“ Tell your employer I will be in touch. Have a safe trip back home! Good bye!” and with that said Dr. Dramaric disappeared into the crowd of tourist, moving here and there on the dining terrace.

“What are your calculations, Corporal?” demanded Logistics Officer Fourth Class, Reten Ceaps, of the battle cruiser “ Craving” of the 22nd Consortium Triumvirate Imperial Forces, as it hung there, suspended in a stationary orbit over the planet Somohael. “Sir, Tracking the coordinates of target motorcade, indicate it is, 2526 yards away from ideal contact area. Targets are on the road through the woods, just before the clearing…. in front of the Big T, entry area. Weather conditions in the assault zone are the winds, coming out of the east…south east at 2 to 4 miles per hour. With a slow moving fog, six to 24 inches, drifting on the ground. ” “ Thank you, Corporal…… Comm Officer! Contact the V-220’s. Pass the word regarding weather conditions. Also inform all task force teams, including air support ….. We will begin launch, as motorcade approaches 2080 yards away from the clearing site entrance, to Big T assault zone. Should target motorcade resume same speed. Alert. commander of extraction mission the countdown will commence shortly and on my mark. “

Four hundred and forty-six yards later, V-220’s with mission numbers 2,3,4 and 5 were released simultaneously from the expedition slides on board the battle cruiser. Thirty seconds later, V-220, mission number 6, inaugurated its controlled subsonic descent into hell. As for the last set of V-220’s with the mission numbers of 1 and 7, after 30seconds , they initiated their prime directives of resupply for the assault troops, at the future extraction site. There the CCT (Combat Controller) 2nd Lt. Gricks would be waiting.

Within the first 60 seconds into the mission, the Augtouke Dragons were already in ‘ phase one of Dragon Flight ‘ to their ground contact positions. The pilots of the V-220’s ceased the brief free fall of their vehicles, switching on the engines being careful to stay under subsonic speed, approaching the target area.

The go lights flipped on and two varieties of Dragons repelled from the doors of the V-220’s. The Flier Dragons leap out and after a brief free fall switched on their silent running power packs, flying off to execute the mission. While the ground unit Dragons proceeded into free fall anticipating the correct height for deployment of their glide chutes to the missions’ varied destinations. Now phase two of ‘Dragon Flight’ began in earnest, as each Augtouke Dragon soth terminal velocity, with each pair of wings locked in control glide position. The Fliers among the Dragons with silent flight motors engaged, flying through the clouds, picking off high altitude drone bots of the coup defenders at will. But not without injury. Seeking their glide path, the Dragons managed to spray the light gray, colored bot dust below, like ash from a volcano. The moisture of the fog on the ground combined with the gray bot dust falling. A gray mud formed everywhere the dust and moisture commingled.

The fallen bots hit the ground alerting ground forces. The battle had begun. The east by south east wind gently feathered the potion, among the boughs, leaves and to the forest floor, where the bots awaited further deployment orders. The gray droplets of bot dust soiled all things. The results of earlier field test, gathered from actual 22nd CT conflict pursuits, ambushes and enemy assaults statistics, proclaimed a guaranteed 89.9% success rate with each application of bot dust. However, this platoon now wished their percentage of success, against this bot engagement would be much higher. They soon would know. With their wings in glide path functionality, the first Dragons ground units opened fire, felling many enemy humanoid targets with their silencer weapons.

“ We need a bigger LZ than this,” exclaimed 2nd Lt. Gricks, prepared to adjust to her situation. Calmly she spoke into her comm. “ V2. V2. This is ‘A ‘ at EZ. I need 75 by 75 yard swath, with heavy defoliant. Heavy defoliant. Began at twenty yards south of present position. I repeat. Twenty yards south of present position. Do you read? About 30 trees. ‘Bout 30 trees Over” The pilots in V2 responded immediately, “ Then three smoke?. Over.” “ Aye, Aye. V2. Aye,Aye. Over.” “ V3, V5. V3,V5. This is ‘A’. Lay down suppression fire on east valley of mountain entrance. Counter attack forces observed our advance. I repeat. Counter attack forces advancing on east valley mount entrance. Over” “ ‘A’. The voice of the V-220’s commander called back, “ This is V3. V5and V3 will make it so! V3 out!”

The V-220, with mission number V2, activated and executed the distribution of defoliation product #5, on the requested 75 by 75 yard area. 2nd Lt. Griggs, 92 seconds later had her first resupply airship the V7 land, in three to five inches of non-toxic greenish, brown goo on the ground, which was a living portion of forest moments ago. The defoliate product #5, also hindered the capability of an approaching, large bot defensive firing platform at the improved LZ. The non-toxic product # 5 and the combination of bot dust seeping in the seams of its machinery, may have fried out its mechanics and firing solution circuitry, through its armor. It must have been out of the range of the second bot dusting, done by the remaining Flying Dragons, deployed on V7 airship. But the gunners from Captain Tord’s V-220, easily took out the sluggish huge robotic platform.

Meanwhile, atop of Little T , Tech Sgt. Alls continued to apply withering fire on the front of the mountain fortress entrance destroying it completely. The engineer Dragons in Tech Sgt. Alls group recouped from the enemy fire coming toward them. 2nd Lt. Gricks redirected the V3 and V5 to blow those hostiles away. The engineers Dragons finally succeeded in doing an adequate job in blocking the exit from Little T. This meant the mountain end of the assault zone was clear and stable, for now.

Captain Tord and his team, crunched down here and there steadily leaping forward to the entrance of the sewer system embedded deep in the foliage of the forest. Up through the forest they climbed. Encountering very few challenges along the way, resistance from the security forces lessened the closer they got to the sewer entrance. Upon entering the sewer, Captain Tord motioned for microwave interference applications to short circuit electronic devices there inside. With minute difficulty while advancing, the chief extraction team slipped along, racing forward in the slimy waste clinging about here and there.

Will the assault zone remain stable long enough for extraction?
Will Tech Sgt. Alls survive this mission?

Read Chapter Nineteen