The war of the Patriotic War started on both continents at the same time, but everyone could see that the focus of the Axis Powers' attack was on the Western Continent. After all, the Confederacy's territory there was close to the main initiator of the Axis Powers, Yuzheim. The mainland of the country, and the Confederate territory in the Western Continent is only one-third the size of the Confederate mainland in the Eastern Continent, but it has a large amount of resources that are crucial to sustaining the Axis Powers' war of aggression, as well as nearly 40% of the Confederacy's heavy industry. Production capacity.
For the Axis powers, this is a piece of fat they must capture. Without occupying the Donets River Basin, they will not have enough capabilities to start a war with the Western Alliance countries.
For the Confederacy, no piece of territory could be given up.
Coupled with the existence of the Great Rift, the war in the Western Continent became extremely fierce.
On the contrary, the pace of the war on the Eastern Continent became much slower. In fact, in the first year of the Patriotic War, the Axis powers did not even launch a decent offensive in the Eastern Continent. They just crossed the border and burned a few villages. , just let the huge legion be stationed in place. These bad guys are wary of their accomplices. Before determining the situation in the Western Continent, they will never rashly attack the Confederacy's huge strategic reserve. And the Confederacy's headquarters also wants to When the Great Rift opened at the end of the year, they tended to conserve their troops in order to counterattack the Western Continent. Therefore, the Eastern Continent seemed unusually calm in the year when the Great Patriotic War just began. Everyone felt that the war was still far away from us. illusion.
Although the Axis powers have not launched a decent ground offensive in the Eastern Continent, this does not prevent their air force from crossing the border on a large scale and conducting air strikes on our airports and ports where air warships can take off and land.
So there is a strange situation on the battlefield, that is, soldiers from both sides on the ground are separated by barbed wire, triangular piles, and trenches to make coffee and drink, and occasionally exchange cigarettes or something, but the fighter planes in the sky are fighting fiercely. Sometimes you can also encounter artillery battles between air fleets-the army soldiers call it a fireworks display.
At that time, I belonged to the 11th Air Destroyer Brigade of the Dongfanghong Flagship. The brigade was based near a town called Vishensko in the Dnieper River Basin, about 250 kilometers away from the front line. Our base was not big, and we only stationed Our brigade consisted of sixty ordinary piston-powered La-5 fighter jets and eight piston-rune composite-powered Yak 2 fighters.
Since our base is part of the defense perimeter of the Smolinsk military port, fierce air battles are going on every day. Every few days, some faces disappear from the canteen at the airport, and sometimes even a large chunk disappears at a time.
But at that time, I didn't care about the whole war at all. At that time, I was troubled by the real situation and lived very unhappy every day.
The reason why things turned out like this was because during my first combat flight, I killed my partner, the fairy Natalia.
I still clearly remember that day, when I removed the film recording the eight kills from the victory confirmation camera installed coaxially with the optical sight on the aircraft, happily jumped out of the Yak 2 cabin, and looked at the people who were running towards me. When the ground crew was waving the film box in their hands and tapping the canopy of the back seat, I suddenly discovered that the goblin who had been following me since I officially became the pilot of Yak 2, the one with beautiful long brown hair and The slender and beautiful elf girl was lying motionless on the flight seat. Her beautiful eyes had long since become cloudy, and even her favorite sky could no longer be reflected.
The results of the examination by the brigade health clinic showed that there were no external injuries, and the conclusion was that she died of mental exhaustion.
Goblins are indispensable for activating the rune drive system. The rune system originally originated from the ancient magic of the goblins. Scientists have established "rune science" (called "rune science" in some countries) based on the study of these magics. "Magic Science"), and created magical machines using this technology. However, the scientists did not find a way to activate the Rune Science products without going through the Fairy Tribe, so the Fairy Tribe integrated in as the starters of the Rune Machinery. Human society….
Because among the various rune systems, the operation of the wind rune system will greatly consume the spirit and vitality of the fairy who activates it, so it cannot work for a long time and cannot provide power that exceeds the bottom line of the fairy's endurance - that way The result is the sudden death of the goblin who activated the system. Therefore, light flying machines that use wind runes are rare machines in the world that are a mixture of rune power and conventional power, and pilots who fly hybrid flying machines must also be careful. Using the power of the rune system, once it is overloaded (which is not a very difficult thing), your partner may be stunned, and then all kinds of unpleasantness will come uninvited.
Just like what I experienced.
Natalia is a girl who stands out among the fairies who are famous for their beauty, especially her emerald eyes. Whenever I stare at her jewel-like pupils, I always feel a sense of wonder. The feeling of suffocation - her eyes are so clear that they are not like things in the world. According to our tundra people, they are pearls condensed from the sweet rain given by the immortal god, and they are the purest and most sacred existence in the world.
It is precisely because of this that I often look into Natalia's eyes secretly, admiring the treasures that should not exist in the world.
Some people say that the relationship between a pilot and his fairy partner is like a lover, because without this, good coordination cannot be achieved, the full performance of the equipment cannot be exerted, and it is difficult to survive in fierce air battles. Although this is somewhat exaggerated, But it is true that the pilot and the fairy partner have a deep bond, and when it comes to Natalia and me, this sentence has become a complete fact.
Natalia had long discovered that I would secretly stare into her eyes, but she always pretended not to know.
Until one evening, after finishing the day's training flight, Natalia and I walked as usual on the avenue leading to the pilot's dormitory under the setting sun.
At this time, Natalia, who was walking in front, suddenly spoke: "Well, when I was reading yesterday, I saw a poet saying that girls aged seventeen or eighteen are often at the time when their hearts are most easily moved in their lives. Even those Girls who are very simple in nature and have no love for vanity will be happy when they hear praises for themselves."
I was a little uncomfortable with the sudden topic. At this time, my mind was full of several fighting moves that I didn't do well just now. I couldn't fight with girls, poems, etc. So I could only watch Natalya being fucked. The sunset dyed her gorgeous hair orange-red without saying a word.
"Whether it's flattery with ulterior motives, sincere exclamation, or praise stemming from love, in short, a seventeen-year-old girl will definitely feel happy when she hears these words of praise for herself!"
At this time, my brain finally caught up with Natalia's words. Although I still didn't understand her intention of suddenly saying this, I still tried to answer: "A romantic and innocent seventeen-year-old..."
Before I finished speaking, Natalia suddenly turned around, clasped her hands behind her back, and while backing away, she looked at me with squinted eyes and a half-smile, and said: "Hey, let me tell you, I'm the real deal. An eighteen-year-old girl!"
I was stunned. This was really shocking news. As a pilot, I have long been accustomed to not judging the age of fairies by their appearance, so when I learned that my partner had an age that completely matched her appearance, At that time, I was hit hard: Could it be that I had been partnering with an innocent high school girl?
"Your expression... is really too much. Did you always think that I was the same as the captain's 'Pliscia', an old woman who is close to a hundred years old?"
Let me explain in advance, although I had never guessed that Natalia would be younger than me, I did not think that the lively Natalia could be a hundred years old. Even if the years cannot leave traces on the appearance of the fairy, It will still be engraved on their characters through "memory"...
I told Natalia this idea, and she immediately pouted her lips awkwardly and muttered, "Yes, yes, I'm just immature and childish," but immediately she smiled cheerfully as if she had thought of something happy. She slowed down slightly to let me catch up with her. When the two of them were walking side by side, Natalia put her head close to my cheek and asked in a slightly naughty tone: "Hey, are my eyes beautiful?" ?This is a question seriously asked by an innocent girl of eighteen!"
I have never been a shy person, but I am not thick-skinned enough to praise a girl who is neither a relative nor a lover without any hesitation, so before I could say the word "beautiful", Na Thalia bent over with laughter.
"Ah haha, what a weird face, Grisha, your eyes and nose are almost squeezed together!"
The girl's smile is so bright and charming, no matter when I think about it, it is still as fresh as ever. I really hope that this smile can always be with me.
However, Natalia and I's first combat patrol destroyed all of this.
Natalia was lying on the back seat of Jacques 2 specially designed to connect the goblins and rune systems. Her emerald eyes were no longer as clear as rain from the sky, and her pale eyes were no longer visible. No matter how many words of praise I say, my face will never smile again.
I lay on the edge of the airplane cockpit and cried bitterly.
Natalia's death must have brought me the most pain and sorrow. I have endured more trauma than everyone else combined. I thought everyone must know this, but unfortunately, most people Don't think so.
"The despicable person who sacrifices his partner's life in exchange for the number of kills" and "the goblin killer", these titles spread throughout the base overnight. When I woke up from the sadness of losing my partner and the hangover, all the people in the base When people look at me, there is something in their eyes that makes me very uncomfortable.
Everyone thought that I was not strong enough, so I had to overdraw Natalia's mental power to strengthen the output of the rune power system. The reason why I achieved such fruitful results in the first combat patrol was entirely due to Natalia. In exchange for Leah's life.
Of course I cannot agree with this conclusion, because whether it is in flight training or simulated air combat in exercises, I have always been the best in this group - I mean, the combination of me and Natalia is the best. .
To prove this, during the time when I had to switch to piston fighters because I had no partner, I tried my best to increase my number of kills, and soon I became the number one piston-powered ace of the Dongfanghong flagship team. But my behavior It didn't change the views of my comrades on me. The only effect of everything I did was to change the cause of Natalia's death from "Gregory's poor skills and fear of death" to "Gregory's desire to die". It’s crazy to want to block the ace, poor Natalia.”
At that time, in the whole brigade, the only ones who always stood by me and spoke for me were my wingman and his partner - if it hadn't been for my bravery and if my partner hadn't died, they would have died that day.
My wingman is an honest man, with mediocre flying skills, even a little worse than the best ones among those who fly piston planes. His fairy is also a very sweet little girl with a sweet smile. After I received When other people in the base were ostracizing them (especially other Rune aircraft pilots), they were the only two who stood firmly on my side. My wingman also defended me with his stupid words, I thought that even if I controlled the range of maneuver within the limits, I would still be able to get the highest number of kills that day. Looking at his desperate look, I really felt a lot better...
It is a pity that these two people died in an air counterattack against the Axis Powers two weeks later. On that day, the Smolinsk fleet decided to destroy the escort of the Axis Air Force that had launched air attacks on our side in the past few days. At the fighter airport, our formation was ordered to take off early in the morning to cover the battleships of the Smolinsk fleet at the mouth of the Dnieper River. As a result, a group of Mei 109 sneak attacks on our formation with a dive attack. My wingman is really not an ace material. , I was driving a piston-type La-5, and while I easily escaped from Messerscht's firing line, I saw a Yak dragging thick smoke towards the vast wilderness divided into two halves by the Dnieper River.
I recognized that it was my former wingman, and my intuition told me that he was probably shot down before he could activate the rune power system.
That was the only rune-powered aircraft our fleet lost until I left for Murmansk to join the Bird Fleet.
What I didn't expect was that this matter, which should have nothing to do with me, was blamed on me.
I became a terrible god of death overnight, and would take away the lives of anyone close to me. As long as I appeared in front of everyone, cynicism would attack me, especially when they looked at me. The look in my eyes that was full of disgust, as if I was looking at something dirty, made me very depressed.
Unable to bear this, I went to Dimyanov, the political commissar of our brigade at the time, and the answer I received was, "The war is so brutal now. It's just a way for comrades to vent their pressure."
The final result of this political talk was that I was imprisoned for three days because I threw Timyanov out of the big window of his office.
However, the comrades' behavior of "releasing stress" also brought me a "benefits", that is, I could always occupy a round table by myself when drinking in the pilot club. Not long after, I also got a single dormitory - pilot They are all double dormitories. After my roommate died, no one was willing to move in.
So in my memories of the initial period of the war, apart from the battle between life and death and the increasing number of kills, there are only large tracts of loneliness crowded in that empty dormitory. And loneliness - I often sit at the big table for two people in the dormitory, playing with the newspapers sent from Vishencisco in boredom, folding paper airplanes, paper cranes and other gadgets, while thinking about Nata Leah and me.
In this way, the war entered the fourth month. During my forty-ninth combat cruise flying a piston fighter, I shot down a Rune aircraft. The day after I handed in the film recording the results, I once Timyanov, who had been beaten by me, broke into my dormitory.
He told me that the Fleet Command had just confirmed that what I had killed was a new aircraft model that had just been put into the battlefield by the Axis powers, and that I had created the first combat example in world history of a piston fighter shooting down a Rune fighter that had activated the Rune power system. .
Ten days later, a Red Star Medal and a transfer order were placed in front of me. The content of the order asked me to rush to Murmansk within fifteen days to report to the Northern Arctic Red Flagship Headquarters, and the signature was the highest officer of the Confederate Army. Headquarters.
In the eyes of most people, this order is like an invitation to death: the Northern Red Flagship is competing with the Axis Powers' Extreme Sea Fleet for air supremacy over the ice of the Extreme Sea. The battle is more fierce than here. Many, many times, but I felt extremely excited. I wanted to leave this unpleasant base and go to a place with more intense fighting to prove my strength. From this point of view, I really fell in love with those representatives who shot down Number of red five stars.
I quickly packed my bags and went to the town of Veshensk to rent a carriage early the next morning after receiving the order, preparing to go to Shepetovka to take the train to Murmansk...
Just when the fellow driver who was driving me was about to wave his whip, something unexpected happened.
I originally thought that no one would come to see me off, but Dimyanov came. I didn’t like this political commissar, so it made me feel disgusted that he came to see me off. I wished that he would disappear from my sight as soon as possible. I I leaned lazily on the edge of the carriage and did not salute the political commissar. I just continued to fan myself with my military cap. I expected to use this method to convey my dissatisfaction to Dimyanov.
Dimyanov turned a blind eye to the disgust on my face. He handed me a cigar that smelled very good, then lit a cigarette rolled with Pravda himself. After taking a puff, he said to himself: : "A person who can truly rule the sky does not need other decorations to emphasize his majesty. Do you understand, comrade ace pilot?"
I have been in the army for six years, and of course I have met good political commissars, but obviously Dimyanov is not one of them. I just thought he was making a fool of himself when he said this, so I gave a noncommittal "hum" and took it as a lie. I answered and at the same time smelled the cigar he gave me - that cigar was really fragrant.
Seeing that I didn't answer, Dimyanov shrugged and muttered: "If you don't understand what I mean, you will just kill those goblin ladies one after another so that you can take care of yourself."
After saying that, he threw the cigarette he had just lit to the ground, stamped it out with his big leather shoe, and finally showed a rare hearty smile and patted me on the shoulder.
"If you become an air marshal, remember to support me."
This was the last time I saw this political commissar. At the end of the Great Patriotic War, I became Air Force Marshal. I once sent my adjutant to find this political commissar. Finally, I learned that he was sent to establish a guerrilla force behind enemy lines. But because of the betrayal by a traitor, he died on the execution ground of the Axis powers. It is said that he died an extremely heroic death.