Legon Restoration

by Taylor, Nicholas

  As they got higher Barnin was able to appreciate the vastness of the base that the Elf and human forces had built. He could also see lines of dragons coming in to land in specified areas.

  Umbra angled north towards Salez, which was taking up much of the horizon. The city was deceiving in its size, to Barnin it looked so close, but he knew that the Elves’ air field was a few miles away from the city. He could see flashes in the sky around the city as dragons fought.

  "I thought we weren't attacking yet?" Barnin asked Umbra.

  "You aren't. We however, have to hold the air space above our units and base, and the Iumenta have to hold the air over Salez. The fighting you are seeing now is more posturing, no one is doing any real damage and neither side is putting effort into it. Don't worry about Salez right now, I want to show you something," she said.

  They were getting really close to the city. Barnin wondered if they would get attacked soon, but Umbra didn't seem concerned. She pointed their interest to the ground. She was perpendicular to Salez. Below them was the Elvin artillery. Until Umbra said something, Barnin wasn't sure what he was looking at. From the ground grew tall trees whose bases looked like the ends of tuning forks, there were no limbs or leaves on the trees, they stretched straight into the sky. From their tops were vines that touched the ground.

  "What are they?" Ankle asked.

  "They are our version of Trebuchet," Umbra said a little smug.

  "Can you explain?" Heath asked.

  "Of course. You see those tall trunks of the tree are like the throwing arm, an Elf will grow the arm down to the ground where that vine you see will be attached to an ordinance. The arm will be tied to the ground and an Elf will tell the tree to straighten back out. Once the proper resistance in the arm is met the tie keeping the tree to the grown is cut and then wa-la, just like a regular Trebuchet, the ordinance is hurled at its target," she explained.

  "You grow your siege weapons on site?" Barnin asked.

  "Yes they take about an hour, and then another few for ordinances to be grown. Wait until you see how we take down the city gate," she said cryptically.

  They flew away from the front and Umbra, true to her word to her commanding officer, showed Barnin, Heath and Ankle the surrounding country. The sun was setting when they started back for base. As they flew Umbra showed them one last thing. Two buildings like mounds rose from the ground at the back of the base; they were far apart but looked identical.

  "These are jump sites. We brought two jump crystals up the Kayloose and placed them in these buildings," Umbra said.

  They watched and sure enough a dragon flashed into existence above the east most building. Umbra explained that Elvin jump crystals were not as strong as Iumenta ones, but that because of the Elves’ control of plants they were able to sustain power longer than their Iumenta counter parts. What it meant was that an Iumenta crystal could bring in a lot of dragons in a short amount of time, but then it would run out of energy; whereas the Elves’ crystals couldn't work as fast but they never ran out of power.

  "I thought dragons had to use energy to jump," Heath said.

  "We do most times. Like when I was bringing you back from Mors I had to provide nearly all of the energy for that jump and even then I had to be in range of the crystal. This is also the case for the crystals in cities; they act more as guides for Ascended. But in combat you don't want to drain all of your power jumping into a fight, so a dragon will augment their own strength what that of the crystal. When we siege Salez their jump crystal will be doing nearly all of the work when they bring in Ascended. The two crystals the city has will be powerful and if the Iumenta are wise, with that kind of energy they will be able to bring in a lot of units if they need too, or vice versa they will be able to evacuate a lot of units."

  "Do you think they will do that?" Heath asked.

  "Evacuate? Yes, when the city's air space is about to fall they will jump all key people out of the area. Once we control the space over the crystals they will no longer be able to use them, a crystal only guides Ascended into a very small area of space, or conversely will guide an outgoing dragon out of a small area of space. Once the sky above is controlled, the crystals are all but worthless to the Iumenta. Only in very rare and desperate cases will Iumenta try to come into an area or flee once the crystals have been compromised. Still, our first priority as Ascended is to destroy those crystals," Umbra said and seemed to pause.

  "What is it?" Barnin asked.

  "I'm trying to find a nice way of saying this, you see the fight on the ground, while important won’t decide victory; whoever controls the sky controls the ground."

  Barnin knew what she was saying, "It's OK, we don't take offense to that, we know how battle works. If you didn't control the air we wouldn't be able to control the ground, it's the same with the navy, until they control the coast line there isn't much good in us getting ourselves killed on the beach, ya know what I mean?"

  Umbra came in low to the ground on her approach, banking slightly left and right to slow herself. Barnin always found landings to be the most relaxing on a dragon. The sun was going down and the Elvin base lit up with magical lights. Umbra seemed to be following a lit path, culminating in a landing pad that she touched down on.

  "Thank you for the tour," Barnin said once he dismounted.

  She winked at him. "Anytime...hey," she said and paused, "the battle is going to start in a few days...it's going to be long and bad. In your down time if you ever need someplace to go you’re always more than welcome in my hanger," she told the three of them.

  Barnin nodded, taking what she said to heart. Despite the joking tone they had with Umbra all of them knew how experienced she was in combat. Barnin headed toward his tent not looking forward to the days, weeks and probably months ahead.

  * * * * *

  Umbra watched Barnin, Ankle and Heath leave. As soon as they were out of sight she made her way back to the take off pad. She'd spent too much time with them that day and she still had to fly her patrol, but she didn't regret it. Experience had taught that you had to enjoy down time in war.

  She took off with the sun almost completely set. She was one of three from her squad present at Salez and she connected with her companions.

  "What do we have for the night?" she asked.

  Tacita, Umbra's second in command answered. "We are staying in a team tonight, cleaning up the countryside if we can. Command wants to control supply routes in and out of Salez," she said her voice soft and wispy.

  "Festina, Tacita form up in a V, I'll take lead," she said.

  Her mind was touched by another dragon. "This is Lamma, with Salez squad eight, we are three class sevens," she said.

  The Elvin Ascended assigned to the Salez base were broken up into squadrons, each with a squad leader and four other units. Lamma was stating that she was in charge of squad eight and that the units with her were all class seven.

  "I'm Umbra, stealth squad, one seven, two sixes," she said and added, "Any on the ground?"

  "Two sixes on the ground, both on alert," Lamma said.

  Umbra spoke to her squad, "We have friends in squad eight, they are short two that are on alert." Tacita and Festina said they understood and Umbra addressed Lamma, "Good to know you're there, are you to engage ground targets or only Ascended?"

  "We have clearance for ground and air targets but would prefer the latter, what are you sweeping for?" she asked.

  "We are on the lookout for ground targets tonight, but if we are lucky we will find some Iumenta stealth units. We know they have some here, we have been playing cat and mouse for almost a week now."

  "Understood, we will watch our backs, let us know when we can be of assistance."

  "Will do"

  "Happy hunting," Lamma said and broke off the connection.

  Umbra focused on looking for caravans and convoys as she hugged the ground. Tacita and Festina were on either side of her, allowing them to cover a large area. To the north was the main Im
pa and Cona Empire forces, they were being fed by large supply lines, that had Iumenta Ascended flying patrol. Umbra would avoid those areas and try and concentrate on smaller parties that were out of the way.

  There wasn't a lack of activity below her, but it was figuring out what was a target that was hard. The countryside around Salez was clearing out as people left the area wanting nothing to do with a battle. Refugees clogged roads and bridges, along with any paths they could find out of the area. She glided over camp after camp without being seen or heard. If there were any hostiles in the area, they were blending in well. She was looking at a small camp when she saw it; just a shadow in the sky to her left.

  Her head snapped around as she connected with her squad and Lamma's, "Possible contact. I think I saw an Iumenta stealth unit just west of us."

  "What do you want us to do?" Lamma asked with a little unease in her voice.

  "Go high and watch yourselves, we will try and pin down the Iumenta and give you directions from there." Lamma took her ascended higher and Umbra scanned the horizon. Finding stealth units was most dragons’ least favorite thing to do. It wasn't easy and even in all her years Umbra only occasionally would find an Iumenta stealth. But for Umbra she loved the chase as did her entire squad, after all this was the game that they played best.

  Tacita spoke. "I have it!" she said relaying her thoughts to Umbra and Festina.

  "Do you want us now?" Lamma asked.

  "No," Umbra said, "it could get away, let us pin it down first." She addressed Festina, "The Iumenta is north west of here, go north and see if you can get ahead of it."

  Festina sped up, leaving the formation. He was the fastest in Umbra's squad and ideal for interception assignments.

  Umbra and Tacita stayed on the Iumenta's tail closing in on it, from what she could tell it wasn't on to them yet. Umbra instructed Lamma where she needed to go and that the Iumenta would come to them. Umbra closed in on the Iumenta, it was a class seven. She and Tacita could take it out, but she wasn't sure that was a good idea. It was a fair bet that the Iumenta wasn't alone in the area. Tacita dropped back, circling around and making sure that Umbra's team wasn't flying into a trap.

  "I'm out in front, what do you want me to do?" Festina asked.

  "Slow up, cross its field of vision and head east toward Lamma and her squad. I told them to get in close to the ground and take cover, when you pass overhead with the Iumenta they will take off and engage."

  Festina acknowledged his orders and allowed himself to be seen. Festina had to be careful, he couldn't be obvious about being seen, the Iumenta had to think that it got lucky. The Iumenta changed course to follow Festina. Umbra fell back some, making sure the Iumenta wouldn't detect her.

  Festina passed over a hill where Lamma and her units were hidden. As the Iumenta flew over Umbra saw flashes of red, blue and brown as her units shot spells at the Iumenta. There were cracks of thunder as the Iumenta's wards blocked the magic. It turned in the sky to see three dragons coming at it. Festina turned in the sky cutting off the Iumenta's retreat.

  "Tacita go up! We need to get above it!" Umbra ordered.

  The Iumenta wasn't trying to fight but rather just making an attempt to get away. Umbra pushed has hard as she could to get high up in the air to try and cut off the dragon's retreat. Festina was doing likewise and was shooting up; Umbra took comfort knowing that Festina would be able to easily outstrip the Iumenta.

  "Contact!" Tacita yelled across the connection. "South, three Ascended," she said as Umbra turned to see three Iumenta Ascended making their way to Lamma and her group. Of course, the stealth had support she thought.

  Umbra and Tacita dove down towards the Iumenta. "They don't seem to know we are here," Umbra told Tacita. "Come in behind and on top of them, there are two sevens and a six, I should be able to take out the six and we can hold the other two until Lamma can assist." Umbra knew that she needed to be fast with the six. If she could break its neck right away she could focus on other targets. It was rare for dragons to get in that close undetected, but this was how most of the stealth squad made its kills.

  Umbra came up fast on the tails of the Iumenta, who were almost in range of Lamma and her units. Umbra was all but on top of the Iumenta six when it noticed her, but too late. She struck like a snake, biting the base of the dragons head. Umbra twisted in the air snapping the dragon’s neck. It fell to the ground.

  A teal Iumenta turned on her. Unlike Umbra, the Iumenta were in full armor and she dodged his tail blade, unable to block it with anything. It lashed out again and Umbra closed the gap between them, taking a swipe at it with her front paw. Her hind leg screamed in pain as the other dragon clawed her and hit her with its tail. She got in a few shots of her own before she started to use magic to fight.

  She didn't have to fight long, as a jet of ruby fire made contact with the Iumenta. Lamma and her team had killed the stealth Iumenta and were coming to assist Umbra and Tacita. Festina was coming in too when Lamma's voice rang out, "Good work stealth squad we'll take it from here."

  Tacita and Umbra didn't need to be told twice. They regrouped with Festina, watching Lamma and her fully armored squad take out the two remaining Iumenta dragons. When they were done, Umbra and Lamma's teams turned back for base, spent for the night.

  "I owe you dinner," Lamma said to Umbra.

  "Oh why is that?"

  "I had a squad member get taken out by the Impa stealth squad. I've been wanting payback for months now. I contacted base, we have permission to take our Elf forms for the rest of the night, if you feel so inclined."

  Umbra smiled, "I think I do feel inclined."

  Chapter Eighteen

  The Calm Before the Storm

  "When I look back at what it was like back then, I think the times of greatest discomfort were just prior to battles. I may not have been a warrior on the field, but never the less my heart flew in the azure sky above and trod on the turf below."

  -Diary of the Perfectos Compatioa

  Legon did a final check on all of his gear. Edling, who'd just jumped in, and Sasha entered the hanger and he turned to look at them. Sasha was clad in the standard Elvin armor with her hair up in a tight bun. The look didn't suit her but Legon chose not to comment on it. They were going to be jumping to Salez and while Legon wasn't happy about it he knew Sasha would probably see combat.

  Reading his thoughts Sasha commented, "I'm not happy about it either, BUT remember, I will only fight if I feel the White Dragon’s anger. Besides, when I'm like that it doesn't really feel like me, you know what I mean?"

  "No, I don't," Legon said. "But based on the look on your husband’s face he isn't real thrilled about you going off to siege Salez either," he pointed out.

  "It's not that," Edling piped up. "I want to come to the front."

  Legon gave his brother-in-law a look.

  Edling rushed on, "I'm not going to fight. But when Salez falls there will be Iumenta crystals left behind, I could be of some use, we need to learn everything we can," Edling argued.

  "He's got a point Sash," Legon said.

  Sasha crossed her arms, "And what if he gets hurt?"

  "He'd be far away from the front; really he wouldn't be in any danger unless we got over run," Legon said.

  "That's not the point," Sasha said.

  "Umm, you guys do know that I'm in the room and I'm not a kid, right?" Edling said looking put out.

  "Shh," Legon said, "Let Mommy and Daddy talk." Edling scowled and Legon went on, "Sasha, he could be useful and we are going to be at Salez for a long time. Do you really want to go that long without seeing your husband?" Sasha was about to argue when Legon butted in, "Look, if he stays on the Carrier he will have a higher chance of getting hurt. Once we leave they are heading north, they will be fighting the Impa navy. But if he comes with us..."

  Sasha looked over at Edling and sighed. "Fine, but Legon is taking you, I will ride with Cynta and Emma can go with Opes," she said closing the subject by walking o
ff.

  Edling mouthed, "I owe you" to Legon.

  "I can read both your minds!" Sasha yelled from the hallway and Edling rushed off.

  Legon could hear Iselin laugh in the hanger next to him, "She is so funny when she's trying to be upset."

  Legon agreed.

  When it was time to leave Edling came in Legon's hanger. He was in his traveling clothes and looked nervous.

  "You OK?" Legon asked.

  Edling nodded, "Yes, I'm not scared to fly; it's just the whole..."

  "Your first time going to a battle field?"

  Edling said it was and Legon did his best to try and placate Edling's fears. Edling climbed onto Legon's back. Legon looked out of the opening in the hull and the rushing surf below him. He walked up to the edge of the opening and asked the Carrier for clearance to take off. When he was told to take off, he leapt out of the opening, driving his wings down, moving up in the air. He climbed as his guard formed in a star behind him. To his right was Sydin, and to his left Opes with Emma. There were two others with them, Mage and the rest of his guard on the other two dragons’ backs.

  Iselin took off as Legon and his formation circled. Iselin had a guard similar to Legon's. They were followed by Cynta with Sasha and her guard. The three formations floated in the sky and prepared to jump. Carriers held jump crystals in them and Legon connected to the ship’s crystal, as did the rest of his guard. He started his count down, four he connected with the crystal, three Legon locked in on his destination, two he felt Edling's uneasiness, one his wings closed in and he saw lavender light, jump.

  Legon's wings snapped open and his lungs filled with dry smoky air. Below him was the sprawling base at Salez. The rest of his guard was still in formation and Iselin and Sasha's groups materialized behind them. On Legon's back Edling shifted.