The First Battle in the Clouds

=Alnub Forest, 15,000 feet above ground level=

The sky was the limit. That was the fact before the invention of flight-capable technology. It was not until the first plane did the humans finally conquered the skies. In Fordalt, the skies have been conquered as much as the humans did back on Earth.

They rode flying ships of great shape who were flew and bore death. The Airships which the kingdoms manned and flew above their lands to protect their skies and the cities. The small airships they built is to protect their treasures. In fact, it was first invented by the dwarves in the north in the snowy mountains on the Western region. They invented the first airships 600 years ago.

Of course, these flying wooden ships were used for the merchants, traveling, transporting, and best of all, for War. Not only do they overpower the common soldier but they do so effectively against a thousand or more common soldiers. The common soldiers were no match for the warships who have weapons could blow them away. The cannons on them would crush them and their ability to fly.

All battleships were protected by magic barriers to protect themselves, no puny amount of arrows or low-tier magic spells can take them down and the wood on them won't catch fire like normal wooden ships do. The only thing capable of doing so was, of course, a high-tier magic or powerful weapons could take down the barrier. Magical weapons and spells above 6th tier were effective and almost the only viable way of shooting them down or destroying them in that manner. They always aimed for the bridge, the balloons or sails on top, or the place where the powersource that levitates the ship, like shooting the part where your heart and brain was.

The bridge was the brain to control. These weapons of war were controlled by airship crews.

But also, for air fighters. They held tens of Griffin riders on each ship as an assault on the skies. Griffins are creatures with a lion's body with wings and a bird's head, usually that of an eagle. They have special abilities of wind magic. Most of the griffins on Fordalt are on the rank of mid to late stages of C-rank.

[IMAGES]

Unlike Wyvern or Dragonite riders from other states, Griffins are far more faster, agile, intelligent, and more stronger than them, their wind magic could easily fend off against their fire balls. Compare to a Griffin and a Wyvern on battle, it'll compared to a propelled plane and a F-22 raptor.

All of the kingdoms have these Airships but the three major superpowers have much more Airships than any kingdom like the Empire and the Republic for example, they possessed more than 800 Airships in their arsenal, but as for the Senadate Theocracy, they held more than 1000 Airships, that is one of the reason why they are on the top most powerful superpower in the continent.

And today was the day that they would encounter an enemy equal to their strength, equal in a sense but not as they thought.

On the twenty-seventh day after the first army set up camp below the other side of the hills which separated them from the enemy, the first Airship naval fleet took flight above the clouds. The sky below them was covered in dark clouds of smoke and ash because of the fires that were still ablaze.

Commanding one of the first-class Airship Carrier was an iron-willed Captain Jeremy Thorn. Jeremy Thorn was a fresh new graduate of the Theocracy's five year bloody training camp that turned already seasoned crew into commanders that would command a hundred more of their comrades and lead them into battle.

[IMAGES]

This was his third mission above enemy territory. The commander was stoic, disciplined and wise, using the knowledge he accumulated over the past years of riding and the limited information provided to him before the crusade, he was confident and thought that he was more than ready to face the enemy.

The enemy, however, was more ready to face him and his army of Airships. The mission was to aid the first army of 100,000 strong in penetrating the defence line. He and his naval fleets would simply conduct raids and try to shot down and bombard as much of the enemy soldiers as possible. This was the most common strategy of using airships but by far the most efficient when the enemy has little to no resistance to it.

Jeremy Thorn was not informed that the enemy had metal dragons which flew, none of them did. Not even the goddess saw these beasts before the battle happened and their demise was by then set in stone.

Jeremy and fifty other small Airships that are smaller compare than the first-class Airship carrier temporarily broke off from the other one hundred fifty Airships to perform a surgical strike behind the defence line as their allied army charged below on the ground beginning the assault.

[IMAGES]

It was supposed to be an easy victory, the weapons of the enemy were focused on the first army of 100,000 soldiers and there was no clear opposition against them.

Suddenly, a fiery roar sounded like thunder that echoed in the sky in which they flew. Jeremy and his crew heard the roar and fear struck them. What is this feeling? He thought. After the roar finished, ten metal dragons suddenly appeared unexpectedly below the ash clouds and brought hell to the commander and his crew and the other Airships.

The ten metal dragons were unlike anything he'd ever seen, while they are outnumbered 1 to 16, they flew faster than they could catch, could turn at angles impossible for the Griffin riders to achieved and possessed firepower that could decimate entire armies. They flew right through the ships and easily slaughtered thirty in a frenzy of lights, explosions and sonic screams, they even pierced through the magic barrier of the ships like butter. It was a nightmare for both Airship crews and beast riders.

But they did not back down, Jeremy Thorn rallied what remained of his original Airship and tried to command a desperate defence. Despite what looked like to be a one-sided slaughter, he turned it into something similar to events he did not know of but happened back on Earth.

The army of 100,000 below them was already decimated and quickly the survivors routed in fear and anguish. The elite groups of A-ranks that were supposed to lead them were all defeated in front of them and the enemy began to push them back, their swords and weapons are stronger than what they had. Jeremy saw this entire fiasco with his enhanced eyesight through the dark clouds while they battled in the skies.

His eyes reflected his horror as he saw his fellow countrymen as small little dots in the ground running across fields of bodies, flames and destruction. This was the first setback but it did not mean defeat, he knew that and decided to fight on and die as martyrs for the future of the Theocracy.

He, like many before him, was a devote believer of the Fax Religion and worshipped the goddess with all his strength. Through the horror he witnessed and the inevitable defeat simply knocking at his door with death behind it ready to lead him to the depths of hell, he mustered whatever iron will he had and command the maritime pilots on one final push.

The Airships and Griffin Riders and the metal dragons went head to head in what was seen from below as a chaotic display of fireworks. Explosions rocked each side, the mages on both Airships and the Griffin riders cast magic spells and the Griffins tried to used their wind magic, able to counter the metal dragons loosing their balance of flying but weren't enough as their riders tried in such disparity to slash their enchanted weapons and follow the metal dragons, and the Airships kept shooting their enchanted cannons and magic missiles until they get a hit on the metal dragons. They able to get some hits, they did able to took down seven metal dragons, which means only three left and victory will be theirs.

But despite this, despite loosing 40% of their Naval Fleets and Griffin Riders, they were able to defeat the monstrosities. The three remaining metal dragons suddenly dispersed from the battle making Jeremy and his surviving crew of the ship think that they have pushed the enemy back, they cheered and cried and sounded prayers of thanks.

All of the sudden, just ten seconds after their short victory, they only to be greeted by a fiery flame that engulfed them, 20 more Metal Dragons reinforcements arrived as each of them shot tens of their magical missiles at them, each single missiles began to split in ten more small missiles hitting ten Airships and Griffin Riders at once, their magical barrier was useless against their powerful attacks, sending the tens of Airships and airfighters crashing down to the ground. There was something that exploded in the middle of their jubilee, Jeremy and his all-glory Airship Carrier was the last of the naval fleets to fall from the sky.

His body facing the sky as he continued descending to the ground, the glimmer of honor, will and confidence he once had in his eyes all disappeared and his dreams fell with him. His belief for the Fax Religion was met with uttermost doubt when he fell, everything he ever believed in and his life flashed before him.

From birth to death, unto the soil we shall return, for the soil we were from and to the soil, we shall return. A familiar saying back on Earth and was also a proverb in the Fax Religion that echoed in his head.

Before he finally crashed onto the solid ground, he heard the faint exploded from the magic source of the Airship Carrier he rode that fell before him. He saw the rest of his crewmates and other Airships falling from the sky like a host of heavenly angels that were slain in the battles of heaven.

The battle only took for 10 minutes.

The demons won this battle, but the angels of the Goddess would strike back! He thought once more.

And then he crashed onto the ground, bones cracked and displaced, blood splattered all over the grass and organs protruding from the opened holes that appeared from bones piercing his skin. His body was one of the many soldiers who fell to the evil that would soon plague their lands.

But their war was just the beginning, not only would they fight them in the skies but also in their fields of wheat, their bricked streets, in the humble vestiges of their villages and the busy districts of their cities.

In that day, when the army charged and the naval of airships that Jeremy followed, what they gained and sowed from the seeds the planted that die were the rotten wheat of death.

As the sun was finally setting, the landscape became darker, the skies were blanketed in ash and smoke that prevented even the light of the stars to be seen nor the moons to show their holy lights. In the distance, vast fires raged as the Theocracy prepped once more for another attack, they were on a crusade! The burning of the forest was necessary, how can they supply and march an army of millions with terrain as awful as that?

A worthy sacrifice at the cost of the magical energy in the forest. With magical energy severely depleted due to the fires, mages were forced to use their own reserves but with the help of the goddess, the lack of natural magic was barely a problem.

Though the battle that raged in the skies were something to be awed below and learned from in the centuries to come, the battle that took place on the hill that day was a battle to be remembered for generations.

If there were surviving generations.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/n: Just wanting you to know the casualty numbers.

Numbers & Casualties: -Gunship Drones Total Numbers: 30 -Gunship Drones Total Casualties: 9 -Gunship Drones Total Remains: 21

-Airship Total Numbers: 200 -Airship Total Casualties: 200 -Airship Total Remains: 0

Gunship Drones' weapons: -4 Barrel 30mm Machine guns -1 GAU-37 Chaingun -60 Hydra Missiles -32 Hellfire Cluster Missiles

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

References: Out of Space -Airships