Parker's Folly by Doug L Hoffman

tell him he needed to get the bird into the air, or the government would seize her for sure. He'd be damned if he was going to turn the fruits of his labor for the last thirty years over to a bunch of bumbling bureaucrats and government asswipes. No, this was too important to let the government screw it up.
     

Landing Zone, South Side of the Hangar, Parker's Ranch.
    Approaching from the south, the MV-22 came in low over the scrub and sagebrush, using the bulk of the hangar to hide its approach from the ranch house. The huge twin rotors went to their full upright position, the Osprey flared and landed about 80 meters from the structure. The nose of the aircraft was pointing west, so its starboard side door was facing the hangar—normally the door gunner would have provided cover for the disembarking Marines but the Air Force had not seen fit to provide any 7.62mm ammo.
    Upon landing the rear ramp lowered to the ground and the squad of Marines exited the rear of the Osprey led by Lt. Merryweather and GySgt Rodriguez. The squad fanned out and formed a perimeter about 30 meters from the aircraft, who's rotors were stirring up large volumes of dust. As the Marines knelt down facing outward from their ride and toward the looming hangar, Rodriguez turned back to the Osprey and gave a thumbs up signal. The MV-22 immediately started to rise and headed off to the south.
    The Gunny waited 20 seconds for some of the dust to clear and for the noise of the aircraft to fade. There was no response from the building. She looked over at the Lieutenant and Cpl Sizemore. As soon as she had their attention she used hand signals to indicate they should advance to the side of the building, each team taking up stacked position beside their target doors.
    The Gunny stood up and started forward at a trot. Simultaneously, the rest of the squad was in motion, headed for their assigned objectives. Damn if we don't look like we know what we're doing, Rodriguez thought. The squad quickly flattened themselves against the outer wall of the building.
    I wish we had some grenades, no, we wouldn't be able to use them until we know what's inside. As usual with combat operations, the worst part was before making contact with the enemy. That's when all the doubts and second guessing happens. Once the bullets start flying, training and instinct take over. From the far side of the door, facing the rest of her team and in sight of the Lieutenant's team farther west along the building wall, she motioned for the squad to enter the hangar.
    Reagan reached out and grasped the doorknob. The door was unlocked. He pushed the door open and entered the building, followed closely by Davis and Sanchez. The Gunny and corpsman White brought up the rear.
    Still no contact. The team crossed through a deserted work area filled with tables and machine tools. On the far side, opposite the entrance, there was a ramp leading to a pair of swinging doors that opened outward, into the hanger proper.
    “Up the ramp! Move it!” With that the Gunny launched herself up the ramp and threw open the right hand door as Davis did the same to the one on the left. The rest of the team flooded into the brightly lit hangar, instinctively taking up defensive, outward facing positions.
    Rodriguez could see the rest of the squad similarly deployed, twenty meters to her left. The Lieutenant was standing in the middle of his team, looking up, pistol in hand with his arm hanging at his side. That was when the Gunny became aware of the large gleaming cylinder towering over them. I'll be damned, she thought, it is a rocket ship.
     

Bridge of Parker's Folly, Parker Ranch, Texas.
    The interview had gone well and the news crew was busy preparing to send their report to the TV station. HD video was not actually recorded on tape or film anymore. When JT “filmed” a scene the sound and video was recorded on a high-density SSD storage pack attached to the camera. Once recorded, his camera rig contained