What made the whole system work was something very special. Right in the center of the pod was a shoe-box sized unit that held an array of metal donuts. Depending on whether the individual donuts were charged or uncharged, that shoebox could remember a “word” of no less that 4,096 “letters”. Of course, there were only two letters 1 and 0. The scientists had explained it to Kozlowski but it was all over his head. Something about digital information. He'd written it off as magic and left it there.
“Remember the briefing guys. This is for real. If there is an attempt to illuminate any of the aircraft we take out the radar. We don't use the nukes unless we have an air-to-air threat that Sparrows and Winders can't handle. We've got two ARMS and the two recon birds have four each - but they haven't anything else. So it’s down to us. But keep in mind, this isn't Red Sun. This is NOT simulated. If we screw up, we go down. So let’s try and avoid that. Marisol, there is a very good chance you will lose your virginity on this one.”
“Promises, promises.” The sultry Hispanic-accented voice came over the intercom. “Speaking of promises, did you remember to thank your girls for me?”
Kozlowski, Korrina and Dravar had all acquired Thai girlfriends during their stay at U-Thapao and, on one date, they'd told their girls that their aircraft talked to them. They'd been surprised to see the girls took that for granted; one of the women had explained that everything, plants, trees, hills, lakes, bits of machinery, had a spirit that lived in it. Some spirits were lazy and barely awake, others took a keen interest in what was going on around them. Some spirits were friendly and helpful, others malicious and spiteful. But humans who were friendly to the spirits could win over even the most malicious while those who were hostile could alienate even the most friendly.
Marisol's crew looked sharply at each other on hearing that. One of the B-60 crews had spent all their time cursing their aircraft and damning her by comparison with the B-52. Now, their aircraft was known as a jinx ship. She kept developing faults and system failures and her crew kept having minor injuries. One had gashed his hand open on a screw head that was left standing proud, another had broken his foot when the trolly jammed in the long tunnel through the bomb-bay. Anyway, next date, the girls had brought Buddhist rosaries for Marisol and explained that hanging these in the cockpits would please her and bring good luck. It had been a job finding a place to put them in the cramped crew stations, but they'd managed. They'd told Marisol about the gifts and she'd been delighted.
It used to take the old B-36s more than two hours to climb to their cruise altitude of 45,000 feet plus. It took the B-58s barely ten minutes to reach 62,000 and that wasn't pushing the aircraft hard. They had plenty of time to get up to the safety of high altitude before they crossed the border into Burma. In fact, there wasn't even much danger then, there was no anti-aircraft fire of note until they got to the Parrot's Beak, an area near Namkhan where Chipan jutted into Burma.
The Chipanese had fighters based at Tengchan in the heart of the Parrot's Beak and at least some surface-to-air missiles along the border. In theory, the missiles were a threat to the B-58s, in reality it would take incredible luck for the Chipanese to score a hit. Their missiles were similar to the US Ajax, suspiciously similar some said, but Ajax had failed against the B-58s despite being used by the best crews NORAD could find.
They punched clear of the monsoon clouds at 35,000 feet and were in bright sunshine from that point onwards. That meant, of course, that they couldn't see the ground under the dense black cloud cover but that was no problem. They had their inertial navigation systems running and were also being tracked by ground stations that would report any deviations from course. By the time they lost ground station cover, the inertial system would have been checked out thoroughly and they'd rely on it from there. In addition, they had their navigation radar and that gave them a crude picture of the ground underneath the clouds. That gave another check on the running accuracy of the INS system. One of the underlying purposes of this mission was to determine just how accurate the inertial navigation equipment really was, a lot of things depended on that.
By the time the aircraft crossed the Burmese border, they were spread out in a long line. This was another lesson from Red Sun, air-to-air nuclear weapons made old ideas about formations and formation-keeping obsolete. Grouping aircraft now just increased casualties from single shots. The present generation of bombers would be the last ones where formation flying would even be considered; when the B-70 entered service, it would fly to its targets alone. In some ways, the RB-58 wasn't just a strategic penetrator, opening the way for other aircraft, it was the prototype of a whole new concept of bomber.
However, this time there was another reason for the spread out formation. The two aircraft with Monticello pods were on the outside of the formation, where their scans overlapped, special equipment could turn their radar imagery into a three-dimensional picture of the ground. They'd do their run over the target, then come back on an exact reciprocal. The result would be a large box of countryside imaged in three dimensions, allowing accurate maps to be made. For most of Northern Burma, this would be the first time the area had been accurately mapped.
They were heading on 350 degrees now, waiting for the big search radar at Tengchan to be detected. They'd be using it as a navigation aid as they flew north and would keep its signal at constant strength. That would swing them in a wide arc south and west of the Parrot's Beak before they headed North to Myitkyina. As they approached the spur of Chinese territory, Korrina picked up airborne radar transmissions as well as the expected search radar.
Two, no four, fighters. The Kawasaki heavy fighter American intelligence had named “Brandi”. Delta wings, two jet engines with a rocket booster mounted between them. The Chipanese Army Air Force had gone heavily for jet/rocket hybrid fighters in recent years. On its jets, the Brandi was no threat to the RB-58s, but as long as its rocket fuel lasted it could get up high enough to intercept them. Armament was four 30 millimeter cannon and four heat-seeking missiles, reputed to be very similar to the GAR-8 Sidewinders. Like their anti-aircraft missiles, the similarity was suspicious. Perhaps it was time for another inquiry into the leakage of American military secrets to Japan, like the Atom Bomb Secret hearings a few years ago. Senator Macarthy had died of cirrhosis of the liver a few months back so he wasn't around to head this one but there would be somebody else.
The four Brandis were keeping their distance, paralleling the B-58 formation but about 20,000 feet below them. They were still in the tight formation the USAF had used until Red Sun had shown them the dangers of keeping aircraft close together. Korrina had a GAR-9 locked on them just in case but it wouldn't be necessary, he could sense it.
As Marisol and her sisters swung clear of the Parrot's Beak, the four Chipanese fighters broke away and returned home. There was less than a 100 miles to go to Myitkyina. Apart from the Chipanese radars in the Parrot's Beak, there was no hostile activity. Monticello required very specific speed and altitude settings to give the most accurate results and it was up to Marisol and Tiger Lily to make sure Sweet Caroline and Coral Queen could do their work undisturbed. But, as the two Monticello aircraft started their flight runs, hostile radars flicked into action. Obviously cued by the Chipanese radar over the border
“Mike, we're getting two Fire Can gun control radars. Probably controlling twin 37s but its possible there's bigger stuff down there.”