At Area 51, Trump and Pence arrived. They took a look at the facility, and was rather underwhelming on the outside.
"I know, Mr. President, but looks aren't everything," said Howard Wells, Area 51 engineer. "You will see how impressive inside is."
Wells did a gesture to a small tower near the dummy structure and all of a sudden, sliding doors opened on the surface to an elevator. Trump and Pence were surprised by the advanced mechanism, and boarded the elevator. The elevator was also quick, with both of them feeling the low-gravity effect. When the elevator car stopped, the doors opened to find a facility straight out of science-fiction, with hover technology on some vehicles, high-precision plasma guns, special R&D sections, and more. Pence fainted at the spectacle presented to him.
"Oh my," said Trump while admiring at the machines. "Congress will certainly be – wait… how did you receive funding?"
"From the Secret Government Agency or SGA," Wells replied. "They give us about the same budget you give to the military: US$597B."
"Holy crap! And I must say that what you accomplished here -"
"-is what NASA could have done years ago with the same funding," Wells cut in the dialogue. "We are almost done with our experimental XSF-01 SpaceFire, based off of the cancelled X-44 MANTA, to help with extra-terrestrial defense."
"Which is what just happened 2 days ago," added Trump. "Our F-35's are doing a good job with the TIE Fighters."
"You don't have the armament to fight what other craft are to come. See this?" Wells showed him a shield generator module. "This is recovered from a spacecraft destroyed over the Atlantic. Normal ammunition won't work on it." He fired a few shots of 25 mm cannon to the shield. All shots flattened upon impact with the shield. "The shield did get some damage, but it did no damage inside. Shows that the shield is at 94% after 9 shots."
"Oh shit… but then how come we had destroyed 9 of them?"
"Maybe the shields were out of off. Anyways, here is what we designed a couple of weeks ago. We haven't tested it yet, but it is coming to fruition."
He showed him to a small weapons range. Then, he activated it, making a whirring sound. "May you do the honors?"
Trump fired a shot. He was kicked back by the effects. First the gun made a glowing light near the muzzle. A split-second later it made a loud bang. The projectile exited the barrel at Mach 4, and hit a metal plate 300 meters away. After impact, it shot an additional stream of napalm for an extra 50 meters.
"Holy shit! What was that?"
"That is the new weapon we called the XM-132A Air-to-Air SuperCannon. It fires 30x158 mm HEAT rounds designed to defeat armored units, or in this case, shielded space fighters. Two of these will be used on the XSF-01. We also noticed on the videos that they have no BVR capabilities, so we equipped the fighters with long-range aim-assist to shoot down the aliens before they could even reach us."
"Impressive. The USAF will definitely buy this."
"Unfortunately, we only have 6 sets of the two engines we designed for it. We can only make 3 XSF-01's."
"Say, what are the powerplants?"
"Come, I'll show you." They headed to another area in the facility.
"This is the A51-75/1A solar-reaction engine. It uses solar particles to initiate a reaction. It is a very fuel-efficient and powerful engine, compatible with the slots for the F-119 turbofan. It has additional vents than can vector some of the thrust to help aim the velocity vector towards our heading to help with maneuverability."
"So that means we can also convert our F-22's to fight in space?"
"In a way, yes."
"But what about ground or naval technologies?"
"You saw the hover vehicles, right? We are still developing that in a large-scale AFV, but we have the weapons designed." He opened up an advanced tablet-like gadget and showed him the designs.
"This here," pointing at the screen, "is our newest design. It is a 135 mm coli-assisted smoothbore gun that can be attached to existing vehicles easily. It fires tungsten carbide-tipped APFSDS rounds that can pierce Combination K easily. It can also fire a unique type of HEAT round using a thermobaric explosive and tungsten lining for its high melting point."
"Mmhmm… Keep going."
"And this type of armor here," showing the screen again, "is what we call the Tungsten-Iridium Technologically Advanced Next-Generation Armor, or TITAN Armor. We are trying to develop it to improve upon the Chobham, and will be tested - in small areas, on the M1A3 to see it's effectiveness. It is hoped to be more thermally resilient to protect against thermal and direct-energy weapons. Being harder than Chobham is not a goal. Also, it is only slightly lighter per square inch than Chobham, so can be used to further lighten heavy MBT's."
"Wow. These really are all ahead of time. But I'll be taking my leave now. I am being called back to Washington DC."
"Okay, bye. Looking forward to seeing you soon. And mind picking up your friend there?"
"What?" He looked at the ground and saw Mike Pence, still fainted. "Oh, right…"
"I have read the reports of our invasion, Grand Admiral," spoke Officer Kunvalov. "Seems we have underestimated the natives... what do we call them? They may as well try, because our powerful weapons of war are not to be underestimasted."
"Get the crew to load up a total of 10 AT-AT's from the fleet with 6 legions to assist. We will need to strike hard," said Grunger.
"But where?"
"Admiral, permission to speak freely, sir?" said an intel officer.
"Granted."
"I have found that there is one nation on the planet that has the highest threat potential, so powerful that it is the mediator. So far, I have found 3 targets of interest." He shows him the holograph. "This is where the leader resides," showing the White House. "This is, however, heavily guarded, and any attempt will just corner our units." He switched the image to a different location. "This is their economic center, located somewhere else," showing the World Trade Center. "Destroying it would put the country in a collapse, but it is in a middle of a city. Even an airstrike attempt will get us nowhere, knowing they can just swat us off the skies." He switched it to a more remote location. "These are their secret tech facilities, in the white lands," showing a small structure in the middle of nowhere. "Here is footage of the facility entrance," he spoke, playing the video feed. "Trying to attack it, however, will result in us losing more than we can spare, so I recommend targeting that last. Also, we found a nice, remote location where we can set up a forward base."
"Where is it?"
"It is a small, unpopulated island north of the 'mediator' nation. Large enough to support a large base. There, we can continue our invasion with greater speeds."
"Okay, have our units land on the island instead. We will begin our true invasion later. For now, we'll build a base on the planet surface. Hopefully, we can be enlightened about the planet, it's culture, and stuff."
"Thank you, Admiral."
Jason is flying with Joseph with 6 others on the F-35A. This is a quick patrol mission, scanning for the alien craft. As they were flying, they noticed 24 orange streaks of what he assumed would be either a deorbiting space station, which is highly unlikely, or the aliens trying to invade again.
"This is Lightning-1, requesting to go off-course for investigation," Jason called.
"Permission granted, Lightning-1," Home Base replied.
"Roger that." Jason and his squadronmates turned towards the orange streaks when he noticed some of them exploded, adding to the orange fireworks. He assumed that the craft was going too fast for its shields to handle, so it disintegrated. They put safety off to prepare for a fighter engagement, but didn't fire. They decided that they won't fire a shot unless they were engaged. They kept 50-65 miles away from the contacts and took some pictures. After evaluating the situation, he decided to follow them for intel.
"Lightning Squadron, hold your fire," said Jason. "Fire only when engaged."
"Affirmitive, Lightning-1," said his squadronmates.
They flew for another 30 miles when they noticed the craft dropping from level flight. He then chose to ask a nearby F/A-18F pilot to investigate the craft, since he is nearer. He agreed, and what he inferred is that they are setting up camp in an empty island in Canada.
"Canada?! That is bad! We will plan for a future airstrike on the craft, for now, we gotta bug out."
"Roger." said Joseph.
While they were flying, they saw 8 more unidentified contacts on their HMD's moving at Mach 0.85 50 miles to the left. He dismissed it, because he wanted to go back to base, and ran full afterburner. It would seriously cut their range, but all he cared now was to get back fast.
"This is Red Leader to Local Base, our sensors detected 8 local fighters moving left relative to us at 1976 km/h, almost twice as fast as us. What do we do?"
"Try activating your shields to catch up. It would help." replied Han Solo.
Red Squadron proceeded to open up their shields and go Mach 2.7; faster, and they'll have to deal with increased atmospheric heating.
After a few minutes that seemed forever, they finally intercepted the fighters. What they observed is that it is visually nice to look at. All the edges are placed right where they are needed to be. There was a single, large engine at the back, which surprised them, since X-wings had 4. It looked harmless, but he assumed that the weapons are hidden since it is a fighter. He also noticed it had two canted vertical tail surfaces, and wondered what it is for.
He tried calling the squadron with different comms frequencies, which eventually worked.
"This is Red Leader to the local fighter squadron, do you copy?"
"Red Leader, this is Lightning-1, please be advised you are approaching U.S.-controlled airspace, I recommend you break off." Jason replied.
"Negative, I am curious about your military capabilities and wish to enter your borders."
"Ugh, fine." He switched frequencies to Home Base. "This is Lightning-1, requesting Red Squadron to land in the airbase."
"Negative, we will be sending a single F-16V to evaluate the situation before we fully confirm."
"Red Leader, I advise you keep close to me. They are sending another fighter to intercept us."
"Copy, Lightning-1."
7 minutes later, the F-16V approached visual range. The pilot observed 8 T-65's flying side-by-side with the F-35's. He confirmed the situation, and Home Base opened up its runways for the fighters.
At the same time, Red Leader saw the F-16V. He saw a very different design with a menacing appearance with 8 missiles, with the same single-engine look. By now, he is wondering if all fighters here have only one engine for power.
When they arrived to Home Base, Lightning-1 ordered Red Squadron to loiter above the airbase until after all of Lightning Squadron has landed safely. To this, Red Leader complied, and proceeded to shut off its shields in preparation for landing.
"Red Leader, you are clear to land."
The ground crew were amazed about how efficient their lift system is, smoothly and gracefully landing vertically in a neat grid. Almost everyone wanted to take one apart and study it, but had to restrain themselves when they saw how complex the wiring is. They didn't need to, anyway, since they acquired a TIE/ln.
Red Leader introduced himself as Garven Dreis, his direct wingman, Red Two, as Prav Galen, and Red Three as Darwin Cobalt.
"It is certainly a pleasure to meet you three," said the commanding officer. "Come, let's talk a bit."
"Uh, okay."