The goblin fleet sailed rapidly, faster than what the humans predicted due to the wind spells cast by the goblin shamans. They plowed through the waves, where drums beating the same rhythm throughout the whole fleet in a sustained about pace for the goblin rowers to work on.
Most of the goblins in the fleet were younglings, attracted by offers and promises of food, drink, plunder and riches, joined the Skull Krusher fleet sent out of the Mother City to raid the neighboring lands for food and resources. Leading the younglings are the Goblin Master Jiak the Skull Krusher who managed to make a name for himself by capturing a merchant's vessel and returning to the Mother City with its treasures.
In recognition of his exploits, the Elders raised him up into a Hobgoblin, reforming his body and mind, turning him stronger, faster and smarter. Now, he was made a Master, leading a force of over 200 ships and 40,000 goblins into the mainland to raid the people and their resources. Jiak took over two years to gather this number of ships and troops, backstabbing and stealing resources from other Goblin Masters in the Mother City, before having a strong enough force to have the Elders' approval for him to set sail with their blessings.
Jiak the Skull Krusher sat on his skull throne and grinned wickedly, relishing the thoughts of killing, rape and plunder soon to come.
-----
Skies over The New World, No. 1 Squadron, Dragon and No. 2 Squadron, Valkyrie and No. 3 Squadron, Cobra
Commander Tommy sat buckled on the chair that was bolted to the floor of the trailer, he looked at the UAV feed in the tactical display screen showing the goblin fleet approaching to the shore rapidly. The time estimate had changed from either of nine hours to roughly seven hours now. The time, taken by the squadron to scramble and the flight time took another two hours, meaning the goblin fleet will land within three hours or so.
He mentally calculated the distance and time to engagement and keyed the to all flight channel comms, "King Dragon to All units, enemy fleet less than 15 minutes away, look alive now!"
A series of confirmations replied him, and he keyed the comms to No. 2 Squadron where the Valkyries are grouped under. "King Dragon to Valkyrie One and Two, begin attack now, once bingo on ammo, RTB (Return to Base) for rearming and refuel, over."
"V One roger."
"Valkyrie Two copies that."
Tommy leaned over and looked out of the tiny viewport and watched the two bulky gunships increase their speed, breaking from the formation and roared towards the distance. "King Dragon to all Cobras, check your fuel and weapons, over."
Reports came in on each plane's fuel and weapon status and Tommy nodded, the Cobras will have enough fuel for almost an hour of combat before having to RTB for fuel.
"King Dragon, Blue has spotted the enemy ships!" Blue Thunder reported, he has a special throat mike strapped over his thick neck and a couple of speakers over his ears.
"Valkyrie Actual has tally on surface contacts, weapons standing by, over."
"Weapons green, go for attack!"
"Valkyrie Actual, roger that, weapons green, engaging!"
"Blue can see the Valkyries coming in high on an attack run!" The dragon sighed happily. "Oooo pretty!"
-----
Flight Lieutenant Peter piloting Valkyrie One, keyed his comms to the other Valkyrie piloted by Sergeant Legos, "V One to V Two, drop down to 100 meters sea level and reduce speed to 60% power and engage surface vessels. Weapons green, repeat weapons green."
"Roger that, One." Legos pushed his flight stick forwards, following Peter's Valkyrie lead, and reducing his throttle, and flip the master weapons switch. He marveled at the magical technology of the hoomans, enabling them to fly through the skies simply with machines.
Like every other child in the kingdom, they worship dragon riders for the ability to fly in the sky or Knights with their combat powers. For Legos, it was the freedom of flight that made him look up to dragon riders. Thus when the first call for volunteers to join the Airforce, he quickly signed up and was lucky he possessed a body that was able to handle something called G-force, which many other failed and vomited or fainted during the test.
He had flown the F/A-1 Cobra and the Valkyrie and enjoyed flying the Cobra more as he felt more freedom as the little plane responded to each of his controls, while the Valkyrie was more powerful but he felt it too enclosed and detached from the skies for him.
Ensuring the screen shows the '70 mm rocket' highlighted, he followed on Peter's flank, dropping down to 100 meters above sea level.
"V One to Two, we will attack one by one from the starboard side, observe my run and follow after I am done, over."
"Two, copies," Legos replied and followed Peter's craft as they looped to come in from the right side of the goblin fleet. He hung back, giving space for Peter to start his attack run, and provide observation before his turn. The sea was crowded with dozens and dozens of ships with black and red sails spread all below his craft, he was pretty sure the goblins were pointing at him.
"Valkyrie One, beginning attack run!"
The bulky gunship dipped down and dropped its speed even more, and the six pylons with rocket pods flared, as Peter rippled fire the rockets down the sides of the goblin ships. Balls of fire erupted as the rockets impacted the flimsy wooden ships while meters tall water splashes burst up when the rockets missed and hit the ocean.
Legos couldn't help but gave a cheer when he saw rockets blowing up the goblin ships. He had friends and family members losing loved ones to the hated goblins and he relished the thought of blowing them up. As Peter's Valkyrie went down the row of helpless ships, several more flaming balls of fire erupted and then Peter pulled up and looped around. "Wooo! Two did you see that? You're up next!"
"Roger, beginning attack!" Legos replied and angled his Valkyrie into position and drop his speed, lining up the targeting crosshairs on the next row of ships not attacked by Peter, and squeezing the trigger. The whoosh of the rockets shooked the Valkyrie slightly, making Legos grin as he felt like he held the power to destroy the world in his hands. Balls of fire burst up as his rockets hit their target, followed by white plumes of water.
He pulled up his Valkyrie after he reached the end of the fleet and looped back, just as Peter started his next attack run and the slower Cobras and dragons arrived at the scene.
-----
Goblin Sea, The Skull Taker
Jiak twitched his eyebrows in surprise as he first heard the strange roar coming from the skies, and looked up in wonder at two greyish objects flying over the fleet. The goblins all cried and pointed excitedly at the strange flying objects and one of them looped back and suddenly explosions went off among the fleet.
"Its an attack!" Jiak roared, as he stood up from his throne, "Ready the anti-dragon shooters!" He commanded his crew before turning around to a shaman beside him. "Relay my command to all the ships, tell them to form up in the anti-dragon formation now!"
The goblin shaman bowed and took out a crystal orb and started waving its hands over the orb and chanting some strange language. As the orb cast a purplish glow, the shaman relayed its Master message to every shaman holding a similar orb.
"Tell the shamans to use spells to take down those cursed flying monsters!" Jiak added as he saw the other strange flying monster turning and flying towards them.
-----
Skies over Goblin Sea
Blue Thunder disappointedly took to holding his station over the goblin fleet, flying in a large circle round and round while Tommy inside the command module directed the Cobras to attack in pairs at the goblin fleet. Quick Silver, the medium weight stayed next to Blue Thunder as an escort, both of them watching the one side battle unfolding underneath their wings.
The two pairs of fighter attackers F/A-1 Cobras split up and dived in from two different directions. The planes were loaded with two 70 mm rockets pod each holding 10 rockets at the underside of the hull next to each wing. The forward gunner/copilot was supposedly armed with dual machine guns, but the weapons were not ready yet, hence the copilots acted as spotters and navigators instead.
"King Dragon to all Cobras, conserve your ammo, two rockets per ship, over," Tommy ordered over the voice channels. "Make your shots count!"
And as the Cobras lined up for an attack, the skies suddenly in a nightmare. Bolts of lightning, fireballs, ice spikes, and even ballista bolts shot upward towards the attacking Cobras which they dodged and weaved with surprising skills.
"All Cobras, break! Break! Break!" Tommy yelled, surprised at the amount of magical anti-air fire coming from the fleet. He noticed the goblin ships had arranged themselves in a layered crescent formation and wondered what was that formation for.
The Cobras managed to wing out of the barrage of magical anti-air cover, only one of the planes taking a lightning bolt to the wings, which the magical defense barrier managed to negate the attack, only leaving behind a scorched mark on the wing.
"Valkyries are to draw fire from the Cobras!" Tommy ordered, "Cobras are to commence attack runs after the Valkyries have gone in! Let the Valkyries soak up all the AA fire!"
Chorus of acknowledgment sounded out from the pilots in the comms and the Cobras formed up again, circling back for another attack run, while the more heavily armored Valkyries dived in and strafed the ships while drawing fire.
The goblin fleet burst into what looks like fireworks, as bolts of lightning and fireballs raised up after the Valkyries, which flew too fast to be hit by most of the spells. A few lucky slammed against the armored hull of the Valkyries, and the pilots barely even felt anything, the only evidence of the spells impacts was just scorched and chipped paint.
The shamans exhausted from casting their spells, took a breather and the skies over the fleet cleared up, while the anti-dragon ballista was reloaded.
The Cobras took the opportunity in the lull of the anti-air defenses and dived in, adding their firepower into the foray, torching and blowing up more ships and goblins. Finally, with their ammunition depleted, the planes reformed up next to Blue Thunder and Quick Silver and returned to base. Despite the low accuracy of the rockets, the air strike left behind almost a quarter of the goblin fleet in flames.
"All units RTB," Tommy ordered as both No. 2 and No. 3 Squadron had formed up. "No. 1 Squadron is to stay and observe." The Valkyries in No. 2 Squadron and the Cobras in No. 3 broke formation and headed back to base for rearming and refueling.
Tommy looked at the chalkboard secured to one side of the wall, one of the command operator had written down the time estimates in columns and headings for each Squadron to return to base, ground crew servicing time and fuel time remaining. And on another column, the estimated time for the goblin fleet to hit land was also written down.
Tommy using the information, gauged that the Squadrons will be able to hit the goblin fleet one more time before they hit landfall and night comes. And when night falls, it will be harder for the rookie pilots to engage the goblin forces on the ground, so he most likely will commit the dragons for a night attack.
He wondered what the goblin admiral will do at this time, will they split their fleet or still brunch up as target practice for his pilots.
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Omg... im broke ... T.T
UNS Singapore, Command Bridge
Captain Blake folded his arms as he stood before the tactical display plot, watching the blue virtual icons indicating friendly units blinking on the scene.
"All units RTB," Call the command over the comms, and Blake watched the blue icons started blinking towards home. He turned his attention over to the screen displaying the smoking goblin fleet, the high resolution image taken from a remote camera mounted on the chest harness of Blue Thunder.
Commander Ford next to Blake said, "Looks like a quarter or more of the goblin fleet is decapitated from the strike."
Blake nodded, "Not bad for a bunch of newbies."
"Tommy's strike group should have enough time for a second strike before night falls," Ford added. "They should be able to whittle down the enemy a bit more for our welcoming party on the beach."
"Strange formation they are adopting," Blake pointed out at the crescent shaped fleet formation. "Luckily whoever is in charge did not scatter the fleet."
Ford frowned as he watched the goblin fleet, "It looks like some kind of encirclement formation. Look, the two tips of the crescent could cut off the escape of any ships, surrounding them."
"But for an anti air formation, it makes no sense," Blake said.
"No wait," Ford pointed to the middle of the formation, "I think it is a formation to do with dragons."
"Why do you say that?" Blake raised his eyebrows.
"Look, the way dragons attack are similar to a helicopter," Ford explained, "They hover in place and spit fireballs or spells and sweep over the target they are attacking."
"That crescent formation is used to trap the dragon in an encirclement," Ford continued, "it should allow spellcasters, archers, and ballistas to hit the dragon from all sides."
"But won't the dragons break out of the formation?" Blake pointed out.
"Most likely yes," Ford replied, "Don't forget dragons fly slower, especially accelerating from a hovering position."
"I see," Blake grinned, "Guess they did not expect to get hit by fast movers!"
Ford smiled back, "Yea, I think whoever is in charge there is probability cursing and swearing at our boys."
-----
Goblin Sea, The Skull Taker
Jiak the Skull Krusher cursed as he took in the sight of his ships burning around him, the fleet which he had painstakingly built up piece by piece. He glared up to the skies, seeing two dragons lazily circling above his fleet, most likely waiting for a chance to grab a tasty goblin snack.
"Inform all ships to push faster! We need to get to land before more of those flying creatures come back!" Jiak ordered, and his pet shaman bowed before relaying his command into the crystal ball. "What are those vile flying beasts?" He asked the shaman once he finished his orders. "Some kind of dragons?"
"Master... I have no idea," The shaman replied, "I could not detect any trace of magical power in them and they do not look like any dragons I know of."
Jiak frowned, "Tell the shamans to cast a shimmering spell over the fleet. Make sure we can't be spotted easily."
"Master, the spell will only hold for less than a span of a turn of the glass!" The shaman warned Jiak, "It will not cover the fleet all the way to land and the spell will exhaust all the powers of the shamans!"
"Tell the fleet to close up," Jiak replied after a moment's thought, "That will reduce the amount of power needed to cover the whole fleet."
"But, my master..." The shaman protested.
"Enough!" Jiak snapped, "Do it!"
"Yes, master..."
-----
Skies over Goblin Sea
The tech next to Commander Tommy suddenly gave a cry of surprise, prompting Tommy to turn his attention over from the map he was looking over. "What is it?"
"Sir! The enemy fleet..." The tech turned and gaped at Tommy, "It's gone! Only the wreckage from the air strike remains behind."
"What?" Tommy climbed out of his seat and stood over the tech, gripping the hand bars set on the ceiling of the module for balance. "Show me!"
"Sir, one minute they are there, the second they just vanished!" the tech said, showing the playback of the video of the goblin fleet.
The image showed the goblin fleet started to bunch up and a sort of shimmering over the air could be barely seen and the ships disappeared. Tommy replayed the video in slow motion and keyed his comms, "Blue, what do you see?"
Blue Thunder lazily flapped his wings, riding the warm air currents, and was half asleep when the speakers at his ears crackled to life. He snapped awake instantly, jerking the module on his back as he did, causing the people inside to curse.
"What? what?" Blue Thunder tilted his head downwards and using his forelimbs and wiped away his drool. "Huh?"
Tommy sighed, "Blue, do you see the goblin fleet?" He nearly fell off his feet when Blue suddenly jerked.
"Goblin fleet?" Blue Thunder blinked his eyes rapidly and looked down to the clear blue sea, "Aren't they below... HUH? Where did they go?" He narrowed his eyes and craned his neck left and right, trying to spot them. "Wait, did I go off course?"
"Nevermind, Blue," Tommy said over the comms, "Quick, how about you?"
"They disappeared suddenly below us," Quick Silver the medium weight replied in his deep bass voice. "They used a spell to hide themselves."
"Roger that, tango, out," Tommy cut the comms and pondered his options before instruction the tech, "Try infra?"
The tech nodded, switching the camera mode to infra, which the display showed up in a dark grey color. "Look, see here!" The tech pointed out dozens of ships like shapes highlighted in white against a grey background.
"Damn," Tommy cursed, "They used a spell to hide the ships. The Cobras has no infravision, only the Valkyries are equipped with infrared. This is gonna be a bitch to fight!"
"Sir, I don't think they will be able to keep up such a large scale spell for long," the tech said, "It should take a lot of juice to power a spell like that over a huge area."
Tommy nodded, agreeing with the tech's analysis. He looked at the digital clock on the display and thought, another three hours to sunset. The Valkyrie and Cobra squadrons should arrive within 30 minutes. "Order No 2 Squadron to engage the fleet first, which No 3 squadron to take a holding pattern 10 kilometers away. We let the Valkyries hit them first and when the spell expires, send in the Cobras. Prioritize the Scabbard Class transports first!"
"Yes, Sir!' The tech replied and hurried to relay the orders to the squadrons.
-----
West of Seacliff Mines
Dozens of half-tracks rumbled down the beach before stopping before a red flag stuck into the sand. The rear tailgate opened and troops in digital camo hopped out and formed up before the flag. Once their cargo has been dumped, the half-tracks rolled out and return to pick up another batch of soldiers.
"Alright, you maggots!" Corporal Mills yelled over the crashing of waves and pointed to a rise overlooking the sea. "Grab your entrenching tools and dig! I want proper firing foxholes here, here and here!"
"Yes, Corporal!" The recruits chorused and grabbed their entrenching tools and started to dig.
"Come on, chop chop!" Mills yelled as he strolled among the recruits digging foxholes, "Your lives will depend on the foxholes you dig! You will fight in them, take cover in them and sleep in them! Make sure you dig them nice and deep!"
"The enemy is coming!" Mills continued as he yelled encouragement to the frantically digging recruits, "This is no longer a drill! This is real action!" He pointed towards the sea and said, "Hundreds and thousands of green skinned scum are headed our way to kill us!"
He paused and yelled to the Orc recruits, "No offense there, wasn't talking about you guys. Anyway, goblins are coming and it is a good day to kill some goblins!"
"The sky is clear, we got a nice breeze here, great view of the sea," Mills stood over the rise watching his platoon of recruits, "It practically a perfect shooting range built for us here!"
"HOORAH!" The recruits yelled as they dug faster, piling sand and soil over the sides of the holes.
"You boys will hold this stretch of the beach," Mills continued, "Platoon 1 will be on your left flank and Platoon 3 on your right! We will hold this beach with everything you got!"
-----
Major Frank stood on the side of the jeep and tried to spot the enemy fleet with his binos, just as two Valkyries screamed past over his head, darting towards the horizon. He lowered his binos and looked up at the two dark shapes in the sky, and frowned.
"Airforce is saying the fleet is cloaked?" Frank asked Pike who was leaning on the side of the jeep with a pair of shades.
"Yup," Pike nodded, "But it should be temporary, we can spot them with infra or wait till the spell wears off."
Frank raised his binos again, following the Valkyries' flight path, " It's almost time, is everything ready?"
"Yes, Sir," Pike replied, "All four recruit companies have dug in and Delta Company is on standby as a reserve force. Problem is how will the goblins scatter their fleet or hit the beach in one concentrated force."
Flashes appeared over the horizon of the sea, lighting up the purplish sky. A short while later, rumbles of thunder could be heard. "Well the Valkyries have engaged them, hopefully, the Airforce can sink as many ships as possible."
"Well, I think its a good chance to test the recruits," Pike said, "Good live fire training for them, and also for our new artillery corps."
"Hows the set up of the artillery going?" Frank asked as he put down his binos.
"We got 6 batteries of 120 mm mortars on stand by, each battery has three mortars," Pike replied, "They are spread out behind the companies for support fire."
"Problem is that we do not have much ammo for sustained fire. Each gun has only roughly 60 mortar bombs, but we got plenty of starburst shells to illuminate the night sky for the troops to see." Pike said, "Production of the new smokeless gunpowder is still insufficient for our needs, so we used the new smokeless powder for the mortar bomb's propelling charge while the warhead is good old black powder."
"The mortarmen might need to relocate depending on where the goblins land," Pike added, "So I took the liberty of attaching some half-tracks and jeeps to their batteries.
Frank nodded and snapped his binos up again, "There! They came out of hiding behind their magic."
Pike took out his bino and observed the mass of black dots in the horizon, background by flames and smoke, "Damn, we need to learn that cloaking spell, it will be damn useful."
-----
Goblin Sea, Skull Taker
"Faster!" Jiak roared, "Land can be seen! Once we have landed, we will no longer be at the mercy of those flying monsters!"
"M-master!" One of his hobgoblin bodyguards called out pointing, "More flying monsters!"
"Shaman! Use all your powers and blow the fleet to shore now!" Jiak roared at the pale faced shaman beside him, "If not we all die here!"
The shaman nodded resignedly and spoke into his crystal orb, and before long, a sick greenish glow lit up all the ships in the fleet and they suddenly accelerated, hurling towards the distant shoreline. One by one the shamans in the goblin fleet collapsed from mana burn, blood flowing out from their nose and ears as they burnt up their life energy.
The leading galleys glided up the sandy beach with a loud crash and oar not properly secured slammed against their owners, breaking bones. Other ships behind being slower to steer away, rammed into the ships already beached on the shore, causing chaos and casualties among the goblin crew.
Soon every ship settled down on shore, and cries of pain and the dying could be heard over the waves. Jiak grinned, "We made it! Now get off the ships!"
Just as he said that several whistling sounds could be heard over the waves, growing louder and louder. Jiak looked up in confusion and his world turned into fire and hell.
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