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***
The deed has been done. Help has been rendered, now we must return. But first, we have to take the heroes home. They deserve it.
- What are you thinking about? - Gandalf spoke to me, looking into the cabin.
- That it's over. For you. My story is just beginning. I would like to establish some diplomatic contact between Earth and Arda. Is that possible?
- Depends on what you mean by that," the wizard sat down beside me.
- I don't have the ability to travel between worlds all the time. We need to build a device. A gateway between worlds. However, that will take some time. The rulers of my world, which has never had contact with other worlds, will find it very useful to communicate with other civilisations, other peoples, races. Say, hobbits. Or Elves. Or Dwarves.
- And humans?
- Well, people live on earth as it is. And they're not too different. Earth is a completely different world. Completely. There's only one race, humans. It would be very useful for them to meet the others.
Frankly, no one expected it to be resolved so quickly. Gimli was the one who grumbled the most - he didn't even get to swing his axe once. He hadn't killed a single enemy - what kind of war was that? I agreed with him and chastised him:
- "Gimli, you'll have enough enemies for a lifetime.
- Of course I do," he puffed up with pride, "by the way, where are we going?
*Midgard.
The commander of the Lipetsk military aerodrome sat in his office and brewed tea. The Lipton packet flew into the rubbish bin, the cut waffle cake crunched. Colonel Orlov blew on the hot tea and was about to take a sip when the door to the office opened, without knocking, a lieutenant came flying in:
- 'The Abstergo have made contact.
- И? - asked the colonel unhappily, "Didn't they teach you to knock? What happened?
- We got a call from the company. A new batch of aeroplanes will arrive today, and we've been ordered to accommodate them with every comfort. Twenty-eight cars!
Orlov hadn't known such large receipts since the time of the collapse. However, he was occupied now with quite different thoughts. He left the tea on the table and went out into the corridor, followed by the officer who had brought the most unpleasant news.
- We're almost out of places... Where are we going to put them?
- I don't know. But something tells me that if we refuse now, things will get worse....
- We'll have to cramp up, - Orlov sighed, - where will they be? When?
- They should be here in an hour....
*
Panic reigned at the aerodrome. It began with the rumble of aeroplanes in the sky. The hum, however, had been familiar to Lipetsk for many years, but today it was especially loud. And after that it began. The first to land was a huge bomber-rocket-carrier Tu-160-ABS. At the same moment, as he turned on the taxiway, a second bomber of the same type came in for landing, followed by another one. The usual inscriptions and names were not on the aircraft, neither were the numbers. Just red stars on the wings.
- My God, are they crazy? - asked the general commanding the entire airbase, "Where are we going to find fuel for these monsters? We don't have enough ourselves... This is not a strategic bomber base!
- Wait, they promised to send more later. There's almost nowhere to put them, except between the taxiways....
- It's not allowed, - the general frowned, - no, it can't be like that. We'll have to get out of it somehow...
But that's the generals. Ordinary officers did not think about such things - for the first time in their lives they saw so many new aeroplanes. And this number pleased them. First of all, those who had flown the Su-24, an obsolete front-line bomber. The aircraft was not very popular and it was a dream come true for them to fly the newest SU-34-ABS.
The planes landed one after another, without ceasing. The technicians were almost crying - it was not enough that the equipment was new. So to maintain it ... and the command would not look at the fact that there are few technicians - all driven to death. But they were happy in their own way to change old dry-crafts for new carcasses.
The buzzing sound stood over the airfield for almost an hour - the last to land was an IL-76, in a strange, civilian livery - entirely in rich blue colour, shining silver in the sun, with a white, slightly glowing in the evening gloom, Abstergo triangle under the identification marks.
- What's that? - The general asked, rising from his chair. He looked down from his height behind the performance. The senior dispatcher answered him:
- Flight RA-98077, according to the documents - carrying accompanying cargo, tools, instructions, covers, consumables.
There was an emergency - everyone was urgently pulled out of their holidays and time off. And it was a terrible emergency. The whole night was spent to place the planes, to cover them with covers, to assign them to the base, as it should be. People's expectations came true - the planes were intended to replace obsolete ones. The obsolete ones were to be decommissioned and scrapped on site. Having received such an order from the Minister, the General immediately ordered to scatter the old planes, and to take their places with new ones. Within a day, the airbase had completely written off all Su-24 frontline bombers, which were already obsolete. Their place was taken by new, big and powerful, modernised 34s. As it happened in Russian arms, the number thirty-four is the happiest, there was no bad equipment with this index. Tank T-34, gun TOZ-34, all gained fame as the best in its class. The new bomber threatened to continue the tradition, as it had outstanding LTH.
The next day came the news - the distribution of elephants began! Moreover, the Lipetsk aviation centre temporarily becomes a purely training centre, and it will be based on all types of aviation, up to civil aviation. Fuel was ordered not to spare, the resource of engines - even more so, anyway, before putting on combat duty engines will be replaced. The general personally read out the order of the Minister of Defence in front of all pilots and technicians, who were lined up on the formation. "Hurrah" sounded three times.
And the real work began. The flight time of an average Russian pilot did not suit either the Ministry, or Abstergo, or the pilots themselves, so, after the part received fuel, intensive training began, the number of training sorties increased many times.
But this was only one side of the complex figure. The second side was a virtual reality system combined with various types of equipment. The first was the aircraft - the aircraft cockpit was placed on four robot manipulators, to simulate movements. It didn't simulate overloading, but it was much better than nothing. Such cabins, with a very advanced virtual reality system, as well as a large list of training simulation games, went to many educational institutions in the country. The second was the tank simulator.
Abstergo Enterprises also began work on a computer system that could simulate the process of naval combat. Unlike all other simulators, this one received great fame, as its test version was exhibited at VDNH, ten battle chops of various ships. Players, for a thousand rubles was offered to participate in a simulation of naval combat. The Battle of Athos, Gangut, Kerch, Tsushima, Battle of Navarino, Battle of Chemulpo and the battles of the Second World War... it is true that the deckhouse was still as modern, but the giving of orders was standardised and voice, and it was not difficult to simulate different ships, up to the ancient Russian rooks. In a week the attraction gathered all the naval geeks who were sitting on the "Tsushima forums", and in a fortnight the number of simulators was increased to a hundred pieces, fully allocating them one of the pavilions. The patriotic impact was quite good - there were no analogues of such an attraction yet. Military sailors showed interest in the system on their own, without orders from above. The crowning achievement of the simulation was the creation of a network that united one hundred naval simulators and allowed to conduct long naval battles between participants, or together with friends to participate in large-scale battles. The price of the attraction did not increase, even decreased for some categories of people - those who study in naval academies and the military. After test use, it became widely available for interactive training in naval combat tactics. It was out of the question to teach the whole naval combat - it is too complex and multifaceted process to be crammed into one simulator, not like fighting in the air or on the ground.
The arrival of new planes in the aviation caused a rise in patriotic feelings - the TV channel "Zvezda" cheerfully reported on the arrival in service of new planes, which flew for the first time this year. Images with two dozen Tu-160s accompanied by fifty SU-34-ABS made people look at our aviation in a new way, and Channel One joined in informing the public.
Changes in the army also affected the infantry. First of all, by extremely tough fight against hazing in the army. Since both the minister and the president realised that they would be sending this army into battle, the issue was solved radically. First of all, all Muslims were assigned to separate military units, mostly engineering and in such places where they would not see anything outside the unit except chukchas and penguins. The punishment for concealing the facts of dedovshchina was five years in disbat, the fulfilment of which was monitored by controllers - young men recruited by the FSB, personnel officers who were drafted from different military commissions across the country. The first month of the operation yielded such results that it was time to think about a large-scale expansion of the punishment battalions. While they were deciding what to do with it all... Recruitment for military specialities, especially for aviation, expanded considerably after the promotions organised by Abstergo-Avia, under the leadership of the company's director. In the centre of Ekaterinburg, twelve Su-34-ABS planes and one old TU-160 were put up, with inscriptions on their sides: "Military pilots are required" and telephone numbers of military schools for pilots and navigators. Similar aeroplanes appeared as decorations on the streets of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sevastopol, Chelyabinsk, Vladivostok....
The result was tangible, but the situation really changed only when the higher echelons of power realised one small problem. The number of aircraft was already three per cent more than the number of pilots and five per cent more than the number of maintenance personnel for them. The new aircraft were being stripped of people from old, end-of-life machines, writing them off to training fleets.
On the seventh of November the Minister of Defence received a voluminous dispatch from the Abstergo think tank, which described in detail the problems already visible to the naked eye and suggested methods of solving them. First - it was proposed to organise within the Ministry of Defence an analogue of DOSAAF, but not so .... bureaucratic. To do it as a military society for people of all ages and to use this organisation as a voluntary preparation for army service - with elements of unobtrusive propaganda. Thus, it was proposed to transfer a number of flight simulators under the control of the organisation, including the already operating "marine" pavilion at VDNKh, as well as to remove from storage equipment that clearly no longer meets the requirements of modern warfare and use it for initial military training. And to significantly change what is behind this term. It was suggested that all resources, up to strategic bombers, should be placed under the control of the organisation, on which young boys and even girls up to the age of seventeen would be able to take part in real flights, of course, as co-pilots, navigators or radio operators. Under the control of experienced instructors.
Separately it was written about so-called body-building, or simply - rocking gyms. It was quite possible to organise a training camp in every major city, in which future soldiers - from six to seventeen years old, will be prepared according to the full programme - physical training, sports events, training halls, martial arts - karate, sambo, judo .... It turned out to be a rather obvious and already implemented system, but in a new cover. Instead of clericality - bright advertising and fashion. Plus it was proposed to advertise not so much to children as to their fathers, as a school for bringing up a real man. Yes, in fact, it was to be the new complex. A kind of officially approved, free, not artisanal training school for fighters and specialists. It must be admitted that the Director used both the experience of others and the consultations of Ares, who knew much more about it, but less about entrepreneurship.
Zotov, however, reread the project three times before passing it on to the President. The result was unexpected - Lazarev summoned Zotov to him immediately. After a short negotiation with Zotov, as well as economic managers from the ministry, it was decided to start not from the bottom, as proposed, but from the top - that is, not with a wide coverage of the audience, but with regional, but full-fledged and well-equipped bases. The name given to all this was "Young Guard", both because of the historical background and because the Young Guard had their own uniforms, ranks, and were formally registered with the Ministry of Defence, almost like real soldiers. Zotov also introduced a major change - the rank in the Young Guard was moved down one rank when signing a contract with the army and the Young Guards were not subject to conscription - only a contract, whoever wanted it.
The first, trial centre of the Young Guard began to be prepared near Ekaterinburg, right next to the city, but on Abstergo's money. It looked strange - like a mixture of military and training bases of all types. The runway cohabited with a tank range and a firing range, as well as a lot of space for a training ground. The work process involved classroom training in a game form, lectures adapted for children and free from the stale language of the instructor. On the twelfth of November a competition for instructors was announced, and military equipment began to be removed from the warehouses. Ten tanks. Custom-made T-38 and BT, removed from storage IS-3, T-34, T-44, T-54, T-64, T-72, T-80, T-90.
Sniper optics were attached to SKS - for sniper training, several armoured personnel carriers were repaired, military engineering vehicles and equipment were transported.... Both old and new combat training planes were to take their place in the hangars, which were allocated some area to the north of the city. There was even artillery and drones, but ten per cent of everything delivered to the MG was the latest, the rest was old, so to speak - training and historical.
And yet, looking ahead, we can say that the reason for the popularity of the company was not the love of martial arts, and not even patriotism, although they were there, but the fact that the four-year service in the "Young Guard" was enrolled in the reserve with a reduction in rank by one rank. And by the age of eighteen, a person could live a completely free life without trying to evade conscription - especially since, due to personnel problems in the army, military commissars had become particularly demanding and suspicious of all conscripts.... Children didn't understand it, but their parents were glad to have the opportunity to combine pleasant and useful - to save their children from the army, and at the same time to get rid of them for the weekend and almost the whole summer, having engaged in more useful business than listening to their whims. As for the conscripts themselves ... At eighteen, they had a choice. Either to go to a civilian speciality - to try their luck, so to speak, or to take up an already studied and proven business, in which he or she already knows something and understands that it is impossible to succeed in any speciality with a rush. It takes preparation, hard work and a little talent. Surprisingly, the project also attracted girls, and their percentage was higher than expected. The reasons for this are simple - you can't bring food with you, the training is both mental and physical, and it had a positive effect on their appearance and attitude to their appearance. After a summer at the camp, the girls came back from it looking better and with a somewhat more realistic view of the world....
* * *
Arwen returned to Rivendell, and a very famous one at that. Her father, a local prince, was against a marriage between his daughter and a mortal, even a good fellow like Aragorn. And there was a problem - Aragorn, though he was heir to the king of Gondor, had no throne. And claim his right to the throne? The Viceroy would no doubt not let it go unchallenged. The only way was war.
Gandalf realised this, so he stayed with Aragorn, and so did the Hobbits. Frodo, who had had enough adventures for a hobbit, however, did not want to leave Aragorn and stayed with him.
In the meantime, the men who had arrived in the magnificent flying ship, Hjarti, Steve and Peggy, said that they should not stay in Arda longer than necessary. Hyarty spoke briefly with the Lord of Rivendell about possible diplomatic contacts - after destroying Mordor on such short notice, Elrond could not refuse Hyarty. But before departing, he gave gifts to all those who remained in Rivendell, from himself personally and for a lasting memory. Gandalf - received a pistol capable of firing different types of energy. Arwen - a beautiful block bow that Hyarty made in a day out of composite materials and metal. Aragorn - received full durasteel armour and a helmet with a transparent visor. The hobbits, since they stayed with Aragorn and sort of had to have a new war - got small semi-automatic crossbows, durasteel ringlets and helmets. And finally, the main gift Aragorn and Arwen received for their wedding. Namely, Hjarti left them his car. True, they had to make and leave tools for its repair and several volumes of instructions - the wedding gift turned out to be a wonderful one. However, the driving lessons had to be delayed for a week until Hjarti took the couple's driving test. An added bonus was that the car was armed with a Railgun, although much less powerful than the Ripper, it was no less deadly, thanks to its larger calibre. In essence, it was almost the same as a firearm, but using the reactor's energy. Along with the machine, Hyarty had given them some useful electrical equipment - namely, a dozen army field radios as a non-magical analogue to the palantir. Though they could not provide real long distance communication with each other - five kilometres at most, it was enough for the army.
And this was not counting simple but useful things that Hyarti left to his friends, so to speak - for everyone - several good binoculars, a dozen powerful torches with dynamo-machines and solar batteries - from the "shake and shine" series, almost all tinned food, clothes made of Kevlar fabric with protective elements... And many other things that travellers might need on a hike.
Hyarti's stay in Arda ended quickly, with the beginning of December. After saying goodbye to the travellers, Hjarti slipped a final gift into Aragorn's hands - a dozen aerial maps of Middle-earth, as detailed as possible, and flew away, promising to return.
* * *
Hyarty.
* * *
Steve and Peggy, pleased with each other, came out of their quarters and decided to drop in on me.
- When do we arrive? - Steve asked, hugging Peggy, "and when is lunch?
I, sitting in my captain's chair, half turned to him:
- Lunch will be whenever you want it, just tell the ship. There's still plenty of food in the holds. We'll be there in an hour and a half.
- Finally, I've already missed civilisation... although a beautiful fairyland like Arda... I wouldn't mind spending another week... or a year....
I grinned:
- That's all right, you've had enough of civilisation.
- We'll have lunch then," Steve pulled Peggy away giggling, "let us know when we get back to land, okay?
- Ahem. Steve? Who said we're going to land? There's something weird going on in the galaxy, so - course for Xandar!