Fourth Vector Ch. 20

"I can only ask who the inventor was that came up with such a creation," asked Jack. "He has a lot to be proud of."

Reina smiled sadly. "That he did. Unfortunately, he was involved in a crash three weeks ago. He didn't make it."

"How awful," said Kat quietly.

"The only silver lining to that was that he took lots of notes of his invention," said Reina. "All his designs, all his work, has been left to us for posterity. We were even building one of his latest designs before he died. An airplane with only one wing on either side." Reina gestured to the stacked level of wings on either side of the plane.

Before anyone could answer her, the sound of an excitable yell came from behind them. Jack turned to find Dustin gawking at the airplane while his eyes remained open wide. Jack could only laugh at that. Upon seeing the new invention, he'd asked if someone could grab the marine officer, wanting his input on the airplane.

"Either that thing is a really good mirage or someone needs to fetch me new trousers," said Dustin humorously, coming to a stop next to the airplane.

Jack couldn't help but chuckle. "Wait until you see it in the air." He pointed overhead, where another airplane was now circling the field about five hundred feet above them. Dustin watched with wide-mouthed astonishment as it rolled to the right so hard that it flipped over, but not before continuing the roll to eventually right itself.

"Holy shit, what the hell was that?"

The pilot on the ground grinned. "We call it a barrel roll. It's a lot of fun."

Dustin guffawed and elbowed Jack. "Seems like that one has a few screws loose."

Everyone but the pilot found that funny enough to laugh. Once they'd recovered, it was Reina that began to speak next.

"We're still figuring out ways that this new invention can be of use to us. Of course, it has been suggested for military matters almost right away, to which I agree with."

"What kind of military matters?" asked Jack.

"Primarily reconnaissance," answered Reina. "It would be a tremendous asset to be able to fly over enemy lines and spy on what they're doing. Their movements and direction could be of great value to know beforehand. It also helps that it doesn't take much for the airplane to take off from. All we need is a clear space of a few hundred feet to act as a basic runway and it can get airborne."

"What about to land?" questioned Kat. "Is it always as easy as we just witnessed?"

The pilot was the one to answer that one. "Usually it's easier. We practice at another field not far from here that has a paved runway, which makes it a lot smoother. When we have to land in the grass, it gets a little bumpy. Plus the risk of tipping forward over the engine is a factor as well."

"How long can you stay in the air for? How much fuel does it take?" asked Jack.

The pilot gently slapped the propeller. "Unfortunately, these things are real fuel guzzlers. We can stay airborne for about thirty minutes but that's about it."

"Which is why we're thinking primarily reconnaissance," added Reina. "Quick strikes over enemy lines to determine their positions and then return before the fuel runs out."

Jack pursed his lips and nodded. "That's not too bad but I'm guessing thirty minutes in the air goes by a lot quicker than you'd think."

The pilot nodded quickly. "You nailed that one. I could spend all day up there if they let me, but you really have to keep an eye on that fuel gauge."

"I'd love to get this in the hands of our own engineers," said Jack before turning to Dustin. "Perhaps if we get them fueled by polonium, we could keep them in the air longer."

Dustin nodded. "That's for sure."

"It would take someone creating an engine that would accept it though," muttered Jack. "But I might be getting ahead of myself. Even just being in the air would be good enough, although I have to ask if there are other ways we can use it in battle."

Reina raised an eyebrow. "What are you suggesting, Jack?"

"I get how useful reconnaissance could be," he said quietly. "But what if we could actually fire something from these? Maybe mount some guns on it?"

The engineer was the next to speak up. "We've tried that in some ways but it hasn't really worked out well. We mounted some guns on the wings, but of course, then the pilot can't reach them and we don't have a good way yet for him to fire it without touching the trigger. We also tried to mount them over the engine, but the first man to take it up shot his propeller full of holes and nearly died in the process. We haven't come up with anything else yet."

"So that might take some time to figure out," said Jack while tapping his chin. "But what if we could drop something from the air on the enemy?"

Reina scrunched up her forehead in confusion. "Like what?"

Jack turned to Dustin. "Dustin, you have a grenade on you by any chance?"

Dustin opened up his jacket pocket, revealing three of them hanging from the inner lining. "Never leave home without them, Jack."

"Toss one here, will you?"

After catching Dustin's throw, Jack looked at the grenade in his hands. It was a simple design, only requiring the pull of a pin before it was active, exploding about five seconds after. As Jack looked back at the airplane, he started to smile. "What if we could drop a bunch of these from the air?"

The engineer walked closer, his hand extended to look at the grenade. "These are your grenades? I like the design of these. Simple, yet effective. Just a pin pull, right?"

"Right you are," replied Jack. "Would make it easy for the pilot in the air to do while still keeping an eye on the controls."

"Plus can you imagine the effect it would have?" asked the pilot as he turned to look at Reina. "How devastating it would be to the enemy to not only see that we've conquered the air, but that we can drop bombs on them from the sky?"

"It is a mighty potent weapon," admitted Reina. "Although I'm wondering if it will work as well in practice as it does in theory."

"Only one way to find out," said Jack before looking back at the airplane. "Who wants to try it out?"

The pilot only grinned in response.

About thirty minutes later, all of them save for the pilot watched from the sky as his airplane came in low on the approach. Directly under the plane, yet still a few hundred yards in front, was a makeshift target that included several figures that had been done up to resemble army soldiers. They wore the correct uniforms, generously donated by Reina, and they'd been stuffed with straw and attached to platforms to keep them rigid. It wasn't a huge target, but it was a semi-accurate representation of what ground troops would look like on the approach.

The pilot was given all the grenades that Dustin had, as well as those that were borrowed from the squad that came with them from the capitol. All in all, he had access to fifteen of them, letting him try a number of approaches to get it right.

Unfortunately, the first five or so flybys didn't yield any results. The pilot either let the grenade fly too early, too late, or he was too high that it exploded in midair or he let it go too soon and it bounced off the ground only to explode into the air. It wasn't the most encouraging results until the sixth flyby, when he managed to blow up about two of the straw figures.

"So, it might take some practice," said Jack as they waved for the pilot to land. "It may not be as easy as we think, but I bet a trained pilot can figure out the correct altitude and timing to release one."

"It could definitely work against troops, but I'm wondering if it might be better against buildings," questioned Reina. "Bigger targets might lead to better results."

"We might need something more powerful than a grenade then, Your Majesty," said Dustin. "I can't see one of those being able to punch through stone or mortar."

"We'll just have to keep trying," said Reina before gesturing to her engineer. "If we were able to come up with controlled flight on our own, surely we can design a more potent bomb for use in the air."

Jack smiled. "I can only imagine the effect it would have on the Swabian troops below. This is definitely a game-changing weapon."

"That's why I'm sending it with my own ships for your expedition to Daban," said Reina with a grin. "I think this time the Swabians have gone too far. It's about time they were the ones pushed back on their heels."

Jack gave her a questioning look. "How would you be able to do that? Doesn't it need land to take off?"

"It just needs a short runway to get going," said the engineer from Reina's side. "The man who invented it was actually a naval engineer. His first designs included a launcher that could be fitted on ships."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "That would be very useful indeed. But how would you recover it? Or would it just be a one-time use application?"

The engineer shook his head. "We have these hollow-like tubes we can stick where the wheels usually are. We call them pontoons, and you put one on each side. That way, these airplanes can land on water. If you have a crane on the ship, you can pick it up from the water and place it back on the launcher. Just refuel it and it's ready to go again. We've done some basic trials with it, and it seems to work well for our purposes."

Jack looked to Kat and gave her an excited look. "Now that is something we have to see. Such a thing would change naval warfare forever."

Reina laughed. "I'll arrange a demonstration of it too. Perhaps by the time you're ready to leave, we can do it out at the harbor."

"This is just incredible," said Kat finally, as the last pilot landed. "I never would've thought I would see the day. My father tried for years with different inventors, and it never worked the way it was supposed to."

"I only wish our inventor was still alive," said Reina sadly. "He was a brilliant man with an eccentric mind. The type of man whom all such breakthroughs come from."

"So now that we have this airplane available to us, let's talk about how we use it," said Kat. "Especially for this expedition back to Daban. If the Swabians have taken over the city, we need to figure out a plan."

"My forces will meet up with yours, and they'll be ready to leave when you are," said Reina as she looked at both of them. "I'll have my admiral meet with you before you go. He's one of my best men, and he'll be a great asset for you in the upcoming weeks."

"I would surely like to meet him," said Jack. "Perhaps between him and I, we can come up with a way to kick the Swabians out without too many casualties. Although, we still have a bit of a problem."

"What's that, Jack?" asked Reina.

"We don't know whether the Picards will resist our invasion," he answered. "We know there's no love lost between the common Picards and the Swabians, but would they look on our invasion of their home just as negatively as they would a Swabian venture? Who would they see as the bigger threat? Would they attempt to fight us as we land? More importantly, what would their higher command do? What about Aedan?"

"If we are to assume that Aedan is being held hostage at this point, their higher command may be impotent," said Kat. "Worse, it could give them mixed messages that might make it harder for them to figure out who to fight."

"We should probably assume that the Picards are going to work with the Swabians when we land," said Reina cautiously. "To assume anything else might lead to a needless loss of lives for our men."

"Or for the Picards, if we treat them as enemies when they might see us as liberators," said Kat quietly.

Reina shrugged. "Unfortunately, we don't have the luxury of knowing for sure. We have to do what's best for our own men until we can find out the situation on the ground."

Jack started to nod. "I have to agree with Reina. I hate to put our own men in jeopardy when we don't need to, but we can't exactly look at the Picards as friends right now. Not until we determine if they're going to resist."

"And if they do?" asked Kat. "What if we find ourselves at war with the entire Picard army and navy? We may have enough ships to land securely in Daban harbor, but once the Picards bring their full navy out, we might be at a disadvantage. The same could be said for their army."

"I think we might have a break in that for the time being," said Jack. "We know the plague has run ravage through their ranks. I think as long as the plague is ongoing, they wouldn't be able to strike at us with full force."

"What about our forces catching the plague?" asked Reina cautiously. "Then we might eventually end up in the same position as Aedan's forces."

Jack shook his head. "I don't think we'd have to worry too much about that."

"Why's that, Jack?"

"Because the plague was spread using Swabian goods. Tainted Swabian goods. As long as we keep our forces away from any cargo containers that they might have, I doubt they'll come into contact with it. We know the source of all of this is a building in the commercial port at Daban. If we can get a defensive ring around it, we'll effectively lock any remaining Swabian forces inside, where we can purge them as necessary."

"And the people? What about those already infected?" asked Reina.

"A nonissue. Most of them are bedridden and in the hospitals," replied Jack. "We tell our forces to stay out of the hospitals, and they are less likely to get infected."

"There are a lot of variables to this still, Jack," said Reina as her eyes rolled up in thought. "I want you to join me for dinner tomorrow night, where I'll bring the admiral. You two can formulate more of a plan once the dinner is over. Either way, I want us to be lockstep in our actions together to maximize our chance of success."

"Sounds good to us," replied Jack.

"Perfect," said Reina with a smile. "I really need to be getting back to the palace. Feel free to stay and watch the pilots for as long as you wish, but they should be getting back to their airfield soon. Otherwise, I'll see you all for dinner tomorrow."

As they bid their goodbyes to Reina, the trio turned their attention back to the Grove, where just one final plane was circling overhead. As it lined up to make its landing, Dustin still seemed to be gawking at the very concept.

"Can you believe it? The people at home will never believe this," said the major quietly.

Jack started to chuckle. "It's not that far-fetched. They might be disappointed they didn't invent it first though."

"That's more what I meant, Jack," said Dustin before turning to Kat. "No offense to you, but we don't have the highest opinion of you Fourthies back at home. The word savage gets thrown around quite a lot."

Kat giggled. "None taken, but do I look like much of a savage?"

Dustin shook his head quickly. "No, ma'am, but that's just the way things are. They are going to find themselves with a massive inferiority complex to know that some Fourthie conquered the skies before the Javans did."

Jack chuckled. "That's just something they'll have to learn to deal with. I'm sure that feeling won't last long when they figure out just what they can do with the new technology."

"Like go bomb up the Occie capital," suggested Dustin. "Or get those Ruthenians too, before they start causing any more trouble. I can see great fleets of airplanes in the sky, all asserting our dominance. Imagine just how that would look to see the sky filled with airplanes."

"I think we may have just found our first pilot," suggested Kat as they entered the palace from the Grove. "From the sounds of things, your enthusiasm seems to suggest you'd like to be the one flying."

Dustin grinned. "Oh, I'll do it if you guysreally want me to."

Jack started to laugh. "I'll keep that in mind. We may need to spread the word throughout the forces. Perhaps you can even lead the force in our own pilot training school."

The smile on Dustin's face couldn't get any bigger if he tried. "Now that is music to my ears."

They parted from the major not a few moments later, as Kat and Jack went back to their own room. Upon their entrance, Jack moved toward the bed, laying down on his back and staring up at the ceiling. Kat didn't remain idle long, slipping across the silken sheets to kneel at his side. She placed several suggestive kisses against his neck, until she gave him a questioning look a moment later when he didn't respond.

"You seem a little distracted," she whispered quietly.

"Sorry," he said with a quick shake of the head. "I was just thinking more about what we told Dustin. Whether we could really make that a reality." He turned his head toward her. "I don't want to leave Carinthia without having that technology available to us."

"And to see how we can improve on it," added Kat. "Your idea about the grenades was a great one. But what if they could add the guns to it like they mentioned? What if they could turn it into a real war airplane?"

"A warplane?" suggested Jack with a grin.

Kat giggled. "That would be incredible."

"Not to mention, having one of those airplanes on every major ship," added Jack. "Could you imagine how potent that might make the task force? Before every battle, we could send up the planes to find the exact position of the enemy and have them pepper their position with bombs. We might even get lucky enough to cripple their force before we even have to put the main guns on them."

"It seems like you've been giving this a lot of thought," said Kat with another laugh.

"It's been running through my brain ever since I saw that first airplane," he replied, turning to face her and propping himself up on his elbow. "When we first came to the Vector, I wasn't worried too much about our forces. I thought we'd be able to overawe and outgun about anything or anyone we'd find. After spending some time here and seeing how advanced some of these countries are, it started to worry me. If the Swabians attacked the task force with any real force, we could be in serious trouble. Since then, I've been on the lookout for something that could swing the balance back in our direction. An airplane could be that factor."

"It sure could, but that would be a huge investment, Jack," said Kat as she held up her fingers and ticked them off one by one. "For one, we'd need to either copy one of Reina's designs or come up with our own. Copying one would be the fastest avenue for us, but we'd just have to make sure it's a good design. Secondly, we'd need to be able to produce them, and replace any losses that we have. Lastly, we'd need men to fly them. Regular volunteers who could replace any casualties that we receive. There's a lot of moving pieces with this one, Jack."

"You're not wrong, but I think we could take care of most of those more easily than you might think."

Kat giggled and stroked his chest. "Is that right? So you have a factory here aboard theDestiny too?"

He grinned. "Not necessarily, but then again, I don't need one. I just need a supplier here in the West who can produce airplanes and keep us in supply. I have enough gold that I can buy what I need when I need it. Plus, let's not forget that as the King of Andalucia, I have access to nearly unlimited funds."

Kat pursed her lips as she thought it over. "You make it sound so easy, Jack."

"It won't be easy, I understand that," he said while running his fingers through her hair. "But that doesn't mean we can't try. We'll make mistakes at first, but to be the first truly mobile force inside the Vector that can deploy airpower will lend us a considerable amount of prestige. Especially if we need to go directly up against Swabia in Picardy."

Kat nodded finally. "What do you want to do then? First step would be to put in a request with Reina for ships and a launcher. Do you want to do it?"