42 Dragonslayer

The General Atomics MQ-242 "Owleye" reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle is a small four by three meter angular shaped drone, powered by five 400 kW electronic turboprops, over 28 hours of operational time due to the solar coating panel which allows it to recharge it batteries in the day andhas an operational ceiling height of 15,000m, yet it couldn't fly over the mountainous ridges as the Sawtooth mountain tower over 16,000m above sea level.

It could only enter by the naturally hidden pass, controlled by either its AI chip or a human operator. The UNS Singapore only carried four in its inventory and they were husbanded very carefully in its usage, once it is lost, there are no replacements till the crew has the technology or means to build a new one.

This particular Owleye has been assigned to the cover the Pass region, suddenly detects two large radar and infrared signature returns. Its brain chip immediately turns the UAV heading towards the contacts and fires an encrypted electronic signal to Base.

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The main display screen flickers over to the UAV video feed, displaying a bird's eye view over the mountain ridges.

Gasps of astonishment came from the elves, as they stared wide-eyed at the clear image. "What magical device is that!" Magister Thorn shakes uncontrollably with excitement as he walks up as close as he could towards the screen, standing behind the divider. "Amazing! Simply amazing!"

2 large winged creatures could be seen flapping their wings lazily, heading directly to the pass with several figures riding and holding onto the back of the dragon-like creatures.

Lord General Joesph marveled at the moving images, wondering if that's how the hoomans always able to spot the Empire soldiers. With such powerful magical tools and weapons, the hoomans could even take over the whole world!

Blake points at the screen asked in the Elves' Common Tongue. "What are those?" They won't so surprised to see something like that as they have already spotted similar creatures, albeit smaller, flying around the mountainous region.

"It's the Empire's dragon knights!" Joesph exclaims as he watches the video. "The trappings and banners on the dragons belong to the Empire."

Blake and Ford watching the image of the two massive looking lizards with wings, rigged with some kind of harnesses with Empire soldiers in their trademark bluecoats under a grey cuirass. "Zoom in more to that, and enlarge." Blake points.

The image enlarged and a couple of crossbows mounted on the top shoulder rigging, just in front of the wings could be seen along with several bulging saddlebags secured against the belly harness.

"It's like a flying bomber," Ford said, "Like those old world war two bombers with gunners."

"They clearly intended to attack the Pass!" Joesph warns. "They can drop some ***** that causes a fire that is very hard to put out! That's how they destroyed the city walls! It also carries soldiers who then drop behind the lines, and all those soldiers are Knights!"

"I think he meant bombs?" Blake looks at Ford who nods. "So they carry a kind of firebombs, possibly napalm in nature."

"What is a Knight?" Ford raised the question to the Elves. He wonders if it is the same meaning as he thought of medieval knights in full plate armor.

"A Knight is a veteran soldier who survived more than a 100 battles!" Joesph explains. "Not only that, they must also be weapon masters. Just one of them is almost as strong as a hundred common soldiers!"

"Don't worry," Blake assures the Elves as they watched on nervously, he raised his left eyebrows as he listened to Joesph explanation, a single soldier as strong as a hundred men? Serious? before switching to English. "Do we have target locks?"

"Aye Captain!" Weapons replied. "Ready to fire on your command!"

Blake nods. "Fire away."

The weapons officer jab the firing key and the almost instantly a pair of smoke plumes could be seen bursting out from the aft missile launchers. The two missiles raced each other towards their locked on target.

The heads of the Elves twisted sharply to the side window as they stare in confusion at the streaks of white smoke rising rapidly into the sky.

"Bring up the missiles view on to the main display." Blake orders, clasping his hands behind his back.

Two sub screens popped up, inciting more cries of amazement and surprise from the Elves.

"You enjoy doing that to them don't you," Ford said dryly.

"Haha," Blake winks at Ford, who rolled his eyes.

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The AIM-32H Space Sparrows missiles used by the United Nations of Man, manufactured on Earth by the Ford Aerospace Industries were created as a multiple role strike system, allowing it to be used in any situation and environment, be it in point defense mode, anti-ship or submarine mode or as a cruise missile.

Having a multi-role weapon helps cuts down the logistics of supplying a naval force with a single weapon system instead of having multiple weapons.

It screams out of its launch tubes, exiting at a speed of over 100m/s. The missiles' smart brain chip digested the targeted lock information given by the combat information center within a microsecond, adjusted its flight path in midair, it then ignites its second stage booster, flinging itself towards the target.

In seconds, the missiles' speed reached Mach 3, its electronic brain picking up the infrared signature of the dragon it has target lock on, its homing radar system picking the radar returns from the dragon allowing it to be even more accurate, slams itself into the center of mass of the flying reptile, before the brain chip happily denotates its 15kg warhead of Composite-9 blast frag explosives.

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The missile views cut off sharply as the last view showed a surprised face of an Empire soldier staring directly at the camera before the signal lost error appeared on the screen.

On the overhead view, two dense clouds of black smoke appeared and burning trails of debris rained down, followed by the dying dragons, dropping down over the mountainside, creating a large dust cloud as they impacted the ground.

"Scratch two dragons!" Weapons called out.

Cheers erupted from the humans, while the Elves blinked their eyes in panicked confusion. Two dragons dead just like that? Is it real? Or just a performance, they wondered.

Joesph broke out in cold sweat as he looks at the screen. A Knight is ranked as Class 4, a flying heavy class dragon as Class 8. A heavy class dragon carries a squad of four Knights and its dragon crew, a power more than enough to crash any fortress it attacks.

A force strong enough to deter most Kingdoms, even Goldrose doesn't even have a heavy dragon in its ranks. All wiped out in less than a turn of the glass.

He felt a shiver down his spine and glances at the hoomans cheering and the smile on the hooman Blake.

He might not understand or know hooman facial expressions yet, but that professional look of a job well done, he thought, to the hoomans, this is just like a normal day's work.

Sherene watched the whole scene like she was in a trance, if her brain was a computer, it will be overheating from the amount of information to process. The hoomans are too alien in her mind, yet they weld powers capable to destroy this world! Are they demons or angels?

Watching this performance, there is no doubt in Sherene's mind that the hoomans can uphold their end of the bargain to protect her people. Should she submit herself and her people to the hooman Blake's rule? Be his queen? What will the future hold?

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"Dragons? Where! WHERE?" Mills practically screamed the last word out. He hops up from the sandbagged barricade and ran over to the crowded military tent set up at the rear of the Pass.

Inside the open tent, several communication devices and computers were stacked on top of each other and the operator in charge was speaking with Base. A display screen showed a patrolling UAV feed from covering the mountain pass.

As the UAV operator zoomed in the images, two winged lizard-like creatures with soldiers in Empire colors could be seen. The stationed human troops, including the Goldrose soldiers, who had gotten used to the seeing the wondrous magical tek-no-lo-gees of the hoomans, started exclaiming in surprise and fear.

"I thought you have seen a dragon before?" Bartley appeared behind Mills suddenly.

"FUCK!" Mills dramatically held his hands over his chest. "You scared the shit outta me!"

"Do you want to change your pants?" Bartley dead toned back at Mills, who rolls his eyes.

"It's a real fucking dragon! Not those pipsqueaks, wannabe lizards with tiny wings." Mills retorted back.

"Alright! You whores!" SSGT Pike's voice suddenly roars out from behind everyone. "Get to your stations or I swear to God I fucking cut your balls off and turn you into a sweet bitchy virgin and feed you to the dragons! Skewered of course, with this fucking amazing Goldrose spear like A FUCKING KEBAB UP YOUR ASSES!"

Everyone dispersed in record time including the Goldrose soldiers who could understand the gist of the tone if not the language.

"Alright, now... I officially just shit my pants..."