Out of Space

Chapter 495: Bug Out

The New World, ???, Suugon Exploration Fleet, The Swordsman

Vice Admiral Zheng Sun torn the parchment up with fury. He spun around on his heels and stormed back into the bridge while throwing out orders. "Release all the Warrior Wings! Get ready for battle! Order the rest of the flotilla to form into the Sweeping Dragon's Wing position!"

Bells clanged as The Swordsman readied itself for battle. Signals and flags were exchanged between the four airships and the one by one the smaller cruisers formed up on the port quarter of The Swordsman, creating an echelon. Weapon ports were opened and muzzles of dragon cannons were run out as the Suugon airships took an aggressive stance.

Zheng Sun returned to the command pavilion and sat down back down on his seat before picking up a feather fan and he thrust it out, "Shoot those insects down! No one threatens the honor of the Suugon Dynasty!"

Following his orders, officers wearing coin lamella armor and flared helmets yelled out orders to the gun crews manning the dragon cannons. The airship looking like a blockish pagoda on its side with raised ramparts on the top front and back leaving the middle section open. Muzzles of dragon cannons jutted out from the ramparts while two pairs of large heavy ballistas sat in the middle section.

A loud crack of the ballista sent a basket of stones out like a shotgun blast towards the flying crosses, followed by another loud crack as the other ballista released its load of stones out. Large hatches pulled chains opened on the underbellies of the airships and dozens of dark shapes swooped out like angry bats out of hell.

The drakes of the Suugon Dynasty roared and shrieked as they glided and flapped their long wings, their riders orientating themselves before they guided their mounts towards the enemy. Unlike true dragons, the drakes were a lot smaller than a New World light weight dragon with two hind clawed feet and a pair of long winged arms and they were unable to use breath attacks.

The drakes and their riders took up a protective position around the fleet, to prevent the flying crosses from approaching while the airships' cannons sought to shoot them down from a distance.

"Order a Wing of the Warriors to find where they came from!" Zheng Sun ordered from his seat. "Those flyers must have come from some where! There must be an enemy fleet nearby!"

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Airspace over Goblin Sea, Skull Flight

"Oh, ok... So they are pissed" Air Force Lt Foy Rocker laughed to himself as he watched the enemy airships formed up in attack formation. "Venny, Venny, this is Skull Leader. Airships appeared to be unwilling to stand down. Over."

"Vengeance, copies. All Flights, stand by."

As he turned his head back to observe the enemy airships, he spotted dark winged shapes dropping from the hostile airships. "Skull Lead to All! Bandits! Bandits in the sky!"

"Skull Lead, Venny! Enemy airships dropping bandits! Lt Foy reported back. "Looks like they are firing at us too!"

"Vengeance to All Flights, weapons free, engage the enemy!"

"Skull Lead, roger that!" Lt Foy replied before switching the channel and asking. "Alright, boys! You heard the boss! Weapons free!"

"Skull Lead to Vermilion Lead," Lt Foy called next. "You watch the kids! I'm bringing my boys to engage the bandits, over!"

"Vermilion Lead, copy that! Good hunting!" Came back the replied in his helmet.

"Skull Lead to Skull Flight! Stick to your wing mate and engage the bandits!" Lt Foy ordered his flight. "And watch out for the airships weapons!"

Calls of confirmation came flooding back to his comms. "Skull Two, let's go!"

The Haven made F/A - 2 Viper was powered by a fourth generation pusher prop engine, set in a similar position as the older Cobra. The Viper was almost a third larger and heavier than the Cobra, carried more hard points and even had an internal integrated 20 mm vulcan cannon.

Skull Flight, each plane painted in sky grey and black themes had a white image of a skull and cross bone emblazoned on their tails split off into pairs as they dived down away from the rest of the formation. Lt Foy frowned as he saw the winged creatures appeared to be dragons, but slimmer and a lot smaller than what he was used to seeing. "Bandits are small dragons with riders!"

The small dragons' wings beat hard as they sought to gain altitude to come into grips with Skull Squadron. Lt Foy grinned as he opened up his speed, which all along they had tried to match speed with the airships, leading the enemy to think they were not that fast.

The dive and increase in speed caught the dragons and their riders in surprise as the twelve Vipers from Skull Squadron roared through their formation with their guns blazing. The skies were suddenly raining blood, broken bodies, and spent shell casings.

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Goblin Sea, UNS Vengeance, Bridge

Commander Ford enlarged the high resolution imagery that was sent over by the recon Mariner circling above the clouds over the goblin island. He tapped the display and said to the Captain of the Vengeance standing next to him, "Seems like they made camp here, away from the Goblin City..."

"I doubt anyone can stand the stench of thousands of unwashed goblins..." The Captain muttered under his breath before he pointed to several block like shapes. "Those looks like the tops of airships..."

Ford nodded in agreement, "There's another camp here and here... Judging by its size and the number of tents... I say each camp can hold around three to four thousand troops?"

"And here," The Captain pointed out another area. "Looks like dragons of some sort... And a lot of it..."

"Just like what Skull Flight reported..." Ford said as he gave a glance at the tactical plot table. "They have engaged the enemy fleet for... ten minutes already?"

The Carrier Air Wing Commander or as the crew usually referred to as CAG, looked up from the tactical plot table and said, "Yes, Sir. Starfish, Shark, and Sawfish Squadrons are forming into attack vectors with Vermilion Squadron covering them."

"Skull Squadron is currently engaging the bandits," added Peter who now bears the rank of a Navy Captain. He was the other human in the bridge other than Ford, and serving in the position of CAG onboard the UNS Vengeance.

"Update me of any changes," Ford said before he turned back to the Captain. "I think we are close enough to the island..."

The Captain nodded before he issued out orders, "Left full rudder!"

"Aye, left full rudder!" The helmsman called out as he spun the wheel, bringing the super carrier turning.

"Stop ahead all engines!" The Captain ordered next once they completed the turn. He and Ford looked out from the starboard windows and the island of goblins covered their view. "Batten down the hatches on Flight Decks B for imminent broadside firing of main guns!"

"Aye aye! securing Flight Deck B!" The XO of the Vengeance replied. " Attention all hands on Flight Deck B, secure the hatches for main guns firing! Repeat, all hands on Flight Deck B, secure the hatches for main guns firing!"

Peter also started issuing orders to the Air Boss of Flight Deck B who on the flight deck started yelling for all crew to enter into the ship and lock down the deck. The crew quickly moved all equipment back and locked them down while others secured the armored hatches and any loose items.

"All main guns to target Goblin City!" The Captain commanded and the Weapons Officer issued the orders down to the four turrets. Slowly one by one, the massive armored turrets started rotating, their triple barrels soon pointed right at the island like a fingers of death.

The XO left the bridge and headed off to the Combat Information Center to oversee the crew there. The Weapons Officer soon reported that all main guns green and ready for firing. The Captain nodded and waited for the rest of the departments to report in. When Flight Deck B was secured and locked down, he glanced to Ford who gave a confirmation nod for him.

"All main guns... FIRE!"

-----

The triple 14" naval guns covered in an armoured casement were pointed directly at the island when the order came in to fire. The firing solution and coordinates had already been given and calculated by a mixture of computers and elven minds. The powder crew loaded bags of powder from the magazines into a hoist which brought the powder bags up to the gun room.

Inside the projectile room, another crew busily loaded massive High Explosive shells, each weighing 578 kilograms into another hoist which sent the shell up to the gun room. Once the projectile arrives, it stopped at the cradle and the gun captain opened the breach of the 14" gun.

The cradle with the projectile was then tipped into the breach and the rammer operator rammed the projectile into the breach before the rest of the gun crew removed the bags of powder off the powder tray and rammed them into the breach.

The gun captain pulled a lever which signals the gun was ready to fire to the turret officer. The turret officer in turn signalled to the CIC and Weapons Officer that the turret was ready to fire. Hence when the order to fire was passed down, the turret officer squeezed the trigger and triple barrels of Number One Gun roared.

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Airspace over Goblin Sea, Skull Flight

"Break! Break! Break!" Lt Foy yelled at his squadron mate who nearly collided against the swarm of flying dragons. Tracers darted out in strobes and any unlucky dragon and rider caught in the path of 20 mm shells exploded into a burst of blood, flesh and bones.

Despite their small size, they were fast, faster than the fastest light weight dragons and almost on par with the Cobras. Most of the dragons charged towards the attack formation but Skull squadron dive attack had managed to scatter them, only leaving a small group of dragons to close in towards the Cobras which Vermilion squadron could take care.

The fight was confusing as the dragons darted here and there, some hovered in the air, their riders shoot balls of flames here and there while Skull Squadron did their best to dodge, some of the planes still suffered random hits.

Just at this point, there was a sudden ripple of thunder and one of the airship staggered as dozens of heavy rockets slammed into its shields causing it to flicker and popped away before the second volley of rockets slammed into its unprotected hull.

The airship's hull crumpled under the heavy barrage of armor piercing rockets which blew their warheads inside the hull after punching through a good meter in. The Cobra pilots had stagger fired their rockets in two volleys, the first volley to smash the shields down and the second volley fired seconds behind to damage the airship.

So far the theory worked out for the Cobra pilots as the first squadron broke off and the two other squadron copied the tactics of the first squadron. Streaks of rockets screamed out of their rocket pods and slammed into the airships that tried to evade but where too slow.

The pilots purposely held back their fire until they were literally so close that any mistake, the pilots could crash directly into the airships or eat a blast of cannon fire. As such there were two planes that slammed directly into the shotgun blast of the enemy airships, their fiery remains smashing against the dying airship which claimed their lives.

"Vermilion Lead to Skull Lead! The Cobras are RTB!" The other Viper squadron leader radioed over. "Mission complete! Splash three Sierras! We are bugging out!"

"Roger that!" Lt Foy replied. "Skull Lead to Skull Flight, break off the attack! It's time to bug out!"