do, and that means suck it up and drive on,” he said.
“Hoorah,” Gene said.
“Hoorah, brother,” Bruce said. “Gene, someone will always be monitoring. As usual, if you need us, let us know. Listen to the radio show tomorrow,” Bruce said.
“I will, Bruce,” Gene said as the screen went blank.
Chapter 5
In Colorado the next morning, the technicians were sitting at the monitors, watching the three UAVs. One UAV was flying around their perimeter, one was following the supply groups in Alabama, and the other was flying in a circle around Base Hope in Louisiana. Others in the command room were watching monitors that were fed by cameras around the base.
At 0700 hours in Louisiana, they turned on the radar, and the flight technician sitting at the UAV console yelled, “Radar is on and tracking me!”
“Get the general!” the watch officer yelled out.
“Taking evasive action. They have lock!” the flight technician yelled. In Louisiana, the clan watched the Patriot system as a rocket shot out of one of the boxes racing up in the sky.
One of the monitor technicians called, “We have launch!” Ten seconds later, the screen went blank.
The flight technician looked around. “They got us,” he said.
Givens busted in the room wearing only boxers and t-shirts. “What?” he yelled.
“Sir, they turned on their radar and shot down our UAV,” the watch officer said.
Givens just stared at him as Gene came in the room. “What’s going on? We have a horde?” he asked.
“No sir, they shot down our UAV,” the watch officer replied.
“Surprised it took them that long,” Gene said, walking over to the coffee pot.
“You’re taking this pretty calm, Colonel!” Givens shouted as one of the President’s aides came in.
“Sir, we knew sooner or later they were going to turn it on. Officer, pull the UAVs following the supply groups out before we lose them,” Gene said, taking a sip of coffee.
Givens narrowed his eyes. “We just lost one of our UAVs, Colonel. We could have used it to launch a few rockets, taking out some of their aircraft,” he said.
Fighting not to laugh in Givens face, Gene took a deep breath. “Sir, think about that for a minute. If we had done that, they would have tracked the signal or seen where it went to land. Since we are the only ones around this area, they would know it’s us. Then, they could have sent planes, sir, not UAVs, to repay the bombing. Or worse yet watch us and see us leave and hit us en route,” Gene said.
“We still could’ve used it,” Givens grumbled.
“Sir, we lost some equipment. No men were involved,” Gene said and looked at the watch officer. “How long after the radar came on did they shoot us down?” he asked.
“Seconds, sir.”
“See, General, they don’t want air over them. They are worried about someone doing what you said. Dropping bombs on them,” Gene said, sitting down in a chair.
“Colonel, like you said before, we don’t have a lot of equipment,” Givens said.
“True, but we didn’t lose any men, sir,” Gene said. Givens snorted and walked out. “Watch officer, load up the recording. I want to know how much airspace they control.”
“Don’t have to, sir. They control the sky a hundred miles in any direction,” the officer told him. “Sir, I think you should also know we detected counter battery radar as well as Doppler.”
“They turned all of them on at the same time,” Gene said, smiling.
“Yes sir,” he said.
“Were they still bringing in equipment?” Gene asked.
“Yes sir. A convoy of a hundred trucks arrived at 0332 carrying choppers,” the officer said, looking at his notebook.
“How many choppers?”
“A hundred, sir.”
Gene spat his coffee, getting it on his chest. “A hundred,” he coughed, standing up.
“Yes sir, on that load. They have already brought in that many easy. I doubt there are many choppers left in Alabama, but they have moved to Georgia now. They hit every base
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