John Killinger was only close to a handful of people in his life. In fact, he could count them all on only one hand: his wife, his daughter, and his wingman. His parents had died in a car crash when he was in fifth grade, and his grandparents despised him. As a result, John had become emotionally unattached from life.

John was a First Lieutenant in the Air Force, and he currently lived in a house on-base with his wife Angela and seven year old daughter Amy. How he ever found a girl that would marry him, he would never know. He didn't really care though, he was happy. He had his dream job as an A-10 pilot, and a loving family to come home to. The work hours were hell, and the deployments were worse, but he had his wingman, Second Lieutenant James Stratford, to keep him company when he was away from home. He met James back in middle school and they had been nearly inseparable since.

"Ok you guys, ready to go?" John called out to his family. His wife and daughter were visiting relatives for the week. He was unable to go with them because he couldn’t secure leave in time for the trip. Instead, he was going to drive them to the airport, which he found rather ironic since they were living on an Air Force base. Amy looked at him with a pouty face and crossed her arms, "But daddy, I don't wanna visit nana! I want to stay with you!” John put on a smile, "I thought that you wanted to ride on the big airplane? If you stay here, you won't get to." Amy gasped and turned around, rocketing down the hall to grab her My Little Pony suitcase. She loved airplanes almost as much as she loved My Little Pony, and judging from the amount of MLP paraphernalia in her room, it probably rivaled Derpy's love of muffins.

John would watch the show with Amy whenever he wasn't busy. He enjoyed the show, but he went to great lengths to keep it a secret. The only people that knew were his wife and daughter. Amy had even gotten him a small Rainbow Dash figurine that he kept on his desk.

The drive to the airport was rather uneventful. There wasn’t very much traffic and the airport parking lot wasn’t very full. John found a spot close to the bus stop and parked. He grabbed the luggage and they waited for the bus to arrive, which didn’t take very long. They arrived at the terminal after a few minutes and stepped off the bus, almost getting run over by a few children running around on the sidewalk. The children stopped and stared when they noticed John’s flight suit and squadron patch. John smiled at them, that reaction never got old.

After the bags were checked in, John kissed Angela and hugged Amy, telling them to have a good time. He bade them farewell and they turned to get in the line at the security checkpoint. He laughed as he saw Amy jumping for joy when she looked out the window and spotted the planes lined up at the gates. When the pair passed through security, John turned around and returned to the car and drove back home.

A few hours had passed since he had dropped his family off at the airport, and John was sitting in the squad room reading the paper and sipping a cup of coffee. He scoffed at the front page headline of ‘Hollywood Star Accused of Money Laundering’. How this shit got on the front page was a mystery. Don’t people have anything better to do than gossip about Hollywood stars and political big-wigs? He took another sip of coffee and almost spilled it down his front when his phone went off. He pulled the phone from his pocket and looked at the screen to see who was calling, which caused him to pause when he saw that it was his wife. Shouldn’t they still be on the plane? Cell phones aren’t allowed to be used during flight, so why was she calling him?

He answered, “Hey hon, wh-“ He heard frantic voices in the background and he thought he recognized Amy’s voice, but she was crying.

“-thing’s going to be alright Amy, don’t cry. Oh, hello John…” John knew something was terribly wrong.

“Is everything alright, what’s wrong?” He noticed that a few of the others in the room were looking at him.

“… They’ve hijacked the plane John”

“They WHAT!? WHO!?” He yelled. At this point, everyone in the room was silently watching him.

“I don’t know, men with guns... I love you honey, I just wanted you to know that”

“… I know, I love you too… C-can I talk to Amy?” He heard the sounds of the phone being passed as he fumbled with the remote to the television mounted on the wall, switching it to the news channel.

“*sniff* D-daddy? Is *sniff* th-that y-you?”

John could barely hold back the tears, “Yes baby, I’m here, everything is going to be okay” He lied, not wanting to upset Amy anymore than she already was.

“… I love you daddy, I want to come ho-“ The phone cut off.

John looked to the television screen in time to see a plane slam into the second tower. The phone clattered to the floor. Everyone’s eyes were glued to the television, but a moment later the base’s sirens started blaring.

A few years had passed. John had been emotionally distant and an overall hard ass before the attack, but now… He made the Terminator look like a joke.
Everyone had learned early on to give him space, especially after the incident with the new guy. John had walked away with two broken fingers. The other guy wasn’t so lucky. He had a broken arm and face when he had been punched through the squad room’s wall. John had been reprimanded and grounded for two weeks after the incident, but he had gotten his point across.

John’s base had gotten a rumor of another hijacking, and the base commander wasn’t going to take any chances. He had ordered all his planes capable of carrying ordinance into the air.

John was walking around his aircraft performing his preflight checks. His squadron had transferred over to the new “C” model of the A-10 a few years ago. Many of the pilots were thrilled, but John was indifferent. As long as he had a means to fight the enemy, he didn’t care.

He noticed that James was giving him a worried look. “What?”

James walked over to him, having completed his own preflight checks. “You sure you’re alright?”

“I’m fine James. I know you’re worried, but I really am fine. Now get your aircraft started up, we’ve got shit to do.” He got a curt ‘yes sir’ in response. John wasn’t in the mood to talk about anything right now, especially when there was a threat of another hijacking. He finished his preflight checks and climbed in the cockpit. After obtaining taxi and take-off clearance from the control tower, they taxied onto the runway, spun their engines up, and took off, banking in the direction of their patrol zone.

The flight was uneventful. They had gotten to their patrol zone, which was over a giant swath of ocean within visual range of the coast, and were currently flying around in a loose rectangle pattern while watching their radars for contacts. They would occasionally check in with the E-3 “Sentry”, Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft that was also monitoring the airspace and keeping tabs on all the other aircraft.

About two hours into the flight, John checked his radar for about the millionth time. He jumped a little when he noticed a small green dot on the screen. That shouldn’t be there. His heart started racing and he keyed his radio, contacting James.

“Hey Scorp, I’ve got a contact, bearing 094 for 33, you see anything?” John asked, knowing that his wingman would automatically decipher the information. The radar contact was at bearing 094 from their current position, 33 kilometers away.

“That’s a negative ‘Quila, I’m not reading any contacts.”

John and James had gotten their nicknames during their last deployment when they were sent to provide close air support to a squad of marines that were surrounded in a village. James had gotten hit by a few stray rounds from some insurgents taking pot shots at them when they flew by. A one-in-a-million shot had hit the lens on James’ targeting pod, which meant that he couldn’t locate any of the targets. Instead of returning to base, and leaving the marines, they decided to push on. When they got to the area that the marines were in, John took up a holding pattern and used his targeting pod to locate the marines, and, by extension, the insurgents that were closing in on them. He then relayed their position to James, and after a few passes with his aircraft’s guns, all the insurgents had been killed. Later, back at base, John and James met up with the squad of marines, who insisted on buying them beers when they all got home. At one point, one of the marines was retelling the story from their perspective. He said that he saw John flying high above the battle, circling like an eagle, and when James would line up for an attack run, it was like a scorpion getting ready to strike. For awhile, the two pilots had been referred to as the ‘Eagle’ and ‘Scorpion’, but at some point, the names had been translated into their Latin counterparts, ‘Aquila’ and ‘Scorpius’, which stuck.

John was confused by James’ answer. If his aircraft’s radar could pick up the target, then James should be able to see it too. He took a second to remember his flight’s callsign, Hunter, then contacted the AWACS, callsign Magic, just to make sure.

“Magic, Hunter 1-1, I’ve got a radar contact at bearing 094 for 33 from our position, how copy?”

“Hunter 1-1, Magic, that’s a negative, I’m reading a clear scope” No contact.
“Hunter 1-1, Roger”

This is exceedingly odd. He had a contact on his radar, that neither his wingman nor the AWACS could see, yet it was showing up clear as day on his screen. They were also over the ocean, so there couldn’t be any interference. After a moment of thought, John decided to disregard the contact and continue on with his patrol.

After fifteen minutes of flying, he noticed that the contact was still showing up on his radar. Thoroughly puzzled, he contacted James again. “Scorp, that contact is still there, you sure you’re not seeing it?” John waited for a response, and after about a minute, he got the same response as before. Nothing. He decided that it was too much of a risk to let a possible contact slip by.

“Ok, we’re going to go check this thing out.” He received a click from James’ radio, signaling that he understood. John contacted the AWACS to let them know of the situation.

“Magic, Hunter 1-1, I still have that contact on my radar. We’re going to break pattern and investigate.”

“Hunter 1-1, Magic, Roger, Hunter flight is leaving its flight pattern to investigate possible contact.” Why do those guys always sound so bored?

John and James banked their aircraft onto an intercept course with the strange contact, which hasn’t moved. What the hell? How could it be in the same spot? It could be a helicopter, but why would a helicopter be all the way out here? Could it be the Coast Guard? No, he would’ve been notified. Something’s not right here. John looked down at his radar, checking the distance to the contact. 10 kilometers.

“Ok, Scorp, we’re coming within visual range, keep your eyes peeled. Target should be at our twelve o-clock.” He signaled James, and received another click in response.

He looked around in the direction of the contact, but he didn’t see anything, so he checked the radar again. 5 kilometers.

He continued to scan the horizon.

4 kilometers.
Nothing.

3 kilometers.
Nothing.

2 kilometers.
Still nothing.

1 kilometer.
Something?...... What the hell?

“Scorp… does the air look like it’s shimmering to you?”

“Uhhhh… No? You ok?”

“Yeah, I’m fine… This is strange. Let’s get back to-“

James couldn’t believe what he just saw. The airspace in front of John’s aircraft lit up in a bright, vibrant array of colors, then the unthinkable happened… John’s aircraft vanished.

“WHAT THE FUCK!?”

“Hunter 1-2, Magic. What happened to Hunter 1-1? He is no longer visible on radar.”

“I DON’T KNOW! HE JUST VANISHED!”

“… 1-2, can you elaborate?”

“HE’S GONE! POOF! ONE SECOND HE WAS HERE, NOW HE’S GONE!”

“…… Okay, you’ve been ordered to RTB for debrief. A rescue chopper is being sent to your location to-“

“HE ISN’T HERE! THERE IS NO WRECKAGE, NO SPLASH, NOT EVEN A CHUTE! HIS ENTIRE FUCKING AIRCRAFT JUST DISAPPEARED!”

Author's Note

Ok, Rewrite complete! At least for the prologue.

Anyways, I thought this was much better than the original, but I'll let you all decide that.

Let me know what you think! :D