Battle of the Rainforest (Part 1)
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As the Colonel sat in an armored car, he screamed furiously as the Russian bombers flew overhead. "I'LL GET YOU ONE DAY!" he swore.
But this day was not the day. With his nearly demolished ground force, and completely demolished air force, he had little choices to choose. "RETREAT!" he ordered!
His Lieutenant lifted his head out of his hands. "Sir, where shall we retreat?" he asked, his tone not betraying his looming sense of fear as the Imperial units continued to dominate the battle.
The Colonel quickly turned his head towards a large collection of massive mountains. "Over there!"He pointed to the mountain range.
"Brilliant, sir!" the Lieutenant remarked. The Lieutenant then looked up to the sky, pondering. "But the air forces could crush us under the mountain, sir!"
Oops. The Colonel hadn't thought of that. "Just try it!" he commanded.
"Alright sir." the Lieutenant said half-heartedly. "Men, prepare to fall back in the mountains!" he yelled. "With no air cover." he thought.
As the remaining M1A2s and Armored Cars drove towards the mountains, an Imperial Union pilot spotted them.
"They're getting away!" yelled the pilot.
The other crew members craned their necks over to look. "You're right, there they are!" one said.
"Let's bomb them!" said another.
"Or, we could fire at them with our 23mm turret." the navigator said. "I've been dying to try out the remote-controlled tail gun."
All of the other crew members turned to look at him. "Are you serious? Show some respect, even to your enemy." piped up a member.
"What are you talking about?!" the navigator yelled back. "It takes SKILL to operate a tail gun!"
"I don't agree. By the way, the tail gun can't even point downwards, and it's going to be removed soon." said another.
The navigator frowned at them. "Fine, let's bomb them. But tell the commander first, see what he thinks."
~~~~Diamond Spray Delta, Imperial Camp~~~~
"Sir, I'm receiving a transmission from one of our bombers." said a soldier.
"Alright, pick up." responded the Grand Commander. "Tell them I don't have time for nonsense." he added.
"I'll do it, sir." The soldier picked up. "The Commander says he doesn't have time for nonsense, so speed it up!"
Meanwhile, behind the soldier, the Commander face-palmed, but that's not important.
"We found the last of the enemy. We're asking what the Commander would like to do next." said the navigator.
"Sir, the crew would like to ask if you would like to do anything about the remaining enemy troopers, because they found them." the soldier said.
The Commander raised his eyebrow. "Alright then, tell the Tu-95 bombers to go back to the Russian base until we have enough space for them. We started construction of the airfield, affirmative? Meanwhile, send 50 armored cars to defeat the rest of the forces."
"Uh, sir?" the soldier asked. "The enemy are retreating into a mountain pass, our numbers will amount to nothing. And we haven't started construction of our airfield yet, but will soon."
The Commander furrowed his eyebrows. "Very well, just tell that Tu-95 to blow them out, and then tell them to head back to the airbase in the Russia."
"Very well, sir." The soldier lifted the radio. "You have orders to bomb out the enemy forces, and tell the others to head back to the Russian base. That includes you."
In the Tu-95, the pilot grinned. "They'll be gone and we'll be gone, all before you know it."
"You better be." The soldier shut down the radio. "The orders are in."
The Commander looked up into the ceiling. "I wonder what happened to the dragon we caught earlier."
~~~~Winding Tail River, 3 hours later~~~~
Glory blinked her eyes open. "How long have I been asleep?!" she scolded herself. She looked around. One scavenger with a bright white cloth draped over it had released the gray blob, or whatever it was that was holding her down. It had its tiny paws over her mouth, opening her jaws wide and studying her teeth. "Is the thing crazy?" she thought. "OK, THIS IS REALLY IS GETTING ON MY NERVES." She suddenly unhinged her jaw, and spat venom all over the scavenger. The scavenger started screaming and fell to the floor, and the screams didn't last long.
Soon, other scavengers bustled over to check on the commotion and they started screaming too. She smirked. "Ha," she thought. "And you really think that I'm harmless? Well, who's harmless now?" After that horror scene, a scavenger ran over to a box and screamed some things into it. She raised her eyebrow, wondering what good yelling in a box was.
Then the doors burst open, with more scavengers holding black stick-shapes. They looked around, almost as if they were looking for something, and yelled a few things. They surrounded her and pointed their stick-shapes at her. "Is that a weapon?" she wondered. "Well, two can play that game. Or six for that matter, anyway." Glory stood up and opened her jaw, spitting venom around her. The scavengers held up some type of opaque shield, and blocked her venom. "Uh oh..." she worried.
Suddenly, a night-black dragon burst into the room.
"DEATHBRINGER!" her mind yelled. "DEATHBRINGER!" she yelled. "What are you doing here!?" she asked furiously. She frowned. Not really what you yell at someone who is trying to save you.
He opened his mouth, and flames poured out onto the scavengers, setting them on fire and sending them scrambling. Two more RainWings materialized out of thin air and shot darts around. However, the darts seemed to bounce off the cloth the scavengers were wearing. One scavenger lifted his weapon and flames erupted from the end of the stick.
The RainWings collapsed on the ground, and Glory could guess what had wounded them from the moment she was captured. They were clutching their bodies, and one immediately rolled his eyes back into his head. Blood spouted from the other's mouth, and Glory took in the horrifying sight of innocent RainWings being killed right in front of her. The other RainWing collapsed on the floor, with his wing draped over himself like a cloth draped over a corpse. A single tear rolled down her cheek as she opened her mouth, spitting venom on the scavenger who fired upon her dragons.She quickly ran over to the RainWing, and stroked his neck as he coughed, blood continuously spouting out of his mouth.
One of his eyes peered at her, half closed. His chest rose and fell, and Glory grabbed his talon. He closed his eyes for the last time. She suddenly widened her eyes as a purple dragon landed down into the room.
"MANGROVE?" she yelled. There Mangrove stood, right in front of her. "When did you come here?"
Mangrove puffed his chest proudly. "I followed Deathbringer out here." He then looked down to his fallen comrades and his voiced cracked as he continued. "I told Deathbringer about where you went. Turns out it was a good idea."
Suddenly, a massive rumble wracked the sky as massive metal birds flew over. The scavengers were here.
~~~~Tu-95 Squadron~~~~
The Tu-95s flew over the landscape, and the navigator from before looked down onto the ground. After bombing the enemy, they had orders to return back to the Russian base they came from. He didn't like that.
"Jim?" asked the pilot. "You've been awfully quiet this whole ride. Is something bothering you?"
Jim lifted his head slowly. "Just thinking about something." he answered. He paused, and then continued, "Why do we have to listen to our commanders?"
The pilot only shrugged. "It beats me. I don't personally know, but I do know that for some reason people naturally strive to be, I don't know, governed. I'm guessing it's probably because we're lazy. Now stop thinking these treasonous thoughts and get back to navigating."
Jim went back to staring out the window, and also went back to thinking, this time about what his comrade said. "Maybe it's because we're taught to do so. But what if we could change the education system? What if... we were taught differently? Taught to decide for ourselves what we want to do with our lives, instead of paying taxes and getting it wasted on things you don't want?" He then looked at the moon, which was glowing brightly and majestically, almost as if it was the holy night. It was almost as if there were three moons, almost as if it were the gods looking down at him, waiting for him to say his prayers. "I pray, I wish and I hope to see my family again."
Suddenly, someone yelled something in the plane, something he didn't quite catch. He heard, "THE DRAGONS ARE UNDERNEATH US!"
~~~~Diamond Spray Delta, Imperial Camp~~~~
"SIR, THE DRAGON HAS BROKEN OUT! OUR BASE HAS BEEN ATTACKED!" screamed the crew member through the Emergency Line.
"Whoa, whoa, calm down." the operator said smoothly, attempting to calm the crew member. Apparently, it didn't work.
"GET ME TO THE COMMANDER IMMEDIATELY!" he pressured.
"Uh, the Commander is on his way to inspect your base right now." the operator said worriedly.
"WHAT?!" yelled another member. "MOVE IT!" A shove followed. "HOW MANY REINFORCEMENTS DID HE BRING?!"
The operator, unsure whether to answer, said, "The Commander brought about 50 armored trucks, just in case of an ambush."
A sigh of relief could be heard over the radio, before the other crew member, shoved over before, shoved the other away from the radio. "That's great," was all the operator could hear before the radio cut out.
~~~~Winding Tail River, 5 hours later~~~~
Glory had a restless sleep. First, she dreamed of the poor dragons killed in the evening chasing her down through endless jungles, filled with scavengers hiding in the trees, with all of them using their little black sticks, and she would be watching RainWings die from the scavengers and then they would join the ones killed in real life and join them in their quest to catch her. After that, she dreamed of her friends getting their heads placed on wooden structures, and watching, she being unable to move, a massive piece of metal, gleaming sharp, drop on her friends' necks and every head that dropped on the floor sprayed blood everywhere, and a million screams' choir ringed through her ears, and the worst was the slow motion. The horrid scene all happened in slow motion, and it all happened while she watched, paralyzed, unable to take her gaze away.
She quickly opened her eyes. She was still on the bed-like structure the scavengers had placed her on to stare at her teeth, or whatever they were doing. The structure was surprisingly soft, like moss, and hard, like a rock ledge. It was massaging to her back.
And then she stood up and landed on the ground. And she saw those bodies again, lying on the ground. She remembered holding that RainWing's talon before he died. The massive metal birds were long gone, and she was thinking nothing was going to happen to her now. But Deathbringer had insisted on calling the RainWing army to defend her, at least until he figured why the scavengers had brought her here, with the help of her friends. That would mean her poor friends who tried to help her during her strange breakdown. That would mean Tsunami. She suddenly felt a stab of guilt that was strangely familiar. She shrugged. She would apologize to her friends later, when they arrived. There was plenty of time, and they were safe in the protection of the RainWing army anyway. That could wait.
Suddenly, a massive rumble came from the North. "Come on, not again!" Glory thought. This time thought, those massive box-things she saw when she first was captured appeared. And as they came, she saw at least 20 more behind it. "Uh oh," Glory worried. "I have my entire army here." Glory widened her eyes.
"IT'S AN AMBUSH!"