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command to her?"
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Now all the men spoke up in unison. "Yes, sir!"
"Good. Now, Lieutenant Hawk, why don't you and your men show me what we
have available to do the job?"
Hawk nodded and motioned for King to follow him to the area of the large
hangar where a collection of helicopters were stored.
He stood in front of four dark green helicopters off to the side by
themselves. "We have four McDonnell Douglas
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AH-64 Apaches, sir. The Apache is the most sophisticated helicopter ever
built. It's armed with six Hellfire missiles that can lock on to and
destroy any known tank, and for softer targets it has 2.75-inch rockets
and an extremely accurate 30mm Chain Gun. It is equipped with
night-vision target-acquisition-and-designation systems to enable it to
fly and fight in all weathers, day or night."
King nodded. These were going to be extremely useful against
Indianapolis. "And what else do we have?"
Hawk walked a bit farther into the hangar. "We've got about ten Bell
AH-1 HueyCobras. They were developed from the old UH-1 and were one of
the most feared weapons back in the Vietnam War. They're kinda dated
now, since they have no bad-weather or night-fighting capability, but
it's still a devastating weapon in the daytime. It's got a 20mm Gatling
gun beneath the nose, and can be fitted with either Target On Wire
antiarmor missiles, cannon pods, or rocket pods beneath its stub wings."
King nodded and glanced at the side at an array of ten smaller
helicopters off to the side.
"What are those?" he said, pointing.
"Those are McDonnell Douglas OH-6 Defenders," Hawk answered. They're
used mainly as light scout choppers, though they can be fitted with a
Minigun for strafing troops and light personnel carriers. They're too
slow for major battles, but are great in the field when they're aren't
any other choppers available."
"Great," King said. "Now how about airplanes?"
"They're in the next hangar, sir," Hawk said, leading the colonel
through a side door and across two hundred yards of tarmac toward a much
bigger hangar.
When they entered the hangar, King's eyes lit up. "Jesus," he said,
staring at the array of aircraft in front of him.
Hawk stood next to several short jet-powered planes. "These are Vought
A-7 Corsair Us," he said, then grinned. "Better known as SLUFs."
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"SLUFs?" King asked.
"Yeah, it stands for Short Little Ugly Fuckers," Hawk said, laughing.
"Originally designed as a carrier-borne light attack aircraft, it has a
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huge bomb load and is very effective against both ground troops and
buildings."
King nodded, his attention wandering to a group of planes farther inside
the hangar. "What are those?" he asked.
"Those are the pride of the Air Force," Hawk said, "probably the best
close-support aircraft ever designed. The Fairchild A-10 Warthog.
Heavily armored and very maneu-verable at low level, it carries both
guided missiles and a 30mm cannon. It was the mainstay in the Gulf War
of thirty years ago." He shook his head. "Pilots loved it. Several of
'em came back with half their wings shot off and tails missing, and they
still brought the boys home alive." He patted one on the fuselage. "This
is my favorite of all."
King smiled. "How about that?" he said, looking at a huge helicopter in
the corner.
"That's an old Boeing CH-47 Chinook. It's too big to fit in the
helicopter hangar so we stored it here. It can carry fifty troops and
twelve tons of support equipment for 'em and drop 'em anywhere you want
'em to go."
King rubbed his hands together. "All right, gentlemen," he said to the
group of pilots that had been following them through the hangars. "Get
some rest this afternoon, and we'll meet at 2100 hours in the officers'
mess and formulate a battle plan for President Osterman."
"When do you plan on staging the attack?" Hawk asked.
"Just as soon as we can arm these machines and get some troops up here
for support," King said.
"We're also gonna have to have someplace nearer to Indianapolis to
refuel the choppers," Hawk said. "Most of 'em only have a range of two
hundred and fifty to three hundred miles."
"How far is it to Indianapolis from Oak Ridge?"
"About a hundred and fifty miles, but they're gonna need
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some fuel for maneuvers, especially if we face any resistance."
King nodded. "I'll coordinate with President Osterman and General
Stevens. There are a couple of old National Guard bases not too far from
the government's headquarters." He thought for a moment, then snapped
his fingers. "I'll get a couple of squads of Blackshirts up here and we
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