Page 93 of Cast By Flames (Dragon's Breath)
“They’re actually a bunch of small bomblets rather than a single large one, and they scatter widely,” Bailey explained, glancing between them with concern in her gaze. “Some of them won’t detonate when they hit the ground, so they sit there waiting until they’re disturbed. For kids, they can look liketoys. They kick them or pick them up, and then they explode, either killing or seriously maiming them. Also, people could accidentally step on one or drive over it. They’re as much of a hazard as land mines.”
“Land mines?” Falcon lifted a brow.
She sighed. “They’re explosive devices hidden on the ground that can kill or wound people within a small radius.”
He nodded, though he still didn’t understand very well. They just appeared dangerous.
“We have monitored the target area closely,” the colonel continued, sounding impatient. “We have seen no movement in the past week except for Kandoran forces. Any civilians who did live there are either dead, fled the area, or became infected. Also, we plan to drop the bombs in precise locations at least ten miles west of the front line to reduce the chances our forces will encounter them during the war. This is the absolute best use of them because they can strike a large swath of the enemy at once. Considering how much we’re outnumbered, drastic measures must be taken.”
Falcon and Aidan exchanged looks. They’d both pay attention to the coalition’s weaponry and analyze whether it was worth the trouble once they could see how it worked. For now, they had to trust the colonel and hope for the best. It was true that they had to resort to drastic actions if they hoped to survive.
“You’ll need to track exactly where they drop so the area can be cleared later if…I mean,whenwe win this war,” Bailey said.
“Of course,” he agreed. “We have people specifically assigned to do that.”
Justin and Miles had joined them during the conversation, listening intently. The two humans had done a good job integrating their local forces to fight with the dragons, so at least they were somewhat prepared for the coalition. Except, of course, for the artillery and planes.
Falcon frowned at that thought. “How do we incorporate any of this into training today?”
“Good question.” The colonel gave him a nod. “The A-10s can’t target the OPFOR with the munitions we have available without harming them, so instead, we’ll only do a flyby during the last round each day as they go out to check on the Kandoran activities. This way, everyone can see and recognize the planes for when the real battle begins.”
Thankfully, Justin and Miles had taught Falcon that OPFOR stood for opposition forces, usually in conjunction with war games. Their military used so many strange terms, and he’d had to learn a lot to keep up with their conversations.It was as if they had their own language separate from their native tongue.
“That sounds reasonable to me,” Falcon said, turning his gaze to Aidan. “You?”
The pendragon appeared to mull it over for a moment. “It will do.”
Justin looked at Colonel Melvin. “How do you have so much equipment? Most of it was scattered across the country on different bases before the dragons arrived.”
“The full story has been classified.” The commander worked his jaw. “At this point, though, it doesn’t matter if I tell you since the reasoning behind it has passed.”
“I know you had a lot of stuff moved during the first few weeks after D-Day, but I never got an explanation on how or why,” Miles said, curiosity in his gaze.
Falcon recalled that he’d served with the coalition during the same years as Bailey, so he would have more knowledge of their inner workings.
Colonel Melvin nodded. “That is true. The reason we did it was classified because it involved a major general who turned out to be a seer when magic returned. At first, he didn’t know what to make of his visions and thought he was crazy, so he didn’t tell anyone. The idea of sorcerers was still an oddity.”
“Yeah, I could imagine if that happened to me,” Miles said, shaking his head.
Not being a sorcerer himself, Falcon could also understand the sentiment.
“But the visions started coming true. People he knew were dying because he ignored what he saw, so after about a week, he began sharing them with the upper chain of command—what was left, anyway.” The commander appeared deep in thought. “It took some convincing, but we eventually agreed to his request when he asked that we relocate as much equipment, troops, and planes as possible to the East Coast in the region where the coalition is now.”
“Is that why the military was firing missiles at dragons in the beginning, but then they stopped?” Bailey asked.
“Partly, yes,” the colonel replied, smiling ruefully at her. “Some came from Navy ships before the water dragons destroyed them all. Many military bases struggled to put up a strategic defense against creatures we’d never faced, and our weaponry wasn’t designed for them, so we lost a lot of peoplethat way. The general, though, convinced us we had to save what was left and consolidate it before we lost everything. He said it was the one way we’d maintain a human-only territory.”
Falcon knitted his brows. “Your country was rather large before. How did you move anything during that time with so many of us arriving?”
“That was why he emphasized it had to be done quickly. While the central part of the United States saw a lot of dragons arriving and terrain changes in the first weeks, the Gulf states had relatively few. We moved everything we could through the southern route. Of course, we still took losses, but it allowed us to transport enough to defend the territory we’d outlined for ourselves and take some land back as well.”
Aidan cocked his head. “And I suppose your planes just needed to make it off the ground and up to an altitude we can’t fly.”
“Yes.” The colonel nodded. “It wasn’t easy because dragons seemed to take great pleasure in burning them if they caught them in time, but we found that if we got above five thousand feet, they couldn’t harm us. A lot of soldiers and equipment was moved that way as well.”
Falcon mulled it over. “Actually, five thousand feet is our top limit, and at that altitude, our flames are severely diminished. We can fly to ten thousand before the air becomes too thin for us, but we can’t hope to damage a plane in that range.”
“Yes, of course,” the commander agreed. “We’ve incorporated those factors into our planning since they affect our strategies.”
