“That’s fine, but where are we going to get a fighter jet to test it out on?”
“They’re getting shot down every time they get close to those gunships. You think you could talk one of them into following you here?”
“Hmm...maybe, but there’s no place for them to land.”
“Come on Walter, you know how strong we are,” Mixon said, “I saw you land one of the jets I sabotaged, and that was a lot bigger.”
“You have a point. Do we have working weapons on any of the fighters that we didn’t lose?” Walter asked.
“They were pretty shot up, but we still had functioning weapons,” Fiona said.
“Okay, I’ll be back in a bit, hopefully with a guest. You get the tools ready.”
34
The A-10s attacking the aliens in Ohio had a moderate degree of success, if you can count managing to get a few rounds on target before getting shot down success. They figured out rather quickly that missiles simply bounced off the shields, while the bullets appeared to wear down the shields to the point that one of the gunships took damage. The problem was the accurate fire from the gunships. They simply had no defense for it, and it only took a hit or two to disable the jet. Another group was closing in, warily after seeing their friends shot down, but still confident after hearing that the previous group had managed to damage one of the ships.
The lead pilot was about to line up his run when he saw Walter flying next to his plane trying to get his attention. He looked out of the left side of his canopy and Walter was holding up a handwritten sign that said, “Follow me. I have an idea.”
“Walter wants us to follow him,” he said over the radio to his squadron.
“Do you think that’s a good idea? Our orders are to attack these things,” another pilot replied.
“I know what our orders are, but you’ve seen how that’s been going so far. I say we see what he’s up to.”
“You figure we ought to tell the colonel?”
“Ah hell, tell him when we’re done, or have Walter call him.”
“Man, we’re in big trouble.”
“And we’re already in trouble if we keep doing what we’ve been doing. We’re losing planes too fast. I’m following him. The rest of you can come if you want.”
Thirty minutes later, Walter was approaching the farm house with six Warthogs following him. When he got close, he held up another sign for the lead pilot that said, “No runway. I’ll land you.”
One by one, he flew under each jet as the pilot throttled down and brought each of them into the hangar under the house. The pilots shut down the engines and climbed out of the cockpits. One pilot approached Walter with his hand outstretched.
“A.J. Dalton, at your service. So, what do you have in mind?”
Walter shook Dalton’s hand.
“We have an idea. We noticed how many of you kept getting shot down. We might have a way to even the odds.”
“You have something here that could help?”
“I think so. You guys can talk with Patrick here while I go and make a phone call.”
Larry Wilkins was watching a video feed showing the alien troops when his phone buzzed.
“Hey Walter, whatcha know?”
“Hi Larry, wishI knew more than I do.”
“What’s up?”
“Don’t you have that friend up at Wright-Pratt, the colonel?”
“Stan? Yeah, but I imagine he’s pretty busy at the moment.”
“Busy watching his planes get shot down one after the other.”
“I’m watching that too. Word has it that you got zapped by one too.”
“Yeah, knocked me for a loop. Their weapons knock me out. It’s happened twice.”
“Why are you calling me then? I don’t think I can help you much?”
“Maybe not, but I think we can be of assistance. That’s where your friend comes in.”
“Okay, shoot.”
“I might have borrowed some of his planes.”
“And you expect me to smooth things over.”
“Not exactly. We have an idea for...let’s say an improvement. Something that would give them a fighting chance.”
“Why don’t you start from the beginning.”
“Let’s just say that we have access to a hangar full of alien spacecraft. Some of them were fighters, and we tried using those, but we got most of them shot down. There are still several larger craft sitting idle, but they’re transport ships that don’t have weapons. What they do have are energy shields that could be effective against those gunships, and it appears that there is a way to install them on other craft. We’d like to equip some A-10s and see if the extra defense gives them a chance.”
“I could give you the colonel’s number and you can run that by him.”
“He’s your friend. I hardly know the guy.”
“Okay, hold on a sec. I’ll try to get him on the line.”
“Gordon here,” Stan Gordon said a moment later, “This had better be good.”
“Hey Stan, Larry Wilkins here. I got Walter on the other line as well.”
“You better have a good reason for calling me. I’m kind of in the middle of a crisis at the moment.”
“Walter might have a way to help out with that.”
“You got thirty seconds.”
“Hi Colonel,” Walter said, “I might be able to equip some of your fighters with shields that would help them against the alien gunships.”
“And just where did you get ahold of those?” Gordon asked.
“We have a friend, well, had a friend. Anyway, she was also an alien, but an enemy of the ones attacking us, and she had quite a stockpile that she gave us access to before she died. There were some fighters, but we lost most of those. We still have some larger ships that aren’t much use
