Chapter 68

Richards teleported me into range of the complex on Hawaii without any problems and I arrived there roughly fifteen minutes ahead of the shuttles that had flown the whole way under their own power. With the combat load I was carrying and the time over the target area that I would need to unleash that load, I'd be almost on fumes by the time I got the craft onto the ground. Hopefully I wouldn't run into any problems.

The time spent waiting for Richards to teleport the Sparrow Hawk and me to my drop off point had been spent preparing the craft to operate in the hostile atmosphere of the alternate Earth. One of the first things that Richards technicians got to work on was to seal as many openings as they could possibly seal that would let atmosphere into the Sparrow Hawk's cockpit. They also tried to pressurize it as best they could given the time they had at their disposal, available technology, and space. To help me out they found me a chemical warfare suit to wear while I flew the craft and an independent oxygen source. Thankfully the suit was one of theirs and it was light weight and comfortable and I could wear the heads-up combat control module that operated the Sparrow Hawk's weapon systems within the chemical suit's helmet. That was indeed a plus.

My onboard alarms started to ring the moment I came out of the teleportation and I started my run on the island. The alarms weren't my defensive systems kicking in. Instead they were my system alarms telling me that I was having problems keeping the Sparrow Hawk in the air. Richards had dropped me a good ten miles outside the one-hundred mile limit of the island's defensive ring so that I could get my bearings and prepare myself for crossing the line. As I had feared back at the other complex the pollutants in the atmosphere were playing havoc with my engines. Richards' people had tried to install protective filters and screens over my engines air intakes but there was only so much they were able to do without impeding the operation of the Sparrow Hawk. Adding to the overall problem was visibility. The atmosphere looked like pea soup and I couldn't see a thing. My only real hope was that I could keep the bird up long enough to make it to the island and the bubble of clean air that existed there. I did my best to fix my problems as I pointed my nose landward. In seconds I crossed the invisible line and then things got even worse.

My defensive radar system immediately picked up a hot signal and it warned me that somebody on the ground was tracking me. Being a hundred miles out, there was very little I could do about that except to put the pedal to the metal and to drop down towards the ocean below me in an effort to mask my signature. As I did I made a mental note to chat with Miranda Scott and Peter Richards about their assurances that they'd dealt with the threat. Next time I'd put one of them in the hot seat and see how they'd like it.

It didn't help dropping down to sea level. The first thing that happened was more problems with my engines. The pollutants were thicker closer to sea level and the available oxygen in it dropped off. All my system alarms started to scream at me again and it didn't matter what I did, they wouldn't stop squawking. After a moment or two of indecision I pulled back on the Sparrow Hawk's yoke and took the bird back up to cruising altitude. It was a rough and bumpy ride but as I slowly gained some altitude, my alarms began to shut down. However it didn't silence my defensive radar at all. In fact that was screaming even louder as I flew on towards the island and before I knew it my heads-up display told me that I had an incoming missile. My radar tracked it from launch point and reported that it would hit me in a matter of minutes. Instinctively I started taking evasive action but my radar showed that the missile would change course every time I did. I cursed my luck and said fuck it. I levelled off and quickly armed one of the Sparrow Hawk's countermeasures. The craft was equipped with a radar jamming system that might or might not work against the ground system that was tracking me. The system just didn't have the same output power as a ground station. It would however jam the onboard radar system of the incoming missile once the missile got into lock-on range.

I waited with white knuckles until the missile was within a minute of impact and then I switched it on. As I did, I also launched a chaff rocket just before rolling my craft over and heading down towards the sea again. I had to fight the Sparrow Hawk the whole way, what with its engines running rough but thankfully my efforts paid off. The incoming missile went for the chaff and it detonated high about me. The moment I heard the bang I started climbing again. Even as I did, my defensive radar started screaming again.

The bastards had fired another missile at me and since I was a lot closer to the island, its flight time was a lot shorter. My radar showed that it had launched from the same location as before and I decided that I needed to take care of the launcher and to take care of it soon. My jamming system was still on so all I really needed to do was to arm a chaff rocket and launch it. When it was ready, I fired it off and rolled away again. For the second time in a row I got lucky. The incoming missile went for the chaff and forgot all about me.

I however had not forgotten about the launcher and even as I levelled off again, I was hard at it. I punched in my attack radar and I soon got a lock-on the launcher. I was now down to fifty miles from the island and the distance between us was getting closer and closer as I went. With the lock-on, I armed one of my air-to-surface missiles and got it ready for firing. As I did, my defensive radar picked up a couple of bogies taking off from the island. These were small and fast moving, yet they didn't have the same kind of signature as either of the missiles that had been fired at me already. Suspecting armed drones or something of that kind of threat, I activated my air-to-air defences and prepared myself for a fight.

I got the air-to-surface missile away before I had to deal with the two incoming bogies. I launched at forty miles out and watched as the missile spat out from under the Sparrow Hawk and then streaked away from my craft going from zero to Mach 2 in a matter of seconds. The missile was on target all the way in, striking it even before I had to turn my attention to defending myself. When it struck, my onboard battle computer sent a message to my heads-up display saying that the target had been destroyed. That made me very happy indeed. Then I rolled my bird to the right and tried for a lock-on against the two closing bogies.

The bogies were about ten miles out when I finally turned my attention towards them. I got a lock-on the first one without any problem and I immediately fired one of my air-to-air missiles. That baby streaked away from me like a bolt of lightening and a moment later I saw a huge explosion up ahead of me. Again my onboard battle computer sent me a message telling me that the target had been destroyed. With a two-for-two streak in offensive fire I decided to try for the third. I went for another lock-on the second bogie and when I got it, I fired my second air-to-air missile. A moment later, the bogie was gone.

I was now just thirty miles out and I was closing fast on the island. Flying had gotten easier as I had closed on the island. As I had been told before leaving the other complex, there was a clean atmosphere bubble around the island and I was now into it. The Sparrow Hawk had stopped screaming at me because it was getting what it needed to stay up and I was able to push the craft a little harder. I still kept it at cruising altitude and avoided going down on the deck again in fear of what might happen. While I wasn't getting any alarms anymore, I wasn't sure of what kind of mechanical damage had already occurred so far and I didn't want to push anything. Besides that I had other problems to worry about. Just after splashing the second bogie, I picked up two more missiles coming for me and I had to focus on them.

The problem with these two missiles was that they were coming from different locations of the island and both of them were climbing up at me fast. I had just enough time to prepare another chaff rocket and fire it before they got into striking range. Then I nosed the Sparrow Hawk down and to the side. The first missile went for the chaff but the second one didn't. The missile shot past the blast area of the first missile and then it swung about and it locked onto my tail. I cursed and tried to shake it off but the blasted thing just kept on coming. Luckily I had one more trick up my sleeve and I didn't hesitate using it. I quickly prepped a flare and then I dropped it behind me as I rolled out of the way.

The blast of the exploding missile shook my craft and caused all kinds of alarms to join the cacophony of alerts and messages ringing in my ears. I started to punch buttons and correct what I could. My right engine was giving me problems and I had to focus on that. At the same time my defensive radar alerted me to another missile. Quickly I armed my last chaff rocket and prepped it to fire. As I launched it and rolled out of the way, my right engine stalled. Cursing under my voice I started compensating for my drop in power so that I didn't go plunging into the dark waters that lay a quarter mile below me. When that was sorted out I started my emergency procedures to get my right engine going again. At the same time, I prepped an air-to-surface missile for launching and I went for a lock-on against the last launcher that had fired on me. As my right engine started coughing and sputtering, I fired my missile and cursed the fact that I didn't have a weapons officer with me. Life would have been so much easier if all I had to do was fly the bird.

My missile hit without any problems and my right engine turned over after a couple of tries. By then the air about me had started to clear and I actually could see out of my cockpit. I saw the island ahead of me and I marvelled at the sight. The air over it was totally clear and the island was covered with lush vegetation. It made me wonder about the people who lived below. Obviously they had a better life than their fellow citizens.

I didn't get that long to think about it. While I had destroyed the last launcher to fire upon me another one was still out there and I needed to eliminate it before it could open up on me. I quickly armed one of my air-to-surface missiles and I called up my target information from my battle computer. A moment later I was launching the missile. At the same time I put my nose down and headed for the deck. A moment later I spotted the impact and smiled for the first time in the last fifteen minutes. By then I was closing on the shoreline and I knew that I would be over land in a matter of seconds. That was when I took a hit.

The impact of rounds hitting the armour of the Sparrow Hawk startled me. Instinctively I rolled the bird away from the direction of the incoming fire. Cursing I checked my heads-up display to find out where the enemy fire had come from. As I did, I came under fire again. Reacting with enhanced reflexes, I pulled the bird up and out of the way at the last moment and avoided any further chance of taking damage. As I did, I quickly checked my list of remaining offensive weapons. I had one air-to-surface missile left and I decided to use it. I quickly called it up and then I went for a lock-on. The missile was away a second later and the target was destroyed a moment later. It had been a remote point defence system mounted on a hill overlooking the beach that I had just crossed. The chain gun and its ammunition went up like fireworks.

I was now just minutes from my target and I was doing everything I could to get there. I kept as low as I could and I flew following the contours of the land. As I turned inland I picked up the transponder signals of the ten shuttles that were carrying my strike force. From my radar I knew that they were already past the invisible line and I started praying that I had eliminated all the threats that had been waiting for them. I soon found out that I hadn't.

My radar picked up another missile launching from a location near the complex I was headed for. My onboard battle computer calculated the trajectory of the missile and determined that it was heading out towards the incoming shuttles. Cursing once more I instinctively swung my bird about and armed an air-to-air missile. When I got a lock-on beep I fired. I had no idea if my missile would hit the other missile at all or what. I was actually hoping that my missile would act sort of like the chaff rockets and that the surface-to-air missile would lock on to it when it came into range. It was the only thing I could think of doing. Miraculously my plan worked. As the surface-to-air missile accelerated out over the water heading towards the shuttles, my own missile closed with it and then bam, one of them hit the other and that was all they wrote. I didn't even bother checking my battle computer for an instant replay to see which missile destroyed which missile. I had too many other things to worry about. With no more air-to-surface missiles left, I had to rely on my fixed cannons to deal with the launcher before another missile launched. Quickly adjusting my course and arming my weapons, I went for it.

The launcher in question was within a mile of the complex I was going for. I came in as fast as I could and when I had a lock-on I opened fire with all four of my cannons. A stream of shells flew towards the launcher and tore it apart. An explosion accompanied the destruction and a moment later the mounting it was on just disintegrated into a jumble of concrete and dust. Whatever had exploded internally had wiped out the entire installation. Riding out the blast I rolled away from it and then headed in on my final approach. That was when I took another hit and this time the impact of incoming fire almost took me out of the sky.

Again my warning alarms started screaming at me as I tried to pull the Sparrow Hawk up before it ploughed into the treetops. My right engine was down again and this time fire was coming from it. Hitting a button I killed the fuel flow to that engine and then I hit another button to activate the fire suppression system. As I did I took another hit. This time the whole craft shook and the canopy on the Sparrow Hawk started to crack. Angry and frustrated, I rolled the bird out of the path of fire once again and dropped it down into a valley behind a ridge that ran away from the complex that I was heading for. Levelling out I swung the Sparrow Hawk around and brought it back towards the point defence weapon that had been pounding me. The weapon was sitting on a hill adjacent to the opening to the complex's hanger and I needed to take it out before any other craft tried to land. I checked my weapons again and my airspeed and then popped up over the ridge so I could start my attack run. Almost immediately I started taking fire once again. I swayed back and forth a couple of times and avoided the brunt of the ground fire but there was really no way of avoiding it all. A warning siren started blaring to tell me that my cockpit had been punctured and that the outside atmosphere was getting in. I silently prayed that whatever the air was like out there around the complex that it was safe enough not to kill me. I then locked my weapons onto the chain gun blasting at me and I let it rip. Again my aim was bang on and I blew the shit out of the weapon. As it exploded another warning light came on to just make my day. My other engine had just crapped out.

I was going down and I was going down fast. I quickly corrected my flight path as best I could and I aimed the Sparrow Hawk at the opening to the hanger. I dropped my landing gear and started to pray once more. A second later I was into the hanger and I was fast approaching the ground. I was a couple of feet into it when my defensive radar kicked in once more. It really didn't need to do that because I saw the threat the moment my wheels hit the ground. There were robots up ahead waiting for me and they were all armed. As the Sparrow Hawk started to slow down, they opened fire.

There were twenty of the robots and they weren't the small security type mechanical men that I was used to dealing with. These robots were the larger ones with chain guns fitted into their right arms. They were formed up in two ranks and they all concentrated their fire on the nose of my craft and the cockpit I was sitting in. There were only two things I could do in response. The first was to ride it out and pray that their fire wouldn't hit anything vital or set the craft ablaze and the second was to return fire myself. I hit the button for the fixed cannons and held it down.

Well I was lucky once more. The fire from the robots did tear apart the cockpit but most of the rounds hit everything but me. I did take a ricochet or two including one that did a job on my oxygen mask but for the most part I was in one piece. It helped that my cannons proved to be more effective. At several hundred feet they tore into the two ranks of robots and simply turned most of them into junk. Those that were still standing when I rolled to a halt were dropping back and regrouping. That gave me a moment to do something else in an effort to save my life. I fired my last two air-to-air missiles and then I bailed out of the Sparrow Hawk.