Tom and the Wizard-07

"Of course, there just had to be a dogfight." The Wizard said.

"Strap yourselves in and hang on." Tom said, "We've been made."

Several other Nazi saucers bore down on their own at combat speed, opening fire at maximum range. Longfellow and his men did as Tom said, with some of them manning other stations aboard the saucer. They returned fire, forcing some of the Nazis to break formation and disrupting their attack.

"They've learned from World War 2 all right." Tom said, "They're reforming. Going for a wolf pack attack; gunners are cleared to fire when they've got a lock."

The severe maneuvering of the Nazi saucers put Longfellow on alert. "No man can handle that severe a shift of momentum."

The Wizard followed Longfellow's observations. "No men are in those saucers." he said, "They're drones."

"Well, I always wanted to fly down Beggar's Canyon." Tom said, and he dove for a narrow ravine beneath them. The Nazi saucers formed up to follow, and a couple of Longfellow's men caught them in crossfire and shot a few down. The saucers fired upon them, but Tom--barely--dodged their volley of fire as he entered the ravine. Some of the saucers pursued Tom, and the rest broke off to cover the ravine from above.

"Gunners, prioritize the saucers out of the ravine." Tom said.

The Nazi saucer drones attempted to herd Tom and company into crashing, but the gunners kept their cool. The back-and-forth as the drones engaged their saucer, and the gunners aboard fired back, kept most of them engaged while the rest in the ravine raced to put their own weapons to bear. Meanwhile, Tom did his best to defeat the flight computations that the drones used to defeat it; first drones in did not adapt fast enough, so they crashed against the walls when they failed to predict a turn. The gunners benefited from Tom's movements, as the drones above failed to anticipate the gunners firing upon them under such conditions, so several of them got shot down.

The drones adapted by firing head of their saucer, attempting to force a crash with falling debris or push the saucer into some lane that they could control. Tom's focus could not be shaken, however, and neither could that of the gunners aboard. Firing at angles and moments that the drones' scripts could not handle, Tom and the gunners used irrational and non-linear thought to put down their pursuers until the remainder withdrew.

After the group felt certain that they were in the clear, Tom brought the saucer out of the ravine and back up into the open sky of the Inner Earth. With the second sun high over their heads, and the skies about them clear of enemies, they relaxed and took deep breaths of relief.

"It's not over." The Wizard said, "They switched tactics."

Just then, the saucer turned and Tom lost control of the saucer.

"Well," Tom said, "this would be the switch. We're under remote control now. I would think that whomever's control is going to bring us in."

Longfellow smiled. "Then let them find nothing."