The Withered Land: Dragons and Marauders

Dragons and Marauders, Part Twenty-Six

The jasmine-colored sky over Ometh Nastreq momentarily exploded into a sheet of blinding white as the brilliant flares from the writhing Belflaegor Stream continued to lash the atmosphere. It happened frequently enough that few of the baroque-architected city's inhabitants bothered to look up, but if they had, they would have seen the cylindrical metal casing of the Aerieakon silhouetted against the glare, the skycraft's multiple cigar-shaped sections limned in a flash of light. The rectilinear, multi-cannoned aerial vessel wasn't supposed to be there, it had not been cleared for entry into Ometh Nastreqian airspace. It's presence over the island-city was a serious breach of interstate protocol, a criminal act of aggression against the State. The craft had eluded detection by Ometh Nastreq's defensive skyweb scanning network by virtue of an act of espionage enacted by the senior members of the Aerieakon's crew: Vandessha'Jai had, not so many orbital solar heliars ago, stolen a set of computer maxiprocessor axial interface boards from the skyweb server farm. The maxiprocessor interfaces allowed the Aerieakon's command computer to detect and evade contact with the invisible defensive field crowning the city skyline. So, no alarms were tripped as the skycraft slipped though the low-hanging clouds and careful piloting by Durkka-jan brought the ship along a cautious and circuitous route inward past the towering Olympidrome chosen to avoid visual detection.

Rae'vynn Wyyng and her crew were on the hunt. They were deep inside enemy territory, risking discovery and exposure on an unsanctioned mission to find and intercept Zhe'Kae-Chah and his entourage before The Dragon could execute his plans to incite a bloody, full scale war between the two contentious coastal city-states of Peravendath and Ometh Nastreq. The mighty reptile-king of the orbital moon, The Ke'Tareveel, was manipulating the government and armies of the two seagoing nations like pieces on a living game board, not especially concerned which side won the armed conflict since his ultimate plan was to slaughter and destroy the human, mammalian survivors of any military confrontation that occurred, regardless.

Standing next to Durkka-jan in the skycraft's pilothouse, Rae'vynn was adjusting the straps on her body-molded combat-augmentation suit's trauma armor as she issued orders about any upcoming landside assault action she or her crew would take once they located The Dragon.

"I still think we need to wait until we actually rendezvous and debrief with Vandessha'Jai and Geh'wan Shryke," Durkka-jan repeated stubbornly. "Action for the sake of action is tantamount to waste, Captain. We need hard intelligence and we need to develop situational strategies based on that intelligence. The Dragon is highly intelligent, an experienced military campaigner, highly-motivated and ruthless --- not to mention blessed with command of a large army of barbarous soldiers who can each punch their way through a stone and mortar wall with little to no effort. If there's any way we can avoid going one-on-one against those super-strong bastards, I'd like to think we'd take it. And, the way I see it, the best way to do that is to have a well-crafted, informed plan of action. No disrespect intended, but what we're about to do, this right here, does not come close to falling into the category of 'well-crafted and informed'."

Rae'vynn stopped checking her ammo pouches and tugging on her straps and buckles long enough to give Durkka-jan a hard look as she hissed, "I'm sorry, but it appears I missed exactly when it was you became such a whiny old woman. We don't know what Vandessha'Jai and Geh'wan Shryke's dispositions are. They could be prisoners or they could be dead. So this is a soft probe. Reconnaissance. I'm attempting to gather some of that proverbial 'intelligence' you were squalling about. I'm not going in with guns blazing. But time is of the essence and, since we know The Dragon is here in Ometh Nastreq right now, it makes sense that we try and limit the damage he could be planning to do by going in quietly and getting a jump on whatever his latest schemes are..."

"We're in an armored skyborne warship over a city full of our most unrelenting and resolute enemies, enemies with anti-aircraft cannons, who just happen to know what the Aerieakon looks like since they were the people who originally designed this class of assault vessel," Durkka-jan said, "and you, personally, have the distinction of being one of this city's most wanted outlaws. What part of 'going in quietly' do you truly believe is going to actually work here?"