Those American Fools "A Rocketman Story"

Those American Fools
"A Rocketman Story"
John Pirillo

Jet shivered in the hold of the cargo plane, while Harry strapped into his rocket suit. "Not my idea of a vacation, Harry."

"You were expecting Florida, maybe?" Harry asked, as he drew his helmet down to lock onto his shoulder pack. Now he could navigate without his eyes burning out of their sockets from the air friction.

Jet saw he was ready and put on his own goggles, strapping them extra tight. "This is going to be a close one, you know."

"For the Fatherland I would do anything." Harry quipped, a scowl of a smile lighting the eyes behind his rocket suit helmet.

"Yeah. We do go back a ways with father, don't we?" Jet grinned, and then stood up, clutching the parachute strapped to his chest. "Still I don't think hanging from the arms of a flying bomb is such a hot idea either."

Harry ignored him and activated the rear door of the cargo plane, causing the door there to begin lowering. Wind rushed inside, shoving at them. Harry turned around. "Come to Papa."

"You better not drop me." Jet warned.

"That's what parachutes are for." Harry quipped.

"Yeah. That and a two by four over the back of the head. Don't drop me!"

"Ease up, soldier. This is a piece of cake. We jet over to the experimental air carrier; deposit our token of friendship to the Fatherland, then get the hell outta there."

"Roger that, but..." Jet gave Harry a stern look. "Don't drop me!"

Harry crossed his heart with a gauntleted hand. "Swear!"

"Why don't I trust you when you say that word?" Jet asked, turning around for Harry to grab him.

Harry didn't give him a chance to say anything more or move. As soon as Harry turned, he rushed forward, then grabbed him by the shoulder harness there, then threw them both off the back of the plane.

"Don't dropppppppp meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" Jet cried out as they plummeted towards the rugged mountains below.

Then Harry's jets came to life as he triggered them with his chin and nose controls and they leveled out, then as Harry angled his arms skywards, they shot like a rocket towards the moon high overhead.

=======================================================

Colonel Wilhelm Smitzhkipf, a high ranking Sturmgard in service to the Fuehrer, paced the capacious deck of their experimental carrier, going from one needle nosed jet fighter to the next, first examining their armaments, then the pilots who stood at attention beside them.

Satisfied, he stopped in front of the phalanx of jets and pilots, then gave them a stern look of approval. "The Father will be proud of you."

The pilots all saluted at the same time. "Heil Hitler!"

The Colonel nodded his head and gave them a weak salute in return, and then he struck his small hand whip against the side of his pants and looked towards the rear of the carrier, where the large door was already sliding open for the jets to launch an attack.

"Switzerland has been holding out for neutrality." He explained, his attention barely on the men.

"We shall teach them that there is no such thing as neutrality."

"Heil Hitler!" The pilots said again with a salute.

"Yes. Yes. That too. But now..." He turned to eye them, his face less stern. "You, my children, are the finest of the finest. We have spent years cultivating your abilities. You have been enhanced with sciences the West is not yet aware of, but soon will be. You are the first of our Sturm Drangers...Super Soldiers."

"Heil Hitler!" Even louder this time.

He smiled like a wolf about to eat a lamb.

"You shall teach the meaning of real peace to those fools below, who huddle in their simple cottages and unprotected towns next to their...disgusting lakes and ducks."

The pilots burst into laughter then.

He grinned. It was working. He had then firmly in the grip of his hand. Not one of them was questioning the fact that their jets had only enough fuel to attack, but not to return to the Fatherland.

"Now, prepare to launch."

"Heil Hitler!"  The pilots hailed one last time, saluted, then dashed up the small ladders into the cockpits of their jets as flight crew assisted them.

At that same moment something roared through the open area in back to the surprise of the Colonel.

Harry landed in front of him and let Jet go.

"Go, Jet!" Harry commanded.

Jet dashed for the front of the carrier with his small package held tightly in his hands.

"Seize him!" The Colonel ordered and several of the flight crew ran after Jet.

"So." The Colonel said, walking closer to Harry. "I see our friends in the West have been working on a little surprise for us. After we kill your companion, we shall take your suit back to our Fuehrer and make thousands of them!"

"Nice fantasy, Colonel. But I don't think so."

"There is nothing you can do to stop us!" The Colonel said, his face screwed up in anger.

"Uh actually, there is.'

Harry pointed to the back of the plane where another package stood.

The Colonel's eyes widened.

Harry gave the Colonel a three fingered salute, and then launched towards the front of the carrier. He slammed through the flight crew chasing Jet, then grabbed Jet's harness and lifted him off the flooring. He angled put on speed towards the distant cockpit where a wide panel of glass gave a view of the Alps below.

"Harry, please tell me you're not going to do what I think you're going to..."

Harry drew his arms back, allowing Harry to fall below and to the rear so that his helmet and shoulder armor would take the brunt of the crash, then slammed into the glass paneling before the Pilot and Co-Pilot of the Nazi Carrier.

The paneling shattered like a soap bubble, instantly sucking the Pilot and Co-Pilot through the opening to their deaths.

Behind them the Colonel ran towards the package in the rear, his face red with exertion and fear. He reached the package, heard a ticking sound, which stopped.

Nothing.

He grinned. The fool Americans had failed.

He lifted the package. It was heavy. He saw some writing on it.

He read it. "Give my regards to the Devil." It read.

The package exploded.

=======================================================

Behind Harry and Jet the vast Nazi Super Carrier exploded at its tail and the explosion ripped forwards, tearing the vast vehicle into a thousand pieces of flaming debris.

Harry brought Jet forward.

"We're safe now."

Jet looked up at Harry's helmeted face a moment, then down at the Alps below. "I'll believe that when we land. And next time, you run and I fool."

"It's a deal." Harry said, and then executed a sharp angled turn, which plummeted them like a rocket, which he was, towards the secret base below.

"Jets away!" He cried as they shot towards home.