"WTF?"
"Soldier, are you joking?"
"Our vehicle-mounted machine guns can't keep up with the target?" In the combat command room, Bonat, who had been clutching the microphone and roaring just moments earlier, suddenly paled.
"Yes, sir! The target is too fast. He broke the sound barrier right after taking off, and now he's out of firing range!"
"Even the Black Hawk's multibarrel cannon can't lock onto the target!" The elite NCO commanding the operation on-site sounded a little shaky.
Clearly, he had never seen a human body fly at such a bizarre speed either. He merely reported the situation to the combat command room over the communications channel on instinct.
Watching the target on the surveillance feed shrink into what was almost a black dot, Bonat's pupils suddenly contracted. He immediately made a decision. "Quick! Get me the radar room!"
"Radar room, maintain continuous tracking and report the target's bearing and altitude."
"And notify the Raptor combat team. Get airborne immediately!"
"Put the entire base on level-one deployment status. We must intercept the target within Area 15!"
As the orders went out one after another, alarms blared throughout the base. Three F-22 Raptor fighters, already on standby, began accelerating along the base's long runway and taking off.
The base's radar room was in chaos. Will, the NCO responsible for radar control, stared at the twenty-inch LCD monitor before him, his head drenched in sweat. The blinking blip rapidly moving away on the display made him hold his breath until he nearly passed out!
In all his years of service at the base, Will had never seen a target fly this fast. He hurriedly reported into the microphone, "Damn it! He's too fast! He's moving too fast!"
"Sir, the target's airspeed has already... already exceeded Mach 4.56... Oh God!" A wail