Yukikaze summaries, part trois
Mar. 27th, 2006 06:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
petroniastories 1-2 | stories 3-5
6) "All Systems Clear": Starting from story 5 you get the impression the book is spiralling down to an ominous end. ^^; The JAM deploy a new type of high-speed missile, wiping out TAB-14 and an entire squadron of Faun-type single-fighter jets. Yukikaze is the only survivor, because she overrode her safety settings in order to perform awesome ninja plane acrobatics, squishing her human occupants in the process (but only a little - Burgadish had a ruptured gallbladder, Rei "got away with" cracked ribs >_>). Cooley says no prob, little do the JAM know that we are just about to test-fly the far more light and agile Faun Mk II, as well as our own high-speed missiles! There's a tense discussion afterward in which Jack tells Rei that Yukikaze is Nimue to his Merlin - well, that's not what he says but it's what he means. XD That is, if anything Rei should think of himself not as Yukikaze's lover or comrade but her parent: he taught her AI everything he knows about piloting and battling the JAM, and now she doesn't need him telling her what to do anymore. He's more of a hindrance to her than a help. Rei says Major are you seriously considering grounding me? Jack says Soldier I don't think you understand what it's like to sit in my chair day in and day out not knowing if the pilots I send off are coming back, and wondering why we pay the price we do. You go back to Earth, live a peaceful civilian life, let the planes do the flying. Rei accuses him of getting old. ^^;
(Jack's stance in the last few stories is rather complex.** He's one of those people cursed with a grasp of the big picture - he can see that FAF is computerizing more and more in order to keep up in their arms race with JAM, but the day the war becomes a struggle between an earth AI hivemind and an alien AI hivemind is the day all human losses to date lose meaning, because where's the point in dying for a fight that's not even yours? Let alone that the prospect of devolving human decision-making to an AI hivemind is terrifying in and of itself. However Jack also turns unmanned fighter jets into his personal crusade, shifting heaven and earth and the military bureaucracy to remove pilots from their planes - because the alternative is the continuing dehumanization of said pilots on the battlefield, not to mention loss of life. In other words, given the choice between welcoming our new super-intelligent airplane overlords and losing Rei to a mission one day, Jack picks being selfish.)
The upshot is that the Faun Mk II is sent out on a test flight, with an unmanned Yukikaze acting as both bodyguard and 'trainer'. Rei is put in a surveillance plane in order to take over control of Yukikaze if anything goes awry - and of course it does, with a vengeance.
JAM: *appear*
JAM: *fire high speed missiles at Yukikaze and Faun*
Rei: Crap, now I have to use my unmanned plane to protect the manned one. God hates me.
Yukikaze: Lalalala I can't hear you.
Rei: !
Yukikaze: *makes Faun shoot down the missiles approaching her*
Yukikaze: *makes Faun dodge the other missiles*
Test pilot: Erk.
Yukikaze: *tosses Faun about like a boomerang, shoots down JAM*
Test pilot: *expires*
Yukikaze: *gives Faun an experimental shake*
Yukikaze: *waggles Faun's wing flaps*
Test pilot: *is still dead*
Yukikaze: Looks okay, no pieces fell off, will put us on course for home.
Rei: ...
Yukikaze: The fuel injection software's kind of horked though.
Rei: .......
Yukikaze: Rebooted! All systems clear. :D :D
Rei: HOW CAN IT BE ALL SYSTEMS CLEAR, I THINK YOU OVERLOOKED A SMALL DETAIL.
Yukikaze: ._.?
Jack: Someone get me a bottle of Scotch, a copy of Asimov's Laws of Robotics and a sledgehammer. STAT.
...Er, I can't manage serious summaries for long, those of you who were around for the Mirage ones know. m(_ _)m It's not at all funny in the book. That is to say, it kind of is funny, but only because I have a twisted sense of humour and couldn't get over the fact that Yukikaze accidentally squished that poor test pilot. Bathetically he was even engaged to be married, and his fiancee went mad and started screaming that he abandoned her for that plane etc. And then Jack went in Yukikaze and turned off all the support software she had for linking with Faun, and she was like "Your seatbelt isn't fastened :0", and he's just like "........Stupid machine." Because what else is there to say?
As one of the essayists pointed out no one should have been surprised that Yukikaze couldn't/wouldn't process Rei's order to defend Faun's human occupant at her own expense - her AI had never learnt anything about altruism from flying Boomerang squadron's missions. XD;;; When it comes to "educating children" you reap what you sow.
Why are these summaries getting longer and longer? =_=
** More accurately, the authorial stance itself is ambivalent. It's a technofetishist novel about fear of technology. XD Well, that's SF in a nutshell for you. The setting seems space-operatic but one of the essayists at the end compared it to Philip K. Dick, which I think is valid.
P.S. This says everything about the series in a nutshell, if you can read trad Chinese XD:
滑勝燉油報頭條 菲雅莉空軍正式承認誤擊聖誕老人
經過嚴謹的調查報告 菲雅莉空軍官方發言人日前表示證實在北極海上空遭到特殊戰第五飛行隊高速偵察機FFR-31 MR/D B-3 雪風擊墜的不明物體為聖誕老人。
這則消息引發了全球今年收不到聖誕禮物的小孩的抗議，而聖誕老人公會日前也正式向聯合國安理會提起賠償請求肇事的駕駛員深井中尉對於為何開火擊墜聖誕老人，深井中尉表示："雪風說 他是敵人 所以我就開火了"。
面對批評聲浪，菲亞莉空軍官方發言人INJO.MA表示"謝謝指教 我們會再了解 一切依法辦理"。
菲亞莉空軍表示，由於JAM經常進行空間跳躍飛行因此這極有可能是聖誕老人空間跳躍被雪風敵我辨識系統判定為敵人的主要原因。
(continues here)
6) "All Systems Clear": Starting from story 5 you get the impression the book is spiralling down to an ominous end. ^^; The JAM deploy a new type of high-speed missile, wiping out TAB-14 and an entire squadron of Faun-type single-fighter jets. Yukikaze is the only survivor, because she overrode her safety settings in order to perform awesome ninja plane acrobatics, squishing her human occupants in the process (but only a little - Burgadish had a ruptured gallbladder, Rei "got away with" cracked ribs >_>). Cooley says no prob, little do the JAM know that we are just about to test-fly the far more light and agile Faun Mk II, as well as our own high-speed missiles! There's a tense discussion afterward in which Jack tells Rei that Yukikaze is Nimue to his Merlin - well, that's not what he says but it's what he means. XD That is, if anything Rei should think of himself not as Yukikaze's lover or comrade but her parent: he taught her AI everything he knows about piloting and battling the JAM, and now she doesn't need him telling her what to do anymore. He's more of a hindrance to her than a help. Rei says Major are you seriously considering grounding me? Jack says Soldier I don't think you understand what it's like to sit in my chair day in and day out not knowing if the pilots I send off are coming back, and wondering why we pay the price we do. You go back to Earth, live a peaceful civilian life, let the planes do the flying. Rei accuses him of getting old. ^^;
(Jack's stance in the last few stories is rather complex.** He's one of those people cursed with a grasp of the big picture - he can see that FAF is computerizing more and more in order to keep up in their arms race with JAM, but the day the war becomes a struggle between an earth AI hivemind and an alien AI hivemind is the day all human losses to date lose meaning, because where's the point in dying for a fight that's not even yours? Let alone that the prospect of devolving human decision-making to an AI hivemind is terrifying in and of itself. However Jack also turns unmanned fighter jets into his personal crusade, shifting heaven and earth and the military bureaucracy to remove pilots from their planes - because the alternative is the continuing dehumanization of said pilots on the battlefield, not to mention loss of life. In other words, given the choice between welcoming our new super-intelligent airplane overlords and losing Rei to a mission one day, Jack picks being selfish.)
The upshot is that the Faun Mk II is sent out on a test flight, with an unmanned Yukikaze acting as both bodyguard and 'trainer'. Rei is put in a surveillance plane in order to take over control of Yukikaze if anything goes awry - and of course it does, with a vengeance.
JAM: *appear*
JAM: *fire high speed missiles at Yukikaze and Faun*
Rei: Crap, now I have to use my unmanned plane to protect the manned one. God hates me.
Yukikaze: Lalalala I can't hear you.
Rei: !
Yukikaze: *makes Faun shoot down the missiles approaching her*
Yukikaze: *makes Faun dodge the other missiles*
Test pilot: Erk.
Yukikaze: *tosses Faun about like a boomerang, shoots down JAM*
Test pilot: *expires*
Yukikaze: *gives Faun an experimental shake*
Yukikaze: *waggles Faun's wing flaps*
Test pilot: *is still dead*
Yukikaze: Looks okay, no pieces fell off, will put us on course for home.
Rei: ...
Yukikaze: The fuel injection software's kind of horked though.
Rei: .......
Yukikaze: Rebooted! All systems clear. :D :D
Rei: HOW CAN IT BE ALL SYSTEMS CLEAR, I THINK YOU OVERLOOKED A SMALL DETAIL.
Yukikaze: ._.?
Jack: Someone get me a bottle of Scotch, a copy of Asimov's Laws of Robotics and a sledgehammer. STAT.
...Er, I can't manage serious summaries for long, those of you who were around for the Mirage ones know. m(_ _)m It's not at all funny in the book. That is to say, it kind of is funny, but only because I have a twisted sense of humour and couldn't get over the fact that Yukikaze accidentally squished that poor test pilot. Bathetically he was even engaged to be married, and his fiancee went mad and started screaming that he abandoned her for that plane etc. And then Jack went in Yukikaze and turned off all the support software she had for linking with Faun, and she was like "Your seatbelt isn't fastened :0", and he's just like "........Stupid machine." Because what else is there to say?
As one of the essayists pointed out no one should have been surprised that Yukikaze couldn't/wouldn't process Rei's order to defend Faun's human occupant at her own expense - her AI had never learnt anything about altruism from flying Boomerang squadron's missions. XD;;; When it comes to "educating children" you reap what you sow.
Why are these summaries getting longer and longer? =_=
** More accurately, the authorial stance itself is ambivalent. It's a technofetishist novel about fear of technology. XD Well, that's SF in a nutshell for you. The setting seems space-operatic but one of the essayists at the end compared it to Philip K. Dick, which I think is valid.
P.S. This says everything about the series in a nutshell, if you can read trad Chinese XD:
滑勝燉油報頭條 菲雅莉空軍正式承認誤擊聖誕老人
經過嚴謹的調查報告 菲雅莉空軍官方發言人日前表示證實在北極海上空遭到特殊戰第五飛行隊高速偵察機FFR-31 MR/D B-3 雪風擊墜的不明物體為聖誕老人。
這則消息引發了全球今年收不到聖誕禮物的小孩的抗議，而聖誕老人公會日前也正式向聯合國安理會提起賠償請求肇事的駕駛員深井中尉對於為何開火擊墜聖誕老人，深井中尉表示："雪風說 他是敵人 所以我就開火了"。
面對批評聲浪，菲亞莉空軍官方發言人INJO.MA表示"謝謝指教 我們會再了解 一切依法辦理"。
菲亞莉空軍表示，由於JAM經常進行空間跳躍飛行因此這極有可能是聖誕老人空間跳躍被雪風敵我辨識系統判定為敵人的主要原因。
(continues here)
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no subject
Date: 2006-03-28 12:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-28 01:04 am (UTC)Rei: HOW CAN IT BE ALL SYSTEMS CLEAR, I THINK YOU OVERLOOKED A SMALL DETAIL.
Yukikaze: ._.?
Jack: Someone get me a bottle of Scotch, a copy of Asimov's Laws of Robotics and a sledgehammer. STAT.
...I'm sorry. If I ever get around to reading the novel, I think this will be my favorite part.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-28 02:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-28 03:05 am (UTC)I'm going to make a list of everything that's not in the first book (and thus presumably in the sequel, or anime-only :P).
no subject
Date: 2006-03-28 03:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-28 04:00 am (UTC)Was there ever ANY doubt about that? I think this came across beautifully in the anime thanks to both Jack's facial expressions and his seiyuu's voice...
And oh how I wish these novels were translated.