IGNITION

Chapter Ten

Three Japanese assault marines approached an empty van carefully, their weapons at the ready. Anything could be there, or nothing. What they found was what everyone was finding, this time it was the spaceship crew, naked, mutilated and their throats slit. Carefully they closed the vans back doors, it wasn’t seemly for the wrong people to see this as the three had been Japans first all female crew. Marking the van with spray paint, they turned away they headed for the launch pad, and another massacre.

In Operations two men were frantically trying to contact their air force. High above them the rocket was rapidly gaining speed while following it were six deadly little missiles. “How long” one asked.

“Seconds” someone answered. Seconds before staging, seconds before impact. Which would occur first? They could stop the attacks yes, but would they be in time?

Staging won, by nine full seconds. All six missiles impacted the spent booster, reducing its reusable frame to radar jamming chaff in less than a second. Already a thousand meters away from the explosion Mioko Takamada was shaken by a shockwave, but near unconscious from fear hardly noticed.

On the ground troops were walking through a field of scorched teardrop shaped objects, each one hissing as they passed. Above them clouds began to show an approaching dawn, while fog began building on the seacoast. It was shaping up for a dreary day with a storm due by evening.

Hours later damage control was in full swing. It could have been worse but not by much as only a third of the containers had been opened. All the rest simple sat ready, unfazed by the rockets liquid fire. Weather was the big problem as a storm approaching from sea had meant this launch was the last for weeks. Already skies were dark, winds blowing hard. Simply suiting up to hunt canisters was bad enough as some had blown into extremely difficult areas and the wind was now blowing towards China.