“OH FUCK!!! SNAKE, SNAKE, BIG FUCKING SNAKE!!!
“Did he just say snake?”
Captain Thomas barely heard the comment from behind him as he winced at the shouting coming over the headset he had on. “Calm down, say again?” Looking up at the radar, he saw one shapeless blob on the radar screen for all three planes. “I repeat, say again, what's your status?” All he got back was static though.
“I think we lost radio contact with the fighters, sir, I've lost their IFF signals, I still have the recon plane though. They report that the... thing, whatever it is just crashed head-on in to one of the fighters and then turned and crashed into the other one as well.”
“Keep trying,” Thomas said as he watched the radar screen. But as the moments ticked by, the interference on the screen kept them from seeing any of their planes at all, showing only Flight 819 far to the North and still heading back to Haneda Airport. The recon plane's IFF still showed it in the air, but no other IFFs were being displayed anymore. And what the pilot he mean by snake?
“I want that last transmission rechecked and cleaned up ASAP.” Maybe they heard the pilot wrong, but what could possibly take out two planes within seconds and sound like 'snake'.
“I want drones launched and flown over the area. I want two wings twenty-five miles to either side of those drones watching them. This is Captain Thomas to the recon plane, do you have any visual sighting on the unknown aircraft to report, over?”
“Recon place here, sir, this is Major Cole,” the pilot said nervously. “We have visual and are trying to evade it now,”
“Report then, what kind of aircraft is it?” he ask as he started to lose patience.
“Well, sir, it's ah, well, it's not an aircraft. Ah, shit! That was close. Sorry, sir, um, permission to speak freely?”
'What the hell was going on,' thought Captain Thomas, how hard can it be to describe the thing whatever it was? Taking a moment to try and calm down, he continued. “Permission granted, tell us what you see.”
“It's a dragon sir, like one of those you see in a Chinese parade or something. About fifty to sixty feet in diameter, and eight hundred to one thousand feet long. It bit each of the fighters, destroying them, sir.”
* * *
Though they were unable to get any electronic images. Chemical emulsion film within the visual spectrum still worked, but infrared, or other special films that took pictures outside the visible spectrum could not produce any clear images at all. Captain Thomas put together his After Action Report, along with the images and sent it to Washington. Reports of what was sighted were already circling the globe. The crew of Flight 819, as well as all the passengers had seen the creature and gave similar reports of the flying serpent.
A Norwegian reporter that was first to hit the air with interviews from disembarking passengers and had dubbed the monster Jörmungandr, after her country's mythology and the name stuck. It was as good a name as any at first, but whether by fact or coincidence, the pictures of the creature matched old artwork of the Norse legend dating back nearly a thousand years.
There was much debate of course if the creature was proof of Norse mythology, or if the stories were instead built around a beast they encountered. Many supported the idea they simply encountered the monster as Asian cultures must have done in the past, citing the many stories of similar monsters in their own mythology.
Irregardless, the question remained, where could such a creature have been unseen for so long and how could it have survived? Some pointed out the tales from sailors throughout the years could have been sightings of such a serpent and not ones of seals, squids, or other such miss-identifications. In any case, there was photographic evidence of the huge and hostile monster here and now. Hibernation? Maybe. Or always active, but far outside common shipping lanes and other human activity?
In addition to the creatures origins, there were many questions as to how it could fly. It had no wings, and as maneuverable and as quick as it was, the idea of any gas bladder like organs were dismissed just as quickly as they were brought up. In the end, the idea of magic was just as popular as 'quantum anti-gravity' or 'psychic propulsion.'
With all the reports, pictures, and commentary coming in, there was no time for Washington, or their 'Top Men' to question the existence of the creature or the claims of what it had done. In the days following the attack on Flight 819, Jormungander, as it was now being called had attacked two more nuclear power plants in Japan, destroying them as it did the first one, as well as destroying the dozens of fighter jets that had tried to kill or wound it.
Working with both the Japanese and other international counterparts, the Washington based task force found it obvious that the creature could certainly be lured by radioactive, distant, and/or hostile bait. The next problem was then where exactly to lure it to and what amount of bait would be needed to keep it's attention over any other targets it might sense. And even once the creature was lured to some destination, what could be done to contain or kill it?
It was decided that a high speed, long range fighter would carry a radioactive payload that the creature would follow once it's attention was gotten. The location chosen to lure the creature to was Bokak Atoll, some 250 miles North-East of the now inhabited Bikini Atoll where various nuclear devices were tested over a period of twelve years back in 1946. It was there they hoped to bombard the creature with naval artillery and even use nuclear missiles as a last resort.
The aircraft to which they finally gave the job was a quickly re-modified Japanese VF-X1 Valkyrie with pod capability. In addition to it's normal armaments, it would be carrying extra fuel as well as powdered uranium which could be injected into the fuel exhaust ports to leave a superheated radioactive trail of “breadcrumbs” for the creature to follow.
Naval forces from many countries were now in route to Bokak Atoll. The total force would be over sixty ships from nine countries as well as over a dozen bombers with nuclear weapons flying in the area on standby. It was hoped the bombers would not be needed, but this was not an operation anyone wanted to carry out a second time. Although it was hoped this would not be a suicide mission, only unmarried pilots were allowed to volunteer. The mission was eventually give to Major Kenzo Takarada who had also flown the VF-X1 as a test pilot.
* * *
As luck would have it, the creature was sleeping on the side of Mount Kasatori on Sato island, off the Eastern cost of Japan in the Niigata prefecture. Coming in low, Major Takarada dropped a laser guided bomb on Jormungander that was being guided in by ground troops nearby. Not waiting for the bomb to hit, he quickly turned south-west for the roughly three thousand mile journey and released some of the uranium dust to give the monster it's first 'breadcrumb'.
Like a shot, the serpent quickly took off after the bait. Takarada climbed fast while watching his second radar screen that was set to only display a small footprint of the creatures large interference pattern. A third view screen gave a reflected fixed rear view of a fairly wide area directly behind him, the image being more useful the farther back the creature was, but too far and the creature might stop following him. The goal was to keep the creature within five thousand feet of his position if possible, increasing that if need be. Depending on maneuvers, the trip was expected to take ninety minutes give or take.
Takarada soon realized that even though Jormungander was both very fast and aerobatic, it's reaction time to his evasive maneuvers were not up to his plane's abilities. It was still not going to be an easy task. He didn't want the creature to give up the chase.
He was also careful not to become predictable after he was almost hit at one at one point. He'd been flying a repeated pattern of maneuvers for over ten minutes when a sudden burst of speed almost got him.
Communication with the waiting fleet had been minimal, but after passing the halfway point, everyone began opening channels to listen in on his approach. Slightly ahead of schedule, he dropped his now empty extra fuel pods, increasing his speed and maneuverability. He also starting using the uranium dust to make sure Jormungander would stay on his tail.
“Takarada here, Jormungander is still in pursuit. I'm now less than one thousand miles away. My fuel supply in the green as is the remaining uranium powder. Skies are clear, weather good. Well be beginning my decent over the target point on Bokak Atoll soon, over.”
* * *