Drone Wars 1: Day of the Drone (9 page)

Xander felt Tiffany’s arms wrap around his midsection. “Just give me a little warning before you do any really fancy moves.”

“I’ll try. Now hold on, we’re heading out.”

Xander leaned to his right and the craft spun around, aiming at the door to the vault. The movement of the hoverbike was smooth, with only minimal bounce. He remembered the first time he’d tried one of these contraptions—a more primitive version than this one—and how the ride was like running the rapids on the Colorado River. Since then the technology had been refined to the point where you could thread a needle while riding on one.

With the tail rotors providing the forward thrust, the hoverbike proceeded out of the vault and down the long chamber toward the exterior doors set in a false façade of what appeared to be long-closed down mining operation a mile through the mountain.

Since the RDC was an arm of the U.S. military, the Mallory Hoverbike wasn’t built simply for transportation. It hosted a full arsenal of both offensive and defensive weapons, including dual .60’s submachine guns mounted to either side of the lower battery box. The standard load would be two hundred rounds for each. These were real killer rounds, much heavier than could carried aboard a standard combat drone.

He also had at his disposal six miniature Talon missiles, which could be set either for heat-seeking or line-of-sight targeting. Since most attack drones operated on battery power, heat-seeking wasn’t that effective against them. If need be, he would use the joystick at the center of his steering column to find and capture an enemy target on the tiny monitor set just forward of the joystick. Once locked in, the missile was effective for up to twenty miles and at a speed of six hundred miles per hour.

The arsenal at his disposal should make him nearly invincible against the smaller quads and octs roaming the Center. At least that was the theory. In reality, this was only the third time he’d ever been on this particular model of hoverbike, and never had he been allowed to play with the weaponry aboard. He had no illusions that the desert outside the base would be clear of hostiles. In fact, as he neared the hidden entrance doors to the testing chambers, he found them to be open to the outside world, allowing free access to the base.

Xander squinted against the bright desert sunlight pouring through the gaping entrance, yet his eyes grew wide when he spotted four large Maverick quadcopters resting on the floor near the doorway. These were RPAs, connected to the outside world and their pilots by portable relay stations, often dropped by other drones or helicopters within an operational area. To Xander’s relief, their propellers were still, so he hoped the pilots were off doing something other than guarding the entrance. With the main battle for the RDC winding down, he wouldn’t be surprised if a number of other RPAs were now entering the base, allowing live operators to assess the damage and engage in specific mop-up duties, including gaining access to the vault with all the top-secret prototypes.

He slowed the hovercar while simultaneously flicking open the end cap on the center joystick. He toggled the switch inside until the monitor located between the handlebars came to life. There was a circle at the center of the screen, and Xander manipulated the toggle until the circle was positioned on the first quadcopter.

“What are you doing?” Tiffany asked. “They’re asleep. Maybe we should leave them alone.”

“They won’t be quiet all the time. Their pilots could come back and then use them to kill more of my friends. Besides, I need the practice.”

He pressed the center button under his thumb and a short burst of .60 caliber slugs rang out. The first drone shattered into a thousand pieces, even as the burst raked the second drone behind it. Xander then moved the circle over to the drones on the other side of the runway—just as they both came to life and shot into the air.

The two menacing drones climbed to the ceiling of the chamber and spun around until their weapons aimed at the hovercar.

“Hold on!”

Xander leaned to his left and gunned the rotors, causing their ride to turn at an almost ninety degree angle to the floor. A series of bullets ricocheted off the metal deck directly along the path that the hovercraft had just traveled. Now the left side of the chamber was zooming up in front of them, and it took another radical lean to the right to change course enough to avoid a head-on collision. The hovercar turned nearly on its side, appearing to ride along the side wall until it swung back to the horizontal.

The two enemy drones dove for the deck, coming up behind the hoverbike. Xander began to rock the vehicle back and forth as another series of bullets sped past. And then suddenly they burst out into the bright desert sunlight.

Outside, Xander had maneuvering room, except for one issue: the car was not designed to fly, and now it was shooting out the entrance at over sixty miles per hour, and the short level ground outside the false mine entrance was only about a hundred yards wide, a distance they traversed in a matter of seconds. Beyond that was a nearly vertical drop off to the base of a canyon a thousand feet below. Without any solid surface to push against, the force of the propellers wasn’t strong enough to keep the hoverbike aloft.

And so they dropped—maybe not like a rock, but like a very heavy feather.

With the air being pulled from their lungs by the sudden freefall, Xander managed to point the craft nose-down to follow the natural contour of the hillside, a maneuver that caused them to pick up even more speed. The ground rushed up below them, until he leveled off and gunned the motors. A blinding cloud of sand and dust was thrown up around them as the wind from the props finally found something to push against. Yet still the hovercraft bounced, causing Tiffany to slip to the left and nearly out of her seat. Only the safety belt kept her on the craft. She clawed at Xander’s left arm, trying to regain her balance.

Xander wasn’t expecting this, and his arm gripping the steering column was pulled to the left, sending the craft into a violent and rapid spin. It twisted into three full circles, stirring up a mushrooming cloud of sand before Xander could right the craft.

“Dammit, Tiffany, you almost killed us!”

“Me? You’re the one who flew us off the edge of a cliff.”

Once the dust had settled, Xander aimed the hoverbike down the remaining slope at a more reasonable angle, looking to the monitor screen for any signs of the two remaining enemy drones. They were still following, even though they could only go about forty-five miles per hour. The hoverbike was just outside their firing range, but that wouldn’t keep the drones from reporting their position and calling for backup.  

“Hold on, we’re turning around.”

“Are you crazy?”

“Just do it!”

Xander leaned hard to his right and the hoverbike performed a tilting turn and lined up on a course aimed directly at the pursuing drones. He fingered the toggle for missiles. Two foot-long projectiles dropped from the base of the hovercraft before lighting off, then they streaked away leaving a trail of puffy white smoke behind.

Xander had line-of-sight control of the missiles, and he manipulated his thumb on the top toggle switch on the joystick with minute movements. The enemy drones were pilot-guided and they darted off to each side to avoid the incoming missiles. Xander sent the left missile into a sharp turn that cut off the angle of the nearest Maverick drone. A split second later a relatively small explosion off in the distance signified a kill.

The second drone had managed to spin away and was now lining up on their right side. Tiny puffs of gunfire erupted from the craft, and an instant later Xander and Tiffany heard the high-pitched zing of bullets streaking by. Two of the bullets hit the side of the hoverbike just behind Tiffany’s legs. She lifted them up and wrapped her legs around Xander’s waist in a movement that was a little too late. Luckily, nothing vital was struck, even as the bike was twisted toward the right from the impacts.

Maintaining this new course, Xander gunned the hoverbike and sped away. He switched the toggle control to that of the second Talon missile which was now in a long looping circle high overhead. He placed the targeting circle on the remaining enemy drone and brought the missile screaming down from almost directly above the Maverick. Even without the explosive charge, the tremendous collision would have destroyed the drone, which didn’t even see the missile dropping on it from the heavens.

“Good job!” Tiffany yelled from the rear seat. “I hope there aren’t any more of those bastards out here.”

“Even if there aren’t, it’s a sure bet they reported our leaving.”

“So what? I’m sure they didn’t expect to kill everyone at the Center. They had to assume some people would survive.”

“You’re right.” Xander looked out at the sides of the narrow desert canyon they now traveled, heading east. The mountain would soon taper out and they would be in the vast, flat desert heading out towards Lake Meade. He looked at the power gauge.

“We’re going to have to find an alternative mode of transportation pretty soon,” he called back over his shoulder. “This thing is just about out of juice.”

“Any ideas?”

“Yeah, one. I hope we can make it.”

********

Six minutes later, the hoverbike hopped over a short, barbed-wire topped fence and closed on a cluster of small hangars isolated at the northeast edge of Nellis Air Force Base. Xander slowed the vehicle as it swept in over an expanse of white concrete leading up to the largest of the four buildings.

As he set the bike on the surface and shut down the motors, a young airman in blue and black camo fatigues and armed with an HK M27 infantry rifle appeared at a small door set to the left of the hangar door. He had the weapon leveled at them.

“Stop where you are!” he commanded. “I
will
shoot.”

Xander raised his arms. Tiffany followed with the same gesture a second later. “Relax, Airman, I’m with the RDC.”

“This isn’t RDC property. You shouldn’t be here.”

“We escaped from the Center, and I assume by now you know what’s going on.”

The young man motioned with the barrel of his rifle to his right, toward the main part of Nellis AFB located five miles away. “Oh yeah, I know what’s going on.”

Xander and Tiffany looked to their left as well, where they saw a wide curtain of black smoke rising up in a line.

“They took out the whole flight line in a matter of seconds. Came out of a couple of semi tractor-trailers out on North Las Vegas Boulevard, tiny things with bombs that hopped the fence and slammed into the helos and planes—mainly the helos. Some of the jets got away, but what can they do against little basketball-size things?”

“What are you doing here?” Xander asked.

“This is my emergency duty station. I’m supposed to have backup, but no one else came.”

“Lower your weapon, son,” Xander said. It was the first time he’d ever addressed someone as “son.” It just sounded right for the moment.

“You’re on a drone of some kind. How do I know you’re not one of them?”

“Think about it. All the attacking drones are unmanned, with their pilots hiding away somewhere else. We’re here, in the open. C’mon, we’re all on the same side here.”

Slowly the scared airman lowered his weapon. Xander and Tiffany slipped off the hoverbike and approached the hangar. “I’m Xander Moore, senior pilot for the Rapid Defense Center.”

“Sam Nash, Airman First Class.” He looked at the disheveled Tiffany Collins.

She reached out her hand to the airman. “Tiffany Collins, Fox News.”

“Oh my God, I recognize you!”

Even in her current physical state, Tiffany melted the young man with her smile.

Xander poked his head inside the hangar. “This is General McKinney’s private hangar, isn’t it?”

“I believe so.”

The three of them moved inside. The only thing in the hangar was a tall, oblong object covered by a large green tarp. Xander walked up to the tarp and pulled. With some effort, the heavy canvas began to slide off.