May 28, 2010

Sudentor, North Osea

She couldn't believe her eyes at all the things she saw in that small box. For nearly twelve years, she'd wondered why every year at this date he came here. This was why. She never wondered why because her husband would just go into the basement at exactly noon and look around for awhile. He even took off work to do this. But there was also the reason behind the reason. All the things that were here were not an explanation of why this day.

Margaret Rosencrantz's life had been filled with all the things that made up the typical Osean dream. A modest house, a wonderful spouse, a trio a wonderful kids, a car or two, a nice backyard, a peaceful neighborhood in the suburbs, and all the things they'd worked so hard for and rightfully deserved. She was the ideal Osean, representing the very best in a citizen and a female: strong, compassionate, hard-working, and patient. But Jan was not a typical Osean...he wasn't even Osean at all. He was a Belkan by birth and exhibited all their traits: tall, hard working, ambitious and prideful. She knew little of his past except he came to this county like many immigrants. Or so it was thought. She looked into the chest and into a past that for some reason...he didn't want her, their kids, much less anyone else, to know.

The first thing she pulled from the chest was a strange uniform with a modest variety of medals and ribbons. She knew little about military affairs, but this was obviously a military uniform. The next thing she pulled out was a small card of sorts; an identification card. She had high-school Belkan and could read some the words. She saw a picture of a much younger Jan at exactly fifteen years prior. This meant he was about twenty-seven then. There was a triangular symbol at the top left with black, yellow and white in it...similar to the Belkan national flag. Above his name, there was a series of triangles; four to be exact. Below it was the word Major, which meant the same thing in both languages. Above that there were words; they were the dead giveaway: Belkan Air Force. It didn't take her long to put two and two together. After action reports, promotion and administration letters, and pictures...so many pictures. She knew little if anything about airplanes. There was one picture that stood out. It was worn as if it had been held by hand so many times over. There was Jan and there were two other men standing next to him. One was taller, the other shorter. But they all looked similar. She finally deduced that these men were her husband's brothers...the ones he said died so long ago. But it was apparent why this was. But all this time he'd been hiding the fact he was a fighter pilot and from what she could tell...and extremely good one at that. There were many references to things like, "Ace" or "Experten" or things of that sort.

It was the ultimate irony. She assumed he was merely that kind, quiet accountant she met over a decade ago in this very city. There was never an hint that he was a "fighter ace". But why would he keep something like this a secret? Her family had been against her marrying "Belkan trash" as her brother put it. After all, he'd been in the army during that war. To merely disdain him now because he'd been on the opposite side so long ago was ludicrous in her mind, but just as that thought came into her head, there was a creaking sound and she jumped up almost hitting her head on the short roof
"So you found it. I can't believe it took you so long to do it though." Jan said while laughing.

"I...I didn't mean to eavesdrop, I was just..." Margaret stammered out.

"Ah, it's no problem. That was a long time ago. I was a different person then, and that had no effect on what I am today." said Jan in an attempt to try to

"Liar. It had to do something to you! Why didn't you tell me any of this? Did you think I would hate you or something?" Margaret said in a strange mixture of confusion, humor, and anger.

"No...that's not exactly the reason." Jan said.

"Then why?"

Jan walked slowly over to a stack of boxes and sat down.

"Let me tell you something. You tell people about what you do, you can easily explain it. You can tell them about your day in simple words. You can say, 'I did this' and 'I did that' and 'This is what I do'. But back then there was...there was no easy way to do that. I couldn't explain what happened to me back then in terms you'd understand. So I simply left it out. You know what they say, what you don't know won't hurt you." said Jan trying to drop the subject.

"Try me. Tell me...you can't keep all that bottled up inside!"

"I've tried for so long to forget. Forget about what happened this day fifteen years ago at this time. But I can't. I should have died that day."

"What!" Margaret said.

"Back then...my brothers and I came face to face with evil. Not like the evil we're tought exists. This was evil squared. Evil that only exists in the darkest of people. And only I survived. You may believe what you want, but what I'm about to tell you I've never told anyone else. It's a war story no one knows...and I hope no one needed to know until now."

"I knew that war was terrible. I always thought it was terrible for you having to leave your land in that fashion. But what happened? Did your brothers die?"

"They're all gone. Dead at the hands of those who weren't even fighting for pride or country like we were. And it was so sudden. There was no slow tragedy to this one." Jan said with a blank look on his face. "Well, I can't tell you that story without telling you about where it all went down and where I fitted in. There was a place back then...a place that is nothing more than a graveyard now. There, all the knights of the sky fought to the bitter end...and only ghosts live there now. Ghosts and shattered metal. They called it the Round Table. It's this strip of land between Belka and Ustio that both sides fought over long before the Belkan War. My brothers and I fought there many times. We had a lot of pride in our skill. We were defending our homeland. So we fought there when the Belkan War began. We didn't decide to start the war...we only had our orders. So we went up to fight. We fought for so long, even as we were losing. The day everything changed for me was this day at this time in 1995. It was an almost cloudless, beautiful day...it would have been if it weren't all the planes fighting there. It was the largest air battle of the war, and the probably the largest of all time; all hell broke loose there. It was a battle both sides had to win..."

Redtail

May 28, 1995

1150 hrs.

They were the Wespe Team, 26th Air Division of the 8th Tactical Fighter Squadron stationed just north of Sudentor. The squadron was a mixed bag of airplanes, as many squadrons were. The Belkan Air Force's school of thought was to have squadrons be able to perform as many multiple tasks as possible, such as air to air or air to ground. It was a nightmare for the maintenance crews at times. Things had gotten better with new organizational changes prior to the war. But now things were beginning to deteriorate. The situation was not desperate, but it was clear that it was now do or die.

The eighth squadron was an unusual mix of planes...and levels of experienced pilots. A few were aces with many hours of flying time and many were inexperienced rookies. But the same could be said about the enemy. The air forces of Osea and Ustio were totally unprepared for the sheer skill level of the Belkan Air Force. But now they were trying to win the war on simple numbers. It was going to be an uphill fight.

The only thing going through the mind of Jan Rosencrantz was the treachery of his enemies. Especially Osea. It was clear to all Belkan soldiers that Osea was the biggest threat as they were the ones with the biggest ambitions of all. It was clear to any idiot that Osea had only one goal: to cut up Belka and strip it of its natural resources like locusts. After all, they had tipped their hand to their greediness years ago during the sale of the Great Lakes. The only things that mattered to Jan was pride and the destruction of the enemy.

Rosencrantz was an academy trained ace, but long ago abandoned the rules of combat for a more simple one: In order to survive in war...one must fight and destroy the enemy or die. He'd been the first in his family to become a pilot and his younger brothers followed him into the air. Michael and Loren would follow him into hell. The difficulty and attrition of war had seen plenty of upheavals in the command structure. Combining it with his talents on the battlefield, Jan had gone from 2nd Lieutenant to the rank of Major in a mere six years. What made him stand out was not his respectable kill score of seventeen enemy aircraft, it was the unique way he painted his airplane. The plane was a light charcoal color, but the tails were blood red. Thus, Major Rosencrantz earned the nickname, "Redtail." Just before the Belkan War, his flight was formed proper with the request that his brothers be included in the squadron. Together they'd racked up forty-five victories. It was also Michael's idea to paint an intimidating black wasp symbol on the fighter's tail. Thus the "Wespe Team" was born. Each plane in the formation was a Su-27, but each one had a different color tail. Michael was Blue Tail, Loren was Yellow Tail.

They had journeyed out on sortie, but this was no ordinary sortie. In the distance there nothing but contrails and they were all hovering over one place...the Round Table. It was the hallowed place of aviators. For months, so many planes had fought over its chaotic skies. Any other day, it would have been a normal encounter. But this place was now the centerpiece of what could have become the largest air battle of all time. The Round Table was a place the three brothers knew all too well.

"Red Tail, this is Yellow Tail. I see the other planes. Man, it seems everyone wants in on this."

"Roger. They actually think they can challenge us here?"

"They got lucky once. I'm surprised the boss survived his encounter here. Who was that pilot anyway? Wasn't he the one that destroyed Excalibur?" asked Blue Tail.

"Probably. They reported that same plane that was in both places. That one pilot with the single red wing." said Yellow Tail.

"One of them I know has a single red wing...I've heard of this pilot. The Ustios call him "Solo Wing", but I have no idea about the other guy." said Blue Tail.

"But what are the odds of him being here? The man is a pretender if you ask me." said Yellow Tail.

"Let's see if he shows up. Until then, we'll smash our way through the allied forces. Don't let them take the Round Table."

"I wouldn't think he wouldn't show up. Expect the worst; brothers, let's dance!" said Red Tail.

Loren climbed just above Jan's plane and Michael dived below. They held the position and continued to break in the same direction until both men were on the opposing side of where they were originally. At the same time as the switch, Jan climbed through the gap then descended sharply, all three planes remaining in the regular formation.The allied forces had attacked into the Round Table with everything they had. Belka was equally eager to do the same. The Round Table was a matter of national pride and to lose it would have been a disastrous tactical, strategic, and morale loss. The "boss" was actually the former Rot Team commander, Lieutenant Colonel Detlef Fleisher, or the "Red Swallow" as he was affectionately called. He'd become the impromptu base commander after the previous one had been sacked for unknown reasons. But the high-turnover rate of officers was a blow for morale amongst the younger soldiers. It seemed things were getting more and more chaotic by the day. This fracas at the Round Table would probably just be another sign. The allied forces were diving into a cauldron of However, for the Belkan pilots it was another day at the office. Jan was determined to make the enemy afraid of him...to let the name "Red Tail" be the words that caused the enemy pilots to shutter at the mention of it.

Battles at B7R, contrary to popular belief, were almost never the swirling dogfights that one would imagine. These fights were usually the ones of the distant past. Planes were moving entirely too fast, missiles were flying all over the place, and the general chaos made it impossible to have a romantic style of battle. There unusually high-speed, one-pass attacks or larger-scale ambushes where skill and luck were intertwined. Because of the sheer amount of enemies that could appear, coupled with the different tactics, most fighters only carried a basic load out of two different types of missiles. The aces of the Round Table carried every missile they could put on their fighter, sacrificing extra fuel for weapon space. The aces had been the initial lucky ones to survive. They were now the skilled ones and the ones that everyone followed. But there were perhaps only a handful out of these aces out of the thousands that had fought there. There were probably no more than four or five dozen.

Jan's team was at an altitude of about 25,000 feet and they looked down at the battle below. Fights at the Round Table were fought at lower altitude for one reason and one reason only. The magnetic interference was actually worse at higher altitudes because of the unusual atmospheric phenomenon.

"My radar's going on the fritz No matter...let's get into the action." said Jan.

Below them, the many contrails they saw merged into a single point. The point of reference at the Round Table was the large mountain range that divided the border between Ustio and Belka. The trio dived down immediately upon this...only to be attacked seconds later. Jan heard the missile alert and quickly ordered everyone to take evasive action. The trio broke left only to receive another set of missile alerts, prompting another dodge. The nominal task for Jan was to find an enemy plane and destroy it. Again, his logic was simple: destroy the target and one didn't have to deal with it anymore.

Present Day

Margaret listened to her husband's long story. It was clear that something back then clearly disturbed him. But when he mentioned his brothers in the story she had to know one thing.

"So what where your brothers like?" she asked.

"Michael was the muscle. He was the brave one and he always volunteered for everything before he joined me. Loren was the brains. He was real smart and professional. But he was a bit cynical of everything and everyone. They were the nicest guys you could meet. They were the kind of people that would make people think differently about us. Even now, we are scorned. Maybe because we were trained and fine-tuned in a different era..an era where air combat was everything." Jan replied.

"And they called you Redtail? And you thought people would be intimidated by this?" Margaret said while chuckling.

"You'd be surprised. Air combat back then was very romanticized. However, the ones who did most of the romancing were the ones that never fought in the air at all. They only went by the stories. I really don't blame them. Most airmen that survived will not attempt to glorify their accomplishments...it just isn't looked at the same anymore. Back then it was a different story. You could be hated, feared, or revered but always respected."

"So you went into this...Round Table thing and shot down the enemies?" Margaret said.

"Yep. I was a fighter pilot. Our goal was to shoot down any enemy airplanes that challenged us or our allies; period, dot." Jan said.

Margaret paused. Was this the way her brother felt when he went to war? Was duty and responsibility everything? Was there no sense of remorse? Was Jan truly a bad person back then? All the questions flooded her mind like endless water from a broken dam.

"Did you ever feel bad about it? Shooting down...killing Oseans or Ustios or Yukes or whoever?"

"We did shoot down our fare share of allied pilots. But so did they of ours. It wasn't much different in conception. We were not apologetic about this because we knew we were doing our duty to our country, as any good soldier anywhere would say about their country. But...that can only go so far. At some point one has to stop and consider why they fight. Patriotism is good, but sometimes one must ask, 'At what cost?' But I'll get into that later. It was rather easy to shoot down the enemy. All we did was to find stragglers or break up formations and chase a single plane with long range missiles. We could stay out of harm's way and only go into the close range when needed. We fought for what seemed like a lifetime, but it was only ten minutes. But believe me, ten minutes at the Round Table is a lifetime."

"So what happened next?"

"We fired some nine missiles at nine targets. At this point, we'd driven a wedge into the allied defensive formation. We flew in and we found ourselves actually winning the battle. We'd taken out about just under half their planes. Then...things went badly. Very badly." Jan said, eyes looking sad.

"What happened?"

There was a long pause from Jan.

"It was here that he showed up. The man that shot me out of the sky. He was with a partner in the same plane he flew. The man's partner was something special. Apparently from our intelligence, he was called "Solo Wing" for his ability to land his plane with one wing."

"And the man?"

"He didn't really have a nickname that anyone knew. But he got one. It was a name that suited a guy like him...they called him "Demon Lord". He was good. He'd tear-assed all over Ustio and Northern Belka and no one could stop him. But the man was something else. We knew they were paid mercenaries from Ustio. We thought they were something more, but in fact they were just as they were. Greedy, selfish mercenaries without a sense of honor, not even in the smallest amount. Our base commander had been defeated by him and lived to tell the tale. His only standing order was to shoot them down on sight. Everyone hated those guys. They were many Ustio mercenaries out there. I took some...strange satisfaction from taking one out. They weren't protecting Ustio because they wanted to or had to...they did it for the money. And that is why everyone hated them. But he was respected though. I was filled with nothing but false bravado when I took him on. We all had it. I had no idea that things would turn out like this. Although...my life would have been much different if the opposite had happened..."