would likely slam the throttle as far forward as possible. If the engines were stalled out, he’d have to restart them. If he had time, he might figure out that the problem was in the AICS, in which case it was possible for him to cut out auto mode and set the ramp position manually. If there was a breakdown in the simple AICS system, you could do that. However, Lieutenant Mayle hadn’t realized that the AICS was the problem, and it was likely that none of the other pilots had either. If they had, well, they were already under attack by the JAM. Engaging the JAM in a high-altitude dogfight would have been suicide, as they would have to make a hectic transition from low speed to high in order to win, so all they could have done was set the ramps for ultra-high speed and then escape at maximum thrust.
Since none of them had done that, it meant there likely hadn’t been an alarm to warn them of a fault in the AICS. The major could only think that they either had realized there was a fault and hadn’t switched over or else doing so hadn’t yielded any response. That meant this wasn’t a simple mechanical failure, and so the CI had determined that the AICS units had been contaminated by the JAM.
The CI didn’t believe that the central computer on Mayle’s plane was malfunctioning. The central computer controlled the engines and control surfaces in an integrated system, but the AICS was independent. All it did was react to the plane’s speed. So, even though it was an independent system, that normally presented no problem. The JAM had apparently exploited this blind spot.
But how? The AICS’s circuits had secure electromagnetic shielding, so it seemed unlikely that electromagnetic wave exposure in-flight had caused the malfunction. That left only one answer: the AICS units aboard the 505th’s planes were malfunctioning from the moment they took off.
I believe the AICS units were modified by the enemy. The only thing that could touch the planes without arousing suspicion would be a human. A human working against the FAF or possibly a JAM in human guise. The probability of it being a JAM is high. If so, my guess is that the JAM have assumed human form.
Even if they searched for the lost planes, the AICSes were vital units that would have been destroyed by the planes’ self-destruct systems. If they’d made it back to base, it might have been possible to return the AICS units to normal operation. The CI went on to say that a humanoid JAM replacing or tampering with AICS units without anyone noticing wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.
I do not have a countermeasure for this problem, it continued.
A humanoid JAM weapon. Major Booker shivered. If what Rei claimed to have experienced was true, then JAM infiltration seemed possible. If there was a type not made of optical isomers that merely looked human, but a perfect copy that could eat and live like a real one, then there’d be no way to tell the difference between a JAM and a human.
“You’re saying this isn’t simply a problem with the AICS,” Major Booker said. “How do we find out for certain?”
The probability is high that humans who have gone missing on the front lines have made contact with the JAM. Probability high that the rescued humans are the new type of JAM.
There were two humans like that in the SAF: Rei and Lieutenant Yagashira.
“You mean Yagashira is... That can’t be!” said General Cooley, almost with a groan.
His mind still fogged in a sense of unreality, Rei thought that he’d never heard of Lieutenant Yagashira before.
AS REI CHECKED the AICS aboard Yukikaze after being told of the abnormality in the planes of the 505th that she had observed, he soon realized that the planes were being controlled by the JAM and rethought the situation. Yukikaze also determined the 505th TFS were no longer friendlies. Rei figured that the only way the JAM could have turned the 505th would be for them to have infiltrated TAB-15. The JAM.
He felt as if that had been a dream. A nightmare. He had been flying Yukikaze, but then suddenly communication had been cut and Yukikaze had gone away. Yukikaze, leaving him, as he had dreamed again and again. All of it was a dream.
But this wasn’t a dream now. The AICS was malfunctioning, but no fault light was lit. Switching over to manual yielded no response. The situation was desperate. If he didn’t do something and fast, they were going to be destroyed by the JAM.
Keeping the throttle right on the limit where the abnormal vibrations began, Rei activated the onboard test system. The recorded data on the plane’s preflight check seemed wrapped in a watery, unrealistic veil, but he could see that the AICS hadn’t showed any abnormalities. The test signals had yielded the correct responses.
So how about now?
The main display showed IN MISSION as though Yukikaze were shouting,
Rei immediately lowered the landing gear. The plane’s speed suddenly dropped. He manually activated the test mode. Yukikaze quickly understood from the change what Rei was trying to do and canceled the alarm.
“Break, port!” yelled the major.
Banking sharply to the left, he let the JAM slip past. His sudden drop in speed had been fortunate. The JAM had undoubtedly not expected Yukikaze’s maneuver.
Selecting the test signals for supersonic maximum speed, he initiated a test run on the AICS. He jammed the throttle to maximum. Gear, up.
The three JAM had swung around and were coming at him. Rei slipped the plane to the right, dodging the JAM’s cannon fire. He couldn’t keep moving left and right; it would be dangerous, since the plane’s acceleration would zero out in the instant he switched directions. With the enemy using cannons, they could anticipate those moments. What he needed to do now was to evade the JAM attack. He prayed for acceleration.
Yukikaze reached normal maximum acceleration in three seconds. The thrust was tremendous. In an instant, the JAM were far behind him.
Rei desperately gripped the control stick, sending Yukikaze into a climb. If he could reach high altitude, her speed would be greatly increased. There’d be no way that three JAM designed for dogfighting could ever catch him then.
He had no doubts that the JAM recognized Yukikaze as an SAF fighter and believed that the three of them could beat her. There was the proof that the AICS had been contaminated by the JAM. If he hadn’t known beforehand that the malfunction was being caused by the AICS, those three fighters would have shot him down long before he’d gotten the idea of trying to input those test signals.
“You got it back to normal,” the major said. “How’d you do it?”
“Emergency measures. I’m operating it with the test signals. Why wasn’t a new AICS swapped in before takeoff? We knew what the cause was. We should have known this would happen.”
“We didn’t want Yagashira to know that we’d figured out the problem in the AICS. This is top secret,” the major said.
Yukikaze flew in the skies above the pure white desert. This was JAM-controlled airspace. Only the JAM flew here without concern.
Just before Yukikaze took off, Yagashira’s plane had flown out to this desert to drop a reconnaissance pod. The exact same mission the old Yukikaze had had.
Major Booker confirmed that Yagashira’s plane was flying ahead of them in formation with a single JAM plane. “Yagashira’s plane is flying with a JAM.”
“I know,” answered Rei.
“I’m sure he’s a JAM,” the major said. “There’s no excuse for this otherwise.”
“I feel like... like I’ve spoken to him before,” Rei said.
The major answered that he had. He and Lieutenant Yagashira had met in the hospital. “I want to be your friend,” he’d said. Rei remembered that the man standing next to his bed had been very young. “Everyone looks at me like I’m some sort of weirdo,” he’d gone on. “Lieutenant Fukai, I want to talk to you about all kinds of things. The soldiers of Boomerang squadron have such skill. I want to be as good as you guys.”
“Rei thinks that he’s been abandoned by Yukikaze,” Major Booker had said. “If we don’t settle that, he’ll never fly again.” Yagashira went on. “It looks like you had a rough time out there. Actually, I was also shot down by the JAM. I don’t have any memory of what happened till I was rescued.”
