"RAAAAWWWWRRRR~!!!"
The Red Dragon stomped mightly towards the pathetic meat bags and the confused looking youngling. It gave another roar, wanting to impose its dragon fear to the lesser creatures when suddenly a few jets of cold liquid and some thick foamy substance landed on its body.
Instantly steam erupted out as the water got into contact with its superheated scaled while the firefighting foam thickly coated its body. The Red Dragon gave out a yelp in confusion as tried to back off away from the water jets sprayed by those meat bags.
It raised its wings to block the water sprays and tried to spit some fireballs out only to swallow a large mouthful of water and foam. It started to cough and splutter in shock and distaste, and in its haste, it tripped over its own tail and flopped backward in a tangle.
Blue Thunder laughed and quickly muffled his laughter by burying his head with his wings when both Pike and Stamford glared at him. "Is it so funny?"
"BWAHAhahahaa!" Blue Thunder nearly rolled around on the ground in glee, "Serves it right!"
"Alright, cease fire!" Pike roared out, commanding the men to shut their hoses off. "We only got so much water to waste!"
The drenched Red Dragon sneezed and shivered, looking like a wet dog. The surrounding temperature had dropped drastically like someone just turned off the heater. It glared resentfully at Blue Thunder who quickly avoided its glare and swallowed the laughter boiling out of his throat. "Ahem..."
"Sooo... what do we do now?" Blue Thunder whispered, "I thought we are not gonna piss it off? It looks mightly pissed off now!"
"Can you just shut up?" Stamford felt a major headache coming and it wasn't due to the increasing humidity. "You are not doing any better!"
Blue Thunder covered his mouth with his wings and ducked low, "Sorry~!"
In the meanwhile, Pike had strolled up before the wet and indignation looking Red Dragon which was baring its teeth at him. Pike looked pretty chill and unconcern, while Blue Thunder whispered in awe, "Does Top doesn't feel the heat? Is he really cold blooded and made out of ice inside?"
Stamford gave Blue Thunder a 'wtf' look and asked, "Now where did you hear all that nonsense?"
"From the Marines!" Blue Thunder's eyes were as round as giant saucers as he gazed with awe and worship at Pike. "They say he once walk through hell and fire as if it was just a stroll in the park! Truly!"
"Stop listening to those Marine's housewives gossips and nonsense!" Stamford rubbed his aching head. "Gods... you are older than all of them yet you still are so gullible!"
"But they swear its true!" Blue Thunder gave a gulp, "I even remember seeing him at the walls! He ordered those firefighters to spray their magic at one of my old wing mates! Scary!"
Stamford shooked his head at Blue Thunder's adoration and awe to Pike, thinking that Pike was just wearing an environmental suit that regulates temperature underneath his camo fatigues. He didn't have the heart to break Blue Thunder's image of his idol.
"Stop listening to gossips! Or I cut your cheese fries rations!" Stamford warned sternly.
"Oh, noes! My cheese fries!"
-----
Pike stared eye to eye evenly with the Red Dragon and growled, "You bring the heat up again, and I get my boys to give u a nice dose of fire foam. You clear?" while he gestured to his men with the hoses.
The Red Dragon eyes narrowed and it followed the gestures of the strange meat bag to the sides were several more similar looking meats were holding on some long wiggling things. It remembered that they spray some sort of liquid and water that made it cold and wet!
It growled back at the strange unfearing meat bag, who alone stood before it speaking in some strange harsh language. Did this puny meat bag dare to try to threaten it? What insolence!
The Red Dragon braced itself back on its fours and was about to pounce again when the strange meat bag yelled something, and water sprays hammered it from several sides. It squeaked in surprise and discomfort, backing away from the water sprays before the meat bag gave a wave and the water disappeared.
Pike gave a sigh, "Blue! Go pin it down!"
"But... Sarge... I don't like getting very wet too!" Blue whined back.
"Blue... You wanna know how wet you can get when I get my hands on you?" Pike growled.
"YES SIR YES! Wait! I mean no, NO SIR!" Blue Thunder felt a chill down his spine and he quickly stood at attention, mimicking the Marines parade stance. "I go pin that dragon down, but please don't spray me too!"
"5... 4... 3..." Pike started to tap his feet in annoyance while looking at his wristwatch. "2..."
"I'M ON IT!" Blue Thunder cried out in panic and with a wooosh, he leaped over the heads of everyone and with two bounces, he landed on top of the shocked Red Dragon. "Excuse me!"
The surprised Red Dragon barely managed to resist when all 40 plus tons of weight landed on it. It screamed out in shock and pain as Blue Thunder tried to saddle on its back. "Keep still! And it will be over soon!" Blue Thunder roared as he tried to hold down the struggling Red Dragon without seriously injuring it.
"Ow!" Blue Thunder cursed as an errant red scaled wing slapped his face. "You nearly took my eye out! Urghhh!" The Red Dragon managed to squirm ontop its back. and face Blue Thunder, snapping at his face with its powerful jaws while Blue Thunder managed to pin its arms and legs with his own.
"Stop that!" Blue Thunder suddenly got enough and roared mightly directly at the Red Dragon, who surprisingly flinched back from his roar. "Stop... ?!"
-----
When that strange youngling suddenly landed on its back, it felt so shocked that it froze for a second which allowed the youngling to force it onto the floor in an embarrassing pose. When it finally regained its senses, it struggled angrily, thinking what a disrespectful youngling who laid its dirty hands on it.
But as it managed to flip itself over, the youngling had pinned its arms down with its superior weight and roared into its face! It looked at shock at the disrespectful youngling and growled, narrowing its eyes and a rumble rose from its chest as it prepared to unleash its breathe attack.
-----
"Oh fuck..." Pike watching at the side saw that the situation was going sour. "SPRAY THAT DRAGON NOW!"
Instantly water and foam were hosed directly at the Red Dragon's face, stunning it and making it choke as it unintentionally swallowed water and foam. It started to struggle wildly under Blue Thunder which tilted his head as far away from the water sprays as possible.
"Erm... guys..." Blue Thunder called out while holding firmly down on the Red Dragon. "I think that's enough water for the day? GUYS?"
"Cease fire!" Pike roared and strolled up towards the two Dragons once the water and foam had died down.
Blue Thunder gave a sigh of relief and peered down at the choking dragon underneath him. "I think it's dying..."
Pike took a look at the slumped head of the Red Dragon and yelled, "Blue, give it CPR!"
"CPR?" Blue Thunder looked at Pike in surprise, "What is CPR?"
"Urghh..." Pike frowned, "Forget it... Just use both your arms, put them like this and press against the chest of it." He demonstrated against the ground. "Press down against the lungs to force the water and foam out."
"Erm okay, I try..." Blue Thunder scratched his head and mimicked Pike's actions and press down hard on the chest of the Red Dragon. "HMMM?!"
"What is it?" Pike asked seeing the expression on Blue Thunder's face. It was surprisingly easy to read his facial expressions, thought Pike.
"Erm... I think its a female!" Blue Thunder appeared to look embarrassed. "Ehh... should I even be touching her... brea... I mean chest?"
"She is choking on the foam, you idiot," Stamford yelled as he came up next to them, "Force it out of her throat and lungs or she chokes to death, you big dummy!"
"Oh yes, of course!" Blue Thunder cleared his throat and went back to pressing the chest of the dragon.
"Roll her over to her side!" Stamford yelled, "Dek, grab the first aid box from Blue!"
Blue Thunder gently rolled the Red Dragon to her side, watching with mixed emotions as the Red Dragon coughed out large mouthfuls of water, foam and some blood. "Oh dear..."
"Since when you cared about modesty?" Stamford asked while he grabbed a listening horn from the first aid toolbox and held it against the heaving chest of the Red Dragon, listening to her lungs. "It sounds clear, might still have some water inside."
"Open her jaws, Blue," He ordered, and waited while Blue Thunder prised open the Red Dragon's jaws, "Massage her throat upwards, see if you can smoothe any trapped foam or water out."
"I watched enough drama to understand modesty and molest!" Blue Thunder snorted while he gently rubbed the dragon's throat, and after a short while the Red Dragon gave a mighty heave and vomited out another large mouthful of water and foam with some blood mixed together. "There now, all good now!" Blue Thunder gently patted the back of the Red Dragon. "I don't wanna get sued!"
"Phew, looks like its all expelled out," Stamford said, as he pressed the listening horn against the side of the Red Dragon which looked around her in surprise at the people and Blue Thunder patting her back. "Seriously, I am gonna ban all your dramas!"
Blue Thunder stuck his tongue out at Stamford before he gave his best dragon smile at the shocked and confused looking Red Dragon which stared wide-eyed back at them before her eyes narrowed in angry and she slapped Blue Thunder across the face with her wing and flipped him off her body.
She growled in anger and stared at the meat bags surrounding her and the disrespectful youngling that mounted her. "Filthy low blood! You dare lay your hands on me! Disgraceful!"
Pike frowned and stopped his men from spraying more water and foam at the clearly pissed off Red Dragon. The surrounding temperature was slowly rising again as the Red Dragon recovered her senses. Pike pointed to himself and said, "Pike." before he pointed to the Red Dragon who glared at his direction with hate-filled eyes.
She turned her head when one of the meat bags she recognized as the fearless one that approached and tried to threaten her with those magic water spells said something while pointing to himself. "Pi-e?"
Are they trying to talk to her? She thought. She knew of those hairless meat bags who used to offer her food and sacrifices in the past and in those days, only a handful barely knew enough of her tongue to communicate properly with her.
She glanced to the side, seeing those strangely dressed meat bags with those strange contraptions that barely gave off any magical powers but were powerful effect to suppress her fire element powers.
She also knew that she blacked out for a while, only to wake up to see them surrounding her and that... disgraceful youngling on top of her, rubbing and touching her body! As she thought of that scene, her anger flared up again and she gave off a growl at the clearly cowed youngling on the side.
She turned and look at the strange fearless meat bag who was called 'Pi-e' started to point at her without any respect in his posture and seems to ask what is her name.
"Rastraz the Red, Pride of the Volcanic Dragons!" She proudly puffed her chest out, despite the pain in her chest, which she did not know how she had gotten injured.
"Ra-taz... Rasta... Rastras?" The meat bag Pi-e, repeated and said. "Rastraz?"
Rastraz was surprised that he could pronounce her name properly after a while tries and nodded with approval.
"Good, you will make a good servant for me!"
Advance chapters are available on Pat-reon (Book 1 completed)
https://www.patreon.com/neobear
-----
Join the discussion in Discord
https://discord.gg/A8Tm86V
-----
Donate/Support me via Paypal now!
https://paypal.me/neobear
-----
Enjoy~
UNS Singapore, Command Bridge
"Captain, Ground Team led by Master Sergeant Pike has established communications with the Dragon," One of the operators reported from his station.
"Great," Blake nodded from his seat, "See if he can entice the Dragon into our ranks. Failing that, make sure the Dragon does not approach within 150 kilometers of any of our outposts and the city."
Commander Ford raised an eyebrow and asked, "You wanna recruit that dragon?"
"Why not?" Blake smiled, "We have ample food now, what we are lacking is bodies."
"Another dragon?" Ford folded his arms as he leaned against the tactical plot table. "Seriously?"
'Yes, it's still a sentient being," Blake replied, "It might not be able to work in some industries but it can still be useful in the aviation sector. Not to mention their shit actually provides quite a bit of useful chemical compounds."
"Ha! If Blue Thunder and the rest of the dragons heard that you just hire them for their shit," Ford laughed, "I wonder what will they think about that!"
Blake grinned, "Well, we did mine the shit of their ancestors for saltpeter. Not to mention if this dragon can just produce thermal heat naturally, there is a lot of applications we can use it for."
"Sir?" A voice called out from the Command Bridge hatch and Blake saw Lieutenant Tavor from Intelligence making his way over. "I might have some bad news here."
"Damn," Blake gestured him over to the tactical plot table, "what is it?"
Tavor keyed his tablet to sync with the tactical table before he displayed several images. "As you know, we run a four-tier defense surveillance and detection network. The outer most layer is set at 200 kilometers. This layer is covered by our remaining UAVs."
"The second layer is covered by the Cobras on Combat Air Patrols roughly patrol around a 150 kilometer radius around our borders," Tavor continued, "The third layer is covered by the dragons, within a 50 to 100 kilometer band."
"And finally, our final line is covered by motion sensors seeded at key locations and Marine ground patrols," Tavor finished uploaded all the files into the system. "As with the incident with the Goblin invasion fleet a few month's back, I had tasked a UAV to do a recon pass every day."
Tavor selected an image and enlarged it on the screen, "This was taken 4 days ago, this 3 days ago and this was 2 days and this was yesterday." The images show goblins ships appearing on the wet docks of Goblin Island.
"This looks like a military built up!" Ford exclaimed. "Where did all these ships come from?"
"We suspect that they have some dry docks or construction slips hidden inside the sea caves dotting the interior of the cove, that is why we did not spot them earlier." Tavor explained, "This clearly shows that the goblins are preparing for something, and we counted roughly 30 'Dagger' class galleys and 10 'Sword' class sloops."
"It is way lesser than what they have thrown at us previously," Tavor said, "My department take on this is that this is a raiding party or pirates setting out for plunder."
"Any signs of our new friends from the Isles?" Blake asked, "Could the sea goblins be targeting them?"
"Most likely yes, but they might not be specifically aiming for our trade ships," Tavor said. "After all, we do spot one or two convoys of Isles merchant ships passing by us."
"The trade deal with the Isles still has a week or so before they are supposed to deliver their promise," Ford reminded everyone. "As for their payment of weapons and armor. We have them all ready and stored in climate controlled warehouses at Far Harbour. Even the glass they ordered is completed and is awaiting transportation to the warehouses."
"Put up more eyes to look out for the Isles' ships," Blake ordered. "Also continued keeping tabs on Goblin Island. When that Goblin Fleet sails, I want to know about it. Clear?"
"Yes Sir!"
-----
Northern Forest
In the past two days, several tents had sprung up among the ruined forest, where two disgruntled dragons laid watching each other cautiously. The temperature had returned to normal but the humidity was still high, making Flight Sergeant Stamford easily irritated.
"Come on, Blue!" Stamford stood before Blue Thunder with the top half of his flight suit tied around his waist, exposing a white tee while his arms were on his hips. "Keep talking to her! You know the translator will only work if you two keep talking!"
"But... she's scary!" Blue Thunder bowed his head low, "I meant, look at those eyes of hers! Actually its quite pretty but she wants to kill me!"
"For god's sake!" Stamford rubbed his sweaty face, "You are a goddamn dragon! You are a male and you are larger than her! How can you be so scared still!"
"But... females are hard to understand!" Blue Thunder whimpered, "I watched enough dramas to know that!"
"Alright, I'm cutting your hours on the Entertainment Rooms will be cut!" Stamford added, "Those damn soap operas are filling your bird brains with nonsense!"
"Nooo! I'm still watching 'Days of our lives'!" Blue Thunder moaned, "Please! I do it! I talk to her now ok?"
Stamford looked stunned for a while, "What the fuck? Why are you watching that shit of a soap opera?"
"It's interesting!" Blue Thunder grinned, "There's almost everything inside from love to family to death, even curses and vampires! Hehehehe! Great insight on hooman life!"
"Blue, I am gonna have a serious talk to you about what shows you can watch later," Stamford shook his head helplessly, "I wonder which idiot uploaded that series into the database..."
"Go talk to her now! Talk more!" Stamford yelled as Blue Thunder tried to creep away.
He whined, "Do I have to?"
"You want me to get Top over here to have a heart to heart talk?" Stamford decided to use Pike's reputation.
"Oh, it's okay, he's busy!" Blue Thunder moaned quickly, "I go right now!" And he hopped over towards the Red Dragon that was lying serenely on her side, watching the ongoing around her with mild interest.
"Hi, there!" Blue Thunder gave a forced cheerful greeting, as he approached the Red Dragon called Rastraz, who glared at him with her golden eyes. "Erm, how are you doing?"
Rastraz growled at the male youngling who came up to her without any proper etiquette and sighed inwardly. The young ones are always the ones that cause troubles. She had taken the past couple of days to assess her situation.
The strange meat bags appeared to be similar but there are actually two different races, the long eared people, and the short eared ones. She remembered encountering the long eared people many many moons back, and they worshipped her like a god.
It would appear that the descendants of her followers had probably forgotten her over time while she was asleep in the volcano if not those of her followers had passed on to the next life and these are of another nation.
These walking meats were so short lived, thought Rastraz as she glanced at the antics of these people around her. She turned her attention back to the youngling and wondered how did their proud race now willingly serve under those that once prey and worshipped them as gods.
Blue Thunder sighed and turned his head around and hissed to Stamford who was eyeing him like a hawk.
"She's not talking!"
-----
Highway to Far Harbor
Blake sat shotgun on the jeep as his driver gunned the engine down the super highway towards Far Harbor. The newly constructed work was like a miracle to the locals as they finished work on the road in just a month's time.
The freshly paved highway provided a much faster transportation route for the construction materials to travel up and down the Colony to Far Harbor while a split way links the highway towards the mines.
Several trucks rumbled passed the jeep carrying ores and other processed materials towards the industrial parks for the hungry factories to produce everything that they needed.
Blake smiled contently and felt that despite all, he had done pretty well for his people here. Just several months ago, when they first crashed landed here, there was nothing and now a thriving city and industries were built and the food was no longer worries on his mind.
In just another two more months, it will mark the 1st year anniversary of their crash landing on this planet, thought Blake. Damn, time flies.
The jeep soon arrived at its destination and Blake hopped off, leaving instructions for his driver before he headed towards a nondescriptive structure built alongside the harbor, with part of its structure out in the sea.
A couple of security officers saluted him as he approached and the sturdy looking metal door swung open to admit him in. Cooling air greeted him as he stepped into the building and out of the sun.
"Captain!" A youngish looking sailor leading a small party of other personnel stood at attention and saluted. "Senior Spaceman Mason, Sir!"
"At ease, gentlemen," Blake said after returning the salutes. "What have you got for me?"
"Come this way, Sir!" Mason gestured to Blake to follow him. "We have successfully tested two half sized prototypes and will be beginning to develop our third prototype following the feedback and test results from the first two."
"How much time is still needed before we can have a combat ready model?" Blake asked as they entered into a dry construction slip where two wooden speedboats sat on support moorings.
"We need about two months or so, at least," Mason replied as he did some mental calculation. "There are still some technical issues we need to iron out before we can start mass production of the boats."
"That's taking too long," Blake frowned, "Any chance of having the prototypes or a base model for use within a week?"
"A week?" Mason's jaws dropped slightly, "Sir, that is impossible. We barely just learn how to build a speed boat hull!"
"Nevermind, disregard what I asked, just continue with your work," Blake replied, "How about the wreck we salvaged off the coast?"
"Well, if you want that ship to commence operations," Mason brought Blake to another entrance which led them to the ship. "It's sea worthy now, thanks to Amar's skills. You know that ship carpenter we saved?"
"Yes, I remembered him," Blake nodded, "But he didn't return to his homeland with the Isles ships?"
"Nope, seems like he got nothing much there," Mason replied, "And the stuff we are doing here is more exciting for him too."
The wreck that Blake saw from the video and images taken were like two different ships. The rebuilt and reworked wreck now had a fresh coat of paint and a layer of steel plating covering its outer hull and the masts for the sails were all removed.
The top decks were remodeled and a superstructure now sits behind the forecastle and the quarter deck has a single black funnel jutting out. The wooden spars of the bowsprit and even the figurehead were removed.
The fresh coat of sea grey paint made the ship look totally unrecognizable as a former sailing ship of the Isles.
"This became Chief Matt and his department's pet project," Mason explained as he showed off the ship to Blake. "They are working on its internals now, giving it a powerplant and putting in that new techno-magic thingy that the Chief had worked out with the students from the magic school."
"Once it is done, it will be powered by a single 2,750 hp triple-expansion reciprocating steam engines with a single shaft propulsion system," Mason said, "It should give it roughly 16 knots (29.6 km/h) of top speed with a range of 3,500 nautical miles (6,482 km) at 12 knots (22.2 km/h)."
"Weapons?" Blake asked as he walked up the gangplank to the ship.
"Chief is looking at putting two of your new 3" 23s, one at the forecastle and one at the stern," Mason replied, "there will be cupolas mounts for dual 20 mikes on both sides of the ship and .50 caliber mountings for anti-air and anti-boarding actions."
"Where's the Chief?" Blake asked as he stood on the deck looking up at the two story tall superstructure.
"He should be down below the decks working on something," Mason said, "Need me to get him?"
"Of course, I want to get this ship up and running ASAP!"
Advance chapters are available on Pat-reon (Book 1 completed)
https://www.*******.com/neobear
-----
Join the discussion in Discord
https://discord.gg/A8Tm86V
-----
Donate/Support me via Paypal now!
https://paypal.me/neobear
-----
Enjoy~
Paragraph comment
Paragraph comment feature is now on the Web! Move mouse over any paragraph and click the icon to add your comment.
Also, you can always turn it off/on in Settings.
GOT IT