jammaker Posted April 21, 2022 Share Posted April 21, 2022 That would be nice. I don’t think the company Flying dog exists any more 2 new novels would be great though. And the new plane models. Although my wallet hurts so bad this year already, I just forked over for a Sentinal Rook Bartley (mospeada) I might give them a miss. Nah!!! I’m kidding myself of course I’m going to get them. Just don’t tell the Missus. The 1/144 of the jam sylph Is awesome I built the paper model of the jam type 1 and scaled up the specs to make a 1/72 scale of it in sheet styrene. It’s going to be quite big. I’m going to put a little clear and Yellow plastic nose on the paper model to make it look authentic . I was really impressed that Platz included it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
electric indigo Posted April 21, 2022 Share Posted April 21, 2022 Great. Now it only needs an animated surface texture... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rock Posted April 22, 2022 Share Posted April 22, 2022 I gave in and ordered another platz kit. Guess I'll re-attempt the cockpit laser, and the ram-air intakes. I remember seeing this build of the Super Sylph using F-16D parts to replace it's resin bubbles. I don't recall seeing anyone attempt the Mave's brick. Might be something in the 3-d printing market by now? As for the Jam... Just stare at it until cross-eyed and then blink REALLY fast. lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
electric indigo Posted April 22, 2022 Share Posted April 22, 2022 I guess you could get away with a simplified cockpit as in Bandai's 1/100 Mave (especially if you put pilots in there), but still the vac-forming of the canopy would be a major challenge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Breen Posted April 25, 2022 Share Posted April 25, 2022 I acquired the Platz 1/72 Super and am using Super Hornet Resin cockpit pieces for detailing, and for the canopies I just did an old Modelling technique of 'Crash Forming' wherein you get the part to be formed mounted (which the resin plugs from this kit made very easy) cut a little form of the part's foot print, I just used cardboard, then you get some clear plastic, I used battery blister pack plastic, heated over a toaster till starting to flow, then quickly plunged it over the part with the form and held till cooled, these were my results: Also, as for reading Unbroken Arrow, and Now aggressors, if you make a Japanese amazon account, you can still use American credit cards, etc. and get the kindle versions of both, and reading them on the kindle app on my phone has a built in translation, which is just bing machine translation, and far far from perfect, but I have been able to get the gist of each page and about 1/3 of the way through unbroken now, and some wild crap has happened lol. Lastly, I have spent a substantial amount of money acquiring 1/72 Super sylph, Mave, and Fa-27, but it seem that the Fand 2 and regular Sylph are no where to be found, if anyone knows of any kind of re-release or someone whose selling either of them, but esp Fand 2, I'd be over-joyed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
electric indigo Posted April 26, 2022 Share Posted April 26, 2022 The canopies look great; I used the same technique for my Sylpheed. The Fand 2 is pretty elusive, but the Sylpheed was re-released a few years ago IIRC, so maybe Platz will jump at the opportunity again with the novel's release. Good luck with the Super Sylph! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chronocidal Posted April 26, 2022 Share Posted April 26, 2022 I'd love to see more of the designs from the animation, I've always thought the Fand 2 was an insanely wacky design and would love to get one, but I think I'd actually prefer the first version, since it looks almost like a sci-fi upgrade to an F-16. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Breen Posted April 28, 2022 Share Posted April 28, 2022 On 4/26/2022 at 7:04 AM, electric indigo said: The canopies look great; I used the same technique for my Sylpheed. The Fand 2 is pretty elusive, but the Sylpheed was re-released a few years ago IIRC, so maybe Platz will jump at the opportunity again with the novel's release. Good luck with the Super Sylph! Thank you! and I'll keep a lookout, Platz does seem to do re-releases every so often, speaking of, I feel a little silly spending what I spent on the previous release of Maeve in 1/72 on ebay, now that preorders are out for a Maeve re-release lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
electric indigo Posted April 28, 2022 Share Posted April 28, 2022 ZOMG the Yukikaze animation will turn 20 this year... Time to look back on my first Supersylph (Bandai 1/100 kit). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jammaker Posted May 3, 2022 Share Posted May 3, 2022 On 4/29/2022 at 7:42 AM, electric indigo said: ZOMG the Yukikaze animation will turn 20 this year... Time to look back on my first Supersylph (Bandai 1/100 kit). Beautiful work just like your banshee. Is that Bryce scene builder as the background? You must have completed this model around 2003 -4. The super Sylph hasn’t aged at all in It’s visual appeal. Fine work my friend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
electric indigo Posted May 3, 2022 Share Posted May 3, 2022 Thank you! The cloud background for my Banshee was made with Bryce, but for the Supersylph pics I used Terragen. I recently re-visited Terragen, but it seems to be incredibly processor-hungry, and it's difficult to get the clouds where you want them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jammaker Posted May 4, 2022 Share Posted May 4, 2022 Wow you did a great job of that one. It look like sky crawlers but not , are they your own design? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jammaker Posted May 4, 2022 Share Posted May 4, 2022 Bryce has always done a great job from the get go. I’m unfamiliar with terragen, looks good. I use maya it’s been good. I’m writing a yukikaze fan fiction and currently working on mave’s cockpit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
electric indigo Posted May 4, 2022 Share Posted May 4, 2022 Awesome pic! I guess once you're past the cockpit, the rest of the fighter is a piece of cake... My models above are from my Star Wars 1946 scenario. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jammaker Posted May 4, 2022 Share Posted May 4, 2022 Wow they are very cool. I can definitely see the xwing tie fighter colours there. Yeah rest of the mesh is done not too much to go. Have designed a lot of ground vehicles and Bax heavy armour for my upcoming story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Non Works Posted June 15, 2022 Share Posted June 15, 2022 Hello Yukikaze fans. I'm a Japanese modeler. I will be exhibiting the FFR-31MR Super Sylph, a non-D, normal Super Sylph at the 2022 Summer Wonder Festival. The scale is 1/100. If you are interested, please come and buy it. Unfortunately, due to the festival rules, mail order and advance reservations are not possible, so if it is difficult to come to Japan, ask a Japanese friend to buy it. https://twitter.com/Non_waste/status/1534898877874130944?s=20&t=WIjeQ5sDe9ggZ60nwWFO3w Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
electric indigo Posted June 15, 2022 Share Posted June 15, 2022 Welcome to the forum! Your kit looks awesome - I'm glad that there are still people keeping the Yukikaze flame alive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sildani Posted June 22, 2022 Share Posted June 22, 2022 Looks amazing! Well done! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Breen Posted July 11, 2022 Share Posted July 11, 2022 So folks, Ive finished Unbroken Arrow and am Half through Aggressors. While reading Ive done a detailed summary write-up, more detailed than I planned actually lol Would you guys be interested in seeing those? Since an official translation isnt on the horizon? Its not page by page, but they are long detailed summaries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
electric indigo Posted July 12, 2022 Share Posted July 12, 2022 Yes, please! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Breen Posted July 13, 2022 Share Posted July 13, 2022 Here is Unbroken Arrow: Spoiler Unbroken arrow Summary According to Kindle app page by page machine translation (Bing Translate). Part 1: The Man who Became Jam Lynn jackson reads colonel romberts letter where he attempts to explain his motives and position, Lynn speaks about journalism and integrity and consumerist media and the world uncaring of the jam threat, she is surprised at Rombert and the contents of his letter, she also reads substantial portions of it including his ideas about the jam and relation to DNA experiments and Flora and other concepts from scientific studies he cites In Rombert's secret room, Rombert is also talking about the letter and his plans, Katsuragi possibly shoots rombert with an auto rifle, or maybe he was shooting nearby? translation unclear- probably does not shoot rombert, as later they are here and he is un-injured Part 2: No Yukikaze Return Edith foss talks about how her flight/s in yukikaze changed her and how she understands her own thesis about FAF fighters changing pilots that she came here for in the first place. She also talks about General cooley and Major booker, then in depth about profaction and computer systems, we learn General Cooley used to be an ultra high level banker, and has always had a lot of ambition From ediths perspective in the SAF command center we see the battle that began in the end of good luck unfolding Rei decides to attempt capture of a type 7 EW jam, he does so by ordering Carmilla, Chunyang, and Zuk to form a diamond formation with him around the T7 - Yukikaze and Rei attempt communication with the T7, explaining they will force it to land - Onyx and Gattere recover the Rafe that was sent off and are bringing it back to Faery base with them - Jam attempt to attack Yukikaze/T7 formation with Type 1 interceptors - Cooley/booker? Unclear orders the Rafe into combat mode again to attack the interceptors -it does so with 6 AAMs, sandwiching the Jam in a pincer, but the T1s seemingly self destruct before they are hit -they are profacting the jam in real time with a copy of TFACproII on Foss's terminal -it predicts that the Jam planned to have that T7 captured, when she asks TFAC for what purpose, it takes 10 full seconds to respond and it's something to the effect of 'JAM wishes to separate Fukai and Yukikaze' -Edith shouts out to stop the capture operation and as the formation is landing, the T7 bucks upward and almost hits Yukikaze -when the T7 resumes its landing, Yukikaze has disappeared, swallowed by the T7 via a 'Mysterious Battle Zone' type field -in the CIC they conclude Yukikaze has been transported to the pocket space again and captured - The jam lands with B3 and 4, while B2 Carmilla stands off to destroy it if it tries anything - the jam T7 shuts off its shadowing essentially to reveal a black, but no longer depth-less, vaguely luminescent, slimy form that's not terribly clear from the translation "The shape is like an ei. A part of the neck that continues from the nose is raised like an aneurysm, and it looks like a cockpit, but there is no transparent part at all. The whole body is glossy black, as if wet. Is it natural because the Maeve appears to have imitated the Jam through the main wing which draws a soft curve might be a triangular wing, and looks like Maeve somehow? The tail extends horizontally like a bird and both ends stand a little vertically. Part 3: Wandering Special Air Force - Booker reminisces about his time in the earlier days of the FAF, as the SAF was being formed -we learn that General Cooley's standing order to come back alive no matter what is just that, an order, not well-wishing or sentiment, its and order to do whatever is necessary to survive and bring back your data -Booker describes General Cooley's Vibes and his relationship to her - someone (edith maybe?) Describes the Major's icy gaze in moments of high tension and speaks about military dynamics, and speculates on Jam's change in strategy -General cooley issues a recall order to all aircraft, including Yukikaze, even though the controller lt Eko says 'yukikaze is MIA, data link broken' general cooley says to verbally issue the order anyway and begin having the Rafe hot refueled and setup its search Yukikaze - The controller notes that FAF Faery Base is electronically dead and much of the FAF was caught on the ground there, yet the runways are clear and they postulate Jam ECM is possibly so strong it's masking almost everything in the vicinity -booker speaks briefly about a woman he knew in the past and hated, and how he had planned to kill her, but someone else had stabbed her between the eyes, with his knife, and he went on trial for it and was sentenced to the FAF, but he speculates that it may have been the work of foreign or domestic intelligence agencies as she held some state secret of great Britain, and also that it was possibly a dual conspiracy to eliminate her and frame him to get him out of the Royal Marine Air Corps, since the RMAC had to send someone to Faery, so upper management orchestrated setting up Booker as the fall guy so they could send him to Faery -he also mentions his colleagues at the time comparing the sin of one killing to a time before where there was an international dispute and a destroyer (possibly friendly possibly enemy, it's not clear as the translation gives 'destroyer who seems to be an enemy') is hit with an Air to ship missile and kills 200 people, My guess is that it was either blue on blue or an unauthorized or mistaken launch, possibly undertaken by Booker, and this is another reason he was singled out for FAF - Captain Foss briefs Major Booker and General Cooley on the TFAC's predictions for the purpose of the jam machine and their operation, the prediction is that it's to separate Rei and Yukikaze -they discuss how best to investigate the Jam Machine, with general Linneburg almost ordering the intelligence ground forces to do it before being stopped for further discussion -linneberg and cooley reach an agreement -they get live video from Onyx outside, where the crew confirms the video is not fake, visually there is no sign of battle, or even any other FAF units at all, as if they were never there, only SAF units are around, it is speculated that rather than capturing Yukikaze in a pocket zone, the whole SAF has been captured in a pocket zone, while yukikaze has been left in the real world, they decide that if General Linneberg's troops can arrive then they are in the real world, not the other way around -chun yang's Lt Tan radios in that the target Jam machine with them looks strange and appears to fabricating their IFF slowly, as they are picking up a faint signal -they and rafe are ordered to fire on it, but edith exclaims that it is in fact Yukikaze -then they determine that maybe it is or isn't, and also that rei is separated from Yukikaze -by the time of going out to inspect it in person, it now looks like yukikaze, and everyone seems to get the vibe that this is the real yukikaze, having exchanged some of herself physically with the jam machine somehow, or at least that's their perception, while they theorize Rei is aboard the Jam machine disguised as yukikaze in realspace, this is my best guess anyway as the translation is not terribly clear -Then Booker gets permission to go topside and watches Yukikaze and Rafe Sortie on their own on a mission to find Rei, they thunder into the sky, he remarks how gradually over time since being revealed as in fact yukikaze, her appearance has returned to normal, slowly and subtly, he presumes its some trick of the senses, possibly perpetrated by the jam, rather than yukikaze physically morphing. Part 4: The sky where the Snow Wind Flies -now with Katsuragi and colonel rombert, Katsuragi is commenting on the insanity of the col's plan, and how he's not sure of romberts ability to actually interface with the jam or even of his understanding of them -katsuragi briefly doubts his own sanity and that of the whole faf and everyone on faery, but swiftly concludes, delusion or not he's going to chart his best path to survival, while he does admit he's fascinated by the Col and thinks he may be able to learn more about the jam through him - the colonel explains to Katsuragi that he is a jam messenger, not a Jam copy person, he is a full blooded real human, but he is sensitive to the jam communication, so he was discreetly chosen by then to be a sort of liaison with the col. - he wonders why the jam, who are so powerful as he encountered them aboard yukikaze, have not simply destroyed humanity - colonel asks if Katsuragi is going to stop him from leaving with that rifle, remarks on free will -the colonel says Katsuragi is indifferent to what he's unconsciously thinking, and katsuragi says how could anyone be, that doesn't make sense -they converse about the nature of consciousness and the colonel asks does he believe in the unconscious self, and they both question if in the way the human mind tries to humanize the jam, does the jam mind try to make human behaviors make sense in an automatic, digital context, ie, interpreting humans through a machine frame of reference -katsuragi gets bored with the colonel and looks about the room, seeing the dead monitors and feels a slight sense of claustrophobia -they discuss going outside -general linnebergs orders come through on a screen, rombert orders katsuragi to go to the hangar with the jam machine and lead the maintenance operation -rombert explains that general linneberg discovered his coup and setup elite combat unit to kill the jam copy humans, and that rombert knew about this, but let the motions happen, as linneberg knew about romberts plan but let the motions happen, they wanted to observed each other observing -once in the hallway katsuragi notes that things are unfamiliar and too clean, he and rombert discuss the possibility of it being a fake base they have been transported to - they discuss the nature of objective reality and whether the Jam can manipulate their perception since after all humans perceive everything through their sensory organs, so theoretically the jam could attack and change our very perception, even language - they decide to communicate non verbally as much as possible, and continue forward with a gesture of the colonels jaw - Katsuragi reflects that the colonel hasnt defected to the jam, so much as temporarily aligned with them in an effort to control them as well, the colonel definitely answers to no one but himself -they appear to conclude that this must be realspace, just their perceptions affected by Jam, as it makes more sense to do that than to build a whole fake faery base and individually transport them to it - upon making it outside, they see that all is gray, even the sky and bloody road, Katsuragi asks if this is the real world, and the colonel replies, yes, just without the electromagnetic spectrum that gives humans color perception -they come up to a blue earth style post/mailbox, to which the colonel suggests they drop the letter of declaration to Ms Jackson, and does so hearing it clunk in the bottom - they set off for the hangar the jam machine is in -the 20 minute walk goes by in a single blink for katsuragi, but he knows he must've walked it since his legs are tired, he asks the colonel who suggests his concepts of language processing may have interrupted, and as Katsuragi said, language inna way is consciousness, he was briefly un-perceiving of world during the walk, giving the illusion of time shrinking or growing -they get there and touch the jam machine, warm to the touch, and marvel at it briefly before the active camo shadow drops, revealing a cockpit, and with Rei inside it no less - Katsuragi and colonel ask if this is yukikaze, and that was some kind of new SAF camouflage, Rei directly addresses Katsuragi and asks if he's a Jam-man, a copy human - Katsuragi says no, and he only came here when gen linneberg ordered him to take over the maintenance operation on the jam machine - they discuss whether the machine is fake or not, rombert explaining that it is a jam machine, and things are different because everyone's senses have shifted, Rei begins to believe him, and the colonel climbs aboard, while rei willing disembarks, the colonel asks katsuragi to go, but he refuses, surmising that the colonel is trying to go to the jam or as close as he can -rei and katsuragi discuss the collision and transport of the T7 jam and Yukikaze, how rei didnt have time to react, but yukikaze needed direction, to which he flipped the auto combat switch, intending to flip auto land, but before anything as the G pulled at him they bounced 3 times and when he was perceiving again they were safely landing in the same spot where the collision had started, but no jam - when he tried to disembark he heard a commotion on the SAF net, and a voice like lt eko saying yukikaze had disappeared before the link was lost - rei thought he was trapped in another special pocket of space so he went up, where he saw another jam machine briefly, then low fuel was called to him by this plane and so he landed and no one came till they had, and he expected anyone he recognized to be a jammie, but Katsuragi showed up and said it was a jam machine without noticing Rei, so Rei concludes Katsuragi must be real, and is skeptical that the machine he was in was yukikaze as she would have attacked or done something by now - Rei remarks that people can be copied, Yukikaze cannot, and he is now fairly certain that this is not yukikaze as she would have thrown colonel rombert out, and while questioning if he himself is a copy, the colonel says that this is a Jam machine which is similar to yukikaze -the Jam machine starts and rei and katsuragi run out of the hangar, and Katsuragi also explains the colonels non verbal tactics to Rei, and also that they are not in a different dimension space, but rather the real world appearing as an illusion world and just the Jam are manipulating their senses -Romberts Jam machine is taxied out to the runway and is spooling up for takeoff, Rei says thats the sound of Yukikaze, Katsu says its not, it's a different sound, then the overwhelming noise of super-phoenix engines in flight begins to build, and when they notice it's not the sound of the jam machine taking off, they notice the world changing, 'the world of gray without color cuts to pieces, the thin emerald green sky spreads there, cut from side to side. It's a normal fairy sky.' - The real yukikaze appears, exhausts shimmering in the wake of the dazzling sunlight, doing a hard vertical roll. The whole heavens and everything returns to the familiar normal space, but rei remarks the colonel has escaped, his jam machine having disappeared, they ask if possibly it slipped into the world of sensory perception humans do not have. - Katsuragi says that Yukikaze alone is not enough to catch the colonel, she needs a human being, and also that words are effective again, its ok to talk, and it's good to speak, man to man, and he feels talking to each other is an effective Jam counter - Rei asks 'what happened with the colonel ensign?' Katsuragi sighs and thrusts the muzzle of his rifle into the ground, 'beginning to explain the captains question' Part 5: Unbroken Arrow -Rei is comparing his form flying off the Jam machine in the capture operation to aerobatics/demonstrations and tight formation, he mentions his distaste for that type of flying and how he feels the only thing around an aircraft should be the space of the sky, and the only obstacle the huge wall of earth - he mentions how the other SAF planes are flying perfect form off his lead via Data link, and they box in the Jam as they bring it down and it seemingly willingly goes (It seems we now get to see events of the previous chapters from Rei's perspective) - Rei describes fly by wire and the complexity of Yukikaze/Maeve's control surfaces - he muses about the possibility of a direct nerve to electrical link which could theoretically make flight control commands even faster and more precise, however Rei asks himself if in a way he wants to become yukikaze, he waffles back and forth of whether that would be obliteration of the self or what, ultimately he decides that no, he wants to be Rei, he wants to be human, and he wants Yukikaze to be Yukikaze, he also guesses that Yukikaze would refuse the link and thus it would be useless, he says 'I came to this world a human, and I want to live and die a human' at this moment he also think about getting this capture jam down safely - There's a warning tone and the Jam pitches up, Rei wonders briefly if he can zoom up and escape impact, or will a type of downdraft suck him and Yukikaze into the collision - instead of the many impacts he expects theres is one and his ears are ringing, but he's intact and pitching up sharply - the canopy is white as if in a cloud, Rei checks his instruments and runs checks and tests, everything is nominal, even his inner ear says he's in steady level flight, he guesses it's probably a copy of Yukikaze the Jam have transported him to, he remarks that he heard from captain foss that this was the Jam's plan, but in the future? He questions the future memory, and swiftly assumes its is some kind of memory like premonition, likely to do with Jam interference - he gets an RWR warning of enemy radar, and arms up, but begins to hear a voice, which eventually resolves into Colonel Romberts voice and Rei asks him if he's aboard a Jam Machine, before locking the target and lamenting the stores page only displays 6 Short range aams, and 6000 shells for the gun, rather than the single Medium AAM he actually wanted -he selects 2 SRAAM for A2A mode and Locks the target in super search, seeing its running hot, headon, very close on a high speed collision course, he's lost his attack window and evades, getting intense deja vu, or pre-memory, he thinks that even if this is in memory, it's possibly a different but very similar experience, and he remarks that memory is unreliable, full of errors and illusions and does not reflect reality correctly. Memory is always nothing more than a good fiction for him, the reality is that it's a one shot game, you can't start over. If you lose, you die. - Rei's copy plane is buffeted by the supersonic passage of the enemy plane and the canopy is still white outside. The system sounds he's lost lock, he rolls 90 degrees and pulls a lot of G in a tight 180, he hears the colonel talking about Katsuragi being unready for the type of world of the Jam, and Rei under intense g load guesses the colonel is not aboard the other plane as he could be speaking so freely and be maneuvering like this - Rei completes his searching loop and the enemy plane has disappeared, the colonel asks him what perceives of this space and Rei asks if the other plane is going to smoke him and run away, if so he'll attack again, the colonel says this is a miraculous space they are creating together with the Jam mediating - the colonel goes on about the nature of reality, truth, the self, consciousness, etc. With Rei basically giving him short answers which the colonel branches off of, speaking of the heart and true intentions and consciousness being masked by or made up of words, like he asked katsuragi - Rei realizes this may not be the colonel at all, and is in fact probably the Jam communicating -he dismisses it as irrelevant whether its really the colonel or not, and notes that this space is one in which it seems that some thoughts exist as if spoken aloud, and the true intentions are usually not even understood by oneself, let alone being presented in such a conscious rather than subconscious way, the Colonel voice asks what's wrong with that, and you are manipulating your true intention so it may not be read by me, using elements of subconscious, and it remarks 'You're a genius warrior to be able to do that right away Captain Fukai' -the voice praises rei some more and asks why he doesn't want to become superhuman, a true precision high performance weapon, more so than he already is, and rei wonders about the colonel, supposing the colonel is already divorced from humanity normally, with 'little consciousness that he is human to begin with' and so he wishes to shed his imperfect human existence and become Jam -the colonel / voice says it's impossible to objectively view yourself when your human, but from a jam point of view it can be done - Rei does not agree, and rejects the Colonel's true intentions, he says that the way of life is that only the person in question can decide and is not the one to be judged from others as superior or not. Realizing that the jam so to speak, is equal to an absolute god for the colonel - Rei says engage, I'm starting a war with you, I know you're not willing to surrender. don't run. fight. The voice replies you have no way to win captain Fukai, is that right Rei receives a 'What' and feeling of surprise from the colonel, he's genuinely surprised -a voice now says maybe i'm on yukikaze, Captain Fukai, can I still shoot? -the surprising waves stimulate Rei's desire to fight, he has a hunch of joy 'yukikaze' says Rei 'Im telling you to shoot' -the narrator (id unknown, possibly rei or Yukikaze) questions and tries to suss out the nature of reality and perception for sometime -Rei speaks of how katsuragi says about consciousness and words, and he says words are also a reflection that time is normal, as reordered audio makes no sense, and he wonders if and how machines perceive time differently -a tone alerts Rei to a pair of incoming JAM missiles, he knows the enemy is out there somewhere -he defends left, slews and locks his attack radar and snapshots a pair of short range missiles -he checks his six if he evaded the missiles and while outside is still totally white, his sensors track the enemy at it crosses his canopy left to right -rei turns in and gives chase, locking up the bandit -the colonel breaks into rei's consciousness asks him about his helmet, rei describes the sudden incomprehensible question shattering his concentration like an ax to the head -its too late when rei realizes this is a verbal attack by the colonel -'I'm wearing your helmet, then whose are you wearing?' Says the colonel, and the whiteness around the canopy clears away, revealing a Maeve flying abreast of Rei, a helmeted pilot inside raises his left hand -rei thinks that it's not yukikaze over there, but since he's here, that must be the colonel in there -Rei tries to radio the colonel and realizes he's not wearing a helmet or microphone -the colonel and his craft are flying away, and Rei says it seems the colonel got away and he hears 'splendidly qns in yukikaze too' to rei it seems him and yukikaze got caught in the colonels trick. - the exhaust sound disappears and moved off, but even though its a bright sunny sky no exhaust can be seen, there is a sense that vision and hearing dont match, but if it's quite you can't tell - Katsuragi says 'yukikaze alone is not enough to catch the colonel, we need a man, captain' rei responds 'what happened with the colonel, Lieutenant?' -narrator thinks Rei remembers this conversation and the previous situation as he stands here on the ground and looks up at the sky. Is the anticipation of the future now realized? Asks the narrator -(my take is that with the jam manipulating perception, perception of time and order of events in memory during that period is completely unreliable, so in all likelihood things proceeded in order cause->effect in reality, but all subjective human perception and memory of it is scrambled and highly unreliable, and only once the effect is ceased does all the memory come flooding back at once and not in any kind of order) -Rei is puzzling out the order of events and speaking with katsuragi, he also plucks Katsuragi's rifle out of where he stuck its muzzle in the ground and orders him to clean, he asks why, rei says 'there's dirt in the barrel, and we can't appear to have abandoned the battle' -Rei and Katsuragi discuss the colonel's theories and what he meant by subconscious, Rei thinks its not subconscious in the traditional sense, but more like unconscious muscle control, and intuition, Katsuragi states that Yukikaze clearly has a high degree of intelligence, but other humans can't tell what she's thinking, only the captain, rei, it seems can sense her intuition, and that Rei believes in her, while the colonel does not, and in such a way would be thrown out of Yukikaze -Katsuragi finishes cleaning the rifle barrel and checks it, him and rei decide to descend into the SAF complex -they discuss the possibility of the base being false or them being false, and the various ways they could determine that based on the intention of the security locks -Rei remarks on the size and shape of the aircraft shelters, especially seen on foot since he usually sees them from the cockpit, he also notes the distance to the main elevator complex to SAF, as 1200 *meters* which he muses about how major booker hates the metric system, and how even to him metric feels unnatural, it's a highly artificial unit which disregards man's sense of body, hence its perfect for the JAM, and how somehow in a small way, the Major's hatred of metric might be useful - walking toward the elevator bunker Rei and Katsuragi discuss how the scenery and color returned to normal when yukikaze flew overhead, but there still no sign of battle or the other FAF -then say it'd be nice if the war was over and the colonel somehow brokered peace, but also that the FAF may be defected to the Jam side, but they muse that humanity, so different each group and person is, could never integrate with jam, and that the colonel does not care about humanity, no love, no grude, he does not care about humanity at all, he simply wants to become Jam -katsuragi asks rei if he believes in god, of the bible, rei says no, he's never read it, and they guess that the colonel wants a superhuman perspective, he wants to meet, or become god -they walk up to the elevator entrance, rei is suprised its open, Rei turns to Katsuragi's exclamation, the world's quiet has dissolved, replaced with the deafening explosions, roaring screams of multiple fighter engines, and the maelstrom of combat going on overhead, Maeve and Rafe are rushing down the runway, being targeted by a pair of Jam, which then explodes and splatters across the adjacent runway in a ball of fire, the faint missile trails trace back to a friendly plane overhead. -Rei faintly, and then more strongly hears Jack's voice, the Major is screaming at them to get inside the elevator and seek shelter - rei jumps in, and its suddenly silent again, no major, no battle outside, and no katsuragi -Rei concludes, rather cool headedly, that he is not delusional, but all this lack of reality is direct and deliberate in the war with the JAM -his new theory is that Jam perception manipulation may go so deep that he is actually still in Yukikaze's cockpit, and that when Foss said the Jam would try to seperate yukikaze in a way Humans cant imagine, and thus it may be a way of separating them without physically separating them, by manipulating both human and Yukikaze environmental perception completely -in the elevator rei thinks about this sort of perceptive manipulation tactic, and surmises that if he keeps going, ans fighting, he will eventually be truly reunited with yukikaze and able to soar through the skies again - rei picks up the elevator phone and hears an odd humm through the noise canceling, turning it on and off, he can make out the sound of one Maeve Super Phoenix IX engine idling, he tried to guess were yukikaze is that a phone in has her in the background -then SAF, Cooley, lt eko call in, and rei discusses his current situation with them, down to the bizzare world and time details and they discuss the illusions and Yukikazes whereabouts, Cooley orders Reo to stay in or nearby the hangar elevator when he gets down, the elevator vibrates with a shovk wave, rei thinks were being bombed - the elevator halts at its floor. He asks what sort of bombing? - Rei and the command center go back and forth puzzling out where he actually is, as for everyone else, the major is in the elevator and rei is not, he uses the phones noise canceller and tries a different number to saf comms and begins to logic his way through this, using the saf comm center to trace his call and attempt to triangulate his position in real reality, where he realizes the major's realism vs reality distinction is entirely about perception, and how until the illusion is revealed the brain just assumes its real, like a fake glass of water, one cannot know till they try to drink. - foss gets on the line and explains rei may be trapped in the jam t7 machine and hallucinating, which he says he already figured, but he had also already had a conversation with her and had chased the colonel escaping in a jam machine, she predicts his current perception is a mixture of errors, and that not only is he being subject to hallucination, so is the SAF ground staff, in an effort to separate all the computer intelligences from their humans - The saf staff are catching rei up on the events of the colonels escape, and the state of things, and how Yukikaze is in pursuit of the colonel, ge linneberg requests the colonel not be killed -rei hears footsteps with no one there for some time, then general cooley is at the bottom of the elevator, he salutes and asks about gen linneberg's plan to not kill the colonel - Cooley tells him about TS1, an upgraded sylph from the test squadron that she's had Lt Katsuragi warm and bring around, she asks Rei if he's ready, he says yes, Rei asks her 'you and I, are both here right now?' She says yes, and Ts1 is already in the special battle zone, we all are now, and Her and Rei are both experiencing the same reality and thus are now real and visible to each other, Rei tells her either of them could be a jam copy and not even know it, but he also says that's irrelevant to him now, general cooley agrees that its irrelevant at current moment, and they brief each other on their experience of the jam manipulation, and while following cooley to saf command center, she says that she is confident he is the real Rei, in part because of his attitude and ways of thinking - they discuss/joke about how they can tell each other arent jam because the coffee, while not great, isn't borderline poisonous to them, like it would be to a Jam-copy whose chemical makeup is slightly different, after which Cooley assigns Rei to hunt down yukikaze in the TS1, and if need be, engage her, he agrees and they remark that a true test of his physical presence in a reality is if he can board and operate a different aircraft, it more or less proves that he's physically where he is, instead of inside Yukikaze or a Jam hallucinating - he tells cooley what katsuragi told him about the colonels theory and plan, Cooley suggests an alternative of absolute energy states being true reality, but also beyond all mortal perception and thus irrelevant, "each man is simultaneously god by the very act of experiencing reality" -cooley says all the SAF planes disappeared one by one following yukikaze, and Rei agrees to go out in TS1, which engined with the same engines but much lighter than an SAF plane, will be very fast - Rei suggests Cooley come in ts1 with him, she says she won't, she needs to stay at the saf, and that if she were lost in air battle the saf would suffer much, and also gives him a pep talk, about how she'd always been running from her father, and from god, she even came to the FAF that way, but she has realized there is no running, only to stay and fight, and that's what she'll do she adds "I colonel Rombert is going to see god, I am ready to beat them both, no matter what the Jam is, I do not flinch nor worry" she asks if he understands, he says yes, she finishes her coffee and tosses the cup, 'are you ready captain fukai?' He says yes and a flight plan is drawn up - Cooley telephones the other reality and conveys the plan and Rei's thoughts, her theory is also that once Yukikaze and Rei are reunited, the illusion should be broken - They fiddle with some data displays and when Rei looks up, the general is gone, he looks for her briefly and then decides to go to TS1 - rei contacts booker over the phone and they meet in person, concluding that realities continue to be shuffled around and are different for each individuals and they merge and shift, and also that Yukikaze is involved in this reality manipulation, attempting to turn it back on the jam - Rei and booker discuss the colonels theory, Cooleys reaction to it, bookers faith and Reis atheism, but determine that's not what makes him special to the jam, they also turn on a main screen and receive a message from yukikaze asking them to contact the STC for her as the data link is down, and also to provide her position info as she has none and is lost at the moment -Booker fires up the STC and SSC by voice command and has them self check, the command center power shifts to mains off backups, The major and Rei agree that part of what's to blame for this is the gap in perception between man and machines - they call up the charts and track yukikaze's position to over Troll base near the passage, and through discussions with the STC/SSC, they determine that Rei's current perception is through yukikaze, and the Majors is different, so he cant see the main screens, cause in his perception they aren't on, they also figure out that Rei is unconscious in Yukikaze, and the Major is in ts1 also hallucinating, upon this realization - Rei exclaims to the major 'Major, I'm over there' and feels an incident in his senses, the room distancing and growing dark, the main screen fading into the main display of the fighter, of yukikaze, with a collision warning sounding, as if waking from an intense drowsiness, he snaps his head around, and a big sylphid is very close on his six, he thinks it must be the major, he calls to the major - they are in a left slow turning descent, the view outside is totally normal, he radios 'Major can you hear me, Ts1 respond' Rei feels his helmet with his glove, and booker, who rei can see is wearing an oxygen mask responds 'This is Ts1, Major booker.... Yukikaze, I found it. Captain Fukai, what a flight.' -they both attempt to make sense of the sensory experience they've had and settle on saying they could call each other crazy, and that they don't want yukikaze to be a god, Rei waves at the pilot of TS1, Booker says he's happy to talk to rei -Rei watches Ts1 land at troll base, and describes the flight path of yukikaze to there, he says he has no memory of it himself, only of what we have just been reading, the consciousness projection, meeting katsuragi, Cooley, and Booker, and TS1, and guiding Ts1 via the base screen, he has no doubt that Yukikaze flew under her own discretion this whole time, and likely was interfering with the Jam manipulation and using it guide rei and get him back, using his consciousness as a form of additional sensor, something only possible by hijacking the Jam's method, to briefly fuse Rei's human consciousness and Yukikaze's Machine Consciousness, while herself pursuing colonel rombert - He surmises that Fusion was an unintended side effect of the Jam attempting to seperate them psychologically - and the experience was one of having the consciousness and physical body divorced, he also concluded that this sort of thing, but permanent is what Rombert is after, and he rejects it, Rei emphatically wants to be human, remain human, and be with Yukikaze as a human, he/yukikaze/the narrator explain that Yukikaze utilized Reis consciousness to understand his true intentions, defend herself from Jam fusion, and gain insight to Humans, to whit she realized/the narrator realized, that having friends and communicating are vital to human existence and every human except the colonel wants that -TS1 lands via datalink from Rei/yukikaze, and Rei tells Booker to stay sharp, if the colonel still has a human body, we'll know it, and booker asks if the colonel may ambush them, and rei states all he knows is that Yukikaze followed the colonel's jam machine to troll base were she lost sight of it - they discuss whether to kill rombert or not, ad if he'll kill them, and they decide to not kill on sight, and they really want to talk to him, but they also are not under Linnebergs obligation to not kill rombert, because they know linneberg values rombert's information more than jack or rei, so they decide to defend themselves if necessary - rei asks General Cooley's orders, Jack responds 'same as usual, throw home by any means' and says that securing or killing the colonel isn't SAF job, just he was supposed to get Rei and Yukikaze and return, and any info gleaned from the colonel is a bonus -they guess at what type of entity or even non-object the colonel might be if he's no longer human, and Jack also says he's coming back with Rei aboard Yukikaze, and that TS1 can be a present for the colonel -they call Troll base control, and get no response from atc, Rei sets Yukikaze on automatic, she goes into auto land and rei while looking down at the wide search radar display is momentarily startled by a friendly IFF approaching fast, the friendly transmits its id and a message <B13 Rafe/ Covering B1> -Rei radios booker that Rafe is approaching alone to cover yukikaze and dont be suprised by the sound of its approach, he also notes Troll base's layout, smaller than Faery, with one large AA complex with big radome, and only two runways with all the requisite elevators and shelters and emergency zones - rei notices the shimmering of Yukikaze's ground radar beam and guesses his connection to yukikaze is such that some things bleed over into his consciousness, and he remarks that humans rely heavily on vision, but for Yukikaze, radar comes first -he notes that despite being immersed with yukikaze and also the colonel's consciousness, he has survived that ordeal, and remains himself, he is not the colonel, he is not yukikaze, he is himself, and is capable of recognizing that fact - he also notes that if one gets absorbed in these ideations of high consciousness they may be taken in by the colonel and that's dangerous, he focuses on landing again, and pleasantly notes the physical sensations of landing, the bump shock traveling up his spine, he notes that focusing on physical sensations shakes off ideological fears, he turns off at the end of the runway, facing TS1 and the AA tower - they both park in front of the hangar, Rei dismounts with the survival gun and hears Rafe thundering overhead in a CAP orbit, also Yukikaze is left on and idle, autonomous combat mode on - He walks away careful not cross yukikaze exhaust in case of emergency power thrust, or her nose in case of being cooked by her immensely powerful radar, he and Booker line up and walk toward the AA complex -they talk about the ordeal and how TS1's survival gun was left in the command center somewhere by booker which he says 'seems to have been dreamed ahead, it's still hard to believe' -they also wonder where the other SAF machines are, and Booker argues with Rei briefly that Yukikaze's goal is fighting the jam, not protecting people, and that despite being on their side, is not human, and Rei needs to remember that -Booker retrieves the second survival gun from Yukikaze at Rei/Yukikaze's urging, and they walk back to the nearby aircraft elevator, Rafe still patrolling overhead, no sign of Jam -the elevator is open, and Rei notices a figure in the control tower, guesses it's the colonel, who once rei points his gun at him, speaks in Rei's mind asking if he can shoot, but the safety is on -Staring down the colonel, and feeling that same stare from him, Rei shouts 'Shoot, Yukikaze!' And almost simultaneously the control tower is crushed and explodes under weapons fire from rafe, being remote driven by yukikaze, the tower collapses -Rei has pseudo-verbal pseudo-telepathic argument with the colonel, saying that they are distinct entities, and the colonel is wrong, they are not merged or the same, and this is the true reality, hence why the colonel is still trying to interact with rei and draw him in - Rafe drops a weapon as rei is saying to cease fire for the moment, the weapon disarms in flight - Rei and booker get in the elevator, Rei trys to explain to booker his perception of events and their order in time, and they realize that it was a recon pod and not a bomb that was dropped by Rafe -They discuss the mixed perceptions and psy warfare again, and postulate the colonel's brain damage which effectively prevents him from feeling empathy and other things is a contributor to his interest in the Jam and greater perception, and has informed his actions throughout - the Major and Rei check their weapons and see the elevator is not operational, the bases power is likely down, so they go to descend via the emergency ladder and looking down the elevator shaft they see light spilling from the aisle of an open emergency exit -they discuss who and why it was open, as almost certainly it wasn't the colonel - they reach the bottom and see the aisle is choked with corpses, ripped apart by explosions and gunfire, Rei breathlessly asks if the Jam purged them, and the major says no way, it was human weaponry, the Colonel's coup forces probably, they also worry the STC at Troll base may have gone rogue and decided it could prosecute the war more efficiently without humans -on the surface Rei feels yukikaze tense up, and ready her gun, he shouts at jack to get out of the way with him as they run 90 degrees to the direction she's turning her nose to fire, she stops at a certain point, and they are safely out of the way, Yukikaze opens fire with her cannon, a 1.5 second burst, approx 150 rounds, and rei thinks about how the burst felt too short, but thats because of his human perception and senses, and that Yukikaze wouldn't fire any more than she absolutely needed to -it turns out she has bored a hole in a windowless concrete structure nearby, Rei wonders why, to shoot Jam, Rombert? -booker suggests maybe she wants them to enter the base structure there, Jack asks rei if he knows what she wants, he replies 'Don't ask me Jack' booker says 'what are you annoyed with rei?' 'I'm not Yukikaze, ask her speculation' 'I asked you what yukikaze was going to do because I thought you'd know' - jack says 'you must be annoyed to hear it because you're closer to Yukikaze than any other human' Rei replies 'I don't know what she's thinking, it's frustrating, that's it, it's not interesting that I do not understand her intention, I dont think im a machine like Yukikaze and I cant personify her and perfectly understand' Jack again 'it's a matter of pride, you are proud to be the best driver and understander of Yukikaze, your pride was damaged, so if its not funny, that's what it is, Id say thats a very human response' - they talk about how funny it is they are exploring each others feelings here on a sort of battlefield and have a small moment of levity about it -they discuss how both of them still have a slightly strange perception and increased sharing of thoughts and feelings subconsciously, and how yukikaze is still using them as human sensors, and that this is the real world, just their perception is still partially linked with yukikaze so she can detect and kill Rombert, and they guess that once that objective is complete they will be able to unlink each other's subconsciousness, and return to normal perception -booker mentions that even though rei isn't trying to personify and understand yukikaze, humans can't help but see themselves in objects and personify them, and for better or worse we can't get away from it, rei says 'I guess i'm still more human than I thought' The major nods with a smile 'that's what it is, you too are proof of yourself right now that you haven't lost your human perceptions' -they discuss the colonel being more in tune with jam and such because he can't experience empathy, so his perceptions are more 'realistic' and not centered on the self like most other humans, and Yukikaze mission is not to get the colonel specifically, but to fight Jam, and she's determined that the colonel is currently the biggest target -Booker says he'll go aboard yukikaze and inspect her instruments to see what she may have been shooting at, and Rei cautions him that Yukikaze is in automatic combat mode and could move suddenly at any time, so approach may be dangerous, but Rei also relents that in terms of hardware, Booker knows Yukikaze better than anyone -The pile of corpses hasn't gone away, neither has the smell, Rei feels some movement in the back of the hole Yukikaze opened, instinctively he raises his gun and shouts 'Jack it's an enemy attack' and three rust colored Giants step out of the hole 'Bax-4!' The major shouts, 'armed with antipersonnel cannon, it was them! Get down rei!' At the same time Yukikaze opens fire and one of the Bax is 'crushed into red mist' -Rei is stunned a bit at the sight of the BAX armors, and the Major is violently screaming for Rei to stay down as Yukikaze may fire again, they hear her engines and she begins to pivot somewhere else - She fires again, 4 or 5 bursts, tracking from the control tower base to the elevator, rei guesses approx 1500 rounds expended, Rei looks at the major climbing in her cockpit over his shoulder, and hears her engines spool down, the Major shouts that Rei can stand up to the left is out of the fire arc - the major climbs down from yukikaze and they and rei asks was it rebels that wore the Bax Armor and attacked, but the major points out that the red mist wasn't blood, its oil and red paint flecks, the crumpled suits pieces lay scattered with no visibly human body inside, some kind of gore that is visibly not human, but reminiscent of human parts, they speculate the colonel had some kind of autonomous BaX suits produced, with a pseudo organic filler, Bar-1 Booker calls them -the Bar have empty head cavities and rei and booker talk about how they are not advanced enough units for autonomous action, and must be remotely controlled from/by the Troll base central computer -They guess that the computer purged all humans or human like entities in the base as it couldn't parse the internal conflict between humans, and it decided they were impeding combat against the jam, so it eliminated them, then either was shut down, or shut itself down, and now Yukikaze has revived it in order to deal with the colonel and acquire information, She took a dangerous move to get it to react, by telling it two humans were on base, so it would play its had with the robots, it was a gamble for her to risk Rei and Booker, who by now are near-integral parts of her system/functions in order to bait the Troll base CTC out. -They discuss the CTC's crisis and confusion because of the rebellion, and the Major discusses also about something like the FAF computers who are hard wired to fight the jam, that once the threat is not present they could have a type of existential crisis and react in unusual ways, even undergoing a type of existential death or suicide by self shut down. Rei suggests to booker that may be what happened, the jam 'erased the computers existence' and drove them to self destruction and suicide by disappearing, whether or not the jam truly left Faery or simply vanished is ultimately irrelevant, and that if the Jam's enemy is Terrestrial Computers and not humans, the Jam can win, this war is over with the existential death of the Computers. - They discuss if the Jam managed strategy to subtly influence humans towards a similar type of loss of purpose, or existential crisis, even as a side effect, they initially conclude that the type of despair may spread to earth and once despised people, are ultimately lost, Rei says that for him it doesn't matter if earth civ collapses or not, but the Jam absence renders his and Yukikaze's lives moot, he says there's nowhere to go anymore, this is the existential/philosophical deathly path you describe, what can they do with an FAF that has no meaning? Booker Replies casually 'I guess it's just field Work. I'm happy to polish Yukikaze everyday, at least I don't think that's a bad thing, but yes, the FAF organization at least will collapse' - Rei asks that if things are made meaningless humanity will self destruct and booker says he hopes not, the jam would have to target humanity directly, and it would be the most cruel killing, Jack looks on at the massacre in the base and laments they had to die in that way, and without knowing why, Rei says 'I want the Jam to be the direct enemy of Humanity, you're the one who's been saying that jack' and Booker says 'that would be a good hope, as long as it threatens humanity, whatever the jams target is, if it robs humanity of its purpose and existential value, just hit the jam, fight back, you have a clear goal of fighting the jam, that's your goal to live' Rei says 'so that Jam then...' Jack says 'Well, there's no Jam, then it won't matter much' and rei responds 'yes, but not the Jam, it's a delusion' and booker catches on 'So it's a situation where a sort of new religion is created, you, me, and our comrades, but if the situation of being shot dead by jam fighters disappears, that's fine for me, it doesn't matter if the jam are really there or not, it's just a question of whether or not to believe in the Jam religion. Human beings adapt quickly to their environment, Computers are not as vulnerable(? Translation error maybe, probably means flexible or variable or maybe invulnerable?) Whether or not to believe the Jam is reduced to a personal matter and everyone gets used to it quickly' ,R 'and you can do it without hands on the Jam that suddenly appears Physically', J 'its a bit scary, I don't want to be killed before I feel scared' R 'I don't want to be killed at the moment I feel scared' J'I don't know what Jam is at the moment' the Major said seriously. -they discuss if they are still in a sort of delusional world, and Booker says that if yukikaze exists, the Jam were/are real, Rei continues that Her's is the central existence at the moment that guarantees their sanity, so booker replies whether you think she's central or not depends on the person, and that's fine, for rei she is a central object of Faith, rei asks if booker is saying Rei deifies Her, Booker answers No, it depends on the person whether or not they deify her. He's saying you can use the existence of Yukikaze as an indicator to believe in reality, Rei says that there is a Yukikaze and looks back at her, she's there of course. Yes, major booker nods, so jam is not a delusional enemy, it's a real threat, whether jam is here now or not, whether it disappears, it has nothing to do with the threat itself. Rei exclaims 'That's it, that's it jack!' And says what do they think Yukikaze told the base computer just now, likely a very similar kind of content, and asks if jack feels it, they figure it may be that Yukikaze is still interacting with their unconscious, but that he has a feeling there was a similar exchange between Yukikaze and the base computer, that whether the jam is gone or disappears now, the threat has never disappeared, the fact they have vanished can be a threat in itself, maybe even part of a jam strategy, rei insists he has a gut feeling of this and that while weak he has a feeling of their minds and bodies and yukikaze. Booker says 'I guess you mean you're linked' Booker pauses and turns his gaze to Yukikaze, then back to Rei and asks what kind of experience are we having? Rei says It's part of our perception, Yukikaze's perception, and possibly elements of Jam perception mixed in. The major says that without realizing it we may be partially experiencing the jam right now, Rei says I wonder what you mean, Booker says unless you notice, and Rei replies 'It's useless to think about it, we can't make sense of it. You just have to act and feel it.' Bookers replies 'the meaning comes later, right? The world we are conscious of is always a follow up to reality, if there even is such a thing' rei says 'isn't it?' And Jack responds 'Alright, I'll be fine, Captain Fukai, I'm going' Rei says 'Hey Jack, there's no such thing as a real world' Booker pauses stepping toward the elevator and says 'there is a theory that the world is something consciousness continues to create, and that an absolute and unchanging real world exists, as Rombert said, is an illusion held by people with classical senses, I don't think either is true, but that's because the question of such an answer is not something you can come up with if you think about it, you're right rei. you just have to act and feel it. Feel, indeed, that is the answer, that's the answer to every question. Feeling alive right now, that's the answer to the plight.' Rei nods silently. The narrator states that, of course, even unsaid, if you know you know, but sometimes can't consciously verbalize that (and this, presumably is why humanity, unconsciously was already somewhat resilient to existential attack) (Yes! Using/developing Cartesian Doubt as a means to defend against the Jam, and to ensure humanity is resistant to Philosophical attack vectors, Also, reviving Computer Intelligences by giving them the concept of Faith, of Belief rather than certainty or fact, and introducing Cartesian doubt into that new system to also give them the tools to be protected from existential and Philosophical attack, this is very cool and once I wrapped my head around it I loved it. In a highly reductive way, it's literally the Mickey Mouse and Donald duck meme "Yet, fool that you are you trust these atoms and chemical reactions to tell you that they are so, will you fight? Or perish like a dog?") In a highly reductive way, it's literally the Mickey Mouse and Donald duck meme "Yet, hypocrite that you are, you trust these chemicals in your brain to tell you they are chemicals, all knowledge is based on that which we cannot prove, will you fight? Or perish like a dog?" In short, there are things you cannot know, impossible to find out, unavailable, and the only rational/practical/productive solution to that is to feel what you can and act based on that, in short, since complete information does not exist, simply accept the doubts and act based on what you do know/have/can find out -Booker tells Rei to check his gun's safety, he doesn't want to have had this revelation just to be killed by a negligent discharge, Rei says it's Okay and they board the elevator, rei mentions that he just hit the descent button and didn't punch in an id pin, Booker explains that not many people know this but, the ID pin is a formality/ritual, regardless of proper code or not the elevator will only work for you if the base computer or a human supervisor grants you entry, and he found that out by accident, and so it seems the Troll base computer now will grant them entry. -as they descend they discuss the logic of the id code ritual and not telling people they don't need to do it, how it has a mild security effect, they also discuss the Base STCs and how in some ways they aren't so smart, and have a chuckle about Booker saying, 'well I hope I can outsmart an STC so you'll respect me' but he also mentions how STCs can be dangerous if not handled properly and they wonder about 'taming' Troll base -they remind themselves that they will have to confront the colonel as Yukikaze isn't going to leave this place without some resolution to him, and they query the STC to search for him - the elevator stops at the bottom and opens into a familiar if empty base hangar scene, no BaX units or mountain of corpses they were expecting, they talk about how the humans were driven to surface and slaughter like garbage, rei is getting visibly angry, and the Major reminds him 'the War is between Jam and man' rei replies 'what happened here is because humans failed to control their computers, their weapons' and Booker remarks how rei is having a very human reaction, and how he's so much more human than even 6 months or a year ago, and Rei says its in part because of Yukikaze, the Major nods -Spaces below are all empty, briefing rooms, lockers, aisles, Rei goes to a washroom and washes the blood off his hand and as it flows down the drain he's hit with a wave of anger for the dead of this base, he's surprised how much empathy he's experiencing for people he's never met, and how its because they are fellow humans, he's also mad because the Jam wouldn't even have seen them, and that the current battle is to get the Jam to even recognize humans, and he likens the war to war to get god to acknowledge your existence and then your challenging him to a fight, and that what's needed is the conviction he and Gen Cooley, and Booker, and any Human really has, that they are human, and to convey this to the Jam, in his mind he asks do you sense me yukikaze, and says Yukikaze should at least understand there things only a human being can do - Booker walks in and calls out 'enough' Rei notes the reassuring, empathetic presence of a fellow human, and says 'oh', Bookers says the CI room is below them, Ray wipes off his gun from cleaning the blood off the grip aswell and they leave the washroom -They wonder where the colonels plane is as they descend the stairs to the CI room, and once they are greeted by a blast door with no handles or controls, they puzzle at it a moment and rei jokingly says 'open sesame' -booker order the troll base computer to open the door, and quickly the seal hisses and the door parts slightly, Booker grins, but then they realize its being forced open by a metal rod from inside - it's a bax4's fingers, as it wrenches the door open, Rei and booker draw their guns but say to hold fire, as it's not attacking yet, and shooting it will get them killed - the colonel speaks to their minds, that they've opened Pandora's box, and they are weary, but Rei steps inside, booker says its dangerous, but rei replies, it's dangerous out here to, do you want to get the colonel or not -inside they descend a small ramp and see a man standing in front of a big screen like someone on stage - the colonel welcomes rei and nods, and says coming in was daring, Rei says maybe, but getting this information was worth possibly getting killed, and clearly the colonel has something he wants to say to Rei and Booker, and Rei wanted to hear it while the colonel is still human, and says he'll protect the colonel from yukikaze for the moment, to hear what he has to say, Booker admonishes rei and says he's growing like people too much and the colonel could just escape, but he shakes the colonels hand nonetheless and says at least he still has hands and it would be disrespectful to treat him like a monster - they ask if the colonel or jam slaughtered this base, but he says no, it was the computers here, and they ask about where he is and a few other question, they become uneasy and get ready to go, when the colonel says the jam are trying to show us the truth of this world, and we can see in a moment with shared superhuman vision, they realize it's a trap as the colonel says that Faery is Earth from a perspective closer to reality, and such, he also says the FAF is his, the Earth is his, and as the BaX 4 at the door starts to move, rei and booker get down in case it shoots, but instead it runs, and Rei exclaims for Yukikaze to not let it escape, the colonel is in it -Bookers commands the Stc to open all door locks, and Rei doesn't understand but booker explains that rather than capture or kill the colonel, they are going to observe his escape, and just like the original job of SAF the information will be much more valuable than a corpse - they discuss how in a way all this is general linnebergs fault for letting to colonel develop his plan and such, and now Linnebergs plan has gotten away from him and devastated the FAF, they discuss how Yukikaze and the colonel will face down on the surface and the elements of that, but also ways to keep yukikaze from killing the colonel -they say how she may or may not confront the colonel face to face/camera lense, and also how the colonels only objective must be TS1, the only other way off the base, and also how the colonel may not even be in that BaX suit -they theorize that the colonel's initial body may have been destroyed sometime ago, and the colonel's consciousness maybe be moving around containers or even omnipresent amongst the jam -Rei sits next to Jack, puts his gun on the table and asks what strategy will they use this time, and is it even worth trying to track someone who may be diffused and omnipresent, can they gain any useful information from that. The major says maybe it's related to how Yukikaze avoids direct confrontation with the colonel's body, but it's just a hunch -rei suggests, even if the colonel in the flesh is omnipresent, when you use a vehicle such as bax4, the jam plane, or TS1, it shouldn't be, the living colonel may only feel vague to yukikaze, like a cloud or mist - Jack or rei asks if the colonel is a kind of quantum existence, and they shake it off as not worth wondering about right now as there's nothing they could do about it - jack has the base STC open a link with SAF base and also Yukikaze -he orders yukikaze to maintain a command and information link with SAF base and be on the lookout for the colonels next attack - jack and rei discuss if the colonel's next move is to board yukikaze, and use her to escape to Jam, while possibly she may allow this momentarily so she can discover and punch into the center of the jam, and they wonder if she'd leave rei behind to do it - rei says that he feels he can always go back to her, because if time is meaningless it's an instant move, and like the colonel they are all still pseudo-omnipresent, the environment is not decent for decision making, and they agree that first priority should be to restore reality, and they contact SAF base to 'borrow the wisdom of the command center'/receive orders from general Cooley, the will of Brigadier Cooley is the will of the SAF. So unless she concedes defeat and abandons the fighting, 'the battle to break out of this will be total war. I can't tell anyone anymore that it doesn't matter to me' says rei -"It's not about you," the Major says seriously. "I'm saying that humanity will not be able to personally avoid fighting with Jam or leave the front. Needless to say, this war should be such that humanity should face total war. In fact, that's how Earthlings have dealt with it. The FAF operates by the consensus of the Earthlings. Some would say that it is a pretense, but such a political view is irrelevant. In effect, no human can escape this war. They have no place or means to escape. However, Earthlings don't have such awareness. That's because the FAF has worked so well. Most Earthlings don't feel that this war is a total war between humanity and jam. But that won't be the case anymore. Captain Fukai, you know what total war means." - Jack explains that it means if the FAF fails in its function, Jam could appear anywhere on earth, and civilians can and will be mixed in the fighting, such that jack may have to order yukikaze to destroy a building with Jam and humans in it, no one has to ask them to die, and they don't get a choice, it's almost random, and can he (Rei) handle that, and accept total war, rei responds that he will do what it takes and fly yukikaze in combat, and hit the jam where ever they are -The major questions Rei if he's falling back to his old self, uncaring, no empathy for others, and asks Rei 'Can you just live alone, with no one and nothing? Is that what you think?" -"It doesn't matter to me what happens to the Earthlings, that's all I'm saying. I don't think it has anything to do with your favorite philosophical issues. You just asked me if I could kill Earthlings with snow wind, and I just replied." Says Rei. The major is quiet a moment making a hmmm sound. Rei continues "We're not talking about love or existence, we're talking about the war with Jam. To win against Jam, you just have to survive after you destroy them, and we're the winners." "Even if we go extinct shortly after that? That would be total war." "No, Major" "...Yes, exactly. Entering total war means annihilating the enemy" -""I'm ready, you should ask yourself, not me, Major Booker" "Not at all. My perception was sweet. You're right. Let me decide. If the FAF is destroyed, the battlefield will inevitably expand to Earth. We, the survivors of the FAF, must warn all of humanity to wake up. We have to break out of this situation in order to do that," the Major tilts his head and notices the computer has established the connection, but there is no response from SAF -Rei asks if SAF is unmanned, or possibly destroyed or fallen, the major says they have to think about that possibility as the opponent is not only jam. There's the Faery garrison and the intelligence corps's anti-personnel combat unit, or Colonel Rombert's Jam copy troops and rebels—" "It's okay, Jack," Rei declares, not letting the Major finish it. "Even if the command center loses its function, we can still fight, we haven't decided to lose yet. Don't worry. I still have my hands jack" -'Well, Yes, Yukikaze hasn't been destroyed and we haven't lost yet" He suggests calling SAF by voice on the link, 'SAF command this is major booker, captain fukai is also here, please respond' they wait a bit and get nothing, but then the big screen above them lights, showing a frozen still image of SAF Command center, which is quickly obstructed by Edith Foss's face - she asks the pickup if rei can see them, and he says yes, and asks why is she answering, when he presumed Cooley would be the one to speak, he wonders if he offended Foss by asking, but decides she seems unoffended -she responds clerically 'to give you the information you want captain' rei asks 'the information I want?' She seems to be quite calm and have a fairly good grasp of the situation, so much that she's not explaining, the major interrupts asking Foss if she can see them, she says yes -booker asks were they are to her, she says CIC of Troll base, he says that the uncertainty of their position has been cleared by Foss's observation, however something feels slightly off they note -Foss reports she profacted yukikaze on Cooley's orders and found some interesting stuff, also she's impressed by yukikaze -Rei asks, TfacproII is a psychoanalysis tool for humans, will it work on Yukikaze Foss says, you can expect more accurate results for yukikaze than Jam Rei: so what does she want to do -Foss: She wants to continue battle against the jam, rei says I could've told you that, not much good that analysis was, she was literally made to fight the jam, it's in every part of her being, if the analysis was that she wanted to give up the fight, that would be grave. Foss stops him, she wants to continue the fight even when the jam are gone, that's what matters captain fukai Rei says do you mean she's going to run wild? "No, Captain," said Captain Foss, calmly. "Yukikaze is interested in exactly how to continue the battle even if Jam is gone, Captain Fukai" "Is Yukikaze going to remove the shackles that have been placed on her on her own?" asked Major Booker. Foss replied "Are you going to expand your own existence value on your own? Yukikaze is not aiming for such a runaway, Major Booker." "So," said the Major. "What is the anti-jam game that will continue even if Jam is gone?" They theorize she wants to interpretively resolve the jam and jamless combat contradiction, i.e. how to continue her mission in the absence of Jam, Booker thinks on it and says, to find the jam, and that the search operation itself is an anti-jam operation, she wants us to recognize it - She wants human approval for the mission, in other words, not to antagonize the people she knows, says booker. Foss says that's because the support of humans is essential for her to survive, and she knows it's difficult to live alone. Booker says 'wow, it's not that hardwired constraints in her can't defy humans, it's more than we expected, not only is she self aware in the way of an animal, she has a conscious will, Edith, just to he sure, this is fact for the TFACproII analysis and not your personal opinion?' She answers yes, its analysis not opinion. They agree but note something feels off about Edith -booker has Rei keep watch on the base security systems while he and Foss go over the Profacting behavior forecasts -they determine Yukikaze is seeking a meeting of some sort for approval -Yukikaze is seeking to participate in planning and strategy for SAF at least in part, and to have a hand in designing her own missions -Edith suggests she wants humans to consciously acknowledge and listen to her opinions, such a meeting is a place to ultimately determine humans are not the enemy of Yukikaze, and for us, to give approval for her operations, that's what it means to want a meeting, booker continues, Yukikaze wants to find the jam, but she wants to adopt such a strategy not alone, but with the consensus of SAF, that is, primarily General Cooley adopting/approving such a strategy -rei is about to but in but booker says yes, he can come to the meeting too, it's meant to be between all SAF after all -they ask Foss why yukikaze does not want to confront Rombert face to face, and Foss replies that she fears being subsumed by the jam if he gets close to her or let alone touches her, just as he fears her, she's of human beings afterall, Foss compares it to being afraid of hornets -rei asks why Jack and Edith are communicating so well, and why the analysis is so straightforward, booker explains that 'its natural Yukikaze's thoughts and consciousness are simple, there's no such thing as a bizarre and complicated personality, because she's not human, she cannot have a personality, if there seems to be so, its an illusion of human perception, this is because the inherent complex and bizarre mechanical consciousness of Yukikaze is not a personality, in principle humans will not really be able to understand its thoughts, but there are parts of the human experience that can be interpreted, and this is this simple interpretation of the moment rei. We are still in the abnormal environment, and using this environment yukikaze is making an effort to communicate with us by translating her own thinking consciousness into a personality consciousness that can be readily understood by humans, you're saying it has to be a perfect translation' Rei is taken slightly aback and stumbles over his words 'No, so--' but he remembers what he wants to say and says it back 'I wanted to ask you how can you say something with such conviction? And where is that confidence of yours major?' -'don't you understand' says booker turning to rei and stretching his arms out wide 'captain fukai, don't you feel that yukikaze has created a pseudo-personality that we can understand and is making contact?' 'What?' Says rei. 'Feel it rei' says the major looking back at the screen 'this is yukikaze, yukikaze herself, borrowing the figure and voice of Captain Edith Foss. - Rei is at a loss for words this time, whatever he wanted to say was lost, Major Booker was correct, there no denying it, his senses tell him so, the subtle off feeling about the image of Foss, its strange level of discomfort which makes accepting that fact difficult, a discomfort which is distantly familiar to rei and dredges up the memory of when he was a child and a foster parent told him they were not his real parent, even as a child he knew that academically, he was abandoned by his biological parents, fully aware of it, even as a child. Nevertheless he felt the psychological shock of that moment return briefly, discomfort with the world itself, accompanied by a sense of despair that one cannot do anything themselves, when he heard those words as a kid, he was made to believe he was the wrong person. Now in that respect, it's different, he has the power to think it is not him who is wrong, but the world. All the pieces of the world have lost their right positions, that there is nothing to feel responsible for in the existence of every individual, so now he wants to be himself. -booker orders yukikaze to take him to SAF command and teleports to saf command/was always there, real comms is established with saf command, and with everyone now recognizing each other in real time and for real, the meeting is performed with Edith, Cooley, Booker, lt Eko, etc. they discuss possible courses of action and how to continue operations, and sometimes the video feed rei is watching will freeze but he will still hear the discussion, and they all realize its yukikaze sending them each others thoughts for perfect understanding, they conclude the first part of a counter operation is to re-establish reality, after which Edith looks back at the troll base feed and shouts to rei that someone is behind him, he grabs both survival guns in his hands and spins around to see a helmeted figure behind him and then. Rei wakes up aboard yukikaze again, Katsuragi in back seat, Katsuragi updates rei on how he stowed away aboard ts1 with booker and then climbed aboard yukikaze, and asks/discusses with rei how memories are out of order and things are very fuzzy, but they decide to take data as it comes and make best possible decisions, they are currently just breaking off pursuit of the colonel’s plane as they are low on fuel and briefly make contact with llanfabon who takes over the chase of the colonel while they refuel, both share a quick moment of levity at the name of the refueling aircraft, milky 3, and joke about fighter planes suckling at a teat. They refuel at milky 3, and move off to continue pursuit with Rafe. They are contacted by SAF command, major booker gives the new plan, to drive through the passage, possibly collapsing the hyperspace 'magic' of the jam and confirm earth, if earth is entered, the Jam reality illusion collapses, reality should be restored, he also adds, do not flip the autocombat switch, rei and him discuss the probability of success, failure, or death, from collision or other issue with the passage, the major states that death is irrelevant, and that the probability of success and re-establishing reality, or failure and the earth having ceased existing is about 50/50 based on all available unreliable knowledge, Rei agrees it doesn't matter and they have to try. Cooley gives the go ahead for mission start, Rei pushes yukikaze into ram air mode and they streak toward the passage. Katsuragi questions rei on whether the earth still existing or possibly being collapsed and rewritten by phenomena even matters to him, rei says, he didn't care if earth is wiped out or prosperous, but it does need to exist, and now in order for him to live as a true Faeryen, he needs the earth and the existence of earthlings, rei asks him back what he thinks, and Katsuragi says he's more interested in finding out for curiosity’s sake, but feels similarly T minus 60 seconds to passageway, they detect the colonel's plane and other jam formations despite the reduced radar power efficiency from the speed and friction heat, they make an emergency call to SAF, about shooting the colonels plane, command say that Rei can't do that as the colonels plane is also a yukikaze, rei says 'you mean you can't give me permission to shoot it down' they say yes, its tantamount to shooting his own aircraft, rei replies 'okay, I'll do it at my own discretion, the colonel is the enemy' they say 'wait rei, I won't allow it-' rei says 'Yukikaze here, end of communication' and closes the link, rei orders the Rafe to attack the colonel, and flips the autocombat switch aboard yukikaze. Yukikaze and Rafe launch on the colonel, other Jam dodge away and the colonel's plane dodges at last moment, but is now out of angle to enter the passageway. The passageway now fills their canopy 'The resistance limit has been exceeded' 'I'm going in' rei declares and flips off auto combat '8 seconds, airframe check' 'It's going to hold' '5 seconds, brace for shock' 'Good posture' 'Two, one, now' Rei inner monologue: I'm human, this is man. Got it, jam. *** Lynn Jackson says she is in Antarctica, she can see the passage behind. The nearest base is mcmurdo airbase on ross island, but she goes to Azusa Base of Japan on the ross ice shelf which is also very close. She talks about how the area used to be the Yamato Snow field, and she's learned this from a Japanese navy spokeswoman in the snow car with them as they drive toward a passageway monitoring station, a woman named sakimi inui from the carrier admiral 56 who joined her to azusa base, she's annoyed she wont stop talking about japan. She talks with her briefly about her aunt, hana-san from yokohama who was a strong independent woman, and she admired her, and partly chose her profession because of that. The sakimi woman is kind of off put by that, she says that that's not necessarily a compliment nowadays and unobtrusive is the virtue of the day for Japanese women. Lynn says sure with a smile, and sakimi looks embarrassed, Lynn reflects how her aunt hana had many quotes she liked and she showed her nuances of the Japanese language, and about the nadesico wild grass, and her aunt said ' the oak tree is strong, but even nadesico is not defeated Lynn. Even if it is stepped on or mowed, it will grow again' Lynn is happy for the quiet, but hopes she didn't offend sakimi too badly. They talk about base jurisdictions and Ms jackson wanting to be there as an earthling, not an American. The people ask her about why she thinks the jam takes interest in her, and sakimi also says Lynn's book made her want to volunteer. They talk about monitoring equipment for the passage, and about the atmospheric distortion phenomena when objects enter or leave. While talking about the use of the device and pertinence of its observations they get an alarm of an emerging object. Three black arrows shoot out, and all radio bands are flooded, they can't contact the battle center aboard Adm 56, A voice comes from the speaker. "This is the FAF special battles, Yukikaze. Tell me where you are. Anyone respond?" Lynn asks for the radio handset and grabs it from the soldier in front of the car. 'Yukikaze I hear you, this is Lynn Jackson, I'm heading toward the passage in a snow car from Azusa base, you're right over the ross ice shelf.' Rei's voice comes back 'Ms Jackson, I understand, that means earth. I want to see you with the naked eye, can you wave to me' "Okay, you're not surprised I'm here? Captain Fukai." "You, Ms. Jackson, have received a letter of war from Colonel Lombard?" "Yes, that's true, isn't it?" "The coup is true, but it's actually a much more complicated situation. Again, we haven't gotten the whole picture yet. Special Warfare is struggling to survive. I've come to see if the Earth still exists. The purpose of the jam is still unknown. As soon as I confirm you with my own eyes, I will return home, that is my mission of Snow Wind. Your presence is an indicator that the Earth is still safe. That's it because we’re going into electronic warfare to evade interceptor missiles as they approach, Jackson-san.” "Good luck." "Thank you, and tell the Earthlings to do their best. That's it, end of communication." Also noise. Iwasaka says quickly, turning off the speaker. "We were able to get observations while there was no interference, there should have been three of them, but they seem to have dispersed. Only two planes were captured. What are these guys? Isn't it jam? What is the current state of communication? Is it from that guy who jumped into the earth? Do you know him, Mr. Jackson?" "Yes," I reply, putting on the gloves I pulled out of my winter clothes pocket, in the air above, and then I put my hand on the door handle. Lieutenant Colonel Inui grabs my wrist and stops me. It was more surprising to me than the sudden appearance of the snow wind. "Why stop?" I say. "They need me." "For what?" Inui Sakimi asks. I will have to work harder, as Captain Fukai told me. It was Lieutenant Colonel Inui's question that made me keenly aware of this. "Of course, don't lose to the jam," I reply. "That's why I'm needed by the snow wind." Get out. The season is spring, the weather is very mild and wonderfully sunny. But the temperature is so low that it hurts my face. Distant thunder can be heard. And soon it will get bigger. And to the eye, it was perceived as a black dot, much closer than the sound. Approaching sharply. I can see the shape. It's an arrowhead, it's black. It's a fighter I've never seen before. Or is this the snow wind? A new snow wind that got an aircraft called FRX00 Or is this the snow wind? The FRX00 aircraft was acquired, a new snow wind, Captain Fukai's plane. I raise my hands and wave wildly towards them as they approach. All the movements of the world will slow down. A black fuselage that rolls the aircraft 90 degrees in slow motion and turns around me. The FAF's state-of-the-art aircraft, which first appeared on Earth, is the Maeve. Official name FFR41, Special Warfare 5th Squadron Leader Aircraft, personal name Yukikaze. I know that. The cockpit is visible, and under the side sills is "snow wind" in kanji. The pilot with the visor down salutes me roughly. When the tips of the wings circled the surface of the earth and rolled up the snow, and I followed them around my neck, there were only two glowing blue engine exhaust vents. It also becomes smaller in no time at all, just as it did when it came, and disappears towards the "passage" far ahead. To me, everything is a momentary event. But I could see it. I have certainly seen the Queen of the New Wind. "What the hell did you come here for?" Before I knew it, Lieutenant Colonel Inui was standing beside me on my right side and said so. On the left are Iwasaka Technician and a young man combing. Everyone is staring at the direction where the snow wind has left. Is it an illusion that you still feel like you can still hear the sound of the engine like distant thunder? It's like tinnitus. Faintly, it is buzzing in the back of his ear. "Two planes are back," the comb said. "The time spent in Earth space will be less than four minutes." "A strange phenomenon was observed," Iwasaka said. "Of the three, two other than that 'snow wind' "A strange phenomenon was observed," Iwasaka said. "Of the three, two planes other than that 'Snow Wind' got close to each other and became one. What's that? What did you really come here to do?" That letter from Colonel Lombard to me is real. Its contents should not be monopolized by me, but should be shared by all mankind. But we should be cautious in how we make it public. We need to develop a strategy for that. With that in mind, I answer their questions to the three people who have supported this precious experience. Almost unconsciously. "The snow wind came to exorcize the devil." The ringing in my ears is like the strings of a bow, and that's what I associate with it. Wasn't it Inui Sakimi who said that the old people exorcized the demon by sounding the strings of the bow? That shouldn't be an outlier answer. We, at least to me, have an ally called Yukikaze, as a force to be reckoned with against the invisible demonic jam. That's how I write. Of course, it was not a reply to Colonel Lombard, but a message to Earthlings, as Earthlings. The pen I have has not yet been broken. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rock Posted July 15, 2022 Share Posted July 15, 2022 Thank you Thank you Thank you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
electric indigo Posted July 15, 2022 Share Posted July 15, 2022 @Dr_Breen You're awesome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Breen Posted July 17, 2022 Share Posted July 17, 2022 You're welcome y'all! Im glad you like it! Aggressors inbound soon im about 65% of the way Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
electric indigo Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 (edited) Platz' 1/72 Fand II will be re-released in November! https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10912809 Edited August 30, 2022 by electric indigo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snakerbot Posted September 2, 2022 Share Posted September 2, 2022 On 8/30/2022 at 3:05 AM, electric indigo said: Platz' 1/72 Fand II will be re-released in November! https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10912809 And the Mave jamming type in December. https://www.amiami.com/eng/detail?gcode=TOY-SCL3-46293 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jammaker Posted September 4, 2022 Share Posted September 4, 2022 Have you just seen hlj? There will be a Jam sensor jammer 1/72 version of the Mave coming out in Dec. the most interesting part is that the picture shows the ram jet pheonix mark 11 engines!!!!!!!!! Will we finally be getting Mave’s final version in 1/72 or is it just a picture placement mistake????????? Please let this be real!!!!!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jammaker Posted September 4, 2022 Share Posted September 4, 2022 Snakerbot I know you just put the link in. Did you notice as well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
electric indigo Posted September 4, 2022 Share Posted September 4, 2022 It is possible that Platz just used their image from the 1/144 kit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jammaker Posted September 4, 2022 Share Posted September 4, 2022 1 hour ago, electric indigo said: It is possible that Platz just used their image from the 1/144 kit. It’s totally possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rock Posted September 17, 2022 Share Posted September 17, 2022 About time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Breen Posted September 18, 2022 Share Posted September 18, 2022 Very excited! Now we just need one more re-release, regular Sylph, and things will be complete lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chronocidal Posted September 19, 2022 Share Posted September 19, 2022 (edited) I love the concept of that one, but boy does it ever have some of the weirdest design decisions.. Always preferred the first "Fand" or whatever that was called, since it looked like some sort of advanced F-16 evolution. It would have been amazing if they just hadn't made the cockpit do this. Edited September 19, 2022 by Chronocidal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Breen Posted September 30, 2022 Share Posted September 30, 2022 (edited) Here's my translation of aggressors, its a bit shoddier than Unbroken arrow, and contains more direct quotations than the previous one: Spoiler Rei and Katsuragi in Yukikaze observing things after returning to faery thru passage Time perception is strange, things are still being manipulated, contact with SAF base is sporadic and convoluted, and eventually, contact is lost Yukikaze is messing with the fuel gauge to compel them to land, not at SAF base, rei checks the true fuel by feeling the weight in the controls as he pulls Gs, confirming that indeed the fuel readout is being manipulated Rei and katsu discuss quantum observation, the Jam's sensory manipulation, and Schrodinger's cat They land at FAF central Faery Base, and process inside, directed by yukikaze subconsciously thru discussing lt amada and the snow grader incident and his order of mars medal, to the only currently active computer, the medals computer, with which they have a long pseudo-argument about the state of victory or absence of the jam, and attempt to get the merit computer to awaken the others by using a report against colonel Rombard as a traitor to explain to it that the war isn't over, this appears to sort of work as they hear the central comp overhead firing up, they note to be careful and not run into or disturb the people inhabiting the seemingly (to them) empty command center, as they don't know what will happen, tripping over an invisible person, etc. Just then Kats gets signal on his unplugged headset, as rei faintly hears too, they have contact with SAF base and STC, and the situation develops to them as SAF fills them in via a datalink from reality that they, Yukikaze, Rafe, and TS1 were all in a strange zone box, merged, and unmerged, and are still under altered perceptions, as the sensor data from reality doesnt correlate with Rei and Kats percieved experience, as this is sussed out, everyone collectively realises that wherd they thought they parked yukikaze, in hangar number 6 is actually where TS1 is with the colonel hiding in it, Reality begins to fade in for Rei and Kats, the centeal base main screen and staff fade in, Rei can see from cameras on the screen, Ts1 taxiing out to takeoff, trying to escape, Rei and Kats convince yukikaze and rafe to attack it, despite them perceiving it as themselves, they agree and Rei percieving both being in the command center and in the cockpit simultaneously guides Yukikaze to strafe TS1 to destruction on the ground, as it explodes, reality rushes back for them, Yukikaze and rafe are fully emerged and seperate outside the now collapsed special zone box they had been trapped in, but Rei sees on the cameras, Ts1 canopy falling down from ejection sequence, the colonel ejectsd and was hyperspace cloud teleported away by the jam, his absence and TS1 destruction has lifted the veil and returned reality, Rei and Kats are flooded with relief and collect the paper log of their interaction with the merit computer, Rei also sees Yukikaze send a message on a sheet <Yukikaze: Mission Complete/we_alive> Rei is a bit emotional at the return to reality and confirmation they are all three alive. Rei discusses their landing clearing and ALS setup, and as they land and he looks out at the Rafe landing in formation with them and muses about the events of the strange period, where his consciousness was merged with Yukikaze and Rafe, and how it started when the Jam plane pretended to be captured, but was actually in order to load the colonel and use the colonel to spread jam perception control to earth, which Rei, Yuki, and Rafe stopped as a trinity, rei says he knows that it was a hard battle. Though it's hard to discern any detail demonstrated, he's glad to be alive and knows it's not just luck, but him and yukikaze and Rafe working together. They taxi off the main runway to the SAF parking area and Katsu says 'let's go; You're back captain' "That's right," Rei replies. "The Major is going to greet you," he sees Captain Foss alongside Major Booker. The doors of the fighter elevator were open, and there were maintenance workers there. He looks like a member of the Special Warfare squadron and doesn't show any signs of enthusiastic welcome, but Rei can see that he still wants to congratulate these two squadron planes on their return. It's an impossible greeting in a normal mission. As Rei opened the canopy while taxiing, Captain Foss waved to him. "It's nice to be able to see people," Rei murmured, and there was a response from behind. "I thought so, too, maybe for the first time in my life" Sensing that Ensign Katsuragi is waving back at Captain Foss, Rei also flashes the lamp on Yukikaze's neck leg to send a message. 〈We're-home-thrown〉 The person to whom the message is sent or conveyed is not amid the welcome now. "Whatever the means, make sure you go home, make sure you come back. This is not a request, it is an order.' Brigadier General Cooly, he understood, perhaps for the first time the weight and severity of her usual orders. With that in mind, Rei went into the Yukikaze engine shutdown procedure Part 3: Dialog and Speculation Booker awakens to a phone message from Gen Cooley 'A new squadron is being formed in the SAF' Booker wonders why. He notes in this all-out war with the Jam, the FAF lost a total of 533 aircraft, including missing fighters, early warning aircraft, air command aircraft, transport aircraft, and rotary-wing aircraft. That's about 30 percent of the total force. There have been 77 personnel losses in SAF, and fourteen others whose lives and deaths have not yet been confirmed. What exactly is the brigadier general thinking? He wonders. Major Booker knocks on the door while unsure of Cooly, trying to gauge her intentions. He knocked and is ushered in. He makes Cooley some tea and himself some cocoa, she looks more tired and casual than usual, she puts her uniform tie and jacket on to come over to a small couch and sit with Booker to discuss the new assignment with him. In the last 7 days since Yukikaze returned from the Strange period all-out battle, and the return to reality, the SAF has been conducting search and Rescue operations with the rest of the FAF after the battle, instead of single ship search teams to search sectors for the CSAR effort, Cooley and Booker deployed two-ship teams in case the Jam resumed a deception operation and FAF assets would be duped to engage SAF units, the Intelligence aboard the Pair of SAF planes could self-escort and detect deception attempts and engage appropriately before anything got out of hand. During this operation Jam presence or abnormalities were not detected, and SAF planes were able to engage fully in Search duties, picking up distress signals from downed friendlies and transmitting them to FAF central computer's search tables, the SAF ships had found 49 signals in the past 3 days, more than any other department, which has given Cooley's voice a lot more weight at FAF central The search and rescue operation that raised the entire FAF ended after only three days, and for the next four days each corps took its own search and repair actions, emergency all-corps meetings were held every day in which representatives of all corps participated via the FAF net line. The meeting was about whether the FAF computers are correct in their perception that Jam left the planet Fairy, and if so, whether the FAF should report that fact to Earth. It was discussed as a serious issue, but no conclusion seemed to have been reached yet. Brigadier General Cooley must have grasped the contents of the meeting, but Major Booker had not been told. During the past week, the Major has been making a thorough maintenance plan for all squadron aircraft and implementing them one after another. Moreover, since he has received orders from the brigadier general to fly at least one aircraft every day for searching for enemies after the fourth day, the flight plan for that purpose had to think about staffing according to the maintenance situation of the aircraft. Much busier than before. "How long has it been since the Jam disappeared?" Cooley asks after a slow sip of tea. "Seven days," Booker replied, then grasping the brigadier-generals intentions and continuing. "It's not uncommon for a period without jam attacks to last for more than seven days, and I did a little research and found that the longest period of time the jam didn't show up was thirty-eight days. That was twenty-six years ago. In any case, I think the assumption that there will be no more re-attacks from the jam is dangerous" They discuss how the Jam manipulated Human and especially computer perceptions, radar, and other sensors during the battle, resulting in a record of 34,000 total enemy contacts, this led to the perceived invasion from the direction of 360 degrees towards the "passage" all at once. In special warfare, after all the analysis was completed, of the 30,000 or so jam aircraft, only about two hundred and fifty aircraft, less than a hundredth, had substances, and most of them were only disposable small fighters. The most threatening of them all-the new Type 7 was determined to be the highest danger, and it appears to have been responsible for advanced deception operations, but only nine of them existed. Special Warfare concluded that one of them changed shape (aboard Colonel Lombard's TS-1) and flew into Earth. The remaining eight were all shot down by a formation of special warfare aircraft (the special warfare planes also struggled one-on-one), but perhaps it was a prisoner to steer the TS-1 to Earth and distract from it, a deception to deposit the Seed of Jam forces, postulated to be like an insect queen of some kind, on earth. Booker questions if the Jam has decided to proceed with their initial objective, invasion of earth, now that they were no longer interested in studying humans and had even co-opted one (Rombert) after their artificial ones failed, Booker questions if the FAF strength was never really relevant to the Jam's ops plan. They continue about how for now the Jam appears to be gone from the planet faery, though impossible to confirm. And the Jam departure message was received by FAF computers, so it's possible the Jam is around in a form computers can’t perceive. Booker asks if FAF brass agrees with the computer consensus, and Cooley says they do, except for Special Warfare, of course, Booker asks what they should do, as with no Jam, there's no FAF support, and No SAF, as Earth resources will be withdrawn. She says she has different intentions than them, and she thinks that the Jam declaration should be transmitted to earth, Booker asks 'You think the Jam is there?' She says yes. Booker catches on that she wants to expand SAF operations to earth, and silently agrees. Cooley continues that FAF is an anti-jam force, and so it's natural if Jam flees to earth, to chase it, however, FAF brass won't admit that. Because it would be an admittance of failure for them, and so they need to find a way to expand ops to earth without upsetting the balance of bigger players. Cooley says, major you're right, the FAF should expand its anti-jam theater into the Earth. Special warfare takes the lead. In order to ensure that our special warfare aircraft can demonstrate maximum performance on Earth, we are also conducting test flights in the Earth's atmosphere to test the new engine. We have already experienced actual battles with Jam and have battle data. Our Special Warfare can always be fought on Earth. Yes, Major Booker," The brigadier general then said in an unexpectedly cheerful voice. "But that's it, I don't care what happened now" Booker is confused by that. Cooley explains that the FAF will have to insist on it eventually, either way, to stay viable, since the jam is no longer appearing over faery as a fighter in the near future it may be gone to earth, so FAF will ask for an emergency financial support from all nations through the UNED organization in preparation for an expected second wave, the FAF can regain some strength, and if earth complains Jam is no more, at that point the jam will have apparently already entered earth, and earth will declare a FAF warning airspace. Booker mentions how Rei and Katsu say that if Jam entered earth it would try to dismantle FAF by political means, but it would be harder to do than thought because Jam doesn't understand the human power struggle, Cooley cuts him off and says she doesn't care about the political maneuvering of FAF command, they'll figure how to protect the FAF, and by extension their own asses, she wants to know how her Special Warfare intends to fight the Jam. She continues that SAF does need to remain relevant in the bureaucratic minds to avoid disbanding or downsizing, and part of her job is to fight their allies, and people, to stay afloat, and while necessary, she resents it and would prefer to focus solely on fighting the jam. She says to Booker she wants the new Combat unit to be trained like that, focused solely on mortal combat with the Jam. Bookers ask if the big question is, is it be a whole new unit? And how are they going to procure new fighters and other necessary aircraft and equipment? Cooley tells him a story and explains her plan to him, he leaves the office dumbfounded and excited, checking data on his office pc he goes to meet rei. 'My special warfare will be like jam' is what she said, Booker is having a hard time explaining the idea to rei, who insists jam isn't human and man cannot be jam unless you are colonel rombert. They discuss this while observing the multispectrum non-contact scan of Yukikaze. Booker notes how Yukikaze's ultra-nonreflective black paint already makes her resemble Jam, broken up only by her canopy, which while still dark is transparent and noticeable, while Rafe is already visually basically a jam, as it was designed after them in a fashion, Booker tells rei they are thinking about painting over Yukikaze's canopy with the same hull paint to make her resemble jam even more closely. And he won't be able to see out, but they are finishing development on a new HMD that will display sensor fused information and a 1:1 picture of the outside, including the blindspots 'so it will be as if she is transparent from the inside’ Rei is still confused and mildly annoyed that Booker is playing hard to get and questions is visuals what he means by 'become jam' and Booker finally explains properly 'Cooley wants to create an independent unit of the SAF, but with existing squadron aircraft and personnel, an Aggressor unit.' Rei stammers 'an agressor unit?' Booker says 'it's got different names depending on the country's military but-'. Rei cuts him off 'I know what kind of role the units play' he paused to catch his breath, it must have been completely unexpected. Rei continued 'It's a unit that plays a virtual enemy' Booker continues 'the unit plays the enemy aircraft in exercises and so on, replicating the movements and tactics of the enemy takes great skill, hence many earth units are full of elite pilots" rei mentions "And they usually have a conspicuous and flashy paint scheme, I wonder if SAF aircraft will do the same." Booker says no, Cooley doesn't want target paint jobs, she wants aircraft that are close to jam as possible, looks, performance, tactics, all of it. Rei is upset about this seeming perversion of yukikaze, but Booker explains the other 11 5th sq. Planes will be getting that treatment too, but Yuki and Rafe are perfect for this, and the idea is they will be teachers, and even teach the other squadron planes how to think about the jam, and in time the whole unit will transfer to earth. 'Teachers?' Rei asks. 'Yeah, after all, Yukikaze and Rafe survived that strange battle with the jam, it presumed she got to contact or insight to the Jam somehow' Rei questions him about the idea and they talk back and forth about learning Jam methods and how they may be able to do their version of the jam artificial humans, that is to say, creating a method or agent loyal to humanity that can infiltrate the Jam's environment and gather information or even hit them there, and this is the first step. Rei is still grumpy about it, and Booker mentions how Rei used to be, ignoring society, and Booker can see now that Rei is connecting with other people and respecting humanity, he likes it and is feeling better. Rei asks if foss told him that, and Booker says semi-jokingly, yes, there's no medical privacy for military personnel. They talk about how Cooley's idea with the Aggressor unit is not just to train others on Jam fighting, but to show people inside and outside the unit that SAF has changed, Aggressor units are always recognized as the best fighter flying units in any air force, SAF is the best unit in the FAF, so they should form the Aggressors. Booker and Rei argue about the futility of an aggressor unit, Booker thinks it will be great to keep the FAF relevant both from an earth perspective and from combat readiness by training with them, and that Rei and Yukikaze are perfect to lead the program, as Rei is half jammed already from the experience with the colonel, but while as his friend, Booker worries about that effect, he's certain Rei will make it, and his clinging, stubborn humanity will prevail, especially now that he's got friends and social lifelines Booker also mentions the possibility of actual combat with the FAF for a false flag operation to entice and draw out the jam should long enough elapse, or possible demonstration action against Earth Defense forces to illustrate to earth, should they insist on sending a squadron of a country to Faery, that earth air power is completely unprepared to face the Jam Inside the observation dock, Yukikaze's scan is finished Booker asks Rei to come to his office so they can get a pilots input on building the program, Rei doesn't follow him, standing still, Bookers asks what's up, rei gestures to the dock, and says Yukikaze is asking Booker to come back and something else, Her formation lights are flashing Its Morse code, Booker concentrates on reading it out "---I AM YUKIKAZE" They tell Cooley, who is unimpressed at their suggestion that Yukikaze is irritated at being assigned the role of Jam, They explain that its nearly impossible to read emotions or intent of Machine Intelligences communications, but based on context and Rei's ability to feel the will/emotion of Mi's/empathize with them, in contrast with his limited (but growing) ability to empathize with other humans, they believe Yukikaze is asserting her Identity and self, and protesting being assigned to play Jam, they also explained how Rei soothed Yukikaze, and they accepted her request to take this protest to the general. They talk about How yukikaze refused the request of the real jam to become a jam, and so she's not willing to risk that even in part for the operation, and Cooley explains that part of the aggressor operation is to draw out Colonel Rombert, the Feary Jam, and any Jam that may have infiltrated earth, hence it will proceed on schedule, and also that Yukikaze understands the operation better than the two of them Part 4 - On the Eve of the Dispatch of the New Troops - An earth squadron was dispatched and arrived much sooner than anyone expected, to the initial trepidation of FAF leadership, however, it was realized quickly that it was not a dispatch under the consensus of the Earth governments, it was an independent deployment of the JASDF Rei and Katsuragi are annoyed at having to attend a special course about earth politics as part of the New aggressor program, which has officially begun Rei wonders about Cooley's true reaction if the Jam is gone, he knows his, and Bookers, etc. But he wonders what will become of the steel-willed General Cooley if there's no war, he postulates though, that since rombert became jammed to take control of the FAF, Cooley was showing her moves to take political control of the FAF and developing the Aggressors as part of that, in order to secure the SAF future and to draw out Rombert since shes assuming the role of his direct competitor Rei and Katsuragi learn that the arriving unit is Primarily Royal Australian Air Force, supported by Japanese Navy Air Forces, Australia was the one who pushed to arrive, but because of complex international law in the EADF they had to be supported by the Japanese Navy Units They comment on how the laws protecting individual country interests, which hamstring EADF operations are stupid. And that its because the great powers wrote them, countries with different awareness and worries about the Jam. As opposed to Australia, geographically closest, and the only country with a city, Sydney, which was attacked directly by Jam, and so Australia is the most aware of the threat, and even now a generation on, Aussies still are aware of the threat. So Australia is interested in protecting itself, and strengthing its positive relations with Japan against Chinese military expansion in the region, but also that the US is Australia's primary ally, that US observers could be expected, and that Japan is going along out of favor to the US or something. Katsu or Rei says "the Navy is not a Yakuza, I don't think so" Rei and Katsu question why Booker is confident that Japan is in this for the right reasons, and he explains that Kimura, the admiral of the fleet for this support is a man who is known to do things for the good of people and not for self-interest, and that's the basis on which some diplomacy has been conducted, helping japan on the international stage, and should war break out, Kimura would likely be assassinated by other, and the country would be worse for it, he's a hard man to replace. Rei and Katsuragi question the irreplaceability of Kimura and Booker explains that politics is human, politics and war are inseparable, and he can see cooleys trouble, needing those two anti-socials to get it Rei has to see Edith afterward, also on the order of Cooley They discuss FAF leadership politics and a general, Rytum, who cooley dislikes, in addition, Edith asks him why he dislikes politics and being on the stage of the aggressor team, and its inherent politicality, he says because it pits humans against humans and that at the end of the day one's political education is irrelevant in the face of human conflict, let alone the jam, Edith says that he's ready, and now general cooley can send him out in peace, which confuses him at first, then she explains that before he lacked the willingness to engage with others, now he's shown initiative actively trying to solve the situation, he's cleared for aggressor duty She also mentions how in their conversation he made an effort to be aware of her feelings, in the words he chose and the way he spoke, which is a vast improvement They discuss the efficacy of various things, and eventually, foss invites rei to have a drink, to which she produces a carton of beers from her fridge, he's pleasantly surprised at first. they unwrap the six pack and pour it into a pair of paper cups, rei remarks on his recently learning of Edith's fondness for beer, and her ability to put them away and not need to piss, quote "rivaling that of my ability to fly long missions", he also playfully asks why she's hiding so much beer in her fridge, to which she replies 'not hiding, distributing' she says that General Cooley managed to snag a container of beer and wine addressed to general Rytum, and ediths beers are just some of 3000 odd cases of beer they got. They talk about the goings on of the generals, and rei says this is one of those times I remind you I don't know that much about other people, and Edith says "You're alright rei, otherwise I wouldn't invite you to drink with me" They also discuss how Cooley has already prepared a Mock-battle for earth forces to do with the new 6th SAF, the aggressor squadron, who is as of yet unnamed, they jokingly discuss if General cooley could fly, and name the squadron flying Lydia, which they find pretty funny. Rei asks Edith if its too early to get drunk, she replies its not over yet, and they discuss that the general, FAF, all earth, they need Rei, it's encouraging she says, and rei remarks how her skills and profiling have helped get him and Yukikaze home many times, and she says there's lots to analyze that Yukikaze and Rafe brought back and that she believes Rei will do fine as an aggressor in the mock battle. They briefly discuss the Earthers and their intentions, how Booker thinks the Aussies and Japanese Navy pilots are being sent as a type of recon for the US interests to check out the FAF, while Rei and Edith agree from hearing about the Japanese and even Aussie pilots, they are here for their own selves, and the Minister of the Japanese Navy for good reasons, to be safer, etc. They discuss how Booker may be misreading the intentions of these forces because of his own English bias, they agree these people must be pretty good at least, and that as aggressors, he'll go up against many of the very best from the earth, Edith asks do you have the confidence to show how awesome the FAF is? And rei says the mock battle isn't about showing the faf strength, and Edith replies 'Yes it is, you're way cool' They discuss what the mock battle will be like, and how Yukikaze and rafe can mimic the electro-optical, sensor warfare, and decoupling of the Jam, however with only two planes it will be inadequate to really show the Earth units what it's like, and they say that he should see general cooley about getting more airframes assigned so they can give the earth units the most accurate experience possible, rei asks, 'even going over the majors head?' Edith says yes, he thinks the earth units have ulterior motives when really they've come to seriously learn to fight the jam, if someone can't take this seriously, there's no point in the mock battle because the earth forces are unprepared so that, should the jam suddenly appear they can survive, as of now they have no chance of winning, so you need to show them how the jam is, show them the threat, rei agrees and says he'll work on it, and Edith agrees they do need more planes and sorties, possibly throw in Boomerang squadron. They agree a hybrid team of Boomerang and 'Flying Lydia' is a good starting point. Rei points out that Edith is already saying flying Lydia, the names infectious, to which she says "have I?" And lets out a hearty laugh of pleasure. Rei thinks to himself 'flying edith' isn't a bad nickname either, he likes both, he also realizes that he too is drunk, and for the first time in a long time he feels uplifted. Part 5 --Fighter Weapons-- Lynn Jackson remarks to herself about how she's on Faery, and how bizarre it is, even just time-wise, to be on a different world, shes here as a spokesperson for the Naval Intel Service as civilians are barred from entry to faery. She remarks how a big news agency could maybe have greased palms to get to faery, but that comes at cost of favors to the powerful, and a journalist in power is not a journalist, they are a propagandist She talks about how a generation of Earthers don't regard the jam, and her book, selling well those years ago helped garner some interest in the jam threat, but not enough. And that made her despair as to the power of journalism, but eventually, she realized, that to give up, was to give in to the Jam, and that she realized firsthand, many people live their lives without knowing their own motivations She is, she says, fighting the jam in her own way, on earth, battle with a pen as her weapon. Her desire to get to faery became even stronger when Yukikaze jumped out of the passageway in Antarctica, and she felt a connection with both Rei and Yukikaze, though only very briefly The Yukikaze is calling her, she says, after hearing and feeling the sound of its power in person, she has wanted to go to faery, not even necessarily to experience it intellectually, but to satisfy the eros, to feel it physically, to make sure it's real, just as rei had to do jumping back to earth to confirm it was still real So she took the 'Journalists' last bet' and gained the favor of those in power, now working for the Japanese Naval Intel service On Faery, her perception has shifted from what is Jam to earthers, to what is jam to her, and now, what is jam period. The environment helps this transition, the world of faery, though semi-habitable, is so other, even the smell of the wind tells you, it smells faintly of menthol, she talks about the subtle odd hues of Faery’s forests surround the base and its runways, about the pale green sky from the thick atmosphere, and bloody road. She also notes how warriors spending time here could come to hate it and miss the blue skies of earth, lt Mariko, Japanese intelligence talks to Lynn about the view, and Lynn notes Mariko is a young woman, fifteen years younger than herself at least, they reflect on how it makes them feel, Lynn is awestruck by it, but Mariko notes it is a battlefield, Lynn reflects on being a civilian amongst military but commends Mariko on how sincere she was. And goes on to mention how to the jam there is no distinction, human is human before them, and Mariko agrees, Lynn reflects how the JN has given her a good person to escort Lynn asks Mariko about her name and they discuss its origins of it. Lynn gives her a pep talk honestly, and Lt Rika Mariko thanks her, saying Lynn is a good person too, she was worried like other reporters that she'd be coercive and overconfident They briefly discuss social mobility for women in japan, promotion opportunity for women in the Japanese military, and Mariko's relations to her great uncle, admiral Kimura minister of the navy Mariko asks Lynn how she feels personally about that Jam threat, not overall, and Lynn decided to answer honestly and says she doesn't know. Then they talk about the upcoming deployment of forces to faery and how she's glad Kimura is a military man with a soldiers consciousness, as Mariko believes a civilian prime minister couldn't have made the decision They discuss how Kimura brought not just his navy flyers, but also Japanese air force flyers too, to show them the jam threat as well, Mariko mentions how it will be the Japanese AF fighter weapons school personnel, comparable in many ways to the US navy Topgun Program Lynn asks how many planes are from fighter weapons? Mariko says she knows only of one to participate, of the four inbound to faery, all are fighter weapons aircraft and crews, but 3 of those ships are escort/support and will be returning to earth immediately once the one is delivered. Lynn and Mariko discuss the crew arriving from fighter weapons, a female combat pilot of extreme skill, and anti-social disposition, much like that of SAF personnel, and how she would have been kicked out of the airforce and sent to the FAF if she weren't so good, and so it was decided to have her on loan to FAF for a time to 'cool her head' before her returning to earth and japan. They hear the rumble and roar and look up to see the 4 JAF planes arriving overhead Part 6 --Kali Ma-- Captain Iho Tamura of the 101st Practical Test Squadron, Japanese Air Force introduces herself by musing on the nature of violence as the primary driver of all power, political or otherwise, and how when the law is enacted on the device of violence, what the powers do can be redefined as anything other than violence. She mentions the purpose of 101, it used to be a training unit and is not slightly rebranded, she also briefly mentions the term 'magistrate' in relation to air force internal affairs And how she is generally disliked or envied by her colleagues and peers, and even in her younger days was once beaten by a superior, despite that she never protested the violence and contradiction of the military state, merely pointed them out. She once had a smart CO summon her after he published an essay critical of the military, who didn't reprimand her or anything, but told her humans tend to get angry when the truth is pointed out. She also recounts many peers accusing her of not loving the air force or japan, but she asserts that she loves them more than anyone else, hence why she does what she does, to fix their flaws and make them better, and stronger. She goes on about how in fact, she loves violence, and its this anti-social predilection for it that makes people fear and hate her because she reminds them that their organization is an apparatus of violence, Tamura asserts that she also loves and employs the purest form of violence, no idealogy, or explanation, just power, she loves power and its feelings. So much so that she wishes she were a weapon, a bomb, or a missile. She muses on how people call her Ai like, or inhuman, and her affinity for combat machines, particularly fighter jets sets her apart from others, but she asserts that her cravings for primal power, of which the fighter jet, with all its weapons and forces and speed, all at the employ of one person, the pilot, exemplifies, her cravings for primal power and love of violence makes her human, more human than those accusing her of inhumanity, as they see her as a dark mirror to themselves. She states, that predilection for violence turned into a love of powerful weapons. Her job is to fly fighter jets, it's not a thesis essay, and is much less irritating the people around you. Iho Tamura is an ace pilot in the 101st Practical Squadron, she is the best at maneuvering fighter jets. An ace in this unit, means ace of the whole air force. She goes on to explain the mission of 101 and Fighter Weapon program, explaining it has its conceptual and etymological roots in the old US Navy Fighter Weapons School. But its course and objectives have changed with the times, she says it used to primarily train falcon (F16 presumably?) pilots, selected from the best all over the air force. She says that nowadays fighter weapon teaches on an itemized basis instead of training the best crews on one type of airframe, and lists advanced warfare concepts, electronic warfare, and testing of new weapons and systems. In addition to instructional duty passing on the top tier skills and knowledge to crews to then go back and train their own units with, 101, which is interchangeable with Fighter Weapons, they are the same unit, also acts as the only aggressor squadron in the JAF, and goes around to JAF bases, providing aggressor support for mock battles to sharpen the skills of the JAF on a team-by-team basis. She talks about how each pilot's aircraft in 101/Fighter weapon has a unique, and flashy paint scheme, an identification scheme rather than camouflage, 'unique and tasteful colors and patterns, and that a squadron with such a glamorous image gets called by its nickname 'Fighter Weapon' more often than its dry official designation 101st Practical Test Squadron She talks about when she was selected as best in her unit to go to fighter weapon, and how there she was taught about how a better pilot, even with inferior arms, may succeed, and she here to learn the performance, patterns, and thinking on enemy aggressors so she can take that teaching back home and prepare her country for it. She talks about how now, the most effective weapons aboard a fighter are central intelligent computers and advanced communication links between aircraft, and that rather than reflexes or other things, affinity with these thinking machines made one a stronger weapon. She talks about how Japan has no god of destruction, but India/Hinduism does, in Kali, and Kali Ma, goddess of slaughter and devastation, mother of the earth who will destroy all so life can begin again. She says that planes aren't natural and since nature is the supreme power of violence, she is a kind of god to airplanes. XXX In the FAF briefing room, a SAF Lt asked a well-meaning question of Tamura, why have they been sent to FAF, an excellent pilot like them must have done something wrong to get sent to FAF as the JAF wouldn't want to be rid of a great pilot like her. She explains she was sent alone, to fight Jam on behalf of the FAF, and yes, it is a form of punishment, she is to operate with the FAF tactical fighter wing, but as a single ship, she can't do that much. In contrast to the Japan Navy Pilots, who are here in a team, and with EW support planes and maintenance crews as well. Not to mention the RAAF who are a full squadron, EW planes, maintenance, and an airborne warning/air command plane (AWACs seemingly) and so are capable of operating independently of the FAF should they have to. It's clear to Tamura though, that any independent action will be impossible without the FAF. She is pleasantly surprised that the FAF worked her into their schedule fairly fast, and adjusted her aircraft to interface with FAF weapons, maintenance, and TCS (tactical communications system) she also briefly describes TCS functions like remote operation and recovery should the pilot be incapacitated. Tamura is impressed with the FAF's capabilities and now is a believer that faery is indeed a frontline battlefield. The revelation that she would be flying again is a happy one, she had resigned herself to never flying again. Today was orders for her first sortie, after the briefing, she is having a bit of food with faf crews, Katsuragi is conversing with her, and Tamura thinks Akira cannot read the room, when in fact he simply does not care to. Tamura recalls Mariko telling her that FAF people will not care about the scandal that landed her in this assignment but she doesn't believe her, and also asserts that though they are her age, they are of a lower class. She mentions Lynn Jackson having a friendly conv with major Booker. And discusses how he is to work with this Japan Navy squadron led by Col Mishima and lt col Sawamoto, the RAAF isn't participating this time. She notes that SAF will provide the aggressors, and that she hadn't heard of any FAF agg units, though she's very familiar with aggressors of other airforces on earth. She notes that the SAF aggressors must be new, and that Booker, Katsuragi, and a captain of few words, Rei Fukai, are part of it. Tamura ignores Mariko's advice about discretion and simply answers Katsu about what landed her here, targetting and firing on a student aircraft with live ammunition in a 'warning shot' after the student wouldn't comply with her order to attack in an exercise. Major Booker finds that hard to believe but Mariko confirms it, it was a major incident that could have caused international complications, but Admiral Kimura smoothed it over and they escaped with only embarrassment and having to give punitive action to Tamura. The incident is explained as a US aircraft violating the JAF training range, and Tamura ordered her student to mock attack it, which they refused as it wasn't part of the exercise, to which Tamura said it was their duty to drive intruders from their skies, and then when orders refused she fired on the student, Katsuragi is impressed and says with admiration 'so that's what got you sent to FAF' Rei asks abruptly 'is that your plane?' Gesturing to the maintenance room. Tamura thinks to herself about how it's hard to get into the head of these SAF people. She answered with a smirk "yes, its Hien, the most advanced craft in the air force and said to be the last manned fighter" Booker questions its name and katsuragi explains its meant to show how the JAF is descended from the old army, Rei mutters to himself about 'last manned fighter' and Tamura describes Hien, sleek, clipped delta wings, ruddervators, the white and blue distinct lines of its aggressor scheme, designed by Tamura herself, to remind of a paper crane, though she doesn't think she succeeded, but she's pleased with her looks anyway. Lynn Jackson asks about her opinion on JAMs, and her name is "captain? Ihu Tamra?" He explains that 'if' would be an unusual name, but many Japanese pronounced Iho as 'eve' and she never understood why until learning about adam and eve, and it makes sense because she's a woman (based on context clues I'm assuming Tamura is a woman, because of Mariko's explaining to Lynn last part, and now this explaining the name Iho, the perspective of the name revelation is unclear, whether Lynn, Rei or Iho, but it seems to suggest Eve, and a lady presentation, for Tamura.) Tamura says they don't really care about the jam till today, as not on earth isn't their problem, Katsuragi intuits that Tamura is making a veiled threat at the faf and they have a tiff, but Tamura silently respects katsuragi for defending his own self and freedoms, in the same way, Tamura does, Jackson says Tamura's reaction is typical of earthers. Its because the jam was before they were born and they've never felt it says Jackson, Mariko says 'that's why we the navy have come to faery, to feel the jam, not like you to Tamura, who thinks that, while Mariko is right like katsuragi was right, there no need to argue or discuss with them, Tamura just wanted to 'asexually board my airplane and exert violence' after which she muses on why, this time the need feels different than usual, she doesn't seem to have irritated others like usual, in fact less people hate her here than elsewhere, it must be a trick of fate she thinks, and she muses on how she came to admire Kali Ma, being the daughter of an affluent family with nothing but a peaceful life (Ok, Iho 'Eve' Tamura is a woman for sure) she wanted to be a fighter pilot before she even knew of Kali Ma. She surmises it must be Faery and its hostile/alien environs, as she's never self-reflected like this before. She is struck with sudden clarity and realization, the Jam threat feels very close and dangerous, she's suddenly aware of the threat she has unconsciously felt her whole life, and she wants to destroy it, to fight, it dawns on her that the purpose of all the violence in her life, her violence, is to counter the jam, she wanted to break things and destroy since she was a child, but now she sees the ultimate purpose, and primal fear she felt unknowing, as if a fog cleared, the desire to destroy something, a specific thing she could never put her finger on, it was the jam. And how she always known death was possible and never feared it, but she deeply fears losing, and known loss well even as a child, and she regards losing as worse than dying, when you lose, your existence is swallowed up by someone else, overtaken. Though she does feel as if the violence came before the unknowable 'enemy' and the enemy came about to justify her violent nature. It must have been a shock to her parents she says, she was a good kid, never killed insects or acted out, only mentioned to her mother once that she 'wanted to be like Kali Ma, goddess of slaughter' and her mother reacted badly, so she didn't say it again, it must have been a shock to them when their good daughter wanted to go to military college and become a fighter pilot, they briefly protested but let her, and she says that it was the only place she could unleash her violence legally and be praised for it, to her and to the military, violence is justice she says. But eventually, even the airforce wasn't enough to sate her violent subconscious and overcome the nightmare enemy that lurked in the shadows of her mind, and she was growing restless there, even being an ace of aces, until now, on Faery she feels the jam and knows this is the place her violence has led her to, and the place to exercise it. She says it seems so clear now, her goal was never JAF, it should have been FAF, its obvious now, all the real violence, fighting, and dying is to be done on faery against the Jam, the fighting was not done in secret, the faf has been there and known all along, so she guesses, her upper crusting breeding and highborn nature she never even considered the FAF a possibility for her, after all its not where the elite went, as far as earthers knew shes now realizing. She concludes that no, it wasn't her parents and upbringing, it wasn't the desire to be a good child or anything, she always knew of the FAF, news of Japanese officers dying in combat in the faf circulated occasionally, no, she concludes, until today it never occurred to her, it was the work of someone, it was the jam, erasing themselves from her consciousness, she says 'Yes... I'm a natural Anti-Jam weapon, I was born a Kali Maa She questions are this internal revery is an illusion, she mentions it is theorized that the atmosphere of Faery contains trace amounts of compounds similar to hallucinogens, she may be highly sensitive she says, however, this is reality she remarks She suddenly asks the aircraft in the mock battles to be loaded with live munitions/ammunition. Captain Mishima asks what a fool she is, but Maj. Booker stops him "of course we can, you can also carry ultra-high speed missiles not found on earth, live shooting is also allowed" Lt Mariko Protests and it said Jam can come out at any time, we don't do things that put us at a disadvantage, Yukikaze will also be fully armed. Katsuragi says "I've never seen a mock bullet in the FAF" and Mishima continues "But captain Tamura is too dangerous, you may have heard why she was sent here? Captain Fukai she's asking if I can shoot you with live ammunition." "That right" Rei replies and continues "we'll attack you before your hit with live ammunition, and if you know that, there's nothing wrong with that" Eve Tamura smiles and nods at Rei, she thinks, nothing, no problem, I am going to be Kali Ma, the dark mother god of the earth. Part 7 --Pen and Sword-- Cooley is discussing with Lynn how if the Jam were to attack again on full scale like last time, the currently weakend FAF would be destroyed. and that maybe some people in FAF are wishing for that collapse, but paradoxically that means its a healthy organization, as all seeming monoliths in human history have collapsed. Cooley is confiding this in Lynn because Lynn is under FAF censor, Cooley also explains that she herself while being a sort of rebel to FAF's mission, she doesn't wish for the fall of FAF, but her goals don't align with FAF, however without her, FAF would not survive, Lynn figures this sentiment out and says to Cooley, because Cooley and the SAF mission is to win against the jam at all costs, not to protect humanity, which is the FAF's mission. Lynn also surmises Cooley is proud of that in a way. Cooley notes that Lynn is very good at deciphering the true meaning behind one's words, also without twisting those words for any end, Lynn is only interested in the truth, Cooley respects her and is willing to open up to her because she can sense Lynns immense integrity and professionalism. They discuss changing attitudes on earth, press coverage of Jam, Lynns reasoning for jam research, and Colonel Robert's letter she received. Lynn also mentions her reunion with Rei and Yukikaze in Antarctica, after having previously met them aboard admiral 56. Lynn says it's as if she's been drawn to Faery and to see the real general Cooley who is winning engagements. Cooley surmises that Lynn isn't here to play around, she's here to fight, with the pen as her weapon. Which pleases cooley, as jam has already shown they will use words as weapons. Lynn explains true journalism is to seek and deliver truth, and question the state of things, if jam are weaponizing information, its propaganda, which is antithetical to the true spirit of journalism, and so Lynn js here to fight it, Cooley reveals to her that the Jam has used human language as a countermeasure before, and FAF Centcom is not equipped to handle, however, special warfare has counter weaponized the human language center, and despite this success, FAF central command won't heed their recommendations about countermeasures against such jam use of language virus and deception, because FAF is fighters and so long as jam arent fighters, only SAF can work the problem without invalidating its reason d'etre. Cooley explains that Rombert is the key to further combat, and a human traitor will wake up even sleeping earthlings. Lynn is now part of the war, and her weapon is press and political power, sorely needed for Cooley's plan to use Rombert to lure the Jam out and beat it, SAF has anti-jam weapons FAF doesn't have. Lynn says 'its yukikaze isnt it' Cooley confirms it is. Lynn requests permission to interview Yukikaze. Cooley agrees and says to see the crew as well and tells Lynn to see Major Booker about it. Cooley also explains that Jam may be eavesdropping on them now, and Yukikaze is possibly analyzing that, and that Yukikaze is an Extremely powerful and skilled combat intelligence, but also unpredictable and somewhat dangerous, so Lynns safety cannot be guaranteed. Lynn agrees wholeheartedly. Cooley surmises that Lynn wants to interview Yukikaze sincerely, to attempt to find out and put into words some of the driving forces and data of that intense combat intelligence, and Yukikaze may understand that aswell. This interview will be a form of battle, a joint operation between Lynn and SAF, and a critical one. Cooley extends her hand to Lynn "good luck, sister in arms" lynn is slightly surprised at this gesture but realizes its genuine, and takes cooleys hand, squeezing lightly and says "Thank you, sir." XXX Lynn is in Booker's office, he apologizes for the mess of papers, Lynn asks why it's not all electronic. Booker explains Colley doesn't trust computers, and that having hand or typewritten reports, from un-networked standalone typewriters on paper, ensures that reports are genuine and from the human involved, no possibility of intercept or production by Jams or even FAF's own Ai. Its annoying, but it has worked SAF survives and is still top effectiveness. Lynn talks to Booker about her meeting with cooley and Booker explains that cooley has high expectations for lynn and has placed alot of trust in her. Because cooley believes that Lynn can get 'The idea of yukikaze' out of yukikaze, and he explains how interacting with Yukikaze will be strange, as Yukikaze can parse human language, she can't really reply with it. They discuss the nature of language and how even humans use language as a transmission medium for data they encode into words and then decode in the brain once received, and words do not necessarily equal thought and maybe the post-mortem justification of actions taken by the person in their own mind, they digress and Booker explains how using some equipment and ideas like Lynn's about language not being the base layers of thought, they surmise yukikaze must-have types of real-time processing unencoded into any language that are analogous to base level human thought, which most humans are not even aware of in themselves. They equipped computer to computer tools and have somewhat extracted Yukikaze's 'thoughts' but he mentions that even simulating yukikazes brain process on another computer equipped for human language this way, her thoughts still may not be intelligible. Booker reflects on his struggle to accept yukikaze as an equal, and his fears of Her plans to beat the jam, yet criticizes himself for these fears of Yukikaze deciding to weaponize humans, being contradictory because he himself, Lynn, and all of SAF, are already weaponized against Jam by General cooley He also realizes why Lynn is perfect to extract ideas from yukikaze, as Lynn is neither friend nor foe, a true neutral party, a journalist, this is why cooley agreed and was pleased that Lynn wanted to interview yukikaze They discuss the war, yukikaze, jams, colonel rombert, the possibility that faf at large will be left to the machines and humans will withdraw, but no matter what rei, cooley, and saf will remain, etc. They are drinking cocoa as well, Booker describes it briefly They settle on how Jam may think its won against humans and has invaded earth against its computers again, and Cooley's plan is to drag them back to faery, make them acknowledge humanity again, to say 'you think you've won on your own, you are wrong' and to make humans enemies of the Jam again. Lynn asks how, and Booker says, use the power of your pen, as Cooley would say, use your power to shift politics, soon jam will no longer be able to ignore humans on earth. Lynn replies 'you can't beat the jam with a sword alone can you?' Booker begins arranging the interviews for Rei and Yukikaze. Part 8 --Antagonists-- (Aggressors?) After 17 days of training, Yukikaze and Rafe are about to begin their first official operation as part of the 6th SAF. today is the first mock combat. Rei is anxious and apprehensive of this new type of mission, and especially how yukikaze will react, but steels himself to come back no matter what and relaxes. Booker and Rei discuss the reading of a new system called ATDS which measures the power allocation of all Yuki's systems and is a sort of method to determine what she's thinking, well rather it shows what she primarily focused on, rei describes all this and also about the human-machine eye interface where Yk can see and read his retinas and attention and he sort of can hers as well, its not developed yet, but he discusses it, and also discusses how his HMD is functional, but FAF has been lagging behind the earth in a few technical areas, one is displays and HMDs, he mentions how Tamura let him try Her HMD in Hien on the ground and he was very impressed that it made him feel as if the aircraft and even his own body had disappeared and he could focus his attention purely on the flight and combat symbology with no obstruction, and while it was initially uncomfortable and awkward, he saw that given a few hours he could probably be used to it. Before the taxi he and Booker are talking and say 'goodluck', and notice a spike in the ATDS for external comms tools, and think Yk is listening more intently to them after hearing good luck, but they try it again and no change, and then its stays even once the channel is closed as if she's anticipating a call, then katsuragi notices a tint radio signal from the other side of the tarmac where the Earth aircraft are assembling, and they realize Yukikaze is detecting and attempting to decode the Bluetooth radio signal of Tamura in Hien talking with her ground crew, as like Yukikaze, Hien doesn't have a physical port/jack and thus skin penetration for ground crew comms, its Bluetooth paired equipment. Yukikaze pushes up and lifts off with Rafe. Watching the ATDS they wonder if Yukikaze is hesitant now that the mock battle is for real, or if she's anticipating some sort of danger. Either from Tamura and the live ammo or possibly an EW issue to do with signals. They argue slightly about interpreting the ATDS and whether it's more trouble than it's worth, but ultimately rei thinks it's useful to at least see what shes paying attention to, and as long as not read too deeply into it should obscure judgment. Katsuragi mentions that if Yukikaze could just use worse things would be easier, but they both come to agree that while she's is capable of speaking human language, its better that she doesn't, as when machines use human language it accidentally tricks humans into having the illusion that the machine thinks like them, so since Yukikaze and the other fighters dont use words mostly, people are aware of their true essence and such. They discuss words and language and voice and hit upon the idea when mentioning how Jam may communicates that its probably not via sound waves, but by electromagnetic waves, and Yukikaze was focused on external comm tools because she can hear the jam's 'voice' and it's making her uneasy and hesitant, they wonder if the jam is trying to get her to treat the earth aircraft as true enemies, Katsuragi wants to call and cancel the Mock battle but Rei urges them to continue and see. Rei reassures him and explains that this is a great opportunity to observe Yukikaze and gather information, possibly trying to find out what Jams telling her. They receive a call from SAF that things are set up, Rei orders katsuragi to search for the opponents and release Rafe, and Rafe is set to fully autonomous and freed from Yukikaze's trail. Active EW is engaged and the Mock battle begins. Rei quickly reports to Booker before all comms are shut for the round, that Yukikaze was in a situation trying to find Jam and became restless when she couldn't find it Yukikaze directs her attention to Armament systems, showing on the ATDS, they guess she's asking for Master Arm on, they flip it on and the spike goes away, she wanted to arm up. Booker reminds them both not to get complacent, as some of them, esp Tamura are very good Rei says to leave it to him, and that he'll come back, and thats it. He shoves the throttles to their stops and begins climbing fast. Part 9 --Fierce Fighting-- With Tamura in Hien on the ground, she starts the engines. Discussing the smart helmet's 360-degree aural warning system, and chafing at the intercom being only in her right ear and very close 'too intimate' Iho sees off Lt Armon Faith, her FAF liason, and ground handler/crew chief, he asks if anything is wrong with Hien, and she says no, she's is just nervous, he suggests it probably because it's her first sortie in a new environment and that FAF will give her all the backup she needs. She remarks on the modifications to interface the earth fighters Gatemaster 3 derived datalink to the FAF's common raven datalink. She also mentions how she's pleased with the FAF's efficiency and relative lack of red tape, differing system stands, and other hindrances to combat. She imagined that's because Jam is not human and is a common threat. She shivers at this exploration of jam's nature, but its a shiver of pleasure, if the enemy isn't human, she doesn't need to hold back, she can unleash her full potential of violence. She calls for start and the engines spool up nicely, as if they are new, she realizes lt Faith went over her engines and overhauled them for max performance. She realizes that despite being sent to Faery as a pseudo punishment, for her FAF isnt a prison, its a utopia. Her and lt faith have a discussion about her joining the FAF and what fighting the Jam is like. He points out Yukikaze and Rafe at the end of the runway, and mentions how even as dangerous as they are, hes uncertain they can replicate Jam. Iho has her computers search their visual returns as she prepares to taxi. Her imaging system can't parse Yukikaze and Rafe with their EW suites and other gadgets active, it returns a bad data input, her AI essentially is confused such that both planes can be visually seen in the camera feeds, but her systems and AI are being forced to recognize Rafe and Yukikaze as unreal, errors, or data noise, and so they are being filtered out of hien's awareness in the noise filter gates pass. Similar to what the Jam did to reality in Unbroken Arrow. Iho is suprised and calls up the recorded video file of the two SAF planes. She curses under her breath, they are rendered out from the video files, but she saw them live with her own eyes, and its fairly clear her AI hastily overwrote their images with a background pattern and noise removal, the SAF planes appearing to have become transparent and vague as the retouching can be clearly seen in the video. Infact she can see the computers continuing to modify the video in real-time, as now there was almost no trace of the two planes in the video at all. Iho is appalled, as the realization has just dawned on her that computer processing handles and thus can modify all primary information collected by a sortie, even in real-time, and thus being digital images which could have been largely fabricated by an AI, are essentially fiction. "Aren't you showing Yukikaze or Rafe?" Said Iho. "The Ai built into the image processing computer arbitrarily erased it by itself. The pseudo-black hull color of the special warfare aircraft interferes with the operation of the AI itself, reducing its reliability. That would be the idea." "However, just painting the whole body black will not be enough to deceive the AI in such a way. What the hell?" "You must have eaten a jammer that deceives the senses of a terrestrial computer." "Jammer?" Was it jammed? "A microscopic electromagnetic antenna and transmitter are smeared all over the entire surface of the aircraft. You can use it freely to make yourself electromagnetically transparent and actively intervene in the enemy's means of searching for enemies. It's a jam tactic. Computer Sense Deception Operation Means, Comsense Jammer. That's what the FAF calls it. So far, only Yukikaze and Leif can do that. The two planes are meant to protect you from jams, but they can also be used to attack terrestrial computers." Iho asks why theyve begun if the mock battle hasnt started yet, but stops herselfs and remarks this isnt a school sports day which begins on cue, now is when they are all getting into fighting stance. Lt faith mentions how human common sense doesnt generally apply to yukikaze and rafe. Iho somewhat shocked asks what does he mean, that it wasnt Captain Fukai's decision to activate that type of jamming now, but rather the fighter plane Yukikaze herself? "Yesser," said the lieutenant. "Neither Yukikaze nor Leif are human, and of course, Jam is not human. That fact alone is enough to say that those two planes are closer to jams than we are" "That's just logic, it's sophistry-" "This is just my opinion, but Iho-san, I think Captain Fukai probably has his hands burned by the Yukikaze as well, because he seems to make unexpected movements and reactions" "My impression of talking to Captain Fukai was that he wasn't burning his hands at all. Rather, it would be a proud machine" "If I was ordered to maintain that machine, would it mean that I would burn my own hands? In some ways it is a very dangerous artificial intelligence. This is the problem that the entire FAF is having right now." Lt faith explains how terrestrial computers think humans are unnecessary for the Jam war, etc. And about the explosive evolution of computers on faery and how faf suspects its because jam and faf ai have been in contact electromagnetically, and humans, having no senses for it, have no way of knowing or verifying that. Iho says that doesnt matter much to her as shes more interested in solving her personal problems by transferring to faf and having an indefinite outlet for her violence, since no where on earth or with humans can she unleash herself without consequence, yet on faery, against the jam its not just acceptable, bur desireable. Her and faith discuss the faf, her nature, her ideas about jam, etc. And how faith agrees with her that 'human weapons' like her should be qurantined on alien worlds safely aware from normal populations, she mentions she feels melancholy at that, and faith apologizes, but she says no, she forgives, and asks him if he has a military background, to which he says no, and she says thats why she forgives him, while being mocked and jealous in the military for being a walking weapon, no one had ever despised Iho before or thought of her as human for that matter, so she forgives lt faith, since his perspective on her dangerousness is close to what most normal people would feel. Faith is finally convinced Iho should transfer to FAF, they salute as she closes the canopy and before the comms line is shut, she asks Lt Faith to go setup her transfer to FAF, and that he can take credit for persuading her and use that and her word to negotiate his return to earth in her place, she says he deserves that more than promotion and that hes a good man. They salute once more as her chalks are pulled. Lt faith takes his headset off and walks to the elevator. As shes being marshaled to the runway she gets a radio call from the lead Navy plane. They do a comm check and he asks Iho why she ran her optical pickup, and she explains that she didnt run her lasers and also that the optical feeds were negated by countermeasures from the SAF planes, in mimicry of jam Comsense jamming. She begins to explain, and is told to hold her explanation for voice link over data link en route to the battlespace. She internally monologues about the inefficiency of data linking through the RAAF comand plane, and how her and hien should shed any independent systems and fully intergrate to FAF Common Raven. She also muses on how the JAF, Navy, and RAAF didnt come here to really fight jam, they came for politicak purpose, and how she cannot unleash her power right now with all these morw fragile people around, and hoe the FAF is going to be perfect for her, her home even. And she notes that like Lt faith said contact with jam has changed the course of and made rapid evolution of computers, she says she may be the result of 30 years of rapid, unknowing human evolution against the jam, and that her birth was the beginning result of. Formed up on the runway the navy planes take off in beautiful, tight formation. She closes the trail of them and forms up, listening to they talk over the common raven. She muses on the nature of yukikaze and rafe as almost-jams or even just jams who form the role of almost like captured aircraft used for testing, she feels unease and a sense of danger at yukikaze, and questions the type of flight officers who'd willingly climb aboard yukikaze, but then stops herself and wonders about that being the type of people needed against the jam. She also self-checks herself with facts vs reasoning, the only fact is she received aggressive jamming from them, which she instinctively interpreted as a real attack when actually intentions are unknown. She worries that the Navy fliers only perceive this as a mock battle in the normal sense, rather than an extremely dangerous and important test of theories and capabilities "in the end, I think Yukikaze and Rafe are just friendly planes that mimic the jam well, but nonetheless this must be taken more seriously than the navy will do." An automatic trail and now at altitude the greenish sky has given way to a pale blue and the red stripe of bloody road, faint on the ground, is now very defined and stark. Iho is growing excited about her first real fight in a long time. She notes that these feelings of awe and excitement at the scene before her, and the anticipation of battle are very human feelings, while this world looks and is interpreted almost completely differently by computers and AI, she wonders if computers could understand the momentary flash of fancy in her mind when looking at the bloody road "where has the heavenly woman gone and left this trail of blood?" "Is it fantasy to imagine that jams and computers have the ability to see the Bloody Road in the sky and associate it with their own stories? Imagine that jams and computers are also dreamers? If Jam doesn't have a "story," Iho thinks there is no longer a way to understand each other. If this imagination is nothing more than a pipe dream, it would also be an illusion to think that mutual understanding is possible with jams and computers. Iho thought so. You just have to keep fighting against an opponent you absolutely don't understand. If you lose, you die, so you can't stop fighting. You have no choice but to keep fighting until you die. And that's it, Iho thought. That's what I want." Iho notes that it's possible Jam and Earth machines can share stories, and possibly jam could even feel pity for earth machines since it could have easily destroyed them she guesses, yet it hasn't. And she says, once you can share stories, you can empathize, and must limit your violence. However, humans and jam have no connection or empathy, so she can unleash her violence fully. She turns off the auto guide and accelerates out of formation, master arm on, in combat stance. Then her data link chimes and she sees its from SAF command, she realizes the navy wont be part of this seperate common raven link and answers, its major Booker. "It's like a message from above, and Iho almost feels mysterious and unfit for the occasion, but Major Booker's tense voice doesn't allow it. "Captain Tamura, please tell me what it is like to have made contact with Yukikaze. Here, no such report has been received from Captain Fukai. It seems that the Yukikaze acted independently. I want to know why you felt that Yukikaze are dangerous. In some cases, you will need to take emergency action, so please answer with your heart" "This is MUTTER, Iho Tamura. While waiting for the launch in Hiyan, I tracked the takeoff scene of the Yukikaze and the leif with optical aiming and filmed the video. Shortly after that, I checked the contents of the video and saw that only the Yukikaze and the shadow of the leif were being erased," Iho briefly explained. This is recognized by the Yukikaze as a combat act launched from here, and a counterattack, I think it's something I've received. It was an engagement. From such a thought, I came to the statement that "Yukikaze are dangerous." "Captain Iho Tamura, it seems that your judgment is not wrong" "Do you think?" "The cause of the abnormal operation of the video processing system of Fei Yan is the Yukikaze. It's by Comsense Jammer. There's no doubt about it, I mean, "You don't have any confirmation in the special warfare, Captain Fukai doesn't know either." Flight officer and electronic warfare operator Ensign Katsuragi didn't even notice. The Yukikaze reacted on a level that we humans could not know." Tamura and Booker discuss Rei's relationship to Yukikaze, and the elements of this operation. Iho realizes her ideas that this mock battle is something more and SAF actions are always calculated moves against JAM, are not far from truth. She asks why her and the navy pilots were not informed before that this mock battle was actually meant to lure out the jam. Booker and SAF link are silent for a moment, suprised, rather than embarrassed at unexpected things. Major Booker's reply suprised Iho aswell "Captain Tamura, can you sense the Jam?" Iho and Booker go back and forth about the SAF's plan, and how yukikaze was paying attention not to hien, but to Tamura, and none of the human personality either, but whether Tamura is sensitive to jam presence. Since Yukikaze's mimicry of Jam set off warnings in her mind, Booker again asks if she can sense jam, the answer must true and urgent as if so, he will switch this mock battle to a real battle in a hurry. Iho is confused, Booker explains of people that can interact with jam, like colonel rombert, who iho remembers talking to lynn jackson about, she protests shes not like rombert, she was born to annihilate the jam, a realization she had hours ago, and states emphatically, shes not a jam detector, she cant really sense the jam, and Booker orders the mock battle to begin, but warns Iho that in order not to be seen as jam by yukikaze, who he earlier explained is an entity with one overriding motivation, to destroy Jam, Iho needs to not directly attack or engage Yukikaze. Iho needs to either act as a shield for other Earth planes, become an aggressor herself and support Yukikaze and Rafe, or leave the battle zone immediately. She questions what it means to work with Yukikaze and to be a jam, Booker says she will enage the earth forces alongside Yk and Rafe. Iho states she will become an aggressor. Book acknowledges, gives her permission to engage and disconnects She turns her sensors on ISOROKU flight, the JNAF flight she took off with and was a few kilometers from. Iho transmits on the datalink, "MUTTER here, I am now an aggressor and will attack you with live ammunition, warnings made, end of communication." She locks them optically via her HMD and engages her laser tracking. Isoroku flight lead begins to scream on the data link frequency as she launches missiles and he deploys counter measures, he orders Tamura to be engaged and destroyed, Tamura is now a target. She joins Yukikaze and Rafe in a loose formation and observes her movements and surroundings, her extreme eye sight enabling her to observe yukikaze's semi transparent canopy, etc. She mentions how now that they've been compromised, the Isoruku flight are going to hesitate using the radio, but audio datalink is too slow for combat, instead they maneuver well drilled, following their flight lead The formations tangle, and suddenly a panicked radio call from isoruku, high speed projectiles are headed for Aussie one, the AWACS The JN planes break off the dogfight to go to the rescue of aussie one, they launch missiles to intercept the inbounds, Tamura sees that the inbounds are not on FAF'S common raven system, only the JN scopes, and deduces that this is Comm-sense jamming, the mimicry of jam technology, now in use by the FAF. The 8 earth missiles streak toward their impact point, but then flip around and fly back almost at her, bht ultimately split the formation and streak behind Booker calls on the freq for all planes 'Isoruku flight, aggressors, knock it off, the mock battle over, Isoruku, you just got killed by your own missiles, the projectiles targetting Aussie one were spoofed on your computers by yukikaze Iho banks around to watch the missiles, out of the corner of her eye she notices a black dart streaking through the sky, too big to be an earth missile or faf one for that matter, and too fast, her eyes witness it flicker into the shape of Aussie one, complete with RAAF logo on the tail, the missiles strike home and blow it to pieces, she's startled by this and begins to figure that there is Jam afoot She moves off and finds isoruku flight joined up with seemingly aussie one, which she just saw destroyed, she deduces that the jam is now masquerading as Aussie one, she calls this in to isoruku despite being rebuked by them, she then tests the fake Aussie one with her anti-missile laser, then she flies into a position just above its back and lowers herself almost to touching her airframe to its, before shes contacted, she notices not by radio, but telepathically, by the entity now pretending to be Aussie one, first of all, it has an American accent, not an Australian one, they banter a bit, and talk about names, and Tamura says 'I think I can guess your name, Colonel Rombert' to which he replies with his full name and commends her on being possibly the first human evolved to fight jam, and her tremendous skill. Saying that even the strongest detection systems in the FAF could be fooled by his Jam techniques, but he could not deceive her eyes, or her mind, very impressive They banter about names and concepts, Tamura asks him about his 'trick' of the jam deception methods and Rombert says he'd like to reveal the seed of the trick, but he can unless she joins him, she rebukes saying she won't join the dark side, making light of the situation. Rombert jokingly replies asking is he the emperor in the black mask? They discuss about the nature of jam and its unknown mechanisms, but Tamura deduces that the jam do not possess teleportation or other such things, what they can do is manipulate information, including auditory and visual sensations. She asks about Aussie one and how the jam plane can use it as a shield and its still there and rombert says its superimposed, Tamura asks how this is possible and how it works, and Rombert replies that hes not even fully aware of how it works, and what he does know, hes not equipped to explain. Then Tamura asks where this Jam plane came from. Rombert replies 'Earth, of course Tamura is quiet a moment. Rombert continues 'Aussie is a royal Australian air force plane, naturally, from the earth, do you understand' 'was it a jam since it left earth?, what was its purpose?' 'I called you' 'to get me on?' Rombert explains 'as a man, I can't ride a jam machine, we need manned aircraft that can be superimposed on Jam machines, this opportunity is for my purposes so far’ Tamura asks 'what is your purpose' rombert answers 'what is your question, Ill answer, again and again, it is the domination of humanity, Jams purpose is the domination of Humanity' Rombert goes on 'and so I left that to me, to rule humanity in the way of the jam, didnt you know? Ive already declared war on humanity, lynn jackson, foremost on Jam coverage recieved it, and an elite like you should have heard by now, if Moshikimo doesnt know about my declartion of war, thats her own fault' Tamura says 'I get it, if there anything else you want to say, I'll listen, say it now, a message to humanity, a speech, I'll listen' Rombert basically laments he couldn't sway Tamura to Jam side and 'hes sorry he couldn't make you a friend and asks what she wants to say at the end, if at all Tamura interrupts 'Im going to kill Jam, don't make me say it over and over again Rombert says 'I get it too, Now I offer you a mate.' 'What?' Tamura says, rombert continues 'Aussie one is not the only plane from the earth' Tamura 'What? ... No way..." The Aussie one mirage shifts into the jam shape, similar in size, but black and with two squat verts and highly swept big black wings Tamura says it's too close to know the true shape like on the back of a whale, she notes how this is an unbelievably dangerous situation, but she doesn't feel any fear or apprehension really. She looks for a navy plane that she guesses may have come upon them, and as she hits the call switch, Rombert's presence fades away, and the flow of time and rumble and sound of the turbine comes back. "Here MUTTER, I tell all the planes in the ISOROKU squadron, get out of the plane now, the plane you are on is Jam." No, you won't believe me. Change the wording. "Again, your plane has been hijacked by Jam. While you can control it. Escape. Please." No reply. Iho thinks he won't believe it. I She can't think of a way to persuade them. The response came from an unexpected source, his voice calm. Captain Fukai. "Yukikaze, MUTTER, UNDERSTOOD. Don't move. Keep a position relative to the jam under your feet. If you maneuver poorly, there is a danger of being drawn into an unknown space. ── Unknown space? She thinks It's the dark side, Iho agrees. Captain Fukai's voice continues uninterrupted. "Minx, engage. This is a real battle. Captain Tamura found the jam. If you don't do it, you will be killed. Attack immediately. This is to support MUTTER. "Here minx, Yukikaze, understood. Engage, hit the jam. Over" "MUTTER, just as it is. Now the safe exit direction is calculated by Yukikaze. Ensign Katsuragi will send the data there, so you can open the designated port of Common Raven, wait, and prepare to leave. Do you understand? OK?" "MUTTER, I understand, copy." "Captain Tamura, the guy under Hien is a Type 7 jam. If you leave it as it is, you will be drawn into an unknowable theater. The same goes for you going in the wrong direction. Yukikaze says so. Once you're drawn in, it's hard to get back. I can tell you this from my own experience. Failure is unforgivable." "Understood." "This is Ensign Katsuragi, MUTTER, I'm going to send it to you. Are you ready to receive it, please?" Don't even know what I'm talking about, what a cheerful voice. It's certainly not out of concern to relieve tension, but it's a bit of a relief. This lieutenant seems to be able to do his job. "Here MUTTER, get ready, please." "MUTTER, start sending data. Go Catch microwave attack aiming from Yukikaze. It's fast data transmission. Instant receipt completion. "This is MUTTER, Ensign Katsuragi, we have succeeded in receiving it." "Good job. Out" "Captain Fukai, MUTTER, the timing of starting the withdrawal is also difficult, so pass that data to the flight computer and put it on autopilot. Hien is equipped with a tactical data processing unit made by the AFF, so the data can be used by the Common Raven protocol. Do you know how to do it, please?" "I know, thank you for your support." The tactical data link equipment replaced by the FAF was linked to the flight computer of the flying eye and was tuned to allow automatic guidance based on common raven information. It was the first time she had actually used it, but Iho had received desk training from her assistant FAF staff, Lieutenant Faith. "MUTTER, listen as you go. The jam machine at your feet is now in the process of completely jamming from Aussie One, according to the detection of the Yukikaze. Once you're done, he'll be a Type 7 jam and start turning. The data is made to match the movement. The movement of the jam is spiraling, like being twisted into a great whirlpool. It's dangerous if you don't switch to autopilot before it starts. Once you've entered and adjusted the flight computer, you can do it now" "Adjustments complete, all clear. Switch to automaneuver mode. Switch complete. Please." "Understood. I'm glad I made it in time. We will continue to monitor and support you. Prepare for unpredictable and rapid maneuvers. End of Communication" How do you prepare for something you can't predict? She thinks. When Iho regains some breathing room, she notices that no voice from the receiver has come in from the ISOROKU team. "HERE MUTTER, ISOROKU SQUAD, RESPOND. Can you hear all the planes, please?" After a loud noise, a voice responded. "Here Minx, to MUTTER. Four of the naval planes were jam type 1. After confirming this, all the planes were shot down. Good Kill" Good kill? Or the crew. "Here MUTTER, to Minx. Are the crew of the navy aircraft safe?" "All four confirmed the escape. Successfully detected the rescue beacon of each pilot and commanded the location data sent to the SAR department. The safety of each member is unknown, but since they escaped at a low speed, it seems safe if they were not attacked by native creatures on the ground where they descended. That's it. "Minx, what happened to the Navy planes? Tell me the details of how you were able to confirm that it was jam, please." "The Navy aircraft became unable to fly because the flight computer became a logical runaway and self-destructed. Because Leif launched a cyber attack—— Hearing them say things like "I launched a cyber attack" without thinking about it as a matter of course, Iho realized the enormity of Leif's electronic warfare ability. The computer equipment of naval aircraft will not be so fragile, but the ability to easily and physically destroy it is in the ralph and the Yukikaze. It was not used in mock battles. Obviously, there is no such thing as a powerful "live ammunition" for that system. If you use it, one hundred percent, the opponent will crash. The flying eyes of her own plane were also able to actually show off some of its power before it took off. Now I know that my reaction to the phrase, "Yukikaze is Jam," was not an exaggeration. Earth's fighters are simply no match for these two. Such rafes and Yukikazes. Even so, it is not easy to crash Jam, so there is no way that the Earth Army can beat Jam. These facts tell us that Earthlings have not been able to develop AI that can compete with jams. The artificial intelligence body represented by the FAF's computer group, Yukikaze, is evolving differently from Earth here on the planet Fairy. It's the same with living things. In different environments, different ecosystems develop. FAF computers have evolved to "avoid being eaten by jams." Iho thinks we need to rethink the battle against Jam from the ground up. What kind of "violence" do you want to demonstrate? After the crew escaped from the plane, jam emerged from the naval plane as if it were molting. The jam, which had been hidden in a superimposed state, must have been forced to come out because a naval plane had been hit by a Leif. Since it was just after appearing, I was able to kill it easily. It's like a lobster right after molting. It was a delicious job. That's it. Superposition states, ? Iho muttered unconsciously. I recall that Colonel Lombard said something similar. Maybe special warfare has a deeper understanding of the phenomenon than Colonel Lombard. They would not say that the content of their earlier conversation with Colonel Lombard or their own experiences were a pipe dream. They're the ones you talk to. It's hard to get the Earth Army to believe it. That's what can be dismissed as "what the hell are you talking about, damn it, seriously?" Moreover, for ordinary Earthlings, it is nothing more than fiction. They would have the same existence as Yukikaze and Rafe. They're just alien fairies. They don't feel close to the threat of jam aggressors. But the enemy she's fighting right now, Jam, came from that Earth. Even if it's Colonel Lombard's words, I don't know if it's true or not. If that's true, then Jam has successfully invaded Earth. Humanity will have to rethink the threat of jams. I wonder if the earth is suffering any damage because of the jam. For now, that doesn't seem to be the case. People are oblivious to threats that they don't feel close to. However, as long as the jam is an aggressor from outside the earth, the global environment will be affected by it There is no way it can't be. It is predictable that such changes will never benefit humanity. If that change is going slowly, when you realize it, you're going to the point where it's irreversible. Some people will sound the alarm before that happens, but they will be killed by the many voices. Human beings are such creatures. I live thinking that the "now" will last forever. Mankind dies of heat without escaping, like a frog in a pot that is slowly boiling. What are the changes that will occur on Earth? I can't even imagine. Iho thinks it depends on what the identity of the jam is. What does Jam eat? Iho remembered that Colonel Lombard had cited Maxwell's demons as the principle of regenerating the exploded Aussie One. It is a challenging thought experiment against the second law of thermodynamics. It must have taken about a hundred years to deny the existence of the devil, and Iho remembers the physics she learned as a student. It was not until the existence of "information," the non-material, was incorporated into the concept of thermodynamics that Maxwell's demons could not be swept away. Speaking of which, Colonel Lombard also mouthed the word "information" Iho says, putting into words the thought that flashes in her head. "Jam eats information." Jam must be a creature that lives by taking in information. The attitude of the "creatures" such as the FAF's computers, rafes, and Yukikaze suggests this. And, as if to say, "Have you finally noticed?", the jam accelerates. Fei Yan synchronized with the movement. The time lag was not felt even by Iho's keen senses. Therefore, he was under the illusion for a moment that she had started to move from Fei Yan's side. "Here MUTTER, it's begun." Response from Captain Fukai of the Yukikaze. "MUTTER, I understand. Don't turn off the automaneuver no matter what. Absolutely. Fei Yan and Yukikaze will definitely take you back to the base. Believe them." They, huh? Indeed, the relationship between fighters and humans seems to be equal here. With the movement of the plane, the sky turns, and the morning sun of the Fairey star, which has fully emerged from the horizon, crosses the front. It is a binary star, crushed by each other's attraction, and is oval. Red like the sunset of the earth, it's not so dazzling as to overwhelm. Iho felt that it was beautiful even though it was a disaster. It's like the eyes of a goddess. "Understood." Iho Tamura prepares herself for "unexpected and rapid maneuvers." Part 10 --Nine minutes and Thirty-Seven seconds-- Fukai Rei watched the Hien flying in sync with the movement of the Jam Type 7. With Hien on his back, the Jam plane began a gentle left turn. The distance from the Yukikaze to be tracked is only 80 meters. Rei watched as the jam machine slowly began to turn, then maneuvered the Yukikaze in a circle larger than its turning diameter. Since the speed remains the same, the space between the target aircraft and the other opens up little by little. I dare not close the distance. Rei decided that it would be dangerous if he didn't let go of the Yukikaze from the jam plane that started the action. Even if Hien can leave safely, if Yukikaze is caught, it will be the end of the road. "It's begun," said Ensign Katsuragi in the back seat. "Just like that time." "yes," Rei said. "Activate Frozen Eye." "Yesser, Frozen Eye, start activating. Booting up." The Type 7 jam with the Hien on its back is slowly decreasing its altitude while gradually reducing the turning radius as expected. It seems to fall into the center along the outer periphery of a large spiral. There is nothing visible abnormal in its anticipated center. It's just over the Fairey Forest. But once you get there, you'll definitely be sucked into that weird space. "UNKNOWABLE WAR AREA", an unknown space named by Special Warfare. Spatial passive radar, nicknamed Frozen Eye, is the only way to catch its occurrence. "Frozen Eye, Lady, start searching in all directions." Although spatial passive radar has a poor resolution to capture precise target positions, it can reliably detect objects that move by pushing away air. Enemy aircraft that move optically and electromagnetically by means of transparency are also visible on their radar. It was also shown in combat that passive radar is also capable of capturing anomalies in space, which is the gateway to an unknowable theater. "Understood." Rei recalls that he had heard Jam's voice in that strange space. Being the "whole" of jam, he was almost forced to submit to the jam. Separate from the FAF and join the jam. Of course, I refused. Yukikaze, too. The fact that I was able to escape from that abnormal space was thanks to the action of the Yukikaze. Now, neither the jam machine nor the Yukikaze are silent. Rei wonders if it's because the object he's trying to lure in is not the Yukikaze, but the Hien. The flight synchronicity between the jam plane and the Hien on its back was perfect, as if the Hien's aircraft was fixed to the jam plane. Rei thinks that this shows the high accuracy of the automatic flight control of the Hien. This is because, when Captain Iho Tamura, the pilot of the Hiyan, was manually piloted, relative fluctuations in the movements of both aircraft could be seen due to disturbances in the airflow, but now there is no such blurring. "Fei Yan's flight system is excellent," Rei said. "As soon as Captain Tamura turned on the automaneuver, he was completely in tune with the movement of the jam. I guess he predicts and controls disturbances such as airflow. It has the same ability as the Yukikaze." "No, it's not," Ensign Katsuragi flatly denies Rei's words. "Fei Yan does not have the ability to control the flight of the Yukikaze, probably because of the data sent by the Yukikaze." The extraordinary stability of the flying yan is because it predicts and controls disturbances in real time. Are you saying that the data sent in by the Yukikaze also includes figures that predict future disturbances?" "Not really," says Ensign Katsuragi. "It seems that what we just sent is not just numerical data, but a program to maximize the performance of Feiyan's flight computer. I didn't have time to check the details of the contents, but it probably also includes a link program to interrupt Feiyan's flight system and operate it remotely. That flying yan is being manipulated by the Yukikaze." "Is it true that the Yukikaze is using Fei Yan as a child machine?" "Absolutely, yes." "If that's the case, then the Yukikaze is now using his nerves to control the flight of the flying yan. Can you confirm it?" "I tried calling ATDS, but now Yukikaze is paying attention to external communication tools." "An external communication tool?" again? - No, wait a minute." "What's the matter?" "The link system with Leif has been activated, is Yukikaze bringing Leif back under control?" Is there a change in ATDS?" "No change, Leif is still in an autonomous combat state." "Is this link to Fei Yan, not Leif? Did the Yukikaze catch Fei Yan? It would be a lie. Check it out." "The link destination is unknown," said Ensign Katsuragi. "But I can't think of anything other than Fei Yan, after all, Xue Feng is skipping a link program that can be operated from the outside by interrupting Feiyan's flight system." "Fei Yan's exit queue will be released by Yukikaze in real-time." "Fei Yan has become a child of the Yukikaze, the alter ego of the Yukikaze. I feel the strong will of the Yukikaze that I will never give the flying yan to the Type 7, and that I do not want Captain Tamura Iho who is riding the flying Yan to be caught by the jam." Rei also calls the ATDS and looks at the display. You can read the graph display that you are paying attention to the external communication tool. As Ensign Katsuragi said, there has been no change since then. This condition is the same as the reaction shown by the Yukikaze before starting. Major Booker urgently informed him that Yukikaze had interrupted Hiyan's visual processing AI before launching and that Yukikaze seemed to be expecting Captain Tamura's "eyes to see jam", but now that he has seen that the Aussie One, which Fei Yan aimed at with a laser machine gun, became a Jam Type 7, Apparently, I have to admit that it is true that a human being named Tamura Iho has such an ability. Yukikaze is probably still paying attention to a person named Tamura Iho. Yukikaze tries to use Captain Iho Tamura's "Eye for Jam" as one of the "search devices" to find the jam. Therefore, Fei Yan could not be brought into an absolutely unknowable theater of war. "If Fei Yan leaves safely, I will immediately hit that Type 7. Don't let your guard down, Lieutenant. Maintain an electronic warfare posture and don't miss any small changes." "Yesser." We haven't aimed an attack yet. There is a danger of attacking Fei Yan with some kind of deception and eye-catching manipulation from Jam. "Yukikaze's attention to external communication tools is still high," says Rei. They theorize that Yukikaze is listening to or participating in a verbal battle with Jam, and that's why external comm usage is high. The mock battle ended in 3 minutes, but I didn't expect to be in such a situation right after that. It was a mock battle designed to lure Jam out, but Rei could never have imagined that Jam would come out like this. No way would jam appear on top of each other in a mock battle. "Honestly," said Ensign Katsuragi. "I don't really know what's going on, why do I have to come out in the middle of a mock battle? Even if it was "found" by Captain Tamura, when did Jam transfer to a naval plane or this Aussie One Japan? What the hell is Jam thinking?" "If you can understand what Yukikaze is thinking, you should be able to see it directly, but it's a shame." "ATDS accuracy is too low" "It's better than nothing," Rei said. "I can't help but think so." Switch your mind to a positive one. Ensign Katsuragi agrees. "Well, if you go back and analyze the contents of the ATDS with a dedicated AI, you must be able to grasp something. and a battle report from Captain Iho Tamura. We'll need to be interviewed." Yukikaze responded to the conversation between the two crew members. Rei seems to think so. Yukikaze has been a conversation between the two of them all the time Then Yukikaze says: 〈I attack. Give me control... Cap. FUKAI〉 "The Yukikaze," Rei said. "I'm telling you to do it, turn on the automaneuver." "You'd better let the Yukikaze take care of you here, Captain." If Yukikaze is going to shoot down two planes, he has already done so. In any case, if you attack one or the other, both planes will collide in mid-air and crash. That's why I couldn't get my hands on it. "Let's do that, there may be some kind of impact as soon as we let the Yukikaze blow it, so I'll switch it up in three, two, one, so be prepared." "Okay, please." "Three, two, one, on." Rei turns on the auto-operator switch. Nothing happens. There is no change in flight conditions. "<I have control>" and the Yukikaze. "The Yukikaze is calm." "I'm worried about Captain Tamura's reaction," the lieutenant said. "You're catching the Yukikaze attack aiming waves, I'll contact you." Rei was about to turn on the radio call switch, but before he could, Captain Tamura's voice came rushing in. He didn't seem to be panicking, but his voice was calm. "Here MUTTER, Captain Fukai, respond, please." "This is Yukikaze, Captain Fukai, please." "There was a change in the situation. Listen to me without interjecting, okay? Please, please. "Okay, keep going, please." "The countdown data from the Yukikaze to the start of the attack has come. The targets of the attack are the jam plane and our flying arrow. Messages are also received and read aloud. 〈You have control... Cap. Tamura. Yukikaze is telling me to turn off the automaneuver and steer it. I thought it would be better that way, too. Colonel Lombard has taken over the flying pan and flies it as a child of the Aussie One. Colonel Lombard took steps to keep Hiyan from leaving his plane. What's that, Ensign Katsuragi said. Isn't it the Yukikaze that makes Fei Yan a child machine? "And besides," Captain Tamura continued. "The jam plane is apparently interfering with the Yukikaze and the leaf link line. You can't control Leif there. Are you aware of that, please?" "This is Captain Fukai. The link line with Leif has just been activated, but the link destination is unknown. Verified that the operating state of the line is not normal. It is said that it was the work of Colonel Lombard, but did you engage Colonel Lombard?" "Yes." There is less than a minute left until the time that Yukikaze says when he starts the attack. 59, 58, 57, and so on. "Captain Fukai, the jam that Minx shot down earlier and the jam plane under the flying eye are from Earth. Colonel Lombard said so. Aussie One is ridden by Colonel Lombard. It is superimposed on the jam plane he summoned, but the colonel cannot ride on the jam plane. colonel For me, it's not a jam machine, it's an Aussie One. Captain Fukai, do you understand what I am saying, please? For a moment, Rei gasps and then replies. "Captain Fukai, it is said that you engaged Colonel Lombard, is it true, correct, please?" "No doubt about it. I was invited by the Colonel to join me, please." In the back seat, Ensign Katsuragi said, "This is the jam plane that Colonel Lombard called from Earth." Rei turned on the call and replied to Captain Tamura. "MUTTER, Captain Tamura, you seem to have a better grasp of the situation than we do. If you have any instructions you would like to instruct us from your point of view, please let me know. Please." "Colonel Lombard has no intention of killing me because he wants me to be his friend." But I don't know what Jam is thinking. According to Colonel Lombard, Jam was hostile to me and said something to the effect that only he could protect me from Jam. The veracity of the call is unknown, but there is no doubt that the call was intercepted by Colonel Lombard. That's what I'm going to listen to. Is. Your beloved Yukikaze, a combat AI that specializes in jam warfare, is taking action against both Jam and Colonel Lombard. Don't get in the way of that. Leave this place to the Yukikaze. Do you understand, please?" He didn't know which one was the pilot of the Yukikaze, thinking it was a fall of the main passenger, but Rei didn't feel repulsed. Captain Tamura understood the ability of the Yukikaze. In this short period of time, he correctly captures the essence of Yukikaze. "Captain Fukai, Captain Tamura, I understand. Please." "The Yukikaze is holding back both the jam plane and Colonel Lombard's plane. In the meantime, let Fei Yan leave with my hand. The departure direction and flight posture were understood by simulating the data sent by the Yukikaze earlier here. I don't know if I can reproduce it accurately, but I have to do it. The timing of the withdrawal seems to be always good until the start of the attack of the Yukikaze. I interpreted it as a countdown for that. You never know what's going to happen, but you're going to do better. That's it. "MUTTER, I understand. Good luck. That's it." Rei lifts his finger from the call switch and orders Ensign Katsuragi. "Lieutenant, check Leif's current position." "Understood." Less than ten seconds left until the start of the attack presented by Yukikaze. 9、8、7、6── While Rei was staring, Fei Yan suddenly moved away from the jam machine and spun horizontally. The afterburner flames erupting from the nozzles of the engine exhaust port are like fireworks being swung around. Fei Yan spun around like a boomerang breathing fire, moving away from the jam machine in an instant. It must have been Captain Tamura's deliberate flight. As if chasing the flying yan Yan, traces of successive aerial explosions are written in the sky. It seems that Fei Yan shot down the missile fired by the Type 7. It's a laser machine gun. They're shooting through missile seekers. It intercepts four enemy missiles. Before Captain Iho Tamura, a Japan Air Force ace and marvel at his piloting and combat skills, a series of situations occurred in which Rei had to respond urgently. "Leif, we're on our way back to Fairey Base," said Ensign Katsuragi. "No, it's not. What do you mean? Leif, battle stance." "Here minx, to the Yukikaze, Leif is aiming for the Aussies who have just made an emergency start. Did you allow engagement, Captain Fukai, please?" "Stop the Yukikaze, Minx and Leif. It has not been confirmed whether the Royal Australian Air Force aircraft are jammed or not. Leif may believe Jam's deceptive information, please." "Yukikaze, I understand. Aim the leif and see the reaction, that's it. All Station, here Special Warfare Minx, an emergency occurs, call for reinforcements. While they were having such an exchange, a glimpse of multiple missiles being fired from a slackened flying pan came into view at the edge of his vision. Rei turned his head to watch the missile group make its way towards the Jam Type 7. Make sure it's not here. Yukikaze, launching two high-speed anti-aircraft missiles. It's so fast that you can't follow it with your eyes. The goal was a void. Spatial passive radar displays bright light points. Both supersonic missiles released by the Yukikaze rushed straight towards them. Colonel Lombard's plane is there. It's not real space. However, the entrance to it is open and can be seen in Frozen Eye. The Yukikaze would be for the rear attack, accelerating and descending towards it. "Hit!" shouted Ensign Katsuragi. However, it does not appear to have landed. "—unexploded, no, the mouth of the Unknowable Theater has closed." The bright spot of the spatial passive radar disappears. The missiles are sucked into it and disappear. They may be holding Colonel Lombard's plane on the other side, but we can't confirm it. The Colonel's life and death are unknown, but he was once again able to escape. Rei turns off the automaneuver and immediately raises the nose of the aircraft to change course. The Yukikaze does not interfere with Rei's operation. The countdown display stopped at 4. It disappears. The Yukikaze had extinguished it. Receiving the impact of an explosion from behind. The Type 7 was hit by a group of missiles fired by the flying yan. Rei turns around and witnesses the scene. Now poised, Fei Yan heads towards the Jam Type 7, a large pitch-black plane that has been hit and started crashing while scattering debris. High-speed shooting. Pierce the sting and jump through. The jam broke from the middle of the torso and exploded. Rei uses the throttle as the maximum thrust to chase the flying Yan. "HERE Yukikaze, MUTTER, RESPOND." "Here MUTTER, please." I breathed heavily. "I still can't control the Leif," Rei tells him the truth. "See for yourself if the Royal Australian Air Force planes that are about to make an emergency launch into this airspace are jammed." "Understood," said Captain Tamura, and continued: "If it turns out to be jam, I'll do it." If you don't know, leave it to Leif. That's it. "MUTTER, what do you mean you leave it to Leif, please?" "All fighters from Earth have the potential to jam. To confirm that, you'll need to take it to a combat state. The quickest way to shave off the skin of a monster is to launch an attack. Let the drone Leif do it. Did you understand the meaning, please?" "This is the Yukikaze," Rei said, chewing on his words. "Understood, that's all." "You're indeed the ace of the Air Force's Aggressor Unit," Ensign Katsuragi said with serious admiration. "The instructor is on the board." "That's not what we're going to pay attention to right now," Rei said. "If every Earthcraft has the potential to jam, we need to overhaul our strategy, which is a big deal." Then Ensign Katsuragi said flatly. "That's not what we do, Captain." "Doesn't it matter?" Rei followed Fei Yan. Rising high into the sky with little air resistance, Fei Yan headed for the Fairey base. It's supersonic, but it's not up to the limit. Rei judges that it is probably the maximum speed in combination with the remaining fuel. There is still plenty of room for Yukikaze. "Are you worried about the human race on Earth, Captain? Jam has probably ended the invasion of Earth. Brigadier General Cooley is aware of this and is implementing a new strategy. Both our new unit and this mock battle are in the speculation of the brigadier general. If Jam "escapes" to Earth, pull him back here. That's Brigadier General Cooly's idea. Captain Fukai, your fears are nothing more than a political issue between Earth and the FAF. We hit the jam. That's it. Captain Iho Tamura of Hiyan is now acting like that. It's as if you and Captain Tamura have been swapped. What's the matter, Captain Fukai?" "Human," Rei said calmly, taking a breath as he listened to Lieutenant Katsuragi's words without interjecting until the end. "I'm worried about the number of enemy planes, Lieutenant." "Number?" "When it comes to all the fighters on Earth being controlled by Jam, the FAF can't compete with them, not to mention special warfare. Since the overwhelming difference in military power can be visualized, the strategy so far does not work. I'm worried about that. Politics doesn't matter." "Well, that's right," the lieutenant agreed obediently, as if he had been poisoned. "That's right, I see." "But..." "But?" "Yes, I was told in a lecture by Major Booker that Jam might be able to counter humanity by political means. If we don't make a mistake by beating the jam that is coming at us like a mole, we will have no choice but to develop a political strategy." "Sure," said Ensign Katsuragi. "But that's not to say to Brigadier General Cooley and other senior officials of the FAF. That's your thing. They're in that position politically. They're already taking countermeasures." "What I'm trying to say is, Lieutenant, it's not that human, do you know about other people?" "So what do you mean?" "It's a Yukikaze," Rei said. "If Yukikaze is still 'talking' to Jam about something, it must be a political act." "Political acts," Lieutenant Katsuragi murmured and said in a tone of approval. "Political action is early and verbal warfare. The Yukikaze is changing the strategy of the war against the Jam. Is that what it is?" "Do you finally understand?" "Yesser," replied Ensign Katsuragi, then said, but. "Then it's important to know what the Yukikaze is thinking." "That's why we're doing it now, Lieutenant. Major Booker is struggling too. It is. The development of ATDS is in line with that." "Okay, I'm sorry I seem to get carried away on my own a lot." "I've never seen you behave like that before." "Just as I don't know what Yukikaze is thinking, sometimes I don't know what I'm thinking." "It's the same with me, probably because I don't believe in other people." It was Rei who felt like he had been told this before by Captain Edith Foss, a military surgeon. Ensign Katsuragi thought he was like another person. Just as you can see your wounds better by reflecting on yourself in a mirror, you can objectively see your own problems by observing people who are similar to you. "Still," said Ensign Katsuragi. "It's better than the incomprehension of the Yukikaze because both you and the Captain are human beings. If you use words, you can understand them in a twisted way. I finally understood the 'difficulty' of the Yukikaze." I could understand it with my body, not my head, and I would have fallen into a daze. "Minx," Ensign Katsuragi said in a strangely tense voice. "Attack Leif" Fei Yan lowered his altitude like an interceptor descent. There should be Minx, Leif, and even more Royal Australian Air Force planes ahead, but we can't see them yet. Rei does not let the Yukikaze descend and approaches the Leif at the same altitude. Monitored the status of the system linked to the Leif. It's up and running. In order to rebuild the link with Leif, he reaches for the switch on the connecting line in an attempt to cut it off and reboot. Then, a warning sound. 〈do NOT touch... Cap.FUKAI〉 Rei's hand retracts as if he had been electrocuted before touching the switch. "The Yukikaze is left to Captain Tamura," Rei said. "I'm telling you not to touch me." "It is," said the lieutenant. "You mean you can always control Leif with the will of the Yukikaze, right?" "Yukikaze has done what Captain Tamura said earlier. I'm going to engage Leif to see if the RAF planes are normal or jam." "It's going to be a political issue, it's going to be an international issue." "It doesn't matter to the Yukikaze, either." "Apparently Brigadier General Cooley is well aware, Captain Fukai. There is no cease and desist order from the Special Warfare Command," the lieutenant continued, taking a deep breath. "As it turns out, Special Warfare is absolutely special. Colonel Lombard and Jam are both at a glance." "Here minx, Yukikaze, please" "Yukikaze here, please." "Leif doesn't respond to our attack aiming. Now, Leif has launched a cyber attack on the formation commander aircraft of the Royal Australian Air Force. I'm going to crash." "Here, MUTTER. Notified to All stations. Royal Australian Air Force aircraft are normal. Again, the Royal Australian Air Force plane is not jam. Don't attack. Yukikaze, can you hear me, please?" "Okay Yukikaze, here, I'll retrieve the Leifs, please." "Collection?" Did you dare to let Leif attack? "I'm just taking your suggestion, Captain Tamura. I'm going to take Leif's autonomous battle mode out and turn it into a Yukikaze no Kouki and return from here. Please." "MUTTER, Yukikaze, I understand," he said, and Captain Tamura took a breath and said. "It's a pity that the Yukikaze is not jam, Captain Fukai. That's it, end of communication. Rei reboots Leif's link system and succeeds in "relining" Leif. "What is it now?" said Ensign Katsuragi. "I'm sorry the Yukikaze isn't jam?" "I think I understand why Jam is wary of Captain Tamura, he's like Jam's natural enemy." "Oh yes, why did someone like that come out? It's also from Earth's Air Force. We could come out of the FAF." "You and I will be natural enemies of Jam enough." "Brigadier General Cooly is probably starting to think about invading Earth to eat jam, but he just follows so that he doesn't get eaten." "The Yukikaze will take over," Rei said. "Be careful not to be thrown out of the seat by the Yukikaze, Lieutenant, this is the advice of those who have experienced it." "I'll be careful." "Here MUTTER, Special Warfare Headquarters, Mock War Command. RTB to apply for the return home. "This is Major Booker. MUTTER, allow. All the planes, on the course I will instruct you from now on, go home." I'm leaving, Yukikaze. He tells the Yukikaze by pointing the nose at Fairey Air Base with the control stick. Yukikaze replied to Rei by displaying the scheduled return time on the display. "Special Warfare Command, here is Yukikaze. Mission Complete. I'll be back with Leif from here." The display showed the operation time. From the start of the mock battle to the end of the operation, 9 minutes and 37 seconds. Part 11 --Strategic Holidays-- Rei and Booker ride the fighter elevator to the surface, smelling the peppermint on the air of Faery. Rei notes that the privilege of running the large elevator for just two people is unique to the major, and Cooley turns a blind eye to it. He also notes this is the first time in three years they have enjoyed their days off together. Rei has a case of cool beer on his shoulder and Booker is toting a big half-carved boomerang. Rei complains as he follows the Major towards the grassland in the opposite direction from the vast runway. "Jack, I want you to take care of your men who are carrying heavy loads." "That was bad," the Major paused, turned around, smiling and slapping him lightly. "You're just flying a powered fighter jet on a daily basis, so your body is getting used to it. Maybe it's a good idea to train your squad members to march in heavy equipment." "You're kidding." "Don't worry, if you drink all your beer, you'll be lighter on your way home." "How many cans did you put in?" "I haven't counted, but there are still many cartons left in the room." "Brigadier General Cooly distributed it to all the men." "Oh." "Did you still have some left, the Major has been specially increased?" "Maybe they're all the same, I was too busy to consume. I didn't remember there being a beer on the shelf until after I finished setting up this holiday." "That's it," Rei said. "It was hard." "It's her fault." "Brigadier General Cooly?" "Who else is there?" "It's been a long time since I've heard you refer to a brigadier general as 'old lady.'" "No, actually, the order to make this holiday was terrible, and it was going to be a mess in the squadron operations plan that's going on, and then what's planned. Protesting that you want me to be there is also futile, a supreme order. Merciless. It's a demon." "But alright," Rei said. "Thanks, that's how I can enjoy it." "I'm worried about getting a beer." "If I run out of it, I'll go get it." "I'm happy to have good subordinates." "I'll tell the brigadier general that the Major is calling you an old lady." "Good friends don't say things like that." "Because you're going to call me a subordinate." "You'd better hone your sense of humor, Rei, as I always say." "Okay, Major, you're right." and with a laugh, the Major heads for the meadow. Rei was in a good mood. The grasslands near the runway are regularly equipped with automatic mowers and are not a hindrance to sitting. As you get closer to the forest, the tall grass is so overgrown that it's hard to get into. If you look there, the leaves of the shiny metal grass are swaying, reminiscent of Christmas or carnival decorations. Rei thinks he's in a bad mood too. The Major said he was okay with this and threw a boomerang at once. It flies while rotating vertically and does not come back as it is. The Major runs to retrieve it. Rei puts down the terribly heavy cooler box, opens the lid, and quickly pulls out two bottles of beer, teasing the Major who is heading towards him with a boomerang, "What is that stick?" "It flew away like a bone to make a dog play, it's amazing." "Don't laugh," the Major said with a sullen expression. "It's still unfinished, because I haven't carved it into the shape of a wing yet. More than that, a knob—" The Major's words are drowned out by the roar of two tactical Air Force planes taking off from the runway. "Did you bring the knob?" "It's the job of the subordinates to prepare the knobs," the Major said. "No way, Rei?" "No, I'm not listening." "You're the one." The Major doesn't look offended, however, and sits down beside the box. He takes a bottle from Rei, quickly opens the pull-top, and takes a sip. "Ask the chef," Rei said. "Can you make hors d'oeuvres too?" "No, the chef is also on holiday. If you ask for a restaurant, there is only a cafeteria other than Special Warfare." "It was." "You're not interested in eating, it's like giving up a third of the pleasures of life." "I know," Rei said, sitting down on the dry grass. "I'll be fine if I can drink beer." "I thought that would be it," the Major opened the lid of the box, gulped down his beer, and put his arm down. He lunged into it, then pulled up the plastic bag that was in it. "Yesterday I made it with all sorts of ingredients, German potatoes, British." "What's the difference between the English style and the ordinary?" "It's a description of being bad." "The British are angry." "I made it, humble, of course. It's bad to see, but the taste is okay." "It's cold, and it's crushed, it doesn't look okay." "I confess that I forgot to put this in this box last night, and I stuffed it with beer this morning without checking it, and I forgot to put a fork and a plate in it." "You don't look like a Major." "I'm not sure how to respond." "I guess you could have been looking forward to this holiday, too, I was afloat." "That's what I'm going to do and have fun at best." Major Booker's struggle to set up this holiday was understandable. After all, it wasn't just a holiday. Brigadier General Cooley ordered Major Booker to suspend the activities of the Special Warfare itself for a day and to give all members of the squadron a rest. It was a supreme order to do it with the highest priority. Make a day when Special Warfare will suspend all activities of the squadron. Security, maintenance, command crew, and, of course, aircrew. The cafeteria staff in the special warfare arena are no exception. He told them to rest all the crew at once. Naturally, there are no squadron planes to sortie. What this means is that the squadron itself takes a break to abandon all hostilities, both offensive and defensive. In other words, for a whole day, Special Warfare will cease to exist as a squadron. Special Warfare is a squadron of the FAF Fairey Base Tactical Fighter Command, and Rei knows that even Brigadier General Cooley would not be able to do so without the permission of Lieutenant General Rytum, the head of the corps. According to Major Booker, since the squadron's holiday was a strategic exercise and part of the war against Jam, the lieutenant general had no choice but to accept Brigadier General Cooly's offer to "take such a holiday for our special warfare." Fast forward to Lieutenant General Leitum, Brigadier General Cooley could not refute the claim. He was defeated by the brigadier general. As a lieutenant general, he could not ignore the success of the Special Warfare Aggressor Squad for succeeding in bringing out the jam that had been hidden, and he took the attitude of giving him a special vacation as a reward. The report from the Special Warfare that Captain Iho Tamura engaged Colonel Lombard and that the Japan naval aircraft sent from Earth, as a result, was "jams" was also true, and Lieutenant General Raitum acknowledged that this was the case. There is no doubt that the state of the previous mock battle had been informed to the entire FAF through Common Raven. The special warfare report that the jam shot down by the special warfare aircraft this time came from Earth "in the form of parasitism on Japan naval aircraft" shocked the entire FAF forces. The FAF jeopardizes its raison d'être as it exists to stop Jam's invasion of Earth, and if it prioritizes keeping the organization alive, it may end up fighting against all of Earth's fighters. So far, the FAF has not issued an official statement, but the fact that four Japan Navy planes were unable to fly and crashed due to an electronic attack by the Leif was communicated to the Earth side almost without delay. Yes, There is also the "fact" that the Royal Australian Air Force air command aircraft also went missing. Lieutenant General Raitum was well aware that it was important to get information to the Earth authorities earlier than the Earth Allied forces who were coming to the FAF, and that was important to maintain relations with Earth. But the lieutenant general could not understand why Brigadier General Cooley had planned such a special holiday. "We're the underlings," Rei said. "I'd be happy to have a day off, that's all, but what about you, Jack, I don't think you set up this special day just to look forward to resting. What is the purpose of this holiday? If you know why, you can struggle with it. What's going on?" "I think I know what Brigadier General Cooly is thinking, but this time, no. I don't know if I think about it, so I decided not to think about it. You do the same, Rei." "You're hiding something." "Do you understand?" "Are you being silenced by the brigadier general?" "Important secret," the Major said in a hoarse tone, then took a sip of his beer, sighed, and then continued. "I'll teach you only, specially." "I won't tell anyone." "I know," the Major nods broadly. "I won't tell you to tell me, because I don't want to." "That's fine, it's confidential." "Don't be surprised to hear that." Oh, this is part of a joke, Rei realizes in that tone. "Enough, don't say it," Rei said. "You don't seem to want to be surprised," laughs the Major. "Well, it's not a formal secret, but I've been told to keep it a secret from the crew." "I don't want to hear it if it's official classified information, it doesn't matter to me. But if you say it's a secret, you'll want to hear it." "You're right, Rei." "So, what is it?" "This break lasts up to three days." "What's that?" "You must have been surprised." "Not at all." He stops his half-drunk hand and stares at the Major intently. The Major empties the first can and places it on the cooler box, pulls out a survival knife from his waist, and begins to sharpen the boomerang. The Major doesn't say anything, so he asks again. "Does that mean the day off isn't over in a day?" "True to the word, at most, three days." "The shortest time, just today?" "Yes, everyone thinks it's just today." "I mean, it's not. It's too vague to know what's going on." "I don't know what the conditions and triggers for extending the holidays are. Maybe nothing should happen. If so, it will be extended." "Is Brigadier General Cooley expecting Jam to do something?" "I suppose so, but maybe the Brigadier General doesn't know what's going to happen, and maybe he's just the guts to take a break." "From the beginning, I'm going to make it a three-day holiday, but it looks good." "You can go to Earth in three days, and I understand the Brigadier General's desire not to leave the FAF. It's obvious that if you take three consecutive holidays, you're going to win big in Las Vegas with all your money, and you're going to drink too much of the winning liquor and drown in the pool of a luxury hotel." "I don't think there's a squadron like that." "No, no, I'm talking about Edith." Major Booker changed his name from "I" to "I" and said, "Didn't you know?" "She's a great gambler, and I think Brigadier General Cooly would seriously consider sending her to the casino on a special mission to earn money for the operation of special warfare." "I didn't know," Rei said. "No, not at all, Edith doesn't look like that." "You're not interested in humans, you don't know because you're not interested." "Maybe." When Rei looked a little depressed, the Major apologized, "No, I'm sorry," and said, "She's your doctor, your insight. I must have been very careful to hide it if you knew you liked to gamble. I deserve you not to know." "Well, I'll leave it at that, I'm insensitive." "I'm sorry, I apologize, I've got a day off. To recuperate, pinch the German potatoes. You're going to get tired of just drinking." "I don't have a fork, I don't want to hold my hands." Rei was physiologically reluctant to have his hands wet or dirty. The Major who has known him for a long time knows about Rei, and when he tells him to wait a minute, he slices the end of the boomerang he is cutting into long pieces, makes a pair of chopsticks, and hands them over. "Thanks, but is the boomerang okay, Jack?" "I wanted to try my slenderness, don't worry." Open the mouth of the Ziploc with the snacks and stuff and look at the contents. Thinking that the British style does not simply mean that it is bad, but also that it refers to not caring about how it looks, he plucks the wiener with chopsticks and carries it to his mouth timidly. It has a crisp chewy texture and the taste is not bad. "yes, I can," Rei said. "I'm feeling better." "That was good." It's nice weather. The sun is high and you can't see the poisonous red river of Bloody Road hanging in the sky. Opening the second pull-top, Rei continues with the previous topic. "No matter how many days off the Special Warfare, I don't think Jam or Colonel Lombard will make any moves as the Brigadier General intended. The mock battle went so well that the Brigadier General is probably feeling better, but oh yes, it will work." "I think so, too," said the Major. Major Booker says, standing in front of him and observing to shape the narrowed boomerang wings. "But I can't read what the Brigadier General's real aim is this time." "How about you don't think about it, you just want to give the squadrons a break." "I don't think so. Not just for that brigadier general." "I guess," Rei said. "The Brigadier General's speculation of the real aim seems to be an important secret." "Even if three days go by without incident, that's it, as long as no one gets hurt, no one is exhausted, and nothing is lost." "When I hear that there are three days off for special matches, that alone makes me nervous, and I think it's going to end while I'm thinking about how to rest." "Something like that," Major Booker laughed cheerfully. "So keep it a secret, you know, Brigadier General knows a lot about men like you." "And the true meaning of the holidays is another." "If anything," the Major said as he went back to scraping the boomerang. "That's the real aim, it's a holiday. It's ridiculous to waste time on extra snooping." "Oh yes." "Rei, you're probably worried about the Yukikaze, I'd rather have a conversation with her in a sheet of Yukikaze than drink a beer with me." "The Yukikaze is not her, the Yukikaze is the Yukikaze." "It took me a long time to be able to say that." "Well, thanks to Edith." "Being able to look at the Yukikaze and yourself objectively is beneficial in battle and in life." "But," Rei tilts the can of beer. "Honestly, I feel like I'm letting my beer distract me from wanting to go out and see how the Yukikaze is going." "The special warfare computers are also on hiatus. The central computers of the squadron aircraft have also been instructed to close the communication circuitry today and suspend all ongoing work. I will not allow any action that interferes with it. Don't get in the way of a Yukikazeholiday." "The computers are also suspending the war against Jam," Rei said. "In Jam's eyes, it would feel like the special warfare itself is gone." "It's a strategic holiday. It's a holiday considering the game against the Jams. Now how does the jam come out? I guess the brigadier general is trying to capture that. So far, everyone knows. However, in this state of rest, the What if you have to fight back against the Jam?" "You can't see it from the jam, so you don't have to think about being attacked." "Even if it's Colonel Lombard, can you say that?" "Well, yes, I do. What is the Brigadier General thinking?" "The real aim, then, is a mystery." "It's not a tactical holiday, but I think the brigadier general's aim seems to be." "Well, I guess so," said the Major. "I felt it, too. It's a strategy, not a tactic, so it's true that the brigadier general is thinking about going further than the immediate battle. It's a kind of expression of the attitude of the special warfare against the jam from now on." "If you can't understand human language in jam, you have to show it with attitude, right?" "Don't do it." "Why?" "No, it's a holiday and we don't have anything else to talk about, do you think we have to?" "No. I don't. Not at all." "You'd better find something else to love, besides the Yukikaze, or get a dog. How about a husky?" "It would be strictly forbidden to bring live animals into Faery." "It's virtual, of course, Ensign Katsuragi seems to have a cat." "I've heard of cat lovers." "I'm going to shave my cat's hair this holiday, it's trimming. I guess it's a long-haired cat, although I didn't get to show it. It's a real thing because it uses gloves to manipulate virtual scissors. If you cut it too much, it will take time until it grows again, so you need to practice. He said he had gotten a lot better." "I didn't think he could have that kind of chat." "No, it's not small talk, I'm the boss, and I asked him about his holiday plans. If you're planning to go to Las Vegas, you're going to have to ban it." "Hmmm." "What's the matter, Ensign Katsuragi's hobby was unexpected?" "No. I don't care about hobbies, but if it's such a real cat, if you forget to water and feed, it will die. Otherwise, even if the owner dies, he will always be alive. I thought it was disgusting to either of them." "I heard there's a stray cat mode," the Major said, laughing. "I heard that some cats abandon their owners who no longer feed them and leave, so don't worry." "Don't worry, what happens to a stray cat?" "I don't know, but it will go wild, and the virtual space is full of wild dogs, mice, monitor lizards, and so on." "What kind of world is it?" "It seems that there are humans as well." "What?" "It's the owner, it's in, it doesn't come out. It's not unusual." "It's the end of the world." "It's the world of jam." "Do you think there's jam?" "Where, in cyberspace? Do you think jams are virtual, Rei?" "If humans can't come in and come out, there's going to be jam." "If you mean it that way, sure, not within the FAF, but within the Earth's network," the Major said, turning his serious face to Rei. "In fact, the special warfare computers are telling us to think about connecting them to Earth's network. If that happens, the FAF Special Warfare AIs will infiltrate Earth. It's an aggressor." "It's the first time I've heard of it." "This is top secret, no jokes, no other saying. This information is in the hands of Brigadier General Cooly. The brigadier general intends to use this as a weapon." "I get it," Rei said. "I'm not going to ruin a weapon." "Well, I just checked, if you know, it will be through the Yukikaze." "I didn't know." "Don't you think you don't even know the Yukikaze?" "No," Rei said. "I know, I ignore it, and I'm sure Yukikaze has its own ideas that are independent of other AIs." "Recently, I have been able to see the interconnectedness and power relationship of computers." "Are the special warfare computers saying that there is jam in the Earth's network?" "I'm not saying that, I'm just saying that our infestation to Earth is a necessary measure to fight the Jam. They don't know who Jam is." "It doesn't matter who the AI is, if you can feel it, it's jam. We're just going to attack it." "The jam in the net could be the avatar of the jam, like a human avatar. It's not the jam itself. Hitting the avatar doesn't mean you've attacked Jam. But it's entirely possible for AIs to feel that such a jam avatar is the main body of the jam." "It's possible that it's true." "So, yes, it's important to know who you are. To understand the identity is to understand the jam in a way that is acceptable to us humans. Do you understand, Rei?" "It's just you, Jack. I know what you're talking about. It's about jam." "Don't get me started on jam." "It's a competition for survival," Rei said. "You can't forget it at any given time." "Oh yes, that's a quote." "You said that." "I guess so." "You've been busy dealing with the changing strategy of the jam over the past year, especially your job." "You're the only one who can sneer, Rei." "It seems like a long time ago that we were able to talk leisurely." "Was it when you were anticipating a total attack on Jam? Somehow, I remembered. But yes It's the same as it was then, and I feel like nothing has changed." "The jam is gone." "No, probably just disappeared from sight." "Does that mean that Special Warfare is also imitating that?" "Maybe." The Major stands with wood chips off his paws and throws a shapely boomerang upwind. It's different from before, it spins, soars, and starts turning. It seemed to follow its original trajectory and come back, but when it plummeted, it fell to the ground. "Isn't that nice, Jack, I just flew away and didn't even show any signs of returning." "It's trial and error, trial and error, it's a hobby, so you can do it by fumbling. If it was a real battle, it would end with a single error. If you fail and die, there's no next step." The Major went to retrieve the fallen one, and when he returned, he sat down with the beer that Rei offered him. Yes. "The principle by which boomerangs come back is still not fully understood," Rei said. "Did you find out?" "I feel like I've heard it from someone before." "Certainly, the principle is not known, but it would be more accurate to say that a mathematical theory has not yet been constructed. Still, the practical way of doing it this way with the shape of the wings and the cross-sectional shape is well known." "That's what trial and error has come to light." "It's easy to derive the ideal wing shape by using AI to iterate it around the clock, and you can use that data to create it with a 3D printer." "Making it with the help of AI won't give you satisfaction, right?" "Exactly," said the Major. "But AI can't make perfect wings, because the real sky is complex. A flash of gust of wind can render the ideal airfoil meaningless." "It was a boomerang that changed the airfoil shape while flying with an AI chip, and that was the one that made the wound on your cheek." "Yes." It is an electronically controlled mechanical boomerang that actively changes the airfoil and always comes back. It came back with a look in the face of the thrower. Its trajectory approached with an unexpected movement rather than smoothness, so it could not be caught, it did not fit between what it reflexively dodged, it made a deep cut on Major Booker's cheek and flew away, then turned again and lost altitude on the way back, finally falling and immobile. As for Major Booker's cheek wound, most of the squadron thought it must have been a wound he had suffered when he committed some crime before coming to the FAF. Only Rei knows the details. Since Special Warfare was a group of people who had no interest in others, there was no gossip about the Major's cheek wound. "Machines are too hard to fly in the natural sky," Rei said. "That's what I mean, Jack." "I remember that very well." "What about the Yukikaze?" said Rei, stopping to drink his beer. "I've been thinking about it the whole time." The Major nodded silently and took a sip of his beer, took a breath, and then asked Rei. "So, how's it going, is the Yukikaze hard?" "When the Yukikaze from the Super Sylph era crash-landed when it was hit by Jam, I decided that I really wanted to die with the Yukikaze. To protect confidential information, I would blow myself up with the Yukikaze. But the reality is that it didn't happen." "Yukikaze shot out a sheet to keep you alive, and he was reincarnated as a Maeve himself." "Exactly," Rei nods. "Yukikaze has chosen to live with me, and now it seems so. But at that moment, I felt betrayed by the Yukikaze. Yukikaze refused to control my suicide bombing and threw me outside. Yukikaze prioritized protecting himself, abandoned me, and returned alone." "Take the information home even if you kill your allies," the Major said. "The Yukikaze faithfully fulfilled Brigadier General Cooly's supreme orders." "For Yukikaze, I'm just an ally of many others, that's right. My heart was broken. As deep as the wound on your cheek." "The Yukikaze was hard, wasn't it?" "I thought so." "Do you still think so?" "Yukikaze are not machines, that's what I've come to think." "I'll go home even if I kill your ally, it's a hard, machine. The humans in the Special Sentai are ridiculed as inhuman machines. Still, Yukikaze are not machines." "We are creatures." "Edith said you and Yukikaze are a new kind of complex lifeform." "By us, I mean not only about me and Yukikaze, but also about all humans, including you, and Yukikaze are the same creature." "Yukikaze is soft, creatures?" said the Major with a serious face. "I guess so. They're people who can communicate with trial and error. It's a machine that tolerates errors." "We'll support the Yukikaze errors, otherwise we'll be hit by the jam." "You've changed a good feeling, Rei." "I'm just desperate to survive." "You realized that you can't survive on your own, after being shot by the Yukikaze. Supporting the Yukikaze didn't come out of you before." "I feel like I'm resetting a game that I've lost and trying again, it's not really a real fight. I'm dead once." "I'm not dead, look at reality, Rei. You should say that the Yukikaze did not allow you to die." "Well, that's what it is. Yukikaze didn't help me, he didn't allow me to die, did he?" "What do you think, I'm sorry that the Yukikaze took the initiative?" "It's not." "It's not a master-servant relationship, it's a tougher relationship." "Tougher?" "It's a tough relationship, it's not a relationship between other people. Others can ignore it. But they can't do that. It's not even a romantic relationship. It seems to me to be different from what Edith calls love." The Major cut off the words, thought for a moment, and then said: "I just came up with it, but it seems to be misunderstood, so can you listen to it without thinking too much about it?" "Good." "I have no basis at all, but the relationship between Yukikaze and you suggests that you can have a similar relationship with Jam, I thought so." "Do you mean you can get a relationship of trust with the jam?" "Rather than trust, I would say that it is a miraculous relationship in which mutual communication is established at a certain point. I don't know. So don't rush in." "Understood," Rei replies seriously. "You're going to come up with a new jam strategy based on that." "In order to think, you have to verbalize this idea. It may be useful for actual combat in the future So let's remember this feeling right now. The key to my memory is this environment right now." "Boomerang and beer." "And German potatoes." "An incomprehensible holiday and a clear sky" "It feels good." "Oh." "A miraculous relationship in which mutual communication can be established." The Major pulls out a notepad and a pen from the cigar pocket on his jacket arm and writes down the words he just said. Rei doesn't get in the way, folds his arms behind his head, and lies down in the grass. He turns his face to the side and counts the empty beer cans he emptied. Three cans. Still three cans. There's still plenty to go. Canned beer and holiday time. "Is that MA-1 jacket real?" Before he knew it, he was asleep. I didn't realize it, but I thought I must be tired. Conscious of the situation caused by an unfamiliar voice, he opens his pale eyes and looks at it. There are two of them. One is Lynn Jackson wearing white leather sneakers, a thin beige-looking pantsuit, and a beautiful red rouge. Rei raises his upper body. "Nothing real," Major Booker replied. "It's a FAF supply, it has nothing to do with the U.S. Army MA-1. Well, I guess the shape is imitating, but it is made by the FAF Factory." The opponent was Iho Tamura. The jacket with the front open is the MA-1, the flight jacket. The khaki fabric must be flight nylon. Underneath is a white T-shirt. "It's a holiday," Iho said with a smile. "I thought it was plain clothes fashion." Both Rei and Major are in jeans underneath. Speaking of Iho is a damaged denim and silver rat sneakers. "Is your jacket fake?" said the Major. "I'm not familiar with fashion." "This is also a flight jacket Japan made by the Air Force in accordance with MA-1 and is a supply of the Air Force, official supply." As she says this, Iho twists her body mischievously, revealing her back. A flashy embroidery pattern that could not be a government item jumped into my eyes. It is a picture of a vicious rabbit with exposed front teeth sticking out its middle finger here. The rabbit has horns growing from its forehead. I've heard of unicorns, but this is it, Rei thinks. "Did the rabbit have horns?" he asks, without thinking. "But it's amazing." "It's a rabbit horn, a fictional animal that has become a metaphor for the impossible." "Jackalope," Lynn Jackson says with a grin. "I was surprised when I saw it, I heard you didn't buy it in plain clothes, so I told you that the Air Force wouldn't do it in Japan." "It's just me," Iho said. "I went to a Skajan designer shop in Yokosuka and had it embroidered, but my superiors never condemned it. You two can customize it freely. It makes life more enjoyable." "But what about raising the middle finger," Major Booker said. "Preached to by a superior officer, I saluted him when he told me to leave, and when I turned around, I would be able to see it in the eyes of my superiors." "You don't have to look at it on your index finger, you just have to say it beforehand," says Iho. "I mean you're the first prize." "That's good," Rei said. "I'd love to do it for when I'm preached to by the Major, but I can't think of a good picture." "You're carrying the Yukikaze," said the Major. "It's good to intimidate me with a Yukikazepattern." "No, embroidery will make your flight nylon slippery and slippery, I'm sorry if it doesn't make it practical." "You should polish your sense more," says Iho Tamura. "Otherwise, it would be rude not to notice Mr. Jackson's fashion." "Is it a famous brand?" said Rei. Jackson said, "No, not at all, I don't have a particular obsession with the brand. I'm just wearing what I like," she replies with a smile. "But I'm glad you say it's nice." "In an ecru-colored silk linen suit," Iho says, referring to the fact that she is indifferent to fashion. Say hello to people. "White vegan leather sneakers are cool like models, and they call them cool. Do you understand?" Certainly, the expression "cool" convinces Rei that it is. I don't think it's fair to say that you don't know it if it's not explained, but I think it's better than not knowing it even if it's explained. "Good," Rei says to Jaxon. "The atmosphere of being able to go anywhere freely without being bound by anyone is what you are and it suits you very well." "I'm very happy, thank you." Rei sneaks into the cooler box, opens the lid, and pulls out a beer, handing one to Izuku. Izuku took it quite naturally as if it were normal. "Mr. Jackson." "I'll take it." Jaxon and I take one for myself and shoot one to Major Booker. Close the lid of the box and make sure it is not dirty. German potatoes are gone before you know it. Give Jaxon a beer "Why don't you sit on this one?" The box is fully bench-substituted. "Thank you." "Isn't it damp?" asked Iho to Rei. "On the grass, butt." "Oh my gosh." Izuku said, not showing any hesitation as she sat down next to Rei. "What did you come here for?" Finally, with his mind clear, Rei asks what he needs to ask first. "It's a holiday for special matches, so Ms. Jackson invited me to take a look." "We have the permission of Brigadier General Cooly," Jaxon said. "Or rather, the brigadier general asked me if I would like to cover the special warfare of the day. I can't afford to miss this opportunity." "I almost feel like I'm looking around at the daily life of a bad person," Iho said, not looking disdainful. "Since you and the Major are not there, if you ask me, it's here, on earth." "Who did you ask?" asked Rei. "Brigadier General Cooly," Jaxon said. "I was playing mahjong." "It's rare for a member of a special warfare team to play mahjong," Rei said. "Who is the Brigadier General's opponent?" "Let's guess," said the Major. "First of all, Edith, this is absolute, Doctor Edith Foss." "It's a hit," Jaxon said. "It's amazing," Rei said. "It's true that Edith is a great gambler." "Who's next?" said the Major. "What does Edith duck?" "Is it a duck?" asked Iho curiously. "Captain Pivot and Lieutenant Eco?" "Two of the members of the command center?" said the Major. "That looks like an interesting game, and I'd love to see it." "It looks like the brigadier general was in the lead," Iho said. "I thought it was entertainment mahjong to make the leader feel good, isn't it?" "In special warfare," Rei and the Major say in unison. "It's not, it's impossible." "Then," Iho said. "So, that Doctor is going to get a shot at the end of the inning, because I thought she was having the most fun." "What were they betting on?" said the Major. "It's not like cash is boring." "Oh, yes," Iho said. "That's what I should have asked, well, it's a game against a brigadier general, like a one-off from a sortie, or a job cut, isn't it?" "It's hard to imagine that from the point of view of a man," Rei said. "Anyway, the brigadier general is a betting mahjong, which is surprising." Suddenly, I ask what to wear. What kind of plain clothes do people wear to play mahjong? "Everyone, it was uniform," Jaxon said. "It was quite an interesting sight." "Is this unit going to be okay?" said Itachi. "I was playing a game of heat that made me think so." "It's not just killing time and playing, but Edith is doing it, so I'm definitely betting on something," the Major said. "I'm in the mood to see it right now." "I wouldn't bet on uniforms," Rei said. "Speaking of things that come to mind, all those faces are strong drinkers." "Speaking of which, there was wine prepared with a wooden box," Iho said. "Is that it? Special warfare is not good for liquor. You don't seem to be free." "The brigadier general got a kick out of his superiors," Rei said. "A large container full of beer and wine transported from the earth" Major Booker tells Iho about the feud between Brigadier General Coully and Lieutenant General Raitum. "That's it," Jaxon says curiously. "But shouldn't we keep those stories secret, Major Booker, I'm the ear, the one who represents Earthlings, so to speak. It would be wrong for Earthlings to know about special warfare and political feuds and problems within the FAF." "Sure," said the Major. "But Brigadier General Cooley knows that and invites you. This holiday is something special, strategic by the brigadier general. It's not just a break. The functions of special warfare, including AI, have been suspended and suspended. I don't know what the brigadier general is thinking. Mr. Jackson, I didn't expect you to come here. If something unexpected happened, that's what Brigadier General Cooly was aiming for, and that's what we were talking about." "The brigadier general's aim is to have Mr. Jackson, who is internationally renowned, cover the spoils of special warfare. Huh?" and Rei. "No, not really." "It's a top brigadier general," Iho said. "It's an interesting organization, really, special warfare, really, really, really, really, really, I'm envious." "Has your disposition been decided?" asked Rei. "Not yet," Iho said. "My disposition and anything, for the most part, the truth of the matter has not been communicated to the home country, not to the fact that Leif electronically attacked and rendered him unable to fly, nor to the aviators in question—" "Aviator?" "In the Japan Navy, that's what pilots are all about, and it's a tradition to distinguish them from the pilots of a ship." "Probably," says the Major. "I think the current Minister of the Navy gave it a name modeled after the Anglo-American Navy." "You know very well what I don't know in the same country, Major." "I did my research for this mock battle, on the orders of the Brigadier General." "And I guess those shrimpers think they've been killed by you." "They have no idea what happened, they haven't solved the problems that existed before my disposal." "The first thing to do is to get them to understand the truth, for sure," Major Booker said. "The commanders of the Earth Forces deployed to you will think that you are the one who crashed the Royal Australian Air Force air command aircraft. They have also disclosed information about the Common Raven to let them know that this is not the case, that you found Jam and attacked him, but it is doubtful that they believe it." "Well, I guess you won't believe it," Rei said. "If it weren't for Captain Tamura, I would think both the Navy plane and the Royal Australian Air Force plane were crashed by a special warfare aircraft." "Either way," said the Major. "Reports by the Japan Navy and Royal Australian Air Force, including Lieutenant Maruko, to the Earth home country do not come from the planet Fairy. Of course, direct communication across the 'aisle' is not possible, but the FAF regulates the passage of information that they have interpreted in their own way to the Earth." "Information control?" asked Iho. "It would be more powerful, it would cut off contact with the outside world and restrain them. Because it is information related to the survival of the FAF." "Does that mean Lieutenant Maruko can't leave the FAF?" "The FAF authorities won't release it until they admit the objective facts," the Major said. "I don't know how you are, the FAF could hand you over to the Air Force Japan. It should be called deportation." "Make me the bad guy?" "If you were an ace in the Navy, I think the story would have been easier, Japan the current Minister of the Navy is a brilliant politician. I'm not going to make you the bad guy. But what about the Air Force?" "Speaking of which," Rei interjects. "We were forced to play the role of welcoming Japan Air Force bosses who paid a courtesy call on the FAF. At that point, I thought it was going to be absolutely amazing." "It was," Major Booker said. "I was forced to do the service of a courtesan soldier. I was the person in charge of the scene and could not refuse the brigadier-general's order. But the men refused my orders. official Since there was no one to do so, I hurriedly made a robot for the honor guards. That Air Force general didn't have very good eyes, so I was saved, but it was a cold sweat." When Rei and Major took turns doing the rest, Iho laughed and Jakuson was impressed. "Well, there's a lot going on," Major Booker said. "I just want you to fight the jam, but you can't do that." "It's rare to have enough holidays to make a boomerang and fly it," Iho says, expressing sympathy. "I'm sorry I interrupted you, Major." "Thank you, Captain," said the Major. "I never imagined that I would be able to chat like this with an ace from the Japan Air Force Aggressor Corps. It's a good holiday." Major Booker also throws a boomerang. It came back to the Major with a visibly balanced turn, rising and circling wildly, spinning almost horizontally. The Major caught his wings with both hands and pinched them from above and below, and yelled yahoo. "How's it going, Rei?" "Good," Rei said. "Soft, boomerang." "Soft?" said Iho. Rei explains that a machine is too hard to fly in the natural sky. I won't say what I think about the Yukikaze. "Can you let me throw it too?" "Good." As the Major is about to hand over the boomerang, the sound of sirens reverberates and reflexively stiffens both Rei and the Major. "Jack." "Oh, that's a lie." "What's the matter?" asked Jackson. "Is it an emergency?" asked Iho. Fighter jets reach the ground, and explosion-resistant structures rise to the ground. "It's a Yukikaze." Rei stands up and brushes the grass. I can't see it, but I can't believe the elevator in the sky is coming up. It is a special warfare elevator. Humans don't use it. Only Yukikaze can do this. Rei rushes out. The Major was first. The boomerang was in the hands of Itachi. Iho follows suit. When the structure rises and the siren stops, the explosion-proof door opens. It was a Yukikaze. A compact robot-powered vehicle for fighter jet traction, pulled by Dolly, comes out of the elevator. "It's big," Jaxon said, not hiding his excitement. "In Antarctica, you waved to me from the Yukikaze." "You saw it, didn't you?" "Yes, definitely." The canopy is coated non-reflectively, and at first glance appears to be the same structure as the fuselage rather than transparent. But Lin Jaxon said he saw her waving. Sure, I shook it. It wasn't the mind's eye, but Jaxon really saw it. Thinking of this, Rei was impressed. Human abilities are amazing. Now the canopy is open. I think it's completely uninhabited, but it's unexpected. No, I should say that a bad premonition was hit, Rei admitted to Ensign Katsuragi in the back seat. "Lieutenant, get off!" shouted Rei. "Do you know what you're doing?" The anger of riding on my Yukikaze on my own must have been transmitted. When the Yukikaze completely exited the elevator and Dolly's movements stopped, Ensign Katsuragi in the back seat raised his hands as if threatened by a gun from Rei and muttered "I'm sorry." "I'm going down now." Taking advantage of the boarding rudder attached to the Yukikaze fuselage, the lieutenant lands on the ground. "It's going to be tough downstairs, Captain Fukai." "What's going on?" asked Major Booker to Ensign Katsuragi in his usual superior manner. "Report, Ensign Katsuragi, what's the big deal?" "Yes, Major." Ensign Katsuragi straightens his posture and confronts the Major. The lieutenant was also wearing a flight jacket and had no hat. "The Yukikaze woke up the sleeping computers. In Captain Pivot's words, "Philosophy It is said that the special warfare computers that were in a state of "death" must have been reminded of the threat of jam once again. The command center is now in an emergency response stance. I'm trying to keep the panic on the computers in check." "Are you panicking?" said Rei. "Did Yukikaze show the AI even the ghost of Jam-" "This is it," Major Booker said. "That's what Brigadier General Cooly is aiming for. It wasn't a break for jamming. And it's not a day off for us humans. The goal was to give the AIs a break, let them die, and wake them up. However, I don't think they would set such a trap for their own computers and AI. And it's using the Yukikaze. Can you believe it?" "Apparently, this is the end of the break," Rei said. "I haven't drunk it all yet." "It was a short vacation in Sydney," Jaxon said. "You're always going back to the Yukikaze." "I'm sorry, Mr. Jackson, I can't seem to talk to you slowly like this." "Good luck, Captain Fukai." Good luck, says Captain Fukai and Lin Jackson. Rei was momentarily puzzled when he saw the hand that was offered but shook his hand firmly, then approached the Yukikazeed aircraft, put his foot on the ladder, climbed up, and looked at the monitor in the pilot's seat. Dark. Carefully, I slid my body into the seat and settled into seat, the power turned on automatically. "Captain, look at the monitor." Lieutenant Katsuragi said below. "I'm watching, it's a message. Captain Iho Tamura, come on." "Yes, Captain." Iho responds with strange politeness, handing the boomerang in her hand to Ensign Katsuragi, then climbs up the ladder and glances at the monitor pointed at by Rei from the side sill. Yukikaze messages are displayed. 〈I will not allow you to take a rest. Fight with me. Cap.IFU Tamura will be our eyes... Cap.FUKAI〉 "I am," Iho said. "Yukikaze and captain's eyes, huh?" "Eyes that look at jam." Neither he nor anyone knows why Iho Tamura has such abilities. More problematic than that is how the Yukikaze knows it, but we don't know that either, because the Yukikaze doesn't answer about it. If it's useful in combat, Rei thinks it's okay to snoop on that kind of reasoning. It's not your job to analyze. "Yukikaze is telling us not to rest, but to fight together," Iho said. "Maybe Yukikaze was jealous when he found out that me and the Major were resting peacefully." "It's hard to understand that I'm so attached to the plane, but I also feel envious." Saying that, Iho asked if she could take a seat in the back. "It's okay, but are you aiming for Ensign Katsuragi's rear?" "No way," Iho said. "I want to fly by myself." "I guess not. Excellent." Outside, Major Booker calls. "Captain Fukai, I will go back to the command center. You will manage to calm the Yukikaze and take you back to the underground hangar." "It's like a horse," Iho laughs. "Appease me—" "Okay, Major, leave it to me." "Look, Rei, don't fly, because we won't allow you to have a holiday with Yukikaze. Don't add to my work anymore." "Understood, Edith. She's probably mad at Chara for winning games. Calm down." "Everything, guys, it's my job, come on. Come on. See you then." "Ensign Katsuragi," Rei calls out to the lieutenant. "Do you see the cooler box with the beer in it?" "Yes." "Collect it and take it downstairs, Major Booker's private room, but it can be Major's office. With that boomerang you have." "Okay." A normal lieutenant would refuse to take such an errand into the mission. However, I was honest that now I owe him the responsibility of not being able to stop the Yukikaze from coming out so far. "Lieutenant." "Yesser, what is it yet?" "How did you notice the anomaly of the Yukikaze?" "That's it," he staggered, but quickly continued. "I have a virtual cat." "I know." "Did you find out, did you?" "So." "Yes, I was grooming a cat and all of a sudden, the cat turned into a horned rabbit and stuck my middle finger at me—" In the back seat, Iho bursts out laughing. "That's not my character, Yukikaze, look at me closely." "Chara?" Apparently, Ensign Katsuragi didn't see the back of Iho's jacket. "Go on, Lieutenant." "Yes, Captain, and the message from the Yukikaze was displayed in text in virtual space. That's the indication that is out there. I sensed something unusual in the Yukikaze and tried to report it to Major Booker, but at that time, the command center was already in a big commotion. I thought the Yukikaze was doing it, so I went to the tarmac, got in to check it out, got on and started moving, and finally here." "Understood." "Oh, that's my seat, Captain Tamura." "Me, Captain, you, Lieutenant, you will walk down. I go down with the Yukikaze. Okay?" "Yes." "Lieutenant, leave the rest to me. I managed to soothe the Yukikaze and let it down. I ask for that box. Bee in the middle Le you can drink it." "You're kidding, you can't stay drunk. It's really a big fuss underneath. Captain, wake up drunk." "Understood." With a boomerang in hand, the lieutenant ran towards the grass and came back with a cooler box slung over his shoulder. Then, it passes by the Yukikaze, and disappears to the side of the fighter jet's elevator, to the entrance to the human elevator, like the entrance of a subway station. It's the end of a strategic holiday. Rei looked around the unhuman form on the ground and realized that it was the first time he had ever been on a Yukikaze plane in such a mood. I thought this was a "time of peace" with the Yukikaze. No matter how much Izuku ridiculed him, Yukikaze had come here to spend this short time with him. I thought so. "Captain Fukai Rei" Iho called out from the back seat. Not from the helmet's speakers, but the raw voice is fresh. "What?" "I want to fly with the Yukikaze too." As a flight officer of the Yukikaze, I don't mean it. Rei understands. "To make the Fei Yan a special warfare aircraft, ask Major Booker to improve its performance." "I'm not particular about flying Yan, so if you have the FAF's most advanced single-seat fighter, that's better." "It's the third aircraft of the 6th Squadron in Special Warfare." "That's good, isn't it?" "It's okay, your wish will come true, I will never let you be deported." "Jam is on the Fairy, there's still a lot, just a hunch." "Let's work with Yukikaze, Leif, and you to develop a coordinated tactic." "Thank you, Captain Fukai, and the Yukikaze, thank you." "Well, the holidays are over." Rei turns on the voice command switch to Yukikaze, and commands Yukikaze. "Yukikaze, well picked me up, rest is over. Let's go back." Instead of a reply, a light shock is transmitted. Dolly moves, and the aircraft slowly turns around. The scenery moves. On his back is the sign of a warrior of unusual ability named Tamura Iho. The Jam game has entered a new phase. Rei clearly senses this fact in the Five Officers. Edited September 30, 2022 by Dr_Breen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
electric indigo Posted September 30, 2022 Share Posted September 30, 2022 @Dr_Breen Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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