ALL NOVEL Chapter 114 – The Dragon
1955 June 18th, 2020 CE
A few miles east of San Francisco
52 F-35s closed into their firing position. Ahead of them, 24 F-16s were about 20 miles away from the dragon that was closing in on San Francisco. Nearly a hundred AMRAAMs launched from the F-16s.
The swarm of AMRAAMs cruised over the Pacific Ocean. Right ahead of them, a massive dragon with a wingspan of nearly 1500 feet flapped slowly towards San Francisco. Explosions blanketed the entire wingspan of the dragon.
Peterson Air Force Base, US Northern Command Headquarters
Lieutenant General Doug tapped his chin while watching the large screen in front of him. Behind him, a number of soldiers were on computers with a variety of maps open. The Lieutenant General turned to General Schmidt. “The missiles from the F-16s had no effect, it's continuing towards San Francisco.”
“I can see that. So it took the brunt of nearly a hundred AMRAAMs and not a thing happened to it? Were any of the missiles shot down?”
“We are certain that almost all missiles hit their target. The E-3 is reporting that it seems to be moving faster, I think we only pissed it off.”
Ten miles west of San Francisco
More than seven hundred AMRAAMs from the F-35s streaked through the skies over San Francisco, all headed towards the dragon.
This time, the explosions were much more numerous. The dragon reopened its eyes after the onslaught of missiles. Its piercing red eyes shone through the smoke of the explosions. A roar filled the air in the ocean.
2305 June 18th, 2020 CE
Situation Room, White House
“Mr. President, General Schimdt is reporting no effect at all.”
“Ugh. Shit. Get me the General.”
The screen flickered on and General Schimdt could be seen in his command center.
“General.”
“Mr. President, we are preparing for the worst. We have a Patriot battery being set up to try to shoot it down. We are hoping that the bigger warhead would have an impact”
Cralson shook his head. “That thing took on nearly 30,000 pounds of explosives head on. What would a battery of Patriot missiles do?”
“Then do we have any other option?”
A silence filled the room. Cralson leaned forward in his seat and clasped his hands together. “The nuclear one…”
2010 June 18th, 2020 CE
A few miles east of San Francisco
<<<”To all aircraft near or above San Francisco, begin evacuating out of the airspace. You have 30 minutes before a massive dragon will reach the area.”>>>
A pilot in an F-35 got on his comms.
<<<“Captain, we didn’t shoot it down. Permission to engage with guns and the Sidewinders?”
“Request denied."
“The thing is gonna reach San Francisco if we don’t kill it.”
“Hundreds of AMRAAMs didn’t do anything to it and you expect guns and sidewinders to do anything? You are just gonna get yourself killed and waste your life for nothing. Return to base. That’s an order.”
“...understood.”>>>
America Center Drive, San Jose, California
<<<“We still need that air support over here at Levi’s Stadium. We are barely holding the line over here!”
“Understood. Please await further instructions.”>>>
An AC-130W Stinger II’s 105mm cannon rained down onto the Lancefishes below as it circled the battle. The soldiers and vehicles on the ground didn’t let up on their fire. Without ranged weapons, the Lancefishes couldn’t do much but mindlessly surge forth. Two F-15Es passed over the horde while unleashing a cluster of 16 small diameter bombs from each aircraft.
The radio crackled. <<<“The dragon is headed directly for San Francisco. Air support at Levi’s Stadium will remain available unless the dragon changes direction.”>>>
The pulverized corpses of thousands of the Lancefishes littered the beach and the pavement but there seemed to be a tidal wave of them as they continued walking ashore.
An A-10 swooped in with its signature “BRRRRTTT” coming from its rotary cannon. As it passed over the horde, a variety of cluster and regular bombs dropped from its wings. Explosions rocked the jet black tidal wave. As soon as the aircraft passed, the Lancefishes surged into the places where their brethren had just been obliterated
“Let’s try the new shell out. Gunner! AMP! Airburst!”
“Up!’
“Fire!”
“On the way!”
The round exploded in front of the horde, scattering fragments onto the Lancefishes.
Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada
Colonel Todd listened to the orders while visibly upset. “What do you mean ground all aircraft!? I just got them into the air less than 30 minutes ago!”
A voice replied over the phone. The Colonel seemed like he was about to throw the phone across the room but he put it down. “Dammit. We finally got them up in the air but now we need to ground all of them.”
2310 June 18th, 2020 CE
Situation Room, White House
Ronell shook his head. “Are you insane? We are basically nuking San Francisco at this point.”
Cralson countered. “Won’t the dragon cause destruction nonetheless?”
“A nuclear bomb will be resigning every single person still in San Francisco to death. Only an utterly idiotic person would suggest such a thing. With a dragon, we might hope for people to escape.”
“We aren’t sure what the dragon is capable of. What if it could breath fire that could be comparable to a nuke?”
Ronell frowned. “Why do you want to use a nuclear bomb on American soil that much. This is a last resort weapon. We may no longer have restrictions like we did on Earth but throwing nukes around without a care in the world is not something I want to do.”
“That dragon requires a last resort weapon. What if we threw a low yield nuclear bomb at the thing?”
“Won’t that still have the consequences of fallout affecting thousands of people.”
“So what if a couple thousand civilians get cancer or leukemia? We will save millions by destroying that thing before it gets to San Francisco.”
Ronell became silent.
Somewhere in the Pacific
“What do you mean our communications with our invasion force have been cut off? Soghr should have been positioned far from the battle.”
“Great Lord. We are pretty certain Soghr has been destroyed.”
“Soghr is such a massive entity. It couldn’t have been that quickly destroyed.”
“The humans have weapons that causes explosions. That seems to have been what happened to Soghr.”
“What about the next army?”
“Our next army should be approaching in a couple hours. They have Ehruf with them. We will reestablish contact once they arrive.”
The Great Lord walked to a team of Enlightened who were fiddling around with an aquatic creature of this plane. She observed them. One of them poured a purple viscous liquid into its gaping mouth. The reddish skin of the aquatic creature turned jet black and seemingly hardened. One of the Enlightened had an Obsida, a smooth black metal, in his hand, it was forged into a spear-like shape. The Enlightened proceeded to place the Obsida spear on the front of the aquatic creature. A purplish liquid oozed from the altered creature onto the Obsida and secured it.
They placed the creature back into the ocean and crowded around. The creature floated back up and was soon motionless. One of the Enlightened who noticed her approached her. “Great Lord. The aquatic creatures of this world are too weak for modification.”
“So it seems”
“We are certain we can find a stronger being to reengineer.”
“I don’t care. Just make something useful.”
“Thank you, Great Lord.”
2010 June 18th, 2020 CE
Hearst Avenue, San Francisco, California
“We are only a couple of blocks from the City College of San Francisco. We just have to avoid getting caught.”
They were pressed up to a wooden fence in somebody’s backyard. Eric peeked over the fence. The street was empty and there was a school building across from them.
“We should probably get into that school building.”
“Are you sure Eric? We have to cross an open street.”
“I don’t see any of the monsters here.”
“Is there nowhere else we can hide?”
“The only thing across from us is the school building. That's the only way we can get to safety.”
Ian stayed silent and nodded. They could still hear heavy amounts of gunshots which gave them hope.