Original story based on and including characters and material created by Project Aces for Namco Bandai. The author claims no for-profit ownership over them.
Preface
35000 feet above Terceiro, Auras Flight AU216
18 August 2020
0715 hrs OWDT
I have worked in journalism for more than a decade, but I want to believe in hope again.
At a military parade commemorating the anniversary of Leasath's independence from Sapin, Leasath's Premier Diego Gaspar Navarro reiterated threats against Aurelia for allegedly fueling the country's recent civil war.
"Soon the exploitation of our country will end. Soon the regime that has oppressed our people will vanish from the earth. The proud Leasathian people will rise up and reclaim what the Aurelian thieves have usurped as theirs for generations!"
I've been assigned to cover the tension between Aurelia and Leasath in South Osea, and I've got my notes and background material on the seat table in front of me. I've memorized them enough though that the business class airline seat TVs currently have my undivided attention.
Leasath's Civil War finally ended about a year ago due to the efforts of its "supreme leader" reuniting its military, and more than a little help from the pair of airborne heavy weapons platforms currently circling ominously above the capital as their troops march across the parade grounds. But rather than work for peace, they've mobilized their newly-united armies at the Aurelian border.
In all honesty, I needed an excuse to get out of the office. But the New Lancaster Times booked everyone else on the Oseas desk to the emergency IUN Security Council meeting in Centrum.
...spokesperson for the Department of Defense confirmed that the Osean government's full records on the Ceres Conflict of 2010 will be made public on schedule by the end of the year. The records, which are expected to detail the involvement of the so-called "Demons of Razgriz" in that conflict, are to be released for public access this December.
The spokesperson also stated that the records will not contain any significant omissions except for those that pose imminent threats to national security...
I suddenly feel a sense of residual nausea as I immediately recall the time I spent "embedded" with the unsung heroes of an unsung war.
Thankfully, there's nothing up here but calm sky for now as the news show moves on to international business, which quells my nausea by reaffirming my cynicism.
Grunder Industries rebounded slightly following North Point's General Resource finalizing the acquisition of its facilities in Erusea. The deal will see the transfer of its manufacturing equipment and most aerospace technology to a new campus in North Point by 2022. The deal, which was supervised by the Erusean government, will not include the drone and combat artificial intelligence software developed by Grunder for Erusea and demonstrated during the closing days of the Lighthouse War.
The former Belkan industrial titan has seen its stock plunge following word of the imminent release of the Ceres Conflict records by the Osean government. A statement released by the company yesterday reiterated its commitment to cooperation with the government regarding possible rogue elements in both domestic and foreign headquartered divisions in escalating recent conflicts.
It's already been a quarter century since the only time nuclear weapons have been deployed in anger against another, long enough for the anxiously dreamy eyes of a rookie correspondent to fade into the hardened disillusionment of a cynical veteran.
Despite getting caught in the crosshairs of the war ten years ago, and taking part in the "world's largest leak" to date against some of the biggest players on the world stage, it wouldn't even take a jaded veteran to see that little has changed for the better. Osea has just come out of a war with another superpower vying for influence, resulting in the destruction of the global satellite network.
I don't see any coincidence that the people most wanting to rebuild it are the same ones that profited most from the wars that caused its destruction.
Osean presidential hopeful Derrick Love held a campaign stop at the Stellara campus in the state of San Adrian to promote his platform of privatizing the rebuilding of the global satellite network destroyed in the war last year.
"We have the factories, the technology and the manpower to begin rebuilding today. On Day 1 of the Love administration we will grant immediate and virtually unfettered access to all of our launch sites as well as necessary repair work to the Space Elevator, allowing Osean businesses to rebuild the world's satellite network ahead of schedule and provide thousands of desperately needed new jobs across the technology and manufacturing sectors. These will also include jobs for veterans we intend to return home after decades of disastrous foreign intervention."
Although Love and rival candidate Alicia Santos-Bernal both emphasized the need to decrease Osean foreign intervention, Love took aim at Santos-Bernal's emphasis on having the federal government take the initiative.
"We fundamentally cannot place the rebuilding of these bridges across the earth in the hands of the very same people that burned them. We will of course continue to build on the framework that ensures that we the people can hold these companies accountable, including that of my good friend Mr. Sven here."
The accumulated damage to global satellite infrastructure as well as wartime recovery has hampered redevelopment. With the ISEV confirmed damaged during the war, Verusa's Shanfeng launch site remains the only space facility that plans to launch satellites before 2021...
Yet despite having stayed out of the spotlight for the last couple of years - mostly for my own safety - my boss at the Oseas Desk realized I was the only one available with any war correspondence experience. "After all," he told me, "We just came out of two global conflicts in 10 years, and we know Navarro's been spreading his own wealth around since the golden axes fell. How hard could it be?"
I accepted the assignment regardless of how serious my boss actually sounded with that question, and it was only at check-in that I realized I had packed for weather that would get colder by the end of the year, not warmer.
A crowd of onlookers gathers at a popular overlook near Griswall-Rosenfaust Airport, but they're not here for just any kind of plane watching. The crowd are here to see a brand new fighter jet for the country's Air Defense Force, although it shuffles quickly off the tarmac for the next one to arrive. Its fluid swooping form stands out almost as much as the sight of an opaque cockpit, fueling speculation as to if it's piloted by humans or AI. The hangar it taxis into is out of public view.
There are no aerial acrobatics today, but this very public display is clearly the intent of the aircraft's manufacturer Neucom, the Erusean technology and aerospace group that debuted earlier this year. The consortium had only just incorporated when it announced a contract to manufacture and supply prototype to the AADF, which shares its capital district's air command with Rosenfaust Airport.
The announcement could also not have come at a worse time for the Aurelian government, as the country faces mounting criticism and possible IUN sanctions for its alleged involvement in the Leasath Civil War. But in an industry where the only bad publicity is no publicity at all, this kind of display will provide the aerospace newcomer with the publicity it needs...
I don't know what wakes me up faster, the smell of airline coffee from the oncoming breakfast cart or the thought of taxiing to the gate next to fighter jets more advanced than even the rogue Grunder prototypes. With a few taps, I load up the OBC's 2005 documentary on the Demon Lord. Even after its 10th anniversary updating, it always somehow manages to keep some journalistic spark in my heart. After all, its author went all the way to the front line of the first Usean Continental War for the feature piece - a face-to-face interview with the wingman of that war's most unflinchingly merciless ace.
Rather than watch the video again, I set up my earbuds to listen to the narration and open the window, watching the gentle sea of clouds in an endless, deep blue sky. I can imagine those Neucom fighters leaping in and out of the clouds like orca with more graceful landings. It distracts me from wondering how the hell the pilots of this otherwise dependable airliner can memorize all these old flying aids without satellite navigation to guide them.
A part of me hopes that war does break out in my midst, and that I might find the Demon Lord himself or his progeny somewhere in those skies. I might not know who it will be, but I get the feeling that if I do finally meet them in person, I know I'll have met them before.
It's twisted, but it's still hope, right?
Author's Note: Welcome to the redux/definitive edition of my most famous fic. I plan to divide it up into separate fics each for Annette, Blaze and Nemo, so I don't lose ideas for one while having to focus on the other. Look out for Annette's chapters here, including future planned ones to cover 1996-2010.