NationStates Jolt Archive

Yarsh Air Base, Space Union:

Chief of Military Manjit Kaur paced around the room waiting for her aids to arrive. She had arrived early in the morning to inspect the base. The Air Base Commander, Manujeet Brar, had made sure that not only was the base in tip top condition for the arrival of the Chief of Military along with the special guests. These guests were not any ordinary ones. For the first time in history, Space Union had arranged an aircraft exchange with another nation: Tyrandis. The two nations had in the past not shared the greatest of relationships, but improvements had come as diplomatic relations had pulled the nations closer.

Both nations both had home-grown companies, in Space Union's case Space Union Defense Industries, that were major aerospace suppliers. Yet because of the unstable relations between the two powers, little contact or knowledge of each other's designs was available. This was going to change, somewhat at least. After a series of talks, Tyrandis' and Space Union's air forces had struck a deal where they would exchange three types of aircraft: their air superiority fighter, multi-role fighter, and their CAS aircraft. Each side would ship two samples of each aircraft along with ground personal and documentation for the aircrafts and the aircrafts would be kept for 5 years. During these five years, one sample would be used for testing and one would be stripped down for examination.

The three aircrafts that Tyrandis would be exchanging would be their, TSF-620 Xeon, the TAF-622 Sparrow, and their prototype Tueton. In exchange, the Space Union Air Force was transfering its SuF/A-6 Wraith, SuF-7 Nightmare, and SuA-1 Strikecat. All these aircrafts naturally weren't the advanced variants, being the export and heavily downgraded ones. These were all relegated to Reserve units, only. But each side had to start somewhere and what better way than to begin at the bottom.

As these thoughts continued her aid finally entered the room with a loud argument stirring.

"Sir, this is outragous!" shouted Air Base Commander Manujeet Brar as he took his seat with a loud thump and banged his fist against the polished wooden desk in the conference room.

"What is the matter?" asked Kaur gently without provoking him any further.

"What's wrong? EVERYTHING! Were about to meet with people who were our enemies at once! This is outragous, godammit! We are about to let them have their scientist pry through our fighters and discover our secrets. We are compromising our own security. Please, reconsider this, madame," answered Brar with a loud huff as he motioned for the door to be closed so outside personal could not hear the bickering preceding inside the room.

"With all due respect, sir, this is not as life-threatening as you make it out. We have evaluated the risk level and I am satisfied at it. Remember, we are only transfering our A/B models to them, not our advanced versions. And you must know that our advanced versions make these downgraded export ones look pathetic," smiled Kaur with a delightful smile at her own argument.

"Yes, but they are still incredibally capable fighters. The A/B models made our old generation fighters, the SuF-2 Archangel, look like it was piece of shit in the August summer!" replied Brar with renewed temper.

"COMMANDER!" shouted Kaur with her own ferociousness, "Do you not think my judgement is wise? I am your commander and you will do as I say. Do not forget that."

For a moment, Brar looked like he was going to lash out with his face turning from red to a subdued tannish color.

"Very well, pardon my outburst," replied Brar with no sign of defiance in his voice. Although he disagreed, he had enough military service in his career to know his place in the chain of command. It would be aweful way to part if dismissed. It was considered an act of shame to be decomissioned and one could not live the rest of his life without its ugly head rearing at him/her.

The room fell into an eary silence as they waited patiently for the arrival of the Tyrandis' aircraft. The air commander and the Tyrandis' commanders were given the temporary clearence code for the base, so hopefully they wouldn't have any "problem" flying into the base. It was now only a matter of time.

*gives it a slight nudge*

bump for Tyrandis

lol planes r for nubs

bump

[Tyrandis Precision Machine Industry HQ]

Unbeknownst to the bickering and disagreements of Space Union officials an ocean away, a nearly identical row was being fought over similar disagreements.

The executive boardroom for Tyrandis Precision Machine Industries, a state-owned subsidiary responsible for the manufacture and sale of aerospace products for domestic and foreign consumption, had been riven into two camps from several fruitless months of arguments. As was usually the case, the dividing line lay between the creative and corporate types. The former group wanted to improve the quality of their product, while the latterjealously defended the vast reservoirs of intellectual property TPMI had acquired. Irreconcilable differences led to utter bedlam; soundproofing was the only thing that kept the cacophony of angry voices from drifting into the open streets.

"I will not see our labors exhausted for the benefit of dirty foreigners!" shouted the corporation's Chief Financial Officer. He was visibly angry, as his face was changing colors from a normally pale complexion to one of ugly puce. "I don't care if the fucking administration wants to start rebuilding ties to the rest of the world, what will they do when our company goes bankrupt and our balance of trade is destroyed? When those bastards from SUDI take our precious technology and use it to drive us out of the market? What happens when the boys and girls of our proud Imperial Air Force finds themselves fighting against equipment WE pioneered? Our country cannot survive a deal with this many negative consequences." He slammed an overweight arm onto the black marble table in a gesture of angry defiance.

"Calm yourself!" was the response from TPMI's Chief Technology Officer. A weedy, elderly veteran of the aerospace industry since the company's foundation more than twenty years ago, the CTO was well respected internationally in the field for his experience and formidable intelligence. "I understand your concerns, Hitachi-san, but you know as well as I do that the certain cost of not doing anything outweighs the potential negatives. Or have you forgotten the report my division compiled on SUDI's products and their impact on our corporation's operations? You damn well know that those crazy sikhs have equipment of comparable performance to our own, at half the fucking cost! Perhaps there is indeed a risk that will be incurred at letting our enemies observe our products, but this is minimal compared to the certain destruction we face otherwise. Space Union Defense Industries has been incredibly generous with this aircraft exchange deal, and our political masters have seen fit to accept it. I see no reason for your continued ignorance and obstinancy in this matter, Chief Financial Officer Hitachi."

"Very well," spat the CFO, "but mark my words - there will come a day when TPMI, and Tyrandis as a whole regrets this pact. When our national security, our safety, is compromised to such an extent, I cannot say that I will swallow the situation willingly." He stormed out of the office, smoke billowing from his ears.

Yarsh Air Base, Space Union:

The runway gleamed in the sunlight as it shined in the noon sun of the area. The radar tower hovered above the entire base as it lined the northern edge of the base. It was the first part of the base to detect in the incoming fighters from Tyrandis' fighters and other aircraft formation. The Air Base Commander Manujeet Brar stood at the end of the runway with a stone face, making sure to not express any of his doubts and concerns on the program. He was another soldier following his upper commands.

The flight of aircrafts landed smoothly and roared down the runway, decreasing in speed very quickly. There was a total of 20 aircrafts that landed of different sorts. Two of them were SB-22 Sariels, two of them TAF-622 Sparrows, two prototype Teutons, four cargo aircrafts and the rest were the TSF-620 Xeons. Two of the TSF-620s would be part of the exchange program while the rest were just escorts for the flight. It was all standard procedure.

A company of airbase personal arrived towards the aircrafts and immediately greeted the pilots and helped them out. They were escorted over to the Manjit Kaur, who was standing with the Air Base Commander, waiting to meet the Tyrandis' pilots. As each group neared each other there was a slight atmosphere of tension in the air, but it quickly dissolved as the greetings spread amongst the officials.

"Welcome, honored guests of Tyrandis. We wish to welcome you to the Yarsh Air Base, the base we have selected for our Exchange Program to occur at," said Manjit in a calm and enthusiastic voice.

"In your time, make yourself home as you will be spending time here to both learn and instruct. You shall learn how to fly our aircrafts while teaching our pilots how to fly your own. Then we will allow for you to take the examples back to your own country where your engineers have been given authority to inspect them as they please and test them out."

The pilots nodded and offered some voice of approval. It was only a mere greeting yet it was the beginning of a new friendship. The pilots would get to fly the Space Union Air Force's SuF/A-6 Wraiths, SuF-7 Nightmares, SuA-1 Strikecats, and the SuB-4 Super Hurricanes. The program had its opponents and proponents in the government and even at the base but it would none the less, continue.