Hail set his feet on the pedals and wrapped his large hands around each of the flight controllers. He took in a breath and squeezed the throttle trigger on the right controller.
A large flat pizza sized section of Blondie’s backend lifted out of its sealed compartment. The composite plastic lid rose into air. The round disc had four large propeller cut outs. Four powerful electric motors spun four propellers at 1200 revolutions per minute, two spinning clockwise and the other two spinning counter-clockwise to offset the torque or the turning force. Just under the lid, two cameras were mounted one inch apart from one another. One was a day/night-vision camera, and the other was a targeting camera specifically calibrated for the gun located directly beneath the cameras.
Renner activated the camera on the drone called Guns N’ Roses. An obscured view of tall grass appeared on the night vision camera on big screen number three.
As the drone continued to rise out of Blondie, a nasty black 9 millimeter M4 mini gun was exposed to the North Korean air. Due to its thick sound suppressor that was mounted to its stubby barrel, the gun looked more substantial than it really was. Still, Hail and the designers of the drone knew that the weapon was all business. In full auto-mode, the little gun could fire thirty-two rounds in less than three seconds. With a hundred and twenty-eight rounds on board in a condensed drum, the compact drone would be something that none of the North Koreans would want to mess with. Under the machine gun, three thick legs sprang out at 120 degree angles, creating a tripod base for the drone to rest upon when it returned to earth.
Hail gently nudged the drone up into the air and hovered about ten feet above Blondie to have a look around. Nothing had changed. There was no additional activity near or around the warehouse. Hail squeezed the throttle and bent the right controller forward. The drone responded by gaining altitude and moving forward toward the twelve-foot barbed wire fence. Two hundred feet before reaching the wire, Hail veered Guns N’ Roses sharply to the left and began a long arch around the property. He tilted the angle of the drone backwards slightly to bring it to a hover. He was now positioned about a hundred feet from the fence in back of the warehouse. Hail scanned the backside of the property for guards or dogs or any other living thing that could send an alert. Seeing nothing, he slowly nudged the drone forward and over the top of the razor wire. The drone approached the wall of the back of the building, still hovering just under the roof line. From there, Hail rotated the drone left toward the side of the building they had not investigated. Hail allowed the drone to peek around the corner. Nothing. No guards. No dogs. No threats of any type. He then spun the drone 180 degrees and flew it to the other corner of the back of the warehouse. He tilted the control stick to the right and the drone looked down that side of the building. One sleeping guard. No dogs. No real threats of any type.
“We’re clear,” Hail told his crew. Then he added, “I need to set this thing down to save power.”
Hail tilted the aircraft backwards and the drone began drifting back away from the light and back toward the inner perimeter of the fence. He brought it down slowly and directed it toward the corner of the fence. From that vantage point, the drone had a good view of both the backside of the building, as well as the entire side of the structure the guard was leaning on. Gently, silently, Hail brought the drone down on to its tripod base and then he released the throttle. The video image stabilized and Hail relaxed.
“Good job,” Renner told him.
“Now it’s your turn,” Hail told Renner.
“I’m on it,” Renner said.
Mimicking the motions Hail had performed only moments ago, Renner lifted an identical drone out of the back of Blondie. Its name was Sex Pistols and its job was to land on the opposite corner of the warehouse property. With both of the combat drones situated in those positions, three sides of the warehouse could be covered with only two drones.
With Gun N’ Roses having already performed the recon and with the drone silently standing guard, Renner didn’t have to worry about being spotted. Therefore, he took a more direct approach by gaining altitude and flying directly over the fence and then over the top of the warehouse at two hundred feet in the dark sky. If five fully awake guards were doing nothing but watching the sky, they might have been able to detect something flutter in front of the bright moon, but that was not currently the case down below. Therefore, Renner flew forward, over the top of the warehouse and quickly brought the drone down in the other back corner, inside the barbed wire fence.
“Good job,” Hail said, retuning the compliment.
“Nothing to it,” Renner said.
“Alright. So much for the known. Now for the unknown,” Hail announced.
“Knox, let’s get Men at Work busy,” Hail ordered.
“Roger that,” Knox said.
The young pilot wasted no time lifting the third full sized mini drone out of the back of Blondie. Rugmon had taken the same combat drone that Renner and Hail had flown, and had replaced the ammunition drum with a small acetylene and oxygen tank. The M4 mini gun had been replaced by remote operated control valves and a 3-axis arm that held a cutting torch. The weight was approximately the same as the combat drones, but as Knox flew Men at Work toward the fence, he realized that the balance was off. The drone wanted to go to the right. Instead of correcting the problem by adjusting the speed of each propeller, Knox opted to let the drone lean in that direction and feathered the propellers so the drone was flying sideways. By flying sideways, he was using less power than if he was overcoming the balance issue with engine power alone. This peculiar flight position meant that Men at Work’s camera was leaning at an angle as well. Hail tilted his head slightly to compensate as he looked at the video on big screen number three. The fence appeared in the periphery of the lens and then quickly passed underneath the drone. The roof line of the warehouse appeared next and Knox slowed the drone into a hover. Only then, when he needed to see precisely where he was going to land, did he adjust each of the propeller speeds for balanced flight. Now positioned a foot from back wall of the warehouse, Knox scanned the ground below for the best place to touch down.
“Are we still all clear?” Knox asked both Hail and Renner.
“We are clear,” Hail answered for the both of them.
Knox hovered the drone next to the back wall of the building and eased off the trigger, slowing the motors and causing the drone to slowly sink toward the ground.
“Keep it tight against the wall,” Hail instructed.
“No problem,” Knox said making small adjustments as he lined up his landing spot. The crew was watching Men at Work’s primary camera, which was now pointing directly into the steel wall of the warehouse. Knox, however, had switched to the drone’s vertical landing camera that was mounted between the aircraft’s tripod legs. The camera pointed straight down and reminded Knox of those old clips he had seen when they had landed on the moon. And sure enough, a foot off the ground he was able to say a few of those words he had seen in the clip.
“Picking up dust,” Knox said as dirt flew in all directions. “Two more feet down. Position looks good.”
The view from the main camera had not changed. The side of the warehouse was no more than nine inches from the lens. If it wasn’t for the bright moon reflecting off the tin-like surface, it would be a black wall and therefore invisible.
“Tranquility base here,” Knox said. “Houston, the Eagle has landed.”
“Nice,” Hail told his pilot.
A smattering of applause and atta-boys rose up from the crew waiting for their turn.
Hail checked the time: 3:31AM.