A Dragon's Tale #Watty's2015

A Long Day

Flying for ten hours in an aerodynamically unstable six engined aircraft churning out 45 thousand horsepower is a great way to start any day. Note my sarcasm there. The ride to the Battleship was rough and annoying, just the sort of thing we needed right now. Jackie was the only one who managed to get to sleep, which even after knowing the kid for so long, was still amazing.

The 66 touched down on the Battleship at around 7 in the afternoon. The sun was beginning to set, bathing the ship and the waters underneath it in a crimson red, pink and orange glow. Set against the guns and the tower of the battleship, it would have made a great desktop background. The wind was blowing and carried a fresh mist and the scent of salt on it.

“Damn”, Sozenn said, “it's nice out here.”

“Forget how nice it is”, Ator said, “do you see how BIG those guns are?”

I looked where my friend was pointing. In front of us were six turrets. The bottom three had five guns each and the top three had four each. The barrels of the guns were easily six or seven feet across and the groves in the barrels were so deep I's be willing to bet you could stick a 20mm between each of them.

“Can I have it?”, Ator asked.

“No”, Vanlith replied him.

“But..”

“No”, she replied, “the LAST thing I need is one of our boys crawling into the barrel of one of your excessively large guns.”

I laughed, “I'd tell him the same thing sister. Now, let's find the CO of this beast and report to him.”

“That would be me”, A female's voice came.

There was a white and blue Anthro coming towards us. She was a dressed in blue Multicam and had on a full combat load with an AK-74 slung over her shoulder. Her eyes were a bright green and she had a scar tracing across her snout. Shadow, Nina and Mnerloth went wide eyed when they saw her.

“Artimus!”, They yelled running up top her and hugging her.

“Okay easy guys!”, she gasped as they grabbed her, “okay..yeah we love each other, I get it!”

Shadow laughed as they let her go.

“Where's Hunter?”, she asked tilting her head, “he should be with you?”

“He's dead”, Shadow told her.

Artimus didn't answer. She just stood there. I couldn't tell what she was thinking from the look on her face. It was just blank, empty, like she wasn't feeling anything at all. After a few minutes of silence, she looked at Mnerloth.

“Are you going to be okay?”

“I'll be fine Artimus”, Mnerloth's voice cracked a little.

Artimus pulled her into a hug, then looked at me.

“I take your Raven's commanding officer?”

“I am”, I answered, “this is Tech Sargent Sozenn Vorlianth, his mate Cora, Staff Sargent's Syralth and Tesselth Kalinth, Lieutenants Valstrath and Vezoth Lyrroth, Captain Rolland Sivath, Sargent Major Emelia Liorenth, Sargent's Fireclaw and Tala Teovanth and my mate Staff Sargent Adelind Serelath.”

“Follow me Major”, Artimus said.

She turned and started walking across the deck, the rest of us followed. She led us across the ship and up a flight of metal stairs on the side of the ship's tower and to a deck above the turrets. She swung open a metal door and walked up a flight of stairs and turned into a hallway on the right. We followed her down the hallway and up a stairwell before we came out on the bridge which overlooked the front of the ship. In the middle of the room was one of those holographic tables like what Nolan used back at Romeo. Artimus booted it up and pulled up a hologram of the USS Draco.