Mum and dad were yet to arrive home, as usual since they worked a lot at the naval air base near the metropolis. I was left home from early in the morning to late in the evening. Vista Metropolis was massive as in the name, an industrial city mostly where armour and weapons were manufactured for our military here in the continent, Vindstormur. As of right now there was a war going on, the usual assassination of Eldur-stormur's Trinity General, he was full on out fascist/communist kind of thing, starved his people and had crazy ideals that dragons like me, the supermaneuverable, were the superior breed. I often laughed at that, but hearing the news from mum and dad and also along our network lines(rather known as Hyperdrive). It was a type of system commonly used in another world(they called it Earth), to them it was just called "Wifi" or "Internet", see how advanced we'd become?
From stories that my grandfather told me is that we were the superior breed, and that we left the other dragon world to settle in a new world, of course at the cost of a few lives but I knew life was good. I could be like the peasants that the dragons in the other world used, servants to "Queens" and all that weird stuff. I guess we were the most unique in a way, we traveled mach speeds, fast through the air, had other forms of transportation like helicopters and large aircraft. Most of the time we chose to fly but for Rangers(basically an infantryman/woman) they were all in close quarters so they often used large military helos.
I wasn't anything special other than a Vista naval air cadet, and of course daughter of two colonels but still it didn't change much. But I loved being in a civilian area, I had a few friends who went to the Vista Central Academy with me, all of us in higher grades. One was Strike, he was a Lockheedwing, a type of Aviationwing sub-breed, and the kind that was supermaneuverable like myself, then there's Razor, she was like mum, a Grummanwing, but Razor was pure black. A lot of dragons were skeptic about her, sharing similarities with Garmr, an old animus who was male and looked exactly like her. Pure black with a red stripe from neck to tail on each side, awkward as she was tall and skinny. But she took that to her advantage, fast in flying class and constantly she would beat a lot of the popular dragonets, landing with a smirk on her face and bright yellow eyes thirsting for more.
Strike was just plain grey, nothing special about him. He was averaged height, strong too, during combat training he was very good at it. As you can already tell, we Aviationwings are a very militaristic tribe, war games between schools were the funnest. Where parts of abandoned cities were shut down so we could hone our skills against other high schools, junior highs and we also got to teach the elementary school dragonets. For them it was mostly formation and marching along with battle tactics(military arts as I liked to call it). I had been up in my room, battle spear in my hand that was made out of an alloy, jabbing it around at invisible enemies before a knock on my downstairs front door went through the whole quiet house.
I bolted down the stairwell, almost tripping before opening it to see Strike and Razor there, panting.
"We need to leave, now," Strike hissed, yellow eyes scanning the sky repeatedly.
"Why?" I asked.
Razor looked at me then at the distant air base that looked like it was on fire...wait...IT WAS ON FIRE. The sky around us looked dark too, and I quickly rushed inside to find my sling for the spear, praying I wouldn't need to fight. The two followed me as I searched around my room for it, finally grabbing it and clipping it into the parts that were used to keep the kevlar sling in place. Razor was outside first, running down the street with me and Strike following fast.
"What the Hell happened?" I asked, looking at the face of the determined dragoness.
"Eldur-stormur troops attacked, they have a new leader too. He's the son of General Hover." Razor explained. "Weird fascist like his father."
"Meaning you and I, Sukhoi, are in a lot of danger," Strike told me.
I didn't know how to reply, other than nod as we got to the Central Academy, not stopping for a breather to get to the gymnasium was quick as possible. There I could see a lot of the cadets from my squadron here, and I went towards them with my two friends who watched as all of us stood in immediate formation before our officer. Beside me I saw Corporal Winchester, he looked surprised to see me and nudged me with his dark grey wing.
"Never thought I'd see the colonel's daughter here," He said, winking at me before looking forward again.
The whole gym was out of order, chaos. I could barely hear what he was saying, and then he spoke my name and rank Flight Corporal Sukhoi.
"I didn't hear Sir," I said, it was terrible and unusual of me but the high stress situation was freaking me out.
"You will be leading the whole school out of the city to one of the Forward Operating Air Stations," He told me in an irritated and strict tone.
I nodded, properly moving out to the front and up to the stadium where my commanding officer stood, then shouted in a loud voice all around the gym "ALL RIGHT LISTEN UP!" He looked at me and I took a breath, spotting the popular dragoness' looking at me with hope, ha funny they hated me.
"Alright," I said. "I will be the one leading you out of the city, follow the cadets if you ever get lost, they know the evacuation procedures. We will land at the nearest Forward Operating Air Station, do expect them to be conducting-" I was cut off by a loud boom overhead and I ducked, watching the roof shake and a few tiles fall. I bit my tongue to taste blood. "-operations. Follow me, now!"
I took to the air, Strike and Razor were on my wings, the rest of the cadets followed and my officer ushered the other dragonets to follow me through a now burning city. I gasped, watching armoured dragons fly tooth and claw, bombs being dropped from their talons. I knew it was the Eldur-stormur dragons doing this bombing, and I looked back to see my squadron with their spears ready, flying in a large V formation, the entire school was protected by these dragons. Razor and Strike had gotten their own spears, clutching them like their lives depended on it.
I looked around, hoping to spot my parents in the fight but I hadn't; worry went through me but as a cadet I was supposed to stay strong and calm in a situation like this. I saw a dragon bolt over us, supersonic speed to jab one of our own with his talons, ripping the dragon's throat open as he'd tried to get him. I yelped, flying faster to get my spear into the enemy dragon's armour, listening to him scream as he stared wide eyed at me. It was often that dragons of my kind with flashy colours were special. I lifted the spear up, dove under him as one of the cadets quickly took my position, it was Winchester.
I watched the enemy dragon fall, trying to regain balance but from shock he couldn't. I sped after the flight, quickly gaining in command again, dismissing Winchester back to his position, but he disobeyed my order. He stayed by my side, shouting over the airstrike alarms and guns that were blazing, I heard them battling in the streets. Rangers were specially trained to stand bipedal to use those weapons, or necks were short enough to allow for it.
"Ain't this scary? Like that Wings of Fire Zero: The Nightwing War!" He shouted, it was a game that we played, we played as a hybrid mercenary known as Cypher, and his wingwoman Pixie, a Rainwing with a mechanical wing. "That Nightwing castle bombing!"
"Yeah, 'AWACs, what's our mission? Our mission...what is our mission?'" I quoted, remembering her heartbroken voice.
This was war though, there was no time for this in war. I dove down, forgetting those dragonets were even there until I heard their shouts and screams. I turned back, allowing fire to travel up my chest and come up in a burst of fire at armoured soldiers. It was proven that supermaneuverable Aviationwings had the hottest fire, able to burn through steel which is what it was exactly doing, melting the metal and fusing to their scales. They screeched through their helmets.
"Come and fight me you fascist bastards!" I roared at them, getting ready with my spear to stab them with.
One of them, although on fire, threw himself at me, and I raked my talons on the straps for the flight gear on his underbelly. It felt weird, feeling the blood come down onto your talons, dripping onto whatever was below me. I tore my bloodied talons out of his belly, watching his eyes go wide and I looked away. I knew all I would see were insides, falling out as the dragon was knocked from the air. I only had a split second to react, but a dark dragon soared above me, my father, spear in hand as he went for another dragon. I wanted to fight by his side but his green eyes told me to go, to leave him behind.
Silently I obeyed, watching him take on the burning dragons and rejoining the dogfight above us. I shook my talons a little, still leading the formation through the city, soaring between skyscrapers made of alloy, expertly carved. They glittered in the sunlight, although that sunlight was shrouded by dark clouds, billowing up from the burning buildings. I look to my left and see the seashore factory touched, it was burning, fire-everything around me was on fire. I felt scared suddenly, trying to fly faster, hopefully supersonic, but that didn't happen with Winchester's grey talons digging into my scruff, keeping me in formation.
I gave up then, flying slowly enough for everyone to keep in formation. My heart beats fast with fear, my eyes scanned the area around me many more times. I can feel the heat on my bright blue scales, glimmering like the sky on a cloudless day. My wings, pulled back at about thirty degrees, allowing for more streamline flight. Everything feels so quiet as I glide through the air. My wings never tire, well they did, but it was rare, due to our fast speeds we covered much more land. I look at Strike and Razor, both look at me then down at my talons as explosions fire off in the buildings. I see dragons in black armour soar above us, clashing with our own dragons. Our commanding officer dives down, leading us through the lower parts of the city. I never realized that he'd been in front of me.
I looked back, spotting that the cadets had made a perfect circle around them all, but some had gone missing, a few cadets out of formation and a few civilians gone. They had died obviously, and by then I realized that this-this was war. This was what it felt like to be helpless, to not be able to defend everyone. I felt a tear come from my eyes, down my maw. A part of me didn't want to see this any longer, this war, was it truly worth it? I had to keep my gaze forward before I crashed into something. He had finally lead us out of the city, still burning. Before us, it looked peaceful, not touched by war but I knew war would come to claim these regions too. This was almost a total world war, and I was in the middle of it.
We landed by a stream, to which I decided to wash myself off in. I barely realized the soot in my scales, making them much more darker than they usually were. I watch the ashes and blood flow away into the water, then I stare at my officer.
"I saw it," He acknowledged the blood washing from my claw.
He was grey with a tint of blue to his scales, sleek like a bullet. I nodded, looking at the water in shame. I saw my horns in it, dark navy, my spines were the same and a little red from the plated scales I had. I was like a Skywing, just with my rudders making me much more agile. I looked up at him.
"Where will we go now?" I asked, sitting in the water to clean off my spear.
"We? You are leading now. I have to stay back and fight with our forces. I want you to go to the Vindstormur Astroelevator, go to the Old World, you speak their language, remember?" He told me.
I nodded, looking back at the remaining dragonets. There was no need for me to smile, this was a serious situation in which I would need to lead them through to the operating base at least fifteen miles or so out. I watched him take to the air, and then I saw their looks. Even the popular ones seemed terrified, looking at me like as if I were some leader. I sighed, walking over into the clearing. I didn't know how to catch their attention, really.
I rose my wings, watching them all look at me. "Today we start a journey to the forward operating base, today Strike, Razor, and Winchester, the four of us take ourselves on a true military grade mission to the Old World."
"Today, let this be the start of a resistance against these fowl dragons who claim themselves to be the superior race!" I announced pridefully.