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367 - Need Prisoners!
🕑 Added 2020-01-14 16:47:20 +0000 UTCThe roar .50 calibres and the deeper boom of the 20 mm guns thundered out constantly as curious Imperial Fleet came within firing range of the surprised floating tender. The tender unable to manoeuvre could only hold its ground fiercely, forcing the Imperial ships back.
The crew of the UNS Dragon Roost did not expect to encounter any Imperial presence out here and neither did the mission planners back in HQ. It was an intelligence oversight that the mission planners had not anticipated.
Thankfully, the dockyard builders had added in several mounts of heavy weapons to repel any air attacks or ships. This decision proved to help the crew fend off the probing Imperial Fleet. The PT boat docked within the connected hulls was quickly released out from its moorings and the PT boat crew quickly added its firepower alongside the UNS Dragon Roost.
The squadron of curious Imperial ships that were sent over to investigate the strange floating vessel was engulfed in flames as the UN Navy had standardised its ammunitions with more incendiary rounds after its experience fighting with the local powers, that mainly had ships made of wood and cloth sails.
The .50 calibre guns with its armour piercing, tracer and incendiary mix of ammunition easily broke and ignited the large flat bottomed ships of the Imperials while the heavier 20 mm with its mix of tracer, high explosive and incendiary munitions battered down the magic shields of the Imperials till they broke too.
The five ships of the Imperials slowly burn down to their waterline while the rest of the Imperial Fleet retreated away, unwilling to come close to such a fearsome enemy, giving the crew of the UNS Dragon Roost some respite.
Their only two recon F/A 1N Sea Cobras were returning with all haste from their scouting mission to provide some air cover while the airbase at Orwell's Point was mobilising all its fighter squadrons for an all out attack on the Imperial Fleet.
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UN Northern Border, OP #37
"OP Three Seven to Nova! Request fire mission on my coordinates!" Private Romea crouched down inside the fox hole and spoke each word as clearly as possible into the radio while Private Yak remained with his head out to observe the approaching Imperials that shimmered in and out of view.
"Nova, to Three Seven, standby, directing you over to Fire Control, out!"
"Fire Control, Three Seven. Send fire mission, over!"
Romea quickly read off the numbers and alphabets on the grids of the map before he leaned out of the lip of the fox hole which was covered under a camouflaged net. "Battalion size or larger, infantry in the open, under magic! Over!"
"Fire Control, One five five, in effect, five rounds! Over!"
"OP Three Seven. One five five in effect, five rounds, out!" Romea repeated while eyeing Yak who gave a happy grin.
"Fire Control. Shot over." The radio crackled after a moment.
"OP Three Seven. Shot out." Romea replied as he took his binos and observed the Imperials.
"Fire Control. Splash in five! Over."
The shrills of the Marines' new heavy arsenal screamed over the two forward observer heads and the land before them exploded into smoke.
"Three Seven, Splash, out!" Romea yelled into the radio as the shockwaves of the 155 mm artillery strike landed around the coordinates given by him. He recovered and quickly scanned the area for the effect of the artillery strike.
"Very niceee!" Yak gave a bloodthirsty grin and giggled as he saw the Imperial's magical spells had broke under the might of the 155 mm guns. Bodies were scattered all over like broken toys while those not killed by the initial bombardment stood or knelt around in shock.
"OP Three Seven to Fire Control! Adjust fire! Add two fifty! Left one hundred! over!"
"Fire Control, shot, over!"
"Three Seven, shot, out!"
"Fire Control, splash in five! Over!"
"Three Seven, Splash! Fire for effect! Out!"
Yak hummed a dilly as he watched the plight of the Imperials under the merciless pounding of the one five five guns and felt super satisfied. "This killing... easy business! I like! No marching or sweating! Just like watching show! Very niceee!"
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Falledge, Northern Front 'Nova' Command Headquarters
Colonel Frank frowned as he watched the staffers move wooden markers depicting Imperial troops sightings all over the map table. Several of those markers even had a question mark drawn on a piece of cardboard and placed next to markers, to indicate those sightings as unverified.
For those with verified intel, numbers and symbols were drawn on the cards, with numbers indicating the number of soldiers while the symbols were the type of troops, like infantry or mounted cavalry. He watched a radio operator handed a note to one of the staff responsible to update the map table and the female staff placed a red numbered card next to one of the Imperial tokens with a '?'.
Next, she placed a well carved icon of a fighter plane next to the red card. Frank walked to the side and checked through a pile of records and found the number that matched the red card earlier. He read the report of a sighting of Imperial troops camoed by magic by Observation Point Thirty Seven and the subsequent artillery strike which wiped out the spotted troops, followed by a flight of Cobras performing aerial recon of the area.
Frank turned to his command staff and said, "Send in a mechanized platoon to check out the aftermath of the artillery strike. See if there are any survivors, especially someone high ranking. Bring them back."
"We need some live intel!"
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Source Sea, Imperial Grand Fleet
The Grand Fleet Admiral was livid as he watched the burning carcasses of five of his fast frigates. He kicked away the kneeling slave mage who provided the far sight spell. He had been briefed with the other high ranking commanders of the Emperor involving the demon worshipping rebels who had gotten their hands on some kind of fragment from the Age of Gods, granting them some kind of thunder and fire magic weapon.
Yet, hearing it and experiencing its effects in real life was totally different. The Admiral frowned as he watched the strange large rebel vessel which seemed to be a made out of a few river barges with cranes or towers or some sort sticking out from its many sides.
Thankfully, he did not commit his entire fleet forward and kept all but that unfortunate squadron back. He wondered should he retreat his fleet more, incase those cursed thunder weapons could hit his fleet which was keeping a distance of over twice the effective range of a heavy ballista.
There was also a strange small vessel circling around the rebels' abominating looking vessel that he had read some reports on which said can sail so fast, it could only be powered by some demonic entity.
Should he order his dragons on board his fleet to launch an attack, thought the Admiral. Or should he probe more of the enemy's strength, and see if he can find any weakness. After pondering for a moment, he turned to his officers and said, "Launched half the dragons! We shall attack that ship by air! Have 2nd Frigate and the Third on standby to charge in once the rebels' attention are focused on the dragons!"
"Try not to destroy the enemy ship completely! I want prisoners! We need to find out how their thunder weapons work!" The Admiral ordered to his officers. "If we learn the secrets to their weapons, we will be invincible!"
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Source Sea, UNS Dragon Roost
Lieutenant Tallie was the commanding officer and skipper in charge of the Dragon Roost. The Dragon Roost was supposed to be in an area where there was no danger at all, yet an Imperial Fleet suddenly appeared out of nowhere! He had radioed back to Orwell's Point for help and it will take them some time to scramble the fighters for support.
As for his crew, there a few naval officers and sailors but the rest were just civilian support staff who was 'outsourced' as civilian 'contractors' by the Navy. Thankfully, the were some installed weapons which the limited Navy personnel had trained in.
He eyed the Imperial ships in the distance. There were over thirty of them, estimated by their last count. He had ordered the gunners to hold fire against those Imperials as he did not want to expose the range of his weapons and besides, hitting something over half a kilometre away without a proper gun director system was just a waste of munitions.
He knew despite the limited amount of onboard weapons on the UNS Dragon Roost, it could fend off any attack from the Imperial Fleet. But half his holds were filled with flammable fuel and the other half were filled with bombs and ammunition for refuelling PT boats and seaplanes. If there was a leak or fire gets into the protected holds. Even if it's both physically and magically protected, it will still go boom!
And not only that, the UNS Dragon Roost was just a floating platform. It does not have any propulsion. Its only means of moving in the water was by a tow line to a PT boat and even so, it moves very slowly in the water due to its bulk and design.
Tallie prayed that the Imperial will not start any attacks till his reinforcement arrives if not, it is gonna be a very bad day. As he was making his prayer, he saw dark dots taking off from the Imperial ships.
"Oh... fark this..."
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It was somewhat raining dragons, thought Seaman Apprentice Astus. Astus had remained on the crow's nest with an old M1 black powder rifle and a bandolier of ammunition. He felt he had failed in his duty, especially for falling asleep during duty! Therefore to redeem himself, he remained on the tower.
The constant thunderous barks of the .50 cal guns were sending the lightweight dragons to their deaths in droves. These dragons had only a single rider armed with either a long lance, javelins, crossbow or bow. They swooped down from the skies, tossing javelins or loosing bolts and arrows as they dived down and the heavy spearhead of the javelins had enough force to punch through areas where the wooden decks were thin.
Already, a couple of javelins were dangling from Atsus's lookout tower. The hard pyramidal tip of the javelins had a shank of soft iron which will bend after impact. It will render the weapon useless to the enemy and also if struck against shields or the scales of a dragon, it might embed itself and the bending of the shank will cause shields to be cumbersome while on stuck on a dragon, it will hamper the dragon down with the extra weight.
Astus cursed as another javelin flew past him, and he snapped fired his rifle, the dirty grey gunsmoke, shrouded the tower for a moment before the sea breeze carried the smoke away. He saw the dragon he was shot at was unaffected and he quickly worked the bolt action and took proper aim this time as he was taught in Naval Academy.
Without anyone throwing dangerous things at him for the moment, Astus could finally concentrate and fired. When the smelly dirty gun smoke disappeared, he saw the dragon he shot at was struggling in the air, blood clearing was dripping off from its flank.
"YEAH!" He laughed and turned around to acquire another target when he suddenly felt a punch to his chest. He looked down and saw a bent javelin stuck right in his chest, nailing him to the platform. The dragon rider who threw the well aimed javelin cried out in triumphant as the dragon swooped over his head.
Astus coughed and blood spattered out. He slumped down on the side and watched the dragons in the skies continue to rain down in droves.
"I... am... sorry..."
***** Author's Rumblings *****
No manpower = Civilian contractors
