John Ringo - Queen of wands

After one look, she went with her lizard hindbrain and ran as fast as she could.

“Well, we found it,” Graham said. “We’ve lost two teams trying to get a good look at it; FLIR doesn’t seem to be enough with this thing. NRO even lost a computer system trying to get a look at it. The image processors froze. But we found it. The question is what we do about it.”

“Well, I’m Asatru, but even we know when to run,” Janea said. “I’m sure as hell not going to try to hack it to death with an axe. Maybe if I had a couple of really strong fighting bands that wouldn’t go crazy or be swayed into worship. But not by myself.”

“Is there any plan?” Barb asked.

“If we can get a lock on it, we can drop JDAMs,” Master Sergeant Attie said. “But we can’t even get a team in that can hit it with a targeting system. We lost a Predator driver, satellite systems lock up…You were right. This thing is insanity on a thousand legs.”

“We need to do something,” Randell said. “It apparently has some concept of direction. It’s moving-slowly, fortunately-in the direction of Goin. But who knows where it’s going to end up.”

“Where are the women and what’s their status?” Janea asked.

“In Knoxville at a sanitarium,” Graham said. “They still appear to be in contact. They’re not talking from it at present, but they are calling for it to come to them.”

“Is Goin on the route to Knoxville?” Janea asked.

“Yes,” Randell said. “Why?”

“That’s your answer,” Barb said, nodding. “It’s not going to Goin. It’s going to where we have its ‘maidens.’ Without the maidens it can’t create the Children. Is it eating?”

“Apparently,” Graham said. “A team checked out the slaughterhouse when they were sure it was gone. There were a lot of bones, most of them chemically charred. And they’ve found a few cattle that it found on its route.”

“Once it breeches the SC perimeter it’s going to be Katy Bar the Door,” Janea pointed out. “Somebody needs to make some decisions. Fast.”

“The answer was in the Sending,” Barb said. “This is a test of our faith. The only way that we’re going to get rid of it is to express our faith as a nation in a really convincing way.”

“That ain’t going to happen,” Randell said, shaking his head. “I mean, what do you want the government to do? Get the president on national television and ask everybody to pray to Jesus to drive a demon from our land?”

“Pretty much,” Barb said. “Doesn’t have to be Jesus. Just God in whatever form people wish to worship. God is love, remember? But I’ll bet you dollars to donuts that’s the only thing that’s going to work.”

“That is unlikely to happen until all reasonable methods have been tried,” Graham said. “We’ve got a lot of firepower. We need to try that first.”

“You just don’t get it, do you?” Janea snapped. “Firepower is not going to stop this thing.”

“How do you know?” Randell asked. “We haven’t even been able to try.”

“Because…God said so?” Janea said, angrily.

“God’s never tried a JDAMs,” Randell answered, hotly.

“Look, if somebody can explain this JDAMs thing to me and it’s not too complicated, I can get a lock on it,” Barb said. “Looking at it under FLIR at the slaughterhouse was not too bad. I don’t want to try to tell you what looking at it with bare eyes was like. But I can look at it.”

“We can set that up,” Master Sergeant Attie said, nodding. “You don’t even have to get close. And one of the systems has a built-in FLIR. Probably best to use that.”

“Yeah,” Janea said. “On the fuzziest setting it’s got.”

“You sure you want to come along?” Barb asked as they headed to the helicopter.

“I’m Asatru, and I ran and didn’t even look back,” Janea said. “I’m feeling a little weak in the goddess region. So, yeah, I want to go along. For that matter, if I can look at this thing and not go mad, I’d appreciate being the one to order down the bomb. It’s sort of directing violence, which is up there for my goddess with having good sex.”

“You got it,” Barb said as she climbed into the Jet Ranger.

“If you ladies are buckled in?” the Army warrant asked.

“Pilot, are you briefed in on this?” Barb asked after donning headphones. “You can’t get near this threat. You cannot get in direct view. If you happen to make a mistake and get too high, don’t look at it.”

“We’re briefed in, ma’am,” the pilot responded as the helo climbed for height. “Your LZ is a clearing on a secondary hilltop. The mission target is a hill that should both overlook the threat and protect us from sight. May I ask a question?”

“Go,” Janea said, rereading the manual on the targeting system.

“May I ask why I can’t see it?”

“If you weren’t told then you don’t have the need-to-know,” Barb said. “But don’t get curious. On your life, don’t get curious. I’m deadly serious.”

“Yes, ma’am,” the pilot said.

“Well, here we go,” Janea said, looking at the woods in distaste. “Have I ever told you how much I prefer cities?”

“I’ve gotten that impression,” Barb said, grinning. “Let’s head up the hill.”

“FLIR,” Barb said as they reached the military crest of the hill.

“Oh, you betcha,” Janea said.

The device they were carrying included a telescope. But it wasn’t necessary to spot the Gar. The leprous monstrosity was slowly working its way down the road below. As Barb watched, it plowed into a house, leaving a splintered wreck in its wake.

“Oh, dear Freya aid,” Janea said, softly.

“You going to be okay?” Barb asked.

“I’m not sure that’s correct,” Janea said. “But I’m not going insane now. Don’t ask me about tonight.”

“Let’s get this set up,” Barb said, taking off her pack.

The target identifier was essentially a larger version of their headsets with a laser system and a GPS. By lasing the target it got a distance, direction and change of altitude. With that information it knew the precise location of the target and would automatically communicate that to whatever system was used to bring down the firepower, artillery, MLRS or JDAMs from aircraft.

“Don’t look at it with clear eyes,” Barb said. “But you need to take the FLIR off to target this thing.”

“Got it,” Janea said, taking off the FLIR with her eyes closed and fumbling forward to get her eye on the scope. “Damn…it’s a lot harder to look at with this thing. It’s more close up.”

“Still okay?” Barb asked.

“Hanging in there,” Janea said in a strained voice. “Let’s get this over with.”

“Roger,” Barb said, picking up a microphone. “Wildcat Four-Four, Wildcat Four-Four, this is Sierra Charlie One…”

“Don’t look at the ground,” Lieutenant Aaron Yin said bitchily. “What kind of stupid order is that?”

“It’s an order,” Captain Brandon Lovell said, banking his F-16 around to the east to keep in the target basket. “So don’t look at the ground.”

“Wildcat Four-Four, Wildcat Four-Four, this is Sierra Charlie One.”

“Roger, Sierra Charlie,” Captain Lovell said.

“Our device says it’s connected, Wildcat.”

“Roger, ma’am,” Lovell replied. “Got a good lock on your box.”

“Why Wildcat, I didn’t know you cared,” another female voice answered. It was a very throaty contralto, and Lovell had a sudden serious desire to meet the owner of the voice.

“We are doing target upload at this time,” the first voice said with a touch of asperity in her voice.

“Roger, have target data,” Lovell said. “Drop permission on file. Release.” His F-16 rocked a bit as the thousand-pound bomb dropped off its wing, but he corrected automatically. He’d dropped literally hundreds of JDAMs over Iraq and Afghanistan. “Twenty seconds to impact.” He watched the countdown clock, then started counting. “In ten…five…two…Impact.”