“That’s a lot to ask. I have superiors that I have to report to, and our losses have already been high. Do you think there’s a chance these improvements could make a difference?”
“I talked with your pilots. They told me they managed to inflict some minimal damage on one of the gunships, but they don’t have any defense against them. We think this could give them a chance to stay in the fight long enough to possibly take out the gunships.”
“Oh, what the hell. It goes against my better judgment, but we’re up against the wall here. Go ahead, and keep me in the loop.”
“Thank you sir. I’ll proceed immediately. Give me a minute and I’ll give you the names of the pilots.”
Walter walked back into the hangar and gave Morrison a big thumbs up and a grin.
“Good thing,” Morrison said, “I’ve already got the shield module off one of the transports. I don’t think it will be that hard to attach it to the Warthog, but the cockpit interface might be tricky. There are specs on that computer, but it deals with their craft. There’s nothing about installing it on one of ours.”
“I’ll be upstairs with the others. Let me know when you have something figured out, and if you need my assistance.”
“Come to think of it, the thing is somewhat heavy. A couple guys can lift it, but maybe you could hold it in place so I can attach it. They’re installed under the fuselage on their ships, so I think that would work on the jets too.”
“As long as it’s out of the way of the gun barrels,” one of the pilots said.
Walter picked up the module off the cart it was sitting on and walked over to one of the A-10s, holding it against the underside of the fuselage.
“Does this location look good?” he asked.
Morrison and the pilot both nodded in approval.
“That looks good. Just hold it there and let me attach this mounting bracket.”
“That was fast,” Walter said, five minutes later when Morrison finished attaching the module.
“Yeah, it’s their tech. Works like some quick sealing liquid solder, but way stronger than anything we have on this planet. Just let me get the cockpit interface.”
Installing the interface took longer than it took to attach the shield module, mainly because he had to consult with one of the pilots to place it so it wouldn’t interfere with the existing cockpit controls. Thirty minutes later, he had it installed in an area all the pilots agreed on and they were ready to test it. The pilot climbed in the cockpit and activated the touch screen on the interface.
“Guys, get a load of this,” he said to the other pilots, “This is supposed to be crazy alien tech, but there’s an option here to switch the language from theirs to English.”
He touched the screen where it indicated the power for the module, and there was a barely perceptible hum and he could almost sense more than see the energy field that enveloped the plane. He looked at the interface and it told him that the shield was active and was at 100% strength. A few seconds later, an image of the plane appeared on one side of the screen. He touched different parts of the image and the shield strength would increase for that part of the plane while decreasing in another area.
“Whoa, check this out. You can divert more shield power to certain areas, depending on where the threat is coming from, I guess,” he said.
“All that’s left is to test it,” Morrison said.
“How do you figure we do that?”
“We still got functioning weapons on one of the fighters we brought back. I say we shoot it a couple times and see what happens.”
“What if we damage the fighter?”
“Then we figure that out before we take them into combat.”
“Good point.”
“I don’t think we even need to go outside to test it. The alien ships have energy weapons. I’ll just start that one up over there and take a couple shots at the fighter. You all might want to stay out of the way.”
“I’ll stay in the cockpit so I can watch this screen and see what happens,” the pilot said.
“Are you sure about that?” Morrison asked.
“Yes. You’re not going to unload until the shields drop, are you?”
“No. I’ll tell you what. I’ll fire until you give me the signal to stop, okay?”
“Sure, that will work.”
Morrison got in the alien fighter and powered up the systems and when everyone was out of the way and the pilot was in the A-10, he lined up and fired. He fired for a full minute before the pilot signaled him to stop. He exited the fighter and met the pilot, just climbing out of the A-10.
“Well, how’d it go?” Morrison asked.
“I could feel a slight jolt when you hit me, but the shields only lost ten percent. But now it’s already back up to 91%. I think it regenerates if you stop taking hits. That’s good to know. We can bug out if they drop too far and let them regenerate.”
“They seem stronger than the ones we had on the fighters,” Morrison said, “probably because they came off larger ships. Let’s get the other jets equipped and then we can go from there.”
35
Stan Gordon answered his phone on the first ring.
“Gordon here.”
“Colonel, it’s Walter. Got the names of your pilots.”
“I’ve had a change of mind. How soon until their planes are ready with whatever you’re doing to them?”
“Maybe an hour or so, why?”
“I’d like to speak to them directly. Where are you?”
“It’s a bit of a drive from the base. I can come get you. Just tell me where you are on the base and I’ll be there in a minute.”
Five minutes later, Walter
