540 Misery (1/2)
”How persistent are those people!” Blue Thunder panted as he used every ounce of his strength to fly and dodge the attacks aimed at him. He turned his head back and yelled, ”Don't you know that girls do not like over persistent people!”
”Save your goddamn breath!” Stamford cursed as he fiddled with the radio set. ”Unicorn, Unicorn, this is Dragon One. Do you copy, over?”
”Fuck!” Stamford cursed again as no one replied to him on the radio. ”We should be at the border soon!”
A fire bolt trailing sparks streaked overhead making Stamford duck his head while he checked his charts. From behind, Dek squeezed off a long burst back at the mage who tossed the spell at them. They had taken almost a week to reach the border without any sight of their pursers, allowing Blue Thunder and the rest to recover some of their stamina.
But when they were about to reach the border, magical flares burst out into the skies and attracted several dragons. It appeared that their enemy had lost their tracks but instead of searching blindly, they had placed lookouts along the way to the border and upon sighting them, they launched magical flares up to alert the others.
Now groups of dragons swooped in from different directions, aiming to cut them off and force them away from the border. With wounds barely fully recovered, Blue Thunder could only endure as much as he could as he weaved around the air with a frightened Saphia following his tail tightly.
”I'm out!” Dek suddenly yelled from behind. ”Gun is totally empty!”
Stamford made another curse as he ordered, ”Work on radio and see if you can raise our escort on the channel!”
”Yes, boss!” Dek replied and he took his own radio set and started playing with the dials. Stamford looked down behind them and saw they had left the forest behind and a large grassland stretched out beneath them.
He calculated that they would still have another twenty or so kilometers to fly and the terrain beneath them was too open for them to hide and take cover. He could see Blue Thunder laboring hard away, knowing his wounds were taking a toil to his stamina. Looking behind, he could see the winged figure of Saphia following closely behind them and for the umpteen time, he wondered if it was worth the trouble to keep that black dragon with them.
Another spell whizzed close enough for Stamford to feel the heat of its passing. Blue Thunder made reflex dive, trying to shake off the attackers when he suddenly gave a yelp of pain and everyone on his back felt a shudder underneath their seats.
”Blue is hurt bad!” Dek yelled from behind. ”He's leaking blood!”
”I... fine!” Blue Thunder growled through gritted teeth. ”We are almost to the border city!”
Just as he was making his decision, there was a sudden loud boom and everyone jerked their heads towards the sound, seeing a small black ball of smoke in the air and a med weight dragon missing some parts of its body trailing smoke and blood, dropped off the skies.
”Dragon One, Dragon One, this is Unicorn Four, how copy?” The comms suddenly blared out much to everyone's joy and relief. ”We see you have some flies on your tail. Will clean the skies for you, over.”
”Dragon One, Unicorn Four! You guys are right on time!” Dek replied excitedly on the radio. ”Will be mightily kind of you to clear our tails! Be advised black dragon on our tail is friendly! Over.”
”Roger that Dragon One,” The rotor drone of the two attack helicopters soon could be heard as two sleek looking shapes appeared over the horizon. A puff of smoke erupted from the stubby wings and the new wire guided missile came screaming out of its launch tube trailing behind a wire.
The co pilot of the AH - 1 Unicorn gunship, Unicorn Four, controlled the TOW, Tube launched, Optically tracked and Wire guided missile towards one of the surprised dragons. The TOW missile traveling at over 250 meters per second was guided directly into the body of the dragon. The co pilot briefly saw the shocked looks on the dragon and its passengers before the display screen on his console fuzzed out.
Another black ball of smoke erupted out in the skies followed by a loud and sharp crack and the remains of another dragon dropped down to the ground. The rest of the dragons seeing the situation changing, scattered in all directions as they tried to regroup against the new adversary.
Chin mounted 20 mm guns roared and chased after the dragons trying to evade the fiery thunder spells but their speed was no match for the high velocity shells, and chunks of flesh were blown off their bodies and the screaming dragons fell. Seeing death appearing out of nowhere, the rest of the dragons turned tail and beat their wings madly to escape death.
Blue Thunder spread his wings as wide as possible as he glided tiredly towards the grey blot of the Meccan border city in the distance, happy to let their escorts clear the skies of enemies. He let out a deep sigh and mumbled to himself, ”Next time, I am not going traveling!”
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The New World, United Nations, Haven, Fortress Singapore, Command Bridge
”Sir!” The bridge duty crew snapped to attention at the arrival of Captain Blake. He waved the crew down and stood before the tactical plot table and glanced at the data displayed.
”What's the situation now?” He asked the command staff gathered around the table.”Why didn't we have any advanced notice?”
General Joseph straightened up and said, ”Sir, the Protectorate appeared under the cover of the seasonal typhoon. We did not expect their timing to be so... lucky... Our advance warning outposts were all blinded by the storm, allowing them to travel so close unnoticed...”
Blake let out a deep sigh as something like this was something that no one other than a God could predict. He shook his head before he asked again, ”So what's the situation now?”
”Fort Hensink is still engaged with elements of the Protectorate airships and ground forces,” The Army general reported. ”But... the typhoon is picking up again and once that happens, we will lose the advantage of our air power...”
”And at the same time, the Protectorate will also be in a similar position as our forces,” He added. ”Unable to advance forward or attack with their airships.”