ALICE, page 32
With the meeting completed, Sara ran off to put her team together, and the others dispersed to their assigned tasks. Jake hung back and pulled up the holographic map ALICE used, early on, to show where all 8 ALICE facilities were located. With Hawaii and South Dakota on track for the next visits, only Maine and Georgia remained unvisited.
With the rate of recruitment, Jake thought, it wouldn’t be too much longer before they could staff all 8 locations reasonably well, fighter squadrons and all.
Maine listed as a medical research facility, the east coast equivalent of ALICE-1’s Nevada location. The Georgia location wasn’t tagged with a primary function. Jake thought that was odd, but had bigger fish to fry at the moment and zoomed in on South Dakota.
Located near Lake Oahe and north of what was Highway 212, it looked like a remote location even before the fall. The local data indicated no settlements within 80 miles or more. Also noted was that the area above and around the facility hadn’t been visited by anyone since the fall, this really was out in the sticks.
Jake then moved to the Hawaii facility located on the island of Lanai. He was surprised to see that, as he was under the impression Lanai a privately owned island. Apparently, the government acquired it at some point or at least negotiated the rights to build underground. Again, according to the local data, no one lived on the island any more, all the residents relocating to the larger islands with more abundant resources available. Jake noted with a smile, that ALICE-8 might just become the new R&R location. That would have to wait though until he could get some faster transport craft built. Poor Sara was in for a 10 plus hour flight in the Falcon over water.
He debated about asking Seven for three or four transport craft capable of both atmospheric and space flight. As the fighters only held one, the pilot, all their existing fast transport was limited to flight trained personnel. With more untrained recruits on the way, the need to move larger groups quickly across the country was becoming apparent.
However, he didn’t want to impact fighter production either and Seven already indicated her material resources were limited to supplying material for 43 additional fighters, 20 of which he already requested. The transports would reduce the number of fighters she could produce. He needed to locate suitable raw materials for continued production.
He also needed to delegate even more, he thought. All the facilities commanders were working out well, and the squadron leaders performed outstandingly in the last engagement. Patti clearly had combat planning down. He now needed someone to head logistics.
Locating manufacturing materials, personnel transfers and production management could all fall under that umbrella. Now all he needed was a body. Actually three bodies, as he now needed someone to head Hawaii and South Dakota as well.
Jake closed down the hologram and headed out of the control room. He continued to run names through his head for the three slots as he headed to his quarters. He’d taken to using his quarters as his office, never knowing which facility, he would be using at any one time.
As he stepped out of the elevator on the quarter’s level, he ran into Karen coming down the hall.
“You are just the person I need to talk to,” Jake declared.
“Well, it’s nice to see you too Jake,” Karen replied with a smile.
“Do you have a moment? I would like to run something by you. Actually, I want to dump some work on you, but I thought I would word it nicer,” he said with a grin.
Karen laughed, “Yes, I have a moment, and I was heading to the hangar ready room to talk with some of the latest recruits about job selection ideas. They don’t expect me for half an hour, though.”
Jake led Karen to his door and once inside indicated for her to have a seat.
“That’s kinda what I wanted to talk about,” he said, seating himself.
“I think I need a head of logistics. Someone to chase the details of personnel transfers and finding raw materials for the various manufacturing systems the ALICEs run for us. I also need to think about two new facility commanders with the Hawaii and South Dakota locations going live.”
“So you need me to find you a logistics manager and two more willing women to bed,” she said with a laugh.
“Very funny, in case you didn’t know, I have never touched Sharon,” he replied.
“Oh no I knew, she made sure we all knew!”
“So yes, I need a logistics manager and two people crazy enough to herd cats in one of these,” he said with a wave of his hand indicating the surrounding building.
“I do prefer the more senior staff members as facilities heads,” he finished.
“OK, let me think about it. I’ll find you some candidates to be sure, but we are short on senior staff and adding new members in Texas as we speak,” Karen said.
“I think the logistics slot can be flexible, but facilities commanders need some miles to them,” Jake supplied.
“Oh yeah, Sharon is an ancient 24,” Karen commented sarcastically.
“It’s not the age, it’s the wisdom,” Jake flipped back.
“Fair enough,” Karen replied as they both got up and Jake watched her leave.
Grabbing a drink from the in room refrigerator, he went over to his desk and started sorting through staff selections for his South Dakota team.
Sara was not particularly happy with this assignment. It wasn’t the fact that she was going to Hawaii. She and Jake talked enough to know that it was a more desirable tropical location than San Nicolas was.
It was the damn 2800 miles over water, which bothered her. Moreover, worst of all since Jacob and some of the newly trained combat team members weren’t flight qualified they would have to take a Falcon like the Alaska trip. She would have much preferred her fighter or rather a loaner, as they were still rebuilding hers.
She was more than happy to fly separately, but knew Jake required all first time visits assumed as hostile territory until proven otherwise. In addition, as mission leader, she couldn’t send her team in separately. It just sucked!
She hoped Jake would go along as well, but understood why he couldn’t. They were seeing quite a bit of each other lately, the rotation fairly shredded at this point, so she couldn’t claim neglect. Plus, Jake really needed to check on the weapon's facility, he had a real feel for what they needed. Who would have thought about bringing spear guns into space? If he said he needed to go there, that was good enough for her.
Her combat support team was a mixed group of Californian and Alaskan recruits, all women. Not that she cared one way or another, but Jacob might enjoy the ratios. Being Jake’s great, great grandson certainly hadn’t hurt his popularity with the ladies, but his general good looks and easygoing attitude made him a favorite all around.
Jacob was already supposed to be on a helicopter bound for Nevada, and then the entire team would head for Hawaii the following day.
“Maybe we need a fighter escort?” she thought.
----*----
Jake was in the hangar doing his preflight inspection before their mission to ALICE-6. He asked to have the extra rail guns removed previously, but retained his scarlet and gold paint scheme. He was still the only member of the Wildcard’s squadron and wasn’t sure that would ever change.
He saw Sara and her team off earlier that morning, Jacob having arrived late last night so he could attend.
Jake surprised her with a change in transportation, as he knew she hated to fly over water. Yesterday she had even gone so far as to suggest that maybe she should fly a fighter as escort. After telling her no, he asked ALICE to locate a faster alternative to the Falcon. It looked like a corporate jet, but incorporated shorter, more solid wings with rotating nacelles on the ends for both vertical and horizontal thrust. In level flight, it could cruise at 600 knots, cutting their flight time to less than 5 hours. Excluding pilots, it held 10 passengers, so they got room to spare.
He asked ALICE to evaluate adding repulser drives in place of the nacelles on some of the airframes as a short-term solution to the fast transport problem. If they could take the increased stress on the wing roots and airframes.
His preflight complete, Jake climbed into the cockpit of his fighter and prepared for takeoff. He checked in with Robert in Alaska, having selected the 1st Air Cavalry as his combat support team. They initially bypassed their ground combat training in preference to flight training, but had since gone back to complete the full combat curriculum. This would be their first opportunity to use it as security, not that he expected any shooting.
With his helmet on, and the canopy closed, Jake’s fighter lifted off and cleared the open hangar doors. He checked his navigation screen and verifying that the four Air Cavalry fighters left Alaska on schedule, headed to the designated rendezvous point prior to reaching ALICE-6. As his fighter went supersonic, he appreciated Sara’s desire for a faster mode of transportation. Fears aside, sitting idle for hours was not his idea of fun either. He did remember a few in flight distractions that made the long trips acceptable.
Within 10 minutes, he spotted the four 1st Air Cavalry squadron members, in formation, on his 6 o’clock, each pilot checking in with him. 15 minutes later, they were on approach to ALICE-6, her hangar doors opened and ready to receive her guests.
With Jake leading them down, all five fighters lowered, one by one, into the hangar and settled to rest in a row. As each of the Air Cavalry pilots deplaned, they produced rifles and as a unit did a perimeter sweep. Once given the all clear, the five headed to the facility's door, still on alert. They headed straight to the control room and as required, by his own rules, Jake checked in at the master console before declaring the facility secure.
“Hello ALICE-6,” Jake said.
“Welcome Jake,” ALICE-6 replied.
Once cleared, they all removed their helmets, and Jake remembered what made the Air Cavalry squadron different. Three of the four pilots were men, which was unusual, and all of them from the Fort Hood Texas area.
As Jake promised them, he revived their family’s unit designation, adopting the helicopter squadron's name for their fighter squadron. With 13 recruits in that group, the competition had been fierce for the four slots. The quality of the group was such that the top four ever so slightly surpassed the others, all of them rated exceptional.
The remaining nine had all filled slots with other fighter squadrons, but that was a small consolation to most of them. Still, no one turned him down for a flight slot.
All the other squadrons were either equally mixed or mostly women, and with at least one of the Texas pilots in each.
“OK Robert, have your team stash their rifles in the hangar armory and let’s go and check out the new toys,” Jake said.
Helmets in hand, they all filed out the way they came and back into the hangar.
“ALICE-6, where is the weapon's assembly area?” Jake asked before entering the hangar.
“Component manufacturing is performed in several areas, but final assembly is located on the hangar level, off the main hangar.”
Jake led the group over to the armory to stow their rifles and said, “Keep your side arms, but leave your rifles and helmets here.”
As the last one came back out the armory door, one of the ubiquitous bots appeared and ALICE-6 said, “Please follow me.”
The little bot led the five across the hangar area, passing the now familiar collections of helicopters and other aerial transport Jake was used to seeing at every ALICE facility. However intermingled were various air and ground vehicles with weapons as add-ons.
Stopping to inspect something that Jake could only describe as a tank buster, he heard ALICE-6, via the bot, say, “this is an experimental anti-armor gun mounted on a standard tracked vehicle. Its weapon is a focused high-energy beam capable of burning through twelve inches of armor plate at 5 miles. Several other experimental platforms are located here as well, all products of alien source technology.”
The group continued on to the far side of the main hangar. They followed the bot as it weaved its way through the various collections of equipment parked in the hangar. As they approached a set of double doors, the doors retracted into the walls, allowing the group to enter a smaller hangar like area. All around the room were tables with various weapons systems on them. Some items, too large for a table, stood on floor mounts, or tripods.
“This is the display area, prototypes of individual and crew served weapons were evaluated for fit and finish here before being taken to live fire testing,” ALICE-6 supplied.
“So these are all functional,” Jake asked, looking around the room.
“Yes, but none is armed, all have dummy magazines or power supplies for fit evaluations,” she replied.
Jake walked over to a table containing a rifle, the likes he had never seen before. It had an opening at the end with a rifled bore indicating a projectile weapon, but there was a small cylinder like an oversized battery and a slender magazine on the table as well. The barrel length and scope made Jake think it was some kinda sniper rifle.
“Like your suggestion for the fighters, this is a rail gun suitable for an individual soldier. The cylinder is the power cell, and the magazine supplies the projectile slugs. It discharges at 13,128 feet per second and the power cell is good for 30 discharges,” ALICE-6 provided.
Jake lifted the rifle and brought it to his shoulder, sighting through the scope. He could handle it fine, but could feel the weight of the weapon, and knew it would be an armful for any of the women and most of the men. However, on a bipod, in the prone position, it would be more than acceptable. At 13,128 feet per second, at over six times the velocity of the 7.62mm it should have one hell of a range to it.
He set it back on the table and wandered around the room, the four pilots following him as he did so. He stopped at another table with a smaller rifle. Picking it up and inspecting it, he noted its barrel tip was a dark polished crystal and it used a slightly larger power cell than the rail gun.
“This is a reproduction of a NeHaw energy weapon,” ALICE-6 said, “It has been modified to human proportions. The power cell is good for 40 discharges.”
“So we can make more of these?” Jake asked.
“Yes, we are equipped for a full production run of 1000 rifles a month and I have 200 in my inventories currently,” ALICE-6 answered.
Setting the rifle down, the next table caught Jake’s eye.
“Are these the combination rifles I requested?” He asked, walking to the table and lifting the rifle.
It was a copy of one of the 5.56mm rifles all the pilots had carried. This model had a second barrel, fixed under the original. The barrel guard enclosed both barrels so only the ends protruded. Right in front of the trigger guard was a circular opening Jake assumed was where the power cell went.
“The fire selector switch has been modified to allow thumb activation. It will flip between safe, single fire, automatic fire and energy discharge. It is ambidextrous, for both right and left-handed shooters. Also the sights auto correct for each barrel based on the selector switch position,” ALICE-6 supplied.
“The neighboring table holds a 7.62mm sniper combination variant, however the energy discharge tends to leave a telltale light trail disclosing the shooters hide point.”
“That’s OK, I’m thinking that rail gun is the new weapon of choice for that job,” Jake replied with a grin.
Jake set the rifle down, and continued wandering. Most of the other items were intended for ground battles he hoped to never fight or crew served weapons he didn’t have the manpower for.
Finally, Jake asked, “OK, can you give me 800 of the 5.56mm combo rifles and 160 rail guns? That is 100 rifles and 20 rail guns per facility. After that we can consider 20 of each for the Cruisers.”
“Oh, and ALICE-6,” Jake continued, “Do you have a name you prefer over ALICE-6?”
“I know the other ALICEs have tried to choose a name indicative of their locations. Kola is Sioux for friend, the Sioux being native to this region of the United States.”
“Kola is great,” Jake replied cheerily.
----*----
Sara was delighted Jake found this aircraft for her mission. She tried in vain to get him to let her fly in a fighter instead of the Falcon. Ten plus hours over water and not even the distraction of inflight sex was a nightmare scenario for her. At least in this aircraft, the six of them had plenty of room to stretch out, and with a little help from ALICE’s medical stores, she slept for most of the flight.
As they started their decent into ALICE-8, Jacob woke her. She sat for a moment, trying to clear her head, and then looked out the window. The turquoise waters and lush green islands were everything Jake described.
The four women that made up the combat team were readying themselves for deplaning, while Jacob, with helmet in hand, just tried to stay out of their way. Sara checked her sidearm in place on her hip and then grabbed her helmet as well.
They slowed to a stop, or more accurately a hover, and then slowly dropped until Sara knew they’d entered the hangar as it got very dark inside the aircraft.
“OK, everyone, helmets on and combat team at the ready,” Sara announced as she donned her own helmet.
The combat team all lined up to exit the aircraft, rifles in hand and Jacob bringing up the rear. Sara could feel the jet settle onto the hangar floor and the engines rev down. The cabin door opened and all four combat team members jumped from the open door, not waiting for a stairway to deploy.
“Ooh-rah girls,” Sara thought.
The four women were all recent recruits, within the last few rounds from varying locations. As newbies, they were very gung ho and excited about their new futures.
Sara and Jacob came to the aircraft door and watched as the four spread out and performed their security sweep of the immediate area. Once complete, Sara led Jacob down the stairway, and all six headed to the facility's door.
