neobear

111 - Talent

Shadowy figures silently moved crept along a long irrigation trench next to a field of native grains. The man tall stalks of yellow-green crops swayed gently in the early morning wind and the six figures appeared next to a row of wooden fences. 

"Sun's up in an hour or so. We are going to wait for the gates to open, then we are going into the city in groups," Tyrier said the team, "keep hidden till then."

Soon, the sky lightened up, the clouds turning red and t...

110 - Operation Dagger

The cold wind howled loudly as the massive waves flapped up and down. Specialist Sergeant Tyrier felt slightly sick, the up and down motion of the dragon they were strapped on making him slightly green. The cold air helped to suppress his urge to vomit, he and Claymore One were all dressed in simple homespun clothes, thick jackets, and goggles to protect against the high altitude flight.

Blue Thunder stretched his wings and leisurely flapped his wings a couple of times, and rode the...

109 - Rest and Recuperation

The Mining Station was still lit up despite the late hour, drifts of music and laughter could be heard from far away, and the green skin scout sniffed his the air, his mouth watering, as he caught the smell of meat roasting from the brightly lit town that appeared suddenly over the winter. His band head will be pleased with his news when he returned with it, and he slipped off into the darkness with his tummy rumbling.

-----

The celebration party reached its zenith ...

108 - Boss Fight

A blade of wind smashed against the rock barrier raised by the Irisval where most of the exploration team had taken cover behind, sending rock fragments and dust raining down on the pinned elves and humans. Pike leaned out and popped a few shots at the ants that tried to flank them and dodged back to cover as another wind blade smashed into the barrier again.

"Thorn!" Pike yelled, "Any ideas on how to defeat it!" The rest of the team had scattered when the Spider Ant Queen suddenly ...

107 - Clear!

Morrock, Capital of the Empire of Bluewood, Imperial Palace

The precious crystal goblet worth dozens of gold royals shattered into hundreds of crystal shards and the dark red wine stained the dragon wood paneling of the study walls, the liquid dripping down onto the thick rich carpets. 

Emperor Varacen stood over his dark wood desk, glaring the kneeling messenger who brought the news of Duke Sturm's army defeat at the hands of the rebels. The news took over thr...

106 - Waste Not, Want Not

ops of suppressed gunfire echoed down the corridor and James looked up with narrowed eyes. "Top, what's the situation?" He radioed using his communicator.

"Fucking bugs!" Top replied, "We got some giant ants here."

"Need support? Over," James asked, as he held his weapon ready, watching the doorway, where sounds of gunfire drifted out. 

"Negative," Top replied over the radio, "It's over. Come on in, it's cleared."

James stood u...

105 - Dungeon Level 1

As dawn slowly break, members of the dungeon exploration team gathered once more at the meeting room on the top floor of the admin building. Everyone involved was already waiting anxiously, most of all James and Kristine didn't get much sleep the night before.

James sat next to Kristine, yawning as he woke up earlier than her and had to sit in an earlier meeting, he sighed and glanced at Kristine who ignored him. "It was nice last night," He whispered in her ear, making her blush sl...

104 - Looking for Group

Third Sergeant James Bone of 1st Marine Battalion, 1st Company, 3rd Platoon leaped down the tailgate of the military half-track, his boots slamming down on the hard concrete. He took a look around as he grabbed his weapon and gear off the storage bin. Other than the smell, the mining outpost look neat and tidy.

He walked towards a large sign with an arrow that said, "Marines" and entered the building where an elf with corporal strips, most likely newly promoted after the battle of t...

103 - Golems

Following the discovery of the Dragonite crystals and the appearance of a dungeon, the mining station underwent a frenzy of changes. A company of Marines was dispatched to reinforce the mining station and provide security to the miners.

As Captain Blake's jeep rumbled to a stop at the parking lot, he noticed several large rocky figures pushing carts filled with soil along the tracks. The strong stench of waste assailed Blake's nose as a gentle breeze blew the smell over.

<...

102 - Peace through Superior Firepower

Sawtooth Mountain Pass, Marine Support Base

The concrete hangar doors laid open and Lieutenant Commander Tommy walked past the parked Valkyries undergoing maintenance by a crew of techs. He paused to admire the squat hunching ragged look of the birds and walked towards the office at the end of the hangar.

He entered the side office and found Captain Blake and Chief Matt had already gathered around the office desk. "Sir!" He quickly gave a salute.

"A...

101 - Dungeon

The news of Dragonite crystals and the discovery of a dungeon in the mines had spread to the city within a week. The news brought much discussion within the city citizens. 

Even the city broadcasting system was talking about the discovery and everyone were both hyped by the success of the Marines defeating the Empire forces and now the news had spread about the discovery of the valuable Dragonite crystals and news of the dungeon.

"So what is a dungeon? Captain ...

100 - Mines of Sea Cliff

A couple of half-tracks rumbled down the unpaved road, along with a scenic route of the ocean, ferrying miners to their destination at the Sea Cliff mining facility. Irisval Von Aston sat nervously on the padded seat, staring wide-eyed at the moving scenery flying past her window.

When she woke up from the healer tent, she found herself questioned by a strange short-eared male, wearing some kind of uniform, after which the healer came in and told her that she collapsed due to magic ...

99 - Dragonite Crystal

As the week passed by peacefully, the damages to the Pass were repaired and most traces of battle were cleared, except for some blood stains still lingering behind despite some rain. 1st Marine Battalion, 2nd Company, slowly emerged out from the forest edge, finally after more than a week of combat patrols and sweeping of the area of any remnants of the Empire army and the prisoners that were released a week before, had ended their week-long patrol mission.

The tired Marines cheered...

98 - Recruitment

Sawtooth Mountain Pass, Rear Marine Base, Hell's Gate

Princess Sherene had spent the last day helping out at the medical center, tending to the wounded Marines and even the prisoners of war. She also visited the defenses and worked on her public relations, boosting the morale of the troops.

Now she just the sun was on its zenith, she stood under a covered platform, facing thousands of prisoners, who all either sat or stood at the enclosed parade square where armed M...

97 - Post Victory

Uncharted Forest

Duke Sturm's face was pale as he rode his war dragon hard, pushing it to gallop faster. The music coming from the sky rose to a fervent height as the singer screamed the lyrics of some unknown heaven cursed song.

"War, whoa, lord,

What is it good for,

Absolutely nothing, listen to me."

Followed by explosions going off at the rear of the retreating Lancers. The enemy flying beasts charged past over Sturm's head and he duc...

96 - POWs

Captain Blake stepped off the rear hatch of the Valkyrie, holding on to his peak cap as the powerful turbo wash from the turboprops threatened to blow his cap off. He reached out his hand to Princess Sherene, helping her off the flight cabin as the whine of the engines slowly died down.

Major Frank waiting at the other side of the landing pad with his other staff officers and saluted when Blake strolled up to him.

"Sir and Mdm! Welcome to Hell's Gate!" Frank grinned...

95 - Rout

Base Colony, UNS Singapore Command Bridge

Captain Blake tapped the tactical tabletop with his forefinger, watching the battle raging at the Pass from the eyes of the recon UAV. "How many fucking dragons do they have?"

Commander Ford replied calmly, "Approximately about a hundred small ones and about ten of the larger ones." 

Blake sighed, "I need to bring forward my plans for an airforce way earlier than anticipated." He turned and look saw Pri...

94 - 26th Imperial Dragon Corps

*Recommended music for this chapter - Nightwish - Sleeping Sun

York of Tression was a young man inspiring to be a Dragon Rider when he grew up. He ran away from his village of Tression, stowed away on one of the river barges, before jumping off and swimming ashore, reaching the Dragon Fortress, where dragons were bred by the Empire and where Dragon Riders are born.

To be bonded with a dragon, it mostly involved luck and of course influence and money. For a penniless...

93 - The Witch

Balls of rising flames, billowing smoke and cracks of thunder could be seen and heard coming from the Walls. The cries of the wounded and dying echoed down the mountain pass, as the Witch escorted by her two handlers strolled without a care, walking up the gentle slope leading up to the Pass. As before, she has experienced many such battle scenes, except normally these scenes were reserved for large cities walls or huge fortifications.

The death cry of a Silverwing dragon screamed p...

92 - All Out Attack

Sparks and smoke exploded against the gleaming dome of a Level 4 magic shield covering the Third Fallowfall Regiment of Swords. Commander Elosen dressed in his blue ornate armor, waved his heirloom sword yelling encouragement to his three thousand men. "Advance! Our mages' spell Protection will protect us from their weak magic! Just another 400 paces away!"

The Third Regiment of Swords carried shields and short stabbing swords as standard gear, they were a veteran regiment, fighting...

91 - Anti Dragon Warfare

Urka looked on grumpily as he stood with the members of his clan at the rear, watching the thousands of Empire climbing up the slope under the cover of smoke clouds cast by the Imperial Mages.

He hawked and spat at the side, the soft skin Big Lord has told him to get out of the way. Urka.never had been disgraced and humiliated so badly before. He wondered how he had to answer to his clan for his failures when he returns with his defeated band.

Should he ignore the B...

90 - Earth Magic

Uncharted Forest, 1st Fallowfall Regiment of Swords Camp, The Duke's Own

"What is happening with the Oerkins?" Lord Sturm stood on top of an archery tower and glanced toward the Oerkin camp, seeing a large orange glow from the Oerkin camp direction. "How long was this ago?"

"Just after the ringing of the night bell, my Lord," The reporting soldier kneeled at the side.

Suddenly several large thunder cracks and balls of fire could be seen in the dista...

89 - Ride of the Valkyries

"You can't find the Elder's Spirit?" Urka asked in surprise at the three hooded Shamans gathered in front of him. "Did you try all ways?"

"Yes, Warleader, we did," The lead Shaman bowed and replied, "There was no trace of his Spirit in this plane."

"How about the Spirit Walkers?" Urka asked after he got over his shock. "Can they be controlled now that the Elder is not here?"

"Yes, we might not be as powerful as the Elder, but we will share the contr...

88 - Objective Beta

Uncharted Forest, Rally Point Alpha

Tyrier grabbed Altied's shotgun and bandolier while distributing Altied's remaining 6.5 mm magazines to the rest of team and started to field strip the weapon down and clean it. Everyone took turns doing sentry duty while the team rested, ate, maintained their weapons and gear and waited for the sun to set and darkness to come.

The team cast a barrier of Nondetection and both physically and magically removed all traces of their pa...

87 - Angry Orcs

UNS Singapore, Command Bridge

"YES!" Cheers erupted as the crew and officers watched what happened through the choppy video stream from Claymore One's actions. Seeing the Necromancer get shredded by the mines, the whole bridge just stood up, cheered wildly and applauded. 

"Great work, Claymore One," the Bridge Communications Officer, congratulated the team for a successful mission.

"Hey, hey," Captain Blake called out, "The mission is not over ...

86 - To Kill a Necromancer

UNS Singapore, Command Bridge

Captain Blake and the other command staff stood around the tactical display table, glancing either at the map on the table or the display screens, displaying UAV overhead video feeds or the direct feeds from the Hundred and First Arcane Tactics and Intervention, Claymore One teams' helmet-mounted cameras. The display from the helmet-mounted cameras was choppy as the signal was poor due to the canopy of signal blocking trees, despite the transmitter towe...

85 - Claymore One

The thunder of Magelocks echoed over walls of the near vertical mountain face. The twin moons appeared as two thin crescents hovered over the tall peaks of Sawtooth Mountain, as a single dark shape loomed over peaks, narrowing missing the jagged rocks, kicking up loose rocks and dirt. The twin turboprop duct fans screamed as maximum power was applied to them, barely allowed the modified space shuttle to clear the peaks barely with a meter or two below its belly.

Several figures were...

84 - Arcane Tactics and Intervention

"Good morn~ing, Marines!" A sweet and cheerful voice echoed down Sawtooth Mountain Pass, "Hey this is not a test! It's rock and roll! From the Pass to the No Man's Land!" The voice came from a speaker mounted on a tall wooden pole. "We got a song dedication from a Mrs. Montery to her son, Pvt. Ladian in the brave Marines fighting in the Pass to protect us all from the Big... Bad... Empire! Her message is, Stay safe and love you always, Mom. And here's Creedence Clearwater Revival, Fortunate Son ...

UNM Naval and Marine

Concept art of how the Marines and Security details look like, inspired by halo ~ 

83 - What's Next?

"Alright, settle down people," Commander Ford called the meeting into order. The conference room full of both humans and elves quiet down and rose as Captain Blake scrolled in. "Captain on deck!" The Marine guard holding the door open yelled.

"At ease," Blake sat down on his customary chair after returning the salutes gave to him by his officers.

"Now, I'm sure most of you have heard that the Pass is under siege by Empire forces for the past week by now." Blake acte...