Sky Ghost by Mack Maloney Page A

substantial help from the U.S. and other countries, succeeded in ejecting the Germans from the British Isles in 1957.
    But the Germans came back in 1961, were thrown out again in 1963, were back in 1967, and were tossed out in 1971.
    In between all this, and through various U.S. presidential administrations, the American support for its British allies never wavered. But it did become a drain—both financially and technology-wise. American troops fought with the British for so long, the two forces were eventually integrated, becoming simply the Allied Forces. But despite much valor and sacrifice, the war never really stopped, it just laid dormant for periods of time, flaring up whenever the Germans felt their nerve growing back again. Not total warfare. No clear-cut victories. No unconditional surrenders. Just a long series of appeasements. This is why the conflict had dragged on for 58 years.
    And this is why everything looked so odd, yet familiar to Hunter. The U.S. Navy looked the same in its infinite dabs of gray paint because it was the same. But it was its ships’ designs, and the whole concept of bigger-is-better, that made for a strange world. (Especially for a person like Hunter, who knew somehow that sizing-down was usually the way to go when technology starts to spurt.) Twists and turns, both political and technological, had dictated certain weapons systems be built over others. So this was a world of Pogo verti-fighters and gigantic sea bombers and monstrous aircraft carriers that were supposedly impossible to sink. America built big and long-range, because in this world, that was the best way to protect its own watery borders.
    The latest phase of the war started in 1987, with another successful invasion of England by Germany. Control of the North Sea oilfields was the spark this time. Germany craved oil, and the North Sea held more than their Middle Eastern and Russian deposits combined. But this particular invasion of the UK had been very brutal. Many people around the world were outraged. Allies on both sides mustered up and the fighting began anew.
    Two new weapons made the Germans especially formidable this time. First, their aircraft engineers figured out a way to build a bomber that would reach America, drop a substantial bomb load, and return, all in one trip; it was the Focke-Wulf 910, the world’s first 10,000-mile bomber. This was something the Americans had been working on with vague enthusiasm for years—the great length of the war put the emphasis on some military advancements, at the expense of others. The American long-range bomber was one of them. By 1987, the Germans had finally beat them to it.
    The Huns, as many had taken to calling the Germans this time, also developed a new line of missile firing U-boats, like the pair Hunter had destroyed off the coast of Massachusetts. While their long-range bombers made only scattered appearances in the early part of this phase, pulling off some spectacular bombings of Boston, Miami, and New York, the “Great Air Raids” were actually infrequent ones. On the other hand, the German subs were very effective. They were able to surface close to the American seaboard and launch DG-2 missiles up to 300 miles inland. This set off extensive anti-U-boat spending in the U.S. War Department.
    These two weapons forced America to devote a lot of resources to continental and naval defense. Thus when the war was back on in 1987, the support for the United Kingdom was less than in previous outbreaks.
    That’s why it took 10 long years to finally squeeze Germany. Blockades, constant fighting, diplomatic activity, and Germany’s own voracious appetite for fuel and raw materials slowly took its toll. Eventually, the Reich went bankrupt. It couldn’t pay its bills. Support dried up. Friendly nations went away. And that’s why the Americans and their allies had been on the verge of defeating Germany once again when Hunter was thrown into prison.
    But that was two