Alex couldn’t help laughing at how matter of fact Abby was about all of this. Even though she was the same age as Alex and the rest of the riders, Abby seemed to be acclimating to working with Myrddin and Middang3ard. “Yeah, yeah,” Alex said. “Hey, if I survive, we should, like, hang out.”
“Ugh. Agreed. You have no idea how weird it is working with people in their three thousandth year of life. Y’all go wreck them.”
Alex hung up the comm and jumped on top of Chine. She pulled up the tactical display and checked to see if there were any more updates to the current situation.
The intel had come in, and the display showed the terrain around the Nest. The area was filled with red dots denoting enemies. There was also a message attached to the display. Alex clicked on it.
Alex’s ears were overwhelmed by frantic screaming, someone begging for their life, repeating over and over that they didn’t want to die. Alex turned off the message as fast as she could. She climbed off and sat down next to Chine and tried to control her breathing.
Alex’s comm rang, and she looked down to see a message from Myrddin. It was time to go.
The dragonriders gathered in the main hall, where the massacre had taken place a few months ago. Alex thought it must be Myrddin’s intention to face what everyone was thinking rather than running away from it.
Alex appreciated the notion. She knew it was still on her team’s mind, and there was no way the rest of the riders had forgotten about the atrocities that had taken place here.
The captains stood on the main stage behind Myrddin, who was behind the podium facing the cadets. The dragonriders were lined up in rows facing the stage, their red and black uniforms shining brightly.
The mech riders, a smaller corps, stood to the left of the dragonriders. They wore blue uniforms with an insignia and a phrase written in Elvish that Alex had meant to ask Gill about.
The dragon and mech riders stood silently watching the stage as another explosion rocked the Nest. You wouldn’t have been able to tell by looking at Myrddin. His face didn’t show any sign of interest in the dangers that lay beyond the Nest.
Myrddin stepped closer to the podium and cupped his hands together, resting them on his stomach. “Today, the Dark One has dared to come to our doors once more,” Myrddin said. “Today, we gather in this hall where so many passed, and we remember them. The dead did not sacrifice their lives for us. We must be honest with ourselves. Their lives were stolen.”
Alex looked at the teachers and the other captains out of the corner of her eye as Myrddin continued speaking. “But today is a new day, and we are wiser and stronger than before. Today is the day that we avenge our fallen brothers and sisters. Today is the day the Dark One will be reminded that the Wasp’s Nest is a place of warriors. Fight well.”
Myrddin stepped away from the podium as Roy took his place. “You have your assignments already, so you know who you’re teaming up with. The game plan is simple—we’re going to meet them head-on and fight them off. That being said, keep your ears out for comms and individual orders and formations from your captains. There’s no way to get around this; some of us aren’t coming back. You sure as hell better make sure you give as good as we get. Dismissed.”
Alex followed the rest of the captains as they left the podium. This was it.
The sky filled with dragons and mechs as the riders departed the Nest, rising into the clouds. There were hundreds of them, different breeds and colors. Alex could never have imagined anything like it. There was no way the Dark One was going to win this battle.
Roy, Toppinir, Alex, and the rest of the captains were at the front of the horde of dragons, their respective squads behind them. Alex checked her dragon anchor as she leaned forward and scratched Chine behind his horns.
A comm came through from Roy. “Dragonriders, we got a nice bit of intel. The Dark One’s got some new doohickey that’ll kill your connection to your dragons. There’s nothing we can do about that since we haven’t had enough time to figure out how to stop that, but there’s a system in place, thanks to some friends over at Earth’s HQ. If you get disconnected, your anchor will send out a signal to the closest mech to come scoop you out of the sky. Think about it as getting a free sky-diving lesson.”
There were chuckles across the open comm channel. Alex was glad Roy knew how to defuse a stressful situation. She felt like there were worse things than plummeting to the ground after being knocked off Chine.
There was no fanfare at the beginning of the attack. Roy simply rocketed forward, Toppinir following him, and Alex took that as a sign to get moving. The dragon army headed to the coordinates that had been provided.
There were a few miles out from the Nest when Roy stopped.
They had arrived at the coordinates, but there was nothing there. That couldn’t be right, Alex thought as she checked her tactical display. The coordinates were correct. The Dark One’s army was supposed to be right in front of them.
Roy opened his cockpit and lit his cigar. “Hm,” he murmured. “This is a little anticlimactic.”
Alex focused on the ground below them. They weren’t too high up, and her dragon eyes could pick up the smallest detail. What caught her eye was an odd shimmer, something like a ripple across still water. “There’s something down there,” she announced.
Suddenly, there was a loud whirring sound like that of a power generator turning on. It grew louder and louder until a blast of plasma nearly the size of a red dragon came shooting up from
