“...I would like to use a direct quote here to prove my point,” continued the Minister as he addressed the assembly of officials, reporters and other citizens. “This is from a recent CCB news report, and this is a ten year old Qiraji child speaking: ‘I used to like the sun. I would play outside when it was sunny. Then the MAAPS came. Mommy says the drones don’t fly in storms, so now I don’t play outside when it’s sunny; I only play outside when there’s a storm.’ This is what our glorious humanitarian outreach does! It is easy to sit here and watch from afar and call ourselves noble and charitable, but we have made a little child fear the sun! How can we...”
The Commander of Defense sat back in his chair and let out a quiet sigh as he watched the Minister. He’d heard the quote already and it was very moving, but he’d argued for the interventionist policies for years now, and it would take more than one verbose ten year old to change his stance. The Minister wasn’t arguing at him, though. He was trying to persuade the rest of the room, and pretty soon the Commander would have to persuade them back.
“There have been new developments in Zhangua,” said Nexus through the Commander’s earpiece. “Based on your past history, I would guess you will want to leave the session early and respond to this directly.”
The Commander pretended to check his watch, then got up, apologised to a few people as he walked in front of them, and exited the hall.
“So something happened?” he asked he motioned his squad of Platinum Guard soldiers to follow him. “I thought the thunderstorm would discourage anyone from making a move.”
“Apparently, the Remnants valued secrecy over convenience,” said Nexus “Or maybe it was just a genuine mistake. Either way, there’s been word of some clash at the border, and it looks authentic. Intel could be old or unreliable, though. We’re only getting this from Remnant news agencies.”
“Yeah,” replied the Commander “‘The drones don’t fly in storms.’ How long does it look like until Bubblegum Doom can see the area in question again?”
“Unknown,” answered Nexus “Could be less than two hours, but might be upwards of six. Either way, visibility is going to be patchy, and there’s always the opportunity for more clouds to form.”
“We’ll make do with that if this is nothing,” said the Commander. “But if this is something, we’re going to need better eyes on station. I’m going to start pulling stuff together. Get the President’s approval to step up involvement if a war starts. Have Diplomacy Command try and get Zhanguan approval for us to send in more drones. And let me know the second the Remnant government says anything.”
Congreveopian Air Force Base, DEK-330 Charioteer, apron, 2015-04-22, 1124 hours:
“Look, it’s got to be Zhangua,” said the copilot as she turned in her chair to face the other three flight deck crew members aboard the converted A330. “We’ve got a crew back there for round-the-clock sustained operations. My point isn’t that the Remnants must have invaded Zhangua. It’s just that there’s nowhere other than Zhangua that would have made the government assemble a full Charioteer and then leave it sitting on the tarmac for an hour and a half.”
“See, it’s the hour and a half that bugs me, Lou,” said the refueling operator. “I can get that the government would send us out if war had started and Bubblegum Doom was fleeing, but I don’t see why we’re waiting.”
“Pack Avengers are slower than us,” replied Louise Durham. “If we’re tending them, as usual, we need to give them a lead.”
“You two are looking at this the wrong way,” said the pilot. “Lou, you said yourself we’ve got a full three-shift crew onboard. That means we’re doing a mission somewhere we need a full three-shift crew. Don, do the math: if we fly to Zhangua, how long can we loiter before heading home?”
“No time,” answered the boom operator. “Zhangua is what, eight thousand kilometers away? So there and back is outside our ferry range, let alone there and back plus lingering or refueling drones once we’re there. So Chrisy’s right, we couldn’t go to Zhangua.”
“Plane can be refueled in flight,” mumbled Louise. “If we weren’t being refueled, we wouldn’t fly long enough to need three shifts anyways.”
“Okay, now that’s a math problem for Don,” said Christina. “How many refueling planes would it take for us to do sustained operations over Zhangua?”
“What type?”
“Um, call it KC-10s. They’re big enough to carry meaningful amounts of fuel that far.”
“Okay, hang on, I need to look up their specs.”
“Who cares if we’re not going to Zhangua anyways?” said Louise. “Let’s figure out where we are going before Nexus tells us.”
“Too late, I got Don working on a math problem,” said Christina. “It’d take a direct order from a ranking officer to break him out.”
“You are his direct ranking officer.”
“Yeah, but I’m the one who told him to work on the problem in the first place, it wouldn’t work.”
“Okay, so how about Excalibas, then? We could be doing something there.”
“Too close. They’d just run the drones direct from Congreveopia.”
“DeN, then. They’re our allies. Maybe they called us for aid?”
“Doesn’t explain the waiting.”
“Wasn’t there a virus or a revolution or something in the news near here. If the situation changed, the government might want to send a Charioteer, but we could be waiting for foreign permission for the flight.”
“Five,” interjected Donald.
“Five foreign permissions?”
“Five KC-10s. It would take five KC-10s to fill this plane back up if it was 8000 kilometers away and needed to go from dry to full.”
“You’re off by two,” said the flight deck intercom. “But the math’s right. Your mistake is that you’re stopping in international waters near Zhangua, only a 7000 kilometer flight.”
“Can I consider this announcement to be our mission briefing and official orders, Nexus?” asked Christina, putting on her headset and fastening her seatbelt.
“Yes, but it’s not clearance from ground or tower,” replied Nexus. “You have to get that yourself. I’ve added the flight plan to the cockpit GPS and filed the requisite paperwork.”
Donald stuffed the paper he’d been doing scratchwork on into a pocket of his flight suit along with his pencil and fastened his seatbelt then grabbed his headset. Louise pulled her headset around her neck and turned the volume to full, fastened her seatbelt, then grabbed her tablet and began running down the preflight checklist.
“Isn’t that too far?” she asked Nexus as she ran through the tests. “The drones are over the horizon then. You might as well control them from Congreveopia if we’re going to have satellite bandwidth.”
“Speaking as the one that has the manage that bandwidth, I’d rather you were using one satellite than the six-ish that comms from Congreveopia could take,” said Nexus as Christina asked ground for permission to taxi “But you will hopefully get new orders to work at visual range before you arrive. We’re still negotiating permission for you and your drones to operate in Zhanguan air space.”
“Told you we were waiting on foreign permission for the flight,” said Louise to Christina “I’ll figure out our mission before her one of these days.”
“I’ve known your mission for the past two hours,” said Nexus “I just am not meant to tell you until it’s approved to avoid compromising operational security if we’d decided to defer to another day. Also, you were waiting for a declaration of war, not permission for the flight. I still don’t have permission for the flight.”
“But you do have a declaration of war,” said Donald as the plane began rolling out to the runway “Remnant, I presume. What’s Bubblegum Doom doing?”
“Making a direct route away from the combat zone to international waters, then returning to its previous mission,” said Nexus “Why?”
“Because that means we’re taking over for it,” said Donald “So what drones will be replacing it for me to tend to?”
“Pack Avengers,” said Nexus “Generation three, one recon one ELINT. They’re being pulled from a nearby fleet, so you don’t have to worry about outrunning them. They’re basically already there.”
“You missed the important part of us replacing Bubblegum Doom,” said Louise as the airplane taxied out onto the runway. “Bubblegum Doom operates 24/7. Guess what we’re going to be doing?”
“You’ve got two full replacement shifts for each compartment onboard and you know it,” said Nexus as the Charioteer trundled down the runway picking up speed. “Eight hours on duty, eight hours recreation, eight hours sleep. You know the drill.”
“Minecraft gets boring after the first five hours straight.” said Donald, glancing at the flight bin that his laptop was resting in. Christina pulled back on the controls and the airplane lifted off into the sky.
“I think someone improvised a basketball hoop in the empty cargo section aft while we were waiting on the ground,” said Louise. “Let’s try and rustle up enough people for two teams while we’re off duty. Nexus, it’s cool if we play basketball in the cargo section as long as turbulence is minimal, right?”
“Hang on, let me look up the official rules on that,” said Nexus as the airplane banked away from the airfield. “Ah yes, here we are. I quote: ‘No. No no no no no. Good god no. What are you thinking? What part of fasten seatbelts whenever possible has you confused? No.’ -anyways, kind of ambiguous language, but I think I'll have to advise that you don't.”
“Sorry, you broke up on that last bit.” said Christina “Please confirm if you do not want us to play basketball in-flight, Nexus.”
“Got a lot to take care of,” said Nexus “Goodbye now! Best of luck on your mission!”
P
