[A/N another mass release will be released in a few days]
A few days later, somewhere over the Pacific Ocean.
An enormous jet was flying through the sky, high above the clouds. Everything seemed peaceful as the ponderous aircraft made its way forward at a decent speed..
Aron’s specially modified A380, which had been repurposed for use by the President of Eden, looked dignified and regal as it passed over the ocean, headed to the Republic of China, more commonly known as Taiwan, where its passengers were headed for meetings with the recently elected President Tsai Ing-wen, who would be meeting with President Romero, and the co-chairmen of TSMC, Drs. Mark Liu and CC Wei, whom Sarah was scheduled to meet.
The same could not be said, however, for the squadron of fighter jets flying in close formation around it. They were also beautiful, in their own way, but it was much the same as one would look at a tiger, or a shark, and admire the animal’s appearance.
“He really went all out,” Alexander mused as he looked out of the window in his office and gazed at the fighter jets. The pilot of the jet nearest his window noticed he was being observed and waggled the wings of his jet in salute, then returned to focusing on his mission.
“He’s tired of remaining passive and is setting the stage for him to step out into the limelight,” Sarah replied.
“But do we really need to keep up the facade when nothing will matter soon, anyway?” asked Alexander.
“For a little while, yes. We need to keep acting like everything’s normal until the proper moment. Once the other side makes the initial move, then we’ll be free to act. But for that to happen, it’s absolutely imperative that everything appears normal,” Sarah answered, then added, “After all, we need a casus belli in order to seize the moral high ground, no matter how useless it may end up being.”
“True,” Alexander said, then returned to thinking about what might happen once he crossed into Taiwan’s airspace. With the recent upsurge in Chinese incursions there, there was a distinct risk of his flight being intercepted.
Not that it would matter, as he was well aware that his safety was absolutely guaranteed as long as he remained aboard the plane or within any of the vehicles that had already been delivered for his delegation to use earlier.
……
As the presidential jet and its escort approached Taiwan’s airspace, four Chengdu J-20 “Mighty Dragons” scrambled from Longtian Air Base—which had recently undergone hasty repairs and was the primary air base from which the PLA jets would take off from in the daily provocations of Taiwan—and turned onto an intercept course headed toward the Edenian delegation, which was just under an hour away from its destination.
Normally, the fighter jets wouldn’t have that range, but with the two modified Stratotankers meeting them halfway, range had become a non-issue, especially with the energy-dense fuel developed by Lab City and refined in one of the subbasements of the Cube on Avalon Island. The only thing limiting Eden’s fighter jet range now was the pilots themselves, who had to battle fatigue during extended operations like this one.
As Alexander was working on various issues, his attention was briefly caught by the jet that had accompanied him outside the window of his office suddenly breaking formation and speeding ahead.
“What’s going on?” he asked the empty air in the room.
[The escort is headed to intercept approaching Chinese aircraft,] his AI assistant answered. As she spoke, a recording of the Overwatch satellite feed appeared on the lenses of Alexander’s AR glasses, showing the approaching J-20s.
……
“Are we really going to do this? That jet is carrying the president of a foreign country! Wouldn’t they take our actions as a declaration of war?” one of the J-20 pilots asked on his intra-squadron radio channel.
“You’re assuming they can even spot us. They may be good at spotting things in space, but the visitors aren’t being stealthy at all. Here, we have our speed and stealth as an advantage,” another pilot replied. He was excited to be a part of their current mission, unlike the first pilot that spoke.
“You do realize there’s an entire squadron of fighters escorting them, right?” the first pilot rejoindered.
“The party can just deny responsibility for anything that happens. Since they can’t see us, who can accuse us anyway?” the second pilot sneered.
“Both of you shut up and focus on the missi—” the squadron leader began, then was immediately shut up when his equipment blared a lock-on warning, informing him that his jet had been locked on by a targeting system.
He couldn’t believe his eyes and ears. In front of him was his radar, which showed nothing in its detection range, yet the lock-on tone was still blaring in his cockpit. Whatever had him in its sights was either another stealth aircraft, or one that could detect them from outside his radar range, which was hundreds of kilometers at the altitude they were currently cruising at.
Either one of those two options was definitely bad news for him. Before he could even think of equipment malfunction as a possibility, the rest of his squadron reported that they, too, had been locked on to by something they couldn’t detect on their radars.
Then, before they had even fully digested the fact that they’d been spotted, a voice crackled to life on their supposedly secure intrasquadron radio channel. “Unidentified approaching aircraft, you are on course to intercept a diplomatic flight. You have thirty seconds to change course or you will be forced to do so.”
The broadcast then repeated in Chinese, showing that whoever had spotted them had also identified them. “I repeat, change course immediately, or you will be forced to do so. This is your first and final warning, you have thirty seconds to comply.”
The moment the second broadcast ended, more alarms blared in the cockpits of the stealth fighters as the number of lock-ons increased and their radars finally pinged. But the only thing showing on them was a single large jet: the Edenian presidential A380.
All four Chinese pilots found the entire situation surreal. They were being locked onto by invisible attackers!
The squadron leader wasted no time and ordered, “Mission abort. Abort, abort, abort. Change course immediately and return to base. I’ll contact command on the way.”
All four J-20s performed a simultaneous Immelman maneuver, not caring that they would become slower targets. They had already been targeted when they were flying in stealth, so who cared if they slowed down? What was more important was getting back to Longtian with their little lives intact, as well as the expensive stealth fighters they were piloting. Once that had been accomplished, they could contemplate what the hell had just happened.
