Workaholic Dr. Jeremy Stone has to initialize the top-secret national emergency plan he devices in a facility also planned by him when a mysterious, viciously rapid disease strikes a Utah backwater, actually after a small meteorite strike. His small team of scientists and specialized military doesn't realize one of them is in league with the infamous general George W. Mancheck, whose top-secret project is somehow entangled with the plague.The plague-bringing 'meteorite' is found, actually a military satellite from general Manchek's top-secret project. Dr. Jeremy Stone's team works out the virulent organism found on it has 'alien' properties, yet its anatomy suggests lab-design. Tests on it and survivors study reveal radiation would only strengthen it, just before an atomic bomb is to be dropped, but the pilot is affected by the now bird of prey-spread organism.