The call finally went through, crackling softly. It was hard to hear over the television in the bar, which was turned up to full volume. Stacker lifted the phone to his ear, but kept his eyes firmly glued to the television. The impossible was happening, after all.

"Luna," he said. "Are you watching this?"

This was the wreckage of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, smashed beyond recognition by a monstrosity out of nightmare. The thing that had emerged from the waters of the bay was huge, taller than the Tower of London and almost as wide; hunchbacked and armored and unstoppable. Its roar overwhelmed every other sound, obscuring even the engine of the helicopter filming it.

The BBC newsreader was in too much shock to make much sense. "The … phenomenon … appears to be moving, it looks like it's moving towards the city of San Francisco. There are some seven million people in the immediate area, and evacuation is proceeding slowly –"

"I'm glad you got through, Stacks!" His sister's voice was barely audible. He could hear the sounds of a working flightline through the phone – jet engines, shouted commands, rolling tires. Stacker's heart dropped.

"Luna, are you seeing this? What's going on in San Francisco?" Stacker cupped his hand over the receiver, repeating himself again to try and make himself understood over the noise of the bar.

"As a matter of fact, the squadron's getting ready to fly a sortie against that thing out of Vandenberg."

"Luna, that's ridiculous. You're on holiday -"

She cut him off. "Just a cover. Sorry, big brother. We've actually been training on the new fighters. Would have told you, but I thought you probably knew anyway."

"Luna, the Americans can't order to you do this. You're RAF, who's in the chain of command over there -"

"We volunteered."

Stacker could hear the roar of the fighters in the background. She must be almost on the tarmac. He put his head in his hands. What is Mum going to say when I can't talk her out of this? "Can I ask why?"

"Because forty years ago when Nazis were bombing our hometown, some mad Yanks had the bollocks to come fly with us," Luna said. "It's time to repay the favor."

Stacker almost laughed. It was something he would have said, and she knew it. "That's beautiful, Luna, but we both know it's because you want to slay a dragon."

"True! And when am I going to get another chance?" Luna's voice was cheerful. Stacker remembered his own first combat mission, and sighed. "By the way, Tamsin says hi."

"Say hi to her, too." And she'd better keep you safe. "Be careful, Luna. It looks like the apocalypse out there."

He could hear her grinning through the phone. "Not if I have anything to say about it."

The phone cut off then, and for a long minute all he could see was his sister's dark eyes and devilish smile, the one that drove the boys crazy and which her big brother could never refuse.

Stacker stayed at the bar, staring at the television and waiting for the airstrikes to come in. People were clustered around the television, mostly staring in shocked silence. One man was cursing over and over again in disbelief: "This can't be fucking real! That's a goddamn fake!" Another was going on about how it had to be "terrorists." A woman snapped back that the monster didn't look much like a Muslim to her.

Days later Stacker would fruitlessly rewind the news footage of K-Day, watching for when the initial flight of F-35s made their first bomb run. They came in almost too fast to see, blazing across the sky. Blossoms of fire and smoke lit across the kaiju's enormous back, and the jets came on, firing their 25mm cannons. Blink once, and they were gone, shooting out of frame, and when the smoke cleared the kaiju roared to the sky as if in defiant mockery. It appeared utterly unhurt.

The people in the bar released an audible buzz of shock. OhmyGoditsstillmovingnotevenscratched-

Stacker's fists clenched unconsciously. He knew the F-35s' first volley had been their heaviest weaponry; most of the jets would be out of everything but cannon ammo and air-to-air Sidewinders, barely sufficient for shooting delicate aircraft from the sky. He also knew Luna, and there was no way she would abandon the battlefield for something as trifling as lack of ammunition.

Seconds later, three of the fighters were diving back into the fight, their cannons lighting the sky. The monster ignored them as they sped past. Two kept going, climbing away from the fray. One broke ranks, dropping its speed as it climbed and looping back down in a perfect Immelmann turn. It dove towards the monster, accelerating to face it head on. A Sidewinder leapt from the fighter's wing just as the monster's enormous claw smashed the plane from the sky.

Stacker felt his throat closing up. He couldn't breathe at all. That couldn't be – no, that wasn't-

He fled from the bar, pushing horrified patrons out of the way. Everyone ignored him as he emerged on the street.

People were walking the street like nothing was happening. Stacker stared at them. His world – maybe all their worlds - had just ended, and they didn't even know.

Luna's voice came back to him. Not if I have anything to say about it.

Stacker straightened his back. The Ministry of Defence was two blocks away. He made it in under a minute.