The early afternoon light, as dim as it was, tried to break through the clouds with very little success. At least the snow stopped falling for now, and I am happy for any positive boon coming my way, especially before a battle. I sat in my personal chair aboard the Calot while the bridge was filled with my command staff. Oleg was also present, directing the troops on the ground from this vantage point, while I would be focusing on the battle in the air. I watched as the projection of the eastern borders was displayed on the Imaginary... and how a new, black cloud was drifting towards us.
"The swarm has entered visual range," Kustov announced, knowing full well that I had seen the sa thing, but the protocol was the protocol.
"Estimated two hundred targets. Mixed sizes." Seltana added, standing next to Oleg, who was speaking into his own communicator, relaying orders to the troops on the ground.
"Kustov, give a closer look," I spoke, watching as the Imaginary zood in on the approaching monsters.
Through the magnified view, I could see the winged bastards moving in a disorganized mass, though the chaos felt deceptive, and I knew that. They weren’t flying blind, or there would be multiple collisions inside that ss, but there wasn't. Not one. The larger 'birds,' easily the size of the sa truck that sent here, held the upper layers of the swarm. Maybe they were the commanding variants, as my ship was also perched high up in the air, organizing our defenses. Below them were the bulk of the swarm, made of dium-scaled, in my estimation, horse-sized beasts with a bit thinner, leathery wings than their bigger variants. They also had more pronounced, ridge-like spines and a thinner, eel-like body. Their sharp talons that hooked under their bodies like scythes looked dangerous, but I wasn't sure they would be able to rip through the Calot's hull. As for the planes... There was a certain danger if they got to claw at them, yes. Moving my eyes downward, beneath the horde were circling the smallest of the pack, no bigger than large dogs at best, but they were quick and twitchy, moving in tight, zig-zag lines like hummingbirds.
Their approach was steady, seemingly silent at first, but then the tremble of the air reached us, created by the flapping of hundreds of wings. It was a growing resonance, like the rumble of a waterfall distorted through the wind of a coming storm. It made the hair on my hand rise a little.
"Hold until range markers light the targets," Oleg ordered, his voice hard enough for to hear, even though he wasn't shouting yet. Sitting there, Luna stood to my right and Mikan to my left, both watching the sa feed while Sasha was down in engineering, making sure the Calot's core and magic were functioning at their best possible capabilities.
"Cannons are hot," Seltana reported, receiving calls from the ground, one hand resting on the console before her, displaying the ground artillery coordination. "Airburst fuses set to detonate at the middle of their altitude."
I was surprised she picked up on the terms and weapons we had in our arsenal so quickly, but according to Oleg's constant reports, she was a natural. She was serious and quick and had unique ideas that she dared to share after realizing Oleg was open to implenting them. Suddenly, I wanted to thank the Khulmans for sending such gifts, as Lucca reported sothing similar. In the Markothian Pass, Rashira was also proving herself to be useful. She wasn't as well-versed in tactics as her sibling, but she demonstrated a splendid understanding of how to effectively implent our cannons and artillery. Lucca even gave her a chance at coordinating a barrage a day or two ago.
But... I had to focus on the present.
Below us, the fields of modified howitzers and cannon encampnts erupted in a sequential order. The spells were altered in a way that they either split after a few seconds, like a cluster bomb, creating smaller, eight-threaded fireballs, or they stayed the sa until it was ti to explode. Then, they would result in a violent burst, burning away oxygen and creating a shockwave that could knock the bastards out of the sky. The latter didn't need a direct hit... but its range was minimal compared to what we were accustod to, firing at targets that were not even visible at a distance.
Still... it was a show to behold. The explosions were like loud pops from our positions, but the effect was imdiately visible in the Imaginary. A handful of monsters were blown apart in midair by the first salvo, as they didn't know what to expect. We watched as dozens of smoke trails streaked the sky, and the swarm scattered in reflex around the spots they were hit. But... They didn't break formation. Instead, they adapted.
"They’re widening their shape," Seltana observed, watching the sa image as the cannons kept firing, "Typical flocking behavior... They are trying to minimize impact per square ter."
"It is within what we expected as a reaction," Oleg responded, raising his communicator, "Use compensation pattern delta."
"Acknowledged, shifting firing pattern," echoed the ground troops' response.
Below, in under ten seconds, the sequence of fire changed at once. Instead of wide-spreading fire, the flak focused in a kind of bracketing bursts, trying to herd the swarm rather than break it apart. We were trying to prevent them from becoming wide and thin by firing at their sides and keeping them in a tight formation so our cluster spell could do the most damage. As a result, more bodies dropped from them. So monsters burned or had their wings clipped by the explosions, spiraling down into the snowfields, while others plumted like falling stones, vanishing in distant puffs of white after impact. They may still live after landing, but cleaning up will have to wait until we are finished with them.
This may take so ti as they kept pushing.
"They are getting close..." Luna whispered, making nod.
"Send in the first wave," I ordered, which was imdiately repeated.
"Fighter wings launching," Kustov reported, "All squadrons airborne. Eagle's Nest reports full deploynt."
"Reaction!" Seltana called out imdiately, "They split up and are heading straight at us at full speed!"
Oh... it was on. Through the projection, we watched our planes go full-throttle, heading straight towards the swarm, just as the monsters themselves threw their numbers at us. When the first wave of my planes got close enough, we saw a bright tracer fire lancing into the enemy ranks. Monsters burst into a bloody ss while the others around them twisted away, surprised that their enemy birds weren't even at clawing or biting range, yet still managed to hurt them. Good... they are not able to communicate telepathically, so nobody relayed the way the pursuing ones died a few days ago.
I watched one of our pilots pull a tight corkscrew, evading a pair of the smaller creatures before spinning into a snapshot that tore three in one salvo open from throat to tail. Another of the sa group as him, doing his best to keep up with his wingman, clipped a mid-sized monster with its wingtip as the swarm tried to close in on them, blocking their escape vector. It caused him to spiral into an ergency dive while another squadmate did his best to cover him, diving, shooting those bastards that also dived after his 'injured' aircraft. We watched as the pilot managed to jump out right before the plane crashed into the forest below... Well, it was the first loss, but I knew it wouldn't be the last. War is war, after all.
"Keep ground artillery firing at their backs where they are still clear of our fighters," I said. "We can’t afford friendly fire. Tell the Rook to aim at the big ones at the highest altitude!"
"Roger," Oleg nodded, and the mont later, Polo's ch, with the massive cannons on its shoulders and both arms, began spewing fire at last.
His spells aid to fly almost straight up before coming back down, landing on top of the swarm with bright, beautiful explosions. For a few heartbeats, as I gazed at the arranged chaos, the sky seed like sothing out of my old life when I was at the frontlines... fire, blood, oil, torn-off wings, and smoke. I could almost taste it.
Still... Their numbers were... a lot... And so of them ditched the dogfighting and decided to head straight at us and the Eagle's Nest.
"Impact on the topmost deck!" one of the officers called after a dull thud rang through the Calot.
"Breach?" Kustov asked with a clipped voice.
"Negative," ca the answer after a second or so, "External contact only... But so creatures landed on the top of the ship."
"Deploy the internal teams," I ordered. "Make sure none has the ti to claw its way inside."
Up on the top of the ships, both on the Calot and the Eagle's Nest, my soldiers were already moving, climbing out from the service hatches, surprising the dumb bastards, and cutting them down like how small fishes clean the body of a shark.
"More breaking through," Seltana warned, watching the change in the shrinking swarm. "Here co the small ones!"
"Fast..." Mikan grimaced, "They are slipping under the dogfight and cannon fire."
"Track them," I ordered, and Oleg was already issuing orders.
Half of the Imaginary shifted the view at once. Several clusters of the quick, dog-sized creatures dived down and then skimd low across the snowy plain, moving at dangerous speed. It seed they were almost too fast for their own good, as so crashed into our cannon and howitzer encampnts, flipping them over while dying in the process. Damned kamikaze bastards! However, they didn't really mind, as those who made it through kept moving forward. So idiots even hit the outer walls of Markoth and were turned into a at-paste. However, the slower ones got the mo and managed to soar straight over the walls, arcing toward the city streets.
"Report," I ordered, and Pion's voice ca through the comms built into my chair.
"Engaging now," he said clearly and without panic. "Intercept squads ready and deployed!"
From above, we watched my soldiers take the beast head-on. Like practiced executioners, they were in both the alleyways and on rooftops, their weapons blazing with power. The mont the flying creatures descended low enough, a wall of elental weapons, including lightning, ice, and fire, t them. The first wave died before they reached the inner city. Then, from the second wave, a few managed to get through. No matter... they were also t by sword, spear, or the edge of an axe the mont they ca into range.
I saw as they tried to grab onto my people, trying to lift them up like a bird adept at fishing. But their talons t with armor made of massive beasts' scales, not sothing they could cut through, at least, not with one go. So, their rewards were my soldiers grabbing onto them, pulling, hacking, and whacking them like mad berserkers.
As they realized it was futile to try it that way, they began circling around the city... which was then t by the Princess's salvo. Yuri was stationed in the city, this ti equipped with the sa modified cannons, hitting them with airburst spells, forcing them to land back right in the at grinder.
By then, the fight had stretched across the entire sky. We lost five more planes, their wings sheared by the bastards. Ground teams were keeping up the fire, so groups even spreading out, providing alluring targets to drag them down from the sky, many tis working too. They never flew back up.
We were winning, of course... The enemy was visibly thinning out.
"They’re losing montum," Seltana said after a few long minutes, her eyes moving rapidly between battlelines. "Their wings are folding inward," she added, furrowing her brows. "They’re going to retreat; I had seen the sa behavior on the hawks yli was keeping back ho!"
I exhaled slowly.
"No, they won't," I said. "Tell the Eagle's nest to follow us and prepare for pursuit!"
"Yes, Sovereign!" Kustov nodded, relaying my orders.
True enough, after a minute or so, the remaining birds, whittled down to a hundred or so by my estimation, began turning and flying away. By then, my Calot, followed by the Eagle's Nest, flew after them, and it was ti for our cannons to open fire. Both magical... and physical.
"Leave none alive." I said right before the first salvo's thundering echo rang through my ship, "I want each and every one of those bastards to crash to the snow either in pieces or as a charred corpse."
Reviews
All reviews (0)