Thanks to CajunBear73, OechsnerC, Overtoast, and everyone else for their reviews, commentary, and input.
=O=
Chapter 31: Love On the Nuclear Battlefield (1)
Astrid waited impatiently as Hiccup made his way down the cockpit access ladder, a scowl on her face.
"You know, between constant air operations, a week of deferred maintainece, and gust loads from a twenty-five kiloton nuclear blast, it's a wonder Toothless hasn't fallen apart. I'm going to have Pete take her off the flightline for twelve hours, maybe get us some rack time…" Hiccup nearly tripped, and Astrid had to duck to avoid his oxygen hose.
"Woah, sorry." Hiccup continued. "Anyway, I'm going to hole up in here tonight to help out. The whole squadron's like this, and we're starting to rack up avionics failures and…" He lumbered towards the workbench.
Astrid punched him in the arm.
"Ow." Hiccup tilted his head. "What was that for?"
"I thought you died… I though we were dead back there!"
Hiccup gave a little shrug. "Sorry. I was distracted by the radar picture. You should've seen it. Baby nukes popping off left and right, dust clouds all over the place. I'll try not to let it happen again."
Astrid put her hands on her hips. "You'd better not!"
"Well, it's not like it would have mattered all that much. Mission comes first, whether we're dead, dying or puking, and you'd have had to stick around either way. It was hardly time-critical information." Hiccup reasoned.
"You…" You scared me half to death. I haven't been that terrified for anyone since…
Hiccup gave her a quizzical look.
Astrid shook her head. "Right." She exhaled sharply. "So… I'm going to get dinner. Would you like me to get you anything?"
=O=
Astrid bagged the covered aluminium bowls of noodles, fishballs, and dumplings, and weaved her way through the half-empty tables of the Officer's Club.
The whole squadron had been pulled off the line, and by all accounts, the rest of the wing was scrambling to cover for them. Astrid didn't particularly mind. The way she saw it, she'd flown her fair share of combat, and hadn't gotten more than four consecutive hours of sleep in a week. Half a day offline sounded pretty good.
"Hey, Astrid!" Ruffnut's voice echoed through the restaurant. "Come over here! We've got an extra seat!"
"Sorry, Ruff! Gotta get these noodles back to the shelter! Hiccup and the crew need dinner!"
It was more of a late-night/pre-dawn snack, really, but wars hadn't been fought according to human mealtimes since the Middle Ages.
"Oh, come on! I'll throw in a piece of meatloaf!"
Astrid, exasperated, marched over to her friend, carefully placing the paper bags on a chair. She picked up a pair of chopsticks, and practically swallowed the meatloaf whole. God, she was starving.
The scramble alert blared to life.
"You?" Ruffnut asked. Most of ADC was on high alert after the so-called threshold-nuclear strike, braced for the Indian retaliation.
"No. My bird's offline for the next twelve hours – and so am I."
"Ditto." Ruffnut stared out the window into the night. "Lucky, lucky, us."
Astrid washed the remnants of her meatloaf down with a glass of water. "Okay, Ruff. What are you doing here? Isn't TAC dispersing?" Scattered across dozens of civilian airfields, the Air Force would be much harder to attack in the event of continued nuclear hostilities.
"SAC is getting first pick of dispersal bases, and Berk's way out of Scud range and under a missile shield to boot. We've at the back of a very long queue." She shrugged. "Fishlegs just left with the food, but I wanted a little something extra. Girl, you have gotta tell me what nuclear war looks like."
"The noodles are getting cold, Ruff. But… the boss is saying it went well – so I guess we knocked out most of their nuclear missiles. Try to stay away from nuclear SAM sites. They'll kill your Phantom for sure."
"I see your nuclear SAM and raise you one short-range nuclear attack rocket."
"Amen to that, if they let you use nuclear attack rockets." Astrid shrugged.
Ruffnut leaned forward. "So how are things with Hiccup?"
"Fine." Astrid growled. "We got through to each other. Status quo ante restored, and we're killing it in the air. Now I really gotta go." She stood, and turned to leave.
"Just that, Astrid?"
"Yes." Astrid hissed. "What else should I have told him? We're in the middle of a nuclear war. Anything… irrelevant can wait until after. So can this conversation. Goodbye."
"There might not be an after!"
Astrid drifted back over to the table. "That's quitter talk, and you know it."
"Astrid!" Ruffnut snapped. "I just want to talk to a friend one more time. Sit down for a minute."
Astrid sighed, and took a seat. "Noodles'll turn to mush." She mumbled.
Ruffnut ignored her, and pressed her palms together. "Back in Siberia… you showed me the ropes. I was a terrified rookie flying her first sortie in the last weeks of a dumbass war, and you were a not-rookie with three months in-theater and twenty-five sorties on her hat. I… want to tell you… how much you helped me. It's mushy as heck, but I really want to say it, because… I'm not sure I'll see you again."
"We'll be fine if we do our jobs, and save the hugs until after we win this."
Ruffnut cradled her head in her hands. "Astrid, when you were a kid, did they ever read you the Wizard of Oz? You know, yellow sidewalk, ruby slippers, emerald city, all that crap?"
Astrid nodded impatiently.
"Did they ever teach you the moral of the Wizard of Oz?"
"The joy is in the journey." Astrid snapped. "What does that have to do with it?"
"It's life, Astrid! It's life! You keep thinking that oh, I'll do this and that after I finish this first thing, and everything'll be fine if I just put in 110% at every step and do one thing at a time! But one day you look up and realize that you've lost half your life doing something stupid."
Ruffnut gave a long, tired sigh. "Life is meant to be lived. Not solved."
"Are you sure that's not the aircrew awareness pills talking? Or the sleep deprivation?" Astrid cocked an eyebrow, even as she tried her best not to think about what Ruffnut was trying to say.
The Air Force had always been a little too coy about what was actually in those little blue pills. Of course Hiccup could wait.
"It's time management, Astrid. You need to leave time for the other things – career development opportunities, relationships, family, because a lot of things… can't be put off. Doors close. Opportunities vanish. People die. Some… retard on the other side of an ocean plays politics, some idiot down the road does something stupid, and your whole life goes out the window."
Astrid's heart fluttered, and her mouth ran dry. She shook her head, and forced a hard edge into her voice. "Don't talk to me about losing people, Ruff. You don't know me."
"You know, Astrid, I was so happy for you when I heard about your trip to Atomland. I thought you were finally living a little. But we're running short on time, and there's no point arguing. So come over here." Tears welled in Ruffnut's eyes, and Astrid smiled stiffly as she was enveloped in a crushing hug.
Would it really be so bad? To talk to Hiccup... now? We have a few hours, don't we? More than enough time to...
In the corner of Astrid's eye, outside the window, an almost imperceptible flash lit up the night.
Astrid stared intently out the window, seizing the distraction to restore order to an unruly mind. Lightning? It was a good thing she expected to be driving back to the hardened shelter.
A second flash followed the first.
"You sound just like my mother." Astrid gave Ruffnut a pat on the back. Perhaps she could catch up with Ruffnut in the car.
And maybe after that I could...
No. There would be no "after that". She would get back to the shelter, finish dinner, catch a few hours of sleep, and await orders as usual. She had a job to do.
The earsplitting whine of the air raid siren ripped through the room. Across the room, people stood, eyes turned towards the exit as they considered how to respond to the alarm. Berk was one of the largest and most well-defended airbases out West, ringed with SAMs, fighter patrol boxes, and a thousand kilometers of heavily defended airspace. By contrast, the Indian Air Force was a disorganized, second-rate mess, kitted out with a hodgepodge of Western and Soviet aircraft two generations out of date.
But ballistic missiles had flight times of under ten minutes.
People abandoned their meals, and began calmly moving towards the door.
A sharp crack echoed across the room, followed by a faint, dull rumble, drowning out the whine of the air raid siren.
"What the hell?" Someone whispered.
The flow of people stopped.
Ice ran through Astrid's veins. "Oh, crap."
A dazzling flash turned everything outside the restaurant a stark white, casting momentary shadows throughout the establishment.
Astrid dove under the table, shoved her face against the trembling wall, and curled herself into the tightest ball she could even as she dragged Ruffnut down with her.
"DUCK AND COVER!"
An earth-shattering explosion blasted through the Officer's Club, shattering glass windows and sending razor-sharp shards of glass flying across the tables. Fine china, glass bottles, and tableware went flying, and dust fell from the ceiling above. An unearthly howl echoed across the Qingzang Plateau as an atomic wind followed the blast wave outward before suddenly reversing direction, sucking air back into the fireball as it ascendied into the night sky.
Screams filled the restaurant as shrapnel tore through those who had failed to duck in time or had foolishly tried to look for the source of the explosion. A pilot flopped to the floor, blood pouring from his neck as he clutched his face in agony.
"OH, CRAP! OH, CRAP!"
The roar of the explosion diminished, and Ruffnut began to scramble to her feet, but Astrid held her down.
"STAY DOWN!"
Another flash tore through the night, causing the building to shudder once more. In the light of the nuclear flash, Astrid caught a glimpse of the glass and porcelain shards embedded in the pilot's badly cut face as he rolled over, the pilot's bloodcurdling scream etching the image into her memory forever.
The wall – the table – the cement floor was quaking, rolling with the energy of a nuclear blast.
It's ground shock. The bastards are walking groundbursts across the runway.
Think like Hiccup, Astrid.
Twelve….thirteen…
Another blast rolled over them, and dust fell from the ceiling.
A third flash illuminated the restaurant, and the ground shook once more.
A third rumble followed.
"Into the toilet!"
Astrid dragged Ruffnut into the toilet, and locked the door behind them.
=O=
They stayed in the cramped toilet, in complete darkness, for what seemed like hours.
"Holy crap. Holy crap. Holy crap."
Astrid tried to wrap her head around what had just happened. Berk, one of the most heavily defended airbases out West, had just been attacked by a second-rate air force. Successfully. With nuclear weapons.
"How the frick did they get here?" Ruffnut asked. "A Sukhoi has barely enough range to cross the frickkin' Himalayas, and we plastered the Indian Northeast well and good! And when did they get nuclear freefall bombs!"
Ruffnut swore. "We… gave them those light bombers, didn't we?"
But the Indian Air Force's light bombers had JGAF-standard bomb lugs and fusing connectors. They would have had to modify…
The magnitude of the military disaster that could be unfolding hit her like a sack of bricks.
Caught on the ground, the scores of B-52s and F-111s that had seemed so overwhelming so many weeks ago were nothing more than big, juicy targets for nuclear firepower.
How the heck had they gotten past ADC?
Oh, god. What if they had hit the other airbases as well?
Get a grip, Astrid. Get a grip. If they had been serious about taking out Berk, the Indians would have used something bigger than… whatever they just used.
Ruffnut coughed. "Astrid?"
Think like Hiccup. If they'd used a megatonner, you'd be dead by now. They used small weapons – under fifty kilotons, maybe even under ten, which was why you saw multiple flashes. They tried to score multiple hits on Berk because their nukes were tiny.
Tiny my ass. Twenty kilotons in the middle of the apron would have killed every bomber on-base.
We're not in the middle of a massive nuclear exchange. You'll see Hiccup again.
Hiccup!
"Hiccup." Astrid said. "I need to find Hiccup."
Astrid wondered whether they would still be able to fly.
Berk has three oversized runways. Three bombs. Something will be operational. We can fly off the taxiways if need be.
Astrid grabbed the door as an urge to find her backseater overcame her, before jerking her arm away from the knob in shock.
Think like Hiccup. If he's still with Toothless, he'll be fine. He's in a shelter. Blast and fallout proof.
Please be okay. Please be okay. He's got to be okay. He needs to be okay. He needs to be okay, or I'll never get to... He needs to be okay. I'll kill him if he's not.
Ruffnut pulled her friend back as a turbojet screamed overhead. "Astrid, are you okay? We need to stay put."
Astrid didn't hear a single word.
You're not fallout-proof. They used groundbursts. Groundbursts mean lots of fallout. Wait out the worst of it.
Oh god, Hiccup!
"We're… west of the aprons and runways, right? The wind mostly blows east off the plateau. Fallout falls east." Astrid said to nobody in particular. "Unless they dropped a bomb west of us, we should be able to make it in a bit."
"Astrid, Hiccup's going to be fine. Fishlegs, on the other hand..." Ruffnut choked down a sob.
Beneath the popcorn crackle of secondary explosions, Astrid could make out the faint crack-crack-crack of small arms fire.
"Astrid, we should stay put." Ruffnut had ducked under the sink again.
The crack-crack-crack of small arms fire intensified.
Saboteurs! That's how they did it! The bastards had help!
Hiccup's out there! He won't last five minutes against men with guns!
Astrid checked her watch. Thirty minutes. As long as they hadn't dropped any nukes west of Berk – and if the Indians had had to evade any Pacifican air defenses at all, they'd have come from the south – she'd be fine.
"I have to find Hiccup!"
This I can handle. This I can control. I can still save him if I make it across the apron in one piece.
"Astrid? Astrid! You aren't going out there, are you? Astrid!"
There was no reply. Astrid was gone.
=O=
Author's note: Here we go! This climactic chapter was broken into two parts because it was getting way too long. The wait will not be long - Part Two will be coming out within a day or three.
Additional thanks must be given to CajunBear73 and OechsnerC for inspiring the way this chapter opened. It greatly improved the flow.