UFO

The Search

By homel001

Disclaimer: I am a fan of UFO as I am of most Gerry Anderson Production. I don’t own the rights to the characters, ships and locations as they are the property of TV century 21st. I only hold rights to the story itself. Enjoy.


Chapter 1

Moonbase was exceptionally quiet as always as the afternoon came to close. The sun began to set over the Lunar horizon, revealing the eerie shadow that set over the desolate surface. It ad been the sixth day in a row without any UFO activity and it was beginning to look like the Aliens had given up. let alone SHADO hoped that was the case, they knew that there was something stirring out in space. Things were so quiet up in the control room. There wasn’t a peep from SID and SID-2 and oddly enough, Commander Straker even stopped radioing for updates.

The watch was agonising, especially for Colonel Virginia Lake, who was commanding the base. She missed her bed as well as her frequent jogs in the park with Colonel Paul Foster which was her favourite part of the day before she went to work. Lately, she would relieve Foster up on Moonbase every eight weeks and when it would be her turn, she would know that there wouldn’t be any activity.

As she sat there behind the control desk, sighed and played around with her pen, when Lieutenant Nina Barry reported a sighting on her radar scanner.

“Colonel. UFO on positive track. Reference 2211-D.” she said.

“Launch the Interceptors.” Lake ordered as she contacted SHADO HQ.

This made a change in her shift on the base as nothing had ever happened on her watch before. She was thrilled to be actually launching the Interceptors for the first time on her own. She tried to keep things purely professional as it wasn’t a thrill ride.




The Interceptors lifted off from their launch cylo pads and glided off along the Lunar horizon in their standard formation. Take off was always easy but for Pilot Alan Hunter, it was difficult. He was new at the job and had only flown the Interceptors a few times. The controls were relatively new to him still, as he struggled to keep his Interceptor in formation. To get where he was, he had go through rigorous SHADO training courses which took him up to four years to complete. It was hard, but he got there thanks to help of Paul Foster, who was his close friend for many years. If it wasn’t for Paul in the first place, he wouldn’t have even joined SHADO. His previous skills as an Astronaught  was old school as he previously served in EUROSEC.
As the UFO came into visual range, Interceptor One broke formation in order to intercept. The pilot had to keep the craft at a constant speed so he could fire his missile, but when he did, the missile detonation had missed the UFO by inches. Interceptor Two then made an attempt, but ended with the same result. Two detonations had failed to even clip the UFO and there was there was on attempt left before it would slip through Moonbase’s defences. Hunter had to make his shot count.

“Interceptor Three to Moonbase control.” He spoke over the radio. “Request new instructions for intercept?”

“Control to Interceptor Three, steer to course 2209-D.” came the reply. “UFO is increasing in speed.”

Replying to the request, Hunter adjusted his craft to the new co-ordinates. The UFO whizzed passed his screen at an incredible speed, which made his attack run difficult, but as he was trained to do, he went for it. His Interceptor increased it’s speed to match the UFO’s but was increasing every second. Hunter knew that if he didn’t fire the missile soon, his Interceptor would loose fuel and he would be crushed by the strong build-up of G-force. He trained his eye on the UFO which was now dead in his sight and squeezed his thumb down on the trigger. the missile shot out across towards the UFO but at the last second, it missed due a change in course. The UFO had began shift as it entered the Earth’s outer atmosphere.

Colonel Lake had monitored the failed detonation on the screen and ordered Hunter to return to Moonbase. There was nothing more that Hunter could do and that it was now down to SHADO control to deal with the UFO, but Hunter had other ideas. He wasn’t finished with the UFO just yet.

“Control to Interceptor Three, return to base immediately.” Lake ordered. “Come in Interceptor Three.”

“Interceptor Three to Control.” Hunter replied, changing his tone in voice. “I’m not finished with the UFO yet. The detonation may have been negative, but I’m not letting it out of my sights just yet.”

“Hunter, the UFO has entered Earth’s atmosphere. You’re dangerously close to the atmosphere yourself!” Lake cried. “Are you crazy!? You know fully well that your Interceptor will be immobilized once you enter the atmosphere yourself!?”

“That’s a risk I’m willing to take.” Hunter replied, cockily as he switched off his radio.

Lake couldn’t do anything but alert Commander Straker, down at HQ. She didn’t want to be responsible for the death of a cocky and incompetent pilot, but as standard protocol’s went, she had to accept anything while she was on duty. Pressing down on the control console panel, she contacted Keith Ford at control.





Commander Straker was called to the control room after Lieutenant Keith Ford contacted him about Colonel Lake’s transmission. As he looked at the scope, which displayed the UFO and the perusing Interceptor, he grabbed the microphone and switched to a frequency that all receivers couldn’t block. He called it the “Code Red” frequency.

“Hunter, what the hell are doing!?” he barked furiously. “Return to Moonbase at once!”

Hunter’s voice crackled over the radio, the effect of re-entry had caused static, making his reply hard to hear.

“No can do….ffftz…UFO…..ffftz….Have almost…fftz.”
Then, the radio signal cut out and the radar blip that was the Interceptor began to fade out on the scope.

“That crazy idiot! What the hell does he think he’s playing at!” he shouted, as he swung the rotatable microphone back to Ford. “Get me Moonbase at once and get them to prepare a memorial probe.”

“Yes sir, but don’t you think that it’s a bit too soon?” Ford replied. “After all, there is still a slight chance that Hunter will pull clear of the entry angle?”

“Maybe, but I doubt it now?” Straker replied. “That Interceptor must be burning up like a paper bag right about now?”




High above the skies, Interceptor Three was burning up like crazy, the front half of the ship began to melt due to it’s angle of re-entry. The darkness of  Space had begun to turn into the blue tint of the sky as he flew deeper and deeper.

Inside, Hunter was on the verge of blacking out as he began to lose grip of his controls. His body was taking a huge beating from the sheer G-force that was about to tear his body apart. Hunter struggled to breath as he tried to pull the Interceptor out of the dive.

“I’ve…got…to…get…clear!” he thought as the voice of his conscious screamed out in his head. “Got…to…get…the …nose…up!”

Pushing down the controls with his remaining energy, Hunter managed to pull the Interceptor out of the atmospheric dive, sending himself back into the cold vacuum space. Activating the emergency homing signal, Hunter passed out and remained lifeless in his seat as his burnt and scorched Interceptor drifted aimlessly towards the Lunar surface.

Inside the control room, Colonel Lake had ordered a red alert. Emergency crews rushed around the base as they prepared to launch their Moon Hoppers.

“Nina? What is the estimated crash position of Interceptor Three?”  she asked before she could send the crews on their way.

A position reference appeared on the screen in bright, white letters.

“It’s predicted crash position is area green 1232-S.”

“That’s four miles from Moonbase.” Lake replied as she signalled the Moon Hoppers to leave. “Control to emergency crews. Proceed to area green 1232-S and wait for Interceptor crash.”

Suddenly, Hunter’s Interceptor had appeared on the scanner scope. He was coming in fast as the Lunar gravity had began to reel him in.  The Moon Hoppers were heading to the crash area at maximum speed and the medical unit was alerted to the airlock with a stretcher and an oxygen tank.

“Here he comes.” Nina said as the blip grew closer and closer to the surface.

The Interceptor glided close to the ground for a few seconds, until it met the dusty surface. The battered craft then glided along the surface for a whopping mile and a half, forming a small dirt ditch as it went. Dust and smoke floated into Space, providing a signal for Moon Hoppers. The sound of metal creaking and instruments exploding filled the cockpit as the Interceptor eventually skidded to a halt.

As the dust settled, the remains of the battered and wrecked Interceptor began to emerge on the surface. The Front half of the craft had been buried in a mountain pile of rock and dust as it had dug into the surface. It’s three landing stanchions had been ripped apart from the moment impact, it’s engines had been over-run, it’s hull was now stained in a big, thick, black, blast marks and certain areas of the cockpit window had been shattered, causing a oxygen leak. Hunter was loosing air fast.

The Moon Hoppers had spotted the crashed wreak and immediately pulled up along side the Interceptor. The crew left their crafts and headed out towards Hunter in their space suits, one of which was carrying a spare for Hunter himself. The difficult part was getting into the cockpit and placing the suit on Hunter. If they removed the cabin glass, Hunter would die.

There was only one action left. He had to carried back to Moonbase and fast. Luckily, Moonbase was prepared for a situation such as Hunter’s

A few minutes later, a specially modified Lunar carrier arrived at Moonbase, carrying in the Interceptor by a crane. Hovering over the Interceptor silos, the carrier dropped the interceptor onto the pad before flying off to it’s own hangar. The Interceptor was then lowered into the pen area where the Medical crews were waiting for their patient.

As the doctor arrived at the cockpit, he picked up Hunter and placed him on the stretcher. After checking his pulse, The doctor was relieved that Hunter was alive. Signalling his staff, Hunter was whisked to the medical bay.

He was lucky to escape with his life,  but he couldn’t escape the dreaded explanation to Straker.