| From: | "Paul J. Adam" <Shadowtk@********.DEMON.CO.UK> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Exercise LEAPING SALMON IV |
| Date: | Thu, 17 Sep 1998 01:03:42 +0100 |
+++++begin video
A jumpmaster's camera, at the back of a RAF C-130K Hercules, watching a
tightly-packed double file of camouflaged, helmeted soldiers as they
stare at the decking, the ceiling, the back of the soldier in front, or
for the unlucky few in front of the queue, the Wiltshire countryside
spread out below the open rear ramp, the ground so obviously far, far
below.
Other than variations in height, the soldiers are almost alarmingly
identical: shapelessly comfortable combat fatigues concealing form, the
bulk of parachutes and rucksacks hiding gender and build, and their
simple face paint (a matt brown smeared roughly over all exposed flesh)
hiding skin colour.
The flashing red light flicks to a steady green, and the jumpmaster
claps the leading soldier on the shoulder with a scream of "GO!!!!"
That paratrooper doesn't just jump, he or she _leaps_, going off the
ramp at a sprint and leaving only a fluttering strap of nylon webbing
behind where their static line pulled cleanly.
Even as that paratrooper clears the ramp, the jumpmaster is shouting
"GO!!!" to the next. And the next. And the next. In the space of
seconds, forty or more fully-armed troops have hurled themselves out of
the perfectly serviceable aircraft.
The last to jump, though, steps off the ramp, and hangs there for a
moment, impossibly denying gravity... for just long enough for the
jumpmaster to see that this soldier's static line wasn't hitched up.
The Para stares at the jumpmaster for an agonised moment, looks at the
loose, flapping static line, stares down in horror, looks back at the
aircraft... and raises a small sign that says "OH, SHIT!"
Dropping the sign, she has just begun to leap back aboard... when
gravity seems to notice her and she falls like a rock, her fingers
missing the edge of the ramp by mere inches.
"JESUS CHRIST! NO STATIC LINE!" the jumpmaster screams into the
intercom, leaning out on his own safety harness to watch the rapidly-
shrinking form of that last paratrooper as she falls.
"What?" the pilot says, already banking the aircraft and further easing
off the throttles: if someone's static line fouled, and they're being
dragged along in the slipstream, the jumpmaster needs all the help he
can get to go save them.
"The last one out! Her static line wasn't attached!"
Down below, the shrinking dot of that Para vanishes in a doughnut-shaped
cloud of dust. The "poof!" sound is almost audible.
"Last jumper clear? She didn't tell you? That was Rodriguez." The
Hercules' noses drops and the engines wind back up to normal power as
the pilot speaks.
The jumpmaster seems to unwind like a spring with the tension off. "Oh,
bloody bastard buggerdly HELL! Should have known. All right, so, who
decided not to tell me that Rodriguez The Mad was jumping today?"
"Thought you knew." The pilot chuckles. "Funny that you didn't... but it
wouldn't be her keeping it from you. She yanks a chain too hard, the
Regiment won't let her drop for a while. Probably the Colonel wanting to
see if you're awake."
"Yeah, yeah, keeping me on my toes. Can you raise the LZ crew? She land
okay?"
"Wait out..." The pilot pauses. "Yep. Landed in a person-sized
Rodriguez-shaped crater, got out, walked away. Testing some kind of
spell, she says. Apart from The Looney, we got two hurt: Phelps did her
ankle, might be broken, and Pradir Singh came down in a gorse bush. Two
casualties for forty-six dropped. Pretty damn good." The pilot sounds
pleased: parachute units usually figure on ten to fifteen per cent
casualties just for the rigours of the drop, before the enemy fires a
shot.
"Two too many. Let's get back and debrief." The rear ramp begins to
close with a shriek of hydraulics.
+++++end video
Parachutes schmarachutes. There's only _one_ way to make a long drop :)
And that was it ;)
And I told Colonel Clarke-Jervoise and the RSM what I was planning to
do, so I guess they were just having some fun at the jumpmaster's
expense.
He _did_ check my static line, I faked him out with magic, wasn't his
fault at all. I owed him a Chinese and a night's worth of beer for that
little stunt, but it was fun. And there's no better way to test a spell
but to use it for real...
Anyway, I'm back in the UCAS now. Be afraid. Be very afraid. :)]<<<<<
-- The Mighty Quinn <01:02:16/09-17-59>
