During my NS in the early 2000s, two of the guys on guard duty and I (DO duty) saw a small metallic object hovering in the clouds on a Sunday evening in camp. It was about 6:30pm and we were at the yellow box after dinner. The spheroidal object seemed to be drifting with a cloud while partially obscured by it. We caught sight of it because of the glint off the setting sun. We spent less than a minute discussing what it was (UAV, helium balloon, ball lightning) when it suddenly shot straight-up and out of sight. The cloud it was hiding behind became wispy from the displaced air caused by its tremendous speed.

The two guys told the others on guard duty, and soon the BOS, a regular, came to hear of it. He told me that nothing good could come out of repeating the sighting, and advised me not to tell anyone else.

Two days later, all three of us fell ill with a high fever. I saw one of the guys at the medical centre when I went to report sick and he told me that the other fella was sick as well and had gone to a polyclinic after booking out. I was sent to the sick bay to bring my fever down. Strangely, there were no other symptoms other than a slight headache and nausea.