Disclaimer: I do not own any movies set up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe or Star Wars movies, cartoons, games, books, or comics. They belong to their respective copyright owners. This story is not created with a commercial aim. It is not for sale or rent.
Phase 16:No one likes the taste of a future war
=SI=
Part 3
=SI=
Wakandan airspace
A Royal Talon Fighter slowly flew over the border, shacking and wobbling all the way. Its engine made interesting noises that were more than enough to have its pilot, Ihna Amvake, mutter prayers and curses in equal measure. She still didn't know how her cloaking system held long enough for the Talon to get over the Indian Ocean and to relative safety. By that point, Ihna had other things to worry about – the engine was spluttering. The Talon's controls felt progressively heavier, making for a nerve-wracking journey home.
Such an outcome was something Ihna didn't foresee or fear until the very end.
Until then, the operation went almost flawlessly for Amvake's squadron. They consistently hit targets with light defenses, and any return fire fortunate enough to hit predictably failed to cause damage through the vibranium armor of the Dragon and her Talon. Only when they were in relative safety, flying over the Himalayas, Ihna de-cloaked to contact command and receive new orders if necessary. After all, while cloaked, the same principles that bent light and made radar signals slide around her fighter did the same with radio waves and laser communication.
It was above the mountains that Ihna learned about disastrous encounters with outsider forces all over the world. Her squadron was one of the few fortunate ones not to fly against heavy outsider defenses, then proceed to suffer damage or even lose fighters. That came as a shock, just like the orders to continue but keep striking targets as a whole squadron instead of dividing into pairs to cover more ground.
Ihna did as ordered, of course. That was one of the primary missions she had trained for. Defend Royal Talons Fighters flying around the Royal Family or Tribal Leaders. Protect Wakanda's airspace against outsider incursion. Cripple the outsiders' economy, industry, or, more likely, attempts to catch up to Wakanda by delivering warrior strike teams to do it in person or air strikers no one would know the source of.
With all the talk about aliens in the outside world the War Dogs reported on, this was a priceless opportunity, the briefing told them. Hours ago, Ihna believed it. The ease with which her squadron took out targets confirmed it. Then the news of losses, orders to continue anyway, and to use different tactics, shook her confidence. Still, the first attacks in China unfolded with little trouble. There were more defenders to worry about compared to India, but far from enough to stop them. Instead, they faced a target-rich environment.
That lasted until Amvake's squadron hit a regional capital and went for the fusion reactor under construction there.
The defenses they faced at that place were nothing like anything Ihna had seen before. When her squadron de-cloaked and opened fire, what felt like hundreds of missiles rose to meet them. Over a hundred fighters descended from the low clouds, and all Ihna could do was fight for her life and pray that she could cloak again.
The outsiders destroyed four Dragons above that city; they killed four of her friends – people she had trained and flown alongside for years! And all Ihna could do was run and pray as a missile after a missile struck her Talon.
It was pure luck that she managed to break contact. In the end, no less than a dozen enemy fighters were on her tail, and only their inability to maintain a targeting lock for long enough allowed Ihna to flee. She didn't know it, but if there were even a few more of China's modern fighters in the area, the odds of her ever seeing Wakanda again would have been far more remote.
A pair of Dragons raced to meet her Talon soon after it crossed the border. One of them hovered in front of Ihna's cockpit to confirm who was flying the damaged fighter. That was far from ordinary behavior, and soon she understood why. While the Dragons escorted her damaged Talon to the hangars near the Vibranium Mound, she could see smoke rising on the horizon.
"How many made it back?" Ihna asked her new wingmen.
"We lost nearly a quarter of the air force. A few more damaged fighters are attempting to get back. However, you might be the last that makes it," Came the terse response. "We should have struck years ago or not bothered," Her fellow pilot spat.
Impossible, Ihna's mind screamed at her.
"While we were away, the outsiders struck back, as you can see. They hit the Golden City and then the defensive rings."
The location of the smoke plumes registered, and now they made sense. There was nothing of critical importance in that area of the country, so it was chosen to host the cannons.
"Incoming raid! All available fighters scramble! Attack vectors will follow shortly!"
"Go get your Talon repaired before it falls out of the sky," The second Dragon pilot suggested in a tired voice, and Ihna's escorts broke off. Her navigation system lit up with beacons showing the direction of the incoming missiles. They were coming from three sides, and the strike was likely timed to hit simultaneously to make it harder to intercept.
As Ihna flew, struggling to control her sluggish Talon, she passed above the outer defensive network. IFF system shook hands, and the pilot gasped at the gaps in the neat ring. This shouldn't be happening! It shouldn't have happened in the first place! Ihna needed answers, and she was about to get them!
=SI=
The Golden City
Wakanda
In Wakanda, protests were a rare thing indeed. Something extraordinary had to happen for regular citizens to gather and demand something from their government as a whole. As a matter of fact, any smaller issues were to be presented to the leadership of your tribe and let them sort it out either by themselves or bring it up at the next meeting of the Tribal Council.
That didn't change after the news of a military coup against King T'Chaka and the Golden Tribe. The first reactions were confusion and mixed anger. If it wasn't for slowly but surely spreading persisting rumors that the King had been seriously contemplating selling out to the outside world for what few considered good reasons, things might have been different. Yet, those rumors made people doubt and wonder; they also ensured that the anger over the coup was divided between those who breached tradition in such an unprecedented way and T'Chaka for forcing their hands.
Things changed after outsider planes flew through the Golden City's holographic field and fought above its glimmering buildings. Explosions shook Wakanda's capital, burning fuel and fragments rained all over it. The mountainsides nesting the Golden City burned, struck by outsider weapons.
Unprecedented shock, fear, anger, and confusion spread through the capital's citizens. They did demand answers from their Tribal Leaders. At the same time, more and more people gathered in front of the Royal Palace, demanding answers.
Rows of Border Tribe warriors met them, forming a line of glowering shields and spears. These warriors weren't the colorful, familiar, and famous Dora Milaje in place to deal with the odd fool who might do something foolish.
Meanwhile, above them, the city's shield glowed blue, active, and ready to meet more incoming outsider weapons.
To everyone's surprise, M'Kathu, the leader of the Border Tribe, walked out of the palace, moved through the ranks of his warriors, and faced the crowds.
Mutters, demands, and curses greeted him.
"My countrymen, you have questions, and I will answer them! You are angry, and rightfully so! I was one of the people who broke tradition in a way that should be seen as insane under most circumstances. If given the option, my only regret is I didn't do it sooner!" M'Kathu's words echoed over the gathered crowds, taking many aback.
Confused and angry mutters answered him.
"Under King T'Chaka, we grew complacent! We let the outside world advance undisturbed, and now, we are paying the price for our hubris! For over a decade, we watched the outsiders turn towards their colonizer ways, trying and failing to find a cheap way forward in places like Afghanistan and Iraq! We knew, yet refused to acknowledge, that given the chance, the same would happen here, in our beloved Wakanda! Instead of doing his best to prevent such a future from ever coming to be, King T'Chaka did nothing until it was too late! Then, he decided to compound his weakness with betrayal!" M'Kathu raised a hand, and holograms across the city came alive, showing a recording of T'Chaka, trying to persuade the Mining Tribe's Leader that opening up might be Wakanda's best path forward.
"This treachery against all Wakanda is and stands for forced our hands!" M'Kathu declared. "Yet, I am afraid to inform you that we acted too late to safeguard Wakanda's future. The Outsiders have advanced enough to be credible threats, and our air force's punishing losses are proof of that. Now we are at war, and the colonizers will be coming to rape Wakanda to strip us of our technology, vibranium, and very identity! Will you allow that to happen to you and your children, citizens of Wakanda? Or will you fight and show the outside world that this is Wakanda? That we will not be bent, bowed, or broken to satisfy the colonizer's appetites?! What say you?!"
Ragged, angry cheers met M'Kathu's demands, though far from everyone was happy, much less cheering.
=SI=
Part 4
=SI=
An overwhelming majority of Wakandan diplomatic personnel worldwide surrendered to local security forces after the address by exiled Prince T'Challa. Unfortunately, there are isolated instances where Wakandan diplomats and support personnel failed to heed the calls for surrender, which led host countries to declare themselves compromised by alien interests, remove their diplomatic protection, and storm Embassies and Consulates.
We have government statements confirming that happened across China, at the Wakandan Consulates in New York, the United States, Bombay, India, Saudi Arabia…
BBC World News
US Defense Contractors announced they would rapidly expand weapon production lines and are looking to hire experienced personnel.
USA Today
Experts warn we are to expect shortages and spike hikes as far as civilian electronics of all types are concerned due to the war. The extensive damage caused by the Wakandan attacks and the sheer hunger of Military-Industrial Complexes worldwide for rare earth materials will guarantee such a shift, which will continue for at least a year after the conflict concludes.
Euronews
Shots and explosions were reported within the capitals of Kenya and Tanzania! With both countries neighboring Wakanda, this is a possible Wakandan invasion or coup attempt to prevent using those countries as staging grounds against the rogue African nation.
Associated Press
Cruise missile stocks might run dangerously low before ramped-up production, and new production lines coming online could make up for ongoing use, experts claim.
Washington Post
US Air Force flying from bases in the Middle East and NATO Air Forces, operation from Southern Europe launched missile barrages against Wakanda, violating the air spaces of multiple African countries. Protests so far have fallen on deaf ears.
BBC News
EU and NATO officials will meet with ambassadors and foreign ministers from multiple African countries in Brussels. The topic is obvious – the ongoing war against Wakanda.
Due to Wakanda's nature as a landlocked country in Central Africa, the only way to strike back at it is by flying through the airspace and putting boots on the ground of neighboring states. Despite what international laws might claim, citing neutrality and trying to stay out of the conflict might not be an option for Wakanda's neighbors.
CNN
=SI=
SHIELD facility X, a former Canadian military research site
Northern Canada
Wakanda's near indiscriminate attacks on universities and research centers worldwide had a curious reaction upon many academics and researchers who otherwise might have been against war. A direct consequence was the ease with which SHIELD, SWORD, and their patron governments managed to gather many of Earth's brightest minds in the middle of nowhere, deep within the Canadian north.
I knew many of the people by reputation, if not personally, and I have met most during science symposiums I attended back in the day when I wasn't too drunk to operate otherwise.
SHIELD Agents were doing their best to corral the grumpy scientists and engineers to their rooms and familiarize them with the facility and laboratories so that everyone would know their way around. More importantly, we could order any equipment we might need but wasn't present at all or in sufficient quantities.
We had a practically unlimited budget and access to everything Earth's most developed countries save for Wakanda had to crack Wakandan stealth, ideally yesterday. I wasn't sure about the details of the horse-trading involved. However, we were about to get one count of Wakandan exiled Princess with a decent understanding of their tech, flying in a fully operational heavy fighter for us to examine.
Victor von Doom and Susan Storm stood beside me, watching the unfolding chaos with barely disguised disgust and tired acceptance. Those two were here due to their experience in aerospace engineering, which might come in handy, and to learn lessons from the Talon fighter that we might use for the next step of the uplift. Victor and his corporation were on board with the plan, and as a bonus, we got Dr. Storm through her association with von Doom.
"How are you handling this?!" Victor grumbled and waved a hand at the chaotic crowd. "I feel like shocking them to get them in line!"
"Experience."
"You two are behaving like spoiled children," Susan groaned.
"Don't tell me you feel differently!" Victor grumbled.
"Irritated? Oh, I am," Storm gave us a pointed look, and we briefly got a glimpse of her emotions. "Ready to commit senseless violence? Hell, no!"
"Some days, I don't know what I will do without you…" von Doom sighed in fond exasperation. "Of course, when you are ready to commit violence, it's never senseless, dear!"
"Clear the landing area! We have incoming traffic!" A loudspeaker crackled to life. SHIELD agents raced to do so, bringing the last scientists and engineers away just in time. A black aircraft landed vertically on a large cargo elevator meant to get supplies and heavy equipment deep within the facility.
So this was the Talon when intact. It was a beautiful bird, and I couldn't wait to get my hands on it.
=SI=
I listened to the general explanation of how Wakanda's shields and cloak worked while standing in front of monitors showing the feeds of every sensor type you could think of. They all showed the location of a landed, invisible Royal Talon. Radar was a no-go. Experimental lidar – in theory, it could detect the distortion produced by the cloak bending light around the craft and the holographic field, yet in practice, said distortion was so slight that in the atmosphere, it was so far beyond the error margin that the system had to dismiss displaying it automatically wasn't funny. Using it against this would show false positives all over the place if we sufficiently lowered the sensitivity settings. The thing was quiet enough that acoustics were impractical. By the time sensitive microphones could detect its presence, especially when it had flown at subsonic speeds, it would already be above your head, shooting. Pinpointing a targeting solution that way was a nightmare. It would also be pointless if or when Wakanda deployed missiles and bombs.
The sheer processing power needed to use acoustics, and the infrastructure attached, would require an AI and years of development for a marginal payoff at best. It might be a nice thing to have if we found no other way to get the job done in a defensive posture, but highly impractical for the time being.
Thermal was useless when the thing flew at subsonic, and that was complete and utter bullshit. I knew it was because of the combo of a cloaking and shielding system, but still, we should have been able to see something when the thing moved, even if it wasn't the vessel itself!
This left us with indirect ways to detect the thing. The best viable idea was using very sensitive weather radars to try and track the cloaked fighters in real-time through the distortions in air currents and such their passage should cause. That might work as a way to get early warning, track the things, and perhaps even target them with weapons that didn't need direct kills to bring down fighters… That was a prominent issue when facing Wakandan craft – those things were, in some respects, tougher than tanks. Unless we used tactical nuclear weapons like firecrackers, proximity kills would be near impossible.
After the preliminary examination ended, our consensus was that Wakanda was 'bullshit of the highest order' and that we might be able to theoretically crack the shield and cloak before we got a viable way to detect and target cloaked vessels with weapons requiring a direct hit.
That meant we might have to figure out a brand-new type of detection system.
One thing was sure, by seeing what this thing was capable of for me, I was more determined than ever to recommend we take Wakanda's scientists, engineers, and production lines intact. Parts of what they had weren't just decades ahead of us. They were likely ahead by centuries in specific fields to make what this thing was capable of a reality. Was vibranium that much of a game-changer, or did Wakanda indeed have alien patrons?!