Ahead the red locating lights on the top of Europa’s walls blinked like little eyes in the night. It has been three hours or so since sundown, and One-six was finally within visual range of their city.

“Patrol flight six, fly heading two-ten for straight in approach,” the air traffic controller said in a machine-like tone through their headsets.

“Copy, flight six, two-ten for straight in approach,” One-six read back the transmission, as standard procedure.

They circled around the city until they found their home base, and descended to the approach path into a cavernous opening on the side of the wall.

Lights arranged in arrow shaped patterns on the landing strip guided them down towards the opening.

“You’re fast,” Two-six said.

“Copy,” One-six mumbled, easing back on the throttle.

Landing is probably the toughest part of being a pilot. While landing strips exist on the tops of the walls, those are rarely used for military aircraft. Fighter pilots like them land in recovery chambers; cavernous chambers at the very bottom of the wall some fifty meters wide and ten meters tall. The pilot has to hover the aircraft just right, not too high, not too low, and also get the aircraft down and out of the way for others in pattern behind him quickly.

“Transitioning to hover mode,” Two-six reported as they slowed down and the flight computers automatically swiveled the engines downwards to maintain controlled flight.

They crossed the threshold of the chamber and settled down roughly on the concrete ground. One-six bounced in his seat a little as the landing gears absorbed the impact. Then he stepped on the brakes to slow the aircraft to a stop before the end of the chamber.

“Arrival, taxi to squadron hangar,” the air traffic controller told them.

“Copy,” One-six said.

By the help of illuminated signs on the walls, they navigated their aircraft to the hangar of their own squadron. Their assigned parking space was empty, and they slowly parked their aircraft there, in a row with the others. They didn’t launch using catapults since they didn’t belong in a rapid-response squadron, so their hangar is really just a large chamber with an opening on one side. Although it was night, the hangar is always brightly lit and busy with activity.

They stepped out of their jet, saluted to the ground crew who came to service their plane, and headed straight for Captain Steiner’s office.

“Come in,” Captain Steiner’s deep voice rumbled when they knocked on his door. Captain Steiner seemed to look at them with curiosity and an intensity they had not felt before. “I thought you four were downed. But I guess I underestimated you four.”

“Thank you,” One-six said, saluting together with his teammates.

“Strange that position tracking on your fighter was lost. Was it a mechanical failure?” Captain Steiner asked.

“Ah yes… well… yes it was a mechanical failure,” One-six stuttered. “We lost a few other sub-systems as well and had to stop over at town four-nine for refueling and repairs.”

Captain Steiner nodded with a knowing air.

“A merchant in the town told us to bring this to you,” One-six said, taking a letter out of his pocket. He walked forwards and handed it to Captain Steiner, who furrowed his brows and tore open the packet.

As Captain Steiner read the letter, his expression went from surprise, to confusion, then to understanding. He put down the letter after he finished reading, and looked at One-six and his team.

“Well, welcome back. You guys can return to your dorms, and I will need to file some paperwork on repairs and cancel the delivery of a new fighter team,” he said.

“Thank you, sir,” One-six and his team said together.

And with that they left.

After they arrived back in their dorm room, One-six pulled the rest of the documents out of his pocket and layed it out on the table.

“How will we go meet this person?” Two-five asked, standing beside the table. “…Amsterdam street number two-hundred-and… this all just sounds like gibberish to me.”

“The cars should take you to whatever location you specify,” Two-six answered. “We got on a car last time and it has voice recognition.”

“I see… but when are we going to go?”

“Anytime, preferably during the night. We’ve done it once, we can do it again.”

“No we can’t,” One-five stated. “When you got out it was two people, now we have four people. Plus, Captain Steiner knows that you two trespassed so surveillance on us is probably tougher now.”

“I’m sure we can still get through. We can use the vents again if we need to.”

“Fine then,” One-five backed down. “Whatever, we’ll try.”

“Alright alright, we’ll sort it out later. Put these notes away and go get some rest, I’m sure we are all very tired,” One-six said.

They returned to their rooms and laid down on their beds. One-six thought his mind would be too preoccupied to sleep, but as soon as he closed his eyes he passed out and didn’t wake until almost noon the next day. And the only reason he woke up at that time was because they had to attend a general meeting.

By the time they got to the assembly hall the assembly had already started. All the seats were full with pilots, servicemen, ground crew and all kinds of other people, so they had to just stand besides the door. A high ranking officer stood on the podium, a large screen displaying an image of a large aircraft, with the words “The Weapon” laid over it.

“Hello, pilots,” the officer announced. “After many years of development and testing, I am proud to announce that the end of the war is finally near.”

He paused, letting the information sink in. People looked around at each other, not sure if they were supposed to applaud or not.

“The Weapon has finished development, and will be ready to be deployed very very soon. Now what is the weapon you ask? Well… it is the weapon to end all wars,” the officer clicked a key and the screen jumped to a diagram of some sort of complex mechanism. “The Weapon is an energy weapon which utilizes something similar to plasma to bring destruction upon our enemies. The plasma feeds upon metal, and when deployed on a city like New Asia, it will propagate and strengthen, vaporizing everything in its path until all that is left is a scorched sea of death. And when that happens, victory will be our’s.”

This time there was applause.

The officer continued, the screen now showing a video of a test of The Weapon. “This is a video of a test of one such weapon.”

The screen displayed a huge tube-like machine with wiring drapped all over it. A warm orange glow began to emanate from the muzzle, followed by a ball of orange which shout out of the end and plowed into a metal tower. At first there was nothing, the fireball seemed to have been stopped. But then the fire grew larger and larger, tendrils of it climbing up the sides of the tower until the whole thing was a huge blossom of blinding light. Then it shut closed, and all that was left is the scorched concrete base sitting on the ground.

There was silence among the crowd. Then cheering and applause erupted. The officer waited until silence came back before speaking again.

“We have mounted this weapon onto a transport aircraft, thus giving us the ability to strike New Asia from afar… This weapon will grant us victory. This weapon will ensure the complete destruction of our enemy. This war will finally be over, and the final victory will be our’s!”

There was more cheering and more applause. The entire hall was in hysterics, filled with people throwing up their arms and cheering for their city.

“After the more primitive half of the world is gone, we can rebuild and reform. We will have lasting peace and a better world to live in. We will have advanced technology everywhere, plentiful food everywhere. Killing half of the world will only make the world a better place for the people who matter,” the speaker said, raising the hysteria even more. “This is humanity’s chance! This is our chance! This is Europa’s chance!’

People cheered and screamed, all shouting the name of their city in unison.

“Wha… hey this isn’t supposed to happen…” Two-six stuttered, her voice barely audible to One-six above the noise even though she stood right next to him.

One-six stood there astonished too, desperately trying to understand the scene in front of his eyes.

“We are planning an all out attack, with all of our aerial forces in a week’s time. It will be a bloody battle, as we have to fly quite deep into hostile airspace. But the final victory will be our’s. Further details will be given to you before the battle by your squadron captains.”

“Hey this is good right?” Two-six asked. “The war will be over right?”

One-six didn’t answer. He turned and ran out of the hall, his teammates following close behind him.

He ran all the way to his dorm, slamming the door closed behind him.

“They’re going to… destroy an entire city?” One-six stammered in a bewildered tone. “Half the world’s population? Just like that?” The images of that little girl came back to his mind, causing him to double over. “But then we win… we win…” he whispered. “We win!” He shouted, smiling and chuckling.

“One-six…”

“This is good new right? Really good news right?” One-six asked like a maniac. “I’ve been fighting all of my life for this moment. Finally, finally it will be over.” He tried to convince himself that it was wrong, that it was bad to kill so many. But deep down he still felt happy, a sense of accomplishment overwhelming him.

“But we’re killing so many…” Two-six argued.

“But we are doing it for the greater good,” One-five muttered. “We are doing it for peace.”

“What about that team of New Asian pilots that we met?” Two-six asked. “Didn’t you say we would meet again but as friends?”

“That’s changed hasn’t it?” One-six said. “Now we have the option to win once and for all. Plus, they should be safe in that town. I don’t care about anyone in New Asia, so if it means killing all of them to grant us victory, I would do it.”

“So do we need to go meet that person still? Is it still necessary?” Two-five asked.

“No… no it’s not… We can just wait until all of this blows over and we can have peace,” One-six chuckled. “And then it all wouldn’t matter anymore…”

The rest of the day was a flurry as well. During meal times the cafeteria was filled with excited chatter and patriotic chanting. The entire time One-six was in a state of bewilderment, too excited and confused to really sort out his thoughts.

As night approached One-six longed for some quiet time just to think over everything and the future, until Two-five came up to him.

“Commander,” she said. “I was thinking of something.”

“Yes?”

“After the war is over, what use will we be?”

“I don’t know…”

“So what is stopping them from… throwing us into the incinerator after they’re done with us, like they do with the others?”

There was a moment of silence as One-six thought about that information. Then at the same time something in his mind clicked and the door to their dorm room flew open.

“Hi pilots,” Captain Steiner said, ignoring the look of shock and terror on One-six’s face. “I have an assignment for you four. An assignment into the city.”

*****

“So what did you ask the Europeans?” Lenn asked as they sat around the dinner table with Takeshi, who had treated them to a fairly simple yet plentiful meal.

“Well, I guess there really isn’t much harm in telling you,” Takeshi said, sipping from a small cup of alcohol. “I’m actually from Europa.”

Lenn and his teammates froze, not necessarily out of fright, but just because of the shock from the information they had just received. A sense of uneasiness fell over them, as if the mere knowledge that a person was of European descent would make them an enemy.

Instinctively, Lenn reached down for his service pistol. “What do you want from us?” He asked Takeshi coldly.

Kang stood up and was about to draw his own pistol, but Lenn put a hand out to stop him.

”Oi oi!” Takeshi exclaimed, “Don’t jump to conclusions so fast!”

”You lied to us didn’t you?” Lenn demanded. “How could someone from Europa serve in our air force?”

”No no I... please... just let me explain.”

Lenn thought for a moment, then slowly lifted his hand up from his holster and gestured for Takeshi to keep talking. “Fine...” He gestured for his teammates, who were also getting ready to fight, to calm down.

Takeshi nodded, and began to speak. “Being of asian descent, my family and I were discriminated against quite heavily after the war began. When I reached my draft age I escaped, as to not have to serve in the military. I climbed into the wheel well of a trading jet and flew to New Asia,” Takeshi continued. “After all this time, I’ve still maintained connections with a few in Europa. One of them, is a Captain in the air force.”

“So you are working for the Europeans?”

“No no… Europeans are allowed to have connections with the outside, especially fairly high ranking people like him. And, well, the European pilots who came today happened to be from his squadron, I recognize the numbering. And as it turns out, those pilots have discovered stuff they are never supposed to, and have decided that they want to oppose the system... Europa's system, I mean."

“So you are helping them?”

“Well… sort of… The Captain I know doesn’t agree with most of what Europa does, so it will make him very happy if some pilots revealed all the dark and hidden secrets and caused an uprising.”

“What sort of dark secrets?”

“For one, I’m sure you’ve heard of the rumor of Europa cloning soldiers to fight?”

“Yeah? That’s true?”

“Oh yes it is. Every single word of it.”