CHAPTER 2

Date: December 3, 2070

Time: 12:00 PM

Place: Iruki Defense Center. Yasuno, Japan


A Hovercopter is descending to the platform with a letter H. Nanding watches as the ground got bigger in his eyes and wondered where the center is since all he sees are blades of grass and no buildings in sight.

Four security guards escorts Nanding and four others to a smaller platform and instructed them to hold tight on the handles. The platform descends to the ground and Nanding saw that the center is built underground. After what seemd to be a mile underground, they transferred to a bullet train that speeds them to the all the way to the center. A japanese man in his forties is waiting for them.

"Mr. Hernan Taymo?" said the japanese in clear english.

"Yes." Nanding replied. "You must be Mr. Sonoka?"

"We met at last Mr. Taymo." said Sonoka, clasping his hand. "Come, the other delegates are waiting for us. I hope you have a fine trip?"

"Well to be honest, I did not know what to expect." said Nanding. "I was told the conference will be held in Tokyo, I felt a bit disturbed when the copter flew us all over here."

"We have to change the location of the conference at the last minute." said Sonoka. "You will know about it."


THE CENTER is filled with large monitor screens that shows the world's entire map. There are at least a hundred small icons red and blue that is scattered all over the screen. There may be at least a hundred person working on their workstations.

In the middle of the room there is a large round table with at least fifty chairs. The delegates are seated unevenly and already hot on the topic. A think man with glasses is standing and talking to the others.

"... have to think of a way to defuse the situation. Diplomacy is the key here gentlemen."

"We have been doing that since the last century." says a man with a balding head. "But that did not stop them and neither will this. The time for talk is over. We need to act."

"Excuse me gentlemen." interrupts Sonoka. "Before we continue, I would like to introduce Mr. Hernan Taymo, recently appointed ambassador from the Philippine Goverment."

"So, the Filipinos finally decided to come out after all?" says the man with a balding head. "Perfect timing isn't it gentlemen?"

"Mr. Taymo, is here to represent his country and join the ASIAN ALLIANCE. Insulting our newest member will not help our cause." says Sonoka. Then Sonoka begin introducing the others. "Mr. Sung Tai Jung of Korea, Mr. Nobi Iko of Japan, Mr. Jusuf Ambang of Indonesia and Mr. Ali Bawati of Malaysia."

"A pleasure meeting you all." says Nanding.

"There were more of us but the other delegates could not come." says Sonoka as they sit down.

"Is there a problem?" asks Nanding. The man with a balding head who is Nobi Iko scoffs.

"That is an understatement." then he stood up and clicked a button on the panel. A holographic display of the countries in asia appeared on the middle of the table. "Three months ago, we detected UCAT ships in international waters, just beyond our territories."

He clicked a button again and the hologram projects another image. "This is taken two months ago. Notice the yellow ones? UCAT ships. The number of ships have doubled in size."

He clicked on a button again and the hologram projects a stream of unreadable texts. "Our satellite intercepted this code. Using decryption technology, we were able to extract this piece of code." The stream of unreadable texts stopped. Then the computer prints out the code in bold letters.

A574

Nanding looked at Sonoka. "A574. What does it mean?"

"We don't know yet." says Iko. "But this we know. When the stream of texts are displayed on the computer monitor, it resembles a large square with the codes A574 scattered around it." He paused before continuing. "We think the stream of text is some sort of a map and the A574 are---"

"Target points." says Bawati.

"Exactly." says Iko. "But since the stream of texts are multi-dimensional and encrypted in multi-bit, it will take some time for the decrypter to fully extract it."

"Well," says Nanding who is trying to grasp the topic, "have you compared the map to the positions occupied by the UCAT ships?"

"We did that already. They don't match." says Iko taking a seat. "It is hard to speculate but we knew from the images in our satellites that the UCAT ships are taking their positions in the asian region."

"What about the WNL?" asks Nanding.

"What about them?" says Iko. "They claim the UCAT is on a routine exercise only. After that, we are unable to call them. Something is afoot here and I don't like it."

"But showing aggression could result to war." says Sung Tai Jung. "You know that they are only waiting for us to make that move."

"We need to defend ourselves! In case they plan on invading us." says Iko. "We know the Americans and the Europeans are more militaristic now more than ever. We also know that the war in the middle east has deprived them of the wealth and pleasures they enjoyed a century ago. The rift between Asians and Caucasians caused them to lose market share and it is affecting their economy. With the UCAT as the WNL's military arm, they have the biggest armed forces in the entire world. They can invade a country in just a snap."

"What about China?" says Jusuf. "China is a member of the ASIAN ALLIANCE."

"China is having internal problems now." says Sonoka. "A coup d' etat is happening in China right this moment that is why the Chinese President is unable to attend this conference."

"My god." says Nanding. "Is the President safe?"

"He is safe." says Sonoka. "But for the moment, we have to plan on what to do next and we must exclude China for the meantime."

"There is one course of action." says Iko.

"Oh no." says Sung Tai Jung shaking his head.

"The UCAT warships have not yet exceeded the combined armed forces of the ASIAN ALLIANCE. But as warships keep coming in, we may not be able to stop them when we finally decides to do it. So, before it happens, I suggest we attack."

"No." says the Korean delegate.

"We cannot wait for them to complete the build-up!" says Iko. "If the ARAB LEAGUE let the UCAT complete their build-up when war is just starting in the middle east, they would've been overwhelmed. Remember that the UCAT is a powerful enemy and they are equipped with advanced military hardware. When that happens, even China cannot save us from total invasion."

"I agree." says Nanding standing up. "I don't usually condone force and I hate all sorts of violence. But we have to combine our armed forces and attack them while they are weak."

Iko laughs at Nanding's remarks. "We have armed forces ready for deployment anytime." says Iko. "What about you? What can you contribute? Don't tell me you still fly Tora-tora's."

The delegates snickered at this rude remark. Nanding's face becomes hard for a moment. Then he eased up and slowly smiles.

"We have our... planes ready to deploy." he says. "Oh, we have ships too. You know, the ones that can carry small planes on the deck?"

The delegates laughed again thinking it's a joke but Sonoka stood up and motioned them to shut up.

"Alright, it's done then." says Sonoka. "As agreed this center will be the Head Quarters of the ASIAN ALLIANCE, the command center. We will be sending data and information to your command centers by the minute. We will be communicating on a rotating frequency. The code patterns will be given to you as you leave this conference. Can we expect compliance from everybody?"

The others says YES, including the Korean delegate who really has no choice at all. "Good. We'll broadcast information in 1800 hours. Good luck to us gentlemen."



Same date

Time: 2:22 pm.

Place: Somewhere in Korean waters.


The country is in red alert and Korean warships are deployed all throughout the peninsula. Underneath the waters, three submarines are armed and ready, just waiting for the order to launch.

A man who appears to be the captain of this submarine flicked on the communicator. "Beta-1, the champagne is ready."



Same date

Time: 3:06 pm.

Place: Somewhere in Japanese waters.

Three submarines are also waiting.

"Beta-1, champagnes are ready to pop."



Same date

Time: 4:17 pm.

Place: Malaysian and Indonesian waters.

Submarines are hidden underneath. A UCAT logo is displayed on the side.

"Champagnes are ready Beta-1."



Same date

Time: 5:22 pm

Place: Philippine harbor.

Warships are in position and waiting for orders. On the coast line, children are happily playing.

Underneath the waters, a message is being intercepted.

A green light on screen means a message is being intercepted. The serviceman from the PWS-Bonifacio clicked on the light and it showed a stream of unreadable texts.

"Captain, we are intercepting an encrypted message."

"Really? Can you detect where it is coming from?" asks the captain.

The serviceman punched a few keys and the display in the monitor changed to reveal the line of messages coming in and one coming out.

"What the heck is that?" asks the captain. Suddenly, the warship's computer detected a launch from underneath.

SHHWOOOOSSHHHH!!!

ENEMY LAUNCH! ENEMY LAUNCH! The waters seemed to explode as three missiles shoots up from underneath. The children on the beach stopped playing and gazed at the missiles flying towards the clouds.

"I want to know where those missiles came from! Target by ground to air!" shouted the captain. "And mobilize the screamers!"

On the flight deck. Six X24 Screamers hovered then shoots in the air in pursuit of the missiles. GA101 ground to air missiles are launched ahead of them.

"Arm particle charges. If our own missiles failed, it's up to us to destroy those missiles." the team leader says then punched a button on the panel. His screen shows a list of weapons. He chooses the M1200 Particle Gunner. The screamers formed a V-formation with the team leader on the lead position. The missiles are still farther ahead of them.

FWOOOOSSHHHH!!! The GA101s inboard computer calculates the distance. It is still too far away. Unless the allowable distance is reached, the missiles won't fire. The team leader is monitoring the data sent by the GA101 computer.

"Damn!" says the team leader. The GA101's fuel capacity is almost depleted and yet the allowable distance is not yet reached. On the ground, the captain of PWS-Bonifacio shakes his head.

"The missiles are not going to cut it." he says then he flicked a button. "X24s! You have permission to engage!"

The GA101's flew out of position, having reached their range already. The X24s zoomed past the falling missiles.

"Transfer 55% of your power to the hyperengines. We need to close the distance." says the team leader. The screamers are flying up in a perfect vertical position. The engines roared as it fights for control. At this height and speed, air pressure is fluctuating and the engines are having a hard time fighting gravity. Fortunately, the jet's built-in sensor relays were able to calculate this and responded with appropriate power for thrust. Finally, they are closing in on the missiles.

"Wait for my command!" says the team leader. The jets screamed in the air faster than the speed of sound. The missiles are almost on sight. The monitor screen switched to auto-targeting and displayed a list of targets to choose.

"Target the base of the missile!" the team leader commands. His monitor beeps to let him know that his pilots have complied with the target.

"Alright!" says the team leader. "Fire!"

BADABADABADABADABOOOOMMM!

Charged particles shoots from the M1200 port accelerating at the speed of light. The particles hit the fuel tank of the nearest missile.

KAPLANG! KAPLANG! KAPLANG! The fuel tank was ruptured! The missile veers to the right then with a powerful blast, it explodes in the air.

KABWAAAMM!!! Metal fragments blanketed the sky and threatens to hit the jets.

"Evasive maneuver!" the team leader commands. The screamers spins out of formation dodging metal fragments and debris. Some fragments the size of a fist hit the wings of the screamers and did not caused any damage. However one larger fragment hit the cockpit of the third jet causing a large crack in the canopy.

"We're hit! We're hit!" reports the pilot of the third jet. They heard another CRACKING sound, then another and realized the crack is getting larger.

"Team Leader I have sustained damage, I need to disengage, over." reports the third pilot.

"Disengage number three." orders the team leader and the third screamer pulls out of formation.

"One down!" says the team leader. "Two more to go!"


MEANWHILE in Japan. The japanese was also taken by surprise when three missiles shot up from the waters. Japan's ground defense immediately activated a radar scrambler to confuse the missiles. However, the missiles continue to go up far away from the scramblers range. Ground lasers are fired but is unsuccessful. Seven ground to air missiles are then launched and four N202 Jet fighters are mobilized. But it was all in vain. The missiles are so far up it couldn't be reached in time.

The same is happening to other countries. Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, even China which currently has a loose armed force because of the coup d' etat. The Iruki Defense center is currently monitoring the activity. Nobi Iko is looking at the printout and the missiles in the monitor. Looking on both, he finally deduced where the target points are.

"It's in the air!" he shouted. "The target points are the countries in asia!"


BACK in the air, the X24's succeeded by knocking out the second missile. Like the first missile it exploded sending multiple metal fragments to the screamers. Again the remaining jets spins out of formation to evade the fragments. The third missile is a bit far away so the pilots floored their engines to reach it before it does any damage. They are so far up that the earth's curvature is very visible to the pilots now.

Suddenly, something sparked from the missile. The computer from the lead fighter jet suddenly beeps up.

DETECTING ENERGY SURGE...

The team leader's eyes suddenly became wide. An energy surge could only mean one thing. The missiles are getting ready to detonate.

"Evasive action! Evasive action!" shouts the team leader. The X24s break formation but it was too late. The missiles have reached the height of 60,000 feet and exploded simultaneously! .

KABWAAAMMM!!! The missiles that the UCAT submarines launched from Japan, Korea, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam the Philippines etc. explodes creating a chain reaction that blocks all satellite communications in asia. The large monitor screen in Iruki Defense Center suddenly goes blank. Iko is standing, clutching the printout in one hand and whispered in a weary voice.

"Now it begins."


BACK in Philippine territory. Images from the satellite suddenly goes blank.

"What happened?" exclaims the serviceman manning communications then punched a few keys to refresh the screen. "Did we lose signal?"

"How did we lose signal?" asks the captain.

"I don't know captain," says the serviceman, "but we're cut-off."

"Don't tell me something out there is jamming us?" says the captain.

"It's not just us captain." says the serviceman.


BACK in the air, the pilots are fighting to regain control of the aircraft. The engines are down and the system is erratic with the control lights going up then down then up again until goes down for the final time. The jets spins faster out of control.

SHWOOOOSSHHH!!! The jets dived uncontrollably through the clouds. No engines and with stabilizers and friction shielding offline, the jets are heating up very fast!

"Mayday! Mayday!" shouts the team leader in vain. Electronics are dead. With hydraulics offline in the cockpit, the pilots are absorbing the jet's G-force as it plummets to the ground.

Realizing the jet can no longer be activated and literally on the verge of passing out, he managed to pull a lever above his head and the cockpit exploded sending him out in the air.

POOOMM! His parachute opens up. For a while, he seems to have passed out. But in just a few moments, the team leader opened his eyes and saw other parachutes in slow descent.

"Thank god." he says as he realized his team made out in time after all.


IN SPACE the UCAT satellite detected the explosions and the energy blanketing the entire region, transformed automatically to reveal a laser weapon hidden inside its under belly. The satellite moved towards the satellite used by Japan's defense center and locked on target. The laser fires a bright blue light and Japan's satellite explodes. The UCAT satellite moves in to destroy the other satellites. Firing and obliterating one after the other.



Same Date

Same Time

Place: UCAT Command Center

Fleet Commander Trudd is watching the large monitor screens. The screen shows the progress of the satellite as it obliterates one satellite after another. He smiled then clicked a button on the panel. The screen insets the face of Vorheus.

"Fleet commander, phase 2 is almost completed." says Vorheus.

"Very good captain." says Trudd. "When all the satellites have been destroyed, initiate Phase 3."


TO BE CONTINUED