Fanfic: Save Point - Overdue
Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2018 7:15 pm
For those of you not aware, Fred has dabbled in drawings of a vaguely WWII-like setting, where several of the MT girls are air crew on a bomber. They are definitely darker and edgier, and as former military aircrew myself, utterly fascinating. We don't know a whole lot about that particular -verse, but we do know is pretty grim. Being fascinated as I am, I broke down and indulged in a fast little exercise...
Please keep in mind this is a little flippant thing I just banged out, and not quality work. I took some liberties by adding a couple of people not shown in any of the artwork, and I am interpreting a scanty few images heavily. Critiques, comments, criticism, and complaints are welcome, and probably deserved. Anyway...
Overdue
Flight Commander Hayasaka paced the catwalk outside the tower, her fingers fumbling for another cigarette. You’d think she’d have gotten numb to it all by now, and not need such a deadly way to take the edge off, but her shaking fingers proved that not to be so. Stained with nicotine and tar, her fingers clasped the thin toxic stick she’d managed to wrest free of a crushed carton, and she bent down to light up.
Grey death sucked into her lungs as the cigarette lit, and she leaned back to take a long, deep pull of it. For the briefest of moments she felt like chastising herself, knowing what it had to be doing to her body now that she was up to two packs a day, but she really couldn’t be bothered. After all, the eventual drawn out death these things would cause would only matter if she survived that long.
Nobody survived that long. Not here.
She blew out a long trail of smoke and returned to watching the skies, though hope was fading at this point. The Save Point was well overdue, and little chance remained of it turning up. She should have called it already. She sighed, stubbing out the cigarette (done already?) and turned to go inside the tower and draw a simple, innocent, terrible line through the Save Point on the board.
“Ma’am!”
She turned back around at the call from Tech Sergeant Sonoda. The small girl was pointing to the horizon, and Hayasaka cast her eyes towards the skyline.
A smudge of smoke trailed back from a darkened dot. She fumbled for the field glasses around her neck, bringing them up to focus on that distant specter. It took but a moment before she spun around to Sonoda. “Yuki! Scramble the emergency crews!”
“Ma’am!” Sonoda snapped a hasty salute and jerked the tower door open, racing for the stairs.
Hayasaka sighed, though there was little relief in it. Sometimes having one of the bombers return was almost worse than never knowing what happened to it. Smoking as she was, Save Point had clearly taken damage, and any time the bird took damage there was a good chance someone in the crew…
She shook the thought off. It was best not dwelled on. Reality would come too soon. Just as soon as the plane was stopped on the ground one way or the other she would have to begin learning about the status of bird and crew alike. But that hadn’t happened yet and she stared, transfixed upon that growing dot, pregnant with horrible potential.
Last time Save Point had come in smoking, that pregnancy had given birth to horrid fruit. There hadn’t been enough left of Subofficer Kurabayashi to bury properly. The flak round had ripped the radio compartment apart, leaving a large, gaping hole, and only a few pieces of the formerly cheerful radio operator had been left behind. Hayasaka really didn't want to think about where the rest of it had landed. The only mercy is that what had happened had to have been mercifully swift. Kurabayashi probably never even knew the Save Point had been hit.
The rest of the crew had, and Hayasaka shuddered to think what that moment had made of them. None of them had harbored any illusions about surviving. Not after they came back from their first mission having watched almost 10% of the wing go down in flames. Simple math said that, if 10% were lost in a mission, the odds of making it through 35 missions were simply not worth placing any hope in. Then having it happen to one of the members of a very tight knit crew?
Something more than Asako Kurabayashi had been ripped apart in that moment. The Save Point crew was broken, irrevocably. In the past month, Flight Officer Tohya hadn’t gone to bed sober once. MPs had been needed to separate Sgt Yakugashi Sawatari from her firearm at the pub after she’d attempted to shoot Asako’s replacement for making the wrong comment. Flight Officer Nanasawa never seemed to sleep, but just spent all of her spare time doing maintenance on Save Point, as if that somehow would prevent any further deaths. Only Bombardier Officer Komugiko seemed to be coping at all well. Unless her pulling her gun on one of Yakugashi’s string of enlisted lovers was something more than a mother’s outrage.
Maybe it would be better if the Save Point simply didn’t come back. It was only a matter of time, anyway, and at least they could finally get some peace back.
Hayasaka shook herself, trying to be angry at herself for the bitter thought, but unable to muster the energy. She forced herself to watch the Save Point on final approach, one engine trailing black clouds and the other looking somehow wrong. The bird looked otherwise intact. She had no idea how Tohya had managed to get it back with both engines like that, but as the Save Point glided the last few feet down and then made a textbook landing, Hayasaka had to admit that Miho had done it.
Five figures dropped out of the aircraft almost the instance it stopped, waving away the corpsmen trying to wrap them in blankets, and Hayasaka sighed. Everyone had come back in one piece this time.
Twelve missions down, twenty three to go.
She fished out another cigarette, lit it, and walked back into the tower to begin preparations for the next bombing run.
Please keep in mind this is a little flippant thing I just banged out, and not quality work. I took some liberties by adding a couple of people not shown in any of the artwork, and I am interpreting a scanty few images heavily. Critiques, comments, criticism, and complaints are welcome, and probably deserved. Anyway...
Overdue
Flight Commander Hayasaka paced the catwalk outside the tower, her fingers fumbling for another cigarette. You’d think she’d have gotten numb to it all by now, and not need such a deadly way to take the edge off, but her shaking fingers proved that not to be so. Stained with nicotine and tar, her fingers clasped the thin toxic stick she’d managed to wrest free of a crushed carton, and she bent down to light up.
Grey death sucked into her lungs as the cigarette lit, and she leaned back to take a long, deep pull of it. For the briefest of moments she felt like chastising herself, knowing what it had to be doing to her body now that she was up to two packs a day, but she really couldn’t be bothered. After all, the eventual drawn out death these things would cause would only matter if she survived that long.
Nobody survived that long. Not here.
She blew out a long trail of smoke and returned to watching the skies, though hope was fading at this point. The Save Point was well overdue, and little chance remained of it turning up. She should have called it already. She sighed, stubbing out the cigarette (done already?) and turned to go inside the tower and draw a simple, innocent, terrible line through the Save Point on the board.
“Ma’am!”
She turned back around at the call from Tech Sergeant Sonoda. The small girl was pointing to the horizon, and Hayasaka cast her eyes towards the skyline.
A smudge of smoke trailed back from a darkened dot. She fumbled for the field glasses around her neck, bringing them up to focus on that distant specter. It took but a moment before she spun around to Sonoda. “Yuki! Scramble the emergency crews!”
“Ma’am!” Sonoda snapped a hasty salute and jerked the tower door open, racing for the stairs.
Hayasaka sighed, though there was little relief in it. Sometimes having one of the bombers return was almost worse than never knowing what happened to it. Smoking as she was, Save Point had clearly taken damage, and any time the bird took damage there was a good chance someone in the crew…
She shook the thought off. It was best not dwelled on. Reality would come too soon. Just as soon as the plane was stopped on the ground one way or the other she would have to begin learning about the status of bird and crew alike. But that hadn’t happened yet and she stared, transfixed upon that growing dot, pregnant with horrible potential.
Last time Save Point had come in smoking, that pregnancy had given birth to horrid fruit. There hadn’t been enough left of Subofficer Kurabayashi to bury properly. The flak round had ripped the radio compartment apart, leaving a large, gaping hole, and only a few pieces of the formerly cheerful radio operator had been left behind. Hayasaka really didn't want to think about where the rest of it had landed. The only mercy is that what had happened had to have been mercifully swift. Kurabayashi probably never even knew the Save Point had been hit.
The rest of the crew had, and Hayasaka shuddered to think what that moment had made of them. None of them had harbored any illusions about surviving. Not after they came back from their first mission having watched almost 10% of the wing go down in flames. Simple math said that, if 10% were lost in a mission, the odds of making it through 35 missions were simply not worth placing any hope in. Then having it happen to one of the members of a very tight knit crew?
Something more than Asako Kurabayashi had been ripped apart in that moment. The Save Point crew was broken, irrevocably. In the past month, Flight Officer Tohya hadn’t gone to bed sober once. MPs had been needed to separate Sgt Yakugashi Sawatari from her firearm at the pub after she’d attempted to shoot Asako’s replacement for making the wrong comment. Flight Officer Nanasawa never seemed to sleep, but just spent all of her spare time doing maintenance on Save Point, as if that somehow would prevent any further deaths. Only Bombardier Officer Komugiko seemed to be coping at all well. Unless her pulling her gun on one of Yakugashi’s string of enlisted lovers was something more than a mother’s outrage.
Maybe it would be better if the Save Point simply didn’t come back. It was only a matter of time, anyway, and at least they could finally get some peace back.
Hayasaka shook herself, trying to be angry at herself for the bitter thought, but unable to muster the energy. She forced herself to watch the Save Point on final approach, one engine trailing black clouds and the other looking somehow wrong. The bird looked otherwise intact. She had no idea how Tohya had managed to get it back with both engines like that, but as the Save Point glided the last few feet down and then made a textbook landing, Hayasaka had to admit that Miho had done it.
Five figures dropped out of the aircraft almost the instance it stopped, waving away the corpsmen trying to wrap them in blankets, and Hayasaka sighed. Everyone had come back in one piece this time.
Twelve missions down, twenty three to go.
She fished out another cigarette, lit it, and walked back into the tower to begin preparations for the next bombing run.