The land had given them trenches.
The sky would give them power.
But only if it didn't destroy them first.
Vera's Squadron
By early September 1914, the first Faucon interceptors—sleek, two-engine aerial predators—rolled out from the clandestine hangar known as Foundry Echo in rural Belgium.
Built from composite steel-aluminum alloy and powered by Ilse Brenner's twin-turbine hybrid engines, the aircraft could reach 220 km/h—nearly 40 km/h faster than the average German Albatros.
Vera watched as Squadron A-1 completed its first full rotation drill over the countryside.
5 pilots
5 gunners
10 engineers in constant rotation
Codenames: Vulture, Kestrel, Osprey, Heron, Wren
Each crew flew with a coded tooth pendant, symbolizing their "bite" against the enemy above.
Performance Reports
Agnes Corbeau compiled the data.
Average engagement range: 130 meters
Shot accuracy: 62%
Target acquisition time: 2.7 seconds
Reliability under combat stress: Inconclusive
The problem?
Every third engine overheated after 12 minutes of full-throttle flight.
Vera summoned Ilse to her field tent.
"What's failing?"
"It's not the turbine—it's the coolant. We don't have the alloys to stabilize it at peak velocity."
"Then find me something that does. We're hunting birds in a forest fire."
Sabotage
Two days later, during a routine test flight over Flemish airspace, Wren—piloted by Corbeau herself—suffered sudden engine seizure and crashed into a marsh.
She survived.
Barely.
Burned hands. Broken ribs. Concussion.
Ilse wept as she carried her friend out of the cockpit wreckage.
An inspection revealed the cause:
The coolant valve had been tampered with. Deliberately.
Vera stared at the cracked valve in her gloved hands.
"Someone inside the Foundry is trying to kill us."
The Investigation
Security tightened.
No one entered or left Foundry Echo without double verification.
Henriette personally oversaw background checks on every worker. She and Emil assembled a list of suspects—engineers with past debts, foreign ties, or prior grievances.
Three names rose to the top:
Lucien Marceau – A young mechanic who lost family in Verdun.
Elsa Dubois – A logistics officer from the French Air Corps, dismissed without explanation.
Rik Meijer – A Dutch-born steel welder who had changed his name three times.
But the real answer came not from deduction, but confession.
The Spy
Ilse found a torn blueprint in a supply crate—one of her engine diagrams, annotated in German shorthand.
Only three people besides herself had access.
She confronted Lucien Marceau in the fuel shed.
"Why?" she demanded.
Lucien, cornered, laughed bitterly.
"Because I watched my brother die in the mud while Vera designed wings."
"So you sold us to the people who killed him?"
"They offered truth. Not salvation."
"You don't get to decide who lives by lying about who should die."
She pulled the flare gun from her belt.
But she didn't fire.
She called Emil.
Mercy and Example
Emil arrived at Foundry Echo by dusk.
Lucien was restrained in the hangar, Vera standing silently nearby, arms crossed.
"I should turn you in," Emil said.
"Do it," Lucien spat. "I'm tired of all this pretending."
"But I won't," Emil said. "Because the state would make you a symbol. I'll make you something else."
He walked to the workbench, picked up a melted fragment of the Wren's control stick, and handed it to him.
"You're going to rebuild what you nearly killed."
Lucien looked stunned.
"Why?"
"Because redemption is rarer than punishment."
Lucien stayed.
And he never spoke German again.
Meanwhile: Forge Libre's ExpansionIn Normandy, Bruno oversaw the Sanglier Mk V—codenamed "Le Vent d'Acier" (The Steel Wind).
It was leaner, faster, and capable of cross-country travel at 35 km/h—unheard of for armor at the time.
Features:
Light composite armor
Independent suspension system
Mid-mounted engine
90mm main cannon with dual-axis stabilizer
Crew of four
It was the first Sanglier designed not to hold a line—but to break one in multiple places at once.
Camille, recovering from a shrapnel wound, tested it personally.
"It rides like a beast with wings," she reported.
"Good," Bruno replied. "We're building thunder now."
Diplomacy at the Edge
While Vera fought saboteurs and Bruno built the future, Emil traveled to Amsterdam, invited by a shadowy coalition of Scandinavian financiers, British intermediaries, and neutral engineers.
Their proposal?
"Make Forge Libre a transnational consortium," the Swedish liaison said. "Split ownership. Share designs. Gain immunity through distributed identity."
Henriette was skeptical.
"They want to own the Sanglier. And the Faucon. Bit by bit."
"Then we don't sell it," Emil said. "We lease the idea."
"And if they copy it?"
"Then we keep innovating until they can't keep up."
He signed the preliminary memorandum.
📡 A Message From the EnemyThree days later, a coded transmission arrived at Foundry Echo.
Ilse translated it from the intercepted German band.
"To the traitor engineer Emil Dufort: Your machine is impressive. But it bleeds like any other. When the ground shakes next, it will not be from your boar—but from our wolf. —Schattenkommando Einheit 11."
Bruno clenched his fists.
"What does that mean?"
Vera met Emil's eyes.
"It means they've built something new."
"Then," Emil said calmly, "let's make sure ours is faster."