《The Story of Varra》 Prologue The water parted around the hull of the USS Lincoln as it left the coast behind, sailing into the open sea with its escorts. On its flight deck, dozens of aircraft sat, ready to take off at a moment''s notice. Inside on the radar screens, something suddenly popped up from nowhere, confusing everyone. The carrier group went into alert, launching a couple aircraft to see what had appeared. When they got within visual range, they only saw a very large ring floating in the water. As they watched, however, the ring started to glow and spin, quickly going so fast that it formed a sphere of lights. In a massive flash, it disappeared, leaving an inky black hole where it was and a large wave propagating in all directions. Only a moment later, the hole was replaced by ocean again, but this ocean looked slightly different. The waves seemingly did not match the waves in the rest of the ocean. As everyone scrambled to figure out what had happened, the word "wormhole" popped up. This was just before a medieval ship with a folded mast appeared through where the sphere was, and then started towards the coast of America, seemingly not seeing the carrier group on the horizon or the aircraft up in the air. The captain of the carrier summed up everyone''s thoughts in one sentence, "What the fuck?" - - - - - After the expeditionary group went through the portal, they headed towards where the nearest land should be. It would be about a day''s journey, so they were joined by the rest of the fleet of 8. The larger ships stayed on the other side of the portal, because the larger ships couldn''t fit through the portal, as it was only 15 meters in diameter and the larger ships couldn''t fold their masts. Captain Crafa of the first ship saw a bird circling up in the sky but ignored it as he was called by the spotter in the crows nest. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. "Captain! I can see a large island off to the north." "Really? I was informed that the closest land was to the west. Did the magicians do something wrong?" "Um, Captain, I think you should see this. You won''t believe me otherwise." He sighed and started climbing up, a lot slower than he had in his youth. He got to the top and grabbed the spyglass. "A massive metal ship? Maybe it is closer than it seems? No, the angle is for that far away." The captain handed the spyglass back, "if it seems to be getting closer, call me. I''ll be in a meeting with the other captains." - - - - - "They''re not answering on any radio frequencies," stated the radio operator, "and they''re not emitting on any frequencies we can detect." "Alright," the captain of the Lincoln ran a hand through his beard, "send in a helicopter. We need to make contact." "Sir," one of his advisors said, "they could be hostile. A helicopter would be vulnerable to weapons we know we used on ships when our ships looked like that." "We have to make contact," he restated, "but if they are hostile then we need to prepare for that, too." - - - - - "They''re not answering on any manacomm channels," stated the manacomm operator. "Great," stated captain Crafa, "well, we need to come up with plans if they attack." The meeting was interrupted by the spotter yelling about a bird. The captain quickly returned to the deck of the ship, only to see a large metal construction hovering in the air a couple dozen meters away, creating a large wind and a loud roar. It suddenly spoke, loud enough to be easy to hear over its roar Evan at distance. "Unknown vessel. This is the United States Navy. Please identify yourself and your intentions." The captain turned to the magician assigned to his ship. "Uninhabited planet, you said?" Chapter 1 "Did you hear the news?" asked Bej. "We have a new ally." I glanced at him skeptically, then returned to removing the dust from my fur. "Really? Who would be stupid enough to openly oppose Iridia? I mean, apart from us." "The Crown only mentioned that they are called the "United States of America", or "US" or "America" for short, and that they are from far away. There have been rumors, though. Rumors that we opened a portal to another world to escape Iridia, but then we found the US there." "Uh huh, and I suppose they are sending a million soldiers with a million pieces of artillery on a million ships," I responded, giving my tail one last wipe, "and all just because we asked." "Well, you have to have hope," he responded. "Look, Sarroc invaded us. Sarroc has been endorsed by Iridia, and has received military aid from them. Iridia has allied with the Dragon Council, so we''re extra doomed. We could barely take fifteen dragons, let alone five hundred. And that''s not including however many aircraft Iridia decides to let Sarroc use. And, you know, all the ground and naval forces Sarroc has plus the ones they get from Iridia." We were interrupted by a messenger arriving, "I am looking for Captain Lyka Hrett?" I flicked an ear, "that''s me." "His Majesty the King wishes that you are made aware of certain current events. You have heard about our new ally, the United States?" "Yes, we were just talking about them. There''s a lot of rumors." "I can''t speak to any of their validity apart from the message I was ordered to give you. I ask that you hold any questions until the message is finished." the messenger cleared their throat and started to read from a piece of paper. "We, the Varran Crown, have a new ally. Said ally is the United States of America, which may be called the US or America for simplicity. They will be sending aid to repel the Sarroc invasion. This aid will consist of only a few air units at first, as the transport of ground and naval units will take more time. You, as a captain of the Varran Airborne Combat Forces, will help the US airborne forces adapt to Iridian strategies and tactics, as well as assisting in a cultural exchange." A moment passed as we waited to make sure the message was finished. Then Bej burst out laughing. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. "Wait, they''ll be sending air units? Do they mean like trained birds? We only have aircraft because we captured and reverse engineered Iridian aircraft, and dragons are ruled by the Council, so if the US has dragons then they''re not our friends." The messenger nodded, "I understand your misgivings, and a demonstration of capabilities and exchange of information will be performed before any joint activities. However, the Crown also wishes you to know that the US Air Force is quite powerful. Specifics are scarce, I''m afraid, but I believe that they said that they will be mostly sending what they call ''Super Hornets''." "Super Hornets? What, like large stinging insects?" "I have not been informed of what they are," the messenger bowed, "and I am afraid that I must take my leave, as I have to inform the other Airborne Combat Forces captains. The first few units from the US will be flying in tomorrow. You will meet them 10km off of Ela Point at noon, then escort them to the Ratern Air Base. Additionally, the American version of the magical communications system, or the manacomm as I''ve heard you call it, is incompatible with our standard. The units arriving will be equipped with equipment hastily made compatible, however the range is expected to be only 10 or 15 kilometers, and it will only be able to operate on frequencies 500 to 650. Frequency 555 will be used for main communications with the Americans." He bowed, then left, and I turned to Bej. "Well," I said, "We''ll find out more about them tomorrow." ? ? ? ? I ran through my preflight checks, then turned on my aircraft. The runes on the engine in front of me glowed as they accepted magic from the storage, then dimmed as the flow stabilized. The propeller began spinning, quickly becoming a circular blur emitting a buzz that made my ears instinctually roll back. I let the wind ripple through my hair for a moment before putting on my helmet and closing the cockpit. The sound immediately dropped to a tolerable level. I increased the throttle, letting the aircraft roll forwards, speeding down the runway until I felt my wheels leave the hard packed dirt as I took off. I circled the air base once to give Bej time to take off, then we both turned east, towards where we would meet the American forces for the first time. Bej and I bounced ideas back and forth across manacomm about what the US would bring, with the ideas becoming more and more unreasonable and absurd as time went on. We reached the meeting spot about ten minutes early, and settled into a lazy circle some 5000 feet above the ground. While waiting, we got a direct message from the mainland, straight from the King himself. "Captain Lyka Hrett, Sergeant Bej Adlend. This is King Adrien. The US has encountered unexpected delays, and will be delayed by about 15 minutes. Please wait at the meeting location until they arrive. You must be polite, as I don''t wish to make a new enemy." My tail started to wag against my seat as I reached for the transmit button. I was talking to the King! "Yes, your majesty. I will make sure it is so." I switched back to the private frequency, "well, we have to wait a bit." "Like that''s new." "True. I wonder though," Bej paused, "how is their manacomm equipment incompatible with ours?" "I dunno, we could ask when they arrive." "Yeah, true." Ten minutes later, I saw a few dots to the east. I checked the time. It was about time for the American forces to arrive. I took a deep breath, stopped Bej from doing more practice strafing runs on whales, and then we set off towards our new allies. Chapter 2 As I got within about 10 km from the Americans, I switched my manacomm to frequency 555. "American units, this is Captain Lyka Hrett from the Varran Airborne Combat Forces. I am here with Sergeant Bej Adlend to escort you to the air base you will be operating from." "Captain Hrett, this is Commander Matthew Lewis of the United States Navy. I am pleased to meet you. Thank you for the escort, we would probably get lost without you." "United States Navy? I may be mistaken, but that sounds like the ship based branch of the military?" "Indeed it is. The United States Navy operates its own Air Force independent of the actual United States Air Force." "Interesting," I internally debated over my next move, then my curiosity won, "Sergeant Adlend and I are flying Model 13 multiple purpose aircraft, may I ask what you are using?" "We have 6 F/A-18F Super Hornet multirole aircraft and a single C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft for carrying fuel and other supplies." "That sounds smart. That way, there are no problems with our things being incompatible with yours." "That''s the idea." I switched to the private manacomm frequency with Bej, "They say they have aircraft, not trained flying beasts, and I don''t really see the point in lying when we''re going to be flying side by side shortly." "Yeah, I noticed that too. I hope that they''re not working for Iridia. They''re the only ones apart from us that have aircraft." "Yeah, that thought came to me, too. I say we wait and see." "There''s not much we could reasonably do apart from that." As the Americans grew closer, we turned to merge our groups together. We drew closer, until we were only a dozen meters apart. I took the opportunity to observe the American aircraft. I could easily determine the main features of Varran aircraft in the American ones. Main wings, rear wings, tails, cockpits, those were easy to identify. There were 7 of them in total, just as the commander had said. 6 were about a normal size, just a bit larger than my aircraft. Their wings were placed farther to the rear than mine, and angled sharply back. The last aircraft, however, was massive, almost twice the size in every dimension, powered by 4 big propellers, mounted with 2 on each wing. Curiously, none of the other aircraft, the "Super Hornets", had visible propellers. I glanced at my instruments, and realized that we were all traveling at 600 km/h, with none of the American aircraft seeming to strain at all. Even Bej''s and my high performance aircraft were showing some signs of effort, the runes on our engines glowing slightly. "I do apologize for the intrusion, Commander Lewis, but may I ask how your aircraft are propelled? I can see that your large, ''Hercules'' I believe you called it, has 4 large propellers, but your ''Super Hornets'' don''t seem to have any." There was a pause. "It''s complicated. You can think of it as we have our propellers inside our aircraft, and they spin really fast to make up for their size." "That is an intriguing idea." "It is a lot more complicated, and there are some things that allow our engines to be more powerful and efficient than what would be normal. I don''t know much about them other than the results, which are very good." "I completely understand. I''m not completely sure how our engines work either." "I must say, it''s surprising how similar our world''s are. "Our worlds? Does that mean that you are from a different world?" "Yeah, I thought that you already knew." I looked over at Bej, thinking about this information. "There''s been rumors of course, but I was never officially told anything." "Well yes, we are from another world. Apparently, the Varran Crown created a portal out in the sea in order to escape from Sarroc. However, the other side of the portal led to right off the coast of the United States. After contact with the Varran expedition, and a lot of politics, we offered military aid in exchange for certain crude oil rich lands in the south." "Why is the oil such a big deal? You make it sound like some sort of liquid gold." I knew you could burn oil, but that is about it. "Basically our entire civilization runs on refined forms of oil. Oil is very valuable, and there are quite a lot of people saying that we are taking advantage of your lack of knowledge. Also, there''s lots of people saying that there are other reasons." "Hmm. I can''t really think of how an oil based civilization works, but then again you might have trouble understanding the basis for our systems." "Probably." We took the long way to Ratern Air Base, with Bej and I pointing out important places to the Americans. "An off to our left," I said, "you can see Ratern City, the second largest city in Varra. Over 200,000 people live in the city proper, with half that again living close nearby. It is overlooked by Tarith Castle, which is the castle that you can see. It is a little outdated in design, but it makes up for it with ultra modern mounted weapons emplacements." If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. "And that on the other side of the castle is Ratern Air Base?" "Yeah. That is where we will be staying. It has enough hangars for your aircraft, and living spaces have already been set up. If they are not to your liking, changes can be made." "We''re not that picky. We were just on a ship for a few months so anything better than that is great." I chuckled, "and here we were wondering if we should be providing quarters suitable for the King himself. I guess it''ll be plenty good then." We approached the air base, and started circling, landing one at a time. Bej went first to demonstrate the procedure, then the Americans landed one at a time, and finally I landed. I let my aircraft roll to a stop in my designated hangar, and let the engine wind down. Once it had stopped, I opened the canopy and pulled off my helmet, letting myself enjoy the cool air on my fur for a moment. I then did my postflight procedures, making sure the aircraft was fully off and nothing was wrong. I then exited the hangar and walked over towards the Americans. Bej was already deep in conversation with one of them, talking quite animatedly about something. One of the Americans saw me, and then did a double take and his eyes widened in shock. It was a reaction I was quite familiar with, being a woman with a masculine sounding voice, so I just nodded a greeting and continued on. Everyone always heard my voice on the manacomm first, then wanted my body to match it. He held out a hand to stop me, and I prepared myself to have to answer annoying questions that everyone always asked after they reacted like he had. "Hi, I''m Commander Lewis, but you can call me Matt if you''d like. I''m pleased to meet you." "Captain Hrett, but you can just call me Lyka." I shook his hand. "My men are just unpacking our equipment right now. I must say, you surprised me. I''ve never seen an anthropomorphic fox in real life before." I was quite a bit confused, "a what?" He started fidgeting a bit, "I''m sorry, I''m not sure of the proper terminology for, ah, one of your kind. I referred to you as an anthropomorphic fox as that is the best description I could come up with. I apologize if it caused offense." "No, no offense. I simply have never actually heard anyone use the word "anthropomorphic" before. I can assume its meaning based on its roots and the context, but I''ve never encountered it before." Matt looked quite relieved, "and the proper term is?" "Oh, werefox. Do you not have werefolk on your world?" He shook his head, "nope, it''s just plain humans on our earth. Nothing else is inarguably sentient, but there are a few species like elephants and monkeys that you can make arguments about being close." "That is very weird. Here, we have humans, elves, werefolk, orcs and about a dozen other species I''ve never met. If you would like a human representative rather than me, that can be arranged." I didn''t really want to have to give up working with the Americans, but I would if they would prefer a familiar species. The fate of Varra was more important than my preferences. Matt took a step back and held up his hands. "Oh no, I don''t have any problem with you." I internally sighed in relief as he continued, "I won''t lie, some people might, but not any of us here." "There''s speciesist people in Varra too, but there''s not that many of them." We continued over towards the rest of the Americans, who were moving large crates from the cargo aircraft to their designated storage section. There were several large piles already, neatly sorted by some system. "I''m surprised you didn''t comment on my voice," I said. "I did notice, but I did not wish to cause any offense." He said cautiously. "My voice is left over from a past time. I am a woman, but I''m kinda used to my current voice." "Gotcha. I didn''t want to accidentally refer to you by the wrong pronouns. She/her it is." I glanced at him, "thank you for understanding. Many people don''t, and try to argue one way or the other." We reached the first American aircraft, and I stopped for a better look. Now that I was closer and could look from all around, I could see the places where the air was supposed to go into the internal propellers. There seemed to be two different places for air to exit also, so assumed that there were two sets of propellers. This would provide redundancy, I surmised, in case one failed. Strangely enough, the air exits were hot, I could feel the heat from a meter away. "Don''t touch those, they''re still hot." Matt came up behind me. "Yeah, I can feel that." I turned to him, "Why though?" "The way our engines work is very complicated, but it involves burning things in the engine. Thus, the exhaust is quite hot. In fact, it can get hot enough to melt lead or tin" "I didn''t see any smoke from your aircraft in flight," I pondered. "We don''t need to burn much," he responded, "furthermore, we burn a very refined form of crude oil which produces little smoke." I nodded, and continued my examination of the aircraft. There were multiple protrusions below the wing, which I assumed to be extended hardpoints, like we used for larger bombs. I didn''t notice any other weapons, however, and remarked on this. "I don''t see any weapons, where are they?" "Well, we only have one built in weapon, a 20 millimeter M61 Vulcan rotary gun." He indicated a small forward-facing hole near the cockpit, "most of the gun is mounted inside the fuselage, so you can''t really see it." I examined the hole, not much bigger than my thumb, and nodded. I didn''t understand most of the weapon description, but I assumed it to be a similar weapon to the thaumguns mounted on my aircraft, throwing small projectiles above the speed of sound. I gave the aircraft one last glance over, noting the writing on the tail, and started towards where the rest of the US personnel had assembled, with Bej standing awkwardly to the side. "Alright everyone," Matt said, "here''s the plan. We''ll get settled in today, and tomorrow will be the demonstration," he shifted to look at me, "if that''s okay with you." I nodded. "That seems good. Bej and I are not doing anything apart from working with you, so you can set the schedule." "Great. Then let''s have the demonstration at noon, with some information exchange beforehand. Now, Captain, if you will excuse us, we need to get organized with our quarters." He gestured towards the building with "USA" written on the front in large letters. I nodded and left them to sort it out, but almost as soon as I left the hangers I was stopped by someone. "Hello, Captain, how are you doing today?" Asked General Reach, "I trust that the Americans are doing OK?" I saluted, "I''m doing good today sir. The Americans are currently settling into their quarters." "At ease. Now, I would like to hear your thoughts on them. In here," he opened the doors to a set of offices, and led me to a desk. He sat down, pulled out a piece of paper and a pen, and looked at me expectantly. "The Americans seem to be quite organized," I started, but was immediately cut off by the General. "No, I mean about their combat potential. What have you learned?" "I have not learned much, as the demonstrations and main information exchange will occur tomorrow. I have learned that their aircraft are powered by combustion at least in part, and that they have internal propellers. They have a maximum speed of at least 600 km/h. They only have one main weapon, which seems to be similar to a thaumgun. Each fighter is flown by two people." The General continued writing for a moment, then looked back up at me. "Range? Endurance?" I shook my head, "I have not been able to figure that out. Once we met them off of Ela Point, we traveled approximately 60 km over the course of 10 minutes, including detours to point out landmarks." "Interesting. I will expect a report tomorrow on their performance in the demonstrations, as well as any other information they give." "Yes, sir." I turned and walked out of the room. Chapter 3 I woke up the next morning to the smell of coffee. Being a fox had its benefits, one of which is that coffee smells amazing and it makes me wish it tasted as good as it smelled. On the other hand, when I walked into the mess hall, I could smell exactly what (or rather, who) Bej had been doing last night. "Really?" I sat down and grabbed a bowl of last night''s stew. Bej looked at me, feigning ignorance, "I have absolutely no idea what you''re talking about." "You''ve known the Americans for less than a day and you''ve already slept with one of them?" "And that''s surprising why exactly?" I just shook my head and finished my breakfast. "If you get in trouble, it''s your head." "Yeah, no. Taylor said the US is very good about that sort of stuff." "Taylor?" "Yeah, he''s the hot American who flew the rear Super Hornet." "Oh, I should''ve guessed," I shook my head and headed towards the door. "Remember, the demo is at noon. I expect you to get Ano and Bennen to help you. I want a full demonstration of our maximum capabilities." "Yes, ma''am," Bej saluted with his coffee as I left. I walked towards the American section of the air base. Commander Lewis had said that the information exchange would be before the demonstrations, so I needed to be prompt. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. "Greetings, Commander." I bowed my head. "Captain Hrett," Commander Lewis beckoned me closer, "I''d like to talk a bit with you about the demonstrations." "Of course. What do you need?" "We would like some clarification on the acceptable noise levels. Our aircraft can get very loud when traveling at their maximum speed." Loud at their maximum speed? I didn''t think that they were too loud when I escorted them in at 600 km/h the previous day. Does that mean a difference in how loud "loud" is, or that it isn''t their maximum speed? I frowned, "as long as it''s a safe level of noise, it''s OK. I would prefer to not go deaf." "Of course. Also, I am afraid that most of our weapons are quite expensive, so our weapons demonstration will be very limited." "Some of our weapons are expensive too, so our demonstration will be limited some too," I responded, to put him more at ease. "Well, we are only cleared to demonstrate 2 weapons, the internal gun and the 500 pound LJDAM. We also have Sidewinders, AMRAAMs, 1000 and 2000 pound LJDAMs and Hellfire missiles, but those are too expensive or hard to demonstrate properly." I had absolutely no idea what the weapons were, but I nodded anyway. "We will be giving a demonstration of our B35 light bomb, B29 heavy bomb, R4 explosive rocket, and the T17 thaumgun. One of each, because they''re needed for the war." "That seems fair. Anything else you would like to know before the demonstrations?" I shook my head, "no, that''s all. Bej should have everything ready shortly for our side of the demos. The weapons demonstrations will be in the field to the north east of the Air Base. Feel free to use the airspace fully, it''s been fully closed down for the event. Please keep manacomm 555 open for emergency communications." Commander Lewis nodded, "noted. We will be ready for our demo aircraft to take off in a few minutes. If you''re ready, you can go now if you''d like." "Sure," I took out my handheld manacomm unit and spoke into it, "Sergeant Adlend, feel free to launch any time. I''ll tell you when we''re ready for the demo to start" "Sure thing. Ano and Bennen will be ready shortly. We''ll head up and wait for your command," Bej sounded enthusiastic about getting to show off. Chapter 4 Matt and I walked out to the northeast field, as 3 aircraft launched from the air base, Bej and his group. They started circling, waiting for my order to start. I gave the order, and they started the show as I started talking. "Our main aircraft is the Model 13 multipurpose aircraft. It can be a combat aircraft, a bombing aircraft, a recon aircraft, or a support aircraft, depending on how it is configured for the mission. It has a maximum speed of 700 km/h, and can turn so fast that the pilot experiences accelerations equivalent to 6 times normal gravity. The plane can theoretically take 9 times gravity, but pilots can''t take more than about 6 for more than a few seconds. It is propelled by a single 4-blade propeller and Number 20 engine running on 10-grade mana slush, with enough fuel capacity to travel 2500 km without stopping. The Model 13 has 4 flush hardpoints capable of carrying 300 pounds each and 3 extended hardpoints capable of carrying 600 pounds each, but the aircraft can only carry 2400 kg at once" I paused to let the 3 aircraft zoom overhead at near their maximum speeds, then continued. "Each aircraft is also equipped with a pair of T17 thaumguns, capable of propelling a small 10 gram projectile at just over the speed of sound. Each thaumgun can fire 10 such projectiles per second, making it deadly to enemies." The aircrafts swooped around again, then came the rumble of 6 thaumguns firing in perfect sync. The ground in the designated weapons demonstration area sprang up with hundreds of puffs of dust. "The B35 light bomb is a small bomb designed to be carried in large quantities." One of the aircraft curved back to the weapons demonstration area, letting a small object fall. It erupted in a small blast of fire as the coal powder packed around the explosive core lit on fire. "The B29, however, is much larger, and designed to take out a normal ship in a single shot." Another plane dropped a larger object, which exploded into a much larger fireball as it impacted. I smiled at the display of the power of our weapons. There was not much chance of the Americans having anything to compete with the B29. Even Sarroc could barely match it. "Finally, our anti-dragon weapon, the R4. Dragon scales just shrug off thaumgun projectiles, and they just dodge slow-moving bombs. So, we created the R4. It launches off the carrier aircraft, and accelerates very rapidly to almost the speed of sound. It then impacts, and explodes after a small delay. The delay gives the armored tip of the rocket time to penetrate the armor of the dragon enough for the blast to punch through. The last aircraft launched its R4, and I watched eagerly as the rocket flew towards the already destroyed weapons demonstration area, buried itself in the ground, and threw a massive cloud of dirt in the air. The R4 was my favorite weapon, as it was easy, and effective to use, as well as being just plain fun. The sight of the object propelled by the cone of flame always gave me chills. I looked at Commander Lewis to gauge his reaction. To my surprise, he was just nodding thoughtfully. The aircraft overhead did one last low pass, then banked hard to return to the base and land. "That was very informative, Captain." Commander Lewis said. "I was not expecting how powerful your bombs were for their size. May I present our aircraft now?" I nodded. "The only aircraft we brought," started Commander Lewis, "are F/A-18F Super Hornet multirole fighter aircraft. Like your Model 13, they can be outfitted for almost any mission. It has a maximum speed of approximately 2000 km/h, and is designed to be able to turn at accelerations of up to 7? times normal gravity." He paused to read from a piece of paper, "it is propelled by a pair of F414-400 turbofan engines running on JP-4 fuel, with enough fuel to travel 2300 km with a light load. It can additionally attach external fuel tanks to increase its range at the cost of speed, payload capacity, and maneuverability. Each Super Hornet has 2 wingtip hardpoints, 6 underwing hardpoints and 3 under fuselage hardpoints, and is capable of carrying 8000 kg of payload total." Matt paused, and 3 Super Hornets raced across the sky. He smiled, then continued. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. "Each Super Hornet is equipped with a 20 mm M61 Vulcan rotary cannon, capable of firing 100 small projectiles per second at 3 times the speed of sound. Each aircraft only carries 400 rounds of ammunition, however, as the Vulcan is not designed to be the primary weapon." He paused, then smiled apologetically, "I seem to have talked a bit fast. The Vulcan demonstration will be in a few seconds." After a small bit of uncomfortable silence, the Super Hornets appeared over a hill. They then each fired a one second burst, and by the time the sound had reached my ears the projectiles had already impacted the ground, releasing hundreds of small bursts of fire and dust. With some amazement, I noted that every single projectile had hit within 1 meter of each other. "Each round," continued Matt, "is capable of punching through equivalent to your light plate mail, and then exploding in a blast of fire. We expect it to be incapable of penetrating dragon scales, but wyverns will be no trouble according to the descriptions we were provided. The only other weapon we will be demonstrating today is the 500 pound GBU-54/B LJDAM Mk 82. It is a large bomb that explodes a bit smaller than your B29 heavy bomb. It carries a laser guidance system, so it can aim itself towards a certain spot designated by an aircraft with a laser targeting pod." I watched as a Super Hornet dropped a bomb from a higher altitude. It was obvious that the bomb was going to hit to the left of the weapons demonstration zone, but then it curved on its own to hit directly in the center of the zone. It exploded in a massive plume of dust and debris, but no fireball. Like Commander Lewis had said, it was a bit smaller than the B29, but the self aiming system was a game changer. My head was exploding with ideas of how to leverage the capability to its best potential. Commander Lewis smiled at my reaction, and casually mentioned, "We also have 1000 pound and 2000 pound LJDAMs, which are twice and four times the power of that one, respectively. They too have the self-guiding ability." I was shocked. I had assumed that the Americans had inferior weapons, but Matt''s demonstrations had annihilated that idea. "Almost all of our weapons use some sort of guidance system. There''s a couple different types of system, but they all can maneuver to hit a target. We have the LJDAMS," he gestured to the plume of dust that was settling over the weapons area, "which are guided bombs. We also have Hellfire missiles, which are like your R4 but quite a bit smaller. Hellfires use the same guidance as the LJDAMs, laser guidance. They can be used to hit slow-moving targets such as wheeled siege weapons." "Could a Hellfire take out a dragon?" I wondered. "No. It does not have enough explosive power. It could definitely do a number on the wing of a dragon, but it can''t kill it. Additionally, the Hellfire can''t self aim fast enough to guarantee a hit. To kill a dragon, we need to break out the Sidewinders or AMRAAMs. The Sidewinder and AMRAAM are air-to-air missiles, designed to track and follow a target. Both of them can only penetrate the armor of a dragon because they travel at multiple times the speed of sound." I could only shake my head in disbelief, "if we had your weapons, Sarroc would never have been able to invade." "Well," the American officer smiled, "we''re here now, so we can drive them off. In a week or two, a large naval force will be arriving, carrying land units and more air support. When they get here, Sarroc won''t stand a chance." I smiled back. Everything was going to be OK soon. "Is there anything else you''d like to talk about before we head back to the base?" "Yes actually. Every single one of our aircraft has a radar. A radar is a machine which can detect and track aerial targets at ranges greater than what you can see." "I''m sorry, but that sounds sort of unlikely," I started to protest, but he cut me off. "Yesterday, we detected you and Bej from about 100 km away. We adjusted our course to head right to you." "It still seems a little hard to believe." "I completely understand. It does work, though. It has trouble detecting wood and cloth, but the metal of your engines shines like a beacon on radar. There''s not much you can do to reduce your radar return, though, apart from using as little metal as possible." "I see." It still sounded a little absurd, but I had no choice but to accept it. "Also, the use of radars allows us to launch missiles from pretty far away. The Sidewinder missile has a range of about 35 km, and the AMRAAM has a maximum range of 180km." "That," I paused, "sounds about in line with the other information you have provided." My tail swished back and forth anxiously. The Super Hornets went back to the air base to land, and we followed. I quickly stopped by the General''s office to drop off my report, and left before anyone could question my observations. Chapter 5 Just a few hours after the demonstrations, I was scrambling into my aircraft. Ten Sarroc ships had been detected heading towards Varra, and Bej and I had been sent to intercept. The Americans had also requested to join, and were sending 4 Super Hornets. We spread out to search for the incoming fleet. We talked a bit on the manacomm, chatting to alleviate the boredom of flying for an hour straight. About 15 minutes before we would arrive at where the fleet was thought to currently be, Matt spoke up. "It is interesting how many similarities there are between our cultures. For starters, we speak the same language." I was surprised, "You speak Common natively? I thought you learned it for your mission here, and that you spoke a different language on your world." "Oh no. We call it English, though, not Common. There are a few differences, but it''s largely the same." "That is very weird," I contemplated the situation for a moment, "maybe this is not the first contact between our worlds?" There was a brief silence. "That would explain a lot of things," Matt said slowly, "such as our stories of dragons and magic and all that." We were interrupted by one of the other American pilots. I recognized his voice as the one called Taylor who was¡­ friends¡­ with Bej. "Multiple surface returns just popped onto radar 105km out, bearing 35.¡± Commander Lewis immediately went into command mode. "Size? Number?" "Based on RCS, large wooden ships or small metal boats. Speed approximately 15 knots, heading almost directly for Ratern. There¡¯s 1 large and 9 medium ones." "Captain Hrett," called out Matt, "requesting permission to adjust course to intercept." I blinked. If the radar was false, we could miss the actual fleet. However, if they were real then we would completely miss them on our current trajectory. I made a snap decision. "Permission granted." We banked right to intercept, accelerating to 600 km/h. The Americans occasionally called out small corrections, and we drew closer. I could see about a dozen ships below, looking like toys from this height. They were far enough away, however, that I couldn''t make out any details. "Target confirmation on the Litening pod" called out one of the Americans. Jason maybe? "9 single mast ships and one mastless ship. Mastless one has a large thermal signature at the back, maybe an engine." I decided to ignore how he could apparently see the ships so clearly. "Mastless ship with an engine at the back? Is it like 150 meters long and 40 wide?" I asked, thinking of what ship it could be. "That is correct," was the response, giving me a not inconsiderable amount of anxiety. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. "That is a dragon carrier," I stated, "it carries 10 to 15 dragons. The last time one of them was used, 10 towns were burned down before we fought them off." "Can confirm," responded Jason, "I can see 8 dragons emerging onto the deck and taking off." "Alright," Matt said, an edge in his voice, "so we have confirmation that those are Sarroc vessels?" I responded affirmatively and he continued, "Well then, let''s remove them." With that statement, all the American planes turned and dove at the ships. Bej and I hastily followed, slightly confused. What were they going to do to 8 dragons and 10 ships? The engine of my aircraft started to vibrate from the speeds I was going, the propellers making a high pitched roar that ripped straight through my canopy and helmet. I watched as the American planes shot 8 rockets then broke off the attack run. I broke off also, not really knowing what else to do other than follow the Americans. The dragons dodged to the side to avoid the rockets, then panicked as the rockets followed them. I watched the brilliant show of American ingenuity and power as each rocket hit home, killing their targets immediately. I saw some movement out of the corner of my eye, and turned to see 3 bombs dropping from Super Hornets. They all curved to hit squarely in the middle of the dragon carrier, splitting it clean in two. The other ships tried to fight back, firing magically-assisted ballista bolts up at us, but we were far enough up that they were easy to dodge if they even made it up this far. Seven more bombs were dropped, and the once proud fleet was reduced to just 2 vessels and a massive amount of scrap. Bits of broken wood and cloth clogged the water, and some of the larger bits were burning. ¡°I don¡¯t suppose you could try to get them to surrender?¡± asked Matt. I shook my head, ¡°They never do, but I¡¯ll try.¡± I switched over to manacomm channel 100, the universal public channel. "Attention Sarroc vessels," I announced, "your fleet has been destroyed. If you surrender now, you will be taken as prisoners of war. You will be housed, fed and watered. You will not be tortured, hurt or killed." I was interrupted by one of the ships below. "Surrender to lesser beings? Absolutely not. Even if we die, we will still hurt you. Glory to Sarroc!¡± I sighed, then switched back to the channel with the Americans. ¡°I tried to get them to surrender, but they denied it. That¡¯s about on par for them, they see almost everyone as lesser beings and anything that hurts ¡®lesser beings¡¯ is good.. Would you mind cleaning the rest of them up?¡± "I do apologize, Captain," Matt replied, "but we don''t have enough munitions to destroy the rest of the vessels. In fact, we are completely out of weapons apart from internal guns. Would you mind doing the honors?" "I would be glad to," I smiled, "Bej, with me." We dived down close to the water and headed straight for the ships, constantly making irregular movements to avoid the incoming ballista bolts. When we got within the range drilled into us from day 1 of training, we each dropped a single B29. We pulled up, and saw blasts of fire and wreckage as the remaining ships were removed. We rejoined the American aircraft, circled the wreckage once, then headed back towards the air base. I let out a deep sigh, "that was so much easier than the previous time we encountered a dragon carrier. It was only stopped because someone got very lucky." Bej piped up, "you forgot to mention that you were the one who was ¡®lucky¡¯, and that is why you are a captain now. Also, it wasn¡¯t luck¡± He started to explain to the Americans how I had maneuvered a Mark 11 airplane overloaded with 4 B29s through a massive amount of incoming fire and dodged 3 dragons to get a good hit and cripple the carrier. I rolled my eyes, "I do try to avoid bragging." We continued flying back home. Chapter 6 When we got back within manacomm range of home, I reported what had happened to Ratern Air Base. They apparently immediately sent the report up the chain of command, because 5 minutes later I gave the same report directly to a representative of the King. After confirming my story with that of Bej and Commander Lewis, the representative then said that they would ¡°be in touch¡± and terminated the connection. We landed without issue, but when I exited my plane, I was immediately whisked away by General Reach''s assistants. I was escorted to a familiar building, where I was placed in front of the General. "Captain Hrett," the General looked at me closely. "Sir," I stood exactly still in a salute. "I would not have pegged you for a liar. However, with your frankly completely unbelievable report, it seems that you have chosen to adjust or replace the real truth." I was confused, "sir. I did not lie. I told the truth exactly as I saw it." He sighed, and looked at a piece of paper, "so you are saying that you, Sergeant Bej Adlend and 4 Americans took out a dragon carrier and all 9 escorts without taking any damage whatsoever?" "Yes sir." The end of my tail flicked nervously in spite of my attempts to remain composed. "Well then," the General sighed, and started reading from a page, "Prince Torren has ordered that all parties complicit in your apparent lies be grounded until word arrives from the ships sent to check where you said the wreckage was. As such, you, Sergeant Adlend, and the entire American delegation are not permitted to take off in any aircraft, or perform any actions on any aircraft unless necessary for maintenance. This may be temporarily revoked if you are specifically called upon during an emergency situation. Additionally, your pay will be withheld until this order is rescinded. If evidence arises that you have lied, you will face further punishment. Is this clear." The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. "Yes, General." I inwardly sighed. "The others have also been informed of this, however I personally told you as it is your report which started this. Dismissed." I turned and left, waiting until I left the building to let my tail tuck down and my ears fall. I had no doubts that we would be eventually cleared if the wreckage was properly examined, but the expedition might not find the wreckage, or might only find part of it. But either way, the Americans would likely blame me for being grounded, as it was my report which initiated this. Bej would understand, I hoped, but I had no idea how the Americans would react. I stopped in front of the designated US housing, and took a deep breath. I then knocked on the door. It opened a moment later, and I saw Matt in the doorway, with all the Americans sitting or standing around in the entrance room, plus Bej sitting entirely too close to who I assumed was Taylor. "Come in," Matt said, "we''ve already heard about the grounding." I cocked my head, "you don''t seem angry?" "Oh no. It seems reasonable from their point of view. All they know is that a group of foreigners and 2 of their pilots leave, then come back telling a story of defeating a fleet that could wipe out most of the army. It seems reasonable to put them off duty before the report is confirmed, as it is fairly unbelievable and could be a symptom of something more sinister." "Oh," I hadn''t really considered that angle. I had only considered the fact that I was kinda important, and that was it. It kinda served me right for being self-obsessed. "Anyways," Matt said, pulling me out of my thoughts, "please come in. We were just talking about what we were going to do over the next few days. Bej was most unhelpful, as he was embarrassingly clear as to what he would be doing." Taylor pointedly looked away from the rest of us. "I can imagine." I ignored Bej''s smile and entered the building, standing against a wall where I could see everyone clearly. Matt closed the door and clapped his hands, "well, what is there to do around here?" "I don''t really know," I answered honestly, "I haven''t had much free time. Everything here is missions, recuperating from missions, preparing for missions, or practicing for missions." "Well, there''s Ratern City right there. We were never told that we were being kept in the Air Base, so we could see what''s there?" I wrinkled my nose, "you can if you''d like. I don''t deal well with cities. Too many people and too little hygiene for my nose. I''ll stay here." "I''ll stay too," said Matt, "I have some questions I''d like to ask you, and you probably have some you can ask me." "Sure. Bej can guide everyone in the city, because he knows quite a bit." Bej nodded, "sure. I can do that. Sounds like a plan." Chapter 7 The others left soon to head to the city, while Matt and I sat down and started to talk. "So," started Matt, "how about we exchange questions? You ask me one, I ask you one." "That sounds reasonable." "Alright. You can ask one first." I paused a moment in thought, "I can''t really think of a good question right now. Maybe you start?" "Sure. How powerful are is the Sarroc Navy?" "Quite powerful. They don''t publicize their power, but we believe that they have around 100 modern galleys and about 200 smaller vessels. All of their vessels are equipped with ballista and explosive bolts, and are generally more powerful than anything most other nations have." For some reason, Matt relaxed at this, "oh, okay. So they''ll not be much trouble for our Navy." I flicked an ear, "not much trouble, eh? How powerful is the US Navy?" Matt took a deep breath, "most of the US''s naval power comes from its aircraft carriers. They are giant ships that carry dozens of aircraft. You know Super Hornets, like the aircraft that 4 of them took out most of a dragon carrier and escorts?" I nodded, and he continued, "well, the Nimitz-class carriers, which we have 10 of, each normally carry 64 Super Hornets, and can carry over 100 maximum." I blinked, "so the Super Hornet is your main aircraft, and not a special operations aircraft?" Matt nodded, "yes, although they are being replaced slowly by F-35 Lightnings, because the Lightning has a few better qualities." I tried to imagine hundreds of aircraft as powerful as what I had seen of the Super Hornets. Such a force could obliterate Sarroc, and would be about a match for Iridia, if they could get here. I then realized that, because they were based from aircraft carriers, they could be easily moved anywhere. At least the US didn''t seem to be looking to conquer the world. And, if Varra was allied with them, then we would be extra safe. "You okay?" Matt looked concerned. "Yes," I shifted in my seat, "just got lost in my thoughts. Sorry." "I believe it is my turn to ask a question," he asked, and I nodded. "Ask away." "The only context I have for the word ''werefox'' is our mythology, where a werefox is a person who, once every full moon, turns into a half-fox half-human form. Is there any truth to this or is it just a myth?" This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. "It is just a myth. I cannot change forms, this is the only one I have. And there''s nothing to do with the moon about anything, other than I seem to remember something about some manacomm channels having more static when the moon is full. They''re channels that are very far off of the normal sections, though." "Okay, that''s good to know. I think it''s your turn now?" "Yes, it is," I thought for a moment, "do you think that the US would be willing to sell some Super Hornets or other aircraft to Varra?" Matt sighed, "if it was up to me, we would already have a couple aircraft carriers stationed offshore and hundreds of aircraft demolishing Sarroc''s entire invasion, then be selling you and training you on modern aircraft. Unfortunately, however, politics prevents this. I think we might sell some old aircraft or something, like F4s or Tomcats, maybe? They are great, but vulnerable to modern technology. As Sarroc does not have that modern technology, I''d say that they would be good for you. Training you on them will take time, though, and politics will decide if you even get any." I nodded. Politics was annoying. "Alright, your question now." "Geopolitics," said Matt, "what are the nation''s around here, how powerful are they, and such." "Well, there''s Varra and Sarroc, as you already know. There is also Hione to the west, but they are poor and weak. There is the island chain nation of Per Kohne, they keep mostly to themselves and are quite small. "And then there is the Iridian Empire." I sighed, "Iridia is by far the most powerful nation in this world. They were the ones to first invent aircraft, and we only have aircraft because we captured one of their downed planes and reverse engineered it. Iridia has about 2000 of the aircraft we copied, we have 15 lesser copies and 10 equal copies. Iridia is also allied with the Dragon Council, who command about 100,000 dragons. Basically, Iridia is extremely powerful in everything. They keep on invading nearby nations and taking their land and instituting their laws and beliefs. Said laws and beliefs mainly being that if you are not a young straight white human male, then you are lesser. Their society is very layered, with people from higher layers having complete authority over those from lower layers." Matt frowned and nodded. "That sounds like a slightly more extreme form of an ideology that we waged war against 70 years ago. We didn''t let it take over then, and we won''t let it take over now, I promise you." I nodded. America seemed quite powerful, but I was not too sure if they were a match for Iridia. "I will hold you to that promise. Now, I think that it''s my turn to ask a question. I''ll turn your question right back at you, what are the geopolitics of your world?" Matt paused a moment, collecting his thoughts. "There are a lot more nations in our world. About 170 if I remember correctly. Most of them are small, though. There are a few major players, though. "There is the US, we are the most powerful nation in terms of military strength, and at least close to the richest. We are part of NATO, which is a group of 33 close military allies. There is also Russia, which we used to think was a military power to rival the entirety of NATO. However, a couple years ago, they tried to invade Ukraine, a small country that used to be part of Russia before becoming independent. Ukraine, with a small amount of aid from other countries, fought off Russia for over a year and a half before NATO finally stepped in to help. We would have helped more and earlier, but politics got in the way. Russia basically lost all the military it had, which turned out to be very weak. The last major power is China. They are a large nation that is very controlling of their population. They have a decent sized military, but they lack in projection capacity. They can''t really do anything far from home, unlike the US. Our aircraft carriers allow for great power at any distance." I nodded. Some of it had gone over my head, but I had caught most of it. We continued talking for the entire day, discussing ourselves and our cultures. Once it got dark, we said goodnight and we each drifted off to our quarters to sleep. Chapter 8 When I left my quarters the next morning, I was immediately greeted by General Reach himself. ¡°Hello, Captain¡± he said, ¡°I am here to inform you that we have received confirmation of the destruction of the dragon carrier and escorts. You and the Americans are no longer grounded. There is a mission for you, but I have a meeting in 3 minutes. I told the Americans, so talk to them¡± ¡°Thank you, sir.¡± The General left hurriedly, and I immediately headed towards the Americans'' area. I turned a corner, and ran face first into Matt. "Captain Hrett. General Reach told me that we''re ungrounded." I nodded, "yes. He just came by and told me too." "Did he also tell you about the mission that we were assigned?" "No. He didn''t have time to explain." "Well, a nation allied to Varra has requested help dealing with a couple dozen dragons that regularly attack every other day.. I think the nation was Toph? Well, they want help, but they will only allow one aircraft in their airspace." "Ah. I think a Super Hornet will be massively more effective than a Model 19, so you would be a better choice for the mission. You don''t know the landmarks, so I''d have to find a map for you." "Well," Matt started towards the American hangers and motioned for me to follow. "There are 2 main variants of the Super Hornet. The F/A-18E and the F/A-18F. The E has a single seat and generally has a bit more performance. The F variant is a little worse, because it has 2 seats. We brought Fs because it is possible that we would need local expertise. We could use a Super Hornet with someone who knows the area in the second seat." I nodded, and we entered one of the American hangers. A pair of Super Hornets filled most of the space, and a couple people were loading missiles onto them. "So," Matt turned to me, "do you know your way around Toph?" "Yes. Not as well as someone from Toph, but I know enough to fly around Toph, at least before they closed their airspace." "Would you like to act as a navigator for me? If you don''t, then I-" I cut him off, "I would definitely like to navigate for you." He smiled, "I''m glad to hear that. The report from Toph says that the dragons seem to attack at around noon, and today should be the next one. We''re scheduled to leave in half an hour." I did some quick mental math, "so you will be cruising at what, a thousand kilometers per hour?" "1200, actually. It''ll only take 3/4 of an hour to get there. We''ll be performing an in-air refueling just before the border, so we have a full load of fuel when we get there." I shook my head. Once again, I was reminded that American aircraft were much more advanced than ours. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Matt continued, "we''ll just need to get you a flight suit and helmet. We were provided with some specially made adjustable flight suits and helmets, which should fit you." 20 minutes later, I was outfitted in a dark green flight suit with a bulky helmet and mask. I gently stepped into the Super Hornet set up on the runway and sat down, letting Matt reach into the cockpit and show me how to strap myself in. Matt pointed at a large brightly colored loop of fabric on the seat between my legs, "You see this loop here?" I nodded. "This is the emergency eject. Do not pull it unless I tell you to, or if we are crashing and I don''t respond when you ask. When you pull it, the canopy will be launched off, and a rocket motor will ignite below your seat. It will push you up and away from the aircraft. It will then deploy a small parachute to keep you correctly oriented. When you get lower, it will automatically deploy the main parachute and separate the seat, so you can land safely. You will land kinda fast, so be aware of that." I nodded. Such a system is a marked improvement over just trying to open the canopy and jumping out. Matt got into the front sea and strapped in. "Mic check." I heard in my ears. "I can hear you. Can you hear me?" "Hear you loud and clear" I heard the engines start up, quickly rising to a loud whine. The canopy closed, muting the sounds to a low whir, which quickly rose back to a roar as the engines sped up, pushing us forwards down the runway. I adjusted my helmet to fit a bit better, not crushing my ears. We lifted off, and I felt the clunk as the landing gear retracted. I was pushed into my seat as Matt pulled us into a turn, heading west towards Toph. The second Super Hornet took off right behind us, and followed to the right and slightly behind us. We rose up at a quite steep angle, much faster than the Model 19 could ever hope to achieve. I checked the multifunction displays that Matt had set up for me, and was surprised to see that we were already traveling at 500 km/h, and rapidly accelerating. "You okay back there?" Matt said, his voice slightly distorted by the comms system. "Yeah, I''m good. Just admiring the power of a Super Hornet. We''re already about at the Model 19 altitude ceiling, and we''re still rising. We are also just under the Model 19 max speed, and accelerating fast." "Super Hornets can get up to a bit over twice this height. We add additional oxygen to the air delivered to the crew, because the air gets so thin up there." We continued flying, leveling out at what appeared to be like 15 km up or so. I couldn''t really judge the speed, but Matt said that we were cruising at 1050 km/h. As we got close near to the Toph border, the second Super Hornet went just ahead of us, and let out some sort of cone on a hose, which Matt said was called the "drogue". A panel on the front right of our fuselage opened, revealing a pipe which extended out, the "probe". Matt guided us closer, skillfully docking the probe into the drogue. "Alright. We''re refueling. It''ll take a couple minutes to fully refuel, and by the we should be near the border. The tanker Hornet will return to base, and we will continue on. We can fly around Toph for about 2 hours or so, but then we need to return to Varran airspace, because we will be almost out of fuel. We can refuel and head back into Toph immediately, though. You know more about Toph geography and such, so you should be the one navigating and communicating with Toph command, okay?" I nodded, then realized he couldn''t see me. "Yes, I can do that." "Alright," Matt pulled us back, unlocking from the refueling system and dropping back a bit. "Good luck, and good hunting," said the pilot of the other Hornet. They retracted the drogue and hose, and banked back towards home. "I''m surprised that I''m allowed to be in a Super Hornet," I said, "I would have thought that access would be very restricted." "Well," Matt paused for a moment, retracting the refueling probe. "We did get special permission to have local experts in the second seat. That is why we have the adjustable flight suits." "Oh. That makes sense." "We will be within manacomm range of Toph in a minute or two," stated Matt, "I''ve got the radar up and running, so if any dragons get within a few dozen kilometers of us, we''ll detect them first, and introduce them to air-to-air missiles." "Sounds good," I checked the map in a transparent pouch on my leg, referencing it with what I saw on the ground, figuring out where we were. I saw that we were just now passing into Toph airspace, and settled in for what would probably be an hour or two of waiting. Chapter 9 "Toph Command calling Varran Aircraft. Come in, please." I was jolted out of my daydreaming by the voice in my headset. I fumbled for the frequency switcher. "Toph Command, this is Varran Aircraft. I can hear you loud and clear." I said, automatically making sure I was speaking very clearly in case the connection wasn''t great. "Varran Aircraft, Toph Command. We have located the enemy dragons. They are currently 10 km northeast of the town of Berit, and heading towards the town." I hurriedly checked my map for Berit, finding it and measuring out how far we were away. "Copy that. We are currently 190 km south of Berit." "Do you have an estimated time to intercept?" The manacomm operator from Toph Command seemed quite tense. "We can be there in 8 minutes," Matt called back over his shoulder. He then turned the aircraft and we started accelerating. "Estimated arrival 8 minutes," I relayed. "Copy. 8 minutes. Good luck." Toph Command ended the connection. "Lyka, how''s the terrain around Berit?" Matt asked. "Mainly flat," I responded looking at the map, "there are a few small hills, but it''s mostly flat forest." "Alright. I assume it''s right over these mountains up ahead?" "Yes, it''s on a very large plateau on the far side," I said, tracing topographic markings with my finger. "Alright." The next few minutes were tense, as we accelerated to about the maximum speed of the Super Hornet. We passed fairly close over the mountains, with a bit of turbulence. "5 bogeys on radar, 10km out," Matt immediately called out. I was confused, "What is a bogey?" "US military code for unidentified aircraft, or in this case it appears to be dragons." "Okay. How close do you need to be to fire missiles?" Matt pulled the aircraft into a hard turn, then a turn the other way, bleeding off speed. "I could fire now. I am not allowed to fire until I make sure they are hostile, and give them a chance to retreat or surrender." On one hand, I could see his point. Everyone needed to have a chance to surrender, and firing on unidentified targets would be bad. On the other hand, Toph Command had told us that the dragons were always here for hostile purposes. Also, I had never heard of a dragon being seen outside Dragon Council territories anywhere but fighting for Sarroc or Iridia. I had also never heard of a dragon surrendering. While I was deliberating, Matt had flown us past the dragons, right in front of their noses. They sent long blasts of flame after us, but we were too fast. Matt pulled us back around, diving right in front of them again. This time, they anticipated out movements, and breathed fire right where we travelled. Instantly, the engines cut out and started spinning down. I could hear multiple alarms come from up in Matt''s section of the cockpit. I was mentally running through what Matt had told me about ejecting, when the engines started up again. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. "Well, that is kinda important information to know," Matt said calmly. I relaxed my grip on my armrests, "what information?" Matt guided us up away from the dragons. "One, the range of dragons breathing fire. I didn''t think they could get that far. Two, 500 km/h wind sweeps the fire away from the aircraft really well. Three, because the flames use up most of the oxygen, it makes our engines flame out. Four, it''s not hot enough to damage any critical components. Might need a new coat of paint if we do this regularly, though." I let out a half chuckle half sigh, "if a Model 19 is hit by dragon breath, our engine is wrecked, and our control surfaces fused. Sometimes the canopy gets fused closed too, so we can''t bail out. I''m glad it''s not that bad for a Super Hornet." "Well," Matt said, "They attacked us, so they are hostile. They also have been given ample opportunity to surrender." I started to smile, "so, I believe that earlier you mentioned that we should ''introduce dragons to air-to-air missiles''?" Matt pulled us into a hard turn back towards the dragons, and I took a moment to enjoy the feeling of being pushed into my seat by an invisible force. "I did say that. And I meant it. Therefore, fox 2." I opened my mouth to ask what he meant by "fox 2", but closed it as I felt a few clunks and heard multiple missiles fire. Matt banked to the right some, which I appreciated as it meant I had an unobstructed view of 5 trails of smoke shoot off. They each curved to target one individual dragon. The dragons saw them, and tried to dodge, but the missiles followed. A couple of the dragons tried to intercept the missiles with fire, but it was ineffective, and 5 fireballs erupted in quick succession. Bits and pieces of dragon started falling towards the ground below. "Well," Matt said, breaking the silence, "that was fairly effective." "I have to agree," I watched as the last smoke from the explosions drifted away and dissipated. "Wait, one moment. I''m getting a new radar signature coming over the mountains to the north." "Another dragon?" I wondered out loud. "Nope. Radar signature is very different. I''ll get in a bit closer for a better view." Matt guided us closer, until I could make out the exact model of aircraft. "That''s a DS-6," I identified, "I know that Sarroc has at least 3 or 4. It''s the aircraft that jump started our aircraft program. We shot one down, and reverse engineered the systems. A Model 16 is almost identical to a DS-6." Suddenly, multiple things happened at once. The DS-6 flicked it''s nose towards us and started to fire it''s thaumguns. Matt pulled us into an extremely hard turn to dodge and my vision dimmed from the unexpected high G forces. I forced my legs to tense, not allowing blood to pool in my legs from the accelerations. I heard Matt call out "Fox 2", and felt the slight jolt as a missile flew off its rails. Something went wrong, though, and I watched as the missile flew off, not coming even close to the target. "Fuck. Misfire, out of missiles, switching to guns." The enemy aircraft and us were circling around each other now, each spiraling downwards pulling 5 or 6 G''s to try to get guns pointed at the opponent first. We started to win the turning battle, our crosshairs creeping closer the the target. Matt cut the engine, losing some speed in exchange for higher maneuverability. With a rumbling brrrr, our gun fired, the exploding projectiles ripping the enemy aircraft to shreds. Bits and pieces flew everywhere, the main body spinning down to the ground trailing fire and black smoke. Matt pulled up, leveling us out. "Are you okay back there?" "Yes, just a bit tired from the constant G forces," I replied. "Good. Sorry about the sudden movements and hard G''s." I waved his concerns off, "you did what you needed to do to survive and win. You did very well in fact." "It was quite a bit closer than I had hoped," Matt sounded apologetic, "the last Sidewinder failed to lock for some reason. It does happen occasionally, but it is really rare." "It''s OK. Things break, and you took charge when things went awry and got into a good position for using the gun." "Thanks. You should probably tell Toph Command about all this." "Ok, will do." I switched channels to the Toph Command frequency, "Varran Aircraft calling Toph Command" "Varran Aircraft, Toph Command. Go ahead." "We have eliminated the hostile dragons. After confirmation of the kills, a Sarroc DS-6 approached and attacked us. After a brief duel, we destroyed it too. The pilot did not bail." "Acknowledged. Dragons neutralized, DS-6 shot down. We''ll send a group out to examine the wreckage. Thank you." "You''re very welcome." I switched back to the in-aircraft channel. "Ready to head back to base?" "Yes. This has been enough excitement for today." Update ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.