Skies over the Northern ForestFlight Sergeant Lightseer tapped his fuel gauge and triggered his throat mike. "Bronze Leader to Thunderchief, Bronze Group bingo on fuel, requesting for RTB(Return to Base)."
"Thunderchief, you are cleared for RTB, Gold Group inbound to take over CAP (Combat Air Patrol) over the Red," The operator"s voice replied in Lightseer"s headset.
"Bronze lead to Bronze Group, time to RTB," He ordered to the rest of his wing before casting a last glance at the Red Dragon curled up on the charred forest floor. "d.a.m.n, why HQ doesn"t want us to just kill it and call it a day. d.a.m.n waste of our time!"
The rest of Bronze Group ceased their endless circling and formed up next to Lightseer"s plane before they flew back towards the Castle of Iron"s runway.
The dragon eyed the noisy creatures buzzing off away, back towards the strange place where it last heard and seen those strange fires over the night skies, wondering should it follow them, when another group of similar noisy buzzing creatures appeared over the skies.
It waved its serpentine tail against its nose and pondered what should it do about these strange creatures. It has lived for a long time and those noisy creatures were something it has never met before. At least before it went into a deep sleep, it never encountered such strange creatures before. What changes has this world gone into? It thought to itself as it tickled its own nose with the tip of its tail.
-----
The Colony, Outer Defense Walls, North Sector Defense Command
"Top!" Lieutenant Joesph greeted Master Sergeant Pike as he entered into the command post.
"Sir!" Pike gave a parade worthy salute to both the Officers inside and stood at ease next to the tactical tabletop. "Looks like our uninvited guest is pretty tame at the moment."
"Yea," Lt Joesph agreed, "What do think it is planning? Think we can communicate with it?"
"Sir," The other younger Lieutenant, Fairmont spoke up, "Why don"t we just kill it?"
Pike patted the officer on his back and said, "Sir, if you noticed, that creature"s presence just torched an entire forest almost 10 times the size of the city. Now imagine what will happen if you p.i.s.sed it off."
"Oh... I s-see..." The young officer blushed in embarra.s.sment. "I did not think of that..."
"Well, it"s a learning experience," Lt Joesph winked at Pike, "You get wiser as you grow older! Ha!"
Pike grinned and leaned over the UAV video stream, "I think I better head down to take a look personally with the dragon. See if we can understand each other."
"You speak draconic?" Lt Fairmont was fairly surprised by Pike"s words.
"Nope, but I got a Universal Translator..."
-----
Skies over Northern Forest
Blue Thunder flapped his wings mightly, his previous wounds mostly recovered and he was happy to be able to just stretch his wings out, rather than being cooped up in his pen.
"Blue! Don"t over exert yourself!" The speakers next to his ears crackled to life, Flight Sergeant Stamford motherly voice sounding worried and tense. "Your wing tip bone just healed, I don"t want you to fracture it again!"
"Yes, Mom..." Blue Thunder sighed, rolling his dinner plate sized eyes upwards while tilting his serpentine head back and replying to Stamford seated on his back. "You nag too much!"
"Yea right!" Stamford growled, stamping his booted feet against the harden scales of Blue Thunder. "Don"t come crying to me when you break your wings again!"
Blue Thunder turned his head back facing the front acting like he did not hear a word from Stamford, and even tried to whistle innocently which he failed badly, much to the laughter of the rest of the crew.
Stamford gave a sigh at the childish antics of Blue, wondering why such a big and powerful beast like Blue could still act like a child. "Ok, war face time, we are nearing the target."
In the distant horizons, as they approached, the skies were dark and covered in a thick cloud of haze, were random erratic strobes of lightning and thunder could be seen and heard in the firestorm.
"I see Gold Squadron!" Corporal Barkley yelled as he peered through the thick haze, spotting the blue grey dots circling over an area.
"d.a.m.n, your eyes are sharp!" Stamford praised as he tried to pick out the aircraft against the gray haze in the skies. "I can"t see s.h.i.t in this haze!"
"I see them!" Blue Thunder gave a grin, displaying an array of scary looking sword teeth. "And I see the Red Dragon too!"
"Alright, bring us down nearby, but not too close," Stamford said, "I don"t want you to get into a fight with it." He gave a stomp with his boots on Blue Thunder"s back. "You hear?"
"Okay..." Blue Thunder sighed disappointedly. "It will be easy for me to win, you know? Its smaller than me and looks weak too!"
"Weak?" Stamford rolled his eyes upwards, "That thing set the whole forest on fire! Can you do that, you big idiot!"
"Cheh! It"s just a small issue..." Blue Thunder tilted his head up in disdain. "I could flatten it easy with just one arm!"
"You better stop having ideas of fighting!" Stamford stomped harder against Blue Thunder"s back. "We know that feral dragons are magically stronger than domesticated dragons like you! We don"t know how powerful, but I am sure you can"t win it with just one arm!"
"Hmph!" Blue Thunder gave a snort and kept quiet, flaring his wings as he came to a gliding descent.
As they came lower towards the scorched forest, they felt the temperature increasing rapidly. "d.a.m.n it"s hot!" Dek yelled out over the roaring wind as Blue Thunder swooped in to land at the charred ground.
Blue Thunder gave a grunt as he felt a sense of unease at the temperature of the surroundings. "Hmmm... maybe you are right, we should be friends!"
The air was thick with smoke and ashes, and not long the men were sweating in their flight suits. "Look, it has noticed us but its just sitting there. Think you can talk to it or something?" Stamford asked as he cradled his shotgun, the metal barrel turning warmer by the second.
"I don"t speak draconic if that is what you want me to talk to it with," Blue raised his head up, sitting up on his hindquarters and staring at the Red Dragon in the distance.
"What?" Stamford frowned, "You are a dragon and you don"t know dragon talk?"
"Well, I grew up with people since I was born!" Blue Thunder raised his head up indignantly, "No one taught me draconic!"
Stamford shook his head helplessly, "Well, try something, make it go away without it getting p.i.s.sed off with us, okay?"
Blue Thunder turned his head and stared wide eyed at his Crew Chief, "Seriously? You want me to growl or bark at it expecting it to understand that we meant no harm and just wants it to go away?"
"What happens if my growl means "Fark you?" in draconic?" Blue Thunder hissed. "No way! You go do it!"
Stamford shooked his head again and turned to Dek their radioman, "Well, call it in, tell them we have a wee problem here."
-----
Northern Forest
The Red Dragon narrowed its golden eyes as it watched the blue scaled dragon landing at a short distance away and a few of those tiny inferior walking meat bags climbed down from the dragon"s back and started to converse in some kind of crude language to and fro.
It hissed in agitation, sniffing the other dragon"s scent and tasting its bloodline in the air with its tongue. After a while, it spat in disappointment, for it found the bloodline of the blue and red scaled dragon before it lacking, despite it having some bloodline similar to itself.
The Red Dragon c.o.c.ked its head as it continued to observe the body language of the dragon that was larger but with huge inferior bloodline with the small group of walking meat. It found it strange that despite the weak bloodline of its species would listen and serve as a mount for the inferior walking meat bags.
It rose up to its full height and was about to interrupt the strange chittering conversation between the lesser dragon and the walking meats when suddenly several strange rumbling creatures came into sight and more of that skinny looking walking meats climbed down from the strange blue grey purring creatures.
-----
"Top!" Stamford called out in relief, "We got a small communication problem here." His face was slightly red and his flight suit was unzipped all the way down, as waves of heat could be felt radiating from the strange dragon.
"d.a.m.n its hot here!" Pike snarled, "Alright, boys, s.p.a.ce out! Stop cl.u.s.terf.u.c.king there! Firefighting teams to take their positions!"
A couple of trucks started up their engines and s.p.a.ced themselves out. The men, some dressed in silvery full body suits while others in yellowish suits started to unroll deflated rubber hoses that were salvaged from the ship"s firefighting equipment and repurposed into trucks. They quickly attached the hoses to the water tanks that contained a mixture of foam and water. The electric motors hummed as they built up water pressure and the firefighters formed an ad hoc perimeter around the Red Dragon.
"Sergeant Stamford?" Pike walked up to the sweaty Crew Chief and gave a pat on the snout of Blue Thunder as a way of greeting. "What"s the situation?"
"Well, this fat lizard here doesn"t know how to speak dragon!" Stamford gave a dramatic shook of his head, while Blue Thunder gave him an eye roll and a snort of disdain in reply. "So we can"t speak with that dragon there."
"Not to mention, that thing is just too hot to approach," Stamford added, "We are like two, three hundred meters away, yet the heat waves its giving is pretty tough to handle without thermal insulation gear."
"Well, fear not," Pike grinned, "I brought some toys!" He propped the black carry case onto his knee and opened it, displaying a few sets of Universal Translator devices. "I got some techs on standby for IT support and we just hook this baby up to Blue"s intercoms and we can try some basic communications with that Red Dragon."
"Why spend so much time for a dragon?" Blue snorted again, "It barely fit the standards for a heavy weight fighting dragon!" He puffed up his chest, and straightened its back, trying to make his shoulders as broad as he could.
"Don"t jelly here!" Stamford slapped Blue"s puffed up belly with barely an effect. "And stop showing off!"
"But its true!" Blue lowered his head, "Its just a feeble looking thing!"
"Blue!" Stamford snapped, "If that dragon beats you up, I wouldn"t help you!"
Blue settled down on all fours and pouted at the side, "I"m just saying..." He spoke in a low voice to Bek and the rest of his crew who tried to control their laughter.
-----
The Red Dragon frowned as it watched the lesser dragon puffed up and glaring at it, but with a gesture of one of the meat bags, it deflated and appeared meek before it. Some of the walking meats appeared to be in the merriment of its treatment! No matter how weak its dragon bloodline has fallen, to be meek and controlled by those interior walking meats? What a disgrace to the great draconic race!
It roared angrily and with its head held up proudly, it strolled mightly and majestically over to the startled group of meat bags and the disgracefully lesser dragon, clearly a youngling from the way it acted and held itself!
I will teach this youngling what it meant to be the king of all beasts in the world! It thought as it stood before the clearly frightened and cowed meat bags. It radiated off waves of heat that instantly turned the surrounding temperature up by dozens and dozens of degrees before it opened its jaws and roared!
"RAAAAAAAAAAAWWWRRR~~!!!!"
"Give that f.u.c.king dragon something to drink!"