The Titan and the dragonriders

110. Battle for the Nesting Caves - Part 1

A few minutes earlier, shortly after the jump of Team Alpha:

"All right, Team Alpha is out successfully. Now it's our turn to take a course on the nesting caves," Robert remarked, strained, while simultaneously pushing the switch to close the Albatross's loading ramp again, while pulling the steering lever to gain height. He let his gaze wander through the completely glazed cockpit of the plane to keep an eye on the surroundings.

The sky in front of him was filled with fighting dragons, whose colorful fire breaths shot through the air like giant lances. The pilot briefly considered rushing to the aid of a few of these fighting balls. The albatross would probably be more than enough armed to eliminate a dragon, but actually he couldn't really risk it. On the one hand, it was promised that lethal force against the flying lizards would only be used in emergencies, and on the other hand, because it was impossible for him to say which dragon belonged to which faction. This would be hard enough in the nesting caves themselves, where by relying at least on Angela and Murtagh to identify them accordingly.

Tensily, he pushed the albatross's accelerating lever further forward to gain speed. In doing so, he made sure to keep as far away as possible from the fighting flying lizards. In the same breath, he asked Chloe: "What about contacts? Anything to see?" The chemist had settled on the radar console and had focused her eyes on the medium-sized screen in front of her. At least some relief spread to Holsted when she replied: "No, nothing that would be on a collision course with us. But watch out, the scanners show an increased activity near the mountain, probably where the nesting caves are." "It makes sense, after all, the dragons want to defend their boys," Benjamin remarked at the gun console, to which Robert nodding. Of course, the dragons would do anything to protect their chicks, which is why it was also critical for their enterprise to have the dragon rider and the herb witch with them. If she had gone into the nesting caves without the two, the gigantic lizards would probably have gone on them as well as on the actual attackers, simply because they were just as foreign invaders.

He skilfully let the large storm transporter complete a 180-degree curve, so that he now stopped directly again at the Drachenberg, whose massive rock face took up a large part of the front of the cockpit. Immediately he could see what his sister had said when he looked at the section above the feast. A handful of larger and smaller caves were emblazoned as black holes in the bare rock, mostly with plateaus stretching slightly in front of the entrance. But the real highlight, if you wanted to call it that, were the just over a dozen dragons that swirled around like bees in front of their nest. Robert noticed that most of them were not involved in combat at all, but rather seemed to be patrolling, or all circling around a single cave entrance, which was apparently the largest of all.

On its rocky outcrop stood two dragons, both at least as big as Lyath, one with purple, the other with strong reddish-brown scales and between them had obviously placed some soldiers. He couldn't see exactly what they were doing, but since the remaining flying lizards remained more at a distance from the cave, he strongly suspected that they had bows or crossbows ready to fire possibly attacking dragons. And obviously they had already claimed a sacrifice, because Benjamin said, disapprovingly: "Oh damn. Rob, you probably can't see that, but in the zoom I can clearly see that another Dragon lies in the shade at the entrance of the large cave. He doesn't move and if I interpret it correctly, there's a huge pool of blood to see.'

The pilot briefly pressed his lips on top of each other and put the albatross on a course in which he, like the other dragons, began to draw circles, while remaining at a distance from them. It also greatly reduced their speed. At the same time, he opened the intercom channel and seriously demanded: "Murtagh, please come to us briefly in the cockpit to assess the situation." It was only a few seconds before he heard the door open in her back and the dragon rider stepped up to him. He held on to the back of his pilot's seat with a strong grip, and when Holsted looked up, he noticed Murtagh putting on a slightly uncomfortable expression on his face. There was still a difference flying on the back of a kite, or entering the glass floor of the Albatross' cockpit, where you could feel like you were just falling into the depths at any moment, especially if you didn't have a seat yourself. "What is there, have you discovered anything, Robert?" the rider then asked in a tense voice, to which Robert nodded in agreement and directed the plane again to the cave entrance, so that Murtagh could now see him right in front of him. "Yes, apparently the Black Rose with dragons, its own soldiers brought up here and probably occupies the central access to the nesting caves. Look, there," he quickly explained, pointing to the occupied plateau.