Chapter 6

We settled into a heavy training schedule. I felt especially harassed, since I had to run things in general and teach our pilot candidates how to handle the ultra lights, which we were now calling Eagle 1, 2, and 3. The ultra lights were not that difficult to fly, and my students took to flying like they were birds, themselves. As soon as they were reliable enough pilots, I started training observers to go with them. We set up a target range and had the pilots practice strafing runs. Both the pilots and observers enjoyed that bit of practice.

As soon as the air crews were able to handle missions on their own, I sent out Eagle 2 and Eagle 3 on scouting and mapping missions. We had a laptop computer that we could download the pictures to, so we had maps made of aerial photographs and updated them after every mission. Actually, the way it worked was we sent the memory cards from the cameras to our offices on Time Line Prime, as I was now calling it, and had the local experts construct the maps for us and send them back on DVDs. The experts back at the offices were so good at their job that a large printout of the maps made it feel like you were really flying over the area you were looking at.

None of the troops had ever seen a map before, so I needed to make sure they understood what a map was and what it represented. To do that, I gave each trooper a photo map of Karak and sent them up on a 15 minute flight so that they could see from the air the huts and the people walking around so that they could grasp what a map told them. The results were remarkable, both from the training aspect with the maps, and the number of people who wanted to be pilots and observers after their first ride. Of course, there were some who vowed never to get off the ground again—one bout of airsickness was enough to last a lifetime!

This flying experience gave me another idea, so I asked for two more Eagles. We soon had four Eagles in regular service in our new Air Force, and that didn't count Eagle 1, which was my personal plane. Now we had enough pilots and planes that we could mount an even more thorough surveillance of our territory than we had done before. I gradually increased the radius of our air coverage to the point that nobody was going to sneak up on us, again.

The pilots had orders to shoot down any enemy planes they spotted. They could follow them as far as they had to, to score a victory, but I warned them of dire consequences if they went so far that they ran out of fuel before they could get home. I was hoping for another encounter with a spotter plane, but, now that I knew the energy costs of transporting such a large volume, I wasn't surprised that we had not seen another one. I just hoped that the enemy never brought in a helicopter gun ship!

Speaking of a helicopter gun ship, I asked Hasup if the Arklet Army had such a device. I was relieved to hear that we did.

Dammit, it was frustrating to have to wait for the enemy to come to us. If we knew where they were hiding, we might be able to take the fight to them. We now had 240 infantry, plus the needed officers, four Eagles in our Air Force, and four pieces of mobile artillery. Our morale was good, but it would start to fade if we didn't have any more fighting pretty damned soon. I asked Hasup if there was some way that we could detect when the Bustols transported in and where they were located.

Hasup thought that there were some experiments being run to do that, but there was no field equipment to do the job. She sent a message asking for the status of that investigation and saying that we needed help if it was available.

The reply we got was that they had a device in the late stages of development, and they needed a place to test it. Would we cooperate by providing a test situation?

We replied almost before the last words of the message were displayed. Absolutely, we would be pleased to do what we could to help with the development of the system. When could they get here?

It would take a week for them to get ready for a preliminary field test. They would be bringing two truckloads of equipment and 12 technicians and researchers. We replied that we could easily accommodate them, but they would have to live in tents for the time that they would be here. Was that acceptable? Yes it was quite acceptable. Gen. Isrult would accompany the experimental team.

Shit! What had we done wrong that the general was doing a personal inspection? I couldn't think of anything, and Hasup couldn't either, so we would just have to wait on pins and needles until the general showed up. About an hour later, we got relief from our anxiety. There was a message from Gen. Isrult, "Capt. McDonald, please relax. This is not an inspection. I have been so pleased with your progress so far, that I wanted to see the operation for myself. I am coming as a tourist just to see what a guerrilla operation is really like. Please don't put yourself or your people to any trouble on my account. I know that you will have trouble believing this, but I really mean it. I am looking forward to seeing you in a few days."

"Good day, Gen. Isrult. I'm glad you could take the time to look us over. We were concerned when we first heard that you were visiting here, but we took your note to heart, and are continuing to do things at our normal pace. I must tell you that we have no way to form a welcoming parade, because we have never tried to teach our people to march. Come, Sir, and let me introduce you to Onlat-bin, the headman of Karak-a-bolva."

What followed was an awkward meeting between two elderly men who had no idea how to talk to each other. However, it was not awkward for very long, as both men were able to relax and talk to each other as allies and nearly friends. True friendship should come soon.

The field test of the new equipment appeared to be successful. We were told that the enemy was moving in things at a fairly rapid pace, and it was all being done at a place approximately 850 klicks away at 342 degrees true azimuth. Well, that was where the spotter plane seemed to come from, so it looked to us like a reasonable finding. The trouble was, we needed to verify that with the Mark 1 eyeball.

Our ultra lights were not able to fly that far and get back without refueling twice. This was a tough nut to crack. The obvious thing to do was to bring in a light plane from Time Line Prime and fly over for a look. The question was, could we afford the energy expenditure? My feeling was, how could we not afford it? If we were going to win this war, we had to know what our enemy was doing and where he was doing it. I made the presentation to Gen. Isrult, and, thank God, he bought into the plan.

The next step was to bring in a plane, a two-seater, and a pilot. None of us was qualified to fly anything more than an ultra light, so we needed a professional pilot. They brought in a little two-seat observation plane, a pilot, and two mechanics. To save energy, the fuselage was shipped without the wings. The wings came in separately, and the two mechanics did the final assembly. While they were about it, they also supplied us with enough fuel, lubricants, etc. to provide for four round trips. Gen. Isrult knew how to run an operation!

As soon as everything was ready, the pilot and I took off for our first inspection. For protection, I had along my AA-12 with FRAG-12 explosive and HEAP rounds. I hoped we didn't need to use the gun, but I never went anywhere without some sort of weapon.

The plane was slow, capable of around 230 KPH at maximum, but it would cruise at 180 KPH for hours. We flew for five hours with me dozing most of the way. The pilot woke me when she saw what looked like a conventional military compound in the distance. She climbed to our maximum altitude of 3 klicks, and we flew over the place with me madly snapping pictures as fast as the camera could take them. I had been told that this was all the specialists back home (as I was beginning to think of Time Line Prime) needed to tell me all I needed to know about the place.