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Ok, NOW things have settled, relatively, in my life. My absence from SoFurry has included everything from political movements (Tea Party Rally in Phoenix) to the death of my family's new puppy (only 8 weeks old, poor girl). There's too much to tell here, so I'll describe my adventures in a journal entry! AND, I will endeavor to post up more in the story for all you who are still here.

Children of Earth

Discoveries

They were about two miles from their target. The men were marching around McLintock, spread out and interspersed with the Varden's troops. The assembly point, a mile back, was almost completely empty as the army marches together, Abrams tanks and Bradley assault vehicles off on the flanks, and a platoon of Abrams straight out in front with a few Bradleys with them. They had a specific job. It was a beautiful day, and despite that, the Varden were nervous. They were marching into the home of their most deadly enemy. They needed a tension breaker. He clears his throat and picks up his voice so all could hear in the silence. "They say in the Army, the chicken's mighty fine. One jumped off the table and started marking time." Other soldiers immediately pick it up, knowing the right response from boot camp. "Oh, Lord I wanna go, but they won't let me go...Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey!" From a couple ranks back, a young lieutenant pipes up. "They say in the Army, the coffee's mighty fine! It's good for cuts and bruises, and tastes like Iodine!" This gets a few laughs from the Varden's troops as the soldiers from America, smile and take up their chorus. "They say in the Army the mail is so great. Today I got a letter dated 1948!" That one brings a few laughs from some of the soldiers, the mood easing in the Army, the Varden seeing that these men are just like them, so to speak, it doing a good deal to ease their minds, if only by pushing their fears to the back. "They say..."

All is quiet around Uru'baen, nothing out of the ordinary. A pair of guards walk along the wall by the gate, doing their rounds, idly talking back and forth about their family lives, their crimson red tunics not making much noise, the sunlight glinting off the gold markings of the honor guard. All was right. Soon their army would crush the Varden, and the King would bring Surda back into the Empire, and all would be right in the world. Together with the King's new allies, who wielded things that shot miraculous power, nothing would stop him from achieving his dream for Alagaesia!

All that is suddenly broken, massive turrets lifting up out of the ground by the gates and aiming skyward, their laser range finders on top glinting in the light of the day. It orients south and fires, rounds coming from all around the city as the pirate base underneath the city starts opening up on A10s detected coming in low. The citizenry, and the guards, having never heard or seen something like this, immediately run terrified. A missile streaks in and slams into one of the turrets, puncturing just behind the gun and pushing thru a gunner inside before exploding, shattering the turret, throwing pieces everywhere. Similar impacts happen in the guns around the city, three F22s streaking in low and fast over the walls, having expended their standard ARM missiles taking out five gun emplacements and a radar detector on the tallest tower of the castle.

Then the A10s arrive, swooping in low, nose cannons sparkling, taking out guard posts on the castle walls, one dropping a JDAM on the front gates, blowing them to splinters. On the horizon, the AAU from the starship Caroline begins its advance. There is remarkably little resistance to their advance. No pirates come out to meet them at all. Some of the guards form up inside the city itself to fight, but other than that, no one. The army surges forward, an Abrams tank running past the gates followed by a Bradley. The Bradley turns down a side street and begins to unload its troops, while the Abrams parks in the center of what appears to be a market square. A command vehicle pulls up behind it and drops its ramp, Davis coming out, followed by Orik, Nasuada, Islanzadi, and Arya. Davis looks around and breathes in. It's been a while since he's had fresh air. Islanzadi is able to ignore the looks of the guards who rode along with them. They weren't hostile, just on guard. Davis was dressed like the other soldiers were, save his only weapon was a hand phaser, a powerful weapon, but expensive and time consuming to make. They were only given to command personel. While a phaser could very easily engage and eliminate a person or group of people, it was impractical on a battlefield, since it has nowhere near the range of a rifle.

A flight of three dragons, led by Saphyra, Saphira on her left wing and Cynder on her right, flies overhead, attempting to bait out Galbatorix or Murtagh. Both take the bait, rising up into the air to engage the trio of dragons, Galbatorix calling out that THREE female dragons will definitely be appreciated in his new order! He is so busy talking that he doesn't notice the Bradley below him and Thorn. The Bradley orients its turret upwards as Varden run for cover. The Varden's leader, Nasuada, had told Davis what Galbatorix was, what kind of magic he works, and how his men were bound to him, how his dragon and Thorn and Murtagh were his slaves. They had planned for this. The Linebacker takes a second, changing over ammunition, then opens fire, Nasuada and company staring as the chaingun goes off. The first couple of rounds sail low and in front, but the crewman lines up his shot thanks to the tracers. Shrukan takes two hits to the side, the isolinear chips in the rounds sticking into his scales. As the dragon roars out in pain, he and Galbatorix are beamed to the Caroline and a special containment area. The linebacker keeps firing, several rounds hitting Thorn before the other dragon can quite react, the dragon howling as he and his rider are beamed away.

Davis grins, having seen this. He turns to Nasuada and Islanzadi. "We will give him to you after we've run him thru a trial aboard ship." He says. "He has to answer for his genocide here against our people." Islanzadi stares at Davis. "You had the power to wipe him clean just like that, and yet you need us?" She asks, knowing that they could have done so much more if they wanted to. "Why?" She asks. Davis smiles. "When we leave, we want to know who we're leaving in charge." He says. "Also, like I said, we will give him to you after we're done with him. We would need to know who to give him to." Saphyra comes down next to Davis, landing short of the tank, and looks down at him. "No other dragons. Caroline reports that between the two of them they had ten SE's." She smiles. This felt good, bringing the bad to justice.

Then more stuff starts happening, as word that Galbatorix is gone starts going around, the Varden cheer and start to come out, only to be engaged by remaining zealots, men who were so brainwashed that the oath of service to Galbatorix, which was in essence a name spell, was just a formality. Davis expected this. Why not surround yourself with people you knew would die for you even without a spell? The sounds of medieval combat rises up from around the city. Unbelievably, five archers pop up their heads on a nearby roof and start to fire arrows at the Abrams. This wouldn't do much of anything, the tank's crew was buttoned down and ready. The M2 .50 cal machine gun was controlled remotely by the tank commander. It swivels up and starts firing on the poor, mismatched archers, taking apart the planks they were hiding behind as easily as a hot knife cuts thru butter. None of them survive to run away.

An explosion draws Davis' attention. His radio crackles. "This is Bravo one five, enemy armor coming up from the ground, east wall." The tank orients its turret that way. As it moves, a loud pop sounds. "DOWN!" Davis yells, jumping to the ground. His guards push the royalty behind him down just as a round slams into the right hand side of the tank, exploding brightly. As the smoke starts to clear, Davis sees that the dragon scales on it have been blown clean, and the armor is bent inwards, but otherwise there's no damage. The Abrams returns fire, its main gun going off with a resounding BOOM, causing the royalty to cover their ears as they watch. Windows shatter nearby the tank as the main gun fires. A loud explosion from down the street and a fireball rising over the buildings signals the death of the enemy vehicle that fired upon it. An A10 swoops in low on a call for air support, the loud, zipper-like sound of its cannon firing echoing thru the air, another explosion. Then Cynder flies over and bathes a building in fire. Some of Galbatorix's men were in there firing arrows out at the Varden. They wouldn't be firing anything now.

The tank turns and heads towards the entrance the vehicle just used, skirting around the elven IFV and very slowly inching down inside, a squad of American infantry going underground with it. A few minutes later, one of the soldiers comes back up and makes a radio call. After that, there's a muffled pop, then a large base nearby just seems to appear as its cloak is disabled. Gun positions are unmanned. A docking port stands closed, but from the looks of it, it was recently used. "Damn." Davis says. 'We missed them." He walks over as a Lieutenant runs over. "Sir, it looks like the enemy left in a hurry. There's a shit ton of equipment down there." He says.

Davis nods, walking over with Saphyra. McLintock joins him, as do Draco and another of his Ghosts. They go into the base. Indeed, it looked like they dropped everything and ran. "Well, what else did we expect?" he asks Saphyra. "We came in a battleship looking for a cruiser." He sighs. "Well, at least they left in a hurry. They might not have purged their systems. If we're lucky, we'll find out where they went. McLintock, see to it. I've got to report to Command, and then there's a trial to hold."

Command was not happy. Not only had they introduced a VERY underdeveloped culture to their technology, this culture was a divided one. There were humans, elves, and dwarves, not to mention the urgals and any others who might be there. With a sigh, Davis comes out of his ready room. "Number one, call a briefing for all senior officers." He says. The man nods, makes the ship wide announcement, then goes to the briefing room. Once McLintock, Saphyra, Cynder, Draco, and their head engineer, Jose, arrive, the briefing begins. "We've stepped in it." He says. "The President figures since these people know we're here, formal ties can be made. Also, the elven and dwarven governments are requesting contact with the elven and dwarven leaders on the planet surface. In addition to this, records we uncovered in the base after we downloaded their computer core indicate this is a forward base for a much larger syndicate. The first fleet is coming here, and we are going to use this planet as a base to launch attacks against this Blue Suns group." He says to his first officer. "Also, there's a science vessel in route to investigate the abnormally strong magical aura this planet has, so be ready for them as well." He doesn't tell his officers how he got his ass reamed by his commander for jumping the gun and pretty much invading a local power that didn't even have gunpowder. He was amazed at the end of the tirade that he still had his command! Davis motions to McLintock. "George, tell us all what you found down there."

McLintock stands up. "Right, we found a complete layout of the sector of space that the Blue Suns control. We also got technical schematics for some Orc battle tanks and a few different elven IFVs. Their ships are whatever they can buy, pretty much, and only one ever came here, that cruiser we were chasing." He points to the wall and a picture pops up showing two burned out hulks. "These are the two vehicles we killed. Nothing special about them. Remains of three crewmen were found in each. The turrets..." The image changes to show the wreckage of the turrets. "Were automated."

Davis nods. "Anyone have anything new to report?" he asks. People shake their heads no. He turns his attention to Jose. "Did going into the sea and then coming out again give you any problems?"

Jose shakes his head. "No, sir. We are chipping some ice off the hull of the ship, but otherwise she has done this all well." He says in his thick Mexican accent. Davis nods. "Good." He turns to his first officer. "I want continuous scans of the solar system. If you find any other bases or any ships coming in that aren't ours sound red alert." The man nods. "Alright, let's get back to it. Dismissed."

As everyone files out, Saphyra stays put, along with Draco. Davis waits in his chair, seeing them staying behind. When the door closes, Saphyra speaks up. "Hun, what about Saphira and Eragon?" She asks. "We can't leave them here where they would be all alone." Draco nods. "Exactly what I was going to say, sir." He says. Davis sighs and rubs his head. He had hoped they wouldn't ask, his answer wasn't one people liked to hear. "It's up to him." He says. "We can't force him to leave."

An hour later, Davis and Saphyra are down in the cargo hold, face to face with Galbatorix, who can't really do much of anything to him. His magic was dampened and he was unarmed. "I demand you release me!" Galbatorix bellows. Davis shakes his head and gives his best smile. "You are accused of genocide against the dragon people and of crimes against humanity for your treatment of the people in alagaesia." He says. "You will stand trial. If found guilty, you will be released. If found guilty you will serve your sentence." He says. Galbatorix's face contorts in rage. 'What is the meaning of this?! I will not stand trial for anything!" He bellows out. Davis smirks. "You cannot escape, your dragon has been separated from you, and you were found in possession of eggs that have confessed to you having killed thousands, and tortured them until they could do nothing but what you said." He says. "Now everything you say is being recorded. Were I you, I'd keep quiet." He says, then turns and heads out. This would be an interesting trial.