Chapter 9
Vladimir was behind the controls of his MiG-73, trying to remember the coordinates of his destination. The flight plan wasn’t registering on the on-board nav console, and he couldn’t locate it in his visor control options. He remembered flying from Stupino to Khalino yesterday afternoon with notification there would be a mission flown today, but for whatever reason nothing about the mission he was in the middle of was clear. He was about to contact mission control when ‘Target sited!’ was shouted over the radio.
Sr. Lt. Anikeyev looked forward and saw a giant craft that must have been two-kilometers in length approaching from a deep blue sky. He quickly looked to his left and right and noted five jets on either side. The nearest craft on his right had “Sr. Lt. Aleksandr Dmitrievich Shestakov” written under the canopy window. Vladimir relaxed a bit knowing his former squadron-mate from his time in Iran was in the group. Alex raised the left arm of his flight suit and motioned forward with his hand.
St. Lt. Anikeyev nodded and turned back towards the enemy craft. As he accelerated and began enabling all of the weapons systems, the alien craft broke apart into a thousand small drones, all headed straight towards him.
Vladimir turned his head to look at his friend. Alex had removed the helmet from his flight suit, so his face was fully visible. Despite that, there was no expression on his face. He simply shrugged his shoulders and then he and his jet just disappeared from view. As had all the other nine jets that had been there a moment before.
There was a loud clicking sound …
… and Vladimir opened his eyes.
He was breathing hard and sweat had formed on his brow. His eyes cleared and he saw the bottom of the bunk above him.
Vladimir quickly rolled over and sat on the edge of his bunk, looking around to see if anyone else had been watching him while he had his nightmare.
There were three other bunk bed sets in the room, but no one else was in them. He guessed the noise of the door closing must have awakened him.
The pilot tapped on his wrist commband to bring up the time. “05:15”
“Черт!” he mumbled, getting up quickly and began retrieving towel, clean underwear and toiletries.
Another person walked into the bunk room, returning from his shower.
“Did you sneak out late last night to go drinking, Anikeyev?” the pilot joked. “Or did you think the mission doesn’t interest you and decided to sleep through it?”
“Overslept I guess,” Vladimir said quickly and rushed out the door to get cleaned up.
He passed six of the seven others that had been in the base barracks with him last night, but his friend Alex wasn’t among them. Lt. Anikeyev acknowledged each of them as he passed them in the hallway or in the locker room, greeting the four pilots by name with whom he had flown before. Vladimir was hopping into the shower as the last person exited.
As he turned on the water, the pilot reviewed what he knew so far.
Eight pilots in the barracks in which he had slept last night. He was pretty sure a few others were involved, but were either stationed at this base and therefore had local housing or were staying with people they knew at the base.
Those in his room had stayed up later than they probably should have, speculating what conditions – and possible combatants – they would run into. Based on the tossing and turning he heard from others, Vladimir guessed that most of the other pilots slept very little, like himself. And the nightmare right before he awoke wasn’t helping him get in a good frame of mind. He turned up the water temperature and stood there longer than usual , hoping to steam the concerns out of his body.
By the time he finished showering, and getting dressed, Sr. Lt. Anikeyev was the last to arrive in the conference room setup for their breakfast. Still, it was an hour before their briefing at 07h00 Moscow Standard Time. In looking at uniforms and faces assembled in the room, Vladimir picked out the pilots and determined there would be twelve flying in the mission itself. After he got his food, he found his former flight mate at a small table in the corner of the conference room.
“How’d you sleep last night, Aleks?” Vladimir asked his friend.
“Probably as good as you did, Vlad.” Aleksandr replied, grinning at the wince he saw on the Lieutenants face.
“Really?,” Vladimir said as he glanced around to see who was listening. “You’re going to start up with the whole ‘Vlad’ thing already?”
“Why should this be any different than any other time?,” Aleks replied. “We’ve got a mission to accomplish, we’ll hear the details soon, and once we’re back here later today after the successful completion of the mission, you can buy the first round and perhaps I’ll be nicer about what I call you.”, he finished with a shitty grin.
But Lt. Anikeyev was happy to hear the bravado from his companion, as that helped boost his own spirits. He looked at his friend’s tray and told him “You should cut down on the sausages, Aleks, or else you’ll be throwing up all over your instrumentation. Now that will make for a pleasant sight for the creatures to see coming their way!”
“Hmm,” Lt. Shestakov shot back, “I think I’ll pack a few extra links in my flight suit, since I might be getting hungry on the flight back here. 15 minutes in the air without much else to do, you know.”
And the banter, teasing and bragging of skills and kills continued for a few more minutes until a Colonel came into the room and called them to attention.
“Please follow me to the room we’ll be using for the briefing,” the Colonel said. “You can leave your food and utensils at your table and someone will come around to clean things up in here.”
The assembled group rose and followed the Colonel out the door and down the hallway.
A queue of people had formed at the bioscan unit in front of the briefing room. “Why the delay?” Aleks complained. “It shouldn’t take this long to walk through the scanner.”
Vladimir, who was ahead of him, and about fifteen centimeters taller, turned around. “They have everyone speaking into a console. It looks like that Lieutenant is doing a voice validation as well.”
Aleks’ complaints continued. “This is a briefing room, not the Presidential Executive Office. Are they really concerned about spies?”
One of the support staff, a Senior warrant officer who sounded like she had been born in Kazakhstan, passed the bioscan, but not the voice validation.
“This is ridiculous!”, a senior officer behind her was protesting. “I am Colonel Viktor Belousov, and this is one of my officers. She flew in with me yesterday and has been with me the entire time. I can vouch for her personally for every minute she has been here!”
Aleks raised his eyebrows and give his shitty grin again.
“If you insist that she remain by your side, Colonel, then you are welcome to join her.”, the Lieutenant running the voice validation said. She was escorted out of the area quickly by armed personnel not looking like they wanted to hear any more excuses.
Finally, upon entering the room and taking their seats, a pair of dogs were led around to sniff each person.
“Now what?”, Aleks whispered.
“Shut up and stop acting so nervous, you idiot.” Vladimir responded under his breath. “You’ll get us both kicked out of here.”
None of the pilots, nor any of the other forty people in the room appeared to have experienced this before, since they all looked a bit nervous when the dogs approached.
The first dog had made it past most of the people in the room when the second dog stopped in front of the Colonel from Khabarovsk to get an extra sniff. This made the first dog curious, who came over with his trainer and they both couldn’t stop sniffing.
A sergeant in security detail came over and said “Please follow us, Colonel”
“This is preposterous!”,the visiting Colonel argued. “I am the Commandant of Khabarovsk air base and have more right to be her than any of you buffoons!”, at which point two guards grabbed the Colonel by the arms and started pushing him towards the door. “I will be talking to General Tereshkova and informing her of your insolence and ineptitude! You will be shining toilets for the next ten years after I…” but his sentence was cut off when the briefing room door shut behind him.
Once the dogs finished their rounds and everyone settled back into place, the Colonel who called them into the room gave a signal, the doors were locked.
“Welcome, everyone. For those of you I haven’t met yet, I am Colonel Gromov, Commandant of Khalino Air Base. Our apologies for the time spent on additional security protocols this morning. We have a new foe before us, and the procedures we have become accustomed to must be revisited and revised. These dogs have been trained to recognize a human scent, and were used to locate living bodies that may be hidden in a collapsed building or other type of search and rescue mission. They have more recently been going through a program designed to identify non-humans in a human form, in anticipation of advanced android technology getting out of the lab. While we’re not fighting androids or have to worry about them infiltrating our bases, we are able to use these dogs to provide us an additional form of validation during this unusual time. I bring this up as an example of how we must find a way to take advantage of existing skills, capabilities and tactics and apply them to our advantage against an adversary with whom we have no practical experience. I’m not sure what happened with Colonel Belousov and his Master Sergeant, but perhaps the android program is further along than I knew.” at which Colonel Gromov smirked and got a few chuckles from his staff.
“In any event, those of us here today have a mission unlike anything any of us have undertaken before. This will be mostly an air-powered mission, with ground support from Air Force personnel. You twelve pilots,” Colonel Gromov said, looking at Vladimir, Aleks, and the others sitting next to them, “have been specially selected due to your active battle experience, successful engagements, ability to fight in formation, and the ability to think in unexpected situations. Normally you would have time to train together as a unit, but as I said before, this is not a typical mission and doesn’t allow for the usual preparatory training. Still, it is critical to know your squadron, so I’d like to ask each of you to introduce yourselves. Captain?”, at which point Colonel Gromov nodded to the person sitting at the end of the first row.
The first pilot stood up straight, saluted, and loudly declared, “Captain Pavel Mikhaylovich Abramovich, 5th Aerospace Defense brigade, Petrovskoe”.
“We can dispense with the salutes during this briefing, Captain.”, the Colonel said and nodded to the pilot next in line.
“Senior Lieutenant Viktor Georgiyevich Fyodorov, 7013th fighter aviation base, Borisovsky Khotilovo” sharply stated as he stood up, faced the Colonel, started a half-bow and then quickly sat down.
The next pilot stood up, nodded at the Colonel, and turned to face her fellow pilots “Captain Yekaterina Timofeyeva Litvyak, 2nd Aerospace Defense brigade, St. Petersburg. And thank you for the honor of being selected for this mission,” she said as she turned back to Colonel Gromov.
Coronel Gromov replied “It’s not me that you should thank. That honor goes to Lieutenant General Grimmshov. But we’ll hear from him in a bit. Please, continue,” he said, gesturing to the next pilot.
And they moved down the line, finishing with Vladimir (“Senior Lieutenant Vladimir Ivanovich Anikeyev”) and Aleks (“Senior Lieutenant Aleksandr Dmitrievich Shestakov”) in the second row.
Colonel Gromov then began again, “While we are gathered here in Kursk, the overall operation will be overseen out of Stupino. Lieutenant General Grimmshov will proceed with the remainder of the briefing.” and the Colonel went to his seat off to the right.
General Grimmshov moved a portable console around so he could both see the wall screen and see the people in the room. “Thank you, Colonel Gromov.,” he began.
The lights in the room dimmed and an image of eastern Ukraine and south-western Russian appeared on the wall console. General Grimmshov continued, “I realize many of you are aware of current events, but it is imperative that everyone have a common level of understanding. So know that I am sharing all this information not to bore you with old news, but to ensure there are no gaps in understanding.”
“The alien craft arrived in Kremenchuk at 04h00 on Monday, 23 April. While the landing was at night, the general timeline of actions taken by the Kremenchuk craft followed those observed of the craft which earlier landed in Kansas, United States. Within an hour of its landing, we had a mutual agreement with the United States Joint Command to have shared observation bridges established between the two sites – – of course, with the cooperation of the Ukrainian Defense Forces.”
Vladimir wasn’t sure if he heard the General chuckle or clear his throat after he said that last sentence.
The image on the wall zoomed into Kremenchuk with first a satellite view of the craft, in a very grainy image due to the lack of adequate night vision. The image was a sped-up time-lapse display of the craft landing and spreading out its ‘legs’ and sinking in supports.
The General’s narration returned “The initial satellite images were supplemented with a near-distance observation drone approximately 38 minutes after the alien craft’s initial landing.” and having said this, the wall console split into two images – one a top-down image from the satellite and a second lateral-image from the observation drone. It was much easier now to tell things were happening around the craft.
“What we first thought were different levels of structural supports are now believed to be extraction channels. Notice here and here,” the General said as he circled three wider “legs” on the craft. “We now believe they are mining raw materials, as we have combined underground seismic and sound recordings taken over the past twenty-six hours and determined a shifting of materials under the craft.”
The image on the videos lightened as the sun appeared on the horizon. The normal sounds of distant traffic could be heard from the drone image, but there was practically no ‘natural’ activity – no animals seen crossing the camera nor any birds chirping their morning sounds. And there were definitely no sounds coming from the craft itself.
“At approximately 10h00, six hours after touchdown, any noticeable activity from the craft stopped. This was consistent with the Kansas craft and the same timeline was observed later that day in the craft that landed in Omo Forest in Nigeria.”
“Our efforts to establish direct communication with the craft were not successful, as the craft refused to respond to any of our messages. We were able to detect signals from the craft commencing at approximately 09h00 yesterday morning. The signals were not on any secure channel and continued with the pre-arrival Morse Code communication used last week.”
“Our continued attempts to engage the craft with communication have been ignored, with the alien craft only replying to ESA messages. We have determined this is because the alien craft intends harmful actions and feel they can fool the Europeans into a false sense of security by establishing a ‘friendly’ persona.”
The General stopped the image and turned up the lights. He looked at the audience and announced “It is also our conclusion that the continued mining activities are supporting the creation of offensive weaponry, bombs or other explosives, created from Earth-based materials. As a result, we must take immediate action to disable the craft at Kremenchuk so as to minimize the potential for additional harm that can be caused by additional material build-up.”
“As Colonel Gromov mentioned earlier, this will be an aerial assault. The use of land troops will be too obvious well in advance of any attack they would be able to apply. Land troops would need to cross foreign soil, risking the possible engagement of Ukrainian troops before our forces reach their target. We also have no clear idea of the capabilities of the alien craft in terms of defensive capability, so the risk to the ground troops is proportionally too great for any benefit they may be able to apply.”
“What about the risk to us?“, Vladimir thought.
The General continued, “An air attack has the best element of surprise, our planes will likely reach their target before any Ukrainian air defense could effectively engage us, the simultaneous firepower our jets can apply is exponentially higher than ground forces could apply, and we have greater flexibility and stronger self-defensive capabilities with our flying forces.”
“This will be a two-wave, five-group attack,” General Grimmshov said while the lights slightly dimmed and the wall console became active again, showing the tactical display of the Ukrainian – Russian border again. “The first wave will include three groups: White, Blue and Red.”
“White Group includes Captain Gastello, Lieutenant Khudyakov and led by Captain Yanchenko.” As he said their names, each face appeared on the screen and then merged into an image of their MiG-73. “You will arrive from a north vector.”
“Blue Group includes Captain Chechneyva, Lieutenant Raspopova and led by Captain Litvyak. You will arrive from a south vector.”
“Red Group includes Lieutenant Anikeyev, Lieutenant Shestakov and led by Captain Abramovich. You will arrive from a west vector.”
“The second wave will include two groups: Sickle and Hammer.:
“Sickle Group includes Lieutenant Rechkalov, Lieutenant Fyodorov and led by Major Kramarenko. You will also arrive from a west vector.”
“Hammer Group includes two TU-240 bombers that will be dispatched from Stupino.”
At this point, each of the 14 aircraft were on the screen. Each group with color-matched images of their planes next to their base. Then smaller images representing drone fighters appeared beside each of the manned jets. “Each MiG-73 will be accompanied by two VT-28 drones outfitted for defensive support maneuvers.”
“Wave One Groups will depart at 09H00, heading south to Belgorod at 500 knots,” the images on the wall console began modeling the General’s narration, “reporting your destination as Belgorod International Airport. Civilian air traffic control at Belgorod was replaced with military personnel at 02h00 last night, and they have been changing flight plans of aircraft to minimize traffic. There will be a planned 15 minute lull in air traffic prior to your arrival.”
“At the time you are cleared for landing, you will immediately increase speed to fourteen-hundred knots to Zarozhne, Ukraine. Once arriving at this coordinate, you will split into your respective Groups. White, Blue and Red Groups will arrive at the objective at 09H22.”
“Upon arrival at the objective, your primary target will be to destroy the alien craft, with secondary targets to destroy any craft flying from it. Each MiG-73 has been outfitted with a full complement of weaponry as follows: twelve S-17 rockets, six S-35 rockets, and one KS-5 Komet.”
“Each of the drones are also outfitted with Vympel R-113 air-to-air missiles.”
The General looked from the screen to the pilots, “You will have full discretion as to when and how to deploy your weapons. The only expectation is that you leave the engagement with every missile, rocket, and bullet fired at the alien craft. Pull out your pistol and fire at the damned thing if needed, but do not leave until everything you have has been used.”
He returned his gaze to the screen. “Sickle Group will arrive at 09h25. Your primary objective will be to focus the attention of the alien craft, or whatever is left of it, on your approach and your weaponry. You will also report on the status of the alien craft. Specifically, if there is any shred of the craft still visible, any action of those manning the craft seen on the ground, any of their possible support vehicles in the air, you will report the exact state to mission control. This will determine the actions of Hammer Group.”
“You will remain in active engagement with the alien craft until given the order to depart. You will have one minute to leave the scene before the TU-240 bombers launch their payload of tactical nuclear missiles.”
The lights came up in the room. “Any questions?” the General asked of those in the room.
One of the pilots raised her hand. “Yes, Captain Chechneyva?”
“When will the jets be ready for our review, General?”, the Captain asked.
General Grimshovv smiled and answered, “They are ready and waiting for you now.” He nodded to the security detail, “Pilots and supporting flight crews may follow Lt. Turgenev.” The security officer who had run the voice validation console nodded his head in acknowledgement. “All other personnel please remain seated and we will all be escorted to our remaining stations momentarily.”
The pilots and about a dozen other Air Force personnel followed the security officer out a side door and down a long hallway.
Vladimir walked up to his friend. “You know, Aleks, I could use some of those sausage links now. I’m feeling a bit hungry again,” he said with a nod and wide grin.
“Shut up, Anikeyev!” Aleks responded sharply. “You know I use this time to get prepared for flight and for battle.”
Captain Litvyak turned around wearing her own grin, “Shouldn’t you have prepared before this morning, Lieutenant?”
Aleks just gave her a cold stare, as a few other pilots around them chuckled.
They made their way to the prep room and donned their flight suits with minimal additional banter, mainly because they were swarmed by the remainder of their flight crew once they arrived. Questions were being asked of the pilots to confirm mental preparedness and reinforce mission details. Final flight paths were being fed into in-suit processors. Sensors and monitors were being connected between pilot and suit. And the ‘normal’ pre-mission controlled hyperactivity was in full swing.
Within 30 minutes, all pilots were suited up, had done a visual inspection of their personal craft and were in their respective planes ready for take-off. Each was given their launch command in sequence, with a 20-second pause between each jet. The drones met up with them about five minutes into the flight, as they all got into their respective group formation.
“White Two, White Three, this is White Leader. Confirm white drone sync.”
“Copy, White Leader. This is White Two. My drones are synced.”
“White Leader, this is White Three. Drone sync confirmed.”
Similar minimal in-flight conversations were occurring within each group.
After a few more minutes the front jet signaled the air traffic control tower once they entered new air space. “Belgograd, this is Russian Air Force RJM one nine eight two. We have twelve manned jets and 24 drones approaching Belgograd on flight plan 91425a. Please confirm.”
“RJM one nine eight two, this is Belgograd. Confirmed.”
After another five minutes, the lead jet called out again. “Belgograd, this is RJM one nine eight two. Approaching Belgograd International Airport. Requesting permission to land.”
“RJM one nine eight two, this is Belgograd. Permission granted. Please use Runway Four.”
Within seconds, the formation turned south and increased speed.
After two minutes they were approaching Zarozhne, and their private channel communication began.
“White Two, White Three. This is White Leader (slight pause) Mark!” On that command, all three jets and and the six accompanying drones took a west vector.
“Blue Two, Blue Three. This is Blue Leader. Mark!” and the next set of jets turned south.
“Red Two, Red Three. This is Red Leader. Mark!” and the third group veered south-west.
The remaining planes headed south for a few more seconds, then they also turned south-west.
Ninety-seconds after leaving Russian air space, Ukrainian air traffic controllers were calling out to the unexpected visitors.
“Unidentified aircraft at 50.36, this is Kharkiv air traffic control. Please identify yourself and your flight path. Over.”
Radio silence for 15 seconds.
“Unidentified Russian Air Force jets. Repeat! Identify yourself and your flight path. Over.”
Ten seconds later “Russian Air Force jets. This is Kharkiv air traffic control. This is your third and final warning. Identify yourself or risk engagement. Over.”
“Kharkiv air traffic control, this is Russian Air Force RJM one nine eight two. We unintentionally strayed from our training flight path and are returning to Russian air space. Over”, was the reply from one of the jets. But there was no deviation in their respective flight paths.
Another 15 seconds passed and then “RJM one nine eight two, this is Kharkiv air traffic control. Your vector has not changed. We are turning control over to the Ukrainian Air Force.”
“Kharkiv air traffic control, this is RJM one nine eight two. We intend no harm to any Ukrainian defense or civilian location or personnel. Repeat, we intend no harm to any of your people or your cities. Do not engage. Over.”
Vladimir could hear this conversation through his headset as his group neared their final turn above Sakhnovshchyna. Then his private channel sounded “Red Two, Red Three. This is Red Leader. Final vector, 270°. Mark!” at which he turned his jet due west in line with the other planes in their group.
A Ukrainian Air Force drone approached from the north west. “Red Leader, this is Red Two. Hostile drone 11 o’clock.”
“Copy, Red Two. Initiate drone engagement.” was the command from Captain Abramovich.
Vladimir signaled for one of his drones to maneuver between the Ukrainian drone and the Red Group. He knew not to let his drone fire first, as much as he was tempted, since they were given strict orders to only initiate action against the alien craft. However, they were free to defend themselves. Almost as if the Ukrainian craft was reading his thoughts, it launched air-to-air missiles towards the Russian jets.
The Russian drone countered with anti-missile complement, and two of its own air-to-air missiles. The Ukrainian drone was destroyed and, between the anti-missile devices from the Russian drone and those automatically launched from their jets, the Ukrainian air-to-air missiles were all taken out and the Russian aircraft were remained unscathed.
“Red Two, Red Three. This is Red Leader. Target within range. Lock on target.” came the next command from Captain Abramovich. “Launch salvo one!”
Four S-35 rockets and six S-17 rockets sped from Vladimir’s jet. He saw a similar set of cylinders and fins pass slightly up from his left and right, and Captain Abramovich and Aleks were flanking him above.
“Red Two, Red Three. Prepare salvo two,” Red Leader’s voice sounded.
But before he could give the command to launch, Aleks voice came on, “Red Leader, this is Red Three. Rockets are failing.”
Vladimir looked up from where he was prepping the next round of missiles, wondering what his friend was talking about. And then he saw the strangest sight he had ever seen in battle. All of the rockets from the first salvo were falling to the ground, and none of them were showing any exhaust.
“Red Three. Confirm missile fuel level,” Red Leader directed.
“Unable to read missile diagnostics,” Aleks replied.
Vladimir immediately went to check his own rockets reading. The ones on-board all showed full fuel and full firepower. The ones already launched were all blank, indicating no contact was available. “Red Leader, this is Red Two. I’m also getting no readings from the first salvo.”
“Launch salvo two,” the Captain ordered.
The remaining S-35 and S-17 rockets shot from the jets. But within 10 seconds, they started dropping as well. Vladimir didn’t wait for the next command. He already had his finger on the Komet and launched it as soon as he saw the second salvo start to fail.
“Red Two, Red Three. Engage at will. Repeat, engage at…” and then Vladimir’s radio went silent, and his control panels all went dark, and his engines cut out.
“Copy, Red Leader. This is Red Two. Engaging. Over,” Vladimir called into his headset, but he heard no reply. He was now focusing on his stick control, and trying to reignite his engines. But no warnings flashed, no gauges showed any sign of life, the panel he could use to initiate a reignite wasn’t lit. He glanced out the window to confirm his axial alignment. He was not losing altitude as fast as he thought he would, but he could tell his pitch was dropping. He reached for the manual restart switches, and began flipping them, hoping the main engine or either of the auxiliary engines would start.
Vladimir looked out the window again. “Red Leader. Red Three. This is Red Two. All controls have stopped responding and the jet has lost all power. Over.”
No responses.
He noticed that he could actually hear his jet cutting through the air. And then he saw a quick dark mass tumble by his side window. It was a MIG from his group.
Vladimir realized he made a mistake trying to see what the object was, as he had slightly moved his control stick which had enough manual interaction that it now added a small roll. He knew he needed to eject. But the main cockpit eject button wasn’t available, since that console was dark.
Vladimir’s breathing shallowed and quickened. He was losing control of the craft and needed to manually eject. He reached up, found the manual control for the bolt explosives, but couldn’t get a firm enough grip as he had to reach back behind his head while trying to maintain one hand on the control stick. The roll was increasing, and he knew he had seconds left before all was lost. He let go of the stick, grabbed the manual eject control with both hands and prayed this one device on the plane would work.
The explosives blew apart the bolts holding the cockpit glass cover in place and thankfully it flew back and shattered on the tail. He pulled the handles on either side of the cushion and the springs underneath launched his seat out of the jet.
The seat went out at about a 30° angle, barely enough to avoid an arc that turned Vladimir’s seat into a cannonball. He actually tried to adjust his weight in the chair to shift his trajectory to a more upright path, with limited success. As soon as he felt himself falling, he pulled the parachute release cord.
All this took seconds to pass, filling Vladimir’s consciousness with a lifetime of flashing memories. As he was dropping, he finally looked around and saw the wreck on the ground. Looking further, he actually saw the third jet still gliding towards the target. Vladimir’s heart swelled with pride, seeing the mission objective as still attainable. “Go! Go!” he began shouting and then, with no alien defensive weapons in sight, the Russian MIG shimmered and then imploded like a giant flame being extinguished. Vladimir’s shouts of joy turned into screams of anguish.