Chapter 25: Scouting
Special Officer Daniel Hawkins was now ready to begin his surveillance mission.
Yesterday a Transport Hover Ship Class 3 had arrived from some airfield hundreds of miles away in the east. Every time he saw such a ship it brought himself such awe. The way it cruised silently through the air, just feet above the trees and cliffs, reminded him of a ghost. If he wasn’t a Special Officer for the AFR’s Marine’s, he would have loved to be a hover ship pilot.
The Hover Ships and vehicles of all types in this era had neither propeller, rocket, nor fueled engines. Vehicles ran only on electricity and in the case of Hover Ships, magnetism as well. The details he never really could wrap his mind around, but he understood the basics. The Hover Ships would use solar energy, absorbed from solar conducting paints on its top side, to run its electric motors. The motors then charged super conductor mechanisms that circumnavigated the center of the vessel, of which would then spin at super-fast speeds.
The speed of which these super conductors would spin would create their own special magnetic field. The magnetic field it created interacted with the earths naturally created magnetic fields and repulsed itself against them. One could imagine this effect similarly to dew resting on a leaf; with the dew being the hover vehicle and the leaf being the earth’s magnetic field. This repulsion would then lift the ship upwards and quite literally caused it to seamlessly float above the ground. This made for a perfectly silent, and environmentally friendly mode of travel.
The science behind these amazing ships was one of the highest achievement's mankind had created up to this point in history. So many different technology's and great minds had come together to create this marvelous invention despite the tumultuous times the world was in. It was hard for him to imagine any other modern invention that could be more amazing.
The Transport Hover Ship Class 3 was strictly used only by the military, and it had brought twenty new personnel to work under Special Officer Hawkins. They were all recently trained in drone reconnaissance and targeting applications. Their drones came in three different types, and all were non-combatant drones. Each had their own unique functionality and uses.
The largest one, an Osprey Drone Class C5, had the capability to fly at a height far higher than the human eye could see. Yet it's cameras could zoom in, from that height, so accurately you could read the words on a US penny clearly. Its wingspan size was only one and a half meters and mostly white in color. Due to its unique shape and slender design, the Osprey Drone was impervious to radar. Lastly, the drone could remain airborne indefinitely thanks to its efficient solar power system.
The second drone was designed for traveling through urban terrain, particularly through narrow streets, alleys or less than spacious building interiors. The Blue Jay Blitz 3 Drone was much smaller and more agile than the Osprey. It had a 26-centimeter wingspan, multiple propellers for instant directional change, solar powered, and it was super compact. Its shape wasn't at all like a Blue Jay, in fact it looked more like a deck of cards with propellers and one camera on its front. Yet again this drone camera was able to spot targets at super far distances and the camera’s focusing capability was nearly instant. This allowed the drone to be able to chase and track moving targets effortlessly in forest or city terrain where loosing temporary sight of a target was an often occurrence.
The last drone was as tiny as its name implies, Fly Drone 7. No bigger than a thumbnail, its function was simple: infiltrate a building or small space, spot targets inside and record audio. Just like the others it was solar powered, though limited to short missions due to its short battery life. The Fly Drone’s only downside was for the audio it collected had to be delivered back to the operator or a deployed field download station, as its storage space was limited. Still, it could collect fifteen minutes of audio and more if its information transmitting functionalities were turned off. It also had a swarm mentality downloaded in its systems. When one Fly found a target and started recording other Fly's nearby would pick up the signal, join it, and record audio once the first Fly’s storage was full.
Special Officer Hawkins was pleased as he sat in his office reading over the drone's functionality. He had already given the orders to the pilots to start their surveillance of the town. Additionally, the Sargent and the other soldiers he had sent out on recon were also called back. They hadn't any success finding that mysterious woman anyway.
Three Osprey Drones were assigned to be checking over the town from far above the clouds, each watching one of the three distinct areas of the town. The Blue Jay Drones stayed high over the buildings to avoid suspicious onlookers and prevent their shadows from giving their locations away. Meanwhile Special Officer Hawkins decided to keep the Fly's here at base. This was because it was too complicated to keep track of the hundreds of Fly Drones that he had at his disposal with so few operators at hand. So, he was relying on the other two Drone types to spot areas and people of interest to mark. Once it was determined by an Operator that the person or location was suspect, only then would the Fly drones be sent out to investigate.
Even though this was all he could do at the moment, he still wanted to get even with that woman. She had become his first blight on his mission's reports and this insult couldn't be overlooked. He would rather be out there searching for her personally. However, he knew better than to act that foolishly.
"I don't know who you are, Queen. Or where you came from. But one thing is for sure, I will find you and capture you." Hawkins encouraged out loud to himself. "Second Lieutenant!" He shouted towards the door of his office.
A few seconds later Second Lieutenant Caswell opened the door. He then stepped inside and stood in attention. "Yes Sir?"
"Get two scouting units ready to deploy." Hawkins replied putting down the drone information papers onto his desk and then stood up. "As soon as the Queen has been spotted, I want them to be on standby ready to take her into custody. As the Commander ordered, they need to capture her alive. So, they're authorized to carry tranquilizer guns and ammo in addition to their normal weaponry."
"It will be done, sir." Caswell replied.
"Good, now dismissed." Hawkins said giving a quick salute. The Second Lieutenant saluted back and quickly left the office to inform the troops.
Hawkins was about to sit back down at his desk when a thought reminded him of something. When he fought the woman before, his shot had clearly missed due to his impatience. He needed to get back into shooting practice. Ever since he had been promoted, he hadn't done as many shooting practices as he used to.
Opening a tall locker that stood in the corner of the office, he pulled out a laser handgun and a laser standard issue rifle, the ZKZM-7000. Looking over them briefly he put the handgun into his empty holster strapped to his thigh and slung the rifles strap over his shoulder. Then he left his office and headed for the outdoor shooting range located behind the base.
The shooting range was in an unused section near the back of the canyon. There were dozens of sheet metal targets painted with red circles, scattered amongst and all along the tan rock canyon's many walls. Some were no more than ten paces away, while some were hundreds of meters away. A few even had been placed onto the top of the canyons edge, to better simulate shooting at enemies mounted on tall buildings.
Hawkins took off the laser rifle and placed it onto a wooden table that was already set up for practice. Under the table was stored a small amount of laser gun batteries. He looked about the range to be sure it was clear of personnel.
Seeing no one, he still called out for safety purposes, "The range is now hot! Starting shooting exercises." His voice echoed back off the canyon walls quite clearly. When no one replied, he felt confident he could practice uninterrupted.
He started off with the laser handgun. He loosened the holsters restraints and hovered his hand over the guns grip. Taking a firm ready stance, he mentally prepared to shoot. Looking at a target ten meters away he focused intently on its center. Then in a swift, sleek motion he drew the gun up, grasped it with both hands and fired three bursts at the target.
"Pa-ting! Zzipz!"
The sound of the laser bullets striking metal and high-pitched reflection echoed through the air and canyon walls. But by seeing the new blackened marks on the target proved that his accuracy was spot on. All three marks were near dead center. He repeated the exercises several more time on the target and two others further away. He never missed any of the targets and the bullet groupings were all very tight.
Satisfied with the results, Hawkins moved on to the rifle. The rifles optics were special. They could be switched rapidly from iron sights, to a ‘two times’ zoom and then to a ‘four times’ zoom. This allowed the gun to be ready to shoot at any target at any decent range, all by just flicking the lock on the sight and rotating the sight to the required zoom.
Hawkins selected his first target. It was twenty meters straight ahead, in the center of the canyon nestled in a scraggly bush. First, he lowered the power of the shots to not penetrate the sheet metal, but only to leave a mark and then he set the optics to ‘four times’ zoom. He shouldered the rifle holding it tightly under his right armpit and firmly to his shoulder. His feet were spread out evenly under him with his right foot back some for stability. Then placing his cheek against the stock, he peered into the optics at the target. His crosshairs quickly rested on the targets center. The target was so clear that every scratch in the sheet metal was visible.
Hawkins slowed his breathing to lower his heart rate, so that his heart’s beating wouldn't cause him to miss by even the slightest bit. His finger rested gently on the smooth trigger. Just as he was about to pull the trigger, he held his breath, then gave the trigger a rapid squeeze.
"Pa-ting!"
The single shot smacked dead center on the target. Adjusting himself for another shot he fired again several more times in close succession. Every shot was overlapping the first mark perfectly. Then he switched to ‘two times’ zoom and repeated the shooting process at the same target. The results were nearly the same as before, with all the markings touching each other in a distinct cluster. Lastly, he switched to iron sights and this way was much more difficult. After firing, though he didn't miss, the shots had spread out to be only two centimeters apart.
"Ha-ha! I still got it." Hawkins mused aloud to himself. "You got lucky last time that I was impatient, Queen. But I don't make the same mistake twice. Ever!"