Go back in time and be a chaebol

Chapter 2654 Male Cat, Persian Cat (First Update, Please Subscribe)
In Tehran, the summer sun is scorching, and an uneasy atmosphere permeates the sweltering air; even the wind carries a burning heat.

Outside Mehrabad Air Base, guards and militia stood armed behind sandbag bunkers, but their vigilance was not directed at the outside, but rather at the base itself, specifically at the Imperial-era air force officers inside.

The air force has always been an aristocratic branch of the military. Its pilots attend specialized schools in their youth and receive training in Western countries; their loyalty to the Pahlavi dynasty is beyond question. This is precisely why there is a persistent suspicion towards the air force inherited from the old monarchy.

These monitors are like the sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of every Air Force personnel; whenever an order comes, someone will be arrested.

What will happen next?
No one cared, at least not the pilots. In their eyes, the pilots, the air force officers, and even the sergeants were all loyal to the king, living lives exactly like Westerners and lacking piety.

For someone like that, it's no big deal if they die.

While they were keeping an eye on the pilots inside the base to prevent them from escaping, the sewers between the base's living quarters and the airport were not as peaceful as usual.

Although it's a sewer, it's not damp at all. This is because Tehran has a dry environment with very little rainfall, so the sewers only have normal drainage. However, even so, the air here is filled with the stench of sewage, making it hard to breathe.

The waterway, which is taller than a person, was designed by SEA engineers according to local standards. Now it has become the most secretive yet most dangerous escape route.

Hundreds of women, carrying sleeping babies and leading young children, moved forward almost flush against the wall. Most of them wore dark robes indistinguishable from those worn by street women, their headscarves covering most of their faces, revealing only their tense eyes. They did not want to live like this, but now they had no other choice.

Although the light from the flashlight pierced the darkness of the sewer, it was turned off every now and then, for fear that the light would be discovered.

When darkness once again enveloped the sewers, the fear and anticipation that filled everyone's hearts were amplified infinitely in the silence of only footsteps, each sound making their hearts tighten.

"Mom, when can we see Dad...?"

The little boy's voice had barely escaped his lips when his mother tightly covered his mouth. The woman's palms were drenched in cold sweat; her lips were pressed against her child's ear, and her voice trembled violently.
"Be good, just bear with it a little longer, we'll find Daddy soon. Now we're playing hide-and-seek, so please don't make a sound."

The boy nodded vigorously, his eyes filled with anticipation.

The women holding babies held them tightly in their arms, covering their mouths and noses with their clothes, afraid that any sound would reveal their whereabouts.

Just then, Hamid heard a noise above him. He turned around abruptly, the beam of his flashlight shining behind him, and growled in a low voice:

"Everyone, squat down and don't move!"

Hamid's heart leaped into his throat. He listened intently and could faintly hear the footsteps of guards on the ground above—there were patrols just two meters above their heads.

They have now entered the airport.

The footsteps above gradually faded away. Peeking over the drainpipe to check for any movement, Hamid finally breathed a sigh of relief, gesturing for the group to advance, his voice still extremely low:
"Quickly, keep going, everyone hurry up!"

The sewer ended at a drain inside the base, right next to the hangar. Hamid told the team to stop and went behind the fence to observe first—outside the drain was a clearing overgrown with weeds, about two meters from the transport aircraft hangar, a very secluded spot.

He glanced at his watch and whispered to the person behind him:

"I'll push open the gate in a moment, everyone get to the back of the hangar as quickly as possible!"

After saying that, he took a deep breath and pushed open the fence. Hamid then squeezed through first, waving for his family to follow, while he stood guard at the exit, watching the patrol team's direction warily.

On the other side of the warehouse, several ground crew officers were vigilantly watching other directions.

The group of several hundred people, like a silent dragon, emerged quietly from the drainage outlet and then entered the transport aircraft hangar.

Meanwhile, preparations were already underway inside the transport plane's hangar. Ordinary soldiers had already left the hangar under the orders of their officers, leaving only a few officers there. They directed the families to board the plane and then closed the cabin doors.

The next step is to wait.

After the family members boarded the plane, ground crew officer Mahdi, along with other officers, led the ground crew soldiers to inspect the aircraft.

Although vigilance within the base is much laxer during the day than at night, any oversight could lead to the failure of the entire plan.

Soon, six C-130 transport planes were towed out of the hangar and lined up neatly in front of it. The wheel chocks under the fuselage were already in place, and the ground crew were doing their respective jobs, some refueling the planes and others checking the landing gear.

When the patrolling guards saw this, they just glanced at it; they had no idea what takeoff preparation was.

Major Mahdi, who was in charge of the matter, was extremely nervous. Watching the patrolling figures disappear, he immediately whispered into his walkie-talkie:

"The Bird's Nest is ready. Speed ​​up the preparation process. We must act immediately!" At this moment, near the runway on the other side, rows of cutting-edge F-14 fighter jets were parked on the tarmac.

This is Iran's most advanced fighter jet.

Said sat in the pilots' duty room, quietly drinking a beverage, just like everyone else. In other places, the pilots and weapons operators on duty were mostly like that.

Now, the entire team has joined in!
Not only them, but even ground crew pilots have joined the operation. The ground crew is currently busy doing final checks on the fighter jets—attaching missiles, refueling, and adjusting the radar.

They even strapped aerial bombs to the plane, just in case. "Lion. How's the bird's nest?"

Majid's voice came through the walkie-talkie; he was in charge of coordinating the actions at each stage.

"The birds have returned to their nests; everything went smoothly."

In response to the inquiry, Said added:
"Everything is ready on our end, we're just waiting for the next signal."

This escape plan was initially just a self-rescue attempt by Said, Eshid, and others.

Since that priest usurped power, the purge of the air force has never stopped, with familiar comrades disappearing or being executed every day.

They all knew that they would be on the purge list sooner or later, so rather than waiting to die, they decided to take a gamble.

This is why, when they began to secretly contact their comrades, more and more people took the initiative to join in—from the initial few, to the entire Tomcat squadron, a total of twenty-four F-14s, and then to pilots and ground crew from other squadrons.

Fear spread like a plague, and escape became their only hope.

Now, they all want to join in, to grasp at the last glimmer of hope.

"Now, it all depends on the command center!"

Said's gaze was fixed on the distant command tower. The radar at the top of the tower was spinning continuously.

Meanwhile, inside the command center, radar officer Nadim stared intently at the screen, his fingers rapidly tapping on the keyboard.

Inside the command center, as usual, besides the officers and non-commissioned officers on duty, several guard officers sat idly, fiddling with their guns. Most of these men were farmers and artisans who had never attended military school and knew nothing about air defense, yet they had been sent to monitor the professional air force personnel.

Suddenly, Nadim shouted at the screen:
"Oh no! The radar is showing a large number of signals approaching!"

As soon as he finished speaking, several guard officers jumped up and rushed to the screen. On the screen, a dense cluster of lights was rapidly approaching the base, looking like a large-scale aircraft formation.

"What...what's going on?" Captain Hassan asked, his face pale and his voice trembling. He had never seen so many aerial targets before and was momentarily panicked.

"Based on the flight path, these signals are likely coming from the direction of Iraq!"

Nadim was spouting nonsense with a straight face, but in reality, he had been secretly adjusting the radar parameters. As planned, he had turned off the radar's clutter filtering function, amplifying the clutter reflected from birds in the air and clouds into "enemy aircraft" signals, creating the illusion of a large-scale intrusion by foreign aircraft.

"Iraqis? Why are they attacking us?"

Hassan panicked completely. He looked at Air Force officer Farooq in the command center and asked urgently:
"Major Farooq, what do we do now? Think of something quickly!"

Farouk said, feigning seriousness:

"Captain, the situation is urgent! We must immediately scramble fighter jets to intercept and block them! We don't know what they're up to, but we have to stop them!"

Under normal circumstances, the order should be issued by the Tehran air defense command center by now, but now... the command center has been purged, and the vast majority of high-ranking air force officers have been imprisoned. Only the technical officers are spared.

Therefore, these militia members can only rely on these people now.

"Okay! That's the plan! Send planes to intercept them immediately!"

Hassan agreed without a second thought, not even realizing that this was exactly what the other party wanted.

"Quickly, sound the air raid sirens! Get all fighter jets airborne!"

The piercing air raid siren instantly resounded throughout the air force base, shattering the daytime hustle and bustle.

On the tarmac, the ground crew, who were already prepared, immediately sprang into action, making final preparations for the fighter jets' takeoff.

The pilots also ran all the way to the plane in jeeps and went straight into the cockpit. The indicator lights in the cockpit lit up one by one, and the jet engines roared loudly, which mingled with the alarms in the base, making the already tense atmosphere even more tense.

War seemed imminent.

"Attention all crews, take off as planned and form an intercept formation!"

After Said gave the order, he pushed the control stick, and the F-14 fighter jet's engines spewed blue flames as it taxied rapidly along the runway before suddenly taking off and soaring into the sky.

One, two, three... Twenty-four F-14 fighter jets took off one after another, forming a neat formation over the base.

(End of this chapter)