"Texas Wildfire" - Chapter 17

Texas Wildfire

Chapter 17

By Dwayne MacInnes

Staff Sergeant Murphy walked over to George Murdock. His expression belied that something was troubling him. The elder Murdock was good at reading people's expressions. That was what made him so good at business deals as well as poker.

"William," Murdock said as the soldier walked over to his desk. "You look like the cat ate your canary."

"Sir, in a manner of speaking it was your canary," the Delta Force operative replied.

"I'm sorry you lost me," Murdock shook his head. "I pray none of my oil facilities were attacked by some of the rebels."

"It is nothing like that. However, your accounts are being drawn upon," Murphy replied. "We have frozen your assets until we can figure out what or who is to blame."

George snorted, "How much was being withdrawn?"

"At first, a hundred thousand a week."

George smiled, "That would be my almost useless son. I allow him one hundred thousand a week for 'expenses'."

"Well, he requested a few hundred million just today," stated William flatly. "We declined the request."

Murdock's face went from white to red to a deep purple. "Why that no good son of a bitch. He can't even organize his sock drawer and he wants to run this company! Thank you, sergeant for declining his request," Murdock said finally regaining his composure. "Oh, you can go ahead and decline all of his requests from here on out."

The timing of the attack on Fort Hood was no coincidence. They sent every combat plane the New Republic of Texas could spare to assault the military base. In fact, the United States would have to send its own warplanes to meet the threat. That meant every airbase in New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas had to respond.

So, when the squadron comprising of bombers and fighters from World War II through the Gulf War attacked Littleton there were few jets available to stop them. However, it did not take long to recall some of the jets sent to Killeen to find the squadron led by Buck Dubois.

The United States Air Force was also monitoring the route the squadron was taking with a satellite. This allowed the recalled jets to intercept the squadron before it could sneak back over the border into Mexico.

Buck knew it was a long shot that they would be able to return unscathed. He was happy to know that with the bomb run on the Littleton Army Reserve Center his mission was a success. The United States' great hero sent to suppress Texas was more than likely dead now. Only a divine miracle could have spared General Davis's life after Dubois's squadron leveled the southern half of Littleton.

So, it was with no great surprise when he heard the pilot of the F-20 Tigershark announce enemy bogies approaching. The combat jets in the squadron raced off to meet the threat. There was no illusion that a handful of F-86 Sabers, F-4 Phantoms, F-14 Tomcats and one F-20 could hope to defeat the overwhelming strength of the F-22 Raptors and the F-35 Lighting II Joint Strike Fighter. They only prayed they could take some of them out before they destroyed the ad hoc squadron.

Bombers continued to race for the Mexican border only keeping the piston driven fighters as cover. Buck listened to the fight over his headset. The combat was over before it even began. The F-22s and the F-35s could fire missiles from over the horizon and their missile jamming electronics were light-years ahead of anything the vintage fighters could boast.

As steel and a few lucky ejected pilots descended towards the earth, the might of the U.S. Air Force bore down on the bombers with a vengeance. Any pilot in the U.S. jets who may have felt any regrets for shooting down such rare and beautiful war birds did not have those feelings now. They were after blood, revenge for the lives of the innocent schoolchildren bombed by these heartless demons claiming to be patriots.

Buck caught out of the corner of his eye the explosion of a B-17 Flying Fortress that had been flying off the Yellow Rose's port wing. With the sudden loss of the bomber, the gun crews instantly opened up with the .50 machineguns in the Superfortress. However, Buck knew that the men were shooting at nothing. The fighter jets wisely chose to hang back and let their missiles do their talking.

Cowards! Buck Dubois thought the instant before the B-29 he was piloting completely disintegrated in a fireball.

Several missiles locked onto the big bomber's profile and exploded in almost perfect unison.

LTG Groves continued to issue commands as his troops soundly resisted the combined might of the Texas army and air force. Occasionally the general feared the New Republic of Texas forces would overrun the base. However, it appeared that President Ramirez finally allowed the U.S. Air Force to give some air support to the beleaguered base.

The F-22s and F-35s quickly cleared the skies of all opposition aircraft. Once the warplanes removed the threat from the air, Groves was able to direct his remaining tanks to confront the Texas armor. Between the United States Air Force and the soldiers of Fort Hood the army of the New Republic of Texas felt compelled to pull back leaving the bulk of their armor and jets wrecked and burning across the landscape.