Wings of Honor: Deciding Destiny

Chapter 9: Night Drop

We were wings up in one.
Long enough for Vaquero's flight to grab their polearms, and for Sierra to crudely sharpen her wooden pole into a spear and give the sword to Carnelian. We split up. Vaquero's flight started their high altitude loitering, while I took Travers and McManus.
The loudest thing was the howling wind rushing past me as I glided low along the ground. A giant, fast-moving, dragon shadow to our eyes in the sky. I watched intently, tens of feet above the ground, bending trees as I blasted by overhead, hugging the deck. McManus kept watch on the fortress with the binoculars, watching and waiting for the enemy to show any signs of detecting us. Travers scanned the skies, keeping tabs on our friends, and preventing any nasty supprises as we rapidly closed in. 500 yards of wide open land, even seconds felt like eternities.
"Dragons!" He suddenly shouted.
"Where?" I quickly looked around.
"There!" He pointed. "500 yards! Left-front high! MudWings!"
"MudWings?" McManus exclaimed, also scanning.
Sure enough, two brown MudWings contrasted against the starry navy sky.
"Sora and Umber!" I exclaimed, their familiar minds entering my range.
"No wait!"
But McManus' call wasn't fast enough. Thinking on my feet, I pulled up to meet them. But then beams of light swung around to dazzle me, tracers started crackling around us.
"Shit!" Travers exclaimed.
"Hold your fire!" McManus yelled.
They held on as I maneuvered to throw off the gunners. Tracers streamed past me as I weaved and dipped and rolled and banked, taking the fire as I raced up towards my frantic friends.
We all yelled over the thundercracks.
"GET OUT OF THE SKY!" "DIVE-DIVE-DIVE!" "THEY'RE SHOOTING AT US!"
We all dove, tracers and searchlights following us straight down as the ground rushed up to meet us. We practically crashed into the ground, as tracers from machine guns and the whistles of mortars came down upon us.
"RUN! SCATTER!" One of the soldiers screamed.
Sora, Umber, and I all sprinted for the forestline. All of us faded into the night and trees as the fortress lay waste everywhere around our landing spot.
As soon as I was far enough away, crouching low among the trees, I turned to see the destruction. A deep crater carved into the Earth, deep enough to where I could see the gray of bedrock, they fired so many munitions at us.
I breathed a heavy sigh of relief, closing my eyes. We escaped again.
"Give me your flashlight," McManus ordered to Travers. "I'll signal Vaquero."
They both slid down, Travers passing him the enchanted flashlight.
"Grace?"
I turned to meet two excited and hopeful minds appearing from the trees. All the intense emotions running through their minds brought tears to my eyes.
"You're alive!" Sora yelled, tears in her eyes as she charged for me. I barely had a moment to react before my front was enveloped by warm wings. Umber close behind her.
"WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU TWO THINKING!" Suddenly Travers yelled. "WHY ARE YOU HERE? WE TOLD YOU TO LEAVE! THIS IS THE MOST DANGEROUS PLACE IN ALL OF PHYRRIA!" MARVIN SACRIFICED HIMSELF FOR YOU AND YOU JUST WASTED IT! "FUCK!" He kicked up the grass and dirt.
"WE WERE TRYING TO FIND GRACE!" Suddenly Sora's roar pierced the night, startling all of us with her matching Travers' anger... before she collapsed and sobbed into me.
"H-hey." I held her up. "Are you okay?" I looked over her weakly splayed wings.
Sora cried, and I even heard a sniff from Umber.
"We did leave. We found the Scorpion Den, just like you and Marvin told us to go."
We all fell silent.
"W..." McManus came back. "Why did you come back?"
Umber hung his head. "We saw you in The Scorpion Den."
"I tried to get to you, but there were guards and thunder and fire." Sora trembled, visions of war running through her head. Her war neurosis, Marvin called it.
The attack on Vulture's Nest. They were there.
'We tried to find out where you went," Umber said. "We even met Queen Thorn, when she found out you sent us."
"She said you were going to stop your bad guy, Goldman. So..." She hung her head. "We followed you."
I shook my head in disbelief. Their minds were in tatters. They were hungry, starving hungry where I felt that familiar, deep, gnawing, need. They were sore from flying, pushing themselves to catch up with our head start. They were exhausted, I don't even want to know how much sleep they sacrificed to catch up with us.
"No." My voice cracked, tears rolling down my muzzle. I enveloped my great wings around them, embracing them in a warm hug. "You didn't have to do this."
Sora leaned into me. "I... didn't know what else to do." She softly said, just above a whisper.
I could feel the pain from their touch. The overwhelming stinging from their wings, the dull soreness of exhaustion and hunger, but also the deep familial loyalty present in all MudWings. And then it clicked for me.
They saw us, they saw me... as their family!
I knew how there were certain MudWing families that took in dragonetts that were orphaned, Unsibs, the scrolls McManus and Marvin read called them. Looking back at them, we sheltered them, even for a moment, while they were outcasts, fugitives. That small gesture, Marvin's kindness, was enough for them to consider us like family.
That's why they followed us. We earned their loyalty. They trusted us.
Sora and Umber's peaceful sighs under me only proved it. I could already feel the tension and stress begin to evaporate away from them. How I felt when I was with Marvin, Sora and Umber felt with me. Like everything bad in the world... was just gone for some time.
I.... I held them.
Travers let out a heavy sigh. "You nearly got all of us killed."
Sora whimpered from Travers' piercing statement.
Then McManus sighed. "Vaquero's circling round. I think he got the signal." He looked over his shoulder. "There's a clearing in cover nearby. We can catch them there."
I nodded. I gently urged my two friends to stand, allowing a little of the night cold to reach them. The tiny noises Sora and even Umber made were enough to break my heart all over again. It hurt that I couldn't just stop and give them the love and grace they deserved until they were ready to leave under their own strength. This cursed war, a hundred times cursed.
But eventually, we got underway. Sora remained close, persistent in trying to get under my wing. Umber stayed beside her, keeping up with me.
"W-what was that?" He asked with a shaky voice. Grace was scared. It must be a monster. A monster of lightning and thunder.
I gulped, his fear stealing my voice.
"The enemy," Travers stated before all of us.
'Enemy scavengers, NightWings, and SandWings, all in that fortress. The weapons they had in the desert, they have here. More and bigger ones."
Umber looked down with a grave face. The guns the Japanese used in the Scorpion Den. Those were enough to hurt dragons from far away. I can't even imagine what the bigger ones would do to Sora. What they would do to me. He shivered under the cool breeze. He wanted to be the protector, to protect Sora. He was scared he couldn't do that.
Suddenly we were met with a group of SandWings and an exceptionally angry SkyWing.
"Wings above!" Sierra angrily exclaimed. "By all the lizards, what in all the lands of Phyrria are you dung beetles doing!"
"Are you okay?" Vaquero ran up to me.
"We're fine." I quickly said, sensing Sora and Umber not taking too kindly to all our new friends.
"MudWings?" Sim exclaimed.
"Q-Qibli?" Umber blurted out, walking up to him
I realized the moonlight reflected off of Sim's snout, mimicking Qibli's scar. And with Umber's state of mind, he was... susceptible.
Sim looked confused. "I'm... Simmom. Sim... they call me."
"Oh." Umber hung his head. His barely stitched-together heart lost another piece, His hope chipping away.
"Who's the company?" Hyrax met Umber. I realized they were similar sizes.
Umber swallowed. "I-I'm Umber."
Honey nodded and smiled. "I'm Honeyguide. You can call me Honey." She produced her honey flask. "Here. You can have some."
He just about cried as he gently took up the small jar. "T-thank you." He said, stunned.
She simply nodded.
"Who's she?" Hyrax pointed at Sora under my wing. His tone didn't help.
Sora shrunk into me a little. She didn't like him.
"Sora. This is Sora." Travers responded for her.
"Sora?" Suddenly Carnellian shot out. "Sora? Of the Jade Winglet?"
Oh no. These were my thoughts as everything began to spiral.
Carnelian pointed a threatening claw at her. "You're the thrice cursed salamander who blew up the Art Cave, with me in it!"
"What?" Vaquero exclaimed, looking between them, connecting the dots.
Sora cried out, trying to shield herself with my wing as Carnelian advanced.
"We were allies in the war! You put me in a coma for weeks! I'm only alive because you did such a horrible job!"
"Stop hurting my sister!" Umber cried out, lunging to take a fighting stance, wings protecting Sora.
"And you! Siding with someone who blew up the academy? You said you fought in the war, MudWing. Does honor mean anything to you, or are the rumors MudWings are so close they father their sibling's eggs true?"
Umber roared in rage.
"Alright, enough." McManus stepped in between them. "We should be saving this fight for the enemy."
"I agree." Vaquero gulped.
"You're the ones who messed up the plans anyways. Now Goldman knows we're coming. You messed up everything." Carnelian spat, smoke rising from her nostrils.
Sora flinched from that attack, pouring mud all over her mind. Even I recoiled from her attacks.
But even if we hated it, Carnelian was right. We just gave up our element of surprise. The fortress was alerted now. They saw that we would be flying low, and they would likely scan the ground much more closely. Any further plans of stealth... were shot.
Anything against Goldman and Darkstalkers' fortress... was guaranteed suicide.
I shivered. Was I going to have to use my magic? Was there no other choice?
Ideas raced through my mind. A portal. Goldman and Darkstalker would know where we entered and exited. We wouldn't stand a chance. Make me immune from radar? The fortress was on high alert. Even if we snuck in, the entire place would be crawling with enemies. There was no chance for McManus or Travers to stay hidden long enough, and I would be revealed way before we even hit the walls. They had no way in, not anymore.
I sighed in defeat. There really was no hope I could see anymore.
"Alright, saddle up." McManus suddenly said. "Sora and Umber fold in with Vaquero. Try to stop Carnelian from giving all of us away."
"Wait." Travers suddenly exclaimed.
"What are you doing?" I asked The Lieutenant.
He just turned to meet me, sighing. "Without stealth, our only choice is to drive in hard and fast. Stun them with an aggressive attack."
"WHAT?" Carnelian snarled.
"Are you TRYING to get us killed?" Sierra shouted.
"What other choice do we have?" McManus snapped back. "Everything's FUBAR! We're trying to attack a heavily defended and alerted enemy position with no advantages! If we don't attack, Darkstalker and Goldman will put their plan to take over the world into action! What do you want me to say?" McManus threw his hands out. "Wait, until they bring the fight to us again? They fucked us up every time!" He stormed towards me. "I'm not a leader! A month ago, I was a rifleman! This isn't my FUCKING job!" He snarled. Marvin should have NEVER given me these DAMN BARS!
Tears were forced to my eyes. Memories of past futures swirled in my head. There was a way that we would get through this. We defeated Goldman and Darkstalker with fewer dragons. But now, we had an army. I could feel our future was certain.... but I didn't know how to get there.
McManus let out a deep sigh, hanging his head. "The next best thing would be to try and draw their fire away from our advance. It won't work too well, there are too many enemies to draw them all away. The best thing we can do now is try to saturate their radar and guns, make it easier on all of us. One or two of us might have a chance to get through if we're lucky." He sighed. "This is the worst thing I've ever come up with. I can't ask any of you to risk your lives anymore. I wouldn't even go along with this."
Then Travers chimed in. "But if all of us don't go together, it's a guarantee we'd all be killed. Won't it?"
We all looked to McManus.
He looked to me. I saw him sadly nod. His mind in sorrowful shatters. Pete would know it would be dangerous. At least... at least I might be able to see you again now.
Then, there was the soft padding of claws on dirt and grass. I looked to see Vaquero stepping up. "I'll go." He looked to me. "Marvin's a good guy. Darkstalker and Goldman are bad guys. I promised Thorn I'd protect her with my life. I won't let them hurt her... or anyone else."
I swallowed down my grateful tears. I gently wrapped a wing around Vaquero.
He sighed, closing his eyes and leaning into me.
Then Sora stepped up. "I have to make this right. I... did terrible things." She hung and shook her head. I have to redeem myself.
"Then I'll go too." Umber, as terrified as he was, stood alongside Sora. I could sense he was trembling. Every fiber of his being told him to run as fast and as far away as he could, he didn't let the fear overtake him.
Then Sim stepped up. "Since we're all going, why not me as well?" He shrugged. "Someone has to show that scorpion-eater Qibli what's for."
"Then I'm going too." Honey stepped up, trembling nearly as badly as Umber, but steeled by her friends.
"Come on Sierra." Hyrax pleaded with her. "As much as you know I hate them, you got to admit their loyalty is top-notch."
Sierra let out a heavy sigh. "At least I'll die doing what I love: sticking it to those traitorous dragons who dared attack my Queen."
"And mine." Carnelian snarled. "My name will be forever marked as the first SkyWing soldier to strike back against the enemy. There is no greater honor."
I sighed, looking down and nodding. I was surrounded by determined heroes, each willing to give the ultimate sacrifice for each other. I was only afraid this would be the last time we would all be together like this.
"Okay." McManus started speaking again. "On my flare, drive in hard and fast against the fortress. Stay moving to keep those gunners guessing. Once we're in, duck out and don't come back for us. This will be my last order."
We all nodded in grim agreement.
McManus looked over his soldiers one last time. "Good luck, and Godspeed. May the Devil's luck and God's Grace be with you all."