NationStates Jolt Archive

'Did you know, there are three kind of aces? Those who seek strength, those who live for pride, and those who can read the tide of battle. Those are the three.'
~Ace Combat ZERO

Personal journal, Xi Shio Aoku, 27th April 2037

I had long searched for the story behind the woman I would one day call one of my wives; back when we first met I was a young journalist working with the Marsten Herald, a newspaper in a tiny town near the base where she was stationed. When the peace treaty had collapsed in 2005, she had been among those called up to service.

She was a bomber pilot, in command of one of the giant Grand Dragons that regularly took off from the army air force base a mile or so from our peaceful village to attack distant targets on Grafton's Isle where the majority of that long war was fought.

Back then I was a young girl barely out of school, with, as my father would say, far too much curiosity for my own good. I was lucky: my father and the base commander were old drinking buddies, and that allowed me to get closer to the pilots and their planes than even the professional journalists were allowed.

Today, my wife is a little reluctant to speak of those times; whether this is out of shame or a simple desire not to boast I've never been sure, but I've decided it's about time I found out. Knowing her old squadron members and now also able to speak to those she fought against, I now have a chance to put the pieces together.

Speaking to her old friends and opponents, the first thing I found was the name they had given her, back in those days.

The Bringer of Death.

I'd first spoken to the commander of the fighter squadron codenamed Red, the one ordered to aid her on that day she'd first made a name for herself. He'd flown from a base on the Isle itself, Golden Field AFB in Greenley. On that day, he and his squadron were intercepted over the airfield itself by a squadron of SU / MT long-range interceptor squadron; the 18th Night Fighter Squadron, Death's Hand. I would later meet with them also, but for now, I was speaking to him.

Captain Shigeru Mori, a man they called 'The Ghost' during the war, still cuts a dashing figure even after all these years. He reminds me in some ways of my own father, in particular his smile. He'd flown as part of an AFSO Aggressor Squadron in the early stages of the war, but a desperate shortage of fighters had led to even these being deployed in combat.

Today, he works as a military advisor, and is married with three sons.

First interview transcript: RED 1: Shigeru 'Ghost' Mori, Air Force Special Operations 3rd Air Division, 7th Aggressor Squadron

'Oh, that day...Yes, it's not one I'll soon forget. The alarm call was in the middle of the night, orders were to intercept a fighter unit giving grief to a large formation of friendly bombers. I was kinda surprised when I heard they'd come all the way into Boreham; they'd always been brave outside the Trenchant's effective range, but just recently we'd started seeing them flying much further into our airspace. I guess they'd got brave when the Trenchant had been down for repairs in ninety-one, and it hadn't quite worn off yet.'

'Anyway, around the time we're taking off alarms started ringing all across the base, and I get a voice in my earphone telling me there's eight Warhawks heading my way. Well, their fighters had always been better than ours, and with the Warhawk, you were talking about the best they had, so I knew we were in trouble. With that and all the jamming being thrown out by the bomber squadron it was a long time before I could get out to them with the three planes I had that survived the dogfight.'

<Here I asked him if he had beaten the enemy unit>

'Hm? Oh, yes, barely. They were running with heavy tanks to get all that way out and only engaged us for about four minutes before bugging out. I think I managed to get two out of the fight before that, but didn't bring any down.' <he grins> 'They were good, just like I'd heard.'

'The four of us made it out there just in time to see what she did next...But then, you know all about that part, don't you?'

Historical notes: the Air Fortress YB-78 Trenchant 1981-2027

I feel that for any reader the background of the war will be of interest, especially as it relates to the situation in the air back then. A key element of this is understanding the balance of power, and one of the most important aspects of this balance was the YB-78.

The YB-78 had her origins in the failed armoured airship programs of the early 1880s, which had produced aircraft designed to fight other flying ironclads; an opponent which, in the event, they never faced. Originally, it was set out as Proposal 17771 in 1974 to use the small supplies of Levistone the Federation had access to for the construction of a mobile fortress of sorts, armed with the latest in long-range air-to-air missiles, radar and other sensor equipment, jamming equipment, CIWS, and other systems.

The plan was shifted to the Army Air Force and given to Division Six of the Army Special Projects Division, which had just completed what would become the Block 1995 refit plans for the B-62 Grand Dragon; these would result in her much better-known designation of B-95.

The Trenchant was as much a political statement as she was ever a weapon system; indeed, she was the subject of fierce debate from almost the minute the first plans were drawn up. As a show of industrial might and technical accomplishment she was perfect; however, the sheer amount of material she would take away from other projects was seen by many as unacceptable. These allegations came to a head when the aircraft's specifications were finalised in March 1975, revealing an aircraft with a wingspan of almost a mile and a length just under half a mile.

In order for the Trenchant to be constructed at all, a special hangar and airstrip would have to be constructed at Miles Bishop Air Force Base, extending their already gigantic Runway Five from 15 miles to 27 and widening it to a mile across. In defence of the project, it was stated that the new aircraft would be capable of staying aloft almost indefinitely, thanks to in-flight maintenance abilities and her Levistone wings.

Despite heavy opposition from factions in the Navy, Air Force and even the Army itself, on March 6th 1976, Supreme Commander Anderson fully approved production of an initial prototype, pending an order for three such aircraft. In 1980, with the Trenchant nearly complete, the second aircraft was also approved, to be named Hakusan, and was begun shortly afterwards.

Despite several delays, production of the YB-78 proceeded at a brisk page, the massive aircraft undergoing her first full-power testing of her battery of 162 engines in May 1980, with her first flight trials in early September of the same year. These confirmed her to be every bit as capable a platform as pre-production computer simulations had predicted, and, with the worsening political situation between the SU / MT and the Federation, on February 6th 1981 the Trenchant was ordered into action to protect Federal airspace. Her final statistics gave a wingspan of 4,781ft 8in, a total length of 2,311ft 2in, and a total empty material weight [minus Levistone] of some 2.71 million tons.

Meanwhile, the Hakusan was proving a much bigger problem. Production delays coupled with severe difficulty in acquiring the required amount of Levistone, industrial disputes and at least one act of deliberate sabotage that lead to the destruction of most of the Hakusan's left wing when a heavy duty crane collapsed on top of it had almost doubled the cost of the second YB-78, and this proved fatal to the project. With the death of Supreme Commander Anderson in 1992 the title passed to Supreme Commander Nielson, one of the noted opponents of the project's continuation. Unsurprisingly, with the project still massively behind schedule, extremely tight deadlines were imposed. When these failed to be met by 1997's Army Budget Review, Nielson authorised the First Marshal of the Army, Reid Patterson, to cancel the entire project.

With the Hakusan broken up for scrap some moves were made to close part of the giant runway used by the Trenchant and use it for other applications; however, this was heavily opposed by the Army, who pointed out that the Trenchant herself had shown her worth in combat; moreover, the only two times she had landed so far had been immediately followed by massive air attacks against Federal forces, proving beyond a doubt, it was claimed, that the deterrent value of the giant aircraft was essential to winning the war. Further, with her Block 91 upgrade, perversely, the Trenchant was actually the most sophisticated air-to-air combatant the Federation possessed.

To call the Trenchant a formidable obstacle to any air attack would be a criminal understatement; as a flying battery of heavy-calibre antiaircraft guns and stand-off range air-to-air missiles she was without equal, and large arrays of close-range dual purpose missiles, pulse laser weapons and CIWS guns made her equally deadly against anything that closed range with her. Today, the Trenchant has been retired from service, and is the centrepiece of the Federal Museum of Aviation History's collection.

A veil of secrecy still surrounds her commanding officer to this day, a man who only goes by the name 'A' in his military records. His opponents speak of a man they called 'The Jackal;' a man without mercy, who would use the Trenchant's sophisticated targeting systems to deliberately mark shots to his opponent's cockpit.

According to my searches of declassified records and a little guesswork, the man most likely to be 'A' is, today, Hanshiro Kouda, a Catholic priest at Meadow Falls Church in Hammer Bay. The Army Air Force will neither confirm or deny this, but I intended to speak with him on the subject.

Oddly, when I spoke to him he was quite open about the matter; he seemed almost relieved someone had finally found out, and gave me his real name without my even asking. As the small grey Kitsune spoke to me in his quiet voice, I got a sense that he had longed for someone he could speak these truths to; like many who fought in that terrible war, he remained haunted by the things he had seen and done to survive.

[b]Second interview transcript: Trenchant: Atsumori 'The Jackal' Murata [aka Hanshiro Kouda], Army Air Force Special Operations 1st Special Weapons Flight, Aircraft 001

'Yes...I was him. The truth is, when they finally decommissioned her in '27, I felt like the part of me that had been him was gone too. Nothing about what I'd done felt right anymore...The only person I could really talk to about it was Him.' <here he glanced up at the cross near us>

'Listen to me, rambling like an old man.' <he smiles> 'You didn't come here to hear my stories, did you? No. Well, I'd certainly heard about that day...Even received an order to break position and lend assistance if I could. Of course, I wouldn't have got there in time to do much good anyway, so I stayed. Still, I heard about what she did...Everyone did.'

'Oh, that? Yes, I remember that day too, but really that's another story again, isn't it?'

Personal journal, Xi Shio Aoku, 29th April 2037

I was happy when the base commander gave me access to the entire archive for my investigation; he's always been happy to help me with my stories, but I was a little surprised he'd let me go through the whole collection. It's stored in a large warehouse on the outskirts of the base, and has just about everything I could ever have hoped for, from hard copies of technical manuals and field reports to magnetic tapes and digital recordings.

Going through these archives, I came across a tape from her first charge's damaged air data recorder and another from one aircraft she shot down; after some inquiries, the base commander allowed me to transcribe it provided he was allowed to see the transcript before I took it home. This is the day my wife's story began, the day she first showed herself to be something different from all the other bomber pilots. It's also how she earned the assignment to the aircraft she would become known for later.

Transcript, air data recorder [cockpit] of Wyvern Four-Six-Two, starting 01:23 June 10th 2009

<Radio Operator James Eliot Hendrix> 'Wyvern Four-Six-Two to control, do you copy control?' <pause> 'Nothing, sir, ECM's killed it.'

<Pilot Aosa Shioku> 'Try the fighter squadron again, bandits are still showing big and bad on radar.'

<Radio Operator James Eliot Hendrix> 'This is Wyvern Four-Six-Two to fighter squadron Red, do you copy? Are you receiving?'

<Static>

<Explosion audible: presumably outside the aircraft>

<Pilot Aosa Shioku> 'Shit! Those little bastards just got Three-Eight-Two.'

<Co-Pilot Shinshi Ojima> 'You see any chutes?'

<Pilot Aosa Shioku> 'Negative, not one.'

<Machine-gun fire from the chin turret audible>

<Radio Operator James Eliot Hendrix> 'This is Wyvern Four-Six-Two to fighter squadron Red, mayday, mayday, we are under attack by unknown number of fast movers, request your ETA on position. Do you copy?'

<Pilot Aosa Shioku> 'To hell with this, I'm not waiting around for them to take this formation apart. Tell Four-Zero-Zero to take the lead, we're breaking formation. All guns to be ready to fire on bandits.'

<Co-Pilot Shinshi Ojima> 'What? Wait, what the hell are you doing?'

<Radio: Radio Operator of Wyvern Four-Zero-Zero Tsukai Iwasaki> 'This is Wyvern Four-Zero-Zero to Four-Six-Two, you're out of formation, have you been damaged?'

<Radio Operator James Eliot Hendrix> 'Negative, Four-Zero-Zero, we're good.'

<Pilot Aosa Shioku> 'Four-Zero-Zero, continue on this flight path and take lead position, we're not going to sit here and let those sons of bitches work us over.'

<CONCURRENT FLIGHT RECORDING: Recorder of shot-down Warhawk fighter Vulture One-Zero> 'One down and four damaged, coming around for another run. Say...The leader's banking out of formation, who's kill was that?'

<Radio> 'Not mine...Don't think anyone hit her. Hey, what the fuck? Evasive...!'

<Sound of bullet hits>

<Recording cuts off as pilot ejects>

<End transcript>

On that day her gun crews shot down three of their fighters; the remainder retreated. Stories quickly circulated about her: the bomber pilot who wasn't afraid of fighters, who'd put three kill marks on the fuselage of her plane. She was already regarded as one to watch: on those raids, the life expectancy of a Grand Dragon was only three missions. Wyvern Four-Six-Two was a veteran of over fourteen.

It was this action that got her name posted across the SU / MT as a 'bomber ace,' and their fighters, once masters of the sky, began to become somewhat more cautious when approaching our bomber squadrons. It was also what got her noticed by the top-secret project she was soon to become part of.

Personal Journal; Zak; February 12th, 2037

The clichés always talk about how 'war is Hell'. They never mention the secondary tragedies that could fill books. For the people on the front lines, it certainly is Hellish, but what about those who stay behind? What about the people like me? I'm not talking about war crimes; my village was never bombed; there were no children running down the street coated in napalm; while there was marshal law, we didn't have a tin pot Colonel running things like a twelfth century fiefdom.

But what about the Wolfen couple down the street? The Ulfsens had lost all their sons and daughters to a pointless ground campaign that had resulted in nothing but pointless slaughter. Not to different than any other campaign, I suppose, but I still feel chills when I remember the howl of loss that echoed through the village when the news came.

And what of my own personal tragedy? I lost Father-Lex to "The Bringer of Death". I never knew him, and I don't know what happened to him; he's listed as MIA. I have tried asking Father-Ren about him, but he refuses to say anything. Father-Ren has never forgiven Father-Lex for leaving us to join the war when I was so young. My mind's eye says that Father-Lex is still trapped in some long forgotten POW camp, otherwise he would have returned to us.

I have decided that I cannot sit here with doubt and uncertainty gnawing at my gut. If Father-Ren won't tell me, I'll have to find out on my own. To this end, I started with Captain Haru "Spring" Itou, the man who flew with Father in those early years. This was before Father's natural talent with a plane was revealed, and he was simply Cpt. Itou's wingman. They flew nearly a dozen sorties together before father was moved to take more dangerous and invasive missions.

It took awhile to track down the old Captain; he had no desire to relive the war, but I was finally able to convince him that I wasn't trying to bask in reflected glory. He agreed to meet me in a nearly empty coffee-house near his home. The man's secrecy was almost stunning: he refused to tell me where he worked or lived. I can't say that I blame him, honestly. He had earned his nickname for the way he seemed to bounce up the ladder to his Warhawk, but he had long since lost any spring in his step.


First Interview Transcript: Hammer 1: Haru "Spring" Itou; Air Force Mainland Defense Squadron 1st Air Division, 9th Interdictor Squadron

"Jonsey? Yeah, I remember him well." <He pauses and chuckles at my confusion. Even after all these hard years, it seems some of his old personality can resurface.> "Yer other dad didn't tell you about that? No… I guess he didn't tell you much of anything, huh? Simple enough, really… it's because of you Voorms and your crazy naming. Ever hear of a surname? Every Voorm who entered basic was given a full name, and your birth names were used as nicknames. And because it was usually the bastard DI's who did the naming, y'all always got stuck with stupidly mundane names. Your father was given 'Michael Jones'."

<I nodded in understanding and asked him about what father was like.>

"I never met anyone like him. He had more raw talent than anybody I've ever flown with. When he was in the sky, it was like he melded with the plane; he wasn't a pilot flying a jet… he and the jet were one terrible instrument of destruction. You Voorm always took to flying, but he existed on a completely different level. He did things that I couldn't believe even when I was watching him. I have to tell you kid… he saved more lives in the DefSquad than the rest of us combined… there isn't a single pilot that doesn't personally own him their life at least once." <His eyes turn a little misty.> "The Slaughter of Terknin happened right after he left us..."

<He clears his throat.> "He was a good man and a good pilot. Don't you believe the lies about what happened to him."

First interview transcript <continued>: RED 1: Shigeru 'Ghost' Mori, Air Force Special Operations 3rd Air Division, 7th Aggressor Squadron

'I arrived just in time to see the last of the fighters go down...Never knew a Dragon could move like that, truth. She'd taken a couple of hits, but nothing serious. Couple of engine fires and some cannon fire near the cockpit, but that's not going to worry a bomber you'd see coming home with her entire vertical stab missing as if nothing was wrong with her.'

'Still, when enemy fighters had the time to pick stragglers and stay on them, you'd start losing planes real fast, and we'd expected the worst. They'd lost three or four aircraft by my count when I'd have expected those fighters to have taken down a dozen or more.'

'I don't think it's wrong to say that was all because of her. The whole AAF was soon talking about their new hero - it was a low point in the war for a lot of them, and a story like that gave them hope.'

Personal journal, Xi Shio Aoku, 2nd May 2037

Working through the transcript of the Warhawk's flight recorder made me want to speak to the pilot in person; the records we had showed he'd been interned in a prisoner of war camp a few miles from here and remained in the Federation following his release. He'd ended up working in a small bakery in a nearby village, and now had a family and five children.

I was a little nervous about calling him out of the blue to discuss his war record, but he seemed entirely happy to speak to me. Tsukasa Yamada, formerly an air force Lieutenant, struck me as an honest, honourable man who was proud of his record and felt he had nothing to hide or be ashamed of, and spoke quite openly with me about his career in the often chaotic frontline fighter units.

Third interview transcript: VULTURE 10: Tsukasa Yamada, SU / MT Air Force Frontline Fighter Corps, 9th Air Division, 3rd Night Fighter Squadron

'We'd often get called to intercept Federal bombers, and you knew you always had to take them seriously, even though they'd tell you in training that strategic bombers were supposed to be easy kills. Wasn't like that in the field...Even taking one down was a job for an experienced pilot. They'd quickly get wise to our tricks; for a while it was relatively safe to approach from the rear of the formation, but for the few months before I was shot down, we'd started seeing old ninety-five Bs in trail with the quad tail gun.'

<he grins>

'You'd approach and suddenly you'd see the sky light up and tracers pouring towards you...Took a guy with guts to deal with them, and skill. And for a while, I was one of the ones they held up as examples to the new guys...The ones who weren't afraid.'

<he settles back in his chair and lights a cigarette; I decline his offer of one with thanks>

'I knew something was wrong the moment the leader began to bank out of formation...There was something about the way she was turning that just seemed too purposeful for an aircraft going down. It wasn't until she opened up that I honestly realised what she was doing, and by that time it was too late.'

<he sighs>

'I was the first one hit; she knocked off one rudder and damaged the stab, then another one of her guns caught my starboard engine and put a hole in the fuel pump. Even when I punched out I still couldn't quite believe it...I remember looking back up at them as I hung from my chute, watching that bomber as she took down the two others. I'd never realised that those huge things could turn like that...She knew her plane, knew just how hard she could push it. It was an incredible sight.'

<He smiles>

'She was the better pilot, that's what it came down to. To be honest, I'm glad someone like her was the one that finally took me down. I was my best and she was better...That's how I always wanted it to be. I'd always hoped that one day I could shake her hand. If you talk to her about all this...Could you give her my regards?'

<I nod and thank him>

Historical Notes: B-62 A to C / B-95 A to H Grand Dragon

The Federation's principal heavy bomber for over seventy years first flew as YB-62 on October 5th 1961, and was quickly adopted by the Army following a series of highly successful trials, entirely replacing the piston-engined Dragon bomber within two years. This aircraft, the B-62, can be distinguished from the later B-95 by the lack of inboard engines, its slightly shorter wingspan, smaller tail surfaces and three separate bomb bays [one ahead of and two to the rear of the belly ball gun position] as opposed to the two of the B-95. These were located to the front and rear of the belly ball gun position except in the B-95 C/O variant, which I'll detail more fully later.

The B-62's war record is far too long to adequately detail here, and has already been documented by others far more knowledgeable than myself in any case. Suffice to say, it was quickly established as a formidable workhorse, with a particular reputation for surviving massive damage and still bringing its crew home safely. It earned its nickname, 'The Iron Lady,' many times over.

In the early 1970s it had already been realised the B-62 would require extensive upgrades across the board to remain relevant in the face of increasingly sophisticated enemy fighters and vastly heavier payloads; to this end, a sweeping upgrade program was devised. While subject to frequent delays, parts for the new 'D' upgrade began to be produced in 1989 and by 1992 stocks were sufficient to begin what would become known as the Block 1995 refit. Around halfway through the program the 'D' model designation was cancelled and all aircraft already modified were re-designated B-95A.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v453/GMCMA/GMC/B-95small.jpg
B-95, early concept sketch

The B-95 was virtually a different aircraft from its predecessor; the wings, fuselage and engines were all new or highly modified, the cockpit was redesigned to be less cramped with the pilot controls more accessible, and new fast-tracking radar controlled power-assisted turrets were fitted in all gun positions. With the powerful inboard engines, payload increased to an impressive 144,000 pounds. The most heavily produced variant of the B-95 remains the 'C' model of 2003; this featured redesigned wings with full-length internal blown flaps, massively reducing the take-off runs of the giant bomber to just 4,750 feet.

My wife's first charge was a B-95C Arm II, a minor update to the C model to improve a few technical issues with wiring and the actuators for the bomb bay doors. The 'D' designation was never actually used on combat aircraft, and generally refers to a series of stripped-down aircraft designed to carry experimental rocket planes and other prototypes. One B-95D, affectionately known as 'Big Jock,' is involved in our current space shuttle project's lifting body program. Like all Federal AWAC aircraft use the callsign 'Magician,' all B-62 and B-95s use the callsign 'Wyvern' followed by their aircraft number. The basic statistics of the B-95 were:

Wingspan: 260ft 9in [79.5 metres]
Length: 211ft 6in [64.5 metres]
Height: 72ft 4in [22 metres]
Crew: 14 (Pilot, Co-Pilot, Navigator, Bombardier, ECM Operator, Radio Operator, 8 gunners)
Armament: 12 .50 calibre [12.7mm] machine guns in 8 positions: chin ball (twin), 2 cheek, dorsal ball (twin), belly ball (twin), 2 waist, tail (twin)
Up to 144,000lbs [65,300 kg] of internal disposable stores
Engines: 16 J-10 turbines mounted in 6 wing units, of two triple units and one double unit per wing.
Inboard 4 J-16 Olympus turbofans.
Maximum speed: 645mph [1,038 km/h]

The 'E' variant is a little more notable, and is detailed below.

Historical Notes: B-95E Fortress Dragon, Project Wolf, 2006-2009

A number of solutions had been proposed to the chronic shortage of both fighters and fighter crews that became only too apparent following the collapse of the peace treaty in 2005. Another of these is part of this story, but I haven't yet done enough research to properly detail it, so it must wait. The most relevant is certainly Project Wolf, since essentially it is my wife's story.

Extensive ECM from pods and drones deployed by Federal bombers had already forced visual-range engagement of bombers by SU / MT aircraft, using either rocket packs or guns to attack their targets, and being vulnerable in return to fire from the bombers' gun positions. While these fast-traversing gun positions were more than capable of hitting the modern jet aircraft used by the SU / MT, the .50 calibre rounds they used were becoming increasingly ineffective at destroying or disabling them.

Many solutions were suggested: the WOLF project team suggested a new gunship variant, with increased armour and 25mm autocannons replacing the .50 calibre heavy machine guns. This rapidly became known as the 'Fortress Dragon' and was provisionally assigned the designation B-95E.

To discuss this project, I made an appointment to speak with the director of research for the project, a human woman named Alice Strauss. She's still working in aviation even today, having long ago transferred to the Air Force's research and development branch from the Army Air Force's. I met her in a small cafe near her home in Marshall City.

Fourth interview transcript: Professor Alice Joanna Strauss, PhD [Engineering], director of research, Project Wolf, Army Special Projects Division

'When they first drew up the requirements I knew they were being unreasonable...In fact, I almost resigned from the project in protest at that. What they wanted was impossible, and we were very clear on that...The increased performance with no decrease in payload would have made her so slow she'd basically be unable to keep up with the bombers she was supposed to be protecting.'

'I'll give you a set of tapes of those early meetings, and the transcripts...It's all declassified now.' <I thank her> 'Oh, don't mention it, child, please.'

'The big stipulation that needed to be met was replacing all the fifty cals with the same 25mm chain-operated automatic cannons used in our IFVs already. With those, she'd hit further and harder than any other plane in the squadron, and be enough of a handful, we hoped, to keep the fighters attacking her and not the others.'

'We already had our replacement engines approved from the work on the naval variant for use on Strike Platforms, and the new armour configuration was approved in short order; in fact, they started studying fitting it to all operational B-95s, though nothing came of that. Basically, though, the project was at a standstill because of the demand of a full 65-ton payload...The big break for it was the raid on MacArthur Foundry in '05, that one that lost sixty-five out of a hundred and two aircraft. All of a sudden the requirements were relaxed, with the required maximum internal disposable stores weight dropped to 30 tons. It was still impossible, as things turned out, but it gave us breathing room at least.'

'At that time a number of other projects were competing with ours - the airborne laser project team were throwing out every promise they could think of to get at our funding, and there were also design teams working on manned parasite fighters carried under the Dragon's wings. Of course, the Army was very suspicious of those to the point they barely even bothered to evaluate them. After all, no Dragon had flown with external weapon stores since we lost sixteen in 2001 from fighters deliberately targeting their external bomb racks and blowing their wings off.'

'Our biggest opponent was always the UCAV project, though. Project FALCON's staff all thought the gunship variant was a waste of materials, funding, time - you name it, really. Professor Alvin Stark was the leader of that project; we were actually friends before this whole thing started, though by the end we wouldn't even talk face-to-face.'

'Still, even with all the backstabbing and reviews, our project proceeded to the point we got permission to requisition a stack of twenty-fives and get a prototype built. Unfortunately we had to use stock Gulf & Bradley Armoured Glass for all transparent panels because the transparent alumina we'd requested wasn't available, but other than that and a few issues getting hold of spares for the new engines, she almost fell together. The chassis we used was an aircraft that had been retired after they'd found massive fatigue cracks in both wings and was scheduled to be dismantled for parts; that wasn't really an issue because we wouldn't be using the original wings anyway.'

'She made her first test flights out of the AFSPD Black Ops runway at Miles Bishop AFB and was every bit as good as we'd hoped. A few issues with the armoured turrets jamming were solved with re-designed bearings and we had to do some work on the ejected cartridge stores because the catch plates would work loose, but overall she was virtually flawless. Apparently that wasn't enough for our critics, but we'd established by that point that nothing short of winning the war during the flight testing was going to please them, so we just decided to grin and bear it.'

'Well, that was about the time the payload requirement was dropped entirely, and they told us to go with whatever we could manage due to 'urgent operational necessity.' That was our green light, really. We knew it could work with seven more tons knocked off the payload, because the prototype was flying perfectly well like that already. In any case, that was when we got the Black Form through, the thing every project supervisor dreads.'

<I ask what the Black Form is>

'Oh, it's the ICN/60 order, 'immediately cease current testing schedule and await further notification.' Usually it means your project's been cancelled, you see. In our case, though, we got a briefing a day later where they handed us a new testing schedule. It was an odd one, to say the least. Actually...'

<She rummages through the case she bought with her and hands me an envelope>

'This was it. It's declassified now, but all the other copies were shredded and incinerated a few days before they declassification order...Nothing sinister, I'm afraid, just an unfortunate bit of timing on our part. Anyway, you're free to do what you like with it, and if you want someone to explain it further I can give you an address and call ahead for you.'

<I thank her. The document is reproduced below>

HEADQUARTERS
ARMY SPECIAL PROJECTS DIVISION, AAF SECTION
TOP SECRET / EYES ONLY
COPY 6 of 27
ORDER NO 11683 / BDO NOT COPY
RE: PROJECT WOLFPAGE 1 OF 1

1. AIR CREWS

The crew of the aircraft Wyvern 462, aka 'Momma Z,' will be assigned to the prototype aircraft for the duration of air and combat testing. Backup crewmen are to be assigned as required or at the aircraft's ranking officer's request.

2. SCHEDULE OF TESTING

(a) TRAINING

The aircraft will be made available to the assigned aircrew immediately for acclimatisation not exceeding 72 hours of actual flight time. 32,000 rounds of 25mm ammunition have been requisitioned, any other munitions judged to be required must be applied for through standard channels using the code BLACK.

(b) TEST FLIGHTS

Scheduled 8 test flights with the new crew once acclimatisation time is complete, of 3 basic flight tests, 3 live fire weapons tests, and 2 communications and ECM tests. Following this the aircraft will participate in the three missions of operation JUGGERNAUT codenamed CHASTISE, HAILSTORM and RAGNAROK. Successful return from all designated missions will be defined as the operational goal for the prototype.

(c) REPLACEMENTS

Replacement crew will be provided where required by attrition, illness or other cause. No replacement aircraft are available, and loss of the prototype, regardless of the circumstances, will be defined as a failure.

3. ATTACHMENTS

Attach files to this document: briefings #2348/11 [Operation JUGGERNAUT, 63 pages], #2348/11/C, #2348/11/E and #2348/11/K [Operations CHASTISE, HAILSTORM and RAGNAROK, 22, 26 and 34 pages]; schematic set *870.11347 [B-95E 'Fortress Dragon,' 38 pages] and corresponding crew list [#1141339, 1 page] and field manual [Document 2134719/N, 363 pages]. All authorised recipients to report any and all missing documents from the above listing immediately. FAILURE TO OBSERVE IS GROUNDS FOR COURT MARTIAL.

Professor Strauss pointed me to one of her former colleagues, the woman responsible for integrating the prototype aircraft into the squadrons she'd be assigned to for her combat trials. She was an Army Colonel with an extensive background in bomber operations; she'd flown on four different B-95s in the past, as bombardier, navigator and two times as co-pilot, before transferring to research and development to put her experience to use in combat evaluations and testing.

Today, Ami Maeda, a Cervidine, lives with her two daughters, and supervises the family restaurant. I was rather happy to be offered dinner with this interview, and I intend to return there someday soon with my family.

Fifth interview transcript: Colonel Ami Ashiko Maeda, director of operations, Project Wolf Physical Testing Staff, Army Special Projects Division

'Because there was a huge rush to get these aircraft in production if they actually worked, the testing was cut right down to the bare essentials following the Black Form coming through. I'm fairly sure if we hadn't been using an existing airframe we'd never have got her flying at all on such an obscenely tight schedule, but Grand Dragons have this habit of pulling through any ridiculous demand you could place on them, and our girl was no exception.'

'The idea of full-combat weapon testing wasn't a new one; Eurusea's Alpha-designated final prototype vehicles had been doing multi-mission final evaluations for at least sixty years, but in the Federation you'd tend to only have a single full-combat test to make sure everything held up outside the exercises. Here we had three back-to-back, with very short turnarounds between if anything actually did go wrong.'

'I heard the three combat flight tests were an attempt to represent regular bombing targets: CHASTISE was a refinery, HAILSTORM a power station and RAGNAROK was a large factory. I knew even then there was some huge great catch to this: they wouldn't normally be happy with ten combat-condition test fights, and while they said it was lower because it was actual rather than simulated combat, part of me knew something was up.'

'Well, something was up, as it turned out, and it was the mother of all catches: essentially, they'd chosen the three hardest targets they could find. First on the list was the Ryder-Bailey oil refinery in Berkleyshire, right over on the Southeast coast in the middle of enemy territory. With the long peace, the major industrial complexes had grown to be gigantic, and those critical to the war effort on both sides were now veritable fortresses. The upshot was that crippling one of these massive facilities would severely damage the enemy's ability to wage war, assuming, of course, that you could actually do it.'

'Fully fifty-five percent of their entire reserve of gasoline, Avgas and jet fuel was stockpiled there along with some ten billion barrels of crude in a refinery the size of a city. Ryder-Bailey processed four million barrels a day at peak output, drawing from seventeen offshore drilling platforms and forty-one drilling derricks on the surrounding plain. The mission was to destroy the petrochemical storage tank farms, the eight main refinery blocks, and the pumping stations located at the edge of the oilfields and on the coast.'

'The first was bad enough, and the second just as bad; the power station was the Emerald Valley Gas Plant. With that you were talking about a complex covering thirty-nine square miles, which drilled, refined, stored and piped sixty percent of the East Island's natural gas, as well as containing forty-six combined cycle generating units with a total maximum output of eighty gigawatts. Around it were two airstrips and a belt of SAMs and flak so thick they used to say even a fly couldn't get in.'

'But my heart really sank when I saw the final target. The prototype would be going right back to where her story began, really. The operation was called RAGNAROK, named for the end of the world in old Wolfen mythology. It seemed an appropriate name; the last target on the list was MacArthur Foundry; they wanted to permanently destroy both the casting lines and the steelworks, basically obliterating the factory's ability to contribute to the SU / MT war effort.'

'MacArthur was a hard target from two angles: first, air cover. It's between Kinloss Air Base, the Mount Sienna Radar Station, and an airbase called 'Dryden' that we'd yet to even locate; we knew it was somewhere in the forest East of the complex, but we had no idea where at that time. Those fighters had been responsible for most of our losses before. There was now a also third base nearby that had been out of action before, a place called Wrigley Field.'

'Secondly, it was well protected. Following the first bombing run on their furnaces and steel converting vessels, they'd rebuilt them in reinforced concrete bunkers below ground. They didn't seem to know we'd just developed the perfect bomb to get to those, and I imagine the First Marshal wanted to rattle their cages a little. Still, they'd set us a task and a half, and it was only because Professor Strauss was so damn sure the prototype could do it that I didn't resign there and then.'

<At this point one of her granddaughters climbs into my lap and starts listening too>

<She smiles> 'Looking back, I really didn't have enough faith in the crew we'd been assigned. I knew they were good, obviously, but I never realised anyone would be prepared to go through hell and high water just for our project. I don't think I ever really thanked them enough for what they did.' <she sighs softly> 'But then, I'm not sure I could ever thank them enough.'

Personal journal, Xi Shio Aoku, 8th May 2037

Of course, I have a part in this story too, though mine I'm afraid isn't nearly as interesting as that of 'The Bringer of Death.' Still, I hope that you will indulge me a little while I explain how I came to know her and how I came to live in the little village of Marsten near Hayworth Field AAFB to begin with.

My mother had been a soldier, a Colonel, in fact, and had been called back up to fight when I was barely a year old. Much like many others, she never came home again; my father instead received a telegram and a box containing her personal effects. I don't really remember her at all, but my father has always spoken highly of her and told me how much like her I've grown to be, and his smile when he speaks of her tells me all I need to know.

My father was a civilian electrical engineer who worked for a contracting company affiliated with Gulf & Bradley, so it was no surprise he got jobs involving the military frequently. One day when I was five he told me he'd got a great new job, but we'd have to move away from Selfield to a little town far away from us called Marsten. I remember I cried as I waved goodbye to all my friends and everything I'd ever known, and how afraid I was of the new place we'd be moving to.

Marsten is a village nestled in the shadow of Seneca Ridge, surrounded by forests. Nearby are Azure and Wilmington lakes, and the Gale River runs through the village, crossing a weir as it runs through the old water-wheels of Abbott Mill near the church. It seemed a peaceful place to be at first; everyone was friendly and seemed to know everyone else. And it was quiet, at least until the first time the bombers took off.

Hayworth Field Army Airforce Base is directly to the north of the playing field in the park; there's a small road along the edge of the park that adjoins the sixteen-foot razor wire-topped fence on the perimeter of the base itself. Back then, it was home to some ninety-six bombers and their groundcrews, along with four squadrons of Self Defence Force fighters. Hayworth was almost bigger than the village itself, and it seemed everything was built around it; we'd even be allowed to take time off school to watch the bombers coming home or taking off.

I remember the nervousness of the other children as we counted the planes in, and how the older children would hold the younger ones and reassure them they their mother or father's plane would be the next one back. Often it was, but sometimes we'd have to carry a crying little child back home and wait for the report about what had happened.

Once such day was the day I met her, in fact. I was seventeen years old, in my final year of school with a couple of offers from colleges based on my provisional scores. In truth, all I wanted to do was work on our local newspaper; the job I'd been doing since I was fifteen.

It was snowing as I stood at the fence near the edge of the base, holding hands with a little Cervidine who was waiting for her mother's plane to return. With all the other aircraft home and no more in the sky, she was already starting to sniffle and ask me where it was, and I really didn't know what I should tell her.

That was when she walked over, still in her flight suit, and asked what we were doing. I explained, giving her the number of the aircraft we were waiting for. She smiled gently and knelt down, holding the little girl's hands and explaining that her mother's bomber had been damaged and had to make a rough landing in a field near a Federal base on the Isle: she'd circled around to confirm everyone on board made it out before returning. I remember the little girl crying happily on hearing her mother would be back in a few days safe and sound, and the two of us led her home.

I can't say just what made me accept Aosa's invitation to dinner; I was a little lonely back then, and the attention of an older woman was welcome, but still, I was never one to go out with strangers. We talked for a while and even danced together that night, and finally she invited me to spend the night with her. I was frightened by that, worried she just wanted to seduce me, but her kindness and reassurances made me realise she wanted me with her as a friend, not another notch on her bedpost like some of the other pilots.

I don't really think my readers will be interested in my stories of long walks in the woods, of sitting on a bench holding her hand and feeling like everything was finally going right for me; suffice to say, I fell in love with her, and she in love with me. That was how I too came to realise how terrible it was waiting for a plane that might never return. Before every mission she'd hold my hands and promise me she'd be back home soon, and she'd help calm me every time I cried and begged her not to go.

On the night of the eighth of May, there were a lot of military police around the airbase. I was with a few friends that night on the roof of the school building, with a telescope set up to watch a comet that was supposed to be visible. I remember Jake, a boy a few years younger than me who loved aircraft, was first to hear something approaching; he swung the telescope around to look at it. There was a single bomber coming in to land, with all her lights off; come to that, almost all the lights on the runway itself were off, too.

He commented that she looked a little strange, not quite the right shape; it was then that an MP who had climbed up onto the roof shined her torch on us and told us we had to stand away from the telescope until it had landed. She didn't seem angry with us; I guess because she realised we weren't likely to be spies. Even so, we all had to sign non-disclosure forms the next morning stating that no plane had landed at the base that night. Jake couldn't stop grinning; he was bad enough when he knew an ordinary secret, let alone a state secret.

It wasn't until a few weeks later we learned what the plane was, after an event that I'll never forget. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Today I have an interview scheduled with Aichi and Usai Xiochi, two of the industrialists who lent their support to Project Wolf. I must admit to being a little ignorant about the politics of Federal industry, having spent my life far away from it, and I hope that won't offend them.

Sir Usai Xiochi is CEO of the Xiochi Combine, a medium-sized industrial group set up with her family's capital following the invest-or-lose program of the 1950s. During this, all so called 'idle money' belonging to the rich was required to be invested in the war effort, or it would be seized. Usai's family profited immensely from this program, going from having minor holdings in shipbuilding to establishing a number of large arms plants and other heavy industrial developments. At the time of Project Wolf, her wife Aichi Xiochi was captain of the aircraft carrier Cruik, not to be confused with the modern carrier of the same name that replaced her ten years ago.

Sixth interview transcript: Sir Usai Xiochi and Captain Aichi Xiochi, CEO and Chief Assistant Director of the Xiochi Combine

<Except where indicated, the speaker is Usai Xiochi>

'What did I do? No, it's not rude at all, child, it confuses a lot of people what role industrialists have in major research projects like the Fortress Dragon.'

<She takes a sip of her tea>

'The job of a project team, as you well know, is to complete the project to the specifications requested, be that abstract, blueprint or a full prototype. The trouble is after that they need to get figures from the manufacturing side of military industry to take up their orders and actually get whatever it is into production. That's where they start looking for sponsors like myself.'

'You see, technically it should be purely about the quality of the project itself, but in reality there's a lot of red tape a project will soon get tied up in if the wrong people oppose it. A glass ceiling of sorts, I suppose. So, an industry sponsor's job is to deal with that; organise presentations, put in good words, call in favours...'

<She grins at my expression>

'No, no, nothing quite so far as bribery...I'd like to think myself above greasing palms in any case, and regardless, after the 1986 purge there were oversight commissions put in place by Internal Affairs to monitor large transactions within the defence industry. That came about after the inquest into the J-7 Tactical Sniper Rifle being selected over the Enfield No.4 Block 83 despite losing every shoot-off revealed a lot of money changing hands between senior figures in the manufacturing committee and the review board. Everyone was suspicious of that one to begin with because the army hates semiautos...All their testing feedback was negative from the start.'

'Around the Fortress Dragon's time it'd be very hard to get away with it even if you wanted to.'

'In any case, the most valuable thing I did was to get in touch with my contacts at Gulf & Bradley and get them behind the project. It wasn't difficult, actually: Gulf & Bradley had developed the new engines the Fortress Dragon would be using, and almost jumped at the chance to have them proven on a combat aircraft, something which would all but ensure their full production. With an industrial powerhouse like Gulf & Bradley behind us, we only really had to worry about objections from any of the other large manufacturers.'

'We got them, unfortunately, since the FALCON project that was working on the UCAV had Cobra Heavy Industries lined up to make fuselages already and a mildly apathetic approval from Mine's Tactical Electronics to manufacture the computers and actuators. The guy from Mine's never actually turned up to the meetings, and I got the impression they didn't really care one way or the other from my correspondence with them; Mine's already had a huge contract for the barrel acceleration rings of the two Trojan experimental superguns, after all. Since I'd personally offered to put up one of my plants for assembling the Fortress prototype and we already had a fuselage and most of the materials, though, there wasn't an awful lot for Cobra to object to.'

'Still, they dropped just about every obstacle they could, and myself and a few colleagues spent a lot of time speaking to the evaluation and oversight committees over even the most minor deviations from procedure. I think it's fair to say that without myself and my colleagues we'd never have got the green light.'

<She grins>

'I must say it was enough that I finished a bottle of vintage whiskey I promised I'd never touch over it, and I'm thankful my wife was willing to listen to me complain about whatever piece of quibbling legislature I had to defend the project over that week.'

<Aichi smiles at this>

'It was something of a joke among the officers on my carrier at the time, actually...That my wife was calling me at all hours to discuss matters related to the Xiochi Combine while we were at sea, that is. They started logging them with little notes like 'wanted to know where the TV remote was,' things like that. All in good humour, though.'

Personal journal, Xi Shio Aoku, 10th May 2037

Today is the day before the twenty-eighth anniversary of the air raid called Operation Chastise: I thought it would be right to present things as they happened, so tomorrow I'll interview my good friend Lyssa Starkweather, and present the briefings today. Since the briefings have long been declassified, I was easily able to get a copy from the base archive; I reproduce the first three pages of this document below. Most of the others are photographs or additional intelligence reports that duplicate the material here in greater detail.

HEADQUARTERS
ARMY SPECIAL PROJECTS DIVISION, AAF SECTION
TOP SECRET / V3 CLEARANCE
COPY 379 of 1,121
BRIEFING #2348/11/CDO NOT COPY
OPERATION: CHASTISEPAGE 1 OF 22

1. OUTLINE

978 aircraft of the First Army Air Force each armed with 36 Mk.95 4,000lb general-purpose bombs will assemble at assembly point 203 [Beacon K] at a planned time of 19:30 hours on May 11th. They will proceed East-by-South at heading 105.72 to arrive at the IP 10 miles West and one mile North of the target at approximately 22:00 hours. Bombers will proceed to release according to their assigned targets with trailing planes in each formation performing BDAs to determine if further bombing of the targeted area is necessary by subsequent formations. All primary targets must be confirmed reduced beyond operational ability prior to targeting of any of the listed secondary targets. The primary objective of this operation is to reduce output of the complex to 5% of current capacity or less, and to destroy as much of the complex's fuel stockpiles as possible.

The aircraft BLACK will occupy the rearguard position. Further briefing on this aircraft will be given to assigned supervisory personnel at a time to be determined.

Enemy air cover is expected to be light to moderate with heavy AA fire from the target in the early stages of the raid, mostly from large-calibre flak cannons. Cloud cover is forecast to be 17%, this will be updated closer to the operation. Aircrews are advised that full NBC gear must be worn at all times and chemical warfare procedures observed, and all efforts must be made to avoid baling out over the target.

2. AIRCRAFT ASSIGNED

978 B-95 Heavy Bombers with 144,000lbs of Mk.95 GP bombs per aircraft
1 aircraft 'BLACK' with load to be described in briefings to supervising personnel only
4 ES-97 AWAC aircraft providing EW support and command / control
Fighter aircraft allocation is not currently cleared; given current shortages, we cannot anticipate their availability.

3. PRIMARY TARGETS

1. Southeast sector tank farm ['Romeo'] of 344 tanks, 1 storage area, 3 loading docks, 1 pumping station, 1 emergency generator.

2. Southwest sector tank farm ['Albert'] of 1,373 tanks, 2 storage areas, 2 loading docks, 4 pumping stations, area fire station including 4 appliances, 2 emergency generators.

3. Northwest sector tank farm ['Oscar'] of 400 tanks, 5 storage areas, 8 warehouses, 3 pumping stations, area fire station including 8 appliances, 1 emergency generator, base water filtration plant, barracks.

4. Northeast sector tank farm ['Harrison'] of 490 tanks, 3 storage areas, 3 warehouses, 14 rising gas storage towers, 4 loading docks, area communications tower, area fire station with 2 appliances, transformer house, 3 emergency generators.

TOP SECRET / V3 CLEARANCE
COPY 379 of 1,121
BRIEFING #2348/11/CDO NOT COPY
OPERATION: CHASTISEPAGE 2 OF 22

5. Central refinery block 1 ['Bertha'] 46 desalter units, 12 cooling towers, pumping station, vehicle park, facility motor pool, area fire control radar installation [see photo #12], 1 area fire station with 12 appliances.

6. Central refinery block 2 ['Dora'], 50 atmospheric distillation units, 20 vacuum distillation units, 8 napatha hydrotreater units, 4 isomerization units, 4 warehouses, loading dock, 5 emergency generators, transformer house.

7. Central refinery block 3 ['Frederick'] 10 large crude separating units, 5 storage and processing vessels, 5 hydrogen generating plants, 8 needle coker units, 8 sponge coker units, 2 coke storage pits, 1 large mobile crane, 2 flatbed 12-ton halftracks, 1 warehouse.

8. Central refinery block 4 ['Grant'] 8 large hydrogen fluoride alkylation units, 8 dedicated cooling towers, water curtain pump-house, emergency hydrogen fluoride storage tanks, area motor pool with average of 14 semi rig tractor / trailer units, 14 5-ton 6x6 trucks and miscellaneous other vehicles.

9. Central refinery block 5 ['Joshua'] 10 catalytic reformer plants, 8 miscellaneous sulphur-reduction plants, train switch house, wireless communication tower, area fire control radar, area fire station with 3 appliances.

10. Central refinery block 6, ['Kurt'] IMPERIAL PLASTICS plant, 34 processing units, rail yard including ~78 chemical rail cars at any time and 4 shunting engines, main power relay for blocks #1, #2, #4 and #7, 5 water towers, 35 chemical storage tanks.

11. Central refinery block 7 ['Leo'] ISIS petrochemical plant, 45 processing units, 34 storage tanks, main power generating units 3 and 6, area fire control radar installation, sector AA defence command station, area fire station with 6 appliances.

12. Central refinery block 8 ['Peter'] main steam reformer line [75 units], 16 rising gas storage towers, main hydrogen storage tanks, 4 boiler plants, preliminary waste water processing, emergency communications centre C.

13. Southern primary seawater and oil pumping installation ['Mace'] of 63 pump units, power relay, override pump, waste water processing unit, desalinisation plant, control station.

14. Western oil pumping installation ['Noah'] 41 pump units, shutoff valves, control centre, routing station and pipelines leading to main refinery blocks and storage areas.

TOP SECRET / V3 CLEARANCE
COPY 379 of 1,121
BRIEFING #2348/11/CDO NOT COPY
OPERATION: CHASTISEPAGE 3 OF 22

4. SECONDARY TARGETS

1. Central fire station ['Caesar']; 39 appliances, 4 water towers, firecrew barracks, 3 diesel generators, master dispatch control centre, main garages, 2 vehicle servicing bays. 23 ambulances in nearby garages are likely collateral; the facility is not marked as a hospital and retains its status as a valid bombing target.

2. Central administration building ['Emma']; archives, mainframe housing, switchboards, process monitoring stations, emergency communications centres A, B, D, 16 tracked SAM launchers, 4 mobile fire control radars.

3. Ammunition storage bunker complex ['Item']; 9 bunkers each storing ~1,900 90mm airbursting cannon rounds, 3 bunkers each storing ~400 155mm airbursting cannon rounds, 4 bunkers each storing ~26 SA-9 'Apophis' surface to air missiles, 2 mobile cranes, 6 flatbed semi rigs, 18 6-ton halftracks.

4. East motor pool ['Queen']: staff cars, 14 semi tractor / trailer rigs with chemical trailers, 5 6-ton halftracks, 18 armoured cars, 4 IFVs, 12 self-propelled heavy antiaircraft guns, 19 towed heavy antiaircraft guns and their attendant 12-ton halftracks, 6 main battle tanks.

5. North facility airstrip ['Sierra']: runways, hangars, helipads and all aircraft, with priority to large transport aircraft; control tower, all radars, fuel storage areas and area power station.

6. All East and North land-based drilling derricks ['Tango']; 41 derricks and their respective pipelines.

7. All South and West offshore drilling platforms ['Victor']; 17 rigs, 2 tanker mooring / filling points, 4 tankers.

5. NON-TARGETS

1. Civilian housing in East and South sectors as marked on photos #8 and #14 is not to be targeted, nor are vehicles leaving this area via the A237 or A429 main roads regardless of circumstances.

2. North and East sector aid stations, central hospital and base chapel [points 3, 7, 19, 22 on main overview map #2] are marked in accordance with the treaty of 1951 [Section 11] and are not to be targeted. Any and all strikes on these targets are to be logged immediately together with the identity of the dropping aircraft for court martial proceedings.

3. School building located at marked point 27.

4. Civilian area fire station at marked point 21. Any appliances from this station entering the refinery area are to be considered legitimate targets in line with the treaty of 1951 [Section 42 clauses 8 and 9]; the station and appliances that remain outside the refinery perimeter are not to be considered targets under any circumstances.

Personal journal, Xi Shio Aoku, 10th May 2037

Reading through the briefing reminded me of what first made me want to find out my wife's story. It had been a few months ago when I was looking through the base archive for a few documents related to another bomber crewman's war record to help me type up her obituary. I noticed the words 'saturation bombing' appeared on every bomber crewman's record sooner or later, and my curiosity got the better of me as I looked for my wife's. Even though I knew they would be there, some part of me still prayed I wouldn't see them on hers. Even as an adult, I still can't imagine how such actions could ever have seemed just, or could ever have been carried out by the kind and gentle people I knew to be the crews of the bombers involved. How can it ever be right to drop so many bombs that you extinguish even the smallest flicker of hope that anything might survive?

I admit I felt myself shiver as I read some of the operation reports, never having wanted to believe that people from my country could be so cold as to reduce the lives of the enemy to numbers; percentages, casualty projections, dispersal patterns and co-ordinates. I know I have no right to judge any of them, but I've never read anything before or since that I found quite so frightening.

I cried that night, but I was glad when she asked me what was wrong I could still look into her eyes and smile, and still find comfort in her arms. I once told her nothing could make me stop loving her, and now I know that's true.

First Interview Transcript <continued>: Hammer 1: Haru "Spring" Itou; Air Force Mainland Defense Squadron 1st Air Division, 9th Interdictor Squadron

"Yes, you heard me right, kiddo. You see, the differences between the old and new aren't that much." <I must have looked confused.> "Okay, let me explain a few things about the Union and our new, glorious, Technocracy.

"Back in the days of the Union, we weren't that much different then the Federation, really. Massive military machine, omnipresent government, everything socialized... to be honest, I rather liked it. Christ, what do I know about paying rent? Sadly, we also had their corruption. And in spades. It's probably why we lost, actually.

"You see, most of the brass got their position because of contacts or bribes. I'm not saying they were all idiots, but there were very few promotions based on skill, and to get one you had to be damn good." <The bitterness is heavy in his voice.> "So we had cock-ups left and right, and ridiculous planes to work in. I mean, come on, point defense lasers on the ass? That's what wingmen are for."

<He shakes his head.> "Anyway, this new bunch aren't much better in many ways. They want to whitewash the past. They're falling all over themselves to talk about how evil the Union was, and how the Federation helped to liberate us. Fuck that noise." <He leans in close, his voice barely over a whisper.> "People are dedicated to the lie, kid. They'll paint your dad as a communist thug. Don't believe them. He was a fucking patriot."


Personal Journal; Zak; February 14th, 2037

I tried to get more out of Captain Itou, but he wouldn't say anything more. There was a blazing fire in his eyes as he described the Union, and I couldn't help but feel sorry for him. He had given his soul to a nation that was so riddled with flaws that he couldn't ignore them. And he and his had lost that nation, only to have it replaced with something utterly alien to everything he had ever known. It wasn't that the Federation had conquered the Union and changed things to mirror their own, they had simply battered the Old Bear until it ripped itself apart.


Personal Journal; Zak; February 20th, 2037

I had underestimated the tenacity of the new order. Capt. Itou had said they were whitewashing the past, but I never imagined that they would go to such lengths to do so. I've spent the past week trying to dig up some information about the Corporate Rebellion. It's a tangent to my quest to learn about Father-Lex, but it's certainly connected. Maybe it's just that the old Captain has awakened my curiosity. How did they crash a nation? And why didn't the Federals just roll in and claim the pieces? Surely it would have been a better prize than Grafton's Isle.

I eventually realized that teasing out information from official sources wasn't going to work, so I had to turn to unofficial sources. I hit bars, listening to old men tell old stories over drained beer glasses. I sought out the seediest, scummiest bits of filth I could find. I finally got in touch with someone who knew a couple things, and, more importantly, knew people. With a bit of luck, charm, and more chits than I could afford, I worked my way back up the food chain until I was put in touch with a strange, melancholy woman who looked far too young to remember anything.

Her name was Alexandra Ristoviæ. She was young, barely older than me, and had very pale skin and red eyes. She almost looked like an albino, but bright lights didn't seem to bother her. There was a sentimental look in those deep eyes when she agreed to talk to me. She never told me what she did for a living, just that she was very interested in history; and in preventing it from repeating.

I have never met so sad a woman in my life.


Second Interview Transcript: Alexandra Ristoviæ, Scholar and Historian

"The Corporate Rebellion? Yes, I remember it clearly. The timing couldn't have been more perfect if it had been planned from the beginning." <She paused ever so briefly at that thought.> "The Union worried that it would lose the war, so they rammed though a new law that fully privatized all the banks in the nation. The banks, combined with many of the high tech firms decided that they had had enough. You see, the nukes took out the military networks, while the Rebels handled the civilian side."

<I ask what she means.>

"The timing was just too perfect. I won't say that the man who orchestrated the initial attack was in league with the Federation; he's not a man I would want as my enemy, but the timing is curious, and the Rebels' virus was just too effective. Within minutes, every computer system in the nation crashed. Not just the software, either. They managed to disable much of the hardware, too. Especially cooling fans. With the data systems crumbling before their very eyes, nobody noticed the servers overheating and melting down until it was too late. It was in that chaos that the actual invasion started.

"The Corporates had gathered military hardware and insulated them from the virus and shielded them from the EMPs. Since everything the Union had was computerized, and since they all received regular updates, they were infected too. While guns would still shoot, and tanks would still roll, anything with computer guidance was worthless, and that included the Union's superheavy tanks and their air force. It was a slaughter, Zak. The loyalists were completely off guard. They were still in a state of war with the Federation, they had just been on the receiving end of a nuclear strike, and now they were being attack from the inside. It was too much."

<She sighs again.>

"So many people were killed. Loyalists were usually just shot, the party members were publicly executed. Those were bad enough, but the senseless death that followed was too much." <I ask her to explain.> "It was a revolution, Zak. What's the first thing the new order needs to do to cement its position? Eliminate the enemy. Even low ranking loyalists were killed, and many more suspected loyalists were killed. It was senseless and excessive. Not as bad as some purges I've seen, but still horrible."

<She lapsed into silence for several minutes, tormented by her memories.>

"When I heard you wanted to talk to me, I did a little digging of my own; I have better resources than you do. If you really want your father's story, I can put you in touch with a few people who can help. It won't be a nice story, though. Some may call him a traitor or a failure. I wish that you would just go home and not try to unearth these ghosts, but…" <She paused again, looking at me with her hypnotic eyes.> "But I know you won't."

Personal Journal; Zak; February 21st, 2037

The envelope that Alexandra gave me had a list of names and phone numbers, as well as suggestions for where to meet these people. Most of them were former air force, as I had expected. I found myself staring at the list for a long time before I finally picked up the phone and made the first call.