Chapter Twenty-One: Sealing Up
USAS Patton
Hangar Bay
Several Minutes Later
Vasili and the other post-human Gronckles were the last members of the 502nd to enter the hangar bay before it's shielded blast doors were shut and sealed
"Is everybody here?!" Barnes shouted to everybody over the radio of his translation collar
"I think so Barnes!" Vasili replied as Ramirez, Carmen, Newell, Louis, and the New Guy dismounted from their F-45s after taxiing them to their designated areas as Barnes sighed in relief
"Now what?!" Jones asked him
"We sit here and wait and hope that reinforcements get here before Rome and Blackwater figure out how to get in here." He replied
"We're going to go check on Henderson." Hiccup said to Barnes, who nodded
Hiccup and the other dragon riders left while outside the Patton, Reaper's Megathon slowly backed up onto the loading ramp into the Patton's vehicle bay while the airship's shield generator protected them from the fire of the attacking Blackwater and Roman forces as Reaper unbuttoned his hatch
"Lift up this damn ramp before they get here!" Reaper shouted to the APM Shocktrooper standing at the control panel at the ramp after his Megathon was safely inside as he pushed up the switch that made the ramp lift up
"Did everybody make it inside?!" Reaper asked him as he looked at the wounded and tired Marines and Vikings inside the vehicle bay before him
"Yes sir." He replied, "And all other entrances have been sealed, there is no way anything or anybody can get in or out of here."
"Good, get all these people the aid they need." Reaper said to him
"We'll do our best, but we're running low on medical supplies due to the overwhelming number of casualties." He replied
"Just do what you can then." Reaper replied while elsewhere in the Patton, Hiccup and the other dragon riders were entering the Medical Bay as Ward and Jasmine hooked up a wounded Viking to a IV
"That's all we can do for you for now since both of the operating rooms are taken." Ward said to the Viking as Jasmine noticed Hiccup and the dragon riders trying to making their way to them
"I guess you guys are here to see Henderson?" Jasmine asked them and Hiccup nodded, "Well he's in the big room in the back in one of those acceleration tanks or whatever they call em' and he's not looking so great right."
"Just on the outside or...?" Astrid asked her
"He's fine, but the transformation has been going a lot faster than I expected it would, Gene Corp must have upgraded their nanites again." She replied, "I would not be surprised at all if he wakes up with the next 24 hours at the current rate."
"That fast?" Snotlout asked her and Ward nodded
"They've gotten pretty damn good at it that's for sure." She said, "After he wakes up I'll get a blood sample and send it to Area 51 for analysis once we get everything sorted out."
"Where are the others?" Hiccup asked Jasmine
"They're in there with him, I would be in there with them, but they me needed out here." She replied, "If you guys want to go check on him, go right ahead."
"Thanks." Hiccup said before he and the Other Riders moved on
"Come on Corporal, we have a lot of work to do." Ward said to Jasmine as they quickly moved to their next patient
Isle of Berk
Roman and Blackwater Base Camp
With their fleet utterly destroyed along with most of their supplies, the Roman and Blackwater forces were struggling to regroup as General Atticus tried to take hold of the situation
"What is the status of the Coalition forces?" Atticus asked the Blackwater Officer who had been leading the attack on the Coalition positions
"They have fallen back to the American airship and sealed themselves inside." He replied
"Have you made any attempts to breach it?" Atticus asked him
"We have, but it's CIWS batteries have been shooting down everything we've been launching at it and anything that gets past them doesn't make it through the shields and on top of that I doubt that anything we have is going to punch a hole in it's armor anyway." He replied, "If we had the time too, I would say just wait until they run out of supplies, but we don't have the time because their other forces are no doubly closing in on us."
"That thing has to have some kind of weak spot! Are you sure you've tried everything?!" Atticus asked him
"Well if it was in the sky, we could just take out it's engines after we wore down it's shields and destroyed the CIWS batteries, but it isn't flying." He replied, "The only thing that might be able to affect it is an EMP weapon which would only succeed in knocking out it's shields and CIWS batteries, leaving us with the problem of having to breach it's hull and we don't have any EMP weapons."
"What about Casca and his men?!" Atticus asked
"They aren't going to be close enough to that thing without being torn to shreds by the CIWS batteries." The Blackwater Officer replied, "Sir, we should not waste any time with that damn thing, we've got bigger problems like preparing for the Coalition's counter-attack!"
Atticus took a deep breath
"You're right..." He said to the Officer, "We'll pull our forces back from the airship and leave a few behind to keep an eye on it."
"That might be one of the first places they'll try to land though as from my experiences, the Americans and other Coalition forces we've seen will go out of their way to save their own." A Roman Officer replied
"More the reason to stay away from that thing because we've have some intel indicating that the next wave of reinforcements is going to be coming in two of their bigger airships and do you really want to have our forces in those things' path because they can easily wipe us all out." The Blackwater Officer asked him, "The best place to be would be the village, because it's unlikely that they'll fire on it to avoid collateral damage."
"Avoid collateral damage?! Did you see what happened to the part of the village that got caught in the blast radius of those gods damned missiles?!" The Roman Officer shouted at him, "It was by all means incinerated!"
"You're forgetting to consider that was most likely a calculated risk they took to destroy our fleet." The Blackwater Officer replied
"He's right, those missiles were too large to use without using risking some collateral damage." Atticus said to the Roman Officer, "But we also can't deny the possibility that the Americans will bombard the village with their airships once they arrive as the Vikings here are used to having to rebuild their village and will more than likely permit them to do so."
"So what are we going to do then?!" The Roman Officer asked him
"I don't know." He replied
USAS Patton
Hangar Bay
Barnes, his family, the other post-human dragons, and the dragon riders' mounts were taking advantage of the downtime to rest as the dragon riders returned from the medical bay
"Sounds like they gave up on trying to get inside." Astrid said noticing she could not longer hear the faint sounds of explosions and artillery shells coming from outside the airships
"Good, we finally have some time to rest..." Ruffnut replied as Hiccup went to his father, who was sitting by Thornado, who was sound asleep
"How is he?" Hiccup asked him
"He's fine for now." Stoick replied, "How are you?"
"I've been better." Hiccup said
"Any idea on how long we're going to be stuck in here?" Stoick asked him
"Not a clue, but I'm sure not for very long." He replied while in the brig, one of the security guards were on patrol when he passed Alvin's cell and saw Alvin strangling Savage
"Hey!" The Security Guard shouted as he took out his key-card and used to unlock the cell door before storming in with his stun baton drawn and striking Alvin with it as hard as he could, putting enough electricity into his body to make him drop Savage, who fell to the floor as he tried to catch his breath as the Security Guard continued to repeatedly beat Alvin with his baton while another Security Guard, who had heard the commotion, rushed in to help and drew out a pair of handcuffs
"Hold him still!" The Other Security Guard shouted as he struggled to put the handcuffs on Alvin's wrists while Savage took the chance to grab the first Security Guard's handgun and tried to fire it at the Security Guard, only for it beep
"What the?!" Savage asked as both of the Security Guards, hearing the beep turned around and attacked Savage and tried to wrestle the handgun away from him as Alvin took the chance to grab one of the Guards' key-cards and hid it in his beards as the Warden and two more Security Guards rushed into the cells and joined the other two security guards as they wrestled the handgun away from Savage and beat him several times with their stun batons
"I should've known this was a bad idea, get him out of here and put him in another cell!" The Warden shouted to the Guards, who lifted Savage up and carried him out of the cell
"And YOU!" The Warden said to Alvin as he pointed his stun baton at him, "Try something like this then and I ensure you that you will regret it!" He said to him before he left the cell and closed the door before walking back to his office, further up the aisle while Alvin took the key-card out from his beard and looked at it
"That was too easy." He thought to himself before he placed the key-card back into his beard, "Saving this for later."
Isle of Berk
APMSF 1st Legion
Sometime Later
Using their star-field camouflage, the USAS St. Louis and Farmington were able to remain undetected as they approached Berk before they finally announced their arrival to the unsuspecting Blackwater and Roman forces on Berk with a full plasma barrage on several of their positions from it's cannon as the APMSF 1st and 5th Legions descended to the island with their VTOLs while Karlson and Tesla followed closely behind by their gunship escorts
"We're going to go secure the USAS Patton! You take your men and attack the village, we should join you there shortly!" Karlson shouted to General Horowitz with translation collar's radio
"Roger that!" Horowitz replied as the 5th Legion's VTOLs and aircraft broke off from the formation and headed toward the village
"I hope Calvin and Sheva are okay." Tesla said to Karlson telepathically
"I'm sure they're alright, I doubt Barnes would make them do anything extremely dangerous." He replied
"Sir, we have established contact with the USAS Patton!" A APMSF Pilot shouted to him
"Patch them through!" Karlson replied
"About time you guys got here!" Reaper shouted to him over the radio
"What's the situation down there?!" He asked him
"Fine...except for the fact that we're filled to capacity, running out of supplies, surrounded by hostiles, and have a marine turning into a dragon in the medical bay." Reaper replied
"What?!" Karlson asked him
"We'll talk about it later, but for now get these guys away from the Patton so we can get out of here!" He replied
"Can Barnes and his guys fight?" Karlson asked him
"Most of them can barely lift their wings up right now, so I doubt it." He replied
Karlson snorted
"What about our kids?!" Tesla asked Reaper
"Calvin and Sheva? They're alright, Barnes has them and Emily babysitting the dragons they freed from the Roman praetorian dragons." He replied
"I told you they were going to be okay!" Karlson said to Tesla telepathically
"Well hold on for a bit longer, we're coming!" Karlson shouted to Reaper
"We'll be waiting." He replied
"Lets just get this over with so we can be with our kids!" Tesla said to Karlson
"Agreed." He replied while back in the Patton's Hangar Bay, Barnes and Samantha were curled up in a corner with their children as they tried to fall asleep
"I can't remember the last time I've been this tired..." Samantha said to Barnes telepathically
"I can't either, it doesn't help that it hurts to do anything other than breathing." He replied, "But I guess it's all part of the job."
Barnes and Samantha lifted their heads along with everybody else's in the hangar as the sounds of gunfire and explosions erupted outside the hangar along with the roars of Monstrous Nightmares and the sounds of jet aircraft and VTOLs flying over
"Finally! Reinforcements are here!" Vasili shouted as Calvin, Sheva, and Emily came into the hangar with a few of the freed slave dragons
"Karlson?! Is that you and Tesla we're hearing out there?!" Barnes shouted over the radio of his translation collar
"Who else could it be?!" Karlson replied, "But you guys stay where you are until you get the all-clear signal from me or Tesla!"
"Understood, it's not like we'd be of any of use anyway, it hurts for me just to talk right now!" Barnes said to him, "But be careful out there because Casca and his men are somewhere on the island!"
"You think we don't know that?!" Karlson replied
"Just being sure." Barnes said to him
"So who's the marine that's getting turned into a dragon?" Karlson asked him
"Sergeant Jayden Henderson." Barnes replied
"Shit..." Karlson said quietly
"You know him too?" Barnes asked him
"We kind of worked together in the past...it's a long story." Karlson replied, "But I do know he has a kid."
"That's what his squad mates and the dragon riders have been telling me." Barnes said
"What species?" Karlson asked him
"It's some kind of new one, Stormcutter is what I think they're calling it." Barnes replied
"How the hell did this happen?" Karlson said
"He stabbed a Roman Stormcutter in the throat and some of it's blood got into a wound he had on his arm." Barnes replied
Karlson sighed
"We'll worry about him later! But for now we need to focus on getting you guys out there and throwing the Romans and Blackwater off Berk!"