This will be just a collection of short scenes I wish were in the game instead of the awkward, clunky cutscenes we actually got. Enjoy.
When people ask me if I fought in the war, my answer is a nonchalant "Kinda" and a shrug. I follow up with a short blurb about how I was a desk-jokey logistics officer at Vitoze when the war broke out, and that my accounting degree made me more valuable to the war effort as a behind-the-scenes number cruncher than anything else, and that the closest I ever got to a real battle was about ten miles. Of course, this is the biggest lie I have ever told in my life.
I can get away with a story like this because some idiot named Staff Sergeant Valman who worked in the Emmerian Military Personnel Center at Gracemeria Air Force Base decided not to make any back-ups the computers he worked on. So naturally, when a stray Estovakian bomb hit too close to the center, blew out its windows, and set off the fire alarms and automatic sprinklers, the personnel files of about 300 service members were erased forever from Emmerian military history. Among those files was the file of one Major Daniel Gallagher, which happens to be me. Honestly, I don't mind that much. Now that nobody knows the real name behind the monikers "Garuda" or "Talisman," the things I actually did in the war have become something of an urban legend. Personally, I think that's kinda cool.
So what did I really do in the war? I don't mean to sound arrogant or anything, but I pretty much won the whole damn thing by myself. And as much as I like the idea of becoming an urban legend I figure the real story should be written down somewhere, even if it's just this handwritten journal that will ideally sit in my attic for a few decades until it's discovered and published by one of my grandchildren. Anyway, here's how it all happened…
It was August of 2015 when the Estovakians sacked Gracemeria. Two years earier I was transferred to Gracemeria Air Force Base from San Loma and given a promotion to Major. I was 32 and flew F-16's for nearly eight years, and eventually took over as the commander of the relatively small 28th Fighter Squadron. At the time, I was the youngest commander of a fighter squadron in the Air Force.
Thankfully, I wasn't alone. My girlfriend moved with me to Gracemeria, probably because it was apparent that after five years of dating that a marriage proposal was inevitable. Her name was Anastasia, but she went by Anna. She was Estovakian by birth, but moved to Emmeria as a teenager after the Ulysses asteroid levelled half the country. She kept a hint of an accent though, which is one of the things that made me fall for her. I'm a sucker for women with accents.
The morning of the invasion, I woke up to the warm Gracemerian sun streaming through my bedroom window and illuminating the peaceful, angelic face of the woman sleeping next to me. Though we hadn't been there long, we both loved the city. The house, the neighborhood, the sunrises, the gorgeous brunette in my bed… Everything seemed perfect.
Anna stirred a little bit and let out a contented sigh in response to my subtle movements, but didn't open her eyes. She would always do that once or twice before actually waking up, and that morning I had something pretty special for her to wake up to. Slowly and carefully, so as not to disturb Anna's slumber, I rolled over to face the bedside table and opened a drawer, where I stashed the engagement ring I spent hours picking out the previous week, and even longer deciding how to give it to her. After mulling over the fancy plans and grand productions that filled my Facebook feed for the past ten years, I decided on a simple delivery. Anna was a woman of simple tastes, and wasn't a fan of the big complicated proposals that her friends bragged about. It was another one of the reasons I was so head over heels for her.
A mere fraction of second before my fingers made contact with the felt box, my work phone that was sitting right on top of the bedside table started blowing up, ringing, vibrating, and brutally murdering the moment. I inwardly groaned and closed the drawer before grabbing the phone and silencing it, then checked see what was so important that it had to disturb not only my day off, but perhaps the most important moment of my personal life.
Anna woke right up after the clatter and sat up in the bed, her expression saying everything I was thinking before wrapping an arm around my waist and kissing my cheek from behind. "Never a dull moment, right Danny?" She asked sleepily.
"No, but a peaceful one every now and then would be nice…" I grumbled.
When I opened the classified military messaging system, I fully expected it to be a notification that someone in my squadron needed to be bailed out of jail or something similar. But it wasn't. It was a simple two-word message from the base commander, Colonel Buchannan: EMERGENCY RECALL. I immediately jumped out of bed and grabbed my green flight suit, hastily and clumsily putting it on. Emergency recalls meant that my entire squadron and I needed to be at the base ready to fly, and we needed to be there five minutes ago.
"A recall? On your day off?" Anna asked and chuckled at the way I was hopping on one foot while trying to get the other into my flight suit. "Isn't there some kind of rule or regulation against that?" The subtle way she rolled her R's made my heart flutter and made me curse whatever was ruining the moment even more.
"It's probably a random exercise or surprise inspection," I said as I pulled my boots on.
No sooner had I finished the sentence than deafening roar of jet engines suddenly rattled the entire house. It was common for us to hear jets since we lived next to an air force base, but this jet was flying low and nearly supersonic. I knew that any pilot would be court-martialed and discharged for doing that over a residential area. I looked out the window and when I saw the plane responsible for the ruckus, I frowned as confusion and dread washed over me.
"That was an old F-4 Phantom… Emmeria doesn't use those jets anymore." I said mostly to myself but loud enough for Anna to clearly hear the worry in voice. She stood up and wrapped a sheet around her body, then came up behind me and touched my arm.
"What does that mean?" She asked timidly.
"After we decommissioned the planes thirty years ago, we sold them all to…" I paused, slowly piecing together what it all meant.
"…Estovakia." Anna finished my thought.
As soon as she said that, we heard the first explosion.
Immediately I turned around and looked straight into her vibrant green eyes. "I have to go," I said. "I love you." I kissed her briefly yet passionately, and hurried out the door.