"What happened afterwards was what I consider today to be horrible." Larry said. His face showed sorrow as he looked at his right arm again. The dreary scar on the underside of his arm was only a small part of his first combat mission and the memories from it.
"As soon as I became a part of the 521st Fighter Squadron, or the Ruttenberg Squadron for short, we were sent off to battle. Belka committed seven thousand soldiers and a number of fighter squadrons to the Sapin Civil War. We all thought it would be a short conflict, which in the end it was – "
Larry was interrupted by his cell phone when it started ringing and he excused himself to a separate room. A few minutes passed and then Jessica and Stefan looked at Larry as he sat back down into the armchair and took another sip from his Coke.
"Who was it?" Jessica asked.
"Vladimir Trotsky." Larry answered.
"Who's that? I've never heard of him."
"He's an old friend. Stefan knows him well enough; ask him."
Jessica did as Larry said and turned to Stefan. Meanwhile, Larry continued with his story.
"We were given a week to say our good-byes and all before we went to Sapin. As you know already Jessica…" Larry turned his focus away from her and started to talk to Stefan since he doesn't know, "I had to get her grandparents and uncle from the Sapin countryside near the Futuro Canal. I already knew where to go since they lived in the same house that Jessica used to live in when I first met her on the construction trips. I myself couldn't get her family out since the fighter pilots couldn't go across the border yet, but the transport pilots could. They were already supplying the Sapin Fascists with military aid, so I contacted our squadron's transport pilot to help me out."
Larry looked around as if he was trying to think. He had his head resting on his left hand and was also tapping the side of his neck.
"I cant remember his name at the moment. He was the transport pilot before he found his true calling as a fighter pilot. The last time I saw him was when he was talking about defecting to Osea before he disappeared.-"
Larry's face lit up as he finally found what he was looking for, His eyebrows shot upwards and his eyes suggested that he was in joy about the memories of that pilot and him in the past. "He goes by the name of 'Pops' now. He was a kind fellow; I sure miss him right about now…" His tone of voice slightly dropped as the joy disappeared.
Jessica was a bit annoyed. She wanted to hear the rest of the story. "Anyways…"
"…Once we finally went to Sapin, we were stationed at the Air Force base that pilots called 'the Devil's Crosshairs', the base was attacked frequently by the Communist air forces. There were five squadrons stationed there: Ruttenberg, a Su-27 squadron called Rot Vultures, and three MiG-21 squadrons. For about a week, we also had Dietrieh 'Boss' Kellerman and his squadron over and I learned a lot from them."
"So what was your first mission? You've never talked much of the Sapin Civil War when you come home." Jessica said.
"Normally, I never talk about it because that war was hell for most of us and the memories haunt me as it is. It was even worse than the Belkan War."
"How bad was it?" Jessica asked, confused by her husband's instant weakness in voice.
"Well, both the Fascists and Communists called the war El Matadero."
"Oh my God!" Jessica said, shocked, "It was really that bad?"
"No lie." Larry said, "El Matadero. The Slaughter House."
Larry slightly bowed his head down into his lap; he had remorse for those on both sides.
"My first mission was to bomb a Communist camp not far from Gran Rugido. The mission was simple enough, so we proceeded like it was a walk in the park. Bomb the place, cover the Fascists. Simple enough…" Larry swallowed, "Once we reached the target area, our warning alarms went off like mad. My cockpit was nothing but shades of red. None of us could see who was tracking us, let alone if they have fired on us yet, then I saw my squadron leader's plane get hit with a telephone pole-sized SAM missile right under the nose of the MiG and I knew he was dead. I broke out of formation to try to escape the hell composed of SAMs coming towards our flight, but one found the mark under my right wing and most of my plane instantly broke apart except my cockpit. The plane broke apart into a million pieces, or at least that was only what I saw from the cockpit. By luck, I was able to eject about five seconds before the MiG crashed into the barren desert below. I couldn't remember what happened after that."
Larry took a si from his Coke again; the can was almost gone. "When I woke up, I saw that I was on top of my right wing and my right arm was sliced open by a fragment of metal. Most of the wing surface was a deep red from my blood. I was in complete shock and after half an hour I heard bombs going off around me and I could see bodies flying all around me. I realized that my fellow Belkans were trying to save me as a helicopter touched down a few hundred feet away from me. At the base's medical station, they fixed all of the functions in my arm, but the horrible memories and this scar remind me of that day for the rest of my life. When I discovered that two of the MiG-21 squadrons as well as my flight lead were gone, I didn't know weather or not I could really take war seeing how it was really like."
Stefan explained, "After that, he became flight lead until the war's end in 1994 when the monarchy was restored with Osean help. Two million Sapin citizens and two thousand Belkans died basically for nothing. Out squadron returned to Dismark, Belka where we were given leave for a few months to recover from the shellshock and the lost of our friends. As we did, Rot Squadron replaced our duty until we became operational again in January 1995."
"So you were in Rutterburg Squadron as well?" Jessica asked.
"I stayed until 1998 when the squadron was disbanded. Larry, on the other hand, went to start a new life."
Albert and Jutta now came back to hear what happened to their son after El Matadero.