Leh Air Base

December 31st, 1999

India

Snow drifted down the mountains of the Himalayas as bits of it settled on his coat. The man was wearing an outfit fit for the freezing temperatures of the merciless Kashmiri winter. Him being there was a major publicity event, as he was the first Indian Prime Minister to be standing at that Air Base.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee, India’s re-elected prime minister after two short terms, belonged to the category of leaders who are exceptional orators. Churchill was famous for his lucid English, short sentences and choice of powerful words. Vajpayee’s oratory was stirring at one level and heart-warming at another because it was laced with poetic expressions.

The cameras were all on him, as live footage and audio were being broadcast to televisions and radio across India. Military personnel sat in chairs in front of the podium where he stood, watching his every move.

“As you are aware, the hijackers. The hijacking, diabolic and evil as it is, is but the latest manifestation. We must not spare any effort. India shall not spare any effort to thwart the phenomenon itself. The hijacking of the Indian Airlines Plane once again reminds us of the terrible reality of the communist terrorism.”

Communism, a disease to modern economics, was a danger looming over India. While India has benefited from communism’s lesser radical policies via socialism, communist elements had constantly been trying to gain a foothold in the largest democracy in the world.

“Almost all our countrymen have seen on television glimpses of the impossible summits, which our heroes overcame and pushed out the enemy. To gain victory at such heights is not only to surmount the sky-piercing peaks, it displays the full might of the nation. It is a symbol of the bravery of our Armed Forces.”

“How can we forget such heroes?”

A simple nod to the soldiers who fought just months ago. As he spoke, the regional rivals, Pakistan and China, were conspiring against them, trying to spread the virus of communism into the rest of the subcontinent. The United States congratulated Vajpayee’s re-election, a key ally to their containment of communism, as his clear statement for strengthening the friendship of the two nations.

“Jai Hind!”

A single chant was enough for their soldiers as they chanted the same, raising their fists in the air before pulling it back to their body. A clever ending to the speech as he was escorted away.

After he climbed up the stairs of Air India One and settled on his seat, his Principal Private Secretary brought up a few files that needed the Prime Minister's personal attention. PM Vajpayee wondered for a second if it would be improper to actually groan the minute he laid his eyes on those files. Nonetheless, he started working on them.

As the plane began taxiing, the Prime Minister caught a glimpse of the outside world from his small window. The mountains were beautiful under the descending sun. Ice-capped mountains, with clouds nowhere to be seen. It was worth taking a picture for memories, but work had to come first before anything else.

Just as the plane lined up for takeoff, the Prime Minister of the largest democracy in the world had a weird feeling. As if something was inherently wrong within himself. It passed as soon as it came, but it left PM Vajpayee reeling. He looked outside, but he could still see the soldiers in the base either milling about in the distance, doing their work or seeing off the plane from a hangar (in the case of the high ranking officers that were present in the base). PM Vajpayee looked at his Private Secretary and saw that he was peakish. But then again, his PS was always squeamish when it came to flying. The PM looked at his SPG detail. They did not give any outward sign that they were affected, if at all.

---[+]---

New Delhi

It was after two hours that the flight landed at Palam Air Force Station. When the PM got off the aircraft, he was immediately surrounded by his SPG detail and was led to his car. At once PM Vajpayee knew something was wrong. However, he waited for until they were in the car before asking any questions. Once the motorcade moved, PM Vajpayee asked, "What's going on?"

"We… We're having a situation, sir." The lead SPG agent replied.

"Have you been informed of what the situation is?" The PM asked.

"Only the bare minimum at the moment, sir. The President, Vice President and their immediate families have already been escorted to safety." Came the reply. "We've done the same for your family, sir. However, you are required in the Situation Room. All Service Chiefs and the Cabinet are waiting for you."

"Very well." PM Vajpayee said as the Motorcade picked up speed.

---[+]---

January 1, 2000.

Over Unknown Waters,

0935 Hours,

No. 106 Squadron "Lynxes"

Five thousand feet above sea level, an Indian Canberra PR.67 zoomed over the Laccadive sea. Seven cameras were mounted on the aircraft, as well as the navigator having a film camera to capture motion footage. The image captured by these cameras would be developed and used by the Aviation Research Center, who were wary of communist military bases and thus went through each image with a very fine toothed comb.

The scarcity of available assets meant that constant vigil could only be maintained on top priority targets, which including a secret Soviet Airbase in Quetta that housed the USSR's long range bombers. This led to U2 spy planes being leased from the Americans to be focused on the land border rather than an island in the middle of the ocean.

For now, Wing Commander Vinay Pande and his navigator, Flying Officer Azhaar Hussein were busy directing the photo reconnaissance aircraft towards a supposedly uninhabited island, rather unsatisfied with the mission they were on.

“So much for the New Year being a holiday.” Wing Commander Pande said with a bored sigh.

“That is right sir, we could have been on leave and spent our time with our family.” Flying Officer Huseein agreed.

“Yes, we could have, but here we are, in one of the most uncomfortable seats in our airforce.” Wing Commander Pande groaned as he adjusted his seating position for the nth time. Every time he went on long range recon missions, he had to face this drama with his pants.

“Still better than those at Rama sir’s quarters.” Flying Officer Huseein said with a sly grin, making his superior officer forget his trousers troubles and both men laughed at that. This was infinitely much better than being bored during the flight.

“Do not let him hear you say that.” Wing Commander Pande said in between his chuckles while he also made sure that they were not speaking on an open network. He remembered the case about that American pilot during the last joint NATO, SEATO and EATO exercises that were hosted by West Germany.

That man went into excruciating detail about how much he was admiring the form of a female Royal Air Force helicopter pilot and the fact that he had a crush on her. Issue was, he said that on an open network. Which meant that every single NATO aircraft in the air and every ATC in West Germany heard it. It was made much worse for the poor American pilot when the female RAF pilot in question entered the conversation to tell him that she was already getting married after the conclusion of the exercise, much to the raucous laughter of every pilot and ATC Operator listening in.

Wing Commander Pande, who had been landing his Canberra at the time, almost messed it up when he heard the brutal rejection. But after landing, he and his then partner, Flying Officer Hussein’s predecessor, had a whale of a time laughing about it. Later on Wing Commander Pande had heard a rumour that apparently the Warsaw Pact forces on the other side of the Iron Curtain had sent a note of condolence for the American pilot. The implications of that, while scary (but not so much, everyone usually knew that the Warsaw Pact countries were observing the exercises), made the entire situation even more hilarious.

‘Moral of the story, always make sure you are not on an open network.’ Wing Commander Pande thought as he remembered something else. “How is your wife Hussein, I heard she is with child.”

“Yes sir, six months pregnant now, I am trying my best to make her feel comfortable, but you know, that is hard.” Came the reply from Flying Officer Hussein.

“Just tell me if you need any help, when we get back, I’ll tell Radha to go help madam so she would know what to do.”

“I appreciate that sir, thank you.”

“No need for thank yous, we are basically like family now.”

A small alert beeped in the cockpit, alerting the navigator.

“We are on the final waypoint approach, estimated at two minutes to target.” Flying Officer Hussein stated as he checked the Nav system.

“Roger that.” Wing Commander Pande responded as he looked out the cockpit towards what should have been a small island and ocean. Wing Commander Pande blinked once, twice, rubbed his eyes. He even pinched his thighs (as much as he could through his wingsuit) to make sure he wasn’t seeing things that could possibly get him grounded for life in the next psychological assessments. But no, he was pretty sure what he was seeing was real.

“Azhaar, are you sure the system is right? Looks like we are over Sri Lanka.” Wing Commander Pande broached.

“What do you mean….” Hussein looked out to see what Pande was talking about.

“What the--?! There's not supposed to be so much land mass near here!” Hussein said in shocked surprise and looked out.

“Yeah, I am going to break radio silence and figure out where in the world we have ended up.” Pande announced as he adjusted his radio to establish contact back to base.

Hussein grabbed his camera and began recording footage of the land, and started adjusting the camera pods to capture images of the landmass.

“That is not Sri Lanka! I know what it looks like, and that is not what it looks like, sir!” Hussein chirped out.

“Lynx-Two to Lynx-Mother, do you receive?” Pande spoke into his radio, only to get static as a response.

“Damn, the system seems broken.” Pande turned the transmission on to automatic to get a response from their headquarters.

“Sir, Maybe this was the mission? Maybe the Soviets are up to something and behind this?”

“You…. do have a point. The rumours of the CIA doing this with our ARC units do state the same.”

“Very well then sir, I’ll start capturing images.”

“Alright.”

---[-]---

Principality of Qua Toyne

April 19, Central Calendar Year 1639, 8 AM,

6th Wyvern Squadron.

It was the slow day and clear blue sky that made Marl Patima feel lazy enough to wish to end his patrol assignment as soon as possible so he could go back to Maihark and snuggle in his bed back at base. Yes, that was despite how infamously bad beds in base were.

While looking over the land, a slight screeching sound entered his ear, something which he had never heard before. Curious, he looked at the direction of the sound and could see a small blip heading towards him from the sea.

Grabbing his magi-comms, he started to contact headquarters, “Uhh… Knight Patima to HQ. I can see a strange object in the distance. Requesting permission to investigate.”

With threats of war and unification of the continent by the Louria Kingdom, something suspicious this deep in Qua Toyne’s territory was dangerous, as there was nothing but water from the direction it was approaching.

“HQ to Knight Patima, c permission gran-”

Before he could receive the entire transmission, the blip grew in size and passed by him, a loud deafening screech left in its wake. Patima could barely even see what flew past him, struggling to identify the metal bird.

“Knight Patima to HQ! The object is flying into our territory! I could barely see it! I am giving pursuit!”

Patima’s wyvern flapped its wings as hard and fast as it could, trying to hit its max speed, even then, the object started to grow smaller, confirming that it was faster than them.

“HQ to Knight Patima! Could you describe the object?”

Patima squinted his eyes and could discern the object coloured in a mixture of blue and green and had a circle near its tail, consisting of three colours orange, white and green. He was now sure it was not just some lost wyvern lost from its flock.

“Patima to HQ, the object appears to be some kind of a peculiarly coloured metal bird,it is flying very fast and…and its wings aren’t even flapping, I will continue pursuit of the object.”

His partner was now fiercely flapping its wings, but the wind pressure pushed hard against him, forcing him to on to the reins, or be thrown off to his death.

Despite his partner’s might, they were unable to catch up to the object. Hell he couldn’t even determine if the metal bird was a living being or not.

That was not it, the bird was heading straight for the port city of Maihark. Not wasting anymore time Fatima quickly contacted the HQ.

“HQ! I am unable to intercept the object, it is flying too fast! Be advised it is heading for Maihark, repeat it is heading towards Maihark.”

As soon as the information of something that is able to outrace a wyvern, heading for the economic capital, Qua-Toyne Principality entered into a controlled chaos. Orders began to be relayed via communication magic alerting the city and all available Wyvern units in the vicinity to intercept and shoot the object down. The commanders already feared with that kind of speed the object would have already entered mainland’s airspace.

The 6th Dragon Squadron was first to respond, scrambling to face the upcoming threat, while the Maihark garrison was also mobilised, their wall mounted ballistae armed with bolts and archers ready to fight the unknown enemy.

But when the unknown object arrived, its screeching noise made the defenders scramble to take cover, covering their ears, terrified by the unusual noise. Many believe it to be some kind of magic to make the defenders deaf as they run, their officers making a futile attempt to control their men. This was the same inside the city. Its panic stricken inhabitants took shelter in their homes, fearful of the noise.

The wyverns soon arrived and chased the object, opening their mouths wide as balls of fire began to form, preparing to shoot it down before it could further harm the city and its residents, when it suddenly pulled up towards the sky.

The squadron tried to follow after it but the object was too fast for them and went beyond the range of their mounts. They had to disengage and fly back to the city and bolster its defences if the object decided to come back for another round.

“What was that?” Captain Ine, commander of the Maihark Defence Knight Corps spoke out loud. She was the only one who did not panic and had let loose an arrow,in an effort to shoot the object down.

She continued to stare at the sky as the object was now a mere speck flying away from the mainland.

“Does that mean it doesn’t want to fight?” She asked herself “Or was it on a reconnaissance mission, scouting ahead before their main army arrives.”

She shuddered in fear at the thought of more of these objects showing up, flying faster than their wyverns and bloating the Principality’s skies. Making its people go mad by its nefarious noises and clearing the land for a future invasion.

---[+]---

Canberra PR.67

“What the hell was that?!” Pande shouted as he directed his aircraft away from the landmass.

“I have no bloody idea! Did you see those flying beasts! Marvelous right?” Hussien was still staring in awe as the beasts flew back towards the city and began to circle around it.

“Yes. I hope you got everything on the film?” Pande inquired.

“Yes sir, all of it. The intelligence spooks will be having a field day with all the data we just collected today.”

The Wing Commander nodded. “They sure will, have you set the nav system so that we know where to fly? We have already taken a lot of deviations from our planned route, not to forget this new piece of land with flying monsters just appeared in place of Sri Lanka.”

“Yes sir, no need to worry, we are on the right path and will soon be back in Indian airspace.”

“Very good, that is one less thing to worry about.” Pande tinkered with the radio system. “This piece of junk decided to go off when we needed it the most.”

“You would have requested for an entire fighter squadron to deal with those flying beasts.” Hussien smirked.

“You bet.”

“Lynx two to Lynx mother do you recieve ?” Pande kept on trying

After a few more minutes of silence, his high frequency radio crackled to life.

“Lynx Mother to Lynx Two, we copy loud and clear, send traffic. over.”

Both the men let out a sigh of relief.

“Lynx Two to Lynx Mother, we have encountered an unknown landmass in the place of the target’s location.”

After two beats of silence, the response came, “Lynx Two. Repeat, over.”

Pande gave a glance at his navigator before speaking on the radio again.

“Lynx Two to Lynx Mother, I say again we have encountered an unknown landmass larger than the intended target, much larger, in fact. With multiple human settlements. We had also encountered some resistance during our mission, but were able to achieve our objective and are on the way back to base.”

There was another moment of silence from the other side. This one is a little longer.

“Acknowledged Lynx Two, we are scrambling fighters to escort you back home, Lynx Mother out.”

After the communication was reestablished both men relaxed as much as they could in the cockpit.

“What a day.” Hussien commented

“You’re broaching the raising death flags no-go zone.” Wing Commander Pande said. “But yes, I have to agree. It was an odd and adventurous one.” Pande replied with a smile. He skillfully suppressed the foreboding feeling that something bad is going to happen soon from his companion.