The voice coming through the headphones in Ryan's helmet was panicked. He had never heard his commander lose his composure, but it automatically made Ryan climb and turn hard without asking for details. His reactions were still the fastest in the squadron as his F-14 banked hard left as he applied flaps and power and the fighter jet shot higher.

"Ponderosa, Ponderosa, we have a bogey inbound your position," Derry said.

"Range Rider, this is Ponderosa, we have your flight on scope but no bogey, confirm again. Over."

Ryan came out of his turn a little later than he would have liked. When he regained his senses, after the extreme g-forces of his maneuver, he scanned the area and finally found his flight leader about ten miles ahead and slightly to his right. Derry's Tomcat was not the only craft in the sky. His eyes widened as the full impact of what he was seeing registered in his mind.

"Vampire, are you behind me?" Derry asked over the radio.

Ryan could hear the breathing of his RIO; it was one of those noises you grew so accustomed to that you never noticed it, but now it seemed amplified.

"Roger, Derringer, right here. Don't get too close to that thing," Ryan said as he looked at the most terrifying and wondrous object he had ever seen in his life.

"I've got to get a closer look at this thing, Vampire, stay back on my six," Derry ordered.

Jason Ryan, Lieutenant Junior Grade, United States Navy, knew that what his flight leader was attempting was dangerous, but all he could do was watch as Derry's Tomcat crept closer to the flying saucer.

The two Super Tomcats were about a mile behind the UFO. The shape was what they had always expected or thought they would have seen--if they ever saw one. These images, along with many others, flickered in and out of the minds of the crews in the two fighters. The craft was round and looked like two plates that were sitting open face to open face. It was silver in color and had no discernible anticollision lights. Derry estimated it to be close to four hundred feet in diameter and at least fifty feet at its thickest point in the centerline mass. Then the words coming through his headphones finally registered and brought his attention back to the here and now.