isn’t like that, and therein lies the problem.”
Major Booker began shuffling his papers again, checking the documents for the meeting as he continued. “At any rate, this idea that the JAM want to become our allies isn’t even the prediction made by Yukikaze’s profacting. It’s only one possible interpretation of it we humans have come up with. One way or another, though, we’ll make use of her prediction. It’s vague, but still very informative.”
“I can also imagine that the JAM might be manipulating us to drive a wedge between our forces and the FAF. I can’t help but wonder about that, Major. Do you think that the JAM we fight in the air might not be their main force?”
“And there you have all the SAF’s doubts in a nutshell. What I hope to learn from this strategic recon operation is the location of their main force. Just like the FAF has the humans on Earth backing it, I want to find the JAM’s main forces, their actual selves, that which backs their forces.”
“And what I’m trying to tell you, Jack, is that there are no ‘actual’ JAM. They may be something invisible, lurking within the information we’ve gathered about them.”
“If you go that far, you’ve just crossed the line from doubt straight into fantasy,” Major Booker said, closing the briefcase. “What we need to get is a realistic image of the JAM, not fantasies about them. Captain Foss is working hard to profact them, and she says that we can’t let ourselves be taken in by the appearance they project. There’s an expression in Japan: ‘One’s true enemy lies elsewhere.’ ”
“The FAF may be coming to that conclusion about us.”
“That would be a very dangerous situation to get into, and we’re analyzing that contingency thoroughly. At present, if we split from the FAF, we have no chance of survival. General Cooley admits that too, so we’ve got the tactical computer working full load on SAF survival simulations. At any rate, I for one don’t want my death to be one of those ridiculous ones you once talked about. The entire SAF is devoting all of its efforts to coming up with a strategy that will allow us to survive.”
“A survival strategy... This really is a fight for survival, isn’t it?” Rei said.
“The JAM are clearly infiltrating the FAF with these human duplicates in order to perfect their own strategy against us. The odds are good that they’re about to make a radical change in their strategy, which until now has been to ignore the existence of humans. The war situation’s getting even more strained, but the brass have no idea just how bad it is. There’s no doubt in my mind that the FAF is teetering on the edge of oblivion,” Major Booker said. He glanced at his watch. “This isn’t something I can bring up at General Laitume’s meeting, but we can’t afford to ignore it now.”
Saying that, Major Booker moved away from his desk.
“Leave with me, Captain Fukai.”
The office door would auto-lock as soon as the major exited. Finishing up with the file folder the major had handed him, Rei acceded to his urgings and left the room.
THE NEXT DAY, as scheduled, Yukikaze came out onto the surface for her sortie.
This was the first routine mission for her since she’d gained her new body, the Maeve. Yukikaze had returned to her regular duties. Rei was momentarily overcome with emotion as he realized this. He felt as if his long leave from battle and rehabilitation were finally over. At long last, he was back on the job.
It was not a long gap to have on his record, but it wasn’t an insignificant one. Rather, it had seen a remarkable change in the situation. Now that Yukikaze predicted that the JAM were no longer ignoring humans, General Cooley seemed to be challenging the JAM to a showdown...
Even so, Rei was aware that his situation had changed as well. The need for a new SAF strategy had its origins in the incident in which he and the old Yukikaze had been involved. As a direct participant, he couldn’t well say that this change in the war wasn’t his problem. If he were to survive, he couldn’t simply ignore his relationship with the world anymore. The old him had been like a man walking a tightrope without the benefit of a balancing rod. His life was still a tightrope act, but now he was aware of the need he had for relationships with others to act as that rod. Trying to support himself with one might easily lead to falling from the rope, and the old him had feared that, but he saw now that it was all in how one used it. If he mastered that, it would serve him well. His long break from routine sorties had taught him that, thought Rei.
Lieutenant Katsuragi in the rear seat reported that all systems were green.
Rei checked Yukikaze’s gauges once more. All warning lights were clear.
“This is B-1, all clear. Ready for sortie.”
The ground crew gave him the good luck sign. Rei answered it by raising his right fist, then pointed Yukikaze’s nose toward the runway. He stopped at the taxiway exit and waited for clearance from the control tower. The weather was rainy, with high winds.
Clearance granted, Yukikaze took off, climbing through the rain clouds. Her objective was a JAM base code- named Cookie. At the moment, it was the next major target after Richwar base, and the FAF was throwing most of its forces at it.
Feeling good that its strike on Richwar base had achieved devastating results while holding its own losses to a minimum, the FAF had adopted a similar strategy of launching an all-out attack on the JAM’s main base, despite the misgivings of Major Booker and the rest of the SAF. The plan was to gather their forces at a front-line base, then attack in continuous waves until the enemy base had been wiped out. To that end, the FAF had committed nearly half of its tactical air forces from their bases. They’d be moved to TAB-8, the largest front-line base nearest the target. From there, they would make their attacks, making the round trip between there and the target as many times as it took. The SAF would be on full rotation to provide recon for the operation. Even a new arrival like Lieutenant Katsuragi was going to get a taste of real combat, whether he liked it or not.
Operations as large as this had been attempted several times by the SAF, but they’d never been effective till now. When they’d try to concentrate on one target, the JAM would come in from an unexpected direction to attack Faery base and then attempt to penetrate the entrance to the Passageway that led to Earth. The FAF would then have to pull its forces back from the front lines in order to repel the threat, and in the end they would fall back into fighting a defensive battle. Aside from that, each time the SAF thought that they’d wiped out a major enemy base, either a new one would be discovered or else the base that had been presumed destroyed would unexpectedly spring back to life. Where the supply routes were that supported these bases was a question that had plagued the SAF for a long time. Their Strategic Reconnaissance Corps had sent out recon planes, launched strategic spy sats, and kept the bases under surveillance till their eyes were bloodshot, but thus far their efforts had borne no fruit.
Thanks to their constant scouting, a map of Faery had been compiled. However, try as they might, they could never discover the location of the JAM’s main forces. Against the advanced interceptors the JAM fielded, the FAF sent out dedicated strategic recon planes that, unlike Yukikaze, lacked the means to repel them in order to see which would get shot down. If the planes returned home, that meant there were no JAM in the area. If they did, then at least it would tell them that the JAM were hidden in the area under surveillance. Up to this point, no manned planes had been sent out for strategic reconnaissance. Even strategic spy satellites didn’t last long before they too were shot down by the JAM.
After decades of fighting this way, the Strategic Recon Corps claimed that they had identified a single pattern: JAM bases seemed to be related most closely with the one that was furthest away in the opposite direction, rather than with the next closest one. In other words, what they took to be the JAM’s main bases scattered in a rough circle around the Passageway were paired, not with their immediate partners, but symmetrically with the ones on the side opposite them.
Each time the FAF would attack one of these bases, there would be no sign of any of their neighboring bases sending aid. However, while they repelled attacks on the Passageway or Faery base launched from another base, the base the FAF had first attacked would recover behind their backs. The only explanation that seemed to fit was
