บท 154: Dog Fight
Blue Thunder dipped his wing and did a sharp swerve in mid-air, dodging the raking claws of the smaller Empire dragon that dove down from above. He retaliated with a sweep of his tail as he turned away, his barbed end scored a small gash along the back of the squeaking dragon.
A couple of crossbow bolts slammed against his flanks from his blind spot, his hard scales managed to deflect the bolts away, the pinpricks irritating Blue Thunder more than damaging him.
"Evade! Evade! Coming from under you!" The loudspeakers crackled to life and Blue Thunder came to a sudden hover, and a shadowy shape darted up before him, missing him by meters. "Get to safety!"
Blue Thunder growled as the attack that nearly gutted him and glared at the insolent dragon that circled back for another attack. He stayed hovering on the spot and sucked in the air into his lungs, filling it up and his chest glowed slightly.
The Empire Dragons and their riders seeing him starting to glow, yelled out in warning, and they started to split, making themselves as small as a target as possible.
Blue Thunder spat out a ball of fire at the nearest Empire dragon and dove downwards, aiming for the small clearing over the river where the rest of the Marines had gathered. His fireball barely touched any of the dodging dragons but it distracted them long enough for him to disappear into the canopy of the forest.
-----
Lt Joesph peered out from the cover of the trees, seeing the Empire dragons circling in the sky and cursed. "How did they find us?"
Crew Chief Stamford frowned, "They must have spotted Blue Thunder while he was hunting and coming within sight, his harness must have given him away since there is no one else here that uses gear like that."
A crash came from the undergrowth and the men all spun around, aiming their weapons at the source of the noises and a draconic snort soon poked out from the trees and rumbled, "It's is me..."
"Blue!" Stamford ran out, gesturing at the Marines to hold their fire. "Are you okay?" He came up next to the panting dragon.
"Am okay..." Blue Thunder replied, "Just slightly tired and... hungry!"
Stamford looked worriedly at the condition of Blue Thunder. He had burnt up a lot of calories just flying over and also in the short combat in the skies. They have some food for Blue Thunder, but the plan was supposed for Blue Dragon to forage his own food, while the rations for Blue Thunder were to be used in an emergency, like now.
"Alright, we are gonna feed you," Stamford said, "Any injuries?"
"Not sure," Blue Thunder replied, as he craned his neck over his own body trying to see if he was wounded, "But there is a bad itch at my back..."
Stamford nodded, waving for the rest of the crew over. "Get his rations, and give him a once over, check if there are any injuries on him."
The men nodded and went off to work, Stamford climbed onto Blue Thunder's harness and started to inspect the harness's condition and also for signs of injury. As he stood on his back, he could felt waves of heat emitting out from Blue Thunder's body.
"You wanna go lay down at the river there?" Stamford asked, "The trees should provide some cover for you."
"Sure!" Blue Thunder nodded and started to make his way over to the river where it was covered by the trees. He half sank himself into the water and moaned in bliss, "Much better!"
"Chief!" Dek yelled, gesturing him over to the rear of Blue Thunder's back.
"What is it?" Stamford came over and saw what Dek was pointing at. A stubby crossbow bolt had stuck deep between two overlapping scales. "Damn. Get the first aid kit over!"
"Blue! You got a crossbow bolt in your ass!" Stamford yelled, and Blue snaked his head back to try to see. "You just hang tight there, we will get it out!"
"Oooo, no wonder it itches!" Blue grumbled. "Get it out quick!"
"Hold on buddy," Dek said, as he came back with a first aid kit that looked more like a toolbox. He removed a large pair of pliers and clamped the jaws onto the bolt. "On three... two... one... and... Ahhh!"
He pulled the bloody bolt out in a long pull, the wound sucking at the glittering arm length long bolt. "Annnd... It's out!" Making Blue Thunder gave a grunt of pain.
Thick glistering dark red blood started to flow out from the wound. Stamford took the bucket of water from Barkley and poured over the wound, washing the blood away and with a flashlight, he peered into the wound. "Looks clean, not poisoned."
He took the package of clotting powder and dumped all into the wound, before stuffing a wad of gauze on top of the wound, underneath the scales. He took the offered roll of duct tape and started taping the gauze against Blue Thunder's scales, making sure it was tight.
"How are you feeling?" Stamford asked, as he hopped down to the riverside, and started to wash his arms thick with dragon blood.
"Hungry..." Blue Thunder grumbled. "Butt is not so itchy now."
"Good," Stamford climbed up the river banks, "Here eat some rations first."
Blue Thunder looked at the small pile of blocky cardboard colored ration bars and made a face, "I want meat!"
"Eat this, for now, you big baby!" Stamford shook his head and smiled, "Its high in calories, chock full of whole grains, honey, fats, and all the vitamins a growing boy like you needs!"
Blue Thunder sighed and started munching away at the blocks of ration bars sadly.
Leaving Blue Thunder to his meal, Stamford went back to find Lt Joesph with Sergeant Tyrier in a discussion. They both waved him over, and said, "We need to move soon and fast. One of the dragons have gone back to report, I am not sure if they spotted us in the forest."
"Dragons have great eyesight for hunting," Stamford said, "They can spot a goblin hiding in the bushes at 100 meters away, so I am certain they must have spotted us already."
"Than all the more reason for us to move out now," Tyrier said. "Delaying longer will only allow the enemy to come closer."
Lt Joesph nodded, "Yes, but we need to do something about them." He pointed to the sky, "If they keep following us, the enemy will still know where we are."
"HQ says, at least two hours or more for any aerial support," The Marine radio operator said. "The wind is against the planes, that is why it takes longer to come here."
"Damn, two hours?" Tyrier cursed, "A lot can happen in two hours!"
"Well, we can rig up Blue for aerial combat," Stamford suddenly spoke out. "He does have mounting points for machine guns. We can take down those medium weights before the Empire returns here."
Both Joesph and Tyrier looked at Stamford, "You are confident to take down those medium weights? Not to mention if the enemy reinforcements come, you guys got to take the risk of fighting more than two dragons!"
"Well, Sir, isn't this why we signed on?" Stamford grinned, "The risk and the fight!"
"Well said," Lt Joesph nodded, "What do you need?"
"It's all good, I will get my crew to load up and secured for combat," Stamford replied, "Head towards Point Blue while we are distracting the dragons, so even if we fail, at least you guys can get away, just that we can't medivac any wounded now."
Joesph and Tyrier nodded, "Godspeed!"
-----
Dek attached the machine gun support into place at the back of Blue Dragon's harness near the tail of his spine, snapping the MG-1 into place and loading the drum magazine in. He ensured that the spare ammunition secured against the harness was properly stored and settled down into the bucket seat, with the machine gun aiming at the aft, or the tail of Blue Thunder.
Stamford double checked the rest of his crew making sure everyone is secured and ready. Three machine guns all manned, one on each side of the shoulder of Blue Thunder and the remaining gun at the tail. He checked his shotgun, making sure it was fully loaded and properly strapped against his body and yelled, "All green! Clear for launch!"
Blue Thunder gave a grunt and made a run towards the open canopy, the Marines yelling their support as Blue Thunder bounced off into the open air, and with several flaps of his massive wings disappeared from the view of the Marines.
-----
"Contact left!" Barkley manning the left shoulder gun yelled into the comms, and Blue Thunder banked left, and head towards the two dark specks in the skies, going for the kill.
'Here they come!" Stamford yelled, "Watch your arcs of fire! I want no one to shoot up Blue! Especially his wings! Make sure your guns are arc locked!"
"Roger!"
"Yes, Chief!"
"Got it!"
Blue Thunder sucked in air and spat out a ball of fire directly at one of the Empire Dragon which weaved right, dodging the fire ball and Private Luth manning the right gun opened up with the MG-1, spewing 8.5 mm tracers directly in the path of the surprised Empire dragon.
The new 8.5 mm rounds traveling at 807 meters per second missed the flying dragon, but Luth using the bright tracers as a guide managed to correct his aim, firing in the path of the dragon. The 19 grams bullet hammered into the body of the dragon, ignoring the tough scales and torn through muscles, bones, and flesh like paper.
The whole engagement lasted four seconds before the Empire dragon flew past and out from the arc of fire of Luth's gun. But that four seconds had sent 34 rounds fired from the machine gun into the Empire dragon, which over 20 had stricken the dragon.
A stream of dark liquid could be seen trailing the dragon, as it flopped over to the side and spiraled down to smash into the canopy with a mighty crash, sending wyverns flapping away in flight from the trees.
"SCRATCH ONE DRAGON!" Luth yelled excitedly as he leaned his body over, watching the downed dragon doing a cartwheel among the thick canopy before disappearing into the forest. "Woooo hoooo!"
"Good kill!" Stamford yelled back, as he kept his eye on the other Empire dragon who seemed to hesitate after seeing the death of its brood. "Go for the last one while it is still confused!"
Blue Thunder growled happily and flapped his wings harder before keeping his wings in and stooped down towards the startled Empire dragon, with his claws out. The men onboard yelled and whooped as gravity seemed to disappear and they went diving down like a roller coaster ride.
The Empire dragon tried to get out of the way back was just a second too slow. Blue Thunder's full body weight of 33 tons slammed onto the left wing of the panicking Empire dragon, snapping the shoulder off, while the T-Rex sized talons of Blue Thunder gouged against the flank of the screaming dragon, its rider, and small crew staring in wide-eyed horror visible even in their dopey looking crystal goggles.
The screaming Empire dragon tried desperately to flapped its wings, but only its right wing function, its left dangled uselessly and with its life-blood pouring out like a tap, it folded inwards and fell from the sky, together with the screams of its crew.
Blue Thunder did a slow circle over the area, as the Empire dragon slammed into the Uncharted Forest, the canopy barely able to soften its death fall, and a small hole appeared in the sea of trees and small flying wyverns burst out angrily from their nests.
"Good kill!" Stamford yelled again, to which Blue Thunder gave a pleased grunt. "Wait, what is that?" He pointed to the horizon in the distance as he narrowed his eyes, and quickly pulled out his field glasses, and saw several specks approaching them in the air.
"Oh, noes!" Blue Thunder mumbled, "More Empire!"
ความคิดของผู้สร้าง 
Neobear
Neobear Advance chapters are available on Patreon (12 Chapters Ahead)
https://www.patreon.com/neobear
-----
Join the discussion in Discord
https://discord.gg/A8Tm86V
-----
Donate/Support me via Paypal now!
https://paypal.me/neobear
-----
And cliffhanger chan is back ~ with a loaded mg!
So please make your stones and reviews as offerings ...
บท 155: First Air to Air Dragon Combat
*Recommended music Sabaton - Aces in exile*
Blue Thunder gave a grunt, as he lined his body straight at the approaching Empire dragons, "They are splitting up!" He roared over the wind as he noted the dragons had split into two groups.
"Yes! I see them!" Stamford yelled. "Two of the mid-weights are holding together with the single heavy and the other three are vectoring in for an attack!"
The single heavyweight dragon with silver trimmed blue banners and streamers beat its wings rapidly as it sought to gain altitude, together with its two escorts. Blue Thunder could just barely see dark figures clinging onto its back as it rose higher.
"They are going for a pincher attack!" Blue Thunder growled, "The heavy looks like its going for height advantage, while the other three distract and harass us!"
"Ignore the heavy, we take out the trio first!" Stamford yelled as he gauged the distance and speed between the enemy. "We do a high-speed fly pass, followed by a turn circle port side! All guns to fire as they bear!"
"We let the heavy come up from our aft, most likely they will do a swooping dive down at our tail," Stamford twisted in his seat as he looked to the rear, "Dek, make sure you give that heavy a good dose of lead!"
"With pleasure, chief!"
"Alright! Let's do it!" Stamford yelled, "Let's show them ground pounders what the Airforce can do!"
Blue Thunder accelerated, pulling his wings strongly, forcing more wind against its serpentine body and gliding through the air like a fish in the sea. The dotted figures in front of them quickly resolved into three silver-black scaled Razorback dragons with streamers tied to their legs and wing tips, boldly displaying the Empire colors.
They broke their formation and aimed for Blue Thunder in three different directions, aiming to rake their claws against his flanks with the lead Razorback distracted him head-on. "Dive down now!" Stamford yelled as he clutched his shotgun tightly against his chest.
A sense of gravity disappearing sent the men whooping, as Blue Thunder dived under the reaches of the dragons who tried to box him in, and the machine guns fired, raking the underside of the confused Razorbacks.
Stamford gave a wordless yell as he pumped shot after shot at the underbelly of the lead dragon who cried out in anger at the missed ploy and the rear machine gun fired, and Stamford caught sight of a line of tracers sparking off the underbelly of the dragon before it vanished from view.
"Did we get them?" Stamford yelled, checking left and right making sure everyone was still in place while digging into his pouches for shotgun shells.
"I think so?" Someone yelled back.
Blue Thunder craned his neck back as he turned a loop back towards the action, "I can't see the heavy and its escorts!" He yelled as he looked around in panic.
"7 o'clock high! Coming in fast!" Dek yelled as he spotted a shadow against the sun. "It's coming from the sun!"
"BREAK LEFT! BREAK BREAK BREAK!" Stamford yelled urgently, and Blue Thunder did a sharp tilt left, and a swooping shadow burst out from the skies, barely missing Blue Thunder, the force of its passage sent Blue Thunder struggling to keep balanced. "HOLY FUCK!"
"GOT NO LINE OF FIRE!"
"CAN'T SEE SHIT!"
"INCOMING LEFT FLANK!" Barkley yelled as he spotted a silvery shape darting in from the left side. He twisted his body, trying to bring his MG-1 to bear on the target, but the Razorwing cunningly stayed out of his line of sight, using the flapping wings of Blue Thunder as cover as it inched closer.
"I GOT HIM!" Dek yelled as he swung his gun over, his wire sights hovered over the dragon where three of its crew could be seen firing and loading crossbow bolts at them. He angled the gun slightly forward and fired, bright tracers ripping out from the barrel and into the path of the dragon making it swerved away in panic. But before it disappeared from sight underneath Blue Thunder, Dek saw his shots landing on the crew members, their body turning limp as the dragon dived away. "I got its crew!"
Stamford leaned over the back of Blue Thunder to peer at the disengaged dragon, "Damn, we need some guns at the bottom!"
Blue Thunder gave a dismissive snort and Stamford felt its body bellowing up, followed by a roar and a smoking ball of fire rained down towards the diving dragon, and surprisingly hitting it square on its back. "Ha! Take that!"
"What a lucky shot..." Stamford shooked his head, to which Blue Thunder snorted again.
"There is no such thing as luck!" Blue tilted his head up proudly. "I just good!"
"Watch your front you dumb beast!" Stamford yelled, "Praise yourself later, but we still got five dragons to go!"
"Make it three!" Dek yelled from the back, "I just saw one crashing into the trees, and another limping away at five o'clock!"
Stamford grabbed his field glasses hanging on over his neck and quickly scanned the horizon, seeing a dragon laboring its way across the sky, with what appeared to be large drops of blood raining off its body. "That dragon won't make it, gauging by the amount of blood it's leaking!"
"Tally ho!" Luth yelled and pointed. "3 o'clock high!"
"Blue get us some attitude!" Stamford commanded as he turned his glasses over to the direction Luth yelled seeing the remaining dragons have regrouped and were coming back for another pass.
"Roger!" Blue Thunder flapped his wings mightily and swung his body towards the approaching Empire dragons, "Come get some!" He roared and spat out another fireball at the approaching group as the distance closed. The Empire heavy also spat a fireball out, which Blue Thunder dodged and the guns opened up.
-----
Dante stood on the crown of an ever blue tree watching the aerial dogfight in interest. He smiled and leaped off the tree easily and used the branches of the trees to navigate his way towards the battle. "I found you~"
-----
Blue Thunder gave a yelp of pain as a bolt of lightning gouged his flank, melting his dark blue scales and fusing them against his flesh. He roared and spat a ball of fire at the Empire heavy as it flew past him, missing the dragon as it bent its body away agilely from the fireball.
"RAWR! I AM PISSED OFF!" Blue Thunder roared as he chased the other heavy through the skies. "Stop running!"
Luth cursed as Blue Thunder's motions made him drop the fully loaded 75 rounds drum magazine off the side and into the sea of trees, he braced himself properly and dug another drum out and hugged on to it tightly as Blue Thunder went into another bout of aerobatics. "I am gonna be sick!" as he was thrown left and right in the sky.
"Watch your 4 o'clock!" Stamford yelled, as an enraged Razorback, which he recognized as the one with its crew decimated, swooped in with its jaws wide opened and its claws stretched out. Stamford raised his shotgun up and fired, while Dek swung the MG-1 around and fired, the short distance making it hard to miss, and the combined fire pounded the dragon into bloody meat.
Blue Thunder tried to swerve out of the falling dead dragon's way but was just a little too slow and the dead dragon clipped part of Blue's wing tip, making him scream as his wing tip bone fractured from the impact.
Also immediately, they went into a spiral, the men screaming as Blue Thunder fought back the pain and tears. He barely managed to recover from the spiraling dive but in the process, he had lost too much speed and attitude, desperately trying to limp his way in the skies above the canopy.
Seeing his weakened state, the remaining Razorback screamed in triumphant, and darted down from the skies, going for the kill. It swooped down, ready to latch onto the back of Blue Thunder and rake its claws into its spine, only to meet another barrage of machine gun and shotgun fire, its bullet riddled body crashing into the sea of trees behind Blue Thunder.
Stamford wiped the vomit stains off his side of his face, and with wobbly fingers, shoved shell after shell into his shotgun as he reloaded. "Oh my god, I thought we were dead there."
"There's still one more!" Blue Thunder growled, his right wing barely able to move, as they glided gently along the treetops. "I can't find any place to land!"
"Incoming!" Dek yelled as he saw a streaking ball of fire coming down from the Empire heavy. He swung his machine gun up and fired off a long stream of tracers, which the dragon dodged away, and the glow of a magic shield could be seen as a few lucky bullets impacted.
Blue Thunder tilted his body away from the fireball, which exploded, sending a small cloud of smoke upwards. He quickly leaned his body towards the explosion and used the hot air current to gain a bit of attitude, knowing that if he crashed into the trees, his crew will most likely die or suffer from serious injuries, even himself won't be spare. And landing on a hover into the trees will only trap him in the canopy, making him an open target as he needs time to break through the thick branches and into the cover of the trees.
Soon another fireball rained down on them and a bolt of lightning torn into his tail, making tears form on his eyes.
"Dragon One, come in over. This is Gold Leader!" The radio suddenly burst into life and Dek quickly reached to its receiver.
"This is Dragon One! We receive you, over!" Dek yelled excited as he craned his neck left and right looking into the horizon.
"Gold Leader, standby, I believe a big bad bully is on your tail," The welcoming voice sounded so sweet to the crew that they and even Blue Thunder gave a loud cheer.
Suddenly black dots dropped out of the sun, right on top of the unsuspecting Empire heavyweight. Four A/F - 1 Cobra appeared and the twin pylon mounted 20 mm autocannon gun pods fired, sending 129 grams projectiles at 670 meters per second screaming down at a rate of 520 rounds per minute. The 20 mm autocannon ammunition configuration was two high explosives shells followed by two armor-piercing shells and the fifth shell was a tracer.
The magic shield barely held for three seconds when the explosives and armor-piercing shells detonated against the magic defenses of the unsuspecting Empire dragon. It shattered, and the magical backlash slammed into the mage who cast and maintained the spell. He jerked back and coughed out blood before the remaining shells that encountered no more resistance, turned the crew into steaming pieces of unidentified meat, and blowing large chunks of flesh off the screaming dragon.
As the Cobras pulled up from their attack, what was left of the dragon, rained over a large section of Uncharted Forest in bloody chunks of gore and blood.
"YESSSS!" Blue Thunder and his crew cheered as they saw the Empire Dragon literally exploded into pieces. "Airforce for the win!"
"Gold Leader to Dragon One, your wing doesn't look too good," The lead Cobra radioed over as they regroup and buzzed over Blue Thunder, checking them out.
"Dragon One, we took a beating! Need to touch down immediately!" Dek radioed back under Stamford's directions.
"Roger that Dragon One, divert to bearing 223 degrees, there's a river clearing approximately two kilometers away, over," Gold Leader radioed back, "Think Blue can make it?"
"Roger! Standby!" Dek replied, "Blue! You heard that?"
Blue panted heavily and barely gave a grunt in reply, his eyes half closed in pain. "Just... tell.. me... where... to... fly..."
"Got it!" Barkley checking his instruments yelled, "Blue turn to your left, 8 o'clock heading! You can do it!"
Blue grunted and beat his wings weakly, trying his best to keep afloat in the air, and soon the glitter of a snaking river could be seen among the sea of trees.
"We survived the first air to air dragon combat!"
ความคิดของผู้สร้าง
Neobear
Neobear
Advance chapters are available on Patreon (14 Chapters Ahead)
https://www.patreon.com/neobear
-----
Join the discussion in Discord
https://discord.gg/A8Tm86V
-----
Donate/Support me via Paypal now!
https://paypal.me/neobear
-----
B-17 Dragon styled ~ Stones plz~
สถานะพลังงานรายสัปดาห์
200+ การจัดอันดับด้วยพลัง 
15 หินพลัง 
ความคิดเห็นย่อย