His Majesty's Dragons: The Battle of Britain

[Avian Obscurities]

Allen investigated the situation at the U-boats through his binoculars as they approached. Despite the obvious carnage, he smiled grimly to himself. Nice to see we're not the only ones forced to deal with these monsters....

The crackle of the radio and the panicked German voice coming through it erased his momentary feelings of triumph. He had hoped they could just let the drama play out, observing from high altitude before reporting back to the ship. But a surrendered U-boat was too valuable to pass up.

He turned in his seat, half shouting, half radioing his instructions to the crew. "Mates, prepare for a strafing pass, and target the Lords."

His command was met by silence. "Pull the other one!" an angry, anonymous voice called out.

"Captain, you saw the shit little the last attack did against one of them!" Bennett shouted. "And we only have seven shells till we're down to the bottomgun and that'll be no better than mozzies!"

"Yeah, but that one shell pissed it off, didn't it? Target the flanks, underbelly if you can. Anywhere that'll hurt. We're not trying to kill, we're gonna try and pull them off the U-boats."

Allen radioed his plan to the rest of the British dragons nearby, then urged Flinder into a long, shallow dive; steep enough to pick up speed, but not so steep that they dropped too close to the water and within easy snapping range of the behemoth's heads.

They streaked past the nearest U-boat, Flinder's roar drowned out only by the explosion of the gun as it targeted the heaving flanks of the Lord and fired.

[LadyTevar]

Jebediah and Judith heard Flinder's plan over the radio, and looked at each other. "Ah think he took a shot ta th' head," Jeb drawled.

"Ah'm a-waiting fer Cap'n Rankin.."
"Too Late," Jebediah interrupted Judith, as flinder made his dive.

"She-hit.. wha're we su'posed ta do? throw spitballs?" Judith griped, turning on the radio. "Aequitas... Orders?"

[General Havoc]

"We've got nothing that can even scratch these monsters," snapped Æquitas back over the radio. "Hostile and Ashanti are on their way with five inch guns. We have to keep the Lords from destroying those Uboats until they get in range."

The radio crackled with static before Rankin's voice piped through.

"Those submarines will have codebooks and radio equipment aboard. If we let the Lords do their work, we'll lose the chance to seize them. We can't let that happen. Distract the Lords any way you can, just keep them off those damn boats. The destroyers will be in range in less than five minutes."

*-------------------------------------------------------------*

At the range he had fired from, Flinder could not have possibly missed, and the heavy artillery shell smashed into the Lord's flank and exploded. The dragon's lunge at the conning tower of one of the remaining U-boats was aborted as it wailed and spun out of control, slamming into the submarine's deck. The weight of the massive dragon shoved the U-boat down into the water for a moment, before the dragon pushed off of it into the air, flapping its enormous wings as it roared like a tornado and raced after Flinder, black blood streaming from the wound in its side.

The three other dragons paused as their compatriot raced after the Dreamweaver. One took to the air to assist, while the other two redoubled their efforts on the remaining boats.

*-------------------------------------------------------------*

Plainly the dragons were not following Captain Reynolds' explanation. The assembly grumbled and looked at one another with expressions of confusion and annoyance, while the great wyrm in the center of it all growled and bared its teeth as Reynolds approached, lowering its neck and head and withdrawing the claw on which the boy sat. Plainly the boy himself had no fear of the massive feral beast he was sitting upon, but only of the man who had intruded into this underwater sanctuary, and the strange dragon he had brought with him.

What sense the boy made of all of this was unclear. His eyes darted between Reynolds and the dragon behind him, with periodic looks upward at the massive feral hellbeast overhead. When Reynolds had finished, the boy looked back up at the dragon and shook his head visibly. The dragon barked, loud enough to shake the surface of the water pool behind. Yet rather than attack, it wrapped its lengthy tail around itself once more and coiled it carefully around the boy, who pulled it up around himself like a blanket as he spoke to Reynolds in an odd, lilting rhythm that sounded almost lyrical.

"Metal hatchlings," said the boy. "Stole the eggs with people and airdragons. Fireclaws and spitting metal firefish. Took 'em up up up to the air and fed 'em to the wyrms. Metal wyrms eat dragons but don't chew. Won't chew the eggs." The boy gestured up at the dragon he was seated beneath, and then at the others ranged around. "They kill the wyrms. Rip 'em open. Find the eggs. Kill the hatchlings too. Kill the dragons and the people and the firefish."

The dragon interrupted, lowering its head and making a guttural, purring-like sound that plainly was some kind of signal. When the dragon's head withdrew, the boy continued.

"They saw the metal hatchlings feed the wyrm. Metal wyrm ate you, didn't chew. You lived. They brought you hear to tell you to give back the eggs, or they kill your wyrms, airdragons, hatchlings, and people. Eat 'em up and chew 'em to death. Firefish won't stop 'em. Fireclaws won't stop 'em. Give them back or they'll chew you up like they're chewing up the metal hatchlings."

Before this demand could take effect though, the cavern was filled with a low, atonal sound, like a pod of whales moaning into a microphone. The various dragons around the cavern raised their heads, listening to it intently as it resonated about the cavern before finally fading out. As it finally disappeared, four dragons carefully moved around Frostfell and positioned themselves around the water pool. Whatever the signal had been, clearly the dragons expected a new arrival...

[LadyTevar]

"Distract 'em, he says...," Jebediah muttered, watching as two of the Lords rose up to attack Flinder after his shot went home.

"They ain't tha' good flyin'," Judith answered, looking at the two in the water. "We kin' fly circle's 'bout 'em." She tried to sound confident, and it would have fooled a younger dragon.

Jeb rolled his eye, but gave a draconic grin as he beat his wings hard to gain altitude. "Wahl, why don' we giv' tha' smaller one chasin' Flinder som''thin ta thin' 'bout."

The tiny Smoke-Devil set up for his signature attack, the falcon-fast stoop from on high. It would take a few moments to get into position for the strike.

[Charon]

The new arrival wasn't long in appearing. The Australian dragon appeared out of the water with all the grace of a clumsy three year old as he came in far too fast and clearly hadn't been expecting solid ground and open air. The dragon managed to make his crash look like he had control over it.

It didn't take Kunja long to realize just how much shit he was in. There were at least a dozen of the behemoths, with another one that was even bigger than the other ones. "Aw hell..."

The lightweight looked positively miniscule next to the massive creatures that took up most of the open space. and it took several seconds to fins Frostfell. Kunja didn't dare move though. He didn't want to be mistaken for something that needed to be crushed underfoot.

The Australian pulled his re-breather out of his mouth. "Uhhh, Frostfell. We should probably get going. Before they decide how they want to eat us."

[Cynical Cat]

"You can go if you wish," said Frostfell. "I will not abandon Nathan. Pray that they don't chase you. I could certainly catch you if I wished."

The Wendigo turned back to the boy. "Do you understand tribes and clans? That not all the people of the air are my people? That some of the people and the dragons of the air are my enemies?"

[Charon]

Kunja groaned and looked at all the Lords of the Deep. "Nope. I can't leave without you and Nathan. So where the hell is he so we can get out of here"

It was then that Kunja noticed the boy, finally. The dragon ceased to move. "Aw shit..."