James runs down the narrow hallways of the carrier bumping into a few people along his way, he is carrying his pilot’s helmet and catches it when he almost drops it running around a corner. He is distracted by the red swirling alarms and the announcements that have started to melt together. His wingman Bradley looks out of a door away from him, and then looks at him and motions him to hurry up. Bradly whispers to him as he rejoins the briefing “Wave one is going up now, we’re in wave two”
“What are we going after?” James says in a hushed tone.
“Hasn’t told us yet, think it’s some Russian stealth fighter they haven’t told us about.” Brad responds.
“When you two are done, we can get going” The commanding officer says.
“Sir”
“We don’t have a lot of information, but we need numbers in the air, we’ve been hearing weird things from command, they’re really jumpy right now and are pushing us to get up in the air” their commanding Officer continued. “You will be briefed with more once you’re in the air, dismissed.”
The group of pilots rush out of the room and take their positions to start boarding their new F/A-20E jets. James and Bradley run through the hallways finding the final stairway to the deck. They run up and once given the signal cross the deck and board their aircraft. They jump, put on their helmets, and start doing their pre-flight checklist.
The deck was full of commotion with the last plane of wave one taking off and scrambling to get the next wave ready. Once through their checklists and their weapons armed, they are sent to the launching strip. After being given the green light, they launch one after the other as the first planes in the second wave. After they launch, they form into a holding pattern waiting for the rest of their wave to launch.
While they are in the holding pattern they overhear the radio chatter of the first wave.
“What the hell was that.”
“Bogey is moving fast.”
“It flew by us like we were standing still.”
“It’s on your six.”
“What is it?”
“I’m hit”
“Get the fuck out of here.”
Soon the chatter started to die down, and nothing was coming from the first wave. Their wave, now all in the air head in the direction of the last known location of the 1st wave and the bogey. They soon pick up the now two bogies heading straight for them, and fan out. Taking aggressive evasive maneuvers they manage to avoid being hit by what looks like red lasers coming from the bogies.
Just like the first wave, one after the other the new US Navy jets are taken out being completely destroyed by missiles they couldn’t avoid, cut in half by what looked like red lasers. Soon only James, Bradley and two other jets remained. James took control and ordered the retreat of the wave, not wanting anyone else to die. “Rejoin and return we are getting out of here”.
Over the radio his commanding officer is heard saying “What is it? Where is the first wave?”
Bradley responded saying “They’re gone, it destroyed them” as one jet next to him exploded.
“We can’t get a lock, hell we don’t know where it is, it’s too fast.” James said.
“Gamma team is going up now, hold your ground and they will be their soon.”
“Respectfully sir, fuck that” Bradley said, “we’re RTB.” Bradley said.
“That’s an order, Captain, hold your ground”! Bradley says nothing. The survivors make their way back to the Gerald R. Ford and join the third wave’s holding pattern. “If they wanted to chase us, they’d beat us here, what are they doing” James said suspicious of the quietness around the carrier.
As a jet leaves the deck of the Carrier there is a huge explosion, the Carrier is nearly torn in two. Aircraft slide off the now listing deck and fall into the ocean, along with some people moving or not.
“FUCK”
“They’re here, Evasive maneuvers” The planes from both the second and third waves scatter attempting to locate the source of the attack not finding a thing.
“Where the hell did that come from?” James asked.
“There’s nothing on my radar” another pilot says.
Taking command James says “Form 2 squadrons, I’ll lead one to where the bogies were last spotted, the other will head for Mihail Kogqlniceanu, if we don’t find anything we’ll join you”.
As the two squads are formed Bradley joins back up into formation with James. “What are we going to do if we find them?” he asks.
“Confirm their location and get the fuck out of there.” James responds.
“Sounds like suicide but alright.”
They cruise in silence as their eyes are glued to their radars. They make their way back to where the first battle was fought without getting any radar contact. “Alright where the hell did they go?”
“You want to find them? We got one sidewinder each, there’s no way we’re going to make it out if we find them”. Bradley says obviously freaked out.
“Alright, five more minutes then we turn around.”
Four minutes later both of their radars beep when it makes contact with the bogies to their rear. “How did they get behind us? Evasive maneuvers.” The pair try their best to avoid the bogies. Oddly despite closing the distance, the bogies have not fired their weapons, but they continue to close. Heading northwest try to outrun the closing bogies. They then hear their radar’s beep once again, but when they look down, they see four more bogies, but this time their computer recognizes them as Migs.
“Shit Migs coming straight at us”! Bradley says.
James changes his frequency on his radio and attempts to contact the Migs.
“This is Captain James Vanderbilt of the United States Navy, we are being pursued by two unknown aircraft, requesting assistance” James says attempting to say each word clearly so he is not misunderstood. A second passes with silence, and both sides quickly closing on them.”
A heavily accented Russian voice says “Acknowledged, Standby.”
Just as James looks over to Bradley, his jet is lit up by the red lasers, and cut in half.
James could only say “Brad”! as he watched the two fiery halves of his plane falls down into the water. The next second he sees missiles on his radar, but he never hear a radar lock on him.
“Missile away, take evasive” the Russian voice says again.
James takes a hard right to avoid the missiles as they streak past him and to the direction of the bogies to his rear. The missiles are shot down but a small laser aimed at them by the bogies and they continue on their course. James passes the Migs and one peals off to catch up to him.
“Shlow your speed, I follow you to base” the now friendly sounding Russian voice says.
James looks down at his radar, and sees the Migs dropping one by one until the bogies suddenly disappear right off the radar.
“What are they?” James asks his new Russian wingman.
“I don’t know.”
The two are now joined by the remaining two Migs as the escort James back to their base.
James lands and is greeted by MPs who take him to the main building of the base. There he his put before the Russian General in command of the airbase. He is sat down, while the Russian Captain who talked to talks to the general and giving him glances ever so often. The general says something to him in Russian, but he did not understand what he said. The captain translates “You are from carrier, in black sea, no?”
“Yes, the Gerald R. Ford, yeah we were intercepting something we detected, surely you saw it you sent jets up” James said. The captain translated and the General gives James a weird look. He again speaks to the captain, to which he translates and asks James “Was it your plane?”
“What?”
“The contact, that was chasing you”.
“No that wasn’t ours, we thought it was yours. They destroyed our carrier, broke it in half.” James says, and again the captain turns to the general and starts to translate as the phone rang. The general starts the conversation confidently, but as it continues his demeanor changes. His answers become short, and he looks distressed.
He turns to the captain and says something to him, the captain seems to complain before the general orders the MPs guarding James to take him out. On his way-out James yells out to the Russian captain and asks, “What did he say?”
“Moskow, St. Petersburg were hit” the captain says turning around before running out.
“Mr. President!” an aid shouted running through the doors of the oval office. The president looks up, away from the Greek ambassador he was meeting with. “Sir you need to follow me to the situation room right away.” The president stands looking confused about what could be so urgent. The president is followed by his staff and is hurried by the aid, leaving the Greek ambassador and another politician standing alone in the oval office.
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Entering the room There are two generals, the chief of staff and two other men sitting at the table seeming stressed. “Mr. President, Fort Hood, Fort Riley, Cambell, Norfolk, and dozens more have reported being stuck, precision strikes, hitting munition storage, airbases and missile silos. Reports are coming in all over. They are coming in too fast; they are being hit as we speak.” A general says.
“Where … who’s hitting us?” the president says.
“We don’t know, but we are getting reports that Russia and China are being hit too, satellite images confirm some of them, but our network is faltering, out satellites are going out all the time.” Another general says.
“Our allies are being hit too, but not seemingly as hard. If the attacks on our silos continue our nuclear capabilities are limited to submarine launches”.
“Did we not see it coming, what about our early warning systems?” The President asks.
“Nothing was alerted. We are dispersing, mobilizing everything, and getting away from our bases while they are still being hit.”
“What about population centers? Are they being hit?”
“No- “They are interrupted by explosions in the distance.
“Mr. President, we need to go to the bunker.” A general says.
“I agree”. They get up but are blocked from leaving by a young man who just entered.
“Sorry” he says while backing up out to the hallway. He follows the President and says “Mr. President I am from UNSA- “
“Not right now- “
“Sir, this is important, we are intercepting radio communications originating from space”. The President stopped looking at the man.
“What are you talking about?”
“Sir we must get going” a general behind him says.
“Come with me.” The president says.
“Mr. President, the communications are in English, and are asking to talk with you” The man from UNSA says while getting in the elevator to the bunker. He brings up his laptop and plays the video transmitted from the ISS just before it was destroyed showing that there is some craft orbiting the Earth. “We’ve lost contact with the ISS, and we have radar images showing 2 to 3 dozen crafts of some sort of orbiting earth. We don’t know what they are, but we do believe they want to talk”.
“Who wants to talk to me?”
“They won’t say, they said they’d only talk to you”.
“Can you route it into the bunker?” The man from the UNSA looks over at the generals, and they say “I think that can be arranged.” As the exit the elevator and enter the situation room of the bunker the man from UNSA connects his computer to the room’s computer and begins typing. A moment later he looks over at the president and says “Alright I can route it here. Should I connect it now”.
“Mr. President- “A general says, but the president says “Do what you have to, I need to do this”. They shuffle off and sit at the other end of the table and begin working on the damage control. “Do it” The president says.
There is static for a moment until the President says, “Is it working?”
“I think so.”
“Hello? This is the President of The United States John Castaneda, whom am I speaking to?”
There is a small beep as the static fades, then a pause. The silence fills the room but is suddenly interrupted by “This is Admiral Eckerd Reymundsohn of the Eckzahn Navy” The generals now sit up and listen closely” Right now as you probably know we have struck numerous of your bases and military infrastructure. First thing first I urge you to not use your nuclear weapons, you do not have the capability of launching into space far enough to strike us.” A voice identifying himself as Admiral Eckerd Reymundsohn says.
“What do you want?” The president says after letting what the admiral said sit for a minute.
There is a beep, and after a minute of silence “Excuse the pause, I am using a translator, this is not my actual voice. The Eckzahn Union has claimed and controlled this solar system for 20 years. We have been contempt in watching your civilization in that time, but however now are going to take full control of the system “is heard. The Admiral continues “We do not wish to destroy you or your civilization, but however wish you surrender now and transfer governance to us. We have no intention of killing you or any of your staff, but however if you do not surrender you force us to do more damage. Your nation has a leadership position, what you do will influence the actions of everyone on your planet.”.
“If we surrender, what would you do to our planet?”
Another pause infects the room with everyone silently looking around at each other. “We plan to exploit the resources of your planet, with compensation of course. And wish to use your planet as a base for our military.”
“Assuming you do gain control of this planet, how will you govern it? Will we retain our autonomy? Rights? Can you guarantee anything?”
After another pause the admiral laughs and then says, “Firstly you will not win this President, its just how many lives you are willing to sacrifice, and secondly Individual rights can be debated after you surrender not before.”
“So, you’re demanding an unconditional surrender.”
Another pause is heard, and the admiral says “indeed”.
“I cannot accept that.”
“That’s unfortunate, this frequency will be open for when you change your mind.” The line goes dead and static fills the room. Everyone in the room was in stunned silence, none of them could believe what they had heard.
Two Varlet transports break through the overcast revealing the flat snowy plain below. Farmhouses are the only buildings seen passing below, with thin lines of trees dividing property lines. As the transport descended the side doors opened letting the occupants look at the surrounding landscape. The sun had just set, and most of its light was now out of view. Inside the transport a dozen Eckzahn soldiers rock with the turbulence, some holding onto the overhead strap ready to go, and others sitting down. The shortest out of the bunch, a coyote, yells over the power of the wind “Alright, we’re setting down in one mike, stand up.”
Those who were sitting stood up including a wolf with dark gray fur holding a large blaster and ammo wrapping his poorly painted white armor. He looks over at the other side of the transport at a brown-furred maned wolf having to bend down, unable to stand up all the way. After meeting his gaze, the wolf looks away and toward the doors just as the transport begins its final descent. Looking in between his comrades he can just barely make out a small building and a chain-linked fence.
The Transport landed and they all spilled out, the wolf went out the right side and as he did, he laid down prone deploying the bipod on his blaster pointing it at the building. Shouts are heard from the other side of the transport and then several cracks of both gunfire and blasterfire. The Maned wolf approaches the human now laying on the ground and he takes the gun and throws it away, then joins his comrades as they trudge through the foot deep snow to the building.
Another human runs out the door, gun at the ready, and the wolf who had aiming at the door lets a long burst from his heavy blaster go. The burst hits the human in the upper chest and arm, his gun goes off after he loses control of his arm falling to the ground. The wolf’s comrades take their turn and send a couple of bolts into the human as he goes down. The wolf shoots another two bursts into the building in an attempt to hit anyone still inside.
The Maned wolf joins the stack about to enter the building just as they enter the small building. Another wolf comes up to the wolf with the heavy blaster and says “Hey, turn around look at that road, I see lights, might be their reinforcements. The wolf kneels and turns around spotting the lights of a single car. He looks through the scope of his blaster and aims at its engine. When it comes into range he shoots a long burst, peppering the car with blaster bolts. At the same time two other Eckzahn soldiers shoot at it with their blasters. The car swerves and starts smoking, it crashes into the field not making it too far before being stopped by the snow.
The maned wolf now leaves the building not finding anymore humans. “Beta’s not having a fun time at the bunker, they’re going to need help, Tahvo, Adi, and Styr come with me, the rest of you stay here and cover that road. I don’t want anything to come down it.” The three mentioned get up and follow the Coyote over to where the other transport had landed. Despite getting a head start the maned wolf passes the Coyote obviously struggling in the snow. The maned wolf slows down to match his speed, towering nearly 2 feet over him.
As they reach the entrance of the bunker Beta’s leader, an indistinguishable canine says “They locked the door, we’re cutting it now. Can you provide security while my guys make entry?”
“Yeah, I don’t think this one” the coyote says motioning to the maned wolf “is going to want to crawl in there.” The maned wolf laughs as he lays down prone replacing the security watching the road going the opposite direction. Running down the steps and down a ladder the coyote joins the team cutting the door. They are using laser torches to cut the locking mechanism and have almost completed their job. They turn off their torches and signal that they are finished. It is silent as all those in the holding room find makeshift cover hiding in corners that do not cover them all the way.
Two wolves attempt to open the door with a great effort, and after they struggle for a few moments, it budges, and then swings open. The three humans inside unload their guns as soon as the door open nearly hitting several of the Eckzahn soldiers. The soldiers return fire and one throws a grenade inside the room as the rest take cover and one of the wolves who open the door attempts to close it again. He doesn’t get all the way before the grenade explodes. In the enclosed space the grenade’s shockwave is deafening and stunning, even to the Eckzahn soldiers behind the door. The wolf opens the door again to allow his comrades to enter the room. They flood the room and shoot one of the humans who was still holding his gun, while they subdue the two others who were too incapacitated to continue fighting.
One Eckzahn soldier gathers the fallen weapons and brings them outside, while the rest drag the humans out. The coyote and other squad leader enter the control room, and along with two of their subordinates begin to clear the room more thoroughly. The coyote checks the controls but is unable to tell of the missile was disabled or beginning the launch phase. He brings out his blaster pistol and shoots the console hoping it would interrupt any current launch and prevent any future ones. One solder opens a closet and finds a female human hiding inside he brings her out and confirms she is unarmed.
“Sir I found one, a female I think.” He is accompanied by the two squad leaders and together they drag her to the main control room.
The woman has tears on her face, obviously scared out of her mind. “Take her outside with the rest” Two more Eckzahn soldiers entered the room, stood her up and escorted her outside. As they do they sit her down on the snow outside next to the entrance. There they see the fire of the truck that crashed in the field, and the small building with holes bisecting it and their friends laying lifeless outside it. Walking around the Eckzahn soldiers of Charlie squad look out to spot anything.
As twilight turned to night, the two squads hunkered down building foxholes. Still providing security at the bunker the coyote came up and said to him and the two others who came with him “Alight we should be good here, beta’s going to take over here, were going to take the east side of the road, they’re going to take the west. They begin to walk back when the maned wolf asks, “What about the field to the south, there’s some building there.”
The coyote again struggling to walk through the deep snow says “Were going to worry about that, maybe just have Till watch it with his scope. This place is farmland there’s no threat other than the roads, they don’t have transports like we do they’ll have to come from the road.”
“I thought from that briefing that they do, but they have like some propellered transport thing”.
“Sure, they do, but not a ton of them, they’ll be more focused on more important targets, they won’t waste them on attacking this place with them.”
“If you say so.” The maned wolf says as he splits with the coyote and heads towards the wolf with the heavy blaster. He lays down next to him and says, “What happened with that car?”
“I shot it” The wolf says obviously not amused about being here. The maned wolf adjusts his uniform squirming in the newly dug foxhole, “God it is cold, why couldn’t we go somewhere warmer, fuck.” His head sticking out too tall for the small foxhole.
“I think it’s just you, we all have our winter coats, that’s why we’re here”.
“It’s not my fault that I wasn’t built for this weather! I don’t have a winter coat!” The maned wolf says as he puts down his blaster and rubs his hands together.
“Didn’t they give you a thermal shirt, and a balaclava, you’re not wearing it.”
“Yeah, it’s too warm, it feels like I’m in a sauna when I wear it.”
“Tahvo pick up your damn blaster, this is for real.”
“Sorry sarge, it’s just freezing” the maned wolf says.
“Why don’t you cuddle with Johannes since you love to talk to him so much”. The maned wolf picks up his blaster with one hand and holds the handwarmer in the other. In a hushed voice the maned wolf asks, “How long are we going to be out here?”
“For however long Cord want to sit here” the wolf says reciprocating the hushed tone. “What’d you find in the bunker?”
“I didn’t go in, but they brought out some humans, including a woman” the maned wolf responds.
“What were they doing with her?”
“Oh, she was wearing a uniform, I think she’s a soldier. I don’t know, it might just be me, but all the humans we’ve seen here look the same.”
“Ok?”
“I don’t know I’m just saying.”
“Shut up before Cord takes away you stupid handwarmer”.
“Fine”. The two of them sit in the foxhole the maned wolf focusing on keeping warm while the wolf remains diligent focusing on the road.