Gracemeria, 0930hrs
With the airbase in Alnus nearing completion, the Generals of Emmeria decided it was finally time to send some fixed wing aircraft to the formerly Unknown Region, now called New Anea. And lined up were vehicles ready to take the initial aircraft and aircrews to Alnus Air Base. There were only two aircraft that could be taken apart and reassembled in quick enough time. Those two being the A-10 Thunderbolt II and the F-16C Fighting Falcon. Crowds of Emmerians gathered along the stretches of road where the convoy would drive down. The bird everyone was really gathering around was that of Colonel Howard. The Bird emblem of Gracemeria's 28th Fighter Squadron, along with kill marks on the nose of the A-10 was drawing the most attention. The pilots themselves were in a couple of Humvees at the front of the convoy, and at the wheel was the Colonel himself. Just like in 2013, he was the Sole member of his squadron, but he was driving the other A-10 pilots with him. The radio chatter from personnel getting everything ready was broadcast through the speakers.
No one spoke a word until Talisman himself broke the suffocating silence.
"Are you all that scared of me?" He asked the group, turning around to see the other three pilots trying to avoid eye contact.
"With all due respect, sir, we're all just a tad bit nervous to be in the same car as the Angel of Emmeria." One of the pilots said.
"Guys, its not that big a deal. We all do the same job here. Fly planes and kick ass." He said, almost enthusiastically. The other three laughed a little, seeming to ease up a little. "But on the other hand, we are about to become the invader. In a sense."
"What do you mean by that Colonel?" The pilot riding shotgun asked. They attacked us first, even got one of my friends in the opening blow."
"I know how you feel. But think about. We pushed the enemy into they territory and even seized a good portion of their land. All while taking little or no casualties." Talisman explained. Marshallers and other personnel were scrambling around as the convoy was just about ready to head off. "Not to mention we have almost complete air superiority." Talisman started the vehicles engine and prepped himself mentally for what was about to come.
"Whoever or whatever lies on the other side of this Gate is gonna fell the full force of the Emmerian military once we get over there." Personnel standing on either side of the Gate motioned for the convoy to begin transiting through. Talisman gave a nod and salute, along with the other pilots in the car. "Here we go." Talisman let off the brake and the car began rolling forward. He didn't exceed 30mph, not wanting to outrun the trucks hauling the aircraft. One of the pilots began filming the transit through his phone, and soon they were washed in both bright light and utter darkness. The four pilots were all stunned by the beauty of it all. After about 5 minutes of driving in the void, the light from the other end could be seen. And then, light.
Alnus Hill, 2130hrs
The road leading out of the tunnel gave way to a beautiful starry night in New Anea. Military personnel from all branches were lined up along the path, cheering the group on as much as the civilians were back home. They soon were stopped by the head commander of the New Anea Division.
"Colonel! Its an honor to meet you face to face for once!" He shouted over the noise. "I'm General Fredrickson. I'll have the trucks head to the airfield so we can get your aircraft ready to fly as soon as possible!"
"The privilege is all mine, Sir and thank you! Where should we park?" He was then directed to the designated area where some jeeps and were parked. It wasn't long before both Humvees were parked outside the Base HQ building and the pilots were in the office of the General. Again, it was oddly quiet with all eyes on Talisman.
"Good evening, everyone. Firstly, I want to be the first to welcome you to Joint Base Alnus Hill. I've already introduced myself to you all, and this here is my advisor, Major General Benson." The Major General just gave a silent salute, still looking towards Talisman, who was by now a little annoyed by the stares he was getting. "Next, I want to just acknowledge the Elephant in the room. We are at war here. We want to end this without too much more bloodshed, but I know that's asking too much. Talisman, I did receive a message about your Strike Eagle, and we will be operation here with it soon. But soon could mean a few months down the line." The ace just nodded.
"There will be more infrastructure here in the coming weeks, but for now, we have barracks set up here for you all until the airfield gets a bit more refurbishment. Until then, look around, head over to the airfield and enjoy yourselves while you can." The General dismissed the group, who promptly made their way over to the airfield via their Humvees. Tarmac had been settled into the ground in certain spots, while the helicopter portion was nearly complete. The aircraft were being from their truck beds, and rolled into a large hangar that had been erected. The first of them was Talismans Warthog. Lucky, the landing gear of each plane was able to allow for easy loading and unloading of the fuselages. The other pilots watched as their respective planes were unloaded, for a while at least. One by one, they left the hangar to go explore the airfield so far.
Talisman soon made his way over to the helicopter landing area, where lined of Apaches, Chinooks, and UH-9s made a lane all the way down the stretch the flight line. Soon the noise of an Apache flying overhead filled the air. The Ace looked up to see the distinctive attack helicopter cut through the sky and slow to a hover over the landing area. It touched down and began to taxi towards the flight line to make room for another helicopter, a UH-9, to land. Once the helicopters engines were shut down, ground crew immediately hitched the helicopter to a tug and it was pulled back into it's position on the flight line. And out came it's pilots who immediately noticed the Ace watching nearby.
"Well, it's about time you flyboys showed up." D-Ray said, walking up to Talisman. "Good to finally see you getting back in the saddle."
"I never left it." He replied. "So, the war must be treating you pretty well."
"You could say that. We've just flying patrols and doing aerial reconnaissance for the last week or so." Jackie, the gunner of the Apache, replied. The group walked into another building nearby. It was partially built, but some of the rooms had been completed. It was where he would spend the next few days, going over maps and looking at footage taken by the other pilots.
"Most of this footage was taken over the last few days. Some by UAV's and some by us." The footage showed some settlements along the flight path of each aircraft. "Seems normal, right? But watch this one." He then showed footage from one of the UAV's. The camera panned to the horizon, the image went bright and the drone footage went dead.
"Christ… And we haven't seen this thing in person yet?"
"The locals have, hence why there's not any settlements in the mountains." D-Ray was about to explain more about the environment when the alarm went off.
"Scramble! Sorry Talisman, but duty calls!" Talisman only nodded, watching the helicopter pilots head out to their aircraft.
D-Ray and Jack soon arrived at their bird, which was swarming with ground crew doing final checks. The duo climbed into their respective seats, and began to start up the chopper. Within minutes, they were in the air.
"Shooter Squadron, you're being tasked with close air support for one of our recon units. They're currently engaging a large dragon that is attacking a convoy of civilians." The two went cold. The very thing they were hoping not to encounter was their target. "Turn onto heading 320 for 85 miles."
"Shooter 1 copies, let's go bag ourselves a dragon." The formation turned and made top speed towards the target area.
Recon Team 1
Rifle fire filled the air as the Dragon charged at the M113 that was shooting at it.
"1-2 don't get yourself killed! Get out of there!" Tavaris watched as the Dragon made a lunge at the APC, thankfully missing it.
"Steven, hit it!"
"On it's way!" The moving at full speed, the 120mm fired a round at the dragon. The round pierced the dragon, lodging itself into it's side, but all it did was piss it off.
"Get the civies out of here 1-3!"
"Recon 1, this is Shooter, we're about 5 minutes out. Just hang in there." They had been hanging in there for about 5 minutes already, and many of the civilians had perished already.
"We don't know how much longer we can last we- DRIVER HARD RIGHT! FIRE BREATH INCOMING!" The tank lurched to the left as as a stream of hot fire and air hit the ground where they would've been. Tavaris ducked Into the tank, but not fast enough as the hot air burned part of his exposed skin. The interior of the tank heated up, making most of the tank hot to the touch.
"The engine's cooked!" Delilah shouted into the intercom.
"No use in staying here, get to the others!" Tavaris ordered. "Abandon the vehicle!" Jacobi was the first one out of the turret, rifle in hand. Tavaris overrode the gunners control, and continued to pepper the dragon with the coaxial gun.
"Steven go! I'll draw fire!"
"I didn't leave you in Silvat! I'm not leaving you now!" He shifted over to the loaders position. "As long as Delilah is safe, I'm good." Tavaris nodded solemnly.
"Get a shell in that breech!" He loaded another shell. Tavaris raised the gun to maximum elevation, and through the scope he could see the mouth of the dragon opening up. Then the dragon seemed to raise up in pain, shielding it's eyes.
"1-3 to 1-1, if you're still there, we got you covered. That elf we saved just gave up a trump card!" The voice was that of Monty's.
"Tell her we owe her big time." Tavaris pulled the trigger, and the shot left the barrel. The shell hit the soft underbelly of the dragon, and buried itself deep inside. The dragon roared in agony and was preparing to incinerate the tank below it. Tavaris stared down the glowing mouth.
A massive explosion ripped through the air and the dragon was obscured by a large dust cloud. It roared in pain and with a flap of the wings, it lifted into the sky. Tavaris pulled himself up through the turret cupola and looked around for the source.
"We got Air Support!" In the distance, a couple of Apache helicopters could be seen.
"This is Shooter 1, we're engaging the Dragon."
"Roger that Shooter, you just save our hides." A few more explosions from missile strikes hit the dragon, and it decided to preserve its own existence and fly away, one arm, one eye and half a tail lighter. Tavaris sighed and gripped his arm. It was still in pain from the heat blast, but nothing a bit of ointment and some ice couldn't fix. It wouldn't be long until the M113 came to a screeching halt next to the half-destroyed tank, and out came Montey and Sarah.
"I'm fine, get to Taurus first." Steven stated, hoping down the side of the tank. Sarah immediately began to treat Tavaris's burns, luckily, they were only third-degree burns.
"You don't know how lucky you are, Taurus. I thought you were goners." Sarah said, finishing the bandages.
"I know, I know… I almost got the tank destroyed. Again." He said with sigh. "And the civies?"
"Half of them are gone, either incinerated or gravely injured." Sarah said. "But with the equipment we had, and the manpower-"
"Save it, Sarah. Please…" Tavaris said. "Thanks for patching me up." Once Sarah was done, she climbed down from the tank and rushed over to some others that needed treatment. Montey, however would take her place.
"Don't beat yourself up about this, Tavaris. Even if we had a proper battalion, some of these people were not making it out of this. We got ambushed but a flying reptile. Nothing could've prepared us for that. But you got some balls on you for staring down a dragon."
"I blame the adrenaline." Tavaris replied, looking around at all the carnage. It wasn't anything that he hadn't seen before, but it still would shake any soldier worth his salt. And with an engine on the verge of melting down, they would be stuck there amongst it for a few hours.
One thing was made certain, though, they needed to get back to Alnus and inform the top brass about this threat. If the Emmerians were going to do anything to be looked on in good light, taking out that dragon would be a massive start.