They were reaching a crucial part of the mission; they had to descend from eighty thousand feet to twenty-five thousand and slow down substantially from the Mach 3.2 that they were currently traveling, three times the speed of sound so that they could link up with the KC-135 air to air refueling tanker. They two pilots had done this many times but they were still nervous as the SR-71 was always a temperamental bird to refuel.
Through careful coordination the SR-71 slide in behind the tanker and after a few tense moments they managed to connect the fuel line. The Blackbird was harder to control at lower altitudes and the pilot had to fight against the aircraft stalling, he only required one of his two afterburners to be lit.
The refueling was as a success, Roy Love the lead pilot thanked the tanker pilot and the pushed the afterburners to full as he rose the nose and began the quick return to FL800. The sleek, slender Blackbird was as sexy as a machine could ever possibly be; Roy was proud to be associated with the SR-71 program.
The aircraft itself was painted a dark blue, almost black color, hence its blackbird nickname. The plane looked more like a spaceship out of the wildest science fiction novel, with its slender, angled fuselage and huge engines mounted on the delta wings at the rear of the aircraft. The long arrow shape and various angles caused the blackbird to have a greatly reduced radar signature.
Twenty minutes had elapsed since the refuel when the SR-71 reached the designated target. The two pilots got ready to complete their training mission.
“Clear skies over target Devon.” Ray said to his co-pilot.
“Roger that, cameras are all green, let’s get this done.”
The blackbirds sophisticated surveillance equipment started its job; it took detailed images of the towns surrounding Wright Patterson. The images showed smoke still rising from Dayton. The pilots were concentrating hard at the job at hand.
They moved over Wright Patterson Air Force base itself.
“Not sure how this training benefits us.”
“Maybe they have some new tracking system they want to test, don’t reckon this has anything to do with us Roy mate.” Devon said, his space helmet masked his smile.
Roy chuckled.
A slight bit of turbulence buffeted the SR-71, causing Roy to focus completely on the flying of his bird.
“God sake Roy, I’m trying to kip back ere.” Devon said.
Roy shook his head with a smile on his face.
Suddenly they were rocked by another bit of turbulence but this time it was harder to keep control. Roy heard a loud clapping sound, it reminded him of thunder but it could not be, as the skies were clear for miles and he had never witnessed a storm in the stratosphere.
Roy was thinking hard to work out what the hell was going on when a bright line of light streaked passed him, it split into several jagged directions and crackled loudly.
“Shit, did you see that Roy is that lightning?”
“It can’t be!” Roy responded.
The plane lost a bit of altitude as the turbulence washed over it again, another loud clap of thunder rang out again.
“Time to get out of here Devon.” Roy said calmly.
The sky was still cloudless but streams of sheet lightning filled the sky, the forks split and seemed to reach out towards the blackbird, they raced towards it and exploded all around it.
Inside the cockpit the pilots were becoming increasingly concerned, it felt like the aircraft was going to shake apart and even though they had not actually been hit by any of the lightning yet; they felt like the electricity was following them.
“Roy?”
“I know, this is like nothing I have ever seen before! How can it be tracking us?”
“Devon get on to the base, if this is a new weapon they need to make it stop.” Roy ordered.
Devon thumped his control console, “All external communications are down.”
“Fuck.” Roy said.
Roy was thinking on his feet, he felt the shockwave from the last thunder clap and seeing as he could not accelerate away from it he decided to put the nose down and dive into the lightning, hoping to get below it.
As the blackbird dove the two pilots could see waves of indigo light race skywards, the lightning fingers billowed outwards then impossibly swerved back in towards the aircraft, trying to consume it.
Roy pushed hard on the control stick; the SR-71 was never designed for this type of flying, the blackbird narrowly avoided the vicious storm, he rolled the aircraft to the left, using all his experience as a fighter pilot. As the lightning streaked passed the right wing, the crackling of the superheated air washed over the aircraft, the temperature inside rose considerably; Roy began to sweat under the pressure.
A large ball of purple light raced skywards, followed by another one and then another one until the sky was completely filled with sheet lightning and strange balls of light; they started to home in on the blackbird.
Roy tried desperately to quickly change the direction of his aircraft, suddenly the right wing was struck by lightning, and the plane rocked as the tip of the wing erupted in a shower of sparks.
“Shit we’re in trouble Devon.” Roy said, “I’m struggling to keep her in the air.”
Another large fork of bright light hit the left wing, it splintered and the left engine caught fire. Power quickly dropped from the engine, warning sirens rang out in the cockpit.
“Fire in engine two.” Devon yelled out.
“Shut it down!” Roy shouted. He was busy trying to keep the aircraft from going into a spin.
The balls of superheated light rushed towards the ailing blackbird, they seemed to change direction and pick up speed as they closed in. The first ball impacted on the aircraft’s right wing, it exploded and was sheared clean off.
The explosion hit the blackbird and it started to spin wildly.
“This is it!” Roy yelled, “I have no control.”
Devon did not have time to respond as a further two orbs smashed into the fuselage, the cockpit section separated away from the main fuselage and started to fall earthwards. Devon struggled to look back, he saw the rear section of the aircraft detonate into hundreds of pieces, seconds later two orbs of violet light collided with the falling cockpit section; the two pilots were instantly vaporized.
Control
The mission control room was stunned into silence, despite repeated attempts to reestablish contact with the SR-71 mission; the crew could not be raised. The two men in black stood and took everything in from the rear of the room.
The men in black asked for a timeline of events and exactly where the aircraft had disappeared, they were not surprised when it was estimated to be directly over Wright Patterson.
“Thank you everyone, you have been very helpful.” The right-hand man threw down a report.
“Read this please.” They spoke in unison, “This is the official report on the events of today. The aircraft was on a routine training mission when it encountered engine problems. Despite the best efforts of the pilots the aircraft would not recover. We will conduct a thorough and detailed investigation.” The two men in black surveyed the room. “This is what you will tell the families and the inevitable press interest, as per usual there is to be no mention of the SR-71.”
The room stayed deathly quiet, “Do you understand.” The two men said.
Everyone in the room nodded.
“Good.” The men in black said and then they clicked their fingers. The door behind them burst open and Airforce guards streamed in, some pointed their guns at the air force personnel while the others began removing computers and files; the records of the mission were being confiscated.
“Thank you for your cooperation and hard work today. We know it has been tough, we will take it from here, please do not worry.” The two men in black said in a dead monotone voice. After this they closed the door and promptly disappeared.