Despite Dulles Airport being locked down, Air Force One raced down the runway till it gained enough speed for takeoff. Jim clutched the arm rests as he felt his body being pressed against his seat by the g-forces. No matter how many trips he had taken aboard Air Force One, the takeoffs were always unbearable to him.
Max, a black haired, tanned man wearing a black suit, sat beside the younger blonde hair man. Finally feeling the plane level off, he glanced over to see Jim relaxing his grip. "Better?"
"Yeah....these damn take offs…" Jim grumbled as he looked outside the window beside his passenger seat.
"Don't sweat it, Jimmy. Too much going on right now….hell my stomach is in knots too." Max rubbed his head, taking off his glasses.
"Where are they taking us anyway?"
"Norad…the sooner the better."
"Those things in New York….why were we not prepared for this?" Jimmy continued to look out the window. "Just where is the damn President? Not one word since the attack…"
"We have tons of plans against attacks from Iraq or Iran…not this. How do we prepare for such a thing? Preliminary casualty count is up to 2,000 civilians already…Christ…this is worse than September 11th." Max grumbled lowly as he looked around the seat in front of him to see two of the secret service agents talking amongst themselves. One of the agents made eye contact with Max, then the two of them turned their backs to continue the conversation.
Suddenly Jim noticed that one of the F-16's that was escorting them broke hard right. Scared, he pressed his face tightly against the window to see where the brown jet went. "This is bad…."
"What is it? Jimmy, what's going on?" Max asked in alarm.
"One of the Falcons…it broke out formation…" ---------------------------
Outside the three F-16 Fighting Falcon pilots conversed amongst themselves and the pilot of Air Force One. One of the jets kept his position to the side of the jumbo jet, while the second one maneuvered his plane to the back just in case of a rear attack. The third fighter jet was forced to break and search quickly for their soon to be attacker. "Bogey closing in fast!" The fighter plane to the back stated.
"Razor, do you see em' up there?" The pilot to the right of Air Force One, known as CoolHand, asked.
"Affirmative. He's not squawking either!" Razor stated as he saw a visual out of the canopy. A white blur straight ahead and closing in fast. He couldn't quite make out what type of aircraft it was just yet.
"He's locked onto us!" The Air Force One pilot screamed out.
"Drop flares and move right!" CoolHand instructed coolly as he broke to the right to allow the larger jet to maneuver.
"I'll stay on your six to take any shot," The other pilot known as Jester replied back calmly.
"Visual made. It's an F-15! It's one of ours!" Razor replied back happily.
"Are you sure about that?" CoolHand asked as he continued to guide the jumbo jet.
"Doesn't look alien to me." Razor switched to his radio. "F-15, you are entering restricted airspace. Please identify yourself." There was silence…seconds passed. "Come on, damn you! Answer! If you were hostile, you would fire already! " The jet continued to approach. "F-15, I repeat. You are entering restricted airspace. Please identify or you will be shot down. Over."
"Razor, he's taking too long!" CoolHand interrupted over the radio.
"Bring that son of a bitch down!" Jester yelled. Fear creeping into the back of his own mind as he stayed at Air Force One's six.
"Alright…." Razor sighed. "Switching from guns to missiles. Sidewinders ready." He gritted his teeth as he watched the jet come up into his display. His weapons system detecting it…a beep signaling that the jet was within range of his missiles. His finger on the trigger hesitating as he looked on. In the back of his mind, he was worried. What if the jet was not really hostile? He would shoot down and kill an innocent pilot. What if the jet's radio was malfunctioned? What if the pilot was instructed to have complete radio silence until they were closer? "No. No jet would be instructed to keep radio silence while approaching Air Force One." No squawking instantly allowed lethal force to be used. The one part of Razor's job that he hated….
"We have the president aboard for God's sake! Shoot damnit!!" The Air Force One pilot screamed as an alarm blared inside his cockpit indicating that they were still locked on.
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"He who hesitates is lost….pathetic," Starscream muttered to himself as he saw the jet flying towards him from Air Force One. For fun, he decided to allow the jets to take the first shot at him. However, they didn't fire. Becoming bored with his charade, Starscream fired two missiles. Within seconds, they met their target, blowing up Razor completely. The explosion was so sudden from impact that the pilot didn't have time to eject before being vaporized by the inferno.
Starscream engaged the afterburners and screamed through the sky towards his prey. The jet to the side of Air Force One broke off to engage. This one did not hesitate and it shot. Starscream kept his position allowing the missile to near, toying with the pilot with the false belief that he would be blown out of the sky. Right before impact, Starscream maneuvered to his right side into a barrel roll as the missile missed and went off course. "My turn…" The seeker laughed as he shot his own missile which clipped off the jet's wing. The jet went into a deadly spiral before crashing below into the river.
"CoolHand!" Starscream's radio crackled up to life as he overheard the remaining pilot's scream in mourning. "You bastard! Show your ugly self! " The last fighter jet broke hard up into a vertical climb as it maneuvered itself into a loop and repositioned itself behind Starscream.
Starscream laughed seeing the opportunity for an easy kill to Air Force One that the angry pilot gave him. However, for now, he would play. It wasn't like the pathetic insects could really do him any harm. "If I must…" The seeker transformed from his alt mode into his robot mode. He glanced back at the jet. "Satisfied?"
Jester's face turned white as he looked on, seeing the flying robot in front of him. The reports from New York were true…there were aliens on Earth…and these aliens were very hostile. Fearing for his own life and anger for the loss of his comrades, Jester felt his eyes fill with hot tears. "Die!!" He screamed out in rage as he pressed the fire button on the stick repeatedly, unleashing a barrage of missiles.
Starscream laughed tauntingly as he lifted up straight into the air, easily dodging the missiles. However, two of them impacted the back end of Air Force One, which was left unprotected. Smoke came out from the rear of the jumbo jet as it jerked violently to try to stay in the air. "What the hell are you doing back there?!! Where is our backup?!!" The Air Force One pilot screamed over the radio. Starscream continued to laugh as he stayed in the sky, watching on in hover mode.
"Oh God…what have I done…" Jester's voice shook as he saw Air Force One slowly losing altitude.
"Nice shooting…" Starscream smirked.
"Air Force One…can you fly back to Dulles?" Jester tried to do a visual scan of the jet's damages. He already knew the answer….
"Negative. Stabilizers are severely damaged…I can't hold her in the air much longer…." The jumbo jet's pilot spoke out. "She's going down towards Lincoln Memorial. I can't even get her to move sideways….I pray there is no one down there…"
Starscream watched Air Force One begin its deadly descent. Seeing that there was nothing he could really do now, Jester growled as he punched the throttle and broke hard to the right. If Air Force One was going down, so was this alien! Switching quickly to guns for short range combat, he pulled the trigger. The bullets struck Starscream on the left leg, the damage was not critical but it still caused him pain. Starscream wailed, "Slag! How dare you!!"
"Come on!" Jester taunted as he blasted past Starscream.
"Enough playing…." Starscream fumed as he chased after the jet, transforming back to his alt mode.
Jester did a scissor maneuver, but he was unable to shake the white jet. No matter how many complex tricks he did that he learned back in flight school, Starscream was unlike any adversary that he had dealt with before.
Suddenly there was a large explosion, which caught Jester's attention. He looked back to the side of his canopy to see that Air Force One crashed into the Lincoln Memorial. The front of the jet severed off and the entire frame was engulfed in fire. There were no survivors from what he could tell. His heart sank. All those men and women on board…including the President of the United States, he let them down…
The pilot's distraction was what Starscream needed. Transforming back into his robot mode, he ripped completely through the jet, shredding it into pieces. The kill was so sudden, that he didn't even give the pilot time to react. Pieces of the F-16 along with the pilot's remains fell down to the Earth where the Air Force One was.
Glancing back down one last time, Starscream shook his head in disgust and made his way back to New York.
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"Starscream, I would have expected you to be fighting alongside your brothers." Megatron addressed his second-in-command as the flier landed next to him back in New York.
"My men are capable of looking after themselves, " Starscream replied. With a smirk across his face, he added, "Besides, I had some business to take care of in their nation's capital."
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