The Puma helicopter was making its final banking maneuver and we were all strapping ourselves in for what would be a hard and fast insertion.

Sarge was hanging out of the open door the way he always does before touchdown, with his feet planted inside the cabin and his one hand clutching the door railing, giving extra support in case his waist cable snapped. His supporting arm was fully extended and he was hanging out at almost 45 degrees. At one point the chopper banked so sharply that Sarge was hanging almost level with the ground, staring straight down. From the mad grin on his face I knew that he had to summon up every ounce of professionalism not to shout out a big "hoohaa" at full volume.

I could not help but think of another insertion from decades before that went very, very wrong.

The secretive US government agency that planned the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba sent in 1500 armed Cuban exiles to take on the whole of Fidel Castro’s army. When you consider that the US Government risked massive repercussions if the insertion failed, it would seem that the planners were a generally optimistic bunch of people.

I was glad that our own commanders had been less optimistic about our chances for success. We were twelve experienced operators going up against a group of only four attack robots.

But then again, at least the Cuban invaders thought they could count on support from Cuban rebels. Out here in the sticks we would be completely on our own – in an area that was so far behind enemy lines that only the occasional group of attack robots passed on their way to the front.

The Cuban invaders also thought they could count on overwhelming air support, which in our case would be impossible. Our Puma and its precious door gunners would have to get out of the area within seconds to minimize the risk of being zeroed in on by attack groups that might be in the vicinity.

Silence and the element of surprise would be our biggest assets if we were to ambush the target group of four robots, cut out their NanoBooks and maybe even get enough time to get a dead robot into the helicopter with us before The Hegemony could react.

Of course, we could not know then how lethal our enemy would turn out to be. Before the day was over we would be trapped in a Bay of Pigs of our own ...

(Click 'Comments' below to read the full episode) ...

Apart from advanced hearing sensors, belt-fed AK-47s and accurate targeting visuals, the IR-1 robot's VIA NanoBook HMI (Human / Machine Interface) computer also gave it an additional 1.2GHz of processing power. The NanoBook's audio chips - VIA Vinyl VT1708A HD Audio codec - were the best audio chips ever produced and enabled quick and accurate transmission of sound data to the NanoBook's sound recognition program.

Before the war broke out, these VIA audio codecs were intended to fulfill the requirements of a new generation of PCs that were taking on increasingly complex communication and entertainment roles. As the PC platform increasingly became the central device for home entertainment, the VIA High Definition Audio codecs provided home-theatre quality performance and supported the latest high-definition audio content.

What we could not know then, was that the VIA HD audio codecs of the robots' NanoBooks would enable our targeted group of attack robots to hear our helicopter from a long distance away. In fact, the fidelity of the digital sound transmission was so good that the sound recognition programs on the NanoBook could link with the robots' navigation system to compute the exact position and direction of our helicopter. The NanoBook's wireless and satellite internet capability then enabled the robot attack group to contact its headquarters for further instructions.

If we had known that then, we would never have attempted this insertion. We would never have attempted such a high-risk ambush to get our hands on a NanoBook. But then again, we did not have a NanoBook to inspect, so we had no way of knowing.

The pilot signaled to Sarge to strap in. Sarge had just finished doing this as we rounded the last hill. Suddenly the engine faded and the huge helicopter dropped like a stone.

Around me I could see knuckles turn white and eyes freeze over with fear ...

Visitor

Friday, 03 August 2007

This stuff forced me to google 'bay of pigs' to info myself on some world history. Never thought history was this interesting! :grin

Visitor

Saturday, 04 August 2007

:grin is this a script for a movie?