There was a part of Maru that really, really hated mornings. If he had his druthers, he would happily sleep in until noon and stay up past two every single day…but that schedule didn't match up well with a wildland firefighter's life. So while Maru sometimes had to burn the midnight oil taking care of one or another member of the team, he always seemed to wake up at the crack of dawn. That said, there was a big difference between waking up and moving.
This morning was proving to be a fairly typical morning. The pink light of dawn was currently starting to peek through is window and Maru yawned carefully listening for whatever sound had woken him from his slumber. Based on the purr of the engine, he was pretty certain that it was Dynamite who was the first vehicle out and about. She was doing her best to be quiet but there was only so much the ATV could do…and honestly, she probably could stomp about and still not wake most of the base up. Cabbie could sleep through pretty much anything, Windlifter and Dipper were dead to the world at this time of the morning, and the smokejumpers probably couldn't hear her over Avalanches snoring. The only ones she might disturb were Blade and Patch, but those two slept on the periphery of the base for a reason.
Speaking of the devil, Maru could hear a low wine of an engine starting up in the distance. Blade was obviously also up and warming up his engines. After a few moments, the wine grew into a thunder as the helicopter took to the skies. Maru closed his eyes as he listened to Blade. He carefully took apart his best friend's engine in his mind, making sure that all of the pieces of the engine sounded healthy. This morning there was a slight hint of a squeal that made Maru suspect that Blade might have a sprag clutch starting to act up. He yawned and made a mental note to drag the Chief into a checkup that afternoon.
Blackout and Cabbie were the next two to get their tails on the tarmac. Maru could clearly hear the crunch of gravel as Blackout rolled across the tarmac to the main hangar to start working on breakfast preparations. Cabbie, on the other tine, stayed very close to his hangar, but Maru knew he had moved because he could hear the low rumble of the old bird's voice as he reported-in to the morning radio nets.
At this point, Maru stretched and tried to blink the rest of his sleep from his eyes. His head was already starting to throb with caffeine withdrawals and while he knew that he really should cut down on his coffee intake he also knew that it wasn't going to happen this season.
Rolling out onto the tarmac, the sun was already too bright for his undercaffeinated brain. He resisted the urge to hiss at hit as he made a beeline to main hangar, where he discovered that he had gotten his timing just a little bit off. Either he was a little bit early, or Cabbie's radio nets had gone a little bit long which caused the Flying Boxcar to still be brewing the coffee when Maru rolled in. Cabbie looked amused at Maru's annoyance, but the old plane had enough common sense to keep his mouth shut which allowed Maru to focus his full angst at the percolating pot.
Eventually, after an anguishing three minutes, the water stopped flowing through the grounds and Cabbie poured out his brewer's privilege. Maru attacked the pot directly after him and he had a mug poured out before Cabbie even had a chance to take a sip. Caffeine successfully secured; Maru could finally turn his attention to his wait for Blade. Luckily Maru, Blade was easily ambushed at the coffee pot.
"Blade." Maru said as the Helicopter snagged himself a mug of morning coffee after his morning patrol.
"Yes?" The Chief asked with a small yawn.
"You get to visit me this afternoon." At Maru's words, Blade let out a groan that nearly made up for the morning's late coffee. The mechanic just smiled back, patted him on the nose and headed back out onto the tarmac to get the day started.
Term – Sprag Clutch – Sprag Clutch are based on a circular flywheel. They are particularly useful in applications when you need a high level of control when rotating something. As a result, sprag clutches show up in places like roller-coasters, conveyer belts, manufacturing, construction cranes, and helicopters. The type of sprag clutch used will depend on the application but usually fall into one of two types: one/locking and two-directional.