When the commander first saw Ty and Markus in the back of the room, he asked Zitrik why they were there with him. Zitrik told him they were harmless spirits; his friends and just wanted to ride along to see the sights. The commander grumbled a little under his breath, but didn’t say Zitrik couldn’t take them along. He said, “Just make sure you keep them under control.” Zitrik replied, “Yes sir! I will, and looked back at Ty and winked.” There were two other pilots that were in the meeting room with Zitrik when the commander gave them their orders. He told them they had gotten recent news that the small country of North Korea was testing an intercontinental ballistic missile. It could fly over 6,000 miles with a warhead of about of about 1,300 pounds. He told them that the rest of the governments on Earth were not happy with them having and testing the missile due to previous threats they’d made to South Korea and the United States. In order to keep peace, the United States was somewhat powerless to stop it without starting an all-out war on Earth. The commander told them he wanted to stop the up-coming testing of the missile before it got very far off the ground. Their mission was to intercept the missile once it was launched and shoot it down.
Just as a precautionary measure, he briefed Zitrik and the other pilots on North Korea’s military air and ground capabilities. He told them “They have short range radar on their planes but the majority of their military planes are old MIG-21’s but they do have some newer MIG-29’s they used as part of their air defense system. They have early warning, ground-controlled, intercept radars, a large number of SAM’s (service to air missiles) and a large number of air defense artillery weapons and barrage balloons. Inside their territory, they have a large number of anti-aircraft sites used to shoot down flying aircraft that stray into their airspace. Do not try to engage the North Koreans with any offensive weapon. Just try and stay out of there way and make sure you don’t get hit. Your mission is to only destroy the missile once it has been launched. Nothing else! Do you understand?” Zitrik and the other two pilots all replied, almost in unison, “Yes sir.” He asked them if they had any questions and Zitrik asked when the missile launch was planned to take place. He said, “It’s scheduled to launch early tomorrow morning, but we don’t know the exact time.”
Zitrik and the other two pilots met for a few minutes after the commander left so they could coordinate the mission. They agreed they would let Zitrik be the trigger man, firing the weapon that would blow up the missile, since he had Ty and Markus with him. They thought it would be exciting for them to watch as Zitrik shot the missile out of the sky.
After they left headquarters, they went immediately to their ships and armed them so they would be ready to complete their mission the following day. Once back on the ship, Zitrik sternly warned Ty and Markus. “You’re only along to observe. Don’t get in my way.” They both acknowledged that they understood completely and agreed they would stay back out of the way and just watch.
It was still in the middle of the night when they first arrived in North Korea airspace. The three pilots made a triangular approach to the missile site just to see its location. North Korea radar picked up the three spaceships as they made their fast pass over. Within a few minutes, the ships were being tracked by two MIG-21’s and one MIG-29. Because they were in North Korea’s restricted air space, the North Korean pilots had authority to shoot them down. Once the North Korean pilots thought the intruding planes were in range they fired their missiles at Zitrik and his comrades. Realizing what the pilots had done, Zitrik and the other two pilots waved their hands over their control panels and it sent their ships into hyper speed and they were instantly out of range of any incoming missiles. Ty and Markus could hear the sound of explosions behind them and it seemed like it was coming from several different locations. They made a few more passes over North Korea just to make sure they had their target correctly spotted. They were now playing a game of cat and mouse with the North Korean pilots and SAMs from the ground. Although it was exciting, Ty and Markus were hanging on hoping that one of the missiles didn’t blow them out of the sky. The longer they were over North Korean airspace, the more they felt Zitrik and the other two pilots were just playing with the North Koreans. After a while, Zitrik talked to the other two pilots and told them that since they knew where the missile launch site was located they would proceed up into a higher part of the atmosphere and sit out of range of the North Korean radar and aircraft. From there, they would wait until it was time for the North Koreans to launch their test missile.
Once in position, they put their ships into “hover” mode and just waited. It was right before dawn when Zitrik and the other two pilots dropped into a lower advantage point so they could observe the launch as it took place. They were still out of range of the North Koreans radar and the North Koreans had no idea Zitrik and his two other pilots had plans to blow up the missile. Just after daybreak, the launch took place. Zitrik could see the missile as it took off from the ground. He immediately focused in on the missile with an energy directed weapon and waited until it was a few miles off the ground. He said to Ty and Markus, “It’s party time, boys,” as he waved his hand and a quick bolt of energy hit the missile. Almost instantaneously it blew up in the sky. They watched in amazement as the missile broke apart in hundreds of pieces and landed in the ocean. At that point the pilots knew their mission was accomplished. Markus yelled out, “A direct hit, take that, you suckers!” Ty told Zitrik, “That was awesome.” Zitrik knew he had to get back to base camp as soon as possible. He called the other pilots and said to them, “Let’s get out of here, mission accomplished.” He and the other pilots immediately left the North Korean air space and headed back to the Base.
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Chapter 16 – Crenshaw Ranch and Celeen
Unearthly Realms Page 15