Imperial Civil War: Marais Sky Battle

Date: December 7, 20XX

Location: Western Forest of Marais

Our choppers buzz in a familiar bliss as we fly across the damped forest of Marais... I close my eyes making it easier for me to remember our mission, there I hear our command officer's voice still echoes in my mind.

Our briefing is as clear as day at it always had...

"Our spies within enemy lines got intel of two large force within Marais had been gathering it seems that after our successful Blitzkrieg campaign against Zorzal where we liberated the bases in Rekkin, Fyue and Mare... Thus it is logical enemy to know that Marais, the last standing base between us and Telta is next on our target list and set up a trap there in Marais. So our mission will be to engage the enemy early and stumped them flat before they had enough time to build heavy defenses there... Mad Gun, Thomas and their team will accompany a helicopter reconnaissance squadron in Marais forest your mission is to find the f ckers so the jet fighters of Team LightStrike can drop napalm bombs at them... The tank division will initiate a series of artillery barrage in the the valleys of Beza at the western edge of Marais to burned Zorzal's so called trap down."

Ambush... We been very sensitive about it now Zorzal is without a doubt the most idiotic A-Hole we know but his back-stabbing second in command Herm Fule Maoi is anything but idiotic...

Herm is one of the Saderan nobles captured during the Manila Medieval Massacre but Pina during our peace talks freed him.. Pina spoke that Herm is a military genius so if we free him he might be a great addition to the Pro-Peace cause but the A-hole had other plans... Herm sided with Zorzal in his Pro-War regime and solely responsible for creating countermeasures against our weaponry and advance technology... Guerilla Warfare is one of them...

"A little bit more Thomas and victory is ours, ain't that right Phil?" The rough yet familiar voice opened my eyes and ended my deep thought... My captain Mad Gun hugged his heavy 50 caliber machine gun like a cradle looking at me with is signature smug smile...

"Our Blitzkrieg attacks had destroyed more than half of the Pro-War army and burned 5 of his most fortified bases, castles and camps in just a week, why do these fools believe they can still win?" I swear the Pro-War forces cries of pain, suffering and surrender sting stung my ears even to this day.

"Who knows Phil these idiots can't tell a gun to a magic wand so why bother thinking about it, instead focus on the forest if it's an ambush I want to know how will I shot them..."

Grabbing my inferred binoculars I survey the forest in front of us... The memories of the Second Battle in Alnus Hill flash through me...

My sight focused on the ground it the cold on moving soil with no animals... Fear quickly struck me... So little animals this indicates an ogre is present or... something else something else that we should be very wary of... Focusing more on the ground as our helicopters move my eyes finally found the target and it was not what we been expecting...

My hands shook while I drop the binocular into the soft cushion of our seat and grab the radio contacting the rest of our squad...

"Recon 2! I REPEAT Recon 2 this is Headhunter 1 we have located the enemy focus sight on your Northeast 50 meters away from our location there you will see the enemy."

Our choppers take a hard stop as everyone set their eyes on the area I spoke...

"An entire legion of wyvern riders..."

There hundreds or even more wyvern riders camouflaged in the ground below, mud covered their body making any attempt to locate them without a use of heat seeking devises very difficult... My heart pound with dread as I once again took my binocular and turn off the infrared function... There I see that our enemies had already spotted us...

Now it's a waiting game... Both sides looked at each other read to anticipate the other's next move.. Our reconnaissance team does not have any attack choppers or fighter jets but almost all soldiers within our flying war machines are equipped with machine guns... We thought we would be facing a ground force we never thought we would be facing such a force specially this numerous... Our small team of transportation helicopters won't last long... A small squad of transportation helicopters against hundreds of wyvern and their riders it is best to avoid such a meaningless skirmish...

"Retreat and contact team LightStrike just like in the briefing now get your sses out of there before the enemy decides to attack."

With that order we turn tails our helicopters slowly backed away from the enemy hoping that the enemy will hesitate...

We misjudged them...

Countless wyvern riders took up to the skies their human riders let out a grueling shout accompanied by their beast's roar... Without a second to lose our guns blaze with sparks, bullets unseen by the naked eyes hit the enemy causing dozens to fall into the ground... The sound of the wyverns' impact to the hard ground is still heard despite out altitude...

"Keep shooting we just need to last long enough for the fighter jets to get here!"

I once again took the radio contacting our airfield...

"This is Headhunter 1 we have engaged the enemy here activating GPS to locate! There are hundreds of wyvern riders circling our squad we need the jets bring them now!"

"Copy Headhunter 1 reinforcements will arrive in 10 minutes be advice..."

We can only hope they arrive early...

Numerous wyvern flew above us before grabbing something heavy in their presumably large bag... What could they be planning I asked? And to our surprise it was another countermeasures surely made by that traitor Herm...

Large thick chain nets made of primitive iron are tossed above us hitting our spinning blade and entangling our rotor... Our vision begin to spin as we quickly lose altitude.

"Mayday mayday! Wyvern riders hit our rotor with chain nets we are going down I REPEAT we are going down!"

The pilot immediately increased the torque and boosted the engine trying his best to stay on the air...

"Our new weapon is working we will bring their iron dragonflies to the ground! Go!" A wyvern rider shouted.

Taking evasive maneuvers our comrades evades almost all the thrown nets... Nets after nets are thrown hoping to hit our rotor luckily our enemies had underestimated our choppers and thanks to our superior maneuvering a great percentage of the nets miss...

"I didn't not bring all of the wyverns we have in the entire Empire to fail! Go men bring victory to the Empire!"

Many wyvern flew down to the ground only to meet their demise on the barrage of lead that rained down.

Evade, shot, kill this is becoming tedious... Now out of nets the legion of wyvern riders let out a storm of arrows and javelin... Many hit out rotor resulting to the said wooden weapons to be shredded, those fired otherwise are unable to punch through our lightweight steel armor or ballistic glass... A wyvern rider charge above us ready to strike our metal helicopters with his sword only to sliced in half by our spinning blade...

More wyvern riders meet their demise as we fire our hail of lead.

"Change tactics! Focus on one and bring them down while the rest of you grab more nets below and crash them down!" There I saw a rider dressed in a shiny armor ordered his men, I can only guess it's their general...

A helicopter separated in the aerial dogfight find itself rammed by dozens of wyvern riders... Like crows they dive and charge the helicopter into every direction there is striking it in a futile attempt...

Tens to twenties of men riding flying lizards charge into us in all directions without enough time to react a few of them ram our helicopter causing a dent in the lightweight armor... Still the lizards aren't done.

The wyvern bite to into whatever metal their teeth can hold into adding so much weight we can barely control out flight... Bullets after bullets we shot at the lizards but even in death their jaw remain in place making any way of removing them impossible specially in our state... Shoot as we can these lizards will not let go...

Metal nets jam our rotor as the pressure increases so does our the dread we feel. Five more nets entangle our rotor then six then seven then eight the numbers kept adding as we are powerless as the sheer numbers of wyvern clinging in our chopper made our attempt to dodge very difficult... Then from the immense weight of the wyverns stuck to us we begun to spin out of control...

"Yes! I General Podawan of Emperor Zorzal will be victorious!"

Our vision stopped spinning as we fall to the ground...

Injured as we our adrenaline had help us significantly in our moment of pain. We run and climbed as quickly as we can to escape the burning box which where our helicopter... The diesel inside finally ignited and blew into a inferno. We sure is lucky our drop aren't that high...

Laughs and cheers of our enemies filled the air with their general pointed his spear into their next target...

Looking above I can see our comrades facing the same danger as us and now we are one helicopter short we are in more danger than in where we first started...

"There's that bastard!" Mad Gun pointed on the general ordering his men, what Mad Gun intents me to do is clear...

"End this Phil..."

Taking my sniper rifle I aimed on the bastard head... Steady as it goes I look into the scope and aimed it into his head...

"Argh!" I cringed as a sudden jolt of pain hit my head, our adrenaline which usually acts as painkillers in the most extreme of situations finally gave away and the injuries I sustained are becoming clear... I have a concussion and a very bad one... I could give the give the gun to another PAEF soldier but...No! I have to do this...All my life I been sniping animals in the forest when I was a teen now I'm a PAEF soldier I will not hunt a demon in human skin... One shot! One kill! I can turn the tide of our battle and save our comrades... Pain will have to wait we will have a war to win...

"God guide me..."

My finger activated the trigger shooting the lead into the air and into my enemy... But in my haste I miss the target... The blasted wyvern general is unhurt... My bullet didn't hit the general... It miss... My body... my body fall into the muddy ground below and my sight slow starts to dim...it seems my body finally surrendered to the pain and injury... it seems my will is not strong enough... I am never strong enough...

Mad Gun grabbed me and carried me to safety as my fellow PAEF followed suit... I failed... Tears filled my eyes I failed... I said.. I failed... I failed to end this ambush...

"Great shot Phil that was the best one I seen so far..." Mad Gun said...

"What?!" I asked

"Yeah man your a natural that bullet pierce it's head!"

"Huh?!" Confused I wanted to ask why, his only response was a his gaze pointing to a screaming wyvern rider who crashed meters away, there I saw the general's body meters away from us and only mere inches away from his personal rider... There I saw in the newly dead wyvern it's head it blown open by a bullet... I miss the general but the wyvern he's been riding I shot it down...

Tears once again filled my eyes while I start drip into an unwanted slumber...

"God thank you, thank you for guiding me..."

Was all I can say before the sound of fighter jets erupted above us followed by the cheers of Mad Gun and the sound of 30 mm cannons making mince meat out of overgrown lizards...