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A Desert, A Dragon, And A Gun

Chapter 3

The flight back to the home base was uneventful as usual. They flew through the skies in no particular formation and the only sound was the slight humming of the engines on their backs that kept them flying. They flew amongst the clouds as per protocol to lower the chances of being spotted. Once they got into a black area they could do as they please. A black area was what they called it, basically it's a space of land that was blocked by disrupters that made pictures and scans come up as a dark circle on the pictures. It was only so they could move about and train freely without any interruption. The entire black area was surrounded by an electrical fence that had razor and barbed wire strung around it. The steel fence was about ten feet high to ensure no one would even try to get inside the area.

They landed and the sand began to blow around, temporarily blinding them. When it settled, they walked casually to the side of a rather large sand dune. There was a piece of metal sticking out of it and Ackim to the liberty of pulling it free. The sound of machinery churning and starting came from under the dune. A metallic box slowly appeared out from the side of the dune and the front fell down, inviting the dragons inside the structure underneath the desert wasteland. They walked in and the room leading downstairs lit up as the florescent lights hummed with electricity.

Instead of just using the stairs they just jumped off from the top. The distance between the top and lower level was about thirty meters, nothing too much. Each landed with a loud thud as the hydraulics became strained and started to his. The large floor of sand beneath their feet prevented them from destroying the hard, titanium floor. Nylris and Ahina immediately headed to the armory to remove their armor, while Ackim, Irayo, and Alratar did something else to keep themselves busy. The three removed the top halves of the exoskeleton and set them neatly on a couch nearby.

This was their home, an underground facility that had very limited communication with the outside world. Here they had all the comforts that anyone could have, whatever they asked for they got it. Since they never got paid for their work, the military struck a deal that they would take care of all living arrangements. They had there own workshop where they could tinker with objects and items to make them more useful. Showers with running hot water, an almost unlimited supply of food, even their own armory filled with weapons and ammunition. Most of the items in the armory were upgraded to fit specific needs. So occasionally the military would pay a visit and take a look at what they had created, they usually ask for a copy of the plans to take and mass produce the modified weapon.

The armory contained everything the military could ever ask for, with one of each brand of weapon ranging from assault rifles to an old Japanese katana. It was truly a soldiers paradise. Alratar and Irayo were usually the ones to be found in there, Alratar working on plasma weapon designs and Irayo thinking of new close combat weapons he could use. Alckim sometimes stopped by to make more of the flammable that was used either in the packs, or in his flame thrower and grenades. Ahina usually worked on her assault rifle and chain gun assortment. Nylris worked on her sniper rifles. Most of the military's new weaponry, in fact, came from this workshop. "Irayo, why do the ladies get to hit the showers first? We sweat a heck of a lot more than they do, only seems fair to let us use it first." Ackim tossed Irayo a packet of poker cards to pass the time and he quickly opened them in midair.

"Well I don't care, if you want to go in, do it. I'm not gonna waste my time trying to stop you. Besides it's your death wish." He hissed as he spoke, as always, while he quickly shuffled the deck. "Five card draw, duces wild." He quietly said to Ackim while tossing him five cards at random.

"Okay fine. I'll throw in a few of my incendiary grenades, what about you?"

"How about a few of my latest creations?"

"Okay sounds good lets play." Alratar walked in just as they started and shook his head silently. He walked to the wall and sat on the couch, looking for a little sleep that he hadn't been able to get. He thought to himself as the two played their little game. "Ha, full house, what do you got?"

"Royal flush."

"What How the."

"I'll go collect my reward now. Oh, and a little piece of advice. Next time, don't sit in front of the mirror."

"Wha...did...you...ah god dammit " Ackin vented his frustration into the wind disrupting Alratar from his thoughts. He sat up, quite annoyed, and rubbed his eyes for a second.

"Will you two knock it off "

"Hey it isn't my fault Irayo cheated me out of some of my grenades "

"Yeah it is, for sitting in front of a mirror dumb ass Now pipe down before I smash the thing over your muzzle " Ackim quite his whining and left to go to a different part of the base. He fell back on the soft couch and let out a sigh. 'Dammit what am I gonna do with those two, they argue like little kids almost everyday... why me.' He looked up and saw Ahina walk into the room, dressed in black slacks. 'Oh yeah, that's why.' He thought, looking up at the green scaled, dragoness that stood above him. 'Damn, she looks cute in that outfit.'

"Hey, showers ready for you."

"Really, that was quick. What about Nylris?"

"She got out way before me, and it's been half an hour."

"Well then, I guess I better get going then."

"Yeah, now hurry up. I want to talk to you about something." He stood up and walked to the showers wondering what she could be talking about.

Mongolia, Capital city, Ulaanbaatar.

"Fire, fire, do not let them get to the prime minister " The Mongolian military had been pushed back to their Capital city by the Russians in just a few days. They sparred no one, women, children, it did not matter to them for they were just animals to them. The streets and plains of the country were in flames, anything that wasn't burnt turned into searing flames. "They're falling back, now is the time for a counter att..." The Sargent's voice stopped when the heard the ground shake. "Where's that coming from?" One of the soldiers pointed toward the large forest that lay outside the city. Large trees were seemingly pushed out of the way by whatever was coming.

With each moment passing by the soldiers grew more nervous as to what this thing could possibly be. Some men even started to fire randomly into the trees hopping to kill what was ever coming. "Get the RPG unit up here now, it's probably just a couple of tanks " As the noises got closer they could hear individual steps from the rumbling of the earth. With our warning the sound of a large chain gun could be heard as large shells ripped through the front line. A large amount of smoke appeared from where the shots came from and the Sargent wasted no time ordering the unit to fire their rockets.

The raced into the smoke and hit their target. The steps stopped and soldiers cheered thinking the thing was gone for good. Their hopes were shot as missiles appeared from out of the smoke and raced to random places in the city killing many civilians. The soldiers didn't need to be told as the aimed all their weapons at the source of the rockets and continually fired. A large machine appeared out of the smoke and didn't stop at the amount of missiles that hit it. The legs of the machine looked very much mechanical, as if they were held in place by a large bolt. Its feet were cylindrical that had three large and heavy squares for keeping the machine from falling over. The face of it looked like it was ripped off a plane and was welded to the front. It had two arms, each connected to a large chain gun that was about as big as several homes put together. On the top of it were two forty-round missile pods that were covered at the moment.

The thing opened fire on the infantry units and they were ripped to pieces. "Quickly, send out footage of this thing, we might not be able to defeat this monstrosity, but maybe someone can " A woman sitting at a laptop next to him was typing furiously and stopped as she hit the send key.

"Sir, I sent it to every country on the planet, what should we do now?"

"There's nothing to do but wait for death at this moment."

"Of course sir."The Sargent looked out toward the battle field as this machine annihilated his men, dozens at a time. There was no stopping it, not even a barrage of rockets seemed to even put a dent in it. He sat there quietly, in a wooden chair, waiting for death. He saw one of the rockets head in his direction and quickly made peace with himself.

Russian Military Command Center, Moscow

Cheering and joyful yelling came from the main room of the command center as many officers watched their newly designed mech. wreak havoc on the Mongolian capital. There was one though, that wasn't celebrating. He was the one in charge and the one who was the first to know what had happened to his men in the desert. True, they were in the progress of conquering Mongolia and were well on their way to take China and that was a cause for celebration. There was a sickening feeling he had in his stomach about that incident. He was informed that plasma could actually do something to the well-armored machines and possibly destroy them if concentrated enough. "Comrade you celebrate with us eh?" One of the officers had walked up to him.

"Sorry but, this isn't a time for celebration." His words caused everyone to stop what they were doing and look at him.

"How can you say that Comrade of course it is. We've just conquered Mongolia and are heading to China."

"Yes I know but what about the Americans?"

"What about them eh, we'll deal with them later, one little plasma weapon couldn't harm our large army." The man spoke laughingly as if war was just a big game to him and this annoyed General Warrad to no end.

"Sir with all due respect, they were our fellow country men, how can you speak so lightly of their deaths as if this was just some sort of game " All eyes where now on the man who had spoke to him. He just stood there, not moving, not saying anything in response. "If they can create one plasma cannon then they can make more, many more. We don't even know how powerful the American technology is yet, there is a possibility that they could've already made one to counter our battle mechs " General Warrad marched out of the room, his rage and furry venting off his head. The celebration stopped and the officers looked at each other realizing he was right...

Somewhere over the Japan sea (The space of ocean between China and Japan for those of you who have no idea on what that is)

"First Blood Unit on rout to Mongolian capital, Ulaanbaatar, over"

"Roger that First Blood, full lethal force has been approved for this opp. Be advised, the video we have received is of the Russian's new military weapon, the battle mech. You're to use caution when approaching this machine and find any weaknesses if possible. Also, if there are any survivors you are to get them to safety, understood?"

"All clear, destroy the mech., analyze it, and save any and all survivors. What are we to do if they are frightened by our appearance?"

"If they will not tag along with you to safety then leave them behind. We'll send in a rescue team when the area has been cleared."

"Where are we to escort them sir?"

"To the furthest point south on the Chinese and Mongolian border"

"Roger that sir."

"Good, you have five days to accomplish your task, be advised that radio silence will be strictly reinforced other than the coded com. channel between you and your team, understood?"

"As always, see you in five days then. First Blood, out." Alratar cut the com. channel with headquarters and relayed the information of their mission to the rest of his team. They had been in flight for about five straight hours now and it was around midnight. They flew through the clouds or just above them. The slight humming of the pack on his back made the scenery quite calming. They had readied themselves for the combat upon seeing the video and had about an hour to come up with some sort of battle plan. The problem is that there could be more the one or a different kind of mech. when they reached their target.

They could see street lights off in the distance, meaning they were very close to land. They were going to China first, and depart the rest of the way on foot. Alratar looked at a map of the border and chose a spot by a dense forest. The bad part about this location was that it was near the farthest northern part of the great wall meaning their might be tourists or some guards there. Alratar could see the ocean cities of China now as there flight path grew lower, just under the clouds. There was a small orange mark on his heads up display with a rapidly lowering number indicating how many more meters they had till they reached the landing zone.

He looked at his team behind him and noticed Irayo didn't have his normal razor whips with him. Instead he had brought two swords that looked like three sided, barbed arrow heads pushed together. A diabolical weapon but, at least the deaths of his enemies would be fairly quick to that compared to his razor whips. Under normal circumstances they would've already been at their destination but, because Alratar wanted to be prepared he had everyone haul at least one plasma cannon on their backs. He thought it right to do so and would use them only if he had to.

They flew in a V formation as they got closer to the landing point. Ahina was to Alratar's lower right followed by Ackim. Irayo was to his lower right followed Nylris. Their flight path continued to drop until they reached the target. From about a mile up in the air they cut the engines and fell in free fall toward the target. The metal wings slowing them down just enough so the fall wouldn't be fatal. The wind howled as the unit fell as the coolness of the night started to make itself known. About halfway down they leaned forward and dive-bombed, still staying in formation. Within five hundred feet of the ground they leaned back and hit the throttle on their packs, slowing them down till about fifty feet when the engines were cut again.

They hit the ground rolling and sprang back up after the first one. They went into the dense forests and Alratar marked the distance to be a couple hundred miles. In their wake they left many Chinese and Mongolian people confused as they raced through the forest. They were nothing but a blur as they passed the few tows that were lucky enough to have not been attacked yet. They ran through the night dodging trees, buildings, and people as they passed through the countryside. Ahina turned out the com. channel and spoke into her headset "Sir, when are we going to get there?"

"We should reach the city by early morn. Taking out the mech. should be the easy part, bringing back the survivors to the southern border might not be so easy though." Irayo joined the conversation seeing as there was nothing else better to do at the moment.

"Why can't we just leave them there to die like the rest of them?"

"Because Irayo, it's our job to bring them back. If you want, you can stay and analyze the battle mech. while the rest of us bring the remaining survivors back to the southern border." Irayo was quiet the rest of the run there. The capital city could be seen on the horizon, the good news being that the mech. wasn't there, but that was also bad news, meaning it could be anywhere by now. Ahina did a scan on the area and Ackim took to the sky. Irayo faded into the shadows as Nylris found a spot for her rifling up on top of a very large tree. The remaining two casually ran up the rest of the way to the city. Ackim was high in the sky surveying the area, looking for any dangers.

"Other than a few stragglers the enemy presence here is zero."

"Copy that, be on the look out for the mech. I don't want any surprises today." He looked up and saw that Ackim was already taking out the remaining Russian presence. Alratar quickened his pace and reached the city and its ruins. It was complete devastation, not one building was left untouched. He saw people inside them, cowering in fear from the remaining troops as they shot anyone they saw other then themselves. They were in a panic though as the troops appeared to just drop dead on the ground. Nylris, was picking them off from a couple miles away with her sniper rifle while Ackim took them out from the sky.

He saw a Russian soldier, who was about to find a small group of refugees. He rushed in activating his pack so he could cut the time in half. He turned the corner and spotted the refugees. He smile out of happiness and pointed his weapon at them. Just as he was about to pull the trigger he fell on the ground, dead. The survivors looked up at their metal savior and coward in fear. Alratar held out his palm and he stood there for a while holding out his empty hand. He was surprised to find the one that took his offer of help was a small child no more then ten years old. "Leader, whatever you're doing drop it. I'm picking up massive heat readings coming from a few miles away. Looks like the mech. is activating."

"Got, it I'm on my way." He looked at the small, male child that had grabbed his hand and frowned. Not wanting to leave them unprotected he straightened his left arm and presented the liquid knife. The others cowered in fear and a woman grabbed the child away from him. He grabbed the whip-like end of the knife and pulled hard, separating it from the blade. He tossed the whip outside and placed the knife on the ground. He nodded and walked out the door, to once again fight the wars of man...