Disclaimer: Last time I checked, Planes was still not mine...Also this chapter has not been betaed yet, so please bare with me on the errors until I can get the new version put up sometime in the future. I just know I made you wait for longer than I intended for this chapter and I didn't want you to have to wait for another week while I was out of town.
Chapter 10- The Last Mile
After off loading Drip at the smokejumper hanger, the little loader was still feeling a bit groggy after getting a couple of bolts repaired, Cabbie rolled up to mechanic's hanger to face the inevitable. Maru was already waiting for him a couple of tool lockers already pulled out on the apron for easy access. Neither vehicle needed to speak; instead Cabbie simply popped open both of his cowls as Maru scooted his ramp over.
The two stayed there in relative silence for over an hour. Occasionally, Maru would let out one of his long winded curses when something didn't meet his approval and Cabbie sneezed a couple of times when his irritated intake system was jostled the wrong way, but both vehicles were content to not interrupt the inspection with small talk. Unfortunately the Smokejumpers were not as patient. They were not talking, but they were practically hovering on the edge of apron practically quivering with worry.
"So what is the prognosis?" Cabbie asked after Maru had snapped the cowling shut on his port engine and started to work on the other side.
"Getting your engines tuned up is going to be a slag of a job," Maru muttered still half inside of Cabbie's other engines, "but it looks like they at least got all of your pieces in the right place."
Avalanche gave an audible sigh of relief, but Cabbie was the one who spoke up. "That is good to hear."
"I wouldn't know about that." Maru scoffed. "I am sure you are hurting a whole lot more than you are letting on.
"Maru, high grade is against the rules." While Cabbie was actually craving the good stuff, unlike the mechanic he wasn't particularly interested in breaking one of the chiefs cardinal sins. "Rules are rules for a reason."
"Cabbie." Maru voice was level, and the mechanic giving him a hard to read look. "With your engines like this you are going to have a metabolism that leaves even Windlifter in the dust. Besides, we both know that you have flown much more difficult missions with high grade on board."
On some level, Cabbie knew everything Maru had just said was true. Still, truth didn't stop the niggling guilt. There were a number of reasons why Blade had banned high grade on base. While many of those reasons involved ghosts that Cabbie wasn't about to go poke, the Chief also had some practical reasons as well. Unfortunately, Maru logic was overriding Cabbie's blind loyalty.
"Fine, I will try one barrel and see how I feel. Okay?" Cabbie finally relented.
"That is all I can ask." Maru sighed in reply before yanking on something that caused Cabbie to yelp.
Blade hadn't realized that he was dozing again until the road crew chief below him paged in on the radio.
"Ranger, am I right in assuming that you are going to want to fly your boy home?"
"If we can make that happen it would probably be preferable then transporting him by ground." Blade yawned and tried to blink the sleep from his eyes.
"I kind of suspected that." The heavy dozer gave a rumbling chuckle. "We have made a clearing that should be wide enough to make the lift built now. Wait about ten minutes or so and then that Skycrane of your spun up. I have a feeling that he is going to be useful."
Blade looked down from his perch and saw that the road crew had in fact created an artificial meadow that was large enough for Windlifter to comfortable maneuver in. "You roadies never cease to amaze me sometimes."
The dozer gave another deep rumbling chuckle in reply. "Well someone has to keep you muddropers on their toes."
After he made sure Cabbie had been settled in his hanger and he had given Drip a quick look over, Maru retreated back to the tower. The mechanic needed space to think, and it was kind of hard to do with Dynamite pestering for more information of the condition of her team, Blackout and Pinecone giving him nervous sideway looks, and Avalanche hovering.
Yes, he knew that the jump team was stressed about their fellows, but did they really have to follow him around base? The answer was no, so he headed to the one spot they all had the common sense not to follow him…to Patch's domain.
"So how is everyone doing?" Patch asked as soon as Maru had clicked the door shut behind him. The tug just gave an exasperated grunt in return. "That good."
"Yeah, that good." Maru scrubbed one of his tines across his grill before rolling over to Patch's personal coffee pot. "You didn't put anything weird in this, right?"
"It is straight coffee if that is what you are asking." Patch rolled her eyes, which caused Maru to open his mouth to make a sarcastic remark. He didn't
"Piston Peak Air Attack Base, this is Blade Ranger. Over."
"Patch here. What can we do for you Chief?" The dispatcher replied without even missing a beat.
"Can you send Windlifter our way?"
"Wilco." Patch, started to log the conversation on computer. "May I ask what you need him for?"
"We are about to pull Champ out of the tree and we figured that access to a bit of extra lift wouldn't hurt."
"I will go rig up Windlifter's sling." Maru sounded off he started up his engines again. Patch simply waved a tine in reply. She was too busy having a rapid fire exchange with Blade to pay much attention the Mechanic heading out the door.
Blade knew he was both literally and figuratively hovering, but Dodge, he was a Helicopter and an Air Attack Chief. Hovering was part of his nature. Luckily it didn't seem to bothering the road crew working below him.
"Chief?" Windlifter's spoke up as he approached.
Blade eyed the sling and webbing attached beneath the Skycrane's belly. Once he was satisfied that everything was in order, the Chief yawed towards the newly created clearing. "The road crew is planning for you to make the pick up there."
"Copy that." Windlifter gave the quick bob of a helicopter salute and made a beeline for the meadow. This left Blade alone in his little patch of airspace. He continued to hover, because it was better than doing nothing.
Maru tried to head back up to tower to wait after getting Windlifter on his way, but one glare from Patch told him that he wasn't really welcome. The dispatch tug was busy trying to clear the park's airspace to allow Windlifter to safely transport Dusty back to base. She really didn't have time to put up with a restless mechanic.
He rolled out on the tarmac and suddenly realized just how quite the base had gotten. It was late afternoon and given the fact the smokejumpers were on base there should be some activity. The fact that they were not breaking something got Maru's hackles up. After a few long moments, Maru decided he should probably go track down the jumpers before they went and broke something.
He peeked into the Jumper hanger only to find it completely empty. The Maru looked into the main hanger but the only vehicle in their was Dipper, who was staring blankly at the TV as it showed reruns of some soap opera. By this point the mechanic was sliding closer and closer to panic. Then he paused and recognized a familiar rumble of muffled snoring. He followed the noise to Cabbie's hanger and quietly cracked open the door to peer inside.
All smoke jumpers were snuggled under the wings of their jump plane. By the rumbles coming from Dynamite and Avalanche, Maru would bet that the lot was dead to the world. The mechanic was about to close the hanger door, when Cabbie's voice stopped him.
"So they are getting ready to send Dusty back to base?"
"You have been listening in to the dispatch frequencies again." Maru leveled a less than pleased look at the C-119. Cabbie was supposed to be resting, not sticking his nose into the base's business.
Cabbie shrugged his flaps in reply. "We both know that I am pretty much always tuned in. It is the nature of my radio set up."
"That still doesn't explain why you aren't resting?"
"I am resting." Cabbie gave a long yawn. "I am just not sleeping at the moment. Why don't you go check on Dipper? When Windlifter calls to let us know that he is headed back to base I will make sure that the jumpers are roused so that they can help you get Dusty into the shop."
Maru gave Cabbie a long look before giving a reply. "Fine, but after we get Dusty settled you are going to head back to your hanger and get some real sleep."
"That is acceptable." Cabbie gave another yawn. "Now go check on Dipper. I have everything under control in here."
The crane slowly lifted Dusty out of the tree, but even though the big crane was moving as gentle as he could the movement was accompanied by screech of metal scraping roughly against good. It was a sound that set every single vehicle in the area's teeth on edge. Yet, no one dared to interrupt the process. The old crane knew what he was doing.
After five minutes that felt like an eternity, the broken SEAT was finally free of the branches and spinning slowly in the breeze. Then it was time to start the process of transporting Dusty down the makeshift road to the newly made meadow where the road crew's mechanic tug and Windlifter were waiting. It was a painfully slow process, one that only ended a half hour later when the crane lower Dusty to the ground in front of the waiting repair personal.
Everyone held their breath, as the road crew's tug mechanic popped Dusty's cowling to determine the extent of the damage. In the quite it was nearly impossible not to flitch when the mechanic clicked the engine covering shut.
"He's alive folks. I don't know for how much longer, but for now he is alive." The tug rolled away to give Dusty some space. "He needs to get to a mechanic who knows airplanes and quick."
"Did you copy that Blade?" The road crew chief looked up to where Blade Ranger was hovering.
"I did." Blade did not allow his eyes to leave trainee. "Let's get him out of there."
Windlifter engines whined in response as the Skycrane lifted himself into a hover, allowing the road crew to secure Dusty to the webbing below him.
Watching Windlifter bearing his precious cargo towards the air Attack base, it was almost as though time had slowed to a glacial pace. As long as Dusty was in the air, there was nothing that everyone on the ground could do but wait. That said, no one wanted to rush Windlifter and cause him to jostle the critically damaged aircraft cradled below his belly.
From Maru's perspective it seemed like the two helicopters above them were going through a similar struggle. Blade was guiding Windlifter in with an unusually precise level of control. Behind him, Windlifter was clearly trying to find a balance between speed and gentleness.
No one needed to speak as the two helicopters came in for the final approach. Blade circled the landing area to make sure that Windlifter would not experience any unexpected drafts, then scooted to the sided allowing the Skycrane to slowly lower Dusty to the ground.
Maru didn't need to give the jump team directions. They moved with the practice of training. Some Avalanche nudged his blade underneath Dusty's fuselage taking the plane weight as Pinecone removed the straps, allowing Windlifter to move down the runway and land. Dynamite guided her teammates into Maru's hanger while Blackout and Pinecone acted as wing walkers to make sure Dusty was not accidently driven into anything that could cause further injury.
No one spoke. Even once Maru had gotten Dusty secured in the shop cradle and set to work, all the members of the Piston Peak Air Attack Team could do was wait and hope for the best.
Aerospace Note: So we have gotten Dusty back to base and that is where the movie starts up. As a result this is kind of where the story ends. But don't be too sad, I will be posting this story's epilogue in the next couple of day's and posting the prologue for my next attempt at a chapter story the same evening. My fingers are crossed that you have enjoyed this story enough that you will be willing to join me on another one. :)
Well enough writing updates, on to an Aerospace factoid. After doing more research then I would like to admit I have discovered that it is actually remarkably difficult to get an full sized aircraft stuck in a tree out of said tree. The branches of the tree prevent helicopters from being used to pluck the plane out and cutting the tree down usually has the negative effect of crushing the airplane. Really the only solution is the one that the road crew used in this story. You create a temporary road to the tree where the stuck plane is, drive a crane on the road, use the crane to pull the plane out of the tree, then drive the plane to an open area where the crane can transfer the load to another vehicle. Over all, while this system works, it is incredibly dangerous for both the crane and the aircraft. Even a slight breeze while pulling the plane out of the tree can cause both vehicles to be totaled.