-BICKLE77's-
GAMING ALES
So I was a runner up in the The Bureau: XCOM Declassified UFO Contest. Woo! The winning entry was by Claire Passmore and you can read it here. *whispers* I think she's a proper writer because it's a really good peice. Anyway, here's my runner-up effort and a pic of the rather swish prize:
The craft banked effortlessly away as the missile struck the passenger plane. The fuselage started to disintegrate even before the immense fireball engulfed the rest of the aircraft. Burning debris and bodies tumbled away to earth beneath the fighter jet. "Oh God, what have we done!" whispered the fighter pilot. The brief moment of eerie quiet was shattered as the radio crackled into life, "This is Overwatch, continue to engage craft."
"But Sir, our missile just downed a passenger plane! The object evaded at the last second." responded the fighter pilot. "The craft has shown no aggression, it just seems to be observing. We need to abort the mission!"
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified UFO Contest
"Noted Lieutenant, but that's a negative on your abort request. Continue to engage."
"But Sir...!"
"CONTINUE TO ENGAGE! THAT IS A DIRECT ORDER!"
The fighter pilot gritted his teeth, "Sir, yes sir." The F-22 Raptor banked sharply in the direction of the unidentified craft which now appeared to be in a stationary position some way off. The sun reflected brightly off its silvery metallic hull as it silently hung there. A sitting duck. As the jet was coming into range, the aiming reticule flared red. "Target locked. Fox Three, missile away!" There was a slight judder as the air-to-air missile detached and sped towards its target. With active radar homing and a speed hitting Mach 4, no craft should have stood a realistic chance of evading the fire-and-forget missile. As the pilot looked on in disbelief, the disc shaped object seemed to shimmer like a mirage and then accelerate vertically at tremendous speed as the missile passed harmlessly through the space it had occupied moments before. The fighter pilot frantically looked up following the craft's trajectory but saw only clear, deep azure sky. "The object appears to have, ah, vanished Sir."
"Affirmative, we no longer have it on scope. Return to base for debriefing.”
The journalist turned off her recorder. "So Lieutenant, off the record, the Commanding Officer at the time maintained there was plausible deniability for shooting down a passenger plane?"
The fighter pilot let out a grim, humourless laugh, "Yeah, they said it was a terrorist attack. You remember from a couple of years back? It was all over the news.
"I keep telling myself it was an accident, we couldn't have anticipated how quickly that thing could perform evasive manoeuvres. That still doesn't make it any easier to live with. We were ordered to stop at nothing to bring that UFO down, even if it meant catastrophic collateral damage. Look, there are things going on within the government and military, real black ops stuff, that we are directly involved in but have no insight into the purpose or motive.
"I've said too much already. If they trace this back to me it'll mean a court martial, or worse."
"Okay lieutenant, but this is just the beginning. Cracks in the cover-up are starting to show and the public wants those responsible held to account. I’ll be in touch.”