The Battle for Houston...The Aftermath by T. I. Wade Read Free Book Online Page B

McConnell in Kansas. Nobody could tell where the enemy was, and McConnell was far enough away to regroup and prepare for whatever was to come.
    * * *
     
    Manuel looked at the sky. He was worried. It was a beautiful day with no wind and not a cloud in the sky. It was very hot and more humid than usual. The weather was too perfect and he thought a storm was brewing as he closed in on the intersection where he was to meet Carlos Sanchez.
    Both armies were growing rapidly, sweeping up any Hispanics and Latinos who had a gripe against the United States, or were just bad guys at heart. For many of them this was a dream come true. Manuel’s soldiers were ordered to shoot any gringos or black men who wanted to join his army, and dozens of warm dead bodies littered the Interstate behind them. Many of these unfortunate people arrived on horseback; the horses were taken for the army leaving the dead riders to rot in the sun.
    The Sanchez Cartel radioed in and told them that they were two hours from reaching the intersection; their highway was only a two-lane road and they couldn’t travel as fast.
    By nightfall Manuel saw the southern army coming over the dunes to meet them.
    * * *
     
    By nightfall of the same day, May 14th, the eight F-4s and three F-5s had already been waiting a day for the swarm of C-130s to arrive from the west. There wasn’t much they could do and they weren’t built to be slow spotter planes.
    A spotter plane, a Cessna 210, had been sent southwards and flying high at 25,000 feet over San Antonio saw the smoke from the burning barracks. That was all it had time for before returning at dusk to Dyess to report as the small aircraft’s 800 mile range couldn’t get the two pilots back into McConnell.
    The Super Tweets, coming in from Preston’s airfield in North Carolina, were eight hours ahead of the C-130s the next day and landed right behind Buck coming in from Andrews in the Colombian DC-3. Carlos arrived an hour behind the Super Tweets, he flying in from California, and excited to see Sally for the first time in weeks. He knew Preston wasn’t far behind and was surprised to see his Colombian gunship standing there with Buck walking up to say hi.
    The slower C-130s finally arrived in a line ten miles long and began turning into finals for McConnell’s two major runways from the north east. There was a brisk constant wind coming in from the south.
    Martie ran into Preston’s outstretched arms as he exited
Blue Moon
. He had been away forever and she had much to tell him about her new flying abilities. It was time for the two couples to have a little time together and General Patterson, who rested a little during his long flight, called for a briefing in an hour.
    The first spotter plane had gone out again early that morning and was followed by a second one an hour later and a third, an hour after the second one.
    “OK guys, get settled, we have another bloody war to fight. When are we going to end these battles?” he asked aloud from the podium as everybody took their seats. “What do we know other than what has been explained already?” he asked. The report from the pilot of the spotter plane told the briefing room that he had seen two major columns of smoke exactly where Fort Houston and Randolph were situated. He had to return due to the lateness of the day and had seen no more.
    General Patterson got on a radio on the desk next to the podium and called in the first spotter plane.
    The aircraft’s pilot replied that he had again seen the same fires over San Antonio, and he was currently 50 miles west of San Antonio over Interstate 10 at 10,000 feet and heading west towards El Paso. So far he had seen no movement.
    The second pilot reported that he was west of Dallas directly over Dyess Air Force Base, southwest of Abilene, and he was to fly southeast to San Antonio to see if any enemy were using the major secondary roads in that direction, and if they were planning on attacking the next Air Force