The Silver Reckoning

Chapter 29: Taking the Offensive

Silver let out a tired yawn, feeling a little dreary as she glided silently through the night sky. The full moon was at her back, illuminating the task force of dragons in her wake. There were almost a hundred of them, all completely silent save for the sound of wing beats. On many of the dragon's backs were numerous humans, low and silent with grim faces. It was an unusual site, but Silver was getting used to it. It was a necessary part of this operation.

In the distance, along a flat plain in an isolated corner of Iran, was their target. An A.O.D.H base. It was a relatively simple structure, looking like small army base with three main buildings above ground. But as all bases like this, there was much more to it. The main body had been tunnelled deep underground, reinforced with thick steel walls, just like any other base. This make gave the dragons of Sky Mountain, or Silver particularly, a massive advantage.

"Okay, hacked into their security systems!" Tyler yelled from the dragoness's back, "They'll never see us coming! Now, land at that small rise down there. We will begin our attack then."

Silver nodded her head, turning and gliding her way down toward the ground below. The other's followed her lead, descending onto the rather barren landscape. They had been preparing a week for this, going over the plan over and over again until it was drilled into their minds. Silver and Tyler, with a bit of Krita's help as well, had worked tirelessly with making the small 'Mind Breaker's' they had become so fond of. It was a surprisingly difficult procedure. Silver used her metal to make the separate pieces of each device, and Tyler then put it together by hand. They then used Krita to make sure each of them worked.

Overall they had managed to build one hundred and fifteen Mind Breakers. They hadn't slept much, which Silver didn't mind at all. When she did find the time to sleep, she was always plagued by nightmares. While she knew it was Eldawin's doing, it didn't make it any less terrifying. Each one said something to her, something designed to break her down, from speaking to her failures, shaming her, and everything in between. She had tried to control her dreams, like O'hen had suggested, but against a master of mental manipulation, it was incredibly difficult. So, she had used the times when she couldn't sleep to train, and it wasn't uncommon for her to be up all night either building devices or practicing with her metal.

The ground below them was surprisingly soft, her paws sinking into the sand easily. She shivered softly at the feeling against her scales. Sand was another annoying material that always got into any dragon's scales. Tyler was quick to slip off her back, making sure not to drop the laptop he was carrying, open, in one hand. Many of the other humans followed his lead, quickly moving off the dragons they were riding.

Silver let herself take a deep breath and sat down on her haunches, the anxiety of the battle about to erupt forth pushing out the tiredness that often accompanied her. She found the tip of her tail nervously flicking back and forth and her claw tapping against the ground. Tyler moved up the small rise hiding the army of dragons, placing a small set of binoculars to his eyes.

"You feeling alright?" asked Retrix, moving up from within the ranks to sit by her.

"Yeah," she shuffled her wings a little, "Just wanting it to be over as quickly as possible I guess."

A lot of pressure was with her for this attack. If Eldawin or Raize showed themselves, then it was up to her to defeat them, or at least hold them back. Firefly had stayed behind at the mountain to protect it in case of an attack directly against them while their forces were out. Eldawin undoubtedly knew about what was going to happen. From the amount of times he broke into Silver's mind she was surprised he hadn't mounted a counter already. But there would be some trap waiting for them, one they hoped to counter before it was sprung. The problem was... it was difficult to counter an enemy that knew what you were going to do and when you were going to do it.