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.

17. Chapter 10: Operation BattleAxe 1

Valais Air Base, Ustio, 30/05/1995, 13:00, Weather: clear with high stratus.

May had been a complicated month for the allied forces. It began with the victories in the retaking of Solis Ortus, Wesson and Directus, and the taking of Lumen. But with the assault on Glatisant the streak of allied victories had ended in a bloodbath. Loss on the Belkan side had been quite high though, but nothing compared to the ones the allies suffered. Excalibur could have been now pictured as a sword given by the lady of the Lake, but this Lake could have been filled by the blood the Wunderwaffe had spread over the battlefields. From a sword given by magic beings and almost seen as pure, as an instrument of unity and salvation, it had been perverted by its current user into an instrument of utter destruction and mass murder, that could only come from Hell. After all, it was producing "Helligen Kolumne".

Valais Air Base had been quite quiet since the failed attempt at destroying Excalibur. Sometimes they would do a bit of night CAP over the mountain range, trying to see any Dunkle Wing that could try to sneak around during the night. They knew some of them had been harassing the scattered Osean troops amongst the ruins of Mt Ivrea, helped by the Belkan remnants of the Glatisant soldiers.

Besides, the few survivors of the onslaught were barely talking about it, evading the subject like the plague. Pixy had asked the mechanics to paint the two wingtips of his aircraft in crimson red, as a remembrance for the loss of his two leaders. He wasn't the only one to paint a bit of his aircraft in this color. Savage 1 replaced the grey stripes by this color, as well as Crow 2 who chose to have red wingtips too.

The only thing that took a bit of Pixy's unused time and pulled him out of boredom was a very worried call from the elder sister of his now fallen AWACS operator, Magdalena Johnson. During long minutes, she asked him all he saw of the final minutes of his brother's plane, with Pixy recalling the words of Koenig " I prefer to suffer hypoxia or hypothermia than hyperthermia because of some super laser.". Man could survive hypoxia and hypothermia, he pointed out, this giving Maggie a bit of hope concerning the fate of his brother and the uncle of her daughter who were as worried as her mother. Still, Pixy couldn't help but notice the slight sound of guilt that was mixed with sorrow and grief within Maggie's voice. However, what could explain her guilt, he wondered? He had no answers now.

But today there had been a bit of change in the geopolitical board. Or at least it's what they could think was happening, since they were once more listening to the special envoy Delacre, transmitting this time from the Assembly of Nations:

"I guess this little informal truce had let the time for both Osean and Belkan representative to train their voice, because, believe me, they're in good shape today!" The special envoy commented, as two angry voices were bellowing at each other, to either the amazement or the exasperation of the representative of the uninvolved Nations of Annea, Usea and Verusa minus Yuktobania.

"Noch einmal, ich lache (once again, I'm laughing)! You have attacked us since weeks. Killed our mens. And you are only admitting now that you were going to revoke the non-aggression unilateral treaty?"

"Thus, we will have the right to use strategic means of destruction." The Osean representative tried to defend himself but was cut by Frau Reutner.

"Your cherished Yukte allies had already threaten us with nukes. And last time I check this very building in which we are standing right now also suffered from the EMP disaster." Reutner retorted, almost chuckling due to the irony of the situation. Some representatives such as the one of Erusea and Adama were smiling at this notice.

"You will regret such arrogance when you will see Hoffnung and Sudentor burning." The Osean threw a tantrum. "Your foolish hopes of victory will burn there." He used the translation of Hoffnung to threaten the industrial heart of Belka.

"Hoffnung ist nicht nur eine Stadt. Aber eine Idee. Versuch eine Idee zu zerstören, Osean Abschaum!" (Hope is not only a city. But an idea. Try destroying an idea, Osean filth.) Reutner forget all politeness that being a representative usually required and released her hatred on her enemies' representative.

"But on another note, the Belkan embassy staff has agreed to sell a bit of our spare fuel in case Oured suffered another EMP." She then steered the talks into reminding that Osea had been weakened and had shown weakness to the entire world that once considered this country to be a superpower. And some country, Erusea amongst them, had begun doubting this assertion.

"This is nonsense. Osea will never yield to obtain anything from your undemocratic state." Wilson tried to deter what was a nonsensical claim of their supposed weakness. But like many people from a superpower on the verge of annihilation, he had been blinded while they were on the verge of greatness. Yet greed rarely created greatness.

"Again, last time I check, Wilson, Oured central Health Center had bought us quite a big amount of fuel for their emergency power supply." Reutner snapped back, making a fool of the proud Osean, displaying through a small retro projector a copy of the fuel bill, looking authentic. After all, it was always a good way to humanize Belka in the eyes of the Osean civilian when the majority of their officers and politicians were demonizing them.

"This is enough. I'm leaving this seance." Wilson admit after striking his place with a fit of rage, almost startling the nearby representative of the Sotoan countries and Verusa. He could do nothing but acknowledge the aftermath of the EMP disaster that Belka was considering as its greatest victory.

"I guess this third round of talking has been won by Belka. This was Delacre for Ufree FM, signing off." The broadcast was now finished, causing a bit of smile to grow on the face of Pixy. For once, Osea's might was being challenged seriously. And no one could say now who would come on top of this battle of power, ideals and military tactics.

For years, Osea had tried to fight through numeric advantage, dismissing risky innovation that could have given them an edge in this war. And if Belka's number could not stand against Osea's, their technology had given them the edge. From now a small balance of Terror had prevented both countries of enacting big military campaign like at the beginning of this conflict. It only needed a small push of fate or a sacrifice to put both fighting forces out of balance. Both countries were putting their pieces in motion, but who would put the other in a checkmate was still unknown.

"Pixy, Crow 2 and Savage 1, Briefing, now!" Bellowed Perrault from the height of the staircase leading to the restroom, having no wills to go down there and inadvertently listen to this infuriating broadcast of Ufree FM. For him, having a radio belonging to an allied state retransmitting what he considered to be nothing but Belkan propaganda was almost treason. He thought this war they were waging now was based on the free will that Osea was willing to spread all around the globe in their crusade for democracy. Yet he was submitted to this Belkan propaganda as well, which was slowly lowering his morale like many people involved in this war, even when the Osean top brass were using the effect of the EMP disaster to foster hit. After all, propaganda was always working best when the people affected by it are thinking they are acting with their free will.

Briefing room, Valais Air Base, Ustio, 30/05/1995, 13:15, Weather: clear with high stratus.

The mapping system was displaying the area B7R -The Round Table-. Yet unlike in operation Choker One, the IFF indicator of the spot of the radar was not only featuring Belkan IDs, but quite a bunch of Yukte and Osean ones as well. Still, the allied forces were slowly dwindling, having suffered great casualties before even engaging the Belkan Forces due to Excalibur's strikes. From the fifty aircraft that these two superpowers engaged again thirty Belkan ones, there was only fourteen against twenty-two, with the Belkan reinforcement arriving in smaller numbers. Still, with Excalibur thinning the allied backup before they could even fire a single missile, the number of planes on each side was almost a constant.

"Orders have come in for an emergency sortie. A major air engagement is taking place as we speak between Belka and the Allied Forces near the border, in the B7R airspace, which Belka is committed to defend at all costs. B7R, commonly known as the "Round Table," has long been a symbol of Belka's political, military and industrial might, especially in the war forty years ago. However, at one AM today, along with its lightning-quick commencement of Operation Battle-Axe, the Allied Forces officially announced the permanent abrogation of its non-aggression unilateral treaty at the Assembly of Nations, and simultaneously attacked B7R with a massive fighter squadron. This mission may be our chance to finally enter in the Belkan territory successfully."

"Why aren't the Belkan retreating and using Excalibur to wipe out our squadrons?" Pixy asked, now a bit doubtful about Belka's tactics.

"It seemed the raw magnetic elements below the round table are messing with the guidance of the reflectors Excalibur is using for its strikes. It's an advantage we have to use at all cost!" Perrault cheered, almost happy that their engineers had finally found a way to bypass the shield that Excalibur had created around Belka.

"So, if I understand well, if we win this fight, we may be able to storm into the North of Belka?" Crow 2 inquired, finally seeing a hope to change the pace of the war.

"Indeed. Excalibur by itself is something we cannot attack head-on. However, our tacticians have established that they cannot support their forces above urban areas or when engaged in close quarter dogfight." Perrault explained, as the mapping system zoomed out to display Belka and its neighboring countries, along with the range of Excalibur and a path from B7R to Hoffnung.

"So, next ops might be above Hoffnung?" Pixy wondered, not really rejoiced to use Belkan civilian as cover. He had no issue fighting his countrymen but could have some if Osea bombed indiscriminately civilian and military targets. Yet the EMP disaster struck indiscriminately too, and from Osea's point of view, it was understandable they wanted to get revenge and reduce the meager militaro-industrial Belkan complex to rubble as a retaliation. And the Osean military was not renowned for their accuracy. The industrial cities at the North of Belka would be leveled.

"Maybe not the next one. Large scale battles are the only way to efficiently dwindle the Belkan Forces. There might be more than one battle above B7R. But you can be sure that Hoffnung, and to a lesser extent, Sudentor, will feel the wrath of our revengeful soldiers!" Perrault ended this briefing on a pretty angry note. Osea and Yuktobania had begun to set their more destructive non-nuclear weapon.

"Dismiss. And obtained us victory." Were the final words of the Osean major.

A few minutes later, their fighters filled with anti-air armament, the three fighters were taking off, saluted by the more numerous non-flying personals. B7R would be the fight of his life, Crow 2 thought.

Pixy's mind was steered toward a simpler motive. He hadn't his mind focus on the overall geopolitical situation. But on a simple human thought: revenge.

Area B7R, Belka, 30/05/1995, 14:00, Weather: light cloud coverage.

"Damn'it, I cannot shake him. They are outmatching us."

An Osean F-15C with a standard grey camo was pursued by a Belkan Su-27. A gun burst from the Belkan fighter hit his left engine, and the sudden loss of thrust made his fighter shiver as he made a U-turn to the left, hoping to lose the Belkan pursuer. It was in vain: extending his airbrakes, the Su-27 turned with a smaller turn radius than the Osean fighter. And two missiles ended his life.

This scene was repeating all across B7R when the three pilots arrived. The travel had been a quiet one, with the pilot wanting to avoid being targeted by Excalibur outside of B7R where the proximity of the fight was shielding them from the Helligen Kolumne. They had come with one fuel tank as they would need a bit of extra fuel due to the increased fuel consumption caused by the intensive use of afterburners when dogfighting. They dropped it before their arrival, as it would only increase their radar cross section.

They were arriving quite high, when most of the fight was getting down at lower altitude, where radar was hindered by the raw magnetic stuff beneath the round table. The best theory about the origin of this magnetic anomaly and the "Round Table" at the center of the area was the fall of some asteroid, or intensive volcanism. And both could explain the richness of the soil in rare earth. Still, the most easily accessible were situated on the now Ustian side, thus it had prevented Belka to use those resources to get out of their current recession.

Arriving from the South-East, Pixy quickly noticed a single F-14D being surrounded by two Fulcrums and one Flanker, nearly two thousand meters lower.

"Time to strike the iron while it's hot." Pixy pitched down and dived to the rescue of the Osean, while the two F-16Cs were tagged by two Fulcrums head-on.

He rushed head-on toward this helpless fighter, leaving his two slower comrades behind. The closest Flanker who was aiming his SAAM on the Super Tomcat was shot down by a gun burst, and the second who was lagging a bit further met his doom by a pair of missiles. The MiG-29 chose to be brave and kept attacking head-on. Pixy knew he wouldn't have the time to get a proper lock. So, he fired a QAAM on the twelves of the Belkan pilot, and extending his airbrake, steered his aircraft in the same direction than the Belkan Fulcrum. He caught with him quickly, having far greater thrust than him. And as the Belkan fighter was losing focus and speed evading the gun burst of Pixy, his QAAM he fired prior to the chase closed on the enemy fighter after having done a U-turn. Unable to shake him this time, the Fulcrum was downed. And while he was taking those three down, the two Fighting Falcon accompanying him had dealt with their opponents.

"Thanks, Galm 2" The Osean was glad this unexpected help come. He could stand his ground against most fighters, but the MiG-29s and Flankers all around here were outmatching his twenty-years old plane.

"So, these are the reinforcements." Another Osean pilot commented, flying in a F-15E. This very pilot attracted the attention of a Belkan Flanker. And if both aircraft were equipped with SAAMs, the latter evaded them easily while the first had trouble dealing with them. Luckily for the Osean a XMAA from Crow 2 took down the Su-27 before its tracking was successful.

"We can still do this. Let's show those mercenaries what the Osean Air Force is made off!" A younger Osean pilot exclaimed, after he managed to down a Su-27, but at the cost of three QAAM.

In the next minutes, Pixy bagged four other kills, one against a MiG-29 he attacked from his one hour, gunning the Fulcrum from below. The two others were a bit trickier, or just riskier. Maybe Iskanda had given him the taste of crazy schemes. Climbing below two Su-27 who were firing on a F/A-18C Hornet they had managed to separate from the rest of the Osean forces, he broke their line of fire, before extending his airbrake while doing a barrel-roll to evade the fire of the Belkan duo. He ended up behind them and sealed their fate with a pair of XMAAs. The fourth kill came ten seconds later, when a Belkan Fulcrum attacked the Hornet he just saved from its three o'clock. Pixy had not the time to turn quick enough but his QAAMs did. Again, the Belkan fighter evaded the first approach of the missile, but as such he was unable to get his gunsight on the F/A-18C and ended up being the prey instead of the pursuer. A few bullets on his left engine were not enough to destroy his craft, but the QAAM that Pixy launched a bit sooner did the job well.

In the meantime, the two F-16Cs that came with him did not lost their time either. Using their smaller size and turn radius than the bigger Fulcrum and Flanker, they were able to score a few kills on the Belkan Forces. Furthermore, a squadron of Yukte MiG-31 had managed to get through the Helligen Kolumne surrounding partially the Round Table, and their SAAMs were laying waste on the Belkan Forces. Furthermore, a few EA-18G Growler from the Osean navy had been brought here to try to nullify or at least reduce the magnetic interference caused by this place, fostering a bit the range and accuracy of their XMAAs. Of course, they would never be as precise and deadly as the Belkan ERAAMs. Still, such reinforcements were only balancing the battle, and not turning the tide of it, as from the ten Osean aircraft remaining when the sixth Unit arrived, only three F-14D, three F-15Cs and one F-15Es had survived

"Fifty percent of the Belkan forces are destroyed. Keep up the good work, people." The Osean captain leading the four Eagle unit consulted his pre-fly data. Finally, they were seeing a bit of light at the end of the tunnel.

"Reinforcements aren't coming. What's our country doing " A worried Belkan asked, as the few oncoming reinforcements were coming sparingly, a few Su-27 and MiG-29 from time to time.

"If they were here, we could have already won the day." Another Belkan pilot replied from the cockpit of his Su-27. He tried using a SAAM backward after evading a XMAA from Galm 2, but the Belkan merc dived below his firing arc, before climbing right at him. A good Schräge Musik ended the Belkan craft.

A Belkan Fulcrum tried to engage him head-on, but his radar was faster than the Migalev's. As such, even if his lock-on alarm blared when he fired two missiles at the enemy fighter, the Belkan volley missed him.

Crow 2 and Savage 1 suffered a bit of gunfire as three Su-27 managed to slow them down by forcing them to do evasive maneuvers by firing their SAAMs. Yet the pilots of the slightly damaged Falcons weren't planning on getting shot down. Hitting the brakes when the Flankers accelerated to have a better accuracy with their gun, and tilting on the roll axis, they almost collided with the Su-27, as the Belkan overran them. A few more bullets grazed them during this highly risked maneuver, and some actually hit them, but they had a clean window of fire on the three Flankers as they were slowing to turn back to engage those their F-16Cs. A double volley of three XMAA was enough to destroy the small Belkan team.

In the meantime, Pixy had gunned down two more fighters. And he was downing a third one by a pair of missiles when he was informed of Belkan reinforcement.

"This is Soyuz twelve, I have two squadron of Rafales and Gripen Cs incoming. And a.." A shot of Excalibur illuminated the upper level of the atmosphere. Since the overwhelming majority of the Osean spy satellites had been destroyed, and as they would get vaporized before even getting in place, Yuktobania stepped in and brought an alternative solution: launching Soyuz ships in geosynchronous orbits. They thought it would be harder for Excalibur to sight them. They were wrong, as much as they were when they thought nuclear fire would work. A dozen of them had already been destroyed. Of course, it wasn't hard for Yuktobania to fill them: the criminals, the betrayers and all defective members of their army were used, sacrificed for intel that would not steer the balance in favor of the Osean alliance that much.

"Soyuz fifteen, I have them on my scope too. 4 Rafales, 5 Gripen, and 3 Su-3…" Another spaceship was quickly destroyed after sending his report. They could only send one notice, and then the orbiting Merlin satellites would spot them and relay them to Excalibur. The TFLS would either melt partially their ship and the vacuum would kill them due to the lack of pressure, or it would overheat their Soyuz until it burn from the inside, with the much more concentrated in oxygen air of spaceship burning faster than usual. Pixy felt almost sorry for those poor soul the allies were sacrificing.

"This is Shadow 1, we are asserting the Soyuz's data for the five Gripens and the three Terminators, but I don't see the Rafales. They must be using their ultra-low flight capacities." An EA-18G pilot was able to confirm the data but complained about the impossibility of having AWACS to help them at spotting target. While in the other way around, the Belkan fighters had the help of the radar and other sets of instruments the Merlin satellite network was transmitting them through phase modulation radio. Phase modulation radio alone was making this quite hard for the Osean Intel Agency analysts, as such tech hadn't been too developed in their country, due the Osean having discarded it, having judged it too expensive to be used on a wider scale.

And as such, as the Growler was implying, the four Rafale of the Graukatze (grey cat) team with a livery of spotted grey were closing on the Foxhounds, going right below them. Pixy had tried to look for them, but the three Su-37 with a three-tone dark brown camo that caught him into a mauling maneuver keep him too busy to find them. And the remaining Belkan fighters, including the five Gripen C of Grauwespe Shaft (Grey Wasp team) with a grey camo spotting light yellow line and red ones near their engine, making them look like small wasps, were keeping all the other allied airplanes busy as well.

"Fox 3" Graukatze leader announced with chill, as his squadron that had managed to bypass the allied frontline by using the ultralow flight capacities of their Rafales. They had a hard time skimming above the edges of the Round Table, with the heavy electromagnetic interference at this altitude making piloting even harder. But they were all satisfied when they climbed after the allied frontline and fired a numerous XMAA volley on the Yukte interceptors. None of them survived this brutal onslaught, and the Growlers would very likely be their next target.

Pixy was still stuck in the mauling circle, with the Su-37 firing their backward QAAM each time he got a lock, forcing him to back down or evade, this almost putting him in the crosshairs of the two other Terminators. So, he chose to climb, since he couldn't dive that much -they were circling just three hundred meters above the ground-. Two of his three enemies followed him, with the latter staying behind to be in range for his XLAA. Pixy knew the Terminators had a climb rate as good as his, and their vector thrust was greatly compensating the instability of vertical flight. He wouldn't be able to stall-climb them. But he was fine, since he wasn't planning to do this

Instead, he pulled out a much more hazardous maneuver. He actually saw his leader pulling it, so it was something doable. He shut down his engine, letting gravity win over thrust, his aircraft falling like a rock between the two Su-37 which quickly executed barrel-roll outward to avoid collision. At this moment the Belkan pilot thought he might have engine issues, when they saw him falling from high. Yet they would have never expected this enemy to fire a pair of QAAM, before pitching down, thus enacting a two hundred and seventy degree turn on the pitch axis.

And through this infinitesimally risky maneuver, both Terminators trailing him were shot down. The last one which had chosen to stay behind immediately fired a XLAA as Pixy leveled after this high negative g maneuver that caused him a bit of red-out. He had still some reddish broken lines in his eyesight when he barrel-rolled leftward to evade the long-range missile. He fired two missiles while doing so, as both airplanes had come closer -both were engaging each other head-on-. Unluckily for him, or luckily for the Belkan, only one missile caught his target. But in the end, this little luck that fate provided to that Belkan accounted for nothing : Pixy used his better mobility against the damaged Su-37, and after a ten-second-chase, in the midst of a scissors battle, Pixy got a fire opportunity and capitalize it. An accurate gun burst set both engines ablaze, sealing the fate of the Belkan pilot.

Meanwhile, having teamed up with two Yukte Su-33 and one Osean F-15E, the two Falcon pilot that came with him today engaged the 5 Gripen Cs. The first fire exchange head-on saw one Yukte being shot down and the F-15C suffering damage on his left engine, but three Gripen Cs bite the dust too. The two Gripens tried to outrun the now more numerous allied fighters but as their afterburners had suffered a bit of damage, they could not evade the SAAMs that the F-15E pilot carefully aimed after seeing the Belkan fighters losing speed evading some XMAAs from the Yukte and the two F16Cs, respectively.

Pixy hadn't the time to see where the Graukatze squadron headed after firing an XMAA volley on the Osean Growler, suppressing all electronic warfare planes. He could use one solution, but it was a risky one. Far riskier than just shutting down his engine during a climb. He turned off his radio and IFF transmitter. But this allowed to shunt the Belkan security software that was preventing him from using his phase modulation radio he had kept but almost never used since he rarely collaborate with the Belkan Air Force as a merc. Of course, this cause a bit of worry from Crow 2, who wasn't hearing Pixy's voice anymore:

"Galm 2, you have shut down your radio. Is there something wrong with your craft?"

"Do you think he's using the Belkan Seite of the Force to locate those Rafales?" The Osean Strike Eagle pilot asked, a bit surprised by the other Eagle pilot doings.

"Come on, work, little PM technology." Pixy wished, tapping a bit on his data screen. For a few second, the screen showed nothing but statics. Then it displayed a strange radar map: there was the Round Table and all fighters on it, but there was some red circle at the South-West of it, where Helligen Kolumne were slaughtering the Osean and Yukte reinforcements. Next time he would remind to use this Belkan tech he was carrying, but only in desperate situation.

After a good minute, Pixy located them flying very low in a diamond formation, well covered by the radar anomalies of the area. He had no idea how their location may be transmitted by PM radio then. It could be through those Merlin satellites. Now, as he was approaching them, unnoticed to them as is own IFF wasn't identified as an allied one anymore. Still, using this tech was a double-edged sword: now any aircraft could think he was an enemy one and fired at him. Furthermore, with his identifier off, he couldn't lock his XMAA nor his standard missiles. It would be four gun kills then.

The first was shot down from behind, gunned without even understanding what was going on. But the other three Rafale saw something was amiss when an unidentified F-15C with red wingtips began to follow them way too close, and when one of them exploded in mid-air. The two who were at the middle of the diamond formation hit the burners, temporarily outrunning the F-15C, while the one forward did an Himmelman. A pair of missiles - they had to be XMAAs to be fired from so far- were fired by this Rafale. Pixy had no other choice but to hit the deck to evade them. Then he climbed back at the enemy Belkan multirole. By pure reflex, maybe having forgotten he hadn't no more lock-on capacity, he fired a pair of missiles, aiming a point a bit further than the Rafale. And by sheer luck Graukatze 1 only managed to avoid one. As such, when Pixy finished his climb, it wasn't hard for him to terminate the damaged fighter with a gun burst below the cockpit. The pilot was surely killed or heavily wounded, because when Pixy destroy the aircraft with an unguided missile that he fired from the six of the Rafale, no evasive maneuvers were attempted.

"Wer fliegt diese ohne IFF Adler (who's flying that Eagle without IFF)?" Graukatze 2 inquired, wondering who could do such crazy schemes in the middle of a heated battlefield.

"Ich weiß nicht. Aber er muss gut, um Morden ohne Verschluss zu erreichen (I don't know. But he must be good, to obtain kills without locking-on)." Graukatze 3 replied, with no more intel on this fighter they were now engaging.

The two fighters were now engaging Pixy head-on. On a hunch, Pixy decided to fire a pair of missiles in front of him, causing his foes to roll outward of their trajectory. Even if he had to evade their missiles which were locked, which he did by a streak of sharp turns, his prior tactic allowed him to fly tilted between the two Rafale Ms. Sure, the tip of Graukatze 4's left wing went a bit between his rudders as they flew by, but it was fine. Iskanda would have surely find this kind of foolish maneuver to be beautiful or even enjoyable. He only found it efficient, as it confused the Belkan pilot.

Pixy had recognized during operation Juggernaut that the Rafale - at least in the hands of Espada 2- was a good aircraft. But in the hand of two confused pilots it wasn't enough to counter a quicker airplane. Extending his airbrake, he pulled a fast U-turn. He felt the g-forces in this turn but was in the six of the Graukatze 4. A gun burst on his engine was enough to wreck the fighter.

"Hilfe. Ich bin verfol… (Help I'm being pursued by…)." Graukatze 3 tried desperately to call for help with worries in his voice, but in such engagement, help would usually need a minute to come. Yet in dogfight like this a minute was an hour. And an hour an entire day. His radio was cut when a gun burst that was aimed for his engine destroyed his antenna, as he turned hard when the Belkan mercenary opened fire.

It was beginning to be the end for the Belkan defenders of B7R. The few Osean that had managed to go through Excalibur's strikes were providing the few extra fighters needed to slightly shift the balance in favor of the allied forces, yet temporarily. Still, the number of Belkan MiG-29As and Su-27s that were guarding the place had dwindled to a number below five.

Pixy made that number be below four in a matter of second. He caught the Rafale M using his greater acceleration, but as the Belkan pilot was trying to make him overrun his target, he pulled a high-g turn. This made Galm 2 arrived straight on the three hours of Graukatze 3. Pixy quickly fired two missiles and his gun on the already damaged aircraft. From Pixy's point of view his opponent could have tried to evade his fire. But he didn't, preferring to bail-out a few milliseconds before Pixy's missiles blew up his engines.

Pixy had managed to locate and destroy those four Rafales Ms by almost using a bit of reverse engineering. But when he wanted to regroup with the allied squadron and a Osean F-14D pilot that was unsure whether or not he had to fire on that F-15C without IFF, he understand the drawbacks of trying to use the PM radio in large-scale battle such as this one. Hopefully the Osean was seeking to engage him from close and thus saw the Ustian roundels, five second before Pixy finished switching the IFF back to on.

"Eh, Galm 2, stop pulling stunt like that. I could have almost caused blue on blue here." The F-14D pilot sent him his reprimands for this hazardous behavior, with a slightly grumpy voice.

"Yeah, you could have died with that kind of crazy schemes only your former leader would think off." Savage 1 added a line to these reprimands, while willingly or not reminding him of both his fallen squadron leader.

"That was worth the price." Pixy snapped back, a bit bothered by the remembrance of his failures at protecting his squad leader.

"The Round Table is almost toppled over. Thanked the reinforcements for that." The Osean GHQ announced, seeing almost no more Belkan defenders.

"Finally, some good news." The Osean pilot of the F-15E that had helped taking down the Grauwespe squad rejoiced himself at this little improvement of their survival chances.

Yet if they could have some AWACS around here, he would not be rejoiced that much. Sure, the AWACS could have delighted him even more by displaying the Osean reinforcements getting closer and closer of the battlefield. However, the AWACS operator would have surely made them notice the reinforcements getting thinner. Even one week after the EMP disaster Osea wasn't able to mobilize hundreds of fighters in one place and in one time. Besides, the Merlin satellites were still hindering the sending of Yukte reinforcements from across the Ceres Ocean to a somewhat worrying level. But in the end, what an AWACS would have shown them would have been the two waves of Belkan reinforcements. And this would have definitely not rejoiced the Osean fighter pilot. Nor the Ustian or Yuktes, to be honest.

Area B7R, Belka, 30/05/1995, 14:20, Weather: light cloud coverage.

5 planes were closing fast on the Round Table. 4 planes that look like F-14Ds, but with their rudders tilted outward and vector thrust, and of course one ERAAM launcher, which forced them to use pair of XMAAs instead of their XLAAs, but it was well compensated. Trailing them was a F/A-18MW Mörder Wespe equipped with a heavy ECM system and ERAAMs. It was a fusion of the anti-aircraft system of the F-117Z and the good lifting capacity of this carrier-capable fighter. All had a livery comprised of an overall dark grey -the same color of the sky before the snow fall- with white noise, white wingtips, white elevators, and a small white band behind the cockpit. A small diagonal stripe coming on each side of their canopy was featuring a few snowflakes. Last but not least, their logo was a humanized pelican in a flying suit, inside a yellow and blue circle, with the same line of snowflakes in the background. An art analyst could have said this one was less Belkan-like than the one of Rot squadron, which emphasized the Belkan pride. Maybe it came from the humbler origin and ambition of their leader Erich Hillenbrand.

Their squad number, the 22nd Air Division 4th Tactical Fighter Squadron was not an unknown one to the allied forces. They had already been encountered during the very first battle in this same area. There they butchered the few Belkan aces that had chosen to stay within Ustio, depriving Ustio of his first and second Unit. Later they would help destroy the third and fourth Ustian Unit in which a twelve plane Crow squad was, with the help of Gelb squad and the F-117Z of Vampir team. Those fives pilots had all dozens of kills under their belt, and none was reluctant to go fight the allied forces over B7R today.

The order of the squadron leader was simple, as they had almost made it through half of the Northern part of the Round Table unnoticed, thanks to the allied lack of AWACS or other EW planes:

"All planes, release your missiles."

And thus, six ERAAMs were released, aiming for the Condenar squad of Sapin, made of 10 Typhoons with a dark grey camo and black wingtips. At this distance the ERAAMs arrived at more than Mach 2 on their target, ensuring six kills. The remaining one scattered, and even tried to fight back, launching entire volleys of XLAAs. Unluckily for the allied forces, and as Hillenbrandt was expecting, the combined radar anomalies of the round table and the ECM of the F/A-18MW were enough to nullify the attack. However, the long-range IR-guided ERAAMs weren't. And all typhoons were shot down before they could land a hit on the Schnee squad.

"Hallo crow 2. Du bist allein heute. Was passiert mit deinem Schaft? (Hello crow 2. You're alone today. What happened with your squad?)" Schnee 1 asked, as he had recognized the emblem of the squadron that they reduced to half its original size nearly two months ago.

"I'm not alone here. But you will die alone, Erich!" Crow 2 snapped back, as he, Pixy and the F-16C piloted by Savage 1 were heading head-on against the five airplanes. Their formation was simple with two slightly ahead and two on their side slightly behind, and a good five hundred meters behind was the Mörder Wespe.

The tactic the allied pilots enacted was not very elaborate, but at least allow them to survive this first engagement. They all fired their last XMAAs, which forced the enemy fighters to pull out evasive maneuvers. Flying faster than the Falcons, Pixy fired a missile on the two planes, but both missed. Yet, this left a gap in the enemy formation. Pixy did not stop to look back or try to get in the six of those F-14W Wildcats. Instead he went right for the Wespe of their formation. Of course, he wasn't able to track him through radar. And the missiles he sent head-on were evaded by a close barrel-roll to the left. But Pixy had seen this attempt at fooling his attack coming and had begun a quick dive. It wasn't a Stuka-like, more of a very restricted parabolic one. Still, the Wespe that had bled his speed a bit doing this barrel roll wasn't able to escape the precise gun burst when the Eagle climbed back. Even if he only suffered minor hits on his engines, it was too much for him, as his mobility was hindered by the heavy ECM he was carrying. He saw Pixy climbing vertically, enacting a loop toward his defenseless fighter.

The situation of the Wildcats wasn't as troubled as their ECM's. They had already bagged a few kills on the Su-33s that Yuktobania had brought into battle. Those Sea Flanker pilots thought they could outmatch F-14Ds. Which they really could, to be honest. But this F-14Ws were much more mobile and unstable than their predecessors, with their new rudders and vector thrust allowing them to dogfight while keeping their wing closed. Thus, their attacks were with much more fierceness, almost wilder. The title "Wildcat" was fitting them to say the least. However, this more dangerous way of flying hindered the other defensive squadron that were still left in B7R, with one Belkan Su-27 having to bail-out after a Yukte hit his aircraft, fleeing the wrath of this Schnee Squadron.

"Halten Sie sich aus dem Getümmel. Sie machen nur Sorgen zu Schnee!" (Stay out of the fray, you're only bothering the Schnee.) One of the last Belkan officer in charge of the defensive team ordered with a stern voice.

Yet this order only further endangered the Schnee team, coupled to the loss of their ECM unit, which was shot down after Pixy dived on him like a bird of prey. He didn't have to aim his missiles, as his gun was enough to shatter the canopy and the pilot in it in a thousand pieces. He bypassed the burning wreckage, and went straight into the fray, crossing the way of some Belkan unit who were stepping back. He shot one pilot head-on on his way to the main engagement place.

Now the four Schnee were surrounded like wild animals that people would seek to capture, but don't know when to act, with the fear of being bitten causing them to step back each time they were locked by one of the Schnee members. Three F-15Es had already fall to their XMAAs, and a pair of Su-33s to the standard missiles and gun of Schnee 1. Still, the arrival of Pixy on the battlefield made the balance of power shift temporarily. He made only a single pass in the circle of fighters around the Schnee squadron, which was losing fighters with each second passing to the Wildcats. But it was enough to land gun hits on two Schnee team members and even shot one down when he destroyed his rudders with a missile. And Schnee 3 fell to a SAAM from a surviving F-15E.

"We can do this. Let's show them what the glorious Yuktobanian Air Force can do." A Yukte pilot tried to foster the will of his comrades, despite the tremendous losses they had suffered.

"We can do this. No, we will do this." A now more enthusiastic Osean pilot added, having his confidence boosted by this little glimpse of victory that was beginning to appear on the horizon.

Now the battlefield had taken a strange turn. Pixy had been mauled by the three Schnee fighter, and they were surrounded by the Yukte Su-33s and Osean F-15Cs and Es. And some Belkan Flanker and Fulcrum were attacking from outside of the formation, downing from time to time an allied plane using their SAAMs. But this strange situation didn't last long. Pixy broke the mauling circle by attacking a turning F-14W from its three hours, cutting the wing-root fillet as the plane was tilted. He had made another Solo Wing. But a XMAA from a Yukte Sea Flanker put an end to the pilot existence, as he was desperately trying to exit the combat zone. The rule here was to survive, and this pilot had failed to follow it.

"Only two more." An Osean F-15C pilot described the situation, being delighted as he saw Pixy and the two F-16C taking another member of Schnee down, with the F-16Cs forcing the F-14W to lose energy through evasive maneuvers. And then the F-15C overran him, before pulling out a Split-S and cutting the tail of the Wildcat from below.

"Niemals vergisst die Letzte (never forget the last)" Schnee 1 harshly retorted as he saw his wingman's demise and went right for that Osean. The F-15C pilot did see him coming and try to make him overshoot, but it was a vain effort. The F-14W did overshoot him from below, but it was only to accelerate and made a Herbert Manöver (J-turn) making Schnee leader arriving right on his flank. The bullets tore through his canopy, condemning the Osean pilot to a long and painful death by bleeding.

"Aber du bist die Letzte hier. (but you're the last one here)." Pixy replied, before engaging him. He was almost understanding him. After all, they were both coming from the same social origin. They hadn't grown up hearing stories of honorable knights. But stories of people who work hard to achieve the best of themselves, and sometimes manage to best their opponents. Where they were differing was in their ambition. Laura had given Pixy all he could obtain by making him follow her ambition of free soldier that mercenaries were. Erich Hillenbrand on the other side had kept his rank of second lieutenant, even earning the title of "Eternal second lieutenant." He didn't fly for wealth and flame. Just for the art of flying and the duty toward his countrymen.

Pixy and Erich fly head-on multiple times, each of them trading a bit of hits by their respective gunfire. They were crossing each other path's way too fast to hope getting a missile lock. Around them, some Osean and Yukte were still circling, but without engaging Schnee 1. They were enjoying the show. But the show wasn't going to last. From the South-West where most of the allied reinforcement had come from, a pair of XLAAs came from, heading for Schnee 1, who was just turning back to engage Pixy once more. He managed to evade one, but not the other. The impact made him lose control of his plane for a few seconds, which allowed Pixy to attack his opponent properly this time.

"Ich werde niemals die Letzte. (I will never be the last.)." Erich claimed, seeing the transmission on the display from his PM radio. Those Osean reinforcement were not safe.

Pixy finished the Belkan fighter with a missile in his engine inlet, seeing the aircraft burn quickly afterwards. He hadn't the time to see if Erich had got the time to bail out. If at least he did, he wouldn't have entirely lost. Pixy had never been shot down, but maybe succeeding in surviving after having bailed out in such a dangerous place was a victory by itself.

Area B7R, Belka, 30/05/1995, 14:40, Weather: light cloud coverage.

The Osean reinforcement reveled themselves to be the Spitfire squadron. They had a pale white camo with flame decals on it, and were flying F-15F agile Eagle, which possessed canards, but unlike the F-15S/MTDs of Belka did not possess vector thrust. Their emblem was the eponymous fighter, that the grandfather of the squad leader had piloted in the 1940's war. Maybe he had met the father of Kupchenko then, that was a possibility. Pixy had heard Gault 1's father had come into Belka as a Yukte mercenary. The rest were rumors.

These reinforcements were carrying XLAAs and SAAMs, in a similar fashion to the Yukte and Belkan MiG-31s. They made quick work of most of the remaining Belkan defensive fighters, overwhelmed by the entire volleys these eight airplanes weren't keen on firing. One by one, the last Belkan defenders of the area B7R were falling to their death, and nothing seemed to be able to shift the balance of power back into Belka's favor.

Well, it wasn't true. Five F-4X IIIs Geist with a greyish paintjob and black stripes did. Equipped with X-shaped rudders and vector thrust, they were the Belkan reinforcement that allowed Schnee 1 to have a smile on his face when he was shot down. And again, they came in with their standard complement implemented with ERAAMs. This one, it was the time of the Spitfire squadron to be shot one by one, without any chance to evade the high velocity missiles that the ERAAMs were. Of course, Pixy recognize instantly this squadron with their emblem, which was an armored eagle head with white feathers spotting red and black stripes behind the head and a hand holding a knight spear, even if this squadron was the last one he was expecting to see on the battle. The shield-like emblem was complemented by a silver banner indicating their tactical fighter squadron, the 126th, along with four white curved lines that were coming from the left top and descending toward the left, drawing something that was looking like the wing of a bat. The final part was the grey and red letters indicating "SILBER"

"Damned, did a Phantom just hit me? I guess look can be deceiving." Spitfire 5 complained, as his whole plane was swept away like if he flew near a tornado due to the high explosive mass of the ERAAM. A well-aimed SAAM finished him.

"Phantoms? It's the Silber Eagle squadron." Crow 2 commented, surprised to see this veteran going into the battlefield once again.

"Du kam." (you've come) Pixy said, astonished than Dietrich Kellerman had taken flight despite his age. He had been a worldly renown ace since the Rectan conflict. He knew he would keep his students safe no matter what. Yet he would engage him. After all, he was one of the last students of Kellerman still alive in this world. It was time to see if they could keep up with him.

So, Pixy did not go for a head-on attack in the middle of the enemy formation, but at its far left. He managed to hit a student of Kellerman with his gun, and then he pulled out a close turn to get in the six of the damage aircraft. To his astonishment, he saw the F-4X pull out a Cobra. But since he had seen Laura's MiG-31X/V doing that kind of physically impossible maneuver, he was harder to trick. He knew that post-stall maneuvers were always depleting aircraft of their speed. Capitalizing this, he climbed, letting the Geist following him a bit too close, close enough to have a bit more bullets in his plane. His plane would surely need a lot of repair when he would get back to VAB.

"Ich habe dir (I got you)" The young Belkan pilot thought he had hit the Eagle when he ceased his climb, but it was only to barrel-roll the next second, evading a collision with the Geist. And due to the few damages, which the Belkan craft had already suffered, his pilot couldn't level up fast enough to lose the pair of missile Pixy fired while saying joyfully, emphasizing the "Nein":

"Nein. Ich hatte dir (No I've got you)."

Despite their falsely apparent age, these F-4X III Geist were outmatching most of the fighter currently in B7R, with all the F-15Fs gone after their second volley. And once again, Osean Eagles and Yukte Sea Flanker were going down one by one. Still, five Osean planes managed to separate and down a Silber member, but they were all so heavily hit that they fell prey to the fire of the three remaining aircrafts of his squadron.

Pixy killed another of these new Belkan younglings. He was once part of the Kellerman class, and now he was killing its members. Of course, he couldn't savor the irony. If the war had been a few years sooner, he could have found himself in the same kind of situation than those Belkan pilots. This one, he used his greater speed to dive below him, and climbed back at him. Then, without having the time to lock, he fired his last two missiles at the belly of the Geist. The plane disappeared into a ball of fire, as the remaining ERAAMs had blown up with him, which had quite a high explosive mass.

The fourth youngling was taken out by the combined efforts of the two F-16Cs and some F-15E harassing him from afar, with some Osean Hornets having succeeded in separating Kellerman from his student. Still, the five F/A-18Cs were falling one by one, and without having landed a single hit on the Belkan Geist. He saw with powerlessness his last student going down, hit by gunfire as he tried to evade a SAAM. But none of those Oseans would live. Kellerman quickly locked the two F-15Es with his ERAAMs, and the fire-and-forget missile did the rest. Then he noticed that the F-16C of Savage 1 was closing on him. He fled a bit toward the flatten peak forming the proper round table, and skimmed above him, heading to the ravine where Galm 1 and Gault 1 had ended their dogfight in. But this time an allied victory was not something he was expecting.

As he flew above the ravine, Kellerman used his stronger airbrakes to get slightly lower, and then pulled out a half barrel-roll. Five seconds later, Savage 1 overflew him. Kellerman knew full well the ERAAM wasn't a close quarter missile like the QAAM. Still, firing it without guidance from below the Falcon and with a good aim would be enough. The explosive mass added to the explosive power of the still unburned fuel was enough to reduce the F-16C into a cloud of burning dust. Once again, it was one body that would never be recovered. Once again, an empty tomb would be its only remains on this earth, which was not ensured, since Savage 1 was from the mercenary squad of Osea.

Still Kellerman was about to head-on toward the other Osean planes when he noticed a F-15C Eagle with both of his wingtips painted in red. He evaded the fierce gun run of the Eagle, but in doing so, he recognized the pilot. He had never forgot the face of any of his students, it was something he was proud of.

"Wenn ich verlasse dir war ich nur den Lerner. Jetzt bin ich den Meister heute. (When I left you, I was but the learner. Now I'm the master)" Pixy began to talk to his old instructor in his mother tongue, yet on a somewhat posed tone.

"Ich anerkenne. Du hast den Kampfregeln gemeistert, Larry Foulke. (I acknowledge, you had mastered the rules of combat.)" Kellerman admitted that he had succeed in outmatching all his student. But he wasn't ready to agree he had lost his title of Knight of the Round Table. Not yet.

Both plane attack each other head-on, with little to no avail. For both of them, this first maneuver was just a way of saluting each other like knights would do in the old times. Pixy try to get in the six hours of the old instructor by a sharp turn, extending his airbrakes at dangerously high speed to reduce his turn radius, causing a "structural integrity alarm" to be displayed on his HUD. Yet again, the F-4X III had had the time to do a Herbert Manöver, definitely convincing Pixy that fighting aces relying on HIMAT (highly maneuverable aircraft technology) was going to be tougher than expected.

" Gut, Larry. Zeigt mir was du kannst (good, Larry, show me what you can do.)." His own enemy invited him to lead the fight, when he could have already shoot him down with the last of his ERAAMs.

"Du willst eine Show? Ich werde eine geben! (You want a show? I'll give you one!)" Pixy replied, diving slightly to evade the Geist attacking head-on once more. But it was only to climb back at him from below. However, unlike with any other Belkan pilot Pixy fought today, Kellerman did succeed in evading him. Silber 1 dived while his F-15C was climbing. Galm 2 managed to escape the tracking of a well-aimed SAAMs, but it had been really close.

As soon as he was higher than his opponent, he fell on him like a bird of prey, trying to take advantage of his newly acquired energy. Still, even with afterburners and the speed given through gravity, he wasn't gaining much ground on the abnormally fast F-4X. Besides, the few times he engaged him, the HIMAT Kellerman was relying on today was outmatching and outturning him in every aspect. If he was in a game, he would say Dietrich had hacked into the software. Yet there was no moderator available right now to make his Geist become a simple F-4E Phantom, a fighter he had easily slaughtered at the beginning of the war.

"If you're cheating, then I had, too." Pixy mused, and quickly understood he would not get away of this fight unharmed. Rather likely being a Solo Wing again.

He only got the opportunity after a few minutes in which he saw Kellerman killing four more Osean that tried to intervene to lower the pressure on Pixy's shoulders but were shot down easily. To Kellerman these were still far of having mastered the rules of combat. And for this reason, they had been unable to follow the ultimate rule: überleben (survive).

Fighting those Osean planes had slightly deprived his old Belkan instructor of his speed, allowing his Eagle to outrun the Geist. He began to steer outward their fighting zone, only to steer his plane backward, trying to get in the third of Silber 1. However, his strategy didn't work. Extending abnormally large airbrakes for a F-4 just in front of his engine outlets, the Belkan ace evaded the assault, and was even able to gun the F-15C which had attacked tilted, with his belly facing the Geist.

Half of his left wing was ripped off by the bullets, and a "master caution: structural integrity alarm" blared at full power. "You're a bit late, little alarm." Pixy mocked his onboard computer, before using his new instability to turn back at the Ghost, even if his Eagle was a pain in the ass to fly with half a wing gone. Everything was vibrating onboard his plane due to the almost constant stall he was submitted to.

"Noch fliegen ohne eine Wing. Das könnte ich nicht. (Still fly without a wing. That I wouldn't be able to.)." Kellerman congratulated his former student.

This new instability, yet with both of his engines intact, gave Pixy an unexpected mobility. And when Kellerman began chasing him again, he was able to keep up with him. Even if it meant having his ears filled with alarms blaring. He did manage to shut them down, but his HUD was still red due to the damage it had suffered. Many pilots would have tried to bail-out and hope for the best to come. Pixy knew Kellerman wasn't someone to shoot at bail-outing pilots, but he wasn't willing to try his luck today.

He couldn't allow this dogfight to last forever. Despite his age, the reflexes of Kellerman were almost unbeatable, making very hard for Pixy to surprise him. He almost managed to hit him with a bit of gun fire from time to time, slowly reducing the speed of the F-4X, even if it didn't decrease its mobility a single bit, due to vector thrust. But after a little whirring session that brought both of them to the verge of entering into death spins, Pixy finally got an edge over his old instructor. Seeing the Geist struggle to keep his stability -while he wasn't caring for that since he didn't have any left wing by now-, he managed to pull an impressive horizontal loop that make his gun arrive on the three hours of the Belkan ace. This quick maneuver had been quite unbearable due to the g-forces it forced him to sustain, but the hits he got on the Geist were worth it. The F-4X lose its two upward rudders, leaving the two slightly lower standard elevators of the F-4 family with bullets embedded into them. The fragile hydraulic structure of the vector thrust had been taken out too. Pixy wanted to finish him, but when he was finally in the six of the damaged aircraft, his gun run dry. This is what you get from prolonged battles. Not being able to finish your enemy. And ramming into aircraft wasn't something he would have done. Solo Wing Pixy was a good title. No Wing Pixy would definitively not fit him

And as such, all he can do was watch the heavily damage F-4X III Geist retreat. Only a handful of the allied fighters were still flying over B7R. No one from the original attack squadron make it so far. Furthermore, Pixy couldn't feel that this was a victory, as the few Osean reinforcement were now mopping the rest of the Belkan survivors.

"Ich will dir zu überleben, Larry. Viel Glück. (I want you to survive, good luck)" Dietrich Kellerman wished him, not from an enemy to another wishing for a next battle, but with the caring voice he always used with every of his students. Maybe Pixy was truly his last student alive after all.

"Was bedeutet das?" (what does that mean) Pixy try to understand the final tired words of an instructor that should have retired long ago. For an unknown reason, his radar showed him a no-fly zone where the Osean were finishing the Belkan. He mistreated this for the natural EMIs of the area, but when he truly understood what Kellerman wanted for him, he understood what he had sent him: the coordinates of the oncoming Excalibur's strikes.

"Argh…Who could have thought they would deprive us of this victory." An Osean pilot complained, after an already very damaged Belkan fighter hit him square in his engine and thus he ended up exploding due to a nearby growing Helligen Kolumne. The Belkan knew he would have never made to the base. But he knew the Osean would be annihilated too when the ionized air vaporized his fighter, so this allow him to feel a bit of a relief before his instantaneous death.

And as such, when the Osean pilots should be cheering due to their victory, they were once again reduced to scared pilots running for their lives, as the blueish and indigo-like colors of the Helligen Kolumne were beginning to emerge and grow. And of course, the raw magnetic deposit beneath B7R make it very hard for any of them to survive. Pixy did, helped by this little gift of his former instructor. Crow 2 did too, as he stick with Pixy as soon as the Excalibur strikes began. Pixy was only seeing the fight of today ending on a straw, with both him and his final opponent having survived the fight.

Looking at the Osean behind him burning due to the Femtolaser overloading the atmosphere, he sighed, tired of this useless battle to him. He had achieved to show his former master his mastery, but this is not what he wanted to achieve in B7R. He had desperately thought the Grabacr squadron would show up, and that he would be able to avenge Laura. But sadly, he would have to wait to end the miserable traitorous life of Ashley Bernitz. His final thoughts as he left the battlefield were toward his old instructor. He was wondering where he could be going to. He knew he had not much fuel after such heated dogfight. So was him more likely.

Valais Air Base, Ustio, 30/05/1995, 16:00, Weather: scarce cloud coverage.

The weather was maybe a bit lighter than usual, but the atmosphere was not light as well. After having landed with great care due to his lack of left wing and the mountain wind, Pixy went to the briefing room, where this major Perrault, his de-facto superior since Koenig was gone missing in action above Glatisant was doing the debriefing. Obviously, this Osean with their biased idea of greatness and supposed moral high ground gave him a debriefing that sounded anything but false.

"The Round Table has been shifted. High command is greatly satisfied with the loss of those two aces squadron for Belka. They have been responsible of the loss of nearly one hundred planes in the beginning hours of this war."

"Shifted, nicht. We only picked up the pieces left on the table before it was sanitized." Pixy retorted with sarcasm, not sharing the enthusiasm of the Osean major a single bit.

"I agree with Solo Wing for once. It's not a victory, but a straw. How many planes did we lose on this one?" Crow 2 inquired, not very satisfied with the outcome of the battle either.

"Do I need to number only the aircrafts we lose above this AO (area of operation), or all our losses we suffered today?" Perrault said, hoping to get the first as an answer. Then their losses would be below the hundreds.

"Alle (all). Even those Yukte penal unit members they sacrificed for nichts (nothing)." Pixy wanted to know what this skirmish had cost to the allied forces.

" If we had to count them, plus the diversion force we threw at Excalibur, plus the losses the Yukte cargo squadron suffered due to Merlin satellites, we are above the two thousand military personnel dead or missing in action. And speaking of Excalibur, the defensive squadron had only seven Su-47s today. Which mean the assassination attempt on Kupchenko must have succeeded." Perrault recalled their losses, still trying to end on a more successful intel.

"So it was that your b plan? Wasting an ace on an assassination? Ursula Reutner is right to be yelling at your representative, your tactics made me sick." Pixy went into a dark tantrum, bellowing at the Osean officer.

"You have to show respect to your superior, mercenary Larry Foulke." Perrault tried to snap back, but he lacked the passion to fill his speech, and thus it resulted in only more anger from Pixy.

"My superior is dead due to your powerlessness. You wasted the abilities of my flight lead. And I'm sure with her on the battlefield today we could have won before Excalibur fired at us and we would have obtained more than a straw!" Pixy retorted while starring with hate and disgust toward the Osean. Then he left the room, but couldn't slam the door properly, due to the door having a semi-automatic closing system.

Crow 2 followed him shortly, not wanting to suffer the anger of the Osean

Both would meet again drinking a bit with Hervin at the mess, having obtained from Frau Steller a bit of beer to forget their situation. Hervin had lost one of the only persons in the Ustian military who trusted him with Koenig. Sure, there was still minister Kerzen, but since the liberation of Directus he had been called to Oured to help with the coordination between the allied forces. Of course, he wasn't having a very good moment there either, with each allied high-ranking officer yelling at each other whenever the Belkan forces destroyed their troops and pilots.

Still, he had the time to verify something while talking to Hervin this afternoon during their operation Battle-Axe. And what he had asserted through this talk was going to render Iskanda's assassination attempt even more useless than it already seemed to her wingman.

" Aber, you know, mein Söldner Freund (my Friend merc), Kupchenko is only one face of the coin. He's the military tactician. But another man is the scientific head of the Pendragon Projekt." Hervin began to explain with a voice that three beer had posed a bit more.

" Who? And why did you not say that when interrogated by the allied?" Pixy asked, a bit confused nobody asked Hervin if Kupchenko was the only thinking head or not.

"Karl Hellenseite. And because no one knows him, so no one ever asked about him." Hervin replied with a half-smile after having explained this half-lie.

"I agree, I don't know this name. Doesn't ring any bell." Crow 2 commented, having never heard of any Belkan scientist with such name.

"I guess many more people knew him as Charles Brightside - his original Osean name, he just translated it in Belkan-. He was one of their greatest minds. They made a mistake by not believing him in 1990." Hervin introduced this person Pixy was now picturing as some mad scientist coming straight from a sci-fi movie.

" And they didn't believe him about what?" Crow 2 said with interest, showing his curiosity toward this man who left Osea to go in Belka, when many people think people could only left Belka for Osea and never the other way around.

"Because he had made an algorithm that predicted the Ulysses incident. I don't know why, or to which aim. Still, when he tried to report that, he was mocked, silenced and revoked. Some people he had known in the engineering college and that had become fighter pilots since then tried to back him up, but only ended up court-martialed and demoted." Hervin summarized what he knew, searching through his head while scratching the latter's back.

"Now I understand why three Gault members have an Osean-sounding voice." Crow 2 realized, his mind slightly illuminated by this discovery.

"Exactly. If in 1990 Kupchenko lose his wife and daughter, he gained one genius and three aces. Those gains are maybe bigger than the losses, from an utterly tactical point of view obviously." Hervin ended this little history lessons of this person who could have been Osea greatest mind but chose Belka when abandoned by his superiors.

North-East of Schayne Plains, Belka, 30/05/1995, 15:30, Weather: overcast with heavy risk of thunder.

His F-4X III had taken much more punishment than its armor was intended to bear. He knew he would never made to any base of the Belkan Air Force, either Hoffnung's, Sudentor's and surely not the Aldernest of Dinsmark. Trying to go to Tauberg could have been another way to reach a Belkan base, but to be honest with himself, Dietrich Kellerman was tired. Him, who had fight on all theaters of war, from the Rectan conflict to the Wieldevakian coup d'état, was now tired of war. He once read a poem which quoted: "And now this heart who hated war, now he's willing to go to battle." But for him, it was the opposite. His heart and soul wanted nothing but peace.

The thing he was the most tired of was having to see so many of his students die. He never had family nor wife and had thus considered his students he formed in the hope of turning them into the next generation of Belkan aces to be his children, in a sympathetic paternally way. Of course, he was quite saddened to watch the demise of his last batch of student today and did not feel any satisfaction while avenging them. Those Osean never offered him satisfaction in battle. At least, seeing Larry Foulke, this old student of the 1986 Kellerman group took a bit of weight off his heart. At least, he had the feeling he had succeeded somewhere, even if this ace was now the enemy of Belka.

And this is why he was heading to an old base, which he knew to be abandoned from almost all Belkans but a few numbers. An old bunker from the first Osean-Belkan war, when the Schayne Plains had been turned into a muddy network of trenches. It had been heavily modernized since then, in the hope of being used as a base for black ops or sabotage if the Osean would invade the Schayne Plains once more. But with Excalibur interdicting the area to any allied craft, nothing could fly other this area, even a small RC chopper and not be reduced to vapors and light by the TFLS.

He quickly recognized the place. It was quite smart to conceal the door of the hangar behind a stream. The opening system was quite an ingenuous one too: concrete pillars would stick out of the cliffside to divide the flow of the stream, living room for one fighter, before the door itself would open, perfectly camouflaged in the limestone cliffside. He knew with his damaged aircraft he could have just bailed out and walk there, but he wasn't in his youth, and walking for kilometers before having the possibility to rest there was not what he had foreseen. Besides, this base had quite an advanced system to turn any fighter into a STOL aircraft, even damaged ones like his. This system had been inspired by the catapults and the stopping system on carrier, but far perfected. Yet he knew it was something that wasn't painless for the pilot. He sent the code from his PM radio and the mechanism was set in motion.

The heavy concrete pillars effectively stick out of the cliffside, powered by the nuclear generator that was supposed to last for three decades. Then the door opened. And the system was activated, configuring by itself for his F-4X. An assembly of dampers came from the sides, the ceiling and the ground ten meters, forming some kind of cross-like structure after the door itself of the bunker, and clamped onto the hull of his fighter, super-slowing it. He felt like he hit ein LKW (heavy truck), due to the formidable horizontal acceleration he had just been submitted to. But this system had been conceived knowing that the human body could withstand tremendous amount of lateral Gs. Indeed, if plus twenty and minus five were able to kill a man in the vertical axis, on the horizontal axis, a hundred G for a very short instant was bearable. It was like if he had a violent car crash, but nothing worse than all those Gs he had endured throughout the years.

And, as he was stepping out of his damaged fighter, and as the door closed behind him and the inertial dampeners retracted, with the water sound flowing back again, he found something was wrong. Or just off. The light had been on before he arrived. But the biggest surprise he had, it was when a woman with messy black hair, semi-tanned skin and a strange perfume pinned him against the wall of the bunker, threatening him with a nailgun, coming from behind one of the fabric piece that was covering the fighters in there..

Abandoned bunker, Schayne Plains, Belka, 30/05/1995, 15:40.

It had taken a bit of time before this unknown aggressor released him. He had his throat a bit sore from the tight and unexpectedly strong grip of this woman. Now there were sit on small crates housing weaponry for the fighters, facing each other's uneasy glare.

"How did you find this place?" She inquired, thinking it to be abandoned and forgotten. Yet there weren't many spider webs to spot, so maybe it wasn't that forgotten.

"I could ask you the same thing. I actually knew about it. It was the remains of an old bunker. Kupchenko had it modernized two years ago. Yet it wasn't supposed to be a permanent base. More of a pilgrimage place to him." The fifty years old Belkan replied.

"I guess you weren't coming to bring flowers." She went a bit sarcastic.

"Your allies attacked B7R today. Killed most of the defenders. But it ended on a straw." Kellerman specified the reason that had made him come here, having noticed on her shoulder the Galm insignia. So, this was the current leader Pixy had in this war. It was not unusual to see woman leading squadron to him, but a bit surprising amongst mercenaries.

"I don't know if they still are my allies. Otherwise this wouldn't have been bloodstained due to some Osean Abschaum I had to cleanse." She showed her weapon, which blade was covered by dry blood that had slightly turned yellow, fading the bright green of the jade.

"What you did does not matter to me. I'm not planning on returning to fight this war." He commented without showing any emotions nor regret toward those Oseans. They were his homeland's enemies after all. And as such he held them responsible for the death of his students.

"I would like to go back to the sky and fight again, but the Osean military will consider me a criminal now, and I will not join Belka." She asserted, emphasizing her will of independence, even if now it had made her alone.

"There is another way. But tell me, my young friend, do you know why those two countries are hating each other so much?" He asked openly, hoping this merc to be willing to listen to the old history lessons of an old Belkan ace.

"I know this is linked to the rogue knights that Victoire kicked off of Belka, but that's all." She repeated what this preacher had explained her in this little touristic moment in Directus.

"Yes and No. Do you mind if I'm going for a little history lesson?" He asked once again.

"You can. It's not like I could do much right now."

"The origins of Osea have very old roots. For a few centuries, before the medieval era, there was the Rémulian empire. A rich place built around the shores of the Bennian Sea, by trade with the nearby communities of the area. But we have few remains of this empire, because it collapsed around the fifth century, after a chain of natural event provoked a mass migration from northern warrior tribes that forced the nearby communities around the empire to actually invade it. Yet civilization survived in some cities, or some monasteries. Soon, once those events were eased, the place began to become rich again, using its still advantageous position on fluvial trade, as quite a great number of rivers end up in the Bennian Sea, and the way around the Northern and Southern oceanic facade were deemed too dangerous for the people of that era. Many Lands were not run by nobles but by rich merchants' families, this explain the roots of the federalized nature of Osea. At that time this unperfect federation of Osean territories was slowly becoming a naval power to foster its trade with this continent, and later the Verusan, Annean and Usean continent. They rarely seek wars at that time, only to secure their offshore trading post and other trade routes. Otherwise they were quite a peaceful land. Of course, the black plague of the fifteenth century took out almost half of the population due to their well-developed trading network." He recalled an history lesson Rot 1 would have surely did better, but since he had been killed by the very merc he was currently speaking to, he had to do everything by himself.

"I don't see where all of this led to the proud Belka going crazy on his richer neighbor." Iskanda pointed out.

"I'm coming on it. To ensure the stability they had lost due to this tragedy, a king was elected to offer a bit of unity to their union of merchant states. For two centuries, they did succeed in keeping the nascent Osean nation united and making it become the first naval power it still is today. They had quite a kind relationship with the Belkan federation of free counties. But one of their princes made a deadly mistake: to fall in love with the daughter of a fallen Belkan knight, having likely been seduced by this lady. Of courses it granted them all the Belkan territories Ste Victoire and her followers had not conquered, and which had formed some buffer zone between the two growing countries. Yet, despite the territorial gain, this led to the doom of the Osean monarchs. From this day a very high number of death in the royal family began to occur, and within two years she was the regent of what she was intended to turn into an authoritarian empire and use it to avenge her forefathers by attacking the state Ste Victoire had created. This led to a very bloody Osean civil war, which saw unprecedented number of casualties for Osea until this century. Curiously, it was an alliance between the kingdom of Erusea, the Yukte Empire and the Osean republicans that brought down the killer Queen -as she was nicknamed- down. The Osean federation came out of this stronger than ever, and this led to Osea becoming the powerful state it is now. However, this led Erusea to suffer an economic recession and later a similar revolution, but now I'm a bit dithering." He ended up most of his history lesson there, knowing that this "Killer Queen" was the true reason why so much blood had been split between Osea and Belka.

"But Belka didn't do anything, if I understand?" She said, trying to make all of this cope.

"No, they just watch things unfold from a distance. We might have been too proud to act. If our ancestors had acted back then, maybe those two states could have been friends, even allied instead of enemies. And so many wars wouldn't have happened." He almost blamed the current conflict on this lack of action.

"Pixy had some quote about that: apathy is death." Iskanda quoted his former student -knowing from Pixy's backstory the two of them knew each other-.

"That was great fighting him. At least I can now consider one of my students has finally succeeded in understanding the rule of combat: überleben. And I think you do to, since you survived this unsuccessful assault on Excalibur." He shared the little satisfaction he got from today's dogfight. But now it was him who had two questions for her. However, the few assumptions he could lay as likely answers would need quite a long explanation, in the end.

"Allow me to ask two things? Why did you threaten me with a nailgun before?" He wondered why a merc would use such weapon when he was seeing a Luger in her holster. "Because I run out of ammo, I did not find any here, you cannot put 30-millimeter shell meant for planes in it. So, I chose that tool as a weapon. It's as deadly in close quarter, and a lot quieter." She compared the nailgun to a one with bullets. And in the end, she was right, a nailgun could surely kill people if in good hands.

"And second, what's the thing with your perfume? I mean, musk is usually masculine choice, but you're free to choose whatever you like." He didn't inquire, just wanted some precision, and thus he would be able to eliminate some of his assumptions.

"I did some oversleeping in the wood with a fur cover." She responded a bit bluntly, without giving him a clear explanation at all, or it was something that was very far from a clear explanation.

"I don't get it." He rolled his eyes at her, showing utter incomprehension.

"I slept in the middle of a wolfpack. I guess you can explain me why Belkan wolves spare me when they are eating Osean infiltrators for breakfast?" She steered the role of our two interlocutors with him having to furnish quite a long explanation once again.

"Explaining this will need a bit of dithering, once more. You see, the Pendragon Projekt had not only technical and aeronautical goals, there are some medical branch. One named Hülse (scabbard), aiming to create exoskeleton suit to protect the infantry of Belka, referring to the scabbard of Excalibur that prevent its owner from being wounded. But one is almost as important as the latter: it deals with poisoning and counter-poisoning." Kellerman began his answer. And the last words he said made her suddenly doubt about the usefulness of her assassination attempt with cyanide.

"What do you mean?"

"Kupchenko knew in war time the allied forces might sent assassins to kill or poison him or his men. He realized he would need to be able to be protected from most poison the Osean killer would use and create new ones to arm his own hands. And all of this was successfully set in motion when a young Belkan scientist tried to run after she discovered something horrible. Her research was aiming to create a new combat gas that would go through skin and light to medium density fabric. She did succeed in her task, but what she created was so horrible that she decided to burn all her research and seek asylum at Tauberg. Kupchenko's Projekt is almost a state within the state, an independent army within the bigger Belkan Army." Kellerman explained with a chilled voice, having heard from this girl what the effect of this gas would be if used on the battlefield.

"What kind of gas could frighten a Belkan? An anti-pride one?" She asked with a shit-ton of sarcasm filling her voice, a bit doubtful.

"This lady was named Ärzte Gift, gift in the Belkan sense, for Toxin, not for Geschenk (present), had created the Scharlach Tot. It was a derivative from the venom of a snake that usually cause hemorrhages. Do you need me to draw a picture? Nicht? Gut." He answered with a bit of restraint in his voice. Used just a bit in a crowded area, and you would only find bones and minced meat. Soldier would need to wear full body armor meant for chemical fight with oxygen recycler, or just burned the effect of the oxidation of the gas. Indeed, to add to its destructive properties, it would create a very flammable powder on quite a wide area, and above all on all that wasn't organic.

"Jeez, I will never understand why the Belkan invented the word Arzt to designate a doctor. First time I heard it, it was horrible just to repeat." Iskanda chose to do a little phonic commentary before expressing her full point of view on such acts.

"It's not as hard to pronounce as Eichhörnchen (squirrel)." Kellerman counter-argued, having himself issues with this word.

"I agree with you on that last one. But back to what you were implying, it almost makes mustard gas seemed to be a fine death. So Kupchenko protect her because he understood something like that was way too dangerous, which I can fairly understand too. But what has all of this something to do with the behavior of those wolves?" She steered back their talk into its initial subject.

"Well, when she fled, she fled with her boyfriend who was a skilled ethologist. He somehow convinced Kupchenko to give them a budget about the study of wildlife behavior, while working for the Gift program. I'm sure at the time he was as doubtful as you are now."

Which, given the level of doubtfulness Iskanda was showing with her eyes wide open of astonishment, was quite a high likelihood.

"So, he began doing his ethology stuff, while she searched for some "synthetic protein inhibitor", or some biochemical thing with a similar name. They picked up some wolves and began making them associate things. At the beginning it was just some colors or stuff like that. But in the end, what they succeeded to create was not that much less frightening than the Scharlach Tote. They couldn't tame the wolves, but they managed to make them associate, and to spread this induced difference between Belkan and allied soldiers amongst the wolfpacks venturing in the forest of South Belka." He tried to sum up a process he couldn't even get a glimpse at. Explaining the reflection of a Femtolaser, that he could have. But ethology induced by biochemistry was a bit too much for him.

"And thus, they learned "Belkan won't hurt me" and "I need to eat those Allied Abschaum.", if what you're explaining had some sense." She finished his explanation. Yet she did not understand why they let her lift then.

"About you, that's fairly understandable. You're wearing like all Ustian military or mercs, old Belkan stuff. Thus, the Ustian are almost immune to this trap. But Osean, Yukte, or even Sapins that come within the eyesight of a "conditioned" wolfpack will be hunted like a deer and what will be left of them will be nothing more than some broken bones, torn off clothes and their military plates." He finally got her a reason to have survived over those worthless Oseans.

She was satisfied, with his answers, and thus their talks come to an end. Then she went to the Su-47 she was tinkering with before the arrival of Kellerman. Of course, he recognized the plane, especially its owner. After all, it was his owner who left it here with the two person he cared for the most. Those three things represent an era of peace for this man that had ended in 1990. He was almost surprised she hadn't realized she was working on the former plane of her nemesis.

"I wonder if Kupchenko would agree to let you modify his former plane." He specified the owner of the plane, as she was running some checks on the onboard electronics, verifying the worthiness of this plane, and especially it's old vectored nozzles.

"It was Kupchenko's?"

"Don't be surprised, mein Junge Freund. He let the corpse of his wife and an empty tomb for his daughter he never managed to find despite all the efforts he did into infiltrating the Osean military he deemed responsible of their fate. He abandoned this fighter here too because it had been the symbol of his previous life, in which he had known nothing but victories." Kellerman started to describe what this place symbolized to her nemesis: grief, death and defeat.

"Then I guess you can explain the strange thing with arrows and infinities?" She looked at him from the cockpit, having still not understood what it could mean.

" Those arrow and infinities had a strong symbol for his year. The year he obtained his rank as a worthy pilot of the Belkan Air Force, all that didn't suffered any defeat in a DACT get this infinity symbol. But suffered one loss and you would lose it right away. Yet Kupchenko defeat anyone he fought, even me and old the older ace. He chose this symbol when he got the Wilhelm medal for being the first knight of the round table. It meant infinity power to the infinity, and this an infinite amount of time." Kellerman recalled her the origin of this mathematical symbol.

" I get it. Since he had an exchange ratio of nearly infinity to zero back then." She agreed with this strange interpretation of asymptotic limits.

Mausoleum, Schayne Plains, Belka, 30/05/1995, 21:00, Weather: overcast.

He had specified the name Kupchenko chose for this bunker. It was fitting, after all. And now, after a small meal comprised of the few dried means of subsistence, and his survival ration, they were watching the stars. The door of the bunker was open, and with the noise of the stream nearby, it was setting quite a chilling place.

The remains of Excalibur shots were still up there, adding some indigo dots around the sea of white dots that the Milky Way was. She was the first to speak, having been surprised when he gave her some advice to modify the Berkut to fit her fighting style he had watched from the data Kupchenko shared after their encounter above B7R.

"Why are you helping me, Kellerman? I'm your enemy." She asked, a bit curious toward Pixy's old instructor.

"Because I want this war to end in another way than just Belka forcing the hand of Osea or the other way around. And I know you're someone who think outside the box. You can give a better end to this war if you choose wisely." He tried to justify the help he was providing to Iskanda, while looking at Orionis' star.

Of course, this answer reminded her of Ste Victoire's advice on the future self she could and now wanted to become. But she didn't know who she would engage if she would take that thing to the air. She had some Idea on how to get revenge against those two Erben that humiliated her and nearly danced over her dead body, but not for a long term. She didn't know how this war could end in this better way Kellerman was speaking about.

They spent quite an hour stargazing, listing the constellation they knew, or to spot the orbiting satellites, either the ones belonging to the Merlin network or the few allied or civilian ones still standing. Iskanda was quite goose bumped to learn that some of those allied satellites were those Soyuz spaceships the Yukte were filling with criminals. She couldn't help but feel sorry for those poor soldiers sacrificed for nothing, whatever they had done to end up there.

Then, around 22:16, a streak of flashes colored the upper layers of the atmosphere. Almost a dozen of bright orange explosion happened, literally out of nowhere. In the same time the indigo remains lingering in the night sky turned to a bright turquoise blue once again, overlighting any visible stars. Excalibur was very likely firing at some nukes at high altitude, with the Helligen Kolumne forming right above it, like a gigantic blue neon in the middle of this dark night without moon. Yet nothing exploded on the ground or on the horizon.

The Helligen Kolumne was beginning to dissipate after as well as the streak of bright orange explosions. But surprisingly Excalibur fired thirty second after. This time, the Helligen Kolumne did not turn into some blueish color, but a pure white. It was firing way further than the upper level to cause the air surrounding the path of the laser fired from the TFLS to emit this kind of bright white light. Way further than it needed to fire if it was intercepting any kind of ballistic ordnance. Further than the reflectors or the Merlin Satellite Network. But they didn't enjoy this sound and light spectacle that much because the light was so bright than they had to turn away from it no to be blinded by its sheer brightness.

"Apparently Osea has learned nothing from the EMP disaster. Did they want to lose any more carrier?" Iskanda complained about the lack of change in tactic from Osean top brasses.

"They might have thought Excalibur could be neutralized by EMP. The truth is: it can't. Kupchenko make sure even a solar eruption could not deactivate Excalibur emergency power supply -since they run on the same kind of nuclear Stirling engine that this bunker is powered by-." Kellerman agreed on the fact that such nuclear bombardment was useless. And if they actually hit it with nukes, he was even doubtful than a single nuke would be enough. Enough to get rid of Excalibur defenses. But not of the main laser port.

"I'm wondering what the aftermath of this failed attempt will be. And what they used to attack now." Iskanda shared what was running through her mind, only certainties of a new disaster for the allied forces.

"They might have used some space weapon platform. Yet using and storing nukes in space constitutes a breach of international laws about space. Even Belka would not risk doing that not to lose the few allies they have left." Kellerman answered, without having a precise knowledge of Osean project in space. Of course, they had nothing that could rival the astounding technological marvels the Pendragon Projekt had created, but they could still consider those space platforms as a threat. A threat that had very likely been neutralized by now, if they thought of the power Excalibur used to strike there.

Both went to sleep after, with Kellerman living her the only true bed this bunker had and using a small foldable bed his survival pack included. It was the advantage of having a big fighter. Iskanda dreamt of future fights, with her finding victory once more. Kellerman had only one thing he could think off while falling asleep: the faint light print the Osean space weapon platform would leave in the sky like some asteroid being consummated into a falling star. And one of his dream depicted the city of Oured that he visited once or twice in his career falling prey to a rain of meteoritic fireballs.

End of chapter.

I guess this one was a bit more concentrated on Pixy on a dogfight point of view, but I really liked him as a wingman, he was way more capable than the ones of wardogs squad and PJ later on.

PJ: is this why I die insignificantly in your fic, without having the time to even try something with my girlfriend?

Vergeltern: I guess, you should have flown better on my PS2… *evil smile*

I made a reference to some galaxy far away, and some other about propaganda.

So, some encounters with ace piloting HIMAT because it's funnier, quite a lot of casualties for both sides. I considered a few chapters ago I was at the breaking point with the canon. Yet there will be a couple chapters that will depict elements of the canon I want to keep in this alternate reality scenario. You may guess what this space platform is, and maybe its fate...

Of course, we have had a bit of politics, and there would be a bit in the next chapter. I intended to make this chapter last more, but it's already more than 16000 words long, something I'm satisfied with, and I want to keep this continuity of mission / non mission chapter, if you see what I mean.

So, Bis nächst mal, Lesern. Feel free to review, comment, favorize...

23/01/2020: some grammatical and syntactical mistakes fixed