John Ringo - Against the Tide

“You think they’d have gotten word,” Gunny Rutherford said, shaking his head as the dragons lost height and lined up for the close drop on the dreadnought.

“Every Cannae requires a Varius,” General D’Erle chuckled. “Or, more appropriately, every Agincourt requires the French. Prepare to receive dragons!”

“Message from Corvallis , sir,” the messenger said. His face was blackened with soot from the fires that had just been put out. The main-sails were going to have to be replaced but other than that the ship was fit to fight.

“ Corvallis reports fires out,” Shar said, passing the message form to Edmund. “That firefighting system of Evan’s is a life-saver.”

“But they also report that their dragons had to turn back from the attack on the fleet,” Edmund growled. “And they lost nearly half their dragons.”

“I hope we do better.”

Sergeant Fink had wanted to be a dragon-rider from the first time she saw them. She had a normal fear of heights, she wasn’t insane, but dragons were the only thing in this Fallen world that gave any of the powers that had been lost. She had enjoyed high-floating, a form of hang-gliding, before the Fall. And she’d even thought about getting a wyvern or doing a full-flight mod. But that was before the Fall.

She’d joined the Navy because they told her that she could apply for dragon-riding. And she had but she hadn’t been accepted. Too many applicants. So she’d done her job and bided her time until, by luck as much as anything, she made it in. Now she spent as much time as she could riding. Some of the riders had gotten a bit burned out and there weren’t many that would take even the slow, boring, reconnaissance flights. But she would, any flight she could.

So now she was up, on a pleasant day, slightly overcast with high cirrus clouds. Winds were pretty solid but that just made the gliding easier. She had about another hour and a half to go before she was relieved, lying on the back of her dragon, banking occasionally to keep the fleet in sight while still staying as far out as she could to the southwest. Somewhere out there was the New Destiny fleet. With luck, she’d spot it before either she or her own ship was spotted.

Charoo rumbled in his chest and turned slightly to the south and she spotted what the dragon had. Regular splashes and the wide V of wakes. She turned and looked behind her and, sure enough, she was right into the sun from the New Destiny fleet. There was little or no chance that she had been spotted. She looked for their own security dragons but didn’t see any.

“Okay, we’ve got ’em,” she muttered to the dragon, banking it back to the north. “Let’s see if the lookouts are paying attention.”

She withdrew a curious mirror from a pouch on her harness and put the back to her eye. The mirror had a clear spot in the middle with a metal grid buried in the glass. The bright sun caused a small intensely bright reflection to form in the grid. By laying the reflection over the distant ships she could be sure the reflection of the main mirror was pointed at them. As soon as she had it aligned, she started angling the mirror so that it was reflecting towards them and then away, careful to avoid pointing at the New Destiny fleet.

“Commander Gramlich?” Captain Karcher said, dropping through the overhead and landing lightly.

“Ma’am?” the dragon said, getting to her feet.

“We’re about to start air-ops,” the captain said. “Be damned if I’m going to sit this one out. The New Destiny fleet is in range to attack. I’ve put out a mer team as a turning point. Get your damned wyverns in the air.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

“Take the Powells and head for the New Destiny fleet,” Karcher said, springing back through the hatch. “I’ve got another job for Vickie.”

“I thought we were staying out of it!” Megan said.

“ Corvallis and the Richard are outnumbered,” Herzer replied, calmly, as he finished putting on his leathers. “We’re in range. We can’t just let them carry the whole fight.”

“What if we’re attacked while you’re gone?” she asked, angrily. The shambles from the fight still wasn’t cleared from her quarters and, ignoring the suggestion of the captain, she had installed herself in Herzer’s. Bast was still sharing the quarters but despite the crowding the elf seemed actually pleased that she was here. So was Megan, until this stupid plan had come up. “For that matter, you could be killed!”

“Megan,” Herzer said, gently. “I’m a soldier. Sometimes I ride a dragon, sometimes I swing a sword. I… hope that we have something special between us. But you’re going to have to accept that one of the problems of being my friend is that I go out to try to kill other people. And they try to kill me. It’s my job and I’m good at it. You’re going to have to decide if that’s what you want in a… friend.”

“I know that,” Megan said. “I even like it, except when you’re going out to get yourself killed.” She reached up and touched his face, then kissed him. She’d meant for it to be a light, chaste, kiss, but she suddenly found herself holding him tight. Finally she pulled away brushing at his face again. “Get out there, Herzer. Go get me a carrier.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He grinned, then picked up his helmet and left the compartment.

“ Corvallis is sinking,” Shar said, sadly. “Edmund, I think we have to retire.”

“Damn if I will,” Edmund said, shaking his head. The second flight of dragons from the New Destiny flight had been lighter than the first; they were hurting them. But with the Corvallis out of the fight both flights would concentrate on the Richard . “Angle in closer. If we can’t get them with the dragons then we’ll damned well board the bastards.”

“We lost how many dragons?” Admiral Trieste shouted.

“The dreadnoughts are filled with archers,” his chief of staff said. “We only got five back, those that were engaging the Silverdrake. And they lost three of those to the Drakes. The rest of the flight is… gone. They flew right into the trap. It looks to be at least a battalion, maybe a regiment, of longbowmen.”

“Where are the dreadnoughts now?” the admiral asked.

“They’re sailing towards us,” the chief of staff said with a grimace. “Depending on the winds they’ll be here in an hour. I’m not sure we can face them with anything we have.”

“Forget the dreadnoughts,” Trieste said. “Go for the carrier. And point us away from those damned archers.”

“Wyvern off the port bow!” the lookout called.

“At least sixty,” Chang said.

“Looks like the gamble didn’t pay off this time, Shar,” Edmund admitted. The UFS dragons were in the air already but he wasn’t sure they’d have anywhere to land. They’d recovered a few of the Corvallis Powells and they had been added to the strike force. But that wouldn’t help their carrier.

“The ballista frigate will get some,” Shar said. Maybe one in five from past experience, which wouldn’t be enough, he didn’t have to add. “But the Drakes are worn out.”

“More dragons to stern,” the aft lookout called. “It looks like Drakes !”

“Son of a bitch,” Edmund said. “Damn that Karcher!”

“You think they’re from the Hazhir ?” Shar asked.

“Have to be,” Edmund growled. “Which means Hazhir is completely uncovered.”