The Air Force base, RAF Lakenheath, near Suffolk, ran on a staff of less than 10% the daily amount, which at the lowest was over 100 pilots and more than 400 air-controllers and other staff, such as engineers. This thin staffing meant it took almost 30 minutes to notice the two North American X-15 planes approaching an army firing range, about 5 klicks south-west of Lakenheath. As soon as one of the five air-controllers who were working that night noticed it, all the pilots who were on base, and several who were off base, were scrambled and ordered to either force the planes to land, or destroy them. The reason behind such a violent order was that the X-15 is the world's fastest plane, built by NASA, and reaching speeds over 4 times the speed of sound. Lakenheath's commander knew that if they didn't stop or destroy the planes, anything could happen.

*

As if being woken up at half-past-midnight wasn't bad enough, John Riddley knew he wouldn't be back to bed for atleast an hour. He knew that there were people at his work who could handle the problem, but he also knew he could get fired if he took too long to get to work.

Heading down the main corridor in his eighth floor apartment, he grabbed a small box of cereal, because he knew he wouldn't find anywhere to get food between his home and his work. He looked out the window, and saw two rather large planes blasting across the sky. It only took him seconds to realise what was going on, and he grabbed his keys and rushed out of his home.

*

It wasn't bad enough, having two planes going over 4,000 KMH, Lakenheath's commander also had to worry about his two run-ways, and the fact that more than fifteen planes taking to the sky. All of the planes would be loaded with atleast four air-to-air rockets, and over a hundred bullets for their cannons. Even worse, was the thought that, if these two planes turned out to be American fighter-pilots testing out new types of planes, he could face a court-martial.

He tried not to think of these thoughts, as he stood behind a row of air-traffic-controllers, many of which hadn't even been hired as military controllers, rather civilian controllers, who operated from a tower, which was on the base. He didn't worry about civilian flights falling from the sky, because all the flights that would've been in their air-space had been diverted to avoid the X-15 planes.

*

The main problems CHERUB campus security teams faced, were usually kids from on campus who had been out later than they were allowed. This crisis, was on a completely different scale. All the staff had been woken up by the sound of the alarm, which also woke all the security staff up. Manning the four 50mm cannons on campus was easy, but few of the security staff could remember the training they received in using them.

As the planes drew nearer to campus, an alarm started that was designed to wake all of campus up. It did this perfectly, putting out just under the amount of sound that can permanently damage hearing. As the alarm rang, an earth shaking explosion hit the main power building on campus, then the search-lights the cannons had used went out. But the shooting didn't stop, because the operators of the cannons could hear the planes, and shot towards the sound. Unfortunately, when an object goes faster than the speed of sound, the sound that it makes doesn't stay with in, instead, it is a fair distance from the object.

*

John drove flat out along the small roads through Suffolk, which gained him more camera flashes than there were at the Oscars. It also caused the police chase to after him. When he was less than 500m from the RAF base, the police had trebled in strength, to near 10 vehicles. He slowed at the first check-point to the base, showed the guard his military ID, and quickly drove through the raised barrier. As the barrier came back down, a police officer jumped out of her car and rushed towards the check-point.

"You have to let us through." She panted, slightly out of breath from the 100m run she had made to reach the check-point.

"I'm sorry, only military personnel and the civilian controllers who operate on this base are allowed through. Unless you have a warrant for a person's arrest, I can't even tell the commander you're here."

"Bollocks to that, let us through! That car you just let through was going over 120 MPH through Suffolk city centre!" she screamed, getting aggravated by the fact that the guard hadn't let her through, like she had expected.

"Ma'am, I'm fully aware you want to get through, but the driver of that car had been called to this base."

"Let me through, or I'll have to arrest you." The officer said, reaching for her baton.

"There's no need for that, go back to your car, turn around, and tell your commanding officer that he was wanted at Lakenheath Air-Force base."

"I'm arresting you under suspicion…" the officer began, before the Military Police officer reached towards his holster, which was hidden from the officer's view by the half-wall which the MP was stood behind.

"Turn around, and go back to your station," the MP said, firmly, as he drew his gun "that's an order!"

"You can't order me around! Let us through now!" the female officer said, her voice getting higher pitched as she realised that she wouldn't get through the gate unless she hit the MP with her baton.

*

The 50mm cannons on campus were louder than any weapon any of the kids, and most of the staff, had ever heard. As soon as the main power had gone off, a very small emergency generator in the basement of the main building, below the archives, rattled loudly into life. The generator provided less power than the search lights would need, but the generator only powered lights and electric doors, like the card scanner on the mission preparation building, so the buildings on campus could be evacuated.

As Lauren dropped her phone, another blast rippled through campus, throwing her towards her bathroom as the glass in the main building shattered. Lauren realised she may only have minutes to live.

Authors note: well, there's the second part of this multi-chapter section (I've decided to make some short chapters that fitted together well) I should have the next chapter done soon :)