Strike Force

PROLOGUE

“Group, atten-shun!”

The group of five hundred uniformed young men and women snapped to attention, and the reviewing party marched from their waiting position in a large white tent on the edge of the tarmac. The group leader saluted the reviewing party, who returned his salute. The reviewing party turned about-face as the flags of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic, the Ministry of the Interior, and the Internal Defense Corps were marched out. The presiding officer of the reviewing party saluted, as did the entire assembly, followed by the playing of “Ey Iran,” a popular inspirational and patriotic song often preferred by the military over the pro-revolutionary official national anthem “Sorood-e Melli-ye Jomhoori-ye Eslami-ye Iran.” After the song concluded, the presiding officer stepped up to a podium, and the crowd of about two thousand guests and base employees were asked to be seated.

“Citizens, friends, families, and fellow warriors, I bid you welcome on this glorious and important morning here in Orumiyeh,” Major-General Hesarak al-Kan Buzhazi began. “I am proud to preside over this important occasion for the Islamic Republic of Iran. On behalf of His Holiness Imam Sayyed Mostafa Shīrāzemi, may God bless his name; president Masoud Ahmadad; senior adviser to the Supreme Defense Council His Holiness Hassan Mohtaz, may God preserve him; the chief of staff General Hoseyn Yassini; and the commander of the Revolutionary Guards Corps Lieutenant-General Muhammad Badi, I hereby activate the First Combined Border Defense Battalion.”

There was a short ceremony, during which Buzhazi unfurled the battalion flag and tied the combat-ready ribbon atop it, then handed the flag to its new commander and saluted him. Tall and slender, with gray hair worn slightly on the longish side and with a closely cropped gray beard and mustache, Buzhazi looked much younger than his sixty-one years. He wore a dark winter-weight fatigue jacket with no insignia on it except his general’s stars on his shoulders (but they were also black and hard to see from a distance), thick black fatigue pants, tanker boots, and a black visor cap with the earflaps folded up. He clasped the commander on the shoulders, kissed him on each cheek, returned his salute, and returned to the podium to finish his speech.

“I hope you all realize the significance of this ceremony today,” Buzhazi went on. His voice was deep, sharp, and clipped, and he spoke without notes. “As you know, the Supreme Leader, may God protect him, has ordained that one out of every ten citizens of Iran over the age of majority serve in the active or reserve military forces, so in case the forces of evil attack us, we can be ready. As we are a peaceful nation, maintaining a force this large is difficult and expensive, so persons not serving in the active-duty military forces are assigned to local militias, the Basij-i-mostazefin, what used to be called the ‘Army of the Oppressed.’ I don’t know about you, my friends, but I would not have liked being assigned to an army with the term ‘oppressed’ in its title.

“When I resigned my post as chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic and accepted the post of commander of the Basij, I found a force of willing and energetic men and women of all ages who desired nothing more than to serve their country, both as hard-working citizens and as defenders. What they lacked was proper training, motivation, and purpose. My goal was to transform the best of the Basij into a true fighting force, capable of not just assisting the active-duty forces, but complementing them. Ladies and gentlemen, and especially my fellow warriors, may I present to you, the First Combined Border Defense Battalion, The Lions, of the newly designated Islamic Republic of Iran Internal Defense Force!”

Amidst a round of enthusiastic applause, a procession of vehicles moved onto the tarmac from the north hangar area, surrounded by security guards in armored vehicles. The first vehicle was a ground support vehicle towing a single engine, two-man aircraft; the second was a road-mobile surface-to-air missile vehicle; and the third was a mobile anti-aircraft artillery vehicle.

“My friends, let me introduce you to the three main weapon systems now being deployed with the First,” Buzhazi went on. “The aircraft is a Swiss-made Pilatus PC-6 turboprop aircraft. Normally these aircraft are just trainers — Switzerland does not build any of its aircraft to be used for combat — but we have modified them to act as close air support, photo-intelligence, and counter-insurgency attack aircraft. They even carry heat-seeking missiles to combat enemy aircraft.

“The second is an Almaz S-300 mobile surface-to-air missile launcher. It is designed to engage and destroy aircraft at very low altitude, even stealth aircraft, helicopters, and cruise missiles — it can even detect and destroy helicopters hovering close to the ground or behind trees; it also has an excellent high-altitude engagement capability, and is effective out to fifty kilometers. It is designed to deploy to isolated field locations so as to make it more difficult for enemy aircraft to target it. It is an older air defense system, but our best military engineers have upgraded and refurbished it so it is far better than new.

“The third vehicle is a 2S6M Tunguska anti-aircraft artillery system, with two 30-millimeter radar- or infrared-guided cannons, capable of a combined firing rate of five thousand rounds per minute, plus eight 9M311M anti-aircraft missiles, capable of destroying low- to medium-altitude targets out to a range of ten kilometers.”

Buzhazi applauded along with the audience as the three weapon systems were towed right behind the unit members. It truly made a very impressive sight. Behind them, security and maintenance vehicles cruised slowly along the taxiway. “These weapons represent the first time a reserve force has been given such advanced weapon systems,” Buzhazi went on. “I am proud to award this unit the combat-ready ribbon, which represents this unit’s high marks in field exercises, testing, and inspections. I am pleased to present to you the officers and senior non-commissioned officers of each regiment. They are the most important element of this new, vital defense force that will ensure the security of our great nation. They have undergone a rigorous and intensive training program, trained not just to use these weapon systems but in how to best deploy them in case of national emergency, to counter whatever threat exists to our great land and defeat them. They are some of the best I have ever had the pleasure of commanding, and I am proud of each and every one of them.”

As Buzhazi read the names and watched as the men came forward, he sensed a slight disturbance somewhere distant from the audience. He turned to look over his left shoulder but saw nothing out of the ordinary — plenty of security on hand to keep any curious onlookers from straying too close to the hardware.

He read off a few more names, but still that feeling persisted, and so this time he turned fully around and studied the area. A security vehicle with blue flashing lights on the roof was escorting what appeared to be a technical maintenance vehicle, basically a medium-sized eight-ton truck with a small crane on the front to load and unload missiles and ammunition. Both were common sights — why was he feeling so uneasy? Everything looked completely…

…and at that instant, the two vehicles quickly accelerated and headed straight for the ceremony area — and now Buzhazi could see a line of security cars and armored vehicles racing out of the hangar area toward them, lights and sirens on, pursuing the two vehicles!

“Get out!” Buzhazi shouted into the microphone. “Get out of here, now!” The crowd stood still, heads excitedly turning back and forth, but no one was moving. “I said, run! Everyone run!” He turned to a couple of guards who were standing about thirty meters away, AK-47 rifles slung on their shoulders. “You! Guards! Stop those vehicles!”

But it was too late. Buzhazi had enough time to run away from the podium toward the base operations building, wildly motioning for the crowd to follow him, when the truck plowed into the S-300 surface-to-air missile launcher. There was a small explosion, perhaps from a bit of gasoline ignited by a spark…and then seconds later the thousand kilos of high explosives packed into the rear of the truck detonated. Buzhazi felt himself picked off his feet by a red-hot wave of energy, along with pieces of concrete, burning fuel and metal, and body parts, and flung through the air.

“You’re where?”

U.S. Air Force Lieutenant-General Patrick McLanahan smiled at the Vice President’s astounded and somewhat angry tone. “I’m still at the ‘Lake,’ Maureen,” he said. Even on a secure radio connection, he or anyone he knew never mentioned the name “Groom Lake” or even “Elliott Air Force Base” to anyone. The top-secret weapons and aerospace development and testing facility in the Nevada desert north of Las Vegas, named after its first controversial firebrand commander Lieutenant General Brad Elliott, was always called “the Lake.”

“Did you forget, Patrick? We have a meeting in Washington in three hours!”

“I didn’t forget,” Patrick said. “I’ll be there.”

The other man in the back of the Air Force blue Suburban with him, U.S. Air Force aerospace engineer and test pilot Captain Hunter “Boomer” Noble, smiled. Everyone at the High Technology Aerospace Weapons Center, or HAWC, nicknamed “Dreamland,” was wired with subcutaneous satellite transceivers that allowed worldwide two-way communications — and the ability for the government to track and listen in on that person worldwide, for life — and so he was accustomed to listening to persons talking into thin air. “Say hi to the Vice President for me, General,” Noble said. Patrick nodded, and Boomer went on checking maintenance logs and reports on his tablet PC.

“Who was that, Patrick?” Vice President Maureen Hershel asked from her office at the Old Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C.

“Boomer said hi,” Patrick said. “He’s going to fly me to the meeting.”

“‘Fly you to the meeting?’ Why is he…?” And then Maureen stopped. She had been briefed on this mission, several days ago — she just didn’t know that Patrick would be the one flying it. “You do know what you’re doing, don’t you?” she asked.

“Don’t worry. I’m looking forward to it.”

“Patrick…”

“I’ll be there,” he asserted. “Gotta fly.”

“That’s an understatement,” Maureen said. “Call if you’ll be late. See you…whenever.” And the connection was broken, leaving his reply, “I love you,” unheard except by “Boomer” Noble.

Patrick stepped out of the Suburban with his flight helmet bag and took a deep breath, barely able to contain his excitement. The early-morning air was crisp and cold, with barely a hint of a breeze. The sky was completely cloudless, as it was for much of the year in south-central Nevada. He and Boomer reviewed aircraft documents on the hood of the Suburban, signing off the various pages and transmitting the forms to HAWC’s maintenance and records computers.

“The bird’s code one and ready to go, General,” Boomer announced. “Let’s get you to that meeting.” He looked at the three-star general standing beside him. Patrick was staring at something intently. “Something wrong, sir?”

“No…no, not a thing, Captain,” Patrick responded. A huge grin spread across his face, and he looked at Noble with an unabashedly childlike expression. “Not…a…damned thing.”

Boomer looked at the object of Patrick’s amazement, nodded knowingly, and took a deep breath himself. “Yes, sir, I know what you mean,” he said. “I know exactly what you mean.”

Years ago it was known as “Aurora,” the unclassified code name for America’s first hypersonic reconnaissance plane, able to fly over five times the speed of sound; at the High Technology Aerospace Weapons Center that now owned all five of the prototypes, it was simply the XR-A9 (Experimental Reconnaissance Article Nine). About the size of the SR-71 Blackbird recon plane it was meant to replace, it greatly resembled the Blackbird with its thin wings and fuselage and jet-black skin. Its official unclassified nickname was the Black Stallion, but everyone around Dreamland simply called it the “Stud.”

As they walked toward the huge craft, more and more changes were evident. There were a number of odd-shaped nozzles around the nose and fuselage. This plane had no conventional aerodynamic flight controls like flaps, elevators, and ailerons — instead, the XR-A9 used mission-adaptive technology that used microhydraulic actuators to change almost the entire surface of the wings and fuselage, making every part of the airplane a lift or drag device. Unlike the SR-71, this aircraft had four engines mounted underneath the fuselage with a movable vane in the center of each elongated rectangular engine inlet and wide exhaust nozzles.

After their walkaround, McLanahan and Noble climbed up the boarding ladder along the side of the plane. “Last chance, sir,” Boomer said at the top of the boarding ladder, and held out a small round plastic container. The flight surgeon and other fliers had recommended that all flight crewmembers take anti-motion sickness medication — promethazine hydrochloride was the most common — before each flight, whether or not you had a history of motion sickness, but Patrick had steadfastly refused. “You’ll thank me.”

“No thanks, Boomer,” Patrick said. “I’ve been airsick before, and it’s not fun, but I don’t like taking any kind of medication.”

“Where we’re going, it’s different, sir,” Boomer said. “If you don’t need it you won’t feel any differently, but you don’t want to be hurting through your whole trip. It’ll ruin it for everyone, believe me.” Patrick finally relented and took the pills. “Thanks, sir.” He held out a gloved fist, and Patrick punched it. “Have a good flight, sir. Have fun. I’ll see you on the ground afterward.”

The XR-A9’s interior was arranged in a tandem arrangement in two separately pressurized compartments, with the aircraft commander, or AC, in front, and the mission commander, or MC, in back, like the SR-71 Blackbird spy plane or the F-15E Strike Eagle. The cockpit was cramped for such a large plane, and some contortions and quasi-gymnastics were necessary to get into the cockpit seats. Patrick silently cursed the extra five pounds he had put on recently and vowed once again to get rid of his now-noticeable “executive spread” ASAP.

There was a bit of hesitation and confused expressions when Patrick got ready to step into the forward aircraft commander’s seat. “Uh…sir…?”

“I’m flying this baby today, Boomer,” Patrick said as he began to “build his nest”—arrange his personal and life-support equipment in the cockpit just so.

“I realize you’re technically qualified, sir,” Noble gently argued, “and you obviously know what you’re doing, but I always…”

“Not today, Captain,” Patrick said, emphasizing the word “captain. I’ve played back-seater long enough. I’m going to fly the hot jet.”

“But sir, the flight plan says…”

“Boomer, I’m flying the damned plane,” Patrick insisted, almost an order. “You can fly along and back me up, or I’ll find someone else to fly in the back.” Patrick had to smile at the young officer’s worried expression. “That was exactly like my dad’s expression when he handed over the keys of his car.”

“Why? Did you bend the car too, sir?” Patrick gave him a half-amused, half-irritated expression, which terminated the conversation.

Once seated, both officers found the seats quite comfortable, hugging the body like a luxury sports car. There were no ejection seats on the XR-A9—instead, it used the capsule ejection system found in the original B-1A bomber, in which the entire cockpit section separated from the rest of the aircraft and floated to Earth on six huge parachutes. Like the B-1 Lancer supersonic bomber and many fighter aircraft, Patrick found that a crewmember wore the XR-A9, rather than sat in it…

…which was a piece of cake for a young guy like Hunter “Boomer” Noble, just twenty-three years old, but problematical for a guy pushing fifty like Patrick McLanahan. But he was experienced, determined, and still in pretty damned good shape, thank you very much, and it took him only a few moments longer to get situated and strapped in than it did Boomer.

The ground technicians had already performed the “Preflight,” “Before Power On,” “Power On,” and “Before Engine Start” checklists, but both crewmembers checked them again before allowing the computers to proceed with engine start. Like all of Dreamland’s aircraft, checklists and most everything else were accomplished by computers and checked and monitored by humans — they merely prepared themselves to take over in case of a major malfunction, which was rare. Much of what the engineers did at Dreamland these days was design unmanned aircraft and convert formerly manned aircraft to unmanned ones — in fact, unmanned aircraft far outnumbered manned ones at Dreamland.

Ten minutes after strapping in, the canopies motored shut and the aircraft was ready to taxi. There was no control tower at Elliott Air Force Base — ground control and tower functions were handled by cameras and sensors that detected the position of any object larger than a rabbit for miles in any direction. Like most everything else, taxiing for takeoff was done by computers — the sensors and satellite-based navigations systems on board the aircraft were much more precise than a human’s senses, and the bomber never left the yellow taxi lines as it lined up for takeoff.

It was another opportunity for Patrick to think about all the oddities of not just this mission, but the entire XR-A9 program. Although Lieutenant-General Patrick McLanahan was fully qualified to fly any aircraft based at Elliott Air Force Base, including the XR-A9, he always flew with a fully qualified pilot — but he was unaccustomed to flying with someone less than half his age. Hunter “Boomer” Noble was one of the new breed of men entering the twenty-first-century aerospace industry: highly intelligent, highly motivated by technical challenges if not geopolitics and military affairs — and completely unresponsive to the notion that there was just one way to do anything, or that anyone over the age of thirty knew anything about anything worthwhile.

But in the cockpit, this young playboy test pilot was all business. “Ready to go, General?” Boomer asked.

“Yep,” Patrick replied, and he put his hands on the side-stick controller and throttle. “I’ve got the airplane.”

“Uh…sir, I thought the rules said no manual takeoffs on operational test flights,” Noble pointed out.

“We’ve been working together for about a year, isn’t that right, Boomer?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Then you should know by now that if a three-star general wants to fly the plane, even manually, you say ‘yes, sir’ in a smart military manner, and then doing everything in your power to make sure he doesn’t crash the plane.”

Boomer smiled and put on his oxygen visor. “Yes, sir. It’s your ass, I guess.”

“That’s more like it. I’ve got the airplane.”

“You got it, General.” Boomer switched all of the navigation and flight control screens over to Patrick’s supercockpit display and placed the engine and system monitor screens on his panel. “Aircraft configured for manual takeoff, mission-adaptive systems set to auto, navigation display set, everything’s in the green. You’re ready for takeoff.”

“Roger. Brakes on,” Patrick said. He applied the brakes, then slowly advanced the throttles. When he was at full military power he let the brakes go, then eased the throttles into full afterburner. It did not take long for the Black Stallion to reveal its legacy as the fastest air-breathing aircraft in the world as the speed built up quickly. It leapt off the runway in less than three thousand feet and climbed at a dazzling ten thousand feet per minute to forty thousand feet.

They proceeded to the air refueling track, which led westbound out over central California to the Pacific Ocean, then descended to twenty-four thousand feet, rendezvoused with a Dreamland KC-77 tanker, a modified Boeing 777 airliner a few minutes later, made contact with the tanker’s refueling boom, and started to take on fuel. The tanker made two contacts: the first to fill up the Black Stallion’s jet fuel tanks in the wings and aft fuselage, and the second to transfer another substance into a separate, larger storage tank in the center fuselage section of the aircraft. The second transfer took much longer because the substance was much thicker than jet fuel, but after almost an hour the refueling was complete. The aircraft was now over three times heavier than it was at takeoff: the aircraft carried twice its own weight in fuel. If it had this same fuel load on the ground, it would never have been able to take off.

After the tanker departed the area, Hunter reconfigured the bomber’s computers for the next phase of flight, then began checking all of the engine and flight systems carefully. Patrick steered the Black Stallion north, then began a slow climb and gradually began applying full throttle. At full afterburner power at forty thousand feet about a minute later, they were at Mach 1.8, or about fourteen hundred miles an hour. “Airflow has stabilized and is in the green, lasers ready — we’re ready to spike the leopards, General,” Boomer reported.

“Let’s see what this thing has under the hood,” Patrick said. He hit a small control stud on the side-stick control and spoke, “Spike engines.”

“Engines spiking, stop spike,” the female computer-synthesized voice responded, adding the command to stop as a reminder. The airspeed slowed to Mach one point six, enough to tug at their shoulder harnesses. On the front of each engine, heat-tolerant vanes extended across the engine inlets, diverting airflow around the fan blades and compressor section of the engines. As the air was turned it was also mixed with tiny amounts of jet fuel and compressed. As the air-fuel mixture was squeezed, several diode laser emitters in each engine ignited it, and the jet exhaust was forced out of the back. The airspeed almost immediately jumped back up to Mach one point eight and quickly rose, exceeding Mach two, three, four, and even began approaching Mach five. The vertical velocity readout was equally as impressive — as the airspeed increased, the pitch angle became steeper and the Black Stallion climbed faster.

The LPDRS, or Laser Pulse Detonation Rocket System, nicknamed “leopards,” was Boomer’s engine design that would change the face of high-speed travel. The LPDRS engines were a new generation of advanced rocket engines that used instantaneous, pulsed detonation of jet fuel using blasts of laser energy, producing fifty percent more thrust than the conventional chemical rocket engines. Patrick was squished back into his seat as the “leopards” engines began their high-frequency hammer-like pulsing and the spaceplane rapidly picked up speed.

Finally, the engines began to throttle back and the pitch angle decreased, until they were straight and level again. The curvature of the Earth began to become apparent, although a few thunderheads on the horizon seemed to reach their altitude. “All engines stabilized and running perfectly at Mach four point five-one,” Boomer reported a few minutes later. “We’re level at flight level eight-zero-zero — eighty thousand feet. Incredible,” Patrick breathed. “Simply incredible. Almost five times the speed of sound.” He glanced at the engine readouts. “And I don’t even detect any fuel burn at this speed.”

“The lasers are hot enough to ignite the compressed air, but we use a few hundred pounds of fuel an hour to help the process along,” Boomer said. He checked some position readouts, then said, “We can turn eastward now and I can have you in Washington in about forty minutes, sir.”

“You could…but that’s not why I came on this ride, Boomer,” Patrick said. “Besides, we have a job to do too — this isn’t just a taxi ride. Let’s do it.”

“Yes, sir,” Noble said excitedly. He checked some more readouts; then: “Ready for suborbital burn, sir.”

“Roger that,” Patrick said. He took one last sip of water from a canteen, then flipped his oxygen visor back in place, tightened up all of his straps, and situated himself in his seat. “Here we go,” he said. “Computer, commence suborbital insertion burn.”

“Commence suborbital insertion burn, cancel suborbital insertion burn,” the computer responded. When the countermanding order was not received, the computer said, “LPDRS engines activated…ignition in three, two, one, zero.”

At that moment they heard four distinctive and rather unnerving “BAARRK!” sounds reverberating through the fuselage, and the XR-A9 suddenly accelerated so fast that a puff of air was forced out of Patrick’s lips. Patrick’s vision blurred and tunnel-visioned as his eyeballs were squished against his skull, but the last thing he saw clearly was the airspeed jumping past Mach five, less than a minute after main engine start. As the airspeed increased, the flight control computer nosed the XR-A9 higher and higher, until their climb rate now exceeded one hundred thousand feet per minute. At that point the readouts switched to thousands of feet per second — two, five, then ten thousand feet per second. The Mach numbers, or times above the speed of sound, were approaching double digits.

Once above three hundred thousand feet at the edge of space, the spikes in the inlets of the four LDPRS engines closed even more. Instead of using the atmosphere to burn jet fuel, the “leopards” engines used borohydrogen tetroxide, or BOHM — nicknamed “boom”—as the oxidizer. The thick soupy substance was a hundred times more efficient as liquid oxygen, and increased the specific thrust of each engine by several thousand percent.

As the numbers climbed, so did the G-forces — the number of times the forces of gravity was being exceeded on the human body. Patrick had pulled as much as twelve Gs before, but only for a few seconds at a time. The G-forces now were not excessive, only about 2.75 Gs (times the force of gravity), but it had been going on for a relatively long time, something that Patrick was definitely not accustomed to. Patrick practiced moving his arms to activate switches on the instrument panel in case voice commands didn’t work, which was a real possibility since his chest felt like someone was sitting on it, and it took effort and control to breathe, let alone speak.

Patrick began to feel as if he had been tackled by the entire Penn State linebacker squad. His vision blurred, then tunneled, and the air was forced out of his lungs — fortunately the life support system immediately sensed this and started shooting pure oxygen into his lungs under pressure to keep him from asphyxiating. Although he was quite uncomfortable, the pressure was not painful, just disconcerting. Could a crewmember stand this kind of pressure flight after flight? he wondered. How long could someone serve with the Black Stallion before something bad happened?

After what seemed like an eternity — but he knew from flying the simulator that it was less than eight minutes — the engines shut down. Suddenly the cockpit was deathly quiet and the G-forces, which had built up to about four times the normal force of gravity, stopped suddenly as well. The sudden quiet and relief from the pressure on his chest made Patrick pause in fear. What caused that sudden stoppage? Was everything OK? Was this the end…?

“General?” Patrick found he had his eyes closed and his breathing had all but stopped. “General sir?” Still no response. Then, louder: “Yo, Muck!”

Patrick took a deep breath, like a free-diver coming up from three minutes underwater, then blurted out, “What?”

“Welcome to space, General,” Boomer said.

Patrick opened his eyes — and he saw the Earth from space for the first time. The view was simply unbelievable. He had to look on his supercockpit display to see what he was looking at: it was northern California and Nevada, all the way from Lake Tahoe to the Pacific Ocean — at least five hundred miles in all directions. The edge of the Earth was rimmed in bluish-white; the sky was absolutely stark black. He still had a sense of altitude and velocity: he could discern differences in altitude of peaks of the Sierra Nevada Mountain range, and he could see enough ground details to get a feeling of how fast they were traveling over the ground. As he watched in absolute awe, the Bitterroot Mountains hove into view, and on the horizon he could start to see the snowcapped Rocky Mountains. The speed was amazing.

“We made it,” Patrick breathed, quickly regaining his composure. “Station check.”

“In the green up here, General,” Boomer said. “You okay up there, sir?”

“I’m in the green.” He moved his arms and shoulders experimentally, then took a couple deep breaths. “Everything seems OK. How did the Stud do?”

“Another typical suborbital insertion,” Boomer said casually. “Altitude seventy-four point two-one miles, velocity Mach twelve point one-two-eight. Fuel flows looked a little high on number four — I’ll give that a check when we get back. Good job, General. You just earned your astronaut wings — any flight above sixty miles is considered a space shot.”

“Thanks, Boomer.” He tore his eyes away from the beauty and grandeur around him and checked all of his instruments, flipping quickly through all of the different display pages on the supercockpit screen. “On course, on speed,” he reported. “Fuel levels in the green.”

“Always the navigator, eh, General?” Boomer chided him. “Sit back and enjoy the ride, sir — you’re in space. Only a handful of humans have ever done this.”

The air inside the cockpit was filled with tiny bits of floating dust and dirt and the occasional tiny washer, which Patrick collected and put into a plastic bag. He then took a pencil from a storage compartment near his right elbow and let it go in front of his face to watch it hover in mid-air. He had done that a few times in terrestrial aircraft, putting it in a gentle dive so the object fell at the same speed as the aircraft, making it seem “weightless.” But that had lasted only seconds, and the windscreen had been filled with clouds or the ground coming up to meet him. This would last for a lot longer period of time, and his windscreen was still filled with clouds and Earth, but at this rate he wouldn’t hit it for quite some time.

“Feeling OK up there, General?” Boomer asked.

“No problems so far,” Patrick said. That wasn’t quite true, but he wasn’t going to admit anything else.

He had been fortunate in his Air Force career and had only been airsick a couple times, during really violent maneuvers or disorienting, smoky, tense situations as in combat, but he never suffered from plain motion sickness. Right now there were no violent maneuvers going on; there was stress, certainly — they were over seventy miles in space, cruising at almost seven thousand miles an hour — but in microgravity, with no real sense of up or down, he could feel that creeping queasiness building in the pit of his stomach. The shoulder and lap belts helped to maintain his sense of weight and orientation, and he had to turn his attention to his assigned tasks instead of stare out the windscreen and think about how high up he was — or even try to determine which way was up. Despite Boomer’s rakish tone and the immense beauty outside, it was not hard for Patrick to turn his mind to the task at hand. This was not simply a joyride: they had work to do.

Patrick made several radio calls and entered commands into his computer terminal. “We’re ready for payload release,” he announced a few minutes later. “Range reports clear. Bomb doors coming open…Meteor away. Doors closed.”

The BDU-58 Meteor was a simple orbital delivery system designed specifically for the XR-A9. It was nothing more than a large heat-shielded container fitted with a liquid-fuel rocket booster, guidance system, datalink communications system, and payload release mechanisms. Once the BDU-58 was released, the first stage rocket motor pushed the weapon down and away from the Black Stallion, then up on a tongue of fire into its own Earth orbit. Once in orbit, the Meteor’s rocket engine could push the spacecraft out of orbit, change course, or propel it to a higher or differently shaped orbit, depending on the payload. After releasing its payload, the Meteor could be deorbited and allowed to burn up in the atmosphere, or it could be retrieved by another spacecraft, brought back to Earth, and reused.

On this mission, the Meteor carried three inert test articles, each weighing about twelve hundred pounds. The Meteor would be deorbited at a particular point in its orbit, penetrating all the way through the atmosphere in order to protect the test articles inside; then each test article would be released at different altitudes above the target area. Each test article had a triple-mode guidance system that would locate targets using millimeter-wave radar, infrared, and satellite steering signals, but then each test article would “tell” the other which target it was tracking and the quality of its target identification and lock, so the other test articles could locate and attack other targets. The test articles had tiny winglets that allowed it to home in precisely to its target or glide long distances if necessary to locate targets. When released from extremely high altitudes, the test articles could glide for as far as two hundred miles, or loiter over an area for several minutes searching for targets.

“Payload released successfully, bay doors closed,” Patrick reported. “It’ll make two orbits, then attack its targets inside the White Sands Missile Test Range.”

“I’d hate to be under those bad boys when they come in,” Boomer remarked. “Okay, sir, we’ll alter course slightly southeast, then in exactly eleven minutes and nine seconds we’ll start our descent for Washington. Let me brief you on the descent procedures…”

“I’ve got a better idea, Boomer,” Patrick interrupted. “How about we take her up?”

“Up? You want to go to a higher altitude?”

“No. Let’s take it up…into orbit.”

“Are you sure, sir? That wasn’t on the flight plan.”

“I’m sure.”

“But during takeoff…”

“I’m okay, Boomer — really. Maybe I blacked out a bit, but I feel fine now.”

“I’m thinking about re-entry, that’s all,” Boomer said. “The g-forces are heavier and more sustained.”

“I’ll be fine…Captain,” Patrick said, adding the formal title “Captain” again to signify his desire to terminate the discussion.

“Yes, sir.” There was only a slight hesitation as Boomer considered whether or not to use his prerogative and not do this, but he decided that the required phase of this flight had been accomplished — if the general became incapacitated, it wouldn’t affect mission completion. Besides, what aviator wouldn’t want to fly into orbit if he had the chance? “Ready when you are, General,” Noble responded. “Let me make a few changes to the flight plan and get them entered into the computer…” It took only a few minutes, with Patrick carefully monitoring Boomer’s inputs and the computer’s responses. “Done. Isn’t there anyone you need to call first? Don’t we need to get permission from someone?”

“Nope. Let’s do it.”

“You got it, sir. I’ve got computer control and engine monitoring.”

“I’ve got the aircraft.”

“You got the leopards. Ready anytime you are.”

“Here we go.” Patrick pressed the voice-command button: “Computer, orbital burn.”

“Ready for orbital burn, stop orbital burn,” the computer responded. “LPDRS engines reporting ready…engines firing in three, two, one, now.”

Patrick had steeled himself for the push, but he never expected the punch he received as the high-tech rocket engines fired off. Because there was less atmosphere to let airspeed build up more gradually as before, the shove was ten times worse than takeoff. Patrick used every ounce of strength he possessed to keep his legs and stomach taut, forcing every milliliter of blood to stay in the upper part of his body. Soon he found doing the H-maneuver wasn’t that necessary, because soon he had to pressure-breathe against the regulators forcing oxygen into his helmet — in a reversal of the normal breathing mechanism, he had to carefully sip the high-pressure oxygen into his lungs, then forcibly push carbon dioxide out. If he tried to breathe normally, the high-pressure oxygen would pop his lungs like overfilled balloons.

“General McLanahan.”

“I’m…okay…Boomer,” Patrick grunted. He strained to look out the side of the canopy toward Earth, but he couldn’t see anything, and the G-forces pressed painfully on his neck and vertebrae.

“Keep your head and back still, sir. The boost isn’t a good time for sight-seeing.”

“I figured that out real quick, Boomer.”

“Ninety seconds left. How are you doing?”

“O…kay.” Even saying one letter was difficult, like talking while facing into a hurricane. “No sw…” And then Patrick felt his chest shudder, and his vision tunneled and spun. He grunted out the bad air even harder, then had to fight to keep the pain down as he slowly, carefully let the high-pressure oxygen refill his lungs.

“General! Can you hear me?”

“R…og…er…”

“I’m going to cutoff…”

“No…no…keep…go…ing.” Patrick wasn’t sure if he meant it, but he did hear the words come out of his gritted teeth…and the pressure and the pain remained, so Noble must’ve heard him.

It seemed to take an hour, but in fact it was over in less than sixty seconds. Patrick barked out a breath, forgot to reverse-breathe, and was surprised when he took a deep breath and the pain didn’t come back. “Sta…station check,” he snapped.

“MC’s in the green, sir,” Boomer replied.

“AC’s in the green,” Patrick said before checking his oxygen, cockpit pressurization, and mission displays.

“That was a hairy one, sir,” Boomer said. “I hope it was worth it. Take a look.”

He looked…and he gasped in surprise despite himself. The horizon was no longer flat in any direction — it was all curvature now. Out the right side he could see all of the New England states and beyond almost to Nova Scotia, and out the left he thought he could see all of the Great Lakes to the very western tip of Lake Superior. The ground was sliding under them at an amazing speed. “Are we…?”

“Seventeen thousand one hundred miles an hour…Mach twenty-six point zero-two-one, altitude crept up a little to eighty-seven point eight-nine miles,” Boomer said. “Welcome to low Earth orbit. You’ve really earned your astronaut’s wings now.”

“How did I do?”

“A little worse than last time, although you kept on pressure-breathing — instead of screaming, you were grunting like Atlas lifting the weight of the world onto his shoulders,” Boomer said. Patrick silently thanked the aerospace medical and life support technicians for repeatedly drilling the pressure-breathing routine into him while preparing for this mission — he doubted he was lucid enough to consciously do the drill. “The G-forces hit hardest going from Mach fifteen to Mach twenty-six. Sit back and relax for a few minutes, sir, and then I’ll brief the re-entry procedures.”

The coast of Canada slid underneath them, and minutes later Greenland came into view. The scenery changed with amazing speed. It seemed every time Patrick did a computer check or read a procedure, then looked up again, he was in a completely new corner of the globe. He could see the southern coast of Ireland, with the British islands and the coast of Europe already in view on the horizon. He could see London, Brussels, Paris, and all the way to Hamburg to the north. Soon they were over Eastern Europe, with Moscow on the very horizon to the east and the Black Sea stretching out before them. “I’ll bet the Russkies don’t appreciate us flying over their territory like this,” Boomer said.

“Ask me if I care,” Patrick said. He motioned toward the horizon. “Ever get shot at, Boomer?”

“Shot at?” he asked. As if on cue, a warning tone blared and the computer reported, “SEARCH RADAR ACTIVE.” The computer did not identify the radar signal or even attempt to classify it except as a “search radar.”

“The Russians have a pretty good anti-ballistic missile base on the Kola Peninsula that has the capability of reaching us,” Patrick said. “The SA-21 ‘Boa’ missile is Russia’s version of our Ground-Based Interceptor — the ‘Star Wars’ missile defense anti-missile system. It’s supposed to be in initial deployment testing right…there.” He pointed at a spot on the ground. “It has a max altitude range of one hundred and twenty miles.”

“You’re kidding me!”

“You guys in Dreamland need to get more intelligence briefings before you take these things for a ride,” Patrick said. He pointed at the threat display on their computer screens. “Your software needs to be updated too — because I’ll bet that’s their ABM tracking radar we’re picking up. They’re tracking us and probably the Meteor as well.”

“I’ve flown this track at least three times and no one’s ever said anything to me!”

“That’s because no one officially knows what you’re doing,” Patrick said. “NORAD can see and track you of course, and they may even suspect you’re a Dreamland bird, but they’ll never start an inquiry except at the very highest levels, and it’ll stop right away once they confirm who you are. It’s up to you to get the intel you need.”

“Yes, sir,” Boomer said. “You get to feel pretty safe up here.”

“You can’t afford to — not in this day and age,” Patrick said. “I’ll start sending you a daily file on global threats, and I’ll get the techs at Air Intelligence Agency to get you the software to update your threat receiver. You may have to replan your missions accordingly, depending on the geopolitical situation.”

“We don’t need to get permission to fly in space over Russia — do we?”

“Legally space is open to all nations,” Patrick said. “Russia usually doesn’t squawk when a new spacecraft flies overhead — they would certainly like nothing more than to bring down an XR-A9, or at least study it — but since we can go in and out of orbit so easily, they may complain. If they complain loud enough, we’ll stop. Maybe.” Both crewmembers were on high alert for any sign of danger until they were well past the area.

Things were quiet for several minutes; soon, Patrick heard through his subcutaneous transceiver: “Luger to McLanahan.”

“Go ahead, Dave.”

“You received a ‘go.’”

“Roger that.” On intercom, McLanahan said, “Give me payload command, Boomer.”

Noble hit a key: “Transferring payload command, now. I’ve got flight command.”

“Thank you.” McLanahan’s multifunction displays now showed the status of the BDU-58 Meteor device. He hit a few keys, then casually announced, “I’m having a problem with the Meteor. It’s not responding to commands. Everything looks normal — relay network, datalink, orbital control computers — but it’s not responding.”

“Want me to look at it, General?” Boomer asked.

“I’ll give my command override one more try, then turn it over to you.” But a few moments later: “Still no good. I’ll take flight control, Boomer, and you take payload control. I’ve got the spacecraft.”

“You’ve got the spacecraft.” Noble checked the payload control displays. Sure enough, the Meteor was just completing its deorbit push burn and was quickly losing altitude. He tried to command the device to stop its burn, translate around, and boost itself back to its correct orbit, but nothing happened. “No response,” he said dejectedly. “It almost looks like your command override is locking out any other attempts to change trajectory.”

“I know, but I never entered my override code,” Patrick said. “It already locked me out, and my code can’t override it.”

“I can try to recycle the payload control computers…”

“Go for it,” Patrick said. Noble switched off both payload control computers, then turned them back on again and let them boot up. As soon as they were back and running, Noble tried again. “The computers look like they’re fine, but your override command is still not letting any other commands to be entered. Should I try to have Elliott send an override command?”

“I already tried that, but let’s try it again now that we’ve recycled the computers,” Patrick said. But nothing happened. The master command code radioed from mission command at Elliott Air Force Base did no good.

“Looks like the master override command was received, but the payload command system is still locked up,” Noble said. He tried several more times but was still unsuccessful. “That’s a bummer, sir,” he said. “It’s coming down and there’s nothing we can do about it. Sorry about that.” He checked some more displays. “Looks like it’s going to hit in central Iran. That’s pretty uninhabited territory — I don’t think it’ll hurt anyone. The Iranians will probably find it, though.”

“If they do, all they’ll find are hunks of metal,” Patrick said woodenly. “You take flight control again and get us ready for deorbit and landing. I’ll report this incident to the Pentagon.”

“You got it, General,” Noble said, and he got to work on entering and checking the computer routine for deorbiting the spacecraft.

“Ninety seconds to launch, sir,” the launch control officer announced. “Launch pads are clear. All weapons reporting fully functional.”

“Very well,” Brigadier-General Kamal Zhoram, commander of the Second Rocket Brigade of the Pasdaran-i-Engelab, or Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, responded. He smiled and nodded resolutely as he monitored the pre-launch procedures from the command vehicle. Ever since taking command of this operational test unit, he had been driven to succeed, and his vision was finally taking shape. The Shahab series of ballistic missiles represented the cutting edge of Iranian military technology, even more than its fighter aircraft, air defense systems, and submarines. After years of pleading, arguing, and cajoling his superiors for additional funding, the fruits of his labor were ready to be demonstrated this morning.

This missile was the most advanced of the Shahab series now in operation: the Shahab-5, code-named “Takht,” or “throne.” The model being tested today was a three-stage rocket, with two liquid-fueled boosters stacked upon one another plus a small solid-motor third stage. Although Iran never officially discussed details about its military arsenal, when launch tests were scheduled the Shahab-5 was described as a space launch vehicle, and it certainly had the capability of placing a satellite into orbit. But more importantly it was also capable of carrying one thousand kilograms to any target in Israel, the Persian Gulf, half of Africa, most of Europe, and even western China. It was extremely accurate and reliable, thanks to improvements made over the original North Korean Taepodong-2 missile technology.

Although this was an above-ground pad launch, the other three mission-ready Shahab-5 missiles operated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards arsenal were housed in below-ground hardened silos, which gave them added security and protection from attack…

…which was necessary, because the three ballistic missiles carried nuclear warheads. Iran had purchased Chinese 350-kiloton nuclear warheads from North Korea years ago, along with a variety of test rockets and anti-ship missiles, in exchange for generous oil and natural gas shipments, and had worked for over five years to fit the warheads on the North Korean — derived missiles. With today’s successful test — this missile carried two independently targeted dummy re-entry vehicles — Iran’s intermediate-range nuclear ballistic missile could be declared fully operational, making it the first Islamic country with a nuclear strike capability.

Zhoram glanced up at the last security zone report: it was ten minutes old. A good commando squad could move two kilometers in ten minutes — it was unacceptable. “I want all security zone officers to update their security status immediately.”

“Right away, sir.”

“Update guidance system alignment at zero minus sixty seconds.”

The clock ticked by — it seemed to get slower and slower every second. Finally: “Inertial measuring units updated, alignment is well within Class One tolerances.”

Zhoram went over to the guidance control officer’s console and hit the button that told the difference between the inertial navigation system’s position, heading, and velocity values versus those of the last fix — they were indeed well within tolerances. He checked the master target coordinates and verified them against the flight plan — good, all was in order.

His targets were sets of geographical coordinates in the northern Indian Ocean, about two thousand kilometers downrange. The target area was surrounded by Iranian patrol vessels and warships that would document the test package’s accuracy as well as to keep out any spy ships. But the general secretly hoped that an Israeli or American submarine or spy satellite would be on hand to witness the results of this important test flight, because he knew it was going to be a successful one — and then the world would know that Iran had a powerful, fast-response weapon that could threaten any enemy.

“Very well,” Zhoram said. “Prepare to release batteries on my order.”

There was a brief flurry of activity on another console as the master launch crew ran their checklists, then waited for ready indications from the individual controllers. Normally a Shahab-5 launched via commands issued from the master control vehicle, transmitted by radio with a hardwire fiber-optic cable backup, but each launcher was able to launch independently as well, and they had to be prepared to do so in an instant if communications were cut or jammed. Zhoram watched carefully, making sure all proper procedures were being followed. “Standing by, sir.”

“Send to all units, stand by for launch.” Zhoram picked up the phone datalinked directly via satellite to Pasdaran headquarters at Doshan Tappeh Air Base in Tehran. He listened for the encrypted satellite link to connect, then spoke: “Faraz, Faraz, this is Heydar, Sorush, I say again, Sorush.”

“Reza,” the reply came. “Reza. Acknowledge.”

“Heydar copies Reza,” Zhoram responded. “Out.” He turned to his command-post controller. “Send to all units…”

At that instant there was a loud “BANG!” like a car accident, but ten times as loud, reverberating the walls of the command vehicle. “Sir, lost connectivity with unit…!” There was another loud crunch of metal, followed by a tremendous explosion that shook the command vehicle on its tires.

“Stay at your posts!” Zhoram shouted. “Secure all systems and prepare to move immediately!” The general dashed out of the command vehicle, knowing that it was a violation of procedures to open the pressurized cab, but he had to see for himself what was going on. He stepped into the airlock, sealed the door behind him, donned a chemical weapon protective mask and gloves, un-dogged the outer door, and stepped out…

…into the midst of a raging inferno. The Shahab-5 missile launch pad to the northwest was ablaze, with thousands of liters of burning rocket fuel spreading quickly across the ground in all directions. He picked up the phone inside the airlock: “Move the command vehicle one kilometer to the northeast, and do it now, or you will all roast to death within sixty seconds. Go!” He sealed the outer door to the command cab and jumped clear of the vehicle just as the hydraulic legs began to retract.

How in hell could this happen? Zhoram shouted to himself. They were at least twenty kilometers from the nearest bit of civilization, and they had three hundred security personnel deployed all around this area. It was impossible for any commando to…

…and out of a corner of an eye, he saw it — a flash of dawn sunlight in the sky, directly overhead. He stood, transfixed, as his eyes scanned, then saw another glint of light, even closer this time…headed right for him.

The command vehicle had moved no more than fifty meters away when the object from the sky slammed into it, directly in the center. The metal top of the vehicle splintered and collapsed like balsa wood, then blasted straight up into the sky as the power transformers, backup batteries, and high-pressure air conditioning units inside ruptured and exploded. In seconds, huge belching streams of fire were gushing from the top and bottom of his command vehicle. As he watched, he saw several more objects hit the vehicles again, but of course by that time they were consumed by the immense fireballs that were once his rocket and command post.

They were under attack! Zhoram screamed at himself as he watched his launcher and command vehicles ablaze. Someone had launched some sort of precision-guided weapon at them from above that destroyed them almost instantly.

Realizing immediately that there was nothing he could do to rescue any of his comrades from the twin infernos, his thoughts turned to the investigation that he knew would commence within hours. No one was going to believe him when he reported that it was an attack — his superiors would argue that it was some sort of malfunction or error in pre-launch procedures. He knew better — but he had to do his best to convince his commanders of it. If he survived the inquisition and punishment phase that he knew was going to begin very soon, he vowed he would find out who carried out this attack from the sky, and do everything he could humanly do to avenge himself on him. God willing, he was going to make them pay…