"I've lost contact with the Vincent," his RIO was saying.

"Come on, you mean we lost 'em just like that?" Derry asked.

"Sir, we have nothing. The Vinson is either off the air or we're not transmitting."

"We get the same over here," Ryan said over the radio.

"Okay, we'll go standard. We try and contact. If nothing happens, a warning shot. We cannot let that thing break three hundred miles to Ponderosa, is that clear?"

"Roger," Ryan answered. For the past thirty seconds, the electrical tone in his headset had informed him that his Sidewinder missiles were locked on and were tracking the object. But even better, Ryan knew the gun cameras embedded in the belly and wing of his aircraft were filming this thing. As an added measure, and because of the size and unknown composition of the strange craft, Ryan made sure to also target a long-range Phoenix missile with its larger warhead and superior range.

Derry knew their strategy was flawed. He didn't know how far a weapon from this thing could reach, as its range and capabilities were a mystery. The assumption of a line three hundred miles out from the carrier was just a guess, as a line had been drawn in the sky instead of the sand. Had this been a normal aircraft, a hundred miles was the limit of any antiship missile outside the U.S. inventory. The French-made Exocet antiship missile made infamous in the Falklands war by its sinking of the HMS Sheffield was now the weapon of choice for most of the outlaw nations that threatened ships at sea. But this thing was not a normal air-breathing vehicle.