The Pale War Read online

  Suddenly, as he was searching behind himself, he heard a small noise in front of him. He knew exactly what it was. It was the sound of landing. Something had landed in front of him out of the sky. He turned his head to face forward and there, standing as if it always had been, was a nebron! Not any nebron either. This particular one seemed to have dragon teeth pierced into it horns! Almost like a portable collection. They dangled from the demon's horns like earrings. There were quite a few too.

  This nebron's chin also sported a long Billy Goat-like beard which indicated a very old demon. Its chest was massive as it breathed. It took deep breathes as it starred at Alerius. It seemed like it definitely wanted to decimate him!

  Alerius starred at the thing right back. Just from the scars on it body, the beard, the dragon teeth, and the eyes; Alerius could tell this was a nebron of many battles. As if it had been fighting in Hell before this war was ever even dreamed of! The way Alerius could tell from the eyes was that they seemed to hold a very fountain of combat knowledge not to mention they were harder then others. Alerius had seen many baragons in his lifetime but this one seemed to be elite among the elite. He could sense something different about this one. Deep within his gut as if he had seen him somewhere before. Like in a dream or on another battlefield on a far off planet. Alerius had fought in so many battles across so many planets he just couldn't remember. That air of familiarity actual sent a chill down Alerius's spine. This was the first time he had ever faced down a nebron and fear had gripped his entire body.

  They starred curiously at each other for a little while longer until he saw the nebron form a fireball in its hand. It held it close to its face and jeered at Alerius. Alerius could only stare at the fireball. He prepared to do something. His muscles tightened and his heart pounded his chest. His mind wrapped itself around the many reflex reactions that were about to take place.

  The monster then made the fireball twice as big then before! It pulsed with power and grew twice in size. The jeer that Alerius was receiving turned into a full blown snarl. It growled at him and the fire raged inside its hand. The growl was pure evil sounding and feeling like it came from the inner workings of Hell itself! Deep, ancient, and somehow strangely mystical all at the same time.

  It suddenly flung the fireball straight at Alerius! Alerius reacted and dodged the fireball as best he could. He rolled on the ground and the fireball exploded right where he had been before. The debris kicked up like a massive gray whirlwind! Like a dust tornado with fire raging inside of it! Alerius watched from the ground as the explosion was huge! The gray firestorm reached about twenty feet in the air! Almost as if it was spawned from Hell itself!

  Alerius looked back at the nebron and it already had formed two more fireballs in both hands. It held them with arms spread wide. The two fire orbs looked like evil torches! The nebron flung the two right at Alerius before he even had time to get up on his own two feet again. Alerius dodged them both and like before, both kicked up explosions that rocked the gray dirt into a gray dust storm!

  Alerius finally rolled right back on his feet, flying into the air and landing smoothly. When he landed back on his feet, he began to unload the belt of shells in the automatic shotgun. The nebron disappeared though and Alerius stopped firing in surprise of this. He didn't know they could do that! He then got a funny feeling in the pit of his stomach.

  He looked over his back and hovering in the air like a demonic angel was the nebron. It had two fireballs in both hands again. Arms wide spread and ready to fling them right at Alerius. Alerius swung his shotgun right up at the nebron and began to fire at it.

  As the lead flew up to meet the demon it reacted. It squished the two fireballs together and made a shield of fire! It covered the entire body of the demon and when the shells of lead hit the shield all they did was make little fire swirls in it. No damage was done to the shield itself and the demon remained intact.

  After Alerius saw it had no effect he let off the trigger. Again, he was stunned at the unknown maneuver. The demon then extended its arms again and again had two fireballs raging in its hands. Alerius's eyes bulged with shock. He had no idea what to do and if he didn't think of something in the next three seconds he was going to be fried. He looked around but he saw no way to dodge the oncoming hell.

  He saw the nebron hurtle the fireballs down at him and he watched as they charged him like missiles! He had only one option. He just hoped he could jump that high! The fireballs came inches to the ground when Alerius jumped up right into the sky! The fireballs hit the ground and made those trademark explosions but Alerius was too high in the air for an effect.

  Most humans could jump maybe little less then a foot into the air if that but Alerius had jumped ten feet! He didn't know if it was the force of the explosions or if being a rogue he had enough strength to do that all on his own. He didn't care! All he knew was that he was in striking distance of the nebron. While he was still in midair, he turned the shotgun sideways like a baton. He then lunged at the demon still remaining in the sky.

  He collided with the demon! He drove his gun straight into the demon's throat and knocked it right out of the sky! They both landed on the ground and that in no way deviated Alerius from his attack. The force of the hit just made him drive the gun deeper in the thing's throat! He could hear it gurgle on it own air. It tried to roar at him but all he heard was a raspy growl. Alerius was doing a growl of his own at the demon as he struggled to keep his advantage.

  Suddenly, the demon opened his mouth wide and deep in his throat Alerius could see a low lit, red light which was starting to become orange. It traveled up the demon's esophagus becoming yellow. It now illuminated the creatures mouth a blinding white. Alerius suddenly realized what was happening. He rolled off top of the demon with his gun following. A beam of white energy blasted out of the demon's mouth right up into the clouds! The force of the white fire beam was so strong that the ground shook and the fog around the battlefield seemed to encircle around the beam! Then, the beam went right back into the creature's mouth and the nebron got up quickly as though nothing had happened.

  Alerius got up to and they were right back to square one. They were staring each other down and Alerius finally decided to speak. "Well, I haven't seeing anything like you, ever!"

  The demon seemed to smile back and went at Alerius head long. Alerius got ready with the belt fed shotgun and before he was able to use it he saw a bluish, black shadow swoop down from the sky and take the demon up into the sky. He followed with his eyes until he couldn't see it anymore. He replayed the figure back in his mind and saw that it was, indeed, a dragon! It must have seen the chaos on the ground and decided to help him out.

  Alerius looked back up at the sky and saw more fireballs come launching down to the ground. They were too far away to be a threat though. He saluted the sky and said, "Thanks lizard, I owe you."

  Planet Reign: Imprisoned Dragons

  (So, I hope somebody out there is reading this and enjoying it. Anyway, I apologize if a gun that Alerius uses shows up and wasn't mentioned earlier. When I wrote this awhile back I had forgotten some of the weapons he took from the gun cache earlier. As always if you want to criticize me on this, please go right ahead. I deserve it.)

  He began to dash through the smog again. He could hear the war up above escalating. He suddenly came across a scorched dragon corpse. He slowed down and looked at it. He shook his head knowing that they were losing.

  He slowed but he did not stop. More fireballs exploded around him as he ran through some to the EVAC location. He was at a loss for how to actually get there though. Neither him nor Jack Company were given maps. He knew that the mission orders specified to give the dragon forces support but he himself had to be saved by a dragon and Jack Company were still hiding in that small building. Things were not going too well.

  Alerius almost ran into a huge dark gray boulder sticking in the ground as his focus was more on his own thoughts then on the ground in front of him. He stopped
and pressed his back up against it. He held the shotgun close. The boulder was about ten feet high and about eleven feet across. He was close to the edge so he peeked around the corner. The ground beyond sank down about three feet into a small road. He looked down at the small path/road as the light smoke cover dissipated the lower the ground got. He could see the road almost crystal clear.

  His senses pricked as he heard a rolling chain kind of noise. He got ready with his shotgun as it got louder and closer. Suddenly, he felt a hard nudge in his back and he twisted around in a panic! He aimed the shotgun ready to annihilate anything behind him! Except what it turned out to be. It was a small dragon. Well, it was about six feet high and about eleven feet in length but that was small compared to an adult. He figured it around a teenager's age. Alerius looked at it curiously as it kept nudging him as though to look at something. He figured it was trying to advert his attention back towards the road. He looked back toward the road and that rolling chain noise was getting louder and closer.

  He watched as a caged mesh came into his field of view. On the bottom of the cage were these huge rolling wheels with pikes on them. Almost like the effect tank treads have on the ground only this was a little more primitive. On top of the wheels was the huge cage itself. Bigger then most buildings and cruel in nature. Rolling along like an early stone-age train. In front of the caging were two deneks. They rolled along with the primordial vehicle. Black straps were around the demons as they hauled the caged vehicle along giving it all the more primitive and vicious look. Their half-machine, half-demon torsos pivoting each way guarding the cage.

  In that cage mesh was a hoard of dragons! They were being held captive! They struggled against thick metal shackles and bashed into the cage to be free. There heads thrashed about in rebellion. Their eyes were portals of rage as their faces raked at the metal. Their wings flapped furiously as if they were trying to provided themselves with enough lift to blast through the roof of the cage.

  The cage itself was massive! It seemed as if it had no end to it. More of those barbaric wheels came into view and even more deneks as well. Some had those black straps around them, some didn't. Not one of them though disregard his duty of guarding the moving prison. They rolled along with the long cage almost like a prisoner train. Alerius knew that's exactly what this thing was. It was a P.O.W transport. Probably taking them back to the base of operations on Reign.

  Alerius could finally see the end of the cage structure as it was followed up by a nebron. Not the same one Alerius had encountered before. This one was smaller and younger. Definitely one that had not seen much combat. Alerius could tell by the way it followed the cage "train" that it didn't have much experience.

  Alerius pressed himself up against the boulder and began looking at the young dragon again. Alerius counted at least seventy dragons locked up. The young dragon nuzzled under his armpit almost as if it was trying to get him to go out there. Alerius knew though, in his heart and soul, that it wasn't the right time. He pushed on the young dragon's snout and it back off of him a tad.

  Alerius had already formulated a plan. If he could free those captive dragons then it would definitely be a key action at supporting the forces above. Question was how? There was almost ten deneks guarding the long cage and the nebron guarding the caboose would be no easy accomplishment to get through either. There was no way he could get through all of that. The ten he could probably handle but the bargon was the real problem.

  He looked at the dragon with a heavy heart. He had no choice. He had to send this creature into battle. It was almost beckoning to go but that didn't make it right.

  The young dragon again pushed underneath his armpit and again he pushed down on its snout. He saw strong breath escape the dragon's nostrils. It was getting sick of waiting to do something. It wanted action and it wanted it now! It had no idea what it was about to get itself into. Alerius shrugged his shoulders and peeked around the corner of the bolder again.

  The transport cage was almost out of sight. Alerius patted the dragon on the head to get its attention. He pointed at the nebron. He waved off everything else and continually pointed at the nebron.

  Before Alerius was even ready, the dragon shot into the sky like a space rocket. The smoke cover was ripped in two making a cone-like trail into the sky. Alerius could only watch in tense anticipation for the dragon to reappear. His muscles tightened. His throat went dry and his lips chapped up instant quick. His mind became a jumble of emotions. The ruler of it all was that edgy anticipation. The kind you get when your about to cross a busy intersection, or when your about to enter a room with a bunch of strangers and you know you have to go in, or when your waiting for some hell-bent, young, flying reptile to go head long into battle and you know you have got to follow swiftly behind knowing it's a death sentence!

  Suddenly, he saw his cue! He watched as the dragon came in from the left-part of the cloud covered sky and thrash the nebron! The dragon and the nebron slammed into the ground about ten yards away from the long transport and began to wrestle each other like animals! It was like watching a demonic bat/lion going up against a flying crocodile.

  Alerius jumped up and high tailed it across open plains. He hit the road and could see in front of him that most of the deneks along the road were beginning to aim for the dragon. He got close to the caboose of the cage transport and leaped on top of it. He ran along top of the cage shooting at every denek he encountered. Most couldn't aim up and the ones that figured out what was going on were too late to do anything about it.

  Alerius reached the front of the cage transport and all but three deneks had been eliminated. They were getting close but the one pulling the train had been finished off. He jumped from the top and back onto the alien gray landscape. He searched for a way to open the cage but found none. Meanwhile, The three were getting closer as he fumbled around the steel mesh looking for some kind of locking mechanism or a decently blended swinging gate.

  Nothing! The deneks were now right on top of him and began aiming their guns. All three had their target locked. Alerius aimed the shotgun right at them but when he pulled the trigger back he heard this low tone buzzing. Alerius looked at the gun to discover that the belt was gone! The barrel magazine was empty!

  He threw it to the ground and as fast as lighting he ripped the two small AK's from his holsters and began to spray the bullets right at the demons. The bullets weren't as strong as the shells in the shotgun but they would do. He wasted both clips into the three demons and after he was done, two were down in a fiery mess and the one was malfunctioning terribly.

  Alerius let the two empty magazines drop to the ground, load the two guns back up with the spares. He swaggered over to the malfunctioning one and put a bullet right in its dome.

  The head blasted everywhere and the rest of the body followed but Alerius was already back to trying to find a latch in the cage.

  He then heard the nebron coming! He holstered his guns and slid under the front of the transport. He heard a slam on top of the cage when the ram-like, humanoid demon landed on top. Alerius knew that the demon could sense him. That or he had seeing him. Either way, he knew that it was aware of his presence.

  Alerius grabbed onto the sides of the undercarriage of the cage. With both his hands and his feet; he began to crawl down to the end. As he stared up at the metal bottom he noticed something. A small square lining around the metal flooring. It was about half way down the cage transport. He felt around it while still holding on and trembling because of the demon's footsteps above. He then felt a hunk of metal in the shape of a lock. This was it! This was the way in and out of the cage! Bad part was that he would need a key to open it. He proceeded with his progression to the end of the cage.

  He felt the demon's footsteps above still shaking his whole body to the core. Not to mention the cage transport as well. He could hear the dragons above growling at the nebron. Alerius felt that every time he moved his counterpart would move to. Almost as if it was following hi
m blindly under the cage while still on top.

  Alerius figured that the keys for the lock were on the nebron. He had to get the nebron down off the top of the cage or he would have to go on top. Which would make it all the more easier for the demon to kill him. One thing he did not want to do was make himself an easy kill. Alerius held the bottom tensely as the vibration of the footsteps still rocked the foundation of the transport.

  He let go of the left side and sort of twisted his body so that both of his feet would grapple the left. The right side of the cage he had both hands clung to and his eyes were peering out from underneath. He was watching the nebron trudge back and forth. The nebron stopped right above him and was looking far out onto the planet surface. It would quickly move its head to the left and then to the right. Almost as if it was looking for something it couldn't find. It could have easily seen Alerius on the bottom and what was puzzling him the most was that it didn't.

  He then saw the reason it was moving its head so irregularly for. Its eyes were closed. Alerius's curiosity was peaked. Was it trying to hear him better? Did it close its eyes to help it concentrate better on finding its quarry?