A/N:
Modern Military Power & ATP: I have a pretty good idea of how I'm going to see that one through, you guys might not like it, but it makes sense. Shouldn't be too disappointing though.
tims7265: Sure? If you want to write a story about magical elf engines, who am I to stop you? I don't see an empire of elves popping up in my story at all, but maybe I will after a couple of drinks. We shall see.
Chapter 16: A Wish Received
The trip back was rather uneventful, just the dusty dirt roads and both Japanese and Canadian medics fussing over the elf. She still hasn't woken up yet, shifting in discomfort and mumbling unintelligibly in her stupor.
Closing on Coda village, the soldiers were greeted initially with screams and panic. With the interaction with the aftermath of a dragon attack in their minds, the peacekeepers had forgotten the impact a heavily armoured twenty-first-century vehicle would have on a medieval era populace.
The farmers were the first to see the APC rolled out from the treeline, it's body blocking the sight of the armoured cars behind it and the combined engine noises of the convoy further panicking the simple folks. Cries of "CANEM NIGRUM REX" swept through the fields as the toiling men dropped their tools and dashed for the wooden gates, fleeing from the perceived growling beast that had pounced from the forest and now raced for the village. Sergeant Campbell could only pull himself out of his turret as he glanced around aimlessly, embarrassed as the amused bespeckled Jeremy Evans translated the Latin cries over the radio. The announcement was quickly followed by laughter as the rest of the team broke down, greatly relieving the tension that permeated the squad from the ruined village. The soldiers were to win the hearts and minds of the populace, not to scare them shitless by masquerading as "King of Black Dogs'' whatever those were.
The LAV 6.0 pulled over to the side, settling into the dirt shoulder alongside the golden crops, allowing the cars to take the lead as they continued their drive to the village. Reaching the walls, it took quite a bit of back and forth before the translating Canadian convinced the villagers that the steel beast was just an elaborated horseless wagon. By the time the wooden gates opened, the rear, top, and driver hatches of the armoured personnel carrier were thrown open and men were poking out of them.
The calmed civilians trickled out slowly, wary of the now quieted " Steel Hound" that sat on the road, male and female soldiers that rode inside the beast now laid on top of the iron plates. The men somewhat boldly stepped out to speak with the smiling soldiers, inspecting the vehicles closely as they walked up to them, the women peeking out around corners and staring at the female soldiers who stood sentry around the vehicles. Children quickly made a game of trying to rouse the sleeping "monster", poking the LAV's steel plates with sticks or daring each other to slap the tires before sprinting back into cover. Katsumoto, Tomita, Hana, and some of the Canadians soon joined the children, playing small games of tag or handing out previously hoarded snacks, the LAV crew watching leisurely from their hatches.
The leadership of the village soon met up again with the lieutenants who ensured Jeremy was dragged along. Itami beckoned the elder to the back of the Toyoda, popping the doors open as the same three-man entourage of the first visit neared. With Jeremy nearby, Itami spoke in English, the words translated into Latin as the corporal followed along.
Gesturing to the still sleeping elf, he began, " We traveled to the elf village, but a fire dragon burned it to the ground, only this elf survived."
He paused to ensure that his words were understood by the elder, the man paled visibly as the message sunk in.
" We hope that you can find safety and care for the girl."
The three civilians shuffled away before conversing in rapid Latin, clearly taken back by the news brought before them. Returning to the vehicle, the old man removed his cap, shaking his head while clutching the cloth as he spoke.
" I am sorry. We do not have the means or knowledge to take an elf. It is best if you care for her, we will be leaving as well."
" Leaving?" Jeremy's eyebrows lifted as he relayed the information.
" Yes, the dragon has tasted elf blood, we will be next soon. We must leave for Italica."
Taking a breath, the seventy-year-old bowed at a nearly 90-degree angle, his followers surprised but quickly followed suit.
" We hope you warriors can spare the time to escort us to the city. Bandits and monsters roam the lands and attack often, your iron hound should scare them all away. Please, kind sirs. We can pay you!"
Itami could only reply with a promise to speak with his officer, the Falmarti men lowering their heads in disappointment, expecting the soldiers to return with a negative reply. Stepping into the passenger seat, Itami picked up the radio handset, keying the radio to Fort Alnus.
" UNFA, UNFA. This is Recce 3-1, how copy?"
A deep voice in Japanese replied back, " Recce 3-1, good copy. Send traffic."
" Inhabitants of Coda village are reporting that dragons will continue the assault on civilian villages after initial attacks. They are requesting an escort to Italica as they evacuate."
Minutes passed as Itami sat in his seat, waiting patiently as the request climbed up the ranks. The reply came after 15 minutes of waiting, it seemed that the higher-ups wanted the hearts and minds won over, " Recce 3-1, are you still there?"
At this point, Itami was just starting to get irritated, " Yes, yes. I'm here."
" The request has been approved, a drone will be tasked to your convoy with QRF and aerial support on standby. Report back when the civilians are ready to evacuate, callsigns will be assigned then."
" Understood, UNFA. Talk to you in a bit, over."
Securing the handset, Itami stepped out of the vehicle with a smile, pleased to give the good news to the elder.
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The morning sun gleamed down as Lelei La Lalena finally got the overburdened cart moving after lightening the cart with magic, her master sat beside her sporting a well-deserved bruise on the right side of his face.
Master Cato cleared his throat as the mule started pulling them from their forest home towards Coda village.
" You know Lelei, violence is not always the answer to your problems."
The young girl only replied with, " Even before I left my mother, I was taught to always protect myself from perverts."
Cato was rather silent for the rest of the trip.
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Convoys were annoying. They need impeccable timing, co-operative charges, and sufficient assets. All of which Itami didn't have.
Command had decided, in their infinite wisdom, that sending further reinforcements would elicit an aggressive response by the Empire and endanger the civilians. And yes, that makes sense, but that meant the squad of 22 personnel and 4 vehicles had to protect over 300 civilians from marauders and predators.
Already problems had arisen before they even set off, the wealthier villagers quickly overwhelmed what little cart space they owned, while the poorer folks begged for enough rations for the trip. The wheat hadn't been fully harvested yet, meaning a lot of the village's food source wasn't collected. It was clear that even if they could escape the dragon, their livelihood had disappeared overnight without a speck of dragon fire.
Itami could only sigh from his seat as the first carts finally trickled out of the gates, most of the soldiers were still inside the gate directing traffic. With his report back to Fortress Alnus completed earlier, he stepped out of the HMV while stretching his back as he did, ancient era bedding was horrid. Stepping around the cart parked next to him, he waved at his Sergeant Major before approaching him.
" Hey Old Man, how are we doing for time?"
Kuwahara eyed a particularly overburdened horse huffing as he spoke, " We should be on time even with any more delays. We did have a cart come in in the early morning and some of the villagers complained about it cutting in front of the line. Luckily the newcomers were fine with lining up with the rest."
The emphasis on the " some" was meant clearly for one of the … different… class of civilians, the kind to complain about tasteless food while others starved to death around them.
A whinny and a snap slashed into the conversation as the lines holding the horse broke, the leather strap creating a deep gash across the side of the horse before slamming into the driver. The man fell backward into the cart, a bruise developing across his chest. And yet, the bad news didn't end there.
The horse panicked, entering a rampage state as its mind switched to self-preservation. It's hind legs kicked up and slammed into the cart, the wooden contraption and it's contents flipping out onto the street. A blur of blue streaked in from the side, quickly attempting to aid the man who had been thrown from the cart. The horse reared up, seeing the being rushing towards it. Bringing its hooves down, it fell to the ground in a cloud of dust as loud blasting sounds echoed throughout the village.
The two Japanese soldiers had dumped most of their twenty round magazines, Itami's rounds producing devastating wounds around the horse's head while Kuwahara's bullets pierced into the horse's body, the rounds entering just above the forelegs and penetrating through its heart. Throwing curses into the wind, they both rushed to the blue-haired girl, rifles still raised and pointed at the horse. The sounds of gunfire roused the entire village as more soldiers converged on the scene, eyes scanning for threats as they swiveled their firearms.
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Lelei knew what she did was extremely dangerous and foolhardy. Who runs towards an active accident? But she only reacted to the ongoing situation and didn't think about the consequences. Marcus had been thrown from his cart and hit the ground hard, luckily his family wasn't in the cart with him. She had the ability to help and so she tried and now, she was sprawled on her back in the dirt, ventilating hard as the adrenaline left her veins. She was paralyzed when the horse reared up, unfroze only when the poor animal hit the dirt.
They had saved her life. And now they were checking her for wounds and treating Marcus. Soldiers didn't do that, they would do their killing and if you were lucky, just left. Sometimes asked for payment or rewards, loot the area, and more or less take everything they could carry, but help people?
And yet, you could only call these people soldiers. True soldiers. They carried themselves with pride and dignity, moving urgently in their tasks, whether pushing the cart to the side or assisting the villagers. They didn't shout rude commands or order the villagers about, rather they spoke softly and kindly, doing their best to get the evacuation on its way even with the accidents and complainers constantly creating obstacles.
And yet, they were not from any forces that resided in the area. Not the legionaries of the Empire, not the bandits of Falmart, nor the soldiers of any vassal states. Not even their weapons were from this world, misshaped staves that had removal bits that jutted out from its form and spat fire. But maybe that was a good thing, a force that seemed more civilized than even the self-proclaimed most civilized nation on the continent, one that seemed to have emerged unexpectedly from the forest. But who were they?
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The convoy was finally underway around mid-day, much to Itami's annoyance. Now they were moving in the hottest hours of the day, the shady forest long behind them, no cover from the scorching heat as the sun beamed down on them. The road at least, was somewhat flat, allowing the modern suspension to provide an arguably comfortable ride. He saw the bouncing wooden carts and did not envy the villagers. But the heat didn't let anyone get comfortable.
The soldiers were cooking inside the armoured cars, their armour vests only exasperated the heat. Especially since almost half of the villagers were trodding alongside the carts, slowing the convoy down to a walking pace. They were making their way through a barren pass, just dried out dirt and sun-baked rocks for kilometres.
Itami stuck his head out the window, resting on his arms. It was damn hard work staying vigilant kilometre after kilometre, hour after hour. Staring up at the clear light blue sky, he began to somewhat daydream.
{ Men, elves, and dragons. Wonder what else is here? Is this world D&D or more like Lord of the Rings? Risa would love this place. Oh hey, that's a wyvern... Wait what?}
Double taking at the soaring shape that blocked out a slim fraction of the sun, he took up his radio handset from its resting place.
" Eyes up, contact. Wyvern 3 o'clock high. Get the fifty aimed up," he repeated in English first and then in Japanese.
All three turrets swiveled to the right, the vehicles pulling off the road and coming to a halt to allow the gunners a stable platform. The wyvern began to circle the wagons, looking for separated prey to dive and swoop away with. Spotting a group of children running around near the rear of the line, it let off a roar before diving, picking up speed while it did.
Fingers landed on triggers and began to squeeze, just as the lizard dived hard into rows of teeth before the maws of a dragon crushed the beast.
Pacetti reacted instantly over the radio, " DRAGON, DRAGON. 5 O'CLOCK HIGH!"
Itami followed up after him, " DROP YOUR AT GUYS, WE GOT TO DISTRACT THAT FUCKER!"
Katsumoto threw open his door, barely clutching onto his LAM Panzerfaust and a box of ammunition as he extricated himself from the Komatsu. However, not fast enough for Kuribayashi as it would seem, as she planted both her size 6 boots into his back and unceremoniously drop-kicked him out of the vehicle. The big man impacted heavily on the ground, kicking up a cloud of dry sand and dust off the hardpack road. The Canadians took more time, Tina easily pulled herself out of the top hatch of the LAV while the two heavy weapon specialists lugged Carl Gustavs out of their vehicles and the another 2 privates pulled the ammo crates from the stowage.
2 massive feet landed on the ground, the sunbaked dirt fracturing as claws crunched inwards, gripping the earth to stabilize the enormous mass. The pair of wings flapped out once, then twice, a windstorm picking up as they kept the beast from falling from the sky as it decelerated. The crimson scales glinting in the afternoon sun as the head whirled around on the serpentine neck before letting off a roar that paralyzed the convoy.
RAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOORRRRR!
Bending its neck down, the dragon's jaw lit up with a glow before a whoosh of flames bathed a group of carts. Silence echoed through the pass as the men, women, and children died without even a squeak. Another group was wiped out as the monster's tail swung around and through the crowd.
The peacekeepers continued to move, rousing the remaining panic-stricken civilians as they drove past, racing towards the red menace. The drivers had thrown their vehicles around towards the rear of the convoy, the gunners letting rounds fly, 12.7mm bullets harmlessly ricocheting off the biological armour. The 25mm Bushmaster had only slightly more effectiveness with the M791 armour-piercing discarding sabot shells either denting or scraping bits of the carapace as the projectiles achieved non-penetrating hits.
Fumbling with his handset, Itami raised it to his face. Panic crept into his voice as he reported, his pitch picking up as the dragon continued to grow in his windshield.
" UNFA, UNFA. WE ARE ENGAGING A FUCKING DRAGON HERE. WE NEED QRF AND AIR COVER NOW!"
Not waiting for a response, he dropped the handset and wrenched his door open before resting his rifle on the top edge. Firing his rifle, he continued to pour encouragements to his troops, hoping silently to himself that support would arrive before they turned to ash.
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A dark green roof and a vibrating, shifting floor woke Tuka from her slumber. She could not remember where she was or the troubled faces around her. They were humans, that was for sure, yet not humans she had seen before. Sure, they had the same ears and same aura of beings devoid of magic, but something was off. And it wasn't just their clothing, although that was weird as well. It was their skin colour, a tone similar to the slightly darker skin of the Saderans, yet held an almost golden complexion. Each one had a grim expression painted onto their faces as they stared out of transparent portholes.
Following their gaze, Tuka was frozen as memories flooded her mind as the dragon, the blasted dragon that razed her village to the ground, filled her vision.
She had gotten a shot off before her father tackled her to the ground, pushing her out of the flames that billowed into her previous standing position, barely getting out of the way himself. That arrow, her arrow, flew high into the air, arcing slowly back down to earth as gravity did its thing. Her father picked her up and ran as she stared at the falling shaft, unable to look away.
The arrow disappeared as smoke wafted up into the air, the shadow of the dragon silhouetted as its ugly head reared upwards, eyes gleaming through the haze with an orangey shining glow. And that motion was what sealed the fate of that bright right eye.
It went out suddenly like someone had put out a fire by covering it in a blanket of sand, with a pained roar bursting into the air. She had been extremely happy as her father carried her to safety, letting off a small cheer at the monster's pain. Then everything changed.
A flap of wings and all the obscuring smoke was blown away. Tuka could clearly see a wood stick poking out of the beast's head, a blackish liquid oozing from the wound and dripping to the ground.
The elf was then sat on the edge of the village well, her attention switching from the dragon to her father, who was now smiling in triumph. She opened her mouth to ask why he was smiling as well, but was left silent as she saw the dragon's maw approaching.
Her father just mouthed goodbye, before pushing her over the edge and into the darkness, her last image before it cut to black was her father looking extremely smug as he disappeared behind rows of teeth.
As her mind flipped back into the present, she saw the humans were charging the dragon down, using staves to spit fire at the dragon. They aimed clumsily in hope of hurting the beast, but even she could see it was to no avail. Looking around to get her bearings even further, she saw what had to be carriages, yet had no horses to drive them. They also had staves mounted on the tops, these were larger than the one the man in front of her held. They were shouting at each other in a foreign language, trying to communicate something. Another glance at the dragon and she saw why. The staves were all firing at the dragon's chest to no effect, they couldn't harm it that way.
Staggering to her feet, the blonde elf stood up, naked as the day she was born as she grabbed onto the man's shoulder. A female tried to stop her, but the elf just shoved her out of the way. The human looked back at her, confusion twisting his face. Tuka did what she had to do before she fainted and fell back into oblivion, she pointed to her face and shouted, " EYES!"
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Mari caught the elf before she hit the aluminum flooring. Itami was impressed. The elf woke up just to give him valuable information before going back under, what a boss!
Looking closely at the dragon's head, he could now see an arrow sticking out from the right eye, the dragon hiding it when it turned its head right to keep its left eye on them. Clutching at his shoulder-mounted radio, he quickly spoke into it, " focus fire at its eyes, make it blind!"
50 caliber rounds now flew higher, from annoying flies to actual threats. And the dragon didn't like that. Its head angled back and fore, eye closed shut as it attempted to evade the incoming bullets. Up until the LAV readjusted its aim.
There wasn't much M791 armour piercing ammunition, to begin with, only 60 shells as the Canadian's didn't think they would need that much to fight the Empire. By this time it had run dry, leaving only high-explosive shells. The 25mm cannon spewed out its load, trying to hit a massive evading target. The slower fire rate in addition to the moving target meant that most of the munitions missed, but all it took was one. That shell impacted just above the left eye, exploding upon hitting the armour. The explosion barely hurt the beast, the concussive force causing a slight internal hemorrhage behind the eye that may have blinded the dragon with time, but something else took it out immediately. Steel shrapnel from the shell sliced through the thin membrane that lined the eyelid, cutting into the eye and destroying it, a stream of blood sprayed out as the hemorrhage was unleashed through the eyelid.
Now in agony and blinded, the dragon thrashed chaotically, unable to accurately fight back or flee. The wounded animal continued to breathe fire and rip the ground around long after the vehicle drove away at full speed.
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Warrant Officer Leung had the anti-tank weaponry teams prepped and ready to fire, waiting for the perfect time to commence firing. She had the Carl Gustavs aimed at the dragon's legs to knock it flat on the ground before the Panzerfaust 3 hit it with its slower, harder-hitting rocket. With the dragon blind and stuck in the confines of its sensory deprivation, it didn't really matter.
" OPEN FIRE!"
Both Carl Gs coughed, lobbing their tandem heat shells while the Panzerfaust lit off with a puff. The shells hit first, shredding the wings and opening large wounds into the dragon's back. With the wings out of the way, the Panzerfaust "punched" through the scales and burned deep into the body.
The beast fell with what could only be called a whimper. Massive chunks were missing from its back and chest cavity and yet, it was still alive. Its legs pushed pathetically into the ground, shifting in pain, its tail still thrashing about. It was dying.
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Finally got this chapter. Bit longer than usual, though I'm sure there are no complaints. Remember to leave reviews as they motivate me to write more and really helps me piece the story together, and the next chapter should be out soon.
