Peterson Airforce Base, Colorado.

“As you were,” Colonel Tynes ordered as he entered the briefing room. Sandra sunk back into her seat, nervous and still a bit freaked out by the situation unfolding across the world.

She knew she shouldn’t focus on it and should turn all her attention to the mission at hand. That’s what had gotten her through each day over the last couple of weeks. Sandra wasn’t a gamer, but her brother was, and with his help, she had gotten her interface squared away before the mandatory briefing a few days after the Upgrade. Her family was safe enough, but strange things had been going on and the larger cities had experienced some unrest. The government had cracked down hard on any violence and kept things reasonably safe.

As for the Air Force, they had every aircraft and every pilot working round the clock to keep their airspace clear. Thankfully, there weren’t really any threats from above, unlike things on the ground. Looking over at her wingman, Lieutenant Rick Mayhew, she shot him a thumbs up.

They were to take the northeastern leg of the Combat Air Patrol that had been thrown over the country. Most of their armament was still air to ground and one of their other flights had been called in to drop some pain on one of the Upgrade monsters that were starting to show up. She was pulled from her thoughts when Colonel Tynes started speaking.

“Listen up people, the CAP rotations will be continuing for the time being. I know you’ve been at it non-stop since all this nonsense started, but for now, orders are to keep a tight lid on our airspace. It doesn’t look like we’re going to get swarmed by flying saucers anytime soon, but that doesn’t mean we can let our guard down.

“Loadout for the day will consist of mainly a ground attack package, along with a pair of new air-to-air toys for you to play with. Ordinance has been hard at work and we now have an upgraded AIM 120D that we’re calling the Super Sparrow. It’s supposed to pack more of a punch, which I’m sure you’ll all be happy with. Other than that, watch your six and come home safe,” Colonel Tynes said, dismissing the flight crews.

Sandra walked out onto the tarmac after getting into her g-suit and made her customary thorough walkaround of her aircraft. Her ground crew was headed by Master Sergeant Langley. He and his team were good, but she never left anything to chance. From what she had heard, the ground crews actually appreciated when a pilot did a thorough job of inspecting the plane, many just went through the motions after doing it hundreds of times without finding a problem.

The weapons loadout for today consisted of a pair of Sidewinder missiles in each of the side bays. The main weapons bay held a pair of JDAM 1000lb bombs for ground targets and the pair of new AIM 120D Super Sparrows. To top things off, the 20mm cannon had a full load of 480 rounds, which didn’t last long in a weapon that fired them at a rate of over 6,000 rounds per minute.

Once buttoned up, she did a systems check, everything was green, and she taxied over to the runway. The favorite part of her day, her whole reason for joining the Air Force was about to happen. Pushing the throttles forward, Sandra was pushed back into her seat as the aircraft rocketed down the runway. Her and Mayhew, callsign Mayhem, began their patrol route, the glorious sunrise lighting their way.

“Snake Eyes, did your brother say anything else about our builds?” Mayhew asked, using her callsign. He had wanted to look over the suggestions that her brother had made, incorporating many of them into his own build. Rumor had it that the military was about to unveil some new program about their Upgrade builds, probably something stupid that would hamper them back in the real world after they retired.

“Negative, other than the initial suggestions, he says we should bank most of our free points and wait for the optimal build to be figured out,” She replied.

“Good copy, I’ll take that advice. Of course, I’m going to out-level you by so much that I might be the one that pioneers the best build,” Mayhem said. If there was one thing that held true for fighter pilots since the first biplanes fought over Europe, it was that they were cocky. Sandra was confident in her ability, and her wingman’s, both of them felt they were the best pilot in the Air Force, and nothing could convince them differently.

She didn’t bother with a reply and instead continued their patrol in silence. Commercial flights were getting back into the swing of things as people got over their shock and went about their business, but their route was surprisingly clear today. Even a boring patrol over Colorado was preferable to a day on the ground, so she enjoyed every minute of it.

A fighter pilot was only had a few years of flying in them before age began to creep in and dull their reflexes. Inevitably, she would end up flying one of those commercial jets at some point. It would still be flying, but it wouldn’t be the same as her F22.

“Viper flight, we have a target for you. A hostile Upgrade creature has been sighted over the town of Grand Lake. Turn to heading 117 and drop to angels 5, you are ordered to expedite your arrival. This thing is flying low and slow, take it out,” control announced.

“Viper flight, we acknowledge, coming to 117 and descending to angels 5. Going full burn,” Mayhem replied. The roar of the jet engines on full afterburn was music to her ears as she came around to the new heading, arming her weapons as they approached. Grand Lake was a small town about a hundred miles or so northwest of the base. It wouldn’t take long to reach them.

“Control, do we have any ID on the hostile? What are we looking for?” Sandra asked.

“You’re not going to believe this, Viper Flight, the reports from the ground are saying that it’s an honest to goodness dragon attacking the town. The thing has killed hundreds and the local police don’t have the firepower to take it down,” Control advised.

“Roger that, it’s dragon hunting time,” Sandra said. The creature was now showing on their radar, hugging the ground and creeping along at a sedate 200 knots.

“Having a hard time getting a lock, the Sidewinders are a no go, not enough heat signature,” Mayhem advised.

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Sandra’s air to air radar warbled that it had a lock on the target. As they closed Sandra almost froze in shock. There, hovering over the town was a creature out of myth and legend. The dragon flew low, unleashing a trail of fiery destruction. It then hovered, reaching down to feed on its victims. Somehow the creature realized a threat was challenging it from the skies, and the dragon turned toward the approaching fighters flying directly toward them.

“I’ve got a lock, Fox 3,” Mayhem called, as he fired off his pair of Super Sparrows at the dragon.

The creature saw the flame and smoke of the approaching missiles and charged directly toward them. Just before the missiles struck, the dragon shot a stream of fire from its mouth, the flames engulfing the missiles which blew up about 200 yards from their target. Sandra thought she could almost hear the screech of anger the dragon gave as the debris from the pair of explosions slammed into its scaly hide.

“You’ve made it mad, break left and let it follow you, I’ll try a shot from behind, maybe it won’t notice my missles if its focused on you,” Sandra offered.

Mayhem broke left and throttled back, allowing the dragon to chase. The dragon had increased its speed, wings flapping frantically as it propelled itself to 350 knots. Sandra marveled at the creature, remembering something about the Upgrade creatures being able to do things they shouldn’t be able to, like a dragon flying at that, or any, speed. They should have no trouble keeping away from the creature, and Sandra wasn’t going to do anything stupid like fly close to the thing like they do in movies.

The monster was focused on Mayhem, trying to reach the aircraft that had hurt it. Sandra pulled hard on the stick, bleeding off speed as she came around behind the dragon. Her wingman was climbing fast, but the dragon was still moving at the same speed as before, despite the sharp angle of ascent. The warble was heard, indicating she had a good lock on the monster and both weapons were showing green.

“Fox 3,” she called. The doors on the center weapons bay popped open and the pair of Super Sparrows shot out, burning hard toward their target. This time the dragon didn’t turn and unleash its fiery breath, whatever sixth sense it had used during Mayhem’s attack didn’t trigger as it focused on its prey. The new missiles were streaking in a bit slower than the standard model, whatever modifications they had made must have added quite a bit of weight. Still, a slower missile was far faster than the lumbering dragon could ever hope to move.

As if sensing the danger at the last minute, the dragon pulled off its pursuit of Mayhem and turned toward the new threat. It was too late for the beast and the pair of modified missiles slammed into its belly. As the explosions flared on its body, the dragon reared its head back. Sandra thought it must be screaming in pain, but she couldn’t hear it over the roar of her aircraft. It had taken the hits and was still there, hovering slowly and blowing gouts of fire in random directions.

“Good hits with both missiles, the target is still airborne, switching to guns,” Sandra advised as she closed into gun range on the monster. It wasn’t necessary, it turned out. The dragon gave one final shriek and began to fall from the sky. Smoke rising from the terrible wounds her weapons had inflicted on it.

“Splash one dragon, Snake Eyes got it!” Mayhem called out. They may have been competitive, but they had each other’s back and would celebrate any success the other had.

“Viper flight, this is control, confirm one dragon down, RTB,” control said, ordering them to return to base. Sandra couldn’t believe what had just happened, she had killed a dragon. The flight back was a blur, and she landed to find the ground crews cheering them on as they headed in for their debrief.

“Welcome home dragonslayer,” Langley called as he helped her with the helmet. She brushed it off and upon descending back to the tarmac, the entire ground crew came to attention and saluted. In shock, Sandra returned their salute, trying not to tear up at the display of respect they had just given her.

“The credit goes as much to your ground crews as it does to me, Langley, I couldn’t have done anything if my bird wasn’t working or if my weapons failed to fire,” she admitted. A fighter was under the control of the pilot, but it only functioned with the dedicated work of the entire crew.

“Stop gabbing Sandra, the Colonel wants us in the debrief right now,” Mayhew called. Once in the debrief room, which was packed with more officers and suits than she was comfortable with, the Colonel got started.

“Nice work up there, Viper Flight, this kill has gotten a lot of attention. The media was on the ground filming the attack, and they caught at least some of the fight. We saved lives today, that dragon had killed hundreds of people before you arrived.

“You’ll have to meet with the public relations folks, I’m sure they’ll want to trot you out in front of the cameras before too long. There will also be a consultant arriving to work with you on your leveling and stat distribution. I’m assuming you leveled after that?” Tynes asked.

Sandra had been in such a haze after the kill that she hadn’t even thought to check her interface, her brother would be disgusted with her. Like all the pilots, she had set her interface to not show any notifications, a fighter plane was not the place to be looking through interface options. Indeed, there it was. She had started the day as a level two combat pilot, closing in on level three.

Now she had hit level six, all from one kill. Several notifications explained it, there was a substantial XP boost for a world-first kill of a creature, and the dragon was considered an elite, which also gave more XP and better loot. Loot was something she hadn’t thought of.

“Colonel, what about loot?” She asked.

“Hey, I get a cut, right? I hurt the thing,” Mayhew whined.

“The question of loot distribution is still unknown. JAG is looking into it and we’ll likely need the politicians to make the final call. One side is saying the loot arising from actions while you’re on duty is the property of the government, comparing it to something about Navy crews not being allowed prize money from capturing ships as their basis.

“The other school of thought is that the loot is the property of the person who the Upgrade system assigns it to. So, for now, we’re in a kind of a legal limbo on this one. The one thing I do know is that we’ve got a Blackhawk waiting to take you out to the dragon. We’ll let the press get some pictures and you can loot the thing while we’re there. Whatever you get will be placed in safekeeping until the legal nonsense gets sorted out,” the colonel advised.

“Getting hosed by the system once again,” Mayhew whined as they headed back out onto the flight line. As they passed her aircraft on the way to the waiting helicopter, Sandra saw the image of a dragon painted just below the cockpit. Her crew had taken up the time-honored tradition of painting the kills on the plane. In addition, her name on the aircraft had changed. Her previous call sign had been Snake Eyes, now the fresh paint revealed something new.

Sandra George

Dragonslayer

I didn’t find much out about Sandra George after the dragon kill. All information on what the loot was that she received is still under some kind of high-level scry block, which tells me it must have been something really good. The military eventually did sort out a system for looting kills of Upgrade creatures, allowing soldiers to keep what they killed.

It proved to be the right call, as we now know that the GGS isn’t too keen on the government taking the kill loot away from its people. Sadly, it’s outside the scope of this work to talk about the China loot fiasco, but most nations followed a version of the keep what you kill method. The only caveat was that newfound riches didn’t mean that military personnel were exempt from their duties or from the taxes incurred on their newfound wealth.

Make a million off a loot drop and you still had to serve out your term of enlistment. Many of the ways we did things had to change in the early days, and the government struggled to hold the nation together while at the same time enacting legislation that would deal with all the new craziness in the world. For the next story, we’ll check back in on the president to see how she handled things at the beginning…