Out of Space

Chapter 123: Goblin Fleet

The goblin fleet sailed rapidly, faster than what the humans predicted due to the wind spells cast by the goblin shamans. They plowed through the waves, where drums beating the same rhythm throughout the whole fleet in a sustained about pace for the goblin rowers to work on.

Most of the goblins in the fleet were younglings, attracted by offers and promises of food, drink, plunder and riches, joined the Skull Krusher fleet sent out of the Mother City to raid the neighboring lands for food and resources. Leading the younglings are the Goblin Master Jiak the Skull Krusher who managed to make a name for himself by capturing a merchant's vessel and returning to the Mother City with its treasures.

In recognition of his exploits, the Elders raised him up into a Hobgoblin, reforming his body and mind, turning him stronger, faster and smarter. Now, he was made a Master, leading a force of over 200 ships and 40,000 goblins into the mainland to raid the people and their resources. Jiak took over two years to gather this number of ships and troops, backstabbing and stealing resources from other Goblin Masters in the Mother City, before having a strong enough force to have the Elders' approval for him to set sail with their blessings.

Jiak the Skull Krusher sat on his skull throne and grinned wickedly, relishing the thoughts of killing, **** and plunder soon to come.

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Skies over The New World, No. 1 Squadron, Dragon and No. 2 Squadron, Valkyrie and No. 3 Squadron, Cobra

Commander Tommy sat buckled on the chair that was bolted to the floor of the trailer, he looked at the UAV feed in the tactical display screen showing the goblin fleet approaching to the shore rapidly. The time estimate had changed from either of nine hours to roughly seven hours now. The time, taken by the squadron to scramble and the flight time took another two hours, meaning the goblin fleet will land within three hours or so.

He mentally calculated the distance and time to engagement and keyed the to all flight channel comms, "King Dragon to All units, enemy fleet less than 15 minutes away, look alive now!"

A series of confirmations replied him, and he keyed the comms to No. 2 Squadron where the Valkyries are grouped under. "King Dragon to Valkyrie One and Two, begin attack now, once bingo on ammo, RTB (Return to Base) for rearming and refuel, over."

"V One roger."

"Valkyrie Two copies that."

Tommy leaned over and looked out of the tiny viewport and watched the two bulky gunships increase their speed, breaking from the formation and roared towards the distance. "King Dragon to all Cobras, check your fuel and weapons, over."

Reports came in on each plane's fuel and weapon status and Tommy nodded, the Cobras will have enough fuel for almost an hour of combat before having to RTB for fuel.

"King Dragon, Blue has spotted the enemy ships!" Blue Thunder reported, he has a special throat mike strapped over his thick neck and a couple of speakers over his ears.

"Valkyrie Actual has tally on surface contacts, weapons standing by, over."

"Weapons green, go for attack!"

"Valkyrie Actual, roger that, weapons green, engaging!"

"Blue can see the Valkyries coming in high on an attack run!" The dragon sighed happily. "Oooo pretty!"

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Flight Lieutenant Peter piloting Valkyrie One, keyed his comms to the other Valkyrie piloted by Sergeant Legos, "V One to V Two, drop down to 100 meters sea level and reduce speed to 60% power and engage surface vessels. Weapons green, repeat weapons green."

"Roger that, One." Legos pushed his flight stick forwards, following Peter's Valkyrie lead, and reducing his throttle, and flip the master weapons switch. He marveled at the magical technology of the hoomans, enabling them to fly through the skies simply with machines.

Like every other child in the kingdom, they worship dragon riders for the ability to fly in the sky or Knights with their combat powers. For Legos, it was the freedom of flight that made him look up to dragon riders. Thus when the first call for volunteers to join the Airforce, he quickly signed up and was lucky he possessed a body that was able to handle something called G-force, which many other failed and vomited or fainted during the test.

He had flown the F/A-1 Cobra and the Valkyrie and enjoyed flying the Cobra more as he felt more freedom as the little plane responded to each of his controls, while the Valkyrie was more powerful but he felt it too enclosed and detached from the skies for him.

Ensuring the screen shows the '70 mm rocket' highlighted, he followed on Peter's flank, dropping down to 100 meters above sea level.

"V One to Two, we will attack one by one from the starboard side, observe my run and follow after I am done, over."

"Two, copies," Legos replied and followed Peter's craft as they looped to come in from the right side of the goblin fleet. He hung back, giving space for Peter to start his attack run, and provide observation before his turn. The sea was crowded with dozens and dozens of ships with black and red sails spread all below his craft, he was pretty sure the goblins were pointing at him.

"Valkyrie One, beginning attack run!"

The bulky gunship dipped down and dropped its speed even more, and the six pylons with rocket pods flared, as Peter rippled fire the rockets down the sides of the goblin ships. Balls of fire erupted as the rockets impacted the flimsy wooden ships while meters tall water splashes burst up when the rockets missed and hit the ocean.

Legos couldn't help but gave a cheer when he saw rockets blowing up the goblin ships. He had friends and family members losing loved ones to the hated goblins and he relished the thought of blowing them up. As Peter's Valkyrie went down the row of helpless ships, several more flaming balls of fire erupted and then Peter pulled up and looped around. "Wooo! Two did you see that? You're up next!"

"Roger, beginning attack!" Legos replied and angled his Valkyrie into position and drop his speed, lining up the targeting crosshairs on the next row of ships not attacked by Peter, and squeezing the trigger. The whoosh of the rockets shooked the Valkyrie slightly, making Legos grin as he felt like he held the power to destroy the world in his hands. Balls of fire burst up as his rockets hit their target, followed by white plumes of water.

He pulled up his Valkyrie after he reached the end of the fleet and looped back, just as Peter started his next attack run and the slower Cobras and dragons arrived at the scene.

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Goblin Sea, The Skull Taker

Jiak twitched his eyebrows in surprise as he first heard the strange roar coming from the skies, and looked up in wonder at two greyish objects flying over the fleet. The goblins all cried and pointed excitedly at the strange flying objects and one of them looped back and suddenly explosions went off among the fleet.

"Its an attack!" Jiak roared, as he stood up from his throne, "Ready the anti-dragon shooters!" He commanded his crew before turning around to a shaman beside him. "Relay my command to all the ships, tell them to form up in the anti-dragon formation now!"

The goblin shaman bowed and took out a crystal orb and started waving its hands over the orb and chanting some strange language. As the orb cast a purplish glow, the shaman relayed its Master message to every shaman holding a similar orb.

"Tell the shamans to use spells to take down those cursed flying monsters!" Jiak added as he saw the other strange flying monster turning and flying towards them.

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Skies over Goblin Sea

Blue Thunder disappointedly took to holding his station over the goblin fleet, flying in a large circle round and round while Tommy inside the command module directed the Cobras to attack in pairs at the goblin fleet. Quick Silver, the medium weight stayed next to Blue Thunder as an escort, both of them watching the one side battle unfolding underneath their wings.

The two pairs of fighter attackers F/A-1 Cobras split up and dived in from two different directions. The planes were loaded with two 70 mm rockets pod each holding 10 rockets at the underside of the hull next to each wing. The forward gunner/copilot was supposedly armed with dual machine guns, but the weapons were not ready yet, hence the copilots acted as spotters and navigators instead.

"King Dragon to all Cobras, conserve your ammo, two rockets per ship, over," Tommy ordered over the voice channels. "Make your shots count!"

And as the Cobras lined up for an attack, the skies suddenly in a nightmare. Bolts of lightning, fireballs, ice spikes, and even ballista bolts shot upward towards the attacking Cobras which they dodged and weaved with surprising skills.

"All Cobras, break! Break! Break!" Tommy yelled, surprised at the amount of magical anti-air fire coming from the fleet. He noticed the goblin ships had arranged themselves in a layered crescent formation and wondered what was that formation for.

The Cobras managed to wing out of the barrage of magical anti-air cover, only one of the planes taking a lightning bolt to the wings, which the magical defense barrier managed to negate the attack, only leaving behind a scorched mark on the wing.

"Valkyries are to draw fire from the Cobras!" Tommy ordered, "Cobras are to commence attack runs after the Valkyries have gone in! Let the Valkyries soak up all the AA fire!"

Chorus of acknowledgment sounded out from the pilots in the comms and the Cobras formed up again, circling back for another attack run, while the more heavily armored Valkyries dived in and strafed the ships while drawing fire.

The goblin fleet burst into what looks like fireworks, as bolts of lightning and fireballs raised up after the Valkyries, which flew too fast to be hit by most of the spells. A few lucky slammed against the armored hull of the Valkyries, and the pilots barely even felt anything, the only evidence of the spells impacts was just scorched and chipped paint.

The shamans exhausted from casting their spells, took a breather and the skies over the fleet cleared up, while the anti-dragon ballista was reloaded.

The Cobras took the opportunity in the lull of the anti-air defenses and dived in, adding their firepower into the foray, torching and blowing up more ships and goblins. Finally, with their ammunition depleted, the planes reformed up next to Blue Thunder and Quick Silver and returned to base. Despite the low accuracy of the rockets, the air strike left behind almost a quarter of the goblin fleet in flames.

"All units RTB," Tommy ordered as both No. 2 and No. 3 Squadron had formed up. "No. 1 Squadron is to stay and observe." The Valkyries in No. 2 Squadron and the Cobras in No. 3 broke formation and headed back to base for rearming and refueling.

Tommy looked at the chalkboard secured to one side of the wall, one of the command operator had written down the time estimates in columns and headings for each Squadron to return to base, ground crew servicing time and fuel time remaining. And on another column, the estimated time for the goblin fleet to hit land was also written down.

Tommy using the information, gauged that the Squadrons will be able to hit the goblin fleet one more time before they hit landfall and night comes. And when night falls, it will be harder for the rookie pilots to engage the goblin forces on the ground, so he most likely will commit the dragons for a night attack.

He wondered what the goblin admiral will do at this time, will they split their fleet or still brunch up as target practice for his pilots.