Chapter 6

"Do You Remember AWWNB?"

1000. The market vendors have been out for about an hour now, but business is just starting to pick up, dust and sand being kicked up by all the townspeople buying their groceries. The yelling of vendors and shoppers is broken by the sound of a deuce and a half truck coming down the street. I know who it is: SSgt. Wallace on time like he said.

"Hey there flyboy! Enjoy your little holiday?"

"It was… interesting sergeant."

"Didn't I tell you to call me Chris? Anyway, looks like you got into a little too much fun there, eh?" He noticed the bruise on my face. Fine by me if he thinks I got in a bar brawl. Certainly a good alibi for what I had been up to.

"Yeah well, I gotta get my kicks while I'm still young enough to get them."

"I hear ya." He shifts the truck into first and honks for some townspeople to get out of the way. "Wasn't over a pretty young thing was it?" I hesitate to respond, leading him on. "Oh ho, well looks like you're over whats-her-name already." At least that much was true.

The ride back wasn't very long, but the staff sergeant starts breaking out the war stories which I really pay no attention to. I'm busy going over in my head how the hell I was supposed to make off with a jet.

Back in my room, I change out of my service uniform and down to a tank top and PT shorts. Why was it always so damn hot?

"Hey Lieutenant." I forgot to close my door, and Major Lewel walks in. This was just what I needed to get in the way of my planning time. I had called the partisans as soon as I got back on base, and they gave me a timeline: they needed the plane in seven days. I had no time for small talk with the Major.

"So what exactly was so important that you re-upped? Last we spoke, you seemed to have no stomach left for this war."

"Dad always told me to consider a career in the Air Force. Thought I could retire a Colonel with my skill and ambition, eh?" I wasn't fooling the Major. God, why didn't he just leave?

"And that whole deal about stopping the Yukes from tearing down that house was nothing then?" I stare stupidly at the floor, nothing to say.

"Remember when I said I knew something about finding out what to fight for?" I recalled the Major mentioning something about it on the phone when I called him from Mahriana's house.

"Well, do you remember 'A World With No Boundaries?'"

"Yeah, they were terrorists who tried to destroy the world's superpowers after the Belkan War and rule the whole thing." I still remembered my high school history.

"Pft. Terrorists? I guess I should have expected that to be the bullshit they teach in schools today."

I didn't understand what the Major was getting at. I wasn't exactly in the mood for a history lesson. But just then he peered his head into the hallway, looked up and down it and locked the door.

"Well if that's what you were taught, then call me a terrorist, or at least ex-terrorist." I'm sure that he could see the puzzlement in my eyes.

"I met the best pilots I ever knew during the Belkan War, Osean or otherwise. Tangling with Roundtable fighters was probably the most frightening and satisfying experience of my life. And sharing the battlefield with those pilots made me realize one thing: that I had more in common with them than I did with the politicians and generals who had sent me to fight.

"When you've been in a real dogfight, none of this bombing run shit, you learn what you're really made of. And to me and many others I had met, it was we who survived the toughest air battles in history who knew what it takes to lead the world and usher in a new era of peace.

"Looking back on it now, even our vision of the world, free of control from fat cat politicians and businessmen fighting over the world's resources, was merely a pipedream. But to me, this was worth fighting for, infinitely more worthwhile than dividing up the former Belka among the victorious.

"It was underground at first. The coded messages sent between pilots and soldiers from all sides rallied us together and we coordinated our plans to found 'A World Without Boundaries.' We were all piss and vinegar in those days. When we decided to strike, it seemed like there was nothing that could stop us.

"Then it all came crashing down around us. Our vision for the future destroyed."

"But Major, why aren't you dead right now? Last time I checked, treason was punishable by death."

"Well Russ, if you know the right people, you can get away with most anything. I distinguished myself during the Belkan War as an ace pilot. My record was impressive, and I was also the son of a Major General. Besides, the air forces of all sides involved were mere shells of what they used to be, most pilots having died either fighting against or with AWWNB. Osea couldn't afford to lose a man like me."

"Sir, why exactly are you telling me this?"

"Look. I don't know exactly why or for whom you re-upped, and frankly I don't really care. But I could tell over the phone that you re-upped for a reason more important than making daddy proud or getting a solid pension.

"I told you this because I want you to know that I broke the law to fight for what I believed in, and I don't regret any of it. If that's what it takes to do what you feel is right, then do it."

"Sir I…"

"Get some rest. We have a briefing tomorrow at 0800. We're gonna be sortying in 48 hours so get your mind right. I hope your little vacation has got you in the right state of mind to handle flying a plane."

The Major got up and left my room, closing the door behind him.

An upcoming mission? I knew what kind of opportunity that presented me with, and I certainly needed to get in the right state of mind to fly, and steal, that plane.