Re: Troy Rising: Meanwhile, in Troy¡
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¡°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.¡±
(New) "Julian has been arguing similarly at city council," Zafiri nodded.? "He claims, and I agree with him, that as you are, Troy cannot stand alone indefinitely.? Long term plans need to be made, based on the assumption that you and your people are here to stay forever.? That means a lot of things, including the forging of alliances, and something referred to as 'gearing down'.
"This was spoken of quite a bit.? It seems that, without your regular suppliers, you may not be able to sustain all your current wonders.? I didn't understand it all, but it seems that the target is to make a sustainable 20th century base of technology, with what elements can be maintained of 21st century wonders, and a goal to build back.? I stressed that they might want to consider integrating magic, considering it is a factor in this world.
"Right at this moment though, I think there are two priorities:? First, deal with whatever Turriq has in mind.? He'll likely only get one chance to do anything due to the second priority:? Winter.? It's coming, and you have a lot of work to do in a short amount of time."
(Tag)
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