Good Luck, Yukikaze

“Please, General Linneberg. Have a seat over there,” said General Cooley.

“Am I a guest? Or perhaps a hostage.”

“And who exactly is the ‘we’ who needs him?” asked Major Booker without bothering to introduce himself. “Is it you as the chief executive of the Intelligence Forces? Or the FAF?”

“We, the human race,” replied Major General Linneberg, General Secretary of the FAF Intelligence Forces, as he sat down next to Major Booker.

“Colonel Rombert really is an excellent man to watch work on the tasks that capture his interest. He’s grasped the actions and intentions of every person in the FAF and assessed them. He’s even picked out people who would be inappropriate for service here.”

“We think he’s a JAM,” said Lieutenant Katsuragi. “An enemy of humanity.”

“Why did you call me here, General Cooley? Don’t you have to share any intelligence you get with General Laitume first?”

“As I already told you, there’s no time,” General Cooley said. “I’m certain that the retraining unit within the Systems Corps will be initiating destructive action within the next few hours. I believe that the only thing that can stop them is the might of the Intelligence Forces. That’s assuming, of course, that you aren’t a JAM too, just like Rombert.”

“As I said, I have no intention of stopping the colonel. And yes, it’s possible that he is in communication with the JAM.”

“And knowing that, you’ve let him go free?” Captain Pivot said. “Isn’t that just inviting disaster, General Linneberg?”

“If you attack Colonel Rombert, I’ll have no choice but to move the Intelligence Forces against you.”

“And protect the JAM?” said Captain Foss. “For what reason?”

“For the sake of all humanity,” General Linneberg replied. “I’m not simply sitting around and leaving the Intelligence Forces in Colonel Rombert’s hands. We’ve spent years looking for some way to communicate with the JAM. I decided that Colonel Rombert was the right man for the job. No one is more familiar with his abilities than I. He thought he should become a JAM.”

“Become a JAM?” Cooley said.

“Yes, General. The communications method the colonel found was to become a JAM. If he can’t do this, I doubt we’ll ever find another man as talented as he to replace him. That is just how brilliant Colonel Ansel Rombert is. You might call him the representative of all humanity.”

“He seems to have a few odd traits,” said Captain Foss. “I couldn’t say for sure without data from a detailed examination, but Colonel Rombert exhibits a lowered ability to sense fear as well as a tendency to disregard group harmony. Unlike the people in the SAF, I expect it’s due to an abnormality in the brain itself, a glitch in the hardware. It’s archetypal.”

“I know. However, he’s no madman.”

“That may be,” said Captain Foss. “but he shows unusually little concern for anything that doesn’t interest him. How can you entrust the future of the species to someone like that?”

“Someone had to do it. The colonel was qualified.”

“Will you still be saying that if this ghost unit ends up destroying Faery base, General?” said Major Booker. “The FAF is in danger, not to mention yourself.”

“Ghost unit... That’s an interesting way to put it. They’re JAM duplicates, aren’t they?”

“Without a doubt,” said Lieutenant Katsuragi. “Puppets.”

“With them gathered in one place, we can finish them off. A few sacrifices will be inevitable, but —”

“Like hell, they are!” said Captain Pivot. “We’re in this up to our necks now!”

“Shut your mouth, Captain,” said General Cooley. “General Linneberg, you’re saying you’re willing to let that happen?”

“I am. My forces have before them a crucial intelligence task: to comprehend the JAM. If letting Colonel Rombert take over Faery base now that he’s in communication with the JAM will allow him to know our enemy, then I think we should let him have it.”

“And in return for that, you’re saying you’ll get intel regarding JAM activities from the colonel, General Linneberg?”

“Exactly. He’s a medium of communication with the JAM, General Cooley. If he can become a true mediator between humanity and the JAM, then we should let him take control of the FAF. We could form a new organization to resist the JAM and fight them through him.”

“Easier said than done, General,” Cooley said. “All you’re doing is increasing the number of enemies we’d have to fight, aren’t you? You’ll just let the colonel have the FAF?”

“It’s insignificant when seen from a long-term strategic perspective. For over three decades, dialogue with the JAM has been impossible. There was no way for a human to defect to the JAM because they completely disregarded the existence of human beings. We’ve now changed that aspect of the war. The Intelligence Forces have been hoping for a traitor to humanity to appear. I never expected to see it happen in my lifetime. It’s like a dream come true.”

“You people are nuts, the lot of you,” sighed Lieutenant Eco. “I’ll never understand how you people operate with your plots and conspiracies.”

“So the SAF has just been tilting at windmills,” said Major Booker. “Is that how you think of us?”

“General Cooley outlined the intelligence you people have obtained,” General Linneberg replied to Major Booker. “You’ve done well. It’s something the Intelligence Forces couldn’t have done, since we only know how to deal with intelligence at a personal level. To be honest, I was skeptical that you could pull this off. That was until Colonel Rombert told me that we couldn’t ignore you. No, the FAF really has a wide variety of people in it. You aren’t the only special ones. As Colonel Rombert discovered in his investigations, there are some people here to personally profit from the war, and others who were sent by their respective nations back on Earth to gain an advantage for them rather than victory over the JAM. Some are corporate spies, sent in here by businesses instead of nations, others are criminals from the Mafia or the Yakuza. And yet despite all this, the FAF as a whole still has the might to oppose the JAM. The FAF isn’t as powerless, nor is humanity as incompetent, as you think it is.”

“You’re saying that humanity is strong because of the diversity of people comprising it,” said Captain Foss. “But it still requires strong leaders, doesn’t it? You’ll pardon me if I don’t share your optimism, sir.”

“We’ve been at war with the JAM for a generation now. I expect that settling it will take several more. People my age will die without knowing the JAM’s true nature. Think about it, fraulein,” General Linneberg replied. “We can expect that the JAM have a completely different origin from humans. We don’t know what their physical forms are like, or if they even have any. They may be completely different from our conception of life itself. And yes, the SAF has managed to get a glimpse of them once. It would be foolish to think that we could understand such an opponent quickly. We need time. Even if the FAF were lost, mankind can still continue the fight against the JAM, as long as we don’t forget their existence. We have to pass this knowledge on to the next generation. I think even losing the FAF won’t matter, so long as we can get new intel on the JAM. The only way we’ll ever beat them is by learning to communicate with them. The war against the JAM has only just begun.”

“If the entire FAF saw the situation the way you do, it would be of great help to the SAF,” said General Cooley. “But they don’t, do they, General Linneberg?”

“What a load of irresponsible bullshit from an old man who doesn’t have much longer to live,” said Lieutenant Eco. “We’re not going along with your scheme. The battle’s just begun? It’ll be over before it even starts. We don’t have time to wait for a messiah to show up.”

“General Linneberg, I’m going to be frank with you,” said General Cooley. “Just how much control do you have over the Intelligence Forces now? Do you even have the power to stop Colonel Rombert, or does he have complete control here?”

“I have the ability to crush the colonel’s plan. However, I won’t. As I said before, I can also stop you people from acting. Do you want to try me and see, General Cooley?”

“I’d like to see Colonel Rombert again,” Lieutenant Katsuragi said. “If the colonel really can contact the JAM, I’d like to try talking to them again.”

“Oh?” said General Linneberg as he regarded the lieutenant. “And you are...?”

“Second Lieutenant Katsuragi, sir. Akira Katsuragi. I was the flight officer aboard Yukikaze when we made contact with the JAM. I originally served under Colonel Rombert. He probably sent me in here to learn the inner