DragonZ chapter 10
--Operation: Broken Wings--
"Line up the Target, breath deep, exhale half of breath, squeeze the trigger and watch the blood spray everywhere. Hm talk about a ‘What the fuck just happened' moment." ~Falco Lombardi~
In the morning after, I awoke with Sasha scent still heavy on me, she woke up before I did and fixed a mighty fine breakfast of Biscuits n' Gravy with bacon on the side. Later Fox, Falco, and I trained Kiddo in some basic firefight and sharpshooter skills to help him stay alive during the fight ahead. And of course the Golden Rule: Duck and Cover anywhere and everywhere, all that matters on the battlefield is the man next to you I say. Fox and Falco had been in the gig longer than I have and picked up some of their techniques, they used acrobatics to confuse and taunt the enemies and make them easy targets. In a Combat Simulation, it was Kiddo and I versus Fox and Falco; it was obvious they won because they hopped around like they were the freaking circus.
"Attention. Adrian please report to the main deck. It's a message from Talieus." Selina announced in the intercom.
"Dam! You guys lucked out." I said to Fox and Falco, turning to walk out of the Simulation room.
"Yeah yeah whatever you say Adrian! We had you and Kiddo by the balls and you know it!" Fox joked and high-fived Falco.
"BULLSHIT!" Kiddo yelled at them. I went to the teleporter and beamed to the Main Deck along with all my gear on still.
"You wanted to see me," I came up to the holomonitor, "More news from Snowforge I hope."
"Sadly no but, there is a change of plan."
"What kind of change?" I didn't like the sound of it but I was going to hear it anyway.
"The DragonZ Squad won't be going to help defend Snowforgeâ€"''
"WHAT!?" I was outraged.
"I know but hear me out. There is a resistance movement on Ragnarok and we want you and the rest of the squad to help behind the lines."
This sounded like a great plan though we don't get to go to Snowforge, "What will the rest of the UGACSF do? Spearhead the planet's surface, distracting the Dino's there while we slip by undetected and drop on Ragnarok?" I figured out the entire plan.
"Yes and we are about to start the attack, Ragnarok is a stone throw away from Snowforge so get your squad prepped and ready for drop. We will contact you when we begun our attack, mission launch code is: Irene, good luck Adrian, Talieus out."
I thought to myself for a moment, "So...It's your call Adrian," Selina hologramed herself on the A.I. Terminal near me, "What's the plan of attack?"
"Well Talieus mentioned a Resistance movement on the surface so we set-up a B.O.S. and contact the Resistance."
"B.O.S. sir?"
"Base of Operations Station. Try to keep up with the acronyms."
"Will do. Oh by the way, we have arrived at Ragnarok and waiting further instruction."
"Hm that was fast...put me on the intercom," I ordered and was followed by a beep. "Attention DragonZ gear up and report to drop-pods immediately." The siren wailed, Peppy came in and took the pilot helm seeing as how he doesn't fight. I ran as fast as I could to the Armory and geared up, the suit of armor looked like a medieval suit of armor and seemed like it weighed 2 tons but felt light as a feather somehow. I popped open a hatch to the right of where the armor was and out came the most chaotically beautiful assault rifle I laid eyes on. It was an AR-17, .40 caliber with a holographic sight, drum box clip up to 50 rounds and finally a chainsaw bayonet. Yes a chainsaw for a bayonet.
"Oh shit Adrian! Plan on getting up close and personal?" Fox couldn't help but stare at its beauty.
"Man you take on the entire UGAC with that gun." Gun was amazed, it made her XM8 look like a water gun.
"Jealous Gun?" Sasha came into the room followed by Kelsey, Kiddo and Falco.
"SHUT UP!"
"Yeah ssshe isss. Hey Adrian." Kelsey had returned to her viper form again.
"And hello to you Kelsey. Alright since we are all here, there has been a change of plan. We are not going to Snowforge..."
Kiddo slammed his fist into the wall in a fit of rage, "WHAT! WHY NOT ADRIAN AND DON'T BULLSHIT ME!"
"Instead we are going to aid the Resistance on Ragnarok," Kiddo lightened up a lot, "And we are awaiting Talieus's go ahead to drop."
"Do we know who exactly to contact in the Resistance?" Falco asked while assembling his Barret .50 caliber sniper rifle.
"No but, any dragon we see down on the surface we will NOT harm in anyway. We are here to help them not start a bar fight ooo-rah?"
"OOO-RAH!" the squad shouted in union. A red light flickered on and all other lights dimmed. We had reached Ragnarok, everyone jumped into the drop-pods, buckled down.
I grabbed Sasha's arm before she got in hers, "Sasha...I."
She gave me a long wet passionate kiss, "Don't worry Adrian, nothing is going to happen to me nor to you." She giggled a bit, "Someone has to keep you in line."
"Oh ha ha...very funny." I slapped her ass into the drop-pod. I walked toward mine and latched my rifle into a carrying slot and strapped myself in.
Slippy walked down the row of 8 giving word of luck to everyone before closing the hatches on the drop-pod. It was pod 1: Me, Pod 2: Falco, Pod 3: Wolf, Pod 4: Kelsey, Pod 5: Gun, Pod 6: Sasha, Pod 7: Kiddo, and finally Pod 8:Fox. "You ok Adrian?" Slippy asked.
"Yeah. This is my 56th orbital drop by the way."
He laughed and closed my hatch. We waited in our pods for 5 to 10 minutes before we got a transmission from the Sword of the Star, "All units, Irene. I say again, Irene!" The red light turned green signaling us to drop. The rotator belt moved us into alignment 10,000 km above the planet, I had forgot I hated heights until I looked down and saw, through my perspective, a bottomless pit. Over the intercom we heard Slippy's voice "Pod 8 release." I heard a loud metal blast and saw Fox drop. "Pod 7...6...5...4...3...2..." oh shit I thought to myself. "1!" I felt myself lift up inside my pod as I plummeted down space, nearly pissing my pants.
>Drop Time-14:48:24
>Location-East Continent, Ragnarok
>UGAC Captain. Raines, Adrian J.
>DragonZ Squad
"YE-HA!" I heard Gun over a short wave comm.
"WOOHOO!" Kiddo sounded excited.
"HEY ADRIAN! THIS IS BETTER THAN SEX AND VODKA COMBINED!" Wolf shouted into his mic. I didn't answer nor did I want to because I was on the verge of throwing up anyway. The pod quaked as we entered the atmosphere. Upon entering there was a blood red sky with balls of fire raining from the blackened clouds. The trees were scorched and the ground broken and battered probably from mortar fire.
"Oh...my...god...what the hell happened?" Fox was astonished.
"JUST FOCUS ON LANDING FIRST!" I shouted.
"Roger. This is Dragon 3, I'm on the ground." Wolf called
"Dragon 6 on the ground."
"Dragon 7 on the ground."
"Dragon 2 on the ground."
"Dragon 4 on the ground."
"Dragon 5 on the ground."
"Dragon 8 on the ground."
Wasn't long before I crashed into the ground and had a crater the size of a futon mattress. I kicked the hatch off the hinges, grabbed my rifle and got out, "Dragon 1...on the ground. Dragon 1 to Soul Calibur we are all on the ground over."
"Roger that Dragon 1. You and your team should move northwest along that river there and it should lead you to a small village copy over." Peppy suggested.
"Copy that. Any sign of the Resistance? Over."
"That's a negative Dragon 1. More likely they will find you over."
"Copy that over"
"Be alert though Dragon 1, I don't have a visual confirmation yet but it is possible that a Dino scouting party might have spotted your entrance and have notified other nearby parties so watch you six over."
"Roger thanks Soul Calibur. I'll contact you once we have reached the village over and out," I turned to the rest of the squad, "We are following that river to a small village. Maintain a 5 foot arrow spread. Move out."
<2 hours after drop>
We marched down the river and finally came to the abandoned village Peppy was talking about. We haven't had any sign of the Resistance or Dino forces in the hike; the village was like a maze of rock, almost like a South American villa but a few blocks smaller. I wave a finger in a circle signaling to the squad to form up, and they did. Musk of blood and death was in the calm breeze, pain and fear could be sensed all around us.
"Shit...how can someone do this?" Sasha questioned herself.
"Easy. They come, pillage, plunder and kill anything that doesn't look like them." Falco spoke like he had done this kind of work before.
"Lock it up guys." Kiddo took the initiative to quiet there voice. We moved in and out the encase ruin; skeletons of dragons littered the street. We entered a open circular area.
"Stay frosty guys. Perfect area for a..." a snap of rock behind me exploded into a tiny cloud of dust. "GET TO COVER!" we scattered into nearby ditches, rock slabs, and anything else we could find and use for cover. Barrages of bullets and plasma particles whizzed by, roars of echoed from Dino's across the field. We blind-fired back at the onslaught, hitting air, wall, or a Dino.
"Kiddo move to me!" Falco yelled. Kiddo ran as fast a he could to Falco position.
"Grenade out!" Gun yelled and lobbed a frag clear across the field and took out at least 5 or 6 Dino's.
"Wolf suppressing fire! Fox, Kelsey flank right!" I ordered.
"HELL YEAH!" he swung his body into the open and had a full-automatic Yegster plasma cannon and unloaded the entire 2000 round cell. Most of the Dino's ran with their tails up their ass into cover and some took a 600 degree round to the chest and burned inside out. Fox and Kelsey wormed through the nearby alley to the right and came around to the Dino's position and fired upon the unsuspecting saps. They all fell one by one screaming in agony and crying in fear of death, the basterds had it coming to them. I ordered a cease-fire and no more gunshots were heard; only smoke lingered.
"Everyone still here?" I called out. Different voices all spread out answered. "Good. To me," everyone moved to my position behind a broken down 4 foot cement block. "Great job guys we just survived our first ambush of this war." We turned to each other and traded gestures. It was fun for the short time before the rumbling of the ground. We steeled ourselves and readied our weapons for something big was coming. Thud after thud it crept forward toward us; we looked around and seen nothing.
"Where is it?" Kiddo whispered. Rock and dust thrown into us from the wall behind and out came a T-Rex.
"SHIT!!!" Gun screamed. We scattered throughout the field trying to find cover from the massive barrage of minigun fire. This Dino must have been a Commander of some sorts for he had at least 50 pounds of steel on and a great hammer across his back. He waved the gun to and fro trying to hit whatever he could, spilling rounds upon the ground and roaring bloodlust.
"Kelsey flank'em!" I shouted and she slithered around to his back undetected. "Keep suppression!" Kelsey came up to the blunt and was able to disarm him of the minigun, but that didn't stop him from reaching for his hammer. He swung wild at her knocking her down.
"NO!" Kiddo roared and flew toward the Rex and in front of Kelsey. The Rex began to swing toward Kelsey but was halted by Kiddo grabbing the hammer and fighting bear fists. Kiddo swung his left leg at the Rex to trip him but had failed, the Rex has to heavy and his talons dug deep into the earth. We could not fire upon the Rex for fear of friendly-fire on Kiddo and Kelsey. The Rex chuckled at Kiddos attempt ah head-butted him to the ground. The Rex threw up his great hammer and roared loudly, his arms gave way and let gravity pull it toward Kiddo. We watched in terror as it fell toward him and suddenly stop, there standing in front of Kiddo holding the hammer with one hand.
"I don't think you want to do that to one of my BROTHERS!" He grabbed the Rex's throat with his jaws and ripped out his jugular. Blood sprayed across his face and into the air like a jet fountain. The Rex fell before a black and grey striped dragon, standing tall and proud of what he had done, his where equivalent to Wolf's and Kiddo's combined and stood a whopping 7 feet and 10 inches tall. He began to speak in a Latino kind of accent "So...who are you guys and why are ya here? You travel with a fellow dragon so I see no reason to attack don't worry my friends."
We all came out of our cover and Kiddo picked Kelsey up and on to her tail. I spoke, "Well this is good news...holy crap your tall...um I am Adrian Raines and this is my team the DragonZ. We along with the entire UGAC star fleet have been sent to here and Snowforge to fight this battle with you."
"Well this is great news! It's about time we receive some help," He bowed his head and placed his fist upon his chest. "I am Draco; I am in charge of the Resistance here on Ragnarok. My people will be most grateful to see outsiders here to help."
"Um hello I'm Kiddo...I" he seemed a little nervous.
"Ah the brother I saved! It is a pleasure to meet you, if I may ask your birth crest?"
"Uh..."
"Your last name in other words." He chuckled.
"Garrus. K...Kiddo Garrus." Draco went from a smile to a low grin. He seemed astounded.
"You? A Garrus? No no no no no impossible..." he shook his head wildly.
"What? What did I do?" Kiddo asked Draco, we were just as confused as he was.
Draco knelt before Kiddo, and hung his head low to the ground. "I...we thought you had died along with your parents. We had all but given up hope of ever seeing you again."
"WHAT?!"
"Lord Garrus...you have returned at long last."