Yukikaze y-1

by Chohei Kambayashi

  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 highest output ECM. They pressed in behind the Fand II and Yukikaze, 300 km to the rear, and launched two high-velocity missil
es.

  “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.

  VII

  BATTLE SPIRIT

  For the first time in a long while, he had the chance to speak with someone from home. But he did not use Japanese. He was angry that he could not convey his thoughts, frustrated that he could no longer express his feelings in his mother tongue. He had forgotten the language of home.

  THIRTY-THREE YEARS have passed since unknown alien life-forms opened
a hyperspace corridor between Earth and the planet Faery in an attempted invasion of our planet. We still know nothing about them. We don’t even know whether they were the ones who actually created the Passageway. Five years ago, I collected data on how every nation perceived this war and compiled it into a book that was published under the title The Invader.

  I was only four years old when the JAM launched their preemptive strike. I remember what the adults, my mother and father, said back then as though it were yesterday.

  “It looks like-----happened in-----. The president is sending the-----to-----.” I listened to them in wonder. To this day, I can clearly remember those blank spaces in the conversation, those words that, limited by my child’s vocabulary, I didn’t understand. And at the time, I wondered if I would understand them when I grew up.

  As an adult, although I may experience blanks in a conversation, I don’t notice them. I automatically compensate for them by my understanding of the context in which they appear, and the meaning of the sentences flows unhindered. It’s similar to the way that our sight works. We perceive things in our vision as a continuous flow of images, when in reality there are blank spaces in our visual input. However, our brains automatically fill in those gaps, so we don’t notice them.

  It’s easier for humans to process things as analog data. We need continuity, the illusion that what we say, see, and think presents an organic whole. In other words, we function in the opposite manner of a digital construct, where data is quantified, discreet, and determinate. The digital world seems to run counter to the very essence of our humanity. Our language as well. Our civilization itself. So what, exactly, are we doing turning over more and more of our existence to computers?

  It was the JAM who raised these doubts in me. They are aliens. But to me, they seemed almost more like evil gods, a presence that held up a dark mirror to the meaning of human existence. That was the basis upon which I wrote The Invader.

  Most citizens of Earth do not share my view. And that in itself points to the heart of the issue: the very concept of “citizens of Earth” is nonsense in light of the current international situation. There may be humans on Earth, but nowhere is there any group of individuals who regard themselves as inhabitants of Earth first and of their nations second. I think this a foolish and dangerous mindset, but when I say this to others they tell me that I am naïve.