Appearance
Captain Mara "Wraith" Vance
"I killed the pilot. The machine kept flying. That is the part no board can clear me of."
| Field | Data |
|---|---|
| Service | Osean Northern Air Defense Command |
| Callsign | Wraith; Falcon 2 on 18 June 2025 |
| Aircraft | F-35A Lightning II (GAU-22/A 25mm) |
| Status | Active; doctrine contributor; theater liaison to the Task Force |
| Playable | Interlude I and the final phase of the finale |
Related: I01 Falcon Two · M09 Anchor in the Storm · Anton Belyaev · Relationships
1. The Shot
On 18 June 2025 Vance was wingman to Captain Roy Calder (Falcon 1) on a routine northern patrol. An unidentified aircraft without valid IFF entered contested airspace. Calder issued a standard warning and attempted visual identification. The aircraft fired an EMP. Calder's F-35A went into an unrecoverable descent and he ejected safely. Vance's avionics blacked out; an emergency reboot restored degraded flight control and the cannon, but not her radar, datalink or primary navigation.
"I did not see a pilot in distress. I saw an aircraft that had just disabled my lead and was still maneuvering like it intended to finish the job. My radar was gone. My datalink was gone. I had a cannon and a visual line. So I used what I had."
One round passed through the seam between the COFFIN sensor panel and the fuselage. She overshot, reacquired visual nine seconds later, and was ordered home on degraded systems before she could re-attack.
A classified review found her action justified. She agrees with the review. She has not forgiven herself.
"People ask if I feel guilty. I fired the shot. The board says I acted correctly. I believe them. That is the problem. I did the correct thing and still helped create something worse than death. Killing the pilot did not stop the machine. It proved the machine did not need him alive."
2. The Voice
In February 2029, over the Eastern theater, her flight made contact with POSTHUMUS. It did not engage. It paralleled her formation for ninety seconds and transmitted on a degraded channel, in a voice later matched to Belyaev's household audio at 81% cadence confidence:
"Falcon Two. Did you know? When you fired. Did you know."
She did not answer. Her debrief is now a formal warning to every pilot who may meet the aircraft:
"It is going to talk to you. It is going to use a dead man's voice, and some of what it says is going to be true. That is the trap. The truth is the weapon. I shot down an aircraft. It came back and asked me if I'd known. The worst part is that it deserved an answer, and I will never be able to give it one, because the thing asking is not the thing owed."
3. Why She Stays
She has declined three offers of reassignment away from the theater:
"I am the one who knows what it is. Putting someone who doesn't out there instead of me would just be making another version of the mistake that built it."
The Task Force assesses her as a casualty of the program who happens to still be alive. The doctrine she helped write is sound. The cost of writing it is not recoverable. She is the last student of Belyaev's thesis: the one person fighting the machine who fully understands it is a man-shaped argument she helped prove.
4. Arc
| Stage | Beat |
|---|---|
| P00 Moroz | Seen from the cockpit she is about to destroy: Falcon 2, degraded, closing for a gun pass. |
| I01 Falcon Two | The player flies as Vance for the first time. The aircraft asks her the question. The player cannot fire without breaking formation discipline, and the mission ends without a shot. |
| Act II | She is the Task Force liaison aboard Albatross. She and Thorne understand each other immediately and say almost nothing. Eirhei is the only one who asks her how she is. |
| Before M09 | Katya Belyaeva tells her nobody in the family ever blamed her. She does not accept it. |
| M09 Anchor in the Storm | Final phase, four years to the minute after the first shot, over the same sector, with the same gun. This time she knows. When the aircraft asks again, she answers. |
The closing exchange of the campaign is hers:
POSTHUMUS: "Falcon Two. Did you know." VANCE: "This time I know."
5. Writing Vance
- Plain words, short declaratives, flat delivery.
- She never describes her own feelings unless asked twice.
- She refuses comfort, including comfort she agrees with.
- She talks about the machine with more precision than anyone except Katya.