My grandmother’s warning weighed heavily on my mind as Maryn, Risha, and I made our way to the mess hall to collect our other team members. She wasn’t the only one that had a bad feeling about this. Risha’s assurance that it would take something pretty major to damage one of the relay towers had me worried, and I was a bit nervous about going on what would essentially be our first mission on our own.

I know that until now my Grandmother was giving me free reign with my team. She had let me make all of the decisions and followed my commands like everyone else, but she had also been there to give advice, take over leadership, or take care of anything that we couldn’t handle on our own if we had needed her to. We hadn’t needed that yet, but there was always the chance that we might and the option had been there.

This time though, she wouldn’t be with us and the option wouldn’t be there if we needed it. We wouldn’t even be able to talk to her through the comms system if things went to hell on this mission, at least not until the repairs to the tower were finished. This time we would be completely on our own, and my decisions could cost us our lives. I couldn’t afford to screw up, my friends and loved ones were counting on me.

Maryn looked as nervous as I felt, and I couldn’t blame her. Unlike us, they hadn’t even gone on a single mission yet and they were being sent into an uncertain situation without their Trainer. For combat experience, all that they had to go on was team versus team battles and the VR simulations that Risha had been programming for us. Kyra and Fawn only had the simulations, and they were all still trying to gel as a six-person team.

It was probably a safe enough mission since they were just going to report to Sira at Eden Base and help out there as needed, but the lack of communications added a worrisome quality to even that. What if the base was under attack or something? Maryn was probably considering the very same thoughts and I could smell the slight tang of fear on her. I took a deep breath and tried to look calm, cool, and collected as we entered the mess hall and my ears tilted toward Maryn as I heard her do the same.

Our respective teammates looked up at our approach and Karina was the first to ask, “So, were you able to find out what’s wrong?”

“Yeah,” I answered as I tried to keep from showing the nervousness that I was feeling. “Risha was right; the nearest relay tower has been damaged. It should be repairing itself but it’ll take time. Storm Wing is to go in and see what might have damaged it, but we’ll need to be careful. Risha said those things are hard to damage and there could be hostile Demons or something else.”

“I guess that we’ll be training on our own today then,” Peter said with a sad look toward Lisbet.

Maryn immediately corrected the Harekin. “Nope, Phantom Wing will be going to Eden Base to let Sira know about what’s going on, and to assist them if needed.”

“So everyone gear up and let’s get down to the hangar,” I added. Not that any of us really needed to get any gear. We kept our HESS armor and weapons on at all times except when we were in bed, and even then, it was close by. As for ammunition, if any of us felt that we needed more, then we had the food dispenser on the MIST to make some. Since the maintenance of our team’s equipment was part of our duties, we had gotten into the habit of checking to make sure that the matter reservoir was full along with the other daily systems checks.

“Are our Trainers going to meet us down there?” Heather asked, noting their absence.

“No, they’ll stay here in case Sira sends anyone here to find out why they’ve lost contact. We’ll be doing these missions on our own,” I replied, trying to keep my tone even. “We’d better get going.”

It was as Lisbet and Risha were going through the pre-flight checklist and we waited to take off that Autumn, Heather, and Karina cornered me. “You’re nervous, Snowy.” It wasn’t a guess or a question, Autumn’s tone carried the certainty of fact. “You’re being all rigid and stiff; maybe this will loosen you up.”

My Fay girlfriend wrapped her arms around me and kissed me, her hands caressing my back lovingly as our tongues entwined. When she finally pulled away, I could scarcely breathe. I wasn’t given time to recover though before Heather surprised me by taking Autumn’s place. It was the first time that the former princess had been the one to initiate a kiss with any of us and my eyes widened in surprise before I let myself enjoy it. When our lips finally parted, her cheeks were as pink as her hair as she admitted breathlessly, “I’ve… been wanting to do that… for a while.”

Autumn was grinning from ear to ear as she looked at the two of us and said, “Heather, you don’t need to be shy about showing any of us affection, we all sleep in the same bed. I think that I speak for Snowy and Risha too when I say that.”

“Don’t look at me, I’m not going to kiss you,” Karina offered playfully. “I like you, Snow, but not like that. And don’t worry about us being on our own this time. Wingleader Abbadine trusts us to do this on our own and for you to lead us as you have been until now. She wouldn’t send us out on our own otherwise. What’s more, we trust you. We know that you’ll do everything that you can to finish the mission and keep all of us as safe as you can while doing it. You’ve got this.”

Heather nodded in agreement. “We trust you, Snowy, and I’ll be watching your backs. The only difference between this mission and any other is that I’ll be sniping on my own and keeping a closer eye on all of you through my scope in case I see something you might miss up close if we do encounter anything. For all we know though, it could just be something weather related.”

I found myself blushing at their faith in me, and wishing that I had as much. “Thanks, girls,” I replied a little self-consciously. Then I called toward the cockpit. “How’s the pre-flight check going?”

“We’re all good to go, Wing Commander,” Lisbet called back. “We can take off as soon as you give the go-ahead.”

“Everyone get belted in and let’s go then, this mission isn’t going to complete itself,” I said. “Lisbet, you can start moving us to the surface elevator.” With that, I took my seat, though I had to reposition my tail to be somewhat comfortable. These seats didn’t seem to take tails into account.

By the time Lisbet had eased the MIST from its pad and onto the elevator, the rest of us were belted in and ready to go. Thanks to the training on the simulators, Lisbet didn’t have too much trouble piloting, and even if she had, Risha was there to watch and take over if it became necessary. I was sure that Lisbet would do fine though since we were all doing well training on the MISTS and my grandmother was probably right about us all being ready for real-world practice.

Phantom Wing’s MIST had made it onto the elevator as well, so as both vehicles rode upward, we used ship-to-ship communications to wish one another good luck. Then, once we had reached the surface, both MISTs took off, heading in near-opposite directions. I hoped that neither of our teams would run into anything serious, but I was nervous nonetheless.

After roughly an hour of flying carefully over the ruins, Risha announced, “We have crossed into the border of what used to be Wisconsin. It is mostly a thick snow-covered forest down there with no signs of habitation so far. I have Lisbet following a flight plan that should get us to the relay tower within the hour. We could be there sooner, but we have the sensor suite running scans as well since I have no idea what we’ll find here.”

“Any idea of what we can expect from the locals?” I asked in concern.

“I am not certain that there are locals, at least in the area that we are traveling through,” the AI replied. “I have the sensors scanning for any signs of civilization and there is nothing nearby. Misota has had no contact with this area with the ruins between them and from what little contact they have had, there does not seem to be any form of a central government, or even much habitation, just the city-state of Ashburn up north on the shore of Lake Superior. The population of Wisconsin was decimated by the time that news updates stopped being broadcast. Most of those remaining were evacuated to more secure states or up north to a military base that was being constructed on the lake. Construction was never completed though, at least that I know of, since they started focusing on getting the VIPs off-world and away from the growing Demon problem.”

“We’ll probably see a lot of Demons around then since there’s been nothing to control their population.” Karina contributed with a frown in her seat beside Autumn.

“That is actually fairly unlikely,” Risha corrected. “Demons need to eat a lot and thus tend to congregate toward large concentrated food sources. Animals are generally too spread out in the forest. They would have more luck finding concentrated food sources by going to human habitations, or ruins where they could feed on one another. If they stuck around here, they would either starve to death or start eating the weaker Demons, and then either starve to death or move on to a different territory to repeat the process. The only Demons around a largely unpopulated area like this should be those from the most recent seed storms.”

“I’m more interested in this Ashburn place that you mentioned,” Heather said eagerly. “Why haven’t I heard of it before now?”

Risha’s voice sounded just as curious about the city-state as she responded, “From what I have seen in Sira’s data archives, they stay mostly behind their walls and do not seek to trade or interact with others. Either that or the constant assaults on their city by Demons make it difficult. If they are the only large population center in the area, it would explain why Demons attack so often. Those that head north in search of food would end up there, and any Demons from the great lake too.

“Why haven’t we sent anyone there to help them?” Autumn asked. She didn’t sound happy that we seemed to be sitting back and doing nothing to help people under constant attack by Demons when it was our job to do so. I couldn’t help but agree with that sentiment.

“The past few Queens of Misota have avoided sending trade delegations or Angels there since they wanted to build up the Corps and deal with our own Demon problems first. Personally, I think that they never expected Ashburn to keep turning the Demons back for this long. And so they’ve been out of sight and out of mind.”

“Do you think that they have some sort of old-world technology helping them against the Demons?” Lisbet’s voice inquired from the pilot’s seat.

“It’s possible,” Risha admitted in a thoughtful tone. “Since that was around where the base was being constructed. Even uncompleted and with minimal equipment, the base could have some form of defenses or other technology for them to defend themselves with, or that they have adapted to that purpose. Of course, it is equally likely that they have been overrun by now. There has been no known contact with anyone associated with Ashburn for nearly twenty years and they were isolationists, so they could have been wiped out and we would know nothing about it. Even Helm’s Deep was breached eventually while under assault.”

I actually understood that reference. It helped that we had watched the Lord of the Rings so recently though. Now I was picturing people in HESS armor with pulse pistols fighting Demons on horseback though. I did not need that kind of distraction, so I tried to bring everyone’s attention back to the mission at hand. “While I sympathize with the people of Ashburn and I think that we should probably send a team to at least check on them, we should focus on our mission right now.”

With that in mind, we all began talking about our strategy for the mission. I decided that it would be best to remain cloaked until we knew what we were dealing with, and even after. Not only had my grandmother suggested that we go in without being seen, if possible, but I didn’t want the MIST to become a target if there were hostiles in the area. It would also give Heather a good place to set up her sniping position where she wouldn’t be seen if it came to that.

We would scout the area from the air first and try to get an idea of what we were dealing with, and so Risha could assess the damage to the relay tower and get a rough estimate of the repair time. If we found out that something had damaged the tower, then we would react as needed to make sure that it didn’t happen again. The Corps was counting on us to get communications restored.

Suddenly our conversation was cut short as Risha said, “We have the tower in sight, we should be right on top of it s… What the hell?! Wing Commander, I think we have found the problem. But you are going to need to see it to believe it.”

I quickly unbuckled myself from my seat and the others quickly did the same. Then we crowded at the door to the cockpit to look over Risha’s and Lisbet’s shoulders and out the front viewscreen of the craft. Even from here, we could see that the tower had taken a beating. I moved past the others and into the cockpit for a better look though. Risha zoomed in on the damage and a small window appeared on the forward screen to give us a closer look.

The tower was still mostly intact but there were scorch marks, dents, and patches of half-melted metal all over the surface of it. Most of the damage looked superficial but the antenna that was supposed to be at the top of the tower was only a stub, going by the diagrams that Risha had shown us on the command console before we left. The metal on the top of the relay tower looked new compared to the rest and it made me think that the top had been blown right off and that this new metal was what had already been repaired.

“I am guessing another hour or two before repairs are complete, Wing Commander,” Risha reported. Then, as I was wondering what could have possibly done that kind of damage to the tower and why, her hands flew along the command console. “The real problem is going to be that,” she added as the view in the little zoomed-in window she had made changed, switching to one of the other external video feeds. There, at the base of the tower, was a creature all too similar to something that we had seen in a movie recently.

Karina was the first to react as she gaped over my shoulder at the feed. “Is that a dragon?!”

The Avatar nodded, turning around in the co-pilot’s seat to face us. “I only know of two of these creatures being sighted before the VIPs stopped giving a shit about everyone else and high-tailed it to New Terra. Only one was here in North America, but both times the dragons laid waste to entire cities. I am not sure how the military dealt with them, or even if they were able to. Those scales are probably as hard to pierce as Razorwing feathers. Also, this one looks a lot bigger than the ones that Kylie and I saw on the news. It looks over a hundred feet long, which means that it has been around for a very long time.”

“What the heck is it doing here though? And why is it watching the tower so intently?” Heather asked as we all stared at the screen, and I tried to figure out how to deal with something like that.

“It probably picked the closest ruins clean of food and was probably looking for a more steady food supply,” Risha guessed. “If it had gone west from here it would likely be in a feeding frenzy in the Twin City ruins right now. I cannot be certain why it would be attacking the relay tower though; maybe it is waiting now because it tired itself out with its earlier assault.”

“Which means that it is probably hungry,” Autumn’s voice spoke from behind me. “So, how do we take down a hungry and very old dragon?”

“We attack from above and shred its wings so it can’t fly. Then we stay mobile, try not to give it a single target to focus on, and hope that our big guns can…” I trailed off as I looked at the dragon on the forward screen. Something was wrong with this picture. Then I realized what it was. “Risha, can you zoom in any further?”

“Sure thing, what do you see?” she replied as her hands darted across the console again and we were treated to a slightly closer view.

“Holy shit, that thing has been in a scrape with something recently,” Lisbet muttered as my suspicions were confirmed. It had patches of scales missing, blood flowing from countless deep gashes along its hide, and one of its horns was snapped off at the base. What could have possibly put up a fight against a dragon, let alone do that much damage?

“Risha, it’s time to put the Minimax to work. Do you think that one of your micro missiles can take that thing down?” I asked.

The AI seemed to consider it a moment as she turned toward me and then nodded. “Well, they are meant to be used against heavily armored opponents. I am not sure if they were meant for something quite that big, but if we can knock off more scales in a critical area, like the head, then it should be able to penetrate deeply enough for a kill shot.”

I nodded and turned to look at the others crowding the cockpit door behind me. “Okay, it’s on the ground, hungry, and hurting. We take it down hard and fast from the air. Karina, take the pilot’s seat and then keep us steady and out of its reach, I’ll need Lisbet’s firepower for this.”

The Devilkin nodded and rushed past me to take over for Lisbet, who reached for her GL-5 Storm as she asked, “What’s the plan, Wing Commander?”

“I’ll shred the wings while the rest of you throw everything that you can think of that might hurt that thing at the area around that broken horn. It looks like some scales there are already loose or missing but you’ll need to make a weak spot big enough for Risha to take advantage of. Risha, you might only get one shot at this before it shakes off what we’re hitting it with and tries to counterattack, so make it count. Oh, and everyone anchor yourselves to the deck plate, so you don’t fall.”

No more time was wasted with words as we all made our way to the rear hatch. Once we were at the edge of the deck plating with the hatch opened, we all instructed our NCIs to engage the magnetic boots in our HESS armor. Then I took a deep breath, switched my Goliath to Gatling mode, and rained down a barrage of violet-hued bursts of energy upon the wings of the dragon.

It had barely roared in anger and pain and begun to turn its head toward us when the others added their fire to pepper its face and head. Bright red bursts of heat and light erupted from Autumn’s long-barreled laser pistol. The magnetically driven sniper fire from Heather wasn’t quite as rapid but she was picking and choosing her shots, looking for scales to knock loose or free. Meanwhile, Lisbet was firing high explosive grenades as fast as she could get them loaded.

The beast reared, breathing fire as it flapped its now-ruined wings and tried to take to the sky, only to fail. Karina must have been watching for just such an attempt because she pulled us away and out of range of the intense flames as I turned the focus of my fire at the dragons face. The battering barrage forced it to turn its head away in pain. I thought that I had managed to take out one of its eyes when Risha fired her weapon beside me.

I held my breath and slowed my rate of fire to conserve energy as the small missile flew through the air toward its target. The dragon thrashed and tried to twist away to keep the assault off its head and face, but each time that it moved we shifted our aim, and the tiny missile adjusted its course accordingly. Then, a surprisingly large explosion seemed to shake the very air and the dragon collapsed with a good portion of its head missing.

“What the hell has my little sister had me packing all this time?! She said they were potent, but damn,” Risha muttered after her brief outburst.

“Now I can’t decide whether you or Snowy has the scarier weapon,” Autumn muttered as she looked over at the pair of us.

“She does,” we both said at the same time while pointing accusingly at one another. Then I shifted my scary weapon back to Claymore mode and called out to Karina, “Take us down!”

In a moment, we were on the ground, and we had barely touched down when I issued orders for Karina to seal up and guard the MIST while the rest of us checked things out. I wanted Lisbet and Heather to get some samples of the dragon’s scales and see if they could come up with something hot enough to cremate the corpse. While they did that Autumn, Risha, and I would inspect the tower. The three of us were nearly at the base of the soaring structure when a door at the base of it slid open and three large metallic humanoids poured out in a rush.

I’m not sure who was more surprised, them or us, but suddenly we all had weapons drawn and pointed at one another, each waiting for the others to make the first move. Then a voice with a metallic ting that crackled with static said, “Don’t move. Identify yourselves and state your purpose or we’ll kill you where you stand.”