The General looked at Display Screen Five, which now seemed to be in slow motion. Number of Kills = 1436, ten seconds later, 1437, twenty seconds after that, 1438, forty-five seconds later, 1439. As he watched the counter come to a stop, he glanced over to the display screen where all the alien aircraft had showed up. The screen was almost void of all red dots and completely void of the familiar vector of our friendly fighters.
Captain Stewart was the first to state the obvious. “E-1 has taken out all the aircraft we had up and the five LASER satellites. The number of downed Collectors stopped at 1442. Our only hope now is that the Ions make it through camouflaged as his Collectors returning to base. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.”
General Stormer quietly replied, “Jeff, while we wait, would you contact your contact at NASA and see if we gained any time. Captain, would you contact your personnel observing the Mother ship and see if she’s returned to her normal color or about to shoot again.”
The room was completely silent now, as everyone knew that there were one hundred warheads headed at the alien spaceship. If just some of them got through, the damage would definitely be severe, maybe even fatal. Our pilots had done a great job of finding and destroying the hundreds of Collectors they encountered. That bravery had cost them their lives. But the two commanding officers in the room knew that those men and women from all walks of life from around the world would gladly give their lives to defend their countries, let alone for the survival of the human race. Now they stood in silence, waiting to hear if these brave men and women had given their lives in vain.
The silence was broken by a voice on the speakerphone. “Captain Stewart, we have not seen any additional bolts of light come from the Mother ship since the first five light rays shot out. The color of Mother has returned to normal and as far as we can tell, she hasn’t moved from her position.”
A roar went up in the control room—so far, so good.
General Stormer commented, “If E-1 hasn’t fired again, maybe the Ions are being overlooked, as we had hoped.
“Michael, can you confirm the estimated time of warhead arming, ignition and time of impact?”
The CIA Director said, “Our ‘Eyes in the Sky’ satellites have been repositioned to watch the progression of the Missiles. Each update is being fed immediately to my headphones. Our last report showed the missiles are within thirty minutes of firing the warheads. If we can just make it past the thirty minutes, then I think we have a good chance. Once the warheads are fired, twenty incoming nightmares become one hundred. All will be coming in at different speeds and directions. If E-1 doesn’t shoot down these twenty missiles soon, I think we have a real chance at killing this menace.” It was obvious from the Director’s voice that he was excited at our chances.
Jeff had just finished his conversation with his friend at NASA and heard what the Director said. He added, “I have more good news, General. It seems the number of Collectors we shot down has decidedly slowed the supercharging of our atmosphere. According to Allen, we now have at least a week to ten days before we will be affected, at least at the current rate.”
The General said, “Okay, maybe lady luck is turning our way. While we wait, let’s plan for what happens if the missiles don’t reach the firing point or if they are fired and don’t do enough damage to E-1’s Mother ship. What then? At least all those pilots that sacrificed their lives have given us extra time. Let’s figure out an alternative, should that be necessary.”
19
A MAIN SCREEN IN THE CONTROL ROOM WAS SET UP to display everything that occurred since attacking E-1’s Collectors. The team studied every line, looking for something that would indicate a weakness or give a clue as to what should be done next.
“We know we can gain time by destroying E-1’s Collectors,” Michael said, “but is there any way we can launch another attack?”
General Stormer replied, “I’m sure E-1 is going to be on alert, just in case we do start shooting down anymore of his ships. But if we have no other options, then that certainly is something we’ll have to consider. Maybe there is a point at which, if we shot down enough, he won’t be able to continue his assault on Earth.”
Woods kept looking at the big screen. In his years of working on the Blue Book files, he seemed to have a sixth sense on what had happened, was happening or was going to happen. As he stared at the screen, his stomach started to knot up. Something was there, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. Then, in a spasm of insight, it came to him! All hell was about to break loose in the room.
The CIA Director yelled ahead of Woods flash of insight, “The Ion missiles have ignited successfully. There are now one hundred Ion warheads headed to E-1’s living room. Time of impact for the first ones should be in about four minutes.”
“That’s super news Michael,” the General said. “Is there any way you can display on the screens what’s going on?”
“I already told my people to feed the live video here, so we can get a bird’s-eye at what happens as the warheads hit.”
The center screened blinked black, then lit up with a picture of the alien moon displayed crystal clear across the screen. A voice came over the speakerphone, “Three minutes to impact.”
General Stormer commented, “E-1 must have thought the Missiles we’re returning Collectors, otherwise he would have taken action by now. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that this thing doesn’t turn colors.”
“Two minutes to impact.”
Captain Stewart asked, “Can we get a closer view of the warheads approaching Mother?”
A few seconds later the screen changed from a far away shot to a closer image. You could clearly see the huge Collectors still flying toward their home base. They obviously were robot ships just doing what they were programmed to do, otherwise they would be reacting to the much smaller warheads that could clearly be seen right next to the them that were fired from the Ion missiles.
“One minute to impact.”
The display went back to the original view from a distance. The world would know in a few seconds if the warheads would save mankind or not.
“Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. We should have impact.”
Everyone in the room held their breath, watched and waited for a sign that warheads reached the target. The display screen showed no change, the speakerphone made no announcements. Thirty seconds went by, then a minute. Nothing.
The General finally asked, “What’s happening, Michael? We certainly don’t see any explosions. Can your people confirm what’s going on?”
There was silence for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, Michael said, “The warheads didn’t detonate. It seems they didn’t completely reach the Mother’s surface. We are replaying the video at a closer angle in an attempt to see what happened.”
The screen again switched from the distant focus to the much closer view. It was clear the warheads had been correctly headed to the huge ship. Again came the count down. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five and, at five, the warheads disappeared. From this camera angle, one could see the other warheads coming in at different angles and times, but disappeared five seconds before impact. They seemed to be absorbed by some kind of protective force field or energy source above the ship. Nothing got closer than five seconds to detonation.
You could hear a pin drop in the room, complete silence. From the pictures and replays it was obvious the warheads had been somehow destroyed. “Our Super LASERS were shot down, our fighter pilots destroyed and now the Ion missiles have been eliminated, and with it our hopes for survival, it would seem.
As usual, just when you think things can’t get any worse, a voice came over the speakerphone. “She’s changing colors again! Same pattern as before! My God, she’s firing again! I see one, now two and another, that’s three bolts heading toward Earth!” someone in the control room yelled.
“What the hell is he doing now?” the General said. “He must know he destroyed everything we sen
t at him. His Collectors are not being shot down anymore. Why is he firing?
Captain Stewart answered, “I guess the old saying, ‘Finish off your opponent when he’s down,’ applies throughout the galaxies.”
Woods felt the time was right and said, “I know you guys might think this’s crazy, but it’s a good sign. Hear me out—if E-1 thought we couldn’t hurt him anymore he wouldn’t be doing his light ray thing at whatever he’s shooting at. Wherever he’s aiming at is a clue for us at his weakness, and a sign that we still can hurt him.”
“Too many brewskies, Woods! You’re out of your tree! We don’t have anymore weapons, unless you have an anti-alien rocket launcher that you’ve been hiding since the Blue Book Files!”
“Air Blue Two to Blue Base, can you read me?”
“We read you loud and clear. How did you avoid the alien fighters?”
“I didn’t, at the speed the bogey was coming at me, I figured I’d just hit the brakes and he’d either run up my tail or fly by me. He made the mistake of flying by me and I fired two mavericks that reminded him he made a mistake.”
“Do you know if any of our other fighters had the same success?”
“Nope, I can’t raise anyone on my radio and I don’t see anyone still flying. I’m almost back to my home base to refuel and come back up. I was just about to take out one of those huge ugly ships when the bogey showed up. I want to go back and nail that—
“Holy shit! What the hell was that? Did you guys see that?”
“Please define?”
“ ‘That’ was a bright bolt of light that came from space and just eliminated my home base. My God! Everything’s gone! No runways, buildings or planes! Everything’s gone, but there’s no fire or debris.”
“Captain Stewart on the line, son. This is Blue Base control room. How much fuel do you have left?”
“Not much, sir, maybe ten minutes at the most. I can’t land here, sir, the base is gone!”
Captain Stewart turned and told his people to locate the nearest usable runway for the pilot to land. He said to those in the room, “I don’t care if it’s a local airport or a damn highway— Find it!” He then resumed his conversation with the pilot, “Okay, son, we’re going to give you the closest landing spot in the area. Hang in there.”
General Stormer looked at the Captain and said, “Can you tell where he’s located and what base he’s talking about?”
Captain Stewart replied, “It’s Langly. That means four thousand men and women just died. Three hundred aircraft destroyed just from a flash of light. Mother is taking out our bases, General. If I were you, before she continues to destroy us helplessly on the ground, launch another attack. Our men and women would much rather die fighting than be vaporized on the ground.”
Before the General could answer, “She’s turning colors again,” came the voice of the spotter up on the tower watching Mother.
Donemore spoke up, “Woods was right, why is E-1 firing again and at our bases? He can’t afford to have anymore of our fighters shooting down his Collectors? I agree with Captain Stewart, launch another attack.”
Woods had been listening to everything going on, but also kept thinking of the idea that hit him just before all the current chaos started. He finally joined the conversation, “General, I have this crazy idea and I doubt that you’ll see it my way, but is there any way we can evacuate those bases to save our fighters and helicopters for a launch at the Collectors at another time besides right now?”
The General gave a quick look at Captain Stewart and said, “Can we still save the aircraft? I know E-1’s ray will eliminate the base, but can you move the aircraft to a different location or is that not feasible?”
Captain Stewart said, “All our bases have evacuation procedures depending on the threat. If Woods can give me an idea what he’s talking about I can issue the proper evacuation order.”
Woods said, “There might be another way to take out Mother, maybe, just maybe. If I’m correct, we’ll need our aircraft to do the job.”
Captain Stewart didn’t wait for the General to comment, “This is Blue Base Control, Captain Stewart, ID Alpha, Zebra, Bravo, Mary, Six, One, Nine, Zero. Code Red Three.”
After he repeated the command, he told his officers in the room to contact the rest of our allies on what we were doing and ask them to do the same if they could.
Everyone looked at Woods then back at the Captain and wondered what just happened.
“Okay, Woods, all our bases are being evacuated. I know we won’t be able to save the first three E-1 fired at, but the rest should be headed to safe territory. I don’t know what you have up your sleeve, but I’d rather move the aircraft and save them for another launch than just tell them to go up and die for Mother Earth. If your plan doesn’t work, we can always launch again from the hidden bases,” Captain Stewart said.
“I agree,” the General said. “But we only have a few days Woods, so what do you have in mind?”
Woods replied, “While we waited to see if the Ion warheads would do the job, I was studying the facts we put up on the big screen. I kept thinking of the Collectors, and how they are the key to this whole thing, somehow the key.
“E-1 protects them like they are his children. They come and go in a definite pattern from Earth to Mother and back again. They’re robot ships, easy to shoot down and easy to detect with infrared. In a normal war, we would be making every attempt to infiltrate one of these ships and do whatever it took to have it work for us! Wouldn’t it be great if we had control of one of the Collectors and could fly it in and out of Mother undetected? Think of the possibilities.
“Then I started thinking of the close-up pictures that showed how our warheads never made it to closer than five seconds of the surface Mother, but in the back ground you can see the Collectors still lumbering in and out like nothing was happening.
“What’s the point? They’re not affected by the force field!”
The General said, “Yes, everything your saying is true, but we can’t control the goddamned Collectors, so what’s the point?”
“When Donemore and I went out to see the last two Collectors that were shot down,” Woods said, “we noticed one of them seemed to be one huge magnet. The downed Collector didn’t have any visual damage and seemed fully operational, only it was stuck in the sand upside down and couldn’t free itself, sort of like a turtle that beached itself. The assumption from the investigating team was that when the first Collector was shot down it was close to the second and collided into it as it fell to Earth.
“The impact was great enough to force the other Collector upside down and it hit the Earth that way, in that position. All the previous Collectors were damaged and had huge holes in them where our missiles had initial impact. None of these dead Collectors showed any sign of magnetic properties.
“The undamaged one is the only one that showed any magnetism. My guess is that these things are gigantic magnets when up there in the thunderstorms doing their thing.”
“You’re guessing and assuming a lot,” the General said, “but if all this is true how does that help us?”
Woods replied, “Out in the field, the down Collector sucked two automobiles to its metal surface from a half mile away. If I’m correct, we could fire some type of metal bomb that has a timer on it at these huge ugly things. If the bomb gets close it’ll be sucked in, and as long as it doesn’t explod on impact we have a way of planting bombs on them. Don’t we have any small nuclear warheads that can be fired at these Collectors?”
Michael caught on right away. “The pattern is three days here then fly home and spend three days locked onto Mother. Put a weapon on the Collector, time it right and let the robot bring the bomb home to Mamma. Yes! Woods, you’re a genius!”
Woods smiled and said, “Thank you, but like the General said, I’m assuming a lot here. I have no idea if the flying Collectors are magnetized or how the military could even test that. Then there’s the big question, do we have the
warheads and if so, how do we get them stuck to the Collectors? I don’t know, for instance, if launching them by missile might shoot the ship down or if firing from our jet fighters would do the same. I have no clue on how to accomplish this.”
The General was in deep thought and finally said, “By helicopters, Woods, by helicopters, my boy! We test your theory by dropping a large metal object from a helicopter close to one of the Collectors. If your theory is right, it will suck the metal right into itself.”
Woods said, “I don’t know, sir. If the helicopter gets too close, it might get sucked in or lose all control because the magnetic field might disrupt all electronics. I’d hate for us to lose a pilot that way. Then even if you can drop the metal object, how do we know if it’s close enough or just falls straight to the ground?”
“Give me a little credit here Woods,” the General said. “I do know a little bit about my Air Force. The pilots and crew will be sent up wearing parachutes and the metal object will be equipped with remote parachutes that the pilot can activate when he’s ready.
“Once we find a Collector, we’ll approach from two miles above it. The second the pilot notices any magnetic pull, he’ll release the object and remotely open the parachutes. He’ll then hopefully pull away from the magnetic tug of the Collector. If something goes wrong, the pilot and crew bail out, open their parachutes and land safely.”
Woods replied, “Sorry, sir, I didn’t mean to question how you would get this accomplished. You’re the military expert and I think your plan is great, just do me one favor. Make sure the pilot isn’t wearing anything magnetic. I know from experience that any metal item as small as a side arm can be sucked into one of these babies, and with authority.”
General Stormer said, “I appreciate that. Believe me, no one will be wearing any type of metal.
“Captain, send whatever you feel will be best to search out and find one of E-1’s Collectors. Have two Apache helicopters loaded with any large metal object and equip them with parachutes. Let’s do this as fast as possible because, if Woods is right, we have a lot of work to do. If the theory works, we might gain an edge!”
BAD RAIN: A SCI-FICTION THRILLER Page 21
