Lanna's War

64

Temp watched the battle from the large, two level bridge of the Revenant. As he observed, red lights flashed and an alarm sounded every three seconds. Meanwhile, the bridge crew hustled to keep the ship in the sky.

As he looked out the main window, the Lunar ships showed fierce resistance. Temp wondered how they managed to become so skilled at ship-to-ship combat in four years. He missed the days when they ran from the Atrayean fleet, cowering from their might. But those days were over. As he watched, three attack ships passed at high speed, causing a shudder to ripple through his ship.

He rose from his seat. He walked to the balcony of the upper level and gripped the rail until his knuckles turned white. Then he looked downward at the chaos in the grassy fields far below. From his altitude the battle looked like two long, parallel infernos.

The ship took another direct hit, causing a violent tremor and the lights to flick off.

"Captain Emerate!" Temp yelled.

"Yes, my Lord."

"Take the Revenant and the Perseverance over the Lunar army. Let's see if they they still want to sink us while we're directly over their ground forces."

"Yes, my Lord."

Lanna dressed Tanis' wound and helped her to her feet. She and Tanis emerged from the thicket and found a commander behind a tank. He crouched while radioing updates between shell fire. Lanna looked beyond the tank and saw the blazing inferno between the two massive armies. Tanks and vehicles on both sides fired projectiles, rockets, bullets and bombs while other vehicles lay wasted. The ground boiled and liquefied from the punishing bombardment, every tree in the way burst into flame, and the devastation was so widespread that it seemed impossible anyone would make it out alive at all. It was one of the most hellish and awesome sights Lanna had ever seen. The only thing that stole her gaze from it was an abrupt, metal twisting explosion far to the north. She cocked her neck to the left and saw a large, bright white fireball in the sky, followed by a violent shockwave.

"That was the Odyssey." Said the commander. Lanna looked at him.

"What?"

"We lost the Odyssey, the heavy frigate." He then spoke to his radio.

"We came from Last Fjord. Where are we needed?"

"Hold here!" He yelled just as the tank opened fire. Lanna watched as three rockets fired from it and hurled high into the sky. They each performed an arc and then hit the Atrayean line one by one.

"What?!" Lanna yelled back.

"Hold here until the Dragon Spears are brought up!"

Lanna and Tanis waited with the commander for several minutes. Lanna watched the battle through her binoculars. After several minutes she noticed something peculiar.

"The Atrayeans pulled their line back. What the hell?" She said. She then felt the commander tap her on the shoulder. "What?" She said while looking over at him. He pointed to the north where Lanna could see the reason for the sudden retreat. The two Atrayean battle cruisers were closing in.

"They'll be on us in seconds!" said the commander. "Where's our anti-air cover?"

One of the cruisers fired. A torpedo rained over the Lunar line, shattering the ground.

"We have to find cover!" She yelled. Lanna, the commander and Tanis ran from the front line as torpedos whined overhead. It was so loud that Lanna thought one might strike them at any moment. As this happened, the Atrayean ship in the rear shot down an attack ship and a light frigate. The two ships hurled to the ground in opposite directions and crashed in immense fire balls.

Lanna found herself back in the drainage channel. The bow of an Atrayean vessel was directly over top, and, with its firepower in the equation the battle drastically changed. The Lunar Army was now in a full defensive fight with little protection from the beasts above.

"We might be fucked now." Lanna shouted.

"Our line has collapsed. This is exactly what the Atrayeans want! We've got to get the hell out of here before their army smothers us." The commander shouted.

Lanna watched a frigate crisscross with an Atrayean ship. The Lunar frigates kept firing, even though there was a danger of debris falling on Lunar soldiers. As this happened, the three Lunar attack ships pummelled the Atrayean ground force in the distance, in hopes of pulling the Atrayean ships away.

The Lunar Army thinned out considerably. Spreading out was the only real defensive option left as the battle devolved into a one-sided target shoot. Lanna, Tanis and the commander ran through the drainage channel. As they did, torpedoes smashed apart the channel behind them. Then they heard dozens of vehicles approach.

Ahead, two long trucks stopped abruptly. Each had a strange mechanism in the back. The mechanism sprayed compressed air and began to unfold.

"It's our anti-air cannons." Shouted the commander.

Crews from the trucks rushed to ready the cannons as the Atrayeans continued to rain hell. Lanna watched as each thirty metre-long barrel took form and angled to the sky. At least ten trucks were blown to pieces during the process. Then, finally, three were ready to fire.

"Shit!" Lanna yelled. "Turn away and cover your ears!"

A deep, hollow sound erupted, followed by two more blasts. Lanna felt a rush of wind blow through her arms from the shock. She looked up as the first rounds hurled to the sky. Then, an explosion ripped through the underside of the Atrayean vessel. Three more explosions followed, each causing major damage to the slow moving battle cruiser. Immediately, the ship banked to the west. It opened its engines and disengaged from the battle, leaving black smoke trails in its wake. The second ship fell back to the Atrayean army position. The Lunar ships let them flee, but diligently remained over the Lunar force on the ground.