I just wanted to get the opinions of those readers here that might be interested in reveiwing the first few bits of a story i am writing.

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Castle Digram Medieval Times Midday A rider on horseback tore across the plains towards the castle gate. By his handpaw carried a message for the king Digram from Lord Malasam. He had been lucky to get through the battlelines in one piece, his mount being faster than those of the enemy. The messenger had not dared to open the letter the entire trip, it was for the King’s eyes only. His horse charged through the Village and through the main gate. At the doors to the Great Hall, the Cougar dismounted and rushed inside, passing the letter to a guard who carried it quickly to the King while the Rider waited in the main hall. The King was standing at the window, looking out over the fertile farmland that surrounded his Castle to the East, South and West and the Village that sat on the crossroads that linked the Castle to the other parts of his domain. Situated in such a way that any traders and travellers would pass through, the Villagers had seen many strange beings from many exotic and far off places. News had been spreading that Lord Biesty’s hordes had again began to ride again, burning a path of death and destruction across the plains, steadily getting closer to the boarders of the Kingdom. As the guard entered the room, the Tiger turned away from the window, the lines of worry etched into his face. “My Lesage, Word from Lord Malasam” the guard said as he held the letter out for the king to take. He read the letter silently and the look in his eyes told it all, it was not good news. The letter read: “My Lesage, It is my sad duty to report that my men have been overrun by the Hordes of Lord Biesty. My Knights and I are holding out in the Castle but it does not look good, only the Almighty can help us now.” The Tiger’s shoulders slumped noticeably under his elegant robes as the news hit home, The hordes had reached the outskirts of his kingdom. The letter went on to describe how the horde was supported and one word seemed to leap off the page at him, ‘Dragons’. Under the King’s Command were two companies of Dragons and their riders, but compared to those of the Horde they were small and weak. One of those reported was said to have a three hundred foot wingspan and blotted out the sky when it went into battle and the others, while smaller, were still massive when compared to those working for the King’s Guard. The Dragons of Lord Malasam’s forces were supposably swept from the sky within minutes when the battle stated. He quickly wrote a reply to Lord Malasam and handed it to the guard to pass on to the rider to take back. He was to deliver the note only if he felt he could get through without getting killed. As the rider and his horse tore out of the castle on his way back to the battle, King Digram sent a message to his Knights and his Mage to meet him here in his room. A short time later two Knights and a Mage stood before him, waiting for him to speak. The Mage, a white Wolf, leaned on his staff, listening as the King read the letter aloud for them and watching the reactions on the Knights faces as the King finished the letter and looked up at them. The group stood speechless as they took it all in, the horde was on the ride again and this time they had dragons with them. Each of the men in the room were acutely aware of how destructive Dragons could be, having seen the ruins of another castle during the Dragon Wars years before and having seen their own Dragon force in action against raiders over the years. An almost tangible layer of fear hung seemed to fill the room. Finally the King spoke,” I want to be ready for the Horde this time. I want you to gather every able bodied man in the kingdom and give them training in basic swordsmanship and weapons training. Take care of that now.” The Knights turned and exited to attend to the task they had just been given while the Mage, knowing that the King wanted to talk to him, waited behind. He could tell that the king was deeply troubled by what has happened at Castle Malasam and was worried that the same destruction would be unleashed upon his own people. They had, at least, the knowledge of the upcoming invasion and the opportunity to prepare for the coming battle, not that it would do them much good should Lord Biesty bring his most experienced Orcs into play against them, not to mention his dragons. “My old friend” the King began, turning towards the Mage,” you have had the most experience with the horde in the past, do you have anything to add that could help defend our homes from those aligned with Lord Biesty?” “The only thing that I can do that might help, I can open a portal to another world, but you must try to form an alliance with those who live in that world” the wolf replied, looking out the window. “Do you think that is the right course of action my friend?” the King asked, sounding worried at the prospect of meeting with beings from another world. “It is the only one we have at this point sire” “Very well then” the King said,” how long would it take you to prepare?” “I can be ready by first light sire.” “Get to work then, I shall meet you at my Lodge a little after first light” The King replied, looking out the window at the Village,” I just hope we are not letting ourselves in for more trouble than just the horde.” The Mage departed for the Lodge with all he would need to open the portal, leaving the King to his thoughts. Secretly he too was worried about doing this, which had been forbidden for as long as he could remember, the spell being used to observe other worlds, not contacting them.   Horton Multinational Combat Base. Modern Day 8:40 PM   “....Just repeating today’s breaking news, yet another attack on population centres throughout the world, this time it was the turn of Brighton in the United Kingdom to join the ever growing number of cities to be raided by the creatures. The list already includes London, San Francisco, Berlin, Nice, Canberra  and Moscow and global casualties are estimated at over Five Million dead and another three million injured or missing. The United States, Russia and England have today declared martial law and have mobilised their respective defence forces.....” Colonel Trethowan switched off the wide screen Plasma TV and turned his attention to Captain Maltaris Elkington who was standing before him with a folder of paperwork under his arm. Both men had been watching the latest CNN special report on the latest attack from their new enemy. The attacks only last a few minutes at a time but they would come out of nowhere. “So Maltaris, any idea on what these things are?” Trethowan asked, looking over the reports on his desk. “Negative sir, there are just not enough clues to go on, but what we do know is we are dealing with a completely new species. They just appear out of thin air and tear apart all attempts of defence.” The Snow wolf climbed to his paws and walked to the window, staring out at the base which was on high alert like many others across the country. Elkington waited for the Colonel to speak, he knew that this was a strain on the older officer, who had just got over the death of one of his academy buddies in a Helicopter crash a few months before. A C17 Globemaster III lifted off as the snow wolf watched the activity outside before turning back to the young Intelligence Officer standing before him. “Maltaris, Keep up the good work you and your men are doing, when you find out something new, let me know” Trethowan said as he sat down,” dismissed.” Maltaris saluted and exited the office, walking across the base towards the building he and his department had converted to an Intelligence gathering HQ, previously it was a small hanger built during the 1950s to house F-86 Sabres during the Korean War but it had lain empty since 1960 when the Sabres were withdrawn from the base. Inside a total of ten men and women worked, sorting through vast, seemingly insurmountable piles of paperwork, photos and other assorted evidence piled on the desks and tables around the building. Outside of the hanger, two A-37 ‘ Dragonfly’ attack aircraft sat, undergoing minor maintenance while an 6x6 backed up to the side door to offload another truckload of paperwork and evidence for the Intel Officers to inspect and sort through. Elkington had made his office in the hangers elevated maintenance office his home. His Bunk and foot locker were both up there so he could be available if any new development occurred. He sat down on the edge of his bunk and removed his boots before lying down for the first real sleep he had treated himself to in days.   Back in the HQ building, Colonel Trethowan finished a report that had been dropped on his desk earlier in the day and had started watching the News on the large screen again, this time a United States Colonel was answering questions about what they intended to do about the attacks. The thundering of aircraft overhead and  the  noise from the ground vehicles passing by were forgotten as he made himself a cup of coffee and sat back down to write his recommendation to his commanding officer, Colonel Clarkson, head of the Multinational Forces. The pile of paperwork in his ‘in’ box was starting to go down as he worked on his report with all the dedication of a professional orchestra playing in a theatre. Over at the Officer’s club, Captain Cayla Feligris and her Co-pilot Lieutenant Sirte Kalan, were unwinding after a rough day of flying patrols in a severe thunderstorm further off the coast. The large plasma screen hung on the wall behind the bar with smaller ones in various corners where they could be seen from anywhere and they were all tuned to CNN so that anyone that was interested could keep up on events as they occur. Suddenly one of the Lieutenants at the bar yelled to turn it up. As the volume was raised all eyes turned to the various TVs and the voices went silent. “...this footage shot no more than 30 minutes ago shows what experts believe matches the descrïption of a Dragon. Although thought to be mere legend and filler for children’s stories, now it seems that the legends are true. This footage was taken by the crew of a fishing trawler during an attack on the harbour they had just departed.” Everyone’s eyes were glued to the screen as the massive creature set fire to the harbour and the surrounding homes. Some comments were uttered about what they thought the creature could be and others about how big a wingspan it had. After it had set the entire town alight and left the harbour a smoking ruin, it disappeared into a shimmering object in a cloud that appeared to open up and swallow it. Nobody spoke after that, they were all too shocked to put their disbelief into words. The report went on to mention that the town was only one mile from a major US naval base, the dragon had struck so fast that the base didn’t have time to launch anything that could fight back, drawing criticism from the reporter that the military were not doing their jobs. Cayla turned back to Sirte and they both decided to have another drink before retiring to their respective billets for the night, having a patrol to fly the next morning. They walked towards their rooms, discussing what they had seen on the news. Cayla and Sirte parted company after that, Sirte heading for his own room and she changed and sat down and rubbed her paws. Despite having boots designed for paws rather than feet, they still hurt after a long shift and she was glad that she was able to take them off for a while. Her roommate during her academy years, now Captain Kristine Chant, had likened the wearing of the boots to having your paw crushed slowly, and Cayla could see why. She lay back on the bed and switched off the light, drifting into the world of dreams.   Castle Digram Medieval times First light   The King walked out of the Great hall, his armour shining in the few rays of sunlight that pierced the fog of the cold morning. His knights and a company of the Castle Guardsmen were waiting to accompany him to the Lodge where the Mage had been working through the night to prepare for the opening of the portal. A light mist swirled around in the morning breeze as the King swung his leg over his steed and the guards mounted their horses, weapons at the ready. Although it was not a long way to the King’s hunting lodge but the woods were filled with bandits and highwaymen who would like nothing better than to see the king dead by their handpaws. The King pushed that unpleasant thought from his mind and turned his horse towards the main gate, thundering out into the countryside with his men close behind. The Villagers watched in surprise as the king and his men rode through the town and into the woods outside the farmland surrounding the town. The woods seemed silent, not even a bird made a sound, the only noise being the horse’s hooves pounding on the stone strewn track as they thundered towards the lodge. The guards nervous, they had heard the rumours of what had happened at Castle Malasam and they were worried that they would be next. Finally the Lodge came into sight and the guards let out a sigh of relief, they had made it without incident but there was no time to rest, they still needed to secure the area around the lodge. More than once they felt themselves being watched from the shadows of the woods but they didn’t stop until they reached the lodge, inside which the Mage was waiting, consulting his spell books. “Did you find what you needed my friend?” the King asked, looking at the mass of spell texts on large table, some open and all looking out of place. “I believe so, I had to modify the spell slightly but it should work” the white wolf replied, picking up his staff. Outside, two of the guardsmen were standing by a big rock near the road when two large hands came out of the bushes behind them and covered their mouths while another two slit their throats with large knives before dragging the bodies back into the underbrush and out of sight. Another two met the same fate a few moments later at the other end of the clearing. After about an hour the King, the Knights and the Mage walked out into the courtyard of the lodge to start the spell. The Sky grew darker as the Mage read from the text, getting darker as his voice grew louder. The air itself shimmered and a spiral of flame appeared before the group, spinning until it formed an oval the size of full length mirror which seemed to solidify. The images that appeared in the oval surprised the group. Cougars, Lions, Wolves, Foxes and may other species wearing no armour, instead wearing cloth with many shades of green on them, went about their business inside a strange building. The room was lit by strange lights, no candles and no wooden supports could be seen, instead it seemed to be smooth stone on the walls. Likewise no tapestries hung from the walls, instead strange paintings that looked like they were painted by a master, it was like looking through a window at someone.   As they watched, something suddenly occurred to the king,” they can’t see the portal can they?” The Mage shook his head,” no, they won’t be able to see it until we pass through in into their realm, it is a safety feature so that we can observe without them knowing they are being observed.” Into their view came a snow wolf, wearing plain green clothes but having small metal objects on his shoulders, shaped like a small bird. He passed some papers over a low, wall like table to a.....a Female, a Vixen......       ‘They work with their women?’ the king thought to himself. One of the Knights seemed disgusted that there was a women handling paperwork and giving orders to some men who obeyed her without question. They could hear some conversations that filtered through the portal, the snow wolf was talking to a fox who was wearing a strange, one-piece clothe that seemed to be both shirt and trousers but they couldn’t see any break between the two. The Fox was wearing a strange helmet that had a strange black visor on it, but only covered the upper half of his face. Numerous pouches hung from his clothing and a strange pouch with a small metal handle protruding from it hung from his belt. “Lieutenant, I want you to have a patrol in the air at all times, I don’t want that thing to swoop down and take us by surprise” the snow wolf said, looking up from some papers he was carrying. The fox ‘ lieutenant’ nodded slightly,” yes sir, I can be in the air in five minutes.” “Good, Carry on” the snow wolf replied, turning his attention back to his papers. The Fox spun around and rushed out of view through a double set of doors at the end of the room. The king turned to the Mage,” strange beings aren’t they? Are you sure we should enter this world, it is drastically different to our own?” Before the Mage could answer, an arrow embedded itself in the neck of one of the guards with a ‘thunk’. As the body fell to the ground a yell could be heard from the wood as a group of Orcs charged from the trees towards them. The guards were rapidly falling back towards the portal, surrounded on all sides, leaving them only one way out. The first two guards jumped through the portal to secure the other side and then were followed by the king and the mage, followed by the knights and the two remaining guardsmen. They were now in a realm completely unknown to them, the portal sealing behind them.   Horton Multinational Combat Base - Headquarters building. Modern Day 9:00am Colonel Trethowan was almost knocked down as strangers in medieval armour suddenly appeared from behind him.  He managed to stay on his paws only because he tumbled into one of the office staff who helped to steady him. The two medieval dressed wolves were soon joined by a large Tiger in shiny armour with a coat of arms on his shield and a White Wolf in a long flowing robe holding a staff. Four more armour-clad beings, two wolves, a cougar and a Tabby cat appeared a few moments after. The two soldiers at the end of the passageway quickly brought their weapons up and aimed them at the group. Two female officers walked through the door behind the group and, upon realising what was happening, drew their side arms. One of the guardsmen took this as a threatening action and tried to swing his sword, only to be felled by a .45 ACP round. The wounding of one of their number caused the others to stop where they were. They looked shocked that he could be disabled so quickly through the armour of a breastplate from across the room. The shot was still echoing in their ears but they complied with the order to throw down their weapons. Five soldiers escorted the group out of the building as the wounded Wolf was treated by a medic and transported to the base hospital to recover under guard. The King and his men froze where they were when they stepped out into the sunlight, what they were see causing their minds to seize up temporarily. Two Humvees rumbled past on their way towards the gate, helicopters thumped overhead and fighters could be heard spooling up on the other side of the building out of their sight. Oi98]A sharp jolt in the ribs by one of the soldiers caused them to start moving again and they were loaded into the back of a stake bed truck. As they were driven through the base, they were silent, observing everything with an almost sombre awe. Once they were at the detention building, they were stripped of their armour and locked in separate cells. Meanwhile, Trethowan had sent word to Elkington to meet him in his office to examine some ‘evidence’, the Medieval group’s weapons which were set out on his desk. He picked up an ornately decorated long sword from the collection and twirled it a few times in his handpaw. It felt lighter than it should and seemed perfectly balanced, not at all like a sword of its type from that era should. ‘Maybe these people are more advanced with metal working than we were during that period’ he thought to himself as he put the sword back down. A knock on the door quickly brought him out of his thoughts and back into the present,” come in.” Captain Elkington entered with a clipboard and folder under his left arm and removing his hat with his right handpaw. He was pawed a short sword by Trethowan and he placed his Folder on the desk while he examined it. Finally he looked up with a curious look in his eyes,” Intriguing.”   Horton Multinational Combat Base – Detention Building. 9:30 AM King Digram paced in his small cell, waiting for something, anything to happen. He was not a being of patience and he didn’t like what was happening here but there was nothing he could do about it, he and his men were captured. He couldn’t really blame them for reacting like they did, if someone had appeared out of thin air in his castle he would have had them locked up as well. The sound of a key in the lock caused him to stop and watch the door. A female Cougar in the same green uniform as the others opened the door and two Wolves entered, dragging him from the cell,” We have orders to take you to the Colonel, come with us.” The Tiger didn’t argue, instead doing as he was asked and allowing them to escort him to the hall he had appeared in earlier. His escorts opened the door and he walked inside, coming face to face with the snow wolf they had been observing earlier, but he was not alone. A young looking Sasquatch and a female Fox stood on either side of him, watching his every move. The snow wolf gestured to the seat in front of the desk and once he had was seated the Snow Wolf began. “I am Colonel Kadakan Trethowan of the Multinational Combat Forces, this is Captain Elkington” he gestured to the Sasquatch on his left,” and Captain Viron” he gestured to the Vixen on his right. The Tiger looked at the snow wolf and straightened up,” I am King Digram of Calia, I have come here to forge an alliance with you and your people in the hopes that you will help us combat the hordes of Lord Biesty.” Trethowan looked at the others and then back at the tiger,” You appear in the middle of a secure compound, one of your men tries to attack one of mine and now you try to convince me to join you against an enemy I have never heard of?” “I know it sounds farfetched but it is the truth, my people are under immediate threat of invasion by Lord Biesty’s hordes” the tiger replied, starting to wonder if he had made the right decision in contacting these people. Suddenly a young Corporal busted in,” Sorry Colonel but there is something on the news you have to see.” He switched on the TV and the three officers gasped, New York was under attack from that dragon and half of the city was ablaze. The King just looked at the images and cursed to himself,” That is one of Lord Biesty’s dragons, he is expanding into your world as well.” The dragon vanished into the portal soon after but the damage had been done. Trethowan turned to King Digram,” These things live in your world?” “Yes, they are a threat we have never been able to quell, mostly because of their numbers” “We’re going to kill them all” Trethowan replied. “To bloody right” Elkington said, still staring at the screen.

 

You're doing a good job.

I like time travel stories, and I'm curious to know what will happen next.

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Temporary Airfield X-ray Dawn     By the time first light started to show over the horizon, the Airbase was starting to really take shape, the first aircraft had arrived and the Ammunition and fuel dumps were in place. Rows of UH-1D Gunships and transports sat alongside Mi-24D Hinds and Mi-26 Halo heavy transport helicopters. A Squadron of AV-8B Harrier IIs sat in ‘hangers’  that had been made by pushing the earth up into mounds and placing a roof on them, the resulting structures being large enough to do maintenance work on the jets. The silence was shattered as two Hawker Hunter FGR.Mk9s came in for a landing, the first of the squadron to arrive, while a Grumman E-2C Hawkeye waited for it’d turn to take off and provide the base with AEW capability. Service personnel were already busy on the first damaged aircraft of the day; one of the three Cessna A-37 Dragonfly which had its nose gear had collapsed after it had stopped.  The local farmers were only just starting to get up to start their work and those that had managed to sleep through the arrival of the Modern Forces walked out to find their strange machines and people on the other side of the fence. John Leeson, a farmer, stood silently by his farm outbuildings, not knowing if he should run away or not.  He was used to seeing the Dragons under the King’s command flying around, but these flying machines he was seeing defied belief. He had heard of what had happened at Castle Malasam and wondered if these strangers would be enough to turn the horde back. Meanwhile, in a tent turned HQ/ Briefing room, Lieutenant Colonel Vulpes and some other officers were presenting their plan to the King and his Knights. The table was littered with recon photos taken from a high flying recon plane, all showing castle Malasam still holding out against the horde, but they were surrounded by Orcs and were coming under regular attacks by Dragons. The plan was simple on paper, airlift troops, supplies and ammo to the besieged forces in Castle Malasam while ground attack aircraft preformed high speed attack runs on the massed forces. They would them be relieved by a decent sized force moving overland with what limited armour and mechanised infantry they could muster.  The Dragons would be the biggest threat, both to the airlift and to the ground forces so the ground attack aircraft would double as air superiority machines, either shooting the dragons down or driving them from the area. The King’s own Dragons would escort the helicopters to the castle, flaming anything that got close to them. The engineers had been working all night to fit two way communications to the Dragon’s armoured helmets to allow them to talk to each other and to the combat forces they were to support. The officer in charge of the attack would be Lieutenant Colonel Vulpin, who would accompany the troops into Castle Malasam and direct the operation from there. Air support would continue to be on call until the siege was broken and the troops withdrawn. King Digram and his knights thought that these beings were crazy to attempt to launch an attack on the massed forces of the Horde, no matter how powerful they seemed. After a few moments he reluctantly committed only five dragons to the plan, stating that he needed the others for other concerns. The shortfall would have to be covered by other helicopters which would reduce the force available to cover the Castle and the village in the event of an attack. They meeting broke up about half an hour later after agreeing that two of King Digram’s knights were to accompany the airborne troops to the castle, mainly to show Lord Malasam that these beings were there to help, not that Malasam was in any condition to turn down help, no matter how strange they may be.   Take off was scheduled for 5.30am the following morning and the rest of the day was taken up with the preparation of aircraft and Troops for the plan. While this was going on Lieutenant Colonel Vulpin met with the lead Dragon of the King’s force, who had flown out to the airbase upon the request of the King himself. The great creature towered over Vulpin and the aircraft parked nearby, its wingspan, though smaller than that of the dragon which had attacked their world, was still greater than the C-130 parked nearby. The Dragon lowered its large head and looked at Vulpin,” I am K’afar, I was informed you wished to speak with me.” “Yes, I wished to speak to you about the inclusion of five of your Dragons in our battle plan” Vulpin replied, before running him through the plan and then informing him of the king’s decision as to the number of dragons he was willing to spare for the plan. The large Dragon shook his head in disgust,” clearly you would need more dragons than that, but if the king only gave you five of us, I will make sure they are my bravest and fiercest warriors that are sent with you.” “I thank you, from what we have seen they will be needed” Vulpin replied, looking at the large dragon,” we will win this.” Temporary Airfield X-ray 5.30am         The thumping of rotor blades echoed across the plains as the soldiers climbed aboard the helicopters in the early morning light. The knights, Sir Golan, a Cougar, and Sir Golwar, a snow Leopard, looked out of place amongst the soldiers as they climbed into the lead helicopter. While they choppers were loading Aircraft were warming up for takeoff, while at the edge of the field the five Dragons waited in their modified armour. The last being aboard the chopper was Lt. Colonel Vulpin who had climbed up beside Sir Golan and leaned towards the pilots,” Lets go.” The thumping became a fast paced beat as they lifted off and headed towards their destination, the dragons joining them a few moments later. Vulpin removed his helmet and put a headset on, handing two more to Sir Golan and Sir Golwar, who followed his lead and were surprised as they heard his voice clearly over the headsets. “This will be tense, we will need to get off the chopper almost as soon as it has landed, things will be confusing for a while but don’t worry, we’ll get through.” Sir Golan and Sir Golwar were taken aback by this fox’s words, he could see, despite how they tried to conceal it, that they were nervous about the battle. They nodded to Vulpin and went back to watching the farmland whip by below until they felt the whole helicopter drop rapidly, levelling out just above tree top level, much to the relief of the two knights. The other transport choppers had done the same, while the gunships had taken a different course, allowing them to come in from all angles at once. After about thirty minutes flying, the pilot’s voice came over their headsets,” E.T.A two minutes to LZ.” Vulpin removed his headset and placed his helmet back on his head, the two knights doing the same. He cocked his rifle, as did the other troops with him,” let’s give them hell”   Castle Malasam 6.00am A wolven guard stood looking out over the vast Horde encampment when he heard a dull thumping in the distance, and a steadily increasing roar in the sky. Suddenly a blur streaked across above the horde encampment with a roar like a extremely strong wind. The Wolf screamed as the encampment vanished into a large fireball which enveloped an ever increasing area. Vulpin looked out of the chopper at the receding fireball as they approached the castle, flaring just before the courtyard. As the Chopper touched down and the troops poured out with the two knights with them, the chopper lifting off again, it’s door mounted .50 cals opening up as soon as they were clear of the walls. More choppers came in and offloaded their cargos inside the castle while Sir Golan and Sir Golwar convinced Lord Malasam that these beings were there to help. Meanwhile Vulpin and his radioman were up on the wall, contacting the fast movers. Up above, hidden by the clouds, a flight of AV-8Bs waited for their confirmation to commit, Napalm tanks and various other ordinance on the pylons under the wings. The flight leader, an Ocelot named Trablini Balkath, watched her display readouts and then looked at the picture she had placed on a blank spot on the console, a Polaroid photo of her and her husband, a red fox, before her career started taking her away from home more often as trouble spots had flared up around the world. He was always there, waiting for her each and every time, knowing exactly what her job entailed, having been a combat pilot himself before his accident. Her thoughts were brushed aside as Vulpin’s voice seemed to fill the air. “Eagle one, this is Dog one, I need you to burn them out. Bring the rain!”       “ Dog one, this is Eagle One, copy that, Making our approach now. Eagle Flight, choose your targets for maximum damage.” “Eagle two, roger” “Eagle Three, Copy” “Eagle Four,  A’roger” “Eagle five, Roger that” Trablini rolled her AV-8B over and dived for the ground, pulling up as she cleared the cloud layer. The Harriers broke formation and targeted various areas. Eagle Two opened up on a large, medieval battering ram housed in a metal plated siege machine as it moved towards the castle’s main gate, dropping a napalm tank directly onto the rear of it and engulfing it in a massive fireball along with the Orcs around it. Eagle Three and Four dropped their tanks on what they agreed looked like the leader’s HQ tent and Eagle five dropped his on the troop’s tents. Trablini saw what looked like a temporary blacksmith setup and released her tanks, the resulting fireball reducing the entire area around it to ash and charred lumps of burnt Orc flesh.  As they climbed away and came around for another pass, they saw the Hunters come in low and strafe the remaining large concentrations of Orcs with their 30mm cannons and rocket fire. From what Trablini could see from her cockpit the Orcs were in disarray, having no way to retaliate against the aircraft that were ripping great swatches from their ranks. “Dog One, Eagle One, targets serviced, we’ll be on call if you need us” Trablini said into the microphone,” Eagle one out.” “Copy that Eagle One, good work” Vulpin replied, watching the disarray before him,” good work, Dog one out.” Lord Malasam was suddenly beside him,” Sir Golan and Sir Golwar have explained as best they could, but if the King trusts you, I welcome your help.” Vulpin pointed out another concentration of Orcs to his radio operator to call a strike in on and turned to Lord Malasam,” Sir, Lord Biesty is a common enemy of both your people and mine, we are only too happy to help to strike a blow against our enemy.” Two Hunters blew overhead, causing Lord Malasam to duck slightly, looking up as they unleashed a salvo of rockets on another group of Orcs. As they pulled up a massive Dragon dove out of the clouds, its massive claws tearing one of the hunters in half just behind the wings, it’s pilot incinerated in the resulting explosion. The second Hunter hugged the ground and cracked the throttle wide open, racing away with the Dragon in hot pursuit, rapidly disappearing over the horizon. The radio was suddenly alive with the pilot’s near voice, starting to get more and more worried as he got further away. “Hawk One to anyone, I have a bogie on my tail, I can’t shake him” Vulpin and Lord Malasam listened to the conversation between the pilot and other aircraft in the immediate vicinity. The chatter was confusing to the Lord but Vulpin and his Radioman were following the overlapping chatter with ease. The Hunter’s pilot was starting to sound very afraid,” Someone get this thing off my tail.” Suddenly a new voice broke through the confused shouts. “Hawk One, Eagle One, Coming in on its Six O’clock high, preparing to engage” Trablini’s voice became loud,” Hawk One, Eject! Eject! Eject!” “ARRRRHRHHHGGGGGGGGGG....................” the pilot screamed as the dragon’s jaws slammed closed over the plane and crushing the cockpit in one fluid movement before dropping the remains of the airframe to the ground and climbing for cloud cover again. Trablini was about to climb to give chase before Vulpin’s voice filled her headset,” Eagle One, disengage, disengage, Target is beyond your aircraft’s capabilities. Vectoring Tomcats to intercept.” “Eagle One copy, resuming ground attack duties” High above the clouds three Ex-USN F-14D Tomcats watched the dragon on their radar and moved to intercept, on their weapons pylons were mounted Radar guided missiles. The Dragon was heading straight and level away from them, seemingly unaware of the existence of the jets. The RIO of the lead Tomcat pressed a few buttons on his console,” This is Knight One, I’ve got tone.” “Knight Two, I’ve got tone.” “Knight Three, I’ve got tone.” “Knight One, Fox two.” “Knight Three, Fox two.” “Knight Two, Fox Two.” The Missiles streaked away, honing in on the Dragon at incredible speed. The Dragon looked over it’s shoulder and dived away at the last moment, rolling onto it’s back and swatting all but one of those missiles from the sky, the last detonating on its hide, causing it to drop towards the ground, disappearing into a low cloud. The RIO on the lead plane suddenly swore,” that thing just vanished off my scope.” “mine too” “I’ve lost it” “how does something that big vanish at 2,000ft?”   All six aircrew scanned the skies for any sign of their target but it had vanished completely. “Dog One, Knight One, Target has vanished from both radar and visual range.” Vulpin grabbed the radio handset,” Knight One, Dog One, Say again.” The pilot’s voice came back over the radio,” Dog One, Knight One, Target has disappeared.” “Copy that Knight One, Stay on station and await further orders, Dog One out.” He handed the handpiece back to the radioman and turned to look out over the battlefield where the Orcs had gone to ground, providing no more targets worth wasting ordinance on. The castle seemed to have an air of hope about it, as opposed to the defeatism there had been when they arrived.  Everyone who had survived the initial and subsequent attacks had been on the walls, even if they had to be carried there, to watch as the Orc Forces were destroyed. Vulpin turned as another chopper, a Mi-26 ‘Halo’, touched down and started disgorging it’s cargo of troops into the courtyard. They deployed on the walls, setting up light machine guns with overlapping fields of fire, and stockpiling grenades and ammo at each of the guns. A young wolf ran up to Vulpin,” Colonel Vulpin, Major Harkins, 132nd airborne.” “Good, I want you to reinforce the west wall” Vulpin said, showing Harkins a rough map he had sketched when he first arrived,” here is where you can get the best fields of fire.” Harkins nodded and looked close at the ‘map’,” I’ll have my men move there now Colonel.” He hurried away as the ‘Halo’ was finished being unloaded and lifted off, allowing the next chopper to come in to begin the unloading procedure again. By 5PM the Castle was starting to look more formidable. The Orcs had tried twice during the day to mount an attack only to be battered into non-existence by well coordinated airstrikes. Since there was a storm moving in, causing air support to be less effective or non-available, they would be on their own for the night. Over one hundred tons of medical supplies and ammunition had been delivered during the day and with all the forces inside the castle, it would be a hard nut to crack for the Orcs. The Corps of Engineers had installed motion detectors and tripwires around the base of all the walls and all the troops were issued with night vision gear. The Command centre, hospital and supply dumps were all situated in the dungeons of the castle where they would stand the best chance of survival in an attack. Vulpin stood on the tower and looked out into the fading light, imagining where and when the attack would come. On the horizon the storm clouds were gathering, the smell of rain was in the air and sheet lightning flashed in the distance. Lord Malasam stood beside him as they gazed out at the still battlefield littered with debris and bodies. “They’ll be coming, have your men double their watches; I’ll have my mine do the same” Vulpin said as the sun finally slipped below the distant mountains. “It will be done Colonel Vulpin”   Castle Malasam 10:00PM The rain fell heavily, obscuring the night vision of the lookouts on the walls. The attack that had been expected had not yet arrived but no one was letting their guard down. With all the rain it was impossible to hear anything approach the perimeter. Down in the Command centre, a perimeter alarm started beeping and flashing on a computer screen. The tech looked at the flashing spot on the screen and called over the officer in charge on the CIC,” Sir, Perimeter breech, sector 23.” “Contact the unit in sector 23, inform them of the perimeter breech.” “Sector 23, Perimeter breech, outer wire” the radio crackled “Copy that, sector 23 on alert” Lieutenant Valmet, a Cougar, replied into the headset. She turned to the two closest soldiers on the wall,” pass the word, the outer wire is breeched, pick your targets carefully.” The murmur passed along the line and the line, the magazines were checked and the grenades were passed around. A parachute flare illuminated the area, catching a large party of Orcs in the open. “Pour it to ‘em!” Automatic fire poured from the walls and the first line of Orcs were put down hard, the others hiding behind the bodies of the dead while their archers let fly a salvo of arrows at the soldiers on the wall. One Soldier went down as the arrow buried itself into his chest, narrowly missing the heart. The same was happening all around the castle, the horde had regrouped and had come down hard on the defenders, trying to get into the castle before they lost the opportunity to overpower them. Rounds went out, Orcs went down, arrows came in and the cycle would repeat again. With the storm restricting the use of airpower, the Orcs could mass in relative safety within sight of the castle but out of the reach of effective retaliation. Down in the dungeon CIC, Colonel Vulpin listened to the frenzied radio reports and looked at the chart table, upon which an aerial recon photo had been blown up for use as a map. Markers were being moved around to show the last reported positions of the Orcs beyond the walls. The highest tower, the centre of the castle, was being used as an observation post and was manned by an artillery spotter, his crew, and a team of snipers, the latter causing hell for the distant forces. Despite their obsolete L42 rifles, they were dropping large numbers of Orcs from further than the attackers could see. One of the snipers lowered his rifle for a moment, blinking before taking another look through the scope,” awwwwwww hell.” “What?” another sniper asked as he worked the bolt on his rifle,” what do you see?” “A large, lizard like thing, it’s heading for the main gate” the first replied as he began to put round after round into the beast’s scaly head, having no effect.   “A what?” Vulpin asked, almost spilling his coffee as he whirled around to race the screen. “Just as I said sir, a massive lizard, easily as big as a tank and heading for the main gate” the sniper voice crackled over the radio,” our rifles have no effect on it.” “Copy that” Vulpin said, turning to his radio operator,” contact the main gate and tell them they got company.” “Will do” Machine guns were set up inside the castle courtyard with terrified locals looking on, the fallen stone from the walls made great cover for the soldiers who calmly took up their positions along the line as the great wooden gate started to shudder under the force of the impacts the beast was putting on the other side. A shower of splinters and the cracking of wood filled the air as the gate disintegrated under the force of the impact. The beast lumbered into a hailstorm of lead, massive red patches being torn in its hide as it struggled forwards towards the line. It collapsed with a moan after moving out of the line o fire behind a shattered building, dying where it fell. A terrible yelling filled their ears as the Orcs charged through the hole and into the courtyard. The machine guns and the rifles spoke and Orcs died but the rolling wave was still heading for the defensive line at great speed, causing the knights on the line to run for safety, the locals taking in the determined looks on the defender’s faces as they continued to pour fire in on the rolling wave of Orcs. Just before they were overrun, two .50 cal machine guns opened up on the assault, assisting the defensive line in shredding more of the attack. Bodies were falling so close that they were hitting the ground directly in front of the soldiers on the line, some close enough to knock stones from their cover.  They knew help was coming, question was, would it arrive in time?

 

--Last edited by Redtail Fox on 2008-07-19 21:46:45 --

Looks good, but there's a few typos and such that needs to be adressed...

Quote :

By his handpaw carried a message for the king Digram from Lord Malasam.

This just doesn't sound right...
(Try getting rid of te 'By')

Also, 'for the king Digram' isn't good, either

'for the King' is good(if you use the title this way it must be capitalized), and 'for king Digram' is also OK.

Quote :

News had been spreading that Lord Biesty’s hordes had again began to ride again, burning a path of death and destruction across the plains, steadily getting closer to the boarders of the Kingdom.

Again and again...
PLEASE NO!

Also, a 'boarder' is the same as a tenant, just usually for a shorter duration...
Try using the word 'border' instead...
;-)

Haven't had time to look over the rest, yet, so can't say if there are more goofs in there.
(Won't be today. Busy, busy... )

I hope that it'll get fixes soon as this kind of errors can ruin an otherwise good story.

:-)

Quote :

Convoy Alpha-Three 25 kilometres from Castle Malasam Captain John Miller, a snow wolf, raised his NVGs to his eyes as he stood next to the lead Humvee, surveying the ‘road’ ahead. Below the hill they were on they could see an encampment of Orcs in what was once a farmyard, the bodies of the farmer and his wife were lying in the open, having been dead for a few days. He looked across at the dirt road and could see that the Orcs had blocked the road so that the horse drawn reinforcements they were expecting would be slowed down enough that they would have time to wipe out the reinforcements before they would have time to dismount. Miller keyed the microphone on his helmet, opening a channel to all the officers in the convoy with him,” the Orcs have set up a road block; we’re going to have to clear that out before we can proceed. Lock and load.” He walked back to the 6X6 truck behind him and swung up to the driver’s window,” That looks like a flimsy barricade, I want you to charge down there at speed and slam through that barricade.” “Can do Captain” Miller dropped down off the running board, returning to his Humvee, closing the door. He would normally sent in tanks but they were jammed up in the rear. The truck swung out of the line and accelerated down the hill towards the barricade. The roaring of the engine resounded through the night as the large truck thundered downwards, the barrier flying apart as the heavy 6X6’s front bumper made contact with it, sending debris flying in all directions and running over two Orcs as they stood behind the barrier. The truck slewed around, doing a one-eighty, smashing through a small thatched shed and coming to rest with the rear facing the Orcs, allowing the troops to pour out of the truck and open fire on the shocked Orcs before them. The Humvees and the other vehicles skidded to a halt, their .50 calibres opening up on the now attacking Orcs as the soldiers exited the vehicles and dived for cover. Muzzle flashes lit up the area as the Automatic fire tore into the Orcs, causing them to go to ground. Miller was crouched down next to the truck’s front tyre, engaging the attackers before him when he heard a loud thump and metallic scraping on the trucks hood behind and above him. He looked up over his shoulder and saw an Orc holding his large Axe high, about to swing it down and kill him. Suddenly the Orc’s head was forced back further than it was natural, a small hole between the eyes and the back of the head a shattered mess. The body fell from the hood and out of sight, causing Miller to whirl around and look in the direction of the shot, seeing one of the drivers with his sidearm out, now turning back to the battle. One of the soldiers threw a Fragmentation grenade into a hollow that several Orcs were hiding in, the resulting blast taking all seven out. Within ten minutes the farm was cleared and the troops walked among the dead and dying, again without taking casualties. The vehicle radios were picking up the frenzied chatter from the besieged forces holed up inside Castle Malasam. After a quick burial for the farmer and his wife, the troops were back on the trucks and underway, Captain Miller and his Humvee leading the way, all the time trying to raise Castle Malasam. The convoy bounced along the road, the troops listening to the desperate situations coming over the radio from the besieged forces and they hoped they could get there in time to help hold the castle from the Horde.     Castle Malasam – under siege Dawn Colonel Vulpin watched as the first rays of dawn shone over the battlefield, showing the devastation of the nights defence. Dead Orcs littered the area surrounding the castle, noting could be seen moving except two or three large patrols that were sent out a few moments earlier. The defenders didn’t have it all their own way, the Orcs had taken and held the gatehouse and some of the buildings in the courtyard, only losing them at a high cost to the defenders a few hours later. The defenders had used up roughly half of their ammunition and had around one third their number killed or wounded, the Orcs had lost more men but they had the numbers to easily replace their losses. Vulpin moved along the lines, congratulating each soldier for a great performance as he came to them. Below him in the courtyard he could see troops moving the corpses of the Orcs to a pile next to the main gate. Other troops were moving around passing out more ammunition to the troops waiting for more targets to present themselves. From the shattered battlements Vulpin could see the convoy coming over the hill and could hear their engines rumbling through the still morning. He climbed down into the courtyard and watched the trucks pull in, the Humvees standing guard outside the main gate. Miller climbed from the Humvee and shook handpaws with Vulpin,” glad to see you made it through Colonel.” Vulpin smiled,” same goes for you my friend, I’m glad you are here.” Their conversation went on for a few minutes until the trucks had all pulled up and were being unloaded. They had held Castle Malasam against overwhelming numbers and every soldier that was there through the night felt that they had contributed to a great victory, the first major defeat of the Horde at the paws of the MCF. A cheer went up throughout the castle as everyone raised their rifles high and cheered in celebration.

You are doing well.

((Warning, the veiws represented in this section are not that of me. It was the norm in that era. Big post))

Quote :

Off the coast of Calia 7.30 AM Two ancient Fletcher class destroyer of mid-1940s vintage drifted through the morning, it’s mighty engines thumping out across the mild ocean swell. To her old hull was grafted the most modern of fire control, radar, sonar and Phalanx defence system. Despite all the newer weaponry, the MCFS Kingston and the MCFS Crusher, were still aging ladies and had been used as a heavy patrol boat for their entire careers with the MCF, having been purchased from the US Navy mothballed fleet and refurbished ten years prior. Captain Chant, an Otter, leaned on the railing next to the bridge, staring out over the waves as a magnificent sailing vessel came into view. It’s massive sails billowed and filled the sky as it came near to the two destroyers who couldn’t have been of greater contrast. Captain Chant and his XO, Commander Gunston, another Otter, raised their binoculars to their eyes and surveyed the Frigate as it approached, its name written in gold. “Vendetta” Captain Chant said as he read the name,” What a name for a ship.” “Indeed” Cmdr Gunston replied as he lowered his binoculars,” they are flying the flag of Calia so I guess we have to let them pass.” Captain Chant could see the Captain of the other vessel looking at them through a telescope and could see the confusion and worry on his face as he failed to recognise the two strange, smoke breathing monsters heading towards him. He raised his arm and waved to the captain of the sailing vessel as it drew near, he had to give the captain credit, he was holding his course rather than fleeing from the two destroyers. As evident by this sailing vessel, the people of this realm were ahead in some technologies than they would normally be in this era, Cannons poked from it’s hull sides and were also mounted on the deck, only primitive little cannons but well ahead of their time. The ship was ahead of its time too, no Frigate in the modern forces timeline would have been built for another one hundred years but these people had them. The Captain of the Frigate lowered his telescope and waved back, still showing signs of confusion and worry on his face as the vessels passed each other. The Frigates Captain’s face broke into a smile when he saw the Calian flag flying beside the MCF one. The crew started waving and cheering as they now realised that they were not alone it their sea battles against the forces of Lord Biesty. The pirates had been dominating the sea lanes for the last few years and they regularly travelled with Dark Mages onboard, able to call up fierce storms or dead calm weather, causing the King’s navy to become stranded and then become easy pickings. Their vessels were also covered in iron plating that stopped the cannonballs from the Royal Calian Navy cannons. Captain Chant watched as the Frigate glided by, almost wishing that it was his ship, being an avid believer that the proper way to move a ship was wind and sail rather than steam and diesel propulsion as on the two destroyers. As the Frigate disappeared astern of the Destroyers, the officers returned into the Bridge, Captain Chant returning to his cabin while Commander Gunston took over the duty watch. As Captain Chant walked through the narrow passageways of his sixty plus year old warship, he felt like he was at home. To him the steel walls and deck plating seemed to vibrate life and the gentle thrum of the engines seemed to vibrate from every surface, this was his ship and he was glad it was allowed to have a new lease on life as opposed to being just a patrol ship, it was acting closer to its original wartime role for the first time since it had been struck off.   Chant entered his small cabin, large in its day but smaller than the same cabin on the newer warships. While sometimes he did wish he had something bigger at his command, he knew what the Kingston could do and loved and respected the survivability and the base firepower of this Second World War veteran. The firepower of this aging lady was excellent in it heyday and was still fairly potent n the modern age, made so by the introduction of high tech fire control systems and long range harpoon missiles, as well as two phalanx mounts alongside the main AA battery, still individually manned for challenging smaller boats as well as helicopters.   Chant removed his boots and lay down on the bed, quickly falling asleep after his last shift. On the Bridge, Cmdr Gunston watched through the bridge windows as the seas started to get choppy, nothing the Kingston and the Crusher couldn’t handle, they had sailed through a cyclone and came out unharmed. The old destroyer’s bow sliced smoothly through the waves as it ploughed on towards the horizon, smoke belching from its stacks and spray striking the bridge windows. The two ships were heading for a small port town to conduct anti-piracy patrols and to send a message to any of Lord Biesty’s spies; the Royal Calian Navy will no longer sit idly by and allow his pirate raiders to run rampart, the war had been joined. To be honest, Cmdr Gunston was not expecting any trouble with the contemporary forces, their wooden sailing vessels and flimsy iron plate armour couldn’t hope to sand up to the Harpoon missiles and the five five-inch guns of the main battery.     For the next two hours, everything went smoothly, no contacts on the radar and no serious bad weather either, allowing the ships to steam at their maximum speed and close the distance between the ships and the port fairly rapidly. With no real air threat, the Anti-aircraft gunners were leaning on the railings, waiting for anything interesting to happen to break their growing boredom. As the two ships entered the port of Indos, the world seemed to stop, the locals stoping their current tasks and turning to watch the new arrivals, taking in their great size, their large guns and the strange flag flying beside the flag of Calian. The harbor was not large but the two destroyers were soon alongside the dock, quickly tying up one either side of the pier near a similar Frigate to the one that they had passed on route. The Calian and MCF flags continued to fly as Captain Chant, Commander Gunston and four of the destroyer’s security detail disembarked and headed for the castle, with orders to inform Lord Digram, the king’s second son and ruler of this town, of their orders to use the town as a base of operations for the anti-piracy patrols they were to conduct in and around the nearby islands. The three officers walked through the town towards the castle through the maze of streets; they couldn’t help but notice how much they were standing out in their uniforms as they passed through the marketplace.   The contemporary naval crew and Captain Chant’s group looked each other over carefully before continuing on their way without saying a word. As they reached the castle, they saw soldiers waiting for them by the main gate. Two guards moved aside and a dragon rider stepped forward, having flown from Castle Digram to where he now was to inform the Lord that there would be strangers with almost magical machines operating from his town and that the King wants them to get the best treatment his domain could offer. Lord Digram walked down the stairs from the great hall’s giant wooden doors and stopped near the guards as Captain Chant and his men reached them. The Lord, having been a spoiled child, was used to getting his own way and wanted to see these ‘super ships’ that had arrived in port without the need to use sails.   “Are you the Commander of the strange ships?” the Lord asked Captain Chant, moving close to look the Otter over,” I wish to see your ships, take me to them now.” Captain Chant looked at Commander Gunston and then back at the Tiger before him,” I’m afraid we have business to conduct here before I can do that. I have a message for you from your father the King.” He held out the letter and the lord snatched it away, growing noticeably angry as he read it through, for it contained orders for him to turn over command of every warship he possessed to Captain Chant. While he was fuming, he knew better than to go against his father’s orders,” my ships are under your command Captain.” Chant and Gunston were lead inside the castle by the somewhat defeated Lord who sat down and listened to what the two Officers had in mind for the patrols and, seeing as he was not a naval officer, he conceded to their experience and wisdom in the matter. After a hurried meeting and a ride to the docks in the Lord’s private carriage, Captain Chant and the other men lead the Tiger up the gangway and onto the armoured deck. Captain Chant turned to the Tiger,” welcome aboard the MCFS Kingston, an Ex-USN Fletcher class destroyer coming up to her 60th birthday. There are newer ships in the fleet but the Kingston and the Crusher can handle a few pirate vessels.” While the Captain was showing the Lord throughout the ship, Commander Gunston had taken the navigational charts she had been given to the chartroom to begin locating islands and lagoons along the coast where pirates could hide their vessels and take on supplies. The number of potential hiding places was massive, no less than one hundred locations within two days sailing time of the port. Gunston and two of the naval navigators categorised the thirty most likely locations and began drawing up a search pattern that would cover the most amount of ocean in the shortest possible time. Gunston looked at his watch, ‘the third vessel should be arriving soon’ he thought to himself as he stretched his back and went back to work on the plans. The third vessel, the MCFS Reliant, was a Balao class Diesel Submarine of mid nineteen-forties vintage that had been purchased from the US Navy Mothballed fleet at the same time as the larger vessels of the fleet and had given distinguished service with the USN, the MCF in the South China Sea and now here in another realm. She may have lacked the modern systems on more modern submarines but because she was old she was easier to maintain on the MCF budget.   When Gunston looked up from the map again his watch showed that one and a half hours had passed, and he was due on the bridge in fifteen minutes. He left the navigators to their work and made his way to the bridge. Captain Chant not only had to show the Lord around the ship, but also some of his naval officers from the two Frigates moored nearby. They seemed to find the destroyer to be, in their eyes at least, a waste of metal and technology that could be used to make many cannons with which to defend their empire. Chant was almost relieved when a message transmitted from the Reliant reached the bridge, indicating that she was only minutes away from entering the harbour. The ability to contact a vessel not in sight in real time was the first time that the naval officers saw something they liked on the Kingston. They enquired if such technology could be applied to their own vessels and were greatly disappointed when they were informed that their vessels did not have the power requirements for the communications equipment. Just then Commander Gunston entered the bridge, followed closely by a female Ensign, which caused an outburst from the contemporary officers.   “A woman!?! You take women to sea? A woman’s place is in the kitchen and the bedchamber, not on board a warship, be gone wench before I throw you from here myself!” one of the lieutenants snarled, causing the Ensign to winch at the lashing she was getting. The whole bridge seemed to freeze and all eyes were on Captain Chant and Commander Gunston, for they were known not to take that kind of talk lightly, having thrown people from their vessel for the same thing. Tears began to well up in the young Ensigns eyes as the tongue-lashing continued, the fire slowly starting to rise in both Chant and Gunston’s eyes. “Did you not hear me wench? I’ll help you find your way out!” the Lieutenant snarled as he harshly grabbed the young Ensign’s arm and dragged her towards the rear of the bridge. A handpaw wrapped itself around the captain’s arm. The handpaw belonged to Captain Chant and while the Lieutenant’s attention was fixed on the destroyer’s captain, another handpaw grabbed his other arm, just above the wrist, the pressure for its grip causing him to release the Ensign’s arm. While the Ensign backed away, the Lieutenant struggled against the grip, to no avail. After a few tense moments Captain Chant’s voice filled the bridge. “She is a member of my crew and you will treat her with the respect you would expect to be showed to you on, if you can’t do that, it will be you who is removed from this ship” he growled, the anger and sincerity clearly echoing with the words. The Lieutenant shrank back when he was released and stood quietly beside his captain while Captain Chant and Commander Gunston watched the Ensign flee the bridge in fear. This did nothing to improve the two officer’s mood and the altercation had caused the bridge crew to take a disliking to the Lieutenant, looking forward to the time he and his likeminded officers departed the ship. If it had been up to Commander Gunston, the Lieutenant would have been laid out on the deck already, courtesy of a forty-five, but doing that would have upset the relationship between the two forces. He excused himself and followed the Ensign to her quarters, knocking on the door and gaining permission to enter. He closed the door behind him and he walked over to the bed where the Ensign was sitting in the foetal position. It was known to all her shipmates that she had just returned to work after being raped and beaten by a sexist officer and it was obvious that the Lieutenant that had grabbed her arm had caused all that to come flooding back to her. Gunston tried to look calm but inside he was hurting, having seen his own sister go through the same thing when she was raped while he was on deployment. He had been transferred home from his deployment when the commanding officer heard what had happened and he spent the two months off tracking down those responsible. “Cali, are you ok?” “I’m sorry for my reaction sir” Cali said, the embarrassment showing in her voice,” I shouldn’t have reacted in the way I did.” Gunston shook his head,” it is completely understandable. Had it been me he would have with a broken nose. Listen, I know what you have been through.” He told her about his sister and about how she reacted in the same way. When he had finished he smiled reassuringly,” if you ever need someone to talk to, feel free to contact me. I think you are very brave coming back to work so soon after what happened.” “Thank you Commander, I appreciate it” “No problem, the welfare of those who serve under me is one thing I believe strongly in” He climbed to his feet and exited the room, closing the door behind himself before heading towards the bridge again desperately hoping that the visitors had departed the ship.   As he walked onto the bridge again, his hopes were dashed as he found that the group were still there, watching the bridge crew go about their duties, the Lieutenant scowling at every female who entered.  The other officers held the same beliefs as the Lieutenant but they kept it to themselves, not wanting to look like people not worth protecting.             It was another hour before the group finally departed, save for an ‘observer ‘of the Royal Calian Navy, allowing the two Destroyers to get underway. With the townsfolk looking on, the two ships headed for the harbour mouth, smoke billowing from their funnels. The ‘observer’, a wolf named Crowood, was amazed at the speed the two ships were making and that there was a total absence of the noise he had come to expect from a ship, replaced by a dull thrum of the steam turbine engines.   He stood on the Starboard bridge wing; taking in the way the crew did their work, the unseen forces moving the ship seemed somehow magical. His bright uniform had been of great contrast and had been too inappropriate should a battle ensue. He fidgeted under the armoured vest and the Kevlar helmet which had replaced his hat and long blue coat and he wondered how anyone could wear such uncomfortable pieces of clothing. The Helmet hurt his ears while the armoured vest felt constrictive compared to his coat but he had been given a safety briefing, had seen the magic images they had displayed on a piece of glass and had decided that he would rather be uncomfortable than dead. He couldn’t get over the quality of the optics these people used, a great leap over the telescopes his own people had access to. The weather was staring to get rough and the horizon was blurred as the rain started falling heavily. The deck pitched wildly as the swell increased, almost throwing Crowood from his paws but the destroyer crew didn’t have a problem with the pitching. Rain pelted against the windows, the wipers going at full speed, almost futilely. Visibility had dropped to less than twenty metres but the ships plunged onwards, the waves rolling across the deck and breaking over the forward turret. It was a personal heaven for him to be on a ship that was in a storm and to remain dry, even if it was an uncomfortable ride. As Crowood looked at the wall of rain outside the bridge, a thought crossed his mind,” how do you navigate in this weather? What’s to stop you colliding with another vessel or some island?” The Captain chuckled,” How best to describe it?  You ever heard of the ‘all seeing eye’ of legend? That would be an accurate descrïption of the device we have, it cuts through the rain, sleet or the darkness of night and displays a represented on this screen.” He pointed to the small radar console which was displaying two other dots,” that’s our sister ship, the Crusher, off to our starboard side, the second dot is the MCFS Reliant running awash, lord knows why, maybe the currents are causing her to have trouble maintaining her depth. As amazing as it seemed, the almost magical device seemed believable after the other devices he had witnessed aboard the Kingston since they left port.   Captain Chant could see that Crowood seemed nervous, as did the less experienced crew members, some on their first real deployment. He decided to take their minds off the weather,” Oh, the year was seventeen seventy eight.....” The female officer manning the helm smiled,” HOW I WISH I WAS IN SHERBROOKE NOW!” “A letter of marque come from the king, To the scummiest vessel I'd ever seen,” another crewman at the rear of the bridge sang. The bridge echoed with the sounds of singing as the crew sang Barrett’s Privateers. It had the desired effect; the crew’s minds were taken off the weather. Even Crowood joined in, even if it was just the chorus towards the end of the song. He couldn’t believe that these people would sing on a ship, which was said to be bad luck in ‘his’ navy. The rain had slackened off and visibility had returned to four hundred metres allowing, for the first time, Crowood to get a direct look at the MCFS Reliant. Compared to the two Destroyers, he didn’t think the Reliant looked that dangerous. Her decks were almost completely clear, only four weapons being visible, two mounted on the raised section in the centre of the vessel and one fore and aft of the raised section. She rode low in the water compared to the other two ships but she didn’t seem to be damaged or sinking, so he could only decide that it must have been designed that way. It took a few minutes for the captain to explain what the Reliant’s mission was and how she operated below the surface most of the time. While he only understood about half of what Captain Chant had just told him, he got the feeling that the strange vessel was just as powerful as or more so than the two Destroyers he was riding out the storm on. “Captain Anthony reports he is ready to submerge and begin his mission” one of the Ensigns near the communications console said suddenly. “Tell him ‘good hunting’” Captain Chant replied. “Aye Sir”     Chant turned back to Crowood,” better take a good look at her, you probably won’t see her again for a while.” Crowood stared at the submarine and watched as something he found strange happened. Bubbles formed around the waterline and it took a few moments for him to realise that the Reliant was getting lower in the water,” they’re sinking?” “Nope, they are diving” was the reply. He watched as the main bulk of the Reliant vanished into the sea, her tower vanishing soon afterwards. The only sign that she had ever existed was a rapidly disappearing wake where the boat once was.

 

--Last edited by redtail fox on 2008-08-06 04:59:44 --

Quote :

Castle Digram 1PM Colonel Vulpes stood at the window of his quarters in the castle, staring out over the sea in the distance, watching a storm raging. The Mage had made sure that the storm would not head inland towards the castle but it still caused him grief, for he knew that the Kingston and her battle group were out there in the storm. Earlier in the day he had been informed of how the pirates and the Horde vessels ruled the seaways, posing such a threat that only the bravest or most foolish captains attempted to put to sea. Command of the sea needed to be regained as quickly as possible and even with the two Destroyers and the submarine in the theatre, it would still take time. For this reason, Vulpes had put in a request for the former RAN Light Carrier, the Melbourne, saved from scrapping and refitted, to be transferred to his theatre of operations. The Melbourne was serving alongside the former USN Carrier Kittyhawk, purchased from the USN after their withdrawal from service. Although the Kittyhawk was larger and better equipped than the former Australian carrier, it’s size and usefulness had precluded it’s immediate departure as it was already on deployment alongside the USS Enterprise and it’s taskforce in the pacific, at least one month from base, so the Melbourne would have to suffice. His thoughts were quickly brought back to the present by a knock on the door and he turned towards the door,” enter.” The door swung opened and a young, nervous looking fox entered, glancing around the room before moving right up to Vulpes. The youngster had never seen a Fox in a position of authority before, that was reserved for the Wolves and the Big Cats, foxes were just farmers and servants in this world. “S..sir, His Majesty has ordered me t...to serve you, whatever you need, i..it’s my duty to serve.” Vulpes looked the youngster up and down, taking in the scar on his face, something about this child reminded him of himself. He couldn’t help but notice at how the young kit stared at him,” you haven’t seen too many Foxes as leaders have you?” “n..no sir, the king’s guard refuse to allow Foxes to join, going so far as to kill anyone who opposes them” the kit said, regretting it a few moments later,” I should not have spoke.” “What is said in this room stays in this room” Vulpes said with a smile,” what is your name?” “K..Ky’rn Vultee sir.” Vulpes placed his cap on his head and stood,” I have to inspect the airbase, you want to come along Kyron?” A smile crossed the kit’s face as Vulpes lead him towards the door and the pair headed for the Airbase. On the ‘tarmac’, two dozen Commandos stood ready to climb into their transports, a pair of old PB4Y-2 Privateers, still bristling with .50 cal machine guns and modified for parachute drops, which were running up their engines. The roar of eight 1,200hp Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp radials caused the young kit to hide behind Vulpes as they approached the soldiers, all busy checking their gear and priming their grenades. Captain Balsi, a timber wolf, looked up as Vulpes walked closer. He snapped to attention and saluted,” Attention!” Vulpes returned the salute as the kit peered around his leg at the Commando Captain, fear and awe visible in his eyes. “As you were” Vulpes responded,“ good luck on your mission Captain, I wish you clear skies.” “Thank you Sir” the Captain replied,” my men and I will have those buggers in such disarray that they won’t be able to hold the line. Who’s the Kit Sir?” “This is Ky’rn, he was ordered by the king to be my servant” Vulpes said, placing his paw on the youngster’s shoulder and stepping to one side. After the introductions had been made, the flight crew took Kyron up to the cockpit while Vulpes wished each commando good luck personally.     After fifteen minutes, Ky’rn was lead out and stood beside Vulpes as the commandos boarded their aircraft and stowed their gear. The sound of the two Second World War veterans swinging out onto the runway caused Ky’rn to cover his ears and look away as the back draft from the props kicked up the dust. As the two ex-naval patrol/bombers thundered down the runway, Ky’rn stared in awe as they lifted off the runway and strained for altitude, raising their landing gear and setting a course for their destination, quickly passing out of visual range. Onboard the two Privateers, the commandos checked their equipment again while Captain Balsi read over their orders. Despite the main forces being armed with FN FALs and other fairly modern equipment, the commando unit were authorised to use whatever weapons they preferred to get the job done, so weapons like the AK-47s, AKMs, SKS Carbines and other Soviet era weaponry found favour. In this unit, there was a mixed armament of AKM Assault rifles and SKS Carbines. The different ammunition calibres compared to the main force were not large problem for the logistics as the Commandos were going to be resupplied when they needed it. A red light came on in the modified bomb bay, signalling they were approaching their drop zone ”Hook up” Balsi yelled as he stood up and attached his static line to the wire,” two minutes to DZ.” The troopers clicked their lines onto the wire and moved towards the opening bomb bay doors. The light flicked to green and they jumped, one by one, leaving the aircraft to turn for home. A rough landing and the troops were on the ground, burying their chutes and scanning the tree line for Orcs and other nasties. Once the chutes were buried they began their trek towards their camp zone, an old fortress on a hill, allowing them complete protection from three sides. About halfway home, the two Privateers found themselves being shadowed by small dragons, each no bigger than a World War Two fighter aircraft, staying well outside the range of the aircraft’s defensive guns. Suddenly they dived in, swarming around the aircraft before the gunners could react. Once the defensive guns opened up, the pilots quickly headed for the deck, coming in only a few metres above treetop level so that the dragons could not attack the unarmed underside of the aircraft. Suddenly a gunner chimed over the intercom,” one bandit down!” Rounds went out and more dragons died, yet they were still coming, they wanted the two aircraft downed, no matter what the cost. The lead pilot radioed ahead to the airfield, saying that he was heading in with at least thirty dragons on their tails and their gunners running low on ammo. A cottage lost its thatched roof as one of the tore it off as it passed overhead, it’s occupant rushing outside and staring as the two Privateers thundered away with the dragons still hot on their heels.   Temporary Airfield X-ray The sounds of alarm Klaxons echoed across the base and throughout the nearby Castle, sending the troops scattering for their posts. The castle guards stood by, feeling helpless as the MCF soldiers brought their Russian ZSU-23-4 Shilkas into action, pointing their quad mounted 23mm cannons skyward. Aircraft scrambled and weapons were readied. Vulpes and Ky’rn stood inside the demountable building being used as the Headquarters building, Vulpes with a rifle in his paws. Ky’rn gripped his leg,” I’m afraid!” Vulpes placed his handpaw on the youngster’s shoulder,” They should be the ones who should be afraid.” An evil looking smile crossed his muzzle and he aimed his rifle towards the hills as the dull roar of the Privateers wafted through to them. The mood was tense and all soldiers waited for the chance to get their own back for all the attacks on the cities of their own world.  The drone of the two aircraft became extremely load as the Privateers came across the airfield and all hell broke loose. The dragon’s realised where they were and that they had just been led into an ambush. They broke formation and went after the buildings, parked aircraft, the Castle and the defensive guns, hurling fireballs at their targets. Ky’rn covered his ears as the hell storm of Auto cannon booms, machine gun crackle, rifle cracks and the drone and roar of aircraft mixed with the roars of the dragons that were at that moment attacking the airfield. One dragon fell, it’s wings torn to pieces by the fire from below, another launched a fireball at a parked C-130, causing a massive explosion that reduced the large transport to debris. Even before the upswept tail and wings slammed into the ground, the dragon had launched another fireball at one of the ZSUs, reducing the Shilka to scrap, killing the crew and severely burning the few soldiers using it for cover. The Castle took a direct hit, sending stone tumbling to the ground as one of the towers gave way, taking several of the castle archers with it. Another C-130 brewed up, followed by an AV-8B Harrier, a Huey, a Hind; the grounded aircraft were being decimated. Out of the corner of his eye, Vulpes saw two pilots running for a Huey gunship sitting near the hangers, a sabertooth and a Cheetah, who quickly clambered aboard and quickly ran the engines up. A dragon came in fast and low towards the chopper and was almost on top of it when a missile slammed into the base of its neck.  An AV-8 roared past and the Chopper clamoured airborne. “Feligris to the Harrier hat saved our tails, we owe you a beer” Cayla said into her helmet microphone. “Just make sure you are around for me to collect,” Trablini replied as she dispatched another dragon,” Eagle one out.” Soon the attacking dragons had departed, leaving at least half their number lying dead in the fields surrounding the base. Inside the HQ, Vulpes lowered his rifle and looked at Ky’rn, who was staring at him with a strange look of admiration mixed with fear. What he had witnessed had been the biggest show of force he had ever seen. The airfield was a mess, burning planes and choppers, a burning hanger and debris strewn around the hanger area. Medics ran back and forth, treating the wounded and hauling them off into the castle dungeon where the M.A.S.H unit had been set up. Vulpes surveyed the damage and wondered how they got off so lightly, nothing was destroyed that couldn’t be replaced and the soldiers that were lost, replacements were available. He would write the letters to families later, right now he had a counter-attack to organise.   Airfield X-ray 5:30PM Vulpes stood before a large noticeboard under a camouflaged tent, upon which a blown up photo reconnaissance photograph was displayed.  It showed a castle deep in a forest, surrounded on all sides by swampland. Seated before him was every pilot and flight crewmember who was included in the counter attack. At the front row were Cayla, Kalan and Trablini as well as strike pilots from every unit at the Airfield. “Your target today is this castle, which Intel believes to be the HQ of Lord Birming, Lord Biesty’s right paw Wolf. Taking him out of play would, if nothing else, slow the assault on King Digram’s domain. Unfortunately, as you can see here, the surrounding area is ringed dragon roosting sites. We have seen what those dragons can do so their roosting sites are primary targets, as is the castle itself. Campsites and any other sizable clusters of enemy troops are secondary targets. All relevant target information is in the briefing in front of you, You launch in three hours, Dismissed.” The pilots and aircrews exited the tent and headed to their aircraft to prepare for the upcoming raid. Bombs, missiles and napalm tanks were mounted, fuel tanks filled and drop tanks fitted. The sound of jet engines winding up was intermixed with the reverberating snarl of Radial engines as zero hour approached. Cayla and Kalan looked at their new helicopter that was replacing their Huey, which was damaged in the attack by the dragons and had been patched up enough to limp home through the portal back to home base for repairs. Before them sat an Apache Longbow attack chopper, one of the rare pieces of equipment purchased new by the MCF. Cayla frowned, for although she and Kalan were qualified on the type she had always flown a Huey, Kalan on the other hand appreciated the firepower the new attack helicopter provided them with. Trablini had been scammed in her opinion. The leader of one of the squadrons had been killed, as had his 2IC and 3IC, in the last battle, so she was offered his position and, having never seen this squadron but knowing it was her husband’s old Squadron, she accepted. She was regretting it now, standing before her new aircraft. To her, it was like looking back into a time warp at a piece of family history, like looking at the pictures hanging on the wall of her husband’s study. Her new aircraft was an improved F4U-4B Corsair from the Korean War. Appearances were deceiving though, beneath the engine cowling beat the heart of a much more powerful beast, an engine now producing around 3,200hp. The cockpit was fitted with the most modern avionics and systems. Despite all this, it still looked like the plane her husband had his accident in. Several of the Castle Digram Dragons were gathered on the edge of the airfield, the farmland surrounding the airfield lined with locals and the castle walls were lined with guards, servants and even the King himself, all waiting to see the largest show of destructive capability they had ever seen prepare to take to the air. The order to go came down and the air filled with the whump of rotors, the snarl of radial engines and the high pitched whine of the jets as they took to the air and headed towards their targets. The plan was simple, the attack helicopters would come in low and fast, the Skyraiders and Corsairs would commence rocket and napalm bombing runs from medium altitude as would the AV-8Bs and Hunters. Around the base, the sounds of cheers mixed with the engine sounds as the locals, Dragons and guards yelled their best wishes to the aircraft that were about to strike back against the enemy by hitting a target in the very heart of their territory.   Approaching Castle Birming 9:50pm – 15 minutes out. Cayla and Kalan’s gunship force broke off from the main group, dining into a canyon that ran parallel to the castle and dragon roosting sites. A small village by the canyon mouth was the waypoint and all twelve gunships dove for it. The locals were sent scattering for cover as the metal monstrosities tore overhead, making enough noise to wake the dead. Those still watching saw the gunships vanish into the darkness of the canyon, leaving no doubt where they were going. 9:55pm – 10 minutes out. Trablini glanced at her watch, checking it against the readout in front of her. ‘Here we go’ she thought as she radioed the other aircraft in the flight to follow her. The Corsairs and Skyraiders peeled away and went to tree top level and turning their noses to the North-East, the AV-8Bs and Hunters doing the same except turning their noses to the North-West.   Castle Birming 10:00pm As the timehacks in all cockpits hit 10:00pm, all hell broke loose. The gunships popped up out of the canyon and loosed off a salvo of unguided rockets into the centre tower while simultaneously lacing the tops of the castle walls with HE rounds from the under nose automatic cannon. They held their position while the AV-8Bs dumped a load of Napalm into the castle courtyard and the Hunters opened up on the front of the tower the gunships had already attacked. The gunships broke formation and swung low over the Dragon roosting grounds and succeeded in removing several dragons from the equation before the others began to realise what was happening. As the dragons started to take to the air and the Hunters and AV-8Bs started to run out of ordinance, the reverberating snarl could be heard. Unguided rockets were loosed as the Corsairs thundered over their targets, striking yet more Dragons that were struggling to take off, sending them crashing to the ground. More rockets and Napalm tanks were delivered right to the mouth of an overhang under which the Orcs had made an encampment. The Castle wall took a direct hit, a dragon attempting to take off was downed, Orcs were strafed and buildings burned. Things started to go wrong from then on, more dragons had managed to get airborne and the aircraft had run out of Air-to-ground ordinance, allowing yet more to take off unchallenged and they had a score to settle. Within a few moments, an Apache fell in flames, an AV-8B went down, two Hunters were swatted from the sky, a Skyraider and a Corsair had been reduced to scrap. Every aircraft did whatever it needed to do to survive, the Hunters thundering through the sound barrier and the AV-8Bs turning for home at low level. They reported that they were ‘bingo’ fuel and needed to return to base to refuel and rearm. Only the pilots of the Corsairs, Skyraiders and Apaches had the guts to take whatever they could down. Kalan had to hang on as Cayla threw the Apache into a tight turn and came up behind a dragon, into which Kalan loosed off an Air-to-air missile, sending it spiralling to the ground as the battle raged around them. They had started the assault with twelve Apaches but the number was rapidly dropping. A fireball from another Dragon slammed into the tail of an Apache to their left, the resulting explosion tearing the chopper apart and showering Cayla and Kalan’s Apache with fragments. One had its tail rotor snapped off, one had its cockpit smashed by a tree torn from the ground and thrown by a dragon and another had collided with a dragon head on, sending both to the ground in flames. Trablini was having better luck in her old Corsair. She had already accounted for several Dragons and had assisted on several more. The old Corsair seemed to have come alive and was dancing all across the sky, sending dragons to their doom. A large Dragon with a scar on its hide swooped down before her and snatched a Skyraider from the sky. ‘YOU!’ she thought suddenly as she remembered the dragon she had been forced to let escape at Castle Malasam,’ your ass is MINE!’ A burst of fire from the Fifty Calibre machine guns in the wings tore into the back of the dragon’s head, causing it to go limp and dive, the Corsair following it down and continuing to pump rounds into the beast’s head and neck, making sure it was dead by the time it hit the ground.   She quickly pulled up and only just cleared the wall of the castle, her wingtip smashing into a guard’s face, almost taking his head off, killing him instantly as his nose met the back of his skull. The Skyraiders, being attack aircraft and not particularly suited for Air to air combat, had turned for home, leaving the Apaches and Corsairs to fight it out with the Dragons. Cayla and Kalan’s chopped rolled and dived into the canyon, as did the last of the Apache squadron, now numbering just three. They were followed by three of the last seven dragons, leaving five to face five Corsairs, the others having been destroyed or having run out of ammunition. Quickly the Corsairs formed up in a line and headed straight at the dragons, their fifties running hot and leaving trails of grey-blue smoke from the wings as they tore into the fray. A dragon let loose a fireball which slammed into the corsair on her right, reducing the airframe to debris. A few seconds later the same dragon was spiralling, dead, towards the ground. By the time the two groups met, there were only three Corsairs and two dragons remaining. As they passed, the second Corsair clipped the remaining two dragons and exploded, the impact killing one and the explosion tearing the other to pieces. The radio was still alive with frantic communications from the Apaches and Trablini and the other Corsair pilot skilfully swung dropped their aircraft into the narrow canyon, closing in on the dragons. Cayla couldn’t see the dragons but she could almost sense them as they closed in on the helicopters from behind. The Apache at the rear of the formation exploded in a shower if metal rain before spinning into the closest chopper to it and sent it into a spin, both slamming into the canyon wall and exploding. Suddenly the sound of machine gun fire could be heard and tracers whizzed by above the Apaches. As the two remaining Apaches swung around a tight turn, Kalan looked back to see what was happening behind them. “You are not going o believe this, two Corsairs have followed us in and are pouring lead into the dragons.” “They’ll need some help, I’ve got an idea, hang on!” Cayla replied, suddenly slamming the controls down and flipping the airframe around so it was facing the Dragons. The other Apache had followed suit and they both poured HE shells into the dragons as the Corsairs tore them apart from behind. Only one Dragon made it out of that canyon, heading straight up and away from the aircraft. The Apaches had to dive so that the Corsairs didn’t slam into them and soon both groups were in formation, the Apache’s radar acting as an early warning system for the Corsairs. Neither the Apaches nor the Corsairs had many rounds left and only one Air-to-air missile remained. Not that it worried the pilots; they had flown into hell and lived to tell about it. Finally the Airbase came into sight and they knew they were safe. Once they were on the ground it was found that the Corsairs had 14 rounds left all up and the Apaches had only 29 HE rounds left. The ground crew quickly go started painting little dragon shaped ‘kill’ symbols on the engine cowlings of the Corsairs and on the side of the cockpits of the Apaches while the crews went to be debriefed and then to the Officer’s club for a drink.

Three weeks later

Three weeks had passed since the raid on Castle Birming with no major encounters with the Horde having been reported. There had been small skirmishes between MCF and Orc patrols but on the whole it had been quiet. This time had allowed for the establishment of new bases throughout the Kingdom of Calia to cover routes vital to the horde’s counter attack, which everyone knew was coming.

Calian Boarder
0630 Hours

Two Upgraded MIG-23MF ‘Floggers’ thundered across the sky on their assigned patrol route that would take them over the outskirts of the neighbouring Kingdom of Stukain. The pilot of the lead aircraft looked down at his radar screen and noticed two contacts closing fast off to their starboard side, coming from deep in Stukain territory. Quickly contacting his wingman he radioed in a fast moving contact to the Command centre in Castle Digram and both MIGs turned to face the two incoming bogies.
“Gargoyle Two to Gargoyle One” the wingman said,” We’re being painted by Attack radar.”
“what?” the lead pilot said as he saw the same warning start up in his cockpit,” Dragons don’t have radar, paint them back.”
“Copy that Gargoyle Two”

A few moments after both had painted their targets a positive identification was made by the MIG pilots as the bogies entered visual range.
Gargoyle One swore as he recognised the aircraft and their Roundels,” If there is one thing worse than Dragons, Americans.”
He began broadcasting on all frequencies,” Attention American Aircraft, you are entering Calian Airspace, Squawk IDET Immediately.”
The two US military aircraft cam alongside, allowing themselves to be fully identified as two US Navy F/A-18F Super Hornets armed with full Air-to-Air load out and three drop tanks.
“Gargoyle One to Control.........We are no longer alone......”

Castle Digram
Air Base X-Ray
0900 hours

Colonel Vulpin and King Digram stood at the Castle Windows and watched as the USAF C17 Globemaster III touched down, followed quickly by the two F/A-18Fs that had escorted the transport and it’s passenger  from the US Airbase in the Kingdom of Stukain. Vulpin couldn’t help but notice how out of place the US aircraft looked alongside the collection of combat aircraft operated by the MCF. Even while the Officer was walking from the plane to the jeep Vulpin could tell that he was thinking how outdated and useless the MCF equipment looked compared to ‘his’ modern aircraft.

Within a few minutes the Officer was standing before Vulpin and King Digram who was busy eyeing the differences in the uniforms of the two ‘Future Soldiers’. Vulpin sized the US Officer up and took in the fact that he was only a Major before speaking.
“I am Colonel Vulpin, Commanding Officer of the Multinational Combat Force detachment deployed to this world and this is his Royal Highness King Digram, ruler of this nation.”  
 
The Officer’s reply caught both beings by surprise as the Wolf spoke in a tone of disapproval.
“I know who you the two of you are, I am Major Eden and so, now that the false pleasantries are over, let’s gets down to business.”
Without further words he sat down at the table set up between them and opened his Briefcase, removing his paperwork and spreading it out for Vulpin to see.  
“What is all this” Vulpin asked as he and the king sat down.
“I am here to have you sign over all the ‘In Theatre’ assets under your command over to that of the United States Military.”
Outwardly Vulpin showed the same neutral expression he had shown from the start but inwardly he was seething, he could tell that this was an officer looking to further his own career and he would be damned if he was going to hand over his command to the US military.
“I have no intention of taking my orders from you Major.”

Calian/Stukain Border
0905 Hours

“Unicorn One to Unicorn Two” Rebecca Marriott, the flight leader, radioed to her wingman,” Looks like we have a visitor.”
She gestured straight down and the wingman followed where she was pointing and his eyes went wide in shock for, almost directly ahead and below them, was a large Horde Dragon attacking a small village in Stukain territory.
“Unicorn Lead to Control.....”

A lieutenant rushed through the castle to the meeting room with the message from Unicorn flight in his handpaw. Busting into the room he apologised for the intrusion while at the same time informing Vulpin of the sighting which sent both Vulpin and King Digram running for the Control room in the dungeon. On arrival they immediately began looking at the live video feed being transmitted from the two MIG-23s, via a Grumman E-2 Hawkeye, to the control centre. Upon confirming it was indeed a Horde dragon the two MIGs were given clearance to engage the contact.

“...Roger, making our run now” Unicorn One confirmed as she took her MIG into a steep dive and, upon arrival on the deck, flicked to 23 Mike Mike as the pair made their approach.    

The Woods, Calian/Stukain Border
0910 Hours

James Hanson and several other villagers watched as the Dragon tore their homes apart in complete safety as nothing the locals could muster would have been able to do any damage to the massive scaled monster. Suddenly he heard a strange rumbling noise from in the distance that seemed to be getting louder fast and he turned around to look up the valley to where the sound was emanating.
A glint of what looked like sunlight on glass caught his attention and he pointed this out to the other locals taking refuge in the strand of trees who all stood transfixed as the two metal birdlike creatures thundered overhead without moving their wings and headed straight for the Dragon who seemed to realise that something was heading in and spread its wings in challenge.

Rebecca squeezed her control stick’s gun trigger and loosed of a string of tracers that tore into the Dragon’s wings and the Wingman opened up as well, tearing the Dragon’s wing membrane into little pieces and causing it to roar at the aircraft in pain. As it did so a string of tracers worked their way up the neck and into the head, shredding the brain and killing the Dragon instantly and causing it to topple over sideway and land on an already half destroyed house, crushing it completely.
As they regrouped and started t climb away they saw the surviving locals come out of the woods and look up at the MIGs in what could only be Awe.

Castle Digram
0920 Hours

Colonel Vulpin and King Digram returned to the meeting room and found Major Eden staring out of the windows at a dragon on the airfield conversing with several pilots.
“Stupid creatures should all be shot” Major Eden muttered as he turned to face Vulpin,” that will be the first thing I’m going to change around here once I am in charge.”
“I wouldn’t go making any changes yet Major” Vulpin said, letting the hint of hatred slip into his voice,” because I have no intention of relinquishing command to you.”
“I’d think carefully about that Colonel, I can make your life....” the Major started to say but was cut off by Vulpin.
“Your attitude is counterproductive to the alliance we have formed with the people of this land and I’ll be damned if I am going to allow you to stuff it all up with your arrogant opinions” he said as he motioned to the guard outside the door and within ten minutes the USAF C17 was taking off again taking the Major back to the US base in Stukain.
King Digram turned to face Vulpin as they watched from the window as the big transport and its escorts clambered airborne,” they’re going to give us problems aren’t they?”
“Very much so you Majesty” Vulpin replied as the ground crews brought two MIG-29 Fulcrums out of the hangers and prepared them for their combat mission.