I don't own either AvP or Mass Effect

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USM Normandy. in transit to the Artemis Tau cluster

A new volley of rifle fire came out of the dense forest. She heard the thumps as bullets slammed into the corps of her horse. It seemed almost sacrilegious to use the body of the poor animal this way, but there was no other cover. Check your ammunition! Check your ammunition, who are you kidding? A few rounds left in her revolver. A handful of cartridges for her rifle. That was all. They had been shooting for hours, ever since the sun came up. They had piled up enemy corpses all around their perimeter, but it was futile. For every enemy they killed, ten others waited.
No surrender, nowhere to retreat, and no hope of help. They had heard the rattling of the Maxim guns earlier, indicating that the rest of the column was fighting a battle of its own. There would be no support from them.

Movement in the trees. Fire, fire again. She heard a cry behind her. Another man down and they had been so few, to begin with. She reached for another cartridge, but came up empty. Rifle useless. Revolver again, but even there she was nearly empty and the enemy must know it too. They weren't stupid. They knew how long they'd been fighting and they could guess how much ammunition anyone, even on horseback, could reasonably carry.

Around her, the guns of the others fell silent as well. For the first time in hours, there was silence.

Another volley from the treeline. This time, there were no return shots. They were all out of ammunition. Movement, then some more. The enemy was probing, trying to confirm what they must suspect. More and more warriors emerged from the forest. Would there be another call for surrender? Probably not. By now they knew the answer.

A cry, an answering shout from a thousand throats. The enemy charged. No more gunfire. Spears would be the final arbiters. She grabbed her rifle again, ready to swing it as a club. the first warrior faulted the barrier of dead horses. She swung her rifle, knocking him off balance, but there was no time to finish him off, because two, three more followed. All around her the others were struggling fighting impossible odds.

She cried out in pain as a spear's blade slid along the side of her skull, tearing a deep gash. She turned around to face her attacker, blood streaming down her face, but at the same time, a second spear slammed into her back. She fell, trying feebly to swing her rifle, but her arms lacked strength. She was tired, so very tired.

"FUCK! Fuck fuck fuck!" Shepard shook her head, trying to clear her mind. This was ridiculous. Now she was having nightmares of dying in battles where she wasn't even sure which battle it was supposed to be and she sure as hell wasn't going to look it up. That might just give her mind more fun ideas. Not for the first time, she considered talking to Dr Chakwas. There might be some prescription she could give to ensure a few nights of uninterrupted rest. Then again, there was a risk involved with that. Doctor-patient confidentiality was one thing, but if Chakwas believed that the commanding officer had become unstable, she had a duty to ensure that that officer was relieved of command. Besides, Shepard had spent the months following Torfan going through repeated psychiatric evaluation, while a team of shrinks tried their utmost to prove that she'd either already been insane before the attack, or become insane halfway through. It had not been a pleasant experience and she had no intention of repeating it.

No, that was definitely not the way to go.

Coffee. Coffee solved everything. Or, at least, coffee made the problems go away for a little while, so did the usual business of reading reports, filling out forms and all the other small tasks that had to be done. By the time Shepard had some free time to move around the ship an check on the various departments she had recovered her equilibrium; mostly.

-0-0-0-

A quick stop on the bridge, to check that the ship was, in fact, still moving. As she made her way back, Lieutenant Pressly approached, holding out a datapad.

"Status reports, ma'am. All departments functioning within operational parameters."

"I see." Shepard looked up. There really wasn't any reason for Pressly to hand her this in person. He could just have sent her an electronic copy. She kept moving, making a show off studying the datapad while Pressly walked with her until they were out of earshot of the rest of the crew.

"Alright, Lieutenant, what's the problem?"

Pressly looked down for a moment. "I'm worried ma'am. Not about the ship, everything seems to be working, even with the new drive core. But it's the crew. People are muttering, ma'am. I don't like to mention names, but-"

"Then don't," Shepard said. "As long as it's just something you happened to hear we can ignore it as idle talk. If you officially report them to me... No, let's not turn this into a court martial yet. So, just anonymous mutterings. No names, just some voices. What are they saying? Or, should I guess? Aliens on board."

"Yes, ma'am. They're not happy about it. That Spectre, Kryik, that was one thing. He had a clear reason to be on board and it was strictly for one trip. But now there are three, and we don't know for how long. I've got to be honest here, Commander. I cannot say I blame our people for being nervous about it."

"I understand, Mr Pressly," Shepard said. "But, to put it bluntly, we don't have all that much of a choice. Sooner or later, we'll need access to Citadel Space. Real access, not the kind where you have to fill out a dozen forms in triplicate every time you enter a star system and then follow a prescribed course to a prepared docking bay where a welcoming committee of a hundred bureaucrats stands ready with another thousand forms that need to be filled out. The price for that is a turian on board. I cannot even blame the Council for that. Would you let one of their ships into USM territory unsupervised?"

"No, ma'am."

"That's what I thought. So, we're stuck with him. As for the others, we'll need someone who know these geth and our new quarian girlfriend is the only person I've ever met to qualify even remotely as an expert. There might be someone in Military Intelligence, or in R&D, who has studied those things, but I doubt it and I certainly don't have time to go looking for them. So, that's that. As for the krogan," Shepard shrugged. "Frankly, I trust him the least. But there is such a thing as keeping your enemies closer than your friends. And as long as he doesn't actively betray us, having that much muscle and firepower is always useful. If nothing else, he may stop a bullet meant for someone smaller and more vulnerable." She shrugged. "Anyway, I've made my decision. So, keep a light touch with the crew. If talking about it acts as a safety valve, I'm fine with it. Just keep an eye on things. If you really think anyone's going to make trouble, send them to me and I'll deal with it."

"I will, ma'am." He sighed. "And I understand your arguments. Unfortunately..."

"Unfortunately, understanding is one thing. What we have here is more of an emotional response. Hardly surprising. How many generations did it take for humans to learn to accept each other? For that matter, I still know plenty of people with all kinds of prejudices against other humans, based on any number of real or imagined differences. That's just the way we are and it isn't going to change. When it comes to aliens, it's the same thing, but on steroids. Especially, because there are genuine reasons for concern here. I know, and for what it's worth I understand the crew's feelings, and yours. But we'll have to get past it. If you think it'll help, remind everyone that we're keeping the aliens confined to areas where they won't be able to learn anything of real importance, just like we did with Nihlus."

"I'll do that, ma'am." Pressly saluted.

-0-0-0-

A short war -and let's be honest that's what it was: a war, not an 'incident'- twenty-five years of half-polite, half-hostile interactions and here you are, a turian standing on the deck of a human warship. Not the first turian to do so, but almost. Then again, that first turian seems to have ended up dead. You might want to consider that.

Garrus looked around the hangar deck. He did not know how it all would end, but he was getting an experience that few people had had and he was going to make the most of it. Of course, not everything about the experience was pleasant. He'd gotten quite a few dark looks from some of the human crewmembers. In particular, from the Marine NCO who was currently performing weapons maintenance on the other side of the hangar and had a disturbing habit of gently stroking whatever weapon she was working on whenever she looked at him.
But there were compensations, such as the object in front of him. A real-life, human-designed and built, wheeled combat vehicle. He'd seen the footage, of course; all turians had. Some of the prisoners that came home after the Relay 314 incident had managed to bring recordings with them, but most of it had been from human news stories that had been distributed widely in Citadel Space as the humans launched a propaganda offensive in the months following the war. Footage of massive wheeled monstrosities, like relics from the Krogan Rebellions, fighting in the streets, their guns demolishing any target they could find. And always, always ending with that last magnificent moment when they rolled forward, guns blazing away at the last remaining turian stronghold, while human soldiers charged straight into the defensive fire to the tune of the strange, almost eery human music. At the time everyone had thought that the music had been a later addition, to heighten the drama of the recordings, only to be astonished when the returning prisoners had told them, that in fact, it had been part of the battle.
It had been a wake-up call, both for the Hierarchy and the Galaxy as a whole, that the times had changed: a return to the old days, when real soldiers fought real wars, rather than patrolling and dealing with minor nuisances like pirates and slavers. Ever since then, Hierarchy engineers had been working on solutions to the massive advantage in firepower that these vehicles represented. By now both Armax Arsenal and the Haliat Armory had started manufacturing similar vehicles, drawing on both observations of the human models as well as captured examples of the krogan Tomkah infantry carriers to develop and produce the M-080 and the Tyrus, which were designed along similar lines. A new vehicle, which would hover on a mass effect field, rather than using wheels, was said to be in development.
Even so, there was something special about looking at the inspiration for those designs in real life. The vehicle was fairly typical, though perhaps smaller than the ones observed during the fighting in Shanxi City. It had the usual six broad wheels, with the hull mounted relatively high and on top of that, a turret sporting a truly impressive cannon. The only thing that was somewhat disappointing was that the cannon appeared to be a mass accelerator, rather than one of the chemically powered weapons for which the humans had become famous. But that was just a minor issue, certainly not enough to detract from the fascination that it held. Still, there were some things about this vehicle that did not seem to make a great deal of sense.

"Like what you see, Vakarian?"

Garrus turned around to find Shepard standing behind him.

"Commander Shepard?" He stopped, suddenly aware that studying their military equipment was probably not the best way to gain the humans' trust. "I was just taking a look-"

"-at the M35 Mako. The brand new, state-of-the-art armoured personnel carrier of the Marine Corps." She seemed to have understood where his thoughts were going. "Don't worry about taking a look. The outside isn't particularly secret. For that matter, if we have to deploy in open country, you'll get to see the inside as well. These things are just entering service and the USM insists that we use them as much as possible, on as many planets as possible, to get a better idea of their capabilities. Think of it as an extended field test."

"I understand." Garrus hesitated, then decided that he might as well take advantage of Shepard's willingness to talk. "If I may ask...?"

"What?"

"Well, I was wondering... I understand that you prefer wheeled vehicles over shuttles for this kind of task. But, this particular vehicle seems to have thrusters as well. And I don't quite understand what purpose they serve."

"The thrusters? Well, there are a number of reasons, but they're primarily there for airdrops."

"Airdrops?"

"Oh, yes." Shepard smiled. "The M35 can be deployed from a frigate without landing. We open the hangar door and drive out. Between the eezo core to lighten the mass, and the thrusters to provide direction, the Mako can make a controlled landing."

"But, why?" Garrus felt thoroughly confused. "Why not just land?"

"In case it's too dangerous to land."

"But you still have to come into the atmosphere to low altitude, right. I mean, I cannot imagine deploying something like this from orbit."

"Oh, no. It cannot make an atmospheric entry. Normandy has to come down to about a hundred meters or less before we can deploy."

"So, it's in case it's too dangerous to land, but not too dangerous to bring a frigate down to low altitude."

"Yes." Shepard's smile broadened.

"That's... That's a very specific level of danger," Garrus said. "I mean, I can understand why you wouldn't want to land a frigate in the middle of a combat zone, but then, why don't you deploy it from a shuttle. This vehicle seems small enough to fit into a cargo shuttle."

"It is." Shepard smiled even more broadly. "In fact, even a Viking dropship can carry it down from orbit. That was part of the original requirement. They even tried fitting it into a Cheyenne, like the old M577, but that would have put too many limitations on the size. However, as you can see," She gestured around. "These frigates don't normally carry shuttles. Because we can land the whole ship."

"But-" Garrus stopped himself before he said something truly undiplomatic, but some of his thoughts must have been visible anyway because Shepard suddenly started sniggering.

"You can say it, Vakarian. I won't be offended. The whole concept is insane." She stopped laughing. "Don't get me wrong, I can see some advantages. Although more in terms of landing in awkward spots where a frigate just won't fit. But that's not enough to justify adding this much complexity to what should have been a relatively simple vehicle. You have to understand this thing's history."

She leaned against one of the Mako's massive wheels.

"A long time ago, before the formation of the United Systems Military, the Colonial Marines had an APC, the M577, that could be carried internally in a Cheyenne dropship. The idea was that the marines would ride inside the APC as the dropship went down. The moment it reached the ground, the loading ramp would drop, the APC would race away, and the dropship would lift off again to provide air cover and fire support. It was a great idea for rapid deployment."

Garrus nodded slowly. He had seen images of the human Cheyenne dropships that had been used both in the Relay 314 incident, as well as during the attack on Torfan. He could envision them executing such a manoeuvre.

"It sounds good."

"Yes, it does, in theory. Unfortunately, in order to fit the APC inside the Cheyenne, they had to make a lot of compromises, particularly in height. That led to a loss of functionality, both in terrain performance as well as in the firing arcs of the weapons, which they tried to solve with such abominations as a turret on a telescoping mount. The M577 was a bloody disaster to drive unless you stuck to the roads and its weapon systems spent more time in maintenance than on the vehicles. At the time, no-one outside the Marine Corps cared. Weyland-Yutani made a fortune from that contract, the politicians and senior officers took their bribes and kept their mouths shut and nobody asked the grunts for their opinion." Shepard grimaced. "It's not a new story. Those things have always happened. Anyway, when the political situation changed, the Colonial Marines dumped their M577s as soon as they could and replaced them with the M29 Grizzly, which fixed those problems. Great in terrain and a whole range of solid, practical weapon systems that can be mounted on it. However, that also meant that it's much bigger and nothing less than a cargo shuttle could get it down to the ground, so we lost a lot of tactical flexibility. The Mako was supposed to fix that: small enough that it fits inside a Viking, if not a Cheyenne, but with a good terrain performance."

"I see." Garrus didn't really. The Hierarchy had had its own problems with weapon designs in the past, but the idea that a commercial entity could sell a weapon system that the soldiers didn't want and that didn't do its job was unheard of. Such a weapon would never have been approved for service. "I take it that things didn't work out as planned."

"Nope. Apparently, the design requirements, in particular for terrain performance, were a tough nut to crack in the first place and it couldn't be done without an eezo core, which was still pretty new to us at the time. I'm talking about thirty years ago. So, the project dragged on and on. Unfortunately, the longer it took, the more people got involved, all with different ideas on how it should work and what it should be able to do.
The eezo core would help with the terrain performance. But then someone suggested using eezo tech to give it shields as well. That caused further complications. On top of that, the USM started to insist on a more powerful weapon system and since they had the mass effect technology anyway, Weyland-Yutani, who had been awarded the contract despite their less than stellar reputation, decided to use that as an excuse to give it a hideously expensive mass accelerator as the main gun, rather than a chemically powered one. Meanwhile, someone in the military suddenly wanted to use it for reconnaissance, which involved adding a state-of-the-art sensor package, which had to be fitted in somehow. As for the thrusters, originally, they were supposed to help lift the vehicle if it got stuck, and to add thrust when going up-hill. But someone realized that they could also control and direct its fall when dropped from a limited height and suddenly that became a new requirement, even though nobody had ever suggested that it should be deployed that way. This happens sometimes. People start adding new requirements, which cause the system to become more complicated, which opens up more possibilities, which lead to more requirements. In the case of the Mako, it got out of control.
So, now we have an infantry carrier that can fit in a large assault dropship and can even be airdropped, but can barely carry half a rifle squad; equipped with a gun that can level a city block, but barely enough armour to stop small arms fire, which is partially compensated for by a shield, which requires an eezo core that costs more than the rest of the vehicle combined and, trust me, that is a lot of money."
Shepard shook her head. "And, of course, the cost escalation led to the number of vehicles that will be purchased to drop, which is part of the reason that they have to be able to carry out so many different tasks, hence the extra weapons. There are a couple of variants available, such as a dedicated medical transport and a drone-control vehicle, but nothing like the massive proliferation of Grizzly offshoots. It's just too expensive to produce. Any thought of it replacing the Grizzly is long gone. It's a supplementary system only. And, between the insanely long development, the production costs and the reduction in government orders, Weyland-Yutani is rapidly regretting that they ever took the contract. They tried marketing it to the planetary militias, but none of them had any interest. They don't care about airdropping it or transporting it in dropships and find it a lot more cost-effective to buy Grizzlies, either new or second hand. So, believe it or not, W-Y are now working on a civilian version, called the Nomad, in the hope of making a profit that way."

"A civilian version?" Garrus felt more lost than ever as evidence of human insanity piled up. "Who would buy something like that?"

"Originally? The thought was to market it to colonists departing for new planets as the ultimate ground transport. Except, no colonization program could afford it. Besides, with settlements in the Skyllian Verge still growing rapidly, there hasn't been that much of an urge to go to new planets lately. So, the only possible market is now the super-rich, who want to have a really cool all-terrain vehicle. But that meant, that they had to change the hull-shape to something better-looking and completely overhaul the interior, which led to a further increase in costs."

"I see."

"Who knows, with such a slim customer base we might even start selling them outside human space. There must be some rich non-humans who'd like to drive around in a truly unique vehicle."

Shepard pushed herself up and away from the vehicle. "Anyway, that's the story behind the Mako. By all means, look at it all you like. If nothing else, it will serve as an object lesson in how not to develop such vehicles."

-0-0-0-

Ashley watched from the corner of her eye while the Commander talked to the birdface they had picked up. A turian aboard a human warship. What's next? And not just a turian either. They had a krogan in the hangar bay as well. Plus the quarian, but at least that one was out of sight. She had retreated into the sterile room they had set up for her. Out of sight, out of mind. Well, mostly. Ashley could not quite stop herself from wondering what would happen if someone managed to contaminate that room. Accidents happen. It was a stupid thought. A really stupid thought. After a decade of bouncing around between backwater garrisons, she wasn't going to screw up her one chance at ship duty. Still, if it did happen, she would not be shedding any tears over it.
She came to attention as the Commander walked over to the workbench.

"At ease." Shepard waved her off. "Let's reserve the Mickey Mouse stuff for the parade grounds, Chief." She looked at the parts of an assault rifle that was lying on the work bench. "I trust you know how to put that back together once you're done."

"Yes, ma'am. Of course. I'm fully qualified to-"

"I know. I read your personnel file." A brief shrug. "Just a bit surprised that you're doing that level of maintenance. I thought all our weapons had been kept up to standard."

Awkward. "Of course, ma'am. Nothing wrong with the maintenance cycle. It's just... We don't know what we're heading into and I figured I should do full maintenance on every weapon before we hit trouble. Cannot tell when there will be another opportunity."

"True." Shepard nodded. "Speaking of what we're heading into, we didn't have time to discuss the situation before departure. Not with the little show I had to put on for the cameras." A fleeting look of annoyance passed over Shepard's face. "Ridiculous posturing. I'm supposed to be a dangerous person, so I've got to beat my chest and mouth off all the time? Idiots. In any case, I figured we might as well talk now. I know you've been briefed on our mission. So, any concerns?"

Warning, danger! This was usually a trap. An officer asking an NCO about their concerns didn't want to hear any. They wanted to hear that there were no concerns and everything was going well. Any other answer was unlikely to please. Still...

"To be honest, ma'am. I'm a bit unsure exactly what we're planning to achieve by going after this asari. I mean, do you really think she'll be willing to lead us to her mother?"

"Willing? Perhaps not, but that doesn't matter. The big question is whether she'll be able to." Shepard shrugged. "To be honest, I find that doubtful. If I were going to engage in a massive conspiracy to kill tons of people I wouldn't leave a forwarding address, not even for my own children. But the truth is that we don't have a whole lot of leads right now. Might as well track this one down. Besides, I want to have the Matriarch's daughter in custody, before we meet the Matriarch herself."

"You think it'll help to persuade her to join the side of good and justice? I mean, a mother's love may be strong, but we're talking about someone who was willing to casually wipe out an entire colony."

"A human colony, Chief, not an asari one, and this is her daughter we're talking about, not just some asari we dragged off the street. Besides, if nothing else, watching what we can do to another member of her species could be very persuasive."

Ashley felt a chill going down her spine. The Butcher of Torfan. There had been stories, wildly exaggerated stories or so she had always believed, about what had happened down in that slavers' colony. Now, looking at the expressionless face of her commanding officer, she was starting to wonder.

"Wait, ma'am, you're not actually suggesting that we-"

"I'm suggesting that we need leverage, and this is a tried and proven method; not just on humans either. I know for a fact that it works on batarians too. I see no reason why it wouldn't work on asari." Shepard's face relaxed and the moment passed. "But let's hope that will not be necessary. Anything else?"

Ashley hesitated. She definitely had other concerns, but-

"Spill it."

Damn, I never had a good poker face.

"I'm a bit concerned about our new crewmembers?"

"Ah." There was a wealth of meaning in that one syllable. "Funny. I just had that conversation a little while ago. Anything specific?"

"Not exactly, ma'am." No, to be honest, there really weren't any specific concerns. Just a really big non-specific one.

"Good. As to the general issue, I'll tell you the same thing I told the previous person. We have a job to do and right now we need some non-human help to do it, whether we like it or not. Then again, we don't get paid to like things, so that doesn't matter all that much. Anyway, now that we're talking. I had a question of my own."

"Ma'am?"

"As I said, I read your file and I was a bit surprised. You went through all the right training programs, basically got all your tickets punched. But since then, nothing but garrison duty. Do you have something against starships, Chief?"

Some officers figured it out on their own, but even the ones that didn't would start asking questions and, sooner or later, reality caught up with her.

"I, eh, I never really had the opportunity, ma'am."

"No opportunity?" The Commander's eyebrows rose fractionally. "Someone with your training, and a spotless fitness record?"

Here we go. "My family name might have something to do with it, ma'am."

"Your name? Last time I checked, Williams was a pretty common name. is it supposed to mean anything to me?"

"There are Williams, and Williams, ma'am. In my case, it's a pretty well-known name, especially in the military. There used to be a general Williams at one time."

"A general-" Shepard's eyes narrowed slightly. "General Williams, commanding officer for the Shanxi colony. And you're related?"

"My grandfather." Ashley shook her head. "And the only human officer ever to surrender to aliens, yes ma'am."

"But never convicted of anything, if I remember correctly," Shepard mused. "Instead, he just disappeared."

"He was forced to resign," Ashley couldn't keep the bitterness out of her voice. "I guess when the war was over, nobody wanted to be reminded of things that had gone wrong. So, they made it very clear that a trial would not go well for him and 'suggested' that he leave voluntarily. No trial, no conviction, just... nothing."

"And so, no way to rehabilitate him either," Shepard nodded. "After all, he was never convicted of anything, so there is nothing to overturn and meanwhile, the tarnished reputation clings to him"

"Yes, ma'am. Every now and then, there is some talk of clearing his name, but, like you said, he was never convicted, so there isn't much that can be done. Some historical accounts are quite fair to him, others not so much. In the end, it doesn't make much of a difference. It cannot change the fact that he spent the rest of his life working construction in one of the new colonies in the Verge. Or that the stigma attached itself to our name. I suppose we should have stayed out of the military, but we always felt we had something to prove. my father served in the Marines for twenty years, never even made it to corporal. Me, well, on paper I did a little better, but you've seen my record. If it hadn't been for the attack on Eden Prime and Captain Anderson taking me along, I'd never have seen ship-duty."

"I see," Shepard shrugged. "Well, I never met your grandfather. And I wasn't at Shanxi, so I'm not in a position to judge. Also, to be honest, people's ancestors don't rate very high on the list of things I care about. In fact, they're at about the same level as the antics of children and the sex lives of celebrities. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. You do your job, and we won't have any problems. Can I trust that your family history won't get in the way as far as our turian guest is concerned?"

Ashley took a deep breath. It was a reasonable question and one that she did not actually know the answer to. Still, that was not what the Commander was looking for.

"Yes, ma'am. There won't be any problems. Look, ma'am. I know the drill. Orders are orders. I don't have to like them, just follow them. You say jump, I say 'how high?'. You tell me to kiss a turian, I say 'which cheek?'."

"I'll keep that in mind." Shepard grinned and glanced over her shoulder to where Vakarian had gone back to studying the Mako. "It might be fun to watch. In the meantime, keep working on those weapons. I have the feeling we'll be needing them soon. And, eh, try not to kill the wrong turian. That would be awkward."

"Yes, ma'am."

Ashley watched as the Commander walked away, stopping briefly to exchange a few words with the krogan who had appropriated part of the hanger bay to set up camp. That had gone better than she'd feared. Try not to kill the wrong turian. Well, fine. Saren was a turian too, and he was definitely the right turian to kill. And, who knew, there might be a few others on the way. A girl could dream.

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A/N:

So many hopeless battles that I can put Shepard in. (Even though she was unsure which one this was, it was, in fact, a historical event. The last two were pretty obvious. This one is probably less well known. That prothean message is really having fun coming up with ways to get through to her.)

I really hated driving the Mako and I was even more pissed when they basically brought it back for ME:A. Except worse, for the Nomad doesn't even come with guns, which were the one redeeming quality of the Mako. So, I took the story of the development of things like the Bradley IFV and the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle and adapted them a bit. (See in particular the film 'Pentagon Wars' with Kelsey Grammer. Despite being played for comedy it is surprisingly -and horrifyingly- accurate. The book it was based on is even more interesting, but it's out of print. The few available copies are very expensive and I don't think there is an electronic version.)