Chapter 12

That raid had been so easy that we started to make plans to try similar ones, but first, we wanted everybody to have the multi-gun system mounted on their ultralights. The next day was one spent in getting organized to do just that. Bill and Joe were the "gunwrights" who did the actual construction of the rigs with Jeff and Chuck to help as needed. Meanwhile, the rest of us spent as much time as we could looking for more visible laser designators.

Three more were found, but we were going to have to improvise to get more. Sue suggested that we try bundling lecture-room laser pointers, but that did not work as well as we had hoped. Finally, in desperation, we fell back on to the classic iron sights. They helped some, but we really needed the laser designators to be able to have much confidence in our ability to bring down flying craft.

At least, the iron sights worked in helping us get close enough in our aim to have the lasers work the best, so they were added to all of the gun rigs, even my original one. We were short two laser designators, and we were going to have to look farther afield than we normally ventured.

What we finally wound up doing was to fly in a group of three planes to a previously unsearched location. There, we landed and used the planes much as we would have used the ATVs to get around on the streets to look for a gunshop. We did get lucky in that we found what we were looking for in only a short while, so we could now build all of the gun rigs that we needed.

As for practice, two ultralights would square off against each other with the trigger mechanism disabled and try to put the laser designator on the target. This turned out to be great fun, and it did help all of us to improve our aiming skill at a very rapid pace. Every day, at least one pair of planes was in the air practicing, and they usually kept at it until their gas ran out. We had found an ample supply of batteries for the lasers, so there was no problem there.

Those people who were not practicing in the air and had the time for it were practicing their shooting on the ground. This was with regular guns, air guns, and ray guns. The least amount of practice was with the regular guns because we were always fearful of running out of ammunition.

Of course, hunting for winter meat was now high on the agenda, and a lot of time was spent on that. Sam, Jeff, Chuck, and I were the primary hunters, and it was getting close to the time when we could turn over all of the hunting to the youngsters. Mary Johnson was now 10 years old, and the promise of teaching her to fly was honored. When she was not flying, she was learning to be a hunter. Her skill with a gun was remarkable, and she would likely grow into our lead hunter if she learned to track as well as she could shoot.

The snow was late this year, and we took full advantage of that bit of luck. We made two more trips to the Hartford area to try to lure the aliens to attacking us with small groups of troops. The first time we tried it, we repeated the strategy that we had used earlier in the year. The difference was that this time, the aliens sent four of the flying boxes loaded with troops. That meant that we had 36 aliens to fight with 12 people with guns on our side.

This was a close battle, and two of our people were badly scorched by the beam-heated air coming from the aliens. Their shooting accuracy was not improved, and we wondered if they ever took any time out to practice. It made me think of the ancient armies who had to resort to muskets as the aliens fired somewhat willy-nilly at us.

The battle did last longer this time simply because we had to kill more aliens, but the outcome was the same. We had stuck to our conventional guns so that we would not damage any ray guns, and we managed to acquire 36 of them this time.

Bill and Joe insisted that they wanted to examine a flying box to see if there was any chance of us making use of them. I was reluctant of go along until they suggested that a person go with them into the craft with a ray gun. That person's sole duty was to blast the pilot station if something strange started to happen. For example: if the flying box started to take off on its own.

I had to agree that was a sound precaution, so Bill, Joe, and Jeff entered the flying box to see what they could see. Meanwhile, three of our fully armed ultralights took off to fly cover in case more aliens suddenly showed up.

At the same time, Tilly, Sam, Sarah, and I followed the chip carrier to the distillery and destroyed it. I shot down the chip carrier on the way back to the clearing where the battle had been fought. This was a clean sweep, and we were ecstatic over our success.

However, the greatest success came when Joe was able to lift the flying box off the ground under his command. Hot dog, now we had a way to cover more territory. The great thing was that we could carry three of the ultralights, folded up, inside the flying box. Joe, Bill, and Jeff were soon all able to fly the flying boxes. The controls were so simple that we thought that anybody who could fly an ultralight could fly a flying box with only a few minutes of instruction.

The controls consisted of a joystick for directional control, a button to press for landing, a speed control, and a button for on/off. Taking off simply consisted of turning on the lifter, whatever that was, and using the joy stick. Landing seemed to be computer controlled. There was a low-resolution radar and what looked like a radio set in the dashboard. A human pilot had to stand up to operate the controls, but the seat could be reworked with a little welding so that a human could use it. There were several digital readouts, but we could not interpret what they were telling us at this point. We now wondered if the UFOs had controls that were just as simple to use.

The three men worked a relay to get the flying boxes and all of us home that afternoon. The fact that John and Helen could lie down while being transported was a welcome introduction to what we could do with the flying boxes.

When the four flying boxes landed at home, one of the first things done was to paint on all of the accessible surfaces the legend "Human Air Force," followed by a number 1-4 to designate each craft. Later on, we would paint the same lettering on the bottom of the flying box. Somebody suggested painting an American flag beside the legend, and we planned to do that as soon as we could find paint of the proper colors.

We also wanted some other modifications to the flying boxes, but that would take several weeks to complete. On top of that, our appetite was now aroused, and we wanted even more of the flying boxes. The fact that we did not need a runway for the craft made them even more desirable.

At supper that night, the conversation turned to where the aliens were living. None of us had spotted any place that looked like a concentration of aliens or their equipment on the ground, so we figured that they must be living in the mother ships. That certainly would account for the slow response time whenever we caused serious trouble.

If a mother ship happened to be on the far side of Earth in its orbit, it could take a minimum of 1-3 hours for it to be in position to respond to our actions. Furthermore, if the aliens were caught by surprise, they would have to plan and organize their response to us, and that would add more time before they could react directly to us. If that were true, and it certainly seemed so as we thought about it, then that could be a big plus for us in our war with the aliens. All we had to do was to figure out ways to use this time-lag.

Ideally, it would be nice for the aliens to have to establish a base directly on our soil immediately within our reach. Perhaps we could force that to happen if we could make enough trouble for the aliens. Our question was how to do that. So far, our only access to the aliens was through their distilleries, so we would have to concentrate effort on that as much as possible. If we could destroy enough of their property, we might force them to come to us.