drag them out of the danger area, working as rapidly as he could to save the medic’s life. Looking up at the medic he said, “I’m glad you’re here. I don’t know half enough to be attempting this alone.”
“You’re doing fine,” the medic responded and then knelt to help the man. But he took a good look at the patient and reached out to stop the other man’s labors. “It’s no good son,” the older medic said. “He’s gone,” the medic said sadly.
“Damn it no!” the soldier said in anger and stared at the medic hard.
“It’s not your fault son. Look at his throat. Nothing could have saved him. That groan we heard was probably his dying breath,” the medic stated.
The soldier stared at his blood-covered hands and hung his head. Beside him, Lieutenant Wilcox groaned and started to move.
***
Bill brought his drone up above the top of the trees slowly. He had it oriented so that he saw the interstate below and he noted that the enemy column of tanks and armored personnel carriers had moved past his location. He rotated the ship on its axis toward the south and saw the last few tanks disappearing over a hilltop continuing on their journey south. Rotating the ship again, he eased the drone back over the highway and began flying toward the north. Soon he encountered the next column of infantry and light artillery.
“Pete, are we sure this is the right thing to do?” Bill asked. I mean these are American soldiers,” Bill explained his hesitation.
“They were American soldiers, Bill. Now they plan to set up a military dictatorship. If you have serious doubts about this mission, I’ll take over,” Pete said reminding the crew that he was now fully trained in the use of the drones.
“It’s my job and I’ll do the best I can. I just don’t really like firing on American troops,” he explained.
“Don’t think of them as American troops, Bill. They gave up that honor when they deserted and formed an outfit bent on conquering the survivors,” Pete explained.
“We will have to explain this situation carefully to our people,” Jim spoke up from his seat. “Many may have similar misgivings, and frankly I can’t say that I don’t have a few of my own.”
“Well we’d all better lose them,” Pete stated firmly. “They’ve already demonstrated their intentions toward us,” he said referring to the attack on the base and the killing of one of their crew.
Bill said, “Commencing attack run,” and then he asked, “Shall I bomb the artillery?”
“No just shoot the drivers. It may be possible to recover the artillery,” Pete explained and then looking to Patricia he said, “See if you can raise the Tennessee peacekeepers and inform them of the possibility of artillery being left on the highway in their area.”
“And tell our crew to report here ASAP,” Jim stated. “I want to take the ship to meet the enemy armored column. No sense waiting till they are here to try to deal with them,” he added with a determined expression on his face. “Have other men sent to replace them in their search if necessary, but get the crew back here,” he added.
***
The driver of the lead truck in the column of infantry and light artillery, stared ahead in amazement at the small ship hovering in the air about thirty feet above the surface of the highway. In the bed of the transport truck behind him, the soldiers were laughing and talking about the last town where they had stopped. They reminisced about how they had beaten down any resistance from the people who had refused to acknowledge the general as their new leader. Keying up his microphone, the driver asked the other drivers if they could see what he saw hovering over the road. He was waiting for their responses when he saw a flash of light as the laser fired directly at him. The beam lanced through the windshield as if it weren’t even there and struck the man in the throat. He felt a burning sensation in his throat and reached up with both hands to feel his throat in shock. The truck, in bad need of front-end alignment, swerved to the left almost instantly and raced into the deep center of the median on a steep angle. The angle was so steep that the vehicle rolled over and slid down the median on its side. It crashed into a culvert at the end of the median.
The driver following behind the lead truck was also struck and he slumped over the steering wheel of his truck. The weight of his body held the wheel straight and the men occupying the rear of the truck didn’t have a clue that anything was amiss until they looked out the open rear of their vehicle and saw the wreckage of the lead truck as they rode past. They still didn’t know that they had a problem until their truck failed to make the curve a quarter mile down the road and they similarly plunged off the road into the median.
The third driver saw the little ship hovering and he’d seen the first truck go off the road. This driver tried to accelerate and take evasive action but the truck was by far too slow to manage that tactic against the drone. The driver did succeed in causing Bill to miss twice, but both times the laser punched through the truck windshield and out the back glass into the cargo area where it struck men. In the rear of the truck, panic ensued. On the third shot, Bill hit the driver square in the face. That truck slewed sharply to the right and ran off the road where it plunged down a steep embankment to the ground ten feet below.
After that attack, the convoy as a whole had accelerated and was attempting to catch up to the armored convoy ahead. Bill had difficulty targeting the drivers rapidly enough to prevent them from getting to the relative safety of the armored convoy, but he tried his best.
“Bill, you’d better concentrate on the trucks pulling the artillery pieces. They’ll be a bigger threat than the infantry when they get here,” Pete advised.
The strike force team boarded the ship and a somewhat wobbly Lieutenant Wilcox entered with Maggie on his heels. Pete greeted Maggie as she gave him back his uniform shirt and replaced his armor in its storage rack.
Bill said, “Some guys are trying to shoot down the drone.”
On the road, two of the trucks had pulled over to the breakdown lane on the edge. The men in the rear had leapt out of the back of the trucks and were firing wildly at the drone, which studiously ignored them since they were not a threat. The drone did core the engines of their trucks though, thus stranding them where they stood better than twenty miles from the nearest city. The drone flew off then in search of more prey leaving the men to swear that they had survived an encounter with a small UFO and that the aliens must be the size of toy soldiers. One man speculated that this was an invasion.
Bill had lost a little time dealing with the two trucks that had stopped, so he opened up the ship as he raced after the fleeing convoy. He passed them in less than a minute and turned about to renew his attacks. He was getting better at strafing runs made at speed so he eased a bit more throttle on the ship, remembering to compensate for their forward momentum and he then began a strafing run that was a once in a lifetime achievement. Timing his shots superbly, Bill shot the first four drivers in the convoy and then he skipped two trucks to begin working on the vehicles pulling the artillery pieces. He hit seven of seven in that first run before a miss. Continuing to maintain his concentration, Bill hit the next four vehicles. Now only one truck pulling an artillery piece remained.
The drone shot past the end of the convoy and rifle barrels emerged from the rear of the last few trucks. The men in those trucks poured on the fire as the little ship executed a wide turn. The drone poured on the speed, its laser flashing a burst of five quick shots through the rear of the last truck killing several men in the rear and hitting the driver in the back. That truck swerved first left and then to the right before going out of control. It rolled over on its side and skidded down the highway.
“Now that is one the hard way, Bill. I’m impressed,” Pete stated, as the Peacekeeper lifted into the air with Pol’s little ship hovering out of Tim’s airspace ready to follow the mother ship on the run to destroy the hea
vy armored column.
Bill’s drone swept low over the surface of the road following behind the rear truck and he fired another five rounds. This time he didn’t manage to hit the driver, though several of the men in the rear were killed.
“Bill Climb!” Pete shouted and Bill automatically obeyed as the men in the rear of one of the trucks rolled back the tarp revealing a fifty-caliber machinegun.
Bill poured on the speed and soon he was out of the targeting range of the fifty. Ahead Bill could see the heavy armored convoy and he estimated that they were now within a half mile of that convoy. Racing forward past the lead truck he came about again and dove for another strafing run. The driver of the lead truck ducked at just the right moment causing Bill’s laser attack to miss him. The man in the rear of the truck who took the hit wasn’t so lucky. Bill skipped the next truck. He wanted the artillery truck, which was now third in the convoy. He hit that driver square in the chest and the truck slewed from the far right lane to the shoulder of the road on the left. It looked as though the truck might actually come to a stop and avoid an accident, but Bill’s laser fire struck another driver whose truck slewed to the left and struck the disabled artillery truck. There was a tremendous explosion as some of the ammunition for the artillery piece blew up.
Bill sighted very carefully on the driver of the truck that was hauling the fifty-caliber machinegun. He shot the man in the chest and then broke hard to the right in an effort to avoid flying into the sights of the machinegun. The gunner fired wildly at the ship not realizing that he had bigger problems. A moment later, the dead driver’s death grip on the steering wheel fell away. The wheel spun immediately to the right so violently that the truck skidded sideways for a moment. The driverless truck flipped over on its side throwing the men in the rear out of the truck and sliding down the highway behind them.
“I think I have time for one more pass from the rear,” Bill stated and began the maneuver to bring the ship into alignment for that run. Racing up behind the convoy that had now almost reached the relative safety of the heavy armored convoy, Bill fired the laser in a sustained burst taking out the truck to the rear.
“Bill, try hovering over one of the trucks and targeting a tank turret with a sustained burst,” Pol suggested, and then he added, “It would be nice to know if we have the capability to destroy a tank with the drones, if we have to do so.”
“Indeed it would,” Pete agreed.
Bill settled down right above the cab of one of the infantry trucks and targeted the turret of the rear tank. He held down the firing control in a long sustained burst. The blue laser lanced out and struck the turret. Bill sustained the shot and red pulses flashed down the beam. There were explosions when the red pulses encountered the molten metal. In about thirty seconds, the laser had punched through to the interior of the tank where it must have set off some ammunition. There was a horrendous explosion that literally cracked open the heavily armored turret. The stricken tank slewed to the right and ran off the road.
“You’d better check your power level after you take evasive action my friend,” Pol reminded Bill. “That was a lengthy sustained burst with the laser.”
“Yeah, that kill used up almost all of my power,” Bill confirmed.
“Bring her home, Bill,” Jim commanded. “She has done enough for one day. You did a very good job,” he added smiling.
“Thank you,” Bill said and for once, he felt as if he had really contributed in a meaningful way. “I really like flying my drone,” he said.
“Oh, so now it’s yours is it?” Pete asked teasing his friend, but then he said, “Well you just took out twenty-one convoy trucks and one tank. You keep using the drone that well and we just might give her to you.”
Lighthearted laughter greeted that and Pete excused himself to go see the strike force team who had just lost one of their members. Pete knew that they would be disheartened. Jim stood up and accompanied him. This was one captain’s duty that he really disliked.
They found the men in the cargo bay to be a quiet reflective bunch. Both Pete and Jim congratulated them on their superb performance and then Jim asked the lieutenant how his head was feeling. “Like an elephant stomped on me,” replied the lieutenant honestly, “But Maggie says the headache will pass in a few hours.”
“She generally knows about such things if she gave you a specific timeline,” Pete responded.
“Sir, with your permission, I think I want to add helmets to our standard equipment. I know that we as a unit requested permission not to have to use them at the outset, but if I’d been wearing a helmet today we wouldn’t have lost Joe,” Lieutenant Wilcox said with an anguished expression on his face.
“Lieutenant, I left the decision to your team. If anyone is responsible that would be me,” Pete stated firmly.
“Sir, I’m not blaming you. I just don’t want something like this to happen again,” the lieutenant stated sincerely.
“Nor do I, Lieutenant,” Pete said softly. “I think we have some Special Forces half head helmets in storage at the base. Those are a bit more oriented to your type of missions. When we get back to the base, see the supply sergeant. I hear he’s getting a bottle of Scotch for some of the better gear these days but tell him I sent you and I’m waiting to get confirmation that all of the strike force members are so equipped.”
“Thank you, Pete. That guy can be a pain sometimes,” Lieutenant Wilcox said.
“Yes he can, but he keeps down a lot of frivolous requisitions. Therefore, I let him enjoy his petty graft to a certain extent. He’s also one of the most highly organized men I ever met. Wouldn’t surprise me if that man could lead me right to any item I wanted to see without consulting any records,” Pete said smiling. Jim smiled too because he knew that his friend and mentor was getting the men’s minds off the loss of a team member and onto other issues.
Jim said, “You’ll all be glad to know that Bill has engaged the enemy infantry and light artillery convoy with one of our drones. He destroyed twenty-one trucks, and as a show stopper, he took out a tank.”
The men cheered then and Jim realized that just such good news was what the men needed to hear to cheer them up a bit.
Patricia’s voice came over the intercom saying, “Captain, you have an incoming message. Tom Whitmore wants to speak to you,” she explained.
Jim and Pete returned to the control room and found the personnel there smiling. “How about sharing the humor with me,” Jim said grinning.
Acting as spokesman for the group, Tim said, “You know that smooth talking, amiable Tom you spoke with earlier?”
“Yeah?” Jim asked.
“Well he’s an irate wildcat now,” Tim said laughing.
“Well, that’s just too bad,” Jim said smiling. “I was looking forward to the polished Tom.”
“Right now he wants to polish his boots on your backside,” Tim said, roaring with laughter.
Motioning for quiet, Jim sat down and picked up his microphone. Keying it he said, “This is Captain Wilison. I understand that you wanted to speak to me,” he said and waited.
“Captain, you do realize that what you are doing is treason against the United States, do you not?” Tom’s voice came back over the air in an irate manner.
“Not at all Tom. We just gave your boys a warm reception as I promised you we would,” Jim explained smiling.
“Break off your attacks on my armored column or I’ll have my men attack your base,” Tom said with a modicum of satisfaction feeling certain that those men would attack the base soon regardless, but that it would be better to lose that attack team than the rest of his armored units.
“I’m afraid your men at the base are in no position to attack us,” Jim said, still smiling. “You see we gave them a warm welcome too. A very warm welcome, Tom. Those units no longer exist.”
“Damn you peacekeepers. Damn you to hell for this treason!” Tom shouted.
“Calm down Tom. We were afraid that your tanks and armored p
ersonnel carriers would feel left out so we are planning a very nice little party for those guys when they get to the base,” Jim lied to throw Tom off what they were really planning.
“One of these days we’ll meet face to face, Jim,” Tom said, his voice now calm and icy. “And when that happens, I am going to enjoy beating you to death with my bare hands.”
“It’s a deal, Tom. Where and when?” Jim asked.
“When will be after my men have conquered your base, and where will be the location of my choosing,” Tom said evasively.
“Well hell, Tom, why don’t you just come on up to the base and actually lead your men in the attack,” Jim asked. “I mean that’s what leaders do, Tom. They lead,” Jim explained as if he were dealing with a mental defective. He knew that a man like Tom who prided himself on his intellect would resent that and he might become angry, and angry men make mistakes.
Tom never answered. Apparently, Jim had succeeded in riling the man.
Chapter 19
Despite the fact that it was a break from their normal protocols, the crew decided to lower the cargo bay door and permit Bill to land inside the ship, rather than lose the time required to land and retrieve the drone. Preparing for the maneuver, Tim dropped to ten feet over the highway and reduced speed to one hundred miles per hour. Bill matched the speed and altitude directly behind the mother ship. The cargo bay door opened and Bill gently increased the forward speed by a few miles per hour.
Bill activated the special landing program, which was needed to control the altitude of the drone and override manual operation settings. The program prevented the drone from automatically altering its altitude as the drive emitter of the drone passed over the lowered cargo bay door. Doing so as the drone entered the cargo bay would have had disastrous results. The program was one of Patricia’s that she had made during the drone-testing phase. The pilot only had to kill the forward motion, once inside the cargo bay, and land the drone. Bill set the drone down just inside the cargo bay and one of the men in the rear of the ship verified that the drone was clear of the cargo bay door, after which the door closed.
