Prologue
Issue One
Enter Jet Thompson
November 12, 1940
The thunderous crash of sonic booms echoed through the cities of Augusta, Boston, and Trenton. If the second jet hadn’t arrived in pursuit just before Trenton, the first would have reached its destination in Washington. The populace didn’t even have a chance to see what was happening, many just fell to their knees and clutched their ears in pain at the awful sound.
It was a miracle the second pilot could even fly the jet, it was a new experimental design he had never encountered before. The British pilot had flown jets throughout the war, engaging in aerial battles over Britain during Germany’s siege of the city. However, he had never piloted anything more advanced than a Hawker Hurricane R4118 and now was forced to handle a jet that could go faster than the speed of sound.
So much of what was happening wasn’t possible, or shouldn’t have been possible. If that discovery hadn’t been made, if that energy source hadn’t found, then the war would have just continued as it should have. Instead, the pilot was here, defying laws of physics he knew to be true to try and save the world.
His teeth rattled and the skin on his face felt like it was going to tear off, but he had to keep going. The pilot in the other jet was going to drop a bomb of unimaginable destructive capabilities. The British pilot had to chase him out of the cities and away from a civilian populace.
Luckily the German pilot in the other plane seemed just as inexperienced as he was. When the German pilot turned it was sudden and unpredictable, but the wings would sway with the body of the plane as the pilot tried to wrestle for control of the plane.
The German pilot also seemingly wanted to live as much as the British pilot did, performing evasive maneuvers that ensured he avoided being lined up into a kill shot. The German pilot seemed intent on avoiding his pursuer before dropping the bomb, giving the British pilot the avenue he needed.
Before the British pilot could even think, the two were over the state of Kansas. The two were racing over farmland; they were well over 10,000 feet in the air and it looked like a quilt blanket below them. To the British pilot’s best knowledge, there were no big population centers around. They were far enough away from the east coast that he could risk it. It was then or never.
The British pilot had taken a moment to try and recognize himself with the weapon’s controls while flying over the ocean. There was no way to be sure what he was going to happen until he tried it, but there was no more time for hesitation. With the German pilot in his sights, the British pilot pulled the trigger on what he hoped was a weapon.
Machine gun erupted from the front of the plane, and a line of explosive rounds cut one of the German’s plane wings off like it was paper. The German plane fell from the sky in a tailspin, and the British pilot flew past.
Checking over his shoulder, he watched the plane plummet from the sky. The British pilot breathed a sigh of relief and looked forward, knowing the bomb would never reach its destination. He slowed down his plane and circled to investigate, waiting to see the German hit the ground. His stomach lurched as he slowed and it felt like the sheer act of slowing the plane gave him a concussion. He blinked into focus. He had to know what happened to the bomb. The pilot could deal with everything else after
A parachute could be seen, drifting away from the plane, the German pilot had managed to eject. The British pilot took small comfort in this, not desiring to see more lives lost. He’d finally be able to return home after everything he had been through.
Just then there was a flash of light as the German plane plummeted and the British pilot leaned forward. Bright beams of light erupted in all directions from the plane, blinding the British pilot. He only had a second to realize his gunfire had ignited the bomb.
The bomb exploded, and the sound was louder than the hum of the jet. Letting instinct guide him the British pilot lurched forward on the throttle and tried to get out of the blast radius. However, the bomb was more powerful than the pilot could have imagined, and as a flash of light engulfed the plane all of its systems began to shut down.
The pilot could feel himself being consumed by the explosion, but instead of searing heat, it was a sensation he had never felt before. In the chaos and confusion of the maelstrom, he pulled the switch and ejected himself from the plane, not wanting to die by crashing.
Instead of falling, he felt like he was being carried. Like a powerful wind picked him up and blew him backward. The pilot could hardly fathom the events as they happened and began to blackout in terror in confusion. The last thing he saw before losing consciousness was a winged human reaching out to him before being torn away by the wind.
