Mojave Desert, Nevada - November 13th, 2054 - Ishtar
Speed is relative. Someone standing still on Earth might not seem to be moving, yet the Earth itself is traveling nearly 67,000 miles an hour around the Sun. In turn, the Sun and the entire Sol System rotates around the Milky Way Galaxy at a blistering rate of 483,000 miles an hour. This goes on ad infinitum for as long as the universe continues to expand.
This is all to say that traveling through the air requires a much different set of materials and engineering principles than what is required to travel between the stars. Something capable of traveling faster than light generally doesn’t have to concern itself with things like atmospheric resistances and aeronautical lift. Simultaneously, something flying through the air doesn’t have to worry about black holes, rogue planets, and a myriad of other spatial phenomena. Both objects can be equally deadly depending on the frame of reference.
Today, Ishtar was lethal speed.
Her svette form was framed in incredible, glowing heat as she pushed towards the red line: Mach 10. The goal of the SR-73 Darksun project had always been to produce an Air-Core capable of high-hypersonic flight. Doing so would give humanity another edge over the Kuxpir, who had yet to demonstrate advanced hypersonic capabilities in atmosphere.
Ishtar’s twin scramjets roared as she inched closer and closer to the breakpoint. She was traveling at such speeds that even the slightest trim or unplanned movement could send her spiraling out of control and turning into a blazing comet across the sky. Despite the risk, she coaxed every bit of thrust possible from her engines.
9.5, 9.6, 9.7… Ishtar was nearly there. Just a little more, she thought. Just a little more and I’m in the history books.
9.8, 9.9… Ishtar’s Air-Core was handling so many concurrent operations that her perception of time slowed to a snail’s crawl. She lingered near the threshold for what seemed like an eternity.
9.95, 9.98…
10.
Ishtar had done it. She’d proven it was possible for an Air-Core to fly this fast.
“Hell of a job up there!” called Lieutenant Colonel Richardson over the radio in his trademark southern drawl. “We’re reading you at 6,668 knots on the ground. How’s your frame holding up?”
<< Temperature levels are within acceptable parameters, >> Ishtar responded. << Reactor output is nominal. I am ready to begin the next phase. >>
“Good to hear it. Before we start giving you targets to shoot, let’s make sure you’re able to react and handle moving in directions other than a straight line at these speeds. Start with a pitchback so we can get a gauge for how you handle radial acceleration. Then we’ll proceed with tests on angular with an Immelmann.”
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<< 10-4. Executing a chandelle now. >>
On paper the maneuver was simple: execute a minimal radius climbing turn at a constant rate until turning a full 180° from the initial heading. The ability to perform such a maneuver was required for all commercial and military flight certificates. But before this moment, no one, neither drone, pilot, nor Air-Core, had attempted this maneuver at such high speeds. Any number of things could go wrong.
As Ishtar began turning, she noted the climbing G-forces. On a normal aircraft, a pilot performing this maneuver while traveling so rapidly would be experiencing increasing tunnel vision until they lost consciousness. Even as an experimental Air-Core with a state of the art cockpit capable of advanced G-force management, Ishtar’s eventual pilot would be feeling the pressure if they tried this maneuver.
But it was just Ishtar for the moment. That meant she could turn and burn as fast as her Air-Core calculated was possible. More than a handful of records were shattered by the time Richardson got back on comms.
“Well missy, you’re in the history books for sure now. But I don’t think I have ta’ tell ya the boys here are itchin’ to see you try and shoot down their pride n’ joy. You ready for some skeet shootin’?”
<< I daresay my performance will be leagues above your last outing in that regard, >> mused Ishtar, knowing full well she’d get away with such a comment even if she biffed the second part of the test. << Launch the missiles. >>
A drone traveling at lower hypersonic speeds was present in the operating area. It angled towards Ishtar before releasing a barrage of four scramjet-powered hypersonic projectiles for her to chase after. She in turn began to task her weapon subroutines with producing miniature scramjet missiles that she could fire after the targets. Such weapons were advanced, even for an Air-Core’s production capabilities. Ishtar could only produce four of them before running out of sufficient internal material stores. Her aim would have to perfect.
Ishtar banked and fell in behind a pair of the missiles. Two ports, one to either side of her shoulders, opened up and blasted out intercept projectiles the size of a .50 BMG. Moments later two explosions signaled that she’d been right on the money.
That alone was another tremendous step forward for humanity. Before Ishtar, humanity’s hypersonic interception capabilities were limited. What she had just done could change the very fabric of how humanity fought back against the Kuxpir.
Confident and cocky, Ishtar circled around her prey and singled out a missile traveling a hair slower than the others. She fired only once, connecting with her target. However, instead of exploding as the dummy projectiles were meant to do, something went wrong. The projectile instead split in two, tumbling through the air that Ishtar was about to occupy.
She ran the math. Collision was unavoidable. The best she could do was roll and hope the objects struck her in a non-vital area.
Everything was over in mere seconds. Ishtar’s right scramjet stopped responding. Without its balancing power, she was sent spinning wildly through the air. She may have been a goddess minutes before, but like Icarus she’d flown too close to the sun. Physics could only be pushed but so far even for an Air-Core.
As the ground rushed up at her, Ishtar relaxed and accepted her fate. She transmitted all the data she could on the way down with the hopes that others could learn from her demise.
Somehow, realizing her hubris struck her harder than the ground did.