sacrifices in his little game.” Nothing but pawns for the man who saw people as unnecessary. “This whole thing is stupid.”
“I fail to see a reason for this type of reaction on your part.”
“I’m saying that it’s bullshit.”
“Lieutenant, it doesn’t matter whether you win or lose. It won’t be an issue.”
“That doesn’t make me like it.”
“Like it or not, it’s an order. Just pretend that you’re fighting the JAM.”
“We fight the JAM for real. And when you say to a Boomerang pilot who’s recently come back from a mission after barely escaping with his life, ‘Hey, come on, let’s practice,’ what he hears is that you just insulted him.”
“This is going to be a real battle,” the laconic Lieutenant Burgadish said in a clipped tone. “So I don’t mind.”
Rei understood what he meant. The lieutenant was saying that anyone who wasn’t on their side was an enemy. Be it a hypothetical enemy or an unknown one, the single necessity was to get back home without getting killed.
General Cooley, however, let out a deep sigh, clearly not understanding what the problem was. She waved her hand at them to leave.
“I’ll give Major Booker the details. You will abide by these commands, readily and immediately. That is all. Dismissed.”
MAJOR BOOKER MET them in his office with a tired look on his face. He seemed harried.
“They’ve decided to initiate the big op in five days,” he told them. “The mission code is FTJ83. It’s going to be the largest one we’ve had in years, involving all our forces... What’d you come here for again?”
“The duel,” said Rei.
“Right,” the major replied. He picked up two copies of a booklet from among the papers scattered on top of his desk and handed them to Rei and Burgadish. “Let’s get out of here. I’ll explain in the briefing room.”
They filed into the high-ceilinged chamber. Rei and Burgadish sat with their backs to the panoramic glassed- in view of the maintenance bay, facing the flat-panel display that took up the entire opposite wall. The major punched up a map of Faery.
“The combat flight test will be tomorrow. You’ll take off at 0900 hours and are scheduled to return at 1156.”
“We’ll be in the air for nearly three hours?”
“We got a complaint from the Aerospace Defense Corps. They said they didn’t want us doing this damn fool stunt inside our air defense ID zone. It’s a pain in the arse, but since I’m assuming you’d rather avoid the possibility of getting toasted by friendly fire, it can’t be helped. That’s why we have to go all the way out here.” The major pointed to the map. “Sugar Desert.”
“That’s out in D-zone, isn’t it? What about the training areas closer in?”
“They’ve been closed because of Operation FTJ83. Right now, all airspace is classified as combat airspace. The early warning satellites launched by the ADC were all shot down recently, which has them in a sweat. Now they’ve got AWACS planes buzzing around all over the place. This is a hell of a time to be doing training flights.”
Centered on the Passageway connecting them with Earth was the Absolute Defense Line, which extended to a radius of 200 klicks around it. If the JAM broke through the line, they would pour through the Passageway and onto Earth itself. The six giant bases of the FAF were arrayed around the Passageway along this line. Other defense lines had been established further out, at distances of 600, 1,200, and 2,000 klicks from the Passageway, and were known respectively as “A-line,” “B-line,” and the “Early Warning Line.” The area between the Absolute Defense Line and A-line was known as “A-zone,” with the B- and C-zones following out. D-zone lay beyond the outermost defense line. The FAF did not have absolute control of the airspace out there, but since it wasn’t JAM airspace either, it was tentatively considered to be neutral territory. Of course, the zones were entirely of human invention and so were not recognized by the JAM or by Faery’s primitive life-forms.
Major Booker brought an aerial photograph up on the display. It was dazzlingly white. Casting a large black shadow on the pure white sand was a three-thousand-meter-tall mountain that most of the pilots affectionately referred to as “Sugar Rock,” since it looked more like an enormous piece of rock candy abandoned in the sugary sand than a mountain. There were no other peaks around it, and it rose up so unexpectedly that it made for an excellent landmark.
“You’ll fly straight out to here, engage in a mock air battle for three minutes, and then return. On your way there and back, you’ll be flying a combat air patrol. If you encounter the JAM, you will intercept and engage. In that event, the nearest front line bases are TAB-13, 15, and 16. We’ll also have an in-air refueling tanker on the rear line as backup. If you encounter the JAM while outbound, the flight test will be cancelled.”
Rei looked at his onboard stores list.
“I’ll be flying with heavy equipment. Quick maneuvers are going to be impossible. That’ll put me at a disadvantage against the Knight.”
“You picked this fight. Can’t give it back now. You’ve been authorized to use live gun ammo, by the way.”
“What?”
“Colonel Guneau’s full of confidence about this. He said we can try whatever we wanted. The Knight won’t be firing at you, so don’t worry about that.”
“I’d never be able to beat it if I got within cannon range. I can practically see him laughing at us right now.”
“Are we done here?” asked Lieutenant Burgadish.
“Yeah,” answered the major. “Memorize that schedule. Dismissed.”
Rei watched his partner quickly leave the room.
“Want some coffee?” Booker asked as he killed the display and moved over to the table. “I’m tired.”
“It’s like he’s wearing a mask...”
“Who, Burgadish? Hmm... He’s like the poster boy for Boomerang Squadron. What I find interesting is that you may be losing what it takes to be a Boomerang pilot, Rei. You gonna break up with Yukikaze and become my assistant?”
“I have no interest in breaking up with her,” he answered, and then quickly changed the subject. “Active homing missiles would be effective, even against ECM. And I can also use them as decoys to break my opponent’s weapons lock.”
The major set a cup under the coffee maker’s spout.
“Only your gun’s going to have live ammo. If you can’t live fire your missiles, why not pop off chaff and flares instead?”
“That may not be very effective against the Knight. Aside from radar it uses video cameras and pattern recognition software for targeting. Even if I goof its radar with chaff and jamming waves, it could still visually tag me with its targeting reticule and get me that way.”
Booker slurped at his coffee. “How about you carry smokescreen shells, too? Any particular color you’d like? I can even get you rainbow-colored ones.”
“This whole thing’s just making me depressed.”
“So... blue, then?”
“I wonder just what sort of dogfight the Flip Knight is going to give me.”
“Do it and find out,” answered the major.
YUKIKAZE TOOK OFF the next day at the appointed time. She was accompanied by a large AWACS plane that had been temporarily fitted out as a combat training control unit. During the training, the control plane’s combat data section would be on Yukikaze’s side; the Flip Knight would be challenging the Super Sylph without any support from it. The control plane would synthesize the tactical data of the Knight, its carrier plane, and Yukikaze, and then automatically render an instant verdict of which plane won or lost.
Yukikaze flew at high altitude at a fuel-conserving cruising speed toward Sugar Rock. Rei didn’t care anymore about the purpose or rationale behind this flight test. The troubles and expectations of the world below were left
