Chapter 38: Fire One

Hank Dalton was going to break the conspiracy's back by removing certain slaves from the USR.

These 54 citizens, wrongfully enslaved, were skilled specialists in mind control technologies. In a small compound outside Savannah, Georgia these citizens were working on the next generation of bio-digital slave control implants, the improved software and the other techniques of controlling slaves humanely. They were being held on a compound at the Old Hunter Army Air Field, part of the Fort Stewart complex. This was the largest USR military compound in the world, larger than Fort Polk, larger than Camp Lejeune. There were more than 80,000 military personnel, about 15% of the total USR military personnel but nearly 35% of the USR ground forces.

Hank had briefed the team on the purpose of the mission. It remained to brief them on the tactical plan.

Hank Dalton, Slave Amanda, a free woman named Trix and a squad of Pensacola Amazon Militia (PAM) were heading into this hornet's nest to rescue 54 citizens and arrest another 24 people to turn over to Capitallian authorities. Dalton had delegated the planning to the commando squad leader, a militia sergeant named Donna. Insertion into the target was to be by flying suit after dropping from 15,000 meters altitude 120 kilometers off the coast at an initial speed of 900 kilometers per hour as the cargo transport made an "S" turn to land at the Orlando International Airport in Florida, Capitallian Republic.

"The USR has moved its entire mind control research facility to a staging area last night--moved it from Atlanta, Georgia to Savannah, Georgia," Hank told the strike team. "The timing is a coincidence. China 'bought' the compound. Kandi Cones in the electronic listening post verified all of this. The reason that China wound up with our rescue target is that the Conspiracy of Dreams in the USR is broke. In less than 24 hours China will move those people and their equipment and handlers to the island that used to be called Taiwan. President Proctor's green light arrived just in time. We'd have to move tonight anyway to keep the Chinese from moving those 54 scientists and inventors to China. The old plan had to be scrapped and we're going to snatch them after they've loaded aboard the transport. Yes, ladies, we're going to high jack a Chinese military aircraft from an American military installation at four in the morning."

Amanda was fascinated by the flying commando suits and the commandos themselves. Amanda hadn't even heard of the flying commando suit until a few days ago--now she was certified to fly one from low orbit! As for the commandos, they were artificially enhanced humans.

The commando suit was modular. The base of the suit was powered armor. An external skeleton helped support the armor and the rest of a commando's fighting load. Small electric motors were needed to move the armor. With the commando inside the suit, the ensemble weighed 110 kilograms, 65 of that being the muscular commando. The "skin" of the suit was hardened against weapon fire, of course. Projectile weapons such as rifles and machine guns couldn't penetrate unless three armor piercing rounds hit the same 3 centimeter area. Shell fragments had to be large and travel at high velocity.

The commando could wade through a gasoline-fueled fire without damage--provided the commando didn't spend more than five minutes in the fire. Direct energy weapon effects were shunted so that less than 10% of the energy reached the commando--enough so that most stun gun shots were ineffective. The suit was designed for a 72-hour mission--commandos could wear their suits in chemically-contaminated environments.

Limited underwater operations to 30 meters depth could be conducted with add-on gill modules, and for high altitude or space operations the commando armor was already pressurized--just add oxygen to replace that consumed by the commando. Electricity was produced through a small converter that could recycle muscle power or produce electricity from a limited supply of fuel--the electrical power was a major limitation.

The suit was equipped with full sensory equipment across the spectrum--it could measure radiation, determine chemical composition, allow the commando to see in total darkness, detect energy sources, hear faint sounds (yet the commando was isolated from dangerously loud noise) and even weigh the mass of objects. Communications and computer equipment permitted interface with smart weapons, with the global satellite network, with each other. The commando was provided with life support supplies other than breathable air and comfortable suit temperature. Water came in a drinking tube.

There were "sanitary pads" that could be replaced in hostile environments--even in a hard vacuum--so that the commando could urinate in the suit. Defecation hadn't been satisfactorily solved yet; commandos would give each other enemas prior to a mission, and the crotch piece could be detached if the environment wasn't too hostile--when planning missions, the doctrine of PAM was that Murphy's Law ruled the battlefield. The commando had a feeding tube that provided fortified glucose capsules to keep a commando going even when eating was otherwise impossible. Amanda rapidly adapted to the flying suit and its many features readily--except for having to piss and shit in her clothes. Amanda had spent decades being "potty trained" and now she was required to soil her panties.

"Master," Amanda asked, "you have the ability to remove my anxiety. I'm not afraid of falling in the simulators. Are you inoculating me against fear by letting me experience humiliation because I have to pee in my suit?"

"Amanda is a good girl," Hank repeated Amanda's post-hypnotic comfort phrase. "I like your high intelligence. Yes, Amanda, I made you suffer. You rose to the occasion. Courage has to be learned, like most everything we humans do. Facing up to your fear of humiliation exercises your courage muscles."

"Crapping my panties and then letting one of the drones clean me up doesn't take much courage, Master," Amanda objected.

"We humans are wired funny," Hank explained. "Commandos would rather face horribly painful death than humiliation. You overcame the commando's worse fear: humiliation. Courage has to be exercised. You were brave for me, Amanda. This operation is going to be very dangerous. There are three Chinese aircraft to take possession of and the commando squad has been maxed out, but there are still only five commandos per plane. We are outnumbered 80,000 to 16, not counting the Chinese security detail. There are 80,000 USR soldiers at Fort Stewart and Old Hunter Army Air Field. We are just 16 commandos. USR sources has clearance for three air crews of five men each and a security detail of thirty men. There are also a dozen Chinese techs. We have only time to speed learn the 60 critical words and phrases along with revised mission rehearsals, but you can use the on-board language translation program--if they will hold still for text. The module can speak for you, but the software to translate spoken language isn't perfected yet."

A few moments later Hank returned wearing an oxygen mask and tank--and nothing else...

"We need to purge nitrogen from our systems," Hank handed masks to Donna and Amanda.

"Why the masks?" Amanda asked. "Why not flood a feelie booth with oxygen?"

"Apollo One," Donna responded. "High-pressure pure-oxygen atmospheres make mere flammables explosive. On January 27, 1967 three gentlemen named Virgil Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaufee died when a fire raged through their space capsule. The Apollo One crew's nylon spacesuits melted to their bodies in the fires. From then on nitrogen purging was done with oxygen masks to reduce the risks of catastrophic fire. We need nitrogen purging to prevent decompression sickness. Our mission will take us from 15,000 meters altitude--that's still in the troposphere--to minus 30 meters. It is possible for your suit to rupture at altitude. Even though you don't really need a pressure suit at 15,000 meters the nitrogen purge is standard because the commando suit is rated for hard vacuum and used as a space suit. Yes, we're not going into space and we don't have the deep diving kits for our commando armor, but nitrogen purge is our standard operating procedure. While we're purging we'll complete our mission rehearsals."

"The mission is to rescue the 54 captives," Hank reminded them. "I'd like you to run a simulations with us grabbing all three aircraft--I think we'll save time unloading and reloading that way. Those Airbus copies the Chinese use are optimized for long range and only need one pilot each--just reprogram their all-glass cockpits for English instead of Chinese with the revised flight plan and we're golden. The high-tech aircraft are actually easier to steal than the oldies because the high tech birds are easier to fly. I do like the diversions you've programmed--and weaponizing the lighting and public address systems. You can run through both plans in simulations and see which takes longer--moving all the captives to one plane or letting our enemies load up for us and then seizing all three planes.

"Donna, it's your mission," Hank continued. "I'm along for contingencies--this is the most complicated and dangerous mission and something else can happen to derail it. Our rescue mission moved from outside Atlanta to Savannah in just one day. The USR is desperate for cash. They SOLD those slaves to China despite the official USR policy that slavery is illegal--China's official policy too. Amanda and myself and one other will be a separate cell supporting your mission. I'm in reserve for Teddy Roosevelt's Insurance Program."

"Teddy Roosevelt's Insurance Program?" Amanda asked.

"Hank often quotes Teddy," Donna smirked. "President Roosevelt said to make preparations in advance, that you'd never have trouble if you were ready for it. Hank believes in preparing for every possibility. That way even when everything goes wrong, it's not a surprise. Just in case we all have Direct Energy Weapon-Sidearm built into the fore arms of our suits and the actual commandos have a Direct Energy Weapon-Infantry mounted on their backs to fire hands-free over the shoulder."

"Hank," Donna continued, chuckling, "I'm no house pet. I haven't been afraid of offending you even when I was your slave. You worry too much about my feelings, boss, even though you pretend otherwise. You aren't insulting me by asking for a second simulation--you are just taking care of me and the rest of the girls, as always. I will run my plan in simulations to move everybody into one airplane against seizing control of all three airplanes in simulations and see which takes longer."

Hours later, all of the commandos were napping, their slumber protected by Sugar and the other guards. The commandos slept in their combat suits--a skill Amanda recently acquired. 'Sleep' may have been the wrong description. First, the chemicals normally replaced naturally during sleep were artifically replaced. Second, the dream cycle was co-opted to rehearse the mission. Twentieth Century 'sleep learning' neglected to replace the sleep chemicals and so either the sleeper got no sleep or the sleeper failed to learn--or both. The artificial sleep cycle came to an end and the fifteen females and Hank Dalton woke up alert, ready for action. Five minutes later the commando team members had refilled their water reservoirs, their feeding system, replaced their 'adult diaper' crotch piece liners and the on board fuel cells were fully charged.

"We're about to go through the mission brief again," Donna's voice interrupted their naps through the commando implants. "We'll practice in the simulators with full suits and run through to different plans."

The next hours passed rapidly. The actual operation was planned to take less than fifteen minutes from the time the commandos hit the ground to the captured aircraft lifting off the Old Hunter Army Air Field outside Savannah, Georgia, United States of America (aka United States Remnant). After two simulations, the commandos decided to hit all three aircraft at once and bring them to Bangor, Maine, Republic of Capitallia. There were five commandos assigned to each aircraft and Hank Dalton would be attached to the first aircraft. The total time to take over the aircraft and lift off was seven minutes and thirty seconds in the simulation.

"Time to load up," Donna said after the third simulation was completed. "We will nap on the way there. We are three hours from the drop zone, it will take us 24 minutes to fly from the drop zone to the target. Hank will have diversions and we will have some sid animals supporting us. The forces surrounding us will be diverted through false orders. Finally, Trix has hacked into the Antonov transport aircraft's computers and weaponized their lighting and intercom systems."

Amanda asked how that weaponization was done.

"The Chinese copied the Antonov 126's airframe with improved turbofan engines," Hank was speaking in professor mode. "The avionics are totally Chinese, quite good on their own. The lighting and audio systems are controlled by the computers as part of the energy conservation system. Aircraft traditionally are powered by 400 Hertz alternating current voltages. By strobing the lights at a specific series of frequencies, humans are put into a seizure.