JUNIPER'S DAUGHTER - FRONTIER TOWN PT4

The two Devil Snail units would try to get to the Kahlia Akasha underground facility by separate routes, killing and destroying while on the way. If any jet fighters being built or stored could be destroyed, the main attack would have more chance of succeeding.

   The above ground squad followed orders and set off, attacking the stored tanks and rockets. They ran into a group of men attempting to start one of the vehicles, with difficulty. The single guard was shot dead and a satchel charge chucked into the bunker where the tank and men were, taking care of them. It exploded destroying the tank and collapsing the concrete bunker so it became the tank crews’ grave. Rocket bunkers were targeted with time bombs and satchel charges but numbers of these were running out, so many in numbers were the weapon storage bunkers and silos.

   More defenders were coming onto the scene now and vicious fire fights commenced. Having no supporting Devil Snail, the reserve soldiers had to fight it out using extreme aggression and skill to win. The wounded gangsters came back, tracking the soldiers by the explosions, dead bodies and gunfire, now the two slightly wounded gangsters were armed with 30mm grenade launchers each fitted with thirty grenades. It was time for revenge! A soldier guarding his colleagues saw the running gangsters; he got two shots off before several big fat explosive grenades blew him up. His comrades’ scattered, returning fire immediately pinning down the gangsters. Now it was their turn to put covering fire down and advance upon the soldiers with their superior grenade launchers. How the tables had been turned, hiding behind bunkers the two gangsters soon closed upon the soldiers who fired back with their nine milli machine pistols and threw grenades. One gangster was killed by a shot to the head but his mate reached the three remaining soldiers, he fired eight 30mm grenades killing the remaining above ground English army soldiers. With his small radio the gangster radioed Frontier Corps HQ and confirmed casualties and a successful mission. He checked that his enemy were all dead, reloaded his weapon and headed for the main facility to offer assistance, would he be too late?

 

   Inside the facility every English army soldier was dead, either killed in battle or blown up by his own grenades when enemy Frontier Force or gangsters found their wounded enemies. Casualties in the facility were in the hundreds of dead and wounded. Now the delayed action satchel charges and time bombs went off in huge explosions, wreaking more havoc. Slowly a single Devil Snail reached the edge of the guarded area where the secret jet fighters were made, it was in a bitter laser battle against a mixture of facility staff, gangsters, Corps guards and even one of the designers himself, who used an experimental laser in a light show shoot out with the attack unit. The other Devil Snail was blown up by a desperate Frontier Corps guard using an anti tank missile launcher at ten yards distance, he was killed by the blast of his own missile, before the explosives in the attack unit went off blocking the tunnel the fight occurred in with collapsed rubble.

   Racing to the Kahlia Akasha design/production facility the single gangster held the fate of the town on his shoulders, for only he had a weapon to stop the Devil Snail – a 30mm rotary grenade launcher firing high explosive grenades. He got there in time, the defenders were running out of small arms ammo and the single experimental laser was almost out of power. Following his orders the gangster placed his own life in danger by running towards the poodle dog, thinking what the fuck is that, a poodle dog down here? Seeing the laser fire dispelled all humour, he raised his weapon and fired every single explosive grenade remaining in the magazine, a total of twelve. Of these, six hit the dog directly, shoving it onto its side, taking three legs off and blowing half of its insides out – metal and plastic debris scattered this way and that. Still the thing wasn’t dead; it tried to crawl with one leg and by wriggling its body. Inaccurate laser fire came from one eye, burning into the wall and missing the defenders who were out of ammunition except one man. The designer held up his heavy clumsy laser and fired one last time before his power pack was dead, he hit the Devil Snail in the head melting the plastic flesh and disabling the remaining laser. This last shot just missed the gangster who was three yards away from the disabled dog; he was starring at the robot dog, in disbelief. It was now the ten pound high explosive self destruct charge went off, killing the gangster instantly and blowing in the walls of the Kahlia Akasha design facility, knocking the wind out of the defending staff but not killing them. For now the attack was over, booby traps had to be found and defused before they did anymore damage, even if it was a risk to the Corps guards detailed to do this evil job. How much damage had been done to the facility and town in this attack? Luckily it all hadn’t been destroyed, the huge physical size was an advantage here but what if a hundred of those special bullets had been fired at the facility? Nuclear bullets, like the ones that hit the centre and outskirts of Renford? Was this the main attack or just another probe? If not the main attack, how awful would that be when would it come?

 

   Coming to the Left Nipple club after walking past huge areas of rubble where several nuclear bullets had gone off, the single soldier and wounded one on his Devil Snail did the last violence of the attack. Charging through the main door after gunning the lock off, the able bodied soldier shot down three bouncers dressed in women’s dresses because it was transvestite night. The Devil Snail slowly walked through the doors with the one legged soldier balancing on the back, holding on with one hand and aiming his machine pistol with the other. Into the main room, where the bar was doing a steady trade in drinks and cocktails, people thought the English army soldier was part of the night’s entertainment, till he opened fire machine-gunning twenty people, reloaded and firing again. Terrified customers most dressed as women or transvestites and a couple of transsexuals, fled the room only to be followed by the Devil Snail who laser beamed them in their backs. Its passenger fired single shots into random targets to preserve his ammo, into the huge room with the gigantic bed for swinging traipsed the attack unit. Half a dozen couples were involved in sex, most of them naked, coupling with their lovers in whose arms they died in total surprise. Loud music masked the sound of automatic weapon fire. The huge luxurious bed caught fire, threatening to burn the entire club down.

   Into the top restaurant jogged the single soldier, throwing two grenades and saving his ammo, the destruction and suffering there was beyond description. Onto the Jacuzzi where people were enjoying themselves in a watery way, some uninvited guests ran and hid, fleeing the gunfire but the trained killer found them and shot everyone there with single shots to the head. His ammo was almost gone but he had a massive eighteen-inch bayonet to use as back up. Firing the last of his bullets in two chill out rooms, he went to work with his bayonet slowly and methodically knifing who he could catch in the chest or back. He wondered where the Devil Snail was.

   Music still pounded out of the speakers adding to the surreal atmosphere of death in the club, in search of the Devil Snail the soldier ended up in the basement in the dungeon. He surprised Gothic Lucinda who was in the middle of torturing and dominating Tim and Arnold the Plantpot. The sound of a spanking paddle being used aggressively whacked through the room. Slowly creeping forward with his huge knife waving in front, the soldier made a lunge for Lucinda. A scream of “Mistress!” from a semi conscious Arnold got the attention of the twenty plus stone dominatrix. Leaving Arnold on the floor she got ready to defend herself. Making a lunge for her with the knife the soldier was blocked by a swift move of the spanking paddle, surprise registered in both people’s eyes. With no time to hesitate Lucinda brought the paddle up into the soldier’s face, his eyes watered and his brain bounced around in his head such was the force of the blow. He made a half hearted effort with the bayonet knowing he’d met his match in the Left Nipple club against a huge overweight freak of a woman. She pummelled a heavy left fist into the soldier’s face breaking his nose, grabbing his body armour with one hand she flung the startled killer down. He hit the floor with a thud. Shouting to Arnold she ordered, “Arnold lock the door, move it, do it now! There might be more of the cunts!”

   “Yes mistress,” whimpered Arnold to his mistress, crawling to the heavy dungeon door on his three legs and erect one-foot penis. He pushed it and it slammed with a heavy wham! Now Gothic Lucinda had a real slave who she could torture to death! The soldier tried radioing the Devil Snail but the spanking paddle had smashed the small delicate set, he was on his own! Undoing the Velcro’s fasteners on his body armour she yanked the soldier out of it, chucking the armour into the corner along with his bloody bayonet, she would keep these as war booty. Ripping his uniform shirt exposing his hairy chest, Lucinda laughed wickedly in glee! She turned his body so he was facing the wall; she sat down on his upper body with her jelly twenty-four stone bulk crushing the life out of the former warrior. Tearing his trousers open she exposed his three-inch penis. Bending down with some trouble, Lucinda sniffed it and then licked it roughly. Some sensation flowed through the stranded soldier; he groaned. Was this due to being squashed to death or in sexual pleasure? Sucking him till he spunked up in her mouth, Lucinda ordered Arnold the Plantpot to bring a staple gun and a bit of old cardboard.

   Under her supervision he stapled the soldier’s balls to the cardboard. Whimpers of pain came forth but she stopped these with the spanking paddle on his firm thighs, they turned purple under the heavy impacts. Now it was Tim’s turn. Struggling to stand up after breaking three of the soldier’s ribs Gothic Lucinda got the hammer, nails and a wooden board.

   Tim had once had his balls nailed to a board by Lucinda, so he backed away from his mistress after she had set him free. Indicating with her hand to the soldier, Tim went to work. He nailed the soldiers testicles to a board, screams echoed through the small dungeon room even over the music. It took Tim several goes and bent nails to get it right but he did it, under fear of retribution if he got it wrong. Now for the anus. A huge glass butt plug would pop up his arse with lots of Lube2000, this act was her baby. She enjoyed carrying it out normally on Arnold.

   He looked on with envious eyes at the soldier, lucky sod! Seeing what was about to occur, the soldier screamed but it was no use. Tim showed a bit of initiative and got a large gimp mask with a ball in it and awkwardly placed it on the soldier’s head, his muffled screams were ignored and even enjoyed. Rolling him over, Gothic Lucinda the dom, opened a new tub of Lube2000 and smeared it over his shitty arse. Some crap came out because he was scared and let his bowels go. She didn’t mind, it was part of the job. Working his sphincter muscle to relax it, Gothic Lucinda eased the huge glass butt plug up the soldier’s back passage, his legs tensed and shook under the intense pain. For a minute the plug remained in place, a full four inches across and nine inches long, then the arse muscle ripped and blood and shit flowed forth. He was butt fucked now in more ways than one, pulling the plug out she got hold of an eighteen inch dildo and fucked him up the arse.

   Ordering Tim and Arnold to wank each other off, Lucinda fucked the soldier up his arse till he was dead. Though his radio was dead, his data link attached to the radio was working. It beamed back intermittent flickering images and sound back to his English army HQ, back there shocked officers could only watch while their last able bodied soldier was tortured to death, sexually! Orders to send the Devil Snail and wounded soldier were ignored, something happened to them but what? The one-legged soldier and Devil Snail attack unit simply vanished while undertaking a murder mission in the club. This battle was over.

 

Kahlia Akasha Fall (Mayday Mayday)

 

   The airborne attack was over, now it was time to take stock of the horrific damage and prepare for the main attack. This could fall at anytime. Damage to the town was absolutely horrific, with almost eighty ground explosions from nuclear bullets, each one equal to ten tons of high explosive – that was close to eight hundred tons of explosive power concentrated onto the town centre and outskirts. Three thousand people were killed with another ten thousand injured, fully one fifth of the buildings in Renford were destroyed or damaged in this attack alone, including the Gothic Night club that was flattened when the English army transport crashed through the roof, cremating the party goers inside. Never had the town been hit like this, it was doubtful it would recover, even in the civil war when nearby Scotland fought for independence there had been no death or destruction on this scale.

   On a military scale the raid on the Medusa Weapons Facility was violent and vicious, killing dozens of staff and Frontier Corps guards along with gangsters and civilians who rushed to aid in the defence. The army had killed many top scientists and workers but the premier project the Kahlia Akasha jets were safe and design team unharmed, a total of six partly built jet fighters were hidden in the deepest part of the complex.

   Even now, workers strove to complete these new aircraft working under emergency conditions; the jets were a mixture of two old type and four new type design. This made a total of seven if the write off from the air battle was included. In future most new build warplanes would be the newer design. Lessons would be incorporated from the brief and bitter air combat that had occurred over Renford between the army and the two prototypes, one each of old and new jet prop fighters. Both had done their best but both had been shot down after some initial success. Luckily it was known that one pilot was definitely safe after crash landing his crippled airplane. This plane would be repairable. Being a right off it was debateable if it was wise to do so, considering the state of war hanging over the town it was decided to repair it no matter how long this took.

   Both crews who flew the jets against the English army transports had been volunteers from the Frontier Corps Intel section. In future it was decided to pick and train pilots from a number of sources. The Frontier Corps, the gangster community, civilian volunteers, the Weapons Facility and any other suitable candidate, only those able or with the correct aptitude would be chosen to train on the new high performance fast jet fighters. It was assumed some planes would be lost in crashes along with their pilots. Being a two seat aircraft it was decided to train only single pilots to fly in the air defence role but if ground attack missions were planned, a second crew member would be trained in the weapons employment role, with flight skills as a secondary importance.

   Right now there was no planes fit for flight to defend the town, if another army raid came by air it would be unopposed, other than by ground fire and the few missiles that were available, their use was debatable due to their old age. The first jet was coming close to completion and it would be some days until it was ready. Everyone was very nervous over another attack; fortunately the Frontier Corps had not been attacked before, that was sure to change next time. On a stretch of road by their head quarters, a rough airstrip of sufficient length for take off only was available. It had been hastily set up but was untried. Even with a short landing capability, the Aeroprogress T-720 Kahlia Akasha would struggle to land on the small road so this was forbidden. As a single use point defence defensive strip it was ideal, due to the close proximity to the HQ. They would land at the Weapons Facility.

   Other jets would use the secret strip too at Weapons Facility. They made history when the first two jets flew to do battle from there. So far this remained hidden from prying English army eyes. For how long? Military secrets weren’t secret for long.

   Medical teams were dispatched to try and help the many wounded in the town, many of whom were buried alive. A lack of earth moving equipment severely hampered getting them out and many would die entombed in their ruined buildings. It was a race against time in so many ways: saving the injured, clearing rubble filled streets so rescue teams could access the injured and reach important places like the Frontier Corps HQ, to complete the unfinished planes that were in need of more work before they could be flight tested and thrown into combat. Work also went ahead on the first captured English army transport from the mission where Cris had struggled back to friendly lines, barely making it back with his life. Intelligence officers tried to reverse engineer the technology from the craft they had but it was much too advanced, even taking it apart risked damaging it forever, making it inoperable. It wasn’t useless though; they planned to fly one mission in it, either to English army occupied lines and attack their most important targets or to defend Renford when the next attack came. Armed only with a single nose mounted machine gun, it would be totally outclassed by the escorting nuclear bullet armed craft accompanying the troop craft if that mission was launched. The Frontier Corps pilot knew the risks. Could it be up-gunned with added weapons? It would fly an air defence mission if the Aeroprogress jets weren’t ready in time. But if they were ready, the mission attacking the English army rear areas seemed very attractive. With the right planning, it would be devastating.

   During the last attack this single troop transport was down in the deepest part of the Frontier Corps controlled area of the Medusa Weapons Facility, it had been moved about under strictest secrecy to the most protected part of the town in a deep nuclear bunker, built decades before in the Cold War when the enemy had been different, not home grown. The English army were aware that the stolen craft was still in town but not where it was, they hadn’t found it during their last attack so they only speculated where it was. In time they would find it when they overran the whole area in their next full on attack, then every building would be inspected, every weapon examined, each surviving person interrogated in a proven technique that had been successful in several dozen intact towns and cities now under English army occupation. Afterwards the selection for who would be worked to death in the war factories and whom flamethrower teams would murder would begin, everything was planned out. Even Juniper’s Daughter was incorporated into their hideous plans, if she helped defend the town and area, a new secret weapon would kill her. She was also vulnerable to the nuclear bullet armed craft and their new tracking/targeting system.

   In the deepest bunker in the north of England in Renford, under the Weapons Facility quiet but hurried work continued on the six Aeroprogress T-720 Kahlia Akasha turboprop fighters, the wreck of the write off one was being recovered and brought here. Electronic testing of their advanced multi role radar system, of the infrared targeting system backed up by its laser, removal of the very complicated laser aiming equipment and replacement by a new easier to use system was swiftly done. A further set of tests on the internal jammer to jam enemy radio/communications/radars, on the electronic flight control systems and everything else electronic on the planes had to be done. Then checks on hydraulic systems like the undercarriage, flight control surfaces and anything else necessary. These duties went on around final production line work, there just wasn’t time to build the jets and then test them. It was risky in case anything was missed, for even the best intentions wouldn’t guarantee against human error.

   Weapon testing was carried out. The main problem was with the laser weapon being quite heavy in weight and firing only one shot before it had to undergo a one minute charge to bring it up to full power. It had to be tested once the planes were built to see if the new simpler laser aiming device worked better than the more complicated ones. One type of air-to-air missile had previously been added to both the old and new prototypes; this medium range missile was based on the old design plans of the first prototype and weapons with its associated technology level. On the newer prototype built with current state of the art technology, the missile had been updated and was much more dangerous, this had been proved in the fateful air battle that destroyed the old technology level prototype and damaged the newer level one. Due to this, the decision was taken to build only the newer more advanced tech level jets after this batch of two old level and four new level ones were ready.

   In battle both had proven useful in different ways but the newer one had a clear advantage and when the army attacked everything that could fly would be armed and take off in defence of Renford. The old skool twin barrel thirty milli cannon mounted underneath the old models was great for attacking ground targets with heavy armour piercing and deadly high explosive cannon shells. This weapon would be an optional extra on the new build jets if they had to fly a ground attack mission, the laser would be removed and replaced by the cannon if enough warning was given. Other weapons were built to go onto the old jets like short range heat seeking missiles, air to ground missiles of several kinds and to extend range, under wing/fuselage fuel tanks. For the new block of jets these same weapons were used but in a much-updated form and new weapons like the laser cannon were integrated when the problems with it were solved, other secret weapon systems would also be used. The old weapons could go onto the new jets but they wouldn’t be as effective as the new updated weapons due to the better technology level. The new weapons wouldn’t go on the old jets due to the huge difference in technology levels; the weapons and the jet wouldn’t be able to talk to one another software wise.

   The evening after the English army attack on Renford, which killed thousands of people, strange lights were seen in the stormy sky. A summer storm brought a heavy rain that drenched the area cleansing the streets of death and despair, thunder and lightning careened across the heavens, joined by another strangely familiar light show. Several people recognised it for what it was, they had seen it before some decades before – Juniper’s Daughter was on scene.

   She flew her silver disc through the turbulent storm clouds and cascading rain, sending a message to those down below - I am here and I will help you when the attack comes. Many people questioned amongst themselves why she hadn’t intervened in the last deadly assault and stopped the cascade of nuclear bullets falling so devastatingly on Renford. She had been pre-occupied on strict business readying herself for the final battle over Renford and the surrounding area, including the rest of England. This would be the battle where the English army either won or was defeated; she spent some time re-calibrating the equipment on her saucer to make shooting her down even harder. Hopefully now she would fool the army and its new ultraviolet detection system aiming their nuclear bullets. The next encounter would tell if she was successful. She decided on a small raid to put it to the test, to take the fight to the army but where to strike? Nothing too large scale, just an action that said, “Look, the witch is still here. You can’t scare her off!”

   Juniper’s Daughter remotely viewed several targets from the secret underground Devil Snail factory, to another death factory like the one she had destroyed at Vanford, to a targeting range where all manner of weapons were tested before being put into service. It wasn’t about material damage, it was an issue of here I am. She had attacked a death factory before so ruled that out, the Devil Snails were a wicked weapon so that was a possibility and the target range came up tops due to the importance of it for new weapon testing. That would be targeted for that reason; she wanted to appear on the scene when a weapon was being tested to get the best results. She picked up vibrations that the English army was about to test a new weapon on the range in a few days time and then she would attack in a spectacular way.

 

   English army plans advanced on at a steady rate for the full take over of western England by violent force and massive firepower. Such forces would be deployed to make defence futile and pointless, due to recent losses in the two small attacks on Renford and the loss of a war factory/base and equipment, the attack would take a bit longer. Sufficient war reserves were put into place to allow for any contingency ranging from a stubborn fight by the defenders or interference from the witch Juniper’s Daughter and her flying saucer. From secret underground war factories thousands of Devil Snail attack units were built in three normal sizes: Toy, Miniature and Standard, along with a large Double Devil Snail version that had extra firepower with two heads and finally, a flying Devil Snail called Flying Devil Snail for want of a better name. This flying model was available in three sizes from an execution unit capable of reaching close range but difficult to reach targets to the largest, capable of flying and engaging enemy tanks and fortifications from above. Double Devil Snails were ideal for fixed defence roles due to their superior firepower of four laser cannons, two in each head. Trials were being undertaken to see its suitability on keeping up with an advancing army, the flying units had no trouble doing this, having a speed greater than even a Standard size Devil Snail unit that ran at over forty miles an hour. The flying ones could touch a hundred miles an hour.

   Other weapons being used were the nuclear bullet equipped transport craft which had already been trailed in the failed kidnap of Sarah’s child, the monster, and the attack on Renford where one was shot down. Before it crashed, it fired its full load of ammo causing death and mayhem on a horrific scale. Production of the nuclear bullet ammunition went into full scale capacity in three specially hidden underground factories in the most radioactive parts of England, for maximum secrecy. A fleet of English army transport craft had been equipped with the special ultraviolet/infrared aiming system and a special nuclear bullet firing machine gun. Extra small arms like submachine guns, rifles and pistols and ammunition were produced for the huge amount the army would use in close combat when boots were on the ground. After the town had been captured, a fleet of Virgin Mary vehicles would move prisoners to the rear areas to be interrogated, worked to death and executed. These were huge armoured wagons, almost invulnerable to anything except nuclear bullets and only the English army had those.

   Fighters like gangsters would be shot dead where they fought, Frontier Corps men were valuable due to their intelligence knowledge, as where the staff at the Medusa Weapons Facility. A whole range of other vehicles would follow the army, from re-supply trucks based on the Mary’s, automated laser armed vehicles to patrol no man’s land and everything else an army on the move needed. On the target range the Flying Devil Snail was being tested in a test of its mobility, firepower and use under battle field conditions; after this the main attack would be launched.

 

   Flying over the English army occupied area the ground looked the same as elsewhere but with one difference; if the witch were caught her enemy would put her to death violently. She guided her flying disc invisibly by the power of thought to the target range where she would make her presence known to everyone there and have some fun on their part. She wanted to know how good the new flying dog with the laser beam eyes was, the army had learned fast how to make exotic weapons, was it any good and how accurate were the lasers. They would be no where near as powerful as her beam weapons but they were quick students in the witchcraft of beam weapons, not many people except the most talented and rich could afford to develop these. Juniper’s Daughter remembered the weapons lab she had destroyed in Russia and how capable their lasers were, much better than what the English army now had, of that she was sure. She came to the range and slowed her craft making it become visible but still protected from any enemy weapons. Opening her eyes and flying by hand, the witch held the huge silver penis shaped control column to pilot her disc. Checking that her invisible bulletproof screen shielded her and that she was visible to the human eye and radar, she smiled grimly to herself. She turned to her friend the monster that was sat down on red leather sofa. He grinned and roughly said, “Hey witch give them boys hell. I’m still sore from their kidnap attempt on me.”

   “Yes monster I’m going to interrupt their next little test on their flying dog thing. Look down below there is some people and vehicles,” replied the witch opening her vision window. She zoomed the field of view closer to study the scene below them.   “Look there! A dozen soldiers, a single huge vehicle being opened up and a flying dog being led out, the other vehicles must be for security. I won’t interfere until the test is well under way even though they can see us.”

   “Yes I see them. I think they call the dog like robots Devil Snails. Why I don’t know, it’s a crap name,” growled the monster in contempt watching the images on the window.

   “There’s a natural herb called Devil Snail. The English army will have stolen its name for their weapon. Let’s sit back and wait,” commented Juniper’s Daughter, relaxing back in her thrown like control seat grinning like a mad woman.

  

   The Mary armoured lorry was opened up and the Flying Devil Snail was turned on and led out onto the rough grassland, high overhead at the same time the flying disc suddenly became visible! Soldiers ran and shouted taken by surprise, in the radar truck a technician spoke into his headset and told HQ that the witch was here. Two nuclear bullet armed transport craft would be sent to shoot her down; in the meantime the officer who was in command ordered the test to go ahead. Under remote control the Standard size Flying Devil Snail energised its gravity drive and did a systems check on its weapons and aiming systems. A film crew started filming to record the whole event. Turning on its own axis the flying attack unit tested its direction controls then slowly flew forwards and backwards, everything was in order. Next the target was released, a real live prisoner as bait! It was a man aged around twenty who had been working in one of the secret death factories; he had attempted to escape but failed. Instead of being put to death, he was selected to take part in this critical test. His handcuffs and blindfold were removed; he rubbed his sore hands and blinked under the harsh daylight. Stern faced soldiers surrounded him, the officer ordered the lad to run fast in a northerly direction for fifty yards to a steel oil drum. There he would find an old but workable AK-47 with five bullets in it, he was to retrieve the gun and open fire on the pursuing Flying Devil Snail. He would be allowed to reach the drum and gun, though the unit was easily capable of shooting the youth down dead before he had covered half the distance. That wouldn’t be cricket would it? His escape attempt had earned the boy this date with destiny and the trial with death, his chances were slim but he would go down fighting. The boy looked at the flying dog and spat onto the grass, “What the fuck is that? A flying fucking poodle?”

   “That’s right my friend. Your failed escape attempt brought you to our attention, now you’ll run and this animal will fly after you and chase you but you’ll be allowed a head start so you can reach the empty oil drum and get the gun. Then you open fire and stop him. Think you can manage that?” smiled the officer to the prisoner/test subject.

   “Yes easy. I’ll out run that piece of French faggot shit and put a bullet in its head!” snarled the young man, taking a step toward the officer. Soldiers raised their guns in alarm clicking off safety catches. The officer motioned his men back with his hand and spoke softly, “Go ahead then lad, give it your best shot. Do your best, I really admire your spirit. For your own sake I hope it’s over fast. I must say, you’d make a good soldier in my army but sadly that’s not possible.”

    “Fuck you and your army! I want no part of it; I know the evils that you do. I want no part of it, not even this and fuck you! I’m out of here!” Turning to stare at the oil drum a short sprint away the youth sized up his chances. He didn’t look at the officer again, he set off running. “Good luck!” shouted the Captain who counted down quietly while the lad covered twenty, thirty, forty yards with surprising speed, almost reaching his goal. He nodded and ordered, “Now! Release the Flying Devil Snail!”

   Looking over his right shoulder when he was five yards from the drum, the boy saw the flying dog had set off and was gaining on him quickly, he reached the drum and looked for the gun, where the fuck was it?! It wasn’t by it, there inside it! I can’t miss, thought the lad or I’ll be dead, as he picked up the one hundred year old weapon, clicked the safety catch off and aimed it at the approaching flying dog. It fired a warning shot, playing with the boy and hitting the drum blowing two fist size holes in the rusty metal. The boy fired one single bullet hitting the Flying Devil Snail on the front right leg, the metal bone within stopped the shot which zoomed off in a shower of sparks and a loose flap of skin flapped in the slipstream. Firing again the flying laser dog hit the boy, shooting his legs from under him. His old jeans smouldered and burnt flesh wafted up, toppling the lad to the ground. While he fell he got a second shot off which missed. The Flying Devil Snail (FDS) fired again, setting the grass alight round him imprisoning him in a circle of fire; he was caught again by the laser and screamed at the wicked pain that made his foot burn. Firing two more times through the smoke from the grass, he aimed at the eyes where the laser light shone forth from. One of his bullets smashed the left laser dead centre damaging the delicate weapon. The FDS growled in rage, firing the remaining laser in short intense pulses of light, wounding the boy in the right shoulder and neck. He was about to turn the rifle on himself and commit suicide with the last bullet when the FDS finished him off with a laser bolt right between his frightened little eyes. Small flames on the grass had more to burn on now when the boy toppled lifelessly forward into the fire, his gun landing uselessly next to him. The boy never even noticed the flying disc above him.

   Slowly the attack unit advanced till it was three yards from the dead youth; it watched for signs of movement through the smoke, seeing none, it fired two more single laser beams into him just to make sure. Human flesh sizzled and cooked under the intense heat. Now for the next target, commanded the officer who commented, “4 out of 5 bullets with two on target, not bad!” To his technical staff he ordered, “Have the lasers hardened against 7.62mm gunfire. That was a skilful lucky shot.”

   The Flying Devil Snail moved forward and flew a wide circle. Rapidly changing direction, it climbed to fifty feet altitude, its maximum and pulled its nose up. Aiming at the disc with the single laser, it fired a continuous beam of blue laser light, hitting the silver craft. Laser light sparkled and refracted on the invisible force field surrounding the craft, protecting it and stopping any damage. Onboard, the witch and the monster watched this light display with interest; she fiddled with the silver control tickling the platinum testicles of her penis shaped control stick. This analysed the laser beam power, strength, frequency, lethality and a dozen other parameters. Suddenly an alarm sounded and a small display opened up on the main vision window. Two nuclear bullet armed air defence English army transports were inbound and almost in range. Juniper’s Daughter acted quickly turning her flying saucer’s beam weapon to full power. She fired down onto the FDS and killed it with a single long burst of red energy, enveloping the FDS, turning it into a blazing fireball that fell to earth. It exploded just before it hit the ground in a vicious superheated blast of energy and violence.

   Now both nuclear bullet armed transport craft opened fire from three-mile range on the witch and her disc with airburst nuclear bullets, firing two each. These would be on the witch and her monster friend in three seconds, so she acted immediately, grabbing the penis shaft with both hands and pulling it towards her. The flying disc shot up vertically in a wickedly violent maximum speed climb, rising to a height of ten miles in less than one second. The vision window was still open and monster was watching the burning flying laser poodle, he fell over when the ground left them and receded at dizzying speed, making monster dizzy and nauseous. Closing his eyes, he lied on the floor of the craft, not feeling any sensation at all due to the gravity dampeners built into the disc. If these weren’t used, both the witch and the monster would be piles of red stuff on the floor.

   From a height of ten miles, Juniper’s Daughter watched with interest when four nuclear bullets meant for her exploded where they had been in the sky. Vivid bright flashes ticked her eyes, replaced by expanding fireballs slowly mushrooming into one large one and rising above the target range. Zooming in the view the witch saw the two English army transports avoid the explosions of their own ordnance and pull up vertically in steep arcs to climb under full power in a vain attempt to get the saucer. Would they be able to pick it up on their tracking gear? Juniper’s Daughter doubted this but she increased her altitude by another ten miles so she was now fifteen miles above the ground, nothing could catch them now. Watching the transports feebly climb up, she guessed they could reach no more than thirty five thousand feet – almost seven miles straight up. In theory enough for them to shoot down the disc if it remained stationary at a height of ten miles due to the three mile range of the nuclear bullet gun. Gravity would hinder this, reducing the vertical straight up range to a little over two miles so they would have been safe and that was not including the force field that stopped all weapons. That would have its limits but it had never been tested to destruction.

   As a parting gift to the English army the witch fired two single high-energy laser shots down onto the two circling English army craft that circled vainly at thirty four thousand feet, their maximum height. Both disappeared in huge flaming explosions huge bubbles of flame silently expanding and dying, so outdated was their technology when compared to the flying disc. She had proved her point and now she was untouchable, not even the English army with its potent state of the art weapons could touch her. Turning to her friend, the monster that remained on the floor with his eyes closed, she calmly asked, “Hey monster it’s okay now, I closed the vision window you can’t see out now. Are you okay? You want a beer?”

   “Yes monster want a beer, then more beer!” grinned monster.

   “Okay my friend, witch wants more than one beer too after that episode. Let’s party!” replied the witch handing out some stolen army beer. With the disc many miles above the ground, a drunken party began using stolen army beer. Both had a taste for this strong brew.

 

   Underneath, the group of soldiers had the surprise of their lives when the disc that was seemingly fixed into position hundreds of feet above their heads, swiftly disappeared. They soon understood why two seconds later when four nuclear bullets exploded in airburst mode, singing the ground below, giving several soldiers and the officer bad sunburn and radiation exposure, knocking over the Mary lorry and shorting out the radios and radar. Someone had fucked up by allowing the nuclear bullet armed craft to open fire so randomly on the disc and witch, English army soldiers and vehicles had been hit instead of her. None of the vehicles wound start due to the electromagnetic pulse from the nuclear bullets, the electronics were fired. Swearing in pain and anger, the officer ordered his men to march the several miles back to base so he could report on the encounter with the disc, along with the engagement of the transports against the disc right over their heads and the explosions of their nuclear bullets in the wrong place, almost killing them. Repair teams wearing NBC suits would have to be sent out to fix the damaged vehicles and recover two wounded men who were too injured to move by the blast. The officer would make a note of suggesting improving the nuclear bullets technology so they wouldn’t explode if they missed their target, which occurred in this case. If the disc hadn’t climbed vertically it would have been hit, so it wasn’t down to bad aiming just the tactics of the witch who had outsmarted the English army, again. Would she ever fuck up? If the disc had been destroyed, would the blast affects on the ground have been less or worse, wondered the officer? He would order the technical analysts to go over what theoretical data they had, especially now they knew what the disc’s climb rate was.

   The test of the Flying Devil Snail had been overshadowed by the arrival of the witch, the transports opening fire with their nuclear bullets at the wrong time, the zooming off of the witch and the final destruction of the Devil Snail that had fired on the disc, without result. Still the FDS had given good results back to army HQ over its data link, proving the concept of modifying a normal Devil Snail worked and that with the right tactics; it would compliment the other new weapons in the English army inventory. When the officer and soldiers reached their base they would be de-contaminated, any wounds treated and thoroughly de-briefed to get every bit of information about the test and disc incident. The main thing the officer wanted was the eye mounted laser weapons toughening to take bullet impacts of 7.62mm from assault rifles and machine guns.

   Seeing distant explosions many miles above him, the officer knew it was the two pursuing transports that had been shot down, not the witch, he swore again. With two more miles to walk, he swore and cursed the English army and especially the witch and promised he would have his revenge over her. They had already walked for over an hour when a transport craft from the base came and picked them up. The de-briefing started on the way back to base by an intelligence officer who went along for the ride. A medical orderly treated the wounds and gave anti radiation tablets out, when back at base they would all take hot water showers and have more medical treatment. Using the encrypted secure digital radio mounted in the transport cabin the officer talked to his boss, the General. Swearing and shouting the officer told his boss of the events and announced, “General, I think the attack should be launched within the next twenty four hours, at midnight when the defenders are dozing and not alert. We have to get revenge and defeat all of our enemies.”

   “Yes, I will recommend your views and order the commencement of the attack on Renford and surrounding areas by our army groups. The other army groups will work with us to attack in an unbroken line from the Scottish border down to the south coast, using our genetic human soldiers. We will occupy the remaining areas of eastern England. Our enemies will know no mercy!” shouted the General, puffing out his chest, his tin decorations shone in the light of in his distant bunker at English army headquarters. He was a real tin pot dictator with a love of war.

 

   In Renford hurried activity went on day and night getting defences prepared, servicing weapons and training men in defence for the coming nightmare that would engulf the west of England, from the Scottish border all the way down to the south coast. An army armed to the teeth intent on war would soon strike. In a few towns in the unoccupied areas an organised defence was put up in the limited time available, Renford was such an example. Over flights by English army transport craft continued in many areas alerting people that something would soon happen. The towns that strongly defended themselves would be initially assaulted and if not taken, then bypassed and cut off to be left to die under heavy bombardment. Most areas would fall with little or no resistance, the attack codenamed Operation Jericho called for the total occupation of England including the areas already held and the unoccupied areas. In the eastern stretch of England from the Scottish border down to the south coast, the English army had murdered most of the civilians in the killing facilities or put them to be worked to death in the war factories. All armed and potential opposition had been eliminated, giving the army a full hand to do what they wanted. This plan would follow in the newly captured areas so all of England would be covered. After this it would be the turn of Wales and Scotland, even further in the future Ireland and then Continental Europe would be targeted. And then the whole fucking world! A huge war machine with superbly trained soldiers and state of the art weapons had been built by dedicated people who would soon use it in anger.

   Facing this massive war machine in the Renford area was a small air fleet of defensive aircraft hurriedly built/refurbished and grouped together in a small squadron with a motley group of pilots. They called themselves “The Renford Boys” and were itching to do battle, even if they were all shot down and killed. It was doing something that mattered in the coming crisis that hung over them all. Each one of them lived to fight, it was better to fight together in vicious warplanes armed to the teeth than one another. This air fleet consisted of:

 

2 x new build Aeroprogress T-720 Kahlia Akasha propjet fighters built to old design plans; these would be used for ground attack missions.

 

5 x new build Kahlia Akasha propjets built to new standards with state of the art weapons and systems for air defence.

 

1 x captured English army transport to be used in the air defence mission and also missions behind enemy lines on special sorties carrying fighters to attack the enemy’s rear. A twin barrel 30mm cannon had augmented the single machine gun.

 

1 x very old antique Spitfire MkIX salvaged from Renford’s history museum, refurbished, it was armed with its original four twenty millimetre cannon and rockets.

 

   How long this small dedicated air fleet would last was anyone’s guess but the fighting would be bloody and bitter so it wouldn’t be long. Only one practise mission had been flown during the very early hours on the day before the attack, even this was flown with full weapons load. When they returned to their secret underground base, an English army transport craft narrowly missed spotting them while on a recon mission, some pilots wanted to go and engage it but that would mean losing the element of surprise.

   During the traumatic stressful daylight hours weapon emplacements were built, armed with old but well serviced machine guns, the odd antique artillery gun, two old tanks from the Weapons Facility, also three sites of ground to air missiles of dubious quality and many sniper positions. Selective placing of landmines gave some static defence and deterrence but nothing more. Many people from ordinary civilians to violent gangsters to well trained Frontier Corps men manned the positions in eight hour shifts. Even when not on duty they never ventured far from their defensive positions, in case the balloon went up the army attacked. This was the ground defence bit; in the air the Renford Boys would do their best. For the nine flying machines there were nine pilots including the original test pilot who had narrowly escaped with his life on his first mission. The nine-squadron members of the Renford Boys were:

 

Kahlia Akasha air defence pilots five in all

1. Gant who was a violent gangster and alternative businessman.

2. Andrew who was a partner in crime with Gant.

3. “Pilot” the surviving original test pilot a man of no name.

4. Gothic Lucinda a dominatrix from the Left Nipple club.

5. Sandra a gothic artist/widow from the destroyed Gothic Night club.

 

Spitfire 9 pilot

6. Tina a female escort/warrior of many talents.

 

Pilot of captured English transport

7. Cris a Frontier Corps operative who stole the English army transport to get home.

 

Kahlia Akasha ground attack pilots two in all

8. Denise a gothic prostitute from the destroyed Gothic Night club.

9. Lisa the daughter of a dead engineer who worked on the Kahlia Akasha fighters; she named the warplanes. She was a pagan witch.

 

   This antisocial group of people who had very little in common except being part of the alternative side of Renford prepared for battle, some knew each other quite well and others were strangers. Soon all would be thrown together in the white-hot cauldron of total war in the defence of their bastard town. The hours ticked away on their last day of freedom and innocence.

   It was Janice who spotted the advancing English army from her hot air balloon where she was having a pause from fucking a medium level gangster. She looked down when taking a breather and saw an army on the move, from her lofty height of a hundred and fifty feet west of town. She saw Renford in its entirety from the western outskirts to the town itself to the eastern edge, she gasped when she saw the huge armada of vehicles spread out for mile after mile slowly advancing north to south in a ragged line almost hidden by the haze of the dying day, black dots against the dark green of the landscape. This time of year there was residual daylight till midnight, the hours of darkness were short and the night came quickly. Half an hour later and the army would have been invisible to the human eye; they had made their first mistake. Dozens of dots in the late evening sky appeared like a cloud of flies on a summer day; these were English army assault transports full of troops escorted by nuclear bullet armed escort transports.

   She had witnessed the two previous attacks; on the first one she saw the distant smoke and explosions, during the second one she witnessed the violent air battles between the Kahlia Akasha fighters and various army transports. Janice wept openly during the nuclear bullet attack on Renford when thousands had died and a fifth of the town went up in smoke and rubble. On one single occasion a single transport craft had flown high overhead on a recon mission, she reported all of this to the Frontier Corps with her old skool landline telephone that had a cable running down the rope that tethered her balloon to the ground, her calls were secure this way. Now she telephoned an urgent message to the Frontier Corps HQ before an escorting English army nuclear bullet armed escort transport flew by and shot her balloon down with a single airburst nuclear bullet. The line was open when this happened; the Corps HQ heard the explosion and Janice’s and the gangster’s screams then silence. The war was on! An urgent order went by another secure old skool phone to scramble only the five air defence equipped fighters. The two ground attack older jets would be held back until a degree of air superiority had been achieved, the Spitfire 9 and captured English transport would remain grounded as well.

   Into the dark blue summer sky climbed five Kahlia Akasha air defence configured new build new design warplanes piloted by Gant, Andrew, “Pilot”, Gothic Lucinda and Sandra. Flying by infrared they arced steeply upwards in close formation heading to the last known position of the enemy craft, reported by Janice before she was shot down. Missiles were armed and aimed by infrared, radar kept on standby until battle commenced, pilots were ready. On cockpit displays the mile count unwound quickly as both airborne formations closed at high speed. Orders were exchanged and each jet launched a single radar guided missile from four carried, this would be a long dangerous fight. Five burning spears sped through the blackness of the new night, almost blinding the pilots but their night vision goggles automatically adjusted the brightness. At full speed the fighters kept direction, easily outpaced by the radar guided missiles that flew at two thousand plus miles per hour. Now altering onto their own courses the missiles got a smell, they had each locked onto a fat juicy English army troop transport full of troops, weapons and Devil Snails. Seconds lasted forever while missiles closed on their prey at unreal velocity, remaining in formation and only changing height, speed and direction slightly the transport craft stood no real chance unless they did violent evasive manoeuvres. There was violence when the five missiles clanged home with the force of war, five large explosions erupted in the night growing into huge orange flowers fuelled by methane fuel, metal, weapons and human flesh. Nothing remained only falling blackened shattered debris but it wasn’t nearly enough; still the huge advancing formation flew forwards leaving just time for one more radar guided missile shot.

   “Pilot to formation good shooting, good shooting. Light up your radars the bastards know we’re here. Fire one more radar missile and then close for heat seeking missiles and guns. Good luck and good hunting!” Pilot hurriedly announced over the fleets secure radio net.

   “I’m gonna send them bastards straight to fuckin’ hell!” from Gant. In five cockpits gloved hands brought up radars in air-to-air mode, confirmed radar missile lock and fired again. Immediately after launching, Pilot threw his jet into a violent dive so he couldn’t be fired upon by the special bullets the escort craft carried. Gant climbed almost vertically enjoying the g-force that pushed him into his seat. The other three jets turned left and right in a melee of twisting airplanes, like fish in a pond fleeing a pike. They moved position just in time! An escort transport increased speed and flew through the formation of troop carriers just missing two or three of the slower craft; firing four nuclear bullets when he was in front of the formation was guaranteed to scare their enemy. Too late! Three miles ahead the nuclear bullets exploded and blossomed into vivid mini suns, sending huge shock waves speeding out buffeting the escort transport which now climbed out of danger. The slower transports were safe due to the longer time to cover the distance; the explosions were just mushroom clouds hanging in the sky only slightly radioactive due to airbursts not kicking up fallout from the ground. While this was going on five more fat transport craft exploded and died with over their compliment of over sixty soldiers and flight crew. On flew the huge unstoppable formation.

  

   Now jockeying for position to attack again, the five Kahlia Akasha prop jet fighters became sharks amongst the pike, murderous predators with no mercy. Sandra turned her warplane on its wing and came down at a dizzying angle into the side of the transport craft formation. She had been almost blinded by the explosions of the nuclear bullets but her night vision was slowly returning. She let the weapons aiming computer select a target with the most suitable missiles, this close it was a sniffer – a heat seeker. She had four of these under the wings of her black gothic warplane, a creature almost like herself. Selecting Confirm on her Head Up Display, she pressed the trigger once and felt a slight shudder when the small infrared missile left the launch rail and zoomed into the enemy craft, faithfully homing onto the path of one and speeding down to explode a metre in front of the bulbous nose transport. A white orange explosion reached out engulfing the front of the craft, shredding the single pilot, breaching the pressure cabin and burning the very air, ripping the lungs out of the dozen soldiers jammed inside. Shrapnel from the missile ripped into the methane fuel tank setting off the detonation that finished the frail craft like it was a crushed egg, giving Sandra a third kill.

   “Yes, take that you violent killers!” she whooped in joy, turning violently again and just missing another transport craft. Her finger pressed the gun trigger automatically, not bothering her gun wasn’t locked on and even if she missed she would scare the fuckers to death. Big fat 30mm shells spewed forth from the twin barrel cannon mounted under Sandra’s jet, missing the transports but scaring several pilots into violent evasive action. Two collided and another huge blast depleted the numbers of English army troop carrying craft. Sandra squealed in delight, pulling back on her control stick and searching for a new target. She had five kills now and was an ace! She quickly data linked the number five back to Frontier Corps HQ where this was analysed and sent on to the Weapon Facility so a score could be kept of enemy losses. Closing from below on a gaggle of more troop transporters, Sandra locked up her three remaining heat-seeking missiles and fired all three while in a steep climb from below on her targets, a mile above her. One missile missed due to some type of decoys launched by one of the transports, it looked like a falling birdcage of burning material. Both remaining missiles homed onto the hot rear exhaust of two transport craft and blew them to bits after impacting in the engine section next to the fuel tank. Sandra violently swerved her jet out of the way when burning fuel and bits of metal cascaded towards her like a firework. She passed out due to the violence of her manoeuvre, her jet arcing over on its back in an inverted dive towards the ground through the formation of troop transports. If she was conscious she would have seen distant mid air explosions from other hit craft from her squadron mates’ victories. She was in real danger from hitting the ground now. She wasn’t used to the strong g-forces the warplane generated during violent turns and manoeuvres; this wasn’t good due to the chance of becoming an easy target. The plane had a built in facility that returned it to level flight automatically. This happened but in the middle of the lower reaches of the massed formation!

   Two troop transporters saw her and angled their noses down slightly and fired their single machine guns at her, tracer shells curved down out of range but when the distance diminished both tracer streams met her stealth fighter. Hammer blows smashed her little warplane jerking Sandra awake. She shook her head and swore violently feeling the small bullets eating up her plane. Her cockpit canopy shattered and fell away in huge bits of plastic in the slipstream while her hand grabbed for the control stick, turning her plane away from the line of fire onto a different heading away from the bullets. Cold air blew past her at over three hundred miles per hour, she couldn’t fly faster or she would be knocked unconscious, she knew her jet was damaged but not how bad. Her infrared goggles stopped working, she was about to reach up and remove them when the windblast whipped them away. This was no good, she thought, I’ve got to land.

   Reducing speed to two hundred miles an hour and diving steeply out of the enemy transport formation, she attempted a night landing. Before she did this she carried out one last act of defiance by pressing a switch near her trigger and clicking the missile switch to “Radar” then pressed the trigger twice. Closing her eyes she felt the jolt when both radar guided missiles left their launch rails, without no cockpit canopy the roar of their rocket motors was deafening and the bright glare of their engine flames was visible even through her closed eyelids. Flying blind, Sandra counted, “One, two, three,” aloud and opened her eyes just in time to see both missiles climb steeply and whoosh upwards, impacting two more fat transport craft in bright yellow explosions.

   Now armed with only her cannon ammo and in a damaged warplane, Sandra was about to attempt a night landing, a suicidal move at night with no night vision goggles and infrared system. Enemy bullets had smashed her electronic cockpit displays or shorted them out so she couldn’t use them to guide her. Through her half closed eyes she saw what she needed. In a field burning merrily away were two smashed army transport craft, these were ideal reference points for a force landing. Flying over the filed once at 200mph, she cut her power even more and picked her approach point coming in-between both ruined craft, keeping her wheels up so her valuable fighter wouldn’t turn over on the rough grass. Lower still, the windblast not half as bad now. She managed to keep her eyes fully open flying by her manual back up system when the final electronic system died. She noticed the plane was quite heavy to control on manual back up but not exhausting, yes she was a good airplane very forgiving. Would she save herself and my life, wondered Sandra? Speed coming down, now cut the power, put the landing flaps down so not to stall and crash, past the first burning wreck, a small whiz when some ammunition exploded and arced over her head. The wheels would touch the ground now if it was a normal landing but this was a belly landing, real stick and rudder stuff flying by the seat of your pants (or Goth dress in this case). Feeling the jet touch the ground now, there, what was that? Something wasn’t right! Oh no, she hadn’t jettisoned her under belly drop tank and it still had fuel in it, too late now! Fucking computer systems down, not reminding her of her weapon load, all her weapon pylons were empty now except the belly one. Her last conscious thought was, I’ve fucked up this time, I should have remembered that damn fuel tank, Sandra screamed in her mind. Reaching for her ejection seat handle to eject from her stricken warplane as it bounced violently over the grass, she knew blackness.

   Sandra would have saved her badly damaged fighter plane if she had pressed the jettison button but in the panic of battle and being hit she totally forgot and paid a heavy price. Her Kahlia Akasha fighter bounced and exploded on the grass, adding another burning machine to the two blazing army transports, she left ejecting too late, giving the English army their first air-to-air victory.

  

   A Frontier Corps Intel man frowned and told his officers that they had lost contact with the data link on one of their warplanes, it took some time to figure out which one. Yes Sandra was down; a rescue squad would be sent to the last known location to check if she was live. There was no beeper from her ejection seat so it looked like she went in with her jet.

   “Sir it looks like she fired all of her missiles at airborne targets, looking at the information data linked back. She sent the number five back but I think her score could be higher, possibly seven or more. I’m not sure we’ll ever never know unless she got out alive,” grimly commented the Intel man.

   “She was a good pilot, a natural. Inform me when the rescue squad gets to her crash site. How are the other jets doing?” replied the officer.

   “Will do sir. The other jets are in continuous action,” replied the subordinate, monitoring his computer console watching the hundreds of dots moving onwards towards them. He knew there wasn’t long left now.

 

   Pilots have varying skill levels. Sandra was a very good pilot but that hadn’t been enough to save her. Andrew was a mediocre pilot with little aptitude for flying let alone being able to come out alive from a three dimensional air battle. This wasn’t some knife fight in a bar, this was the biggest battle of his life where he had gained two easy radar guided missile kills early on but after that he had been in trouble. He righted his plane after violently changing direction to head back into the fight looking for a new target. Flying level not doing any aggressive manoeuvring he had to be aware that he was in danger. A burst of tracer fire from his left side startled him into his reality; climbing steeply he escaped that danger but met another one. His right wing hit a troop transport badly damaging his jet, the transport spun out of control on fire and hit the ground, giving Andrew a third lucky/unlucky kill and crippling his warplane. He was on the edge of panicking as his jet banked over almost becoming uncontrollable; he struggled to fly level with six feet of his right wing missing. His remaining starboard side radar guided missile and both heat seekers had been ripped off too. This threatened to kill him and wreck his plane; it denied him of three more kills due to the loss of his missiles. He knew he had to get out of here or he would die, that fact was simple. Keying his radio, he shakily announced, “Renford Boy Two is damaged. Have had mid-air collision and am damaged, will try to return to base. Will fire remaining missiles, over.”

   “Base confirms, out,” came his reply, through medium level army jamming.

   He pressed his missile-launching trigger and felt his remaining warload leave the pylons; two radar and two infrared missiles arced out into the enemy formation. By chance one each of his radar and infrared homing missiles found targets and hit them, giving the shaken gangster two more kills. He was an ace! This fact didn’t even register in Andrew’s mind due to his struggle with his crippled warplane. It took all his strength to hold the plane the plane level with the damaged wing hanging low, due to the loss of lift. His other flight control surfaces tried to compensate for the damage, doing a decent job under normal conditions but at night in the middle of a massed formation of enemy craft, this was tantamount to suicide. Army transport craft positioned above and behind him opened fire with their nose-mounted guns sending tracer shells lazily reaching out for him. None hit but many came close, further shocked the gangster. “Fuck this for a game of soldiers! Gotta get out of this damn army filled sky,” muttered Andrew, sweat dripping down his face.

   Off to one side a couple of miles away, at angle to him, he spotted some bright flashes going off, startling him. Averting his gaze and looking down, he saw the outskirts of town coming up bordered by fields there he would land; cutting his power he immediately descended through the massed ranks of hundreds of troop carrying transports. His descent was somewhat controlled due to his slow speed but still his right wing hung low, he remembered something about stalling at low speed so he fumbled for the flap lever, finally finding it. Moving it down as far as possible he felt the plane become more stable and not lose as much height, he checked his height readout to confirm this. The field came up, he had to turn right into his damaged wing, if his turn was too tight he would enter a spin and either be killed or have to eject so he kept his turn nice and wide. Ground level came rushing up despite his slow speed, like Sandra he kept his gear up so he could belly land. Glancing at his weapon load out on his weapon screen he hit the jettison button and felt the jolt as the one thousand pound fuel filled tank fell free, he hadn’t even used a drop of it just his internal fuel load. The tank fell into a field and hit the ground, exploding in a sheet of flame, this gave illumination while Andrew turned and flew lower picking his landing spot. There, a small field next to a row of buildings that will do.

   Looking further out over the grasslands, he swore seeing a dozen blazing patches of light on the ground; destroyed army transport craft each on the funeral pyre of 13 men – twelve soldiers and a pilot. His right wing wouldn’t come up no matter what he did. He gave maximum opposite rudder and felt his plane slow and buffet, almost stalling. Quickly pushing the nose down and giving it full power he regained some control, before he hit the ground in a violent jolt that snapped one of the straps on his five-point harness jarring his shoulder badly. Propeller blades snapped off like tooth picks flying hundreds of yards, the engine screamed at full power before it seized up when the jet turbine section shattered under the impact, the broken right wing dug into the ground spinning the wounded fighter plane around in a spin that pulled twelve g’s, banging Andrew’s head on the cockpit canopy cracking it and knocking him out. Bucking over the long grass the airplane came to rest after sliding backwards for two hundred yards in one piece, definitely repairable and coming to rest in the back garden of an abandoned terraced house. He had picked the right spot for his force landing, considering Andrew was a bad pilot he had done a breathtaking job that would have killed anyone else; he must not have fully understood the risks.

   Andrew was unconscious due to the violence of the impact on landing; if the jet caught fire he would have burnt alive, luckily the plane didn’t. The locater beacon in the plane energised and bleeped his location, alerting the Frontier Corps that another fighter was down. A second rescue squad was sent out to assist the pilot and check if the Kahlia Akasha warplane was recoverable. Recovery would not be possible until the army attack was repulsed or a ceasefire negotiated but both of those outcomes were debatable. Frontier Corps Intel officers guessed Andrew had shot down between three and six enemy transport craft, if and when they got to him, he could confirm his five kills.

 

   Gothic Lucinda flew at full speed through the army transport craft formation, not caring about anything just survival. She locked up several craft but they were too close for any missiles so she fired her guns. Most of her 30mm shells missed, a couple struck a transport giving her a damaged claim, it kept in formation and flew on. Gently turning and avoiding some gunfire seemingly aimed at her, she messed with her controls trying to figure out what to do, not coming to any decision she just flew around randomly firing the last of her shells and hitting nothing. It did feel good though when the powerful twin cannon fired underneath her just like a sex slave under her twenty plus stone voluptuous body. Changing direction and seeing if any missiles locked onto anything she was rewarded with a steady missile tone, she pressed the trigger expecting nothing to happen, getting a rude surprise when four small heat seeking weapons left their rails and whooshed away from her. The bright rocket engines blinded her infrared goggles momentarily but she shook her head and looked ahead seeing her weapons guide onto their targets. Even brighter lights popped out from two transport craft decoying two missiles, the other two hit two craft blowing them to smithereens killing everyone aboard, again. Shrapnel from the warhead damaged one of the craft that decoyed her missile; smoke came from its back end. It changed direction and headed straight for Gothic Lucinda, increasing speed until it reached seven hundred miles per hour, she was touching six hundred and had no time to turn or roll out of the way. When the two craft came together, an act of violence occurred ripping both machines apart giving the transport pilot kill and Gothic Lucinda a kill making her an ace. She never knew this, for she died in the resulting explosion, her huge body was torn to pieces. Burning flesh and body fat, mixed with other falling charred flesh, metal and burning fuel, finally settling onto the ground and caused another grass fire. Frontier Corps HQ got another failure in one of their jet’s data link, signalling another fatality. This time they had no accurate location due to interference from English army jamming, the two teams already dispatched would keep their eyes open for a third downed jet fighter. With the dozens of burning wrecks on the ground the chances of finding her downed fighter were remote, especially after a mid-air collision.

 

   The pilot called “Pilot” was a victor from the earlier air battle against the English army where he had gained great experience when he had damaged some of the transport craft, including one of the dangerous special ones with a powerful gun on it. His fighter had been damaged and he crash-landed his shot up propjet fighter, now he wanted more revenge to add to his two radar kills. Diving and climbing randomly, Pilot locked up a distant pair of transport craft and fired his two remaining missiles, shooting them cleanly down making four radar guided missile victories. Climbing steeply for the main troop transport formation, he selected short-range missiles and turned a half circle toward the approaching craft. At each ninety-degree angle of the semi circle he calmly fired a single infrared missile, notching up two more easy kills. Deciding against repeating the same manoeuvre, he half rolled his warplane violently enjoying the gravitational forces pressing him into his comfy pilot’s seat. Diving for a thousand feet he flew low level just above the dark grassy fields to pick another part of the huge formation to attack. Flying at maximum speed of over six hundred miles per hour he pulled the control stick to his balls and commenced a vertical climb, picking out two more fat transport craft on radar, backed up by infrared. Closing the distance he clicked the trigger and fired, turning away to head back down into the weeds, closing has radar down and throttling his engine back to cut his heat profile. Up above, one transport exploded and the other missile was a failure having broken the lock and gone ballistic. It flew for five miles and exploded harmlessly in the rear of the formation, a shame the relock on system had failed. No bright birdcage decoys had been launched by the transport craft, a malfunction saved it and its crew.

   Counting to ten and then opening this throttle to max, Pilot began a huge lazy turn to the left wing of the formation, he selecting Guns on his control stick. Now only armed with his 30mm gun he would get another kill before RTB to re-arm, refuel and rejoin the fight. Picking up two transports flying level, he climbed up quickly underneath them. When within range he fired his cannon, keeping his finger on the trigger watching in satisfaction when his big fat shells exploded bang in the middle of the first craft. Moving his feet shifted his rudder controls and took his fire onto the second transport, which also exploded in a huge fireball following the first one in a rain of burning fragments falling to earth. Pilot rolled out of the way of the burning metal and headed back to base with thirty-six rounds of cannon ammunition remaining, he was a sensible experienced pilot who used his head and kept his cool, not pressing his luck. He clicked his radio mike twice giving his agreed signal to return to base and sent the number “Nine” over the data link, giving an accurate kill count, the most accurate of yet. Depending upon the tactical situation, Pilot would either fly another air-to-air mission or rearm for ground attack to stop the slower approaching army land vehicles. He would adapt as the military situation did, being in his element using his previous flying training from his shady past. He never told anyone what warplanes he previously flew or with whom but his service was very welcome.

 

   Gant flew reasonably well, not as good as Sandra or Pilot but better than Lucinda or his mate Andrew. He had two kills and wanted more, being the aggressively competitive man he was. “Where to start? There’s plenty of targets,” he muttered to himself. Gant brought his Kahlia Akasha jet around into the right of the massed transport craft formation at four hundred miles per hour, looking down he saw the transports flew in levels. There were at least three layers of craft. He picked the middle to make it hard for them to shoot him down and a challenge to himself, increasing speed to five hundred he angled down towards his enemy. Glancing down at his radar display he set up his two radar missiles for the two craft on the very edge of the middle layer. On the throttle control in his left was a small joystick that moved in a circle, quickly moving it and placing his computer cursor over the two single dots on his radarscope, he clicked each one twice. The first click locked the radar onto the target in conjunction with a radar guided missile; the second click launched the missile onto the target. A multimode radar was in the nose of the Aeroprogress T-720 Kahlia Akasha fighter, it was a wonderful bit of kit, even the old set in the old design new builds was very good though decades old technology. Aiming missiles was so easy, work with the Head Up Display mounted before the pilot, use the infrared sight with or without the radar on or use a Helmet Mounted Sight to aim the weapons by turning your head. These aiming options worked well with either short-range infrared heat seeking missiles or long-range radar guided weapons, more efficient ways to get weapons on target to kill your enemy. Gant smiled when the two weapons sped onwards to their targets, “That is for killing my two gangster mates Joyce and Gerald. You fuckin, cunts it’s time for some gangster payback!”

   Doing a hard six g turn Gant left his missiles to arrow into the formation causing death and confusion in the middle ranks. Rolling his warplane inverted he looked up out of his canopy to find another target, flying a gentle arc upside down he let gravity bring his airplane down the arc to meet up with more transport craft. Moving his weapon selector to short range missiles he got ready to set the shot up, there! A single transport on its own, slightly out of formation; still upside down he pressed the trigger once sending one missile into the face of the craft. Both connected in a huge explosion and that made five kills now. Rolling level he climbed up steeply opening his throttle to max to get full power in his heady climb, up into the night sky over the formation. Gant saw bright flashes a couple of miles away, some kind of special ammo, must be the same type as was used on town in the earlier attack. Got to watch them, he thought angrily.

   Off to his right, two fingers of flame glowed brightly orange and blue slowly falling to earth like big flaming flowers before flickering out, more kills by his mates. Several faint streams of tracer shells reached out seemingly for nothing, fuck! One stream zoomed past him even now as he climbed steeply, well above the formation. Glancing at his altitude he saw he was at twenty four thousand. Someone was climbing after him to shoot like that; machine guns were close range weapons. If they want to fight, so be it! Closing his throttle control abruptly, Gant felt his Kahlia Akasha fighter hang in space and stall almost immediately, hanging there in a stall turn before gravity took hold and their fall to earth slowly commenced. In this time he selected Guns on his control. There! A dark fat shape climbed rapidly past on a blue tail of fire, a single army transport had tried to intercept him. How was that possible? He was in a stealth fighter invisible to radar but his engine was on full power so a small heat signature could have been picked up, try some of this you cunt, contemplated Gant tickling his trigger. A dozen fat cannon shells left his twin cannon and connected with the climbing transport now almost a thousand feet ahead; it was just starting to turn around when it exploded like a massive grenade. The methane fuel tank went up and falling bits of metal hurried down to Gant, who was slowly falling backwards in his jet. Kicking right rudder and opening his throttle he avoided the danger and increased velocity to combat speed. Looking down by infrared he picked three more transports and locked them up. Three more heat seeking missiles merged down onto the slower craft holding perfect formation. What a way to die, he thought. The one who broke formation to come and get me had balls. Imagine if we met in a bar and had a knife fight. What joy! Snapping out of his psychotic daydream, he watched the battle unfold. He was doing well and getting a nice feel for aerial warfare and flying.

   Each missile was a kill giving Gant a grand total of nine. With most of his weapons expended, it left a hundred or so cannon shells. He data linked his score back to HQ. Yes nine was a good score but time for a few more with my gun ammo, he grumbled. Diving down back into the formation, Gant was suddenly blinded by a huge white light, it was like a new dawn but that wasn’t possible because it was just before 1 AM. The bright light faded and was replaced by three more. Gant couldn’t see now, he felt an enormous heat wave surround and engulf him and heard a huge roaring sound, then nothing. Another Renford Boy died in his warplane after putting up one hell of a fight, avenging the death of his two gangster buddies.

   He was shot down by a single prowling nuclear bullet armed escort transport flying above the main formation of troop carriers. It picked Gant up on infrared/ultraviolet and got an easy kill. The way was open now for a full troop invasion of Renford and adjacent area. Troop carriers were already landing and depositing their eleven soldiers, one officer and a Devil Snail to do battle. When empty they took off immediately to go and fetch a second load of soldiers, the invasion was now on! Losing almost fifty troop carriers out of over three hundred was a big loss but in no way came close to stopping the airborne part of the invasion. If thirty air-defence configured Kahlia Akasha prop jet fighters had been available and scrambled in time, they would have succeeded. Five were easily overcome after a brave fight. At Frontier Corps HQ the data links from the five fighters were dead. The order was given to prepare the ground attack aircraft. Pilot and his surviving fighter from the desperate air defence mission joined them, as did the captured transport, to attack the slowly advancing army vehicles that came overland and down the main access road from the west.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yellow Harvest

 

   The English army was on the ground having been landed by several hundred troop carriers, almost fifty shot down wrecks blazed away merrily in the fields, each with a dozen corpses and wrecked Devil Snail unit in the back. This wasn’t enough to stop the attack; empty transports flew back to base to pick up more army soldiers to join the first wave. Following these by land was the main attack force of hundreds, if not thousands, of army vehicles with tens of thousands of soldiers and four thousand Devil Snail attack units of various sizes and types to take over the unoccupied areas of England. Mainly they expected no opposition but if it came to a fight like it had in the skies over Renford, they were ready for it.

   From the south coast of England to the northern borders of Scotland, up to four thousand English army transport craft flew that night, each carrying a dozen soldiers and an attack unit. No one could withstand an attack of such strength, escorting the troop carriers were three hundred of the special nuclear bullet equipped ones. The land assault was upwards of six thousand vehicles of all types carrying thirty thousand men in addition to the others. Most of the soldiers were freshly grown genetic copies of real men, made in nuclei tanks from a secret base. The English army was becoming God.

   The witch had been in battle, doing her duty hundreds of miles from Renford. Juniper’s Daughter shot down a dozen or so troop carriers in the south of England before she was set upon by three nuclear bullet craft; she got two of these before she had to retreat, her flying disc damaged. Her upgrade of the disc hadn’t worked and she had been detected again, she had to retire from the fight to fix the damage.

   Renford was now almost undefended from the air, the people were on their own now under English army assault. Soldiers joined together and slowly advanced upon the outskirts of town weapons at the ready, ahead of them advanced two hundred Devil Snails of various kinds on a mission of murder. Coming across sporadic armed opposition the Devil Snail attack units fired their laser cannons at their targets, pretty beams of blue, green and red laser fire cut through the night adding to the tracer fire from some trigger happy soldiers and light defensive fire from the defenders.

   Desperate radio calls reached the Frontier Corps headquarters, there intelligence grimly men picked up weapons and left their building, becoming soldiers. This would be their final battle; they left the radio on and primed the charges to blow up their special equipment and the huge building they occupied. Forty personnel left the building to join the fight on the front line at defensive positions now knowing all was lost. A final sacrifice had to be made. They left just in time, ten minutes later two nuclear bullet armed craft dove down out of the dark sky and opened fire upon the Frontier Corps HQ. Defensive ground based missile fire rose up toward the two diving craft but missed completely, giving away the position of the missile site and signing its death sentence. They had tried…

   In the Medusa Weapons Facility the order was given to scramble the remaining fighter and attack craft to go and hit the English army troops and advancing land vehicles that were a little over two miles from town. Five pilots from the Renford Boys squadron started the engines of their mixed attack fleet this consisted of:

 

2 x old design new build Aeroprogress T-720 Kahlia Akasha ground attack fighters flown by Denise and Lisa.

1 x Spitfire 9 flown by Tina.

1 x new design new build Kahlia Akasha fighter from the previous air defence mission flown by Pilot.

1 x captured English army transport flown by Cris.

 

   From their secret underground air base near the Weapons Facility the five flying machines roared into the air. The new design new build Kahlia Akasha flown by Pilot led the way, closely followed by the two old Kahlia Akasha warplanes of Denise and Lisa. Tina in her hundred plus year old Spitfire roared along near the back, which was guarded by Cris in his stolen transport craft. Turning away from town and heading in the opposite direction, they flew low level on night vision goggles. What craft that carried radars kept their sets on standby. Arcing round to strike the English army advancing towards Renford took time but was a better form of attack than a frontal assault due to the element of surprise and less defences. Even so, no one expected to come back from this mission, death in battle was better than death under torture by the English army. While they were flying their low level route, a huge bright detonation ignited some miles away almost blinding their infrared goggles and sites. This was the Corps headquarters being hit by nuclear bullets and the time delay charges igniting, destroying the facility in a huge explosion.

   “This is it people, that was the Frontier Corps HQ going up. Our Weapons Facility will be next so we can assume we’re on our own,” commented Pilot to his flight of four. No replies came back everyone knew the urgency and gravity of the situation.

Miles ticked away slowly at three hundred miles an hour and a hundred feet at night. Slowly they avoided the English army ground based radar, infrared and other detection sensors and patrolling transport craft. Now they were almost upon the advancing English army vehicles after flying through a formation of transport craft depositing troops. Everyone held their fire to make every missile and cannon shell count on their main targets, the game was up and surprise was gone. Increasing speed and losing height the small formation dodged past small arms fire, tracers and laser fire. There! The lead group of army vehicles driving over old farmers fields, time to attack!

   “We stay in formation and make one firing pass together. Then it’s everyone for themselves. Click your radio mikes once to show you understand, Pilot out,” ordered Pilot. Four clicks came over the radio net. Five flying machines; four airplanes and a transport came down and opened fire together on the dozens of army vehicles that drove over the rough grass slowly to Renford. Surprise was total for no return fire came back on their first pass. The airborne troops hadn’t got a radio message to their ground based comrades in time. Five streams of gunfire and weapons fell upon the vulnerable army vehicles; the destruction was awful and necessary in total war.

 

   Pilot opened fire with his twin thirty millimetre cannons, stroking the trigger like it was his wife’s nipple, sending several rounds down each time onto the targets trying not to miss. His guns were loaded equally with high explosive and armour piercing to take out any targets. He kept his plane low and fast, firing now and again down the line of vehicles. Below and behind him flames and explosions remained from his destruction, coming out of his first pass he climbed vertically at full throttle and came around again to use up his remaining ammo, leaving the formation of his colleagues. Now he was on his own. Again he fired, hitting half a dozen different vehicles, large and small, not caring as long as he shot them up and didn’t miss. Click! There his ammo was out and his shell counter was on zero, time now for a missile pass.

   His war load was on eight weapon pylons, four under each wing, along with a belly fuel tank. The two inner pylons on each wing carried two single heavy duty attack missiles for heavy targets like tanks or bunkers, for a total of four weapons. The next pylon on each wing carried a pod of thirty two unguided rockets fitted with small infrared seekers to give a degree of precision, making them guided and finally, the last pylon carried a one thousand pound cluster bomb, each holding with five hundred bomblets of different types to kill tanks, men and other targets. Pilot swore to himself he would use every single weapon.

   Closing at high speed he selected automatic target recognition on his computer. His radar and infrared sensors would find the four largest vehicles for his big missiles and fire them automatically. All Pilot had to do was fly down the line and avoid being shot down, tracers arced past him; he marvelled at their green colour. More gunfire flashes from the ground, now his missiles launched at intervals when the big vehicles came into range and his systems found and locked them up. He weaved his plane best he could ignoring the twin beams of blue laser fire that almost got him, enjoying the huge explosions when his four rockets met their targets and obliterated them and their crews. Don’t attack Renford or we’ll fuck you up big time, thought Pilot. Now for the cluster bombs, I’ll plant them on some troop transporters and tanks for maximum effect.

   Climbing steeply he increased height for maximum weapon separation when his cluster bombs broke open to scatter hundreds of small bombs down below. Level off now turn a bit, where is the troop carriers? There, huge slab sided armoured juggernauts of some kind and Armoured personnel Carriers, here we go finger on the trigger now! Two presses and both bombs away, man this will be worth it! he happily thought. Now for the sixty-four small explosive rockets in the two launchers. I’ll let them all go at once. His fingers keyed in new weapons settings on his computer terminal.

   Moving onto a new heading he pulled his warplane’s nose up and pressed the trigger, sending over sixty heat seeking smart rockets up to arc down on any targets below giving of heat. Considering each human or running engine did so, the damage would be quite spectacular. Diving lower and rolling onto a new course it was time to RTB and rearm if the base was still standing and his runway wasn’t destroyed. He clicked his mike twice to give the signal he was breaking off and going back to base to prepare for another mission. Due to his superior flying skills and very advanced new build new design jet he wasn’t even scratched. It looked like he had the best attack bird of the lot of them though his jet was meant for air-to-air combat.

 

   Tina flew her Spitfire MKIX with panache and style, curving the classic propeller fighter around and past her targets firing her four twenty millimetre Hispano cannon on her first formation pass. The boom, boom of the guns gave her a great feeling of satisfaction and she saw her 20mm shells hit and explode ahead briefly on target. This was a great warbird, even if it was very old. It was like new, due to a full overhaul and upgrade with a glass cockpit, computers and Head Up Display. Making her pass low and fast at over three hundred miles per hour, unsure of what she’d hit but satisfied something was dead, she pulled steeply onto one wing tip and turned her old fighter fifty feet above the ground. Coming back the other direction Tina glanced through her HUD at row upon row of vehicles, carefully nudging her Spitfire 9 over a bit she fine tuned her aim and pressed the gun button. Up ahead an Armoured Personnel Carrier was struck, armour piercing cannon shells ate through fifteen millimetre-toughened steel, giving those inside a really bad day. High explosive shells backed these up, exploding in small yellow blasts. Tina was fascinated by the rough steel sparks given off by her armour defeating shells. It was a miracle of hundred plus year old design that a weapon was so simple yet so deadly, maybe even beautiful.

   Past the column she steered to another one and fired again. Two large Mary trucks received the same treatment and exploded into flame and smoke; her ammo load was expended now so it was time for her other surprise – sixty pound high explosive rockets. Just as old and effective like the Spit and her four 20mm Hispano cannons, lovingly restored and rebuilt by skilled desperate technicians for this battle now.

   Checking her fuel load, Tina brought her World War Two fighter up in a steep climb rolling off the top and using height for her rocket attack, diving down placing a green box in her HUD where the target was and rockets would fall. Coming into range now, there now just right! She selected two on her computer and pressed the other trigger that dealt with attack weapons, two high explosive tipped rockets left the launchers in a roar of flame and black smoke. Tina swore and selected two more, narrowly aware of the curving arc her old rockets took on their way down to their targets, unlike modern weapons that took a more flat direct approach when launched. The result was the same. One rocket hit a small car type vehicle with a flag, aerials and a small radar dish on the roof; the second impacted large lorry carrying ammunition of some kind. The rocket blew up, closely followed by a huge blast that shifted Tina’s Spitfire like a feather in a storm, lifting her three hundred feet upwards. G-force disorientated her and startled her. She wondered what was happening and pressed her trigger automatically. Her second rocket attack was ruined. The two rockets missed their original target flying for two miles and coming down next to a line of mobile howitzers badly damaging one, perforating the crew cabin, oversized tyres and setting it on fire.

   Another huge explosion behind her buffeted her plane when the shockwave sped past her. She checked her systems noticing a warning light one fuel tank – a small leak and engine oil pressure was slowly dropping. Time to launch her other four rockets and RTB. Radioing base she sent the letters “BD” by voice indicating Battle Damage. Previously Tina agreed this was the signal she would use when she was hit before attempting to return home. Lining up her target box in her HUD again, Tina pressed her attack trigger twice and sent her last four rockets down onto the huge massed rows of vehicles, not caring where they fell.

   She desperately needed to get back. Through her infrared goggles she saw many vehicles on fire and smoking, sporadic tracer fire shot upwards at nothing in particular. Slowly weaving her damaged unarmed fighter side to side she brought up her computer map for the most direct way back. Happy with this, she noticed the oil pressure was even lower giving her just a few minutes before her Merlin engine was out of oil and either seized up or caught fire. The fuel leak had stopped, that tank was now empty and she was using fuel from her auxiliary tank so no worries there. Smiling to herself that she may just get out of this escapade alive, Tina screamed in utter fright when a ground launched missile rose silently up and connected with her antique warplane. It hit the tail area and detonated, sending blast and shrapnel upwards taking off the complete tail unit and rear fuselage off the plane. Forward momentum carried the wounded Spit on in a slowly receding angle; soon it would spin or dive into the ground. Tina swore loudly and pressed her ejection handle, jettisoning the cockpit canopy and sending her newly installed ejector seat up the rail and out of the crippled plane. What a kick in the arse it was! Must be twelve g’s kicking in, Tina thought. Her parachute deployed automatically when her seat fell away. Looking down Tina saw her Spitfire fall between two armoured vehicles and explode, covering one with burning fuel. “Hope it fucking fries you, that’s for shooting me down,” she angrily muttered.

   Swaying in her parachute Tina knew the English army would capture her for she had ejected in the middle of them, she got ready for a hot reception when she landed. Reaching into her flying jacket pocket she pulled out her Bloody Paralyzer gun and clicked it on charging the bullets. She wondered if anyone could see her on infrared. She could see them below her, three vehicles stopping underneath her and troops dismounting. She heard their hurried anxious excited shouts when they pointed at her.

   Her gun clicked ready at the same moment two soldiers raised their guns to fire at Tina; she was a hanging target under a parachute. Lifting her gun she aimed very carefully and fired two bullets at the soldiers with the guns. One fired before he died, hit in the face by a massively powerful bullet which had a capacitor inside it that electrocuted his falling corpse. His return fire hit Tina in the legs like red-hot pokers making her, “Bloody hell! Fuck that hurt!”

   She hit the ground like a sack of shit, her legs unable to support her due to the wounds, all her breath was knocked out of her. Struggling to free herself from her parachute she heard the sounds of war, distant explosions, roaring aero engines, a rattle of gunfire. One parachute strap wouldn’t free itself and the canopy partly inflated dragging her backwards in the small breeze. Six soldiers warily walked over to her, weapons ready. She was having none of this; there was no way she’d be captured alive. She could either put her gun away or reach for her knife to cut the remaining chute strap or shoot the cunts dead then do it, she had to act now. Firing at the approaching men Tina knew it was the end of the road for her, even as six men fell dead with electric bullets inside them charging and shocking their bodies to death. More men came upon her from the side; she only had two more bullets in her gun. One man fired at her hitting Tina in the back and left arm.

   “Take that you bitch!” screamed the vengeful soldier. He fired again hitting the half caste girl in the neck. She fired both bullets into him and dropped her gun, she passed out due to blood loss – the arteries in her neck and leg had been severed. A soldier cut her parachute strap and let the parachute canopy billow in the breeze to slowly fly off. He looked down at the dying girl. She was beyond use for questioning or rape, best to finish her off. Aiming his machine pistol at her chest he fired a dozen nine milli bullets into her, the girl screamed once and then was dead. Checking her for documents or valuable possessions he saw the huge gun by her side, her Bloody Paralyzer. With the bullets still inside his dead comrades this would give a good indication on the lethality of this special weapon, yes a good find. He would be mentioned in dispatches for this.

 

   Denise the gothic prostitute flew her old design new build Kahlia Akasha jet in a great arc after her first firing pass with her colleagues. She never stopped firing in her turn. She counted six vehicles on fire or smoking on that run. Boy this was good! Flying straight she fired the last of her shells into a line of APCs, smiling when her gunfire tore them open like eggs. Her ammo readout flickered on zero, trying again she pressed the trigger but it was out. Time for her missiles, there’s so many targets to hit where to start, she wondered.

   Clicking her weapon selector over she told the computer to select the biggest targets, these would either be Virgin Mary armoured lorries carrying troops, APCs, tanks or supply lorries sent in with the first military formation. Her targeting systems worked at the speed of thought, targets were found and assigned a number priority, weapons were locked on and then away they went. Four large attack missiles left their rails and in scenes that were becoming so familiar on this flat grassy battlefield, connected with four large vehicles destroying them and their human crews. The Virgin Mary got truly fucked by a single attack missile popping her cherry and no amount of Hail Mary’s could save the people who were now blasted steaks. Two tanks exploded into debris followed by a single APC and its load of fifteen troops and a single Devil Snail. With a weapon load like Pilot, her bombing run was similar due to the nature of her weapons – two rocket pods and two large cluster bombs ready to sow more death and wickedness.

   Rapidly turning Denise selected rockets and pressed the trigger, firing the full load onto her enemy but unlike Pilot she didn’t know about the trick of pulling up your nose to gain a bit more range. Each small rocket burned brightly, leaving a dense black smoke trail and flew at supersonic speed, enabling them to destroy medium size vehicles like armoured trucks and APCs. When it came to big tanks it was cluster bombs and these were what Denise dropped next on a formation of four of the large war vehicles, she spotted them making good speed cross country. Two of them laid a smoke screen but her radar picked them up so it was too late. Giving her systems an order to drop one bomb and then the second with a short time delay would spread the small bomblets out when the casings broke open. One tank fired at her but the shot went wide, she was moving too fast. Her weapons fell away and spread more death below, knocking the four tanks and crews out and using up her last weapons.

   She data linked the word Unarmed back to base and asked her navigation system for the best way back. Ground fire reached for her coming uncomfortably close, a trio of three middle size Devil Snail attack units spotted her dark shape flying through the night on their infrared systems. A simple IR ranging laser shot locked her up, setting off her laser warning system, before the three units fired a cone of blue laser fire at her trapping her in a cage of laser light that tracked her across the sky. Denise half rolled into a tight left hand turn but it was no use, the evil poodle laser dogs followed her and shot her down. Laser energy cut through her stealth fighter shorting out the electrics, stalling the engine and setting a fuel tank on fire. Grabbing the ejection handle she pulled it and ejected as her crippled unarmed fighter fell to earth on fire, the force of the punch out knocked her unconscious. She was still out cold when the army captured her, adding her as a prize catch to go along with Andrew to be interrogated and finally murdered. The English army now had two enemy pilots alive and that made the whole invasion worthwhile.

 

   Lisa was the daughter of a designer who worked on the Kahlia Akasha prop jet program; she had picked the name for the program/airplane after suggesting it to her father. Now her dad was dead and she was a bastard with no father, overwork and stress had sent him to an early grave, it was time for revenge so she joined to be a pilot successfully making the grade. Though a little young at seventeen she had good reflexes and learnt quickly becoming one of the best pilots, she was tasked to fly one of the ground attack jets along with Denise. Theirs’ were the old design new build versions with the old radar and sighting systems but carrying the same weapon load as Pilot, in his new build new design jet. The weapons were chosen for maximum damage on their targets. The twin barrel under fuselage 30mm cannon that had replaced the laser on the new design jets because it was more effective, easier to use and had a higher rate of fire. Lisa spent half of her ammo on the main firing pass; she completed two more low fast runs on different targets wishing she had more ammo. If her father were still alive she would have suggested enlarging the ammo supply, still if she came back she’d tell someone to do so.

   Lisa invoked her Kahlia Akasha goddess that she worshipped and who her delicate warplane was named after, “Oh my mighty Kahlia Akasha Pagan Goddess of Mother Nature and of all things. Please guide and protect me as I stop the enemy who threatens me, my friends, my town and my way of life. So mote it be!”

   Far above in heaven, Mother Juniper looked down upon the young witch smiled and sent a message back through her psychic link, “Don’t worry my child I will protect you until my daughter is by your side in battle, you will be protected in battle little one.”

   In the cockpit of her rapidly manoeuvring attack fighter the witch felt a strange presence come to her, momentarily startling her but suddenly reassuring her. She felt almost invincible when she commenced her cluster bomb attack on a section of three APCs that had reached the outskirts of Renford. Her weapons turned the vehicles to blazing metal and spoiling the aim of a ground to air missile unit that fired two short-range missiles at Lisa and her sacred warplane. Both missiles missed failing to lock on due to the smoke from the burning army vehicles. Yawing her airplane and avoiding some sudden tracer fire, she set up her rocket attack on yet more war machines. Would there be no end to this violence screamed a voice in her head? Focusing on the box in her HUD she got ready to fire her rockets in a full salvo, watching the target edge into the death box, almost there but not quite. Nearly… Bang! A large calibre shell hit her fuselage underneath the empty front cockpit from below. The complete cockpit canopy was shattered by the blast and broke apart in the airflow, falling away in the five hundred mile per hour wind. Her infrared goggles were torn away seriously straining her neck, any worse and she would have been killed. The belly drop tank was still full and set on fire; if it was half empty the explosion would have blown Lisa and her warplane to bits. A trail of fire and smoke billowed behind her Kahlia Akasha propjet increasing her infrared signature by ten thousand percent; three ground based missile launchers picked this up and launched six missiles.

   Fuck she hadn’t set her chaff and flare systems to automatic, she hit the button sending a dozen burning white hot magnesium flares into the sky to decoy the missiles and several chaff bundles to jam any radars. Hitting the stores jettison button she prepared to ditch the blazing centreline drop tank and unfired rocket pods, she felt a lurch when the burning tank fell away but not her two rocket pods. Something must have shorted out the circuits. The missing cockpit canopy slowed her speed by a hundred plus miles an hour, slowly throttling her engine back Lisa felt the wind blast rushing pass her slacken reducing the pain in her strained neck. Where were the missiles? It seemed years ago she had spotted them, the four had taken the flares but two still homed onto her. Reefing her fighter into a gut wrenching six g low altitude turn she flew back to where her burning fuel tank had landed. Weaving her crippled fighter from side to side she prayed to her pagan goddess to protect her, almost there come on don’t fail me now, she worried. Pushing her control stick lower she heard a warning horn indicating low height, she ignored it and flew through the flames of her own burning fuel tank and violently turned right off her present heading. Out of the corner of her tear filled eyes she saw the two missiles zoom down into the burning fuel fire! Her plan had worked! Time to RTB, she tried to data link back she was damaged but the system was down, so were her radios. Checking her cockpit displays Lisa had to go off the back up steam gauges and single computer display, the other two and her HUD were down from the damage. Surprisingly everything was okay except the missing cockpit and holes underneath, the engine and other systems seemed fine but without the diagnostics page on her main system she couldn’t be sure.

   Exiting the battle area she decided to fly a long way back to the Weapons Facility Base, if it seemed overrun she would fly further west into unoccupied area and land as quickly as possible. Flying at two hundred miles per hour with a missing cockpit made her very vulnerable and an easy target. Her radar profile increased dramatically due the open cockpit.

   Far below the Devil swore aggressively, his plan to kill the young witch Lisa thwarted by Mother Juniper far above, if the young witch allied herself with his main enemy Juniper’s Daughter he was in trouble. Would Lisa be able to land safely at her base if it wasn’t yet captured?

 

   The last of the five craft that made a firing pass was Cris in his stolen English army transport. Luckily a supply of methane was found so his craft could be fuelled for his mission. He fired his single machine gun and the newly fitted twin barrel 30mm gun. He had no rockets or bombs so he was limited to the number of passes he could do. His small calibre bullets glowed in the darkness sparking when they hit a tank and ricocheted in all directions just missing Cris. The large 30mm shells exploded on the top armour of a huge tank setting it on fire after hitting the reserve fuel tank; armour piercing ones cut into the crew area shredding them into fine bits of flesh. Lining up on two armoured trucks he fired quick bursts getting good hits and disabling them, he swore when they didn’t burn. Drunkenly weaving the plump craft low over its ground based cousins he came to the edge of town, seeing other craft like his own on the ground unloading troops. Should he attack them or keep to the land based vehicles? Orders were orders so he turned away and shot up the leading elements of the ground advance three more times until his ammo ran out. Laser fire angled up at him fortunately missing him, he remembered being hit before on his escape from the army base at Vanford, he had been so lucky then not to be shot down. More tracer fire sought him out and he flew from side to side feeling sick from the violent moves. It wasn’t enough; some bullets hit the troop cabin in violent bangs. Increasing power to one hundred and ten percent he changed course in a five g turn and hit seven hundred miles per hour at low level rapidly increasing through the sound barrier to Mach1 to RTB. He should be there in under a minute at that speed. A huge supersonic shockwave formed at the front of his bulbous nosed craft, edging out in a cone due to the stunning airspeed. Touching the ground the shockwave hit two armoured trucks and a group of APCs, turning them over like a child kicking over his toys. A massive sonic boom echoed over the landscape, people in Renford heard it and thought the worst. Pulling the stick back Cris zoomed for height in a steep zoom climb so the shockwave wouldn’t kill his town’s folk on the ground. Even in the climb he was supersonic pulling a steady 3 g, in thirty seconds he had flown completely over town from one side to the other. Cutting the power he glided down from sixteen thousand feet to his home base dropping his landing gear and pulling up the nose to use the slipstream to slow his descent. Where was the secret base, where? He didn’t want to have to go around again. Ah there it was, almost invisible even on night vision goggles. The army wasn’t here yet; they still had to fight from the eastern outskirts of town through the centre to here. Cris doubted they would directly fly here due to the ground based guns and missiles. He flashed his landing lights once to signal he was Cris and not the English army trying to trick them.

   It would be good to see how many of the five had got back and what their scores were. They would have to rearm for a second mission or if the army took the town then fly to a new secret base to prolong their defence. The ground opened up and Cris flew into the black yawning gap and landed his craft, turning off his engine he removed his pistol from its holster and left the cockpit. One couldn’t be too sure.

 

   Frontier Corps HQ had no more than dozen or so survivors who had made it to the Weapons Facility. They were ordered there to make sure the Corps lived on and that some of their knowledge survived. The rest of the Corps staff faced the imminent attack of the English army. In the Weapons Facility none essential staff was being given the option to flee westwards as refugees or to stand and fight till the end, most chose to stay and fight. Some of the women were evacuated while the road was still open.

   From the air defence raid only Pilot had survived with his warplane. Andrew had been forced down and captured along with his damaged warplane which was being taken to the English army HQ to be examined to glean its secrets and capabilities. A rescue squad arrived near the crash site where he was forced down but were unable to secure the wreck due to the presence of English army soldiers, it looked like Andrew was either captured or executed. The squad tried to fight its way back to base but were surrounded, cut off and killed in battle. Nothing was heard from the other rescue squad looking for Sandra’s downed plane or her. It was presumed she was dead. No trace was found of Gothic Lucinda or Gant either. They were listed as Missing In Action at the moment.

   From the attack mission the losses were almost as bad. Lisa had safely returned with a damaged warplane which even now was being repaired and rearmed for another mission, Cris was also unhurt and his transport craft had a total of eight small bullet holes in the cargo cabin, Tina was dead and her airplane destroyed, Denise was shot down and captured by the English army and her warplane lost. She was listed as MIA. Out of an air fleet of nine front line war craft, two thirds of that force had been wiped out in two missions of bitter combat. Only three craft and pilots remained to do battle on a new ground attack sortie – Pilot with his new design new build Kahlia Akasha jet, Lisa with her old design new build jet and Cris with his transport craft. Fuelling and arming took place while Frontier Corps and Weapons Facility intelligence staff and officers debriefed the three pilots.

   Suddenly reports came through of the English army engaging ground based defenders on the eastern edge of Renford, the ground assault had started. Soldiers and laser dogs dropped off by the troop craft had linked up with the front lead elements of the army ground vehicles, now an all arms attack was starting. Tanks, big guns, troop carriers and foot soldiers and laser dogs moved into town hitting the forward defences with wicked firepower, these would soon collapse and the enemy would be upon them.

   It was time for the next mission. Running to their warplanes and transport craft the pilots started their engines and waited for the secret air base door to open so they could take off to do battle again. No one expected to come back alive from this, it was an almost certain suicide mission. If anyone was left alive and flying they were to fly to the second hidden base to the west of town to rearm for a fourth mission. Orders were issued to defend the base to the last man/woman and last bullet. After that the base would be destroyed by the hidden explosive demolition charges, with everyone inside it and any remaining weapons.

 

   On the eastern edge of town the English army slowly advanced under covering fire from mobile artillery, tanks, the odd nuclear bullet armed craft and Devil Snail support. Three dozen defensive positions had been engaged and after vicious fighting destroyed with every enemy fighter there. Moving into the town the defence stiffened to fanatical proportions, hundreds of civilians armed with guns, grenades, knives, fire bombs and their bare hands did battle with the army, who in turn cut them down without mercy. A toehold had been gained, soon a foot hold and the town would be theirs and Yellow Harvest could begin the murder and abduction of any remaining civilian in habitants. Up and down England Operation Jericho was a resounding success meeting resistance in only six places, advancing steadily into unoccupied areas consolidating ground to take over the whole country.

   At one fighting position in the town centre three defenders fought for their lives. Two of them were the open minded swinging couple Donna and Lenny, joined by their activity partner/fuck buddy The Cock who was a man with a fifteen-inch dick. They weren’t swinging or having a threesome now, defence of their town was a priority after their swinging club the Left Nipple had been destroyed. More tragic was the death of their young son Karl in the same attack leaving the couple distraught beyond grief. The Cock often joined them at the premier club on swinging nights and he sometimes at second-rate venues.

   Knowing the army would mount another attack, this time to take the town the trio reported to the Frontier Corps, did some basic weapon training and agreed to man a machine gun position when the attack came, they this did with grim determination after what had happened to them. It was public knowledge that the English army either murdered or sent swingers and sexual deviants to work in the war factories, so it was better to die in battle than be worked to death or murdered because of whom you were and what you liked to do. The only sex the three did was in the couples flat and it wasn’t very enjoyable, there were no public voyeurs and the prospect of dying was a libido killer to say the least.

   Donna’s green eyes misted over with sadness while she placed a fresh belt of bullets in Lenny’s machine gun, he saw his woman was sad and embraced her kissing her on the top of the head. “I know you miss our son my love, I do too. If we die in this battle we’ll soon be together. I won’t let the army take you prisoner my love and if they kill you, I’ll shoot myself so we’re together,” Lenny sadly whispered kissing Donna again.

   The Cock remained silent but he shared their pain, for these two were his best friends/lovers. He checked his small rocket launcher and made sure he had a dozen rockets at hand for the attack. Gunfire could be heard a few streets away and flames lit up the night sky as a block of buildings slowly burned, laser fire silently cut through the night a few hundred yards away. Distant screams and shouts told of the approaching storm soon to break upon them; all three finished their weapon checks and waited. Their position was at the edge of an alleyway on a road leading to the centre of town, the machine gun was positioned against a low concrete wall giving good cover. Rubble from nuclear bullets also gave adequate cover. The radiation didn’t bother them. They stood between the English army and their segment of the town centre, it wouldn’t be long now.

   She quickly tied her red hair back with an elastic band so it wouldn’t spoil her aim when she used her machine pistol at close quarters. Lenny pulled his old army cap down on his head and waited making sure the gun’s safety was off. There! Fuck the army was here; a row of running soldiers quickly appeared between two buildings. The Cock hefted his launcher to his shoulder and turned on his infrared sight, ready for action. His huge dick twitched at the thought of making love to Donna but he had a forbidding feeling that he would never do so again, not after today.

   “Lenny to Weapons Facility, we have sighted soldiers in the town centre near our position passing between Queen Street and the Plaza. Have not engaged, repeat we have not engaged. Believe enemy strength is four to six men. Looks like they’re checking us out before they attack. We’re ready for them, Lenny out,” Lenny gave an update to the Frontier Corps who had moved to the Weapons Facility after their HQ was destroyed. No reply came back, he changed frequencies and tried again, this time he got a faint reply that was drowned out by gunfire and then the sound of enemy jamming came over the airwaves. He clicked off the set and swore.

   Donna tried to smile and said, “Don’t worry love I’m here. We’re on our own it seems. We’ll do our best and manage.”

   “And I’m here, no one messes with The Cock!” laughed The Cock nervously. He smiled at the couple.

   Lenny opened fire with his machine gun drowning out any further talk and driving their nerves away, direct action brought concentrated aggression! His machine gun fired long belts of 7.62mm bullets at over a thousand a minute and they had five of these, which Donna fed into the hungry gun plus their personal weapons. Every third bullet was a hot burning orange tracer, this gave excellent references when putting fire down upon a target and it also gave their position away. Soldiers ran down the main road towards them firing sporadically and inaccurately. Lenny fired back accurately in five round bursts cutting them down with no mercy; several were injured and squirmed on the ground. He fired at these and their comrades, putting fire down trying to stop their new advance, in this he was successful but more would soon follow with heavier weapons. More soldiers came, attempting to take the road. It was an open position and their gun was well sighted giving lethal fire, only an armoured vehicle could move safely and that would be stopped by The Cock and hit rockets.

   The first bullet belt had ran out, Donna hurriedly went through her reloading steps taking her time for she had to get it right or the gun would jam. Now return shots came back pinging off the wall and road, she was ready! Lenny opened up again silencing the gunfire; he fired fifty rounds moving the gun from side to side hosing the area where the enemy was. Bodies mounted on the ground giving some cover to live soldiers who hid behind their dead colleagues and opened fire, trying to hit the trio’s position. Another fifty rounds thudded into the bodies and again reduced fire coming their way but Lenny took a shot in his left shoulder, he screamed in pain and fell backwards. Donna shouted and cried, moving behind the gun to keep firing and stop the English army. The Cock checked Lenny over and grinned, “It hit your shoulder but not the artery. You’ll live! I’ll put a dressing on it.” He took a clean rag cut from an old t-shirt and plugged the hole, tying the rag in place with another bit.

   “Thanks mate the bastards got lucky, I got fucking loads of them! Hey Donna love, save some bullets for me!” Lenny laughed, in bad pain and otherwise okay in spirit.

   She fired long bursts and turned to smile at her wounded man before focusing on the enemy. The belt of bullets ran out, she reloaded herself quickly and efficiently. Donna would make a good soldier in the Frontier Corps if they survived this mess. Lenny moved over next to the gun to reload next time, The Cock watched up ahead with his launcher ready. Suddenly a dog of some type came into view behind the dead soldiers crouching and watching them. Two live soldiers talked and pointed at the gun position which caused them so much grief.

   Donna fired a long burst to put them off and hopefully kill them; she hit one in the chest but missed the other and the dog. She felt bad about shooting at a dog but the stupid cunts shouldn’t have any animals on the front line, it just wasn’t right! Donna’s views were put to the test when the dog, a large dark brown poodle, bounded over the bodies and ran towards her. Flames from a burning building illuminated the scene ominously. “Fuck the cunts are sending dogs in now! Are they short of soldiers?” moaned Donna, rolling her eyes and squeezing the trigger unloading fifteen rounds into the galloping animal and bowling it over like confetti. She switched targets and fired at six more soldiers that came into view but had the shock of her life when the dog got up and shook itself like it had just had a bath. Bullets that had pierced its side thudded metallically onto the road! This wasn’t possible! She fired again, shouting at the men to help her, “Guys that dog should be dead! I just hit it and it got up no problem, what the hell is that? Hey The Cock, get ready with your rocket and get that damn dog.”

   “I know Donna it’s spooky. A rocket is on the way! Fire in the hole!” shouted The Cock, aiming carefully and firing at the approaching animal that was now thirty yards away. His rocket left the launcher and flew angrily forth, landing in front of the poodle exploding in a violent blast sending bits of the road and hopefully dog in all directions. Rapidly he reloaded and brought up his launcher ready to fire again. Donna kept firing short bursts so nothing and no one advanced in the confusion. Lenny got a belt of bullets to reload but noticed they were more than halfway through their ammo supply; time was winding down to death and what?

   “It’s getting confused down there, I can’t see due to the darkness and smoke, The Cock what is going on? Look through your infrared sight on your launcher,” Donna enquired between firing her machine gun.

   “Looks like more soldiers and dogs are setting up position ready to attack us. I’ll try a rocket to see if it puts them off,” the throbbing male member replied pressing the trigger and sending a second rocket forwards into the soldiers midst. It exploded against a wall sending bricks and shrapnel backwards killing three soldiers and wounding more.

   Donna fired short bursts but swore when the dog got up again and tried to walk, both back legs were damaged and not working dragging on the floor. The poodle’s eyes glowed blue like something from a horror movie! Donna wanted to turn and run. She fired at the animal again hitting it repeatedly, she distinctly saw her bullets enter the front of its ragged ripped body and blood pool on the ground but still it came.

   The Cock reloaded and was about to fire when the blue glowing eyes shot forth twin beams of superheated laser light, cutting a black sizzling line over the road, onto the concrete and onto Lenny’s chest. Lenny screamed like a pig in an abattoir before collapsing for the last time. Donna shouted, “You mother fuckers I’m going to cut you in two and send you all to fucking hell!”

   “Ah man this crap aint happening!” gestured The Cock, firing a rocket at the laser dog and hitting it dead centre on the chest ending its mechanical life in a shower of metal limbs, bloody flake flesh and flame. No more laser fire came from it. It was some kind of advanced weapon, not invulnerable. Maybe bulletproof but not rocket proof. He loaded another rocket and launched it where the wounded soldiers were, blowing over two more dogs; one remained down while the other got up shakily. Reloading he launched again missing the dog but blowing four soldiers into body parts. Glancing over, he saw that Donna kept up her fire until every bullet was gone all five ammo belts.

   “My ammo is completely gone The Cock. I’ll use the machine pistols. Fuck, Lenny is hit!” Donna explained then she saw her partner on the ground, slowly turning him over she saw he was dead. She lost it, breaking down and weeping then fell onto his burnt bloody corpse. Now she was alone her love was no more murdered by the English army. He hadn’t even got a shot off! The Cock comforted Donna as several soldiers ran down the road now her gunfire had stopped. The Cock picked up his gun and fired his machine pistol making the men go to ground and stalling their advance, momentarily. He let Donna grieve over Lenny whose body was still warm. He almost cried himself, listening to Donna’s sobbing in-between the enemy gunfire. They were lousy shots he thought.

   Oh no another laser dog, no two of them! He nudged Donna and kicked her weapon over towards her while he lifted his rocket launcher and fired at the animals. His rocket missed and flew into the front of a derelict shop blowing out the door and windows and other crap. Now panicking he struggled to load and fire. Laser fire came back at them, hitting the concrete blocks making it glow and melt, it ran fizzling onto the tarmac road boiling the tar. In the light of the burning building the enemy dogs slowly advanced. Donna got her shit together and confronted her new enemy by firing a full magazine of bullets from her machine pistol. The dogs twitched under the fire but didn’t stop! The Cock fired another rocket hitting the dog on the right disabling it and it still fired one last time, inaccurately. The other attack dog ran and never stopped firing.

   His next rocket missed. Donna was ready, hitting it in mid air when it jumped into their firing position. Her bullets merely pissed the animal off and it concentrated its laser fire on the woman setting her on fire and burning her alive on purpose, she fell forwards onto her dead boyfriend setting him on fire. The Cock hit the animal on the head with the rocket launcher tube distracting it and stunning it, he picked up a rocket banged the rocket on the brick wall arming it and threw it at the dog. Throwing himself backwards The Cock felt rather than heard the tremendous explosion when the rocket went off blowing the head and one front leg off the dog. Looking back shell-shocked he saw the twitching animal try to crawl towards him, screw that! Enough mad shit for one day his mind screamed, I’m out of here. Turning to crawl away on all fours The Cock didn’t get far, the self-destruct mechanism in the Devil Snail he had knocked out went off destroying it, the gun position and the bodies within. The explosive in the earlier attack unit must have malfunctioned for some reason.

   The enemy position was now clear allowing the English army to advance into the town centre and establish a foothold in Renford proper. There would be no dislodging the army, the defenders fight was utterly futile no matter how brave or desperate, for the loss of over forty soldiers and two devil Snails destroyed and one damaged the army had opened up a path into town. Reinforcements hurried to make use of this break through.

 

   Of the three defending planes/transport craft that took off on a third mission to defend Renford one had been shot down on its first attack run. The English army had set up a hasty air defence network after so many losses, soon shooting down Pilot in his advanced Kahlia Akasha jet fighter. He didn’t eject and died in his broken warplane after destroying three vehicles, Cris saw Pilot shot down and vowed revenge for his colleague’s death. Flying his attack transport down a line of vehicles he fired his machine gun and cannon witnessing multiple explosions where his shells caught the enemy. Rolling out and coming back he selected a missile lorry that launched two small missiles too close, both didn’t lock on and missed Cris and his fat transport craft. His gunfire blew the missile lorry into a thousand bits; the blast wave shook his transport giving him a wicked thrill of satisfaction. Turning again he dived onto a group of parked up lorries disembarking troops, his machine gun bullets cut ten down while his cannon shells set two lorries on fire. It was now he was hit by massed small arms fire and laser beams from two Devil Snails, the cockpit canopy cracked and was holed by many bullets, the computer displays went blank and his engine misfired almost cutting out. Time to RTB to the other secret base if he could make it, fate held the answer and he’d done enough of being shot at. Now only Lisa remained in her old skool Kahlia Akasha, how would the seventeen-year-old witch do in this one sided desperate war?

 

   Juniper’s daughter flew her flying saucer over Renford at high altitude monitoring the situation; she had managed to repair some of the damage but wasn’t fit for battle. Still she took part firing her beam weapon down from sixty thousand feet killing ten vehicles and shooting down four returning troop transports with the first of the second wave of troops. It was then she saw the single fighter plane dive down and attack a line of enemy tanks, the witch sensed a familiar presence; there must be another witch in that warplane but a mortal one! She needs special protection. I’ll do a protection spell over her so she will live and fly another day. Quickly the witch, Juniper’s Daughter tapped her penis shaped control once and a glowing holographic computer appeared a real old skool Atari model. Before you could scream, “The Devil sucks his own two foot cock!” in a soprano voice, she had done the spell on the make believe pc. Her typing speed was 10k a minute and no one could afford her salary when she did peace work, she’d bankrupt the economy. It read:

 

“I am Juniper’s Daughter, by my own wicked magical power I invoke myself as a Mother Earth Goddess and my Mother Juniper Great Ultimate Goddess of All Things, watch over the young witch Lisa in her cool stealth fighter. Protect her from our enemy the Devil and the English army. Let no part of her be harmed, so mote it be!”

 

   Immediately the gunfire directed at Lisa’s slackened or missed its intended target, a large Devil Snail opened fire but for some freak of physics the laser beam curved away from Lisa. An impossible yet possible action due to magic sent by Juniper’s Daughter, the most powerful earth bound witch standing between evil and the end of the world. A potential trainee was safe for now, a meeting would have to be organised to form new allegiances in the ongoing fight against strife and tyranny when the time was right.

   Juniper’s Daughter watched the single warplane leave the battle area and head west to safety to the new base fifteen miles away from Renford. Now the army was unmolested from the sky it doubled the efforts of its attack on the ravaged town, nothing on or off this earth could stop them. Their weapons were too powerful with laser equipped dogs and nuclear bullets, something from science fiction but devastatingly real and effective. Not even Juniper’s Daughter and her vaunted flying saucer was powerful enough, the enemy had too many soldiers, too many Devil Snails, too many tanks, guns, transport craft and more. It was an army bankrolled by the Satan and the soldiers were his employees. As a distraction the witch dropped from high altitude and made her craft visible to attract enemy fire away from Lisa and her jet. Streams of tracers and laser fire from a dozen attack units washed over the flying disc, illuminating it under the flash of explosions and burning buildings and wrecked transport craft and vehicles. Ground to air missiles rose up exploding against the invisible force field that protected the saucer and its occupants. Monster swore and called the English army unprintable names, Juniper’s Daughter asked him if he wanted ago of the laser cannon to shoot up some soldiers on the ground. He nodded his head and the witch closed her eyes, before them a window opened up revealing a scene from hell under them. A small red cross was in the middle of the screen.

   “Move your hand left or right, backwards or forwards and the cross will move, like this,” instructed the witch to her friend. He raised his left hand and did as instructed, the cross moved over the screen. Juniper’s Daughter told him how to fire by waggling his thumb that was the firing button.

   “When you’re ready you can open fire. Hurry though because some nuclear bullet armed craft will be on their way. This is a small payback for what the English army did to you and your home,” spoke the witch making sure monster understood. Slowly he moved his hand following the cross with his hand randomly moving it over the screen. Then he brought his thumb down once and a pulse of white laser energy left the bottom of the disc thundering into the ground setting the grass on fire. A group of six soldiers nearby swore and opened fire upon the disc, their small bullets bounced off the shield. Monster’s moved his hand to them and pressed his thumb, the small group of soldiers disappeared in a sea of white pure energy becoming nothing but gas and blackened ash, ceasing to be. Onto a small army vehicle that was driving on its own over the grass to town, this exploded into flame and debris; monster whooped with delight.

   Just then a small alarm sounded, nuclear bullet escort craft were inbound to try and shoot the witch down. Taking over control of the laser she engaged them rather than fleeing, focusing her laser beam to a pencil thin highly concentrated force of energy. Opening fire at five miles she blew one to small bits before it could fire its special bullets, the other one fired from beyond lethal range its nuclear bullets flew and exploded mid air a mile from the flying saucer. Indicating to monster to quickly shoot down the remaining nuclear bullet craft he did as told, his first shot missed and the witch glared at him. Concentrating he fired again this time hitting the approaching escort transport detonating it like a huge bomb, that was part payment for wrecking his house with the evil nuclear bullets. More nuclear bullet armed transport craft came from two other directions, word was out the witch was here so it was time to disappear. The soldiers down below watching and firing at the disc blinked twice as it vanished and shot up to sixty five thousand feet and safety, just in time because the other specially armed craft came into range and circled the town providing top cover and safety allowing the army to continue the take over of Renford. The witch, monster and her disc could do no more here to stop the attack. Her earlier damage needed fixing if she was to be fully battle ready.

 

   Already hundreds of inhabitants were being killed under the attack or rounded up for sorting, who was fit to for war work and whom mobile flamethrower teams would execute. It was possible to see clearly the whole town in flames, no one put out the fires leading to a huge conflagration on an unprecedented scale. Slowly the army advanced under artillery cover and Devil Snail support, destroying two thirds of the town and capturing it entirely, three hours after beginning the land assault from the outskirts of town.

   Suddenly a huge explosion shook the very foundations of Renford. The Medusa Weapons Facility was on the verge of falling to the English army after a massive bombardment and attack by every single weapon in the English army inventory. Desperate last-ditch suicide defences failed save the facility from immediate capture, huge explosive charges were detonated exploding and wrecking everything above and below ground. A true scorched earth policy, every single bunker with a weapon in it blew up leaving a huge crater half a mile wide and a hundred and fifty feet deep, nothing remained intact or alive on the site. A hundred soldiers and a dozen Devil Snails were lost and other army equipment, also denied was the chance to turn the Weapons Facility into a new war factory to make more weapons.

   Over the next few hours mopping up operations began and more English army forces moved by land and air into Renford and adjacent areas, fanning out into the open countryside, adding to troops slowly advancing to the west in a line from Scotland to the English Channel coast. Bit by bit unoccupied England was coming under English army control, Operation Jericho was being successful nothing could stop it. The Devil was winning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Juniper’s Daughter Reprieve

 

   Renford was fully in English army hands and the surrounding area leading to the second airbase was slowly falling. This may have to be evacuated too if the slow but steady advance continued. Juniper’s Daughter flew to the west and landed at the base to help organise a last ditch defence. A base called Granite to symbolise toughness and symbolise the last ditch defence that would take place there. It contained a huge single runway built into the side of a hill stretching for a mile, half of which was underground in a massive cave, both natural and man made. Unlike the first runway near the Weapons Facility there was no huge door here to hide it from prying eyes and to provide blast protection. Another means was found to give protection. Juniper’s Daughter would position her flying saucer in such a way, with its force field working, so protection was provided for the complete airfield, cave and small village next to it. It would be impervious to attack by any weapon, a small Eden in an occupied hell. Secret communications had been passed back and forth from the witch in the days leading up to the Renford attack. She agreed to provide protection initially with her disc but in time to fabricate a similar smaller force field generator to protect the second air base and people there.

   Cris made it to the base with his damaged English army transport craft; even now it was being hastily repaired so it could make defence/offence flights against the army. Lisa escaped with her warplane under magical protection of Juniper’s Daughter’s spell, her jet was repaired. Monster wanted to play a part in the defence against the marauding English army, for the moment his role was unclear but his willingness for war admirable. Juniper’s Daughter was working on a secret ritual to bring monster’s mother Sarah back from the dead to help win the fight. It was nearly impossible but worth a try, Juniper’s Daughter wanted to circumvent the natural laws just for a short period of time. Anything was worth a try.

   The English army now occupied a huge area stopping only two miles from the secret air base; did they know of its existence? No direct fire had been aimed at them just yet, allowing a test of the force field covering the facility. It wouldn’t be long till they were discovered. The army would be rearming, refuelling its vehicles and resting its troops after the battle for Renford. In other areas they advanced more quickly covering greater distance with little opposition. A new hammer blow would soon fall, handing the army the rest of England and her desperate population on a silver plate.

   When Cris flew his second mission he had carried two passengers, the captured one legged English army soldier and his Devil Snail attack unit, which had been captured in the attack on the Left Nipple club. It was a secret how both had been captured, the attack unit had been somehow made harmless and shut down and the injured soldier had been also subdued. Both had been in that state when loaded into the cargo section of Cris’s English army transport when he had undertaken his attack mission in the final hours of the base. He then flew his damaged craft to the new base with his passengers on board. The Devil Snail would provide base security with its laser cannon eyes and the soldier would be interrogated for his secrets in his head. Cris had undertaken a stunningly brave flight that night escaping with his life.

   It was planned to use the flying disc piloted by Juniper’s Daughter to attack the English army when the portable force field generator had been built, her disc would be able to attack underground hardened war factories making Devil Snails, English army transports and nuclear bullets. Cris would be able to fly his craft with a force of a dozen fighters in the back to attack enemy rear areas of importance; this target group was being carefully looked at. Juniper’s Daughter had to fix and service her disc from the previous fights with the army; it had endured some violent action.

   Immediate work went on repairing her disc and on the theory side of the force field generator at the same time, working with the surviving Frontier Corps and Weapons Facility officers introducing them to a new level of alien technology that had to be copied with earth based technology. When they were competent at understanding the hugely complicated theory side of the project then the fabrication could slowly begin of the generator. Then it would be time for the witch to do the ritual to bring Sarah back, for this Juniper’s Daughter had two options. Either make Sarah from pure energy, a very risky operation or substitute someone else’s body so Sarah could take it over for a period of time. This would involve a lower level of energy and fewer dangers, the witch weighed up the pros and cons. Meanwhile the English army readied itself for an attack on areas not yet under its control to take them to the west and south coast of England.

   Juniper’s Daughter tutored six technicians from the two brother facilities, now allies to the end, on the physics and other exotic sciences on the machinery of the force field generator. She briefed them on the basics of the flying disc too but not more than a brief lecture on how it flew, on the weapon systems, on who originally built it, where it came from and what roles it was used for. Concentrating on the generator was the main concern for the witch and the very intelligent technicians, in a matter of weeks they had fabricated two different types of Aeroprogress T-720 Kahlia Akasha multi role warplanes, so this should be at the edge of their capabilities.

   The force field surrounded the flying saucer protected it and everyone inside it from weapons aimed at it including ground to air missiles right up to nuclear bullets, a huge increase in destructive force unleashed on a target. When flying in space out of a planet’s atmosphere the force field energised automatically protecting the craft from meteorites and beam weapons from other spacecraft from other races, if these were encountered. It could be varied in strength and intensity, mainly it was invisible but to ward off potential attackers it could be changed to any colour of the visible light spectrum and still do its job. To do this a generator created a force field around the disc to protect it, this was done by manipulating gravity waves from the anti gravity drive that was repelled from an object like a planet thus creating motion, sending the waves to a generator which turned them into a force field equal in strength of the power fed through the generator from the gravity drive. Also the faster the disc flew the stronger the field became, on a journey in outer space if an object was in the path of the disc and avoiding action wasn’t possible due to lack of warning, the force field would be at maximum strength to protect it from any impact. If travelling slowly in space the field could still be set at maximum by separate controls not linked to the ship’s velocity. The disc could fly in any direction travelling upwards, downwards or diagonal in space or in the atmosphere. It had a gravity system that allowed the occupants to stand up at one g or their equivalent g that they felt on their home planet. Most of this went over the heads of the technicians but the witch thought it prudent to give them an introduction. One day the people of Planet Earth would reach for the stars and need suitable space vehicles to do such missions, if the world was intact and humans still existed.

   One of the techs understood advanced theoretical astrophysics so Juniper’s Daughter tasked him to lead the generator design project, a second in command was designated to be his right hand man in case the first tech died or was captured by the army. Suitable materials had to be found to build the device, contain the gravity waves and force field without breaching the machine and causing a huge explosion that could destroy much of north England. Exotic alloys, crystals and other components were needed. An examination of the captured Devil Snail attack unit gave useful insight into small long life power pack/battery and miniaturised laser weapons but not much else machine wise until one of the junior men suggested a look at the animal’s metal skeleton. Was the alloy of tough enough grade to be used in the generator construction, for it withstood high velocity bullets, if it was not suitable for the body of the machine what about some internal components? Tests were done and results on the metallurgy eagerly waited.

   The airbase was in an old mine and types of raw ore remaining in the mine were examined to test the compatibility and usefulness. Some types of ore were dangerous for certain jobs, others more suitable and experts went through every inch of the abandoned mine. Several types of mineral had been mined here including gold, silver, copper, bauxite and iron. If available in sufficient quantities careful use of these ores would give results in time. The next step was to understand the basic workings of the force field generator and draw up some blue prints to work with. Not necessarily the final design but a test bench model to show the idea was sound and workable, a small low power unit would be built first to understand the properties of the machinery and its functionality. Then if successful, the design would be enlarged and increased in power and quality. Work started and wouldn’t finish until the unit was in place protecting the base from the English army. This would free up the flying disc to undertake defensive/offensive missions over English army territory. While the technicians took time to work on this urgent requirement, Juniper’s Daughter undertook a ritual and preparations to temporarily bring Sarah back earth side.

 

   In the control room in her flying saucer Juniper’s Daughter opened the link to Sarah again and talk to her dead friend. Holding her magical crystal the witch focused her energy with her psychic third eye keeping her real eyes firmly shut, slowly she whispered secret words in random incomprehensible sentences just like before when under the lake. A circle power rose sweeping past the witch in a whirl of colour becoming a rainbow of spectral haze, against the walls of the curved control room shadows and patterns danced crazily like a kaleidoscope gone insane. Within the light something came into being, a form of darkness within the ever-changing light event. Growing in size and depth the thing took on shape, arms, legs and a head appeared enlarging until a naked figure was there trapped in the raging rainbow – it was Sarah again! How young and radiant she looked, was this because she was made up of pure energy? The figure was complete now and she opened her eyes to stare at Juniper’s Daughter, who smiled and held out her arms in welcome. “Welcome back my dear Sarah how are you? I had to bring you back because events have moved to critical proportions; I’m losing the battle Sarah. I, we, need your help. Let me explain. The English army has attacked and overran most of western England from the Scottish border down to the south coast. I intervened in both the north and the south but the gravity of the situation was too much even for witchcraft, my firepower and me. We had established a secret base in an old mine where a make shift runway has been built for our remaining aircraft to strike back at the army. My disc is protecting the base, people and immediate area with its force field until a copy of the force field generator can be built to use for that task and then I’ll be free to take the fight to the army. We need you here on earth Sarah to help us in this struggle. A lot of this is my fault, I should have done more before to stop this situation from happening but I didn’t. Now many innocent people have paid the ultimate price. Your child is helping us, he is okay and he is in the base making final preparations for the defence because the army is only a few miles away. There is a young trainee witch called Lisa, I hope she will join me and be my apprentice when this battle is over and there are some survivors from a town called Renford including a man called Cris. He did much to warn us of the impending attack and we established a strong defence, though it was all in vain. Hope is not lost because I know where to strike the English army and given time and the right opportunity this is what I will do, what we will do. I need your help to fight and to do a magic ritual, just like we did over fifty years before when we established forty years of peace. If we could do it then, we can do it now against a much stronger English army. What do you say Sarah, will you join us? There is much more to tell you snd I will if you agree, if you don’t want to I understand and it will not be a problem my friend.”

   “I will help you my friend, for I believe in freedom and justice. Yes I don’t mind helping you and I can spend some time with my son again, yes?” Sarah instantly agreed with no hesitation or fear of joining this bitter war, an extension of Sarah’s earlier war from decades ago. In a way this is what Sarah did, fight for freedom and justice, she was a warrior.

   “Thank you my friend, thank you. It will be risky but worthwhile,” replied Juniper’s Daughter smiling, their struggle became a little easier.

   “Tell me though how will you get me back on earth for I have no physical body,” enquired Sarah, it died from radiation sickness years ago from prolonged exposure in radioactive areas.

   “There are two ways Sarah. I can either make you from pure energy to create you a new body. The other way is for you to share a host’s body for a short period of time, that is less risky and easier. I can understand you not wanting to share someone else’s body,” Juniper’s Daughter spoke quietly her eyes closed, focusing her energy not wanting to lose the connection.

   “Oh dear! That sounds very scary and dangerous, is there a danger the Devil could take me? Steal me like he did my friends?” Sarah asked, visibly shaking in the rainbow of lights.

   “No Sarah I won’t let him, if he tried I will utterly defeat him by a special means. I will destroy the complete world by exploding the gravity drive in my flying saucer; the explosion of anti matter would cause a chain reaction and destroy your entire plant. Now I can assure you the Devil doesn’t play to that level but I do if I have to. He needs this world as his eternal battleground, without it he has nothing. Of course, that goes both ways and I would be returned to my Mother’s side forever,” said the witch, placing her cards on the table. The game she played was balls to the wall with no compromise.

   Destroying the world? Fucking crazy! If it took that to stop the Devil taking me and defeating him, so be it, thought Sarah. “Well Juniper’s Daughter, I leave it to you to pick the way to bring me back, it’s your decision. As for destroying the world to save me from the Devil, its nuts but I think I understand your commitment to the world and me. I’ll see you when you do your thing and bring me to earth again,” Sarah commented, in on the witch’s plan.

   “Thank you again Sarah. I will carefully consider the best method for bring you here. If I have any problems I’ll contact you by this method. Until then Blessed be my dear friend!”

   “Until then witch, Blessed be!” ended Sarah.

   Suddenly the link was broken and the rainbow colours instantly faded to darkness. The witch was tired, she kept her eyes closed and lied down on the floor, asleep immediately. She needed to recover her energy after the psychic chat with Sarah. How would she be when she attempted to bring Sarah back to life? There were dangers everywhere.

 

   Slowly but surely the technicians worked on the force field generator, the correct materials had been located, basic blue prints had been drawn up and work started on fabricating an experimental test unit. How long it would take to make a working deployable unit was anybody’s guess, the techs liked a challenge and the witch certainly gave them that. Monster helped them out in the mine, working with one tech, mining the ore using his superior strength to get the right materials needed. Selected pieces of ore were mined and smelted into its metals, it was subjected to endless tests over the next few days and the results analysed. It was found by mixing the alloy with iron, silver and copper a tough exotic alloy was made similar to what the Devil Snail was made of. This would be ideal for the outer box holding the generator, electrical wires would be copper and gold where high tolerance ones where needed. The motors and inner workings would use small amounts of tin and other materials to make a fine high precision motor. The box would be lined with ceramic tiles from out of an unused smelter for the heat transfer and strength. Even with all this effort is was still a highly experimental project attempting to harness gravity waves backed up my magnetism. A steel magnet would be in the middle of the device spinning very quickly to create a magnetic field working with a gravity displacer. Juniper’s Daughter went through the theory on this and it was a very high art science, a few hundred years away from current earth level sciences.

   The old design Kahlia Akasha prop jet fighter was ready for combat when needed and the transport craft had been repaired in case they were needed for any military missions. The English army hadn’t discovered the secret base but that luck wouldn’t hold out permanently. A single missile battery was in position near the entrance of the mine/hidden runway along with the captured Devil Snail. This was under remote control by a technician who had hacked into its artificial intelligence brain after it had been captured and disabled. A simple laser function was enabled, making the attack unit a kind of fixed position weapon to shoot on command or when a motion sensor tripped an alarm, then the red button could be pushed firing the Devil Snail remotely. If it didn’t hit the target it would scare any enemies and buy time for the defenders. There were very little other weapons here, most had been lost when the Weapons Facility had exploded so the English army couldn’t capture it intact. More propjets would be needed but that was a second priority, the force field generator was the main project that had to be finished to protect the base. Both the Kahlia Akasha jet and troop transport were armed for air defence in case the English army attempted to attack from the sky. The force field kept anyone from coming by land, like a brick wall around the base and local area.

  

   Rearming was almost complete with the English army and soon they would be on the move after the major preliminary invasion. Ground had been held and more weapons brought up for the next huge push which would take them to the west coast. They knew they faced an easier task due to overcoming most armed opposition, the task now was to advance and expand current operations under Operation Jericho and Yellow Harvest. The whereabouts of the missing Devil Snail was a priority due to the high technology the unit contained but no trace of it had been found or the missing soldier, both were assumed MIA. English army high command was worried the missing Devil Snail could be reverse engineered if it hadn’t been destroyed by its self destruct mechanism. The unit’s data link had stopped working, so there was a good chance it had been destroyed but they weren’t certain. Little did they know that the unit was now on guard duty for the enemy at a secret base as a point and shoot laser sentry. How the Devil Snail had been captured and subdued by the enemy was still highly classified and thought impossible by the English army. How had their enemy got the know how to do this? Did the Devil Snail have a hidden design flaw?

   English army transport craft flew recon missions over both occupied and unoccupied areas, always on the look out for trouble. Each craft carried half a dozen troops and a small Devil Snail for any eventualities; one such eventuality took place one mile west of the secret airbase. A group of people who lived in a small farm were spotted at night in the fields; they were carrying old weapons of dubious value and effectiveness. The people didn’t know the secret base was there, so stealthy had the occupants been to avoid detection by not just the army or anyone else. The flying saucer’s force field provided protection out to less than a mile, so the people and farm were open to attack. If the limited number of armed Corps people in the airbase intervened, their presence would be confirmed and even with a protective shield, would they be safe from a huge bombardment by an entire army equipped with every weapon? By viewing and listening on remote sensors, the fugitives in the mine were fully aware of the English army over flights, of the discovery of six people from a nearby farm and of the following engagement. Infrared ghostly film footage showed a massacre of six people, including two women and a sheep dog. Antique Bren guns and Lee Enfield rifles gave little resistance to the nose mounted machine gun of the transport craft and fire power from six soldiers and an attack unit. The event was a bitter and real reminder of the current events surrounding all of England, if more Kahlia Akasha warplanes were available, if the portable force field generator was built and operational, if there were more available fighters armed with good firepower, if… There was nothing that the people in the mine could do but observe the well-known brutality of the English army in action, a highly effective killing machine showing no mercy. The surrounding area near the front line and secret air base soon became a no man’s land. Thousands of refugees fled to the west coast to try and find boats to go to Ireland or attempted to cross the heavily guarded Scottish or Welsh borders depending where they were in England. Airborne army patrols machine gunned columns of refugees on roads, killing hundreds and out to sea in flimsy boats, sinking most with one burst of machine gun fire.

 

   The witch decided to bring Sarah back to life on earth by using pure energy, there were only three women in the entire mine compound, one being Lisa and she was needed in the coming fight. The other women were needed in defence and working on the generator, a male person could be used and they were needed too on various tasks. There were no spare people to use. Energy was the only option left. Juniper’s Daughter was ready for the special ritual to bring her dear friend Sarah back to life; she decided to do it in the main control room of the flying saucer. Helping her was Lisa the trainee witch and monster, Sarah’s child. Lisa had a small collection of crystals she always kept on her no matter where she was, monster was the bloodline link that was all-important and Juniper’s Daughter was the magical energy link. The ritual began in the main room of a thirty five thousand year old flying saucer that had been left by aliens who lived fifteen million light years away.

   Lisa wore a one-piece white cotton outfit to represent her purity, not her virginal purity but her magical, due to her never having worked with a Pagan High Priestess before, a real Goddess of Mother Nature called Juniper’s Daughter. Lisa’s black hair hung straight down her shoulders and her dark brown eyes held so much promise and potential in her coming years. She was a real warrior who had already flown an attack jet in battle against the army defending Renford and the old base facility. Her magical power was slowly growing with her experience and skill level. After the war Juniper’s Daughter wanted Lisa as her apprentice, she hadn’t mentioned it yet in case it was too much for the young girl to handle. Lisa’s crystals would give extra power in the ritual to bring Sarah back to life, meshing with Juniper’s Daughter’s crystals.

   Monster was naked but his great body hair covered every bit of him giving him the look of a gorilla or a mythical monster of the forest. He took Sarah’s book out of the secret skin pouch he kept it in and placed it on the shiny alloy floor of the saucer, the link was complete now it was magic time.

   The witch spoke, “Oh Mighty Mother Juniper I invoke you to bring Sarah back to life so she can join us in the coming battle, we need her here on earth even briefly to assist us in our fight against evil and the Devil. Darkness is winning and we must stand for light and goodness in the face of evil and bloodshed, the English army are the foot soldiers of the Devil doing his evil on our war-ravaged land. We are losing this battle; I’m not strong enough on my own to defeat this vast army and my mortal enemy the Devil. Bring us Sarah my Mother Juniper. I invoke myself as a Goddess of Mother Nature and an extension of yourself Mother, I spin my magical energy in conjunction with yours, let it join together for the good of human kind and the light side, to defeat evil and to bring Sarah back to life in a form of pure energy to take part in this battle. Sarah is the greatest warrior woman I’ve ever known, a better warrior than I ever was and a good friend of mine, only she can help me in this mortal battle. If I lose the world will be thrust into a new dark age of death and bloodshed.”

   A dim yellow light came from nowhere illuminating the dim space, holding her crystal ahead of her Juniper’s Daughter placed her crystal wand in the middle of the virgin light. An explosion of rainbow light blasted forth in a silent explosion blinding the witch, Lisa and the monster. Lisa held out her small selection of crystals and invoked her own Goddess, Kahlia Akasha: “My Kahlia Akasha Goddess please come to me, us. Now I invoke you to do my, our, bidding and add your power to bring Sarah back to life. You have already served me well allowing me to suggest your name for the warplanes to defend our freedom when we were attacked. Now I invoke you Kahlia Akasha to further assist us in this ongoing fight against darkness and death. So mote it be!”

   In Lisa’s outstretched hands her crystals glowed red, green, yellow, violet and a dozen other colours, the light was pure energy that hovered over the heads of the three people. Monster picked up his book and growled, “I want my mother Sarah back here on earth I miss her and want her to help us in this fight against the English army. They took me prisoner and hurt me and want me dead, I invoke my mother Sarah to come back to me, us, now!”

   Nothing happened for a few minutes and then white energy leapt from the book the monster held, it swirled and coalesced into forms and shapes that the human eye couldn’t follow. Juniper’s Daughter knew what it was; life energy of the universe forming something more than just ether and spirit, the white light was Sarah’s soul. She was here! Slowly something formed in the light over their heads taking shape from a blob of dark nothing in the light to grow arms and legs and a head. Bowing down to gravity, the form slowly moved to floor level taking the light with it, definite features were now plain to see. Yes it was definitely Sarah, now a physical being having been made out of pure energy, willed and invoked here by two mortal and one immortal being.

   Sarah stood on the smooth floor and opened her eyes; she was completely naked and utterly beautiful, looking the same now as when the witch had first met her all those years before. Through the whole ritual the witch and her two friends had their eyes shut. Now they opened them and stared in wonder! Sarah was back on earth but still trapped in the life saving light, Juniper’s Daughter had to seal the light so she was safe from harm and wouldn’t disappear.

   “By my Mother Juniper, my own magical power, the magical power of Lisa and the bloodline of monster I seal this rainbow of light so Sarah will be earthbound for as long as she is needed here and as long as she wishes to be here again amongst us, let her be protected from evil and harm, protect this young innocent from the Devil and the forces of evil. So mote it be!” invoked Juniper’s Daughter, staring at her friend and smiling.

   “Mother,” growled monster, in awe.

   “Well it’s about bloody time you came back Sarah, how the hell are you?” greeted the witch to her best friend, holding out her hand. Sarah stepped from out of the light and didn’t disappear, she took Juniper’s Daughter’s hand and shook it firmly, “Nice to see you again. Boy I’m really back, where am I?”

   “Don’t you remember? Look around you; you’re in my flying disc. We’re in a secret airbase in an old mine with a hidden runway two miles from the English army.”

   “Yes I do vaguely recognise it now, I remember the flights me and John had in it with you so long ago,” replied Sarah, thinking of her beloved John who she had just left in the spirit world. He watched over her from the other side.

   “Nice to see you mother,” monster said, walking over to his mother to hug her tightly, “I’ve been so lonely without you!”

   “My child it’s great to see you in the flesh. My, look how big and strong you’ve grown. And I see you have the copy of my book I gave you, may I see it?” replied Sarah to her only child. It passed the book to its mother and smiled.

   “I keep it safe for you, always. I wouldn’t let them take it from me.”

   “Thank you for looking after it for me, I see you took good care of it. We’ll have to get some more printed to give out to people. And you must be Lisa,” commented Sarah, handing the book back to monster and greeting Lisa.

   “Yes I’m Lisa. I’m from Renford before the army invaded and destroyed it and killed everyone. It’s so good to meet you Sarah, it’s an honour!” replied the young witch, grinning like she had never been happy before and finding she liked it.

   “Let me get you some clothes Sarah, then I’ll prepare you a meal and we can go and meet the other people in the base if you want?” Juniper’s Daughter kindly said. Sarah nodded and smiled.

 

   The force field generator had been built as a test bench example, now it faced the task of seeing it if worked. Twenty yards away around a corner in the mine a technician pressed a red button and turned the generator on, nothing happened at first but a slow hum slowly rose and resonated through the mine. On a computer display another tech measured a dizzying array of graphs and numbers, nodding he entered some data and gave an order to his colleague. Drawing his pistol from its holster, clicking the safety off and pulling back the slide, the tech leaned around the corner and aimed at the generator with his forty-year-old 9mm gun. Closing one eye he took careful aim and fired. In the small mine shaft the shot was deafening and the men didn’t wear ear protection. Would the bullet enter the force field and destroy the generator, creating an explosion that vaporised the base or would the field stop the bullet and protect the generator? Ping! The bullet bounced off an invisible wall in a shower of sparks! Holy shit, they had built the world’s first man made force field generator after copying alien technology, the test worked! To make sure he fired two more bullets. The test was filmed to show the others. Now a bigger model could be made thus freeing up the disc so the fight could be taken back to the enemy! The fight for freedom would continue and not end until the surviving people were free. Juniper’s Daughter’s flying disc would not be needed, letting its capabilities be used to help the survivors at the Granite base. Test results were hastily checked and a meeting was organised to brief everyone at the base, the next direction was to make a bigger unit for the base and then go on the offensive.

 

   A ritual was done to help bring peace to the country. This ritual had a difference; it would be a magic ritual to bring success in battle and victory in the war. Under protection of the force field in the flying saucer, the witch led a ritual inside the mine at the flight operations area half a mile inside the mineshaft. A huge area had been hollowed out to provide a parking area for a dozen small warplanes, now there was just one propjet fighter and the English army transport, both on armed readiness to respond to any army attack.

   Juniper’s Daughter wore a ceremonial robe of rainbow colours with crystals fastened to the front, ten different types, each representing nature and a different use. Lisa wore her plain white robe and it sported an image of a bird, a black crow, this showed that Lisa was now close to her first initiation as a High Priest and the crow had also been the bird of Renford which was now in ruins. Indirectly the crow represented the Aeroprogress T-720 Kahlia Akasha attack the young teenager had flown in battle. Cris wore his old tattered Frontier Corps uniform; it was torn and covered in faded blood from his previous injuries. He wore this uniform to show his dedication to his old outfit and in memory of his fallen comrades. There were only a very few Corps officers left now. Monster was his naked hairy self and Sarah was radiantly dressed in a white dress made of silk that the witch had made for her. Other people lined the flight ops area in a circle, every single survivor of the Frontier Corps and Medusa Weapons Facility, several civilians from Renford were here to represent the destroyed derelict town that had been their home for so long and other people were here, everyone in the base was present. In the middle of the circle stood Juniper’s Daughter with Sarah, monster, Lisa and Cris; before them was the single English army prisoner that had been captured in the attack on the Left Nipple club. He wore his tatty bloody uniform and was allowed to hold his unloaded weapon to represent the evil he was and acted for – the Devil. This would be a simple ritual to further freedom and the battle against darkness so light and goodness could triumph. Unlike other rituals the witch normally did something special would happen at the end, a necessary act to strengthen their cause.

    “By the power of my Mother Juniper I start this magic ritual, let it be successful and the outcome be in our favour. I invoke my Mother Great Earth Goddess Juniper to do your work and stop the evil sweeping over our land from four points of the compass. Send blackness and evil back to where it belongs, in Hell with the Devil! Our actions are honest and peaceful, for surviving people in England and ourselves who are being persecuted and murdered by the English army. Let this action stop! We wish to live in peace and happiness, not to fight for our own survival; we don’t want to witness the deaths of our brothers and sisters. Stop this evil war. Give us the courage and means to defeat our enemy in battle, even if there is a big sacrifice to do so, so mote it be!” Juniper’s Daughter and everyone present repeated the words to give them strength, invoking her Mother to do her magical bidding. Not Juniper’s Daughter herself due to the urgency of the event. Her Mother was a hugely powerful witch in the spirit world, much stronger than Juniper’s Daughter in her magical skills.

   Another event was necessary to finish the ritual. Juniper’s Daughter handed out sacrificial knives to Sarah, monster, Cris and Lisa. These individuals had known the full weight of English army tyranny and violence, as had the witch. Standing in a circle around the captured one-legged soldier who was sat on a chair, they were ready when Juniper’s Daughter spoke. “This blood sacrifice is necessary due to the nature of our enemy, the English army. By sacrificing this single soldier we confirm our strength, belief and dedication in our cause and struggle. We are in this to the end. Let this sacrifice strengthen our side in this wicked battle that we never asked to fight. Together now we will end the life of our evil enemy here,” orated the witch to her comrades in battle and audience. Standing directly in front of the prisoner Juniper’s Daughter raised her knife. Monster, Sarah, Cris and Lisa raised their own ceremonial blades and brought them down on and into English army soldier. Up to the hilt Juniper’s Daughter’s athame dagger embedded itself into the soldier’s body, now he struggled, wriggled and tried to move but it was a futile defiant gesture. He fought death as it came to claim him. The other four people dug their blades into their enemy with no mercy, blood jetted over the five people who surrounded the dying man and they had just sacrificed to their cause. Screams echoed through the tunnels and the soldier fell to the smooth concrete ground, writhing in unbelievable pain. The group stepped back and watched him in silence until he was dead; five knives remained in his body from five equally committed people. Blood spread and formed a huge pool, sticky and shiny under the halogen lamps in the mine. The circle of people around the ritual remained silent Juniper’s Daughter’s shouted, “Now we are committed to our fight and struggle, one we never wanted but one we will see through to the end. The sacrifice of our enemy shows our determination to see this war through to the end. Let our enemy’s death be an example of our commitment to freedom and make our magic stronger and our will to do battle one hundred and ten percent, so mote it be!”

   “So mote it be!” everyone repeated, shouting it loudly until it echoed through the tunnels. A line was crossed and a small group of people were ready to do further battle, even if it killed them and they lost. The blood ritual was over.

 

   An English army patrol stumbled into the outer edge of the force field from the flying disc. Walking through the night and navigating by night vision goggles over the grassy tree lined ground one soldier suddenly stopped and fell backwards like he had hit a brick wall. He cried out and his comrade thought his mate had been shot but there was no audible/visible gunfire, not even a silenced bullet located by a small muzzle flash, nothing. Lying still on the ground the soldier was unconscious. His comrade checked him over and found no visible wounds. He sent an urgent encrypted radio report back to dispatch a squad of six men and a medium sized Devil Snail to investigate what had happened. Happy his comrade was breathing, he stood up and slowly walked forward with his machine pistol ready and his left hand outstretched, slowly he felt before him in the darkness for what was there. Suddenly his fingers met a solid object where nothing was visible, nothing at all but the cool night air stretching out before the soldier. But “nothing” had knocked out his colleague. His fingers traced the line of an invisible wall like a glass sheet stretching from the ground to the sky. That was impossible! Taking his bayonet from its holder he gently tapped the wall with the handle and then tried to make a mark on it with the blade, nothing happened except small tapping and scraping noises. What the hell was it? He sent another radio report enquiring where the patrol was. They set off on foot due to the short mile and a half distance to the area.

   In twenty minutes they were there and the six soldiers were as mystified and confused, just like the first man. They checked over the unconscious man and placed him gently on a stretcher, the Devil Snail tried its lasers on the glass wall. The beam met the wall and refracted in a pretty green halo of laser light, not even the state of the art lasers damaged it. Something very strange was here, found by accident by a random two man patrol. A Sergeant with the six-man squad radioed back more descriptions of what they had come across, more people would be sent including soldiers and technicians to examine what was here in the darkness. With three hours left they had good time to do a brisk examination. The outer edge of the one-mile force field from Juniper’s Daughter had been discovered; when the pieces fell into place it wouldn’t take long to work out what it was and who was here hiding.

 

   Sarah joined Lisa flying a mission in the Kahlia Akasha attack jet as a Weapon System Operator in the front cockpit to gain familiarity with the Kahlia Akasha attack jet. They hadn’t been discovered yet by the army but it would be a matter of time so it was decided to fly a sortie to take the fight to the enemy, if they were careful they would get away with it and not be shot down or discovered. A seek and destroy mission was organised due to a lack of intelligence from behind English army lines, if a good target was spotted it would be engaged in a single firing pass. Sarah had been given hours of instruction in the mine by sitting in the cockpit of the fighter and running through the systems including infrared targeting system, night vision goggles, radar in its many modes and weapon employment, all simulated by the warplane’s computer. It was planned after this mission Sarah would be given the warplane to fly as Weapon System Operator, doing more sorties on her own with monster being her pilot.

   The two girls pre-flighted their jet checking the weapons, avionics and systems, then climbed into the cockpits and took off. The force field was off while they flew away from the mineshaft, routing away from English army occupied lines to arc round and attack their enemy from the east, not the west. An attack would be damaging, a quick getaway made causing maximum confusion and psychological damage. Flying low through the darkness Lisa keyed her radio, “Hey Sarah do you like our warplane? She’s quite something isn’t she?”

   “Yes Lisa she is,” Sarah agreed. “How fast does she go?”

   “Supersonic in a dive with enough height, she’ll touch six hundred miles per hour in level flight and climb up to fifty thousand feet,” explained Lisa, giving some insight into their warplane’s capabilities.

   “Wow, that’s really something. I love the weapon capabilities. When I was alive, you know before all of this, we had nothing like this. Not even the English army had anything like this, nothing,” Sarah thought back to her earlier life and how odd it felt being alive again. Yes she was right, back in the day there was nothing like this even though the design was from the end of the Cold War when Sarah had been very young.

   “What was it like before, you know when you was alive and fighting the army? Was it as bad as now?” Lisa shyly asked the older much more experienced girl.

   “It was similar to this; we had a good sense of community and lived in Oldham, a town many miles south of Renford. Oldham was very similar, we were all freedom fighters from the wars with Wales and Scotland, we were generally left alone but things happened and the English army attacked, much like they’re doing now. Back then they never had that many soldiers and no advanced weapons, not like now. We fought one or two big battles with them but we were defeated and most of my friends were killed, the fighting destroyed Oldham and many innocent people were killed or murdered. In that regard little has changed, I think it’s got worse if anything. I didn’t want to come back and fight but it’s my main skill and Juniper’s Daughter asked for my help and I couldn’t say no, she’s an old friend. So here I am. Let’s hope we do some good, eh Lisa?” Sarah quietly told Lisa, who gasped.

   “Holy shit. That is some story! I’m not sure I want to know more, you did well getting though that, you really did.”

   “Thanks Lisa.”

   On through the dark night flew the black stealth old design new build Kahlia Akasha fighter, searching behind enemy lines for a target of opportunity. Suddenly a small army Vehicle Park came up, “Target up ahead Lisa, I can see it on the infrared target display. Looks like a Vehicle Park. It’s giving off a good heat source from several locations. Do we attack or not?” Sarah quickly asked her hands ready on her weapon controls.

   “We go in, get ready. Well spotted, I’m passing weapon control to you, away we go girl!”

  “Okay Lisa I’m ready!”

   Down out of the night sped the deadly single plane spewing fire when Sarah fired two pods of infrared guided rockets. They had no laser guided heavy weapons left, this was an area target. The small rockets hit the middle of the small Vehicle Park exploding in its midst causing fires, explosions and killing no one. Over the target into the night disappeared the fighter flown by the two young women. They changed course thirty second after passing the Vehicle Park and came to a small town that was in blackness, buildings stood out against the fields and trees. A large building looked an inviting target; the two girls talked deciding what to do. They’d been behind enemy lines sometime now and surprise only lasted so long. Lisa was okay on a second target strike. It was a go!

   Placing her target cross over the huge building on the Head Up Display, Sarah unleashed the entire remaining rocket load – four pods each containing thirty two unguided high explosive rockets. They were old and basic weapons with no infrared guidance. Their other two weapon pylons carried two small short-range missiles, luckily they hadn’t needed them. Four fifths of the unguided rockets hit the huge building, exploding on the wall or passing through wreaking havoc inside. Turning tightly to avoid any secondary blasts Lisa flew their attack plane even lower, gently weaving to deter any ground fire. She opened the single throttle to max and they headed back to base flying five changes of course to confuse any pursuit. Behind them a huge explosion lifted the roof of the huge warehouse. Both girls didn’t know what was inside but it was very unstable, being set off by their small rockets. A good hit! Half an hour later they were safely back at base giving their mission report, a successful strike on two separate targets, not even a single bullet had been fired at them and they escaped without a scratch.

   Cris flew a mission at the same time in the stolen transport with a dozen fighters in the back including monster, the target being an English army headquarters hitting those who had organised many raids and were running of the war. Top officers were the quarry and he knew the location of a second level HQ from the interrogated soldier. Twenty minutes flying time to the enemy HQ situated in an old derelict village, Cris flew low on a weaving course. His troops in the back carried small arms and grenades. He monitored his cockpit displays of his recently repaired transport, satisfied his craft was performing well he issued instructions to the men in back. Seconds ticked away and the target village became visible. The target HQ was in an old farmhouse in the centre of it, flaring the nose up and cutting the power Cris landed in front of the building on the narrow country road. His men immediately stormed out weapons ready looking for trouble, monster led them into the building smashing the reinforced front door down by his pure size running straight through it. A single sleepy guard inside offered no resistance when monster strangled him and threw his body down. Raggedly dressed and well trained skilled killers fanned out inside the building coming across four sleeping soldiers, all were shot dead with silenced pistols.

   The officers were in a separate room asleep; there were five of them of which four slept and one sat as a desk with a small computer and a light. A pistol was on the table. Hearing the running feet in the corridor outside the room alerted the officer, he reached for his pistol but was shot dead when the attackers came bursting through the door. His comrades died in their beds, two were still asleep.

   Cris remained in the transport with the engine off but infrared on watching the quiet road ahead of him, his single machine gun was armed and ready. The 30mm cannon had been removed to save weight and increase speed. In five minutes the attack was over and the dozen men armed men left the building bringing the computer, six guns and a small amount of ammunition. They left some grenades tied together on a crude ten timer to cover their tracks.

  

   It was sometime before the silence from the second level HQ was noticed then the alert went up. Along with the blazing warehouse and smouldering Vehicle Park it was obvious that not all of the enemies had been defeated. People at the top level HQ had an idea of where the attackers came from but they kept this secret to themselves, quietly they planned a small operation when the English army continued its advance to the west coast. The army advance continued after a two week break that allowed it to rearm, lick its wounds, rest its men and bring new equipment up. Bypassing the force field from the disc, which they roughly plotted and marked on a map, the army encircled the mine and people inside moving on to capture more territory.

   The two surprise attacks came and went. No English army reprisal attack came on the hidden mine air base. Those inside wondered when they heard vehicles moving past their little underground base, if their location was known or not. It looked like it was still safe and not discovered though they couldn’t be sure. The best thing was to sit it out and hide. If the English army knew they were here they left them alone for some reason. In reality, this reason was that the army wanted to capture the rest of the country and leave the secret base totally cut off. Then it would be attacked from ground level against the force field while tunnels were dug from below ground by laser beam tunnelling equipment in a silent hidden assault.

  

   Juniper’s Daughter flew some attack missions with her disc using the beam weapon to hit deeply buried English army targets. The mixed team of Frontier Corps and Weapons Facility technicians had completed the field generator; it was put into service replacing the one carried on the flying disc in an immediate switch over. The army didn’t even know this had been done. Juniper’s Daughter kept her disc cloaked and set off on a mission to hit the English army where it would most hurt them – top level English army HQ that masterminded the whole operation, the secret Devil Snail factory, the transport craft factory and finally the nuclear bullet factory. Each target was as important as the other and was related; take one out and the other suffered. Production of weapons gave the army equipment it needed to conquer and be merciless. Take the whole lot away and the army would soon stop in its tracks and finally collapse from within, that was the plan.

    English army troops were seen advancing to the edge of the force field provided by the generator, it looked like an attack was being mounted. Monster and Sarah took off together in the Kahlia Akasha warplane to hit the English army troops with cluster bombs before they advanced on the secret air base. The force field was off for a matter of seconds, it gave the army enough time to send in two large Devil Snail attack units. These quiet and silent killers would start the attack. Monster curved his fighter around and Sarah locked up the English army soldiers, some fifty in all and made a cluster bomb run on them, dropping two bombs. These fell and exploded amongst the soldiers. Return fire was minimal. Again monster flew aggressively and dived down onto the exposed soldiers, killing the remainder with two more cluster bombs, radioing base he asked for the field to be turned off. Climbing and looping to the runway he saw two devil Snails running flat out to the base, he cancelled his landing approach and began an attack on them, allowing Sarah to lock the laser dogs up on infrared and get a quick targeting solution. When the computer indicated Bomb Release, she made sure pressing the trigger dropping the four remaining cluster bombs on the running Devil Snails. The bombs exploded showering the animals with deadly shrapnel and explosives but not before one fired up at the speeding warplane, hitting it on the fuselage. Monster screamed as a laser beam cut into the carbon fibre structure severely wounding him, he lost control of the jet sending it into a dive. Sarah just about managed to pull out of the dive, lower the wheels and flaps and land heavily on the runway leading into the cave. It was now she shouted on the radio what had happened, that two laser dogs got thorough the field when it was down for their take off/landing runs and the dogs were taken out but monster had been hit.

   In the cave Sarah killed the power and climbed out of the plane even before the eight-blade prop stopped turning. She rushed to her child who was in a bad way. Laser burns covered his entire upper body and he was a mess, he was dying and didn’t have long.

   “Oh my child, my only child! What has our enemy done to you? Please don’t die! Please don’t, I can’t bear it if you die!” sobbed Sarah but it was too late.

   “Mother, now I will be with father in heaven and soon with you when you pass over. I’m going now, I’m sorry for dying. Take your book from me and spread the word of freedom. I’m sorry…” monster died with his mother by his side in the rear cockpit of a ground attack fighter. The ongoing war had taken another valuable casualty. Sarah vowed revenge for this. Now wasn’t the time to grieve.

   With the help of eight technicians Sarah got her child removed from the damaged warplane, she insisted of an inventory of the remaining weapons in the secret air base. She planned an immediate attack against the army doing the most damage, it was a shame Juniper’s daughter wasn’t here; she was away attacking the important hardened underground facilities belonging to the English army. There were only a few rockets left for her under wing rocket pods; most weapons had been lost in the Medusa Weapons Facility explosion.

   Then Sarah had an idea, a mad crazy idea! Get the original force field generator and attach it underneath her warplane where the belly fuel tank currently was. A tech explained to Sarah it wouldn’t fit due to the pylon attachment not being the right design and it was too draggy to resist the airflow due to the square sides. Would it fit inside the fuel tank? No. How about in the rear cockpit where monster died? The controls were fried so she would have to fly from the front but she could manage that. The technician measures and rear cockpit and nodded, yes if the ejection seat and control stick were removed. He ordered two of his junior men to do it double quick.

   Sarah was going on a suicide mission to do as much damage as possible by exploding the generator when it was on. She ordered an explosive charge with a time delay of half an hour placed on the side of the generator; time was too short to build a specialised digital unit to set it off. Sarah had a coffee and a sandwich, not changing out of her flight gear. She said quick good byes to Cris and Lisa and stayed near her plane. Lisa was very tearful but Sarah explained she had to do this, it would help end the war once and for all and hell girl, I’m already meant to be dead!

   Soon the modification was complete. The force field generator was in place with a small time bomb on it, counting down from thirty minutes. She climbed aboard the front cockpit started the engine turned her jet around floored the throttle and sped forwards. Luckily one of the techs turned off the force field allowing the crazed grief stricken girl take off safely, what would have happened if the two force fields had come colliding together, an explosion? That could lead to future weapons being developed of unbelievable infinite power.

   Sarah was on her way and the generator was back on protecting the mine. Now the return of the witch was priority in this urgent situation. Lisa administered last rights for monster, whispering a pagan prayer invoking her Pagan Goddess Kahlia Akasha to watch over monster’s soul and protect him in the spirit world. Lisa kept monster’s special book, which had been written by Sarah, by her side not letting anyone else touch it. She waited by his body for Juniper’s Daughter to return from her dangerous attack mission. Lisa would give the witch an answer, now she was certain after witnessing the death of her friend monster and witnessing his mother’s grief. She knew she would never see Sarah again in this wicked world but Sarah’s sacrifice of knowingly undertaking a one-way suicide mission had swayed the young witch’s view. She would say yes to Juniper’s daughter, be her apprentice and travel with the High Priestess on her flying saucer, if the witch came back from destroying the Devil Snail factory and other targets. Lisa had a nerve-wracking time waiting for her return.

 

   Operation Jericho was complete the military phase of the take over of England was done. Yellow Harvest the nine tenths complete the murder and working to death of the civilian population of England. One single area of resistance remained, the military base a few miles west of Renford. Military units up and down England were dispatched there to take the base, no matter what the cost. The force field had to be broken so the last organised defence in England against the English army could be taken, then the army would be free to invade Wales and Scotland and continue further operations.

   English army engineers started digging tunnels under ground to attack the base from below, planning to meet up with the mine tunnels and attack from the most unexpected quarter. Poison gas would be pumped into the tunnels to subdue anyone, then the Devil Snails would be sent in, a hundred thousand had been ordered from the war factories of half a dozen different types. Not all were ready for the attack but enough were in theatre to do immense damage. More soldiers massed near the force field edge firing at it to try and defeat it using machine guns, missiles and Devil Snail laser fire. That had no chance of defeating it but it occupied the defenders while the second element of the attack slowly tunnelled silently from below with a laser-boring machine. This left smooth tunnels ringed by glass.

 

   Juniper’s Daughter felt a great pain well up inside her very soul enveloping her, she knew immediately that monster was dead, killed by the English army. She knew Sarah was grief stricken but not where she was. What a time to be on a mission! Deciding whether to leave destroying the remaining targets, the nuclear bullet factory and English army top HQ, Juniper’s Daughter faced an agonising choice. She knew if she abandoned her attack now there would never be another chance. She pressed on flying invisibly to the nuclear bullet factory and hitting it, her powerful laser on the flying disc melting the rock and burrowing down a thousand feet, turning rock to lava and eradicating the nuclear bullet factory. If only the English army could tunnel like this! Then a thought came to the witch, what if they did and were doing it right now? She fired down a last powerful burst of laser energy and climbed to high altitude, just in time! The lava reached the nuclear bullet production facility and the equivalent of a five megaton nuclear explosion shook the ground, destroying everything for miles around. A mini volcano spewing lava was all that was left, fall out would be bad but only surviving English army soldiers would be affected.

   Onto the head quarters, the witch flew her disc at the edge of its flight envelope and risked damaging it. Over the target she unleashed a similar level of destruction on the underground HQ with her laser that burnt through hundreds of feet of rock. Above ground nothing was visible, only countryside, below ground the base occupied ten subterranean levels. Juniper’s Daughter wrecked it all. Every radio and computer the English army possessed would be out of commission, they couldn’t talk to their bosses, if their bosses ceased to exist in a wiped out base! Mission accomplished, the witch speedily flew back to the secret air base.

   Arriving over the base the witch ordered the force field turned off and energised her own on the disc giving full protection as before. She saw soldiers trying to breach the field, saw their explosions and futile gunfire. Lisa rushed up to Juniper’s Daughter and explained what had happened, that Sarah had taken off on a suicide mission, had left Lisa her book, that monster was dead, that Lisa had done a last rights pagan style on monster and that she would join the witch and be her apprentice. The witch nodded in agreement. She hurried people aboard her flying saucer, why they asked aren’t we safe due to the force field? No, I feel the English army is tunnelling to get us all from below, get into the disc, ordered the witch.

   Cris got into his captured transport craft and started the methane engine, he had it fuelled up, ordered the cannon fitted again and the captured Devil Snail turned off and thrown into the back. He took as many people in the back as he could carry.

   Juniper’s Daughter took off first, her disc was invisible and her presence wasn’t detected. Cris was spotted taking off and climbing up at full throttle for high altitude. Something was up! The tunnelling teams would soon breach the mine walls and capture the base from below, ending armed resistance against the English army in England. The escaping transport was obviously the one stolen before; maybe the missing soldier and Devil Snail were on board. The order was sent to shoot it down. Nuclear bullet craft were inbound to chase it, nail it and whoever was flying it.

 

   Down below the tunnelling teams breached the mine walls. They pumped knock out gas inside and advanced into the base, wearing respirators. They found the body of their dead comrade with five knives stuck in him and a huge notice painted onto the floor saying, “We have got you! Prepare to die!” This made the soldiers wonder what was going on, they sent Devil Snails into the passageways to root out any defenders and then started to withdraw. When it was safe to re-enter they would look for the force field generator that stopped above ground level entry. It was at this moment their whole world turned white when the same generator went critical exploding when the booby trap went off, vaporising the mine, everything and everyone in it and the surrounding area for three miles. A huge anti matter explosion turned everything to plasma and left a crater that almost completely burnt through the earth’s crust. Earthquakes shook the whole of northern England adding to the volcano that was now erupting at the former nuclear bullet site.

 

   From thirty five thousand feet and off the west coast of England, Cris saw the huge anti matter explosion come and go in seconds. He was too far to feel the shockwaves. He knew that was either Sarah ending her suicide mission or their secret base going up and taking the army with it. Just then a smaller distant flash was born and died of smaller intensity; now that would be Sarah and the blast of her force field generator on some military target, he thought grimly. She had been quite a fighter and a tremendous woman, it was a shame he hadn’t had the time and opportunity to spend more time with her. He really fancied her.

   Still he was a lucky son of a gun. He had escaped with his life and flew at six hundred plus miles per hour at over thirty thousand feet to Ireland. He radioed to announce his presence, “May day, may day. This is Cris of the Frontier Corps from Renford in the north of England in a stolen English army transport craft full of evacuees. I ask safe passage and political asylum. I wish to join Juniper’s Daughter who should be with you by now with my comrades in her flying disc. My day may day…”

   Suddenly to his right and left respectively, Irish Air Force F-20 Tigershark jet fighters came up intercepting Cris and his stolen transport craft. They saw the twin barrel 30mm gun bolted onto the side, single machine gun and patched up combat damage and took no chances. “Unidentified craft follow my flight leader. Any funny business and I’ll shoot you down, do you understand? Comply or we will fire, Tiger flight out.”

   “Ah Tiger flight I understand and will follow you. I like your jets by the way, must be sixty years old. Maybe you need a spare pilot! Am following, lead the way, Cris out.” Cris angled his battered English army transport down after the jets and safety.

 

   In the centre of Dublin at the central field in the main park in the town centre, people had the shock of their lives when a stunningly beautiful silver flying disc slowly flew overhead and landed softly on the grass. Two old but well maintained F-20 jets zoomed noisily overhead. Out of the disc stepped a woman of extraordinary beauty. A crowd gathered and a few recognised her. Here was Juniper’s Daughter followed by a dozen or so people, some of them wearing tattered uniforms and a couple of them had old injures.

   “Hello there, I’m Juniper’s Daughter and these are my friends. We come from England and have escaped the war there. My friends want to claim political asylum here in Ireland, if they return home to England they will be killed by the remnants of the English army. I have a book here I want you to have; it is by a young lady by the name of Sarah. She died for her cause stopping English army tyranny, this book is her story and I want you to have it. Spread the word of freedom and light, stop tyranny and blackness. My friends will stay here now; I have to go with my apprentice. Come on Lisa we have to go. There is also one other transport full of people who will be joining you; he will land at the nearest air base under escort from your jets. I want you to read Sarah’s book and learn from her story. And be ready when the English army re-arms and attacks, doing the Devil’s work. I have stopped them just momentarily but I have much work to do. We must leave now, goodbye and blessed be!” explained Juniper’s Daughter, going back into her flying disc with her new magical apprentice, Lisa. She allowed Lisa to take off manually and fly a steep subsonic climb from the city so not to do any damage with a sonic bang. The Irish air force jets circled but didn’t open fire. The young witch flew the flying disc straight up and left the earth’s atmosphere, increasing speed to escape velocity. A small tour of her home planets would be a welcome break before the next step of keeping the peace. Juniper’s Daughter heard of more problems in France, there they would head after this small sight seeing trip. Would the work never be over? For now the Devil and English army had been thwarted in England. Juniper’s daughter allowed herself a small smile.