Nowhere to Call Home Anymore

Eden, Northwest airbase.

An alarm started blaring, signaling a general scramble among the base personnel. They immediately dropped whatever they were doing and headed to their assigned locations like an anthill that had been kicked over.

Pilots were urgently putting on their gear according to a strict checklist procedure. And within five minutes, they were headed to the duty hangar, where they would receive their mission briefing and launch. As they crossed the hangar on their way to the briefing room, they passed a virtual hive of technicians scrambling over the parked jets and giving them last-minute checks and fueling them.

The pilots reached the briefing room and received their briefing, then boarded their jets and taxied out of the hangar.

Soon, with the screaming sound of jet engines spinning up, four planes were lined up on the runway access lane, ready for takeoff as soon as they received final clearance from the tower.