Operation Hail Storm

Sea of Japan ― on the cargo ship Hail Nucleus

The crew of the Nucleus watched the dot, their railgun projectile, reach the other three dots in less than fifteen seconds.

Then they all watched the dot with the notation F-35, disappear from the screen.

Renner commented, “That doesn’t look good.”

Kara looked at Hail and Hail looked stunned, like the worse scenario had taken place. He had killed the American pilot.

She started to say something soothing like, “It’s OK. You did the best you could…”

Then Renner interrupted and said, “Look, one of the J-20s just vanished.”

Hail took in a deep calming breath and let is out slowly.

“What do you think went on there?” He asked Dallas over the speakers in the ship’s security center.

Stone’s voice came back over the speakers.

“My best guess would be almost a simultaneous exchange. One of the J-20s killed the F-35 and a second later our railgun projectile took out one of the J-20s.”

Hail watched the only dot left on the screen make a slow turn and correct its course back toward the east coast of North Korea.

Dallas said, “Prince is picking up a saltwater emergency beacon. Looks like the American pilot ejected and is now floating in the water about fifty miles off our starboard.”

Hail turned toward Kara and asked, “Do you think there’s any chance that your guys are going to pick this guy up?”

Kara shook her head. “Not in a million years.”

“I thought not,” Hail agreed.

He swiveled his chair toward his group of young pilots that were standing close to him on his left, still watching the show.

He said to two of his junior pilots, “Oliver and Paige. I need you to jump into a chopper and go get this guy. Make it fast. Just drop him a line, pull him in and get back on board before the sky is crawling with unfriendlies. By the time the sun comes up, I want us to look like nothing more than an innocent cargo ship. So get going.”

The pilots confirmed Hail’s request and ran quickly out of the mission center and toward the ship’s hanger deck.

Kara asked, “Is it common for the Nucleus to be in these waters?”

Hail nodded his head and then leaned forward to stretch his back.

“Sure. China is one of our best customers. They have all the coal in the world but won’t be able to breathe their own air in another ten years unless they find another form of power. And we are it.”

Kara watched the last dot on the screen fly over Wonsan and then blink off the screen. She assumed it had landed somewhere near the city.

“You know that was pretty amazing,” she said.

Hail made a painful face as he arched his back the other direction.

“Which part,” he asked.

“All of it,” Kara said.

Hail stood up and continued to work out his back muscles.

“So what are you going to do now?” he asked Kara.

“I’m not sure,” Kara said truthfully. “Are you hungry?”

“I’m always hungry,” Hail smiled. He grabbed some belly fat through his shirt and said, “Can’t you tell?”

Kara laughed and said, “Let’s get something to eat and we can discuss the future.”

“I think we need to also discuss the past,” Hail said.

“Na, the past is the past.”

But to Marshall Hail, the past was more important than the present or the future. All of his best memories and life experiences were in his past. Kara’s deceit had been in the recent past. They would discuss that matter in the present, but the future would still be an unknown, because there were still so many factors out of their control.