Azumanga Daioh Fan Fiction ❯ One Day Over Wonsan ❯ One-Shot

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

+ Foreword

I was not going to write a oneshot ever again, but alas, this is another
one of those. It is inspired by Jason Low's "Live, from New York - it's
Azumanga Daioh!" The Jason's work was unjustly removed by FF.net, but we
remember it, although in a perverted way as the gentle reader will see soon.
For the "One Day Over Wonsan" is an Aviation Otaku Crossover! See, I was not
satisfied with the way Jason did the ending for the "Live, ...". But it is
easy to heap criticism, not so easy to do better. Thus, the oneshot attempt.

Reader is advised to keep in mind that this fanfic is largely a portrayal
of the strange world of an armchair pilot, which might have little to do
with reality -- starting with geopolitics and all the way down to tactics.
Yet if you detect anything abnormal, feel free to mention it in the review.
The one finding most goofs wins, as usual.

Reference URL:
http://www.jay911.org/heard/text/azu/live-from-new-york.txt
(This is cut out by upload filter at evil FF - google for "Project HEARD")

ONE DAY OVER WONSAN

"The most important thing for a fighter pilot is to get his first victory
without too much shock."
-- Colonel Werner Moelders, Luftwaffe, 115 victories

"I didn't want this boy to reach home. The canopy leaped into the air as
the pilot jerked the release; I pulled around tight to get my bullets into
him before he could get out of the airplane. He had one leg outside the
cockpit when the slugs smashed him back inside.''
-- Robert "Johnnie" Johnson, highest scoring allied ace of European theater

Tomo always was unenthusiastic about lasing targets for her flight lead,
Capt. Mizuhara. It made her vulnerable, but that was part of the job.
It made for a convenient excuse when placing blame for a bomb landing
off-target. Between the two of them, it was the same old story since the
elementary school: Tomo Takino screws up, "Yomi" Mizuhara is angry, rinse,
repeat. Yomi's actual name was Koyomi, but nobody used it. For some strange
reason American pilots called her "Jubei-chan". They also called Tomo "Genki",
which was terribly irritating. Perhaps they tried to show their affection
for little sisters. Tomo would much prefer respect and reverence for the
first ever female pair in Japan flying combat missions in jets. Would it
kill those idiots to give her a decent handle, like "Lightning", or "Black
Death"? The "Jubei-chan" suited Yomi though. And it was worth to see her
cringe when introduced by Americans. They stuck to mission-specific callsigns
on the radio.

Luckily, this time a Korean ground FAC designated the target, a pillowbox,
their last for this sortie. Tomo banked her now empty F-2 sportily
to terminate the racetrack circuit, all the while scanning for threats.
She could not help watching how Yomi rolled in with an ideal precision.
That woman was such a show-off.

But before Yomi let it off, an AWACS operator came on the radio. "Gold Lead,
incoming bandits for you, bearing three-one-zero, distance ... one five,"
announced he in a calm voice. Tomo felt a jump as her fingers itched to yank
the joystick to reverse the turn. There was a pause. "Jubei-chan, are you there,
come in," insisted the operator, a little more urgently now. Tomo replied,
"This is Gold Two, Gold Lead is on target right now. Roger on the bandits."
Damn, her voice must have been two grades higher. What timing, and only 15
or even 13 nm out by now! Bandits must've popped out from a valley, coming low,
trying to jump them. And their own cover has moved to the north to help with
a challenge. This was suspicious... Must be an operation in effect. NK's air
force was pretty much destroyed, so these would be Chinese "volunteers", if not
Russian mercenaries... Curses on that Yomi, won't she release the load and pull
out, Tomo thought.

She leveled the wings and peered intently in the pale sky due North-North-West.
Thin cirrus floated high above the battlefield. The smoke raised from the
Wonsan area behind her, but it wasn't obscuring the threat approach from the
right. It was too far to see little dots of incoming fighters, but a BVR missile
launch would leave a smoke trail visible for miles. The sky was empty and
peaceful.

Finally, Yomi came on the ground channel: "Magic, this is Gold Lead.
Affirmative on Bandits. We are going in." Tomo felt relieved and a little
surprised. She was afraid that always cautious Yomi would retreat, but finally
her opportunity to score has come. She immediately started a shallow turn to
starboard to let radar to pick up the bandits, while giving Yomi time to
climb out. Now only a direct order could make them to turn tails. But the
invisible man a hundred miles away only said, "Roger. Good luck, Jubei-chan!"
They were going in! Tomo screamed "Yeeeeeh-haw!!" and hit the throttle.
However, as nobody reprimanded her for the radio procedure violation, she
quickly retarded it and made a little S-curve. Yomi was climbing without
burners, as if in an exercises. The silence was becoming uncomfortable.

Fortunately, when Yomi's F-2 reached low 3-o'clock, she came on the tactical
frequency in Japanese. "Tomo-kun, please separate a little, to about three,
five hundred, and assume Lose Deuce. They probably have Archers, so if you're
targeted from ahead, forget everything and evade. But try to stay in support,
and don't turnfight with them. No funny business and high alpha, understand?"
The unexpectedly informal speech made for a funny contrast with the role
of the intrepid leader, Tomo felt. She answered curtly, "Roger, Yomi-kun."
Who was she teaching, anyway? No funny business, indeed.

Radar wasn't picking anything. The bandits were hiding behind a ridge somewhere
in a futile attempt to ambush them. But with the surprise destroyed by the
AWACS such tactics lost their usefulness. Tomo constantly trained her eyes on
ridge lines and scanned the sky ahead, trying to spot their adversaries first.
But it was not to happen. First, the radar made a ping. A quick look down
showed targets five miles away. The enemies have left their hiding.
Then Yomi said urgently, "I see them, Tomo. About three one seven. Right
ahead." How can anyone with fixed eyes be so sharp, thought Tomo, but before
she had time to become irritated, she saw them too. Two huge dots, in a
fighting wing formation. Two dots and an ominous trail of smoke, extending
quickly.

The missile obviously went for Yomi, who hit the burner, banked and started
climbing into what looked like a segment of an enormous barrel roll.
The smoke trail began to follow immediately, two corkscrews matching
each other, looking set to meet. Tomo held her breath. But no! The correction
for the momentary vector put the missile out of phase. It did not even
proximity-fuse and went away.

Bandits split.

Tomo banked for intercept and they met in nose-to-nose geometry. The mean
looking Sukhoy with maneuvering canards and a full compliment of 6 AA-11s
flashed by and went into a high yo-yo. He was in for a surprise. Tomo did not
try to meet him, but simply gave chase to his leader, who merged with Yomi in
a mirror reflection of the maneuver. Sidewinder growled in Tomo's ear, but alas,
she could not fire until Yomi zoomed by and then it was too late. The growl
ceased as the enemy rotated his tailpipe away. As the bandit leader continued
his turn, Tomo used the energy she saved by refusing to merge in order to go
even higher and rolled belly up. It looked as if the game was up, a textbook
example of tactical brilliance by Tomo Takino and her friend. But then,
something unexpected happened. The Chinese started to pull his nose up and
suddenly Tomo realized that he wasn't going to stall. His airplane literally
could fly tail first. Quickly, she yanked the joystick, and threw the F-2 into
a dive towards the Sukhoy's tail.

It was a close call. At minimal distance, her opponent let go of
a missile, apparently using an off-boresight cueing system. If Tomo weren't
diving like crazy, she would have received a smack right in the face. As it
were, she barely exited the launch envelope while the missile was
still slow and went howling for the ground, and then into a risky pull-up,
burning her precious energy. Any attempt for a pitch-back would have been
pure suicide against an opponent that maneuverable and loaded with
missiles, so she had to stay close, within the minimal range of missiles
preferably. But being so close was a dead end as well, as the Sukhoy could
out-turn her easily. Things were starting to look grim.

Anger over the injustice overcame Tomo. That man! He was flying a superior
plane, but he faced a superior pilot. She was better, she knew it.
She resolved to keep bouncing her opponent and risk headon shots,
trying to gain a gun snapshot. It was the only way to survive anyway.
If she went down, she would go down swinging, and not sitting at the
stall speed in a turnfight like a lame duck.

But going over the top of her loop and checking HUD for the speed, Tomo
saw something troubling ahead. It was a big, curly cloud of dark smoke.
A fighter was hit and exploded. She wanted to call out to Yomi, but the G
load did not allow her to speak. The only sounds she made were some sort
of a hiss and a grunt. There were no other planes in sight anywhere except
her and her nemesis.

She continued the maneuver. If the other Sukhoy won, she would be dead in
less than a minute. There was a comforting certainty in knowing it. Keeping
the eye at the little planform of the enemy's airplane, Tomo squinted, pursed
her lips and inhaled through her nose as hard as she could, struggling
with the G-suit. She became cold as quickly as she flared up. She wasn't
scared. She processed the data and proceeded with the plan. She was
a fighting machine, nothing more, fighting until the end.

While Tomo looped overhead, the Sukhoy below dove and gained enough speed
to start a loop of his own. Then she knew that she had just ran out of time.

Suddenly, the enemy airplane interrupted his loop and rolled sharply
to port. Tomo rolled with him and saw an F-2 boring down like an arrow,
flame bursting out of the gun port and leaving a trail of gunpowder smoke.
It was a magnificent sight. Elated, Tomo popped her speed brakes momentarily,
and assumed a lag pursuit. Yomi pulled up and to the left to avoid
a dangerous overshoot and the Chinese made his final mistake. He reversed
to follow her and Tomo heard a perfect, strong growl. She did not know
if the Sidewinder would fuse so close, but she let it go even before she
had a time to think about it. The missile went straight to the enemy, who
probably heard an RWR ring and desperately banked, but to no avail.
There was no explosion, only thick black smoke poured from one of Sukhoy's
engines.

Tomo pulled up and saw how the glass bubble flew away and the pilot ejected.
She faintly heard Yomi calling for her, "Finish him, finish him!" But she only
rolled into a turn and orbited the canopy below, not knowing what to do.
Yomi came around and made a short burst, aiming for the chute. The silk
folded into a pipe and the Chinese pilot plunged on the hard Korean rocks.

Yomi switched to the ground channel. "Yakima, this is Gold Leader. We have
dispatched the bandits, returning to base. Magic, thanks for the help."
The base confirmed. They climbed to avoid MANPADs and headed due South-West
in silence, after Yomi asked, "Gold Two, what is your fuel state?" Tomo brooded
over her first aerial victory. It wasn't what she expected. She was supposed
to be happy, but something was missing. Things were shaved too thin. If
Yomi didn't return to save her, she would almost certainly be dead now.

Tomo asked on the tactical frequency: "Yomi, what did you do to your bastard?"

"Oh, nothing much," came the reply. "I sent one Sidewinder when we just crossed
with you. It could not hit, but the guy was scared anyway and did a lame
break turn to evade it. I just did a displaced roll to his rear quarter,
and let it fly. Piece of cake," added she with a false modesty of a schoolgirl
relaying her holiday trip to Hokkaido. It was as if nothing important had
happened to her.

Tomo unclipped her oxygen mask and raised her visor. Her vision was getting
blurry. She reached down and switched off the VOX to prevent Yomi from hearing
anything her leader and friend wasn't supposed to hear.

After a while, she felt better. But she still felt unusual, as if she lost
something which was in her for the whole life. She didn't feel like talking,
and it was wrong. She pressed a button and asked, "Why did you kill him, Yomi?".

"Huh? What do you mean? Ah, that. An enemy is an enemy. He would sneak
to Kimmies and back to China, I bet. Then come back to us. It's a war, Tomo!"
After a brief pause, Yomi continued: "Eh, Tomo... Thanks for doing the guy.
Good work."

Tomo didn't reply. Bleak mountain landscape rolled below slowly. The thing
she lost over Wonsan was left behind for ever.

+ A/N

v4.3

Errata

= Forward quarter Sidewinder

Azumanga is set at the break of the century. By the time Yomi and Tomo
finish the flight school and Yomi is promoted to Captain, it is 2012 if
not later. By that time AIM-9L should be phased out of the inventory of
all allied nations. This probably includes ground attack planes such as
F-2 which carry Sidewinder for self-defense. Further, F-2 itself may be
phased out by that time.

This is an anachronism, but it cannot be fixed, because giving Tomo and Yomi
Forward Quarter capable missiles is not going to make Tomo's life difficult
enough for author's purposes. Consider it AU.

= Tomo's SA is inadequate, which is unrealistic

Of one commits to the Lose Deuce tactic, she has to be very sure in
her Situational Awareness (SA). In this case, Yomi gave this credit to Tomo.
In such case, it is unrealistic to assume that Tomo is unaware of a friendly
Sidewinder launch and overall status and position of Yomi and the other
opponent. To maintain sight, she had to look behind, then, as she pitches,
behind and high over the ejection seat, then to the right, somewhat comfortably.

The author's excuse is that she loses sight and she dives at the moment
of the second launch due to the threat sucking up her mental bandwidth.
Thereafter she is too busy to regain sight.

= Tomo's character is too generic

As one reader has put it, "put in a different set of names and it becomes
another techno-thriller." This is a bad problem and has to be addressed.