This story is the narrative behind the PRU Falke build series.

The J-U45 Mayfly gravcopter descended into the clouds, leaving the bright sunshine behind. Andy watched, fascinated by the gray swirls inside the clouds despite his years as a pilot. Soon, they came out on the underside of the cloud cover, a smattering of rain streaking down the windows.

“Two minutes out, Chief Metzger.” Andy gave a thumbs up, looking to his right, keying the mic. “Got it… thanks Charlie. Miserable weather.” The pilot, Lieutenant Charlie McAfee, simply nodded.

As the gravcopter descended toward the airfield below, a figure in a white vest waved signal paddles to indicate where to land. Several Falkes were in protected revetments, as well as a few J-40s. As they passed over a hangar, Andy recognized the airframe of the Firefly X-K4271¹, the aircraft the Mayfly was based on. He started to point it out to Charlie, but decided against it. “Better let him focus on landing rather than geeking out,” he thought.

Touching down with a soft landing, Charlie looked over at Andy. “Keep it running? Shut down and wait?” Andy looked out of the front windscreen, near the operations shop. Brigadier Nikolaos Makris stood there, arms folded. He’d known Niko for many years, having served together for a long time. The serious look on his face told Andy this would not be a short meeting.

“Tell you what, Charlie.” Andy began to unbuckle his harness. “You may as well head back to the FOB. If this turns out to be short, which I doubt, I’ll stay overnight and hitch a ride back, or call you tomorrow if I can’t. Sound good?”

Charlie nodded, gave a thumbs up, and watched as Andy got out. Making sure the door was secure, Andy headed over towards Brigadier Makris. The whine of the Mayfly’s engines reached their peak as it lifted off, turned and headed back into the clouds. After two hours of hearing that engine, the silence of the airfield was ominous.

We Have A Problem (H+72)

Andy walked into Makris’ office, closing the door behind him. Niko motioned for him to sit. “You want some coffee, Andy?” Andy smiled and nodded. “Always… you know me.” Niko smiled, handed him a cup, and sat down behind his desk.

“Andy, we’ve got what we suspect is a major troop and materiel buildup deep behind the lines. Satellite photos indicate there is something there, but we can’t get a clear enough look to tell if it is genuine or a diversion. And it’s too far behind the lines for a standard recon flight.”

Grabbing a pointer, Niko tapped a point on the map hanging behind his desk. “I can send this to your tablet, but I like to have an old-fashioned map when I’m thinking.”

Andy looked at it and leaned forward, calculating the distance. “That is well beyond the range of a regular Falke recon flight. Far beyond bingo. It looks…”

Andy paused and shook his head. “Niko, that’s further than the range of a Falke if you fly it down to dry tanks.”

Niko nods. “I get it. And it’s a well-defended target. Very well defended.” He leaned on his elbows, looking Andy squarely in the face. “We need photos. And radio traffic indicates we only have a window of maybe 72 hours.”

Andy’s brow furrowed as he looked at the map. “How low do we need the photos taken? What altitude?”

Niko took a deep breath. “The intel guys tell me it needs to be at least at 25,000 feet. And… we need full spectrum data – IR, photo, ELINT… the whole shebang.”

Andy stared at Niko, his eyes wide. “Anything else? Maybe I can bring back pancakes and syrup for you?”

Niko shook his head and chuckled. “It’s a heckuva lot, I know. Look… can you at least talk with the intel guys? See if you can come up with a plan? You’ve got far more experience on special missions like this than anyone in the theater. You just… think differently. I’ve seen you pull solutions out of a hat that no one had thought of, and everyone said it was impossible when you threw it out there, and then you did it.”

Niko sat back, his reading glasses perched on his nose, staring across the top of them at Andy. “Can you just see if there is any way we can do this?”

Andy stared at the map, his eyes narrowing as his mind worked. Then… a smile came to his face.

“Can you get Odom Jeterson on board for this?”

Hatching The Plan (H+71)

Andy walked into the intel building. An older corporal sat guard behind the desk that led to the secure offices. Andy nodded and simply said “I need to see Captain Händler. I’m Chief Warrant Officer Andrew Metzger. Brigadier Makris told me to see him.”

The corporal eyeballed Andy for a few seconds, but finally picked up the phone. “Sir? Corporal Wayne. There is a CW5 Andrew Metzger here. Says Brigadier Makris sent him. Wants to see you. Uh-huh. Ok, sir.”

Corporal Wayne set the receiver down. “He’ll be here in a second, Chief.”

A moment later, Captain Raul Händler opened the door. “Andy, great to see you, man! How has the war been treating you?” He motioned Andy in. As Andy passed by Corporal Wayne, he stuck his tongue out.

They settled into the intel room, and Raul began to brief Andy on the situation, pulling up photos on a computer screen.

“Here’s the area we’re concerned about. It’s in a deep valley, with steep mountains on either side. They’ve got whatever is there under some pretty good camo. We can’t tell if it is the real deal or just a decoy. Either way, we’ve got to know. But… like the general told you, it is way, way behind the lines. We don’t have time to infiltrate a recon team. And the anti-air assets there are pretty thick. We can’t see all of it, but we do see enough and have captured enough elint data to know with a high degree of confidence it is a hot area. Very hot.”

Andy scrolled through the information, examining the photos, signal, and electronic intelligence data. On a few photos, he zoomed in, squinting to see them better.

“I guess these are the satellite photos?”

Raul nodded. “Yes. Good, clear photos – for a satellite. But not quite as clear as we need. We need something without so much distortion. At 25,000 feet, or lower if possible. What we have tells us something is there. What lower altitude photos will tell us is what that something is.”

Andy read through the intelligence summary. “And the drones are too slow to make it in and out of there?”

Again, Raul nodded. “Yep. Even transmitting photos back in real time their radar picks it up far enough out that the flaming wreck of the drone doesn’t land close enough to matter. We thought of trying to use smaller drones, launched locally. But the distance, terrain, and defenses between here and there precluded it. And… as Brigadier Makris probably told you… time is short. Sigint tells us whatever is going to happen will do so… soon.”

Andy rubbed his temples, squinting his eyes. Staring at the floor, he took a few minutes to look through the data one more time, finally looking up at Raul. “You know Odom Jeterson?”

Raul sat back, thinking. “No, but you know how this war is. You work with so many people over the years… if he’s in aviation I’m sure I’ve met him. But I can’t recall him.”

Andy stood up. “No worries. He’s probably the finest mechanic… engineer really, that I’ve ever worked with. He’s on his way. I’d like to get him, you, and me in a room as soon as he arrives and let’s get this problem solved. I’ve got an idea, but I have no clue if it’s even possible. I don’t know that we have much choice though.”

The Ticking Clock (H+70)

Andy sat at the head of the table, with charts, references, and tablets spread out in front of him. Raul and Odom sat on either side. Looking at his watch, Andy said “Gentlemen, we have about 6 hours to plan this. Whatever we plan has to be set in place and executed in two and a half days so we have enough time to fly the mission.”

On the wall screen, a blurry photo of the target comes up, with a map overlayed. Andy continued.

“The mission is simple. Get a Falke in to the target that is more than twice its range behind the lines with enough recon gear on it to do a full spectrum sweep at 25,000 feet or less and not get shot down in the process. Simple.”

Odom scratched his chin and looked at Andy. “If you’re willing to forego the Falke, I know a fat guy in a red suit with some reindeer…”

Andy laughed, shaking his head. “I wish. That would be much easier. What problem do we solve first?”

Odom looked at Raul. “Will a standard surveillance drone’s capabilities get the intel you need?” Raul nodded. “But we’ve sent drones that way… they get shot down far beyond the target. We got very little of use.”

Odom smiled. “Yes, but if we pull the front off the drone – just grab the data collecting forward section, I think we can couple it up with the starboard ordnance mount on the Falke. I might need to play with the primary voltage regulator to boost its output. The normal Falke recon pod only requires about half the juice the drone does. But I can account for that, and the associated heat management.”

Raul nodded as he considered Odom’s solution. “Yeah, that would work. It would get the data we need, and if collected below 25,000 feet, we’d have a really clear picture of what is down there.”

Odom quickly typed instructions into his tablet. “I’ve got the crew moving now to get started. Once we get the whole mission planned I can make it all come together.”

Andy wrote a note on his paper pad. “OK, we can get the data we need. So how do we get a Falke there? It’s far beyond the range it can fly, and if we strap enough gas bags onto the airframe, it will induce way too much drag.”

Odom pondered for a moment. “We’ve been using refueling drones to enable deep drone recon missions. The tanker drone uses the probe-and-drogue method to gas up the recon drone. We’ve gotten some pretty deep missions flown using a sort of staged buddy tanking method. We have to sacrifice the tanker drones, but they’re relatively cheap, all things considered.”

Raul slumped a bit in his chair. “Yes, but the Falke doesn’t have refueling equipment.”

Odom nodded. “Very true. But the probe unit from the drone is small, and all of the wizardry is on-board the refueling unit. When hooked up, it controls fuel flow, even flies the aircraft to maintain a good connection. We just need to mount it in the Falke.”

Andy squinted as he considered this. “Yeah, OK, that sounds good, but… where? The Falke is a small bird. We don’t have time to modify the airframe enough for the probe unit. And even with a staged approach to refueling, the Falke’s range won’t be enough. We can only stage drones so far. We’d need to get more gas into the bird than it can carry to make the math work.”

Odom drummed his fingers, thinking. Then he smiled. “Well, I have a solution. But you won’t like it.”

Andy raised an eyebrow. “OK, I’m listening.”

“Take out all the commo equipment. We can get enough of a fuel bladder in there to get just the range required to make buddy tanking work and get to the target.”

Raul sat up, shaking his head. “That will never work. How else will we communicate with Andy? And how will we get the data transmitted back? The recon drone relies on commo equipment that is not part of the recon pod. If… the bird… if Andy… is shot down… we get no data.”

Andy nooded. “Yes, but if we can’t get to the target, we get no data. It’s a risk we must take. I’d need to be on radio silence the entire time anyway. No commo equipment means no chance of being an emitter in that area.”

Odom typed out more instructions for the crew. “I’ll double up on the tankers. We can set them to go into hunter mode once empty. If they’re gonna crash, maybe they can crash into something Strahl.”

Andy looked back to the wall projection. “That leaves the A2/AD environment. They appear to have missiles, lasers, and gatling guns all around the area for quite a distance. The jamming pod can keep me protected on the ingress, but once I get in close, they’ll be able to home in on me quickly.”

Odom sat staring at Andy as he tried to work out a solution. Raul hesitated, then spoke.

“I’ve been working on… a… weapon… that may work in this case. But we only have one ready. And I can’t get more ready in time.”

Andy sipped his coffee, looking over the rim of the cup. “Do tell.”

Raul smiled. “Ever heard of EMP? I can turn the target zone into what amounts to quiet jungle with large Strahl paperweights scattered around. For three minutes.”

Odom tilted his head. “Electromagnetic pulse? I haven’t heard that term in a long while.”

Raul nodded. “Yeah. A big one.” He looked at Andy. “But you’re going to have to fly a precise mission profile so you don’t get caught in the bubble, but also don’t arrive so late that you get shot down.”

Andy sat silent for a moment. “How much of a window?”

Raul took a deep breath. “You’ll have about a ten second margin of error.”

Andy looked at both of them for several seconds, and shook his head. “OK. Easy enough. What next?”

The Need For Speed (H+56)

Odom was leaned over the now empty radio compartment of the Falke, figuring out the best way to get an extra fuel bladder installed in the tight area. One of his crew, Corporal McAlister, looked up at him. “How do you plan to compensate for the change in weight distribution? This fuel is going to be much heavier than the radio gear.”

Odom nodded, staring into the empty space. “I’d thought about that. There’s not enough space on the other side for more fuel. And we can only fit so much ballast over there to counter it. So between the ballast and just plugging in some autotrim to the flight system I think we can keep it balanced.”

McAlister looked in for a moment. “Would you fly it that way?”

Odom smiled, slapping him on the back. “No, but I’m not Andy. He’d say it was worth the risk.” Hopping down, Odom began to hook up the fuel bladder to a small lift crane. Andy walked up and helped him get it all connected.

Andy leaned against the bladder. “Is there any way you can get more speed during the dive? I’m concerned that as I am in the last stages of passing over, the EMP will wear off, their AAA will get back online, and I’ll be in a world of trouble.”

Odom nodded. “I thought about that myself. It will still take about 30-45 seconds after the electronics are back online for them to be able to track you. Cannons will be back up immediately and can be manually aimed. Even if you stay low you’ll be exposed.”

“That’s my concern,” Andy said, nodding slowly. “I was already planning to stay right down on the deck, pop some flares, and jink around a bit and not fly too straight. But I’ll also be on vapors at that point, and looking for the egress tanker drone. I want to link with it just after I start the left turn out of that valley. At that point the hills will shield me.”

Odom stood quietly, thinking. After a moment, he squinted. “I’ve got an idea, but it’s risky. But it may get you a little more speed… and give you maybe 10-15 seconds of extra time.”

As Odom detailed his idea, Andy nodded. Corporal McAlister stopped his work, listening, and swore quietly under his breath, shaking his head.

Hopeful (H+11)

Niko and Raul sat in a meeting room off the main hangar bay, quietly discussing the mission’s preparation. Andy walked in, poured some coffee, and sat down.

Niko looked over at him. “Can we make it?”

Andy nodded. “Yes. The bird will be ready. The tankers are staged for launch. The drone and the EMP ready to go. The plan we came up with accounts for every detail we could think of.”

Andy sipped his coffee, the steam swirling up from it, partially obscuring his face in the dim lighting.

Raul stared at Andy for a moment. “So we’re ready?”

Andy set down his cup and looked back, a grim smirk on his face. “Ready for what we can think of. But you know how this goes. We’re not ready for the thousand things that can go wrong. We’re not ready for that one auto-cannon that’s properly shielded and I fly right over it and it shoots the bird full of 57mm AP rounds. We’re not ready for the loss of a tanker drone, or the EMP drone. We’re not ready in the event I hit a flock of birds during the pull out and toss turbine blades.”

Niko leaned forward. “We’re not asking about those things, Andy. We know the… chaos… that can happen in any operation. What we need to know is there anything still to be accounted for that we can make happen?”

Andy shook his head. “No… I think we’ve ‘what if’d’ this thing to death. What we can account for, we have. The rest will have to be dealt with as it happens.”

Raul looked at Andy, his hand nervously wiping nothing from the table. “So you’re confident you’ve got what you need? That the mission can succeed?”

Andy half-laughed, standing up. “Yes, I have what I need. Am I confident? I don’t know. Hopeful is a better word.”

Walking back into the hangar bay, the door closed behind him.

Go Time (H+4)

Andy did a final walk around the Falke, inspecting the various modifications. The recon pod looked odd and out of place. Noticing the coolant hose connected to it, he began to ask about routing it internally. The thought was quickly pushed aside though. If Odom had time, he’d have done it that way. Calculated risk, like everything else on the mission.

Reaching the left hand side, Andy climbed up the boarding ladder, stepping up into the cockpit. The continuing rain had turned the ground into a sea of mud. The side of the Falke was dirty from his boots. Dropping into the cockpit, he began his pre-flight routine.

Odom climbed up the side, and briefly slipped on the slick, muddy surface. Grabbing the cockpit’s edge, he managed to avoid falling off. He reached in and began helping Andy strap in.

Andy looked at him. “What’s the weather over the target?”

Odom continued cinching the belts down tight. “Raul says the area is socked in, but there should be a window. He says you should get in to the target area with seven miles visibility through the haze. Broken deck down around five thousand. High ceiling will be sitting up at twenty. Just keep the recon pod going. Photo intel will be good to have, but you can collect SIGINT and ELINT the whole way down.”

Andy nodded, and pointed to the large red switch that had been installed on the instrument panel. “So that’s the anti-gravity inverter. Flip it on at 35,000, no more than 10 seconds, right?”

Odom nodded. “That’s it. It’s not so much going to give you extra speed as it will counter the thicker air so you can maintain speed. Once you flip it off there will be some buffeting, but the flight assist should compensate.”

Andy raised an eyebrow. “Should?”

Odom slapped him on the shoulder and smiled. “You didn’t want this to be easy, did you?” With that, Odom slid down the side of the Falke. Andy started to lower the hatch, but he felt the Falke rock slightly as someone else climbed up. Niko’s face appeared above him. Andy stared up at him, and Niko stared back, silent. Extending his hand down to Andy, they briefly grasped hands, and with a quick shake, Niko slid off the Falke. Andy lowered the hatch.

Ingress (H+2)

Andy navigated away from the tanker top-off. It had taken three tanker drones working as buddy tankers just to get the one on station to fill up his Falke. He did some calculations and confirmed that he had enough fuel to make it just past the end of the valley after his target run. Even that would be down to fumes.

The radar was locked in passive mode, as emitting any signals would invite scrutiny. In the days leading up to the mission, Raul sent wave after wave of various drone recon units overhead, setting the expectation that they would be in large groups. It was a bit of a gamble, but hopefully the Strahl forces would show little concern for a couple of radar blips high up.

The cost was high, of course. The IMA forces in the sector were begging drone units from other areas. Yet the cost was determined to be worth it. Andy knew his data was needed.

Oddly, though his stomach was tight, Andy felt relaxed. In his head, he began running through the difficult missions he’d taken on in the past.

It wasn’t that he was a daredevil, or craved danger. In his mind, it simply came down to duty. Someone had to do it. There would always be hard stuff, and fearing it didn’t make it go away.

He scanned the instruments one more time. All was as it was supposed to be. His main task now was to stay far enough behind the EMP drone so when it did its job, he would not go lights out and drop from the sky. That thought in mind, he dropped the throttle back just a tiny bit.

Go Time (H-Hour)

The alarm on Andy’s console sounded in his earphones. Though he’d been wide awake, he’d zoned out a bit, staring at the instruments and making mental calculations. And for some reason craving a cheeseburger. The loud, incessant beeping reminded him what he was there for.

The EMP drone should be at its Initial Point (IP), crossing a point that it was lined up for the run into the target. At the speeds they were traveling, it would be a fairly quick run. On his mission screen, Andy watched the timer counting down. As it got near zero, he found himself counting with it under his breath. “Five. Four. Three. Two. One.”

Ahead, directly in his flight line, a pinpoint flash appeared, as if someone had used an old flash bulb taking a photo. His optics did not pick up the faint, azure glow that lasted only milliseconds longer. But there was no need. The flash was confirmation that the EMP device had been employed, and if everything worked, the ground below was now a collection of non-functioning Strahl paperweights.

The moment the countdown for the EMP drone hit zero, Andy’s own timer started, counting down from 30 seconds. He pushed the throttle back up to full power, and toggled the afterburner.

Almost forgetting to turn the recon pod on, he swore loudly, hitting the switch to get that on and collecting data.

Diving In

The kick of the afterburner hit after a few seconds. Despite centuries of jet propulsion, no one had quite figured out how to get the burner to cooperate on timing. Thankfully, the familiar force that pushed him back in his seat came quickly.

The speed built up to Mach 1.1 and time itself seemed to compress. A loud beep sounded, and Andy nosed the Falke over. He felt his body lift from the seat as the negative G forces took over. It was strong, but not violent, as he had to make sure not to tear the airframe apart.

The mud from earlier in the day had dried, and now all of it that was on the floor of the aircraft lifted into the air briefly cluttering his vision with a cloud of the airfield’s soil.

A brief smile crossed Andy’s face as he remembered talking with Niko and Raul about the thousand things not planned for. But the smile quickly vanished as he focused on controlling the Falke.

The negative G’s stopped, the dirt falling all around. In the thin air at high altitude, the Falke picked up speed, hitting just under Mach 1.4. The expected buffeting was not as bad as he’d expected. Odom had done his job well.

In only a few seconds, Andy mentally counted to when he’d hit 35,000 feet. The thicker air was already starting to slow the dive, falling back to Mach 1.2.

As his mind counted down, through gritted teeth he told no one but himself “now” and flipped the anti-gravity inverter.

And felt nothing.

At first, Andy worried it had not worked. But then he saw that the speed was holding steady. Mach 1.2, just as Odom had said it would. While he always marveled at how the anti-gravity mechanism worked, he’d never thought of reversing the process.

His eyes checked the N1 and N2 gauges. Those monitored the low and high pressure compressor speeds for the engine. Odom had warned him not to let them stay in the red for more than a few seconds. He’d asked Odom how long a few seconds was. Odom had shrugged. “Maybe three. Five. I’d not go past ten. You probably couldn’t anyway.”

After five seconds, Andy touched the fine adjustment on the the throttle. He toggled it a few times, and was relieved the N1 and N2 didn’t go higher. A few more toggles, and both dropped to just below the redline.

The instruments for the recon pod showed it was working, collecting the valuable data. While the heat build up was getting higher than Raul had wanted, it was still not red lining. “Yellow lining is not red lining.” The words of his flight instructor from years ago flashed across his mind.

Just above the pull up point, Andy turned off the anti-gravity inverter. The deceleration was immediate as gravity returned to normal, and the thicker air took hold. As the speed dropped, skin temperatures rose, but the engine slowly went back into green.

The pull out was supposed to start just past the 25,000 foot AGL point. Yet Andy knew that the more data he collected, the better it would be. Pushing it to the limit, his own mental count took a half-step after reaching zero before pulling back on the flight control. In less than 30 seconds he’d know if his calculated delay paid off.

And if it didn’t, he’d never know.

A Peaceful Breakfast

On the ground, Strahl forces lined up for morning chow. The air was damp, though it had started clearing not long ago. Fighting suits, armored vehicles, troop carriers and all the associated personnel were standing, waiting for the food tent to open.

They did as soldiers have done for centuries, laughing and joking about everything and nothing. It was rough, filled with coarse language. Yet it was good natured.

No one needed to remind them that their job was to kill people and blow things up. That was the task.

One soldier happened to look up, and was puzzled by a bright flash, lasting only milliseconds. Suddenly the music through his headphones stopped, followed by a loud pop, loud enough to make him yank them from his ears. Nearby other soldiers who had headphones in did the same thing.

The lights around the mess tent went out. Generators went silent. Though the area had been camouflaged and was thick with jamming devices, for a brief second all that could be heard was the surrounding forest and its animal life.

The silence was broken by a shout from the command tent. The soldier strained to hear what was being shouted.

Then, it was as if a bomb went off.

Here Comes The Boom

A massive boom erupted seemingly out of nowhere. There was no build up. No warning. A sudden blur flashed by at near treetop level, and then all chaos broke loose.

Glass shattered. Most men dropped to the ground, trying to cover up from… whatever it was. A few ran to gun mounts, only to find them completely useless.

Directly along the Falke’s flight path, the shock wave brought havoc. Soldiers were knocked over, their hearing shattered. Crates of supplies tumbled over onto a few. A surface to air missile launcher that had been pointed skyward fell over. The impact punctured the fuel tanks, which caused the volatile fuel to ignite. The missile, landing on its side, skittered across the ground, slamming into a group of supply trucks. The warhead explosion caused additional secondary explosions, which quickly spread through the vehicles.

Though the mission had been about collecting recon data, it may as well have been a bomb run. Before anyone realized what had taken place, a line of fire and destruction had formed.

Andy, for his part, knew none of this.

Egress

As Andy pulled back to level out from his dive, he desperately tried to stay conscious. Though his G-suit was hard at work, and Andy was grunting as he’d done dozens of times, his vision narrowed.

It had climbed above 9, heading towards 10. It felt as if a dozen elephants were pressing down on his chest. The Falke buffeted in protest. Metal pops and squeals made Andy think the airframe would tear itself apart.

The altimeter kept going down, down, down. Just as Andy began to black out, he felt the Gs easing off.

427 feet.

He’d bottomed out at 427 feet.

Now at Mach .98, he gradually lifted the Falke a bit higher, stopping right on 500 feet AGL. He could see on the map that he was past the target area. A quick camera view rear showed explosions. Though puzzled by them, he smiled.

“Good morning Strahl.”

As he got near the end of the valley, he began a gentle left bank, following the contours of the ground. Just before the hills masked him, his radar warning receiver briefly screamed, then stopped. Another quick look to the rear showed streams of tracers flying wildly.

But he was clear of it.

Ahead, he saw a strobe blinking. One red, two green. That was the tanker drone. Flying up behind it, he deployed the refueling probe, flying it into the drogue, a metallic clank telling him connection had been made. The drone took over, flying itself and Andy’s Falke during the refueling process.

Andy pushed a button on the recon pod controls. A green light quickly showed. All the intel data had been copied to the drone, which was relaying it to the satellites overhead. Even if he were shot down at this point, the IMA would have their information.

There was a Strahl build up. And it was big.

Aftermath

Andy climbed down the side of the Falke. Odom was already examining the aircraft. The PRU Blue paint had peeled off, and some appeared as if it had boiled. A few sections of skin had warped. The plates that had reinforced the engine nacelles had held, but barely. A few had popped rivets.

Niko and Raul steadied Andy as he stepped down to solid ground, his legs wobbly. Corporal Wayne handed him a bottle of cold water. Andy took it from him, gulping it down quickly.

Raul helped Andy lean back against the airframe, shaking his hand. “We have the data. There’s a big build up there for sure. Not a decoy. And I don’t know how you did it, but you blew up a boat load of their equipment.”

Niko showed Andy the imagery on a tablet. “You can see here the images from your initial dive. We think this SAM right here must’ve fell over from the shockwave, and ignited when it hit the ground. After that… well, stuff got blowed up.” Niko chuckled as Andy scrolled through the images.

Odom walked over, smiling at Andy. ” You dang near broke my Falke there, Chief Metzger!” Odom slapped him on the arm. Andy laughed, shaking Odom’s hand.

“You did a great job getting this thing mission ready. It held together when I needed it to. And I think that gravity pod inverter could be quite useful as standard equipment.”

Andy stood up straight, and began to walk to the chow hall. “Brigadier Makris, do you think you have enough pull with the cooks to get me a double bacon cheeseburger even though it’s not chow time?”

As they entered the chow hall, Niko laughed.

“I can give you full assurance we’re capable of pulling THAT mission off!”

**********

Oberstleutnant Kurt Schmitz sat quietly in a darkened tent. Outside, the sounds of fires, occasional secondary explosions, and the shouts of the soldiers trying to deal with it all filled his ears. Two guards stood behind him.

“It’s ironic,” he thought. “These are good soldiers. I know them. Now they guard me.“

The tent flap opened. A young Hauptmann looked in, and held the flap back. The regional Politoffizier commander, Generalleutnant Schicksal, stepped in. He stood at the table, staring down at Schmitz. Behind him, Schmitz saw the aftermath clearly. A fire crew sprayed foam on a fuel truck, even as others burst into flames from the heat. Two corpsmen hurried by, carrying a wounded soldier.

Schmitz looked up at Schicksal. He felt as if he was going to vomit.

“I believe we need to discuss the utter failure in leadership we have seen this morning.”

The young Hauptmann closed the tent flap, and waited outside. “Better to be out here,” he thought, “than in there.“

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“Calculated Risk” © 2026 by Jon Bius. All original characters, non-canonical mechanical concepts and designs, and narrative text are the intellectual property of the author. This is a work of fan fiction utilizing the Maschinen Krieger universe and intellectual property created by and © Kow Yokoyama. All Maschinen Krieger intellectual property rights are reserved by their respective copyright holders.

1. The Firefly X-K427 references a wonderful model from Bryan Krueger of MaschinenKrueger. You can see his full work here: https://maschinenkrueger.com/joomla4/index.php/model-gallery/sdr/firefly-build-diary ↩︎