"What the hell is that?" Captain Kelly cried.
High above them and out of visual range, Captain Wellman was getting antsy. "What do you see, Kodiak Three... Kodiak Four? Reply immediately," he demanded.
"It's... it's a giant bird, Kodiak One!" Captain Bundy replied incredulously.
In his cockpit, Captain Wellman rolled his eyes. "Can you verify, Four?" he asked skeptically.
There was a pause before Captain Kelly replied. Then, in a calm, even, businesslike voice, he answered his flight leader. "That is an affirmative, Kodiak One," he said. "We are tracking a giant flying animal."
Captain Wellman keyed his mike. "Okay," he said. "Get a picture."
"Roger," Kelly replied. "I'm going to line up behind it and make like Spielberg. The intel boys are gonna love this footage!"
"Roger that, Kodiak Four," Captain Bundy radioed. "I'm going to move alongside of it for a visual."
Captain Kelly keyed his mike to order his wingman off, but Wellman spoke first and overruled
"Roger. But be careful, Kodiak Three," the flight leader commanded. "And keep your mikes open..."
Damn, Kelly thought. I got a bad feeling about this...
The other pilots could clearly hear Captain Kelly and Captain Bundy breathing into their face masks as they kicked in their afterburners to catch up with the creature, which had increased its speed in the last few moments.
Finally, Kelly maneuvered his fighter behind the kaiju. As he avoided the creature's slipstream, Kelly activated both the infrared and video cameras. Meanwhile, Bundy pushed his F-16 forward until he was flying alongside the tremendous airborne monstrosity. He whistled into his mask. The sky was getting brighter, and Captain Bundy could make out some of the details.
"This is not a bird," he announced. "There are no feathers. It's a reptile, I think. It looks like one of those dinosaurs you see in movies."
Bundy urged the stick ahead, and the Falcon cut through the air like a bullet.
"I don't see what is propelling the creature forward. It's not flapping its wings," Captain Bundy informed the others. "I'm moving up toward its head," he said, fighting the stick. "It's pretty choppy here..."
A moment passed before Bundy spoke again. "Okay, I see its head," he said. "There is a beak, and red eyes on either side of it. There are spikes, or horns of some kind, on the crest of the creature's head." There was another pause in the transmission. When Bundy spoke again, the other pilots could hear the apprehension in his voice. "I think it sees me, Kodiak One," he said. "Its head is turning in my direction... the pupil of its eye has just narrowed..."
Suddenly, his voice grew more excited. "I see some flashes, like electricity, along the spikes... it's turning -"
Then Kodiak Three went off the air.
"Kodiak Three!" Captain Wellman cried. "Kodiak Three... come in, Bundy!"
"Mayday, mayday... I see him," Captain Kelly radioed from his position behind the creature. "Kodiak Three is in a flat spin, heading for the deck. Repeat, Bundy's aircraft is out of control."
"Get out of there, Kelly," Kodiak One commanded. "Get away from that creature now!" Kodiak Four was about to cut his speed and drop back when the gigantic creature dived to one side and cut directly across his jet's path.
"The bird is changing direction!" Captain Kelly cried as he fought his joystick to avoid a midair collision. Just then, a warning beeped in his cockpit. "I'm caught in the slipstream," he cried. "I'm in a stall. Repeat, I'm in a stall..."
Captain Kelly didn't need the alarms going off in his cockpit to know that his engine was dead. He shut out the sound of the klaxons and the urgent questions over the radio and concentrated on regaining control of his aircraft.
* * *
"Kodiak Four! Come in, Kelly," Captain Wellman demanded over the radio. He still flew behind and above the other aircraft. The captain cursed. Ken Kelly was off the air, too.
Captain Wellman sent out a general SOS. Back at Eielson, emergency crews were already lifting off with rescue choppers.
Because their fuel was mostly depleted, the two remaining aircraft of the Kodiak flight were ordered back to base.
The bogey, whatever it was, was moving quickly toward Canadian air space, and a Canadian Air Force base across the border in British Columbia had been alerted. The air controller assured Captain Wellman that this mission was over.
As Kodiak One led his wingman back to base, he wondered just what the missing pilots really had seen... and what really had happened to them.
* * *
Once before in his Air Force career, Captain Kelly had stalled out. He was flying an F-16 that time, too, on a training mission over Arizona.
Another fighter cut across his path, and the slipstream choked his engine. At that time, Kelly had only a few dozen hours in the F-16, and no matter what he did, he just couldn't regain control of his aircraft. To his shame, Kelly had to eject.
The multimillion-dollar fighter plane had been lost. The inquiry had cleared him of all wrong-doing, but Kelly always believed he failed both the Air Force and himself that day.
Now, as he spun toward the earth in the Alaska dawn, Kelly vowed he would not lose a second aircraft. He methodically followed all the procedures to restart his engine, and when they all failed, he improvised. He fought the controls, trying everything he knew, and suddenly, he had a successful restart.
With the engine back on-line, it was only a moment more before he regained control of his aircraft. With a whoop of triumph, Captain Kelly was back in business.
Suddenly weak from the tension of his near-fatal ordeal, Kelly took stock again: He was low on fuel and was now flying only a thousand feet above the Alaskan countryside. As he climbed to a safer altitude, he reestablished contact with Eielson AFB, and with Captain Wellman in Kodiak One.
They were glad to hear from him.
Then Wellman asked him about his missing wingman. "I saw him go down," Kelly answered. "No chute."
"Roger, Kodiak Four," Wellman replied.
"But, hey, sir," Kelly added hopefully, "Bundy had a long time to punch out... if he had to, that is..."
Still weak from his brush with death, Captain Ken Kelly guided his fighter - with the valuable video of the creature - back to base.
* * *
Captain Bundy wasn't so lucky.
When the single blast of Rodan's electric fire struck his Falcon, it shorted out every electronic system in the aircraft.
The Fighting Falcon, touted as the world's first electric airplane because of its wireless control surfaces, was rendered totally inoperative by the electronic disruption. Even systems that were supposedly shielded from a nuclear weapon's electromagnetic pulse were totally fried by Rodan's ray.
Everything froze, including the radio, the distress signal, and the ejection seat. Bundy tugged at the handle a dozen times, but the ACES II ejection seat failed to respond.
It took several minutes for Captain Bundy's aircraft to spin to the ground. Though the forces of gravity tore at him and threw him from side to side inside the cockpit, Captain Bundy never lost consciousness.
He fought the dead control stick the whole time, and watched with grim fatalism as the ground rushed up to meet him.
15
LOSSES
Monday, May 31, 1999, 3:23 P.M.
Project Valkyrie headquarters
Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada
General Taggart hung up the phone and rubbed his tired eyes.
Another kaiju, he thought grimly. And this one can fly at incredible speeds... The general promptly lifted the receiver again and dialed his second-in-command.
"Colonel Krupp," the voice on the other end answered crisply.
"We've got a Code One," Taggart announced.
"I understand sir," Krupp replied after a pause. Then the line went dead.
At that moment, there was a knock on the general's door.
Who in the hell is bothering me now? the general wondered sourly.
"It's D
r. Markham," the woman said from the other side of the door. "May I come in, General?"
She didn't wait for an answer. Instead, the strong-willed psychiatrist pushed the door open and stepped in, then closed the door behind her.
Dr. Markham, an attractive woman in her early forties, was wearing her white lab coat and clutching a bundle of papers under one arm. She wore little makeup, and her auburn hair was streaked with a hint of gray. She wore it tied back, rather haphazardly. Some errant strands had broken free and were dangling in front of her green eyes. As she pushed the hair away from her face with a casual gesture, the general looked up at her.
"I'm sorry, Doctor," Taggart said with undisguised irritation. "I don't have time to speak to you right now. Were about to go on alert."
"Then you'd better speak to me, General," Dr. Markham said, thrusting the printouts under Taggart's nose, "because this is about one of your recruits!"
The general blinked. "You have two minutes."
Dr. Markham met his gaze, then unfolded the printouts and placed them in front of him.
"These are the results of our tests on Ms. Lorelei Marie Angelo, Caucasian female, age seventeen," the psychiatrist announced. "I want you to take note of this brain scan."
The general skimmed the lines on the printout, but it was clear he didn't understand their importance.
"Angelo has exhibited sleep disorders in the last several weeks, correct?" Dr. Markham asked.
The general nodded.
"And this sleep disorder has impacted negatively on her performance in the program, correct?"
The general nodded again.
"We placed electrodes on her head to measure brain activity during her deep sleep cycle, when she was experiencing what we call Rapid Eye Movement, or REM, sleep," Dr. Markham continued. "This is the result."
She pointed to a ragged line on the printout. "At this point in the REM cycle, Lori Angelo begins to dream." She traced the line with her finger. "Look at how agitated her brain activity becomes at this point. Now look at this. This is where the actual dream begins..."
She stared at the general, waiting for him to react.
"What's that second line underneath the first one?" the general asked. "I don't think that's normal."
Dr. Markham raised her eyebrow. "Precisely," she replied.
"So what do you think it means?" the general demanded.
"Let me put it this way," Dr. Markham replied. "If this were The Exorcist, I'd say Lori Angelo is possessed."
* * *
Half a world away, the Japanese Defense Force Yubari-class frigate Yubetsu arrived at the last known location of the research vessel Kongo-Maru.
The commander, Captain Kubo, approached the area cautiously, both with sonar and search radar active and pinging. The naval officer knew the reason the missing ship was in these waters in the first place, and he also understood that there could be only one possible reason for the Kongo-Maru's disappearance.
The Yubetsu circled the area in a wide search pattern for six hours. At 0800, they found debris - life vests, a broken plastic chair, some plastic foam packing material, some instant ramen packs. Fifteen minutes later, they spotted the life raft. It looked, from a distance, as if there were three people aboard the tiny inflatable craft.
Captain Kubo sounded general alert and notified the medical staff that casualties were about to be brought aboard. The Yubetsu's horn blared continuously, but no one on the life raft responded to her repeated calls.
* * *
Project Valkyrie's command center was fully activated when the G-Force team responded to the Code One alert. But when they took their assigned places at the control stations, one seat was still empty. "Where's Lori?" Toby asked Tia Shimura.
The girl shrugged her shoulders. Then General Taggart and Colonel Krupp entered the center.
"We've got a situation," the general announced. "I want you all to pay attention to the large monitor..." But before the lights could dim, Toby spoke.
"Where's Lori?" he demanded. "Where's my co-pilot?"
Krupp looked at General Taggart, but the officer‘s stony face was unreadable. The silence stretched on.
"Ms. Angelo has been removed from active duty," Taggart announced finally. "We hope this situation will be temporary."
"What's wrong with her?" Tia asked.
"No further questions!" Colonel Krupp barked. "Eyes front."
The lights in the command center dimmed, and the general began to brief them.
"Sixteen hours ago, seismic instruments detected a mild earthquake near the North Pole. The epicenter was in such a remote area that there were no witnesses or casualties.
"Six hours later, radar tracking stations all over Alaska began to detect a large object in the sky, moving at about 400 miles per hour at an altitude of 55,000 feet. The object was moving from the polar region toward Fairbanks.
"Four F-16s were scrambled out of Eielson to intercept. This footage was shot by one of the pilots..."
The large center television screen came alive - first with static, then with a video image of a dawn sky. Suddenly, a tiny object appeared in the center of the monitor. The image quickly grew in size.
"Wow!" Toby exclaimed. Martin Wong whistled. Tia, Kip, and Pierce Dillard remained gravely silent.
"This creature has been identified by kaijuologists as a mutated Pteranodon, a kind of prehistoric flying reptile," General Taggart continued.
"Infrared and other analyses indicate that this creature, like Godzilla, is considerably radioactive. How it was exposed to radiation is still a mystery, though we have a theory..."
Colonel Krupp stepped up to the podium, and the video image of the gigantic flying kaiju was replaced with a map of the polar region. On the map, an area near the East Siberian Sea was highlighted.
"Military intelligence believes that the area near the earthquake's center, here in Siberia, was used by the former Soviet Union as a nuclear waste dumping ground. The epicenter is less than two hundred miles from the radioactive site, and they probably share the same water table."
"So," General Taggart added, "if this flying kaiju is indeed radioactive, then it probably came from this remote area in Siberia and was released by the quake."
"Where is the kaiju now?" Pierce asked.
"In Canadian air space," Colonel Krupp answered. "Even as we speak, elements of the Canadian Air Force are set to intercept and shoot down the creature..."
* * *
In the skies over the central Canadian province of Saskatchewan, a battle was raging.
Sixteen Canadair CF-5 Freedom Fighters, armed with thirty-two AIM Sidewinder missiles, intercepted Rodan. From maximum range, the fighters fired all of their missiles in the hope of bringing the creature down.
With the exception of one Sidewinder, which malfunctioned and dropped to the earth, all of the missiles struck the creature. Though Rodan's flight speed diminished, it was not harmed, so the jets moved to attack with their 20mm M39 cannons.
When the creature spotted the jets, it shifted direction and came at the fighters head-on. The jets fired their cannons, then scattered to avoid a midair collision.
Two of the Freedom Fighters could not move in time, and Rodan slammed into them. One aircraft disintegrated instantly. The other broke in two, and the pieces spun to earth.
Neither pilot ejected in time.
As Rodan blasted past the offending airplanes, the squadron quickly re-formed and went after the monster. Coming in from behind the kaiju, the fourteen remaining CF-5s opened up with the cannons once again. And once again, Rodan quickly changed direction in an incredible high-speed turn that rivaled the maneuverability of the top-of-the-line fighters in NATO's arsenal.
The fighters scattered again. This time, two of the Canadian jets collided with each other. Only one pilot was able to punch out. The other was killed in the collision.
Angered by the attack, Rodan did not seek to elude the Canadian pilots. Instead, it attacked the airplanes aggre
ssively.
Blast after blast of electric rays issued from the mutant creatures beak. With each arc of lightning, a CF-5 exploded. At one point, Rodan actually took off after an individual fighter. Though the pilot jinked and turned, he could not avoid Rodan's crushing beak.
In the end, the lone jet was snapped up in Rodan's jaws like prey. The CF-5 exploded in the creature's beak, and the pilot died. But at least the pilot had led the creature away from the rest of the squadron - allowing his comrades to escape.
The seven CF-5s limped back to their base, their ammunition and fuel nearly exhausted.
After the attack, Rodan was tracked on Canadian and U.S. military radar. The creature had resumed its original course, and was moving toward the border of the United States at over 400 miles an hour.
* * *
When it looked as if the briefing had ended, the G-Force team rose to leave the command center. They were halted by General Taggart.
"One more thing," the general announced ominously. Everyone took their seats again.
"I have just received word that the Japanese research vessel Kongo-Maru was destroyed in the South Pacific. Three survivors have been picked up in a raft. One of them was dead, a victim of radiation burns."
A grim hush fell over the assembled teenagers.
"The Japanese government has just informed us that Dr. Emiko Takado, the ship's kaijuologist, was pulled alive from that raft," the general added. "She has sustained injuries and is unconscious, so we don't know what happened yet... but I think you all know the probable cause of the ship's destruction."
The general studied their faces. Kip felt as if the Air Force officer could see right through him.
"Tonight," Taggart announced, "at 2000 hours, we will redouble our training efforts and practice night attack strategies utilizing a single aircraft - at least until our personnel problems are resolved."
"Dismissed!" Colonel Krupp cried, and the G-Force team - minus one - filed out of the command center.
For the first time since he had arrived at Project Valkyrie, Kip felt he was in real danger. As he prepared for the night flight in Raptor-One, he recalled Lori Angelo's first words to him, on the day he arrived at Nellis.
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