By Ann Marie R. Harvie
Nine
gaped at the giant, winged creature flying towards his single person space fighter. “That’s a dragon?”
The
calm voice of his teammate Osto echoed
in his headset. “Yep, that’s a dragon.”
Although
he was still a good distance away, Nine could see the 50-foot dragon begin to
fill his cockpit window. It’s leathery,
bat-like wings flapped furiously in pursuit of its dinner. The sun hid behind thick, rolling clouds, but
he could see the shine of the beast’s brown scales as it came right for
him. And those teeth – Nine wasn’t
expecting such large, pointy teeth.
Nine
banked a hard left as soon as the dragon got too close. The instruments in the cockpit flashed
several different colors. Alarms began
to sound. The special forces pilot was
used to a state-of-the-art, five- person warship. Unfortunately, his ship would be too large
for the dragon to want to eat.
Maldar’s Royal Air Force gave him one of their smallest spacecraft. Nine soon discovered they lent him a piece of
junk. The dragon swung around and was
right on Nine’s tail. “Are you ready?”
he asked anxiously as he flipped several switches to recalculate his radar.
“Almost,”
replied Osto.
The
mission seemed straight-forward enough – capture the dragon the Wardon Empire
sent to terrorize the floating Kingdom of Maldar. Now as Nine tried to dodge the giant reptile,
it all seemed decidedly less straight-forward. Osto would be flying above the
kingdom with the net cannon. Nine drew
the short-straw when he agreed to be the bait.
He dipped the fighter down into the mist and
banked left to try to lose the monster.
He caught a slight glimpse of the creature’s yellow eyes and gnashing
teeth. His blood ran cold. The thick metal of the cockpit and the
protection of his helmet could not completely shut out the dragon’s
high-pitched screech as it protested angrily about missing the kill.
Nine
zigzagged his fighter towards the Maldarian Kingdom. The white marble structures with various
black peaks and roofs sat situated on a large island that floated above a misty
abyss protected from enemies. Unfortunately,
this enemy came in the form of a dragon.
The beast had done considerable
damage to the structures, not to mention the population. Nine’s attention turned back to the advancing
dragon. His cheeks burned with
anger. The dragon was not supposed to be
able to outrun the fighter. Another lie
told by the Maldarian Air Force. Nine
swore under his breath. What else did
they lie about? “Ready or not, we’re
coming in!” he yelled into his communicator
to his teammate.
“Acknowledged. The cannon and I are in place,” said Osto.
As
Nine reached for the thruster, he felt an impact and a shudder come from behind
the fighter. The dragon had the tail of
the fighter in his teeth. “Oh come on!” Nine
shouted in frustration.
He
flew in jerking motions to try to free the fighter from the dragon’s mouth. Osto’s voice came over the speaker in his
helmet. “Nine, what’s going on? My scanners indicate erratic movement.”
Nine’s temper
flared. “That’s because the dragon is
eating me!”
Osto’s voice
indicated his annoyance. “I can’t get a
lock on the dragon when you fly like that.
Stop fooling around and get over here.”
Nine shut off
his communicator and a flurry of swears left his lips as he continued to try to
shake off the dragon. The instruments
beeped furiously. The damage to the
tail increased. He had no other
choice. He reached for the thruster
lever and pulled back as hard as he could.
Fire spat from
the back of the fighter and burned the dragon.
It screeched in pain and finally let go.
It dipped down into the mist and disappeared from sight. Nine kept the
thrusters on and headed straight for Osto’s position.
As Nine
expected, the dragon reappeared on his radar and once again rapidly approached
the rear of the fighter. Nine
frantically scanned the area for Osto.
He found him on the floating, single-stand cannon. The barrel of the cannon pointed in Nine’s
direction.
Nine turned his
communicator back on. He lowered the
nose of the fighter slightly to align exactly with the cannon. “I’m in position,” he said.
“Understood. Pull up on my mark.”
Nine could hear
the dragon screeching angrily behind him.
The sound seemed laced with pain and fury now. Osto’s voice snapped him to attention. “One.
Two. Three. Now!”
The special
force’s pilot pulled on the controls as hard as he could. Before his cockpit windows filled with
clouds, he saw a giant net shoot out of the barrel of the cannon. He leveled out the fighter and hovered over
the kingdom to assess the situation. Osto
netted the dragon and safely lowered it into a field inside Maldar’s marble
walls. Dozens of Maldarians shot
tranquilizers into the dragon. It lay
still soon after being struck by the tranquilizers.
“Great job,
Nine,” said Osto. “The scientists will
take him back, study him and set him free on one of the nearby uninhabited
planets.”
Nine breathed a
sigh of relief that the whole thing was over.
“Nine the Dragon Catcher,” he said with a slight laugh as he turned his
fighter back to base. “I kind of like
the sound of that.”
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