Chapter 11

The A-10 came whispering over the ridge and settled into the valley, a second right behind it. If there had been a car on the road on the ridge the driver would have seen the pair ghosting along feet above the river ... if there had been a car on that road.

Junior and Connie were on another mission: Let's see how close we can get to the airbase before they catch us. They were flying OPFOR (Opposition Force) Recon as if they were scouting the enemy and intended on guiding attacking forces to the base. The Northern Tier was now the fourth largest nuclear power in the world. They had seceded from the Union and joined the Princessapality.

The former state of Montana was the fifth time Junior had used the 'sphere of power' to assist a secession. North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana had all voted to leave the Union and join the new nation. Each area had nuclear missile silos ... each group of silos had had a 'Command Center'; an underground missile launch control in command of 25 to 40 silos. All the silos attached to the center had been hard wired to the launch panel ... radio telemetry was too easily disrupted. Now each area had a huge very smooth hole in the terrain where the Command Center used to be.

The dirt, concrete and personnel had been removed and placed ... in Big Bend, Texas. Big Bend didn't need the concrete but the soil would come in handy.

The pair of modified A-10's were doing nicely. The entire area was once runoff from huge ice sheets and the rivers that used to be and the rivers that still are, cut huge gullies and canyons that were "Below the Radar." This time it was the Musselshell river bottom near Roundup that the A-10's were sneaking through ... yesterday they had tried the Milk and tomorrow they were going to give the Missouri a try. As soon as the airbase in Lewistown was accustomed to looking to the east they were going to try coming down from Canada.

'I wish Idaho would get a move on, ' Junior thought. 'Coming at the airbase from Old Lake Missoula would be a challenge for them. I could fly 2k feet below the surface and scare the living daylights out of them.'

Connie was concentrating on lead while Junior was daydreaming. She got just a tad bit high and the interception radar beeped.

"Shit! Maybe they won't notice," she said ... more to herself than anybody else.

Maybe's seldom are. It wasn't 10 minutes before the S&S interceptors bathed the A-10's in infrared and radar.

"Sorry, Connie," Junior said, "I got distracted."

"Lewistown Base ... You got us ... good job." They climbed just high enough to bump over the Big Snowy's and landed at the former US WW2 B-29 emergency field. They shook hands and exchanged insults with the S&S pilots and climbed the stairs to the tower.

"Reconditioning that radar complex in the Judith's was an excellent idea, the local Ham club kept it operational for thirty years so it just took a few computers and a couple of programmers ... they catch us every time."

The officer in the tower said, "Thanks, you two don't make it easy. You might tell your mom we've been having a lot of interaction with the Canadians to the north. They're getting disgusted with Ottawa ... and Montreal is pressing for more local taxes to take the burden off their French citizens. We might be adding the wheat fields of the northern plains to our growing country."

"We'll pass it on ... the US-NSA is stepping up their spying, too. Mom is NOT happy with that." Junior asked a question, "Have you northern folks decided how you want to divide the old states?"