“How is it going?”

“Plants one to eight have been on schedule with production, but production plants nine and ten are slightly behind due to raw material shortages.”

“Good. What about The Weapon?”

“The project is progressing as planned, however laboratory one suffered a plasma leak and subsequent minor meltdown. But the damages should be fully repaired by the end of the week.”

“And the carrier?”

“Prototype one and two are already built and are ongoing ground testing, flight certification should start in a few days.”

“Very good… very good.”

“But we are losing a lot of fighters since the introduction of the VX-200. Just yesterday I lost a patrol fighter on the border, and a squadron on an interdiction mission also suffered heavy losses. I think I can represent the entirety of the air force when I say upgrades should seriously—”

“That would not be necessary. Focus all resources on developing The Weapon, we cannot afford to fight this war for much longer. The Weapon can bring us decisive victory. Upgraded airplanes cannot.”

“So you are willing to use the death of our pilots to buy us time to build some weapon which has a good chance of not even being able to function?”

“Are you questioning the decisions of the council?”

“Yes I am. I do not believe that human lives should be simply just given away in order to create a weapon of mass destruction that will only takes the lives of many more.”

“But it will mean victory for us.”

“So? Victory at the cost of more than half of the global population?”

“Yes. And may I point out that the pilots you are referring to are incinerated under your supervision every other day.”

“That’s…”

“Just because they look like people and talk like people, it doesn’t make them people. Remember that. The only reason we have not lost the war many years ago was because of that invention and that belief.”

“I’ve only done so because of orders from you people. If I had the chance I…”

“You will what? Just so you know, we greatly value your ability as a general and a captain. And we would very much prefer to not have to terminate you prematurely for rebellious behavior.”

“…Yes…”

“You may now leave.”

The man nodded. Then he turned and marched stiffly out of the door, the guards closing the door behind him.

Now the council sat alone in the wide conference hall, a deathly silence hanging over them, pierced only by the splattering of rain on the wide tinted windows.

“Sophia, are you sure that it is the best idea to wipe out more than half the global population?”

“Are you not the one who first proposed it? Researcher… sorry, council member Alexander?”

“I just put it forward as an idea, I never meant for it to be chosen as the final solution. I was never sure if destroying the whole of New Asia really is something that will be for the greater good.”

“Alexander. It is almost unanimously agreed by people, including you, that having either one city survive will lead to future conflict. And it is also without a doubt that our city is objectively the superior one as compared to New Asia. We have less crime, lower child fatality rate, better health and living standards. By all means, if we win the war, the future world will be a better—”

“Yet we are still losing the war.”

“Do not cut me off, Alexander. By the time The Weapon is finished, we would grant ourselves the final victory. All the losses made along the way will be recorded down in history books as heroic sacrifices.”

“And how will you justify the destruction of all the little towns and villages? And the mass murder of civilians who are not part of Europa?”

“Humanity needs to be united. We cannot risk the possibility of another civilization rebuilding itself and creating the chance of another conflict. With just one society, with people who all have the same goals and beliefs, there will be no more war. We are doing this for the greater good of mankind. Of course, details such as these can be omitted when creating the history books.”

“Well I sure hope that you are right…”

*****

There was the muffled roar of engines and the whooshing of air over the fuselage and wings of a fast flying aircraft. He could feel vibrations against his head, which lay on a pillow crudely constructed out of folded clothing and bandages.

Lenn opened his eyes and saw what appeared to be the ceiling of the cargo hold of some aircraft. Red lights dimly illuminated the hold, which seemed to be a fair bit smaller than the cargo hold of their VX-200.

There was the sound of talking, but the noise of the engines were too loud for the words to be intelligible.

He thought back to the events before his waking. He remembered the dogfight, the close call with the hillside, and the approaching missile.

Then it dawned upon him. He is now a prisoner of war, aboard the enemy heavy fighter which shot him down.

Instinctively his hand reached down to the side of his hip to search for his pistol. But as expected, it wasn’t there. Neither was his utility belt nor his flying suit on his body. He noticed that he was dressed with only the innermost layer of his clothing, the cold stale air just now beginning to make him shiver.

Then he realized that none of his teammates were around. The cramped chamber was dark, but even so he could tell he was very much alone.

“Kang? Rei?” He whispered into the darkness, more out of false hope than anything else. But as expected, there was no response.

Had they been killed? Had they been left behind?

Thoughts raced through his mind as he desperately tried to convince himself that his teammates were somehow alive. He could not, would not, accept that they had been killed because of his own uselessness. For the time being, he decided to believe in the latter; that they had been left behind. For if he didn’t, he might just lose the will to keep fighting there and then.

As quietly as possible, he crawled towards the cockpit on his hands and knees. He found his clothing items in a pile in the corner of the chamber, and began clumsily looking for his service pistol.

Eventually his fingers wrapped around the cold hard grip of his pistol, tangled up within the rags of clothing.

With wobbling knees he pulled himself to his feet and leaned his ear against the door to the cockpit. But all he could hear were the various vibrations of the flying aircraft.

He backed up a few steps and examined the door. It appeared to be unarmored but durable, with a little viewing panel near the top. With a gentle twist of the handle he confirmed that it was unlocked. It would probably be hard for him to breach kick the door in, especially in his current state. So he opened the door and left it a tiny bit ajar, just enough for the lock to not engage.

Then he backed up, and kicked forwards with his foot.

The door flung open to reveal a cockpit lit by the morning rising sun and filled with green light from the instrument panels. His eyes were temporarily blinded by the bright sun, preventing him from identifying the threats. He took aim at the first figure he could see and pulled the trigger.

A loud bang and a bright flash, then a spark where the bullet hit the instrument panel and ricocheted into the ceiling. The person he was aiming at ducked and fell to the side, leaning over as far as their harnesses would allow them.

He took aim again, and was about to pull the trigger when another person grabbed his gun.

“Lenn! Stop!” The person shouted. “I’m Kang! Oi! Sto-”

Kang’s word were cut short when another round was squeezed off by Lenn, and proceeded to bury itself into the floor. It took a moment for his brain to recognize the voice. And when it did he let go of the gun and stood there astounded.

“Someone switch on the lights,” A monotone voice commanded.

With a click the cockpit became filled with a warm yellow hue. And under the light Lenn recognized his three teammates standing in front of him, and four other faces he didn’t recognize.

“It’s fine, we’re safe,” Kang said, dropping Lenn’s pistol onto the floor.

The four of them dove towards each other into a huge embrace. They had to do it in a single file due to the lack of space, but it was a big embrace nonetheless. After a few seconds they came apart, and Lenn stood there a little dazed, looking around at everything.

“So we-” Kang began to speak.

“Don’t talk.” Lenn cut him off. “First, explain everything to me. No bullshit. Just explain everything to me.”

*****

“So what you are saying is that… these guys are our enemies, well, used to be. But now they have had a change of heart due to certain events, and now they are on our side?” Lenn asked, confusion scattered upon him.

“Well yes, but no. Well… actually sort of,” Kang answered. “We don’t really know much either but, they fixed us up after the crash, took us aboard and asked us some questions.”

“How can we trust them?”

“Well because they haven’t killed us yet,” Rei said. “You see, they would never risk taking more than two prisoners onboard. And the fact that there are four of us here now is a good sign they actually are what they say they are. Plus, they let us have our weapons.”

“I still don’t know what to feel about these guys.”

“We don’t really have a choice.”

“Why don’t we just… you know…” Lenn gestured with his hand using finger guns.

“We shoot one of them and the other three will put the plane into a dive. Anything that’s not buckled in will fly out the back of the aircraft. Unless we can dibilitate all four of them at the same time with surgical precision, I would advice against using deadly force."

“I see…” Lenn nodded his head. “So we got shot down huh…”

“Yeah…”

“We are both the unluckiest and luckiest people on the planet right now,” Lenn lamented to himself. “What were the chances that our terrain warning system stopped working, but then we still had just enough time to pull out of the dive. Then get shot down, but turns out the people who shot us down aren’t keen to kill us for some unfathomable reason."

There was only the hum of the engines as they all reflect on what Lenn had said.

“What questions did they ask you?” Lenn spoke up.

“Weird questions, don’t really know how to explain,” Kang answered.

“Did you answer them?”

“Nope. Told them we’re not going to answer anything until you woke up. Now that you’re up, they’ll probably question us soon. Actually, here they come.”

Lenn turned to see the four pilots walking out of the door leading to the cockpit. There were two men and two women, all of whom looked western in origin.

“Hello, code One-six of the fifth fighter squadron,” The man with light brown hair and pale blue eyes said. “We would like to ask you a few questions.”

*****

It wasn’t the first time that Lenn had spoken to an enemy soldier. But it was definitely the first time that the talk had been this personal. The weirdness of the whole situation was completely beyond him, and so he decided not to think about it for now.

The questions they were asked were unlike anything he was taught to prepare for. They weren’t asked about classified intel. Nor were they asked about what their military and leaders were up to.

“What are your names?”

Was the first question they were asked.

“I believe New Asians people use names instead of code numbers?” the with pale blue eyes asked.

At first Lenn was reluctant to tell them, but it soon became clear that there was no point to withhold information that seemed so trivial.

The awkwardness of the situation soon wore off, and the talking went more and more smoothly. If a clueless person walked in, they would probably think the two teams were old friends seeing each other after a long time. Slightly alien, yet still very familiar.

As their conversation progressed, they learned that soldiers of Europa didn’t have names, instead they just had numbers. The pale eye’d man is One-six, the girl with really dark orange hair is Two-six, the buff man with an intense face is One-five, and the quiet girl with copper hair and heterochromia [1] is Two-five.

“Why are you doing this?” Lenn asked.

“We found out that after our military service is over, we get thrown into incinerators to be ‘recycled’,” One-six told him.

The statment which was made so matter-of-fact-ly caused a slight pause in the conversation. Lenn and his teammates looked at each other, not sure what to do with the information. It was decided through eye contact that it was to be accepted for now.

And then it was realized that the European soldiers had never actually lived inside of their city before they joined the military. The first memory they have, was of the white walls of the military facility.

Lenn and his team talked about their own city too, about their origins, their families, and why they decided to join up. Ying said little through out the entire conversation. Now that Lenn thought about it, Ying had never talked about her past with anyone at all.

“I come from a very poor family in the slums,” Kang said. “I joined because I wanted to escape the filth and the boredom. Shooting down planes just felt much more interesting.”

“I come from a family from the factory district. Apparently my parents used to be quite wealthy, but had become average when their business failed,” Rei said. “I joined because I felt it was my duty to serve for my city, and because I loved working around aircraft.”

“I come from a poor family too...” Lenn said when it was his turn. But when he tried to speak about his family, his breath always caught in his throat. It was like his mind forced him to not dig up the memories of his past.

His teammates noticed, and Kang told him to not push himself too much.

“It’s alright,” One-six assured Lenn. “You don’t need to tell us.”

Lenn nodded his head as a sign he acknowledged One-six’s kindness, even though he was still very skeptical about their intentions. After collecting himself, he continued. “I was drafted into the military because of a shortage of pilots.”

The Europeans [2] nodded their heads collectively. It turned out that they didn’t have families, and that they were born already predetermined to be soldiers. They never had the chance to make that choice, but were instead thrown into training from as early as they can remember.

Apparently they all were around the same age as well, but it was hard to say for sure. One because Lenn and Ying didn’t know what their exact birthdates are, only roughly the month or the year. And two because the European pilots seemed so much more mature it would only make sense for them to be at least a few years older.

“You know, I’ve heard that Europa uses clones as soldiers,” Kang said. “But it’s a pretty old rumor and was never officially confirmed. But if it’s true... then you four...” He stopped, looking up at the four European soldiers and looking for a reaction.

“Interesting...” One-six muttered. “Well I’ll be sure to get to the bottom of that.”

“Anyways, where are we going?”

Lenn and his teammates tensed up. The answer to that question could very well determine if they live or not.

“Town number four-nine. It is located right on the edge of New Asian territory. We will refuel there and head back for Europa, and you people can get picked up by a rescue party from New Asian,” the girl with dark amber hair, Two-six, spoke up.

Together Lenn and his team let out a breath of air. Although none of them trusted the Europa pilots, the words alone gave them a sense of comfort. Maybe they really were going to make it out alive, maybe they really were going to get another chance.

“In fact, we should be about there,” One-six said, getting up and walking towards the cockpit.

They followed him and crowded in between the seats as the European pilots buckled themselves in. It occurred to Lenn that the F-51 has seats arranged in a square shape instead of a diamond, leaving a narrow aisle which grants access to the cargo bay. On their VX-200, access to the cargo bay from inside the cockpit is impossible.

One-six pointed out of the canopy towards a spot on the foot of a hill. As they flew closer, the trees revealed a cluster of houses packed tightly together, a fair amount larger than an average survivor group. Little whiffs of smoke rose up from some of the stone chimneys. A large cave, like a tear in the mountainside, loomed over the town, the slightly extruded upper lip almost hanging over some of the houses.

It wasn’t uncommon for aircraft to stop over at some towns during long missions to refuel and rest, merchants pretty much did that for a living. But towns like these which sit within contested territory rarely get visits from anyone other than merchants. And as they descended towards the landing area inside the cave and settled down besides trading planes, Lenn would see people panicking and running about. The dark grey of Europa fighters and their iconic blue insignia struck fear into most who aren’t close allies with them.

As soon as they touched down, armed men sorrounded their aircraft.

"You four go," One-six told Lenn. "We'll sort this out."

The cargo door opened, and Lenn and his team walked out into the chilly air of the mountain village. A group of security guards with rifles raised greeted them.

“We’re prisoners! This is not our aircraft,” Kang shouted.

“Walk towards us with your hands in the air,” one of the men said.

They complied and walked forwards slowly. The men threw them down onto the ground and began putting handcuffs on them when a merchant approached.

“Captain Eric, what is going on?” The person asked in a very asian accent. Lenn swore he recognized the voice.

“Ah, sir, these four came out of the Europa fighter which just arrived,” the man said.

“Well let’s see who they are. Let them stand up.”

As Lenn raised his head, he saw a man with a battle hardened face and a faint beard. “Specialist Takeshi?” He asked in disbelief.

Takeshi took a moment to look at Lenn, then at Kang, then at Ying, then at Rei. “You four? Hah! I remember you four! Captain Eric, get these men out of handcuffs, they are acquaintances of mine.”

The guards obeyed, and quickly removed their handcuffs. Takeshi beckoned Lenn and his team over.

“Didn’t think I’d see you four here,” Takeshi said.

“Neither did we.”

Takeshi laughed. “Anyhow... welcome to Valkyria!”

[1]: Heterochromia - people with different colored, or partially different colored irises

[2]: Since they are from Europa, should they be called Europaians? Europaeans? Europaens? I tried to find the proper word but couldn't. If anyone knows do please tell me. Thank you!