Haze Gray 25

Leslie nodded to a conversation she was having with a flight leader. Hue heard the conversation and was reminded "So, where is this window we are going to open in case that dragon comes back, and I have to get a missile away?" That brought a chorus of Heys and then after Leslie pointed, some radio heys and they all lay on their backs, in swimsuits now, and watched as one of the skylights cranked through a hundred degrees. Leslie snorted "Too easy." She got a pistol from somewhere and emptied the magazine with kind of wet sounding phhhts from the pistol. fifteen Vikings hoovered their way up and out of the giant building. Noelle rolled over and a squadron of helicopters lifted from her.

Taylor shrugged and joined them on her front and two more helicopters left. Lisa blinked and was counting on her fingers "How do we have this many aircraft?"

An Officer looked at her from a workboat 'hey' "Davis Montham wasn't using them? What? Do you know how much those are worth? Wait where do they land if the carriers are full, and well, Taylors hanger?"

"Thanks for not saying my butt."

'Hey' "At the naval air station. What naval air station? And I would never Tay. It's a nice butt." She smiled at the glare she got from Amy.

He picked up a small radio 'Hey' They all looked as lights at the same level as that window came on. The catwalk all the way around was full of aircraft and trucks and, was that a catapult? Hangers up against the outboard wall. Earth covered magazines with revetments and rail revetments? Where had the earth come from? And a rail track around the inboard edge? How did that road switcher get up there? Taylor grunted "We'll go look later. That's a lot of ladders."

Commander Crane was grinning at the general officers, the ones there in person and the ones seeing this on their screens, all gaping like fish. Couldn't blame them really, scale that was the biggest naval air station she had ever seen. And it was packed with aircraft of all descriptions.

Dwayne Johnston got out his cell phone. "Yeah, hey, It's Dwayne, uh are you missing some airplanes, uh well, Tomcats, Intruders, Vikings, Sea Knights, Sea Hawks, Harriers, Hawkeyes, Greyhounds, Sea Stallions, haven't seen those in a while why are they green? Oh HH 53 versions from the Air Force, and they might want them back so don't get attached and don't break them. Even the ones with USMC stenciled on them?

"Are those Skyraiders? Wait, when did those get turbines and contra rotating propellers? Oh, later experiments by Douglas. Oh, they did get one to work reliably. Oh, Allison T56, good engine. Wait how did they get that in there, those are huge, it looks mostly the same? Pilots sitting above the tail pipe. Well no need to have cockpit heat then. Yes, I have heard of insulation. M61 cannon instead of M39. Well it has enough room those wings are thick. And Douglas got some black money to convert a bunch but then the project just stopped? Well that's always the way. Oh, we can keep those, that country doesn't exist anymore, shame. Yes a few have disappeared. Yes, lots of them are in Africa. They officially don't exist so didn't appear in the inventory anyway and we would be doing you a favor, OK. Keep them out of sight?

"And the Sea Cobras? Oh, keep those too. Um, yes, we stood up another assault group. Yeah really heavy.

"You saw the Alaska class, yes, we think she is pretty too. Your grandfather was a plank holder? He's still alive? Well Brockton Bay is a bit of a hike from you. No worries, Leviathan didn't stay around here. Well the weather is better in July, maybe August. Be warmer for your grandfather. No, weathers actually not too bad, especially for New England. More like the Maryland coast really, it's a little odd. No, no soft-shell crab.

"Yeah that's the group that was fighting the Konig and the submarines. Well, still more out there so I have to go. No not right now, but more where they came from right? Endbringers, what are you going to do?

"The big golden snake lizard thing? No, I don't think that's a new one. They wouldn't fight each other, would they? They haven't before at least. He seemed pretty pissed at Leviathan. She, PHO says. sexual dimorphism in dragons? OK. Hahha, yes, no worries for you as it's a water dragon.

"I was just wondering when the planes all showed up here. Oh? Well they must have been taking them to a train. A week ago, you say. Finished cleaning you out two days ago. Little fellas and nice old antique Mack trucks. Looked at everything with folding wings or rotors or with Navy or USMC on it. Took most of it and any of the same types the Airforce or Army had stored there, you don't say.

"Haha yes I bet the lot does look empty. Yeah that FAC. I've gotten a few of those citations too. Damnedest thing. OK, let me get back to the grind. Thank you for your service, well civilian or not we're all in this together." He closed his flip phone and looked up, startled at the clapping, led by the President.

Barack smiled "Warrant Officer Johnston, close to retirement? Thought about politics?"

"I'm never retiring sir."

Barack chuckled "Oh come on. You got the talking thing down. So that was the senior civilian at Davis Monthan and the paperwork is all straight on all the retired Navy types in the inventory moving here? Good thing, we'll have to go up there, but it looks like they are all getting put back in flying condition. Most of them, some of them look like they are being cannibalized. Where did the Kanmusu CNO get to?"

'Hey, hey hey.'

"She's in the dock but her chief of staff can answer Admiral. You are going to have to brief me on you all's organization."

Dwayne slipped off toward the dock. Commander Crane looked at him "This should be interesting."

"Not enough to get me trapped into running for office."

Haze Gray

Malia looked at the pile of ships floating in the roped off area. She smiled. Then glared at two boys being loud. Some people, couldn't they see the girls were sleeping? She wriggled on the two noodles she was sitting on.

Further back from the edge of the floating boom Tammi rose a bit in the water as the girl next to her introduced herself "Stefanie Lamana."

"Tammi Herren."

Stefanie continued "Seen you around school."

Tammi looked closer at the girl "Yeah, OK."

"You hang out with Theo Anders."

"Yeah."

"He's kind of cute."

"Theo?"

"In a pudgy white boy sort of way."

Tammi arched a brow at Stefanie who pinked a bit. Tammi grinned "If you like them like that..." Stefanie smiled. Tammi laughed "Seriously, Theo?"

"Hey he is nice. And kind of cute. Put a little time in on him and I bet he trains up good. His stepmom is nice too."

Tammi shrugged and looked over at Theo playing with Aster and being supervised by hundreds of girls. "How you planning to break up the herd?"

Stefanie turned a bit and Tammi blinked at the one deep blue work boat with BB 56 on the bow in Haze Gray and black, that sort of three d illusion thing the Navy did with the ship numbers. "Sisters stick together." She nodded and Tammi turned slowly, sure enough there was a work boat, deep blue, nearly black, with BB 59 on its bow. The sailors in both boats were pouring stuff in the water near them.

Malia felt a disturbance in the force and turned slowly, unerringly, to the white girl and the latina. She picked up the rope and let the tugs out and then smiled as they came back pushing the two girls who were now sleeping on their arms on the water. She watched them pushed to the pile of ships, the seven more conveyors that swung over and the stream of stuff go from a sprinkle to an arch as thick as she was leaping into the dock from each of them hissing into the water just loud enough to be heard over the hum of the motors driving the belts. The work boats were laying hose, hoses, on floats out to the two new girls.

She turned and found Sasha and then worked her way to her sister who was sitting on noodle too. They looked at each other and grinned from ear to ear. The yard girls, what everyone was calling the rescued girls, looked, saw the two new ships and the dock somehow got happy feeling.

Danny followed the happy sounds to check on the girls and blinked standing on the edge of the dock. Then he looked around for Mouse Protector. He blinked when he found her. Where the hell did she get a floating lounge chair? The hair on his neck stood up and he turned and watched the Design Demons walk past, down the steps and into the dock. "Hmmph, hot chocolate and salt water. OK."

He wandered over to their area and looked at the plans on the computer. He didn't touch anything; it was already running a presentation on its own. He watched the presentation and shook his head. A barrel engine, like the torpedoes. Oh, it was a torpedo engine they modified. A mark forty-eight. Oh shit, those things cost like two million dollars apiece, where did they get that?

Liquid cooled and turbo charged. Ceramic coated? The coolant turned to steam for a turbine, ran through a heat exchanger to condense it, and fed back into the engine. The heat exchanger was heating the air flowing into the engine. The exhaust side of the turbo exposed to that airstream too in some kind of heat exchanger. The intake side drew from behind it. Wait, didn't you want cold air for combustion?

Oh, it's all relative when you are running a titanium ceramic engine at two thousand plus degrees? Adiabatic? Wasn't there some crazy guy that wrapped a Pontiac engine in insulation and made all kinds of claims back in the day? Popular Mechanics had some articles on adiabatic diesels too, the Army was working on them, Got near fifty percent thermal efficiency. Low heat rejection engines they called them. No cooling system. Didn't have oil in the last model, that couldn't be right. That was more about eliminating repairs though wasn't it? Of course, it was the seventies and oil was a problem. Saudis trying to make their mark. Fish carburetors, all that back of the magazine stuff never worked but that Army stuff had had promise. Then oil got cheap again. Like other people couldn't drill and oil sands couldn't be strip mined. Saudis should have known.

Hmm, might be time again though, gas was expensive as fuck. Diesel not much better, and the fucking governments taxed the dog shit out of it like it was a luxury. How were you supposed to get to work?

So, this gets fifty percent from the motor and more than forty percent from the steam turbine and is lighter than a gas turbine? Total shaft horsepower eight hundred. Wait, that grams per hour per horsepower couldn't be right? He frowned and looked at the calculations again. Then quit, he was an accountant not an engineer. He turned back and looked at the starting system, or emergency starting system, air starters on deck but a six shot Coffman for in the air? Didn't realize they still made those. Hmm have to talk to them. They would probably only need two at the most, then a parachute. Plan P. He grinned walking off.

Haze Gray

Danny went walkabout to check on the DWU guys and found a bunch of them looking at a giant gun, well four giant guns, laying in the parking lot with yard workers all over them. "What are we doing?"

Mac Frasier scratched his chin "Oh aye, trying to remember how we got these out of the revetments. Well two of them, hadn't worked up to getting the others in. If I remember right we laid temporary track and used two two hundred ton Pensy railroad cranes to get them out of the trunnions and then jacks, cribs, cables, and a locomotive to move them onto these wheel sets pulled by Army high speed tractors.

"I was just a lad fresh off the boat though. I think we can get truck cranes and stick them in from the front."

Danny nodded "Well, these Army guys are bound to have a field ordering officer somewhere and we do know that rigging company that has that self-propelled modular transporter they are always bragging about. Let's manage the project and let someone else sweat. Plus, those are in reach of the dock yard cranes so we can load them on their buggies for them."

As Danny got the project rolling the dock workers got a chance to talk to him about the hyper dash and everything else. Danny remembered Dwayne's phone call and laughed "Hey, one of you electronic wizards pull up the PHO page. Apparently, they decided Lung is a female dragon."

They were all watching the rigging company talking to Army and Navy people and looking at manuals that had been gotten together while eyeing four-inch-tall yard workers. The DWU already knew their part, getting the power and plumbing working, then some painting and stores work. Billy, one of the younger guys looked up from his phone "Lung is going to kill PHO." He then read some of the comments. The DWU guys all looked at each other then broke up laughing.

Kurt finally asked, "So what's up with Lung and Leviathan, there going to be an Endbringer fight or what?"

Danny asked "The one we had wasn't good enough? Had, are still having if all those airplanes constantly roaring overhead are any indication.

"You know I'm noticing a pattern. As soon as we get a type of ship, we get something for it to fight and there are two fast battleships building right now. look on your phone and see how many battle ships were sunk in the Atlantic because I think we are going to see them in a couple of days."

Tyrone sighed "There's more battleships, Hood, Bismark, Graf Spee. Couple of Queen Elizabeth class, some French. First world war German navy too down around the Falklands. Then probably a hundred or more destroyers. Cruisers of all classes. This could take a while. Two more Konigs, schnellboots, Nazi torpedo boats. All kinds of Italian ships."

Haze Gray

David looked at Rebecca "Boring."

Rebecca glared at him as they hovered over the Milwaukie deep. "Well I suppose you could pull a power that lets you dive to as deep as Everest is tall and go not be bored?"

Paul face palmed when David got a look of concentration. Then David nodded "If I had one more slot, I think I got a combination that would work." Paul looked at him as Rebecca started in on him. David took it for a couple minutes then grinned and dived in the ocean. Paull glared at Rebecca "Oh great, now look what you did!"

Lung breached at that moment and shot flame all around himself disappearing in steam. When the steam was blown away there was nothing but a roil of slick looking water on the surface. "Oh, fuck me. I'm going to kill David if he dies."

"Did you second trigger and get resurrection as a power?"

"You don't have to be a howling bitch all the time."

The conversation devolved a bit.

Haze Gray

Carmen had the bit between her teeth. Rebecca was just going to run off and leave all the dealing with the politicians to her. OK, fine. There were some politicians that needed a few reminders and the First Lady had the Attorney General spun up to eleven thousand RPMS and hovering about a foot off the floor.

These anti parahuman laws were the place to start and if she couldn't get the votes one way, well there were all kinds of skeletons and there was a war on. The damn flag officers were going to hurt themselves prosecuting it too. The damn Air Force was trying to figure out whether they could get a hundred and thirty seven Mark forty-six mod K torpedoes stuffed in and strapped on a B52 for god's sake.

The Boss was giving her the long face over villains, PRT policy, every damn thing. Well not anymore. She might get herself and Rebecca fired but she was fixing some shit. Starting with the shithouse five. She had all these parahumans and the only ones that were doing jack shit were the teleporters and half of them were contractors. She turned to her aide "Where are the Nine?" That worthy scurried off and she turned to the next "Figure out how to kill Nilbog. Get with Director Piggot." The next black uniform got told "Find me the Cornell bomber. She can freeze time. We are going to freeze the Butcher."

Carmen pulled out her phone and dialed "Chevalier, put together a team. Figure out how to kill the Nine. Any parahumans you want aside from the Triumvirate. Talk to Narwhal, see if the Guild can support us in this."

She rang off and went to find a white board dragging her trail of black uniforms. She would have something to turn that frown upside down besides numbers evacuated by the time the Kanmusu deployed or she would know why. "Get the thinkers in a video conference."

Haze Gray

Colin looked at the feeds from the drones over Bikini and blinked. Mouse Protector as it had turned out had been right. Standby was a waste of time. Him being in his lab would add less than a minute to his deployment time. "Tess." He was just turning to look when the cawthorn responded

"Colin are you seeing Bikini? Oh, you are."

"Yes, also I am looking at the restricted access live feed of the dock. The two yards seem to be competing in output."

"Yes. I'm going to put a probe in the water, where is she getting the fuel? The other materials as well."

"Good questions, my main concern is what she intends with the fleet she has brought back to apparently new condition?"

"I'm reviewing the data."

"How are you Tess?"

In the dock Tess smiled in her sleep "Fine Colin, thank you for asking. Sleeping in the dock. resting anyway. There are some odd sounds coming out of the ocean around Dominica and Haiti, like a drunken brawl with a cat stuck in it really.

"Then there is a whole line of mechanical transients in the mid-Atlantic ridge. The Navy people think it resembles yard activity. Surveillance is not detecting heat however so it's Leviathan, and it is doing the same pressure welding as was done on the Konig."

"Hmmm. There are several thousand wrecks in the Atlantic and the connecting seas."

"The resource acquisition device I built was programmed not to disturb wrecks any more than necessary. It would take any fuel or resources from them which is legal as salvage. I have had to change that to deny Leviathan resources." Tess cringed a bit.

"Good idea." She relaxed "A shame we have to disturb graves, but I'm certain those people and their relatives would not want them used by an Endbringer.

"Can we get some of your devices into the Pacific?"

Tess nodded the cawthorn's head "They build one of themselves first then go collecting for the yard. I'm a little surprised at the amount of resources in the oceans, even just in the water column. Anyway, that new one moves off a certain distance and starts collecting to build a copy and the cycle repeats. One transited the Panama Canal already. Actually, stopped in one of the lakes and built another that finished the transit."

Colin nodded "Good. That resource denial will eventually stop this behavior. I hope. How did he fire the guns? All the modeling I do suggest he should have gotten in bore explosions the first time he tried it."

"Colin, she is fracking around Bikini. Well at least I think that's what this is?"

Colin looked at the highlighted areas then did so quick research "I agree. Gas was discovered in Papua New Guinea in 1987, several development projects are underway. Australia has developed enough gas to export it liquified. Apparently gold and copper were discovered on New Guinea as well. It is possible she is finding other resources locally."

Tess blinked "They're islands, LNG and water are incompatible."

Colin nodded "And incompatible with life. either it asphyxiates you or ignites and burns you to death. They still ship it in tankers as a cryogenic liquid."