The Belkan war: alternative story

by Vergeltern

It did not take great mans to begin wars nor to end then. But to turn the tide of one they are required. This is an alternate history for the Belkan war. Follow an other sixth Unit of Ustio, a different Galm team, as their actions will turn the tide in a twisted, but maybe better way. This story is rated T, but can content some M rated chapter with some depicted violent scenes.

30. Chapter 132: Operation Golden Hecht p2

North of Waldreich Mountains, Belka, 18/06/1995, 15:05, Weather : heavy cloud cover

The ten MiG-31s were now all aligned with the last An-12S. Feuer-Fuchs' leader was ready to avenge the two losses they had suffered at the hands of those Northern pilots. These Anfangers were no Anfängers, but they had underestimated the wills of the Sudentorians, that had been their downfall. Little did they know their downfall was much closer than they expected.

But for now, he was just focused on avoiding the gunfire from the rear-turret. He avoided it by diving below the armed transports, like he had seen those CSB craft doing during their assault. From this position, he fired a pair of missiles and one XLAA that were enough to rupture the plane in half, with the two half set on a crash course with the foothills of the Waldreich mountains.

Once more, he did not see any secondary explosion as he stayed close to the trajectory of the An-12S's remains. However, one crucial detail that he had not seen until now as they were firing from afar at the Belkan transports. He was expecting to see a few chutes getting out of the blazed cockpit. But there they jumped from the gaping hole in the torn-off plane. And there were not a few pilots and flight officers that attempted to bail out of there but had their chutes set ablaze by burning parts of the War Cub. There were dozens of them, at least more than thirty people were in that transport. Way more crew than dropping nukes required. Furthermore, some of their chutes weren't of the usual pilot color, but of a darker tone. Which was used by another unit, that again had nothing to do with nuclear armament, as they were the Luftlandetruppen (airborne troops) of Belka or ZLT to make short, Belkan liking to use Z instead of putting two letters in their abbreviations.

And when he finally connected the dots, referring to which specific ZLT units those planes were assigned, he saw the depth of their error. They had been nothing but pawns in the CSB's game. He had made the mistake to trust that one because he thought she was not as deceptive as Anton Kupchenko, since she was a mere Erusean mercenary. How wrong has he been there? At the end of the day Sudentor could have been under the control of the Wahre Ralder, and the few Wahre Neutral there dead or imprisoned.

"LÜGNERIN! DU VERDIENST NUR TOD! (liar. you only deserve death) " Feuer-Fuchs leader bellowed, furious against himself for having just done what he did, and against this sick-wicked lady.

"I was wondering when you would figure that you were killing your friends that were supposed to help your insignificant group of Ralders have total control over Sudentor. Oh, sweet irony." Iskanda shook off his insult as easily as an Osean SAAM from a F-14, and decided to go for mockery rather than responding to his insult.

"It's so sweet that we would risk hyperglycemia, I believe." Pixy backed his leader verbally while readying himself to back her against those MiG-31s.

"HÖR MIT DER WITZELEI AUF, BITTE. ICH SPRECHE VON EUREN TOD!" (stop joking, I speak of your death!) The Sudentorian leader screamed at the top of his lungs.

"He's got some voice; we have to give him that." Zeichner appreciated the only good thing that he could see about this Sudentorian.

"But they're outnumbered, they should run." Iskanda said with a tone of false innocence.

"We are outnumbering you two to one!" Feuer-Fuchs four replied harshly, joining with his leader as they were heading head-on on the Zluchs.

"I'm easily worth ten of you, Pixy can have eight and the Erben are sevens, six for Zeichner. So, my squad is worth 38 pilots. Plus, the two Gaults that are worth at least eight of you You're outnumbered, by more than five to one." Iskanda contested their right to claim such superiority. She had defeated whole squadrons by herself, and she was confident enough in her wingmen's abilities to know that each of them should be able to deal with those Foxhounds.

"This fight is even. They should run." Gault 7 said, having regrouped with the Zluchs, with the two Gault standing behind, maybe eight hundred meters behind the 4 Melwaz and one Griffon.

"Verrätern haben kein Wert! (traitors have no worth)." The leader retorted, only twenty seconds before entering XLAA range, and hungry for blood.

"Still, we will play this fair, since we are outnumbering them by so much. EWs are not authorized for this fight unless vital reason. And you two Gault can watch the show from your position" Iskanda set her conditions for this skirmish.

"That's not funny. I'll have to actually avoid missiles instead of blasting them." Zveda ranted in an almost childish way, a bit frustrated that they would fight without being at the top of their capacities. Of course, she also knew they could fight them with an arm tied behind their backs.

"Es ist schlimm (bad), ich hab' keinen Popcorn to eat while enjoying the show."

"So, Ihr Unheil erwartet sie. (come meet your doom then)." One of their enemies harshly replied, ready to meet his own.

"At least I don't have to pursue them for hours. A good point for them." Iskanda judged those Sudentorians who had at least the will to commit fully to their fights, that compensate for their lack of correct reasoning. Those Sudentorians would at least have a good and fast death, instead of dying by bleeding out, trying to retreat on flying wreckages.

She hadn't planned a long battle. And it wouldn't be if what their current vector was indicating them. A straight head-on joust would be the opening, but she obviously knew they would not simply attack at short range. Foxhounds were notoriously known to be weak at close-range, and those few F-15C sent by the aeronaval base of Anfang had only cemented that fact.

Of course, her decision not to authorize her squadmates to use their laser, and to let the Gaults sit this one out proved to be detrimental in the first part of the engagement. With the EWs they would have nullified all their fire and seized victory in a single joust. Here they could not obtain such easy kills. Here they had to dive to evade the XLAAs their enemies fired at them, and dive pretty low as they fired them in succession on those five targets, creating a barrage of missiles. The flow of missiles might have been dense, but all South Belkan planes wave through it.

"Verdammt, diese CSB Mistkerl sind gut!" (Damn, those CSB bastards are good) Feuer-Fuchs four recognized half-heartedly that those pilots had at least the upper hand in the field of evasive maneuvers.

"Genau, leider. (exact, unfortunately)" Their leader said who was seeing their chance of survival shrinking accordingly, as the Griffon and the four ADFX were just skimming through their fire.

And, skimming through their fire while diving was pretty fast. Hence, they didn't have the time to fire some more shots that they were already too low for their radar to connect, yet in the perfect position to climb back at them. Their failures alone announced the slaughter to come.

The slaughter come, as Iskanda declared with a stern voice:

"Leider für sie sind wir nicht gut. Wir sind besser (unfortunately for you we are not good. We are better)."

Following those words, the five planes struck, climbing back right below their targets that had not even the time to squatter as missiles came from below. Five Foxhounds fell out of the sky, most of them in more pieces that their aircraft were made of. Taking two missiles, or two HVR in the belly was not good for any plane, and of course if they struck at the nose, they blew the cockpit, like it happened for Iskanda's kill. For Pixy's he managed to align a non-locked missile on their inlet, resulting in the Foxhound imploding from engine overpressure. The three others hit their enemies on the tail, as the missiles tend to go closer to the engines due to their heat-seekers. That was still enough to tore the planes apart in big reddish explosions that lit the sky for a smidge, before they burned in cinders while their killers were climbing free, without having been armed a single bit.

For Pixy, his second kill came pretty early, descending on his prey while firing an ERAAM without lock, that had similar explosive power to an anti-tank rocket. That was not enough to destroy the foxhound but had some consequences he found rather amusing:

"There's only one solo-wing here. And no room for another." He described, as the MiG-31 was spiraling on itself, and moreover, toward the ground. What some once interpreted as a disgraceful reminder of a defeat, he harbored it as a sign of pride. And also, to remember the one who had inflicted that wound to his craft and his soul, which he was not sure if it would heal one day.

"Justice often comes from above. Today it's only death." Zeichner commented, having enacted a vertical Himmelman to plunge on another MiG-31. With another plane he would have dived gun blazing, but he complied with the imposed limitations, and fired a single missile on the canopy. The aircraft itself survived the hit, although the pilot was reduced to vapors and light.

For the two Erben, they finished their second with good teamwork. They had let a Foxhound follow each other, and then flew toward each other. They could have tried to do what Iskanda did sometimes, flew between each other's rudders, but such complex maneuver was not their style. They had been the first to use the MPBMs after all and engulfing their enemies into the area of effect of their terrible new explosive, Hypersthene, was a more fitting style.

" Bereit ? (ready)". Zveda rhetorically asked, knowing that the two of them could only be ready in such a dangerous maneuver.

"Ich wurde bereit geboren (I was born ready)." Cipher completed, and with this strange code of theirs, they both put their planes in knife edge, but each on the opposite side, as they were heading to each other. Zveda's plane faced Eastward and Cipher's plane Westward.

They waited until they were a bit closer, and so their foe a bit closer too, and then fired one HZM each. After having locked them on the Feuer-Fuchs pursuing the other, of course, but as they fired them to fly between each other's rudders, their enemies so them arrived far too late, the missile having been hidden to their eyes by the massive silhouette of the Melwaz, and the IR signatures went unnoticed for their missile sensors compared to their two powerful engines they were tracking without success.

And so, both Feuer-Fuchs were engulfed into an orangish inferno. They did try to evade the missiles, but the blast was far too large to allow them to, while the two Melwaz had turned away on the side their respective cockpits were pointing to a few seconds ago.

Iskanda, her, had concentrated all her efforts on bringing down the leader, who had decided to listen too late to the voice of his inner fears and broke away from the battlefield. He wanted to climb as high as possible, hoping that the high altitude would decrease the efficiency of the Griffon's engine, thus his speed and allow him to survive. Though he had far underestimated Iskanda's determination, and more importantly, the Griffon's Ramjet.

"I am on the leader." She stated, as she was slowly catching with the MiG-31s that had slightly less acceleration than she did.

Feuer-Fuchs one tried desperately to increase speed, but with the air currents greatly disturbed by the Hellige Kolumne that had been formed nearby, the air was filled with turbulence that shook his plane every second. And the sight of the Griffon closing in was more than enough to fill his mind with turbulences that shook his whole being.

"Damn, can't those afterburners provide me a bit more thrust?" He swore, swearing at itself for his lack of foresight and at this damn mechanic that would be his undoing. Of course, he has heard the newer models the Schwarze Squadron were now equipped with were faster, but they would never be available to a Sudentorian.

"You lack both thrust and trust." She replied harshly, as she was getting at the range for her guns. She could have fired an ERAAM a lot sooner, but she wanted his death to be something close and personal. She wanted to be close enough to feel the fear in his last maneuvers, as one would feel the fear in the last gesture of a dying man, weight by stupor.

"Just a bit more", he whispered to himself, hoping to survive a tad bit longer, and have at least the relief of dying in the skies of Sudentor, but the city was way too far to be reached by him. Maybe its remains would be carried by the wind there.

"I've got the leader. Finally." Iskanda exulted, as she was sure that the shaking MiG - she wasn't sure if it was shaken by the currents, its speed or the expressions of the fears of its pilots, or a combination of the three- would have no chance to escape her fire.

So she fired. And his afterburner blew up, a fuel pipe pierced by her shell causing a few liters of fuel to burn instantaneously. Soon the flame would follow inside the pipe to his tanks, and he would burn. However, this quick death was retarded by the movement of the fuel backward due to its fuel pumps at full power.

The quickening of his death would come from an outside factor. From an old prototype piloted by someone which he was only hearing her mad laugh, rejoiced by the perspective of his own death. He realized now, that in this battle he has had a chance to run away from this, to live another day. But he disregarded it in his pursuit of pride, and now was pursued by death incarnated.

"Eine neue Belka kam zur Welt heute. Aber du gehörst nicht dazu. (a new Belka is born today. But you're no part of it)" She told him with a solemn voice, while she flanked him, before she glided next to him while pulling the stick hard toward him. That made her turn very quickly, thanks to the very low pressure that reduced her drag, and made her arrive with her nose pointing to his three hours. She managed to keep her sliding motion steady for a few seconds, and fire her gun on the now defenseless Foxhound.

This very close gunfire destroyed the cell of the MiG-31 instantaneously, like she did with her X-29A on Rot 1 that had disrespected her above B7R. Them respecting her meant survival for her adversary now, and failing in that matter meant utter death.

And now she was going back to rejoin with her squadron, and then with Kupchenko when he would be back with the Erusean supplies. This mission was going well, without any hindrances. This was another great way to show to their international support, and especially the Eruseans and their north Usean allies, that they were worthy of supporting.

Stier Castle, Waldreich Mountains, Belka, 18/06/1995, 15:10, Weather : heavy cloud cover

However, as this whole situation unfolded, another portion of the battlefield that had been silent since the slaughter of all North Belkan personnel in Stier Castle. Another tragedy was about to begin for the Belkan that had refused to join their cause. Or another comedy from Iskanda's sick point of view.

"Wait, the Narwal listening devices we dropped after they cleansed the castle have detected something. Transfer pods." A feminine voice announced, being tasked with operating those from one of the DW-2s. The Narwal were simple static sub drones, able to move a bit in the water, as well as transmit radio and sounds to make believe that subs were in some place. They could even release some false oil to make the enemy think that they sunk real subs if anti-submarine charges were dropped in their area of operations

"What are transfer pods?" Iskanda asked, as her squadron and the two Gault were entering this area.

"Pods that contain cruise or ballistic missiles, it's more efficient to use them rather to fire the missile from the bottom of the ocean. Their use is supposed to allow more stealth to subs, but here in that small lake there's not enough depth. We just need them to send one more pair of transfer pods and we will have their position." The sound analysis operator replied, but her attention was soon diverted from this talk to the surface of the lake, that the two transfer pods had just broken.

"Confirming missile launch. Going vertical, high velocity. Might be ASAT missiles." The pilot on board Dunkle Falke 3 said, as the pair of missiles ignored their planes to go toward the stratosphere, and far above.

"Tauberg here, intercepting with direct fire." An Excalibur operator informed, and a few seconds later, a detonation occurred, followed by another. Just two North Belkan subs weren't that much of a threat against their reflectors array.

Inside the two subs that were at the bottom of the lake, the mood was not fine. They knew they would be detected. And then sank without any chance to let them surrender. As if they would.

"Transmit to Kalmar drei. Intensify ASAT fire. Otherwise we won't be able to launch anything else." The captain of the first sub ordered.

"But sir, we might get detected if we launched too many transfer pods." A sound analyst countered, but without anything else to suggest.

"We have to fight or die fighting." Their captain sealed their fate, and the order was transmitted.

But while the transfer pods bays were getting open, their strategy was already jeopardized by the CSB.

"They will very likely fire a volley of ASAT next time. Leave the lake, while we generate an Hellige Kolumne." The operator of Tauberg indicated, as a reflector was being put into position right above the lake.

A few seconds later, the surface was already beginning to disappear under the stream created by the heated air, while the surrounding space was ionized, though the Narwal pods were deep enough not to have their system messed up by this. Besides, they were heavily shielded against EMIs.

But that wasn't the only thing that changed in this battlefield. There were some dots incoming from both North East and North West, but for some reason they seemed to be converging at one point that were near the end of the alleys turned runways, or two kilometers North of Stier Castle. Where they were coming from was something all could deduce, but why were they converging?

The answer was given when some dots disappear while they heard some shouting over the waves :

"Why are you attacking us, Nordlicht ?"

"Your kind kill half of our airborne troops and you expect not to suffer any retaliation ?" The leader of the eight Su-27 squad retorted with a great level of harshness in his voice, while his squad and the Sudentorian MiG-29s were exchanging SAAMs, oblivious to the fact that the Zluchs had noticed them.

"Feuer-Fuchs did that because they were manipulated by the CSB. They are the enemy, not us!" One other Sudentorian tried to negotiate, while the Zluchs had reached ERAAM range by now.

"Easy to say that. Their fire killed more than one third of the Luftlandetruppen!" A Nordlicht countered, having closed the gap, and fired a pair of missiles while taking a bit of gun fire in an aerial joust.

"Don't you see? You're playing their game!" The Sudentorian leader tried vainly to put some sense into those Dinsmarkers. He had been pursued by one of them and had managed to get behind his pursuers after a bit of scissoring, but only damaged the enemy plane without killing it.

Yet he was maybe the only one showing a bit of restraint. All others had broken loose from his authority, and the slaughter was in full swing. He even saw a Su-27 splashing into a fulcrum after losing control in a head-on approach. At this moment, something interrupted his chain of thoughts, something being a pair of missiles. He quickly banked left and increased his speed to evade the projectiles. But it was no use, as those were SAAMs and the enemy that had fired them, the Nordlicht leader, was pretty far from him. Too much to allow him to get outside of the guidance from the Flanker.

He thought his last minute arrived when he realized that the missiles were quicker than his own craft and were gaining a bit of ground with each turn that slowed his craft. However, suddenly, after pulling a hairpin bend, he saw the two missiles flying in a straight line. The guidance had been lost.

The cause was easily understandable: an ERAAM had pulverized the Belkan leader. He wasn't the only one to go down that way. Five Fulcrums and four other Flankers went down. And arriving at full speed, were four planes with forward-swept wings that had something in common with the Morgan, and a strange delta-winged craft, that would soon exterminate what little forces they had in the area.

"Playing our game ? But you never were players, Sudentorians. Just pawns in someone else's game." Iskanda declared, while opening fire with her HVR on that leading craft.

He pulled the stick as hard as he could to evade the fast rockets, but not enough. One of the two shattered his left wing, causing him to lose control of his craft that descended in a flat spin. His death was close now.

He thought that it would come pretty quickly, but it did not. Instead, as he was losing consciousness due to the acceleration induced by the spin, he had the cruel sight of the survivors of his squadron being blown out of the sky as they had tried to regroup in a defensive line. But their missiles were doing less effect than ping-pong balls thrown at a battleship. None would reach their target. Their guns weren't very efficient either. But the weaponry of those CSB craft were deadly.

"Blasted two!" Zveda announced with joy, as she just got one that had tried to dive out of their firing arc, but as she dived later, she had a perfect window of fire on the back of his Fulcrum. A big explosion, the product of his engine imploding due to overheating tore his craft to pieces. Her second kill came when she climbed above her target's line of sight, before enacting a Herbert Manöver on her left, that made her arrive on his back, above his eight hours. Firing her EW, she reduced the canopy to smithereens, and the pilot in it in the process.

"I got one." Zeichner confirmed, having rushed below his target, skimming above the ground with bullets passing harmlessly by his Melwaz. Then he pulled up and climbed, before falling on his target like a bird of prey. Although birds of prey aren't harmed with EWs. But his EW was very good at clawing the enemy fighter, ruining its structure as the fuel tanks exploded in the enemy fulcrum.

One surviving Su-37 tried to run off, but both Pixy and Cipher fired an HZM on him. Maybe there would be less remains of him than of Gelb 1 after Iskanda terminated him with two FAEBs.

His final sight, he thought it would be the volley of ASATs that would cripple the reflectors of the sword of Kings. He did see something breaking the surface, and some missiles commencing their upward motion. But destiny wasn't with Sudentor today, and as such, his last sight was of the ASATs exploding in mid-air, caught in an Hellige Kolumne.

"Gault 1 at Zluchs, come around the lake, and enjoy the water spectacle." Kupchenko said, while the DW-2s had finished their analysis of the sound data. They had the location of the North Belkan subs.

"I never miss a nice light and water show." She agreed that the testing of these new weapons might be something she did not want to miss.

"Yeah, let's join the party." Pixy said, while joining with his leader on her left. He was eager too, to see those new weaponry that Hellenseite had presented as a game-changer for all targets in or near bodies of water.

"Schwarze Falke 3, arming F-Waffen. Feuer." The copilot complied, punched a few keyboards on the specific console for this new weaponry, and two bay doors opened, releasing large missiles, with sharply pointed nose tips to maximize its speed.

"Schwarze Falke 4, Feuer!" The second flying wing released its murderous payload.

The course of those missiles was not straight into the water, like they had anticipated. They flew a bit away from the flying wings, in order not to mess up their engine with their jet wash, then rectified their trajectory to enter a ballistic trajectory.

They were flying in the Hellige Kolumne during their trajectory, but did not seem to show any issues with it. When the usual missile would have exploded, these four ones were just climbing fine, reaching speeds far above Mach 3 that made them impossible to follow for the human eye.

Then they entered their ballistic phase, however without dropping their propulsion stage like most ballistic missiles would do. They enacted their vertical U-turns, using small nozzles to turn faster, and then dived toward the surface of the lake, propelled at unimaginable speeds. Unimaginable speeds that were now above the hypersonic limit. Other missiles would have exploded, due to the massive heat generated, but those were travelling inside a plasma bubble using magnetic fields that allow those to go beyond the heat wall of Mach 10.

"F-Waffe reentry phase is complete. Let's see if those weapons work as intended." Schwarze Falke 4 said, as the missile was falling at great speed, with a much greater radar spot than when it was launched, due to the massive, ionized space created in front of it by the speed and heat generated. Sure, it would create a greater ionized space than an Hellige Kolumne, but if Excalibur were damaged, such a weapon could be a good temporary replacement.

"They are supposed to, indeed. Those submariners think that water can protect them from our armament, especially from Excalibur. They're just a bunch of fools hidden behind what they think to be an impregnable fortress, or an immovable rock. Yet such rocks tend to have a precise point on which you just have to apply a very small force to make it capsize and kill everyone hidden behind it." Kupchenko described how those Belkans thought to be safe under some feet of water, having by now also entered the AO, followed by the Erusean cargo crafts and escorts.

"Isn't Excalibur the epitome of an impregnable fortress ?" Iskanda pointed out that the Sword of the Kings was the most well-defended system in the whole history of mankind.

"It is a fortress that would be hard to take, that's a certainty. But it has limits and shortages. That's why we're fighting here instead of waiting in its walls for the enemy to outnumber or outsmart us." Kupchenko justified the need for counterstrikes, which were not the main function of the Wunderwaffe.

"That makes sense." The Erusean AWACS operator said, having understood that this was mainly an air interdiction weapon. But what could it do against large enemy ground forces, or naval artillery firing from very far? That was were strike craft were needed, or their Merlin satellites to compromise the enemy's long-range strike's capacities.

"And now let's enjoy the water show. Phase transfer in ten seconds." Schwarze Falke 3's pilot informed, as all could notice the luminous point that was growing in the sky by the second.

The deafening sound, as loud as if the sky was opening itself under some god-like impulse, came a few dozen seconds later. In fact, the sonic boom came at the same time as the other ear-shattering noise, which was the missile going through the surface of the water. Indeed, instead of getting dropped like standard ASROCs that contain a torpedo that would require the use of a chute to diminish the noise of the torpedo entering the water, this "F-Waffe" was betting all on speed. The heat surrounding it was the main explanation for how it would work. That was enough to change the water on the path of the missile into steam, even at depth below one thousand meters. None of this was of any concern here, the two subs behind hidden in a small underwater crack that reached two hundred and fifty meters.

Furthermore, those two subs had come here in dismounted pieces, and had been assembled at the docks of the Stier castle. That was the case of most of the small fleet they had sunk a bit sooner. Before the war, there was a project of a long canal that would link this lake to the Futuro Canal and the Löre river in Hoffnung, enabling Belka to move naval assets between its Southern and Northern Waters. The building had already begun at Futuro, but were stopped as the war started.

Of course, for now they didn't see much at the surface of the lake, due to the massive quantity of steam created in the four impacts, and the surface water were more agitated than if in the middle of a tempest. But beneath the water, four warheads were streaking toward their target without having slowed down that much, despite the change of medium, from air to water.

And thus, only a split second after hearing a massive noise coming from the surface, both submarines were pierced by the four terrible armaments. No hull, would it be made of titanium, hafnium or any hard alloys could resist that. Even if they were to be used against underwater structures made of several meters of concrete, they would go through it. The only disadvantage of this weapon was, like all ballistic armament it could be easily intercepted during its boost phase, and even more in its case since it was launched from a very close distance to its target.

In the submarines, it was all out panic. Water was pouring fast from the heavily punctured hulls, and the pumps for emergency resurface were immediately out of commission. Quickly, submariners ran toward compartments they thought to be still intact, only for most of them to be stopped dead in their tracks, with some doors for waterproof compartments having an automatic closing system, resulting in the submariners being stuck in damaged compartments and drowning pretty quickly, meeting a fate similar to the machinist of that cruise ship that hit an iceberg at the beginning of the century, at the North of Estovakia. Some were even cut in two -or more if they were really unlucky- by the fast-moving doors.

Yet, the worse was to come and it came so quickly that the stuck submariners had not even died when it occurred. The F-Waffe had only done half its job. The secondary warhead that had stayed inside the subs after the first pierced the hull was now delivering its highly reactive payload, a substance really hard to use due to its extreme sensibility with water. The Projekt Pendragon had used the same type of chemicals that had caused an Osean factory to not only burn to the ground but razed the entire sector while burning alkali metals. In this factories' case, it had been potassium, which did not produce a great reaction, but the quantity stored there had generated an explosion equal to the payload of at least a dozen B-1s.

Here, the name of the weapon could give a clue on what was used to utterly shatter, destroy and annihilate that sub. Francium was the last alkali metal that needed to be synthesized -that was the "arming" of the weapon before its launch"-, and thus the most dangerous of all. So dangerous that until this very day it hadn't been used by any belligerents in any conflict, as it was as dangerous to produce as its use would be, if not more.

Did the submariners know they were the first to be killed by a Francium-Waffe though ? No, of course, they did not. The submariners in the pierced compartment had only the time to see some fragmentation bombs exploding, which propelled Francium in compartments half-filled with the lake's water. Then everything exploded, their body being ripped apart by the shockwave that traveled throughout the metallic structure, being so powerful that it dismantled the sub into a cloud of thousands metallic pieces, while the submariners at the center compartments were killed by the blast itself that went quicker though the structure than through the air or the water, like the first ever military submarine crew died. No man was spared by the deadly blast, would they be in an intact section or not.

For Kalmar drei and zwei, the damage was much more extended than on the Osean Hunley. Instead of sinking peacefully after having been turned into a coffin, it was pulverized by the extremely powerful blast.

On the surface, the initial blast was not visible due to all the steam that had now formed a little fog above the Edelwassersee. The blast caused by the Francium was visible pretty quickly for a simple reason: sound moving quicker in water than in air. Henceforth, only a mere dozen seconds after the impact on its surface. It was like a hidden volcano had erupted beneath the lake, and created four geysers that rose high in the sky, with a few droplets falling on Iskanda's plane that had advanced a bit toward the lake to appreciate the water show. Then, they could see some light metallic pieces on the surface as well as all around it, as they reflected the light a bit.

Whatever was left from the docks on the shores of the Edelwassersee were shattered by waves as powerful as if a tsunami had happened. The waves were so high that they reached the wall of the castle, making a few more stones stumble from the now dead place. The area was now definitively sanitized from North Belkan presence.

"From Gault 1 zu Tauberg, F-Waffen are a success. Now we just have to wait for the second part of this spectacle to begin. Here you would need to look above." Kupchenko celebrated this little victory as well as this great success that would surely be useful in the future anti-ship operations to come, either at Anfang, Dinsmarkhaven or elsewhere.

"What now?" the Erusean leader of "Tigre Gris" asked, not knowing what to expect.

"Let me guess, North Belka did really send nukes and we are blowing them up like you did to create the EMP disaster ?" Pixy asserted, thinking about what part of the nuclear triad was still relevant against Excalibur. A barrage of nuclear warheads was still, especially since the launch sites near Dinsmarkhaven might be at the limit of the direct range of Excalibur, and indirect fire was not a viable option, the place possessing some ASATs batteries.

"Indeed. Those warheads were targeting not only Tauberg, but also Blumenberg, as well as Ustio, Sapin, Gebet and Recta." Kupchenko explained, while a first luminous point appeared in the ionosphere.

"Why target countries that were allies with Osea?" An Erusean WSO onboard a 2000D was left puzzled by his own question.

"First, they are no more officious allies. It could be retaliations, in some measure. Second, they intend to diminish our firepower by making me choose between protecting my allies or my assets." Kupchenko gave a bit more explanation on the geopolitical situation that had not reached the Usean continent yet, Osean censorship being strong there.

"What did you choose, Kupchenko?" Iskanda asked, worried that the cold strategic mind that he often relied upon meant that people were expendable.

"I have chosen after my talk with your king, Eruseans. There's no point in showing we have powers if we can't protect our allies with it. Henceforth, we will have to do without the coverage of the Merlin Satellites in North Belka." The cold strategist that he was showed some human compassion, trading technology that would surely make one battle easier for allies whose influence would make the entire war easier. After all, he wasn't seeking some glorious battle to die in, but an end to this war, to make sure that no more Belkans would die from the greed of Oseans and the foolishness of those false "Wahre Stolze Belkan'' (true proud) leaders.

"That's the choice that I would have done too." Iskanda agreed that such behavior would only give him more points with their future allies, while Satellites would eventually be replaced. From where they would launch them was a mystery for her though. She knew that satellites were more than often launched from somewhere close to the equator to maximize the payload of rockets, the Belka had no such launch site, unlike Osea that had their massive Basset Space center that was now without much activity as they had not found a way to throw anything at the CSB without Excalibur reducing it to space dust.

"I guess you cannot have victory if you let the cathedral dedicated to Ste Victoire burn." Pixy added that protecting the people had sometimes to go against other advantages, and it was the case here.

"I'm not really a man of faith, but some blessing from above cannot hurt." Kupchenko admitted that any help was welcome, even from spirits beyond the grave.

A few minutes passed, with the Zluchs and the Gault staying in the era, while the A320s and A340s were slowly separating into two convoys, one heading to Blumenberg for the civilians and one much smaller heading for Tauberg. Nothing happened, outside of a few more nuclear explosions occurring with a relative harmlessness at high altitude, frying the Merlins there, that could be seen with a keen eye as colder debris compared to the nukes.

"Our job is almost finished. I'll be glad when we'll land at your base and walk a bit after all this flight." A Mirage 2000C sighted, having been stuck in his cockpit since midday.

"I must warn, visitors pay for the drinks of the escorts." Gault 4 said in an almost childish manner, feeling a bit of relief as the radar was clear of anything.

Iskanda was maybe the best to understand those Eruseans, having done the same trip a few months prior. Even if she left without having the time to eat anything, covered in blood of some former royal guards. Then she had to do a twenty to one dogfight against Rafales Cs, and after some Fatoan and Belkan pilots and ships in the river and later canyon leading to her rendezvous point.

"Zluchs might have some appetizer before the drinks, though." Kupchenko implied that their mission was not over, at least not finally.

As he had predicted, the loss of their real-time sensors on their Merlin Satellites had rendered their enemies a bit bolder. Or at least, it had emboldened one of their greater enemies, one that he wanted to utterly destroy, to tear into shreds whatever he had built.

"Dolch drones. five of them. I want those UCAVs destroyed, Zluchs."

"I like that kind of order. Simple and direct." Iskanda complied, and the five aircrafts broke away to engage the five dagger-shaped drones that had not unfolded their backward-swept wings to have a bit more stealth.

"No restrictions this time?" Zveda inquired, her finger hesitating to switch off their EWs

"Absolutely no." Kupchenko wanted those Sudentorian products blasted, and there was no need to be chivalrous with their pieces of junk.

"Roger. Consider them as already destroyed." Iskanda asserted that such drones would hardly be an obstacle. She had succeeded to destroy one while at the verge of stalling at 30 kilometers of altitude, so a few at ground level, and with even numbers would just be a walk in the park.

They might qualify that as a fast Nordic walk in the park after some of their ERAAMs were intercepted by explosive missiles. All but Pixy's, that has sent his' in succession instead of in pairs. The first detonated, although the second went right for his target, despite its forward mounted SPK.

"All right, if they want a bit of fancy flying, I'll give them some." Iskanda ranted, thinking that those UCAVs would be as stupid as the Sudentorians they fight after tricking them.

"If they were really smart AIs, they would have figured we are the winning side." Cipher commented, knowing from the small blue on blue incident during the siege of Wesson that Sudentorians weren't the sharpest tool.

"Yeah, they would have either refused to take off or turned against the southern door's people." Zeichner added while intercepting with ease a pair of QAAMs from one Dolch in front of him.

Iskanda gave her fighter a downward trajectory that would make her go below one Dolch. The one drone realized -or its ground controller- that he was in a dangerous situation and pitched a bit downward to gun her, but she was faster than his gun. Bullets did nothing but grazed her plane. A pair of QAAMs buzzed near, only to hit the ground as she dived with a sharper angle. Then she pulled the stick toward her as her plane were going to cross each other's path and fired her gun while climbing. The Dolch lose its right wing, and to ensure its destruction, she leveled her fighter on the UCAV, leveling inverted, and fired a pair of HVRs on the already damaged drone while inverting back.

Zveda and Cipher went for fancier maneuvers than hers, having two Dolch coming head on right on them in a tight formation to maximize their own interception capacities that were far behind those of an ADFX-02 Melwaz of course. Cipher did an half barrel-roll that made him arrive above Zveda's Melwaz inverted, and while the top Melwaz enacted his second half of barrel-roll, she rolled too, and both fired their EWs during this nice show of skill. They broke away after witnessing the efficiency of their circle of fire on those drones, as they were both with their wingtips vertical to the ground, with Zveda leaving left and Cipher leaving right. They both executed small horizontal loops while in knife edge position, and then regrouped with the other members of Zluchs.

About Zeichner, he enacted his classic "guillotine", flying below the enemy before climbing behind and killing that meager pigeon like a bird of prey would have done. He fired his EW to neutralize it, and an HZM to shatter its remains.

"I wasn't expecting anything else from you." Iskanda said, having seen his former leader use this maneuver proactively. Of course, it had its weakness if you dived hard too close to the ground like that man did.

"I could have done something else, but against such poor opponents there's no need to go through Himmel und Höhe." Zeichner countered what he somewhat considered to be a critic.

"Have you seen it, Schröder? All you Dolch are turned to shreds, Schröder!" Kupchenko mocked his rival that had led to the death of his wife and daughter -he had since her disappearance considered her to be dead-.

"Yep, nothing's remaining." Zluchs one added, happy that for once she was seeing the cold tactician show some rage against an enemy.

"Belka's future is mine to design, not yours, Schröder. Maybe I should send you a copy of the last words of the Hexens. Like them, you won't escape my wrath." Kupchenko promised his rival a very painful death, that may take some time to come, maybe even years, but it would be inevitable.

"Wrath? I like that callsign." Iskanda found that calling fitting. She had been as merciless as god's wrath on those Hexens. Not that she was a believer, but that was the best term to use here.

"That's how Le Sage called you. He was right, that's fitting." Kupchenko revealed the origin of this nickname. Even if the man he was talking about had already made some choices that could make him doubt his title, he was right on one thing : his "Wrath" needed to have some boundaries, but not too much either. He didn't want to have her as a foe once again.

"Schwarze Falke 3 zu Gault 1. We have recovered Spatz 1 and 2." One of the flying wings that had at one moment headed to where the fight against the Lindwurm had taken place.

"Gut. They did their job perfectly, getting the Sudentorians to fire on the Ralders." Kupchenko unveiled what many Sudentorians were now furious about, which was Ralders firing on other Ralders: a set up by some of his agents. They weren't the best pilots, but their role had allowed Iskanda to influence those fools of that Feuer-Fuchs squadron.

"Ver, they have some light injury though. Blumenberg then?" The captain asked, knowing that Blumenberg could have use of some CAS pilots, as the MiG-31X/V of Schwarze were best against fighters. They did possess some air-to-ground capacities, but not the precision of the F-35X had on the ground.

"Ja, I'll have a pair of F-35X shipped there once they have fully recovered. To all others, mission accomplished, the first cargo craft are landing right now. Rück Nach Tauberg." Kupchenko finally said the words that were ending their flight of the day.

Tauberg Air Base, Belka, 18/06/1995, 15:10, Weather: light cloud cover

Landing at the base wasn't an issue for any plane of the CSB. All landed quickly, and taxied to their respective hangars, and from there went to the briefing room of the base for the debriefing, while the Mirage 2000C were landing here, as well as the A320 and A340 bringing the military supplies for this place. Amongst those supplies were of course the precious "pressure cookers" that hold their highly hazardous cargo.

There would also be some Eruseans at this debriefing, as they had some intel to report during their travel, especially their flight through Fatoan airspace that hadn't gone without any issue. Proof of the few issues they encountered there were the many bullet holes on their Mirages.

One of those Eruseans was of course their leader, who was a man with brown hairs in his late thirties named Damien. Not one of them were old enough to have fought in the wars of the previous king. Which could be understood, as those wars were extremely deadlier for the Erusean air force, and that what was left of it was shattered after the changing of king.

This time, the mapping software was covering all the eastern part of the Osean continent, that included most countries except the homonymous federation that encompassed most of its western parts. This allowed them to show the path the Erusean had taken, flying over Nordlands and Wieldvakia before entering Fatoan airspace. There, a polygonal shape symbolized a fortress that Iskanda and Pixy only knew too well : Bayes Fortress, that they had emptied of living beings a few months prior, but apparently Belka had rebuilt its defenses since.

"So, you said that you had to withstand missiles launched from Bayes, as well as attacks from its fighter squadrons." Kupchenko repeated, as the Erusean leader resumed their flight, which had been marked with only two or three meaningful events, one major being this revival of Bayes.

"Yes, fortunately we managed to intercept most of them, and then the disturbance of those interceptors allowed another squadron to come closer… And then you arrived and saved the day." The Erusean leader recalled how their long escort flight had suddenly turned into a desperate dogfight, followed by the CSB removing their threats.

"Bayes fortress is becoming a painful thorn in my foot. This fortress will soon be removed, and permanently." Kupchenko stated one of their next raids. If they wanted to have a steady supply train, the eastern route needed to be free. A southern route going through Gebet, Recta, Ustio or even Sapin was still out of question as those countries were too close from Ocean-controlled bases for their comfort.

"That would be nice if we don't want to have to pay for the downed cargo craft. Remember that not all of them belong to Erusea and some belong to private airline companies that have agreed to do that so they would be in your good graces." The Erusean leader reminded that due to the treaty signed after the warmonger king's reign, they did not have a very numerous air force, even in the field of cargo crafts.

"In a few weeks the Southern routes should be a bit less congested. Then Erusea and their allies will have seen our power not only to defend, but also to bite back." Kupchenko declared, while the small blue dots that were in Sapin were shown on the map. The two major concentrations of the Allied Forces were in San Rudigo, the capital city, and Aarlon, due to the presence of the important factory. Directus' blue dot had already a red cross over it, as Excalibur long range strike had put the airport out of commission for an unknown duration.

"We do not need convincing, that's for sure." The Erusean soldier raised his both hands like he was wanting to stop something's motion. Maybe it was to push aside the images of those enormous water splashes that the F-Waffen had created, but very literally.

"Your capacities of demonstrating power have been acknowledged." Another Erusean went a bit further in his compliments, having himself escaped death once or twice thanks to Gault fighters killing the North Belkan tracking him.

"It's good to see that we are not alone in this fight. Wars can seldom be won without allies, whatever they help achieve, being through manpower or other form of aid." Kupchenko thanked his allies, although regretting that they could not hope to see military support coming from Usean countries. Such acts could set the whole continents ablaze in some proxy wars, that the CSB and their meager resources could not fight now.

"But as a beginning, we can say that this campaign is on a good way." The tactician said, while zooming out to show a bit more of North Belka, were the attackers had come, and were the nukes had been launched from. There, the mapping software displayed some shaded circles where the Merlin satellites or reflectors would have been lost due to the magnetic pulse they suffered when the nukes were intercepted. Theoretically nukes should only explode once in the target zone, but Belkan and Osean weaponry were made to explode if too much trifled with. As such, if someone tried to disarm it, they would have a very great risk of causing its explosion.

"Speaking of beginning, quite a number of reinforcements came from Anfang. This will be a target after Bayes?" Iskanda inquired, knowing that this naval base would be a hard Belkan stronghold to crack.

"In due time, in due time. Anfangers sind kein Anfängers." Kupchenko replied, while the number of fleets stationed there were shown on the display. There was only three, but all three were built around the massive NeoBismarck Battleship, and not around carriers like Osean fleet were. But carriers were included into those fleets, as well as smaller battleships, cruisers, TAS ships, destroyers, and frigates. Luckily for them some of the most advanced ships were part of the Pendragon Projekt and were able to escape the harbor.

"Anfangers are not beginners, I see your point. Though with those F-Waffen it might be a bit simpler to send them to the bottom, even without Excalibur's support." Iskanda argued that, unless the North had some of their own Wunderwaffe to defend the facilities there, the Northern Belkan fleet should not be much of an issue.

"It will be equal to three to four times what you faced with Osean help when retaking Futuro canal. Not something that will be easy to take down, but it's a mandatory step on our way." Kupchenko tried to instill some restraint in his "Wrath", but he wasn't sure that telling her about the target-richness of the place would deter her will a single bit.

"Other steps on our way will be Dinsmark and Dinsmarkhaven." Pixy expressed only pure certainty as he quoted Belka's capital and its main port, that was part of the Lander of Dinsmark, and a more secondary port in matter of sheer strength than Anfang. Only one of those new classes of Battleship were there, but the airbase was more numerous, as it was the main nuclear bomber base of Belka.

"Again, those Ralders would scream of fear if we use a few F-Waffen here and there." Iskanda asserted that this game changer would really ease the work. But it was just a weapon, and the bit of overconfidence that was now implanted in Iskanda's mind needed to be erased if she wanted to act at the top of her own capacities.

" I might have to precise one thing about the use of Francium-based weaponry, to make sure you understand why its use is limited, and not suited for large scale-battles like the siege of Anfang, Dinsmark or even Oured will be." Kupchenko sighted as they were about to make the one mistake he did not want to do: rely on one thing and deprive themselves of alternative ways. That was what F-Waffen were: not Wunderwaffen, but alternative ways.

A few schematics were displayed instead of the map. One first was a display of the weapon, with its supersonic ramjet engine that was able to burn overheated plasma of water that was turned into a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen by the very high speed when entering into bodies of water. But that was quickly swept away for a schematic that was more linked to radioactivity than aeronautics.

"You see, Francium is a product of the disintegration of Actinium, itself being only a step from the disintegration that goes from Uranium to Radon. And it has a half-life of a mere twenty minutes." Kupchenko began his little physics explanation.

"That's still more than the life expectancy of the average Belkan against me." Iskanda snickered, even if the thought of them using "dirty" munitions was a bit uncomfortable. Of course, a clean war was a utopia, but she wasn't really favorable to use such ammo. And its use seemed to be a bit too technical for her if she had to plan with a twenty-minute advance where she would use her bombs.

"So, when the bombs are armed, the Francium is generated from the previous substance of this disintegration pattern, Actinium. That's a pretty fragile system. Not that it would explode if fired upon before activation, but if it suffered a single crack in the Francium container once armed, the air humidity will be enough to set it off." The tactician resumed why those weapons that were hundred and hundred times more unstable than Hypersthene or any other "conventional" explosives, and even more dangerous in their use for the user than nukes were. Although they would produce way less radiation afterwards, which was better if foot soldiers or airborne troops needed to be deployed to secure a location after F-Waffen bombing.

"We can still fight with our current weaponry. The Melwaz are powerful enough to destroy anything standing in our way." Pixy asserted that having their own Wunderwaffe within their own hands should allow them to cleanse Anfang, despite the new class of Battleship being there.

"I recognize that you guys are rocking with those things. If I weren't a good patriot, I would gladly join your fight to get in the seat of one of those engineering marvels." The Erusean leader spoke with a bit of envy, giving them an external point of view on their craft. The ADFX-02 Melwaz was a beast that could slain down any fighter it encountered, and from what they had left of the gardens of the castle -craters, obliterated vehicle and planes splintered on the ground- ground targets weren't much of an issue to them-.

"I admit that some battles will be hard. But where would be the challenge if our battles were easy?" Iskanda pointed out that she was really seeking that thrill into battles, being outnumbered by fear and dead men, and seeing those dead men being consumed by their fear.

"One of the Osean president in the sixties once said :''we don't do things because they are easy, but because they're hard." Zeichner quoted, having enough confidence in his leader's and his own abilities after the success of today.

"They succeeded in their doings. Taking Oured might be harder than going to the Moon, but we will prevail too." Kupchenko ended the debriefing by switching back to the mapping software, that zoomed out even more, and showed even more potential targets, from the naval assets in the Futuro canal, assets that Osea had currently in Sapin, and all over their territory, like the Basset Space center or the Apito International airport that had been turned into a major air base since the EMP disaster.

All left the room with good confidence that Oured will fall to them. It was not a matter of if or how, but of when. The Osean supremacy was now walking in the death corridor. And it would meet its final demise in a pretty sketchy way, if all that Kupchenko had planned happened.

Tauberg Air Base, Belka, 18/06/1995, 19:10, Weather : light cloud cover

Now, all pilots and a certain number of the personnel of the airbase were either eating or toasting, celebrating their little moment of victory after having to work for a few more hours. Indeed, as soon as they left the briefing room they had to help the logistics redistribute the supplies to the entire base, and as there wasn't a huge quantity of forklift here, most of the displacement had to be done by hand. That was only increased by the small corridors and tunnels that led to the underground facilities, which were quite numerous in the area.

The only thing Iskanda learned from those three hours, was that even the small u-Bahn (metropolitan in Belkan) was way too small to let a fighter fly through. Or only a X-29A that would have lost both its wings. Which would of course be way too unstable to be controllable.

Another thing she noticed was the extreme care some logistics personnel had to take while transporting some paperboard crates that contained pressure cookers. She did not understand while both Hellenseite and Kupchenko were watching over that part with such care. They were acting like they were moving some porcelain, not some metallic containers that surely wouldn't never see any use as kitchenware.

The Erusean leader had joined her and her squadmates in their celebration, after having eaten a little, being and looking way more tired than any of them. After all, they had been flying since before noon, and didn't eat a whole on the way in. That caused the Erusean to rant a bit about the slowness of cargo craft, which were far from being supersonic.

"I wonder if SSTs will be a reality. That seems to be something that your Projekt Pendragon could achieve."

"You mean supersonic transport? that would be interesting." Pixy agreed that such an addition to their arsenal could be great to do deep penetration missions in enemy territory. Speed was often better than stealth as a passive defense. The survivability of the SR-71 was proof of that, if they weren't pursued by a Wrath.

"Don't you Erusean have some Concordes?" Zeichner asked, having once gone there in one of those engineering marvels.

"They are extremely costly in many ways especially in the field of maintenance, and too fragile for any use in the military. Besides, they have only half of the carrying capacity of an A320 and a quarter of an A340." The Erusean listed all the reasons why such planes weren't used. They were only used for people having the money to go far and fast. Besides, they were meant to carry passengers, not cargo

"That must be nice, to hear some afterburners in a civilian jet" Iskanda said after lowering her glass of sparkling wine, which wasn't very alcoholized, but enough to get her out of her killing mood. And enough to get her excited about hearing such nice noise to her ears.

"I do not think that many passengers like to hear afterburners on take-off or landing." Pixy retorted, having been once onboard such a plane. Landing were not that smooth, especially if the runway was a bit short. But he could not deny that its speed was making it stand out. However, since Osea had banned it from its airport during the warmonger king era just to hurt Erusea economically, the sales had never been very high.

"Besides, you only hear them during take-off or landing, then they go in supercruise. And then you hear nothing at all." Pixy kept his sharing of his experience going.

"At least they are safer than the Concordski of those Yuktes that crashed during its first ever air show. That stopped the program dead in its tracks." The Erusean leader recalled how much of a tragedy it had been back then, with the plane crashing on some part of the Apito airport, killing more than two hundred people that hadn't had enough time to run away from the lost plane.

"But aren't the DW-2s SSTs in their own right ?" Iskanda pointed out, remembering that once some equipped with ramjet engines had escaped her wrath, during their first assault on Excalibur. She had learned in the few days spent there that this first assault was the one that had cost the most damage to the sword of kings. Later ones didn't even manage to damage the jammers that had been rebuilt shortly after their defeat.

"Yes, Fraulein Wrath, but they have only a few metric tons of carrying capacity. Once they are fully crewed and armed, only one or two dozen people can be held onboard those. So, at best they are picket SSTs." Hellenseite showed them the limits of their accomplishments. Yet limits were only temporary.

"Since your engineering teams manage to overupdate the Morgan into the Melwaz, I guess soon we will see some DW-3 with more firepower than a whole AC-130 squadron?" Zveda asked, having been more than satisfied with what they accomplished with those against regular units flying regular planes, when against a crazy girl in an overupdated prototype from the sixties it had failed its mission.

"It depends on how many AC-130 you put in your squadron. If it's only a squadron of five, then it could be done. It would be a good aircraft to deploy our own Luftlandetruppen, far better than those outdated War Cubs and Lindwurm North Belka keep using." Hellenseite pursued his little explanation of this future project, which would obviously carry EWs. And if they were equivalent to five AC-130s, they would be able to destroy battleships in one shot, or less.

"It would be nice to have some more variety in our arsenal. Armies cannot win wars through air forces alone." Pixy shared his thoughts on their current state: sure, they had incredible raiding and defensive capacities, but anything to conquer and keep the control of a territory. Nor much in the way of naval forces.

"We have a bit more time to think about the future. And even more time to celebrate." Iskanda raised her glass of sparkling wine that she had filled once more and drank it, followed by many of the pilots. Sure, the Erusean didn't bring anything as fancy as Chateau Boloise or Zäckermann, but it was good enough to celebrate a nice victory. Especially for her, it was a nice celebration, celebrating her tricking those Sudentorians like if it was anything.

The party went for some time, but none of them was really drunk even as more time passed and the night began to fall. Iskanda had the time to exchange a few words with Kupchenko's mother who was glad to see a pristine Griffon coming back. Then the old engineer dive deep into a very technical conversation with Hellenseite about circle-combined engines, which involved a lot of time the words "magnetic fields". Far too much for Iskanda to fully understand it. Maybe she was either too drunk, or on the opposite, she was not drunk and drugged enough to figure out what they could be talking about.

Usually, she would have had a nice view to gaze at the stars above, like she dis with Kellermann at the Mausoleum, but with Excalibur doing its extreme long range strikes at the Ulysses fragments, this was out of question. Only the brightest stars like Polaris or Sirius were visible.

Although the spectacle of those "Belkan northern lights" did catch the eye of some. A few Erusean just looked at it with hope, knowing that this Sword of the King was now their only effective shielding against this space threat. All of them also knew about Stonehenge, but the railguns were inefficient and imprecise. Furthermore, there was some arguing between southern and Northern Usean countries about which area they needed to protect the most. Another thing that Excalibur was ending. Once everything would be reduced to dust and vapor, it would burn harmlessly in the upper atmosphere.

A few others were watching the dark monolith firing its pulse of light -which only sign was the overheated air that was turned white by the sheer amount of energy being transmitted-. One of those few others was none other than the one who suggested this use, for salvation instead of annihilation.

"In all honesty, this suggestion of yours was the best thing that has come of this war. Instead of being seen as rogues and terrorists like we would've been if we waited more, we'll be considered as the world's saviors." Kupchenko declared, authorizing himself to share a bit of happiness in this moment.

"Always better to be seen as the hero than the villain. Even if I'm not certain of being one or the other. Here I'm the hero. In Erusea I'm a murderer who just slaughtered her whole class because I don't like to run without a fight." Iskanda replied with less happiness, sighing at the thought of those departed. Not that she would ever mourn them. Only her friendship with the one she let live was something she could mourn, as it was very likely in shambles by now.

"This might be why Philippe will not be welcoming you back in open arms. San Salvation might be a free city-stated, it's in his sphere of influence." Kupchenko nodded, recalling his less than kind talk with Le Sage on this matter.

"I won't go on a fratricidal and matricidal rampage right after the end of this war." She said while crossing his inquisitive gaze for a glimpse.

"Good. That's not the path I set you on, on which you have done your first steps today." He kept talking, going back to his cryptic ways he learned when he studied philosophy.

"What, the path of betrayal? Pixy is better at this than me. At least he betrayed the allies to save people. I betrayed them to save myself." Iskanda tried to see through his cryptic ways but failed in doing so, as uncertainty was appearing on her face.

"He said something to me about betrayal while you were resting. When the whole World is turning backward, do we keep it turning, or should we try our best to make it turn forward once more?" Kupchenko quoted the Belkan mercenary, who at least had the capacity to best him with language.

"That makes sense, considering his thought process. Despite being a merc, he's still hell-bent on acting like a proud Belkan. While I'm just someone having jumped right into hell." Iskanda agreed with Pixy's argument. Now she was wishing he had understood who she was when they met during the second Battle-axe operation.

"But no, it's not on the path of betrayal that I set you on. Rather on the tactician's journey. A journey without real destination however with purpose." Kupchenko finally relinquished the answer she was seeking to his enigma.

"Was letting me in charge, a test? Or was it as rigged as when you set me up against the Hexens?" Iskanda's gaze gained a more inquisitive stance, as she wondered if she had any true freedom in her life, or only a false notion of it.

"The Spatz were indeed moles whose role was to provoke a conflict between the two North Belkan sub-factions. However, I doubt their action alone could have done what you achieved, to make them want to annihilate each other. This will definitively cripple their effort of having a united front against us." Kupchenko recognized that he had influenced the circumstances, but not like he did with the Hexens. That attack had been telegraphed to Kellermann directly. This last one was hinted in a more subtle way.

"It was a test then. Did I pass it?" Iskanda wanted the truth about her capabilities. She knew she had little to learn as a pilot, but definitely more as a tactician.

"With flying colors. North Belka will never be able to fight back, only to resist a bit, and with an Osean bloodline that we will soon sever." Kupchenko congratulated her, putting a hand on her shoulder in an almost paternalist way.

"Good. We shall hit them at their jugular and make them choke in their own blood." Iskanda raised her fist as she proclaimed this morbid statement, with a wicked smile on her face that sent some shivers in the tactician's spine.

"It will happen as we both progress on the tactician's journey." Kupchenko agreed that Belka's end was near. Or rather, its new beginning. Soon, it would be his to reshape to the better shape it has ever had. A shape that would not just content with puny wars on this earth but aim for the skies above and beyond it.

"I think you might be quite advanced on this journey, far beyond my level." Iskanda admitted that she lacked his cold calculative nature. She was good at thinking in the heat of battle, not in front of some map to plan a several month-long conflict.

"I am not a perfect tactician. If I were, you wouldn't have won in our first encounter, and we couldn't be having this conversation right now." Kupchenko admitted that he lacked a bit of her aggressiveness that she had shown at multiple points. To be honest, he was happy he hadn't had to fight her after she destroyed the Morgans, because at this very moment he really feared for his life, way more than when he was hit by the cyanide bullet that he had foreseen.

"We'll both aim toward perfection then. We'll soon be tested. And our foes bested." Iskanda stated their ultimate goal: victory.

As they were devising future victories while watching over the Sword of kings, they did not notice the Erusean leader that was closing on them. Maybe on the ground their awareness was decreased. Or they had allowed it to decrease, as the safety of the dark tower was authorizing them to feel some relief after the fight of today.

An ominous detail that remains of today's fight was the over northern lights North of their location, the remains of seven Belkan ballistic missiles with multiple nuclear warheads. Each of them had enough power to wipe a city the size of Directus. And the explosion would have been visible since Solis Ortus.

"Night is almost nice." He described the uneasy feeling of seeing the whiteness of the overheated air, something that all South Belkans had gone accustomed by now.

"Night will be nice when it will be illuminated by Osea burning." Iskanda expressed her now deepest wish, to go do some deep raid there and light everything up. Everything could burn it heated enough.

"It will be the result of our end goal, Dam." Kupchenko agreed that Osea would partially burn, if not the whole country, at least its greatest achievements.

"I don't know if you'll succeed. I hope for you that you'll." He nodded, guessing that if all Osea was burned to the ground, then there would see cinders up to Farbanti. Then he added, in a more neutral tone: "At least you achieve something else right now, to guess correctly my nickname."

"That wasn't difficult. Your first name is Damien, after all." Iskanda said, not finding anything difficult in this matter. You didn't need to be a tactician to figure that one.

"Yes and no. It came from another story involving Dams. The Amber Dam incident." He recalled a sinister day for his former squadron back during the heated occupation of Amber. Of course, Amber was much more of a pacified zone since the war ended and Osea had ceased their supplies of weapons to the criminal families that once ruled those mountains. They still had enough to do one or two terrorist acts from time to time though.

"I heard of that one. An entire squad was destroyed since they used the Dam as their base." Iskanda remembered having heard the news of this dreadful incident back when she still lived in that convent. The nuns had prayed for days for the souls of the departed, and that had annoyed her a bit for some days.

"That were meager loss. But the Dam collapsing did as many victims as there was in the Osean city of Bur during the more recent EMP disaster." Dam admitted that ten pilots were nothing compared to a city of ten thousand submerged in one horrifying night. He was just lucky to have begun his CAP a bit sooner.

"It means there were around ten thousand casualties if we compare those two Dam disasters. But it can be a bit more or a bit less, as propaganda tends to either decrease or increase such numbers." Kupchenko stated that from a bit of water and potential energy, a whole city was reduced to rubble.

"Why were you deployed there? I mean, the Dam wasn't that long, it must have been quite hard to land there." Iskanda asked, having read that it was only a few hundred meters long, not longer than an aircraft carrier.

"I was in a Mirage IIIv back then. The only supersonic VTOL ever made." Damien replied, missing those days. The ten engines of the Mirage variant make it less mobile than Harriers, but since it could hit Mach 2.

"I wish I had the time to fly one of these things before I had to run away." Iskanda sighted, wondering how it would be to be able to land anywhere and anytime, while still having a very fast airplane.

"They are still used on our assault carrier, to clear the path for the transport choppers." Damien added, having served onboard one later on, before joining the Tiger Gris squadron.

"That's understandable, since the restriction due to the post war treaties forbidding Erusea to have carriers of great size." Kupchenko informed Iskanda, who hadn't learned the in and out of the treaties signed a few weeks after the death of the warmonger king. Those conditions had been quite severe, cutting their air force in half and their navy in four.

"Yeah, Damn treaties. But to think that it was just a civil prototype of a plastic bathyscaphe that blew up the dam. Because it was made of plastics and composites, it wasn't picked up by our sonars." Dam swore, but he wasn't sure if he was swearing more at the bathyscaphe conceiver, or at these treaties. Maybe more at the conceiver, that he guessed, could have gotten along with Kupchenko if he had lived.

"Did you get the one that conceived this malicious weapon?" Iskanda inquired, knowing that Kupchenko had maybe the answer. If he had met such a man, maybe he was now in charge of those new subs that had escaped their harbor a few weeks prior.

"Yeah, we managed to get him by using his only daughter as a bait. Not the most honorable act I guess, but what he did was beyond honor." Dam declared, with his voice lacking a bit in confidence. He didn't seem really happy to talk about it.

"What did you do with such a man?" It was the turn of Kupchenko to ask some questions, and he were quite precise. He had failed in learning about this man's fate while seeking for allies with rare skills during the birth of Projekt Pendragon. His question asserted that he hadn't found the man, unlike Iskanda had thought for an instant.

"Strangely, he volunteered to help us on our new submarine project, only if we let his daughter as well as a good number of resistance fighters in his cell to be let free. Our commander of the sector, one with a Yukte name that I had always had trouble pronouncing, authorized this." Dam recalled how this disaster had almost been cancelled in the eye of the warmonger king, at least for a while.

"Was it Kartzlov?" Kupchenko demanded out of the blue, which surprised the Erusean enough that his expression said enough. It was a positive answer for sure.

"How do you..." Iskanda asked, even if the answer was obvious : his network of hands, ears and eyes, which had now seen the addition of wrath, was not just inside countries directly involved in this war.

"It doesn't matter for the moment. Resume, Dam" He interrupted this question, knowing from the gaze of the Erusean mercenary that she had figured out how wide his network was spread.

"Right. He quickly became a vital member of the project of microsub aimed for commando teams, as his sub was quite like what our scientists were trying to conceive. So vital that he was able to slow it down enough to make sure that it would never arrive to fruition before the end of this war. There was even rumor that Blueprints had made their way to the rebs through the trash bin, as those resistance fighters had infiltrated the place where he was held at, or at least it's my assumption. It didn't please the warmonger king to see that someone had fooled his army, and thus him in the process." The Erusean pilot resumed how the history of that man had played. The history of a man that had sacrificed everything to see the Amber mountains free of any rules, being from crime lords or Erusean crime lord king.

"He wasn't the type to offer pardon. I mean, he restored the use of the Guillotine to kill traitors that had been sentenced to death." Iskanda quoted the best-known example, known well outside Erusea's border, that had been viewed as a barbaric nation by Osea for this fact. Which the Erusean state journalists had replied that the Guillotine was a less barbaric way to kill people than the electric chair that was still used in some Osean jurisdictions.

"Indeed, he ordered his execution. But he didn't want a grand execution, as it would make him a martyr. Rather, he asked him to be shot silently as he was visiting his daughter in some city near the Yinshi Valley, by a member of the royal guard elite sniper. I don't know what happened to his daughter." Damien finished his history, which was prone to end badly from the start. Who could think that that man had genuine intentions to work with the people he had killed?

"A pretty sad story for his daughter, I guess. Did this man have a name?" Iskanda inquired, wondering who was that man that had an extremely high kill ratio, if only one of the subs he conceived had allowed to raze an entire city. It was morbid curiosity, but curiosity still.

"He had multiple names among the resistance fighters. The black devil was his surname we gave us, since he had dark skin with red hairs. Himself chose to be named Barberousse due to his facial hair color. We only managed to get a name out of his university in which he had studied: "Professor Mortimer." The Erusean pilot tried his best to remember the most about this sad story, that he had been put under wraps for a bit less than a decade. The scars of the warmonger king policy would run deep and would take a lot of time to heal. Maybe more than his lifetime.

"Interesting name." Was Kupchenko's way to judge this answer. He then reset his face to a neutral appearance, not letting either one of his two interlocutors figure his thoughts about his next move, now that he had data that Kartzlov had for some hidden reason not transmitted to him. That would require some clearing, but after this war would be the only right time.

"Besides, you did avenge him, without knowing it." Damien said to Iskanda, who was a bit puzzled by this new information.

She raised her eyebrows at this information, doubtful. She had killed way less Erusean than North Belkans and even Osean, but she didn't remember having encountered a bunch of snipers during her escape. Or maybe they were in those small patrol ships she sunk on her way out of the Erusean economic exclusive zone.

"When you killed those mercs that apparently were sent by your relatives, you killed a few former members of the Erusean royal guard that did partake in the assassination of this man." Damien gave her the answer she was looking through her multiple killings.

"That must have been those that were the hardest to kill. However, most men cease to fight when they are choking on their own blood because someone sliced their throat partially." Iskanda told a bit of how the killing had gone, while taking her blade from the inside of her clothes, with the closing mechanism on the collar being made with magnets that allowed her to free it more quickly -she had created that this morning in her free time-.

"I don't think I could fight very well if someone gave me a tracheotomy. I do not intend to try even." Kupchenko looked away at the sight of the blood that she had obviously not cleansed. Maybe it was intentional, as a means of intimidation. And it had some effect, because the amount on it and the bits of flesh that were still in the barbs caused the other Erusean to scowl at the sight of this weapon, who was definitely more barbaric than both Guillotine and electric chair combined.

"The last one, I pushed the blade too much in his throat and it somehow got stuck in his spine. He actually tried to take his handgun to shoot me, but he still had a hard time breathing with something in his throat, and that diminished his strength a bit. It was a child's game to take his gun from his hand and fire at his heart at point blank." She expanded a bit more on her telling of the killing, with a mad smile appearing on her face, and growing wider the more she thought about it. She definitely needed to recall someone the whole scene, it would be good to unwind.

"Not a fate I would like to suffer. You should remember never to fight my wrath on the ground in close quarters." Kupchenko stated, as a warning to the Erusean, that he wouldn't ignore. Only a fool would seek to fight with her. Which meant that Osea, North Belka and Yuktobania were just a bunch of fools fooling around until death claimed them. She was the death incarnated for those soldiers that were not going into battle, rather lining up their souls for the reaper.

"You won't have if we both keep the same interest. And if we had to drown Burgen a second time to reap the benefits of those interests, I won't hesitate a single second."

"Nothing would please me more than to see the Bright hill burn in bright flames. However, there's no best building to sign their resolution, so we might have to keep at least that one standing." Kupchenko reasserted that an indiscriminate bombing of Oured was out of the question. That didn't mean they couldn't remove a few buildings out of the landscape, their ugly Department of Defense that had always faced their embassy for example. Besides, the target-richness of Oured would reach such a level that they wouldn't have that much ammo to spare on harmless buildings.

All went sleeping after the last artificial midnight lights of Excalibur began to disappear. A few lights were still visible, but those were orange lights created by the fall of some of the Merlin satellites and reflectors. Their sight still caused Iskanda to wonder how they would launch more to replace those losses, but she knew Hellenseite and his legion of scientists would find a way to overcome this limitation.

They had fought a bit today, but not struck with full force. She was now eager to strike anywhere in the Osean and North Belkan territory. They had thought to have opened the gates of hell when they had engaged her to down Belka. Yet they had forgotten the one rule when dealing with demonic beings more powerful than they truly are: never alter the deal, or they would destroy you in your moment of glory.

She still had a bit of his cold patience to learn, but if a bit of patience was the price for eternal glory that would ensure her immortality, then she would embrace patience and agree to wait for the right moment to strike. Boredom be damned.

End of Chapter

Damn, I Agree that this one was a long one to write.
It's not that I didn't have the time. More that I had too much time, in fact. When you have too much time, you only think of doing useless things most of the time. While you only are really focused on your doings when you have less time. I guess that the relativity of time
Einstein: that's not how relativity works!
Thanks for mister one stone (ein stein)
Well, this time Belka did not nuke itself since I don't allow it. Besides, countries cannot work completely cut from the rest of the world, or only countries that are really large and self-sufficient, which North Belka alone is not. And now the CSB is playing the puppet master with the different faction that compose this "unholy" alliance. Let's see how long this alliance based on hatred lasts...
Darth Treya: That's a fragile alliance at best.
And we will thank Treya for her little words. I hope to complete this chapter before December 24, to make it some Christmas gift.
I don't think many have used Francium as a weapon. That people have thought of military use of such hazardous matter is obvious though. Maybe now you can guess what was transported inside those pressure cookers. And yeah, in Real life the French army used and are still using such devices to move fissile matter at the CEA for example…
I did get a few more hints to something that'll happen in the future of this alternate universe with this last chapter.
Again, feel free to comment, subscribe and favor my work.
Und Bis zum nächsten Mal, Lesern und Leserinnen...