First Stage
#1 of Tooth and Claw
AUTHOR'S NOTES: This is gonna be a series of stories that I'm going to put up here. It's something where I call home, Near-Future Fiction, since I have a plan for a Science Fiction story later XD. I'm going to aim for short to medium length and basically try to keep improving my style for these types of pieces. Because god knows I suck at these 'fun' scenes. Anyways, a lot of real-world things are gonna be included in this story, but I'll make sure to explain everything as best I can. If I fail, don't hesitate to drop a reply asking 'wtf is ...'. Remember, the only stupid question is one you didn't ask!
I started writing this on TADAC 5942.63 (April 15 for those using standardised time and date systems) under a massive writing inspiration. I was listening to soundtrack from HAWX, as well as WiC and TimeShift while I was writing this. Enjoy peoples!
~~NuraTalon, Arctic Flame of the Southern Skies~~ (C)
LEGAL POINTS: This story belongs to NuraTalon. All Characters, products, acronyms, devices and names are all copyrighted to NuraTalon. The Lockheed/Boeing F-22 Raptor, Lockheed/Boeing FB-22 StrikeRaptor, Macdonnell-Douglas F-15c Eagle, Boeing A-12 Avenger, General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark, General Dynamics EF-111 Raven, General Dynamics F-16a Fighting Falcon, EuroFighter Typhoon, Saab Gripen and Rafale C are all owned and licensed by their respective companies. This Story made be reproduced and distributed as freeware (IE: No cost) as long as the Author's notes and the Legal Points Sections remain, and all credit be given to NuraTalon for the story's creation. Any reference to real world people, dead or alive is purely coincidental and accidental, and nothing is intended by this accidental referencing. By reading this Legal Points section, you hereby requinish your rights to take legal action against NuraTalon should you find the content of this story offensive or detrimental to your standing as a human being.
"...You're hit! Eject!! EJECT!!!" Everything cumulated to this one phrase.
//6 Hours Earlier....
The Situation room was crowded with people. And that was saying something, given that this room was HUGE. Dragons of different sizes and colours, all dressed in Olive Drab pilot jumpsuits pressed into the room, some of them seated in chairs in the centre of the room, others standing chatting with each other, and others leaning with their backs against the wall. Some where holding clipboards with paper attached to them, and they were writing, some letters to family members and friends, others were taking notes of something important. Others had novels in their hands, and others were holding nothing, or simply crossing their arms against their chests and bodies. Some looked scared. Others comforted them. Others glared at them with disdain.
She moved into the room, greeted by the cold comfort of the others who gazed upon her, some with friendly looks, some with scared looks, and some with nothing but cold glances of those who looked like they felt no emotion what-so-ever. She was a pure white coloured dragon, standing at about 5 feet and 4 inches with deep blue eyes.
She moved quickly to the friendly eyes, a very small group of dragons among a very large group in a large room. She knew this small group personally, and all by first name.
"Salis!" A young female voice called to her from the group she knew as she closed the distance until she was in the group.
The voice had come from a shorter-than-the-rest-of-the-group very-light-pink, thin-and-frail looking dragon, who was the youngest from the group, also the shortest and also the face she had met with most recently. The others in the small group were a dark blue male dragon, equal to Salis' height and a grassy green male with dull orange eyes, taller than Salis.
She knew them as her wingmen, her partners in the sky.
" 'Morning Kasreis, 'morning to you all, although," Salis paused, looking around the room and all the other dragons inside it before looking back to the group, "that doesn't seem to be the case so far."
The grassy green male spoke up with a deep rich voice and in a slow and purposeful tone, quite different from that of Kasreis. "Do you know anything?"
Salis shook her head slowly. "I only know we are deploying..." She didn't have to say it, but they all knew she had been given maps of the area they were deploying to (without being told what the maps were of or how they were taken) and her orders were to figure out what were the threats, and how they should be dealt with, and then once she had the orders, to make a battle plan from it.
The dark blue male spoke with a quiet voice that could just be heard over the sound of the room. "That's bad Liirmis... Flight lead should get told everything."
The grassy green looked to the blue. "That much I know Yilliris." Liirmis sounded angry, but both dragons smiled and hit fists together.
It was at this point, that someone at the very front of the room spoke, or rather, shouted. Salis hadn't noticed anyone else entering the building.
"Commander, ON DECK!" The voice was male and very commanding. Everyone in the room turned around instantly, and snapped to a standard salute. Salis also turned, but she stepped forward and held her palm to the right side of her head and then flicked her hand forward in a salute designed for people of close rank status.
A pitch black dragon stepped forward, his uniform bristling with medals. "At ease," he said calmly in a rough commanding voice. Everyone stopped saluting and sat down on the chairs in the middle of the room, Salis and the group she was with sat down in the front row.
A projector powered up from the roof and lit up the wall behind the pitch black dragon, just to his right. In the middle of the wall now, was a picture of the Aerial Force logo, a pair of wings on either side of a cruise missile. The screen had two words on it.
"OPERATION: TOOTH AND CLAW"
"We're at war." These three words shattered the room and everyone in it. Salis instantly guessed what their mission was going to be. There were gasps around the room as different people took the information differently. The black dragon seemed unphased, and kept speaking.
"At Oh-three-hundred yesterday, the griffons launched a massive land, air and sea invasion upon the entire Southern Coast. They carpet bombed every city, and moved in with ground forces to take what was left. At the same time, naval warships bombarded Allakey Aerial Force Base, Karki Larsen Naval Seaport and Jacksis Mountain Army Base. At Oh-Three-Three-Zero, satellite intel spotted griffons executing any and all survivors they found, including civilians." There was a collected gasp, and several people broke out in tears. Salis sat there, every little emotion in her body practically torn from her. There were ten MILLION people living in cities on the Southern Coast.
"At Oh-Five-Hundred, three platoons from the 12th Armoured engaged a griffon platoon, and were wiped out." Again, a collective gasp. The 12th Armoured was known as the most lethal battalion the dragon military had.
"Sporadic battles have broken out between National Protectorate and the griffon attack forces, but the survivors of such battles report that they have military equipment that can out-run, out-gun and out-live even our most heaviest of battle tanks and walkers." This time there was silence. But everyone in the room had stiffened considerably. While the dragons had effective ground forces, they excelled in aircraft. Everyone could now guess what their mission was.
"As of five minutes ago, thirty-five percent of dragon territory controlled by griffon forces. Estimated civilian deaths are beyond nine million people. And over forty-five percent of our armed forces are either dead or unable to fight."
There was complete silence while the black dragon paused to take a breath. Not one person made a single noise.
"...and the Prime Minister is dead."
The room's atmosphere dropped to one of shock and horror. That was why the black dragon did not say, that the griffons had broadcast his execution on a 'Disarm and surrender' demand to the rest of the dragon government.
"Operation Tooth and Claw is our counter-attack plan to try and take back our soil."
The screen changed from the name of the operation to an aerial map. Salis instantly recognized it as the map she had been given to study the day before.
The black dragon sighed sadly and then spoke.
"This is what's left of Rovaventise." There was a gasp. That city was home to three million people, and all that was left was ruins.
"For the mission is to obtain air superiority over Rovaventise and support a ground offensive to re-take what... is left." the black dragon paused again. "Sans Major Salis will brief you on your mission specifics. I'd just like you all to know. You, are the best pilots we have to offer our country, and I have complete and utter faith that you will complete your mission."
When the black dragon finished speaking, Salis stood up, and moved fast to a meter from the black dragon, saluted him with the hand-flick salute and then the black dragon exited the room.
Salis turned to face the room in front of her, every dragon's eye on her, some scared, some horrified, and some emotionless. She pulled a laser pointer from her pocket, and people who had notepads readied pens and pencils.
"As you all know, this is our mission destination. It's the outer edge of where the griffons hold." Salis aimed her laser point at the top right of map screen, a green dot appearing.
"This is our Initial Point, also the same for the ground offensive by 3rd and 12th battalions, who will be ground pounding to the location. The 1st Artillery Platoon will offer fire-support for the operation." Pens scribbled on paper, and Salis waited for the sound to stop before she carried on.
"The griffons have mobile Triple-A, Double-A and Combination-A's in a staging area, here." Salis pointed her green laser to a large open space on the map that was filled with tank-like vehicles.
"They can be anywhere in the city within two minutes. Main aerial threats are F-22 Raptors, FB-22 StrikeRaptors, F-15c Eagles, A-12 Avengers, F-111 Aardvarks, EF-111 Ravens, F-16a Fighting Falcons, EuroFighter Typhoons. Saab Gripens and Rafale C's. The ratio them to us is about one-point-five to one, and they can be in the air from this airfield." She pointed to an obvious airstrip with planes sitting around it with the green laser, "in fifteen minutes. "She paused again to let the dragons ahead of her write it all down as she laid it all out for them.
"Griffons also have Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) Planes in the air. They'll have eyes on us within five seconds once we get within fifty kilometres of the city. Are there any questions?"
There was a long pause. And then, someone spoke up from the back.
"With all due respect sir, are you fucking serious?!"
Salis couldn't blame the dragon. She was ordering her entire wing to go on a mission that was a textbook suicide mission.
"Gentlemen... I'm going to go hats off here for a moment... and tell you that I think this operation is foobarred. It's a textbook suicide mission, and we all know it." Salis could see dragons nodding. "but, this is our fucking homeland, and I will be damned if I'm going to let fucking griffons invade us and kill without cause or reason." More dragons nodded this time.
Another dragon stood up and spoke. "They can deploy their entire fucking armed forces, and we'll still hunt them down like the vermin they are! We'll make 'em pay for this"
Echoes of agreement burst out through the Situation Room, and Salis smiled.
"Alright men, You've got the low-down. Go-Op in an hour!"
//36 Hours Before Briefing....
Both were drunk. Both knew they were drunk. And both didn't care. Outside the building filled with loud and beating musics, they held each other tightly as they could, their snouts pressed together in a deep kiss, both tongues inside the other's maw.
The white dragon hadn't been this attracted to anyone before in her entire life, and while she was sure the alcohol flooding her body had something to do with that, the point stood that the grassy green dragon she was holding and kissing was by the far the most lovely dragon she'd ever met, drunk or not.
As their tongues danced lustfully between them, their hands ran across each other's body's and clothes. Her shirt was first to fall victim to their lust, it falling with gravity's force to lay across the ground in a crumpled fashion, his fingers running across her bare scales. She pulled at the buttons of his shirt and it soon joined her own on the grass on which they were standing.
His hands slipped down her body, and her olive drab pants soon joined her shirt on the ground, and not a few seconds later, they were both naked and laying on the ground, him on top of her, the music beating somewhat in the distance.
Their tails wrapped around each other as he pushed his member into the warm, wet spot between her legs. In their drunken state, they both moaned out loudly, for the moment, neither of them caring who heard them
He started a gentle thrust as they kissed deeper between them, their hands running over each other's bodies with wild abandon as nothing else mattered but the pleasure they both felt, both physical and mental.
Of course, the pleasure was doomed to end all so shortly, as was all lovemaking. Soon enough, both dragons were shaking and panting, and soon he growled, and filled her with his warm cum. For minutes or hours afterwards, they cuddled together, touching and kissing together, the scent of sex strong in the air.
//50 Minutes After Briefing....
Salis quickly pulled the zipper up on her Kevlar vest, and slipped a few magazines for her Heckler and Koch Mk-23 Mod 0 into the pouches sown into the vest for just that purpose. Speaking of her sidearm, Salis grabbed it from her locker, and pushed a magazine into it, and pulled back on the bolt and let go, it sliding back quickly with a metallic 'CHINK' sound, signifying that a round had been loaded into the chamber. She pushed it into it's holster hanging off her belt. A combat knife was also hanging it's holster, just behind the pistol, and the two clicked together as she walked or ran. Other pieces of equipment dangled off her belt, such as a water canteen and two pouches for extra pistol ammunition.
Hanging off her left leg through a hook, was a clipboard with a few sheets paper on it. It clicked as well when she walked or ran. Taking one final look through her locker, she nodded, grabbed her full faced helmet, which was tinted bright orange to defeat the glare from flying into or looking at the sun and to prevent anyone from looking at the face inside the helmet, as was an inside joke among the pilots. She shut the locker, and spun the dial forcefully.
Then she turned around, and with helmet in hand, she jogged from the room, killing the lights on the way out.
"We're comin' for you, dragon..." Salis heard suddenly, and she came to a grinding halt, and looked around rapidly, wondering who the hell said that. The voice was young and very female sounding, almost sounding naïve. Completely stopped, she looked around for a few more seconds, and then shrugged it off as being something she imagined and started jogging to the hangers again.
Within five minutes, she was there, and looked over her plane. It was long, and extremely sleek looking. It had long, swept forward wings that rounded out with a single concave curve from the where the wing's joined the body to where they ended with a massive gun with a really long barrel, which Salis knew to be the 65mm Vulcan Anti-Aircraft Chaingun. Underneath the round-angled nose piece, there was a HUGE cannon, and it was rotatable 270 degrees around, and Salis could recognize it from a mile away; it was the 110mm Main Multipurpose Heavy Assault Cannon, the craft's primary weapon against ground target's and it's secondary weapon against air targets. Underneath the wings, it had four missiles attached to pylons. All in all, it looked like an F-22 Raptor combined with an F-15E StrikeEagle and then made beautiful. The plane's shining black hull caught the lighting of the room, and reflected it back to give the craft a blackish aura all around it. Underneath the cockpit, there was white writing.
"SANS MAJOR SALIS" Was written there.
A dragon who was with the ground crew ran up to her and ushered her forward in a hurry. The dragon pulled down on a small handle of the side of the craft and stairs unfolded from the craft. Salis climbed up them and into the open cockpit, where she sat down and pulled her full faced helmet onto her head, and then connected the oxygen hose to the plane and then fixed it place to the front of her helmet, and took a deep breath of the oxygen which flowed into her helmet. She quickly pulled the belts across her body and punched a few buttons in the cockpit and the displays jumped to life as the craft powered up.
The ground crew dragon that had helped her into the cockpit, was now standing in far in front of the hanger, holding table tennis paddles, and was making long sweeping arcs with them, from his hips up to back behind his shoulders, and then repeated the motion unendlessly. Another ground crew member she hadn't noticed before had driven a small vehicle and hooked the plane's front landing gear wheel to the back of the vehicle, and the plane started rolling forward as it was towed.
Salis, with the craft powered up, waved a salute to the ground crew as she was towed to the runway. They saluted back, and very shortly afterwards, Salis was at the end of the taxi way, and then onto the end of the runway.
Being Squadron Leader meant she got the privilege of being first to take off.
"Tower, this is Reaver Lead, requesting take-off permission." she called through the radio.
"Reaver Lead, this is Tower, you are Go-Op, repeat, Go-Op!"
Salis slammed her engines into full throttle her the Piranha Interceptor jet which she was piloting roared to life and screamed down the runway.
Okay, the first chapter is done. Yes, that part in the middle is actually needed for the rest of the story, not just something I put in there for the 'lolz' of it. Hope you all enjoyed it! Reviews and criticism are truly welcomed!