“Are we done here?”
“Hm?”
“I’d like to get back to checking out Yukikaze.”
The major kept his frustration with his friend concealed and nodded his assent.
They exited the SAF hangar.
IT WAS THE morning of Yukikaze’s last manned flight.
Rei would have to leave her after this flight, a fact that still didn’t seem real to him. This wasn’t how he had expected it to end. He’d believed that he would fight with her until he died, and to leave her now, while he was still alive, felt like a betrayal.
He settled into the cockpit and began the preflight checks. All caution lights were clear. Master arm, check. Auto combat system, set. Anti-ground attack system, check. Self test for all A/G-AS modes: auto, continuously displayed impact point, high-precision guidance, direct targeting, manual.
He confirmed that all six TAISP pods were mounted on the underside of the plane.
Engine start. Jet fuel starter, activate. Engage JFS engine connection. First the right. The turbine began to spin. The tachometer needle leapt as the oil and flight pressures climbed. Rei took the throttle over to idle. The ignition system activated and the fuel flow opened up. At 40 percent rpm, the starter automatically cut off. He repeated the process with the left engine.
After making sure the operation caution light had gone out, he checked the hydraulic pressure on all systems with the engines at full power. All green. He throttled back to idle again and ran the emergency power system test. Communications, data link, navigation, and display control, all check. Laser gyro, altimeter, and FCS, check. Confirm all flight control surfaces were operating normally. Toe brake, on. Parking brake, off. Anti-skid brake controller, off.
Yukikaze taxied out onto the runway.
Rei slid the throttle to MAX and released the toe brake. Yukikaze began her takeoff. Rotation. Nose up five degrees. Takeoff. Landing gear, up. Speed, increasing. All systems normal. When they reached optimal climbing speed, he hauled her nose up and headed at once to cruising altitude.
At an altitude of 20,000 meters, he went to supercruise. He was 2,000 kilometers from D-zone, and he had to penetrate 500 kilometers beyond that.
Boomerang Squadron Units 1 and 6 flew slightly ahead of him, acting as escorts for Yukikaze. Both planes were unmanned. Yukikaze confirmed the identity of both planes, relaying that they were friendlies via the IFF system. Yukikaze seemed to be communicating with the two planes, and Rei was momentarily frustrated that he was excluded from their conversation. He let it go. Lieutenant Burgadish was silent in the rear seat. There was no need to talk.
They covered 1,800 kilometers in forty minutes, then performed an in-air refueling before the border of D-zone. The men stayed silent during this as well. The only communication was from Yukikaze’s data link and fuel systems, which were busily exchanging data with the airborne tanker. Rei felt a steadily growing impatience that seemed almost like jealousy. It was as if she was ignoring him, her pilot. He intentionally shook the plane a little during the refueling. Yukikaze issued a warning, and then locked in the automatic attitude control system.
“Yukikaze…”
“Nice,” said Burgadish. “Stays stable even in turbulence.”
Rei frowned. Yukikaze had classified his actions as external turbulence. He recalled Major Booker’s words. She was disregarding her pilot’s will. She possessed her own will now.
“So you’re not always going to do what I tell you to, is that it? Just what are you now?”
“Did you say something?”
For a split second, he thought Burgadish’s voice was Yukikaze’s and felt as though cold water had been dashed in his face.
“No, it’s nothing. Lieutenant, confirm our course.”
“Roger. We can just stay on auto. Another 750 klicks and then we should drop altitude. Once we penetrate Sugar Desert, everything past that point is unknown territory. All we have is data from a few recon planes that have been out there.”
They separated from the tanker and resumed cruising speed.
As they crossed into D-zone their escorts peeled away from them. Yukikaze quickly dove, flying on the deck as they commenced their ultra-low altitude high-velocity penetration. The landscape flowed by the cockpit canopy in a gray blur.
“Here we go. Recheck the bombing system.”
“Roger.”
There was no sign of the JAM. They were only two thousand kilometers from base, and yet this was unknown territory. We know almost nothing about this planet, thought Rei. We don’t even know if this is the JAM’s home world or not. And we know absolutely nothing about them.
And now Rei knew almost nothing about Yukikaze, the one thing he thought he knew best. The one thing he had trusted implicitly.
Yukikaze continued her supersonic incursion, flying on auto toward the TAISP release point. Rei switched the A/G-AS mode from automatic to CDIP.
“Lieutenant?” called out Burgadish. “What are you doing?”
“This is our last flight. I have control.”
“That’s not like you. Leave this to Yukikaze and relax.”
Rei didn’t respond. Sugar Desert drew near, the glaring light of the twin suns reflecting off the sands.
The first target point was indicated on the HUD. The pull-up cue appeared and Yukikaze climbed sharply, as though leaping into the air. Rei guided the plane while watching the fall line on the HUD. The release cue appeared. Keeping his eyes on the pure white sands of the desert, Rei pressed the button. A slight jolt passed through the airframe as the TAISP was fired. They flew level to the second drop point, reaching it in about ten seconds. Rei fired the second pod. Then the third, the fourth, and the fifth.
“Going good. Let’s drop these things and head home.”
“One more left.”
Yukikaze banked into a wide turn. Taking a return course, they headed for the sixth drop point. And then a warning alert sounded.
“What’s up?”
“We’re getting a warning from TAISP-4. Could be the JAM, but maybe it’s an operations test. Our passive radar isn’t picking up anything.”
“Start a bandit search, now.”
“Whoa!”
Yukikaze shuddered. Three small JAM fighters were attacking from directly beneath them, as though they had launched out from under the sea of sand. They may have actually done so, but there was no way for Rei to confirm. Yukikaze went into a high-G turn to shake them off. Rei looked out of the cockpit. He couldn’t see them.
“Lieutenant, evasive action! Break left!”
Almost unconsciously, Rei flipped the V-max switch and engaged the auto-maneuver system. The JAM were too fast for his eyes to follow. He couldn’t fight what he couldn’t see. Yukikaze, however, could see the enemy clearly. She fired highvelocity short-range missiles, but the enemy evaded them.
“Bandits are small assault fighter types. Heads up, they’ve spiked us.”
Yukikaze dodged the enemy missiles with a series of violent maneuvers. Rei and Burgadish both blacked out for several seconds in GLOC.
“We need to bug out of here, Lieutenant,” Burgadish said, huffing in G-strain. When Rei didn’t answer immediately he yelled, “Lieutenant Fukai!”
“Yukikaze is… Looks like she’s ready to fight to the end.” Even if he tried to turn the auto-maneuver system off, Rei knew that it would not disengage.
“God damn it… Yukikaze!”
Rei flashed back to Captain O’Donnell’s death. Is that how I’m going to end up? he wondered. Suddenly, Yukikaze extended her speed brake and an alarm began to blare. The display readout said that a fire had broken out and that they should perform an emergency ejection.