Sabre Dancing with the Dead Ch 33
Tokonosu, April 24 20xx
Day 20.
0820
It was a good half hour hike to the other side of the field, but Wolf found it to be refreshing to walk for a while. Beside him, Saburo whistled some tune as they marched along. As they got closer to the hanger area, they could see about a dozen small civilian aircraft. He figured there might be more in the hangers, ones which were less effected by the EMP burst.
As they reached the edge of the apron, the officer who'd escorted them saluted and wished them luck. He then turned back to the terminal, to continue organizing for the mission. Wolf wondered about that, and figured the salute was for Capt Sakai.
Saburo made a beeline to the first aircraft on the flight line. It was a nice clean twin, a late model Beechcraft from what Wolf could tell. He glanced at Saburo and would have sworn the Captain was drooling. As Saburo walked round the Beechcraft, Wolf walked a few aircraft further down the line to one he was intimately familiar with. A bog standard Cessna 150. Walking up to it, he glanced into the cockpit and noted that the key was in the ignition.
What the hell. He opened the left side door and reached in. Turning the master switch, he powered up the aircraft systems and dropped the flaps. He glanced at the fuel gauges and verified they were full. The ignition was off. Having turned the master switch off again, he backed out, and started to do a walk around inspection, going strictly from memory. Starting at the nose, he opened up the oil hatch and checked the oil. From there he checked the nose wheel, left side main, fuel cap, leading edge, and onward. Slowly but steadily he checked out all the control surfaces, fuselage, rudder, elevators, flaps etc and wound up back at the nose. Last thing he checked was the prop and spinner. Nothing noticeably wrong.
He returned to the cockpit door, looking over at Saburo. Apparently the Beechcraft was a no go, as the Captain was now checking out the next in line. Turning back to the panel, he turned on the master switch again and retracted the flaps. Checked the parking brake. Checked the fuel valve, Open. Pumped the primer 3x, and set the throttle a ¼ inch back. Mixture rich, Carb heat off. Prop clear. Fingers crossed.
Glancing out the window, he noted Saburo still checking out other aircraft. Suppressing a grin, he turned the ignition to start… and was rewarded by the starter spinning the engine, and after a couple of coughs, it started. Leaving it to idle, he looked out the window again to see Saburo, looking somewhat stunned. That expression turned to a grin and he made his way round the back of the small plane, and climbed in to the right hand seat.
"I didn't know you could fly." he said as he looked at Wolf's shit eating grin.
"Hmmm. I thought I'd told you when I was explaining how Kat and I started to get into being doomers. It's been a long time since I sat in one of these but I guess the memory stuck more than most. I don't seem to have forgotten anything." Wolf replied.
"I'll see if the radio works." Saburo said, as he reached for the mike and turned on the power to the set. Nada. Dead silence.
Wolf checked the circuit breakers, and found none of them had popped. The nav instruments were dead too. All they had were the primary flight instruments. Oh well, no big deal, it wasn't as if they were going on a 300 mile cross country flight in marginal weather. It was bright sunshine, what Wolf remembered as CAVU, clear air, visibility unlimited. Great flying weather. The temperature was in the mid to upper 50s, the air nice and dense.
"Well, one thing left to do. I have to find a fuel sampler. I expect I'll find one in the hanger. I'm gonna shut down and go look. This thing has been sitting out here for who knows how long since it was last checked." That said, he pulled the idle mixture cut off, waited til the engine stopped and then switched off the ignition.
Saburo pointed to the next hanger in line. "Try that one, it's a maintenance hanger."
Wolf quickly found the sampler cup, and checked both port and starboard tanks. Next to no water or sediment. They were good to go. Climbing back in, he started the engine again.
"I'm going to taxi back to the terminal and shut down. We need to get a radio and a map, and note pads. We'll need to stay in contact with the General and his staff too. They can advise us of any traffic in the area. I don't want to just take off without some sort of clearance." Wolf told the other pilot, as he released the brakes and advanced the throttle to get moving.
Getting back to the terminal took 10 minutes and they curved in towards the terminal building, did a half circle and shut down. Setting the parking brake, Wolf and his friend climbed out and climbed up to the operations room.
The General grinned at them as they walked into the room. "I see you found an aircraft to suit the mission. High wing, good choice. When do you want to take off?"
He was impressed when Wolf asked for the supplies and told him he wanted to stay in contact for air traffic control assistance.
"Very well, I'll get the gear together for you. It will take a few minutes. Any idea of your flight plan? He asked.
Again, Wolf answered. "We figure on flying south to the club compound, and then work our way north again, paying close attention to the route to the shore side JSDF compound. From there we will head towards the University, and reconnoiter the road and bridges to that site. We'll be able to put together a much better picture of the access to the library, and any thing of note in the area around it. Captain Sakai and I will alternate between flying and observing."
"So you fly too. A man of many talents." one of the staff officers commented.
"It's been quite some time since I flew but as soon as I saw that Cessna, I knew it would be OK. I loved flying back then so much that it stuck in my memory a lot more than a lot of other things I'd done." Wolf nodded.
The General looked somewhat dubious now. "How long has it been since you last took one up?"
Wolf had to think about that. "25 years? Give or take".
With that the General turned to Saburo. "Are you sure this is a good idea? Perhaps you should fly and let him do the observing."
Saburo grinned back at the General. "So far I haven't seen anything to make me doubt Wolf's ability to fly that plane. If something happens, well, its is a dual control aircraft. It won't be a problem."
An enlisted man arrived at the Ops room with the radio, map and notebooks.
"Well, General, time we got a move on. Any traffic in the area I need to know about?"
"Not at this time. We expect some helos in around noon or so with more personnel. Otherwise you have the sky to yourselves. If that changes, I'll have you notified and I'll advise incoming flights of your presence in the area. Good luck."
Grabbing the gear, the two walked over to Rika and Shizuka, who'd been involved in further planning. They told the ladies that they were about to head out for the recon, and they nodded and wished them luck too.
15 minutes later, Wolf and Saburo were strapped in, the engine was running and they were on their way to the runway. Given the lay out of the field and the current wind, they'd be taking off with a slight cross wind, but nothing Wolf hadn't seen before. The small Cessna approached the runway, but stopped short. Turning into the wind, Wolf did the mag check, noted no issues, released the brakes again and taxied out onto the active and stopped. Radioing the "Tower" he said, "Recon mission departing Tokonosu runway 34, climbing out, right turn to 135, will maintain 1500 feet for Yacht club compound. Requesting permission to take off."
"Roger Recon 1, cleared for take off. No traffic in the pattern, no traffic within the area."
Wolf glanced over at Saburo, a big grin on his face. Getting a thumbs up from the JASDF pilot, he pushed the throttle home, the engine revved to 2750 rpm and he released the brakes. The small plane gathered speed and at 60 knots he rotated the nose wheel off the runway and the Cessna took flight. Climbing steadily in a right hand turn, they swung round to a heading of 135 and reached 1500 feet. Wolf throttled back to cruise rpm, and set the trim for level flight. Beside him, Saburo keyed the mike and called up Wally at the compound.
"Hello Wally, Saburo here. We should be over head in about 5 minutes."
"What do you mean, over head?" Wally demanded.
"Come out into the compound and see for yourself." The pilot said with a grin.
By the time everyone was out in the parking lot, they could clearly hear the small Cessna approaching from the North West. Once it was over the compound, it circled and a small can with a streamer attached fluttered down in front of them. Wally ran over and picked it up, a small MRE can. Inside was a folded piece of paper, which he opened and read. He handed it over to Kat who'd come over from the patio area. Others hung over her shoulder as she read it out loud.
"Hi guys; We are on our way to do a recon of the route from here to the first bridge, on to the JSDF base at the shipyard and then on to the bridges and road between there and the University. Intel of conditions are pretty scarce so we figured a sight seeing trip was called for. Note to Kat... Wolf is in heaven, first time as pilot in command in a dog's age. Not doing bad for a 25 year gap between flights. I'm along as Observer. Go figure. We'll contact by radio after the mission. We expect to sail back tomorrow with more details on the University mission."
Kat watched as the Cessna now turned North along the road to the JSDF Base and the bridge beyond. They watched as it circled numerous times, presumably taking photos and note of the bridge and its condition. A short while later, it headed further North, and disappeared. Shinji came up to her with a happy smile.
"It looks like this mission is going to be a success. If the local commander has gone so far as to give them support to do a recon by air, they are serious about getting to the University."
"Yeah, it sure looks that way. How are we coming with the preparations? Any other ideas?" She replied.
"I think we need to gather a few more batteries and horns to make up more nixies. I think that deploying them a distance out from the library will make our lives a lot simpler if we can drag the deaders a good distance away."
"That makes perfect sense. They worked fine during the rescue mission for the kids parents. Have at it, but as always, be careful. You planning on hitting the auto supply place again?" She asked the sergeant.
"Yes, but I think we will wait til morning." Shinji replied.
"OK, I'm going to go back to the logistics of the University mission. Make sure we have all we need when we need it." Kat said as she turned back towards the club house.
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Author's notes: I don't own HOTD, or any of its characters. I just get to play in their universe. All characters in this story other than those listed below are (So far) my own.
Komuro Tadashi
Miyamoto Rei
Miyamoto Tadashi
Miyamoto Kiriko
Busujima Saeko
Takagi Saya
Hirano Kouta
Marikawa Shizuka
Marasato Alice
Minami Rika
Reviews gratefully accepted, as long as they are constructive and non-abusive.
Anyone interested in following the progress on the real life Sabre Dance is welcome to visit my builder's blog. Just search for Sabredancing. You'll find it. I have until the end of April to get what amounts of 6 months worth of work done, in order to launch. Gonna be a busy 6 weeks. Add in the fact I have to see a surgeon about getting my knees fixed. Should be very interesting for the next while.