Wasteland Survivor – And Back Again - ch8
#9 of Wasteland Survivor
This was going to be a shorter "getting ready for the fight", but then a new angle to the story leapt out and I couldn't NOT follow it, you will see anyway.
And a huge thanks for over 1k story views. Will try and do the next one tomorrow as a reward :)
"But we have some bad news, a report came from Major Davis just fifteen minutes ago, they are under heavy attack and need any help we can bring. What was strange was he told us to delay our departure until you had arrived, said you had some 'assets' that might turn the fight, I hope the wasted time was worth it because their transmitted went dead at that point, and we have been unable to raise them since." Said the Lieutenant, shocking us, one thing the last few weeks had taught us though, and that was to react against threats.
The officer continued, "We have the two hercs we have pilots for prepped and have been waiting for you, the civilians have been loaded onto one along with our only armoured vehicle and we have been waiting for you to arrive since with these two." He motioned us back into our trucks and climbed in himself, "Proceed down this track out onto the tarmac, drive into the rear of the plane slowly and my airmen will get them secured while we taxi out, the flight should be about four hours, we have to just pray they can hold till we get there."
It was then I noticed the open hanger and a pair of very business like military planes sitting unattended, "What about those? Why don't you fly one of those up there and support them with it?"
"The Hawks? That's how our two pilots made their way here. They're training aircraft, no armaments and if we took one up there, even to get a sit-rep, it means one less herc we can fly." my hopes dropped at that, oh well, we will have to do this the messy way when we get there.
A soldier leaned in the window of the bushmaster, "Both vehicles secure sir, everyone is on board and we are about to take off."
"Good work soldier, ok everyone, buckle up, and if you would like to return your trays and put your seats in the upright position, I am sure we will be in the air shortly." the Lieutenant quipped, we buckled in of course, I wouldn't take any damage from bouncing around, but I could hurt others doing it.
We were in the air about twenty minutes when I heard a gasp from Second Lieutenant Jennings beside me, at the same time some crew members seemed to be scurrying toward the truck, "We have something following us Sir, something big but it doesn't seem to have any radar systems active or any radar signature the system can ID S-"
"HOLY FUCK" was all the officer beside me yelled as her eyes lit up like a nuclear fire was set behind them.
-
I was listening to Fox and Private Ashfield swapping dirty limericks, again, when I started to feel a slight tingle in my 'other' sense, it shocked me a little at first, but I had just made contact with a mind outside of the two aircraft that were flying along, yet it was really close, and very different from a humans.
~"Ahh, one of my prey in their little flying seed pod can talk"~
I quickly got the hang of replying, ~"What, my god how big... What are you?"~
~"I am what I am, the lord of the sky and of fire, and unless your kind starts to learn some manners and how to speak like a civilised creature I will be forced to hunt you all to extinction."~ It sounded surprised at its choice of words, but continued, ~"'Extinction', such an ugly word though, I can perceive what these words mean from your mind, it is an ugly word, one... unbecoming of creatures that have learnt to fly, despite their mental handicaps."~
The sense of power flowed from the beasts mind, it could have burnt my brain out with a thought, but I think I, amused it as an anomaly in its order of 'how things are', 'Thing is smaller than me, it is therefore prey to be eaten'. Well fuck that.
~"Listen here you glorified... " The image of what I was talking too had flashed inside my mind and I had an instant to come up with a suitable insult, "Lizard, you are but young in this world, our technology is far superior to whatever you could-"~
The power of its mind lashed out like a whip, someone yelled something, I think it may have been me, but I couldn't think of that now, I had a battle to fight and screaming wouldn't help.
I threw back all the rage I could, every time I had been told in training that 'a prissy little girl' could never be a real soldier, all the times I had been given heavier loads than others just because I was a little smaller, all of it, and threw it at the Dragons mind.
And for a split second, it was hurt, and scared.
But in doing that, in using all that, it had seen what I was, how I had lived and grown stronger, and it replied quietly.
~"Well, your kind does seem to have some fire, and it is always the females that fight the hardest to protect their families, so be it then."~
Sensing it tensing to attack our plane, I threw my mind at it again, ~"NO, a better more FUN battle of strength, we move now to help some of our friends, they are being attacked by some lesser creatures. Lets see who can kill the most, after all, what good is a fight, if you can't boast to someone of it after?"~
It laughed, it laughed a lot, settling its thoughts after a while it replied, ~"Very well, a fight it is, and afterward, if I have killed more than all your puny friends together, we will discuss who is the superior creature, eh?"~
I let go of a little of the concentration I had been holding to talk with the thing, and noticed everyone in the truck staring at me.
-
After her initial exclamation, Jennings had gone into a steely trance, or so it seemed, we all knew what was happening, she was battling with her mind. After a while, a small trickle of blood trailed from her nose, I grabbed a bandage from my pack and wiped it up, sitting back to keep watch on my friend.
All of a sudden she blinked a few times and looked around and grinned with that long snout of hers, "We appear to have a new ally, one that will prove useful in the coming fight. Just two things, don't get in its way when its fighting and for the sake of my sanity, make sure we kill more than it does."
It was then the airmen were exclaiming about something they could see out the back of the plane through the windows set in the loading ramp/door.
After a bit of pushing we eventually all got a turn to look, and when I glanced out the back through that grimy little hole of glass I saw a dragon easily two thirds the length of the herc. "Holy fuck, that's... "
At my loss for words, the telepathic officer filled in, "That, is Drathnial, and he says he looks forward to the coming fight."
And with that the beast raised its head and let out a scream that rang through the air and all our heads...
~"To the HUNT!"~ It came from nowhere, and everywhere at once.
If the Major thought we had some assets that we could bring to a fight before, well, he may be singing further praise of us after this coming fight.
"Fucking hell, can you feel that, the fire in your blood?" one soldier was asking.
"Yeah, its, wow its like a drug, I feel like I could tear things apart with my bare hands" an airman replied.
I could feel it, it sang to my power, calling it up, begging me to let it all loose.
We had another hour of fidgeting, checking our guns, making sure ammo packs were secure and sharpening the odd knife here or there. But the song was still souring inside of us, urging us onward, calling us to fight and kill.
"Ok, we are on our one and final approach, there's a good sized section of highway just near where your base was located, we will be landing this herc there, the other has enough fuel to circle at least till the fights decided, if it goes badly, they will return, if we succeed it will land as well. Buckle in and hold on to something, this WILL be bumpy" the Lieutenant stated and was greeted by a dozen clicks as we strapped in again.
"Ok, Fox, I want you on point, we still don't know exactly what it is down there, so when you first see them, give us a warning, we will back you up till you can close with them, then we will work around your skirmish and try and finish off anything you miss and stop too much else from getting at you. The rest of you, try and keep Crystal supported, she will be directing as much ordinance into the right spots as she can, we have three mortars with us, you men know how to use them, set up but just make sure they don't land too close to Fox, Crystal will guide what she can. Try and keep the trucks close to us to give us some shielding and support. Good luck all." As final talks go, Jennings could have done worse.
Lacking intelligence we were moving in as ready for anything as we could be.
Then we felt like our stomachs were yanked out from inside us and the plane started to plummet down to land, the thump as we touched down was followed by a screaming sound as the back door opened and our truck was already backing up, seems this was going to be even more bumpy before it was over.
We hit the black top rolling and steered out of the way as the other bushmaster was following suit. The plane was taxiing to a stop a bit further down the road but we ignored that as soon as the radio crackled, "That you Jennings? We are down to CB, damn things took out our short wave antenna. We are surrounded by a huge pack of those damn dingos, there's hybrids out there among them, seem to be organising them, urging them on. We are running low on ammo and have had a lot of casualties and worse..." came the news. Hearing of casualties suddenly the song of war the dragon had lit within my blood flared white hot, I drew my bayonet and set aside my ammo and other weapons.
"This is Jennings, we are almost there, we have some serious reinforcements, tell the Major we found something more bloodthirsty than even Fox." she had turned to wink at me, but blanched at the look I returned, I must be looking as feral as I was feeling at the moment.
-
Christ, Fox looked, well she looked almost like I was sure the feeling Drathnial was spreading to us made me look, but a hundred times worse. Dear gods, what had I unleashed here?
"Uh, that is going to be hard now ma'am, the Major is in the medical tent, he was injured on their first assault." the news stunned almost everyone.
Fox took that moment to leap up into the gunnery position and I could hear her feet on the roof a second later, "What the f-" someone exclaimed, Fox was now ahead of the truck and out-pacing us.
~"That one's soul sings a beautiful song, its a shame her mind is closed, but I think this shall be more enjoyable than I previously thought..."~ the dragon intruded into my mind.
Another roar tore through the plains and our very beings, it was a call to kin, a call to fight.
A call for blood.
-
The second time that beast called, I felt a lightening within me, it knew what I felt, and it made it stronger and shared my one wish, Death to our prey.
I saw a line of the dingos turn to face me, I realised I had shouted and was still screaming my anger at them in a similar voice to the dragons and a red haze seemed to settle over the world as I met their line, distantly, almost in another world, I could sense gunfire and more raining around the battle, but I danced my way through the beasts, cutting sometimes with the bayonet, sometimes tearing with my claws, sometimes sinking my teeth into the things.
And I dimly noted that it wasn't just dingos, like last time there was a force pushing them, some hybrids-gone-feral urging them on, encouraging them to fight me. I appreciated their efforts and showed them the beauty of my dance.
I was aware at some point that the battlefield was getting darker, night was falling, and I believe I was running out of foes. Racing to the last hybrid, the dragon tore into its upper body as I gutted the thing and bore its offal to the ground, blood sprayed from my drawing it and also from the gaping wound where its shoulders and head should have been.
Then I turned to the dragon, looked somewhere past where its eyes were, and spoke neither with my voice, nor with my mind, but somewhere in my very soul. "Drathnial, Brother".
Yeah, up until I was writing it, and the link between Fox and Drathnial took hold of me, he was going to end up being closer to Jennings. Damn these actors, why can't they follow the damn script I wrote :/
Let me know what you think.
Btw. the arogance of Drathnial was heavily drawn from Arzosah from the Epic Devery series by Katharine Kerr, read it, even if you have to miss my next update, it will be worth it :)