Good Luck, Yukikaze

SAF’S CENTRAL HEADQUARTERS command center was working night and day, as all of their planes were being sent in to support the massive attack operation against Cookie base.

The enormous screen taking up most of the wall at the front was filled with a variety of information, divided as needed to display the responses on the screens of HQ’s tactical computer terminals. Mission progress. Maps of the combat airspace. The condition of the fighters preparing to sortie. The maintenance status of the planes on standby. Analysis of gains made in battle extrapolated from the data from returning planes. Analysis of the general progress of the battle. On and on and on.

Of immediate concern to the SAF was the progress of the attack on Cookie, not from a local perspective, but from an overall view of the battle’s progress. Determining JAM tactics was the highest priority of all.

Once the first day had passed, Major Booker decided there was no need to throw all of the SAF’s forces into the task of conducting tactical recon for the FAF’s attack on the base. By that time, he knew that the JAM didn’t seem to be defending the base to the last man. The enemy’s strategy was definitely changing, and they wouldn’t know what that change was if they just stuck close to Cookie.

Expecting a JAM retaliatory strike, the FAF set up a defense line around Faery base, sending out several squadrons to fly combat air patrols. The SAF flew recon missions there as well, but knowing the situation at Cookie wasn’t playing out as it normally would, Major Booker reckoned they needed wider-ranged reconnaissance intel. What was happening over at Richwar base, which the Strategic Reconnaissance Corps claimed was paired with Cookie? How about at the other JAM bases? There weren’t enough planes to observe movements at all those places. He rerouted a plane scheduled to run recon at Cookie to another area.

By doing that of his own accord, Booker was deviating from the operation as it had been set up by the Tactical Combat Air Corps — under which the SAF served — and the entire Faery Air Force. Military operations were established with the understanding that all of the chess pieces on the board would systematically move as they were supposed to. If the lower echelons started acting on their own, the entire operation would become meaningless. However, at this moment, the SAF was trying to grasp the JAM’s strategic movements. It was likely that the JAM were just as interested in the SAF, and that they were observing the SAF’s movements. Major Booker figured they were out there, watching what they did. If the SAF didn’t take the initiative now, the chance to make direct contact with the JAM might slip away forever.

That was what the major was afraid of.

There was no time to get permission from high command. To modify the operation, the SAF would have to convene their supreme strategy conference and then put in their request for the entire operation to be reviewed. That was impossible, of course, because there was no time for such a thing. If the SAF were going to do this at all, it would have to be now, and without authorization.

General Cooley made her decision. The JAM’s shift in tactics was evident, and the FAF was just too massive to be able to keep up with it. In this situation, the smaller and more nimble SAF would be much more effective. They were going to alter the current operation on their own initiative. Strategic reconnaissance operations against the JAM would now have top priority.

When Major Booker had asked her if she was sure of her decision, the general had replied, “I’m the head of the SAF. I do what I want to do. Nobody ever complains about it. That’s how it’s always been. It’s called being flexible in making use of your resources.” The way she had put it, Major Booker really did feel as though he’d been worried over nothing. Even so, he could see that the general was still prepared to pay hell for her choice.

General Cooley was prepared to do anything to ensure the survival of the SAF. She’d once even said that joining forces with the JAM might be an option worth exploring. That was more than enough to get her arrested for treason, but she offered no excuses. She would sooner resist than make excuses, and resistance would probably turn into a life or death struggle for the SAF. The members of the squadron, however, felt no need to defend the general, and she had no expectations of help from them. Each individual was acting on their own in order to ensure their own survival.

As a consequence of how we’re set up, it’s unlikely that the SAF as a whole would mutiny against the FAF, Major Booker thought. But it also wasn’t out of the question that the FAF might back them far enough into a corner to make mutiny necessary. In order to protect herself, General Cooley was considering using the FAF’s own methods. In other words, she was ready to use the military might of the SAF as part of her own individual resistance. If there was any move to have her arrested or executed, all the general would have to do is declare that her unit was prepared to launch an armed resistance en masse. The instant that she did, the SAF would be seen as a rebel force and attacked. The squadron would then have no choice but to fight the FAF. Even if they didn’t want to, they’d still fight, because all but the terminally clueless would realize that a firing squad awaited them all even if they surrendered to arrest without firing a shot.

A FAF attack wouldn’t mean that the SAF would be banding together in common cause. While it might seem that way from the outside, it would be nothing more than individual minds utilizing whatever abilities they had in order to survive. General Cooley herself was a representative of the sort of person who possessed that sort of consciousness, Major Booker began to realize. That general had made the SAF what it was, and the squadron reflected her character and way of thinking. She had made the SAF not an organization run from the top down, but rather something that was her. A part of her being. The very essence of her. Something that she’d use to strike back if she were struck. That was all. It didn’t matter if it were the JAM doing the striking or anyone else. The general was convinced she was doing the right thing. It was a simple, straightforward conclusion, but he doubted that the people in the FAF would see it that way. There was a definite problem there...

If the SAF existed as a corps-level organization, like the Strategic Reconnaissance Corps, a flexible response to the attack on Cookie wouldn’t be much of a problem. That was because corps-level formations could take part in the overall strategy conference and give a clear idea of how much individual action they’d need. But the SAF could make no such plays. We’re going to be seen as going rogue, and we need to get something to show for this if we’re going to demonstrate our loyalty. General Cooley must think that we will, Major Booker thought.

The general would negotiate things with the guys at the top. He wouldn’t have to worry about that. All he needed to concentrate on was how best to utilize their planes. It was the general’s job to worry about the SAF’s position. He was free to do what he wanted to under her authority.

As soon as he learned that the SAF had canceled their strike against Cookie base in order to resume surveillance on Richwar, General Laitume started complaining. General Cooley was summoned, and it was no exaggeration to say that he was thinking of having her relieved of duty right there and then.

Laitume knew perfectly well that there was no time to convene a panel of the heads of the various corps to do that in the midst of a major operation. All he’d be able to do was give a personal warning to Cooley and the SAF, demanding that we restrain ourselves, thought Major Booker. But General Cooley, seeing a good opportunity, had turned the meeting into an impromptu official strategy session between the SAF and the commanding officer of the corps to which it was attached. Major Booker had marveled anew at General Cooley’s abilities. He might have been moved by it all, had he not been busy giving a presentation to General Laitume to make him understand why they were doing what they were doing. It was no trivial task, since failure to persuade Laitume would have ended General Cooley’s career.

Major Booker had explained to him about the JAM’s changing strategy and how the SAF were currently engaged in their own strategic reconnaissance against the JAM. If they let this opportunity slip by, he’d gone on, then they might also lose their chance to make direct contact with the JAM.

“We have the Strategic Reconnaissance Corps for that,” General Laitume had shot back. “I won’t permit the SAF to do whatever it wants to!”

“That assumes the SRC isn’t being manipulated by the JAM,” General Cooley had said. “We in the SAF don’t agree.”

“What was that? Just what are you implying?”

“There’s no doubt now that the JAM have infiltrated the FAF with their duplicates,” Major Booker added. “I can imagine that they’re manipulating our intelligence, meaning we have to be on guard for any false intel they might feed us.”

“It’s just as likely that you people are being manipulated by them as well.”

“And that can be verified by checking for any discrepancies between the intelligence gathered by the SRC and ourselves,” General Cooley had explained in the tone of a tenacious teacher. “If they both agree, then either we’re both right, or else both of us may be supplying false information. In that case, you’ll have to compare it with data