After some walking, and some more walking, they arrived near the supposed crash site. Because they weren’t allowed to use positioning devices, all they had was a paper map with a big black dot scribbled over where the crash site was estimated to be.

“I’ve got visual on the wreckage,” Ying said softly, pointing through a gap in the undergrowth.

Lenn led his team towards the direction Ying was pointing towards, and emerged into a little clearing in the middle of the woods.

“They were off by two hundred meters,” said Kang, putting on the voice of an annoyed mother.

“Show some respect,” Rei snapped back with a calm but stern voice.

“S… sorry…” Kang stuttered when he noticed the bodies belonging to the crew of the crashed fightercraft still strapped to their seats.

Lenn wasn’t sure if it was a blessing or curse that the bodies of the crew were there. Because if they weren’t, then it means they had been taken away for questioning, and would probably die in the torture rooms of Europa. If it was him, he would much rather perish along with his fightercraft in a much quicker and comparatively more painless death.

“Three bodies, commander is missing,” Kang reported, looking up over the edge of the cockpit. His small stature meant that he had to stand on tip toes to be able to peer inside. “All are correctly identified according to our briefing.”

Lenn walked up to the shattered canopy of the cockpit, dried blood forming little rivulets which ran down the silvery skin of the fightercraft.

The commander's seat was empty, probably taken away for questioning and interrogation. The mission specialist and gunner both have horrific blunt force injuries probably resultant from the crash.

The gunner had probably taken the worst of the impact with the ground as his neck was twisted at an almost ninety degree angle, and his leg was wedged into a crevice barely large enough to fit a hand. There was also a huge gash on his head, probably caused when his head snapped forwards and hit his control panel.

A cannon round appeared to have struck the right side of the fightercraft just behind the cockpit, and had sent a cloud of razor sharp fragments through the thick acrylic canopy, taking out computer systems and the right half of the mission specialist’s body.

The flight engineer however, had a nasty projectile wound to the head. There was a surprisingly little amount of blood and gore considering the extend of the injury, which Lenn assumed was caused by the service pistol of an enemy pilot.

Lenn felt a little sad at the sight, and a little scared because he too was piloting the exact same fighter as the dead bodies before him once did. But the many years of war had built a wall around his heart made of solid steel. He had seen much worse back at home in the slums when he was a kid, some dead bodies and blood really isn’t that bad.

“Come on guys, let’s bring their tags back home and give them a proper burial,” Lenn said to the rest of his team. “Kang, can you set up the pulse generator and explosives?”

“Sure.”

Kang pulled out an umbrella shaped sort of metallic object from his bag, unlocked a little panel on the fuselage of the crashed fighter, and plugged the object into the circular charging port.

Then he walked around the wreckage, stuffing little bags of high-explosives into the key structural components of the fighters.

“Ready!” Kang reported after he had set down all the explosives he had, and was ready with a detonator in his hand.

Ying walked up to Lenn with three shiny metallic tags hanging from her hand. “Here they are,” she said as she dropped them into the center of Lenn’s palm.

Lenn nodded thankfully to Ying, who gave the tiniest of nods back in response. Recovery missions always put the crew in a sad mood, but they’d always had seniors around them to cheer them up. This time however, they were alone, deep in enemy territory, hundreds of thousands of kilometers from home.

There was a time when the military had specialized branches for specialized missions. But as the war dragged on, there simply wasn’t enough resources to sustain that sort of system. And so the upper levels adopted a new doctrine; a doctrine where everyone can do everything. Now production lines only needed to manufacture a few types of aircraft, a few types of weapons, and all military personnel went through the same type of training.

“Stand back,” Lenn shouted, walking away from the wreckage. “Kang, whenever you want.”

Kang nodded, holding the detonator tight in his hand. When he saw everyone was far enough away, he gave the large red button a firm squeeze.

There was a tiny moment of absolute silence. Then the wreckage shimmered and sparkled as the powerful electrical pulse flowed through it, frying all sensitive electronic components and welding together any hinges or actuators.

And then the explosives detonated, shattering the already damaged airframe and sending debris high into the air. The half empty fuel tanks ruptured, catching fire in a brilliant flash of colors. The fire engulfed the wreckage in an instant, scorching the silver metal into a dull black color.

Perhaps it was military tradition, or maybe it was a resource saving measure, but the bodies of downed pilots were never recovered, only left to be destroyed with their own craft. If they ejected they were often taken prisoner never to be heard from again. It seemed like an honorable, almost heroic death; to burn to ashes along with the machine which you devoted your life to flying. But the more Lenn thought about it, the more he realized it was literally just because it would be too expensive and difficult to recover and bury the bodies.

“We should go,” Kang said. “The longer we stay the higher chances of us being detected. Plus, that explosion made a lot of noise.”

“You’re right, let’s go,” Lenn gestured for his team to follow him. He turned away from the burning wreckage, where his fellow soldiers have just been laid to rest and jogged into the trees.

As they approached the sandbank, a dark shadow swooped over them. Lenn quickly looked up, searching the skies for the origin of that shadow.

Then a deafening sonic boom swept through the trees, almost sending Lenn to the ground.

“We’ve been found, we really gotta go!” He shouted, sprinting towards his fightercraft.

One by one they piled into the cockpit, and buckled themselves in at the speed of light. Lenn reached straight for the engine start switch, and, even though the inscription on the throttle panel said “Wait for warmup”, slammed the throttle forwards violently.

“Hey slow down! I haven’t finished the checklist yet!” Rei shouted.

“No time! There’ll be a missile up our ass soon if we stay any longer!” Lenn shouted back, apologizing internally for speaking to the eldest member of their team rudely. He looked around to search for a missile launch trail. He felt a slight sense of relief when he saw none.

A mini sandstorm was once again created as the powerful thrusters lifted the hulking fighter off the ground and into the air. With a smooth yet robotic movement they swiveled backwards, propelling the craft forwards at immense speed.

“Just get the defense matrix and missile warning system online, everything else can wait.” Lenn ordered, as he carefully maneuvered the craft into the river channel and sped off as fast as he dared.

“Contact, three o’clock high,” Ying said, marking out a tiny little dot in the sky on their linked helmet displays. “Should I switch on radar and lock it up?”

It always amazed Lenn how gunners were able to pick out such tiny targets with their naked eyes.

The little dot seemed to be flying towards them, probably trying to get close enough for their radar to pick out Lenn’s craft through the ground clutter. Any second now they would get a radar warning, and a missile would probably soon follow.

“Sure,” Lenn said. Even though switching on the radar would definitely give away their position, it can also buy them valuable time by giving them the opportunity to make the first move. “Weapons free.”

“Copy,” Ying said. With the throw of a switch a loud beep sounded, and a bright green box appeared around the bandit in their helmet mounted displays. “Fox three, bandit is going defensive.”

There was a slight shudder, and a active radar guided missile sprang off the rails trailing a light cloud of smoke. Its trajectory swung upwards as it calculated an intercept point to hit its target.

Lenn watched as the bandit rolled over and dove for the ground. He imagined that a deafening missile warning was probably sounding in the cockpit of the enemy fighter right about now, as the beam of radar waves from their missile locks onto the fighter.

“Give them another one to keep them defensive,” Lenn told Ying. “Start searching for other bandits, I got the first one.”

“Copy, fox three,” Ying said, somehow with a decisive tone even though she really was just whispering.

Another shudder, and another cloud of smoke. Lenn wanted to keep the bandit defensive so they can’t turn around and get a shot off on them. He pulled back on the stick, climbing out of the safety of the river channel in order to pursue the bandit.

The first missile closed in on the enemy fighter, but the defense matrix quickly identified the threat and zapped the missile out of the sky. Lenn saw the puff of smoke off the tail of the bandit, too far away to do any real damage.

He could just fire enough missiles to overwhelm the defense matrix of the bandit, but that would leave them vulnerable to the bandit’s wingman if he had one. So Lenn decided to go for a tactical approach, attempting to get close enough to get a gun kill. He knew that although the F-51, the main air superiority fighter of Europa, was smaller and more nimble than the VX-200, it isn’t as fast and does not boast the array of defense systems and weapon load the VX-200 is capable of carrying.

In just tens of seconds he would be within range of the fearsome dual 37mm auto cannons, by which time he would be able to blow the bandit out of the sky with ease.

Suddenly a warbling alarm sounded, indicating a missile launch against them. Lenn begrudgingly pushed the stick forward, diving for the ground and dragging the missile into denser air so it would bleed off energy faster and make it easier for the defense matrix to engage it.

“Found another!” Ying said, leaning forwards in her seat to see around and behind their plane. “Bandit six o’clock high, ten clicks out.”

“Give the first another missile, I’m turning around to engage this guy,” Lenn gasped, pulling back on the stick hard to swing the nose of his fighter around, the heavy g-forces pressing him into his seat. “Start blinding his sensors with the lasers, I’ve got control of missiles.”

The second bandit fired another missile and dove for the ground. Lenn watched the missile get closer and closer, a feeling of anxiety filling up inside him. But luckily the defense matrix quickly identified the missile when it got close enough, and three beams of purple light converged upon the warhead, setting it off before it can reach them.

“Coming in for the merge!” Lenn called out, as the bandit sped towards them head on. They passed meters from each other and both turned back in as hard as they could.

Lenn rolled to the side and turned parallel to the ground, while the bandit pulled vertical. Lenn wanted to keep his speed up to conserve energy and make it harder for the bandit to hit them.

The more agile F-51 turned the circle just slightly faster than they could and let off another missile. But the laser turret of their own fighter shone its ray into the seeker head of the missile, causing it to go dumb and fly straight into the ground.

Now Lenn knew he had this fight completely under control. Because the bandit was diving towards them, it means they have too much speed for sharp turns. Whereas he was climbing, and was slow enough to basically throw his plane around in the air without fear of over-stressing the airframe.

Lenn stepped hard on the rudder pedals and yanked the joystick all the way back, causing his fighter to twist and tumble backwards in mid air just as the bandit passed over their heads.

As soon as they turned halfway around, their heat seeking missile’s tracker heads instantly locked onto the scorching hot exhaust plume of the bandit. A high pitched tone sounded in his helmet, signaling an infrared lock.

“Fox two times two!" Lenn shouted, squeezing off two heat seeking missiles straight into the exhaust pipe of the enemy fighter.

Even with active cooling, no plane can hide the heat signature of their superheated exhaust plumes. At such a close range, the defense matrix would not have enough time to shoot down two missiles one after another.

The first missile streaked towards the bandit, chasing it down and closing the distance within a fraction of a second. Just meters from the tail of the bandit, it was destroyed by the defense matrix, the shrapnel from its explosion just barely grazing the tail section of the enemy fighter.

But the second missile followed straight after, and impacted the bandit with pinpoint accuracy. Immediately, the bandit burst into flames and disintegrated midair. Two bursts of smoke shot out from the burning wreckage, as the pilots ejected.

“Splash!” Lenn shouted, disengaging and turning around to search for the first bandit.

“Nice one!” Kang cheered, raising his hand to fist bump Lenn.

Rei reached around and fist bumped Lenn too, then turned and fist bumped Kang. Kang tapped Ying on the shoulder, who lifted her hand and reached it around without turning the rest of her body to receive Kang’s fist bump.

“First bandit is thirty clicks out and closing,” Ying reported.

The first bandit had probably already defeated the missile they had fired earlier, and had turned back around to come for them.

“We should start heading back, more fighters are probably on their way,” Rei said. “Fuel levels are also getting pretty low.”

“Understood,” Lenn answered, his voice shaking slightly from adrenaline.

He pushed the throttle lever all the way forwards, turned his plane all the way around, and dropped back down to treetop level. From there on it would be a straight path back home. Even if the hostile fighter continued its chase, it would be too slow and too far to be of any danger to them

Within minutes they had left hostile airspace, and had ascended to a higher altitude to conserve fuel.

Just before dusk they spotted their city just beyond the horizon, and touched down in their hangar just minutes later.

“Captain Yuki wants to talk with you guys.” The ground personnel informed them as they stepped out of their plane.

Lenn exchange glances with his teammates. “Come one, let’s go,” he said.

And so they walked away from their fightercraft, as the sun disappeared behind the distant hills.