Night engulfed the Indian Ocean like a living shadow.
Storm clouds churned violently above the sea while massive waves crashed against the advancing fleets of the world's two greatest military powers. American nuclear carriers cut through the western waters like floating fortresses, escorted by destroyers, submarines, and stealth aircraft. From the east, Chinese hypersonic strike groups advanced in absolute radio silence, their decks armed with missiles capable of leveling entire cities.
Together, they represented the most powerful naval assault force assembled in modern history.
And their target was Hope Island.
Thousands of kilometers away, inside secure bunkers beneath New Delhi, India's government watched events unfold with growing horror. Emergency sessions had been called through the night. Senior ministers crowded around glowing war screens while intelligence officers relayed fragmented reports from satellites and naval radar systems.
Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh sat motionless at the center of the chamber, his face pale beneath the dim light.
Nobody in the government had expected this.
Not even now.
Not even after seeing JATAYU.
For years, Dilli and his shadow organizations had operated beyond conventional oversight, protected only by a handful of classified authorizations and impossible results. Most politicians believed JATAYU was simply an advanced aircraft project.
They had not understood what Veda had truly built.
But tonight…
They were about to witness it.
An intelligence officer suddenly froze before his console.
"Sir…" he whispered.
Every eye turned toward the giant digital map projected across the war room.
At first, nothing appeared.
Then—
Hundreds of red warning markers began blinking simultaneously across the Arabian Sea.
The officer's voice trembled.
"Unknown aerial objects detected…"
Another analyst interrupted immediately.
"No… not unknown."
His throat went dry.
"They're JATAYUs."
Silence swallowed the room.
Then the impossible happened.
Across satellite feeds from orbit, dark shapes erupted from beneath the ocean itself.
One.
Ten.
Fifty.
Hundreds.
Entire squadrons of JATAYU rose from hidden underwater launch platforms buried beneath the Indian Ocean floor. Their black metallic wings reflected flashes of lightning as they ascended vertically through the storm clouds without sound.
No afterburners.
No visible propulsion.
Only terrifying silence.
Inside the Pentagon's Pacific Command Center, alarms exploded across every station.
"Hypersonic contacts multiplying!"
"How many?!"
The radar officer stared at the screen in disbelief.
"…we can't count them."
The sky above the fleets became alive.
JATAYUs moved faster than modern tracking systems could process. One moment they appeared on radar. The next they vanished completely, only to reappear directly beside enemy formations.
Then came the first strike.
An American destroyer sailing beside the USS carrier group suddenly split apart across its centerline as a black streak tore through the storm above it. No missile warning. No explosion.
The ship simply disintegrated.
Seconds later, a Chinese stealth cruiser erupted into flames as every electronic system onboard overloaded simultaneously. Sailors screamed as electromagnetic shockwaves surged through the vessel before it disappeared beneath the sea.
Panic spread instantly.
"Return fire!"
"Track the targets!"
"Launch interceptors!"
But nothing could lock onto JATAYU.
The aircraft moved like phantoms.
Invisible one second.
Death the next.
High above the ocean, an entire squadron of American stealth bombers attempted evasive maneuvers before their cockpit systems suddenly died. Darkness consumed their controls.
Then pilots saw them.
Black triangular silhouettes emerging silently from the clouds around them.
Watching.
Hunting.
One bomber pilot screamed into his failing radio—
"What ARE those things?!"
A JATAYU accelerated.
The night itself seemed to bend around it.
Within seconds, the entire bomber formation vanished from radar.
Gone.
Across the ocean, Chinese carrier groups unleashed volleys of hypersonic missiles toward Hope Island. The missiles never reached their target.
JATAYUs intercepted them mid-air with impossible precision.
Bright spheres of fire illuminated the clouds as nuclear warheads detonated harmlessly high above the sea, their shockwaves rippling through the storm like artificial suns.
The world watched in horror.
Live military satellites captured everything.
Entire fleets being erased.
Not defeated.
Erased.
And the most shocked among all of them…
Was India itself.
Inside the emergency chamber in New Delhi, ministers stared speechlessly at the screens before them. Some crossed themselves unconsciously. Others simply sat frozen.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh slowly removed his glasses.
His hands trembled slightly.
Onscreen, a single JATAYU hovered motionless above a burning American carrier while dozens more circled through the storm clouds like divine predators.
The Prime Minister whispered words nobody expected to hear from him.
"My God…"
An Air Force Marshal standing nearby finally found his voice.
"This is not air superiority anymore, sir…"
Lightning flashed across the giant screen.
Hundreds of JATAYUs descended through the clouds simultaneously.
"…this is domination."
Within twenty-three minutes—
The combined American and Chinese assault fleets ceased to exist.
The Indian Ocean burned with floating wreckage and shattered steel while black-winged aircraft hovered silently above the devastation like ancient guardians awakened after centuries of sleep.
And across the world, every nation understood the terrifying truth.
War against India had become impossible.