Tom and the Wizard-06

Tom, The Wizard, Longfellow, and Longfellow's men rushed to a set of hills wherein a saucer would likely set down to drop or get a foot patrol. They concealed a pincer position in the available foliage and rocks, camouflaging themselves as best their tools did allow--which was quite a bit, with active cloaking technologies and sound dampeners doing far more than Tom had ever imagined--and then projected a hologram of themselves in the clearing slowly passing through as the saucer approached. As expected, they found that saucer by itself; the other went elsewhere. The hologram showed them dispersing into the cover on the ground, and the saucer made an attack run before landing to pursue.

Out of the saucer came a squad of armed and armored men, each wielding what might as well be a squad-level light machine gun. The Nazi stormtroopers' commander, a lieutenant by displayed insignia, wielded only some sort of oversized pistol. Wordlessly, he put forth orders to seek and destroy. Tom had other ideas.

"I want the officer alive." Tom said, "Open fire!"

The Longfellow men shouldered their weapons and revealed them to be beam weapons. First a pin-prick of a laser, invisible to the naked eye save for where it stops, and then instantaneously the power of that laser is amped up and ionizes the air along its path- and down that path travels a plasma charge. All that in the snap of one's fingers, and instantly the shots go from weapon to target as if they were flashlight beams. In that first volley a handful of stormtroopers went down, plasma bolts burning through their armor and into their flesh, screaming in pain before slumping to the dirt.

The survivors took cover, dropping prone or rolling underneath the saucer, and returned fire with their machine guns. The officer fired his pistol, revealing it to be a latter-day gyrojet. The first shot hit just over Tom's head and exploded; if not for the helmet, he would've taken head wound from shrapnel and been out of the fight immediately. Tom drew his revolver, and as expected the cartridge conversion worked just fine; he blasted that lieutenant down, then shot the pistol out of his hand for good measure.

The firefight went on for another few minutes before the Nazis were all dead or disabled. This time, Tom and his allies came out unscathed, and Tom silently thanked whatever powers existed for their mercy. Instead, he advanced upon the lieutenant, tore open the armor suit, grabbed the man by the collar and hoisted him off his feat.

"I can't believe I fell for such a childish trick." the Nazi said, "I expected better of you untermensch."

Tom opened his visor. "Think again," he said, "and fast."

The Wizard came up behind the Nazi and frisked him. He found a key card and a crystal rod.

"No need to keep him hanging, General." The Wizard said, "We've got what we needed."

"Ack!" the Nazi said, "The Wizard, and an American, here? The Demagogue must, agh!" and then went limp.

Tom let the Nazi officer go, and he fell dead in a heap. "Kill switch." he said, "We need to get moving."

Longfellow gathered his men, and they all piled into the saucer. Tom and the Wizard took the controls.

"I hope you have the keys." Tom said.

"I hope you can fly this better than that plane you flew in Siberia."

Tom spied the controls. As he expected, they seemed to be akin to a VTOL fighter's controls; once the Wizard turned the machine on, Tom quickly got the saucer aloft and level in flight, but he strained to concentrate.

"Beside on the flip-side of the world really screws with my sense of direction." Tom said, "How can flip form inside and outside flight so easily?" as he followed the Nazi navigation systems back to the saucer's base of operations.