The Sky Divers

The Ants had been cruising for hours. They were now at about 13, 000 feet M. S. L. and only slightly hypoxic; sun bathing all over the wings; just lying on their backs and relaxing.  All the ants saw the big military C-5 cargo plane flying overhead at the same time.  They all watched with casual interest as it flew 5000 ft. above them.  Penee was the first to notice that a lot of things seemed to be falling out the back of the big C-5 and brought it to everyone's attention.  About 250 little dots were trailing out of the back of the plane and they all wondered what was happening.  Slowly the dots got bigger and bigger, closer and closer.  Wise-ant was the one who put 2 & 2 together and came up with 4.  The objects coming from the big C-5 were skydivers.  The ants were excited, they had only seen sky diving on television and now they were going to get their own private show.  The ants watched in anticipation waiting for the colorful canopies to pop open.  What the ants didn't realize was that a high-low was in progress.  A high altitude jump with a low attitude chute deployment.  The little dots were now even closer and the ants could make out the shape of the plummeting human forms.  They had never seen sky diving from this prospective before, and, forgetting that they themselves were at over 13,000 ft., felt that the skydivers were getting kinda low before opening their chutes.  The ant’s amazement changed quickly to terror as the lead skydiver got real big real quick and blasted by them nearly hitting the PPP-1.  The wake left by the skydiver rocked the PPP-1 making the ants hold on tight.  The second skydiver shot past even closer than the first, his outstretched hand just missing the PPP-1.  This near hit brought the seriousness of the situation to light.  Two down, 248 sky divers to go.  The ants were definitely flying in the danger zone!  The raining skydivers all seemed to be aiming for the PPP-1.  The loud whoosh of each near hit was interrupting the serenity of the now extinct silent and peaceful flight.  The ant’s terror turned to horror as a skydiver and clipped the nose of the PPP-1 causing an abrupt gut wrenching tuck and tumble.  The built in stability of the PPP-1 allowed the plane to right itself immediately.  Wise-ant knew they had to do something; the skydivers were coming fast and furious.  "Acro, get us out of here!!!"  Wise-ant was screaming as loud as he could.  Acro jumped into action even before Wise-ant's screaming order died in the wind.  Acro positioned himself at the center of gravity and issued orders in rapid fire, "to the nose, dive, dive, dive!"  The PPP-1's nose dropped through the horizon and quickly accelerated matching the sky divers free fall speed exactly.  Penee was at the trailing edge looking up.  Penee was face to face with one of the skydivers.  Time seemed to stop, except for the deafening roar of the high-speed wind trying to dislodge the ants from the wing.  Speck shot some webbing all over the upper surface for the ants to hang onto.  Penee saw the sky divers hand reach out for them.  It was so close that Penee could see the dirt under the fingernails of the pursuer.  "A-C-R-O!!"  Penee yelled over the roar of the wind.  Acro looked back and placed his order, "roll right, pitch-up, hold it, roll left, to the nose now!!!"  The PPP-1's loaded to 9 g's as it pitched up into a screaming wing-over and finished off with a diving left spiral.  The skydiver shot right past them, Acro's skills had averted this possible catastrophe but there were still over 200 to go.  The PPP-1 was diving towards the Earth burning the altitude as if there were no tomorrow.  There would be no tomorrow if they got nailed by one of those plummeting humanoids.  Even though the PPP-1 was in a pure vertical dive, Acro was issuing minute course corrections to keep a safe separation from the skydivers.  The ants, now under control and fairly safe, were starting to have fun.  Their PPP-1 could out maneuver these guys with no problem.  All the ants were looking off to the side and making faces at one of the skydivers who was trying to track towards them.  No one on the plane was watching where they were going except for Speck; he was terrified of high speed plummeting.  Even though Speck was actively pursuing a death grip on the plane, he was enjoying the sudden blossom of colorful parachutes going on far below him.  More and more chutes were popping open.  With the Earth as a backdrop, the opening chutes took on the appearance of budding wild flowers.  They were also getting bigger and bigger as the PPP-1 continued its plummet...

          The radio crackled in Sgt. Palmer's ear, "we missed them Sarge!"  The Sergeant was direct and to the point, "there are over 250 of you guys out there, we've been ordered to get that plane.  You guys are driving the finest RAM air chutes ever made and if you can't catch a paper airplane then “WE” got problems-don't we...” Sgt. Palmer had been watching from the C-5; peering down from the rear ramp.  Wearing his parachute; watching with binoculars; he was commanding operation ‘ANTE-UP’ with his walkie-talkie.  Sgt. Palmer was ready to go if he had to.  There was no radio response pertaining to his order, however, the sudden and erratic movement from below confirmed acknowledgment.

          Speck thought the chutes were getting bigger and prettier, they seemed to be drawing patterns in the air.  The chutes also seemed to be converging on a spot directly below the PPP-1.  The wind noise was deafening and Speck watched the colorful chutes get bigger and bigger.  All Speck could do was yell "LOOK-OUT!!!"  and brace for impact as the PPP-1 bounced off the first chute it encountered.  The PPP-1 had clipped the edge of the Skydivers chute and ricocheted wildly out of control.  The pursuing Skydiver shot past them and impacted the chute they had just bounced off of.  This stimulated a failure of the canopies and both Skydivers re-accelerated to terminal falling velocity.  It seemed like minutes but it was only seconds before the bad chutes were cut away and two new reserve canopies popped open with a loud crack.  The ants were relieved to see that the Skydivers were going to be all right.  They were having fun now and didn't want to see anyone hurt.  The sky above and below them was now full of slow moving parachutes and the ants took on the challenge with their high performance PPP-1.  It soon turned into a slalom course on the vertical plane as the ants wove through the colorful pylons.  Diving, rolling and looping they were having the time of their life.

          Sgt. Palmer watched from above as the PPP-1 made his crew look like fools.  The ants were playing games with his man and he didn't like it.  Sgt. Palmer dove out of the big C-5 and assumed the ballistic mode, straight down, headfirst.  His speed was well over 200 mph as he took on the PPP-1.  His teeth were clenched tight, not because of the high wind, but, because he was angry.  The other Skydivers were all starting to land and were dismayed to see their sergeant delaying his opening for so long.  The ants were working the light above the grounded Skydivers, laughing at them and totally unaware of the gravity induced missile aiming for the PPP-1.  Sgt. Palmer was seconds from impacting the ants and their beloved PPP-1 when Acro glanced up and saw doom approaching faster than fast.  Acro didn't even have time to warn the others, all he could do was run to the wing tip the PPP-1 and try to roll the plane out of the way.  The near miss and sudden rolling of the PPP-1 took the others by surprise.  Mixed with the scream of anger from the 200 mph Sgt. Palmer and the loud crack of the opening chute right next to the PPP-1 almost caused all the hearts on board the PPP-1 to stop.  The shock wave from the popping chute made the PPP-1 tumble radically out of control.  All the ants could do was hold on and hope that the self-righting characteristics of the PPP-1 would occur before they met the ground in person.  Sgt. Palmer was on the ground cursing his troops and the PPP-1 resumed level flight at 300 feet above them.  Wise-ant knew that they couldn't land, and had to stay in the air.  The lift was there but it was zero-zero, no up, no down.  The PPP-1 was now at only 50 feet above the earthbound Skydivers, scratching to stay up and hoping the wind drift would guide them to safety.  The Skydivers had abandoned their equipment and were following the scratching PPP-1 on foot, preparing for the capture.  The ants had drifted for miles yet the troops were still below them, just waiting.  Sgt. Palmer had told his men that what goes up must come down, but, he had never seen the ants skillfully fly the world's best paper airplane.  Darkness was approaching and the troops were tiring.  Wise-ant had to do something to avoid capture.  In the dwindling twilight Wise-ant spotted a steep canyon off the left wing.  Heavily forested with a raging river at the bottom, it was a perfect place to lose the pursuing troops.  "Roll left...  Dive N-O-W!!"  Wise-ant ordered.  His crew responded immediately and the PPP-1 dove through the treetops aiming for the river.  It was even darker than before and the noise of the paper airplane destroying water was getting louder and louder by the second.  Encountering the light spray of mist Wise-ant could only call out his final order, "roll right and hold on!!!"  The flying stopped, it was very dark and the ants didn't move a muscle.  If you were there with them all you would hear were sighs of relief and tiny heart beats still going very fast.

Chapter Eleven