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.

29. Chapter 131: Operation Golden Hecht p1

(Golden Hecht means golden pike)

Tauberg Air Base, Belka, 18/06/1995, 14:00, Weather: heavy cloud cover.

Those last three days had been boring as hell for Iskanda. Three days had passed, solely composed of back-and-forth travel between here and the Schayne plains, the Glatislant, Hoffnung, and the lake of Wesson, which was named by Belkans as the Vözonsee or Vezonsee. And of course, all of that without engaging a single allied plane wandering out of bounds, or a spy plane trying to get through the network.

That no spy plane was in sight was understandable. She had downed quite a lot of Yukte and Osean high-altitude high-speed infiltrators during the battle of Hoffnung. What would remain in the Osean arsenal was the notoriously slow U-2, which would owe his name of "flying coffin" if anybody tried to fly above the territory of the CSB. Even if the remains would not be a body in a coffin, but some cinders dispersed by the wind. At least the Osean military would not need to spend any money in cremating their dead.

So, when at the end of the Mittagspause they called the Schwarze Luchs squadron for briefing, she almost jumped out of her seat. Finally, she was going to make hell and blood rain from above.

She wasn't alone for the briefing that was taking place in a small underground room, right behind at the center of the airbase, where the two runways were crossing. Indeed, outside of her four wingmen there was all the Gault squad. She saw Zubov leaving when she arrived, tasked with some CAP over Blumenberg, while the Netz squad that had gotten back all its members after they recovered them from the B7R area would be doing some recon near Wesson.

The mapping software was quite different from what they used in Ustio. The red of Axe and Hammer remained, but its yellow texts were replaced by a darker tone, maybe a better fit for the Pendragon Projekt. However, the map was not an artificial-looking but in-real time satellite data from the Merlin satellite constellation, with the current state of the constellation available on a shorter screen, to project other areas of Belka, Osea or the entire world. There was even the code of the specific satellite that was providing the data, coded with ancient letters as "Zeta", while the other areas on the map were designated by their respective code letters.

The map itself was centered around the Stier castle and the nearby lake. There, it displayed the numerous enemy units that it was containing in its walls and surroundings, modelled by small squares added other real units by the software all along the castle, with some of them being on the four towers, or in its inner court, were numerous antennas had been set as well. However, those were not the only threats, since there were also some targets over the lake, and even fighters that were tracked right now by the system. Mostly, those fighters were light craft, or STOL fighters such as J-35J Draken, Tornado Gr4s and other fighters needing short runways to take off. Of course, to these lighter crafts could be added other heavier fighters that could come from both their former allies and North Belka.

"Your job will be to take over this area in the vicinity of Sudentor. Zluchs will take care of the defenses on the ground as well as their small flotilla over the lake." Kupchenko presented the mission, as five blue lines were drawn around the lake, with the target on the ships being neutralized on their way.

"But those are only small fries. The base just east of the castle that they had built in its former Erusean garden, with the Orangery as their hangar might be a bigger obstacle on our path than this small flotilla." He described the other groups of targets that were set amongst the garden, mostly SAMs, Flak cannons and AA guns. However, the former garden paths in limestone had been replaced by a runway of concrete, where planes coming from the former Orangery building could take off under the cover of their AA artillery.

"Should we expect any subs in the lake?" Iskanda asked, knowing that Belkans could very well launch a few missiles from underwater while their aircrafts did not possess anti-submarine capacities.

"This possibility has been considered. To remove this threat, we'll test a new anti-sub weapon from a DW-2s." Kupchenko replied, almost feeling sad for the poor submariners due to the dangerousness of this type of weaponry, especially against a submarine.

"But this is a minor threat. Those subs are only intelligence assets with a bit of defense, not nuclear-powered ones armed with ICBMs. The main threat will be from reinforcements coming from the North or the East." He specified, with arrows coming from the North Belka, but also Sudentor being drawn.

"North Belka will send fighters, that's something I have foreseen. I have fewer Intel about Sudentorian intents. They declared themselves to be a neutral city but being neutral is not really the modus operandi of these Radikalen Ralder there." Kupchenko pursued, considering Sudentor to be only a mere thorn in his feet, while the three-country alliance the CSB was facing was more of a nail. Though none of his foes could be seen as swords on his throat, so he could let them have their so-called neutrality if they didn't get in his way. If they did, he would just blast the hell of their airbases and then they would be forced to be neutral.

"Nevertheless, other deployments of forces are to be expected. From bombers to choppers to cruise missiles and ballistic projectiles. Also, intervention from Osea is not out of the order if they truly want to keep their allies in fighting shape." Kupchenko finished the briefing, showing some data about those threats : Bm-335N Neue Lindwurm for the bomber squadrons, AH-64 and CH-17 for the chopper, and the picture of an Osean carrier group that their satellite had spotted near Wellow. Group which had spread in two in order to try to catch up with the last gen frigates and U-boats from the marine branch of the Pendragon Projekt.

"Keep in mind that all fighters are equipped with a designator for Excalibur. Use it against enemy boats, it should remove the need for saturation attacks on their one cruiser." Their commander reminded them. For the Gault squad, it was already a thing they were used to, but for the former Ustian mercenaries and the Drawer it was a brand-new thing. After all, it was rare to have a Wunderwaffe on your side.

"Ver, I guess that can also be used against the crafts parked there if they try to take off?" Iskanda inquired, seeing this opportunity that the Hellige Kolumne were allowing. It was quite a low blow, to fry birds on the ground and then mercilessly gun their helpless crew from above, but it would be quite fun. Fun only for her and horrible for those North Belkan.

"That's a good strategy. Also, this or the Merlin's plasma shutter will negate any long-range SAMs, but the latter are less effective against Flak. Henceforth most of our assaults will be made at low altitude." Kupchenko recognized the soundness of her idea. North Belka might have one or two squadrons there already in the air, but a few pre-emptive strikes would only make the job a whole lot easier.

"Finally, our good friend Philippe of Erusea has promised us some supplies. I guess they will have some escort, but we might need to help those allies fend off some interceptors." Kupchenko added one more participant to their little party. Sure, they were ok in matters of military supplies here, but the hospital of Blumenberg were filled with wounded that needed medical attention. One blue arrow was added to the map, this time coming from the west. One red arrow was added too, being the North Belkan interceptors, but this one was met by the vectors of their forces and the expected escort of the Erusean transport crafts.

"That's good to see they're some people that have the guts to defy the all-mighty Osean federation." Pixy commented with a load of sarcasm heavier than three aircraft carrier.

"Genau. Le Sage, despite being more of a guide than a ruler, has some other neutral state that may back us up at the Assembly of Nations once we will have established us as a power capable of resisting Osean assaults but also retaliating." Kupchenko completed Pixy's assertions. Indeed, Erusea had declined in military power since the era of the Warmonger King but had gained in influence using soft powers through their oversea territories that encompassed some little island near key straits.

And with this little conversation about foreign aid, the briefing was over. Iskanda wondered if there was the possibility that she would meet people she knew before her bloody escape. She hoped not, after all, she had suppressed most of her acquaintances that day.

There was just one question Kupchenko had to respond on their way to their hangar, after he just took a glimpse at the reflection of Excalibur's fire lighting up the ionosphere. Which was:

"Why using mostly black and red on the briefing software?"

"Simple, in case of briefing for night missions, it'll hurt less your retina. And that'll happen without a doubt." Kupchenko explained, knowing that Oseans would always be easier to surprise at night. While it wouldn't be for his case, as he had gotten used to sleep very little in this war, or as much as those sailors who were doing their solitary world-wide run.

"I see... Viel Glück." She wished him as they went for their respective hangars.

"I think you know that luck alone won't win battles, but believing we're blessed by it might increase our chances. Good luck to you too." Kupchenko wished her as well, using an almost friendly tone. Maybe spending time in the company of equals in the air could make him more human, as his mother was wishing.

"Control zu Gault und Zluchs, aera's clear, take off authorized." The voice of the former radio operator of Valais signaled, as the only fighters in the airspace were the MiG-31X/V of Schwarze and the Su-37 of Netz, which were already far away.

"Ver, taking off now." Gault 1 replied, their Su-47s being first to take-off as the more powerful engines of the Zluchs would hinder their take-off a bit, so the four Melwaz and the Griffon were behind on the runways.

"Schwarze Falke vier, opening hangar for VOF (Vertical take-off)." The officer in the seat behind the pilot and copilot of the one DW-2 that would accompany them announced, the cupola opening as their rotors began to spin and thus produced some lift.

"Ver, remember to wait for supremacy." Kupchenko reminded him of his role. A simple role, meant to test a new weapon that would soon see use in the city of the beginning, if everything went as planned.

"In Ordnung (all's clear)." He agreed. This time, they weren't the anti-aircraft gunship, only the flying howitzer.

A few dozen seconds later, all planes were in the air, with the Zluchs squad leading the formation. The Griffon was at the tip, with two Melwaz on her sides. Further away were the Berkuts in four groups of two, on each corner of a rectangle which centroid was exactly three kilometers behind the Griffon.

"Today we are finally fighting back. We have held the Ralders and the Allies for long enough." Kupchenko said, thus beginning the first step of their very prolonged campaign that could only give them total victory now that he had all the aces in his game.

"Times to make them step back and cry away in fear and pain!" Iskanda snickered, showing her hardened determination.

Stier Castle Area, Waldreich Mountains, Belka, 18/06/1995, 14:20, Weather: heavy cloud cover.

The castle was now only a mere dozen kilometers away. From what Iskanda had read in the library of the base, it had been an important place in the middle age and after, but had been sieged during the campaign of St Victoire, which was trying again to win the support of Sudentor by taking down one Lord that had regularly raided the city, and who had taken refuge there. While reading those specific lines about Sudentor, she couldn't restrain herself to ask why Sudentor was choosing neutrality instead of having a seat on the winning table. And she considered that the trip was the perfect time to ask, since there was a great likelihood for them to encounter Sudentorian forces today. Stier was in their historical sphere of influence.

The first to give a justification was Gault five, the one from the musician family, that also had a good interest in history :

"Throughout history, Sudentor and Hoffnung had competed, partially through the harbors of Anfang and Dinsmarkhaven they respectively used for trade. Besides, being on the other side of the Waldreich mountains had given Hoffnung easier access on the countries eastward, while Sudentor had only access to cities like Wesson, while the heart of the Osean economy was in the Oured Bay or the Bennion Sea. For those reasons, the average Hoffnunger was richer than the average Sudentorian." He gave that one last final disparity using the past, as Hoffnungern were now only refugees.

"Besides, while Hoffnungern are quite patriotic, they were less good Ralders than Sudentorians. Thus, they welcomed whoever was not feeling very secure in Dinsmark or other Rald-dominated cities like Sudentor is. Right now, the city is ruled by a city council halfway comprised of Radikalen Ralders that did not approve of North Belka accepting to ally themselves with the Osean-Yukte alliance to defeat us." Pixy added, on a more political point of view. If Sudentorians like their political independence, Hoffnungern preferred their freedom of mind. Which sometimes led to more discoveries in Hoffnung than on the other side of the Waldreich mountains, as scientific Progress is only helped by freedom of mind.

"I see, so just some eternal jealousy that had gotten stronger with the Rald Partei ascension to power. Quite something I was expecting." Iskanda sighted, not really surprised to see the answers to her questions. Belkan propaganda liked to present them as a united entity, but they weren't. Division ran deep, originating from old disputes in the middle-age era. And anyone that had opened a history book had learned that long-lasting disputes could not be ended by more conflict, but by cooperation and forgiveness. Two things that Belkans were not really accustomed to use. Nevertheless, they might need to learn them, for Belka and their neighbors needed unity to defy the superpowers of this world.

"Also, the Pendragon Projekt brought mostly jobs and wealth to the industries of Hoffnung that we have partially managed to relocate at Tauberg and Blumenberg, while the KI Projekt of Sudentor received little but nothing." Zveda specified how much the disparities had gotten stronger those last years, giving Hoffnung a major economic boost while Sudentor had dived deep into recession.

"And since the Künstliche Intelligenz Projekt is led by our good friend Schröder, you might understand why I wanted this to be. I never liked him, and now I have all the reasons to hate him and the one that had chosen to remain at his side in Sudentor." Kupchenko finished, his speech filled with anger toward this man. If he could send Iskanda to make him suffer the same fate as the Hexen, he would not hesitate a single instant. Furthermore, he still had a family he could make suffer in various ways, and not by simply killing them. Killing was too good for such people.

And with all people settled on not helping the Sudentorians if they ever need help, they finished their approach on the castle. The upper atmosphere was already lit up, indicating that Excalibur had already begun firing at the planes taxiing in the area, or on the high-altitude surveillance aircraft. They saw one or two fell in a ball of fire from the sky on their way in. No chutes were visible. Or only under the form of small flying torches in the air that the fire of the King's Sword was reducing them to. Kupchenko didn't consider they had to spend any time on such easy picking. Of course, one could deduce their path from where those aerial early warning systems were shot down, but since Excalibur was firing at all scouts in its range and not only on those on their path, it was making the job of the North Belkan analyst a bit harder

Stier Castle had risen and fallen multiple times. It was time to make it fall once more.

Stier Castle Area, Waldreich Mountains, Belka, 18/06/1995, 14:30, Weather: heavy cloud covers

The castle was finally visible for everyone, even for the DW-2 accompanying them a dozen kilometers behind. Also, they were all visible, even if they had approached at low altitude, but the radars could not be fooled from this close. Immediately, all ships fired their missiles, supplemented by the batteries of the castle. This did nothing to deter the offensive of the RTA forces. The next second, a bright light began to grow in intensity in the upper atmosphere, while the area right in front of them was already ionizing. Most missiles just exploded, and the few that did not crashed into the ground. And unlike those missiles, the Zluchs and Gault squadron were not that affected as they flew by the Hellige Kolumne. They avoided the center, but their stronger electronics were bypassing the effects of the electromagnetic pulses this weapon created.

"I don't think long-range missiles will be of any use, Sir." A North Belkan radar operator commented, as a second wave was launched, only to be nullified the same way as the first. There were only three missiles that went through as those were SAAMs fired from their J-35J. They had managed to use their missile laser-guiders to go around the Hellige Kolumne. But their fine aim was all for nothing. These were reduced to smithereens by the EW of the Melwaz. And ten second later, a volley of ERAAMs split their twin-delta wings in half, and sent their remains -which weren't much- falling toward the ground.

"And those were the more capable craft we could launch before Excalibur fried all the others on the runway. Crews there have not even finished cleaning the runway for the next squadron." Another operator dressed the very messed-up situation they were in. Sure, they still had a dozen Tornadoes and Mirages in the air, but these were not the most potent air superiority fighters. What craft had any potency to fight the RTA otherworldly prototypes?

"Ich sehe, Ich bin nicht Blind!" The officer in charge of the defense could only watch the smoke from the bunker that had been built at the center of the castle, but that was enough to guess their losses. More than twenty craft, pilots and copilots fried by something that no one had anything to oppose to.

"Launch the next fighters when the enemy will be right above them. They won't risk blue on blue on their precious prototypes." He ordered, not expecting this to happen in a long time. Their meager fleet was only comprised of a TAS ship that had seen its warhead intercepted immediately by the enemy fire, and the other ships were two destroyers and two frigates surrounding the TAS, as well as a few gunships and missile boats in the parts where the lake was getting a bit more shallow. Of course, the lake hid some more threats to his enemy, but the Radikalen Ralder in charge of this place had no great hopes to survive here, with or without reinforcements from either North Belka or Sudentor.

"Aber, Sir, they will get gunned down from above by the enemy fighters!" The same operator overwatching the runway pointed out the obvious flaw in this tactic.

"We still have two third of our close-range defenses. And better be shot down by fighters than by some operators in an underground bunker, Recht?" He countered by trying to appeal to his pilot's honor, who were desperate to go down fighting and not fried by pulses.

"Ver." The order was relayed, while at the lake, the battle was raging.

All ships open fire as soon as they could get a lock on their enemy, while the fighters launched volleys of missile that the Gault squad simply skimmed through without any issue, while Iskanda issued her orders :

"I'm going for the TAS ship. Pixy, frigates, Zeichner, destroyers, Erben on the others."

"What about their SPKs?" Zveda just wondered how Iskanda was going to deal with the close-range defensive guns, while she had already blown up the two missile pods on a gunboat using her EWs

"Let's try those designators for Excalibur." She smiled under her mask as she switched from the gun to the designator and saw the target of the TAS being slowly locked. She just had to stay on a slightly stable course to get the job done. Of course, the crew of the Belkan ship noticed her as she flew extremely low toward them. A few rounds grazed her, but she only went lower. The destroyers opened fire with their missile launchers, but she turned on her ramjet engine, and the pairs of missiles flew past her, colliding as they tried to relock on her diminished infrared signature that the upgrade on her engine had allowed.

"Excalibur to Zluchs leader, target acquired. Feuer jetzt!" The officer in charge of the long-range support reported, as the reflector was now aligned with the TAS.

"Gut." Was how Iskanda reacted, zooming out to enjoy the spectacle. In a last-ditch effort to take her down, they fired some standard ships-to-air missiles vertically, but the Hellige Kolumne was already forming, encompassing the entire warship. And while Iskanda laughed, they all exploded harmlessly in mid-air.

While she climbed before her dive attack, she had a good point of view on the effect of Hellige Kolumne on ships. Lightnings born of the ionized air struck at each peaks of the metallic superstructure, knocking out the radars and other sensors pretty quickly, while the less sheltered defenses like the SPK exploded due to the overheating at the center of the Kolumne, were temperature could set pretty much anything on fire, or melt any metals in a matters of seconds. Planes were rarely hit by this part of the Kolumne unless they were slow moving transports or AWACS, but for ships or ground targets this weapon was only the deadlier.

Henceforth, in the stranded TAS ship that had red lines across all systems and nascent fire in multiple sectors, they saw very well the one HVR heading straight for their BAWS bay they had managed to close as soon as they saw the uselessness of such weapon due to the EW support from Tauberg. The heavy-duty rocket was enough to dent the light hull, opening the way for the HGM that followed and exploded inside the bay, triggering a chain reaction that tore the Belkan ship in half.

The remaining ships were in the same state, to sum up there was nothing remaining of them as well after their fuming debris sank. The Erben had made quick work of the smaller ships, using their EWs and standard with high accuracy. Cipher did use one HZM for a cluster of gunships that were near some docks were other AA guns had been set, destroying any structures in a whirlwind of flames.

Pixy fired a pair of missiles on a frigate, sinking it fast as their weak armor wasn't much. Then, he circled around the Hellige Kolumne and fired his EW at the heavy front gun, superheating the stored weaponry. The turret was snapped from the ship in the explosion, offering the mercenary with a perfect weakness to exploit. He climbed over the now charred ship and finished her with a single missile that set ablaze the remaining ammo.

As he rejoined with Iskanda, he saw Zeichner destroying the second destroyer, and understood why the first was split in half. His first act was to disable the missile launcher at her rear with an EW strafing run, disabling some AA guns in the process. Then he went for some unconventional strategy.

"Feuer an diese Kraft! Schnell! (fire on this craft, fast!) "The captain of the ship ordered, even if this order should have been issued before their main ship-to-air defense was down.

"Wir haben nichts Sir." (we have nothing, sir) The gun operators reported as the Melwaz enacted an horizontal loop over the lake toward the damaged destroyer.

"Denn benutzt den RPG!" (use the RPG then) He suggested them to use those lighter weapons they had in store in case of attacks from very small boats.

"In Ordnung. (alright) Deploying RPG squad." The second-in-command transmitted with a hasty voice, that also sounded pretty desperate. There was no chance than a few rockets would harm these new prototypes of their enemy.

Despite their slight lack of fighting will that only remains of pride limned by fanaticism was animating the poor North Belkan soldiers, they managed to get to the portside of the boat, from which the Melwaz was approaching. They fired their missiles quickly, hoping that at such close distance their seekers would negate the mobility of the enemy craft.

A volley was fired, only for Zeichner to evade them easily, copying a maneuver of his leader, those small steep climbs followed by a dive to get away from the stall induced by the suddenness of the maneuver. All that fired had been for nothing. He would make sure their sacrifice was for nothing, as he tilted his nose upward and began yawing, strafing with his EW the simple soldiers on the ship, caught reloading their shoulder-mounted launcher.

The effect for them was terrible. Burning at the highest degree if direct hit, with the skin nearly vanishing under the fire, and the bone shattering like a piece of dry wood thrown into a wildfire. Being hit on the body armor did the same thing, with the ceramic composing hit overheating and exploding like if hit by a high explosive shell. And if it didn't explode, it would transmit so much heat that the fabric and the skin behind would ignite instantly. Thus, some jumped, or more likely let themselves fall into the water in the hope that it would extinguish the flames and save them from burning alive and dying in unbearable pain.

However, none of their acts mattered, as Zeichner did what he had planned to do, launching an HZM really low toward the ship, aiming for the water line, if not below. The warhead that was meant to go through medium grade military plating didn't explode upon hitting the water, but a bit afterward. The explosion itself and the shrapnels it produced only did minor damages, opening small waterways but nothing that couldn't be fixed in due time. Physics and especially fluid dynamics had another thing to say though. The shockwave that the Hypersthene had created first caused the ship to go high and the water below it to go down. Its secondary effect was a formidable depression right below the middle of the ship, causing it to rupture under its own weight as it fell back into the water. The destroyer sank quickly, catching every of its sailors in her path toward the depths of the lake.

"Interesting way of taking down a ship." Iskanda commented, wondering how Zeichner had figured out that such a hit on such a place would cause such destruction even though the direct damage were negligible.

"I once read something about underwater shots that were meant to have this effect. I only recreate the effect using our Hypersthene weaponry."

Meanwhile, Gault was destroying the attackers that initially outnumbered them three to one. Even if they would have needed much more to outnumber the eight su-47. Their strategy wasn't that ill-thought, Kupchenko conceded them, as the Mirages attacked in three groups of four while the Tornadoes were supporting them with their ECMs. Unfortunately, both lacked specific long-range or high-accuracy air-to-air missiles to pause a Real challenge.

"Fox ein, Fox ein" Gault three said as he sniped two Mirage at long range, without letting him a chance to escape.

And with that more than half of the Mirages went down, as the one near him on their flank and the other on the other flank of their formation imitated him.

The others chose a more direct attack, flying in an arrow formation, with Kupchenko at its tip. All Mirages fired missiles at him, which he avoided by spiraling in a downward fashion. He was a bit shaken as he flew below them, but perfectly safe, with their missiles crossing above or behind him, with some colliding with each other.

"Quatsch, that's a fast one." One Mirage pilot observed, as the Su-47 was already pulling an upward loop.

"Streut! Schnell! (Disperse! Quick!)" One the far left shouted, as a pair of missiles and a pair of SAAMs left their respective racks.

"Nicht schnell genug, leider (Not fast enough, unfortunately)." Gault 2 commented about their attempt at surviving the fire of their leader. The two on the flank of their formation managed to get indirect hits, though hits by missiles always hurt, whether they were direct or not. The two craft centers were less lucky, with the nozzles being impacted from the side as the SAAMs came from above. That set their engine ablaze.

In the end, none was able to escape the precise gunfire of Kupchenko's closest wingmen, with Speidel -Gault 2- finishing the two burning Mirages, and the two others of the arrow formation bagging one kill each.

"Fire incoming from the castle." Cipher reported, as he just evaded a high-accuracy ground-to-air missile that try to relock on him after he barrel-rolled out of its way. He blasted it out of the sky with his EW. They had planned to launch a "Schräge Musik" on the Tornadoes but were cut a bit off guard by the amounts of RPGs fired from the towers and the high walls of the Stier castle.

"Verbrennen nieder (burning to the ground?)" Iskanda proposed, having no qualms about removing some old stones from the landscape.

"Nicht, nur Unterdrückung feindlicher Luftabwehr (No, only SEAD)" Kupchenko denied her this wish. He knew the castle had some historical significance. But not its gardens that only belonged to some Erusean Chateau and not a middle-age war castle.

"Ach, nicht lustig (Not funny)." She replied while removing her finger from the release button of her static FEABs. And just use her gun, doing a quick dive on the southern portion of the wall to cleanse it from enemy troops.

"Keine Sorge, du wird alle die Orangerie Zerstören. (don't worry, you'll destroy all the Orangery)" Kupchenko added, while the Gault team began to engage Tornadoes in dogfight. Which had suffered substantial losses from the acute fire that countered their jamming, meaning that it was not that much of a challenge.

"I thought I shook off that SAAM already!" One Tornado pilot complained, seeming to be hunted forever.

"Their SAAMs might have some proper seekers." His copilot guessed, wondering what seekers they were using as flares and their ECM pod had no effect on it.

"Or they have a more active semi-active antenna." A third North Belkan added, facing the same issue. But his engines and flare dispensers had already been damaged, and only a few seconds after this message he ended up crashing into a flaming ship.

"We are fighting for something better with something better." Gault six answered as his SAAM finally ended the first two that had asked about their new capacities. It was a bit annoying that the ERAAM's could not be fit on the current Su-47 due to their boosters that were much bigger than their SAAMs'.

The only time one of them was a bit threatened was when two Gr4s had gotten behind Kupchenko after his loop toward the Mirages, before he rejoined with the main group. It was only a bit threatening because his life was never in danger. He just cut his engine and tilted his wings, passing through the two attackers who almost shouted in surprise.

Then he just oscillated his craft up and down, cutting the right wing of one as he ascended and the left wing of the other as he got his nose down. Both would crash in the plains surrounding the castle.

Castle, which, right now, had lost a bit of its superb. A few rocks had fallen from the walls, turning the once proud battlements and merlons to rubble, with parts of shattered bodies thrown into the mix. No one was still breathing on the guard's path. No AA guns on the towers had survived, their operators ever burned and their remains scattered, or riddled with bullets. Only a few missiles were shot from time to time, from some rearranged arrow slits of the four towers.

"Isn't it forbidden to use laser weaponry to blind people?" One officer in the command bunker of the castle asked, with more and more soldiers reported mortally wounded by the EWs.

"Their lasers aren't meant to blind but to kill." Another North Belkan clarified why the Projekt Pendragon hadn't cared for this regulation. A soldier hit in the eye, or anywhere in the head would lose his dead as it would explode due to the energy those shots were bringing.

Some lights turned red. Three of the RPG emplacements had been destroyed, with the tower in which they were standing still standing, but without anything left standing inside. Iskanda had managed to fire three rockets right in the holes they used to fire back at them. It had required some low flying and low speed, but she was fine.

Pixy and Zeichner neutralized another turret, by firing their EWs in the holes, with one of their shots hitting some ammo that resulted in the death of the defenders of Stier.

More and more arrow slits were no more letting missiles through, and rather some smoke from the burning bodies and burning hardware.

"Keep firing until we're out of men or out of ammo." Their commander stated, sealing their fate

"We have only one tower left, commander." An officer announced, having just ran from one tower, and was thus covered in dust, cinder, and some bits of dried blood.

"Zluchs 2 to 5, cover me as I deal with this one." Iskanda ordered, as the fire from this one tower was getting stronger, the enemy inside fighting with the energy of despair.

"Deploy all AA guns and launchers from the underground level." The North Belkan in charge tried some last-ditch effort to slow down the inevitable, as the five planes were circling toward the court of the castle, as the last pristine tower was facing the court.

But they didn't even have to launch their HZM to counter this new threat, as Gault provided them some support with their SFFS that were more or less a pack of Hypersthene grenades dropped from the air.

"Gut support. Wingmen, intercept their fire while I finish them." Iskanda said, progressing quickly above the burning vehicles.

"Verstärken Feuerkraft!" The commander bellowed, but his screams turned from angered ones to horrified, as the few missiles that were fired ended up blasted to smithereens by the Melwaz flanking the Griffon.

She was now aligned with the third level of the tower. She just had to tilt and fire an HVR to the fire emplacement. Then she descended and tilted to the other side. A second HVR left her pylons, and a third followed soon when she repeated the maneuver, ensuring the total neutralization of all her foes. But there was one thing she still needed to take care of in Stier.

She skimmed above the ground, then followed the walls vertically, before diving toward the command center that had been set where there was once a great dungeon that was removed when Ste Victoire took off the castle. In some ways, history was repeating itself again, even if Hypersthene ground missiles were obviously much more efficient as a landscape removing tool than the basic black powder of her era.

The antennas and radar stationed there were destroyed, and the explosion was enough to partially crumble the ceiling of the commanding bunker underneath, injuring many men inside of it. One of those severely injured man was the commander itself, who still had the strength to articulate, despite having a metallic bar that fell out of the steel-reinforced concrete in his back :

"Launch all fighters. They are now right above the base."

"Good thing we put some underground wires to send the order. They survived their attack." One officer said as he transmitted the order, before leaving the commander to his fate.

He intended to run away, but some SFFS dropped by Gault 6 to 8 finished Iskanda's historical restoration. All personnel of North Belka were now dead in this castle.

"They're aircraft taxiing on the runway!" Pixy spotted them and already had the finger on the trigger. And while such aircraft would not be a nuisance, they didn't need anything making this mission any longer

"Gut. Zerstören alles." Kupchenko decided, as the thirteen planes were setting in formation above the castle, with the Schwarze Luchs on the center and four Gault flanking each side.

"They never stood a chance. They had only dreamed of success." Gault 3 added in a pretty cynical manner, acknowledging that such skirmishes would not be that glorious against the unholy alliance. They would butcher their foes that only had numbers on their side, nothing to be afraid of for anyone in the RTA.

"Dreams are for kids. Our enemies will only have nightmares from now on." Iskanda declared in a more sinister tone, while she was trying to lock some of her land-attack missiles on the taxiing fighters.

That worked, and the planes located the closer to her were annihilated under the explosive power of hypersthene. The anti-air batteries around tried to retaliate, but the Su-47 had already dropped their ordnance before they could get any hits on the Zluchs squad. It was at this time that they regretted having parked their vehicles near bushes of resinous trees. They had provided some cover but right now they were as deadly for them as if they had parked in the middle of an oil field, as these trees were highly flammable.

"Let them taxi a bit further away, I have a warm present for them." Iskanda laughed, as she just gunned down some men that were running from the blazed zones all around the runway, that were growing in size by the second.

"Roger, intensifying our support on the garden south." Pixy supported her idea, having read her mind. She was going to terminate them like she terminated Gelb 1.

There, some hidden Harriers tried to take off, but it was a child's play for the four Melwaz to circle around them and explode their outlets with their dangerously precise EWs, making them fall like rocks out of the sky as they were only hovering a few meters over the ground.

"Was macht sie? (what is she doing)" One Belkan pilot that was taxiing saw her fly by him and drop something. But no explosion could be seen. Yet.

"Ich weiß' nicht. (I don't know" The Belka) next to him answered. They thought she was just trying to gun them from above as they saw the Griffon getting further away and then enacting an Himmelman.

They were all proved wrong when they cleared the ground only to join an unclear sky. That was cleared of their presence a few seconds later by a bright explosion that turned seven fighters into seven balls of fire. Three fighters that were slightly behind managed to turn at the last second, but their survival wasn't that long.

Their death came from above, Iskanda having climbed after her Himmelman to be in the safe zone. Two HVR and a short gun burst were enough to destroy the J-35J's cockpits and their pilots inside, establishing air supremacy in the area.

"They must have called some reinforcements; we have some radar distortions moving toward your position from the East North East." The radar operator onboard one of the two DW-2s announced, distortions that became clear when the Merlin satellites supplied them with direct data from above.

Still, what this squadron was made off, surprised them a bit. It was the first time that they had the three countries of the alliance against them assembled under one common goal. Before they had been found on the same battlefield, but not like here. Here there were Osean F-14Ds, Yukte MiG-29s and Belkan Gripen Cs. Furthermore, the jammer aircraft were not something they were expecting to see : an Osean shadow group of EA-18G Growlers, and mixed with those were some U-2Ms sea dragon lady that had been modified to be relocated on Osean carriers, in order to deal with their spy satellite issue. That meant that Osea and Yuktobania had moved some of their assets not that far from the Arctic sea. And even at the limit of the Belkan economic area, they were out of range. Which meant that they had been refueled in mid-air by North Belka. North Belka was truly collaborating with the two superpowers to bring them down. Was it enough? This first engagement between The "unholy" alliance and the RTA was going to set the pace for this war.

"From Tauberg zu Gault 1, counting fourteen F-14D, eight Fulcrums and the same number of Gripens at three thousand meters of altitude and ETA seven minute, and twelve EA-18Gs and the seven dragon sea ladies at nineteen kilometers." The Merlin satellites operator reported how much their enemy were ready to sacrifice to test the fighting capacities of the RTA, which almost frightened him a bit. They were at a one to four disadvantage, but that was the usual training conditions for most Belkan pilots that the Projekt Pendragon had accepted within its ranks

"They are numerous. Yet only to hide their fear amongst each other." Kupchenko commented on a sarcastic note, readying himself to evade the volleys of XLAAs, SAAMs and XMAAs all those planes were going to throw at them. He was ready for anything they would throw at them, like everyone here. Otherwise they wouldn't be setting their aircraft to meet their foes head-on. He knew that the number of planes and manpower in Osea's and Yuktobania's arsenal was gargantuan, but they lacked good coordination for large scale deployment, and such deployment would be only target practice for Excalibur. Hence, being really outnumbered at one to twenty was not something that was going to happen today.

"I'm good at high altitude. I call dibs on the shadow group and the Sea dragon ladies." Iskanda declared, ready to push her upgraded Griffon to its limits already.

"Fine, but hurry up, we have some shutters in movement. I do not want you to waste my mother's work." Kupchenko agreed to let her do her personal strategy.

"I wouldn't like to deceive your Mutti, Tonio." She guaranteed him that she would survive that, finishing with a small laugh as she used his first real name, which caused the tactician to sigh, while the Griffon was already climbing fast toward the iced skies of the stratosphere, its pilot adjusting her oxygen mask.

Her radar screen was not top of the line, but it was enough to see the enemy squadrons approaching, and cutting their approach, two plasma shutter that were tilted in such a way that they would form a V of plasma on her radar in a few minutes, cutting her path as well as their enemies'. Some of which had already started to turn to circumvent this threat that they could not fight with the standard complement of those mainline fighters.

Nevertheless, she kept increasing in speed and in altitude, delaying and diminishing whatever effects the shutters could have on the Griffon. Besides, Mancina had told her that while the harness was simplistic in design and technology compared to the ultramodern Melwaz, it had given them more room to increase its resilience to electromagnetic interferences. She had nothing to worry about. Yet, she didn't want her Ramjet to inhale too much plasma.

If they kept their motion, and they had no reason not to, if the satellites creating them did not change their course suddenly, now she had only one minute to go through, and it was at her maximum speed that was closing on the three thousand kilometers per hour, the acceleration pushing her to the back of her seat, deeply inhaling through her mask as her lungs were already showing some difficulty at withstanding the G-forces.

At one point, she saw some SAAM heading for her, but she did not turn nor slow down to avoid them. She knew the shutters were getting closer and closer from both her and her enemies on the other side, and that those missiles would explode harmlessly.

One thing she did not expect to see one F-14D try to go through the same gap that she was wanting to exploit though. However, he was way slower than her, and thus his plane caught some lightnings born of the plasma shutter, and right now he was reopening his geometrical wings to avoid the ionized area. Bad guess, she sighted, as the extended part only attracted the lighting more. The wing itself suffered no damage, like hers did when she went through some slightly ionized part that changed slightly the colors of her chemtrails as they weren't of pure condensed steam, but with the addition of some particles that were created in the shutters like fullerenes and all other stuff that Hellenseite had tried to explain her one evening but she showed little interest that day. She only remembered him saying that such particles could be created in a more controlled environment to create a new type of material. That kind of talk would have surely interested Thesermeister more than her.

The current itself had indeed not caused any harm to them. But the overheating due to the transfer of thousands of joules in the lighting to the metal caused the fuel stored in it to catch fire, and the two Osean had no choice but to bail out. If they had luck, they would not have their chute burned by other lightings or a stray EW shot. That was a big "if'' for their survival.

But they might have better chances at surviving their falls than the squadron at high altitude she was about to slaughter. Because the domain of the stratosphere was unforgiving: a single depressurization above the "Armstrong limit", and every liquid of your body would boil. Your last sensation would be of your saliva evaporating on your tongue, or your tears in your eyes. Those weren't sensations anyone wanted to experiment, she was pretty thoroughly convinced. She wasn't willing to, but some Osean were going to, for their sorrow only.

She already had a bright idea about how to ruin the sea dragon ladies. One that would definitively turn the flying coffins into flying cinder dispersers.

While she was pursuing her climb, the Melwaz and Gault had advanced when the Osean, Yukte and North Belkan had to break their somewhat good formation to circumvent the ionized area. Thus, their fighting stance would be less strong against the twelve planes of the RTA that were coming at them, hungry for blood to spill on the earth. If the blood and cinder were good for the soil, at least it would mean that South Belkan farmers would almost thank the allied forces for wasting so much blood over their land.

The battle would take place at two different locations, as the forces of each side had been forced to circumvent the obstacle created by the Merlin satellites. But if the allies suffered from it as it broke their forward momentum and caused many to enact U-turns, meaning that their Gripens, Tomcats and Fulcrum would have less speed than their opponents. Which only separated in two equal squadrons without even slowing down, while they were readying themselves for the engagements. The Yukte forces that were moving to the East would be intercepted by Gault 1 to 4 and the Belkan Gripens on the other side by the remaining forces by the Gault squadron. Below them, skimming above the ground, were the Melwaz that would break through the allied lines and slaughter the Tomcats.

Zveda and Zeichner had decided to go on the Eastern side, while Cipher and Pixy would go on the Western flank. All Melwaz were closing fast on their common goal of circumventing the allied fighters to hunt down some swing-wing fighters. One or two long-range missiles reach their position, but their mobility was high enough to avoid them

"Upside down." Pixy ordered, being for now the de facto leader.

This caused the Melwaz to plunge deeper toward the ground, but in doing so they dogged the SAAMs and XMAAs that the allied forces fired at them. Then, they released one ERAAM each, causing a bit of chaos to the allied waves, as they desperately tried to avoid the missiles that were too fast to be outmatched, and far too advanced to be repelled by passive defense systems. Only active defense systems such as their EWs would be efficient.

"We could have stayed behind and sprayed them with our ERAAMs. Or even fired two ERAAMs right now." Cipher pointed out, as he was rolling back to a more normal stance and adjusted his course toward the Super Tomcats.

"Belka might use their bombers. And while the EWs are very powerful against small targets, they won't destroy a bomber right away." Pixy justified his strategic choices with simple logic. A small laser could maybe set an engine ablaze instantaneously, but engines on bombers were a bit more spread out than on fighters, thus decreasing their effectiveness against large targets. That also justified their HZMs against large ground targets such as battleships.

"Two Gripens down on our side too. They didn't even see it coming." Zveda cheered from this small victory. Her last dogfight, may it be a mock one, had left her frustrated. And she needed to get rid of this frustration pretty fast, by killing mercilessly those Oseans.

"We have bypassed those groups. Let's see if those cats can do more than hissing." Zeichner declared, as some F-14D detached themselves from the main group to greet these new planes that were once more full unknowns for them. After all, they had left no witnesses at Hoffnung of their prowess.

"Are those Morgans?" An Osean pilot who was seeing one with two red lines coming on him from the front asked, noticing some minor disparities with the ADFX-01.

"Their air intakes are much more thinned to diminish the front profile, apparently." His wingmen observed.

And very soon, as they unleashed a pair of XLAA each on that one airplane, they got a glimpse of its capacities, as all their missiles detonated mid-courses. The same thing happened for every F-14D sent to intercept those new Belkan prototypes than had a new protection. Something far more frightening than a pulse generator. A physical nightmare generator for every pilot who crossed its path was a better definition of those EWs.

They tried to switch to standard missiles, but as they lacked coordination, Pixy could dodge their fire, tilting his plane from one side, then on the other as he flew in line astern. He escaped their gunfire with a swift barrel-roll to the left, retaliating as he was once more upside down. He actually stayed a bit upside down as he flew above them to admire the damage. Even if the damage were nothing that he would admire in all honesty. The one with the better view on the damage was obviously the copilot of the F-14D, who had been seriously harmed by the billions of fragments as the canopy was shattered by their enemy's EW.

"And to think that he said we would lose our heads fighting with Belkans. Maybe you didn't expect to lose yours burned by a laser." His copilot articulated with difficulty due to his erratic breath, having had one lung perforated by an accelerated debris. He could see from the burned seat of his colleague his burnt skull, that were cracked due to the heat.

Seeing such a horrible death deprived him of his will to live, and even to simply survive. Death would be far sweeter than living with such horrific memories. Henceforth, as the Belkan prototype pulled out a tilted Himmelman that made him arrive on their outdated fighters like a bird of prey, he didn't pull the ejection handle. The missile that ended his life still arrived slower than the fire of their new and terrifying weapon, which set the back tank of his wingmen ablaze. Them, they didn't choose not to bail out. They were burned to death before they could think about it, as the enemy fighter strafed from a distance the Super Tomcat.

"Nice flying Solo wing." Cipher commented, having also gotten rid of his attackers. He chose to evade their fire by doing a small dive beneath their fire arcs, and then aimed his EWs at their fuel tank in their wings. And with the F-14D being far less stable than the F-15C, they were never able to become Osean solo wings. Instead, they crashed on the hard terrain, while Cipher flew to rejoin with Pixy.

"A bit too many evasives to my liking." Zeichner shared his thoughts, having evaded his opponent's fire by zooming out as their missiles were a mere second away to connect with his Melwaz. That was brutal enough to fool the seekers of their standards, and before they could even tilt their airplane to fire at his climbing craft, he was already diving at him like a guillotine blade, firing his EW at one and a pair of missiles at the other. His fire was directed at the rear of their cockpit, and in both cases the damage was enough to separate the cockpit from the other part of the craft.

"I did none." Zveda had beaten him in the game of "no evasives" and announced that with joy. She just went through their fire, blasting anything they could fire at her. And before they were in gun range, she had managed to blast their guns too. So, she was of no harm to her when she just waved through their aircraft, hers tilted at a ninety-degree angle. They had not even dispersed yet that she blew both of them up using one of her Hypersthene missiles. Those were not the gates of hell that the MPBMs were, and who could encompass whole squadrons in their radius, but still far enough to destroy two very close Super Tomcats if fired with enough accuracy.

"They have no more chance to run. formation Quincunx." Kupchenko ordered, having just finished their targets.

The MiG-29s they were facing had managed to reform the line after the loss they suffered from the Melwaz, but their SAAMs had not the same level of accuracy. Besides, Kupchenko had realized that firing those missiles upside down and then firing below your targets was a good tactic, a bit inspired in this unorthodox maneuver by the chaotic displays of his former nemesis who used a belly radar to defeat him on their first encounter. Thus, the four Berkuts didn't fly below planes but below burning wrecks that were still in the air thanks to their initial speed.

After that, they all climbed vertically and in a tight formation, making the last two fulcrums follow them. He allowed the Fulcrum to fire a first pair of SAAMs that his three wingmen and him all perfectly dogged. Then they all leveled suddenly and separated in the four cardinal vectors, with Kupchenko leaving a warm present for the two Yuktes where his squad was before executing their "Abtrennungmannöver" (maneuver of separation).

He authorized himself to laugh as the static FAEB he had released engulfed the two planes in a bright explosion that left nothing but fumes and metallic powder.

"Iskanda's right, using those static FAEBs is a lot of fun. It would be great if we could make air-mines with those." Gault 2 said in words what the dramatic laugh of Kupchenko was expressing.

"Yeah, imagine dozens of Osean being blown of the skies because they just stepped outside of their boundaries." Gault 4 guessed what the future of such weaponry could create. Of course, these words were filled with a great measure of irony, considering that he was once one of those Oseans that needed to learn the fear. The fear of death that would only welcome them in the sky they wanted to invade.

"Gault 5 to eight, readying for Quincunx formation." Strauss announced with a clear and firm, coming from the West flank where the Belkan Gripens had been dealt with.

Their job had almost been easier. They avoided the XMAAs that the Gripens fired at them without any real hopes of success. Then they retaliated once they arrived at range, firing quickly with their standard missiles, scoring four more kills. However, the last two Gripens had already climbed over the first wave, before trying to fire at the six of the Berkuts. But all their fire was for nothing, and there were even two of the Berkuts that played with them, letting the Gripens get dangerously close to the Sukhois, yet without the Belkans having a fire solution at any moment.

All occupied by their useless dogfight, they didn't consider the two Berkuts that had gone further away, and that had released two SAAMs. Their plan was well-thought, as the two Su-47 they were pursuing blinded the Gripens of the impending danger. And so, at the last second, Gault 6 and 7 broke away, and let the fire of Gault 5 and 8 destroy the Gripens that had no more energy to turn away from their path, having bleed too much speed pursuing the Berkuts beforehand.

At high altitude, Iskanda had finally arrived right below the EA-18Gs. Which had already seen her and tried to launch some XMAA at her, but it was all for nothing as she was more mobile than their missiles. Even if doing a slight turn at Mach 2 was as tiring as dogfighting, she waved through their attacks with great calm, to the dismay of the Oseans.

"Damn, we don't have a good angle on her." One WSO onboard a Growler groaned, as nothing seemed to even graze the delta-winged fighter.

"How can you be so useless? You should have already blown up this one fighter minutes ago." A U-2M pilot intervened, not understanding why they had such trouble handling just one craft.

"If we dive, we won't be able to recover quickly. Our Growlers are not made for such heights." The leader of the Growler squadron explained. These Osean shadow groups were meant for jamming, not to defend bigger jammers. Nor cover fleeing aircraft from Belkan high-spec interceptors such as the Schwarze. So, for him, seeing this very fast plane with a grey and dark camo was not a really good sign.

"A few of us could dive, and there would still be enough of us to fight one fighter. It's just one man after all." Another Growler pilot argued, feeling a bit more eager to fight than his commanding officer.

"We can do this, Sir." One more backed his flightmate and joined with him.

"Yeah, if the three of us are slightly delayed there'll always be nine left." A third agreed that this fighter should be taken care of, no matter the cost.

"Fine, but if you cannot get this bird down, disengage before getting in gun range." Their leader conceded, but not with the greatest confidence in their act.

That was their nice, their very nice plan. Very nice plan that Iskanda had immediately guessed as soon as they dived toward her but not at maximum speed. She would have had if she were willing to gun them down. She was going to take great pleasure in trashing their very nice plan.

So, instead of slowing down to level her craft at the Growler, she kept her speed so she would get in gun range before they disengaged. Next would be a child's play.

"Fire! Fox 2!" One Osean announced, just getting into lock-on range for their standard missiles. His two wingmen followed quickly, but the much smaller Griffon evaded all their missiles with a maneuver that was reckless at best, and foolish at worst.

She had just leveled her craft for a split second and turned very slightly the next second, and it was enough to change her angle of attack. And momentarily outsmart the Osean that did not see her for an instant.

"Where is that black plane?" The self-proclaimed leader of this three-plane formation asked.

"The plane just leveled. It must have run out. Let's level as well and hunt him down." His wingman declared, as he didn't want to dive too deep on an uncertain path.

And so, they leveled without dispersing like their commander had ordered them to. This, coupled to the fact that he had seen the maneuver of the Griffon who was now on a perfect course to perform Schräge Musik on those Growlers caused him to shout in desperation at his inefficient and glory-hounded young pilots.

"Break ou…" Was what they heard. They didn't hear the last letter because two of them took a HVR straight below the cockpit, killing them instantaneously, and the third had his air intakes wrecked by gunfire, with the wrecked part obstructing his engine and causing its implosion.

"They said men are great fighters, but women are great fights. And you've just lost this one!" Iskanda retorted, as she flew near the blazed Osean Prowlers that exploded into thousands of metallic fragments as she kept her climb.

"A woman in a dark plane attacking high-altitude targets... Damn It that the same thing the Oxcarts have transmitted before getting shot down!" The leader of the U-2M squadron realized, having studied a bit the reasons for the utter failure at Hoffnung. She was one of the main one. And would be of many other defeats for Osea, he could feel it in his bones. Or maybe it was just fear he was feeling.

"Kill her! Do something!" Another Sea dragon Lady pilot panicked, understanding that if Oxcart had been defeated by that plane, their chances of survival were near the absolute zero if not below.

"I agree that you do not have a good view of my canopy right now. Aber just for you to know it I'm doing a doigt d'honneur to your whole squad for their uselessness." Iskanda informed them, joining the speech to the gesture she just did as some XMAA buzzed harmlessly near her.

"She's diving. On us! Ready the flares." One U-2M pilot reported, as he saw her finish her vertical Himmelman.

However, what he did not see was her vertical double turn before she adjusted her angle of attack toward the seventh flying coffin. Obviously, in this high and fairly luminous sky, none of them noticed two dots falling from her plane, that fell slowly, aimed at the center of the two three-planes formation over which she had situated herself during her double turn.

And as she leveled right in front the leader of the spy/jammer planes, she got a good view of the show.

"Enjoy your last view!" She cheered as she flew over the far larger plane while strafing it. He had one of the best sights on his now condemned squadron. And himself was condemned too.

"Canopy punctured. Can't maintain pre…" his frightened voice announced his demise before the pressure was too low to even speak. He would have wanted to cry for his fallen brother-in-arms before dying but the laws of physics denied him this last wish. What he saw was horrible enough, and as his tears and saliva began to vaporize, burning him to the last degree, he died with a horrific last sight.

This horrific last sight had been those of seeing the two static FEABs bursting in mid-air square in the middle of the two three-planes formation. They were far enough not to be endangered by the shrapnels, but not by the blast. Like if an invisible scissor cut the rope that attached them to the sky, the powerful blast dispersed the thin layer on their wings that generated their meager lift. All fell with less hopes of survival than if they were in a Widowmaker.

"Damn, this girl is the devil!" An Osean WSO exclaimed, before he heard her laughing like a maniac in response.

"And I thought that killing some dragons would put me on par with St Georges or St Michel." Iskanda declared using a falsely solemn-sounding voice.

"But that was to be expected from members of your unholy alliance. Nothing I cannot correct." She once again mocked the Osean fighters for their choice of new allies.

"Trap her and kill her!" Were the orders of the Osean commander. He tried to put some anger in his voice but getting angry against such a mad person which reveled in seeing people turning mad for her action was the opposite of what should've been done. Besides, could EA-18Gs encircle a far nimbler fighter without being decimated?

In a strange turn of events, it was the last Oseans who were finding themselves between a hammer and the anvil. The anvil was the plasma curtain. And the hammer was the Quincunx formation Kupchenko had ordered to form.

It was a well-built formation that took full advantage of the Melwaz's interception capacities. It was just two lines of four three-planes formation. A Melwaz would cover two Berkuts while they would fire back at the enemy craft from long-range. The Osean F-14D fired their volleys of XLAA, and that only fully-proofed the soundness of this plan.

Their missiles didn't cross a third of the distance before being blown up to smithereens. While the SAAMs were doing overkill on the Tomcats, splintered with more violence than a fissile atom in a nuclear reactor.

"This is no more of a war. It's just killing." Zeichner commented with a bit of sadness, as only one F-14D remained.

He had nowhere to go. Behind him the plasma shutters were two powerful to be crossed. He had seen one of his squadmates turn into a ball of fire only one hundred meters away from it. He was like a man on the tip of a cliff. And a gush of wind could push him to die at any moment

"War is nothing but legalized and planned killing." Pixy countered his bit of pessimism with hard realism. War wasn't clean. Maybe peace could be, and he wasn't sure of that.

"Just end him already, I don't like summary execution." Cipher asked the two Berkuts behind him. He had all the reason to hate those, as he escaped one before joining the Pendragon Projekt.

"Es wird geschehen, mein Herr (it'll be done my Lord)." Gault 7 obeyed, firing a pair of SAAMs with the downmost care.

A few seconds later, the last Tomcat vanished in the eddies, and the plasma shutters were shut down. They had no reason to waste any energy. Now they just had to wait for Iskanda to return from her one-woman army attack. All had nothing to worry about her, seeing her foes disappearing one after the other at high altitude, adding some orangish lights to the blueish lights induced by Excalibur in the iced skies of the ionosphere.

Theoretically, she was outnumbered by one to nine, and so it wasn't long before they set themselves in a mauling circle around her. She read this maneuver instantly and berate them for trying to block her with their big jammer planes.

"Beware, predators in mauling circles tend to maul back."

"You won't escape." Their leader threatened her, but that was far less threatening than some kalium chloride.

"If you commit that mistake, you'll have four of us on your tail!" Another Osean thought it was smart to add up that intel.

Iskanda had never been afraid by numbers though. Nevertheless, she took some time to figure out a way out of their trap. They might get an opportunity to spring the trap, but only for them to be caught inside.

Her next move was to kill two members of their squadron -actually four if she counted the WSOs-. Two gun bursts were enough to wreck them. And as they had announced, they immediately went on her sixes.

Yet, she had a plan. Not a fool-proof one, but a great one that would at least rid her of those pesky Growlers.

"We have her. Keep your eyes on the target and shoot that damn bird down!" Their leader ordered, having full confidence in their capacities at medium range.

"Yeah, try to keep your eyes on me." She taunted them, knowing that they would really soon fail in this task.

"Wait she just released something." One of the four pursuers noticed, but before he could identify what it was, their attack was trashed and all the missiles they had fired at her disrupted.

"I can't see. That was too bright." Another complained, as the FAEB she had released in those very clear skies had blinded them.

"Ah! Not very bright, aren't you?" She snickered while pulling a Split-S that made her arrive right below them.

In the perfect spot to perform some good Schräge Musik. And so, she fired as she ascended back to their level, curving her path to have each of them in her crosshairs as she flew by. The first she hadn't a perfect view, so he took an ERAAM below the wing-root. The second and third, HVRs detonate right beneath their planes' nose, severely wounding the pilot as some shrapnels went through their canopy. They had some chances of survival, but not their engine who had sucked quite a lot more of shrapnels and exploded as she was getting on the first that had finally recovered his eyesight. Her, her visor made to absorb the bright light generated by the hits of laserfire had worked wonders.

He only recovered his eyesight to see the Griffon rushing on his left side, gun blazing. The glass of the canopy was shattered and his body too. She had only crossed his flying wreckage for three seconds before it vanished in a small explosion, hit in other critical areas.

"Nur drei." She exulted, seeing one of them who was not flying quite straight despite his plane being untouched so far. Of course, the hardware was intact, but not the spirit of the pilot inside. She could already consider him to be some dead meat.

"Three against one, the fight isn't even. Run!" He turned so fast that he stalled and entered a steep dive, but he had ample time to recover, given the altitude they were at.

"Coward!" One of the last Oseans willing to stand and fight shouted at him.

"I can assure you he won't run that far." Iskanda stated, adjusting a bit her trajectory for this aerial joust.

"Are we supposed to feel relieved by this statement?" The WSO of the pilot who had insulted his wingmen asked rhetorically, as if this would change their fate in any way.

"No." Iskanda's response was plain and simple. As plain and simple as the end of this joust would be.

And it was. With amazing ease, they saw her evade everything from their XMAAs to their standards and their gun. Of course, they had their ECM pods at full power like everyone had during this engagement, but it accounted for nothing. ERAAMs were too well conceived to be fooled by such primitive passive defense systems, and her other weapons did not need to lock on to their targets.

Her final maneuver was her dodging their missiles by tilting her plane to the left and zigzagging in this posture. Her retaliation came, swift and efficient. One HVR blow one and the other had a gun burst that went through his air intakes, terminating him instantly.

But she didn't forget that coward who was trying to flee. One ERAAM was far more than enough to end this miserable piece of a coward.

"Try both chaff and flares" The pilot shouted to his WSO, now deeply worried as the ERAAM was gaining ground inexorably.

"I just did that two second ago. It did nothing! Try to go faster!" He shouted back. Maybe he should have tried to convince him not to run. But he had been as afraid as his pilot back then.

"We're already falling at maximum speed with afterburners at their peaks. There's nothing I c…" He exposed their desperate situation, before being interrupted by death coming to claim two cowards that weren't worth the travel.

"Fools. ERAAMs can't be fooled. Or only by FAEBs." Iskanda judged their cowardice and lack of will. So far, she had been one of the only people to survive an ERAAMs, back in her X-29A.

And now she was descending toward the AO, proud of her kills she mastered without any help. But her ammo was getting lower a bit fast. She might need to share some kills if she wanted to see the end of this battle and not be forced to go back to resupply and shamefully let targets escape her wrath.

Stier Castle Area, Waldreich Mountains, Belka, 18/06/1995, 14:45, Weather: heavy cloud cover

Iskanda had finally arrived back at their far lower altitude, and actually spent some minutes recalling her little battle. She always enjoyed telling her victories, laughing at her dead opponents that never were a real challenge in the first place.

"I mean, they always go for the "no man can take us". That's becoming boring with time." She sighted, having leveled just next to Pixy. He seemed to be fine and had handled his part down there pretty well.

"Well, they should pay attention to other genders. I mean, according to some people there could be twenty or so." Zeichner pointed out that referring to just gender to define your enemy was not that great.

"Whatever, I will never say that phrase. Because I don't want to have to quote every possible gender. My enemies can still try, but by the time they'll be through the list I'll have been through their entire army." Iskanda continued this little funny banter, that could have last a bit more if it was not for some blips appearing at the limit of the AO.

Blips that were more efficiently identified by the staff at Excalibur, observing from their near-real time satellite data.

"Listen up, we've got a situation on our hands. Moles have sent us some emergency messages telling that a nuclear strike was in action. Aircraft entering the airspace are identified as An-12S War Cubs and Bm-3355Ns. Likely escorted by F-15Cs and Es, but we cannot say the exact numbers."

"Beginning long-range strike. However, clearing such an armada of bombers and their escort will take some time." Another operator specified, as he was inputting data for the reflectors to move.

"Roger. Gault and Zluchs, we will attack from their one hours. Hellige Kolumne on the opposite direction." Kupchenko ordered, not fully sure if North Belka had really used their nuclear bombs and nuclear stand-off missiles here. Those had never been used since their construction in the sixties, theoretically. Besides, Belka had a nuclear triad and would very likely use all the three methods of projection if they wanted to go through Excalibur's defenses. Of course, some parts of the triad would never be available for the Ralders. The next gen subs were in his control, as well as some other systems.

"What's the difference between normal Cubs and those? They put some Belkan tech on it, but what precisely?" Iskanda asked with a bit of false surprise. Belka could not just use the standard version. But she wasn't going to hate them for that. She wouldn't have survived the battle of Hoffnung in a standard F-35.

"They have SPKs-you know the Belkan CWIS-on their front and back." Pixy informed her of that slight bit of danger, having seen some of those in use during his day in the Belkan army, when they fought over Wieldvakia, where using Bm-335s would have been overkill for the meager ground forces there.

"Just attacking them from below, the flanks or above, or gunning should work then?" Iskanda guessed that they shouldn't be a greater challenge than what the Bm-335s were above Valais. Or the DW-2s she took down during their failed attempt at destroying Excalibur, but she might not bring that out, since those were now their allies and friends.

"For us you should say blasting, leader." Cipher declared with a sly voice, quite proud of his score with the EWs. With those you didn't have to think about how much the enemy plane would move. They didn't have the time to move because they were already dead.

"Whatever. Just blow them to kingdom come." She asserted what the landscape would soon be: a graveyard of Belkan bombers with parts of their escorts laying around. Besides, with how much they were, this wouldn't last long.

Yet, her fun would either be diminished or increased, giving the point of view, with the next message they received.

"This is Tigre Gris from the Erusean forces. We have some trouble in our sector. We manage to fend off some Fatoan interceptors, but we have much more Belkan in approach and that's a bit worrying for the cargo." A voice with a thick Erusean accent, and a bit of static between the words due to Belkan jammers on the ground between them and the Erusean supplies transport.

"Gault one to GTiger, we will move to support you. Zwei zu sechs mit mir." Kupchenko separated their forces for the moment, leaving the main Zluchs and two Gault to deal with those Belkan bombers.

"So, I'm in charge of the rest?" Iskanda supposed, as this wasn't clearly established.

"Yeah you're in charge. In a way, it's a test of your ability as a strategist. As a pilot. I know your level equals mine in this regard." Kupchenko stated what this battle would be: a show of skills and seeing how far her skills were developed. If she wanted that level of independence and respect, she would have to earn them first. And there was never a better place than the battlespace to demonstrate such skills.

"Good. Those North Belkans are only ten minutes of flight away from us. At eight, sitrep and strategy." She set the timers for the battle to come. Battle that would be pretty bloody according to the massive size of the enemy formation. Of course, they should expect some losses by Excalibur while they arrived there, maybe some twenty percent less

North of Waldreich Mountains, Belka, 18/06/1995, 14:55, Weather: heavy cloud cover

Stier Castle was only a point on their radar, hidden from their eyes by thick clouds. After all, now it was just a point of their radar, but with no more living personnel in it.

They had had some more intel on their enemy as they came closer. There were two lines of six Bm-335Ns, two lines of ten An-12Ss, then again twelve Bm-335Ns. Of course, some twenty Antonovs that once formed the back line had gone missing in the mist, annihilated by Excalibur. Their escort was of around twenty Eagles, described by the spy satellites' operators a mixture of Adlers and Badlers for a squadron of F-15Cs and Es. But they weren't the only one. On the western flank there were some F-35Cs, while coming from the North-East as reinforcements were a group of eight Su-37s. These had to be an elite squad of Ralders, but that was her job now : to slaughter every Ralders, or just leave one alive and running for this life scared eternally.

The strategy she exposed at the eighth minute of their flight was pretty simple : she called it "wolfpack", as it was similar to the strategies the U-boats organized in "wolfpack" used in the previous war with Osea when harassing their shipping lanes. They would sneak up between the big craft at high speed so they wouldn't give any chances to the SPKs to fire at them, fire some shots on some defenders, and lure them away from the main squadron in small groups that one of them could defeat on their own. She knew she had full confidence with either of them having to handle multiple enemies at once.

All approved of her strategy, even if it was a bit risky, but going against so many planes would be nothing but risky. Besides, the Excalibur strikes would cause some chaos and force planes to break off in evasive maneuvers that would be pretty hard for the massive Bm-335Ns and An-12Ss, all the better for them who had fast and nimble aircrafts.

The only thing she hadn't accounted for was approaching reinforcement from the Southern Door. twelve MiG-31s were incoming, and such numbers could influence the battle a bit. It wouldn't make it unwinnable, but it might last a lot longer than she had anticipated with her nice battleplan. She had tried to make it adaptable, but she hadn't thought that Sudentor would send so much after the North Belka.

But then, in her own words, she saw an opportunity. Those weren't openly flagged as escorts, if they were just sent on CAP for example, and that they had somehow gone closer to have a look at the situation. And as far as she knew, despite being mostly comprised of Radikalen Ralders, the Sudentorian armed forces were not really sympathetic to North Belka, as they were not bearing the fact that the Dinsmarker and other North Belkans had agreed to bow down to the superpowers.

So, she lost no time in contacting them, despite having less than a minute before they engaged the first enemy planes.

"Zluchs 1 to Sudentorian, I wish you didn't interfere. Stay out of there and you might survive." Iskanda tried to deter those reinforcements that had nothing to do here. Besides, Sudentorians were supposed to be neutral. And stay neutral.

"I have heard of you. Quite good results. the squad name is Feuer-Fuchs." The Sudentorian in charge of the squadron replied from his MiG-31 with a greyish camo, with their wingtips, nose, and rudder tips in orange. In some way, their camo was what would happen if they put some bleaching on the Foxhound of Schwarze. Their symbol was of a red fox circling around a blue sphere.

"What does she want with us, Sir?" Another Sudentorian intervened, not fully aware of the apparent situation here.

"Those planes are turning Westward, don't you see? And they have nukes onboard." Iskanda indicated, as some An-12Ss on the flank of the formation were indeed turning in this direction.

"But we are neutral. They have no interest in taking us down. If anything, you have!" Feuer-Fuchs 1 countered, not understanding which interest they would have in taking down men who were much more loyal - at least in his definition of loyalty toward the principality-.

"Maybe some Osean greased some North Belkan wheels. We are safe, but they don't need to go that far westward to fire some nuclear rocket at Sudentor." Iskanda insisted that they were not the greater danger for the Southern door, using an especially innocent voice.

"Why would Waldemarr do that to us? We just refuse to follow either a foolish anarchist or to act like whores to Osea, and that's what we get?" Feuer-Fuchs 8 expressed all his anger toward those traitorous North and South Belkans, using the name of the Ralder Parteiführer, current political leader of North Belka.

"It's better to be with an anarchist than selling your honor." Gault 7 added with some disdain toward the Sudentorian. Sometimes not acting, what Sudentor was currently doing was worse than acting wrong.

"We will never join your terrorist movement." The Sudentorian leader stated definitely their allegiance, which would not change. They were hell-bent on keeping their neutrality.

"However, we won't let Sudentor be nuked from afar. Set weapon on standby." He added a few seconds later, letting Iskanda in the unknown. She hadn't fully convinced them yet. With more time she might have succeeded, but time wasn't really in her favor right now.

Fortunately for them, a single noise was enough to end the convincing. The noise of the radar-locking detector from one of their MiGs, that was soon followed by a more high-pitch sound, as a launch was detected from somewhere in the North Belkan armada. They couldn't get the id of the launch, but from its current vector it seemed to be coming from the few stealth on the Western flank, the closest from their location.

"Zluchs, interception fire." Iskanda ordered with a bit of reluctance the rescue of a Ralder. After all, since they had chosen to attack the Belkan formation from the South-West and those Foxhounds from the West, they had ended up not that far from each other.

"Try to fly away from the missile trajectory. Force it to curve so we'll have a nice window of fire for our EWs." Cipher advised the Ralder, so he wouldn't align himself between the Melwaz and the missile. He didn't want to kill -accidentally or not- this Ralder yet.

"Ver, Zluchs." He complied, diving toward the ground as the missile was tracking him pretty close.

"They have openly fired on us Sir. That call for retaliation." Feuerfuchs drei complained that they couldn't just do nothing in such a situation.

"Genau. Feuer in der Flanke! (exactly, fire on the flank)" Their leader sealed the future of this battle. Unfortunately for him, he was forced to cooperate with those CSB folks. They were Radikalen Ralder, and nothing should have made them agree with the Pendragon's Projekt forces. Those were unusual times though, thus such unusual little alliances of circumstances might exist. Of course, just one hostile sign from their part, or a simple misinformation would end that deal.

With this new order, all hell break loose on the North Belkan armada. The expression was especially true for the rear guard, were Excalibur was creating its Helligen Kolumne, sending entire crafts and crews straight to hell. The nearly forty long-range missiles fired from the Sudentorian craft slaughtered the few stealth craft that had lost their stealth due to the short distance and the fact that they had opened their bay to fire their own long-range missile.

And if this was not enough, the seven crafts of the CSB did their part, flying at high speed toward the Belkan line of bombers. Some Eagles and Badlers had advanced too to meet the attacking forces, only to be utterly obliterated. Iskanda killed three of them flying knife edge, managing to veer quicker by alternating the side of her knife edge position and fire her HVRs with lethal accuracy.

"Do something, escort. Only one plane needs to get through!" One bomber pilot bellowed, having just seen his three Balders escorting him get shot down by the Griffon.

"We are useless. Firing missiles at their new ADFXs is like launching ping-pong balls at a dreadnought." A Belkan F-15E WSO got utterly annoyed that every SAAMs they launched were intercepted with amazing ease, and before they could get in missile or gun range, they were also blasted with the same ease for the CSB pilots.

"Try to concentrate on the Sukhois then." Another pilot proposed, seeing that they had to pull out evasive maneuvers. But were they really a threat for overtrained pilots of the Gault squadron? Besides, the missile trailing the Sudentorian MiG had been intercepted for a long time, and they had not been threatened by any other planes since then.

"They are getting through the network. Bereit Abwehrbewaffnung!" (ready defensive armament) An F-15c pilot said, witnessing the Griffon rushing on him and his wingmen. Both fired one missile and one QAAM, that Iskanda dogged by diving while being in a knife edge posture, a maneuver that many but her would deem crazy.

She increased the craziness of her maneuver as she pulled the sick left and toward her, resulting in her aircraft rotating on the yaw axis while still sliding in the air due to its forward momentum. Her aircraft hovered for a few seconds, pulled between gravity, and thrust. Few seconds that she made use to down that two fighters from below since she had arrived on their three hours on a perfect assassination vector. Both were falling filled with shells while she climbed back, and on her way fired an HVR and an ERAAM on an An-12S on its belly.

Strangely, there was no secondary explosion like she had seen on the XB-70 she had taken down over the Valaisian Alps. Maybe those nukes were made to explode when hit, or for any other reason. She wasn't going to complain about not being annihilated by nuclear fire.

"That was a knife-edge slide maneuver from that CSB pilot. I have never seen anyone do that outside air shows." A Sudentorian pilot almost complimented one of their de facto allies. Just a simple stunt wasn't going to earn them their allegiance in any way, but at least she might have gotten their admiration for pulling such a dangerous and unstable maneuver in the middle of a battlefield.

"The escorts on their flank had left to deal with the CSB craft. Just keep firing and those birds are as good as gone." Feuer-Fuchs vier observed, admitting that these ADFX-02s were terrifically efficient. As well as any aircrafts of their ideological adversaries, who had already neutralized one fifth of the Belkan escorts.

"Another Cub that shouldn't have left the den." Iskanda declared as she scored her second bomber kill, that she got when she descended from her climb, cutting its wings with a pair of HVR. But she didn't keep her killing stroke for that long, as more F-15C approached her with a very visible aggressivity, almost palpable.

She was the only one pursued here. All Melwaz that had decimated the first line of defense as well as the two Su-47 had run between the two lines of Antonovs in the opposite direction that Iskanda went. They claimed some kills there with some well-aimed ERAAMs, but by then the North Belkan escort had regrouped from the initial surprise of having to fight on to front and finally began to fight back. Obviously they attacked on the only front where the kills they would get were worth the sacrifice of dozens of military personnel, against the CSB craft, leaving the Sudentorian free to pick their bombers from afar.

"They have pursued us further enough. Und jetzt die Wölfe töten die Hunde (and now the wolves will kill the dogs)." Pixy recognized that they were now far enough not to be bothered in their maneuver by the fire from the North Belkan bombers. They were approximately four kilometers of the easternmost bomber, far outside the bit of jamming and support fire they could muster.

"Aren't we Luchs and not Wolves?" Zveda picked up Pixy's line, not worried a single bit for the XMAA closing on them, that they would soon evade with ease once more.

"Das ändert nichts. Wir werden sie ganz roh verzehren!" (That changes nothing. We will devour them all row) Pixy defended his choice of vocabulary with the same amount of fierceness they were about to unleash on the North Belkans.

"Egal. Sie sind alle tot. (whatever, they're all dead)" Cipher intervened with an almost joyful, knowing that when the Vergeltungsordnung (order of retaliation) would come they would all vanish in the eddies under their fire.

"Gut, komme schon. Tripple Abtrennung. (good, arriving soon, triple break)" Iskanda said in a hurry, not wanting to miss this slaughter for anything in the world. She had detailed to them at the seventh minute how they would deal if they couldn't separate but were all followed by a big group of fighters. That was because she thought North Belkan would be smart for once and not all follow order for once. Separating them was the best play. It would've been hers if she had to fight such planes.

The six craft she had under her control might be outnumbered for the time being, they would very soon outmatch on such a level that they were all as good as dead by now. After all, North Belkans were only good to them dead.

So it begins, as Iskanda was getting was now in range to fire her HVRs. The two Su-47s that were on the flanks of the four Melwaz flew in knife edge on their external side, then stayed in this position as they executed a great horizontal loop toward the flanks of their pursuer.

"Ihr seid Dran. (it's your turn)" Pixy told the two Erbe that were on his and Günthar's flank that it was their time to act, while the Su-47 were arriving on the respective nine and three hours of the escorts.

"Eigentlich (indeed)." Zveda and Cipher answered as they executed the same maneuver as the two Gault members, yet with a slightly tighter turn radius in order not to target the same group of foes when they would level on the Belkan fighters. On their way, as they were doing their loop, they could already see some of them going down, either by SAAMs of the two Gaults or rockets from their leader.

Of course, they had all seen that following Iskanda by a few hundred meters was a Hellige Kolumne that would consume all fighters trying to flee or that would have the luck to evade her wrath firsthand. Pixy looked a bit on his six above him to notice that it had already its job by reducing to ashes a F-15E that had taken a SAAM on its side, and had its engine fuming massively.

Pixy's and Günthar's maneuver would be rather different than the previous of their wingmen. They rushed in front of them, before suddenly coming to a stop in their acceleration as they had put enough space behind them and their pursuers, and pulled their stick hard to make their aircraft fall on their back. Then they rotated while shooting down some incoming missiles and immediately retaliated with one ERAAM and a pair of HZM each. Sure, enacting such a maneuver as such speeds gave them a bit of red sight, but in a sense that make them see the explosion a bit redder than usual

"Blast the hell out of them. Or blast them to hell." Iskanda declaimed with pride, seeing more and more Belkan Eagle exploding in small balls of fire.

"With those one-ticket to hell, their doom is guaranteed!" Zveda agreed with her leader, firing some of her Hypersthene missiles into the mixt of half-flying wrecks. She was beginning to understand, at least to a degree, the sick pleasure Iskanda was getting at seeing her enemies go out in bright flames. She wasn't going to set people ablaze on the ground, that was another level of craziness.

"We're trapped!" One North Belkan realized the obvious, yet way too late. Obvious truth that was further cemented in his mind as he tried to flee by climbing only to have his wings cut off by an HVR and a gun burst from the Griffon.

"Yes you are. All trapped in Hell!" Iskanda stated for all escorts their fate.

They all know they were doomed. Many of the F-15E had been shot down, and only the more mobile F-15C had survived so far. Surviving the Hypersthene explosions while being continuously harassed from every side was a hard task, and it was near impossible with the Griffon doing dive attack here and there on them.

"Hellige Kolumne closing, you should get out of the way." Pixy advised Iskanda, who was still above that group of Belkan escort, picking them as they tried to fly between the shockwaves.

"I've seen it but thanks for the reminder. Breaking off." Iskanda said as she dived for the last time, exploding the two engines of an Eagle on her way, and then did not climb back but flew further away to safety.

"Why is she leavi….Argh!" A survivor of the escort pointed out, before he was caught by the Hellige Kolumne that was closing on their cornered group of F-15C and E. His plane caught fire instantaneously as their fuel tanks exploded. Some tried to jettison the fuel to leave as gliders that would be less likely to suffer such demise, but the air was already overcharged due to Excalibur's fire. And so, as soon as they jettison their volatile jet fuel, it caught fire and caught them in it.

"Those escorts are down. Time to drop the Hammer on those bombers." Iskanda commented on the demise of all Eagles and turned around toward the bombers.

"Good. Firing ERAMMs now." Pixy indicated, as a pair was released, followed by others from his wingmen. Ten bombers fell, bringing their number to a staggering low level. Soon these craft and whatever they were transporting would be history.

"Wait, the Su-37s never attacked us. They're coming." Cipher warned from this new threat that was the only meaningful here. Su-37s might be mobile enough to tangle with Melwaz, but he wasn't letting such primitive technological judgement determine the issue of the battle.

"I see them. Erbe on me. Pixy, Zeichner and the Gault keep giving hell to these bombers." She shared the task, setting her sight on the very last survivors.

"Let's terminate them, then." the two Erben complied and rejoined with her leader.

A few seconds later one of the supposedly last engagements of the day was beginning. Of course, the Belkans fired first with their XLAAs, but those interception missiles made to deal with bombers had not the necessary mobility to track the three highly mobile fighters they had chosen to engage. The three planes members of the Schwarze Luchs squad did not even need to bother with relying on their own interceptions' capacities, for their dodging capacities were enough. Which partially astonished the Belkan, that had never seen such a plane moving so swiftly out of the trajectory of their missiles. They could have expected that from those forward-swept winged prototypes, but never from an almost derelict plane.

"Who's commanding that junk?" A North Belkan said with a voice filled with outrage, feeling utterly outraged to be toyed with by such an old relic.

"The junk will send you straight to the junkyard. Gelb couldn't stop me. Neither the Kaiserritter nor the Hexens. And you won't." Iskanda threw a fit of anger at the North Belkan pilot, ascending again to be on his level where she could annoy him even more.

"Ich erwachte dich! (I'm waiting for you)" The Belkan answered fiercely, pushing his afterburners to their peaks. He didn't care that he would not have enough fuel to make it back to Dinsmark air base but killing this foe would be worth the sacrifice to him.

"Nur Tod erwachte. Und nicht für mich. (Only death is waiting. And not for me)" Iskanda countered, pronouncing those words very sharply to be sure that the Belkan would understand that there was no running off from his fate.

"He shouldn't have provoked her." Zveda muttered, as the four Su-37 forming the core of the enemy formation all converged toward Iskanda. She still remembered how she got her ass handed by her current leader in her former craft. She was no woman to be trifled with. Those wouldn't have the time to realize their death that they would already be in the afterlife.

And indeed, the fight was short and brutal. She quickly dispatched the two on their side of their little arrowhead formation with the tip plane flying below the three others. A single HVR aimed at their cockpit sent both of them to hell. Then she aligned on the lead plane after evading some ill-aimed missiles fired by the furthest one. A single gun burst put the lead plane out of misery. But she had not killed the one that had now infuriated her. She wanted him to suffer a bit more.

She had the time to take a glimpse at the actions of the Erben before she attacked that foolish Ralder. Both had not suffered a single hit thanks to their active defense systems, while the two Su-37 they were facing were plunging to the ground and to their death, either crippled by hits from simple standard missiles or with their canopy blown out and their pilot mortally wounded by their Femtolasers.

The Griffon rolled around the trajectory of the pair of missiles he just fired at Zluchs 1. In such a position, at the apex of her aileron-roll she just had to point the tip of her plane a bit downward to have a perfect window of fire on his cockpit. She capitalized this opportunity immediately and pulled the trigger. A rain of fire sliced his canopy to bits as well as parts of his left arm including his shoulder that was now bleeding heavily.

"You'll never w..." He tried to defy her despite being in a very dire state. Dire state that cut him short as one of the bullets had pierced a lung and he was choking on his own blood. He would be dead before his plane hit the ground, while Iskanda and the two Erbe were slaughtering the last of the Belkan bombers with their powerful armament.

"Dummkopf. Ich wird immer gewinnen. (stupid. I'll always win)" Iskanda stated that now she wasn't expecting anything but victories until they take Oured and seized the victory from a bright house that would have witnessed his capital burning bright.

"Immer gut, Wunderwaffen zu haben. (always good to have wonder weapons)" Zeichner agreed, as he was finishing a Bm-335N that had flown too close to a Hellige Kolumne. Far enough to avoid utter destruction, but not the loss of their defensive armament. Aligning his EW with his four engines successively was enough to destroy him.

Now, there was only one An-12S flying completely westward, having chosen that course to avoid the deadly fire of Excalibur. Or maybe he preferred to die killed by simple pilots than operators who had never any risk of dying in this battle, protected within the heart of the Sword of the Kings.

Speaking of those MiG-31s, they had suffered a few losses since the beginning of the battle. Six F-15C coming from Anfang, who were part of a larger squad that had been partially intercepted by other Sudentorians, had managed to get in range of the squadron of Foxhounds.

Also, Eagles were much more mobile than the craft of the Feuer-Fuchs squad. Thus, most of their long-range fire that were so efficient against the few stealth with less mobility and the bombers didn't score a single hit on those Anfangers.

However, at short range, numbers still meant something for the Sudentorians. They managed to get half of their enemies after rearranging themselves on two lines of six planes. At first, as the second line opened fire on many of the North Belkan survivors and finally ended this skirmish, they fought they wouldn't suffer from it. Unfortunately for them those F-15Cs had gone for the same weapon upgrade as the Gelb squadron, and fired a few QAAMs toward the first line of defense.

"I cannot evade this one." A MiG-31 pilot shouted helplessly as this simple missile had a higher acceleration capacity than his twin-engine craft.

"Eject, with luck the CSB will let us do our S&R in this airspace. They can at least let us do that as thanks." Feuer-Fuchs 1 hoped that those three lost pilots would make it out of this battle alive and be meaningful in what would soon happen in Sudentor.

"Zluchs to Feuer-Fuchs, there's only one more North Belkan in the entire area. You can finish it or let Excalibur take care of it." Iskanda proposed to them, knowing that losing their men would get them eager to kill those Northerners.

"Cancel that shot. We have three losses to avenge." the Sudentorian leader set their marks on this last and helpless target. This almost caused Iskanda to smile as she was thinking of the consequences it would have. Killing the An-12 from close range like their intents had indicated might cause something. Something good only to her.

Remains of Hoffnung, Belka, 18/06/1995, 15:05, Weather: heavy cloud cover

It was not much of a pleasant sight for any member of the Gault team to see the desolate sight that had replaced the vibrant city that Hoffnung was. In some way it was like looking at a vanished past, as the cinders that had covered everything and the absolute lack of green made the view look like a black and white picture. Hoffnung had burned to the ground, but like its mayor said, the hope would still burn bright. After all, a great number of parts of Excalibur had been made here. So, every time a fighter or bomber would burn in an Hellige Kolumne, it was the hope that was burning fiercer than ever. Hope that would soon burn from a small flame to a powerful blaze.

Yet today the hope was not coming from some points in the ionosphere but a massive formation of Erusean cargo craft, some belonging to the government while others belonged to Erusean civil companies that wanted to show their support as well. They were mainly A320 and A340. Their escort consisted of Mirage 2000C and Ds, as well as some AWACS that were identified as an E-320 and a few C-160 Transall ASF as support planes. Erusea had once planned to buy E-767 to Osea, and had even bought a few, but Osea had bought them back once the war started, despite all of them set in metric units instead of imperials. So Erusea restarted their own E320 AWACS project, building up on the airframe of an A320 with the big disk-shaped radar, but its sleek airframe had now a few protrusion with hidden systems such as IR sensors, multi-bands cameras or just observation windows.

The near quarter of hour they had to fly to get here was first occupied by some debate between Gault 1 and 2 on the effectiveness of the newly appointed squadron leader he had given control of a small strike force, and moreover of the entire AO. Which was unprecedented to say the least for most of them.

"Do you think she's ready to lead not only her own squad but some of ours and also influence those Sudentorians?" Speidel, his number two and thus second in command asked, still troubled of how much confidence he had in his former nemesis. Sure, they needed to have capable men to lead them in this future prolonged campaign that would soon come -or had already begun-. But battle experience was not everything.

"She is now capable of creating plans. Not yet to see their soundness or their future success. Soon she will." He explained how much she had advanced on her journey of Tactician. Being a pilot and a Tactician was a complicated task, for someone needed to be inside and outside the adventure, inside and outside the heat of battle to both succeed in both surviving and leading others to survive.

"Still, those Sudentorians are a contingency that she will have to care about in this battle." Speidel said in a slightly more reserved tone, realizing that if she just wanted to survive she wouldn't have acted like she did during the Battle of Hoffnung and the events leading to it.

"Irgendwann ist ein Spatz genug, das Blatt zu Wenden. (sometimes a sparrow's enough to change the tide)." Kupchenko added in a more cryptic manner, letting some clue for his second to understand that he still had some level of control on what would happen in this over AO.

"If the Spatz do their part, then they'll succeed there." Speidel conceived that even through the Ralder they had still a few hands that surely could cause as much damage as Iskanda did with the Hexen, but could do enough to change the tide there.

"War's not fair, so where is the need to play fair? Nirgendwo (nowhere)." Kupchenko concluded as they were approaching the Erusean relief squadron, and might not need to pursue this kind of private conversation in a not any more private place.

A few minutes later, they were in full sight of the Erusean aerial fleet. As the radar had shown, there were a lot of A340s and A320s used as cargo craft. But this was not where the fight was taking place. Most of the fight was on the North of this fleet that had still a very scarce escort, while most of it were engaged in dogfights with squadrons identified as North Belkans.

"This is AWACS Oeil du Tigre to Gault, we're glad that you arrived. Our fighters can hold their ground, but not against so many interceptors." The Erusean operator greeted these very welcome reinforcements.

"Good, Sitrep bitte Tiger's eye." Kupchenko asked while setting his craft on a course toward the main battle zone.

"Tigre Gris's 2000C are in that fighting area. They need reinforcement to clear the area so the 2000Ds can use their targeting pod to snipe at long range the interceptors." The Erusean AWACS explained, as all Su-47 were converging to the place where 2000Cs were holding Su-33s and F-14Ds, using their smaller size and slightly better mobility at low speed to outsmart their opponent.

"Why aren't the 2000D helping their brethren?" Gault 5 pointed out the lack of harmony in this attack that seemed blatant to his senses.

"2000Ds have no guns, 5. A result of the restrictions that Erusea was submitted after the end of the warmonger king's era." Kupchenko criticized the choice of those so-called pacifist engineers that aimed to create pure patrol and policing aircraft. That had led to small losses during skirmishes were the lack of guns was detrimental against enemies using asymmetrical warfare.

"So, we compensate with the C-160 ASF that instead of their anti-ship missile can launch heavy air-to-air missiles that we can guide with great accuracy. But not enough accuracy to pick dogfighting targets, sadly." The leader of the Mirage 2000D group detailed this interesting defensive system that allowed them not to carry too much heavy weaponry, leaving them light enough if they needed to enact evasive maneuvers.

As they listened to this little explanation, they also paid some attention to this "Tigre Gris'' squadron. They had an interesting paintjob, to say the least. It was a nice greyscale paint from the nose that was almost white to the back that was almost black. The engine's cell was covered with black irregular lines that reminded him of a tiger's marks. Finally, they had a bit of yellow on their plane, on their small canards as well as in the shape of five sinuous lines on their wings, and two lines on the central fuselage that began at the back of the canopy, crossed each other and ended up on their tail.

"Ver, engaging those Su-33s." Gault 5 had had his curiosity filled, and had already one Su-33 locked with his SAAM. He would just need him not to move too much.

Well, that one did move a bit, as he was pursued by a 2000C at fairly close-range and had already taken minor hits. However, in a prior scissoring maneuver the Sea Flanker had damaged greatly the cell of the Mirage, and thus they knew that he wouldn't resist much firepower. He thought he would have a clear shot on a vulnerable target as he executed a Cobra but had unfortunately forgotten to look for his surroundings.

"I got you." The North Belkan pilot said as he leveled right on the tail of the damaged Mirage.

"Fox 1" had said Gault 5 four seconds ago, releasing his missile on the unsuspecting Sukhoi.

The result was simple. The North Belkan did hear his alarm and broke away from his perfect target, but couldn't break away fast enough, as his previous post-stall maneuver had greatly deprived his craft of energy. He had sacrificed energy for a stupid kill. And now was dying killed by his stupidity.

"Merci Gault 5. Nice shot." The Erusean briefly thanked his savior before not running like someone would expect from such a damaged plane but going back on the hunt. Gault 5 realized that Zluchs had shown the same level of iron-headedness. Now he knew where it came from despite her not being a blood born Erusean.

"Keep fighting, the enemy numbers are dwindling." The Erusean E320 operator commented, as more and more Su-33s and F-14Ds were falling to their new reinforcements.

Despite being outsmarted and outturned at every instant, the North Belkan interceptors hadn't chosen to give up either. The Sukhois even tried to use some more Cobra when cornered for some, but it only shortened their lifespan. One of those occasions was when A pair of them had locked onto GTiger 3, who had a hard time evading their XMAAs and standard missiles they didn't seem afraid to waste.

"Gault leader is getting on you. I'll try to engage him." A F-14D pilot warned the pair of Sea Flankers that trouble was coming, but they kept on their fruitless chase.

"Try and your fate will be very simple: death. Vanishing from history as your side won't write it." Kupchenko replied with more logic than passion to this Ralder. There was no point in giving anything more to fuel the remainder of their broken will.

He vanished from the sky after Kupchenko sent him a single SAAM while having his Berkut inverted, allowing him to dive below the trajectory of his XLAAs much easier than usual. North Belka was really getting desperate if they were ready to attack the relief convoy sent by semi-neutral countries, he gauged as he fired two more SAAMs, this time toward the pursuer of the Erusean number three.

"My wing?!" A Su-33 pilot shouted, the only one of the two Kupchenko had targeted to survive. The other had already blown up, hit between his engines. This one had kept a bit more energy, and thus was only hit on the left wing. It was still enough to rip a good third of it, causing him to cease the chase.

"You won't need what's left of it, believe me." The Erusean pilot he previously chased quickly enacted a 180-degree turn and strafed the Su-33 until a reddish flame replaced the more pinkish colors of the Sukhoi's afterburners.

"Good shooting three. Regroup with me and Gault leader, we have some Tomcats that are trying to get away." The Erusean leader ordered, seeing the number decreasing by the minute. He just had to look past him to see Gault 4 finished another Tomcat by slicing its wings that were wide open, as the Belkan fighter had tried to make him overshoot by slowing himself down and going vertical. The Ralder even hoped he could hit the Berkut while falling and take him down with him, but this was only a false hope that never happened as the Berkut banked away to fire on the two hours of a Su-33 in pursuit of a mirage.

"Roger." He answered briefly, and the two 2000Cs went on the flank of the su-47 that was already opening fire on the group of five F-14Ds that might be willing to regroup to launch a new offensive.

Kupchenko was almost surprised that the Mirages could keep up with him in matters of speed. However, they lacked his long-range armament, and so when they arrived in range for their standard missiles, he had already dispatched two of their enemies. The two further away that had survived his fire broke away, only to be chased by the Mirages, while he went for the last one that chose to dive.

"Damn, how can simple Eruseans defeat us? I would have understood if it were a Gault that had taken me down, but here I cannot see why." The Belkan leader of the F-14D squad that had left to the right of their former formation before being hunted down by a single Mirage admitted that their proud air force had died down without the passion of pursuing a true ideal. And it was with this final set of thoughts that he died.

The kill had not been the easiest job for the Erusean leader. The F-14D had kept his wings closed all the time, keeping his mobility over his stability. It worked fine for the first seconds, before the Mirages managed to use his tighter turn rate against his enemy and managed to damage its engines and ailerons with a few shells. He then tried to make the Erusean overshoot, by unfolding his wing. But the Mirage pilot had seen his move coming from pretty far away as he began unfolding them. A single gun burst on the wing-root stopped its motion, and the resulting asymmetrical wing deployment rendered the Super Tomcat uncontrollable. With a single gun burst, a plane famous for its mobility had reached a mobility level far below the F-117's. Then, putting the plane out of its misery was done with a single missile.

The second Mirage took his after some scissoring that allowed him to strafe the plane on all its length. While Kupchenko finished his target, that had tried to dive faster than him. His solution was to fly level a bit to catch up with him and then dive right above one of the last F-14D in this airspace, although with a steeper angle this time. His prey didn't escape a pair of missiles while he was already going back toward the main engagement zone. It wasn't an engagement zone anymore, rather a slaughterhouse for Belkan fighters.

"Reinforcements are too late, again." A Su-33 pilot ranted as he could only see his comrade die one by one around him. Himself was already pretty badly damaged.

He survived a SAAM, though it caused him to bleed a bit of speed as he broke away very suddenly to lose the accurate tracking of those damn CSB planes. This loss of speed, he regretted it as a Mirage 2000C chose to joust with him the next second. The more mobile and smaller 2000C took little to no damage, while his left engine was hit pretty badly. Badly enough that he couldn't escape as the Mirage turned fast on his sixes and aimed his gun at his right engine.

" Un de moins (One down)." The Erusean pilot cheered, as he saw his target fell burning toward the city of cinders that had taken the place of Hoffnung.

"Mine was the last." Gault 6 indicated, after killing the very last F-14D in the area. His foe had begun scissoring leftward, and the Su-47 had matched his move but in reverse. Thus, he had a perfect window of fire, spraying with bullets the canopy and the unfortunate pilot in it.

"They have MiG-29s and Gripen Cs coming from the North-West as reinforcements. Though with the airspace free we'll have plenty of room to snipe them from our current position." The leader of the 2000D group amongst the "Tigre Gris" squadron observed, switching on his long-range high accuracy guiding pod.

"This is Hwacha 1, firing missiles." the C160 ASF weapon's operator announced, as a handful of heavy-duty missiles were released. they were theoretically made to intercept heavy planes such as heavy bombers, but their size increased dramatically their range, making it better than even the ERAAMs of the CSB in this regard. Besides, they had enough explosive mass and good enough proximity fuse to be useful against smaller craft.

"We only need to guide them for twenty seconds on their target, then the build-in seekers do the rest." A WSO onboard a dual-seater 2000D added a bit more explanation about their armament.

"We will make sure they won't move too much from their trajectory. Kupchenko zu Tauberg, Unterstützungsfeuer! Jetzt! (support fire, now)" He expressly asked for some help from the Sword of Kings.

"Ver, the Zluchs have no more need of it. There're no more bombers at Waldreich but one." The Excalibur weapon officer informed, as the reflectors were adjusted.

"So, this is the symbol that we have the sky falling on our enemies. The South Belkan boreal lights." One Erusean described what the small spots were the ionosphere was lit up looked like to his eye. In all honesty, he realized that having Wunderwaffe, and well using them, seemed to be one of the only means to obtain respect from the great of this World, which Erusea was no more part of since the end of the warmonger king's era.

"More of the sky burning and sending them straight to hell. Aber ja, a lovely sight for some." Gault 5 shared a more exact impression of what it was. A gate to hell were their enemy belonged. Otherwise Kupchenko wouldn't have called them "Hellige Kolumne".

From their position, they saw the missiles streaked toward their targets, leaving behind them small cones in their trails as the missiles had gone well above the sound barrier. The Belkan Fulcrums and Gripens saw them, and most of the squadron tried to evade their trajectory by breaking away on their left. And that was the exact spot were an Hellige Kolumne was growing. Some of them were struck down by the unnatural lightings that the Kolumne was generating, but most of them evaded the almost unearthly threat.

Then, another on their right, preventing all escape. Now they began to understand what those Osean felt that day when their flying armada meant to take down Tauberg was disintegrated in midair. They had to attack or the CSB would get those supplies. They could not allow them to get those, or the meager chance of victory for North Belka would vanish without a single doubt.

Well, of course their planes vanished first, being either shot down by the explosive anti-air ammunition fire from the "Hwacha" squadron that had now a very fitting name, or disabled and sent to their death by the Wunderwaffe that once was their support. By themselves two C-160 were far less threatening than a squadron of high-tech interceptors, but they would get the job done. And by the end of the day they would add the symbol for a dozen shared kills, at least.

"Go faster. We don't care about casualties. Just try to get one transport at least!" An enraged North Belkan officer transmitted to his comrades that had only reached the enemy lines far enough to allow the exchange of fire with their SAAMs. That cost them a great number of their Gripens that couldn't yet retaliate.

If there were almost twenty of each type when they entered the AO, the survivors were now less numerous than the defenders of the convoy. There were not much MiG-29s than the Su-47 of Gaults, and were their SAAMs' fire had as many results as blanks, Gault's were almost a sign of ill omen each time one pilot of the CSB released a single one of them.

"We have lost this fight. and we cannot retreat." A Gripen pilot realized, but their damn pride that the Ralder had boosted with their propaganda made him enable to hear it out loud. At least the fact that he, by himself, had managed to snap out of this commitment to the death allowed him to think a bit better and survive a bit longer.

"A Gripen just grazed an Hellige Kolumne." Gault 3 notified, with the missile aimed at him losing its lock due to the powerful EMIs in the area.

"I'll finish this one, don't worry." Kupchenko broke away from the main formation, closing his bays to shield his weapons inside the stronger Faraday's cage that his fighter possessed compared to the usual Belkan fighter.

That would mean that this kill would be a good old gun kill, without lock, as the Gripen was staying in the relatively safe border of the Hellige Kolumne, where a fighter could survive for some instants if not hit by any lightning. Safety that was indeed very relative, as with other missiles that had missed their targets, yet exploded in its vicinity, the fragile balance of the electrostatic currents was toppled over and the Gripen hit on his right wing. And the hit area was overheated enough to cause the paint to burn, being not from the highest quality.

Thus, when Kupchenko went for the kill head-on, his plane was already in a bad shape, especially his radar and most of the other weapons systems. It was quite simple for the ace of the CSB to finish him, flying knife-edge before climbing a bit to avoid a gun burst that was the last-ditch effort of this Belkan to stay alive. Kupchenko curved his path to go in a downward motion right on the enemy cockpit and retaliated by pulling the trigger. He flew right behind him as their planes crossed, before enacting a tight horizontal half-loop that put him on the perfect spot to end the sufferance of that man.

However, what Kupchenko saw as he passed by the blazed fighter after he shot a gun burst straight through his engine left him a bit puzzled. He had foreseen many things from this "unholy alliance" as many journalists and people amongst his forces like to call them, but that was one of the most surprising. Or that only revealed the depth Osea and Yuktobania were ready to go to end this war. Nevertheless, he was ready to go a thousand times further than them. And had already planned how to do so.

During his own engagement, many if not all Belkan reinforcements had been dealt with, and the majority of the two squadron, Erusean and Gault members alike, were now converging with the 2000D's position, to have a more central situation to watch over the A320 and A340 convoy that had already reached the first foothills of the Waldreich mountains.

There, they were chatting on slightly more friendly matters than life or death situations. Or more serious ones, such as how the Belkan managed to get passed their defensive line. Before that, as the Erusean recalled, they had had quite an easy trip, being protected by some of their own squadron as they crossed the sea, and then by Northlands and Wieldvakia as they flew in their respective airspace. In this last case, a curious event had occurred that made them think for some seconds that they had gone faster than expected and had already reached the area controlled by the CSB.

"So, you said those Wieldvakian planes had some forward-swept wings and canards ? I didn't remember they had those when we had to intervene there." Gault 4 asked, a bit surprised to see that their design could have leaked.

"Yeah, they were quite good at fending off those interceptors using some heavy gun pods. They have some good accuracy with those." A 2000D pilot recognized that those Wiedvakians were far better than they were with gun pods. After all, with some having learned to fight the 2000C and its built-in gun, using gunpods on the 2000D was quite hard afterward.

"They shot down quite a number above that fortress. Bayes Fortress according to the map." His copilot recalled, wondering if there were now more wrecked planes in the woods around it than trees or not. Maybe there would be if the CSB decided to empty one more time the fortress of its living beings.

"I see. Sometimes simplistic weapon systems are enough to do the job." Gault 4 admitted that superior technology didn't always mean victory. There were reasons why planes had kept their guns despite many advancements in missile technology.

"It's not because they may look like ADFXs that they'll have laser weaponry and hypersthene-powered thermobaric ordnance." Gault 2 agreed that while Wieldvakia had a potent air force and like all air forces was trying some new technology or design, they were still years behind the Pendragon Projekt.

"Not everyone can have the luxury of having a Wunderwaffe backing you." The leader of the "Tigre Gris" squadron spoke, a bit envious like anyone who wasn't part of the Pendragon Projekt but had enjoyed the protection that Excalibur and Merlin could bring.

"I would gladly have some death ray to intercept instead of flares to deflect." A Transall pilot added, feeling quite unprotected in his twin-turbopropeller plane. Sure, Transall were sturdy and reliable, but not as sturdy as A-10As or the superstructure of the South Belkan Wunderwaffe.

"Indeed, I wasn't expecting a zero loss ratio, but thanks to those South Belkan boreal lights, not a single transport or escort was lost. Drinks are on me when we land!" The Erusean operator authorized himself to celebrate this victory, as the entire airspace was secured and ruled by South Belka currently.

But a bit further, between the cheering escort and the main relief fleet, someone was having a more serious conversation. With a wiser interlocutor, or at least he thought his interlocutor was the wisest amongst the two, and amongst a great number of the human beings on this planet. Yet what he had just disclosed might reduce temporarily his wisdom, or what this implied.

"Bougre d'Oseans (Osean scum)." The main interested swore after hearing the truth about the potential implication of Osea in the almost loss of more than half the Erusean humanitarian relief fleet as well as a good number of private plane that had been lent as some companies wanted to express their goodwill to the CSB.

"I agree. But now is not the time for the reveal. It'll be a good bargaining chip if they refuse to recognize my new soon-to-be-created Belka." Kupchenko pointed out that here patience would be in their favor.

"That's a good strategy. I was not expecting anything less from the Tactician of South Belka." His interlocutor recognized the soundness of his next move that could mean much if well executed.

"A good title even if ruling is not my job. Unlike you, le Sage." Kupchenko appreciated that someone was calling him with a fitting title. Of course, the Erusean king he was talking with was acting more as a guide than a ruler, according to how the new Erusean state was working.

"Sometimes I wonder if mine is fitting or not."." Philippe VI named "Le Sage" for his wiser policy than his father's sighted as he was doing that consideration, then ready himself for that next part of their little talk between a guider and a tactician.

"Sure, killing all your family to ensure a drastic dynastic change is not the wisest thing you've done. Though progress in history usually requires sacrifices, and you have simply come to understand this fact by then." Kupchenko quoted what was undoubtedly the most unwise thing Philippe has ever done.

"I wonder how you have come to know of my responsibility in this specific event of the last decade, but I'm not surprised that you did." the Erusean king did not share a single bit of astonishment that a man who had an international network of hands, ears and eyes would know about his quite close involvement with this sinister event. That alone was justifying why they were talking using a heavily encrypted line.

"I even have the name of your assassin. Quite a fitting choice, and that also explained why he only asked for the price of ammo and fuel but nothing more. He had also come to understand the necessity of this act, and you gave it the opportunity to enact it." Kupchenko explained how two determined men had changed the end of the twentieth century for the Usean continent

"Speaking of assassinations, I have another few details to settle with the leader of the Pendragon Projekt" He finally changed the subject of their talk to what he wanted to talk about, and not re-open the wounds of guilt that were still hurting him despite the years. His former role as a ruler had left some imprinting on him, such as speaking of people in the third person, that could bother some people. Fortunately, this interlocutor had grown accustomed to his trend and would not anger himself for so little

"You're free to talk as always." Kupchenko replied, a bit in the unknown, as he thought that after those short exchanges about the provenance of those interceptors their talks would be over.

"I have heard that you did the same to the Hexens. For more simplistic reasons, that any man, king or not can understand." Philippe began, with mere facts. Such a victory had already gone around the world before the warm embers of Hoffnung had become cold cinders.

"Revenge is not really the job of a tactician. Besides what I lack in close-quarter ground combat, this lady does not. She was as efficient as god's wrath on those Hexens, and last time I asked her, pretty happy about her acts there." Kupchenko gave a few reasons why he had orchestrated such a scheme to take them down without any survivor.

"Of course, and they might have owned the death she offered them. However," Philippe admitted that such people had no hope of Salvation beside death.

"However?" Kupchenko repeated, a bit wary of where this conversation was heading to.

"However I do not want to find some more trail of blood in Farbanti's Ecole de l'air, nor the San Salvation police a family homicide case that will become cold because the murdered is one of my friend's friends." Philippe went straight to the point, without any detour.

"I see. Nevertheless, I do not put my friends in chains to protect others from wrath they have owned." Kupchenko accepted that if Iskanda wanted to go kill some family members because she felt the will, he wasn't going to try to keep her here just for their sake. His was far above theirs.

"Just learn that she ended the life of twenty-three cadets that were in her class. Only one survived because he was some good friend, according to the investigations. That's a lot for a lone girl in some prototype against our brand new Rafales C they were testing as interceptors." Philippe recalled how deadly this single woman seemed to be. Even if those numbers did not impress Anton Kupchenko that much, as that seemed to be a very low average number for this lady.

"I guess the trial of those interceptors has been a bit delayed. What more?" Kupchenko ignored those losses and tried to stay on the main point of focus.

"On the ground, before her escape, she killed ten persons. Without having a firearm. Yet these persons were former members of the Erusean garde royale that had become gun for hire after most of them did not appreciate that "drastic dynastic change", as you said it, that also saw their number being decreased dramatically. Those were talented soldiers, some of them I respected. The oldest of those ten had been my tutor when I did my years of service in our own military." The Erusean described a bit more the tremendous, yet horrific act this single woman had enacted.

"And all of that just because some army report gave some names to a local newspaper after they did an air show about San Salvation." Kupchenko revealed how the little quiet life of Iskanda in Erusea has ended.

"Indeed, just a name given by a journalist because he wanted to quote some nice maneuvers in his newspaper." Philippe added, sharing the idea that from such minor events the whole world history was going to be changed.

"Listen, I have no responsibility for what she did there. Though I could try to make her be busy enough here in the CSB." Kupchenko made some half-promise to the Erusean king. At least he was pretty sure that they, and so she would be busy until 1996.

"Gut. May liberty fight with its defenders and bring you victory under its flag." Philippe wished him good luck in his fashion, translating some lines of an old patriotic song.

"My goal is only victory. Though the journey until total victory might not be always victorious. Henceforth, those deliveries today are vital." Kupchenko agreed that the path might and would never be straightforward.

"Especially those pressure cookers. I have never seen people being so cautious with the handling of pressure cookers until yesterday" Philippe tried to recall the only funny things that could come to his mind about the current situation, to break off with the remembrance of this mercenary's slaughters.

"They make very sturdy containers, when you need to move very hazardous matter." Kupchenko detailed why kitchenware was used in military transportation. Of course, they did not contain anything edible. Or anything edible unless you have a death wish, and the will to die in horrible suffering that would make the fate of the Hexen quite an enjoyable death.

"Of course, of course. Good flight, Tactician of Belka."

"May peace last for your country, Le Sage."

And with those two lines their talks that had gone from disclosing Osean secrets to uncovering piles of bodies and pools of blood to end up with a bit of humor were finally over. Kupchenko cut the ultra-encrypted line and rejoined with his squadron. In a dozen minutes, they would arrive at the South of the Stier Castle Area. He was pretty sure that right now the battle at the North was finished, or that it remains only meager enemy forces.

Still, he remained wary of Erusean incursions, and they would very likely try to inflict some losses on the grounded transports, since they hadn't succeeded in bringing any of them down. For this reason, while their CAP time was theoretically over, the Schwarze team would maintain their position above Blumenberg, and the Netz squad was on stand-by in case of reinforcements needed there, at Blumenberg or over Waldreich. Schwarze might need to refuel, but it would be the perfect occasion to test the supersonic refueling capacity of the DW-2s.

End of this chapter first part. Because yeah, I found that to be a bit too long.

By the way, Word is not really keen on letting me put a single "damn" in this document, the software said that it may disturb my reader. Well, I hope you were not disturbed by this first part. Now enjoy the second part, a bit darker in some ways…