Out of Space

Base Colony, UNS Singapore Command Bridge

Captain Blake tapped the tactical tabletop with his forefinger, watching the battle raging at the Pass from the eyes of the recon UAV. "How many fucking dragons do they have?"

Commander Ford replied calmly, "Approximately about a hundred small ones and about ten of the larger ones."

Blake sighed, "I need to bring forward my plans for an airforce way earlier than anticipated." He turned and look saw Princess Sherene speaking with the communications officer Clara at the side.

"If a bloody border duke has this much fighting air elements at his disposal, I cannot imagine how much flying dragons the main standing army of the Empire has," Blake said, jabbing his finger up north at the territory of the Empire.

"But we yet had discovered any fuel source here," Ford raised his concerns. "Even using hydrogen as a fuel source, we don't have the industrial capabilities nor the tech to manufacture hydrogen engines."

"I know, simple combustion engines we can make, but any further we need to research and develop along the way," Blake responded, "Damn, I wish we had uploaded the whole astropedia into the ship's databanks when we were still over Earth's orbit."

"We can try methane for fuel or alcohol, we just lack the manpower for all these projects," Ford gave some ideas.

"What are you two talking about?" Princess Sherene walked over, joining them at the tactical table. The glow from the table top, highlighted her elfin features, making her look like a goddess.

"Nothing much, just production and plans on how to handle that," Blake pointed to screen, showing dozens of dragons swooping over the defensives and some of the larger dragons crash landing on top of the Pass.

"Oh," Sherene frowned, "But you two don't look very worried?" She narrowed her pretty eyes suspiciously, making Blake cough and look away.

Ford grinned, enjoying the discomfort the Captain was having, knowing fully that the Captain has some feelings for the Princess. "Well, we trust that Major Frank at the Pass will be able to handle this situation easily."

"Besides, Frank has Pike, there won't be any problems." Blake added, "Well, we also tasked all our weapons in support for them if they need it."

"Hmmm, I see," Sherene looked sadly at the battle. "But people are dying there."

"It's war, either you kill or be killed," Blake comforted the princess. "Harsh realities of life."

Ford smiled and softly walked away, leaving the two of them haloed in the glow from the table, a tiny island of a quiet moment for the two, surrounded by the chaos in the command bridge.

-----

Sawtooth Mountain Pass, Courtyard between Wall Alpha and Beta

A foam covered dragon raged and choked, thrashing wildly in the space between the two walls, when a series of pops and explosions riddled all over its body, sending it against the mountainside, before emitting a death rattle as it choked to death. Its blood staining the mountainsides and pooling around the cracked concrete flooring.

Another largely sized dragon crash landed beside its dead carcass, belly flopping down as its wings were ripped and torn. The dragon panted heavily, sparks shooting out of its mouth and nostrils with each heavy breath. Dozens of figures leaped off its back and magic circles flickered into life from the newcomers.

Specialist Private Hitsu of the Hundred and First Arcane Tactics and Intervention, Team Claymore One, broke open his double barrel sawed off shotgun, slotting two explosive shells into the open breech and in one motion, flipped the barrel up, locking the breach closed.

Hoisting a ballistic shield, he looked at his buddy, Specialist Private Loke, armed with an M2 Magespitter, without the bulky silencer, who nodded and gripped the right shoulder of Hitsu with his left hand, his right raising the carbine in a ready stance.

Both of them wore surplus armor from the Security Section, MK VI 'Riot' armor, modified with several extra plates of armoring with strengthening runes carved on them. The armor plating made them look large and bulky with pieces of armor covering all vital points of their body.

"Go!" Loke yelled, and thumped Hitsu's shoulder hard, if not he wouldn't be able to feel anything through the heavily armored and padded shoulder plating. Hitsu lifted the transparent ballistic shield, made out of nanocrystal graphene sapphire glass, and charged out of the sally port from Wall Beta and into the madness happening in the courtyard.

The first thing Hitsu saw was a couple of fucking huge dead dragons, with bodies and puddles of blood all over. Smoke and cracks of spells and Magelocks echoed loudly in the confined area. The sky had several dragons madly swooping and dodging fire from the rail gun turrets.

And it was raining dragon blood. Blood was falling in a light drizzle, as the dragons in the air keep fighting despite suffering wounds. A fireball streaked towards Hitsu who quickly angled his shield up, letting the spell glance off his shield. A three round burst fired next to his head by Loke, dropped the Knight who cast the spell.

Hitsu was thankful for the hoomans for inventing earplugs, or he would have gone deaf from the burst fired next to his head. As the smoke cleared, they caught the attention of Empire Knights bunched up next to the clearly winded and heavily wounded dragon.

Bracing his sawed-off shotgun against the edge of his shield, he rapid-fired off both barrels, sending two explosive shells which exploded in their midst, sending those without magical protection screaming and dying. He kneeled and reloaded, "Reloading!" making himself a solid cover for Loke, as Loke fired into the stunned group.

"Reloading!" Loke yelled next, crouching down behind Hitsu as crossbow bolts and fireballs and lightning bolts erupted all over them. "UP!" Loke yelled as he finished reloading and stood up, returning fire back calmly with single shots.

-----

Issen was a veteran Imperial magic Knight, under the command of the Knights of Twelve, serving under the banner of Duke Sturm, fighting in several campaigns with him over a period of five years.

The orders for the Knights came in the morning before the sun was even up, they climbed on board with the 26th Imperial Dragon Corp, the Fireborn, and took off with four other Dragon Corps.

All of them were skeptical that the Duke will send over a hundred Knights just to invade a tiny Pass, but everyone kept their peace and followed the orders. And now he understood why Duke Sturm sent over a hundred Knights into battle with the rebels.

The two strangely fat armored rebels holding a flimsy looking glass like shield crouched in the open ground between them and the walls. Already they had killed or wounded at least half or more of the Knights and soldiers just by themselves with their cursed magical thundersticks.

He looked at his squad of three, and nodded, knowing for them to be able to advance up and take over the walls, they needed to defeat those two first, knowing not to underestimate them despite their fat appearance and just the two of them.

"You and Ern go left, you with me," Issen ordered, pointing to the last Knight "Go fast, use everything you have to kill those two and rally at the walls." And everyone nodded and started to cast support spells. First was Haste, Agility Up, Strength Up, and finally Endurance Up. "GO!"

Charging out from two directions, they sprinted with inhuman speed despite wearing over 20kg of armor and weapons. They charged towards the clumsy looking rebels and flickered out their swords from their scabbards.

Suddenly, the Knight charging in front of Issen toppled down, his throat blown away by a spell. And Issen sensed danger, he raised his shield just in time and felt a couple of heavy punches against the prized mithril steel, yet despite the protection of the shield the impacts shattered his left arm.

Gritting his teeth, he dropped the mangled shield, and continued charging, moving left and right, his left arm dangling uselessly at the side. Just a few paces more!

-----

Hitsu calmly said, "I'm on the guys on the left, right side is yours!" As two groups of Empire soldiers sprinted out in two directions. He fired both barrels again, dropping his shots roughly where he predicted both of them to go, missing one but turning the other into bloody meat paste with the shrapnel from the exploding shells.

Loke tracked the fast movement of the two Knights and fired twice, taking down the foremost before switching aim and double tapping the next knight. He cursed when that knight blocked his shots with his shield and came up to knife range, swinging his longsword directly at his neck.

Loke sidestepped away from Hitsu and the sword swing, his speed not losing out to the Imperial Knight despite his heavy armor. He raised his heavily armored left shoulder pauldron, taking the second sword strike directly, and the Knight's sword snapped. He countered with thrusting his M2 rifle's muzzle out like a spear, aiming for the unarmored throat of the Knight, and punching through the larynx. The Knight's eyes bulged wildly, coughing out blood while his good hand gripped the hot barrel, stopping the thrust from going in further.

Loke growled and squeezed the trigger, blowing out the back of the Knight's neck, and gun smoke erupted out from the dead Knight's gaping mouth and nostrils.

-----

While Loke was distracted by the sword swing, the other surviving Knight charged at Hitsu, swinging his war ax in a double handed chop.

Hitsu rolled out off the way, dropping his empty shotgun and came up on the side and slammed the edge of his shield against the left arm of the Knight, denting the armored rerebrace, and snapping his humerus bone. The Knight roared with pain, his left arm useless and yet he tried to swing his battle ax with his right hand from an awkward angle.

Hitsu dodged the attack, its speed had dropped noticeably, and rammed his shield edge against the back of the Knight's left greaves, cracking the shin bone and forcing the Knight down on his knees. Hitsu than ended the fight with a smash of his shield edge against the back of the cervical spine, killing the Knight instantly.

"That was satisfying," Hitsu puffed out, "Your kill was gross." He commented on Loke's kill, seeing the gore on the muzzle. "It's gonna be a hell to clean later."

-----

Sawtooth Mountain, Rear of Wall Beta

The remaining heavyweights managed to land or crashed here, between the barracks and admin structures. The dragons spit fire at the concrete structures, scorching the grey surfaces. Gunfire and smoke from Marines forced back the dragons, and the rest of Claymore One decimated the remaining Knights and soldiers that landed.

Tyrier stood over the body the heavyweight dragon he had just slain, reloading his pump action shotgun. The damn reptile kept attempting to eat him despite already half dead, so he gave it a few shots of explosive shells to eat. It must be because I killed its rider, thought Tyrier as he looked at a bullet-riddled corpse in a thick blue fancy looking jacket with gold bridles.

The only remaining flight-capable heavyweight dragon tried to take off under heavy fire and attracted the attention of Gun Two, which sent an armor piercing fin stabilized discarding sabot shot, nailing the dragon at mid-flight, the force of the explosion, showered the rear base structures and its defenders with dragon gore and blood.

The remaining smaller dragons seeing the death scene lost all motivation to continue to fight. They dropped the last of their firebombs and retreated, dodging flak from the guns.

The Marines defending cheered as the dragons retreated and turned their attention to the sieging army in the front, just as Valkyrie One and Two had returned fully rearmed and refueled, and some tech had rigged up some external speakers, blasting "Ride of the Valkyries" over the air.

The two space haulers turn gunships volley fired their 70mm rockets at the shocked army, each fuel-air thermobaric blast shattering bodies, sucking the air out of lungs and then turning the air into flames.

Those caught in the after blasts had their eyeballs, eardrums and internal organs ruptured. Most of the elves went mad by the sheer destructive power of the rocket salvos and ran screaming away, discarding weapons and armor. "Run Blue Boys!" Flight Lieutenant Peter yelled as he looped back his bird, going for another strafing run.

The retreat soon turned into a rout, as hundreds of Empire soldiers broke formation, ignoring orders and commands and scrambled to the safety of the forest, while the radio broadcast was repeating messages calling the Empire to surrender.

"Soldiers of the Empire, nothing is more confused than to be ordered into a war to die or to be maimed for life without the faintest idea of what's going on… Drop your weapons and surrender please…"