War.
War never changes.
Daniel Phelps has seen much of the horrors of war.
He had witnessed the great stampede of tanks over the horizon, the bombings of innocent women and children who could not possibly fight back, and the many long nights spent in the trenches, starving and diseased.
But never did he think that these hands of his would be aiming guns towards actual giant monsters.
That was the stuff of children's tales.
This world didn't need monsters when it had evil rich men.
And yet monsters existed anyway.
It was quite the fortunate turn of events that this monster would be on their side instead of the enemy's.
He could hardly imagine what kind of hellish landscape Earth would be reduced to if the Nazi regime had their own artificial Dragons. Would the Führer be seen riding atop a horned Dragon claiming to be a descendant of her holiness, Saint Martha the Drake Rider herself?
It was certainly an unsettling, if not comical image.
...At least, it wasn't the Japanese, right? Let alone the Nazis, those raw fish-loving kamikaze pilots would probably cause endless trouble if they had access to what the US was working on.
That being said, he was somewhat confused about how these lizards were supposed to differentiate between American troops and the enemy.
If they were to be deployed side by side, wouldn't the Dragons quickly turn on them once shooting begins? After all, they were just animals, and animals tend to panic and lash out whenever things got dicey.
But well, he wasn't one to question his superiors. Even the general had nothing to say, so what could a meagre corporal like him do?
Daniel strapped the American Thompson submachine gun onto his person as the rest of his company prepared to enter the containment zone.
It had been approximately thirty minutes since they had gassed the room with hallucinogenic spores.
This was because the effects of the super fungus that had bonded with the Spirit Tiger were not instantaneous, at least, not to creatures so overwhelmingly large.
They had to time it just right for this window of opportunity. If it was too early, the Dragons could still potentially be awake and resist capture, but if the soldiers were too late, those things could wake up whilst in the process of being restrained, and that would obviously not end well.
He stared at the ammunition as he made sure it was secured to the weapon, he wouldn't want to be caught with a jammed gun when one of those things ended up in front of him.
Though the effectiveness of this submachine gun was rather debatable considering the tough durability of those monsters, especially the spiky one on all fours.
Daniel had seen in one instance where they placed a land into that thing's containment zone, the one it had been living in before being transported to live with the other two, and it hadn't even limped from the experience after facing the explosion right on the heel.
Granted, it was a pretty shit land mine that the scientists had intentionally chosen due to its rather weak explosive power, but it was still enough to have killed any regular person!
Why couldn't they have given him one of those state-of-the-art bazookas instead? At least, he would have felt reassured if he had been...
"Make sure all of your breathing masks are configured correctly." Came the gruff voice of General Thatch as he informed them of the obvious.
This was required procedure when dealing with such hazardous materials. If those spores were enough to even affect the Dragons, it would surely prove extremely effective against regular humans.
In addition, the hallucinogenic properties of the spores could only be triggered by inhalation. Other types of exposure like contact with the skin wer completely harmless, if not irritating on some folks who happened to be allergic.
Which none of them were.
Still, they were to be covered in thick protective hazmat suits just in case anything went wrong.
Hopefully, nothing did.
Daniel glanced at the man beside him, who was adjusting his breathing mask to better accomodate his face. He had a typical appearance, that of brown hair and darker eyes.
What attracted the corporal's attention however, was not the man himself, but at the object he was holding.
It was that of a locket, with the monochrome photo of a young woman and her newborn child held in her warm embrace.
"...Is that your family?" He asked his fellow soldier as the other man raised his head and promptly nodded.
"Yes, they're my dear Lisa and Julie." He confirmed, before extending a hand. "I'm Sergeant John Parker Hammond, it's nice to be acquainted."
"Daniel Phelps, Corporal." Daniel answered with his own identity as he shook the sergeant's hand.
They belonged to different units before this and never quite had the chance to talk.
"It must be nice, knowing you'd have a warm reception after all of this." Daniel commented as he retracted his hand and glanced back at the locket.
"Oh? Are you not married yourself, corporal?" The sergeant asked with interest.
"No, I am." He smiled slowly. "I am."
Daniel didn't have any family of his own as his wife died of the pox many years ago alongside the child in her womb, but he had flowers to water.
The carnations in their home garden were her favourite, especially the rosy pink ones. He'd need them strong and healthy for the next time he would visit her grave.
After all, he couldn't show up empty handed, could he?
"...I see." John really didn't know how to respond to that, so he merely gave a respectful nod.
Alongside the specialized breathing mask and hazmat suits were padded protective gear. With all of this attached to his being, Daniel felt quite clunky and slow as he mentally considered what he could throw away if he wanted to make a break for it.
The general had left earlier as he would not join them, and he didn't need to. Just from the top of his head, he counted many dozen men preparing their equipment.
So, how does one move such a huge creature exactly?
Why for them, the answer would be with crane trucks and huge, reinforced ropes.
They were going to literally drag that massive beast here and then move it onto the carrier ship outside for deployment in Soviet waters.
But first, they naturally had to find the goddamned thing, which Daniel realized would be much harder than he initially thought once those gates began to open.
"Jesus, it didn't look this haunting from up there..." He heard another man comment as the foggy mist took the immediate chance to roll over from the distance.
Fortunately, they were far from ill-prepared as the specialists soon pulled out their heat sensors and other such things to better help navigate.
As for Daniel, he quickly turned on his flashlight.
"Alright, men." The soldier at the front, who's name Daniel had frankly forgotten, said as he raised a flare gun to the air.
"If anything bad happens, to which I'll let you be the judge of what 'bad' is, you are to immediately signal for back up!" He reminded everyone with the tone of an established superior.
"Now, we will split into three groups. One will stay here at the entrance, and the other two will go look for the specimens." He explained. "Your jobs will be to restrain Specimen A7 and B9 in case they're in the mood to wake up. That 11 is our target, but the other two just might not respond too well when they see you taking their friend away. Though if you find Specimen C11, tell everyone else through the receiver so they don't waste their time looking for 'em."
The man tapped at his walkie-talkie to further hammer in that point.
Soon, the two teams splintered off from the entrance as Daniel and John walked alongside eachother, gripping their submachine guns tightly.
After a dozen minutes or so, Daniel decided to break the silence as he glanced at the sergeant.
"Careful with your feet," He warned John with a grimace. "You definitely don't want to step on anything weird."
"Right." John nodded in understanding.
With the Containment Zone never being cleaned, there was naturally a lot of decomposing matter from all the Skullcrawlers they ate.
"It's kind of weird though..." John noted as they continued.
"What is?" Daniel tilted his head in confusion.
"I mean, if this place is never really cleaned, where does all of the poop go?" John explained his thoughts with a question, to which Daniel only responded with a hum as he wasn't sure himself.
Where did the shit go?
It wasn't like the Dragons had the super special ability of not having to poop and piss.
Daniel himself had seen a chunk of Specimen B9's prime fecal matter back after it was transported to Zone G.
The scientists were studying it for whatever reason, Daniel honestly could not justify any sane cause on why they would do that. The smell itself was unbearable, and it was extremely gassy.
Which came as a surprise when he found none here.
"It's probably just further back or they dumped it somewhere hidden." He suggested with a shrug as he chuckled. "The Dragons probably don't like wallowing in shit like the rest of us."
"I... I guess that make sense." John quickly accepted the reasoning as he moved on from the unusual topic.
Who the hell cared about that anyway?
Eventually, they encountered some unusual landmarks.
They were huge mounds that littered the expanse before them, comprised of sand, dirt, and gravel.
It was not natural, an obvious result of mass excavation.
John expressed his opinion regarding as he confided to the corporal. "It must be the work of Subject B9, he has a tendency to dig around all over the place."
"Uh huh." Daniel found it somewhat interesting but backed off to the let the specialists take pictures and whatnot of it. "That's a whole lotta sand there."
"Where'd it come from though? I'm sure we can fine one of them in the tunnels somewhere if they have any sense to escape from the spores." The corporal considered out loud.
Nevertheless, it was an interesting landmark, but nothing much to write home about.
But after that, was a sight that left John stunned.
"There it is!" One of the other men howled.
And there it was indeed, a giant red pterosaur with its huge wingspan and fiercesome beak...
Sprawled over the floor, looking deviously high as saliva streamed down its chin.
Seeing the same Dragon that had put the fear of god into Daniel the first time he encountered it was a weird feeling.
Daniel could hear John beside him holding his breath as he himself couldn't help but widen his eyes at the sight of this imposing beast.
Specimen A7 was successfully sedated and ready to be restrained.
Yet the pair only felt a sense of awe and deep, instinctual fear in their bones.
This thing was much bigger in person than it was in tape.
The vibe it gave off could not be described in mere words. It was like encountering a real mythical creature, like a unicorn or, well... a Dragon.
There was silence as the men simply admired the beauty of this creature.
A subtle daze that the man from earlier, who had accompanied their team, clapped to wake everyone up from. "What are you all waiting for!? Restrain him!"
Some of the men approached with strong rope and cable, ready to use their knowledge in the real world, others stayed behind for their own reasons.
Daniel was amongst the former, whereas John was the latter part.
The corporal paused as he raised a hand and touched it on the Sky Dragon's scaled flesh. It was tough and hot, Daniel could quite literally feel the warmth oozing off from every part of the Dragon's unconscious body.
That's when it happened.
—SHAKE~!
The earth underneath him... it was shaking uncontrollably!
"...H-Huh!?" Daniel failed to find support as he quickly fell to his knees, the tremor intensifying as cracks spread across the earth, steam escaping from down below.
And then the land itself begin to sink.
***
First chapter of this week! Any thouhts?
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