UNS Singapore, Captain's Quarters
Blake removed his uniform and draped it over his chair before he poured himself a drink made from fermented carrato, locally farmed. He took a sip and let the harsh burning liquid go down his throat and felt a warm fuzzy feeling in his stomach. "Want a drink?" He asked the princess who was seated on his chair going through her work with his computer.
She shook her pretty head and said, "Our food stores are looking good. We had a large surplus of grains and tubers, which can be stored for over a season."
"And we do not need to slaughter the animal stock for winter as we have plenty of feed stored up for them too," Sherene focused on her Excel sheet. "The Muffalo herders have started to sheering the wool for production of winter clothing."
Blake stood behind Sherene and hugged her. "How're the preparations going on for Summer Festival?"
Sherene smiled and leaned in Blake's embrace, "We have quite a few venues allocated for this Summer Festival, one at each Residential District, and the main event will be held at City Hall Plaza."
"Since it is a two-day holiday event, I have increased the number of buses to the outer farms, mines, and Far Harbour to pick up those that wish to attend the Festival," Sherene purred happily in Blake's arms. "I also followed the recommendation given by your staff to double the pay for those working on holidays, so that they will not feel left out for the Festivals."
"Hmmm," Blake muttered, "So everything is in order?"
Sherene nodded, "Well, my people are still setting up the stages and event site. They should be finishing by today and tomorrow the Festival starts!"
"How about your side?" Sherene looked back and asked, "Is everything ok?"
"Well, we still have many things to worry about," Blake sighed and stood up, picking up his drink and drowned it down. "Goblins to our West, Empire to our North East and a natural disaster to our North."
"But at least we managed to resolve all our basic needs," Blake smiled at Sherene. "Food, water, shelter, security, and manufacturing are all on track."
"We just need a larger population to support our industrial needs," Blake said, "other than that we are doing pretty well, as long there aren't any more invasions."
Sherene nodded, "But the Empire... sooner or later they will return right?"
Blake rubbed Sherene's head gently while leaning against his table. "Intel estimates roughly a month before news gets to the Empire's Capital, and another month before some sort of response to be taken."
"By then, it is autumn," Blake said, "Hopefully late autumn is the best, as no sword and shield army will move in winter without long term preparations. I hope..."
Sherene nodded again, "My father and brothers used to say fighting in winter is terrible and a huge drain to resources. Men had frozen to death or died to hunger due to supply lines getting cut off by heavy snow storms."
Blake grinned, "Not bad, well that's one of the major reasons, not to mention the terrain will be harder for travel. And they have to cross the Uncharted Forest."
"The newly formed Combat Engineer unit together with that Elementalist girl has already started a line of defensive works at the bottom of the ramp at Sawtooth Mountain," Blake added, "The original wall will be upgraded and supported with the still under development 3" guns. Once we have those built, even if the Empire throws a million troops at us, we can easily hold the pass as long as we have ammunition."
Sherene frowned, "Will the Empire stop coming? Why can't they leave us in peace?"
"I don't have the answer for that, my princess," Blake replied gently, patting her soft hair. "Well, we can only make it so expensive for them to attack us, that they call for peace talks."
"If not, once our airpower is up and running," Blake's eyes gleamed dangerously, "I just bomb them back to the stone age."
-----
The Colony, Residental District 4
Kaga sat on a wooden bench watching several City Hall staffs hanging colorful banners and ribbons on to the lamp posts lining the side of the streets. Lately, the whole city was full of excited energy as everyone was looking forward to the Summer Festival.
She nibbled her 'bur-girl' and sighed in bliss. She picked up a textbook, Introduction to Basic English, and started reviewing her notes for her class. Her study partner was Billy, when she returned from her day job at City Hall, both of them were becoming closer and closer in just a few short days.
The next day, Kaga went to her morning class in time and joined a class of over forty students, some she recognized as part of her same group when they escaped from Falledge. The teacher called Kristine taught them the basic alphabet and phonics. The lessons were easily picked up and absorbed by Kaga, as she had always liked to read.
When the school bell rang, Kristine ended the lesson and gave them some homework to do at home. The whole class stood up and thanked the teacher before they all excitedly left the classroom. Kaga was no different as she had an appointment with Billy at the Commerical District.
Having traveled a few times in buses, Kaga confidently boarded a bus that will take her to the Commerical District or C District, as some of the locals called it. As the bus turned into the street of D District, colorful signboards covered up the facade of the stores and buildings lining the street.
She alighted the bus and saw Billy already here and she went up joyfully to her. "Billy, I'm here!"
"Kaga! Finally!" Billy smiled, "I'm hungry waiting for you!" Billy reached out and hugged a blushing Kaga while rubbing her soft fluffy ears. "Hehehe."
"S-stop!" Kaga quickly brushed off Billy's hands, and covered her ears with her hands, "..."
"Hehehe," Billy grinned, "Your ears and tail are just too soft and fluffy for me to control myself! Hehehehe!"
"..." Kaga turned redder, "Let's go..."
"Alright! Let's go shopping!" Billy grin went wider as she thought of dressing Kaga up in cute clothes. "Hehehehe..."
"..."
-----
Northern Forest, Hydro Dam Power Station
Bartley carried a large bucket of water over to the wolves' shed and refilled the water trough for the wolves. He had spent over two hours showering the wolves and the pups earlier and now the wolves looked much better despite some wounds still visible on their bodies.
Both the giant wolves licked Bartley and the little dog-sized wolf pups charged out and tackled him down on to the group and started to lick and sniff him happily. "Good boys and girls!" Bartley gave a rare smile.
These couple of days, Bartley schedule has been, the morning after breakfast, he goes to the wolves to feed them, cleans the shed, brushes their coat, takes them on walks and returns to his cell for the night.
The aggressiveness of the wolves had decreased a lot, that some of the other Marines could come near and play with the wolf puppies and the men started nicknaming Bartley as the Wolf Whisperer.
"Alright, let's go for a walk around the base shall we?" He gave a whistle and the wolves and puppies started to follow him as headed towards the perimeter fence.
----
The Colony, City Hall Plaza
The crowd grew larger and larger as more people squeezed into the plaza for the Summer Festival. Large white sails of cloth were hung at regular intervals among the streets and some local musicians were playing linked to the broadcasting system.
Along the streets were lined with stalls selling drinks, food, and trinkets. Everyone was in high spirits as they waited for the Festival to start. Soon the Princess came onto the stage set before the City Hall and the crowd went wild, cheering happily away.
"Hello everyone!" Sherene beamed happily to the cameras which were projected onto the large cloth sails, allowing everyone including those at the other districts events to see her. "I hope everyone is excited to be here tonight!"
"YES!" The crowd replied enthusiastically.
"Everyone here has worked hard, be it as a farm hand, a clerk, factory worker or even a cleaner!" Sherene gave her opening speech, "And this hard work is shown around us. Those that came here first will remember the food rationing, the lack of necessities and even proper heating or clothes."
"Now we have heated homes, plenty of food, running water, clean and safe streets," Sherene smiled to the camera. "And now I declare the first Summer Festival to begin! Enjoy the night of musical performances and dance!"
A sudden burst of fireworks erupted from City Hall's roof, turning the twilight sky bright with flashes and burst of colorful stars. Loud cheers joined the fireworks as the music started playing again performed by local musicians and the people started to party.
-----
Northern Forest
The red dragon just finished fighting with a giant copper boa twice its length, when it heard pops and cracks of thunder in the distance. Ignoring the rumbles of thunder, it roared out flames from its mouth, flash frying and cooking the snake.
It used its nimble front claws to tear the charred skin and scales off before tearing into the yummy soft medium rare meat inside. It feasted halfway when the rumbles of thunder came again, this time longer and louder.
Irritated by the thunders, it raised its serpentine head high up and looked at the sky, trying to see if it is going to rain. The rumbles of thunder came again, and it leaped into the air, as it scouted around its surroundings.
To its surprise, it saw exploding stars in the far distance lighting up the sky and the clouds. It tilted its horned head in confused and dropped back down to the ground and continued its meal while pondering on what are those strange bright colorful stars.
Once it had its fill, the red dragon leaped into the air again, and spread its wings out, heading towards the location were the exploding stars were last seen, leaving behind a burning forest.
-----
UNS Singapore, Command Bridge
The festival yesterday night was a success and everyone off duty had partied till late. The morning shift was only half manned, and Commander Ford was the senior commanding Officer inside the Bridge.
He seeped some hot decaf from his mug, wondering if they could come out with a local equivalent of coffee before their stock of runs out. He rubbed his temples as the party last night took his toil on his head.
"XO!" An operator called out, "Sensors are picking up a moving object, 168 kilometers away, heading in fast at roughly 110 kilometers per hour, bearing North, North East, to our position!"
"What is it? Do we have visual?" Ford called out, all his headache and sleepiness gone instantly.
"Negative!" The operator replied, "We got no assets at that location!"
"Scramble the alert Cobras!" Ford asked. "What other assets do we have on standby?"
"Aye! Scrambling the alert Cobras!" The operator replied as she looked at the ready chart. "Dragon One and Three, Gold, Silver Wing, and Valkyrie Two,"
"Launch Dragon One and Three, have Gold and Silver Wing on alert and Valkyrie Two on standby for airlift support," Ford ordered. "Give me one UAV into that AO*!" (*Area of Operations)
"Aye XO!" The operator replied and she quickly started to send out orders.
"Recall all combat personnel, bring us up to Condition Yellow!" Ford added.
-----
Sirens blared out in the pilots' ready room, where four alert pilots of Bronze Wing was lounging around. They jumped up and started grabbing their gear and helmets when the sirens went off in the room and rushed out towards the Hanger Deck of UNS Singapore.
Color coded techs ran a final check over the four Cobras parked at the internal hanger, while a few techs started to power up the engine starts, spooling up the Cobras engines.
The pilots climbed into the cockpits as the massive hangar deck doors started to yaw wide open, letting in a gush of wind.
A yellow jacketed tech started to wave his light wands, signaling for the planes to get into the position of launch. Once the lead Cobra was hooked into the catapult gear, the jacketed tech gave a salute and a sharp wave off, and the F/A - 1 Cobra was thrown out of the Hangar Deck with a loud roar.
"Whooooosssssssh!"
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The six alert F/A - 1 Cobras were thrown out of the flight deck one after the other while the rest of the Bronze Squadron scrambled into action. The roars from the propeller engines woke some of the city inhabitants that had partied all night as the planes flew over the city before grouping up and headed straight towards the source of the unknown contact.
Flight Sergeant Lightseer, wing commander of the Bronze Squadron lead the other five planes of his wing towards the north while forming up into pairs.
"Thunderchief, this is Bronze Leader, now maintaining angels 01."
"Bronze Leader, this is Thunderchief, you are under my control. Steer 040 maintain present angel. Over."
"Roger that, Thunderchief."
"Thunderchief to Bronze Leader, target position 030, range 90, attitude 1000,"
"Bronze Leader, Roger!"
-----
UNS Singapore, Command Bridge
"XO!" The operator called out, "Airforce Command has no units out at that area, they are scrambling their alert fighters into the air now."
"Got it," Ford answered, "Tell Flight Ops to have the rest of fighters up on CAP* duty around the city." (*Combat Air Patrol)
"Has Bronze Flight made contact yet?" Ford asked the flight control operator.
"Bronze Leader, this Thunderchief, target dead ahead, 25. Do you have contact, over?"
"Bronze Leader. Negative contact. Request target attitude."
"Thunderchief, target no change."
Ford frowned as he looked at the radar signatures on the tactical plot. "ETA to city airspace?"
"10 minutes Sir!"
"Alert the wall defenses for a possible ground to air combat. Prepare to intercept!"
"Aye XO!"
-----
Skies over Northern Sector
Flight Sergeant Lightseer turned his head left and right in his cockpit, trying to spot the contact they are supposed to intercept, but he still couldn't see anything. He could only see a thick fog of smoke covering the horizon due to the forest fire.
"Bronze Six to all Alert Fighters, any visual over?"
"Negative!" Came back all the replies.
"Bronze Six to Thunderchief, negative contact. No bogey in sight!" He reported back to base.
"Target dead ahead 15, heading 190, attitude 1000, Speed 100, reduce speed!" The operator's slightly panicking voice came into his headset.
"No joy, negative contact! I say again no joy, request target position," Lightseer grounded his teeth in frustration as he tried to spot the target in the hazy skies.
"Caution! Almost same position, same attitude! Use caution! Bronze Squad Break! Break!" The operator was clearly panicking as she yelled out.
"Shit!" Lightseer cursed, "All fighters, break break break!"
He twisted his flight slick to the left, banking his fighter away from his current heading, and in the corner of his eye, he spotted a reddish shadow. "Did anyone see that?" He called out.
"Three, I see it!" A youthful excited voice yelled over the squadron comms network. "It's right under your bellies!"
Lightseer rolled his plane to the side and looked out of his glass canopy, seeing a rakish slim blood red dragon lazily flapping its wings just meters away from his plane. The dragon was almost two and a half length of his Cobra and with a wing span at least twice his plane's. Ridge spines and scale plated the body of the dragon, giving it sharp predator look.
The dragon suddenly looked up and roared, sending plumes of flames and smoke out of its nostrils and mouth. It rolled over and dived into the canopy, which appeared to wither and burst into flames as the dragon skimmed the tree tops.
"Holy mother of the heavens!" Lightseer pulled his joystick back, tilting his fighter away from the dragon. "Thunderchief! Contact identified! We got a wild red dragon!"
-----
UNS Singapore, Command Bridge
"-derchief! Contact identified! We got a wild red dragon!"
The audio came in loud and clear over the speakers and Ford frowned. "What do we know about red dragons?" He asked the command staff around the bridge.
"Sir, according to the data entered by Magister Thorn, red dragons are similar to the Spitfire species, with the ability to spit fire," One of the tactical officers reported, "And wild or feral dragons are typically stronger compared to domesticated dragons."
"Bronze Leader, do we engage over?" Came the voice of the Bronze squadron commander over the speakers as he requested instructions.
"Chase it away," Ford said, after a pause. "Keep out of the city's airspace."
-----
Lightseer cursed when he heard the order. "Alright, Bronze Group, listen up, I want Three, Four, Five and Six to fire at its path, force it away from the city. Two, you be on my wing."
"Yes, Boss!" The other pilots replied and formed up over the dragon, before diving one by one and firing their 20 mm cannons in the path of the dragon. The heavy bullets exploding and ripping up the canopy in the path of the flying dragon, causing it to roar out in surprise as it verve away from the path of the exploding rounds.
The dragon huffed angrily as it flapped away from the strange noisy things that spat small fireballs like magic at it. It glared at the buzzing flying creatures and roared out a ball of fire at them, which they nimbly dodged.
To its surprise the strange flying noisy monsters did not attack it, they just buzzed around and spat those strange breath attacks in its path, seemingly like warning them away from where it wanted to go. It paused in its flight, flapping its wings mightily to hover in place over the forest, the heat from its body, slowly charring the leaves of the treetops.
To its expectations, the strange noisy creatures did not attack it, constantly circling around it while the dragon pondered on its next actions. Should it continue to investigate the strange lights it saw last night and risk those strange creatures' attack or should it back off and observe. Since it woke up, it hasn't seen any other of its kind and it was not sure how long had it slept.
It decided to observe after a while, it flared its wings and settled down on the canopy of the forest, turning the surrounding trees into firewood, sending sparks of embers and ashes into the air as it burned away a swath of forest and landed in the middle of the charred ground.
------
UNS Singapore, Command Bridge
"Captain on the Bridge!" The Marine at the armored hatch announced as Captain Blake stepped through, waving off the Marines' salute.
"At ease, people," Blake swiftly mounted the steps up to the tactical plot table. "What do we have?"
"At the moment it's like a face off," Ford replied at the side, pointed to a patch of forest on the tactical plot map. "The dragon has landed and is currently holding its position here."
"What is it doing?" Blake looked up at the UAV feed being displayed on one of the screens.
"Nothing, Sir. It's just sitting there watching Bronze Squadron," Ford said. "We suspect this Red Dragon to be the cause of the forest fire judging by the amount of heat it is giving away from its body."
"What actions are have we made?" Blake continued to ask as he got updates from the command crew.
"So far we did not actively engage it," Ford replied, "We just forced it off course, all actions are to prevent the Dragon from entering the City's Airspace."
"Good, keep it that way," Blake frown, "What other assets are in place?"
"We currently got 1 Air Group over the target," Ford picked up his tablet and checked the deployments. "1 Air Group over the City, and another Air Group, Gold Squadron, ETA 8 minutes, inbound from Airforce Command with Valkyries on standby to airdrop infantry if needed. Dragon One is also inbound in 20 minutes with Dragon Three riding wing."
"City's anti air defenses are all manned and ready, civil defense forces are clearing the streets and ensuring everyone is in a shelter," Ford continued, "2nd Battalion is being deployed for city defense while 1st Battalion is standing by."
"This world is fucked up," Blake sighed while shaking his head. "Can't we have any peace and quiet for a few months?"
"Yeah, I get that too," Ford grimaced. "Well, at least the dragon doesn't seem hostile, rather more curious. I think it might have gotten attracted by our fireworks last night."
"Great, so now we can't have celebrations without attracting a dragon or two," Blake sighed again. "Any other information on the dragon?"
"Visually it looks like a between a med or heavyweight," Ford said, "Body is slimmer than Blue Thunder but longer than the Razorbacks we have. It is a feral beast that's for sure."
"I want 24 7 surveillance on that dragon, if it so much as take a dump, I want to know about it," Blake ordered. "Clear?"
"Aye, Captain," Ford nodded.
-----
The Colony, Outer Defense Walls, North Sector
Lieutenant Joesph rode the cage like steel cargo elevator up to the top of the North Sector Wall. The ride took a minute to reach the top with the clanking gears rattling away. As the elevator doors slid open at the sixth floor, a heavy gust of wind slammed into the open doors, staggering Joesph and his command staff.
He stepped out of the elevator and stood on the open roof of the walls that stretched as far as the eye can see. The width of the roof was roughly five meters wide, allowing plenty of space for the defenders to move on the walls while two rail tracks lined the city side of the parapet.
At regular intervals were dual .50 caliber machine nests protected by sandbags, or dual 20 mm autocannons serving as flak guns. Several Marines and Milita formed a line and started to transfer loads of ammunition crates out from the elevator and load them onto the rail carts next to the elevator. Once the carts were full, they were pushed along the tracks by a simple bicycle-like contraption to supply the defensive guns on the Wall.
Lt Joesph hopped onto one of the fully loaded ammunition carts and hitched a ride down the tracks. One of the logistic workers hitched the ladened carts to the velocipede and started to pedal, pushing the heavy carts along the track.
The heavy carts slowly picked up speed and soon zoomed passed the defensive guns that were pointed towards the sky. The train finally stopped before a 70 mm rocket battery manned by a couple of Marines, who saluted Joesph as he had gotten off the carts.
"All good?" Lt Joseph asked the two Marines manning the 4 x 7 cell rocket launchers.
"Yes, Sir!" The two Marines grinned, "Great view here!"
"Alright, stay frosty!" Lt Joseph grinned back, copying the hooman expression. The two Marines started to unload the crates of 70 mm rockets from the carts and storing them at the nearby protected ammunition bunker. He agreed that the view was stunning, the fields of cleared land laid out in the open in perfect squares and the blue forest in the distance while the horizon was dark with smoke from the raging forest fires.
Lt Joesph walked towards a staircase, where a guard unlocked the steel barred doors, granting entry to him after checking his credentials.
A couple of stories down, Lt Joesph pass by another checkpoint and after clearing security, he entered into the North Sector Command center. Another Lieutenant was in the room filled with support techs as they manned all the communications.
"Sir!" The young looking Lieutenant hopped up from his chair when he saw Lt Joesph entering. "It's an honor to serve with you!"
"Relax, Fairmont," Lt Joesph shook his head at the eager youngster, "We are all the same rank here."
"Yes sir!" Lt Fairmont gave a wide grin, "Well, I deployed all the reinforcements you brought to their respective posts." He pointed to the map of the Wall defenses, highlighting out each AA gun or artillery battery.
"No feral dragon is gonna fly into the City without getting shot at by at least ten dual .50 caliber heavy machines, four dual 20 mm autocannons and two 70 mm rockets batteries!"
Advance chapters are available on Patreon (Book 1 Completed)
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enjoy ~
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