part 2 “We Need Someone Who Can Fly This Beast” — The SEAL Leader Was Shocked When She Said “I Can”
Part 2 “We Need Someone Who Can Fly This Beast” — The SEAL Leader Was Shocked When She Said “I Can”
The world celebrated the impossible rescue.
But inside Forward Operating Base Kodiak, nobody was celebrating.
Because everyone understood one terrifying truth.
The mission had not failed because of the storm.
It had not failed because of the enemy waiting in the mountains.
It had almost failed because someone inside the base wanted them dead.
And now that person was still somewhere among them.
Three hours after landing, the X44 Manticor sat inside Hangar Four surrounded by engineers, investigators, and armed security personnel.
The legendary aircraft that had carried the SEAL team home looked almost alive.
Its black armor was covered in bullet impacts.
The left engine had severe damage.
Several panels were burned from the missile blast.
Yet somehow…
It had returned.
Chief Engineer Brody Evans walked around the aircraft in disbelief.
“I still don’t understand how this thing survived.”
Captain Khloe Mitchell stood beside him, staring at the damaged machine.
“It survived because it wanted to.”
Evans looked at her.
“You know that’s not how aircraft work, right?”
For the first time since the mission began, Mitchell smiled.
“No.”
She touched the damaged fuselage.
“But sometimes machines are like people.”
“They survive because someone refuses to let them die.”
Behind them, Commander Thomas Hayes watched silently.
The woman he had dismissed hours earlier had saved his entire team.
But something bothered him.
Something didn’t make sense.
“Captain.”
Mitchell turned.
“Yes?”
“You said the flight system was sabotaged before takeoff.”
“Yes.”
“Meaning someone had access to a classified aircraft.”
She nodded.
“Correct.”
Hayes stepped closer.
“Only a handful of people on this base had that clearance.”
The atmosphere changed.
They both knew what that meant.
The enemy was not outside the walls.
The enemy was inside.
The investigation began immediately.
General Richard Croft had been arrested after the team returned, but Hayes wasn’t convinced.
Croft was guilty.
The evidence was overwhelming.
The stolen defense information.
The fake extraction coordinates.
The sabotage.
Everything pointed toward him.
But Hayes had spent too many years in special operations to believe anything was that simple.
A perfect enemy wanted you to find the obvious target.
The real threat was always hidden behind the first layer.
Inside the command center, investigators examined every communication log from the night of the mission.
Captain Mitchell stood behind them, studying the screens.
Then she noticed something.
“Stop.”
Everyone froze.
The analyst paused the recording.
Mitchell walked toward the monitor.
“Play that again.”
The audio replayed.
A technician’s voice came through.
“Flight control update complete. Security handshake verified.”
Mitchell narrowed her eyes.
“No.”
The analyst looked confused.
“What?”
“That message is wrong.”
Hayes looked at her.
“How?”
“The security handshake was never completed.”
She pointed at the screen.
“Someone created a fake confirmation signal.”
Silence.
The sabotage had not happened randomly.
Someone had studied the Manticor.
Someone knew exactly how its systems worked.
Evans stepped forward.
“Only the development team knew enough to do that.”
Hayes looked at Mitchell.
“Who?”
Her expression changed.
She already knew.
“There were seven engineers assigned to the original Manticor program.”
“One died.”
“One retired.”
“One transferred overseas.”
“And four are still here.”
The first name on the list was Dr. Adrian Voss.
Former lead avionics engineer.
Brilliant.
Respected.
And missing.
Hayes immediately sent a security team.
They found Voss’s office empty.
But something was waiting for them.
A message.
Written on his computer.
THE BEAST WAS NEVER YOURS.
Hayes stared at the screen.
“What does that mean?”
Mitchell looked uncomfortable.
“Voss didn’t believe the Manticor belonged to the military.”
Everyone turned.
She continued.
“He believed the aircraft was his life’s work. He thought nobody had the right to control it.”
Hayes frowned.
“So he sabotaged his own creation?”
Mitchell shook her head.
“No.”
Her voice became serious.
“He would never destroy the aircraft.”
“Then what was he trying to do?”
Mitchell looked toward the window.
“He wanted to prove only he could control it.”
Hours later, intelligence discovered something worse.
Voss had not disappeared.
He had escaped.
And he had taken something with him.
The Manticor’s original flight algorithm.
The secret program that made the aircraft possible.
Without it, the prototype was vulnerable.
With it…
someone could create another Beast.
One that nobody could stop.
Hayes gathered his SEAL team.
The same men Mitchell had saved were now preparing for another mission.
One of them, Lieutenant Jake Miller, looked at her.
“Captain.”
She turned.
“Yeah?”
“We owe you our lives.”
Mitchell shook her head.
“You don’t owe me anything.”
Miller smiled.
“Commander Hayes doesn’t usually trust people easily.”
She glanced toward Hayes.
“That makes two of us.”
The SEALs laughed.
For the first time, Mitchell wasn’t standing alone.
She was part of the team.
The next mission came quickly.
Satellite intelligence tracked Voss to an abandoned mountain facility hundreds of miles away.
A place that had once been used for classified aircraft testing.
The perfect hiding place.
Hayes looked over the operation plan.
“Objective one: capture Voss.”
“Objective two: recover the stolen flight algorithm.”
“Objective three: destroy any unauthorized Manticor data.”
Then he looked at Mitchell.
“You’re coming with us.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“I’m a pilot, Commander.”
Hayes nodded.
“I know.”
He looked at the mission map.
“But this mission involves your aircraft.”
A pause.
“And nobody knows the Beast better than you.”
The mountain facility was abandoned.
At least, that was what the satellite images showed.
But when the SEAL team arrived, they discovered something unexpected.
The facility was active.
Lights.
Power.
Security systems.
Someone had rebuilt it.
The team moved silently through the snow.
Then Mitchell saw it.
Inside the massive underground hangar.
Another aircraft.
Not the Manticor.
Something different.
A darker version.
Modified.
Armed.
Faster.
Hayes stared.
“What is that?”
Mitchell’s face went pale.
“I don’t know.”
That answer frightened him more than anything.
Because if Khloe Mitchell didn’t know…
nobody did.
Suddenly, the lights turned on.
A voice echoed through the hangar.
“Welcome back, Captain.”
Everyone raised their weapons.
A man stepped from the shadows.
Dr. Adrian Voss.
He looked calm.
Almost proud.
“You always were the best pilot.”
Mitchell stared at him.
“You tried to kill us.”
Voss smiled.
“No.”
“I tried to prove something.”
He looked at the aircraft behind him.
“The world doesn’t deserve the Beast.”
Hayes stepped forward.
“Drop your weapon.”
Voss ignored him.
“You don’t understand, Commander.”
His eyes moved toward Mitchell.
“She was the only person who ever understood the aircraft.”
A pause.
“That is why I needed her.”
Mitchell’s expression hardened.
“You didn’t need me.”
“You needed someone who could fix your mistake.”
For the first time, Voss looked angry.
And then alarms began screaming.
The underground hangar shook.
Hayes looked around.
“What did you do?”
Voss smiled.
“I started the final test.”
Behind him, the new aircraft powered on.
The engines roared.
The mountain itself seemed to wake.
Mitchell stared at the machine.
Then whispered:
“Oh no.”
Hayes looked at her.
“What?”
She watched the aircraft’s systems activate.
“That isn’t another Manticor.”
A terrifying pause.
“It’s a weapon designed to destroy one.”
Outside, the snowstorm returned.
Inside the mountain, two aircraft prepared for war.
The Beast…
and the machine built to kill it.
And once again, Captain Khloe Mitchell found herself facing an impossible choice.
Fly.
Or watch everything she fought to protect disappear.
To be continued…
