ALL'S FAIR INTRODUCTION

---

     It was a good time for the people on Earth. After dealing with the horrors of a third world war, overpopulation, and resource depletion, humans developed technology to take them into space. They formed the first colonies in 2050 on the moon and Mars. However, the problems that caused conflict on Earth simply migrated to the colonies. In order to keep peace in the colonies, the United Earth Government organized the Space Defense Force. Despite this, tensions between Earth and the Martian colonies continued until they flared and became the brief but violent Conflict of Martian Independence in the early part of the twenty-second century.

     It was July 8th, 2136, and while in the Officer’s Crew Quarters of the Escort Carrier Gregory "Pappy" Boyington, the alarm buzzed loudly until a man’s hand knocked it to the floor. After it crashed on the floor, a soft female voice with a Mediterranean accent said, “Real mature, Lieutenant Ando.”

     Lieutenant Tran Ando rose from the bed and said, “Sorry, Lieutenant Levi, but you know that I hate alarms.” He rose from his rack and said, “It’s times like this that I miss fishing with grandpa in the South China Sea.” He looked down at the young woman just rising from his bed. She looked fit and athletic. Her tan skin only had one mark, a small birthmark in the shape of a dolphin on her back between her shoulder blades. Tran always thought it looked sexy. “So, Tania, who did you buy off to not fly this mission?”

     “Pah! You know darn well why. Captain Dickhead just had to have the best pilot in the wing on his road to glory.” Tania turned and rose from the bed and walked around in her nightshirt. She walked over and kissed Tran on his back. “I wish I could fly with you, but he stuffed me away at PRIFLY and the CIC today.” PRIFLY was responsible for controlling the carrier’s flight operations, and the Combat Information Center handled the strike operations.

     “I knew he would succeed in breaking us up the best team in the wing. I really have a bad feeling about this op.”

     “Yes, and you told me this ten times before. I also have a feeling of impending doom, but we do our duty, LT Ando. I really have to go now. I gotta get the ready room set up now before I go to PRIFLY.” She got up and kissed him and jumped into her sweats.

     “Hey, wait. I want to say something.” But she already left his cabin.

     LT Tran Ando and LT junior grade (jg) Tania Levi were both fliers in the 103rd Fighter Squadron assigned to Carrier Fighter Wing 116 on board the space carrier Pappy Boyington, the flagship of Carrier Battle Group 1 (CBG1). CBG1 consisted of the Boyington, its Carrier Strike Wing, (CVW42), and three destroyer escorts. The Battle Group was in orbit around Mars as part of its support role for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. It was the UEG Defense Command’s desire to end the war as soon as possible before public opinion on Earth went against this conflict. Operation “Bright Wind” was planned to defeat the Martian insurgents. The task force consisted of CBG1, the Assault Ship Iwo Jima and five support cruisers.

     The best pilot was indeed Tran Nguyen Ando, born in Hanoi in 2110 to Nguyen Ando, one of the richest men on the planet, and his late wife Irena Katyrina. His father was the owner of East Wind Shipping Company and the descendant of Vietnam’s greatest general, Vo Nguyen Giap. East Wind Shipping was a diverse company consisting of a fleet of fishing trawlers, cruise ships, tankers and heavy lift vessels. East Wind vessels could be seen everywhere around the oceans of the world. They had ports in every port city worldwide, with the headquarters residing in Haiphong, Vietnam. The Ando family had a sprawling estate located in Da Nang on Hon La Island, a few miles off of the mainland that kept them secluded from outsiders.

      Tran’s mother was a beautiful Jewish, Ukrainian woman from Odessa. He inherited his mother’s striking blond hair and his father’s Vietnamese eyes and features. He was 6 feet tall and had a fit swimmer’s physique and muscles honed by life on the sea. His memories were of her doting on him and inspiring him to be the very best he could be. When he was a teenager, she was mauled by sharks while boating with his father. His father was maimed trying to save her, and her death haunted him all his life.

     Tran was raised with a love of the sea and exploration, so he kept it up despite his mother’s tragic death. He was an accomplished scuba and deep-sea diver, however, his desires were elsewhere. Whenever he sailed in his father’s ships and looked into the stars at night, he knew he wanted to be up there exploring their beauty and majesty. Tran originally wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps, so he worked diligently to learn that craft. He started at the age of 12 on the decks of the fishing trawlers hauling fish on board, then he progressed as a Deckhand on the cruise ships and worked in the engineering spaces with the “black gang”. At the age of 17, just before he went to the Space Defense Force Naval Academy, he earned his Shipmaster, any ocean, any tonnage rating.

     Finally, he entered the Academy in 2127. At first, he wanted to be a ship driver to follow in his father’s steps but life had a way of changing things. After he did a cadet tour of a Space Defense Force fighter base and had a flight in one of the older space fighters, he wanted to be an aviator and transferred to the Flight Academy. He graduated tenth out of 1500 in the class of 2131 and then went to flight school. During Undergraduate Pilot Training, he impressed his instructors with his natural flying ability and graduated first in his class. He spent the next three years learning all he could about being in fighter combat and found that one could never know too much about it. Tran became an instructor and flight lead in his squadron. And then he went to the Fighter Weapons School (FWS), to become an expert in aerial combat and tactics. It was when he graduated from FWS and returned to his squadron to be the weapons and tactics officer that the first shots of the so-called Martian war of independence were fired. A group of miners on Mars rebelled against the government, and they claimed that the UEG was exploiting them and the planet’s resources. It soon escalated to a full-fledged armed conflict in which they used a combination of stolen equipment and old material to fight their war successfully.

     Ando’s wing was put on an escort carrier and sent into combat around Mars in 2136. After he flew some combat missions, he knew that his life and training had brought him to this point. He became familiar with the pain of loss when, after hard combat missions, he would return to empty seats in the squadron ready room. This only steeled his resolve. He also let someone into his personal life and that someone was LT (jg) Tania Levi, who was a replacement in his flight. Tania Ariana Levi was born in a kibbutz just outside of Tel Aviv, Israel.  Her father was the head of shipping in Israel and was a good friend of Nguyen Ando, who had a shipping operation at the port of Haifa. She was intelligent, athletic and with her striking looks, she never had a shortage of suitors. She was two years older than Tran, and the first time the two of them met was memorable for both of them. They met at a reception for Tran’s parents at Jerusalem when she was 16 and as he remembered that time, it went badly for him.

Tran entered the ballroom and looked at the young woman. He said haughtily, “So, Levi, it’s been a long time.”

     “Ah Ando, you are still a little boy. I remember your Bar Mitzvah.”

     "What do you mean ‘little boy’? I’m smarter, richer and better than you. I saw your Bat Mitzvah and I did so so much better than you.”

     “Yeah, Yeah. You have to be one up on me, but you will never be better.”

     “Pah, I know I am better.” He looked smugly and during the party, he continued to behave like he was God’s gift to everyone. Tania had enough of his arrogance and punched him in front of everyone. Everyone who saw this was mortified that she would be so bold as to humiliate the son of a rich and famous personage such as Nguyen Ando. Nguyen, however, laughed and said, “You know, my son, you did deserve that. Always remember this, and be careful of women.”

Her father said, “Nguyen, my friend, this could be the start of a beautiful relationship.” As he was gently chastised by both of them, he seethed and swore he would get back with her. They hadn’t seen each other since.

     Tania worked with her father on various tasks and pursued her degree in chemical engineering at MIT. She had no desire to enter the Space Defense Force at first and she was 25 when she decided to get her commission and enter flight school. She graduated from her Dragon qualification training when she received her orders to join the UES Pappy Boyington Carrier battle group to fight in the war. When she arrived there, she was shocked when she entered the ready room and saw the bane of her youth, Tran Ando. He looked at her in amusement and said, “Well well, Lieutenant, I knew eventually I would have a chance to get payback.”

     She put her hands on her hips and scowled. She said, “What do you mean, Lieutenant? You deserved everything I gave you. I see the bruise healed nicely. I should have hit you harder.”

     “I probably did deserve it, Lieutenant Levi but now after all these years of torment, I get to pay you back, you see you are my wingman.” He snapped a picture of her shocked and discouraged look before she could react. The picture ended up in his berth for him to look at it at times to cheer him up.

     Tran found that not much had changed from when they were younger. She was opinionated, she had her own ways of flying and fighting and now she had an arrogant streak. Even though she was a natural pilot, he often had to rein her in. Eventually, they got into a rhythm and they became one of the best combat teams in the squadron. They were in sync without even speaking to each other. In the squadron ready room, when Ando started a sentence, Levi often finished it. It was only natural that their work relationship ended up as a romantic one. She was in love with Ando when she saw him again, and Ando was in love with her from the first punch all those years ago. She also had a tender side to her because she was able to temper his moods and helped him stay focused.

Ando entered the ready room at the same time as Tania. Tania obtained the mission information that she would need when she went to Flight Operations. Tran looked at the schedule board for the mission hoping that it would change but to his disappointment, it did not. Ando was assigned to be the Commander Carrier Strike Wing (CAG)’s wingman during the operation. Ando felt that Maxwell, who was a marginal pilot at best, needed to have a real aviator on his wing to cover his six. Everyone knew that the only chance for Maxwell to get Flag Rank was to have a successful mission.

Their mission was to support the Marine Assault group by destroying a major transportation facility that the enemy was using to reinforce their main body. Ando knew that Maxwell normally went on milk runs so it was assumed by everyone that Captain Dickhead, as he was called, had to flourish his war record in order to get his promotion.

     Tran said, “Oh damn, this is not my day. I better get my will made.”

     Tania smiled at him and said, “You will do fine, Ando, you dance around raindrops. Now, what was it you wanted to say before I rushed off?”

     Tran wanted to wait until he returned from the operation, but he had a bad feeling while knowing that he didn’t want to die without doing this last thing. He led her to one of the empty briefing rooms and closed the door. “Tania, I wanted to wait until after we got back, but I have a bad feeling about this and didn’t want to die before asking you.” He shocked her by getting down on one knee and, oblivious to the busybodies looking in the room, asked, “Tania Ariana Levi, will you marry me?” He showed her a diamond ring in a box.

     Tania looked at him kneeling down with tears in her eyes and said, “You sick bastard, this is your way of finally getting back at me for that punch, isn’t it?”

     Tran looked sheepishly and said, “Maybe that’s the case, but I just don’t want to die without you saying yes. It will give me something to come back to.”

With mock anger, she said, “It would serve you right if I said no.”

    “Maybe, but please don’t. I may have to toss myself out an airlock if you refuse.”

    “Well, I can’t have that happen. The operation may be in jeopardy if we lose you, dummy.” She snatched the ring from his hand and to the cheers of the pilots in the ready room, put it on her left ring finger. She said, “Damn you, you son of a bitch, you better come back to me.”  They then hugged and kissed until the chime for them to gather for the mission briefing sounded.

The mission briefer started, “Well boys and girls, this is the big one. This offensive should end the war. The MAG will be taking on the enemy’s 1st division in the Eridanian Plains. They have about 5,000 troops against our 15,000. Our mission is to destroy this choke point.” He showed the target area on the projector. “Hawkeye, 1 will lead the formation. That will be Capt. Maxwell, Neptune, Bossman, and Sparky.” The old tradition of individual call signs continued. It was a sign of the contempt that the wing held for Maxwell that his call sign or CAG was not used in the briefing.        “Engine start at 0700, Time Over Target is 0800.”

     Ando planned the mission and went into his individual flight briefing. As usual, he had to do the work for Maxwell, and he conducted most of the briefing for the flight. After the briefing, he stepped to the life support section where he was assisted into his environmental suit and tested his helmet and oxygen gear. He drew his blaster and checked its charge. When he saw that everything was ready, he went with the rest of the aviators to the flight deck.

     Ando walked to his Dragon space fighter and began his preflight of the plane and the ordinance. The plane was loaded with two racks of bombs and a full air to air missile load of eight as well as machine guns. He was very thorough with his preflight as he checked every inch, every panel, and ordnance of his bird. Just before he entered the cockpit, he looked at Maxwell and noticed that he didn’t preflight his jet but just nodded at his plane captain and walked into the jet. The plane captain looked sullen as he fully expected to do the work. Ando gave him a thumbs up to reassure him that everything will be all right. He then climbed to his cockpit and while his plane captain hooked him up to the ejection seat and life support equipment, he heard “Depressurization in 5 minutes.” The hangar deck was a pressurized area and had to be depressurized in order to convert it to a flight deck in order to launch spacecraft. Ando powered up his fighter craft as the plane captain donned his helmet and waited. After the stand-by light came on, he started his engines and confirmed that the settings were normal. The plane captain gestured for him to taxi to the catapults. He taxied to his assigned catapult and prepared for the signal to launch. After Hawkeye 1 shot out, he braced himself to launch. The catapult shot him from the carrier. After he launched, Ando entered fingertip formation behind Hawkeye 1.

     Ando followed the flight lead over the Eridania Planitia as they descended to 250 feet above ground level (AGL). He looked at his moving map on his Multifunction Display (MFD) and saw that they were on course to the initial point (IP) for the bomb run. As he expected, they would reach the IP in 15 minutes and it would be five minutes from the IP to the target. He set his switches to arm the bombs and when they showed ready, he flashed his data link to show that he was ready for the bomb run. When they reached the IP in the plain, the enemy’s air defenses were waiting for them. Tran did some rapid evasive actions to the left and to the right so he could avoid the missiles. When he did that, he looked at the data link in order to see if there were any final changes before they started the final split on the bomb run. Just as he started timing his bomb run, Maxwell led the flight on a standard bombing range formation. Tran growled to himself. “You asshole, you are worse than a nugget. I may get courts martial but if we survive this, I am going to kick your ass.” Tran wanted to get on the radio frequency to let him know that with this predictable run, they would be shot down immediately, but they were ordered to maintain radio silence. Tran turned quickly to the left and right or jinked to try to screw up their firing solution. Maxwell did nothing and kept flying straight. “That idiot is going to get us killed.” Tran thought.

     Suddenly the missiles stopped as they continued their attack run. Tran started looking up into the sky and saw 16 enemy fighters at about 6 o’clock high. Being the first to see the large formation, Ando got on the combat frequency and shouted. “Sixteen bogies at 6 o’clock high.” The enemy split up into two formations of 8 fighters each to attack each flight of 4.

     Tran saw the first one and said, “Tally Ho!” He easily flew behind the enemy’s wingman and launched his first air to air missile. He said, “Fox one.” The missile flew unerringly into the enemy’s exhaust tube and detonated. The enemy crashed into the ground. Ando pivoted and used his guns on the flight lead as he quickly got into the perfect firing solution. His guns blasted and tore off the enemy’s tail and it exploded. Maxwell had no situational awareness and was shot down but he ejected safely. Once he got on the ground, he got on the emergency radio channel and in a slow-witted and scared voice said, “Hawkeye 1 on the ground.”

     Ando saw the ejection and yelled an expletive. He felt he had to escort his lead safely to the ground. He would do that for anyone that was shot down no matter how much of an asshole they were. He sent a friendly aircraft down report on the data link. When Ando determined that Maxwell was safely down, he flew away from the site so that it would not pinpoint where the pilot landed. He saw four more enemy fighters converge on his position. He said, “Tally on 4 bogies, I’m engaging.” He flew toward the enemy fighters and fired on the lead fighter with a face shot which obliterated the enemy instantly and then pitched down and easily got into the wingman’s six and fired a missile into the exhaust, destroying it. Ando saw two others heading toward the ground to strafe the downed aviator. Ando was amazed that they didn’t even see him and a missile launch and gunshot later destroyed them both. Ando was now an Ace.

      Meanwhile, at the Boyington’s combat information center (CIC), Tania was monitoring her squadron frequency when the guard frequency came out with Ando’s report. The initial report was that the Air Wing Commander was shot down. She said to herself, “Damn you Ando, I hate when you are right.” She got on the intercom to Rescue Control, “RESCON, this is control, we have an aircraft down report. It’s the CAG. We need a Sandy.” A Sandy was the code for a Search and Rescue mission. It consisted of an armed Search and Rescue (SAR) shuttle and 4 escort fighters. It launched from the carrier prior to the main strike package and held on station waiting for the word if necessary and hoping that it would not be needed. This time it was a forlorn hope.

     “Wilco, Blaster, Sandy is on the way.” The rescue controller said on the frequency. “ETA is in 20 minutes.” Tania nodded and inside she hoped that there wouldn’t be any more casualties and that Tran would come home safe. She put a vision that she just had out of her mind as she monitored the operation.

     Ando heard on the radio, “Hawkeye 2 this is Hawkeye 3. I will continue the mission; you now have Sandy tasking, stay here and support retrieval.”

     Ando clicked his microphone two times and maintained a holding pattern being careful to avoid revealing his position to any enemy forces as he waited for the SAR craft. The remaining element flew on to continue its mission.

     On a hill overlooking the Eastern Eridania Planitia, Lieutenant Colonel Johann Taylor, the commander of Battalion 3 of the 1stLiberation Division, looked at the Space Marine force aligned against his forces and smiled. He said to himself, “Khoc Lieu, you should see this, my love. All these troops gathered for only one purpose, to win our independence. Either we prevail or we die but I would have it no other way. I will bring back a trophy to you my love.” He looked back to where he was before this. He was the leader of the 4th Mining guild. The miners were discontented with their working conditions and low compensation. Under his leadership, a group of them armed and went to the Martian colony of New Sydney and in a coup d’état took over the government. After the other colonies were taken over by the miners, they installed a provisional government on Mars. Knowing that the UEG would not tolerate this dissent, they surreptitiously armed the militia. Using stolen weapons and fighter craft, they deployed a ragtag battle force to combat the UEG Forces. Taylor did not want to govern in the background so he enlisted in the militia. He was placed in charge of the 3rd battalion of the First Liberation division. Under his leadership, they fought with distinction against UEG Force ground units much larger than his. He utilized hit and run and guerrilla tactics and only took prisoners when it served his purpose. As a result, he was called the Butcher of Eridania. As a morbid checklist, he started to take the rank insignia from enemies he dispatched and attached them to a chain around his space suit. His troops started soon followed suit. As a sign of the respect the Earth Marines had for him, they posted a bounty on his head on the Sol-net.

As he looked around the eastern valley, he recalled what their mission was: defeat the enemy in one last battle and force them to sue for peace. The leaders of the Martian Colonies and the militia knew that the population of Earth was becoming tired of the war and had already started anti-war protests. Taylor knew that with their newly acquired surface to air missile batteries as well as anti-aircraft blaster guns, the enemy’s fighter forces would have problems attacking his troops. Fighter support to the Marines would be virtually non-existent. In fact, he was privy to information that this offensive was leaked to the enemy in order to lead them to a trap. He smiled and got on the communicator and said, “When the fighters turn away without dropping their bomb loads, start the attack. Victory is ours!”

     The battle turned in the Martians favor as the Marines fell back about 20 km. During the enemy air strikes, Taylor he looked with satisfaction as he saw an enemy fighter shot down. When he saw the aviator safely eject he decided to capture him and present him to his leaders. This would be the trophy that would end the war. As he personally led the battalion, he saw a lone enemy fighter single-handedly destroy four fighters that tried to shoot him down. This put a sense of urgency to him, and he was determined to get this aviator. As Taylor brought his unit within sight of the downed aviator, the same fighter dropped bombs directly on his unit. His battalion was decimated by only two bomb runs and he was severely wounded. He would have died except that some brave survivors evacuated him from the area and repaired his suit.

     Ando saw enemy forces move in to try to capture his commander. He notified the rescue command that the enemy was approaching Maxwell. Ando still had his air to ground ordinance so he started bombing the enemy forces to at least keep them back. However, the enemy kept coming, forcing Ando to press his attacks at dangerous levels above the ground. He kept this up until the rescue forces arrived in the area. Ando looked at his fuel state and saw that he was below bingo fuel which was the level he needed to safely return to base. He contacted the nearest refueling craft and flew to join up with it. By the time he arrived there, he was flying on fumes and inertia. Knowing that the rescue forces would need all the help they could get, he took all the fuel he could and went back to the area. When he returned to the battlefield, he found that the enemy was still very determined to capture the commander and destroy any rescuers. Ando again kept enemy forces away despite the fact that he only had a small amount of gun ammo left. The rescue forces landed when it was clear and retrieved the commander and they started back to the carrier as Ando escorted them.

    When Ando returned to his ship, he received a hero’s welcome. Maxwell tried to bring him on charges for disobeying orders and not completing the mission but the Carrier Battle Group Commander talked to other aircrews and the story that he received was different. He then ordered Maxwell to write up the request for a decoration, which humiliated him. Despite the fact that Ando did not want too much attention he continued to fly missions and shied from the media spotlight, stating that anyone would have done what he did.

     The end of the battle of Mars came with the Milan Accords a month later. They were a group of concessions the UEG had granted to Mars. Besides allowing a number of ex-Martian Militia personnel to hold Space Defense Force rank, it guaranteed that one percent of the fleets in the Martian sector were manned entirely by Martian crews. They also placed strict limits on the numbers of deployed ships and squadrons from other sectors. It ended inconclusively because, despite the fact that the Earth forces won the air and space battles, the ground war bogged down in a quagmire. The home front was getting tired of an unpopular war and seeing body bags alongside coffins come home. The Martian separatists kept their mining operations and Mars became a demilitarized zone that would be monitored by a joint Space Defense Force/Martian station in Mars orbit.

     After the war, Ando’s career progressed successfully. In the year 2160, the Ando family would face their greatest challenge as both Mars and Jupiter were colonized and a long-hidden vendetta would result in an even larger conflict.