The sight from the sky over the Rocky Mountains were a marvelous vista, indeed. The snow peaked mountains that stretched far from New Mexico in the United States to the very north of the Canadian province of Yukon was the result of millions of years of tectonic activity and erosion over the igneous rock that formed the beautiful mountain range.

  The enormous pines, oaks, juniper, and many others species of trees that dotted the forests that covered the many ecosystems that formed the Rocky's biomes created a sense of peace in the almost inhabited region. The wildlife, wolves, elks, deer, bears, mules, fish, birds, and many others, also composed to this charm, as the sightings of the majestic beasts remembered John of the rule nature exerted over the region.

  John, a twenty-eight-year-old pilot of United States Air Force, based on a Midwest Air Force Base, was piloting an F-16 over the skies of the Rocky, enjoying the view from his upside-down cockpit while he performed an unapproved maneuver to appreciate the sight better. Behind his flight suit and helmet, he was a black man with the short stature of a pilot. His face, starting to show signs of age due to the profession stress, was round and short, with no facial hair and very thick eyebrows. His eyes were black and shone brightly while he stared at the wide mountain range, like a gleeful child looking at a new toy.

  "Hunter-3, maintain formation. Do you copy?", said Hunter-1, his flight leader, who went by the name of Timothy.

  “Copy that, Hunter-1”, John said, returning his machine to a levelled position, rapidly getting out of his amazement. He dozed off while appreciating the sights he loved so much, and he loved it so much, in fact, that he got to the point of going hiking alone for days on end inside the Rocky, venturing in the trails and tracks of the beautiful mountains. "Copy that, Hunter-1.", he simply said.

  "Approaching the zone of the attacks, stand ready for bandit.", said Hunter-1.

  "Copy that, Hunter-1.", echoed the other three pilots. John armed his weapons.

  'Bandits over American skies, huh? Hard to believe if not for what’s happening.' Thought Jonh, worried. The bandit his leader was referring was an unidentified aerial creature that started attacking civilian planes right after the Catastrophe struck, bringing countless aircraft down in just three days. It has a very faint presence on radar that indicated a size close to a fighter jet, the very few survivors of the encounters describing a winged dragon of white color that came from above during the attacks. So far, air command had identified only one beast, but satellite imagery and triangulation of the attacks suggested the presence of a much more numerous enemies.

  As radar planes were almost useless for the task of identifying the source of the monsters due to their violent nature, attack squadrons with the designation ‘Hunter’ were sent to search and destroy the flying beasts. John was part of the First Squad of the Fourth Group of the designated task force comprised of one hundred fighter jets.

  The objective of the mission was to clear the skies of the beasts so that rescue teams could operate over the more devastated areas, and that resupply could reach regions such as California and Nevada, who desperately required reinforcements due to the advance of vast armies of monsters that some soldiers described as Orcs. Apparently, the monsters were just as intelligent as a human, initially seeking to parley, but, after some initial incidents of (literal) xenophobia, decided to attack in retaliation to belligerent humans. The whole thing was televised, showing some of the Orcs emissaries dragged around streets until they died. One thing led to another and now they declared war on the United States and were, up until now, winning, taking city after city of the two states.

  On top of this big problem, the appearance of monsters in other regions of the country was starting to put pressure on the Army and the National Guard, who were now fighting a dirty guerrilla warfare inside the bigger cities against an unknown and unscrupulous foe who seemed to sacrifice humans for the gain of power. Red and hunched in appearance, some were calling them demons or devils, but no one knew for sure. Forrest Rangers were also requesting aid to fight what they could only describe as the Big Foot and enormous and mutated beast of the original fauna of the United States.

  But, brushing those gruesome thoughts to the side, John focused back on his mission. Due to the lack of heat signal from the beasts, a fact confirmed by a previous engagement between the First Squad, First Group, the first ones to even see the beasts, when they weren’t able to get a thermal lock for a missile even after multiple attempts. Now, they were resorting to manually or semi-manually guiding systems, and the old reliable frontal cannon.

  The quartet flew for some minutes uncontested, with John again using the opportunities he found to appreciate the view, he saw the open expanse of land stretching far and wide, the trees, the snow peaked mountains, the fast-moving white object?

  “Hunter-2, above you, dodge!!”, John screamed over the radio. One of the beasts finally appeared, descending from above like a peregrine falcon getting ready to attack.

  But Hunter-2, Jacob, wasn’t fast enough. The monster crashed onto his left wing, causing the plane to fall to the side uncontrollably, spinning so fast that John was sure the pilot couldn’t eject even if he was able to press the button, since the g force at that moment would be more than a pilot could handle.

  Finally letting go of the already destroyed plane, John was able to take a good look at the beast when it flew off: resembling a falcon with its sharp and aerodynamics angles, the thing was in fact a reptilian of white color, its scales glimmering in the sun, but, when John looked from the right angle, the thing exited a very dark tone, suggesting to the pilot the reason for the lack of radar and infrared readings. It didn’t have posterior members besides it wings, with its arms having two bents below the shoulder. From the second bent, that John assumed was a residual of the creature’s evolution, some kind of hand extended, with its fingers becoming sections of the creature’s wings, and with some sort of very thin membrane covering the sections and forming the wingspan. The thing attacked from above using its very sturdy looking legs, using its strong claws to entangle itself with Hunter-2’s machine. Finishing up with a very long tail, the thing was easily longer and wider than the fighter plane.

  With Hunter-2 out of the fight and nothing that he could do to help him, John gave chase to the flying beast. The monster flapped its wings very rarely but was extremely fast, but still was not able to outrun an F-16. But what it didn’t have in speed, it compensated with maneuverability, using its incredible aerodynamics and well-placed dives to increase its speed when the time counted. Slowing down to perilous levels to keep himself behind the monster, locking it in his sights, John decided to prepare one of his missiles to hit the thing. He quickly scratched the idea, as the missile would require that he kept a continuous line of sight with the monster for it to hit home, and, with luck, kill it.

  John simply opened fire with his frontal cannon, firing a tentative quick burst to try the reflexes of the beast. Noticing the discharge from the frontal cannon, the monster simply raised itself a little and opened its wings, rapidly decreasing its speed and going fast at John’s direction. The pilot simply dived to evade the crazy monster, but, to his shock, was now unable to locate the thing, as it hid on some clouds.

  “I lost him! It is using the clouds as cover!! I need sharp eyes on me!!”, he screamed on his radio.

  “I am looking, Hunter-3. Let’s keep dodging.”, said Hunter-4, a guy by the name of Gonzales. He moved his plane behind the creature, probably preparing a missile just like John.

  “Hunter-4, Hunter-1, forget missiles, use the cannon!!”, John said, knowing that the monster was too slow for them to keep behind for risk of stalling, and that they probably wouldn’t have time for a clean missile shot anyways.

  With no response from the other plane, John kept trying to find the monster inside the clouds, moving wildly from side to side with his plane to have a better field of view and turning his head inside the cockpit to look around.

  “Hunter-3, dodge!!”, came Hunter-1 voice over the radio. John obliged, doing a corkscrew to the right. Finishing the maneuver, he saw as a ball of fire passing from above just where he was a moment before, moving carefree until it exploded inside a big cloud just below. If John hadn’t dodged, he would probably be dead right now. What quickly followed was the figure of the Draconid passing at incredible speeds.

  As John was dodging for his life, Hunter-4 went after the diving beast. With their speeds fairly matching, he sent a missile flying at the beast. This time, preoccupied with the gravity pulling it down, the beast couldn’t dodge the contraption, getting hit squarely on its body, exploding in a mist of blood and fire. Falling uselessly to the ground bellow, John watched as the corpse was being dismembered by the forces of gravity and wind resistance, as it lost its aerodynamics and its lift.

  “Command, this is Hunter-1, Fourth Group, Fourth Squad.”, said Timothy over the radio. “We just engaged one of the beasts. One casualty, Hunter-2. We eliminated the threat. The monster came from above, attacking the wings of our plane. It can also spit a ball of fire from its mouth, so be advised about possible ranged attacks.”

  “Copy that, Hunter-1.”, responded Command. “We will share information with other squads.”

  “Copy that. Appreciated, Command. Kill goes to Hunter-4.”, said Hunter-1.

  They resumed their flight, John sending a sincere prayer for Jacob, dearly hoping that the guy was able to eject himself before it was too late. Now taking extra care looking for threats from above, the three pilots covered each other while searching for more hostiles. John was tense, he didn’t want what happened to Jacob to repeat itself, so he concentrated himself, forgetting about enjoying the vista. Because of this, he noticed three blips of reflection all the way over the horizon.

  “Hunter-1, contact right ahead, at twelve o’clock.”, John said, fixating his eyes on the approaching enemy.

  “Copy that, Hunter-3. Let’s get ready to battle. Ready a missile.”, Timothy said.

  Apparently giving up on the approach from above, the Draconids came from the front this time, moving with their graceful flying movements just at the trio eyes. When the pilots engaged missiles to fire, the beasts dived, using the clouds for cover again.

  “Command, we got three bandits in our sight.”, said Hunter-1, very worried. “They banked to a cloud, using it for cover. I think we are going to need reinforcements.”

  “Copy that, Hunter-1. We will direct a squad to your direction. Keep them busy.”, said the Flight Controller.

  “Keep your eyes peeled boys, these things are no joke.”, Hunter-1 said.

  Keeping a close formation and wary eyes on the clouds and the sky over their heads, the pilots moved their planes ahead. John noticed Hunter-4 turning his head to look above and behind, worried of potential attacks.

  “You two, dodge, now!!”, came Hunter-1 over the radio, in an urgent manner. Obliging to the command, John and Hunter-4 banked to opposite directions, with Hunter-1 simply diving. Two of the Draconids sped past John with their attack from above, wings closed, with him and Hunter-4 evading the beasts by centimeters. Even with the well-timed banking, the beast that came at John still managed to take a small nick from his left wing as it passed, sending some damage indicators flaring and sounding inside the cockpit.

  Ignoring the indicators, John quickly levelled his plane and dived after the speeding beast. He noticed his machine not responding well, probably caused by the scratch the beast made on his wing. Giving chase at incredible speed, John noticed that the monster made his machine reach top speed while he dived after it, probably making its speed over two times the speed of sound. Attempting to align the two flying objects and being unable to level the cannon to hit the monsters, John gave up firing at it. Approaching the ground at perilous short seconds, John pulled out from following the monster, given that if he continued, he would not have time to pull the plane up it he got too close to ground level.

  While he did it, he noticed the thing having no trouble using its diving momentum to regain altitude, as the thing simply opened its wings and pulled up, entering a cloud for cover and ceasing visual contact. John noticed now: his machine was not the ideal tool for this job. It was too fast, with an arsenal that didn’t favor the kind of slow speed dog fight the monsters demanded, and, if was going to take a guess, a supercharged World War II era fighter would be the best machine to deal with these monsters, they should just find a way to deal with the attacks from above.

  John also noticed another thing: they weren’t hunters, they were being hunted by experienced predators that could conduct hit and run attacks in the air while hiding in the clouds. They aimed to divide and conquer, separating the squad and picking off one by one.

  “Hunter-1, Hunter-4, where are you?”, John said over the radio. He got to advise his colleagues about the monsters’ strategy. “Let’s keep close, these things want to pick us off when we are separated.”

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “I got one on my sights here, can’t go out now.”, said Hunter-4. “A little help would be nice.”

  Quickly locating Hunter-4 on his radar, John moved his plane to go after him, saying “Hold him on your sights, I am going to you. Hunter-1, converge on us, please.”

  “Copy that, Hunter-3, moving to your position.”, came Hunter-1’s response.

  Rapidly moving to Hunter-4’s aid, John located him chasing one of the Draconids in a somewhat slow speed, probably almost stalling. He shot his frontal cannon at the monster but the thing dodged nimbly the shots, banking and closing its wings to evade the deadly bullets.

  Quickly locking the beast with one of his missiles, John sent the thing flying when he got sure he could keep visual contact with monster. The missile left its hardpoint, going faster than his plane and rapidly advancing towards the monster, John keeping his eyes on the thing the whole way. Also keeping his finger on the payload detonator these missiles provided, John waited for it to reach very close to the monster, and preemptively detonated it next to the thing, just like a anti air battery munition would do when exploding after reaching a certain altitude top ensure a more guaranteed hit.

  The monster, covered in shrapnel and felling the effects of the close explosion, started falling uncontrollably towards the ground, spinning like a cork from a recently opened Champaign bottle. But, as John was focusing his missile towards the monster, the other two Draconids came from above and crashed directly with their hinder legs over Hunter-4, destroying both of his wings. Completely out of lift, the F-16 began a rapid descend to the same destination as the Draconid John just hit.

  Engaging his ejection button, Gonzales exited the plane canopy like a bullet together with his chair, quickly followed by the auto deploy of the emergency parachute. Watching the scene unfold from his plane, John kept a close eye over the two rapidly diving Draconids, fearful for his now defenseless colleague.

  “Hunter-3, circle around Gonzales! Dissuade those things from getting close to him!”, came Hunter-1 voice over the radio.

  “On it, Hunter-1!”, John responded, quickly positioning his plane to make circles around the falling Gonzales. They were very high up in the sky and the descend would take a lot of time, so John was preparing himself to fight those things if they got close to his teammate.

  John lost track of the two remaining Draconids, and now he was fearful for himself too. He kept turning his head to look above himself and always kept an eye to the slow falling Gonzales. When he started looking above himself in one of his attempts of identifying the beasts, John caught a glimpse of a whit dart coming over him, and, quickly moving his plane out of the way, he was able to dodge the approaching beast.

  But that wasn’t the monster objective. Perhaps using an attack with a doble intention, the monster kept its movement, this time directing itself towards the defenseless Gonzales. Trapped by the inertia of his maneuver, John would need some seconds to recover and give chase, so he opened his radio, calling for Timothy.

  “Hunter-1, one of the monsters is heading towards Gonzales! I can’t help him!”, John said, desperate. After some seconds of silence over the radio, John, finally being able to direct his plane towards the attacking monster, noticed the debris from Hunter-1 falling rapidly towards the ground, the plane itself a ball of fire with no chance of ejection, and his killer, the other Draconid, diving towards Gonzales while still covered in flames from the explosion.

  The monsters played them like they were easy prey, using bait and misdirection to lead them to easy killing positions. But, even with their clever tactics, John couldn’t comprehend how did the things ascended so quickly to get above them, a movement that would easily require full minutes to complete. Something was wrong. John was beginning to believe that there was more than two Draconids they were fighting at the moment.

  Still chasing the Draconid that went after Gonzales, John began firing his front cannon at the monster, hitting the it more than a dozen times, making blood spill all around and killing it, but, still dead set on reaching the ejected pilot, the other Draconid, blackened by the explosion of Hunter-1, was much more closer now, and, with its razor sharp wings, cut the string of Gonzales parachute, sending the pilot to an agonizing freefall that would certainly end on his demise.

  John wanted to do something, he really did, as the experience of watching his comrade fall towards certain death left him with a felling of dread about his own powerlessness that made him almost throw up inside his helmet. He saw in almost slow-motion the last moments before the Draconid reached Gonzales and cut his parachute, filling John with a deep hatred towards the beasts.

  John aligned his plane with the last Draconid while it dived away from Gonzales, expertly locking himself with the beast. He touched his finger on his cannon button and kept it pressed for a while, watching the shots soar the sky and reach the beast one, two, three, five, countless times. The beast disintegrated, dissolving itself and covering John’s plane with its blood and innards. Filled with rage with himself and the monsters, John gasped for air, breathing deeply the air mixture from the plane and calming himself down a little. There was more danger in the sky.

  “Command, this is Hunter-3, Fourth Group, Fourth Squad.”, said John over the radio. “We lost Hunter-1 and Hunter-4 to the monsters just now. No chance of ejection for Hunter-1, he became a ball of fire.”, John paused, breathing in to not scream with rage over the radio. “Hunter-4 was able to eject, but the things attacked him on his way down.”

  “… Copy that, Hunter-3.”, said the controller, unsure. “What’s your status?”

  “Got a chip on my wing that is making me wobble slightly, but I can still get on.”, said John, leveling himself. “Command, I thing this operation is not going to go well. These things are ambushing us up here. They use clouds for cover and concealment, and I am fairly sure they are moving in bands.”

  “Copy that, Hunter-3, we understand your point but we cannot afford to pull back now.”, said the controller. “Two wings are going to your direction as of the moment. Keep yourself in the air for as long as you can.”

  “These things are in superior numbers Command!!”, screamed John. “Two wings here won’t mean nothing!! This is their turf now!!”

  “Watch your tone pilot!!”, said the controller. “Reinforcements are on the way and- “

  John stopped listening as he noticed, again, one of the monsters coming at him from above, this time sending a ball of fire before it. Perilously dodging the ball of fire by banking to the right, John had to be quick again as the monster used his commitment to dodging his ranged attack as an opportunity to predict where he was going to be. Diving awkwardly just seconds before the monster would hit him, John barely managed to dodge the attack, but knowing what the things were capable, he simply couldn’t rest easy.

  “Command, I am engaging again!!”, screamed John, just to emphasize his point from before.

  Just like he could read the monsters’ minds, John noticed another one of the beasts coming from his side, again sending a fireball before itself. John, wanting to make the creature’s life harder, dodged the attack in the direction towards the monster, making the angle of attack much steeper.

  As he predicted, the monster passed harmlessly where he was, not being able to turn as much as it would need to intercept John. Maneuvering his plane to go after the second Draconid, John waited for any more unsuspecting and disloyal attacks before committing to going after the beast, but, apparently, none came. Banking to chase the Draconid, John engaged again one of his missiles, sending the thing flying the moment he saw the monster is his crosshairs.

  Accompanying the beast with his eyes, John maneuvered himself behind the thing and levelled himself. Opening fire with his cannon, John sent a burst of shots that made the Draconid dodge instantly, but, using this as his opportunity, focused the missile at the monster, making the contraption reach the monster and detonating it before making full contact, killing the monster with an almost direct hit to the body, exposing the internal organs of the beast. Losing its, lift, the thing fell uselessly to the ground.

  With just two missiles left and very few ammunition for his cannon, John was also finally feeling the effects of so much sharp turns in so little time, as well of the g force of his dives: his head was dizzy from the lack of oxygen caused by the gravity and from being exerted above the levels a pilot would normally require.

  In his stupor, he remembered something: the monsters’ name was Wyvern, a dragon with only wings and legs, a subdivision of the mythological beasts that was specialized in flying. ‘That’s why they are so good at maneuvering in the sky.’, he thought. ‘They are made for it.’

  Coming out of his stupor, John also remembered to search for the other wyvern, as he was sure that it wasn't only two of the monsters coming at him. Searching all around him wildly, John didn't want to sit around and wait for another attack, so he pulled his plane up. If the monsters were using clouds as cover, he would simply take the advantage away and fly over the clouds and decide on what to do from there. Ascending at a fast pace, John kept searching for any of the creatures, amazed at how the monsters had no presence on radar, as thought they were stealth jets. Their mastery of the sky was absolute.

  Finally breaking the cloud banks, John found himself over the troposphere, the final limit on cloud formation. The sunlight, free from any restraints, glimmered beautifully over the white cover of the earth, John amazing himself with the beauty of the scenery. But his amazement didn't last long, as the sheer number of wyverns flying over the clouds almost made him collide with the beasts. Quickly dodging the flying monsters, John gave chase to some of them, making sure to empty his front cannon and killing three of the monsters. The number of wyverns were so great that even that if he missed his shots, it was almost certain that the stray bullet would kill one unsuspecting beast behind the target.

  The monsters retaliated by angrily sending fireballs at his direction, witch John was too fast to be a real problem. Preparing his last two missiles and completely out of ammo for the cannon now, John was beginning to get out of options.

  "Command, this is Hunter-3 again.", John said. "If you are sending reinforcements on my way, send them back. There's nothing to be done here. We would need all the birds in the sky for this shit and they don't fight in a way that make sense to us."

  "Hunter-3, where are you at the moment?", asked the controller.

  "I'm over the clouds.", John said, dodging more of the beasts. "They are bloating the sun up here and I have just two missiles left. God, they are so many!"

  "Hunter-3, hang in there, reinforcements are on the way.", said the controller.

  "It will be meaningless, controller!!", screamed John. "If you don't send everyone here, we won't be able to make a dent on those things' numbers, but even so we will still be outnumbered four to one. It's a lost fight."

  "Just... Just hang in there, Hunter-3.", said the controller, unsure.

  While he spoke, John locked his crosshairs on one of the monsters and sent another missile flying at it. Following his hastily made protocol, John hit the thing easily as it was worried dodging many of its peers.

  Making sure that no flying beast could even get close to him, the pilot banked, dived, did corkscrew maneuvers, everything at his disposal to not make contact with the monsters, but still wasn't enough: one of the beasts crashed at him from above and entangled itself with his plane, ripping and tearing at the components of the left wing. Felling his plane losing lift by the second with the extra load, John ignored the monster, intending to send his last missile away. Quickly selecting a random wyvern on his field of view and pressing the button, the missile flew, with John not worrying about detonating it, as it would eventually, and hopefully, hit an unsuspecting target.

  Satisfied with himself, John didn't even bother with trying to shake the monster off of his plane, as his fate was sealed the moment the monster landed on him. So, he prepared himself to eject.

  "Command, this is Hunter-3.", John said over the radio. "One of those things landed on me and is tearing down my wing. I going to eject, so wish me luck. Godspeed. This was John Smith, XX° Airborne, going out."

  "... Copy that, Hunter-3. Godspeed.", said the controller, defeated.

  The monster, satisfied with the destruction caused to the F-16's left wing, now turned its attention towards the cockpit with John inside. The pilot now could notice more detailed features on the wyvern: it's face was angry looking and wide, but with sharp angles to make it more aerodynamic; its mouth comprised of rows of sharp teeth covered by an sealing membrane, probably to not allow the over pressurized air to enter the creature; the thing's eyes didn't blink, but it was probably because it's eyelids were transparent to allow it to see even at the extreme speeds of its dives; now being this close, John could be sure that the thing's skin was, in fact, changing colors depending of the position he looked at it, changing from a complete white to a deep gray from time to time. Not in the slightest impressed by the thing's looks, John prepared his service pistol and waited for the monster to get close to the plane's canopy.

  As he concentrated on his left side, another monster landed on his right wing and began trashing that side too. John's plane was completely done for, now. The monster from the left got close to John, and, when its head was just over the canopy, he ejected the acrylic cover. It hit the monster squarely on the face, making it recoil and fall off the plane unconscious, spinning uncontrollably towards the ground.

  Felling the wind pressure entirely on his face, John turned to face the other creature, readying his pistol and aiming. He pulled the trigger five times, but the 9 mm rounds hit the monster uselessly, only being able to attract its attention. Turning to face the defenseless pilot, the monster abandoned the destruction of the right wing, instead moving over the jet and dragging itself towards the cockpit to attack the pilot. Opening it's mouth menacingly, the wyvern closed on Jonh, who aimed his pistol patiently to shot the monster in the eye. When the wyvern prepared to bit John's head off of his body, John pulled the trigger, hitting the creature directly in the right eye, making the monster screech in pain. John quickly returned his hands to the handle and directed the plane to hit a entangling group of wyverns, trying to send his plane out with a boom. Saying his goodbyes to his loyal steed, John pulled the ejection handle and felt the increasingly alarming g-force of the procedure, with his body weight multiplying five, maybe ten times because of the invisible force. Watching his plane go off exploding after colliding with the mass of wyverns, John desperately tried to delay the opening of his parachute, causing it to malfunction.

  With just one last chance to release it with his emergency string, John began a rapid head down descend towards the ground, praying with all his faith that none of the beast followed him.

  When John cut the clouds below and finally was able to see the ground again, he didn't saw any wyverns for some time. Completely defenseless now, he waited as much as he could before releasing his parachute for fear of getting intercepted while he was falling, but considering the speed the monsters demonstrated during his encounter, he was defenseless even before releasing it.

  Feeling the meaningless of it all, John released his parachute. Thinking about what he would do even if he reached the ground, as he would be in a desolate part of the United States, without any supplies, directions or help, John, while falling, simply... appreciated the view he liked so much, the sight of the Rocky Mountains.

  The flight controller took out his headset and put it down in front of him. He swiped the sweat off of his brow and breathed rapidly. Similar reports like the one from Hunter-3 were coming from all the other hunter groups in the air, it was just that none of them were scoring kills before being taken down like Hunter-3 did. The two squads he sent to assist the Fourth Squad met fierce attacks from the beasts, now in much more superior numbers than before and with an eagerness to tear the planes out of the sky. The desperation in the voices of the pilots made the man almost cry, but he held on regardless, but now, after the radio message from Hunter-3 that he would eject due to an almost boarding of his fighter jet, he couldn't go on. He turned his chair and stood up to look at his commanding officer, a man middle aged man with gray hair standing above the flight controllers with his arms crossed, created some courage, and passed on the news.

  "Sir, I got confirmation that the Fourth Squad of the Fourth Group is completely nonoperational.", the trembling flight controller said. "All of the are either K.I.A. or ejected and are now without possibility of communication. Similar reports are coming from other flights. Sir, if you allow me a sincere comment..."

  "... Speak up.", said the Commanding Officer after a long pause.

  "Sir, I think we are screwed."