over grozny, russia, a pair of fighter jets chase down an unidentified spacecraft moving at supersonic speeds. within minutes, it is the jets that are chased and eventually blasted out of the sky by the spacecraft. minutes later, residents report a "meteor" flying past the city and landing somewhere in the distant hills. jack bavaro, head of the alpha force, calls in lieutenant sean lambert, the sole survivor of the first alpha mission four years ago in mexico. lambert's entire team was killed while trying to capture a single specimen of extraterrestrial life. now weber wants lambert to take a new team of interceptors into russia to capture this new alien specimen.