The Great War - Part Five
#5 of The Great War
Sorry for the delay, a bit of food poisoning. Anywho, if you've kept up with the series so far, thank you for your votes and your comments and favorites. It's your support that keeps me going in this endeavor. All of you also know that this is a melting pot of ideas. If you are under 18, give your fake ID to a cop and head out the door.
Part 5 - Red Storm
It didn't take long for the dragons to cross that first line, and as soon as they did, the air strikes began, as well as attacks with mobile artillery pieces. Now that the humans could tell where the dragons were without needing to visually see them, a part of their military might left out before was now brought into play.
Saphyra never saw it. One second it was quiet, the next, following several loud whistling sounds, explosions started blooming up from the middle of her troops on the ground, ripping hybrids and gryphon's alike into pieces. Looking up in the night sky, she could see that large shells were falling to the ground and exploding, one hitting a gryphon right in the middle. Flicking the severed beak off her glorious scales, she turns to Diamond, who is looking around with wide eyes, having never been in the thick of it like this before. "SHIELD!" Saphyra calls out over the noise. Nodding quickly, Diamond rolls over and claps her forepaws, then throws them up, like throwing out something. A wave ascends from her, forming a flat plane above the army where the rounds detonated as if hitting the ground.
Saphyra uses the time wisely. "Everyone ok?!" She calls out, looking around. Luckily no dragons had died. "Cynder! Gharna! Find out how they know where we are!" As she starts to rally her forces, which had scattered under the impacts, in pure terror. Diamond lets the shield down once she is out from under it and almost collapses, the strain from covering them all from the large shells has taken a toll on her. Soon, a bright burst of flame about a hundred yards away announces Gharna's finding and killing a human sniper team. She comes right back, along with Cynder.
"Report!" Orders Saphyra, in the style any human Army officer would be proud of.
Cynder looks up at her. "I found nothing." She says.
"I found two humans with two rifles and a radio. They were talking into it." She says. "I fried them both." She says. As if to emphasize it, the artillery stops hitting. "Looks like we're in the clear." Gharna concludes, only to be proven wrong, as a LARGE explosion rips thru the heart of Saphyra's detachment as a two thousand pound bomb explodes, killing more than half of her concentrated forces, the aircraft that dropped it only audible now that it's supersonic flight by was over. Saphyra reaches out, locating the aircraft. The pilot can tell he's being searched out, able to feel the dragon's presence trying to close on his mind. He jinks straight up as Saphyra lets loose a burst of her beam, it missing. The pilot drops flares, two dropping out, and hits his jammer, something else recently developed.
Saphyra blinks as suddenly she can't feel the human's mind at all, where she had him a few minutes ago. She does, however, see a pair of lights hanging in the air, slowly going down like a fighter would when going towards the horizon at afterburner. She sights and fires, the beam passing straight between the two lights. "How the hell did that happen?" She asks, amazed. "I thought we had all of Earth's magic." Cynder shrugs, and the dragons start heading over to where the lights land at. They don't need to get close to find out what happened, and by then, the aircraft was far away.
Skywalker was pleased as he landed. Two of the new technologies had worked, the first being the new jammers, designed to block the energy the dragons generate, in effect, a jammer to those who use their energy to try to locate their minds. He does have a little bit of a headache, but that was to be expected. The second was a dual flare launcher. Each launcher located over an engine. They launch simultaneously, the flares as bright as an engine at full afterburner. It had fooled the dragons on the ground. The celestial in the group had fired at the flares instead of his plane, allowing him to coast by at low speed.
Davis is sitting in the pilot's lounge when Skywalker comes in, and tosses him a bottle of Excedrin. "Here." He says. "Take it." Skywalker nods and takes two pills right off.
"Damn jammer." He says. "It saved my ass, but my head hurts." Skywalker rubs his temples.
Davis nods in turn. "Yeah, they say it just takes getting used to. They are also saying they might have an alternate type of jamming before long."
Skywalker snorts, almost like a dragon, and starts chuckling. "How long did they say? And how loud?" A shrug is his only answer, but it doesn't remain a mystery for long.
The commander comes in for their debriefing of the day. "Congratulations troops." he says, once the entire squadron is assembled. "We are dealing real damage to their army. It's estimated they enslaved 40% of those in the cities they attacked. That leaves a couple of million to contend with, but we can thin them out and give the ground pounders more even odds. The fact that their mobile artillery is playing leap frog retreat fire helps us out."
Skywalker nods. "Yeah, I was able to vector on the target thanks to the light. I also saw rounds blowing up in the air."
The commander nods. "Yes, their crystal dragons can throw a shield up that makes our shit blow up early, though it takes a bit out of them with each round they catch." He smiles. "Overall, thanks to gun cams, we can claim a thousand kills today. They'll soon learn better than to group their people so close together." He smiles wider. "Now for the good news. Napalm has been re-approved for service, especially since we learned it'll burn thru the hide of hybrids." He grins. "It'll be handy when they reach the forests." A small map comes up and he shows how the dragons have advanced into Germany. "We won't have any real problems at this rate. They'll reach our lines of ground defense, yes, but at a very bad cost." The map fades. "Now, for the fun part. R&D has requested you submit your favorite songs." He says. "Have them put in by 2300 hours. Dismissed."
In the morning, Davis comes out to see some men working on his plane. "What's going on?" He asks.
A man stands up and Davis recognizes his crew chief. " R&D had us put on these new jammers, sir." The crew chief of his plane says. Davis nods, then looks back at the tail fin on his F22 D Super Raptor. "I see you managed to find the picture I wanted." he says, smiling, meaning the emblem of the Razgriz from Ace Combat 5.
The man nods. "Yes sir." His face splits in a broad grin. "Wouldn't be Razgriz without the picture, now would it?" He asks, drawing a grin from Davis in turn.
"Everything working?" Davis asks. The crew chief nods and gives him a thumbs up as the crew leaves the fighter. He gets in and looks around at all the instruments as he starts his plane up. Everything looks good, all gauges look normal. He smiles. The jammer no longer has a switch. "EVA, tell me about these modifications." He says, meaning his computer system.
The female voice pops up immediately in his helmet's speakers. "Roger. The jammer has been redone by Research and Development to activate automatically when the energy waves dragons use to seek their targets is detected." The voice says, cool and calm, as if a human were talking. "The jammers themselves have been redesigned to block the target's mental search without giving the pilot a headache. Research and development recommends a test be done before takeoff, would you like to test the system now, Captain?"
Davis nods, though the computer couldn't see it. "Yes, I would like to test it now."
"Affirmative." EVA replies, and in the back of his mind, music starts to play. A good song. 'Inside the Fire' by Disturbed.
"EVA, confirm jammer is operating." He says. "All I hear is music."
EVA's voice comes back a second later. "Confirmed. The jammer now plays music selected by the squadron's members on the frequency the mental attack is coming on." EVA says.
Davis nods. "Alright, end the jammer test." He says, smiling. "EVA, is the jammer always running?"
"Affirmative. Jammer system is always running, merely on standby until energized by the mental ener..."
"Ok, is it possible to tune the helmet speakers into the jammer's system and listen to the music in flight?"
"Affirmative, doing so now. How loud would you like the music, Captain?"
"Not very, and I want it turned down when someone is speaking, so I can hear them clearly." Thank God for artificial intelligence, Davis thinks, as the music comes back on in the back of his mind. Five minutes later, the squadron is in the air, and Davis finds out he's not the only one to do what he just did. Everyone has done it. "This is a MUCH better way to fly." Wedge, the squadron's number two says. Davis can't help but nod. As they race out, a song plays for them all. 'Faith of the Heart' from Rob Steward. The theme to Star Trek Enterprise. And it just happened to be their youngest pilot's favorite song.
Fifteen minutes later, at full afterburner, Rogue squadron sees its target and moves in to engage.
Saphyra was still pissed off about the previous night's disaster. She is flying in formation with her girls, as she calls them, away from where they had camped and further into the German countryside. She was relieved to see trees below. Her ground forces were hiding in there as they moved. "ENEMY INCOMING!" Cynder shouts, firing off a blast of her beam at the dots on the horizon. The dots spread out, avoiding the beam, and race in, missiles launching from their airframes. Saphyra grins. Americans. Excellent. She reaches out with her mind, encompassing the squadron. There! She finds her male human, the one she wants as her pet, but before she can take over his mind, and force her to eject, she is forced out, completely, as a song plays in her mind. "Cut my life into pieces. This is my last resort..." She quickly ends her mental attack and puts a wall up around her mind.
"I can't get to their minds!" Calls out diamond.
"Neither can I!" This time from Cynder. Another report of the same comes from Gharna.
"Stick together." Saphyra orders. The missiles arrive next, bearing in at them. Gharna bathes the area before them in fire, and Cynder and Saphyra both fire off their beams, detonating most of the missiles. One comes in past the flames and beams and strikes Cynder on the upper shoulder. Fortunately, Diamond is right there and immediately heals them. "They have new missiles." Diamond says. "Most lost lock in the flames, a few detonated." Saphyra nods, coming up and around. Only two fighters had engaged. She sees the emblems on the planes, and quickly stabs out with her mind, finding her 'pet' human in one of those two fighters. She goes after him, noting the picture on his tail fins. She would remember it so she didn't have to stab out with her mind. She puts on all the speed she can, flying towards him, but he surprises her, jinking up and around very quickly, so she could see him looking down at her as he loops over head. She grins, opening her jaws. She has him! But as she fires, he rolls, the beam going right past the top of his plane, just barely missing cutting the plane in half, and then he pulls up and away, Saphyra amazed that a human could move this fluidly in the air.
"You alright lead?" Wedge comes on over the music. Davis was actually flying better with the music playing in the background of his mind. Davis brings his fighter down and triggers some close range cannon fire along the blue dragon's right leg before she jumps up out of his sights with a quick flap of her wings, and comes around at him, shooting off flames at him, which singe his right wing, but don't ruin it's aerodynamics. "Remind me to thank R&D for the heat resistant stuff they put into the fighter." He says.
Meanwhile, below the dogfight, the other fighters of the squadron streak in low, dropping tons of napalm on the forest, the whole thing igniting into flames, and soon, the screeches of pain reach the dragons, who look down. Cynder and Saphyra are shocked to see the forest now in flames, their hybrids burning up, gryphon's trying to cover themselves in dirt as their feathers burn as readily as the leaves and needles nearby. Diamond growls loudly, but doesn't do anything, trying to stay out of the way, and Gharna is already on the fighters, firing off at them, but they are outmaneuvering her fireballs, one dragon simply not being enough to stop them from coming in and dropping their bombs. Now they were fighters again. The aircraft climb up to their altitude, not launching any missiles, fortunately, but soon they wouldn't need them. "Diamond! Cloak us with your magic! NOW!" She barks out, rushing under the crystal dragoness. Diamond nods, knowing this will drain her strength, and casts the spell.
Davis was just coming around and lining up his shot when Saphyra dove, making the bullets just barely miss her. He came around and...she was gone? He scans the sky all around. They were all gone? "Two, this is lead, do you see any of the dragons?" He asks
"Negative Razgriz, no sighting." He says, the other raptor coming up on his wing. "What do you think?"
Davis sighs. "Mission complete, that's what I think. Squadron, form up, let's head back to base." He says, pulling his fighter up and around. Soon, all of the raptors of Rogue squadron are flying back to base in perfect formation, the first human operation against the dragons to go off without a single casualty on the human side.
"That's a big plus for the good guys!" Calls out Wesley, the call sign 'Crusher' being automatic in a squadron named after a Star Wars squadron, even if it is from Star Trek. "I think it's the perfect time for that song!" He says, and as the squadron flies home, Faith of the Heart plays for all to hear.
Saphyra lands at the main draconic base an hour later, carrying Diamond on her back. The crystal dragon had given it her all, keeping them cloaked for a good half hour before she finally released the spell and fell asleep. "The humans are adapting." Saphyra said, after finding Shale. This news was important enough for her to find him, even though she finds him repulsive, crude, and ill mannered. "Their missiles were not affected by our fire, only our beams, their fighters are able to resist our flames in the air, their minds are now shielded from our grasp, and their aircraft can match our maneuvers in the air." She says, eyeing the general for his reaction. "And I just lost my entire detachment because I didn't have enough air power to stop one human squadron from coming in low and bombing them."
Shale looks at her a bit wide eyed. "Humans..." he says, low, like a curse. "How could they have adapted this quickly?" He sets to thinking, ignoring any response Saphyra would have given. "Very well. I will give you ten more celestials and a crystal. That should allow you to match forces with any human squadron flying at you." He says. "And you will assume flight cover over our main attacking battalion of hybrids as they close in towards Hamburg." Saphyra nods and leaves, the general looking at the mental map, wondering how the humans could be countered. "And Saphyra..." He says, catching her before she leaves. "Have everyone spread out at all times." He orders. "I don't want one attack to finish an entire detachment again because they were grouped together." Saphyra growls a little bit, and leaves.
Saphyra is furious mostly with herself. She underestimated the cunning of the humans, both in general, with their leap in technology to a point that's letting at least one nation's armed forces keep pace with them, and in her 'pet' which she now considers an adversary she will win against. Enslavement can come after she has beaten him. From now on, she won't underestimate him, or the humans, at all.