Colonel Eric Aschberg and his squadron immediately head northeast out from Sudan's airspace upon his retreat command.

Their ECM was fully engaged, as well as false radio traffics. It helped that the squadron also has access to few drone tankers as well as insiders inside the UCC who help mask their plane's signature as UCC ones to allow them to pass the supposedly tightly guarded Caliphate airspace.

He drew in a shaky breath as he concentrate in staying alive and undetected, as he digested the truth abou who had caused the most damage on his squadron today.

"Shit, it's Angel of Azrael.." The last word from one of his fellow US Marine, Major Benjamin Robinson, before his F-35 was shot down. He failed to eject.

"Damn that man."

What would have been his defining moment to reveal the existence of GRM to the world - what would have finally set him and many more soldiers of both UNC and UCC apart from both sides - was lost with the encounter, and now he and his fellow rogues are officially wanted men and women; outlaws; deserters.

However, it's useless to cry over spilled milk and he has to look the today's defeat in a more long-term perspective.

Upon landing in their secret base in Iran and the survivors done their self-criticism session; a practice taken from Communist Viet Cong during Vietnam War, he decided to call it a day and retire to his office.

His second in command, Canadian Lt. Colonel Alain Peters went in for a need to speak to his leader.

"I think we should make the Angel of Death and his elite pilots to assist in our plan. To take the UCC out of the picture."

"Peters, that's what I am thinking now. But I am currently figuring out of what should we do for those people after that." A small smile parched his face. "He'll be useful in our first objective, took out the false resistance to pave way of the true resistance."

"I see, sir" replied the Canadian. "But I think you know, sir, that the Indonesians are known for being stubbornly devoted to their country, especially after the Civil War. Very much like India, or Korea, as well as European countries thanks to a shared legacy of their own civil war and their culture revival. Sure, there are Indonesians on board ours, but most of the time, they won't be assisting you."

"He and the entire task force will contribute, but without their knowledge." He raised an eyebrow and smiled again. "Just like when we are playing strategy games; chess or other types of it, there will be cautious but also aggressive playing. We have to know this not only by spying but also on the field, by testing the waters. Especially as we are tactically at a disadvantage to began with. Many of us here are ready to sacrifice ourselves in the process, for the true peace better than the false peace hold dearly by this world's powers that be. And so, we can calculate our next moves according to what kind of enemy we are facing. And this is actually common sense in many things in life, brother."

Alain nodded. "Colonel Hutapea is a symbol, a public face of Indonesia's air war effort. Just like Japan with their Kaori Naehara, Korea with Park Gyun-jip, America with Mark Connery, Israel with Benjamin Weisenberg, China with Ling Chua, or Russia with Dmitri Chkalov... However, our intelligence has managed to dig up about Colonel Hutapea the most, thanks to him being given more time in the front, compared to Major Connery, for example, who is currently in the instructor duty in the States..."

"Indeed," Aschberg said. "We'll use every information we have to our advantage. Weaknesses of each and every pilot in the TF808 and Pact's TF301 if necessary... and exploit them in battle."

"But...how would you have any way of knowing this?"

"One step at a time, Peters. Slow but steady. And now, gather all leaders, we'll discuss the next phase of our plan. The Coalition has made their move with the two forces, so now it's time to make ours as soon as possible. The name of the game is Puppet Master. We are going to play that in a larger scale game between UNC and UCC. And like I had told you before, we'll see what happens when some high valued people inside the false caliphate for our Muslim friends are eliminated from their side of the field."

Alain nodded.

"Now, get me in touch with Lieutenant Farid immediately. I need his knowledge inside the UCC; Captain Welberg, for he has contacts within the joint coalition high command that we lack; and Captain Bima, for his contacts within Indonesian military chain of command..." he ordered.

The Canadian officer left Aschberg's office, leaving the American alone in his thought. "The world will finally see that we are bringing a new era of peaceful coexistence between peoples, and the end to imperialism."

......

The Number 101 Air Base, the only name known for the facility, dug deep into the mountains.

Constructed in the late Islamic Republic era in early 2023 but was not completed, it was abandoned after the Pahlavi Restoration and was found initially by the UCC which took it over, reconstructed it with a great rush and many casualties before subsequently have it used for its drone operations base. As the Allies were closing in the Caliphate abandoned it once more and the resulting vacuum helps a group of enterprising pilots to finally have some nesting place with their aircraft. The plain old camouflaging effort, as well as prioritization of the UNC's resources, especially its reconnaissance capability to expedite the end of the war as well as the grinding counter-insurgency operations against UCC remnants in liberated territories like Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Afghanistan, and Northwest India, helped its occupants to escape much scrutiny.

Former Indonesian Air Force captain Maulana Yusuf sat near his illicitly procured F-22C Raptors. His skill helped him for a smooth transition from the Eastern Su-57 he once trained with to the Western fighter he is currently assigned to. Besides him was his wingman from Britain, a former RAF officer with the rank of Squadron Leader, British Commonwealth air forces' equivalent to Major, named Joseph Hamilton. He was one of the mentors of the later during the transition process as he's once an F-22C driver of the British air force.

Both men were reading a bunch of important top-secret documents pertaining to their enemies. Especially few members of the former 13th Squadron currently part of the 19th Squadron under the Task Force 808 Asia-Pacific Group as well as the elite 11th Squadron, under Maulana's former commanding officer.

With Maulana resented the closer cooperation between his country and the Western world, if he was not sortieing, he spent time researching and listening to stories of many of his compatriots inside the movement, two of them were once members of the 13th.

Captain Ali Mukhlas, callsign "Rage" and Captain I Ketut Suwardana, callsign "Clubber".

It wasn't as they didn't try the best to live up to the expectations people put on their shoulders. They just fell short, and both men believe that it was not solely due to their deeds. While Captain Doni "Charge" Heryawan and several others such as Red Cap, Leaflet, and Scale got accepted back into the Indonesian military and was deemed worthy enough to be chosen for the elite UNC Task Force 808 Rage and Clubber had barely gotten out from the 1201st alive and their assessment results were not enough for them to be retained when the 13th was upgraded to a legitimate squadron.

They were supposed to be discharged under "other-than-honorable" condition and a full amnesty, but thanks to their understanding about the consequences of such type of discharge, which includes ineligibility for some veteran benefits, being barred from reenlisting in the Armed Forces including it's reserve component as well as the law enforcement, and last but not least, a written document that they will require to sign acknowledging that "a substantial prejudice in civilian life" may (and often the case to begin with) be encountered under an OTH discharge, both pilots decided to desert and managed to find their way to the GRM, as it was looking for pilots across the world.

"The rule of thumb here is, he and Major Evelyn are inseparable. And his condition has nothing to do with his performance, so keep that in mind." That's what he told those former penals, in return, he took his time listening to their statements, reminiscing about the time when a certain American general with a personal agenda came to their base and as he joined the growing band of "Rogue Wing" he gave them that said mission targeting Wise.

"It's your fault that the plan was bust!"

Maulana and Hamilton chuckled as they listen to their fellow pilots in their internal bickering.

"Any entertainment is welcome in this shithole."

"Clubber, come on, move on already, at least we know what we are facing!"

The Sundanese snorted at his fellow (former) countryman, "You and our leaders are the same." Ali put his hands on his flight suit's pocket. "You want to know what troubles me? That is when you get too close to the enemy that they figured it all out!"

The men and women aboard the movement had chosen to loyal to no country. just like John Lennon said in one of its well-known songs, greatly reviled by nationalists and conservatives. "Imagine are no countries."

.........

It's night and after I am done working with the paperwork for today, my hands went on to fill my combat diary.

We are accustomed to winning now, even with the inevitable loss of pilots, we are on the right track. And I know my parents are going to be proud of me, and people with the same conditions as me are looking at me as their role model. It's good to be one anyway.

However, I have a question. This war soon degenerates into something worse, but what is it exactly?

I can see the sign, not only the appearance of Rogue Squadron, but also how many of us had slowly become monsters of a different kind with the same destructiveness as the UCC, or even more. An American general named Sherman is right, War is Hell. While I still believe we need to get this done and go home, I wonder if our process of decimation was worth it...

Suddenly I harked back to a part of world history I read during my time in the Academy. It's about a little known war in the mid-1860s and still is today, the Paraguayan War. It's far away in Latin America.

To make it brief; the rising Paraguayans under their strongman Solano Lopez instigated the war by invading its larger neighbor Brazil as the latter was backing a revolution in neighboring Uruguay against its ruling government which was backed by the Paraguayans.

Compounding his mistake, Lopez, with a pretext of denied a right of passage to Uruguay, violated Argentine's territory, resulted in the latter formed a Treaty of Triple Alliance with the Brazilians and Uruguayans. Their objective; complete annihilation of Paraguay's military capability. You should get the commonality of that with what we are pursuing now.

The treaty was harsh in modern standard, which called for the absorption of the country into Brazil and Argentina respectively, while American mediations after the war with the allies bickering about the spoils, did preserve Paraguayan independence.

Outnumbered and outgunned the Paraguayans fought to the bitter end, they even conscripted children to fight. Sounds familiar with what we are facing now? Especially as I thought about the Army and Marine Corps boys and girls who did engage with the jihadists face to face, unlike flying folks such as me and Evy. Only the final cry of "I die with my nation" and the subsequent death of President Lopez finally end the war five years later.

Atrocities were done by both sides, in short, epitomizing Sherman's quote. And while I still believe that some should be willing to live by sword for sake of others, the question remains...

Knock knock.

"Come in!"

Well, it just Major Jusuf arrived with a report on the latest intelligence. I am not flying missions since the past week, just to give the lesser experienced pilots of my squadron their own time to shine or to lead missions.

......

Yea, short, but it should be good to describe the coming problems ahead!