Re: Troy Rising: Meanwhile, in Troy¡
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The revelation of having air power was a bit of a surprise to Zafiri, but in hindsight, perhaps she should've considered it all along.? They did have those things called drones, after all.? They were currently being used to keep an eye on the perimeter where Troy's wheat fields ended and the forest began.? If they had those, what else did they have?
"Well, it's hard to say, honestly," she replied, looking as if she was distracted in thought.? "I'm just beginning to learn your systems of measurement.? It is hard to translate links, chains and furlongs into measurements you understand, but I found your Metric system easiest to deal with¡ªunits of 10, so elementary¡why didn't anyone think of that before?
"So, if I'm doing my mathematics correctly, the Septimal Basilica, in the Holy City of Anthraine would be about¡carry the two¡mm-hmm¡about 2,000 kilometers, give or take, well south of here, across the Mezzo Sea."
¡°We have Troy Muni that was included in the happening,¡± Jan said, with a grimace. ¡°A small airport off to the northwest.¡±
She made a flying motion with her hand. ¡°A plane that can fly like a bird but at much higher speeds. Imagine one of those dragons but moving at three to tens times faster. Not as dynamic but also capable of high altitudes, above the clouds.¡±
She watched them looking for a glimmer of understanding. ¡°That first day I drove north I noticed a fire around the landing strip but never heard about what happened. I¡¯m sure there are some old Cessna's?that run on oil-based fuel. We should have some modern battery version aircraft. Again I don¡¯t know what we still have. My best guess would be about twenty aircraft. Some may have been used in the past for pest control on the crops. If we could run a flex fuel craft it should be able to make the flight and have enough to return. We could drop a platoon right down on top of those creeps. It would be a suicide?mission. The havoc created might prevent a slaughter here.¡±
Jan seemed to go into that trance like she had before. She canvassed the records available to determine what sort of aircraft were likely to be at the Muni now.
She began to speak, her voice was somewhat robotic, ¡°Lockheed Martin had a testing faculty many moons ago. A few corporate jets. Small aircraft mostly and some gliders.¡±
Jan looked up, ¡°Gliders would make it easy if we knew the exact destination, Longitude and latitude. A jet could easily make that distance and return. If we have any. Jumping out of a Gulfstream might be challenging. Imagine those retro fools seeing an aircraft on the deck at 800 kilometres?an hour! The craft would be Winchester but those fools would be shitting their pants! A nice follow up volley of mortar rounds and they might believe the aircraft did it. Boy, they¡¯d be turning tail I betcha.¡±
Jan stood and paced the room thinking.
¡°I¡¯m an expert at drone manipulation but I have to be in receiver range. Without satellites I¡¯m severely hampered for range. I bet Julian has a drone corridor covered already looking for incursions just beyond our borders. Cessna¡¯s converted into bombers would be devastating against large troop masses. Maybe more effective against likely following supply trains. Do these forces use supply trains? Units or wagons full of supplies to feed the troops? Easy to hit, slow moving targets. Without those supplies the largest armies, especially merc armies might be crippled. Trust me, no food makes for bad morale. An exploding ammo wagon would be a spectacular scene indeed. Of course if our enemies have flying dragons or whatever that can find and hit our small drones or larger craft the idea is crap.¡±
Jan sat down gloomily. ¡°The strike on their capital is our best chance at long term strategy. We might scare them off for a while but if they realize how small our ground forces are they will ignore the small air dominance we display and smash us anyway. Cut off the money and those mercs won¡¯t have a reason to fight.¡±
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Scott