United Nations, Sawtooth Mountain Airbase
Blue Thunder came to a running halt as he glided down the runway. He gave his usual wave to the Air Traffic Control tower before lumbering off towards his hangar. He squeezed into his den and poked the quick release on his chest harness, dropping the crates and barrels of food he bought for the day. "I'm home!"
Silence greeted him, making him frown as usually Rastraz would be up and watching those cringy Korean dramas of hers. Yet this time, there was barely any sound, not even from the audio speakers. "Ras? Are you there?"
He crawled deeper into the hangar and soon found Rastraz asleep, curled up into a ball, hugging two barrels. Soft snores rose from her body and Blue Thunder shook his head and sighed. "I really wonder what I shall do with you!"
But just as he turned away, he paused and did a double check, for he spotted something not quite right. Under the dim light, his eye pupils enlarged and his eyes went wide as he froze in shock. For at the first glance, he had mistaken the two barrels Rastraz was hugging were the remains of her favourite pickled fish in oil. But on closer inspection, it turned out to be two large eggs!
"OH, MY GODS!!!"
-----
The airbase was suddenly in a hive of activity as a large group of visitors descended down. The base commander gave salutes till his hand went numb as nearly the entire entourage were all senior officers or holding posts as ministers. They all gathered at the dragon hangars which had another large group of curious dragons crowding over them.
Dr. Sharon, Magister Thorn, and the airbase's dragon veterinarians fussed over the clutch of eggs. Dr. Sharon used a measuring tape to measure the eggs while Magister Thorn held the other end. "The egg with the bluish speckles has a height of roughly a metre..."
"The other egg with the reddish speckles is almost the same at ninety seven centimetres," She declared as she scribbled down her notepad excitedly. "The eggs are around forty five centimetres in diameter..."
Magister Thorn held a flashlight and shone it against the leathery shell, and on the other hand, he held a magnifying glass. "Hmmm... interesting... mmm... I see... Hmmm..."
Rastraz laid curled up around her eggs and she gave a sleepy yawn, "Are you all done yet? I wanna watch my shows!"
Blue Thunder anxiously hovered over Dr. Sharon, Magister Thorn and the vets and asked in a worried voice, "Are the eggs alright? There are no issues with them, right? And is Rastraz ok?"
Magister Thorn threw a glance at the yawning red dragon and shook his head, "Rastraz is well... And your eggs seemed to be fine too."
"Hmm... but looks it is interesting that the eggs have different colours..." Magister Thorn stared at Blue Thunder's red bluish scales and then at Rastraz's red scales. "Should not be an issue... Just, I am not sure what kind of crossbreed whelps will come out from the eggs..."
"As long as they are fine... then it doesn't really matter!" Blue Thunder replied happily. "Oh oh! If both are boys... We should name them Billy and Jimmy! Or Ryu and Ken! Right, dear?"
Rastraz yawned again and used her tail to curl her eggs closer to her body. She suddenly narrowed her eyes and glared at Blue Thunder, "Wait... Did what did you call me?"
"Erm... dear?" Blue Thunder scratched his chin. "What's wrong?"
"What's wrong?!" Rastraz growled. "We... We haven't even gotten married!"
"OH!" Blue Thunder's eyes blinked rapidly in enlightenment. "OH NOES!"
"You can't call me dear till we are married!" Rastraz growled. Her yellow eyes narrowed angrily. "Y- You didn't even propose to me! And... this happened! You... you... monster!"
Dr. Sharon and the rest felt the situation had turned awkward and funny at the sudden turn of events. She suddenly broke out in giggles and said, "What are you still waiting for? You big dummy!"
"Ah?" Blue Thunder seemed confused before he smacked his head. "Y- yes!"
"R- Ras..." He stammered nervously as he crouched down before Rastraz. "W- Will you marry me?"
"NO!" Rastraz humphed and turned her head away. "You are not romantic at all! No sincerity! I don't want you!"
"W- Whaaat?!" Blue Thunder was stunned. He looked around at Dr. Sharon and the rest helplessly and whispered as soft as he can.
"Help!!!"
-----
United Nations, Research and Development Site, Hangar 4
The water inside the tank boiled vigorously and clouds of steam rose up, turning the blades of the turbines. Dozens of yellow and orange coated human, elvish and goblin engineers fussed over the large silver tank covered in pipes and valves.
Others checked the readouts and scribbled down their notepads as the efficiency of the boiler was measured and tested. Once the engineers were satisfied with the tests of the new boiler, they shut the whole system down and at the top of the tank, a crane arm slowly withdrew a glowing red nugget, the size of a football out.
The object pulsed unnaturally as if it was still alive and the water that clung on it turned to steam as it was lifted out of the water tank. The robotic arm gently set it inside a case which was covered entirely in runes and as the case was shut, the temperature inside the hangar dropped back to normal levels as the heat given off by the object was cut off.
"Alright! Pack it up! The reactor is good to go! Prepare to ship everything over to Hope for them to install into the supercarrier!"
-----
United Nations, Fortress Singapore, Naval Intelligence Department
Communications officer Petty Officer 1st Class Clare frowned as she flipped through a few sheets of communique between several merchant houses. Before she was a bridge bunny, a term they used to call the girls permanently stationed inside the Command Bridge of the UNS Singapore. Later on, she was roped into Naval Intel by Tavor himself and approved by the Captain, to help sort out and analysis the communications intel of the locals and foreign kingdoms gathered by Naval Intel's agents and information brokers.
She placed each sheet of communique neatly in a row and compared the contents before summarizing the information. Once she had completed the summary, she printed out the document out and headed straight to Tavor's office.
"Sir?" She knocked on the opened door. Tavor looked up from his work and gestured her in and close the door. "I got something strange here, thought you might want to have a look."
"What is it?" He took the offered document and started to read through it.
"Well, I found several notices and letters from over a dozen different trading firms and merchant houses saying to avoid the New Kingdom of Mecca," Clara replied. "They first started appearing a month ago until now."
"Strange indeed..." Tavor frowned as he read the document. "And when was the latest notice?"
"Yesterday," Clara replied. "One of our agents stationed at Frontier City of the NKM send a radio report yesterday and it was relayed to another agent before reaching us."
"Another internal conflict over succession?" Tavor made a guess.
"No word on that yet," Clara gave a shrug. "Nor was there any indication of Frontier City mobilising its forces. We have to wait for more news."
"But..." Clara handed out another sheet to Tavor. "There is something mention here as a rumour... which I find it unsettling..."
Tavor's eyes narrowed as he read the highlighted text on the document. "A religious faction going around killing people?"
"Yes..." Clara nodded. "And that is not all... There were rumours of flying castles..."
"!!!"
-----
New Kingdom Of Mecca, Capital of Mecca
The dragon cannons roared and spewed their load out at the approaching metallic monster. The stone cannonballs impacted the metal hull of the giant with loud gongs only leaving behind tiny dents.
In reply, the steam cannons of the giant walking siege machine popped, the mushroom shaped projectiles exploding upon impact against the stone walls. The giant, which towered over the city walls, reached almost thirty meters in height.
Eight mechanized pickaxe like legs held the silo like structure up and on the sloping roof of the siege engine sat a church edifice that had the statue of Ramuh mounted on it as if looking down on all creation. The siege engine's circular body had over a dozen of gun ports which cannon barrels poked out.
Prayer banners and flags decorated the hull of the siege engine as its eight legs moved it closer towards the city walls. At the lowest level of the siege engine, carried ground troops and its hull had firing slits for the troop's steam lances to fire out from.
The defenders of the city desperately tried to stop the approaching nightmare with their new dragon cannons and ballistas but the armour and magic shielding of the siege engine proved too tough to be defeated.
Inside the church at the top of the siege engine, Inquisitor and General of the Missionary Army, Rism sat on a chair on an elevated platform that had a commanding view of the entire surroundings. Floor to ceiling crystal glass windows covered the walls bisected by pillars. A statue of Ramuh stood behind Rism's chair with a choir singing hymns and below him, the operators and commanders of the Protectorate manned their stations.
With each step of the Reckoner, Rism could feel the powerful vibrations as he sat on the command chair. He watched the pitiful display of defiance against the might of his God and shook his head at the waste of his time.
"Destroy the walls!" He commanded. "Once the walls are down... Deploy the Paladins and sweep the city of its lawless away!"
"Are the blocking troops in place?" He asked his commanders who stood around the map table below his feet.
"Yes, Lord General Inquisitor!" The commanders bowed. "Once the city walls are breached, the Paladins deployed to block the enemy will advance forward and cut off their escape at all the gates!"
"Good!" Rism nodded. "This is taking too much of our precious time!"
"Show them our power!" Rism said. "Quickly cleanse this land with the blood of the lawless!"
"The Judgement is wise!" The commanders chorused as they acknowledge the order.
"Full speed ahead!" The captain of the Reckoner ordered and the pilot pushed the speed of the Reckoner to the max. The legs of the huge lumbering siege engine hastened, its pickaxe like feet gouging deep holes in the ground.
The defenders seeing the metal monster looming up before their very eyes, screamed in terror and some even abandoned their weapons and flee off the walls. The Reckoner finally reached the walls and the captain yelled for the pilot to halt.
The Reckoner came to a rocking halt and hot steam burst out from pipes in its middle section. The steam scalded and burnt the defenders that remained on the walls. A section of the Reckoner's hull opened out with a mechanical clank and a ramp dropped down heavily on the city's wall.
A troop of Paladins charged down the ram and jumped onto the walls which were cleared of any defenders by the earlier burst of steam. The defenders on the other sections of the wall, seeing the Paladins appearing, started to retreat in fear.
More steam cannons hissed and oil filled projectiles landed amongst the panicked defenders, turning them into flaming torches. As more and more Protectorate troops entered the city, the panic and fear turned the retreat into a rout and many tried to desert from the gates, only to find the roads blocked by more enemies.
Rism watched it all from the Reckoner's command church, his eyes glittering in satisfaction. He weaved his head to the hymns sung by the choir behind him and hummed along, as screams filled the streets of the burning city
"FOR THE JUDGEMENT!"