I woke up the next morning to the smell of coffee. Being a fox had its benefits, one of which is that coffee smells amazing and it makes me wish it tasted as good as it smelled. On the other hand, when I walked into the mess hall, I could smell exactly what (or rather, who) Bej had been doing last night.

"Really?" I sat down and grabbed a bowl of last night's stew.

Bej looked at me, feigning ignorance, "I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about."

"You've known the Americans for less than a day and you've already slept with one of them?"

"And that's surprising why exactly?"

I just shook my head and finished my breakfast. "If you get in trouble, it's your head."

"Yeah, no. Taylor said the US is very good about that sort of stuff."

"Taylor?"

"Yeah, he's the hot American who flew the rear Super Hornet."

"Oh, I should've guessed," I shook my head and headed towards the door. "Remember, the demo is at noon. I expect you to get Ano and Bennen to help you. I want a full demonstration of our maximum capabilities."

"Yes, ma'am," Bej saluted with his coffee as I left.

I walked towards the American section of the air base. Commander Lewis had said that the information exchange would be before the demonstrations, so I needed to be prompt.

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"Greetings, Commander." I bowed my head.

"Captain Hrett," Commander Lewis beckoned me closer, "I'd like to talk a bit with you about the demonstrations."

"Of course. What do you need?"

"We would like some clarification on the acceptable noise levels. Our aircraft can get very loud when traveling at their maximum speed."

Loud at their maximum speed? I didn't think that they were too loud when I escorted them in at 600 km/h the previous day. Does that mean a difference in how loud "loud" is, or that it isn't their maximum speed?

I frowned, "as long as it's a safe level of noise, it's OK. I would prefer to not go deaf."

"Of course. Also, I am afraid that most of our weapons are quite expensive, so our weapons demonstration will be very limited."

"Some of our weapons are expensive too, so our demonstration will be limited some too," I responded, to put him more at ease.

"Well, we are only cleared to demonstrate 2 weapons, the internal gun and the 500 pound LJDAM. We also have Sidewinders, AMRAAMs, 1000 and 2000 pound LJDAMs and Hellfire missiles, but those are too expensive or hard to demonstrate properly."

I had absolutely no idea what the weapons were, but I nodded anyway. "We will be giving a demonstration of our B35 light bomb, B29 heavy bomb, R4 explosive rocket, and the T17 thaumgun. One of each, because they're needed for the war."

"That seems fair. Anything else you would like to know before the demonstrations?"

I shook my head, "no, that's all. Bej should have everything ready shortly for our side of the demos. The weapons demonstrations will be in the field to the north east of the Air Base. Feel free to use the airspace fully, it's been fully closed down for the event. Please keep manacomm 555 open for emergency communications."

Commander Lewis nodded, "noted. We will be ready for our demo aircraft to take off in a few minutes. If you're ready, you can go now if you'd like."

"Sure," I took out my handheld manacomm unit and spoke into it, "Sergeant Adlend, feel free to launch any time. I'll tell you when we're ready for the demo to start"

"Sure thing. Ano and Bennen will be ready shortly. We'll head up and wait for your command,"

Bej sounded enthusiastic about getting to show off.