Wings of Honor: Meeting The Enemy

Chapter 10: Manuver Section

Dear Momma and Daddy,
Greetings from Siscily. While I'm not in Italy just yet, the spaghetti over here is still delicious. Not as good as yours Momma, but close enough to remind me of home.
What can I say, tell Daddy to have his guys NOT shoot at as when we're flying over. Thank God my plane wasn't one that got hit, but we sure had a few new windows. While the attack may have been scattered, we still completed all our objectives, and are relatively safe right now.
So yeah, my first combat jump. We're all okay. Maybe not the best, but we're all still alive.
Love,
S/Sgt. Marvin Jerez

We were up within the minute, trailing after a huge mob of NightWings. They looked like a murder of crows migrating, following their gigantic crow leader. The only diffrence was that I spotted a sea foam grey and pink, as well as an emerald green SeaWing. Turtle seemed to be slowly gaining on Anemone, but he wasn't making making much progress over her. But that gave us an opportunity.
I unslung my De Lisle, checking that I had a round chambered.
"You aren't going to shoot him, Cap?"
I looked back to see Travers' concerned face.
"How else am I going to get his attention? We're too far back to yell, and if we get any closer, we'll be spotted for sure." I racked the bolt closed. "Besides, at this range and with his armor, it'll feel like little hailstones to him."
Admittedly, it wasn't my best idea, but I wasn't going to risk anyone else just so we could talk to Turtle.
The De Lisle's iron sights were about as transparent as my Springfield's irons. They were good for stationary marksmanship, but absolutely horrid for tracking moving targets and snapshotting. Especially aiming off a dragon in flight, thank God Turtle was as big of a target as he was.
Instantly my breath was taken from me as I trained on him. This was the third time I took a bead on a dragon, but it was only the second time I opened fire on one with a purpose; and the last time I did that, an IceWing was killed.
God, I hope I'm right and I won't hurt Turtle.
Taking up the trigger, I let one fly with a pop and hiss that nobody could make out over the rushing air.
Turtle flinched. He seemed startled, but not hurt. He looked around in front of him. I must have hit him on the neck or something.
I racked another round, accidentally nailing Tatsuo in the face with the spent cartridge. Taking up the slack, I let loose another suppressed shot.
Now Turtle looked around to his sides, expanding his search and looking thoroughly confused.
Just let him have it. Grace grumbled, her scales beginning to shift from chamo to orange.
"My pleasure."
I haven't been able to test my prowess with a Lee action like that in a long time. Transitioning to grip the bolt with my thumb and index, with my middle finger on the trigger. All Lee actions were buttery smooth, and the bolt handle was in as ideal a place for rapid fire as you could get it. And normally, with ten rounds, you could have just a section of men put down as much firepower as a light machine gun, or maybe a couple of guys with M1s.
Either way, the Lee was fast, very fast.
By the end of my magazine, Turtle flared and looked around at him, trying to find where all that pelting was coming from. Not a moment after, he spotted our silhouette and came fling towards us.
"Grace?" Turtle cried out.
Grace fully uncamouflaged now. "Turtle!"
While he beamed, a distant order drew our attention back to the shrinking wing of dragons.
"Here, we can fly and talk. Keep up."
As soon as Turtle caught back up and we found a speed both were comfortable at, we started our briefing.
"So what did you find out Turtle?"
The SeaWing gave out a long and heavy sigh. "Where do I begin?"
"At the begining." I couldn't pass up the opportunity.
Grace smirked, while Travers barked a single laugh.
"Very funny. But Darkstalker's heading to the Rainforest, and he's going to try and be king of the NightWings."
I sighed. "Again." Speech slipping my lips. Apparently loud enough for Turtle to hear and look at me with a confused face.
"Alright." Grace shifted the subject. "Has there been any word about us? Our camp was discovered and we got displaced. Do they know we're still nearby?"
Turtle gripped his head. "I'm not sure. I think a few people think you're still nearby, Goldman definitely thinks so, but I don't think they know for sure."
"Okay." I nodded.
"And how about spells? Did you notice them cast any more spells?"
"Uh, only the ones for the other NightWings." Suddenly Turtle got a flicker in his eye. I already knew what he was going to say. "Wait! There was this moment where I was talking with Qibli! I enchanted his earring so Goldman and Darkstalker couldn't control him anymore, and they both showed up!"
Both of them? Me and Grace eyed each other.
"I don't know, but Qibli thinks that that Darkstalker enchanted himself somehow to be able to detect where spells happened."
"That's good to know." Travers commented.
"Do you know if he knows exactly which animus that casts the spells? Or if they're human or dragon..."
Turtle shook his head. "No, I don't know. Qibli didn't think so. But it was really scary. I almost thought he could."
"Okay." I ran through everything in my head. Darkstalker's motives, his new spells. But why was Goldman still with him, outside of just being another person in power. He couldn't become the leader of the NightWings... could he? I mean, Darkstalker could just give him a leadership position, but then he would still be an overly ambitious threat.
If it's one thing I knew for sure, Goldman and Darkstalker could not maintain a steady alliance.
So why is he still there?
Grace had the same idea. "See if you can learn anything more about Goldman. Some of this is really suspicious, even for him."
"Really?" Turtle made a frown, but then shrugged his gliding wings. "I guess you know him better than I do."
Grace gave a sarcastic chuckle. "And I know you too, Mr. 'I'm gonna follow firescales.' "
Turtle shrunk a bit. "I was trying to save my winglet." He said softly, barely audible over the wind.
"We'll you're here now. Try and stay with them as best you can, and DON'T GET CAUGHT." Grace used her severe voice. "We'll be close by, but maybe not close enough if you get into trouble. So stay safe Turtle."
He took a shaky breath, holding for a while, nodding "Mmm hmm," and took off after his wing.
Grace shifted back to chamoflage.
"Goldman and Darkstalker, I'm not so sure it's a mutual agreement anymore." I said.
"It sounds like Darkstalker put a spell on him or something." Travers noted
"Probably that manipulation spell." Grace suggested.
"Either way, Darkstalker's got Goldman under his thumb. And he's got Anemone and Moon. That's four animi and two mind readers. In fact, probably more."
Grace sighed. "We won't have a chance if we get discovered again. We need to stay silent and out of reach."
"We can do that in the forest. There's plenty of cover, and mind reading is masked some by the thick brush." I said. "We might have an advantage."
"But Darkstalker's going for Queen Glory to take the NightWings! How can we stop that?"
I pondered for a moment, then came with the only option that popped into my mind.
"Maybe we can't stop it, but we can at least give fair warning." I patted Grace twice. "Let's see how fast you can fly."
With a mischievous smile, we all gripped our places tight and held on as Grace reared up and slammed down air with her massive wings, thrusting us forward at ludicrous speeds!
It wouldn't be long before we overtook the slow NightWing convoy.