VI All Systems Normal
Yukikaze’s power was beyond what even he had expected. Finally free of her crew, she killed all their safeguards and revealed capacities exceeding her design limits. He tried to tame this new Yukikaze, but she refused his orders, judging them errors, and danced freely in the skies of Faery…
A LARGE FORMATION of enemy aircraft was approaching.
The initial alert came in from the tactical fighters patrolling the perimeter of frontline base TAB-14. An airborne early warning and control system plane confirmed the information.
Twenty-four interceptors scrambled from TAB-14. They were Fands, single-seat assault fighters of the 1402nd Tactical Combat Group, 402nd Tactical Fighter Squadron.
The 402nd TFS fell into a stacked line-abreast formation and prepared to confront the attacking JAM fighters.
The 402nd flight leader glanced up at the contrails streaking the sky high above them. He swallowed a surge of irritation laced with jealousy; the tactical combat and surveillance fighter leaving those trails was powerful enough to meet the JAM on equal terms and, thanks to the overwhelming thrust provided by its Phoenix engines, could even outrun them. Although it appeared whenever there was a battle, it never joined in combat, never helped its fellow FAF planes in their lethal struggle, and always just returned to base safely when it was all over. All that SAF bastard does is run away, the 402nd leader thought. It’s like he comes just to watch us die.
“Ox leader, JAM closing. Number of units, increasing. One-point-four G, head-on.”
“Roger.”
Guided by the data link from the AWACS plane, the 402nd TFS broke up into four smaller flights. Each flight of six planes assumed a stacked three-ship spread formation. One threeplane group would attack while the other would fly support, acting as spotters and defense. The attacking and defending roles weren’t fixed beforehand but instead varied according to the needs of the battle. The point of this fluid formation was to separate the enemy aircraft and attack them three-onone. When these conditions weren’t met—for example, if two enemy planes were approaching from the rear—the attacking group would abort and shift to a defensive role, creating an opportunity for the other group to strike.
In this sort of close-in dogfight, there was no time to rely on radar. The pilots had to depend on their own senses and on the information transmitted from their fellow planes. The only way to retain the advantage was to make constant, rapid, and accurate decisions. Combat pilots with bad instincts didn’t last for long.
“Ox 2, Ox 3, engage.”
The flight leader slid his throttle forward. The enemy had broken into two groups, one going high and the other low. Ox team climbed rapidly.
“Tally on bandit, two o’clock,” called in Ox 2. His sharp eyesight had allowed him to spot the JAM’s faint contrail. Ox leader kept his eyes glued to it. His radar acquired the enemy plane and highlighted it on his HUD within the target designator box. He quickly toggled his dogfight switch. One wing of the enemy formation was lagging behind.
“I’ve got him.”
The flight leader pushed forward. Speed had to be maintained at all costs. Speed was life. Ox 2 and 3 followed him.
“Ox leader, engaging. Break, starboard.”
“Roger.”
Acting on a warning from Ox 4, which was monitoring the situation, that their target was maneuvering to attack, Ox leader’s group dove to the right. The JAM pursued them. Ox 4, 5, and 6 rolled in from above, trying to interdict the JAM, which evaded them with a 3G hard-right climbing turn.
Ox leader pulled into a 3.5G turn, his angle of attack pushed to twenty degrees. The JAM responded with a 5G slice, and Ox leader followed, diving inverted. Countering his lead turn, the JAM pulled vertical, and Ox 3 and 4 simultaneously performed pitchbacks, banking left to chase it. The JAM continued to rise, its afterburners blowing fire, turning at 6Gs to prevent Ox 2 and 3 from maneuvering behind it. Within three seconds, it was over a thousand meters up, turning hard to the right to come around to Ox 4’s six o’clock. Ox 4’s radar warning receiver shrilled an alarm.
Ox leader pushed his plane’s nose through a 7.4G turn at the maximum angle of attack. In response, the JAM aborted its attack on Ox 4, cut sharply to the left, and rolled into a 180-degree turn. Ox leader rolled into his own turn, committing to the two-circle fight, both aircraft trying to maneuver the other into its kill envelope.
And finally, Ox leader had it. RDY AAM appeared on his HUD. The short-range missile’s seeker acquired the enemy aircraft and the plane’s onboard fire control system input the JAM’s heading, relative altitude, and speed data into the missile’s guidance system. Ox leader closed on his quarry.
At six thousand meters’ distance, a tone sounded in his helmet to alert him that he was within the missile’s firing range. He pressed the weapon release button on his side stick without a moment’s hesitation. The missile’s rocket motor and gas-turbine power generator activated, launching it away from the plane. The target was now four seconds away.
The JAM jinked violently, trying to evade the missile that was twining up its trail, but it was too late. The AAM slammed into the enemy craft. Target, destroyed.
Ox flight retook its formation.
ABOARD YUKIKAZE, REI Fukai watched the enemy symbol vanish from his multi-function display. According to FAF tactical theory, victory was a secondary objective: the primary objective was not to lose. The FAF had been charged with the duty to defend Earth from the persistent attacks launched by the JAM, but because the true nature of the JAM remained a mystery, and because the FAF had never discovered the key to killing them, it could not devise a strategy for winning the war. Therefore, a single tactical accomplishment was regarded not as a victory but rather as an avoidance of defeat. The war was hopeless, but at least they had yet to lose it.
The 402’s doing well, Rei thought to himself. They were using tactics devised to make sure they didn’t lose.
“Something’s wrong,” said Lieutenant Burgadish from the backseat as he checked the long-range search radar.
“What do you got?”
“Not sure… Wait. Thought so. It’s a second wave. The ones the 402 are fighting are decoys… Here they come. Missiles. Ground-to-ground missiles, headed for TAB-14, fast.”
“Does the base know they’re coming? How’s their interceptor deployment look?”
“Doesn’t look like they’ll make it in time.”
Yukikaze accelerated, climbing into the airspace above TAB-14. Rei tried to identify the approaching enemy missiles in the tactical data bank, but the result came back as UNKNOWN. He switched the MFD to moving target indicator mode.
Eighteen enemy missiles, closing.
“Damn, they’re fast. That’s an ultra-high velocity. Looks like the JAM have a new missile, Lieutenant Fukai.”
“Activate the TARPS. Get a shot of them.”
“Activating TARPS.”
The swarm of missiles crossed hundreds of kilometers in what seemed like a matter of seconds. As he banked Yukikaze Rei could see them arcing toward TAB-14 with his own eyes. They plunged toward the base, looking like red comets or meteors, long, fiery tails stretching out behind them. The tails were not formed by the exhaust gases from the warheads’ rocket engines: the missiles were flying so fast that they were glowing red hot just from the air friction generated by their passage.
TAB-14 was annihilated in an instant. No trace remained of the buildings on the surface. An enormous crater on the base’s broad runway marked the spot where the interceptor squadron, the 401st TFS, had been hot fueling for its takeoff. Yukikaze silently recorded the devastation with her TARPS cameras.
“With that kind of velocity, they don’t even need an explosive. The shock wave alone blew everything away.”
“Lieutenant Fukai, third wave of enemy missiles, incoming. They’re antiaircraft, moving much slower than the GTGM just now, but they’re three times faster than the norm. The 402nd’s in danger.”
“Tell them to take evasive action. PAN, code U.”
“Roger.” Burgadish got on the guard frequency. “PAN, PAN, PAN. 402 TFS. This is Yukikaze, B-503. PAN, PAN, PAN. Code U, Uniform, Uniform.”
The 402nd leader received the emergency message from Yukikaze at the same instant that his own plane’s alert system sounded its warning. He immediately began evasive maneuvers, but he had no idea what the approaching threat actually was.
“JAM antiair missiles?”
He scanned his surroundings to try to visually acquire the missiles. It was hard, but you could usually spot them from the faint contrails they left. If he could see them, he was sure he could evade them.
There they were, coming at him from six o’clock low. But… what were they? They were moving fast, more like laser beams than missiles.
He never had time to dodge. A split second after he’d sighted the missiles, he and his plane were consumed in an explosion.
“Nineteen 402nd planes down. No survivors,” Lieutenant Burgadish stated impassively.
“Roger,” Rei replied. “No point hanging around here. RTB.”
“More JAM, closing. Range 120 klicks. There are three large units, possibly missile carriers. No escorts. They’re just flying along, like they don’t even care if they’re attacked.”
“Are they where those AAMs were launched from? Do they just shoot until they’re empty? What are they after now?”
“They may still have more missiles. Hell, the planes themselves may be giant bombs… Looks like the survivors of the 402 are moving to intercept.”
The five remaining units of the 402nd reformed then turned toward the three massive JAM aircraft, firing medium-range missiles as they closed the 100-kilometer range to the enemy. But the 402nd’s missiles didn’t even go thirty klicks before they were destroyed by the much faster interceptors the JAM had launched nearly simultaneously. The 402nd planes began to withdraw. They were quickly picked off from behind, gone in flashes of light and flame. Black smoke filled the sky.
“All remaining 402 units destroyed.”
“Fands are an older plane. To hit an enemy like that we need more power and maneuverability. Something like the Flip Knight system might work.”
“Unmanned aircraft?” Burgadish said doubtfully. “They could act as decoys to draw off the missiles. Then once the JAM’ve exhausted their payloads—Lieutenant, they’ve locked on! Engage!”
Their RWR had picked up the waves of enemy targeting radar. Rei sent Yukikaze into a sliceback and then ran the throttle to MAX, fleeing the oncoming enemy.
“Two high-velocity missiles, closing from the rear at a little over two-point-one. Range forty klicks, approximately ten seconds to impact. The second one’s six klicks behind it and will hit three seconds after.”
Yukikaze fled at a speed of over a thousand meters per second, the JAM missiles tearing after her.
“We’re not going to make it.”
“Yukikaze isn’t a Fand.”
Rei hit the emergency jettison switch, dumping the TARPS pod, then fired six medium-range missiles as decoys and activated ECM. No effect.
Taking his hand from the throttle, he reached down to the panel near his left knee and flipped the V-max switch. This cut out the limiters on Yukikaze’s twin engines, squeezing power from them beyond their designed safety limits.
Auto-maneuver system, ON. Yukikaze was now free from Rei’s control, and in a fraction of second had used all her sensor data to formulate the sequence of maneuvers that would save them from the JAM missiles.
The moment Rei released the side stick, Yukikaze abrubtly yawed to starboard, her attitude unchanged. Rei was thrown against the left side of his seat. The G-forces were terrific; he felt like his internal organs were being crushed.
The JAM missile passed by them barely 110 meters away on the left side and self-destructed. Yukikaze pitched and shuddered in the shock wave of the explosion.
A warning tone sounded in Rei’s helmet, signaling the approach of the second missile.
Rei steeled himself. They were going to die.
Ejection at this point was impossible. Yukikaze’s ejection seats had no capsules to protect them; firing them at supersonic speed was tantamount to suicide.
He watched the rapidly moving symbol on the MTI and relinquished it to Yukikaze to deal with.
It took a second for her to correct her attitude after having been hit by the explosion shock wave. Two seconds to impact. Evasion was impossible.
Yukikaze initiated an offensive combat maneuver.
Rei wasn’t expecting it. He was suddenly pressed into his seat, the G-forces seeming to crush his eyeballs back into his skull. His vision blacked out. He had an instant’s impression that all his blood had turned solid and impossibly heavy—then he lost consciousness.
Yukikaze then did something Rei would have thought impossible.
Dropping her engine power to idle, she slewed around her center of gravity, spinning 180 degrees like a top, letting the momentum remaining from her forward velocity carry her backwards tail-first through the sky at subsonic speed. She was now confronting the enemy missile nose-on.
RDY GUN. Ultra high-velocity auto-fire control system, activated. Eighty rounds from the nose cannon slammed into the enemy missile in 1.4 seconds.
The missile detonated 0.2 seconds from impact.
Yukikaze returned to her previous attitude shortly before Rei regained consciousness. She had automatically assumed a return course to base.
Fighting down a wave of nausea, Rei immediately checked the master caution light panel. Nav and electrical systems, check. There was damage to one of the hydraulic systems. He twisted and craned his head around to look at Yukikaze’s vertical stabilizers. The right rudder was gone. It wouldn’t have too dangerous an effect on their flight, though; as long as the left one remained, it’d be enough.
There was a caution indicating an oxygen malfunction in the rear section of the cockpit.
“Lieutenant,” Rei called out. “You okay? Hey, Rich.”
Burgadish gingerly pulled his mask off and made an “okay” sign with his fingers. “Puked my mask. Still feel sick… Some fighter jock I am. First time it’s happened… So, why aren’t we dead?”
“It looks like Yukikaze shot down the missile.”
“No shit? I feel like I’ve been shot in the gut,” the EWO answered, panting like a runner who’d just run a long race.
Yukikaze descended toward Faery Base.
TAB-14 WAS GONE.
After exhausting their onboard store of warheads, the massive JAM carriers crash-bombed the base, finishing it off just as Lieutenant Burgadish had predicted they would. There were no survivors. The JAM attack had been of such devastating power that even the reinforced command bunkers deep underground had been destroyed. The planes flying in the airspace above TAB-14, including the AWACS unit, had been caught in the blast radius and also destroyed.
Only Yukikaze had made it back. Since the TARPS pod had been jettisoned, the data recorded by its cameras had been lost, but the onboard data file was intact.
Rei attended the briefing on the combat intelligence brought back by Yukikaze.
“This is unbelievable,” said General Cooley as she looked up from her screen.
“I agree,” replied Major Booker. The shadowy half-light of the briefing room threw the scar on his cheek into stark relief as he nodded. “An attack with this level of destructive power from the JAM is completely unprecedented. This data is invaluable.”
“If we don’t come up with a counterstrategy fast, Faery Base will be in danger as well. Nice work, Lieutenant Fukai.”
“You can thank Yukikaze. I was unconscious.”
“It’s hard to believe it pulled off a maneuver like that. Super Sylphs may have a strong airframe, but you’re still lucky it didn’t break apart in midair. Or break its pilot. If I’m not mistaken, hitting the V-max switch cuts out your G-limiter too.”
“Better that than getting killed. I just cracked a couple of ribs. I don’t have word yet on my EWO, though.”
“His spleen was ruptured. He’s out of danger for the moment and should recover. You’ve already had your spleen removed, haven’t you?”
“Yeah. That may have saved me.”
Looking at him over the top of her glasses, General Cooley gave him a small, tight-lipped smile. Rei suppressed the urge to flinch.
“Major Booker,” she said, still gazing at Rei. “Put this intelligence in order at once. I’ll be presenting it at an emergency command staff meeting in two hours. That is all.”
“Understood, General.”
Booker stood and saluted the general as she exited the briefing room. Rei remained seated and watched her go, as always mildly surprised that she didn’t actually have eyes in the back of her head.
Down in the hangar on the other side of the briefing room’s glass wall, the maintenance crew was scanning Yukikaze’s airframe with ultrasonic and X-ray equipment, hunting for damage.
“Yukikaze nearly wrenched herself apart. Did you see the strain gauge on her wings, Rei?”
“It turned out okay.”
“It did this time, but we still need to change our approach, on both the software and hardware fronts. And before that we need to rethink our strategy. We’re going to have to be a lot more cautious about getting into dogfights.”
“Yeah, the Fands have no chance. Even we barely made it.”
“The FAF has also been developing high-velocity missiles, but we’re still trying to resolve the issue of the aerodynamic heating and the thermal noise it causes. The JAM have obviously cracked that problem. And we don’t really have a clue as to how their guidance system works.”
“Doesn’t seem like it’s active homing. ECM had no effect.”
“The frequency range may have been wrong. We’ll figure it out eventually. But we have successfully tested the FAF’s air-to-air high-velocity missile. It’s not as fast as the JAM’s, but the accuracy should be about the same.”
“Even if we have the missiles, the fighters carrying them will still be Fands. They’ll be shot down before they can fire.”
“Nope,” said Major Booker, grinning broadly. “Guess what just passed its flight tests? Fand II. It’s a completely different beast from the Fand, a high maneuverability dogfighter. Its engine output is only 60 percent of a Sylphid’s, but its empty weight is only 60 percent of one too. It’s much smaller than Yukikaze, lighter and more maneuverable. Forward-swept wings, canards, high-incline twin vertical stabilizers, a mobile ventral fin… Flying backwards was a miracle for Yukikaze, but I’ll bet a Fand II would have no problem doing it. The airframe is complete. The thing holding us up is the brain.”
“The computer?”
“Right. Because the wings have to be constantly adjusted to an optimal configuration on a second-by-second basis, these planes require a high-capacity, high-velocity computer that can process the huge amount of data needed to do that. And it has to be small, lightweight, and power efficient, too. Yukikaze’s could do the job, but it’s too big to fit inside the airframe. The Fand II is a great plane, but this is a case where the software has gotten ahead of the hardware.”
“You said the flight tests were successful. You can’t fly without a flight computer, though, which means—”
“It’s not enough for it just to be able to fly. The Fand II is a fighter. It has to be able to evade an enemy attack and then launch its own. There are two schools of thought on fighter plane development. One is to have multi-seat fighters, on the theory that having the second crew member minimizes errors made during combat. That works for visual range dogfights, but it’s becoming less relevant. The FAF believes the other approach, the single-seat fighter, is the more successful one. What we saw Yukikaze do this time is a good example.”
“Let the combat computer handle it instead of a human?”
“It can process information much faster than a human brain can, and if it can draw on directly linked sensor data to feed its decision-making abilities, well then… To be honest, sometimes I’m amazed at the capabilities of Yukikaze’s central computer. Its potential is far beyond anything I imagined.”
“Even though you developed it?”
“I didn’t develop it—I just put on the finishing touches. A lot of hands went into designing her systems, and I don’t know what’s in each individual one. But Yukikaze’s grown so intelligent now that you can’t compare her to what she was when she was first developed. She’s been learning. And you’ve been the one teaching her, Rei. In the near future, she probably won’t need you anymore.”
“If that happens, what happens to me?”
“You go home and go back to being an ordinary citizen.”
“I have no home to go back to.”
“How long have you been on Faery again?”
“Four years.”
“Don’t you want to live?”
“I don’t want to die.”
“You only have about another two years as a pilot. Your body won’t hold out beyond that.”
“And so what then? You’ll just cut me loose?”
“Why not help me with my work? I can arrange for you to become a combat technique advisor.”
“I can still fly. Yukikaze needs me.”
“That love of yours is unrequited. She’s becoming independent. And someday soon she’s going to dump you.”
“Jack, you sound like a nervous old man. You running out of fight?”
“Maybe,” Booker sighed. “You have no idea what it’s like for me when I send you and the others out on missions. Day in and day out, air force pilots keep getting killed when we don’t even know what it is that the JAM are really after. If it turns out that they’re not at war with humanity at all, then all those soldiers will have died meaningless deaths. And I can’t accept that anymore. I want it to end, no matter what it takes.”
“You’re saying let the machines fight the JAM for us?”
“There’s a danger there too. We don’t know what the JAM’s aims are. However, we don’t know what the Earth-side defense forces are thinking either. At this point, I wonder what we’re even doing here.”
“We’re fighting a war.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. The battle here on Faery may be nothing but a decoy operation designed to keep our attention occupied while the JAM are already worming their way into every part of Earth. And then they’ll close the hyperspace corridor and leave us stranded here. I’m starting to believe wild ideas like that.”
“Maybe that’s true. But so what? What happens on Earth doesn’t matter.”
“You never change, do you? Still, you should prepare yourself.”
“For when the JAM finally kill me?”
“Rei, you’ve been ready for that for far too long now. No, what I meant was that you need to prepare yourself for the possibility that Yukikaze might one day become your enemy. An enemy of humanity.”
“Bullshit.”
“The possibility exists. Yukikaze isn’t your lover. She’s your daughter, and she’s grown up. She won’t obey you forever, and you have to be ready for that. One day, she won’t need her dumb, stubborn dad anymore.”
“Jack… Major Booker, are you telling me to stop flying Yukikaze?”
“I just don’t want to add any more names to the KIA list. That’s not the job I came here to do.”
Booker didn’t look at Rei as he began organizing the intelligence file.
“You may go, Lieutenant Fukai. Report to the central medical facility for a complete checkup.”
“I’m fine. I’ve already been patched up.”
“I’m ordering you to submit a medical certificate before you can fly again. Dismissed.”
Rei got up, saluted, and left without a word. He walked down into the maintenance bay and stood looking up at the enormous fighter for a while.
“You wouldn’t betray me…would you?”
He reached up and touched his beloved plane’s radome. The metal was cold.
PER THE FAF Medical Corps diagnosis, Lieutenant Rei Fukai would be completely recovered and fit to resume duty in two weeks. But in the meantime, he was grounded.
At the next TAF mission staff meeting, it was decided that the new Fand II assault fighter would undergo a combat flight test in order to get it deployed as soon as possible. Major Booker was placed in charge of this test, and in this capacity he made a proposal that was approved: Yukikaze would accompany the Fand II on its flight. She would go up in full automatic mode and would monitor the performance of the Fand II’s prototype optoelectronic systems in flight.
Of all the units in the 5th Squadron, Yukikaze had experienced the most combat with the JAM, had managed time and again to slip through their traps and make it back. In Booker’s estimation she was therefore the FAF’s best chance for detecting any JAM combat reconnaissance and protecting the Fand II, since the aliens were bound to be interested in the test flight. The major’s second, equally important aim in sending Yukikaze on the flight was to verify whether she could carry out her missions unmanned. If she could, it would open the possibility that one day he wouldn’t have to send his men up in the squadron’s planes anymore, that he would be relieved of the awful tension of waiting for them to return.
Over the next three days, Major Booker wrote Yukikaze’s flight program and refined the test plan.
The major was frank about his desire to wholly automate Yukikaze’s operation.
A bold smile played across Rei’s face as he spoke. “You’re wasting your time, Major. She can’t fly without me.”
“We’ll give it a shot,” Booker replied, although he too had his doubts that Yukikaze’s hardware and software configurations would allow her to be converted to a fully functional unmanned aircraft in such a limited amount of time.
In the end, the combat flight test plan called for the Fand II prototype to be flown by Captain Hugh O’Donnell, an ace pilot in one of the Tactical Air Force Flight Test Center’s squadrons. Yukikaze would fly wing, unmanned. An electronic warfare systems control plane would follow, with Rei onboard to provide support if needed.
Upon hearing this, he didn’t bother to hide his irritation. “So I’m going to just sit pretty in that control plane and pilot Yukikaze by remote control?”
“Yeah, and it was a royal pain to arrange,” Major Booker replied. “But General Cooley insisted on it. You keep banging on about how you want to get back in the air. So now you’ll be back in the air. And you can just sit back and relax. Take a nap, even.”
“Has the Fand II’s central computer system been finalized?”
“Tentatively. A lot of brand-new technology has gone into the build, so we don’t have a firm gauge of its reliability yet. Anyway, if something goes wrong, Yukikaze will automatically link with the Fand and control it.”
“Let me go up in Yukikaze. C’mon, Jack. You know this is gonna drive me nuts.”
“Can’t. Your body wouldn’t be able to take it. Don’t worry, the control plane will be flying in secure airspace. All you have to do is watch. Yukikaze will make it back just fine.”
Booker clapped him on the shoulder. Rei put a hand to his bandaged chest and smiled. A sad smile, the major thought. As though his heart had been broken. Not for the first time, a keen curiosity seized him.
“Rei, why do you feel so strongly about Yukikaze?”
“I… Aside from you, Yukikaze’s the only thing I trust. I don’t have anything else. Nothing.”
A drop, a raindrop, a mote. Zero. That’s the meaning of your name, Rei. Suddenly recalling those words, Major Booker reached out and gripped his best friend’s hand.
YUKIKAZE AND THE first combat-ready Fand II unit waited side by side in the SAF’s maintenance bay. The Super Sylph’s huge shape and sleek, menacing lines seemed to embody all the enormous power that lay dormant within her. The Fand II by her side was smaller and lighter, yet also magnificent.
Major Booker met with Flight Test Center personnel who were taking part in the Fand II test to brief them on the plans. Afterward, he had a one-on-one meeting with Captain Hugh O’Donnell, the Fand II’s test pilot. The captain was a relaxed, good-humored man, and Booker—who was used to dealing with the cool, inscrutable pilots of Boomerang Squadron—found this cheerfulness almost dazzling. He felt none of the cold tension he got from his subordinates, which paradoxically gave him the impression that O’Donnell might be slightly unreliable.
But the difference is to be expected, the major thought. Rei and the other Boomerang pilots were constantly fighting on the front line. The captain was a noncombatant test pilot, not a soldier. Danger was nothing new to him, but he didn’t fight in actual battles and wasn’t constantly confronted by a strange, irrational enemy like the JAM.
There was one other thing that differentiated Captain O’Donnell from the Boomerang pilots: he was one of the elite. The soldiers here were mainly those who’d been sent to Faery because they couldn’t fit into Earth society, but the captain wasn’t like that. Back where he’d come from, he had been a top-ranked test pilot in the air force. He had chosen to come here. He’d wanted to be a pilot for the FAF so that he could help defend Earth and his homeland. This bloke, the major thought as they continued to talk, is a straightforward person. He isn’t a man like Rei, his heart maimed by the wounds life’s given it. Not like Rei. Not like me, either.
Captain O’Donnell always brought an aide with him, which was unusual for someone of his rank. Lieutenant Eva Emery reported directly to the captain and was an engineer trained in the field of aviation optoelectronic systems. Her official role was to liaise with the engineering specialists involved with his flight tests, and she performed this duty well, but the captain used her for various odd jobs beyond that, making her essentially his personal assistant.
As Captain O’Donnell attended to the briefing and cheerfully cracked jokes, Lieutenant Emery sat behind him, taking notes. She’s probably the reason he’s in such a good mood, thought Major Booker. In public, she addressed him as “Captain O’Donnell” and did so curtly, as though to give the impression there was nothing more between them.
However, some hours after the briefing had ended, when Booker went down to the dark and now abandoned maintenance bay, he witnessed a scene that made it clear their relationship was more than just a professional one.
“Listen, Hugh,” Lieutenant Emery said, speaking in an intimate tone, “I’m worried about this.”
“Don’t be,” the captain replied. “The Fand II’s a good plane.”
“But they said the tests on the central computer still weren’t complete—”
“It’ll be okay. If anything happens, I’ll have this Sylphid to act as backup. And it isn’t just any old Sylph. It’s a Super Sylph. It’s a fantastic plane, and Unit 3 here is the very best that Boomerang Squadron’s got. Its avionics hardware may be outdated compared to the Fand II’s, but it’s actually more powerful. In truth, I envy the guy who flies it. He’s ended up in the strongest fighter there is.”
“I don’t know if I’ll ever understand why these fighters appeal to you so much. They’re just machines.”
“We need the best planes possible to counter the JAM.”
“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”
“What, are you jealous, Eva?” O’Donnell teased.
“No, I’m worried about you,” Lieutenant Emery snapped. “I worry all the time.”
“No need. I only have eyes for you. If another woman ever touched me, she’d turn into a pillar of ice and shatter.”
“I’m being serious,” Emery said, stamping her foot. “Don’t make fun of me.”
“Honey, I’m always serious,” he replied, grinning, and pulled her into an embrace.
“You’re only serious about whatever’s new. That’s why you became a test pilot, isn’t it? Am I just one more thing you’re testing out?”
“Eva, you’re not like a plane. Believe it or not, I can tell the difference,” O’Donnell said with a hint of exasperation in his voice. “Why are you being like this?”
She stiffened for a moment, then suddenly collapsed against him, leaning her head on his shoulder. “I want to go home,” she said in a small voice. “Back to Earth. With you.”
“You mean run away? The JAM are still after Earth. I have to—”
“Stop it! Please, just stop…”
“Maybe you’re right,” he said, stroking her hair. “But just calm down a little, okay? My term of duty’s almost up here. If you want, I’ll resign from the FAF. But as long as I can still fly, I’m going to keep doing this job.”
“But being a test pilot is so dangerous. You can’t trust these machines like you do. Please. Please, Hugh.”
O’Donnell was silent for a bit, then said gently, “Okay, think about this: my term’s up in two months. In two months…let’s get married.” He cupped her face in his hands. “I love you, Eva.”
They shared a warm kiss, and then Lieutenant Emery let go of the captain and informed him in her professional tone that she’d processed the day’s schedule. He gave her a wink and turned to go.
He froze at the sight of a figure standing in the shadow of Yukikaze’s radome.
“Who’s there? State your identification.”
“Lieutenant Rei Fukai.”
O’Donnell looked at the name stenciled beneath Yukikaze’s canopy and nodded.
“Ah, I’ve heard about you. The ace pilot of Boomerang Squadron. That’s an excellent fighter you’ve got there in Yukikaze. What’s that name mean, by the way?”
“‘Snow wind.’”
“‘Snow wind’? Like a snowstorm?”
“No, a snowstorm’s different. A snow wind is a snow wind.”
Rei looked at the two lovers without any expression. As Captain O’Donnell made to approach Yukikaze, he stopped him with a sharp “Don’t touch her,” then climbed up the boarding ladder and opened the canopy using the external manual control. Settling into the cockpit, he turned the master test system on, set the built-in test system selector to interleave mode, and began running the diagnostic routine for Yukikaze’s electronic instrumentation.
“I’ve flown Sylphids before,” O’Donnell called up to him. “But the Sylphs you guys in the SAF fly are another beast entirely. I’ve never gone up in this one, but I’ve heard talk of what it can do. Go easy on me tomorrow, okay?”
Rei remained silent. The captain gave him an easygoing salute anyway, and put his arm around Lieutenant Emery’s shoulder as they exited the maintenance bay.
“First Lieutenant Fukai.”
“Jack. Don’t scare me like that. Where’ve you been hiding?”
“I forgot something down here… Rei, Yukikaze’s modifications have been perfect.”
“You’ve put new systems into her. She’s changing. She’s slipping out of my hands.”
“The system outline is just what I explained to you yesterday. We’ve got an early day tomorrow. Get to bed.” “Yeah.”
Rei nodded, but didn’t make any move to climb down from Yukikaze. Booker sighed. With the combat flight test plan documents bundled under his arm, he left Rei behind in the silent maintenance bay.
Rei was a Boomerang soldier. I should be used to that attitude by now, the major thought. But after seeing the human feelings shared by Captain O’Donnell and Lieutenant Emery, Rei seemed unusually tragic to him. Yukikaze was indifferent to the expectations that her pilot or any other human held for her. She was the heroine of her own story. A spirit of the air who ruled the skies of Faery. The queen of the wind.
0620 HOURS. CLEAR skies. The Fand II’s combat flight test got underway. After the preflight briefing, first the control plane trundled out onto the runway, with Rei aboard it. Next came their escort, 5th Squadron’s Unit 6, Minx, on launch standby.
The Fand II’s engines started up. Captain O’Donnell felt the vibrations with his entire body and sensed nothing out of the ordinary. All caution lights were clear. Standing well away from the plane, Lieutenant Emery asked him through the headset how things looked.
“All systems normal. Okay, I’m raising the output to military. Detach the comm cord.”
“Be careful up there.”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ve got a present for you when I get back.”
“A present?”
“Just make sure you’re not wearing anything on the ring finger on your left hand.”
“Oh my god… Hugh…!”
“This is Fand II, O’Donnell. Ready for takeoff.”
The control plane made a leisurely takeoff, trundling down the runway and hauling its bulk into the sky. Minx followed, lighting its afterburners in a combat climb.
The Fand II initiated its takeoff sequence. Rotation. Landing gear up. Trying not to stress the plane, O’Donnell guided it along a normal ascent and then banked into a 3G turn. Orbiting the airspace around the base, he waggled the plane’s unique forward-swept wings. He could see Lieutenant Emery below him, a tiny figure on the ground. Yukikaze was not out on the runway. O’Donnell brought the Fand around to the correct heading and opened the throttle, accelerating toward the flight test airspace.
After completing the preflight checks, Major Booker switched Yukikaze’s auto-maneuver system on, closed the canopy and moved away from the plane. Her twin Super Phoenix engines roared to life. The air shook. She accelerated down the runway at terrific speed and lifted off using only 80 percent of the usual length. Pointing her nose skyward, she quickly hit full vertical climbing speed, moving at over 9 Gs.
Like a rocket, thought Major Booker. No, even faster. She was out of sight in an instant.
“Rei, look at her,” the major muttered to himself. “This is Yukikaze. This is her true form.”
Maybe we humans have underestimated her, thought the major as a strange chill traveled through his body.
Aboard the control plane, Rei sat at Yukikaze’s remote console, monitoring the video feed and other flight data she was sending them. He watched the symbol on the radar screen marking her position. She was flying level and closing rapidly on the control plane. He didn’t interfere.
Yukikaze picked up even more energy, passing the control plane on the right side at supersonic speed. As fast as a missile. The shock wave of her passage shook the huge aircraft.
“Whoa!” exclaimed the pilot. “What the hell was that? Is it trying to clip us?”
The Fand II reached maximum speed and began running through its tests.
Yukikaze followed, and then shot past the Fand II as it unloaded Gs and descended in preparation for low-altitude penetration. Yukikaze quickly descended as well and took position five hundred meters off to the Fand II’s side.
“Initiating ultra low-altitude penetration test.”
Captain O’Donnell ran the throttle forward. Yukikaze flawlessly maintained position on his wing. The shock waves of the two planes tore a swath through the forests of Faery, leaving a clear path marking the course they had taken.
“Okay, initiating dogfight capability test.”
O’Donnell confirmed that his anti-G seat control was functioning normally. The Fand II’s seat was deeply reclined, shaped to wrap around the pilot’s body even more than usual in a single-seat fighter.
“Let’s do this,” the captain muttered.
The Fand II was no match for the other plane in terms of raw speed, but in a dogfight he would be the victor.
All caution lights, clear. Maneuver switch, ON. Fly-by-light system, normal.
Yukikaze maintained her attitude as she climbed. Without increasing her angle of attack, she ascended while remaining level with the ground. After flying over two hundred kilometers in three minutes, she turned and confronted the Fand II. She had now become a simulated JAM.
To ward off a close-range attack Yukikaze fired six simulated medium-range high-velocity missiles. The simulated missile tracks appeared on the Fand II’s moving target indicator.
Here we go, thought Captain O’Donnell as he shifted his gaze from the MTI to his HUD. This was what had wiped out the 402nd.
The Fand II fired the FAF’s new high-velocity air-to-air missiles. Four shots. These too were simulated. Missile intercept, successful. Just before launching the HAAMs, O’Donnell had initiated a high-velocity turn. The two remaining “JAM” missiles would reach the Fand II in ten seconds. The captain turned the Fand II toward them nose-on and corkscrewed through the air, evading the first one. The plane instantly slid right and popped off three shots, taking out the second missile, then flew in a flat scissors maneuver as it closed in on Yukikaze. Right, then left, the high-G forces buffeted Captain O’Donnell’s body. His labored breathing carried over the radio and was heard by all the flight test staff.
“Amazing plane…haven’t seen performance like this before.”
Yukikaze attempted to turn and withdraw.
“Think you’re getting away? Fand II…pursuing.”
Suddenly, Yukikaze opened her air brakes and radically decelerated. Killing her speed, she dove.
“The hell…?”
O’Donnell’s eyes widened. The Fand II overshot Yukikaze at subsonic speed. O’Donnell immediately lost sight of her. He cursed and pushed the nose of his own plane down without rolling, going into an inverted loop. The blood rushed to his head, threatening his vision with redout. He reflexively loosened the loop diameter, searching for Yukikaze. A warning sounded, alerting him to an enemy plane above and to the rear.
He banked hard into a half-roll and climbed, finally catching sight of Yukikaze, which was coming at him at the maximum angle of attack, with gunsight open. She locked on to the Fand II just as it began to climb and opened up with simulated cannon fire. He was just barely out of range, and the combat technique simulator in the control plane determined the attack failed. The Fand II immediately counterattacked.
Captain O’Donnell was now soaked with sweat from head to toe, his breathing coming hard. His heart was pounding as though he were in a flat-out sprint, and he could only speak with great difficulty.
The Fand II got around to Yukikaze’s right rear quadrant. Yukikaze executed a high-G boost out of subsonic speed, and the Fand II instantly turned to follow, shuddering with the strain of the maneuver. Lock on. Auto-fire. Out of range. O’Donnell launched his remaining four simulated missiles. Yukikaze evaded them at the last moment, pulling 16 Gs in the process.
“Damn, that thing…that…Super Sylph is a monster.”
The Fand II accelerated. Yukikaze turned.
An emergency call was sent out to the control plane from Yukikaze. O’Donnell noticed her turn radius widen. “I win…” he muttered.
“Captain O’Donnell,” Lieutenant Fukai called. “There’s been a malfunction in Yukikaze’s hydraulic system. The function of the elevon on her right main wing is compromised. The Fand II wins.”
This is no win, the captain thought. Yukikaze hadn’t been brought down. If it hadn’t been bound by the parameters of the combat flight test program, it would have easily accelerated out of the Fand II’s firing range and returned to base.
“Captain O’Donnell, the combat flight test is concluded.” Major Booker issued the order from the SAF’s underground control room back at Faery Base.
“It seems the Fand II has met our expectations,” said the Tactical Air Force’s commander.
“It evaded the high-velocity missiles and proved it could engage the enemy,” agreed Booker. “Although Yukikaze may still be regarded by the JAM as more of a threat since they have nothing like it.”
“That’s of little use if it breaks itself in the process,” interjected General Cooley. “If the Fand II had attacked it at that point, Yukikaze would have lost. The Fand II is impressive.”
A warning alarm suddenly sounded in the control room. Red letters appeared on the huge data screen, informing them that incoming hostile aircraft had been detected.
“It’s the JAM,” said Major Booker, a familiar knot forming in his stomach.
The early warning had been transmitted from Minx.
“Where’re they coming from?” asked the control plane’s radar operator. “I don’t see them.”
“Range 400 km,” said Minx’s EWO from 30,000 meters above. “They’re closing at super-low altitude. Definitely JAM. Two planes, combat recon types. Number of units increasing.”
“They penetrated that far in without tripping our warning network?” Booker said incredulously. “Minx, intercept them. TAB-15, scramble the 501st TFS. Fand II, return to base at once. Emergency withdrawal.”
“Copy,” replied Captain O’Donnell and flipped his armament switch to ON. RDY GUN. RDY HAAM-4. Real weapons this time. His gun and four short-range high-velocity air-to-air missiles.
The Fand II and Yukikaze were both closer to the JAM than Minx, which plummeted toward the enemy aircraft at maximum thrust, firing two long-range missiles as it went. An H cue appeared on the HUD. The JAM were climbing. The countdown until impact began.
9…8…7—the JAM launched high-velocity interceptor missiles—5, 4, 3… The numbers vanished.
“No good. Missiles down.”
Three planes from TAB-15 were now in the air and pushing at maximum thrust to intercept the JAM.
“Minx, abort your attack,” Major Booker ordered. “Climb and resume surveillance duty.”
“Roger.”
Static filled the channel. The JAM were using their highestoutput ECM. They pressed in behind the Fand II and Yukikaze, 300 km to the rear, and launched two high-velocity missiles.
“These’re moving as fast as those ground-to-ground ones we saw before. Rei, do you read me? The JAM probably want to see how the Fand II will evade these missiles.”
Because of the ECM interference, Booker’s words didn’t reach Rei. The control plane initiated ECCM. The approaching enemy missiles appeared on the radar screen. After another twenty seconds, when they were within a hundred kilometers of the Fand II and Yukikaze, the missiles split into four. Minx watched them from on high.
On Yukikaze’s remote console, Rei saw the message RDY GUN appear.
“No,” he said softly. “You can’t pull any high-velocity maneuvers now.”
His hand hovered over the remote switch. He wanted to protect Yukikaze, but protecting the Fand II came first. And for that…the image of Captain O’Donnell and his lover suddenly floated into his mind…for that, he might be forced to use Yukikaze as a shield. Make it back to base, even if you have to watch your comrades being wiped out. Minx had now been charged with that duty. Strange, Rei thought as his heart grew cold. I’m worried about abandoning Yukikaze. I… Am I jealous of her, after she betrayed me?
Without sorting out his feelings, he flipped the switch and seized the control stick without a second thought. But there was no reaction.
“What’s wrong with you, Yukikaze?!”
Before receiving the instructions from Rei, Yukikaze linked with the Fand II, taking control of it. She launched four of the Fand II’s HAAMs, which took out two of the JAM’s four missiles. Her priority was to protect herself, not the Fand II. The remaining two missiles flew toward the Fand II.
“Captain, get out of there!” Rei shouted. Yukikaze hadn’t interposed herself between the missiles and the Fand II as he’d directed her to. She had decided that Rei’s orders were in error and was ignoring them. After determining that she was safe, she began directing the Fand II through evasive maneuvers.
O’Donnell soon realized he was no longer in control of his plane. He removed his hand from the side stick as violent G-forces assaulted his body. The Fand II jumped like a fox, the first missile passing below by the thinnest of margins. Its proximity switch activated, detonating the warhead. To minimize the damage, the Fand II turned its tail toward the explosion and began to withdraw at MAX afterburner. Just 0.3 seconds later, it jinked hard and barely evaded the second missile. The shock wave from the first explosion had damaged the Fand II’s right stabilizer fin, and now the sudden evasive action snapped it right off.
The Fand II spun away from Yukikaze like a boomerang. Yukikaze immediately began working every control surface on the plane to bring it back to controlled flight. It took four seconds to arrest the spin and regain the proper flight attitude. The Fand II’s engines were stalled. Yukikaze glided it down and restarted the engines.
Rei looked at the data being sent by Yukikaze. There was a problem with the Fand II’s fuel transfer system, which had been caused not by the JAM missiles but by the wild spin it had gone into from the evasive maneuvers. It was now using gravity feed to move the fuel from its tank and took a return course to Faery Base.
On the way back to the base Yukikaze got the FTS working again. She informed Rei that the Fand II could resume normal high-velocity maneuvers. ALL SYSTEMS NORMAL, she reported.
“Are you kidding?” Rei said to himself. “I doubt the captain will ever want to go through that again. Captain O’Donnell, come in. Captain O’Donnell. Do you read me? Captain O’Donnell, respond.”
There was no answer. As they returned to Faery Base Yukikaze flew tight alongside the Fand II, as if in sympathy for its damage. Once communications with the base were restored, Rei told Major Booker to have an ambulance standing by.
“Captain O’Donnell isn’t responding, and I don’t think he’s just passed out. Yukikaze put the Fand II through some intense maneuvers. It may have…” Rei put his hand to his chest. His injuries ached.
The Fand II landed in formation with Yukikaze, its engine dropping to idle at the runway’s end. The flight test personnel and ambulance crew ran out to the planes. Lieutenant Emery shoved Major Booker aside and turned the external canopy control handle. The Fand II’s canopy yawned open.
She scrambled up the boarding ladder and leaned over the cockpit. “Hugh, it’s me,” she said. “Are you all right? Talk to me.”
O’Donnell was slumped in his seat, motionless. She reached out and removed his helmet and mask. And screamed. Blood poured over her hands, streaming from his mask and mouth. His head lolled to one side. He wasn’t breathing.
“Hugh… Say something…please…”
Major Booker signaled the medical team.
If Rei had been aboard Yukikaze, this might not have happened. As that thought was passing through his mind, Lieutenant Emery did something he couldn’t have anticipated. She drew her service pistol and aimed it at Captain O’Donnell. For a split second, the major couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
“What are you doing?!” he shouted as she fired a shot into her lover’s chest. She then threw the gun aside and collapsed against O’Donnell’s body, embracing it and crying hysterically.
“He can’t have been killed by the Fand. Not by a machine. No… I killed Hugh! I did! A man whose heart was taken by a Fand deserves to die!”
Major Booker wrapped his arms around the now incoherent Lieutenant Emery and gently pulled her away from the body.
“What’s wrong with this plane?” she sobbed. “Hugh’s dead. After what happened to him, why…why doesn’t it react? Why… No! No! No!”
Over her shoulder, Booker looked at the blood-spattered instrument panels inside the cockpits. Condition lights, all clear. All systems normal.
Neither the JAM nor Lieutenant Emery had killed Captain O’Donnell. The Fand II and Yukikaze had. And to those two machines, his death was insignificant.
Major Booker left Lieutenant Emery in the care of the medical crew, opened Yukikaze’s canopy, climbed into the cockpit, and turned the auto-maneuver switch off. The link with the Fand II was severed, and then, as though awakening from a dream, Yukikaze alerted the major via her display that the pilot harness, anti-G suit hoses, and mask weren’t properly secured. To indicate that he had no intention of flying, he flipped the hydraulic system cut-off switch, inactivating the control surface hydraulics. Yukikaze cancelled the alert. In this standby state, any speed over 30 mph would automatically engage her brakes.
Booker taxied Yukikaze over to the elevator that led down to the SAF’s underground hangar, then handed her over to her ground crew.
Meanwhile, the control plane had landed. Rei climbed down from it and watched silently as they wheeled Captain O’Donnell away, Lieutenant Emery clinging to his body.
“Rei…”
He turned at the sound of the major’s voice.
“Jack. How’s Yukikaze?”
“Machines can be repaired. Yukikaze protected the Fand II, not the captain. I was wrong. I never should have sent Yukikaze up unmanned.”
“It’s not your fault. If she hadn’t taken control of the Fand II, the captain and the plane would both have been destroyed by the JAM. The result would have been the same. As far as the captain’s fate was concerned, at least.”
“But it would have had a different significance. He was killed by his own machine—”
“Does it matter?” Rei asked quietly. “This is a battlefield. Every death here is a combat death. What other kind of death is there?”
Major Booker couldn’t answer him.
0807 hours. The combat flight test was concluded. The Fand II was approved for deployment.