The Great War - Part 6
#6 of The Great War
Things are starting to heat up around here in the desert, quite literally. I can feel my skin burning in direct sunlight! @.@ Anywho, sorry for the delay. My 'publisher' went on a long vacation and has just come back. As always, if you're under 18, get OUT! DO IT NAOUGH!
Part 6 - Europa's End
Davis stands in the squadron briefing room, examining the holographic display table showing the advance of draconic forces in Europe. Things aren't looking like they should. Instead of slowing down, the dragons have sped up, catching three leapfrogging artillery units. Even with daily airstrikes, attacks against them, and all the cruise missiles in the Sixth Fleet, they were almost to the airbase. "Time to pull back, sir?" He asks. The base commander nods.
"We've thrown everything we've got at them, and now they are changing tactics. Without ground forces to help, they take cover and send up gryphons and a new kind of small fire drake. Half the size of their smallest dragon, those little bastards are quick. It's good at keeping our fighters away from their troops while their dragons jump our strike teams."
Davis shudders. He remembered one such ambush, that blue demon dragon shrieking at him as she came at him from above. Only their afterburners had saved them that time, and even then, he had lost three fighters. His losses were replaced, but alas, the war was STILL going badly for the humans, ever since they proved they could fight back seriously. Davis turns and leaves the room, heading to the squadron lounge. "Everyone pack it up." he says. "We're heading for London, Engaland." He says, mimicing the general from Austin Powers, which they had watched last night.
Saphyra's mood was rather good. She had NEARLY gotten her human yesterday, and the movie she watched from the human's mind was quite amusing as well. Maybe humans weren't ENTIRELY useless. Cynder was still saying some of the jokes to the others around her, as she had let the others watch the movie thru her own thoughts, Gharna cutting up in laughter remembering the movie herself, and Diamond still just a little bit flushed from all the sexual inuindos in it. The others had actually declined to watch, or watched only half before going to sleep, the burning wrecks of their three kills
warming them nicely. Now she is flying towards the air base her human, Davis, was based at, in a surprise attack. The human space satellites could track them with cameras, but their radars still could not detect them. However, they are too late when they arrive to take the fighters, and from the looks of it, the base is abandoned. "Shit." Saphyra says, surprising three other celestials with her who don't really know her. She glares at one who stares at her in shock. "I told you, I'm not that kind of princess that's all prissy and prim." She says, almost stormily, the other dragon drooping a bit in shame, falling back a little bit without response.
Saphyra lands on the runway and looks around. The smell of human machine exhaust is faint in the air. They had left no more than a day ago, no less then five hours. They could be anywhere. "Search the place." She orders, and the group splits up evenly into three groups.
Fifty minutes later the groups meet up and go over what they've discovered. All the humans had left, taken all their stuff, an deactivated all the machines, so there was no way they could glean any information from it. Snorting, Saphyra turns. "Let's go back then. We'll report the base having been deserted when we got here." She says. "And YOU..." She points to the dragon who had stared before. "...will be the one to report it. If the general doesn't like it, tell him he can bite me." With that, they all take off.
Halfway back to where the general had set the army's base up at, a messenger reaches the group and tells Saphyra, in urgent terms, to go to Europa, where the queen wishes to speak to her. Sighing, Saphyra gives Gharna command of the small group and aims skywards. Once in the upper atmosphere, she puts on more speed, no longer hindered by the air, and casts a small spell to allow herself to respire in space. The spell in place, she heads at all possible speed out of the last of Earth's atmosphere, and as the gravitational pull slackens, she gains more and more speed, and travels well over what human spacecraft normally travel at, propelled along by magic.
Three weeks later, Davis looks out over the shores of England. This would be their last stand, England. If the dragons beat them here, the war in Europe was over and done. He sighs and turns, walking back to the car nearby to drive back to the air base's main building, passing four anti-aircraft guns on his way. There were UAVs up at all times, their operators tracking the horizon in their sectors towards the mainland, on the lookout for any draconic activity at all. This was the front line. These airbases would harry the dragons all the way in, and if they landed, the battle would slowly move backwards toward London, the central command hub for England's armed forces. It was also the last spot they had any American forces at, since the first armor had been crushed in France just a week before, when the dragons assaulted Paris.
Davis looks back as he gets out of his car, towards the mainland. He can feel that dragon poking around at his thoughts, even from this distance. She doesn't really go in deep anymore, no longer trying to take his mind over. She just watches, and learns. He is careful to cut her off during his briefings, which she doesn't really fight. Her interest does perk, however, whenever he listens to new music, or reads a book, or watches a movie or some television. It's strange, it's almost like she had never seen entertainment like that before, even tho he knows, from his own pokes at her mind, that she is intelligent, something his commanders very easily accepted.
A day after he had arrived at London he had told his commander about how that blue dragoness had tried to take him in Tehran, and the link that had somehow formed. He was immediately brought before two intelligence officers, one from the British Secret Service, the other from the CIA, and a five star general and his three star adjunct. He was pressed to answer questions about what he knew on draconic society, their aerial tactics, any weaknesses, and what this dragon was able to glean from him in return. He had no idea that Saphyra was watching this whole thing while feigning like she was not paying attention. She found it quite amusing that the humans wanted to know about the peaceful aspects of the race that was trying to kill them, even tho she wanted to know a bit more about humans.
Davis is snapped out of his remembrance by the loud shriek of alarm claxons. He takes off, running straight for the hangar not twenty feet away from him, heading inside to get into his F22 and start preparing it for takeoff. He watched as all his men started running in, and then radioed the tower. "Control, this is Razgriz, what's the situation?" He asks.
"All planes are to scramble at once and proceed to vector 185. Hostile dragon squad approaching. Looks like fifteen celestials and a crystal." He says. "Shit, they just took out Hawkeye one."
Davis nods. That wasn't his dragon's squadron...did he just think that? Amused, he turns on his engine and leaves the hangar. "Heads up folks." He says over the squadron net. "We've got an incoming dragon raid. It isn't our usual friends." He says, meaning Saphyra's group. "So we shouldn't have too much trouble."
Crusher comes on, talking over his song, Faith of the Heart, that he has played at the start of every squadron mission. "Roger lead. What's the plan?" Davis outlines his plan to them all.
Once in the air, they are easily able to spot the enemy. Their new radar systems enable them to detect the enemy, a radar system not yet shared with the English. Once heading towards them, the squadron splits, Davis taking three planes with him straight up, the other twelve heading straight in. once in view of the dragons, those twelve split, like they are trying to divide the dragons, who fall smack for the bait. They stay together, intending to follow one split and wipe it out. They never saw the three above them, diving with the sun behind them, nor the missiles they launched. Eighteen missiles streak in at sixteen targets, four locked onto the crystal dragon in the back. The white dragon is blown to pieces as all four impact within seconds of each other on its back. Warned, the other dragons try to bank, but only three missiles miss their targets, the dragons who are hit bellowing in pain, two just falling into the ocean.
Back at the control tower, the operator marvels at how the squadron operates. He watched the missiles from the first three fighters streak in, and now, the other fighters were turning in and launching their own missiles. Scarcely had the missiles disappeared from the screen before the fighters all whirled around and start back towards the airbase, a call of 'Enemies defeated' coming from the squadron leader. The UAVs scan the horizon over the base, but can find nothing.
"Roger, return to base. Well done Rogue squadron." He says, and then watches the fighters do a flyby over the base.
Shale was in a fit state. He had sent out a squadron of celestial dragons to scout the English coast, only to have them all killed in sight of the country by a single fighter squadron, because they were idiots. Only one dragon had made it back, reporting the deaths of the others, starting with their healer. Gharna sat in the clearing he had used for his headquarters, and now strove to hide her smile at seeing him so bent out of shape over the humans' recent success against their scouting party. Shale paces for a few minutes before he looks up at the sky, towards Europa's general direction, then back down. "In two days." he says, now remarkably calm. "We will hit them with everything." He says, and glares at Gharna. "EVERYTHING! I want that entire island burning by week's end, and every human along with it." He shouts. "Go, get everything ready." He orders, to which Gharna nods and turns to leave.
Sergeant McLintock, he still couldn't believe how fast he had gone up the ranks, was standing with his commander, a First Lieutenant, and watching with a whole bunch of other infantrymen, all leaders of their own platoons and companies, watch tne smart looking Scottish general of tanks brief them all on the operation that was to come. The dragons were massing, preparing to launch an attack from the entire French coastline. They would meet them, after they won thru the Air Force, just outside the rural areas around London. The Scottsman was going on, as all Scottsmen do.
"Right then, now that you buggers know exactly what's comin' at us, I'll tell ye what we're gonna do about it!" He points to the wall, the map shifting to the outskirts. "While the Air Force punches a few fresh holes into those beasties, we're going to get into these positions..." He points out a few. "And when the enemy gets their blaggard arses to within three hundred meters, we're going to hit them with everything we've got! Let the blueys get everyone up high, we'll deal with their gryphons and ground troops. All anti-air guns are to only shoot at bastards below one thousand feet, who are a threat to our ground troops. Missile units are to use their heat seekers, not their radars. Those dragons give off more heat than me mother's ass, bless 'er soul." he crosses himself. "Now, everyone get to your units, we'll give these jacked up lizards a thing or two to think on!" He salutes, prompting all the others to salute back, then sends them all off.
McLintock shakes his head. "Are all Scotts like that?" He asks an englishman nearby, getting a nod. "Yes, sadly." He says. "But they've got it where it counts, and that's what matters right now, don't you think?" With a nod, the two seperate, McLintock following his commander back to his unit.
It takes about an hour to get in place, and during that time, the Air Force had already launched attacks into the draconic lines, fighters flying over every fifteen minutes or so, but less and less coming back each time. McLintock looks to his commander from his position behind a sturdy old maple tree. "This don't look good, Sarge." A voice comes from nearby. "Quiet." McLintock orders. "Be ready to shoot when you see them." He says.
About 390 million miles away, Saphyra touches down on Europa, the small planet in fact a lush green world, made to look like an ice moon by a small generator provided by the raptor which projects an image out to deceive the eye. There were a few close calls when human spacecraft did flyovers, one even doing a radar scan, but they were able to beat them all and send back false readings. Saphyra smiles at this, breathing in fresh, real air instead of the faked air the spell made as it sustained her body. The real thing was always best. She steps out of the landing area and looks around at the sprawling city, nodding to a few raptors who wave to her as they walk by, this being one of few places shared with the raptors, a strange thing, considering the only draconic city in the entire galaxy is here. Taking flight, she amuses herself by watching all the goings ons in the city as she heads for home, and passes over the historic district, her mind going to the past, what she was taught as a hatchling.
It was a strange thing, how the dragons and raptor managed to meet. The raptors were abducted by an alien race long ago, and had evolved some, forcibly, and had overthrown their rulers. They had watched life further evolve on Earth, while they had no evolution at all, and had watched humans and dragons evolve up. Seeing that happen, they gave up hope of ever returning home to Earth, and called Theria their home world. Dragons stumbled upon them much later, and found a religious people. Instead of fighting them, the raptor had helped them all they could, even up to the point of helping make the city on Europa, and hiding it from prying eyes. They regarded dragons as their sisters. And two sisters must help each other, correct? Ah, the marvels female dominated societies could bring about.
Saphyra sees, then, a case in point, the splendor of the royal palace, unmatched by most works on Earth, with it's beautiful crystal spires and intricate curves. It always seems to calm her. Soaring around it a few times, she enjoys every facet of it before heading in to land on her room's balcony. A quick spell later and she is in a bipedal form, similar, very similar, to the human female in appearance, save that she was still a bit muscular, and she had her wings, scales, tail, legs, feet, and head still their normal shape. She opens the door and heads out, following the familiar paths to her mother's room.
Queen Topaz smiles as her daughter comes into the room and motions for her to be seated nearby, her royal gowns only accentuating the blue of her own scales, it being somewhat lighter than Saphyra's scales. "Sit, daughter." She says, her voice high and dignified. She lets her mind brush over her daughter's, then blinks. "Why Saphyra! You are linked to another!" She says, happily. She had thought her daughter would never settle, after fifty years.
Saphyra blinks."I am not." She says, but the queen would not be denied. She looks at her with that knowing expression. "Alright..." She relents, sighing. "I have a small link with a human on the Earth that I tried to ensnare, but he fought back and escaped. A link has been between us ever since."
Topaz blinks at this. "You accidentally bonded yourself to a human?" She asks. "That makes what I am about to say all the more interesting. I've discovered that humans are a patriotical race, meaning that the males of the race are stronger and larger than the females." She says. "The elves' prediction that Earth would only produce female races has been proven wrong, and that you have bound to one without our races being linked is another piece that fits into place."Saphyra jumps up. "I am NOT bonded to him!" She says. "It was an accident that I became linked to him, and once he is my pet I will sever the link." She's almost fierce about it.
"Be calm, daughter." The queen says, lifting her hand, tho she has a knowing smile. "I wanted to know how things go on Earth. If you ill be so kind as to tell me?"
Saphyra sits down, still a bit ruffled, but with an effort, gives a calm tone as she speaks. "The assaults are getting harder and forward progress is slowing down." She says. "But we'll soon have wiped out most of the higher countries from the planet. However, it's a two sided sword, as while we will have destroyed most of the countries, we have yet to fight their highest country, America. It's a strange country, it has no king or queen. Rather, from what I've gathered, its citizens decide who rules every four years." The queen blinks at this, but stays silent. "Unlike us, as well, they promote competition in their industries, companies competing to produce superior things for less price, unlike how the royalty has our own people to make things and distribute it amongst the people. I'm ashamed to say that because of it they can far outproduce us in food." Saphyra shakes her head. "And also, for every one of their vehicles we destroy, another can take its place if it has the fuel." She tapers off as she sees her mother, the queen looking off into the distance. "Mother?"
The queen shakes her head. "I'm sorry, I was remembering something the Raptor had told us. Their high preist, just last year, told me that the male will soon rise, born from fire and made to claim his place from those who would lie and take it from him." She looks at her daughter. "It seems the prophecy is coming true." She says, grinning. "Go, daughter, enjoy your time in Draconia. Soon you will need to go back to Earth. Be sure to reign that bloodthirsty general in from time to time, make sure he does not do anything particularly idiotic, and think with clear mind about this human who you are linked to." She smiles. "After all, you may find a choice must be made, one that will dramaticly alter your life, either way you go."
Saphyra smirks to her mother. Her choices have always been easy, so she doesn't think there will be much trouble in deciding when the moment was upon her. She does bow, however, and heads out of the room, for her own bedroom, and to sleep.