Climbing The Sky
A tale set at a random World War II-alike universe, as you can freely guess. There is a notable difference, though.
"Birds of steel" were only a metaphor in real World War II. Here... well, you know.
THIS IS A RED ALERT. THE KOGRANESE ARE LESS THAN FIFTY KILOMETRES AWAY. EVERYONE BOARD THE PLANES.
The siren was doubling the message of the voice, repeated continuously through all the speakers of the military base. Along with the sound of hundreds of soldiers quickly getting dressed and prepared, the chaotic cacophony of sounds was something that could wake up even the dead. Honestly, if they could be of any use, the command would quickly put them in first lines; everyone was of use now, and losing even a single skilled man, soldier or civilian, wasn't worth saving the machine they were driving or flying, or equipment they were using.
Major Athera Skyclimber was prepared for such situations. She had been the youngest wingless dragoness ever to hold a major rank in the army, but her outstanding flying skills, discovered and polished in the Sky Dragons academy, were worth even calling her a general, as someone once said about her. Indeed, there was no one better than her when it came to controlling their flying machines. No matter if it was about strong wind, fighting with enemy on the ground, taking other planes down within a thunderstorm or all mustered together at once, she flew always with the same grace, control and chill as usually.
Nothing, literally nothing could ever bring her down, even though many have tried, with her black and grey-painted Needle (as these planes were called due to their pointy shape) having omitted thousands of bullets from all directions with unearthly grace and speed. It was almost as if she was one with her machine, seeing everywhere around it and controlling it like it was an internal part of her. The strange thing about it was, whenever she was told that, she just smiled widely and changed the topic to something different.
That peculiar morning, as any other, she was already running towards the hangars when all others were still dressing up. There was a reason for that, though; the dragoness spent most of that time cleaning up for the day anyways. After putting the necessary concoction of soap and water in all necessary areas of her bare, white-skinned body and washing it off, there wasn't anything else for her other than grabbing her jacket and running off. Indeed, the dragoness was used to a rather unusual kind of clothing: besides a giant mess of short, magenta hair on her head and a smaller tuft of it on her pubic mound, a very short leather jacket with more pockets than anything else, and optional aviator's goggles on her head, there was nothing else covering the woman's body from plain view. Of course, the men of the army seemed not to mind it at all; after the sight of her giving a crotch kick in perfect style to the one who was too forward, they learned just to enjoy what they saw. And the guy, whose voice was strangely heightened after the accident, quickly changed departments.
Still, she did not waste a single while - Athera was inside her plane seconds after running into her hangar. A quick glance was everything she needed: fuel, check. Temperature, check. Belts, check. Nothing else was necessary for the woman; she sealed the cabin and shifted slightly on her seat, putting her goggles on. She did not know why she did it, as there was nothing to shield her eyes from inside the cabin; yet the habit stood yet from the times when she had been flying without any shields.
The engine happily growled underneath her and the rotor started to melt into a semi-translucent circle on the axis of the Needle's "needle", and the machine slowly started to roll forwards. The dragoness's left hand skillfully led her plane from the hangar on the runway while the other was doing all other necessary things, such as holding the bottle of water Athera took a sip of or turning the heating on. It was around five in the morning, with the sun yet to wake up from its night's slumber; it was indeed quite chilly.
Her plane took off the ground rather swiftly, not even passing the half-mark of the runway, and she aimed the nose of her plane upwards to quickly lift above the surrounding forest. That was when she heard a familiar click of her radio.
"Athera, I thought it was an alert for everyone to board their planes, not just you!", someone said in a rather mocking manner. The dragoness's hand moved to turn the microphone on.
"Eric, I think that I saved your ass way too many times for you to be speaking things like that, so please shut up and let me warm up for the flight!", she shouted, growling just afterwards and turning her radio off completely for now. She was slowly gaining height, and over time she relaxed once again, feeling something chilly, yet familiar, gently wrap around the bottom of her feet.
Good morning, dragoness... It has been a while.
She suddenly heard a voice deep inside her mind. She smiled instinctively, and allowed the thing wrapping her feet slowly climb along her legs. Good morning... It looks like they are attacking with everything they have, she thought in response, slowing her engine down and waiting for the planes from behind and below, slowly lifting off the ground as well.
Do not worry... Do not worry. It has been so many times that they have attacked with everything they had. I have always supported you. I have always led you through them. I have always allowed you to control me, the voice continued speaking within her mind, quietly and calmly, while the thing rather quickly reached the woman's knees, showing itself to her eyes: a metallic, silvery substance, calmly sliding upwards and continuing to cover her body, and the inner side of the cabin, with itself. It will be no different this time. Please, do not worry.
Athera quietly smiled to herself. One of her hands left the control stick and gently patted her silver-coated thigh. Some of the sticky, moving liquid was left on her palm, yet she did not seem to mind it, putting her hand back on the stick. I don't... In your embrace, I never will, the dragoness thought to herself, feeling the liquid wrap around her hips and belly, hugging them tight and warming them with itself. Her eyes, though, were still locked to an undefined point on the horizon as she was searching for any enemy machines in plain sight. The liquid metal slowly covering the interiors of her cabin seemed to know it, leaving the front of the glass surface not coated for now.
You know I will help you now. You know I will not let anyone bring you down. Please, relax now and let me embrace you... again.
The metal sped up slightly, covering most of the woman's body in very little time. It slid underneath her jacket and shortly embraced her hands from underneath her sleeves. They slowly moved down to lie on her thighs, the liquid metal fusing itself in the spot of the connection. It appeared first on the back of her still observing and cautious head, climbing upwards and covering every single hair on her scalp with itself in a very precise, calm manner. Athera was holding her eyes open until she felt that her face was the only part of her body not yet wrapped by the silver coating.
Alright... I trust you. You know it.
And I know you trust me.
The dragoness's eyelids slowly closed, allowing the liquid coating to wrap over most of her face. Her snout was left untouched to let her breathe, and the silver suddenly started to coat everything that was within the cabin: glass, metal, plastic or leather. Athera, though, already did not see it. She felt strange for a moment, yet it was a very familiar kind of strange feeling. She had already done that tens, if not hundreds of times, and she already knew that her brain needed a short while to become accustomed to the new kind of sensations...
For a moment, she was left alone. Her senses literally disconnected, she could not hear or smell anything for a moment; she could not even feel the usual warmth of the liquid on her skin. She did not feel her body anymore. Her subconsciousness suddenly started to panic, but the voice suddenly appearing within her mind managed to calm that feeling down.
We are already one... Please, feel how we are connected in such a beautiful, unique manner. Please, start feeling me... You know you can.
The dragoness suddenly moved... something. That was always the first thing she did to become accustomed to the new senses she just acquired. She felt the forces somehow shift, and that she was making it right downwards, where the gravity was pulling her towards. She corrected, moving that strange limb of hers in the opposite direction and stopping it just when she was going along the surface of the earth.
Her "eyes" opened yet again. The coloration she experienced was nothing she had ever seen anywhere else, or anything she could express using just these earthly, normal hues of paint. The ground below was blank, without any details, even though that a few whiles ago it was populated with trees, buildings and roads. The sky, though, the sky was something that was making up for it. If there was anything she could capture just from these moments inside her plane and bring to people outside, it would be the vista of the shiny, cloud-coated hemisphere around her head, of a color she could never describe or even name... just enjoy.
Athera's mind fully accustomed to its new position and place. It was almost unbelievable for her to be flooded with so much to see, hear, smell, move after a while during which she experienced almost complete sensory deprivation. Yet, she felt like she was no longer in her body anymore, she could no longer see or hear what Athera Skyclimber could... She felt like she was her plane. She could control her speed, turn, move upwards or downwards in a completely natural manner, like she moved her hands or legs a while ago. She could see everything around herself without needing to turn anything; that was something very dizzy initially, yet she became used to it very quickly and turned that quirk into her biggest advantage. She could hear her engine's work, the wind passing along, she could hear everything going on outside...
It was perfect. It was just like everyone said... Heaven had to be above the ground's level.
She turned the radio of her plane on again. "Dragoness One here. I am about fifteen kilometres to the southwest from the base. No sight of enemy yet.", she spoke, using her body's mouth for that. It did not really feel like her body anymore... more like a limb, the one responsible for speech and listening to radio communicates.
"Base here, Dragoness One. That is good news, but the boys have some troubles catching up with you.", a familiar voice screeched in the speaker right before her sight caught a few objects in front of her. They were metallic, tiny, though metallic - she could make out their surface without any trouble. They were moving together, and what was the most important: they were in the air, just above the horizon, moving in the opposite direction...
"Dragoness One here, spotted the enemy. Around forty enemy planes are travelling our way. Engaging the enemy."
"Dammit, Athera! Y-"
"There is no point in going back now, they are just going to notice me and speed up. Tell your boys to speed up, I am sure they can do that. Dragoness One out."
She was still unnoticed by the other planes by that moment. Nonetheless, she decided to slow down, going just above the speed necessary to remain in the air. That was necessary to lower the risk; the risk that, although small, was still there...
There is no risk, dragoness. You know there is nothing to fear with me and you being together.
The voice, as calming and stoic as it remained before, slightly calmed the dragoness down, though she still wasn't sure. They are in a big group. I am alone here, I'd better wa...
You are not alone, dragoness. I am with you.
Even then, there are only two of us here... I am worried about you.
You know you should not be. Please, let me. We will confuse them. The rest will join us shortly.
Athera quietly sighed. The metallic objects in front of her have turned from tiny dots to clearly plane-shaped objects, and she knew that they were as large to her as she was to them. That relation was sometimes something she cursed: there was no way to hide in the sky, even though she sometimes wanted to. Though, she noticed that they were curled into a package, a ball of sorts, like they were too fearful to fly in a flat line or even in a giant V...
She aimed. I trust you. Now, lets turn them into Swiss cheese.
The dragoness's machineguns, hidden behind the rotor of her plane, started to fire, working along with the synchronizer preventing the bullets from hitting the delicate piece giving her plane force to stay in the air. The heated lines the projectiles passed though appeared in the air, aimed perfectly at one of these machines in front of her. She stopped after shooting about ten of them into the air as the heat suddenly bursting from that single plane, along with a sudden change of its trajectory, was enough for her to score a hit. She found it almost impossible that they seemingly had not noticed her until now - they started spreading and separating. The ones on the back probably still did not know why one of them suddenly went down.
The silver liquid wrapped tightly around the guns slightly shifted itself, working like a muscle of that plane and giving her a very, very usable ability: the ability to change the aim without changing the plane's altitude or angle. The bullets went, went and went with the plane's onboard weapons slightly shifting once in a while. That was when she heard these unpleasant, high-pitched noises around her, and saw the hot lines of disturbed air appearing around her. They noticed her and responded with fire. She was around half a kilometre away from all the other machines.
Athera's snout curved into a grin.
Her plane suddenly lowered its nose and started gaining speed, diving downwards very quickly. That was a very old trick, and she knew none of them would have fallen for that. Indeed, a few of the other planes separated from the group and dived as well, clearly aiming for her machine. Though, that was where her machineguns surprised them again - they, able to shoot almost wherever they wanted, quickly sent a series of death-bringing projectiles along the bottom of the armed group. A bright cloud of heat rose from the first plane, then from the second - that still wasn't the action that was about to come, though. Athera suddenly brought the nose of her plane upwards, looking at the tightly-packed group of machines from below.
Flying in such a group had a great disadvantage: the machines in the middle were immobile and dependent on the ones around them.
The bullets sent through that cloud of steel and air proved that mistake to be very, very painful. They damaged the planes below, confused the ones on the middle and burst through the top, causing quite a lot of damages in every single layer. One plane from above exploded and fell on one just below, immediately bringing it down as well. One of these machines flew inches above her plane on its last, fiery trip towards the ground before she heard a loud communicate on the radio, spoken in Kogranese.
"IDIOTS! SPREAD! SPREAD! IT'S THAT CURSED PLANE!"
Wow. They have already called you a cursed machine, Athera thought to herself while she made a large barrel roll behind the group, turning around to face them again. The cloud wasn't there already anymore; the dragoness got what she wanted. Such a silly tactical mistake has already stripped them of a third of their forces.
This time, she felt the bullets on herself. The little objects with relatively small mass and giant velocity were painfully sinking into her plane's surface, yet that was where the plane itself was coming to help her. The silver liquid resting just underneath that thin layer of metal was passing the bullets through the wings and tail, immediately sealing any holes made by them with itself. The few that were aimed straight at her cockpit, though, were stopped just after touching that silver coating visible from outside of her cabin. It was harder than anything these bullets could ever penetrate, giving her a safe shelter while her guns were just pointing at different, different targets each second, spending their ammunition on a single plane until it brought it down.
There were just these forty enemy planes and her. Not her and her plane... her, as one with her machine. She was able to do much more than just a random aviator holding the control sticks. To prove that to one of the pilots just below herself, she suddenly lowered her nose, picking it up just before hitting another plane's own front. Her belly, though, did just what she wanted - mashed into the weak, glass-covered cabin of the machine, turning the head of the pilot within into unidentifiable mess, and obviously causing the plane to start aiming towards mother Gaia herself.
After just a few moments of feeling these bullets mash into her metal skin she was fully able to ignore them. She flew right between a pair of another machines with a very sharp turn before she made yet another trick. Her tail bent - and it bent willingly, even though it was not meant to move at all. That allowed her to do a very quick U-turn in the air and to spread her two guns' fire between these two planes, hitting each in their vital spot: fuel containers.
Someone moved right behind her, quite close, and bombarded her surroundings with bullets nonetheless. The dragoness, though, seemed to be way too agile and shifting in the air to let him finally hit. She was always above, below, at the side of his aim while at the same time turning her weapons towards different and different machines. Another plane, in front of her, started shooting towards her again, but that was when her wings bent like a bird's, sending her downwards. There was just a short scream heard on the radio before these two machines mashed into each other, sending a wave of unpleasant, hot air, filled with shrapnel-like objects that stuck themselves to her skin.
She was a simple machine constructed and barely controlled by a bipedal, intelligent living being no more. She was a giant avian creature of metal and fire, able to control every aspect of its movement and move every single part of itself. She was the mistress of air, the domain these puny bipedal creatures decided to invade and call their own.
One of her wings suddenly slammed into a plane passing her, relieving it of its tail. It struggled in the air for a few moments, being unable to control its steering anymore, but the series of bullets eventually piercing it sent that manly creation back to the domain of man, that colorless area below. Her body suddenly dove downwards to catch a plane moving far below her, wings folding behind her to decrease the air's friction. That plane had no chance when her sharp beak burst into it, her form passing through it splitting it in two in one hot explosion. She turned just below the ground, moving her wings upwards to gain the aerodynamic force again, and even flapped them one time to start rising into air again...
"Dragoness One, it's Jack Of Clubs here. Where are you?", she suddenly heard in her radio.
"Don't worry about me. I took care of most of them. Search for any remains and destroy them, I have a feeling that a few of them fled. Out."
"Wait... Whe-"
The radio was turned off yet again the moment that giant bird suddenly dove into the trees below, hiding from the sight of anyone above... or even around. As soon as the trees allowed it, the bird's legs straightened and set its form on the ground below. Its metallic form seemed to shiver for a moment before it melted, separating the dragoness's mind from itself and letting her form out of its inside, gently lying it down.
Athera needed another while to become accustomed to her former senses, though this time the sensations were much more familiar and easier for her brain to recognize. She concentrated on feeling the strange warmth coming from the creature nuzzling so close against her, cuddling her tightly and almost smothering with affection. Her arms squeezed the unusually soft, metallic form back, legs soon joining in when she regained control over them. Eyes blinked for a while before they shut again, unnecessary for the time being.
What she wanted to feel was this bird's closeness, sensation of his body being pressed to hers so closely. That avian being, having shrunk to her size, was indeed tightly pressed to her, embracing her with his wings and nuzzling against her. That was the only payment that plane's spirit ever wanted: her closeness, her form cuddled into him... She had found that wish strange of such a being at first, but now she couldn't realize her life without frequent "cuddling" with that creature...
Cuddling was put in quotation marks because of the heated, clearly non-avian object pressed between the dragoness's spread inner thighs. Though, the better word would be: pressing.
The radio within the headquarters' planning center, silent since most of the planes have landed at least half an hour ago, suddenly let out a small amount of white noise before a few words.
"Dragoness One reporting in. I'm landing in thirty seconds."
General Herman's brow twitched. The wolf that, judging by age, could surely be Athera's father, turned around and looked at the soldier responsible for communications, sitting by the radio panel. Just that look was enough to let him know what the general wanted. Shortly, a microphone was handed over to him, allowing him to speak.
"Major Skyclimber. Please explain y-"
"I apologize to interrupt you, general, but I am currently in the process of landing. Please, let us speak..."
"...down here. In my office, as soon as you've landed. Out."
The receiver was handed back to the communicator, who had a rather strange look at his face, like he did not know what to expect. General Herman, after a brief glare at that expression, sighed and shrugged to him.
"She took care of almost whole attack force. Our men counted thirty five machines she knocked out of the air. The headquarters already fail to believe us anymore.", he admitted, reaching for his cigarette holder and pulling one out. "I have completely no idea, how she does it. I have even no way to ask her about it." A small metal box, containing a piece of thick cloth soaked with sulfuric acid, appeared in the man's hand. A single match poked the cloth, becoming ignited, and the general pressed the burning stick against the tip of his cigarette, closing the box with his other hand.
"She is going to appear in my office again with an usual smile on her face, saying that it's all thanks to her plane. And I, after a few whiles, am going to let her go. There is nothing else I can do...", he continued, breathing out a few smoke circles. The communicator listened to the general's words carefully, and his eyes met the higher-ranked soldier after a moment.
"I cannot do anything besides telling her to keep it up. And, since I think I can tell you... Enjoying the view."