The Rift

Prologue

The air whistled around Angeline as she flew through the dark night air. She felt the cords of muscle tense and loosen under her as Emerald flapped his giant wings. Emerald was a dragon, and Angeline was in the Dragon Unit. They were working together to defeat a common enemy. Angeline heard the stern voice of her commander echo through her helmet. "We are about to be in range of the radar. I am turning on the shield."

The shield was an electronic device that blocked the signals in a bubble around them. Nothing could pick them up. Thankfully Angeline's group had an advantage or else their shield would be useless. They were thought of as technologically behind. That was their advantage. Because of this they were underestimated. If they had been thought of as as technologically able, then the people who had invented the radar could have almost certainly made it a lot harder to fool.

"You Ready?" Angeline asked Emerald.

"Of course I'm ready." He answered in her mind. "I'm always ready. One of those puny little humans could come at me while I was sleeping and I could kill them without even waking up"

"Maybe, but those puny little humans fly giant jets with big guns that are definitely not puny. Second of all I'm a human too. Are you calling me puny"

Angeline saw their target approaching. She could only identify it from the mass of buildings below because of her helmet. The visor was also a computer monitor. At the moment the computer was acting as a GPS to get them to the target. The controls to the helmet computer were located in the holographic watch on her wrist. Their target was a warehouse where much of the enemy's war technology was made. Angeline switched off the monitor in her helmet. It would only restrict her vision during the fighting. She grasped the handle of the mounted gun in front of her. It was secured to Emerald by a large harness. She heard the voice of her commander echo in her head.

"We're going in"

Emerald dove straight at the warehouse surrounded by the rest of Angeline's group who were all riding some type of flying animal. Angeline switched the setting on her gun to impact bullet, so she could do the most damage to the warehouse.

They weren't actually bullets but little balls of compacted electricity. There were three settings on the guns, regular, impact and stun. Regular shot an amount of electricity that would kill a person if they were hit anywhere on the main part of their body. The electricity would hit the person and expand when it came into contact. The energy would run through the body to the ground with enough power to disintegrate their insides. Impact bullets carried more electricity and would explode violently on contact. They were made for destroying objects, but they would also work on people. Their problem was they used more energy and so depleted the guns store of energy faster. The stun bullets only had enough power to knock someone unconscious.

The entire group started firing at the warehouse.

"Ok let's go give them some fire" Angeline said to Emerald. He responded by diving low and blowing a white hot jet of fire right at the warehouse melting metal and disintegrating wood and other weaker materials.

Inside the warehouse Adam grabbed a gun from a rack of new models and gazed out through the smoldering wreckage at the newly exposed sky. Adam was an inventor and engineer. One of the best in the world. He was up late working on a new kind of military aircraft when the attack began. He started shooting at the dragon who was now flapping back up towards its companions. The bullets seemed to have no effect on the dragon. Adam had heard their scales were nigh impossible to penetrate with anything short of a full sized aircraft gun, but he had never been in battle before. He changed tactics and began to aim for the soldier on its back. The dragon just shifted its position so Adam had no way of hitting his rider. Adam couldn't understand how this had happened. There had been no warning. They should have been caught on surveillance at least fifteen or twenty minutes before they had arrived, but for some reason they had approached completely unnoticed. It didn't make any sense, and now because of the failure of the NPL's radar he would pay. Most likely with his life. Adam heard the engines of three aircraft battling the other animals, but the aircraft for some reason were not able to get to the dragon. The soldier riding on the dragon kept shooting impact blasts at the roof and walls. Each bullet exploding and tearing away a little portion of the wall and threatening to blow him up. Adam darted around the building staying out of the rain of small explosions while trying desperately to find something to use to fight back.

All of a sudden a few dozen bullets tore through the roof and exploded into one of the almost finished life sized prototypes of a new two-man fighter jet. Adam sprinted away from the plane just as it exploded. The force of the blast picked him up like a rag doll and threw him across the room. He hit the ground hard and heard a sharp crack. Then pain. Intense throbbing pain in his clearly broken upper right arm. Adam pushed himself off the floor and saw he had landed on the far side of the room next to a new prototype of missile meant to be launched from planes. He had an idea. Not a good idea but an idea nonetheless. He scrambled to the base of the fifteen foot tall missile being supported upright by a framework of metal bars. Adam opened the mini computer at the base of the missile, and he began to frantically program in the intended target for the missile. It was difficult to do with only his left hand while his right hung in an awkward angle, still throbbing so badly he could barely concentrate. The missile was a short range version meant to be shot from a plane. You could program a target into the missile and it would follow that target until it was destroyed.

Angeline fired at the building keeping whoever was in there at bay. Their attack was not meant to be against people. It was late at night, and they had not expected anyone to be in the warehouse. Although they had not intended to kill, they could not just leave whoever this was alive because he or she was likely one of the people designing the things they were here to destroy. Emerald dove in to blow more fire. Angeline closed her eyes as the jet of fire shot out between the dragon's jaws.

Adam hit the launch button and dove away from the missile. As the missile shot toward the sky punching through the ceiling like a pen through paper, a wave of fire hit the building washing over the rest of the still standing room. The fire swept over Adam. His last thoughts were of his wife and daughter before the fire washed over him, and the immense heat disintegrated his body.

Emerald attempted to dodge the missile shooting at him by swooping up higher into the sky but it just followed.

"Emerald!" Angeline screamed.

"It's okay we have done all we could. We were heroes in a good cause. I love you Angeline.

Angeline put her head Against the scales of Emerald tears running from her eyes as she thought of those she loved. Her husband, son and Emerald. Then the missile overtook them.