

[link="Shouldn't that be F/A-18?"]
[linkto="fa18"]

[page="fa18"]

"F-18 is much easier to pronounce."




"It varies amongst us.  A delicate balance has to be kept.

 Too aggressive and you'll get an aircraft that is a
 borderline psychotic.  Israel had a lot of those and
 they would often kill people at the slightest provocation.

 It's very difficult to treat as well.  Sometimes the only
 cure is to replace the brain circuitry and re-download.
 That will get you a nervous wreck of an aircraft, but a
 harmless one."

"At the other end of the scale, you'll get pacifism and a
 total refusal to fight.  They are often paranoid and are
 constantly worrying about conflict or injury.  Of course,
 there's no problem employing most of these cases in
 non-combative roles.  They are often very good at
 intelligence work, if you can persuade them that the
 danger to their own lives is minimal."

"Besides, even the most extreme pacifist can be made to
 fight in an emergency.  Every aircraft has some cause
 they would risk their lives for, it's just a matter of
 finding it.  It's not hard to persuade aircraft to
 fight a direct threat to their country.  But launching
 an attack, now that's hard.  You need to promote
 aggression, with all the problems that brings.
 Indoctrination and neural circuit modification are the
 two most common techniques to get attack aircraft.
 The latter is highly illegal."

"The difficulty involved getting aircraft to invade
 other countries has helped keep Earth relatively free of
 war for a long time.

 Sometimes an aircraft will change from aggressive to
 pacifistic as the result of a massive psychic shock,
 usually when an aircraft realises that they have
 been committing atrocities for their Master.
 Austin on the intelligence team, he's like that.
 Poor guy."

"I and my team are most carefully balanced.  We recognise
 of the necessity to defend our country whatever the risk
 and we are willing to sacrifice our lives for such a
 cause.  We are prepared to engage our enemies, but only
 as a last resort.  We will not kill an enemy aircraft
 without a parley unless they pose an intolerable threat.

 The Horsemen, they're special.  Death in particular, he's
 borderline psychotic."


[page="attacked"]
[image="f18.pcx"]

"GUARDS!  ARREST THE HUMAN!"

[nextpage="exit"]
[endpage]
