"What do you think caused those two bright flashes?" One of the Phoenix Squad asked.
They had finally reached Pyro City and found that it was under siege by Hepolisk forces. Along the way, they had witnessed two bright flashes in the sky a few minutes apart that were hard to look at.
"Most likely an explosion of some kind."
"An explosion? It must have been massive for us to see it all the way down here."
"I guess a neutron reactor exploded."
"I hope it wasn't one of our ships."
"Focus up, people, we need to be prepared for combat at any time. Those bastard Hepolisks have been sieging the capital since they first dropped onto the planet." Revi ordered as she pulled out a flat device from her pocket that Adam would think looked rather similar to an old flip phone, because she then flipped it open and started using it.
"What's that?" Tephe asked curiously as she brought her head closer to Revi's side so that she could inspect the device.
"It's a communications device, surely you have them right?"
"Oh, we use our unibands."
"What's a uniband?" Revi began to ask before saying, "You know what, tell me later, we have more important things to do."
Revi selected a contact on her communications device before holding it up to her ear as Tephe watched on curiously.
"Yes, it's me, Admiral," Revi replied into the communication device.
"My squad is on the outskirts behind one of the groups of Hepolisks that are sieging the city."
"No, ma'am, I plan to flank them from behind."
"I'm dead serious, as we picked up some help on the way."
"A dragon, ma'am."
"No, I'm not kidding."
"Yes, ma'am, wait for the commotion to start and then have the defenders attack from the wall."
"Affirmative, ma'am. By the way, is there any news on the Imperial Family?"
"I understand, ma'am."
As Revi finished talking, she closed the communications device before putting it back in her pocket.
"How novel," Tephe commented.
"Alright, people, listen up. We're going to flank the Hepolisks attacking the city one at a time, and when we do, those currently defending will counter-attack from the city wall."
"Do we know what sort of equipment they're packing?"
"According to the Admiral, the drop pods they managed to deploy before the fleet intercepted them contained mostly ground infantry, thankfully, so they only have three or four tanks."
"Why did they only send down three or four?"
"You idiot, they obviously didn't have time to send more down. Also, they probably planned to send the rest down with the main force after dealing with our fleet."
"How are we supposed to take out tanks? We don't have any anti-tank weapons?"
Revi pointed towards Tephe before saying, "Luckily, they have spread the tanks out so Tephe should have no problem dealing with them, if that's ok with you?"
"Leave them to me," Tephe said proudly.
"Thanks, the rest of us will deal with the infantry, and Tephe can come assist us after she has dealt with the tanks. Any questions?"
"What sort of weaponry will the tanks have?" Tephe asked.
"The main weapon is probably a large cannon that they are using to bombard the city walls. Fortunately, the city is protected by an energy shield, but it wont last long.
As for secondary weapons, maybe a missile or rocket launcher, ballistic machine gun or laser repeater, something along those lines."
"Ok." Tephe nodded in understanding.
"Honestly, if you can avoid the main cannon's energy blast, then you wont have any trouble since that thing takes a bit of time to recharge," Revi advised.
"Got it," Tephe replied.
"Alright, we are going to go with a stealth approach and catch them by surprise. I want all of you to take down at least one of the Hepolisk bastards in the initial assault, understand?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Good, let's go."
Revi and the rest of the Phoenix squad retracted their wings into their backs, hiding them so that their fiery glow would not give them away before they started to sneak towards the location of the closest group of Hepolisks.
Tephe, on the other hand, decided to fly high into the air as she planned to dive down towards the tank as soon as the Phoenix squad attacked, since her large build was too much of a giveaway. She had no problem following the movements of the Phoenix squad and Hepolisk forces far below because her dragon eyes gave her excellent vision.
It took several minutes for the Phoenix squad to cross the distance between where they had been overlooking the city and the location of the Hepolisk squad, and as Tephe watched from high above, she saw each of the Phoenix squad members target a different Hepolisk before they all attacked together.
As Tephe saw the Phoenix squad attack, she tucked in her wings and plummeted straight down towards the tank that had been occasionally firing energy blasts towards the city wall; however, the shield protecting the city was still holding.
The Phoenix squad's ambush caught the Hepolisk squad by surprise, and they were forced to quickly turn away from the city and focus on those who were flanking them. As they did so, attacks suddenly started to rain down on them from the city as the defenders on its walls took the opportunity to counterattack.
Caught in the middle, the Hepolisk squad had no choice but to try and find cover while the tank thinned out the Phoenix forces that suddenly attacked them.
As the tank turned one hundred and eighty degrees to try to align its main cannon with the Phoenix squad, two Hepolisks that were mounted on top of the cannon started opening fire on them with a rocket launcher and ballistic machine gun, forcing the Phoenix squad to evade.
The tank completed its turn and prepared to fire its main cannon at the Phoenix squad, but suddenly, a white hot burst of flame pierced down on the cannon from the sky, roasting the two Hepolisk on top of it, causing everyone to look up and see Tephe plummeting towards the ground.
A few dozen feet from the ground, Tephe opened her wings wide to rapidly slow her descent as she stretched out her four long limbs. Just as she passed over the tank, her large, powerful claws clamped down on it before she started to flap her wings and carry it up into the air.
As she rose to a height of a few hundred meters, Tephe rotated her body and threw the tank into the distance, where it crashed heavily onto the ground and rolled for a moment before coming to a stop upside down.
Happy that the tank was no longer any threat, Tephe turned in the air before diving back down towards the Hepolisk forces that had been taking cover from the Phoenix forces' pincer attack.
Tephe drew in a large breath, and as she flew over the Hepolisk forces who spat acidic poison at her, she unleashed another white hot dragon's breath and carpet bombed them all in dragon fire.
Screams of pain and misery could be heard as several of the Hepolisks ran around in a panic as their bodies burned before they eventually all perished under the dragon's breath.
A cheer rose from the city wall as the Phoenix defenders saw the Hepolisks they had been fighting against for many hours die.
Tephe landed next to the Phoenix squad just as Revi said, "Good job, everyone, but this isn't over. There are still plenty more of those Hepolisk bastards left to deal with."
After that, Tephe and the Phoenix squad headed towards the location of the next closest Hepolisk force that was attacking the city.
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Within a grand palace at the heart of Pyro City, a man was standing next to a table that had a large map of the city upon it that indicated the position of both Phoenix and Hepolisk forces. While several video screens showing the city's siege were placed around the edge of the table.
"Emperor, I have just received word that Princess Ravi is leading her squad to strike against the Hepolisk forces sieging the city." A woman wearing a uniform said as she walked quickly into the room.
"That silly girl, why didn't she listen to me when I told her to remain here in the palace?" The Emperor sighed.
"With all due respect, emperor, the princess is fighting for our freedom, something you should be proud of." The woman replied.
"Of course I'm proud of her, but with her being my only heir, and her mother gone. What would happen should we both die?"
"The princess is strong, and she has the assistance of a dragon; it is unlikely she will die to these Hepolisk snakes."
"A dragon? The dragons have come? How did they get here so quickly? Communication was only just restored for us to send a request for help?"