Well everyone, I finally have gotten one. I now have an Xbox One, as well as several games I had been getting every once in a while. Still don't have internet so I can't get Xbox Live but, God willing, that may be soon. Well anyway, ya'll aren't here to hear me celebrate, you're all here for the new chapter.
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING OR ANYONE IN THE SPYRO UNIVERSE. ONLY MY OCS.
Chapter 64: Operation Serpent
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The constant report of the five-inch guns was almost becoming monotonous. Across from the Indomitable, the Chimera burned. The engines were aflame, the aft deck was burning, the command tower had more holes in it than a cheese grater, and the turret that could have been used to return fire was utterly destroyed. The only counter-attacks coming from the Rotarian superweapon was small arms fire from the breaches in the armor.
James angrily cursed as he watched the machine burn, the crew refusing to abandon the Chimera. He vaguely wondered if Mechanos had ordered them to not abandon the landship, to fight to the last man, and never surrender and then mentally slapped himself thinking that was exactly what Mechanos would have done. He glanced downward to the turret on the foredeck of the Indomitable and watched as the twin mounted cannons recoiled. The gun crews must have been managing eighteen rounds per minute.
After a minute, he glanced back at the Chimera just in time to see the command tower (what was left of it) buckle and collapse inside itself, the air pressure blasting flames through the immediate area below decks. Almost instantly, several spots where small arms fire was seen vanished in flames and James turned to Colston and nodded to him. Colston returned the nod and then activated the PA.
"All cannons, cease fire."
After a few more delayed rounds fired, the cannons fell silent. James finally sighed, turned away, and glanced to Colston.
"When the flames die down, begin combing the wreckage for survivors and wounded. Stand down all stations." Colston nodded and relayed James' orders as he left the bridge. He descended down the control tower to the main deck, then went down further to the engine room where the crew saluted him. James gave them a nod and left the Indomitable, gazing at the army vehicle that had been radioed for him. The soldier snapped to attention and saluted and then started the vehicle.
As James boarded the vehicle, he gave a second glance to the soldier, then glanced to his uniform and nodded.
"To Launces please Sergeant." The soldier nodded and put the vehicle in gear and slowly started off. As he rode off, James had a suspicion and silently unfastened the leather strap holding his sidearm in place. He didn't know what was about to happen but he was going to be prepared for anything. He looked to the driver.
"Sergeant, pick up the pace a bit." The soldier nodded and changed gears.
As the wall of Launces loomed ahead, James hoped that they would make it before whatever he sensed would catch up to them.
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As he stirred, the first thing he was aware of was a bell ringing. Slowly, Caldor opened his eyes, and glanced around himself. He was still on the fields outside the Midtown Keep. The only difference was that, now instead of Rotarian flags flying over the Keep, the Syllian flag had been raised in its place. Suddenly, his memories came flooding back. Him being wounded, Zafra pleading with him to hold on, his Mother landing along with Shimmer, Lady Thera, and the others, and then watching as a literal thunder of dragons passed overhead to engage the Rotarian forces still within the city. And then...
...and then exhaustion struck him and he slipped into sleep without protest.
He hadn't even been aware that Shimmer had taken off to join the battle. As he glanced to his left, he saw several soldiers and Dracocorps doctors nearby. Almost as close were several dragons who were being treated from various injuries. More than one glanced at him, huffed and then returned to their rest. That all changed when a voice (as well as the owner of that voice) dropped from the sky and all but cratered into him.
Caldor smiled as he recognized Zafra as she landed almost right on top of him and started nuzzling him affectionately. Nearby several male dragons growled angrily at that but the next instant they stopped immediately. Caldor glanced where Zafra had come from and saw the reason they held themselves in check. For there, landing near him, was not only Lady Thera and her mate, Ignitus, but also Queen Lysa as well as Shimmer and his mother who, upon landing gave an unsure glance to Caldor and then to Shimmer who gave her the barest of smiles.
Caldor struggled to rise but Zafra's foreleg and right wing kept him down. Then as Lysa landed she proceeded to walk towards Caldor, a stoic expression on her face. Caldor, unsure of how to act (as he had never really been brought before anyone of notable rank before), slightly dipped his head as one would a bow. He expected a rebuke, or something, but was startled by the last thing he expected...
...laughter...
He glanced up at the Queen and saw her laughing, well, more like chuckling. He was then aware of his Mother also giving him a smile, and, despite his feelings, he returned it, and then also Shimmer smiling.
Several dragons who had recognized Lysa when she landed rose and walked over to her and bowed their heads. he leader of whom, a dragon Caldor recognized as a Dracocorps officer, gave Caldor a venomous glance before looking to Lysa.
"Your Majesty, while we are delighted to have you and your family here with us to inspect the wounded, I and my subordinates must request you show caution. This dragon is, after all, the son of Silverus the Traitor." The dragon sounded plainly smug and probably half-expected to see Zafra leap away from Caldor with a gasp and maybe even both Lysa and Thera start attacking him but was startled when Lysa glared at him.
"Lieutenant Toxias, you would do well to not speak such lies in my presence or in the presence of my family. Caldor is not now, nor was he ever, a traitor. He protected my granddaughter and my eldest son while working with the Partisans and I will brook no slander against him. Furthermore, it seems the truth has yet to have spread as quickly as I might have hoped it would have. There is a... discrepency... regarding Caldor's heritage."
Toxias and his fellows gazed at their Queen curiously. Indeed, her statement had also drawn the attention of several other dragons currently on the field who wished to hear what they thought was an interesting diversion. Lysa glanced at the dragons around and then eyed Caldor and her eyes regained that motherly appearance to them.
"Young Caldor here, is in fact, not Silverus' child but is in fact the son of Illuma and as such, so I have witnessed, has also inherited the Blood Rite of Illuma's bloodline, the Guardian Aegis. Furthermore, and I say this only because I see your eyes Toxias, my granddaughter, Zafra, has already chosen Caldor to be her mate. It is her desicion but, as Queen, I find that, given Caldor's heroics alone, he is acceptable in my opinion and once my mate returns and gives his blessing it shall be official."
Caldor was rewarded by seeing Toxias splutter in amazement. The nearby dragons all stood silently as they eyed Caldor, as if seeing him in a new light. They at once recalled all that had been done to him in his youth as well as what the Dracocorps had oftentimes allowed be done to him on that one basis alone. He gave a thankful glance at Lysa but then felt the oddest sensation by his side. He glanced down to see Zafra examining the spots on his side where the scales hadn't healed with a peculiar expression. She noticed his glance and gave him a smile as she reached with a forefoot to rub one of the several pink spots.
Caldor suddenly couldn't help himself, he gave a gasp and started chuckling, much to the amusement of the dragons assembled near him. He gave a look to Zafra who widened her smile then started tickling him everywhere she found a spot on his body. His chuckling turned into full blown laughter as with each spot she saw, she immediately dived onto it. Then, without warning, pushed a little harder on him and, unable to stop himself, he rolled over, belly-up, and leapt over him and started tickling him again. All the while, several dragons looked on in both amazement and some with shock.
After a while though, Caldor told Zafra that his chest was hurting and she stopped and allowed him to right himself. As he did, a vehicle came through the Keep entrance and stopped beside them. The doors came open and out came George along with Angela and a few other Partisans. Lysa and Thera gave a joyous cry and leapt for him. George just barely managed to shift into dragon form as his sister and mother all but tackled him just to make sure that it was actually him. Moments later, another roar was heard and everyone gazed up just in time to see Bertram drop from the skies and land amongst them. He too rushed forward to embrace his older brother.
For a moment George was actually crying. He was glad to see his family again. The only ones missing were Josh and his Father. He gazed to his Mother and smiled at his siblings and visibly relaxed, all the tension from several months behind enemy lines draining from him. As he gazed around and saw the others he nodded and then bend his head down and nuzzled Angela who was beside him affectionately. It was then that they noticed that George kept a foreleg in a cradled position and noticed the loose covering on it. Lysa immediately glared at the wound.
"Son, what happened?" George chuckled and explained to them about all that had happened, he then noted Calawai and motioned to the knight with his wing.
"If Calawai hadn't interceded when he did I'd have been killed." Lysa glanced to the Royal Knight, still in his armor and gave an appreciative nod. George then turned to Bertram.
"Well, our home is free again and the enemy is in full retreat. So, where's Father?"
"He was on board the Indomitable last I checked. He was currently destroying what was left of the Chimera." George nodded.
"That's good to hear. That monstrocity caused enough damage. Still though, I find it odd that Mechanos didn't send more forces, despite the failsafes he had planned. This whole action... is seemed more like an action to draw something out than to actually hold the city." Bertram nodded.
"Indeed. Kiln, the enemy ace who killed Ayatane, mentioned something about Operation Serpent and that they 'could not afford to fail'. I think Mechanos has just about reached his wits end with Marks and the 666th." Carmine, who had been with them, suddenly looked up in shock.
"Excuse me, but did you say Operation Serpent?" George looked to him.
"Carmine, what is it?" Carmine paled.
"Operation Serpent was an operational order given to us when we first invaded Syllia. It had only one parameter: find, capture, and interrogate any member of the Syllian Royal Family, meaning the de Launces, or failing that, a member of their vassal families. I don't know why he would mention it though... it's not as if they could get to us now... wait a minute..." Carmine turned to Lysa.
"Your Majesty, Captain de Launces is curently at sea, correct?" Lysa nodded.
"Yes his force is assisting with land operations expanding the Tellanian front." Carmine nodded.
"So he's out of reach... we're safe inside the city..." Carmine suddenly gazed at Lysa, realization flooding in.
"That leaves only one person unaccounted for..." George went wide-eyed as he realized what he meant and looked to the dragons and soldiers nearby.
"All Dracocorps on alert! The King is in danger! Take off and try and find him, immediately!"
That shout was enough to make even the most tired of dragon leap to his or her feet and launch into the air. Only the wounded didn't rise. George gazed in the direction of the Tower and gaped at the damage.
"How the hell did that happen?" Bertram glanced to the Tower and growled.
"A bomber went on a suicide run. We thought it was just desperation but what if that was actually planned? The Tower gate is the only way for human forces to quickly get out of the city in case of a counterattack or the need to push an advance." George nodded and then looked to his brother and then Zafra and Caldor.
"I'm not going to be much use with this wound, find Dad, get him back here safely."
As Bertram nodded an air raid siren split the sky and a radio nearby came to life.
"This is an alert to all Syllian forces, a Rotarian transport has just made a hard landing outside the city. Be advised remaining OAC forces are rallying to the aircraft. Any forces capable of maneuvering, make way to the outer wall and man what defences are still servicable."
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The radio in the vehicle had caught the transmission and James' hand gripped harder onto the handle of his revolver as he glanced at his driver and gave a long look at the man. At first glance, the sergeant would have appeared to have been a member of the Partisans with how ruffled his uniform was, then again, that would have been to the normal human eye. James silently focused his dragon senses and caught several scents that would not have been present on a member of the Partisans, or for that matter, a Sergeant whose uniform placed him as a tank mechanic.
The first was adrenaline, not the sort from running into or away from danger but the kind that people released when they knew that they were doing something either illegal or something that, if caught, could get them killed. The next was gunpowder, not unusual but then it coupled with aviation grease and aircraft fuel, subtle, but it was there. Slowly, James drew the revolver and pointed it to the driver.
"Bold. Very bold, indeed. I asume you must be a Rotarian soldier dressed as one of ours so let's have a name." The soldier grimaced but sighed.
"They told me that you were sharp. I suppose it was too much to hope that you would remain oblivious. Name's Lieutenant Derrick Stiger, Rotarian Intelligence Corps. I've been instructed to abduct you, as per Operation Serpent's parameters, and take you to Mechanos." James caught that and glanced to him.
"Don't you mean Emperor Mechanos?" Stiger chuckled.
"A few weeks ago I would have said that. Truth is, I'm a Royalist. The only difference is that, unlike the people at the front I actually have an inkling as to what's happened back home. Your Majesty, it is a safe bet to assume that the war is all but over. Roughly seventy to eighty-five percent of the Rotarian forces have defected or outright surrendered. We have you and your son to thank for Princess Ayura's safety." James nodded but kept the weapon ready, the man didn't seem to be lying but he was aware that spies were all about keeping calm no matter the situation.
"So why the abduction?" Stiger nodded.
"Mechanos has all but become a recluse. He hardly ever sets foot back on the mainland, instead spending time in his citidel on Black Sand Island. I'm in intelligence but even we don't know what he's up to on the godforsaken spit of land. All we know is that besides him and his assistant, some armor plated guy everyone calls Mr. Sir, there are at least seventeen other people on that island who are as brillient, if not more so, than Mechanos. Their studies range from aerodynamics to metallurgy to even crystal technology and something called 'nuclear physics'." That got James' undivided attention.
"Some are there because they still believe Mechanos can win the war while others are there after being drugged and spirited there against their wills. I dont know what Mechanos is planning but I am sure it can't be good. This may be an abduction, Your Majesty, but I see no other course of action. Whatever that madman is working on, he's had three years to complete it and it likely is nearly at that stage. We must stop him before he uses whatever superweapon his twisted mind has created now." James nodded, now understanding what was being asked of him.
"You need me to, under the guise of being captured, spy on Mechanos and, if possible, disrupt his machinations." Stiger shook his head.
"Not disrupt sir. Destroy. Mechanos... he's been in contact with several nations of the far west and the south. Namely: The Tai-Lang Empire, the Kingdom of Rhein, and the Tovoro Republic. All of whom maintained neutrality but at the same time worked with a sort of 'lend-lease' agreement. They would provide Mechanos with materials and manpower in return for blueprint copies of everything he created. I don't have any proof, but I'm pretty sure that Mechanos has shipped a fair amount of his research back to Tai-Lang and Rhein." James nodded but inside his stomach dropped.
The Tai-Lang Empire, a nation to the extreme south, was almost as well known for its winters as Northumbria. It was also known for it's constant border and sea conflicts with its neighbors, the Shanghai Repblic and the Island Kingdom of Ursae. Rhein was almost the same, having several small conflicts with the Republic of Land's End and then there was Tovoro who still felt resentment to the State of Austein for the sinking of the Grand Fifth fleet some sixty years ago. He gazed to Stiger and braced himself.
"I take it that this is not the worst news." Stiger nodded.
"Astutely put sir. Rotiart, geographically, is a very rich nation in materials. The mountain ranges have excessive amounts of iron, copper, tin, tungsten, sodium, and various other elements. However, we lack all but some small deposits of uranium, the radioactive 'fuel' for Mechanos' Ragnarok weapons. He's been having that shipped in from both Rhein which, by all accounts is lousy with the stuff, and Tai-Lang which agreed in exchange for research pertaining on how to weaponize it." James groaned.
"He's building a pyre for the world to end in a nuclear holocaust..." Stiger nodded.
"That is our fear. If every aggressor nation has nuclear weapons and drops them at the drop of a hat, how long before the world as we know it ceases to exist." James then gazed back and sighed.
"That can't be all there is to it... I don't know why... but I just feel there has to be something more to it..." Stiger shrugged.
"It's possible. Mechanos has a lot of skeletons in his closet. RIC has, perhaps, uncovered a few dozen spanning back several years back when he was a simple industrialist who struck gold during an excavation. He was responsible for the sinking of the steam-powered submarine Glasgow back in 1876, he believed that the sub had been the vessel that rammed a transport carrying several million in gold bullion. Shortly after that, he shifted his focus to developing submarines for the Rotarian Navy and from there went into full-scale military technology." James nodded.
"Anything unusual pertaining to the war?" Stiger nodded.
"Yeah. Originally, the gnorcs in Avalon were neutral and were focusing on their own problems. They apparently made themselves a mint salvaging ships sunk during the Dalon Conflict. Mechanos approached them with a transport ship full of weapons, gold, and materials all for a series of salvage operations near the gnorc territory. Judging from how many there was, Mechanos was after something big. Funny thing is construction on Black Sand Island started after the last salvage operation was complete." Stiger glanced to James who was staring at him.
"I suppose that by the look on your face you have an idea as to what he was salvaging." James recovered from his surprise and nodded.
"It's a long shot but... after the Dalon Conflict, the gnorcs had cutting crews scouring the wreckage of the Poseidon to clear the harbor. By all accounts the wreckage was covered in radioactive dust from Dalon's experiments and what was raised was then towed out to sea and scuttled close to the Mauritanian Abyss. Is that the location of the salvage operations?" Stiger nodded, which made James place his hand to his head.
"So that confirms it. Mechanos was salvaging the Poseidon and has reincarnated it Black Sand Island. Damn... I had honestly thought I'd seen the last of that damn fortress when the last section was scuttled. Now you're telling me the only way to get to Mechanos is to go through that old fortress again." Stiger nodded.
"I know Your Majesty. I've actually been in the facility a few times. Despite Mechanos' efforts, there are still signs of battle in the metal frame of the fortress as well as some old markings. There's even a few sections that have been sealed off and welded shut and forgotten by the staff. Now, the facility is divided into thirteen buildings. I've only been in three of the facilities so I can't tell you much about any other buildings. There is something strange though. There is a center tower on the peak of the mountain with what looks to be electrical cables running to four other buildings." James gazed at him.
"What's so special about these buildings?" Stiger shrugged.
"Don't know. All I have is something said in passing. A couple of guys in white lab coats were talking about how the CCC was taxing the power plants to the extreme. They were whispering because apparently the CCC, whatever the hell that stands for, is a pet project of Mechanos and thus critisizing the project is the same as critisizing Mechanos. They also said, in rather hushed tones, that he was a fool for trying to 'play God' as it were." James nodded.
"Man has a God complex. Figures." Stiger nodded.
"Indeed. Another instance we have found of his early days was that he once patented a theorem that mankind can manipulate weather using specific alchemical formulae. For example, he explains that 'seeding' a dormant cloud with water as well as salt could lead to turning a regular cloud into a rain-bearing cloud. Once the seeding is complete, it just needs a negative and positive charge to start the rainfall. Another was a machine capable of generating vast quantities of fog. Can you think of any such way an application like that would be sane or make sense?" James thought for a moment and then nodded.
"As for rain making, Syllian storm dragons have been doing that for quite some time and I have come to understand their abilities quite well. Now for the fog, if such a thing were possible, it could be used to shroud an area with a thick fog. Perhaps an area where you wouldn't wish anyone to be seen or anyone to see what you were doing." James suddenly had a thought.
"A more diabolical purpose would be to create fog banks around areas of seawater that are known spots for coral reefs. Generate a cloud of fog large enough to blanket Lawson's Reef just to the west of Peninsula City for instance, and you'd have no end of chaos. True there are failsafes, lighthouses, bouys, and the like but lighthouses can be turned off and bouys sabotaged. One instance I recall was a disgruntled fisherman who sailed out to Egret Cove and sabotaged a bouy marking an underwater rock formation by removing the bell and light crystal." Stiger nodded, knowing full well what was coming.
"Not one hour after he did so than the merchant passenger liner Dorian Calcutta sailed into the sea lane, got lost in the fog, struck the rock formation and sank in less than half an hour, taking some six-hundred out of her eight-hundred thirty seven passengers and crew with her." Stiger grimaced.
"I hope the man responsible was caught." James shook his head.
"The fisherman's target was the fishing schooner Lady Ardell, which he had learned was in the area. He had no knowledge that the Dorian Calcutta was in the area until he saw the ship coming out of the fog. He tried to signal the ship by firing flares but the fog was so thick the bridge crew accounts report never seeing a flare of any sort. Having realized what he had done, the man tied his own boat anchor to his feet and consigned himself to the depths. Bottom line, if the factors align properly, even the safest and best charted waters can be treacherous in fog."
"Well then, let's hope that Mechanos' weather machines never made it past the patent office. Can you imaging the havoc he would create?" James grimaced.
"I saw it before, a few times, when Dalon was alive. He had tried to play God himself by creating soldiers called 'Automen'. Corpses with the entrails replaced with machinery and powered by dark crystals. After the conflict, I urged that all of Dalon's research be declared top secret and sealed away but alas, I fear that Dalon left only his inconsequential designs behind in his tower when he left for Avalon. His more recent, and revolutionary, ideas, I've been told, he kept in a safe in the Poseidon. A safe that, despite our searching the wreckage for, we never located it." Stiger suddenly stopped the vehicle and gave James a flat look.
"What kind of safe? How big was it? Who made it? How did it open?" James shrugged.
"It was a large cabinet-type safe. Solid steel construction, eight interlocking tumblers, two combination wheels. If I recall it was a safe he had specially ordered from Stephens Security in Royalis. It also had one extra failsafe, the combination opened only one lock. You needed a key to completely unlock the safe and it was built so well that not even the water pressure at the Abyss could have crushed it and that a fire dragon breathing flames at the hightest possible temperature couldn't have melted it." James suddenly chuckled.
"That was another failsafe. Dalon hated dragons. If a dragon tried to melt the safe to get access to it, it had a interior lining of lead that, once the heat reached it; the metal would melt, destroying anything of value inside." Stiger's stare didn't waver.
"The Stephens Security Firm... was their buisness crest an eagle of some sort?" This time James gave him a look.
"How do you know that? Stephens Security went bankrupt six years before the Dalon Conflict and to my knowledge they never shipped a safe outside Syllia." Stiger took a breath to steady himself and looked back to James.
"Mechanos has an old safe in his office. He never cleaned it up and it looked to have been on the bottom of the ocean for several years. He wears the key for it around his neck and stores all his research, patents, and blueprints in that safe. The safe you just described as belonging to Dalon is a perfect match to the one in Mechanos' office, only dingier and rustier." James broke his glance and redirected his eyes to the road.
"Drive on Stiger. If what I've heard of Mechanos is truth, he hates to be kept waiting. I charge you with this though. Once we get there, you better have a damn good plan about getting us out of there before Mechanos decides he'd rather have me as a hostage to sue for peace rather than as a specialist in my field because there is no way in hell that the Syllian council would consider ceasing conflict just to save my life after all that Mechanos has done." Stiger nodded.
"Already have one sir. Once you reach Black Sand Island though, you'll have to make contact with the scientists and experts who are not entirely on board with Mechanos' crazy plots. I only know of two at the moment: Professor Boris Kolber from the Tellanian Institute of Mechanical Engineering and Mr. Sir." James glanced at him.
"Mechanos' own assistant?" Stiger shrugged.
"I only know part of his story sir. Apparently he was near death when Mechanos made him a devil's deal: life in exchange for his skills. Don't know how it worked but I'm pretty sure Mr. Sir's armor isn't just for show. From what I've seen of him and heard in passing, his original body is actually grafted into the suit of armor." James snorted.
"An Automan with a soul. From what I gathered from Dalon's papers it was possible to do but extremely dangerous. Mechanos must have been extremely sure of his success or this Mr. Sir was exceedingly desperate to live. So I take it the transport will take me to Mechanos?" Stiger nodded.
"One flight, non-stop. Can't risk you 'escaping' while we attempt to refuel the plane. The plane has been stripped down to the bare essentials: no armor, no weapons, and room for only four passengers and two crew, the rest is a large fuel tank. Me and you, we're two of the four passengers. Then there's the crew, and two seats for any VIPs, if any, that Mechanos can't allow to fall into Syllian hands. The rest are expendable. Cannon fodder." James nodded to him and then gazed upwards when the sound of roaring filled the sky and he sighed.
"As much as I hate the idea of doing this, I suppose there is no alternative, is there?" Stiger shook his head sadly.
"No sir. Now then, we have to make your capture look convincing." He reached inside his coat and produced a pair of handcuffs and chuckled at James' expression.
"Don't get me wrong, I have little hope that these alone'll hold you. So, for the ruse to be successful, I have to ask you that you appear to be drugged." James gave a bare nod and gave a glance back up to the sky before looking back to Stiger.
"So be it. Well, I'd recognize that roar anywhere, my mate, my son, and my daughter are in the air, looking for me. We'd best hurry it up." Stiger nodded solumnly and then pushed down harder on the accelerator.
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The transport had come down a little too heavily for Marks' liking. As the plane sat there and he cautiously gazed around at the sound of the cacophany of irate and frantic dragons roaring their heads off. The soldiers of the OAC who had made it here were standing by with whatever they had in hand. Some had barely gotten out of Launces with their sidearms, others had managed to grab rifles and machineguns from the fallen and werte hastily setting up their posts to defend the aircraft.
Of course, they had been told that more transports were coming in to get them out of here before the dragons swooped down upon them.
This, of course, was a clever lie on Marks' behalf. He lad little doubt that if they knew that Mechanos was leaving them at the mercy of Syllian dragons, they would have stormed aboard the transport and tried to take off and doom themselves and Marks' mission in the process. That was something that Marks wouldn't, couldn't, allow to happen. He had sacrificed too much to ensure this mission's success. He'd lost the rest of his squadron, including Kiln, and was now the sole surviving member of the once feared 666th Squadron. As he contemplated this, a vehicle came rolling up to the transport and he saw a sergeant pulling a handcuffed, seemingly drugged or drunken man out of the other side.
As Marks drew his sidearm and yelled to the soldiers, the sergeant pulled a paper from his belt.
"I am Lieutenant Stiger, RIC! Operation Serpent is a success! Colonel Marks, prepare for immediate take-off!" Marks spared a glance to the handcuffed man and gasped aloud as he recognized him and then ran back into the cockpit while another OAC soldier struggled to help Stiger get his prisoner into the transport. Inside, he pushed James to the seat directly across from where he was to sit and looked to the soldier who had helped him.
"Sir, if we want to end the war, why not just end him here and now?" There was a harrumph from the cockpit as Marks came in.
"My thoughts exactly. King James de Launces is a powerful figure. If he was to die, the Syllians would surely-" Stiger raised his hand to silence him.
"The Syllians would unleash hellfire upon us. Intel has all but confirmed that it is possible that the Syllian military has developed their own nuclear weapons. The King's vote has been the most powerful voice in denial of using them. We execute him like this, the Syllians won't think twoce about giving us a taste of our own medicine. Besides, these are Emperor Mechanos' orders. I trust, Colonel, that you are not going to dispute the Emperor's orders in this matter?" Marks paled and shook his head and then unceremoniously dismissed the OAC soldier with them while he went to start up the engines.
As they started up, he yelled back through the open door to the cockpit.
"Make sure he's secured fairly well. The two VIPs didn't make it, so it's just the four of us going home. Get to your seat and buckle up because this is going to be a fast take-off." As Marks started the engines, he keyed the radio.
"This is Colonel Marks to any loyal Rotarian fighters still in the air: Operation Serpent has been a success. We have secured our target and are taking off. Prepare to assume escort roles."
James gazed at Marks and felt a strong sense of disgust and anger.
"So... that's the bastard who's been trying to kill my son..." Stiger nodded.
"Yes sir. That's Marks. He, like the rest of the veteran pilots, is on Mechanos' last nerve. Word had it that if he screwed this up and returned, Mechanos was going to see him executed. He still might when he learns he took off without the VIPs or if any harm comes to you while you're in transit."
James gazed out the window of the transport and saw the ground speeding by as the aircraft gained speed. Then, as Marks pulled back on the stick and the aircraft started to climb, James caught sight of Lysa, Bertram, Zafra, and Shimmer winging their way towards the transport.
He knew that Lysa was gazing at the transport intently and saw her expression change from one of anger to confusion, and then finally horror. Then Marks banked the aircraft and set his heading towards Rotiart. Even at the distance they were at and at the rate of speed they were climbing and flying forwards, he still heard the echo of her anguished roar as the plane flew upwards through the clouds and out of her sight. He reached down into his coat pocket and felt the small blue spirit crystal in his pocket and sighed.
"I'm probably going to catch all manner of hell for this stunt." Stiger nodded.
"Well, imagine what you'll unleash once Mechanos realizes you're not as complacent as he probably believes." James growled.
"If he tries anything, I can kill him in several ways." Stiger chuckled.
"I have no doubts about that. Immediately, disecting him with your claws piece by piece comes to mind." James nodded to him and then gazed as the land flew underneath.
"I shall return. Of that, you can be assured of. And I will return with Mechanos' head on a pole."
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To be continued...