America One: War of the Worlds (38 page)

By this time the shocked
Matts
far below were heading away in all different directions.

Ten down, less to go,” sang Jonesy as his head banged hard and his stomach wanted to puke, the Gees on his body, even with the weak Martian gravity, were at max. They wouldn’t have been able to pull maximum Gees if they weren’t wearing helmets, and the three smaller, sleeker shuttles turned quicker and were on the next prey seconds faster the two larger ones.

“Target locked, firing,”
stated Maggie and there was an explosion several miles below her.

“Target locked firing,”
added Jamie a few seconds later.

“Enemy base coming into sight at 37,000 feet altitude,”
stated Penny Pitt. Michael and Penny were heading straight down to do their mission: to get a shot through the open cavern door.
“Damn, the cavern door is already closing, too late, locking onto one of the enemy. Damn missed that one, he was too fast. Michael 200 seconds before the door opens.”

“I have a bogey, no two coming in behind me,” shouted Lunar excitedly. “Heading up vertical.”

“SB-I, copied you, Lunar, I’m climbing, see you on radar,”
replied Michael Pitt quickly.

“Locking onto first bogey Lunar,”
added Penny and it blew out of the sky as she gently pushed her red button. The other one wasn’t far behind and it blew up before Penny could lock onto it.

“Put that one down to me,”
stated Saturn smiling.

“Penny get that door timing right. Allen you have a bogey on your tail, stay low, turn hard right
, go vertical now,” ordered Jonesy and Maggie cleared the area behind
SB-II’s
tail.

Suddenly the area was empty of enemy craft. The radar only showed the five shuttles within a hundred mile radius until a formation of seven blips on the radar appeared rapidly from the surface a second later and headed rapidly upwards towards
SB-II
a couple of miles away. The maneuver was exactly the same as Jonesy and his astronauts had done on the first pass.

“Oh crap! Seven bogeys coming up fast. Allen you are closest, loop over, head down, then go for the mother ship, you will have all seven on your tail in a few seconds,”
stated Jonesy over the intercom calmly and turned his shuttle directly towards the incoming
Matts
.
“All lasers, lock onto incoming. SB-II needs help here.”

“Door opening in 37 seconds, Jonesy” stated Michael Pitt.

“SB-I, You have time to get one off Allen’s tail. Go for it and then turn back to get the door,”
ordered Jonesy.

“Locking on to three targets at 7 miles, firing”
stated Saturn.

“Target locked at 3 miles, firing”
added Maggie.

Only two tiny explosions grew into fireballs in front, but neither of the Jones were looking outside, they were concentrating on their radar screens.

“Got one missed two, locking again at 5 miles,”
added Saturn. She was quick, maybe a little too quick, thought Jonesy as he saw the remaining enemy ships quickly close on
SB-II
.

“VIN, over horizon, orders please,”
stated a new voice.

“VIN, SB-II is heading to ground. Hit any bogeys directly behind him, now!”
shouted Jonesy.

VIN didn’t have time to respond as suddenly
SB-II
disappeared into a massive fireball.
“Oh shit,”
he stated and trained his three of the mother ship’s twelve lasers on the perpetrators behind the fireball.

One by one the remaining five enemy were blown from the sky as everybody fired at whatever they could lock on to before someone else got it.

By this time Michael and Penny Pitt had turned, and were heading back to the enemy base. They had 10 seconds before the door would open and Michael pushed
SB-I
to 100 percent power.

Jonesy, his mind refusing to accept what he had just seen, pushed the flash from his mind, turned as hard as he could and headed back to help Michael.

“SB-III to SB-I we are twenty miles behind you at 77,000 feet at full power
,” stated Jonesy. His wife had gone quiet.

“Three seconds to door opening turning in now, will attack directly from front,”
stated Michael.

Michael and Penny Pitt didn’t see the seven more
Matt
ships climb up over a high mountain 30-odd miles behind them, but Jonesy did.

“Where are all these enemy ships coming from?”
he thought aloud as he turned towards them.
“VIN check your radar, seven new bogeys from nowhere.”

“Thirty miles behind you Jonesy,”
stated Mars as he also saw the enemy arrive out of nowhere on his radar screen.

“I have new flight coordinates, maybe a second base exit, or even another base or something,”
added VIN far above.
“Laser crew lock onto seven new targets now! Fire at will!”

A third group of seven enemy ships suddenly went vertical right behind the mountain Penny Pitt was heading for as the door opened, Penny’s camera and laser were already locked on it. They were less than ten miles from the door when the seven new
Matt
ships swooped over, down the side of the mountain and began firing at them from dead ahead. Michael saw that they were directly in-between them and the door as Penny took out her first enemy ship directly in front.

“Coming in from your left,”
stated Lunar in
SB-V
as Michael saw two more
Matt
ships destruct in massive blue explosions only three miles ahead of them.

“Locked onto second Matt ship, firing,”
stated Penny as their
SB-I
lurched ever so slightly.

“Aim for the blue shield we need to blow it, three more bogeys exiting. I think we are hit,”
Michael stated calmly as more
Matt
ships blew up a mile from his position, thanks to VIN and his crew. His ship buckled to and fro from the near explosions but he kept
SB-I
on track, he thought smiling with determination.

Unbeknown to him his controls was damaged. Penny continued to fire at the blue shield inside the gaping mouth of the cavern, but Michel’s basic controls had suddenly locked. He couldn’t control
SB-I
anymore.

“Michael pull up!”
shouted Lunar as her co-pilot hit the first target exiting the cavern mouth forty miles behind the action.

The two remaining enemy ships began to turn, and one disintegrated as the blue shield blew up behind it.

Michael Pitt flew straight into the exiting blast from the open cavern at full power.

The second explosion deep inside the cavern mouth added to the first, and exploding energy blew out of the open mouth of the mountain like a dragon breathing fire. It lit up the dark sky for miles around the cave, and caught the last of the three
Matt
ships trying to climb out of the way.

“Mars, SB-IV, you have two Bogeys coming in from your Starboard beam, turn directly towards them,”
shouted Jonesy as Maggie locked onto another bogey and blew it out of the sky.

“I think we have one on our behind,”
stated Maggie to Jonesy.

“Hold on,”
replied Jonesy and again went up into a full 360 degree vertical loop at full power.

Much of
SB-III’s
rapid forward speed had been drained off on their first attack when they had swept up from 5,000 feet to 50,000, but the maneuver still felt like having a brick in Jonesy’s stomach. The turn was so tight that the
Matt
ship, definitely a rookie behind him had just started following
SB-III
around in the vertical circle when Maggie blew it out of the sky.

“Mom, Mars needs some help here”
stated a scared sounding Saturn as Jonesy turned towards
SB-IV.

“I see four bogeys behind SB-IV,”
stated Lunar.

“I am locking on three at ten miles,”
added Michael Price and as Maggie locked onto one, four explosions lit up the area behind Saturn’s tail.

“All four enemy off your tail, son. Mars sharp turn to port, then vertical to America Two,”
stated VIN as his crew searched for more enemy ships.

Again the sky was empty of enemy aircraft, and three lonely shuttles headed up vertically into a higher, safe altitude.

Like all space or air battles, it was over in minutes.

The feelings of loss was felt once the high of battle was gone. Nobody talked for several minutes, and the three shuttles circled at 30,000 feet scanning their radars.

“I think it is time to enter their tunnel,”
suggested Mars Noble over a very silent intercom.

“Good idea, son,”
stated VIN from above.
“Max you there?”

Everybody knew the numbers. They’d all seen the two friendly blips disappear from the screens, and nobody had to say anything. VIN, being in battle often before, was much quicker to react than the other astronauts. Ryan, in the Bridge of
America Two
, and Kathy were not able to contain their shock and stared at their screens as if in a trance.

“Max here,”
as the reply.

“Max suit up. Mars will meet you at the tunnel entrances. Take Vitalily and three more in new suits, take mining robot and hand lasers. It’s time to pay the Matts a visit. All astronauts, the commander is in shock. I’m taking over command of the mission. All shuttles to give aerial support to SB-IV, then return to mother ship once Mars Noble is dropped off at the tunnel entrances. You have about forty minutes to dawn.”

The tunnel entrances were only a mile or so from the still-lit open flaming mouth of the mountain, and Saturn landed while the other two ships circled a few miles away. Mars was fast, He was already in the hatch when Max told VIN that they were suited up, getting supplies, and they should be at the tunnel entrances within 30 minutes.

“Go Saturn, go,”
ordered Mars as he reached the entrance a few minutes later.
“You are in danger sitting there. I’m fine, get out of here.”

“I’m not leaving you alone,”
replied his wife.

“Saturn Jones, takeoff,”
ordered VIN.
“Get out of there. That is an order. Mars will be fine. He has suit time to reach Mattville if need be.”

Mars watched as a minute later
SB-III
came swooping over him as Saturn left the planet. She turned on her father’s orders and followed his shuttle out of view. Mars was now alone.

Inside he cried. Allen and Jamie, and Michael and Penny were his friends. With Jonesy and Maggie and the OldGeners, they had taught him everything he knew, and he certainly did not think why they had to die. He sat down on a lump of gold, and cried like a baby, quiet sobs going through his spacesuit.

Everybody on the intercom could hear him, and as the ground crew increased their speed getting to him, the five astronauts were all silent as they left planet Mars, and headed into the weak sunlight thousands of feet above.

Chapter 17
 
The Other Half of Mattville

“You OK, buddy?”
asked Max 35 minutes later handing Mars a hand laser. Vitalily handed him a remote suit charger unit.
“Joey and Pete, and the robot are on their way up on the train.”

“I think so,”
sniffed Mars.

They waited saying nothing for twenty minutes until the light of the simple train appeared coming up the tunnel from Mattville.

“Let’s go and see what’s left,” added Vitalily getting up off the lump of gold he was sitting on.
“It sounded like SB-I did a pretty good job. Those Pitts sure make big explosions. To us in Mattville it felt like a massive earthquake.”

“Michael and Penny have, or had a pretty good record of destroying things,”
replied Mars still sniffing and getting off his lump of gold.

Dawn was breaking and the light from the explosion had long disappeared as he followed the five crew members and the mining robot that walked down the short tunnel like a spider.

As soon as Max reached the metal wall, he programed the spider to begin its laser in a circle on the vertical wall. Nobody cared if there was a blue shield on the other side or not.

As the round circle of the wall lazily fell towards them twenty minutes later, they saw the telltale sign of a blue shield begin to protrude through the three-foot wide circle.

“One more shield for us,” stated Max as he bent down and slowly entered the hole in the wall.

With lasers at the ready, one by one the crew entered the enemy base. Max left the robot at the entrance, its job done. The crew couldn’t take the train either as the wall was not open where the tracks went in, and they would have to bend over and negotiate the five-foot high tunnel without it.

The tall crew managed 500 yards before they rested. They rested where the black box of the shield was setup in a hole in the wall.

Unlike the first tunnel Mars are went down, this one showed no signs of damage. The shield had prevented any explosion from getting into this area. It also meant they had another 500 yards to go.

“This is real back breaking work,”
stated Max as they reached to where they expected the tunnel to end. Instead, they found the end of the first shield blended up against a second shield, and slowly each of the crew passed through the double wall and rested.

Five hundred yards later, they reached the second black box. This time they were happy to sit around the box and stretch their backs to loosen them up.

“VIN to Max, how are you doing, over?”

“Hopefully the enemy haven’t learned English yet,”
replied Max into his helmet’s intercom.
“We cut through the wall, are about a mile in, reached a second shield, and must be at worst halfway. Can you get shorter guys to do this next time?”