Wings of Honor: Deciding Destiny

Chapter 12: Lose A Battle

It was like time itself stopped.
A high-pitched whistling as I saw everyone react in slow motion. They tried to scream, but there was no sound. Visions, horrible visions, flashed before my eyes. Death, in every shape and form. Bright lights, burning phosphorus smoke and frostbreath, the dirty yellow glow of fire... white scales charring black. Mental screams. The muffled roar of gunfire, too much happening all at once. I gripped my head, all the emotions of pain and horror and malice and hate, all pressing down in me, harder, harder, harder!
I felt I was going to explode!
"Grace!"
A voice broke through the mental storm to me cowering on the ground. Already I could see bodies lying motionless on the stone. An IceWing... Narwhal... his throat slit.
"Grace! Here and now!"
Marvin pushed himself in front of me, smoking rifle in hand, tears in his eyes. He lay a hand on my snout. A tear rolling down his cheek as he tried to bleed off some of this anxiety. He took a sharp breath, even with his stinky breath, it helped clear some of the mental heat away. He said nothing, just locking eyes with me.
I got you. He thought with a conviction that made me shudder. I got you.
For just that moment... he was there. I remembered I was still alive.

But then a vision from Marvin flashed before me, I saw his face harden into a distant stare behind me as he pulled up his rifle. I turned to meet the attacking, cloaked, SandWing. But I was too late.

Suddenly, a flash of sandy yellow came out of nowhere, spearing the Talon of Power into the ground. And when I regained my bearing, I saw the poor SandWing wiggling just a little longer, wet gasps, stabbed straight through her lungs. The Queen of the SandWings stood over her, pinning the Talon's tail barb down, not letting her escape, as she died right in front of us. Thorn turned to me, meeting me with a look that was as much fearful as it was battle-hardened.
"Go." She said. "GO!"
"AIRBORNE! ON ME! AIRBORNE ON ME!"
I took a sharp breath, spying three armed humans crouching just before The Great Hall, weapons ready to meet any threats. I swallowed my fear down, getting up to meet them. And in the moment, I turned to see the battlefield unfolding in front of me, just like in the visions, just like how Marvin knew. And even I knew, an open battlefield like this... ambush, rifles and artillery...
"WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO, CAP!"
Marvin swallowed, devolving back to his training. "I WANT A BASE OF FIRE OVERLOOKING THE ENTRANCE. SUNNY NEEDS TO PULL EVERYONE INSIDE THE ACADEMY INTO COVER!" He looked over his shoulder, pointing at McManus. "MCMANUS! SETUP AT THE ENTRANCE! MAKE SURE NO FUCKERS GET THROUGH! ENGAGE TARGETS WHERE YOU CAN!" "YES SIR!'' McManus yelled. "TRAVERS!" "SIR!" "ON ME! WE NEED TO STOP THOSE TANKS! RIFLE GRENADES WHERE YOU CAN! FUCKING ENCHANT MORE IF YOU HAVE TO! GRACE!"
I froze, hearing my name.
Marvin looked me dead in the eyes. I had seen those eyes in his memories, in his men's memories. The eyes of a leader, a soldier, an ironclad heart.
"I NEED YOU TO FIGHT THEM WHERE YOU CAN! DO WHATEVER YOU CAN, USE WHATEVER WEAPONS AT YOUR DISPOSAL! DO NOT LET THEM GET TO THE ACADEMY!"
All my breath left me under that order. Consequences ran through my mind. I... I had to kill. I had to kill, but to protect my family, my friends. But... but...
"DO YOU HEAR ME, GRACE?"
I can only imagine the face I wore when I met Marvin again.
"HOLD! THE! ACADEMY! I REPEAT! DO NOT LET JADE MOUNTAIN FALL!"
I shivered, and I accidentally fell into Marvin's thoughts.
Two armies v. three armies. We're outnumbered, outmatched. They have light infantry, tanks, magic'd dragons. We have more animi. Qibli took them, they're working out a plan. We need to keep them safe. Keep them all safe. The dragons, dragonetts, they're just kids. We won't be able to stop them, but I'm gonna try.
I shivered, as they all ran up past me, grabbing bandoliers off me, the rest of their guns and ammo.
"Grace!" McManus caught me. "I want to get up there, where that ledge is!" He pointed to a small outcrop next to the Great Hall, just wide enough for him to emplace his Bren, but close down to where he could safely relocate on his own. "Help me."
I followed him to the base of the cliff. I took a shaky breath as he knelt in my clawed hand, feeling him shake as I gently deposited him on his ledge. And as he threw down his stockpile of magazines, I placed a few boulders I quickly carved out of a nearby cliff, setting them up like sandbags to protect him.
"Thanks, Grace."
I could sense his adrenaline, his discipline holding all those emotions down so he could think under fire. He was satisfied with this position to protect against rifles, trusting the rest of us to stop tanks from blowing him up. He would take care of the rest.
McManus pulled out his radio, yelling into it. "2-3! Lighting them up!"
As I ran to find Marvin, the Bren gun chugged away, red tracers streamed overhead in the dusk to meet the blue of attacking machine guns.
"Grace!"
I turned to see two breathless MudWings land rough before me.
"What are you two doing here? You should be in Jade Mountain, where it's safe!"
"I can't leave you." Sora gasped, tears in her eyes.
I let out an anguished sigh, throwing my neck in frustration. "Okay. Stay close."
"Close." "Promise." They both agreed.
And almost immediately, I saw blue tracers begin to flash right towards us. I spread my wings, shielding Umber and Sora behind me, as the rounds crackled short, skipping up the mountain and being sent plinging away in wild directions.
Immediately, McManus answered with his own burst of red. Dull explosions led me to believe that was Travers sending long-range pineapples to the Japs.
"What can we do?" Umber yelled to me.
I took a shaky breath, recalling Marvin's order.
HOLD THE ACADEMY.
I looked back at my two friends. Umber was fast, and Sora was loyal. They both could breathe fire. They both would help Marvin and Travers more than they could help me.
"We need to help Marvin and Travers!" I yelled. "They need help!"
I looked up. Already, in the dimming lands, flashes of gunfire, tracers streaming back and forth across the valley where the forest ended and the climb to Jade Mountain began.
Beating my wings as hard and fast as I could, I clawed for altitude. My scales rippled across whites, pale blues, greens, black, then all over again. All the intense emotions below me as the battlefield unfolded itself before me in all its awful glory. The screaming of blue tracers towards the Acadamy met with red streaming back. The bright lights focusing on two points in the trees. The friendly minds fighting the wave of enraged soldiers. It was so much.
But then I heard the growl of engines, the screeching of metal. I saw two tanks lumber out into the open, heading towards Travers! My eyes widened.
"Hit the flat spot! Hit the engine! That'll knock them out!" I mentally shouted to whoever was listening.
Taking a sharp breath, I glided down and lined myself up against those tanks. I unleashed a line of fire, engulfing them, lighting up the entire area.
There you go!
Good show!
A smile broke through as I heard the congratulatory cheers of my family on the ground.
Not soon after, another roar and woosh of flame made me look back. I saw a brown MudWing straifing one of the small cliff ramps. His yellow fire engulfing yet another tank. And as we both climbed up for another run, already two tanks left burning hulks.
I'm running low! A cry went out. Marvin's concerned voice made me shake.
I quickly banked around, passing Sora chasing after her brother, suddenly banking up to follow me. I honed in on Marvin's mind, following the pale tracers straight to him. Rounds crackling all around me, the fog of war casting a haze around my mind, as I struggled to pierce the trees and bushes to find him. At least if I couldn't see Marvin, the Japanese couldn't either.
Then suddenly, a large group of soldiers faded into view! A mob of khaki uniforms contrasting against the lush greenery, right between Marvin and Travers! A vision briefly flashed over me.
Marvin and Travers pinned down from the flanking soldiers, forcing them to retreat, causing a ripple effect all down the line, chasing 1st squad all the way back to Jade Mountain with devastating results!
I had to think fast. Almost dropping out of the sky, I felt the frost gathering along my teeth and tongue, flaring up before making a steep dive against the small access ramp those soldiers were running for. With a huge white cloud, a spiked wall of ice appeared in front of the soldiers. They looked up in awe at me, probably still fighting off the rings of color rippling across my scales, giving me away. The strong chugging of an MKB's full auto fire taking the rest.
With my speed and altitude spent, I nearly fell out of the sky, flaring to land with a thud that left deep footprints and shook the ground. Recovering, I turned to meet the scared soldiers, pinned down, peeping over the brush towards me, blasting them with fire of what remained of my breath.
"Grace!" Marvin emerged from the bushes, running up to me, a thin wisp of smoke trailing from his rifle barrel as mortar fire echoed all around us. He promptly rubbed my side, before unhooking two bandoliers off of me, slinging them around himself, digging into another bag to top off on grenades as well.
The woosh of roars and wings caught my ears over the thunder. I looked up to see Sora and Umber straifing between us and the enemy, casting up a thick black smoke that gave us some concealment from the enemies firing from across the open valley. Pale blue tracers crackling all around us.
"Good job, Grace." Marvin patted me one last time. "Get back in the air. There's a lot of them." We might get overrun. "Check on Travers." He said quickly, nearly out of breath.
I swallowed the fear threatening to swell up again, catching my tongue from saying anything back. But Marvin only nodded, quickly retaking his position to meet the attacking forces.
I closed my eyes, taking a shaky breath, leaping up into the sky. Climbing higher, all I could see were the beams of fire being traded back and forth. The lightning-fast embers burned across the field, blue coming in from the right, red returning from the left. Both the rounds being traded by our battle here in the valley, and our machineguns chattering back and forth from long range. The distant screams and roars of dragons echoed around the valley, barely audible against the crackling thunder. I looked to see the horrible battle playing out in the air. I could barely make out the murky IceWings, frost breath being sprayed wildly into the empty night. But then plumes of fire would erupt out of the dark, Occasionally black silhouettes would fly in front of the burning orange before the light dissipated. I swallowed, the IceWings were fighting shadows. In the air, the dark tan SandWings mashed together, two armies of the same tribe clashing. The only way to tell them apart was armor versus cloaked dragons, spears verses all sorts of handheld weaponry. Teeth and claws and fire and ice all clashed in a violent dance in the sky.
"Grace!"
I turned midair, spotting Sora and Umber flying up to me.
"What are we doing?" Umber yelled.
Grace! I need you to drop me grenades!
"Okay! I'm on it!" I yelled back to him. Turning to my friends. "Travers needs help!"
They nodded to follow.
But then a terrible sound met my ears, a memory not mine. The heavy thudding of large guns far away. A cry out over the lightning and thunder. The cry of men, rifles held at the hip, leaning in to rush the field. What looked and felt like hundreds of soldiers. And in that instant, I felt my stomach drop, as I was flying away from them. I saw the puff of smoke of a white phosphorus grenade in the open, Marvin knew this was an attack as much as I did. I shook in the sky. We wouldn't make it in time, not before Travers would get overrun. It was either Travers... or Marvin.