A Day’s Work In WWIII

By Rachel Crosby

“Landing in approximately ten minutes,” my headset informed me. I looked out the graphic window interface of the stealth fighter jet and then glanced at the expressions of the rest of my crew. Below us, I recognized the gleaming titanium satellites and solar panels. The magnetic landing strip we were to utilize was prepared for our landing. The jet steered itself toward the opening in the building where it gently lowered itself to the ground.

Soldiers ran out to meet us, and we were brought into a large open chamber filled with soldiers ready to fight. Almost immediately, I was given a craft to command and with it five men. I was sucked up the air tube as cushioned restraints held me in place. A robot scrubbed me until I shone and tested all of my equipment. Once I passed inspection, I was allowed into my vehicle.

Today the mission is to destroy Chinese troops that are heading toward our base. The Chinese had invaded the United States and tried to take over. President Ann Fleetwood was trying her best to gain back the land taken from us and drive the opposing troops out of the US.

The enemy troops were detected by a heat sensitive mechanism that is placed one thousand miles from the fort. If our mission fails, they will destroy our fort in a matter of hours. Our job is to drop nuclear missiles on them. We take off successfully and everything is looking good. The voice in my headset informs me of the position of their troops.

My advanced vision eyes which allow me to see hundreds of miles ahead search the ground for people. I can perceive them before they notice us. It looks like they have stopped for some unknown reason. This is the ideal time for us to put our plan into action. With my voice, I instruct the aircraft to gain altitude and to hover, giving us a bird’s-eye view of our target. I aim the bomb and get ready to let the nuke drop.

A sensor goes off, and it’s then that I know something has gone wrong. My headset informs me that a fighter jet is coming in for an attack behind us. Our jet must be malfunctioning, or it would have warned us sooner. The plane is only three hundred feet behind us. Unsure of what to do, but knowing I must act, I yell to the jet to shoot forward. The speed enhanced plane flies away at an incredible speed, and I direct it to spin around to face the oncoming jet. Before they know what has hit them, my crew has knocked them out of the air and they take the steep plummet down to their death. I watch as three figures make a necessary emergency exit, jumping out of the plane and open their parachutes.

A hail of bullets comes raining down on us, and it is all the ship can do to stay in the air. We fight back, shooting and dodging strategically. Suddenly we are surrounded. Four planes are stationed around us, waiting for us to make the first move.  I can hear the silence emanating from all around. My headset has no advice for me and it remains quiet. I call for reinforcements, but even with the new plane, which travels at the speed of light and can cover miles in only seconds, we won’t be able to make it in time. In only milliseconds, I have to formulate a plan. I need to think!

I believe this can be considered a crisis, so I choose to use our secret weapon. This has never been operated before, but now is the only way to find out if it functions correctly. The rest of the crew are waiting for commands. My finger jammed down the button before I had time for second thoughts. Then poof! We were gone. Invisible. It had worked and my team was ecstatic! The Chinese planes circled around trying to mask their confusion but it quickly became apparent that their ranks were in chaos.

One by one, we took down all of their crafts. Sneaking up behind them while invisible was effortless. Once we forced down every plane in the sky, we dropped the bombs on their camp. Again, we obliterated everything.

As we flew back to the fort, we began to become visible. Once we landed, we were congratulated by soldiers and generals, and were applauded for our brave undertaking. We were then turned off and stored with the rest of the robots for the night. I was the most advanced nanobot in the world, and I had just commanded a plane of men and accomplished a great feat. We would be recharged and ready to fight again in the morning. World War III had only just started.

(Rachel Crosby is an eighth grade student at Newtown Middle School. This essay was written as an entry into the Future Problem Solvers Scenario writing competition. Rachel placed second in the state and this piece will now be submitted to the international level of the competition. )