The year is 1990. In 1989, the Soviet Union launched a lightning war on NATO. In just a few months, they managed to seize Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, as well as all of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt Delta and a part of Bavaria. Desperate, NATO signed a white peace, allowing the USSR to hold onto their freshly gained territories. It wouldn’t last long, however.

After being unable to prove themselves sufficiently to their allies, America loses the confidence of their overseas allies, and drifts into isolation, leaving NATO. In the wake of Russian overextension, the world market collapses, and the Soviet Union fragments, as does the rest of Eastern Europe.

The Berlin Wall falls, but each side meets the other with arms, wanting to shape the country in their image. Due to the lack of western unified strength, no one country stands ready to restore order, and all of Europe lights ablaze. NATO can only interdict, their own squadrons being insufficiently sized to project power over every theater. Russia is stuck reorganizing itself, entire divisions and air wings go rogue, for one reason or another. Border conflicts are small, but the age of the jet continues to change everything.

Most smaller air forces are insufficient, allowing mercenary groups to pop up in every conflict, acquiring planes from derelict stockpiles the world over. You were in flight lessons at the time, with dreams of flying commercial. With the market crash, however, your eyes drift to the news coming out of the skies of Europe.

You could’ve chosen any other life, been a good husband to any, worked any other honest job. But you differ from your peers, a young man, in search of glory and wealth. You take newspaper clippings and any information you can get on how to get into the fight. It’s taken some time to finally get your instrument rating and hours, the basic requirement for any mercenary air wing in need of warm bodies to put in cockpits, but you’re finally ready. With your loans weighing the back of your mind, you prepare an application packet, and hope they’ll take you.

Name
>[Write-In]

Nationality
>[American]
>[English]
>[West German]
>[Russian]

Conflict
>[Central Europe]
>[Balkan]
>[Nordic]
>[Baltic]

Alignment
>[NATO-backed]
>[WARPAC Remnants]
>[Rogue Nation]

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Furball: An AltHist Air Combat Quest