Yukikaze

there’s a big attack operation coming down. Believe me, I have no desire to be playing these games right before that.”

As he walked shoulder to shoulder with the major, Rei realized that the rumors he’d heard were true: they were probably going to hit the JAM’s largest forward base. In fact, it had practically been an open secret, so if the JAM had any spies in here, they probably already knew about it.

“We’ll be launching all of our squadron’s planes for that operation,” the major said as he opened his office door and stepped inside. “I finally get a schedule drawn up for the overhaul rotation for all our planes, and they hit me with this operations flight test. Now it’s all gone to hell.”

“So just refuse,” said Rei as he closed the door.

“Why don’t you go to the general’s office and refuse for me?” Booker gathered up a sheaf of papers from his desktop and handed it to Rei. “You can hit her with these.”

It was an operations manual for the Flip Knight system.

“I don’t think that would persuade her.”

As far as Rei was concerned, fighting a mechanical knight was a whole lot more appealing than having General Cooley snarling at him.

Major Booker kept Rei standing as he leaned on his desk and told him about the Flip Knight system.

“Listen carefully, Rei.”

The Flip Knights were small, unmanned fighter planes designed for dogfighting. They were to be loaded onto a carrier plane and launched in midair after arriving at the battle zone. They would then fight under the command of the carrier’s control staff.

“People operate them from the carrier?” asked Rei. “So much for humans not being necessary.”

“No, the RPVs have the ability to fight completely on automatic. The problem is the armament.”

The major indicated a schematic of a metal cylinder that was about 300 mm long and 40 mm in diameter.

“This is an energy charge for a laser gun. One of these is capable of generating a beam of 0.7 second’s duration. The Knight is equipped with a high-powered laser cannon which is practically unaffected by weather conditions.”

According to the data in the manual, the barrel of the gun could move 1.95 degrees in any direction, the major explained as he gestured at the document. When a target entered a thirty-four-meter circle within a thousand-meter radius in front of the fighter, the gun barrel would be slaved to the targeting radar to keep it constantly centered.

The major said that he had read the research thoroughly. “I think the accuracy rate for this thing is nearly a hundred percent. That’s because it doesn’t fire physical ordnance that can be put off course. Once it locks on to you, unless you get out of its firing range you’re almost surely a goner. You can’t outrun a beam of light. Besides that, the Knight has a much tighter turn radius than a Sylph. A Super Sylph is an incredible dogfighter, but the original Sylphid was an all-weather interceptor. Basically, it was designed to take a shot and then get the hell out of there. In a straight-on fight with a Flip Knight, a Super Sylph has no chance...”

Booker sighed. “I have to rework the squadron’s schedule. It’s a big job, and there’s no room for any mistakes. A miscalculation could get one of our soldiers killed.”

“We’ll do our best. It should be enough.”

“Anyway, I’ll let you know when the details of the flight test plan are ready. Since we have a major operation coming up, they probably won’t be able to put together anything large-scale, but General Cooley has made it a formal order, so it’s definitely going to happen. Get ready.”

They saluted each other roughly.

REI READ THE Flip Knight manual carefully. Afterward he was even more confused about the point of having aerial combat training between a Sylph and the Knight. It made about as much sense as pitting a sprinter against a marathon runner.

To beat the Knight, he’d have to avoid a close-in dogfight. His best bet would be to fire all six of his long- range missiles and immediately withdraw so that the Knight’s main opponent would be the swarm of missiles, not him. Meanwhile, his main opponent would be the carrier plane. Without combat data support from the carrier, even if the Knight could fight autonomously it would be no match for the Sylph. The Super Sylph was unparalleled when it came to electronic indexing of enemy capabilities. The Knight would be so busy trying to dodge those missiles that it wouldn’t be able to attack the Sylph. This fight was shaping up to be a proxy one: the Knight versus the Sylph’s missiles and the Sylph versus the Knight’s controllers.

In the end, Rei decided that the Flip Knight was the equivalent of the antiaircraft machine guns mounted on old heavy bombers, albeit a technologically advanced equivalent with fixed wings and a high degree of maneuverability. It was the command and control capabilities of the carrier plane that determined the Flip Knight’s value. Flying autonomously, separated from those systems, the Knight’s abilities were merely theoretical.

A good weapon may confer an absolute advantage, but an advantage does not necessarily ensure a victory. Just as in the old saying that a treasure unused went to waste, it was up to the individual to decide how and when to best utilize a weapon. That was why humans were necessary in battle.

“But why is that?” Rei muttered to himself. It was such an obvious thing that he’d never thought about it before. Why did people fight? Maybe humans should just leave it to the machines. In nearly every field of endeavor, perfect automation was theoretically possible. So why, exactly, were humans required to stay in the mix?

It wasn’t as though Rei had a personal creed that required people to be superior to machines. The revulsion he felt at hearing Colonel Guneau’s statement that humans weren’t necessary came from how it seemed to negate his relationship with Yukikaze, but it didn’t go beyond that personal reaction. Rei didn’t think that humanity would ever abandon Faery, no matter how good the machines got.

“Humans are necessary in battle.”

Rei said it aloud, testing the sound of the words. Why? Why did he think that?

Maybe, he thought, it’s to secure the budget. Nobody cries when a machine is broken, but dead bodies are a silent appeal to Earth to counter the JAM threat.

You couldn’t say that the Faery Air Force’s budget was adequate, but then that was the nature of budgets, wasn’t it? They weren’t infinite, and where there were limited resources there were naturally a lot of people arguing forcefully about what constituted a necessity. That was why they needed to be persuasive. One flag-draped coffin sent back by the FAF spoke more eloquently of how terrible the JAM were than any list of necessary expenditures spat out by a computer.

Is that why people are needed? Rei thought. So then did I come here just to become a corpse? The more he worried at the concept, the more that conclusion seemed to be inevitable. Starting to feel like he was slowly throttling himself, he shook his head and drove the ominous thought away. He took a deep breath, feeling foolish for even having considered such a thing.

The oppressive feeling stayed with him into the late afternoon, which was when General Cooley called for him. He found his EWO already seated in the SAF deputy commander’s office when he arrived. He was a dependable partner aboard Yukikaze but a cold, blunt man on the ground. The same as me, Rei thought. He looked at Second Lieutenant Burgadish, a man who was like a part of him, and had a sudden sinking feeling. A living corpse. That odd thought took hold of him and wouldn’t let go. They were living corpses preserved in an illusion of life.

General Cooley launched into a rambling explanation of the flight test to be conducted with the Flip Knight. Rei mostly ignored her. The general continued feverishly. “Think of the honor,” she said. “The fact that Boomerang Squadron has been chosen for this task is in recognition of our being the strongest unit in the FAF.”

Rei was bored. Realizing this, the general seemed to wake from her trance and stopped talking.

“What is the point of this?” Rei asked.

“The point?” The general pushed her glasses up with her index finger. “Lieutenant Fukai, what exactly are you asking?”

“If this is a test of our combat technique, then let me load Yukikaze with live antiaircraft ordnance. The Knight’s unmanned. There shouldn’t be any problem with that.”

“Don’t be absurd.”

“What that tells me is that the point of this is to satisfy Colonel Guneau’s ego. We’re meant to be the