To Staff Sergeant Emily Rosen they weren't just sleek flying machines. The hypersonics were her babies. She programmed the onboard flight ANI and nurtured the “beast,” the hypersonic scramjet that put the hyper in hypersonic.
And every one of the more than thirty hypersonics located at the secret west Pacific island airbase had a personality as far as Emily was concerned. She was sure that “Supersonic,” as she had christened one of her charges, would no doubt make a success of any mission he was assigned. But as for “Lex” well, he would do okay as long as the others led the way. Lex hadn't exactly shown himself a leader.
Most of the squad were kinetic energy weapons. The size of a small fighter jet, they would deliver their bulk against the target at hypersonic speeds. The resultant destructive force would pierce any target no matter how hardened it had been constructed. A couple of hypersonics in the squadron provided reconnaissance, they would help guide the others if local conditions required. They were the only two that might return from the mission. Emily had named them “Looker” and “Booker”.
She was talking to Looker now.
“Looker report status,” Emily said to her Annie which relayed the request to Looker.
“Status nominal. Download of latest reconnaissance mapping from DOD satellite is complete. Integration into existing database is proceeding. Estimated completion, sixteen hundred hours.”
“Looker, memory upgrade sufficient for new information download?”
“Yes, a ten percent buffer will be maintained.”
Emily worried over that number a moment.
“Looker, how much did this last download decrease memory capacity?”
“Memory capacity decreased by five percent.”
Damn, thought Emily. Even with all my efforts memory is still going to be a problem. I can't believe the red tape involved in procuring upgrades. I ask for a thousand terabytes and I get ten.
Okay relax, she said to herself. Time to go off-script.
When Emily went off-script she meant she was going to solve the problem through her own efforts. The brass didn't need to know.
“You still talking to machines Sgt. Rosen?” asked a voice behind her.
Emily turned to see Lieutenant Warner.
“Sir,” said Emily as she saluted. “I find the audio interface far more efficient than a keyboard.”
“Yes, you've made that clear to me and the other officers Sgt. Rosen. But it still seems strange to me.”
“Sir, I can assure you that there is nothing strange about it. These machines have the same intelligence as the Annies most of us carry. And sometimes more,” said Emily, referring to her unauthorized modifications to the ANI in the aircraft which only she knew about.
“Well, carry on,” said the Lieutenant.
“Yes sir,” said Emily saluting.
After the Lieutenant had left the hangar, Emily said quietly, “Good thing he has a great head of hair, makes him at least look like an officer.”
“I agree,” said Looker.
Emily laughed.
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