Chapter 599 - 587 Extinguishing the Fire

Futaba District.

"Sector A 12, fire bomb coverage."

"Understood, please confirm if the personnel in the target area have been evacuated."

"All armored vehicles are out. Clear to fire."

"Roger that, three minutes from now, my aircraft will drop four 250-kilogram Type II fire extinguishing bombs in zone A12!"

Zhang Meng hung up the communicator, then shifted his gaze to the under-wing camera of the Rainbow-5 drone, and watched as four red-painted bombs were released.

It was now 3:25 AM, and this cruising Rainbow-5 was already preparing to return to the airport, but just then the satellite discovered a fire on the ground, and the Rainbow-5 dropped all of its fire-fighting bombs in one go.

The A12 area was a perimeter wood of a nearby forest park; it had not been ignited in the nuclear explosion initially, but the fire from the central area was eventually blown over by the wind, causing the flames to spread.

Actually, cleaning up this place wasn’t particularly meaningful. Even though the first hydrogen bomb couldn’t reach here, the second bomb’s range did include A12 zone, and in the end, it would still be turned into a barren patch.

The Rainbow-5 cleaning up this place was purely incidental because they couldn’t return with the Type II fire extinguishing bombs aboard; they had to be dropped before landing.

The fire extinguishing bombs brought over from home were of two types: Type I and Type II. Type I was a universally applicable ultra-fine dry powder fire extinguishing bomb, the same as the ones domestically equipped in small batches for forest firefighting units, and in principle allowed for landing with bombs on board, but generally, this was not done.

However, when the first batch of firefighting bombs arrived in Fukushima, Tian Zhan discovered the supply was severely insufficient. If they stuck to the already designated defense zones, they wouldn’t have enough to cover even a tenth of the demand, so he immediately reported the issue.

Ultimately, Type II fire extinguishing bombs were sent over from home. They worked differently from the dry powder fire extinguishing bombs. The Type II bombs were filled with a high-energy fuel mainly consisting of ethylene oxide, and upon explosion would disperse into a large aerial area, igniting rapidly to consume the surrounding air and create a vacuum zone, smothering the fire source by depleting the oxygen.

Type II fire extinguishing bombs also had a better-known name: fuel air bombs, also called cloud burst or thermobaric bombs.

Therefore, in the face of a large shortfall and high costs of Type I fire extinguishing bombs, home chose to repaint the stockpile of cloud burst bombs red, as supplies were ample and more economical.

Whether or not this counted as deploying military weapons wasn’t an issue, because the other four did the same...

Other than the Pacific Fleet, which had crazily procured fire extinguishing bombs costing over a hundred million US Dollars in total, with a unit price of 350,000 dollars each, everyone else was saving wherever possible, and some didn’t even change the paint job.

The effects of the four thermobaric bombs were very significant. They immediately extinguished the fire over an area of nearly 300,000 square meters, and the aerial photography images showed the results right away.

After dropping the bombs, the Rainbow-5 landed at Fudao Airport, which had been designated for radiation operations. Airplanes that had entered the mushroom cloud to collect dust samples were also parked here, and the air at the airport was always filled with the mist from continuous spraying of decontamination water, along with ground crews from various countries wearing heavy protective suits working around.

When Rainbow-5 returned, there were several large planes lining up on the runway for takeoff, including flight 2220, which Xiao Okada had just boarded.

This time, however, all the crew members except for him had been switched out, and it took no small effort for Xiao Okada to come aboard for the second time.

For the three nuclear explosions, home had prepared six crews for each plane, with each crew flying only once, equating to a maximum of 6 radiation tasks during the nuclear explosion period.

All crew members were afterwards given a three-month long vacation and a special duty allowance, and would not undertake similar tasks for at least the next 24 months.

This time, aircraft 2220 will execute the radiation dust design mission, while 2210 will carry out the observation task. Xiao Okada’s 2220 will loiter in the area 30 kilometers from the blast center at the time of the explosion to record the entire process in the most comprehensive way.

According to domestic estimates, at this distance, as long as the flight path aligns with the shock wave, the plane will only experience a bout of airflow turbulence, and the flight won’t be too greatly affected.

At sea and on land, due to terrain and the nature of underground explosions, the power attenuates much more quickly, making it even safer compared to the air.

As aircraft 2220 took off to fly towards the sea, Xiao Okada also became excited.

After his first pass through the nuclear explosion zone, he was even more eager for a second, and since the angles weren’t very clear during the first mission, this time he was sure to catch the full picture.

About 10 minutes later, the H-6H would approach the 30-kilometer warning line and begin flying around the perimeter, followed by seven or eight aircraft with the same objective.

By now, more than three hours had passed since the first hydrogen bomb explosion, and the shape of the mushroom cloud had dissipated and disintegrated, with only an exceptionally large cloud group visible from afar, making it hard for the uninformed to imagine a nuclear explosion had just occurred.

The results of the first mushroom cloud sampling analysis had been completed. Based on measurements of various types of residual radiation in the sample, about 95% or more of the nuclear fuel in core 1 had been hit by neutron flux and decayed, meeting the expected cleanup effectiveness.

As for core 2, according to measurements, it had also shifted somewhat, but when reported to Russia, the response was subtly conveyed as "within the impact range," declining any concern from our side.

Their Iskander had a bigger mass compared to the East Wind 15C, with a naturally larger and heavier warhead, so having more confidence was understandable.

As Xiao Okada was lost in thought, a flash of light caught his attention, and looking out the window, he saw an area that looked like a lake glittering under the setting sun with a shimmering shine.

Near that area was another large reflective patch, though not as intense.

That was precisely the First Nuclear Power Station, aka the blast center. Xiao Okada suspected that the extreme heat and pressure had compacted the soil, sand, and rocks into countless pieces of glass, and since the surveyed blast zone was a trumpet-shaped hole, it was possible that the walls and the surface of the hole’s mouth were already covered with colorful glass shards.

He suddenly remembered a well-known question: Is there an appropriate distance at which nuclear radiation can just cook a pizza?

The answer to that question remained unknown for the time being, but setting up a nuclear explosion glass factory was definitely feasible.

"Heading 305, prepare for impact!"

The announcement in the cabin snapped him out of his wandering thoughts, realizing that his mind might not be quite normal at the moment.

The pilot beside him kindly reminded,

"Jixi’s radar station has just detected a rocket launched from Vladivostok. It’s probably an Iskander, expected to arrive in 12 minutes. We need to adjust the course!"

"Oh... okay."

Snapping back to reality, Xiao Okada quickly identified the direction of the target point and the current heading of the aircraft, confirming that he would be able to see the nuclear explosion from his side.

It was 3:47 pm, and in less than four hours, more than a million tons of nuclear weapons would explode beneath their feet, a thought that sounded thrilling just to hear.

"Come on then, let’s see just how big of a toy these sons of bitches have prepared!"