“War, war never does change, does it? Thou art a cruel mistress with the blood thou doth spill. Blood which doth wash ‘way the lives of those held dear.”
-Prince Lavernious Church
The Skies over The Feather Flight Plains
May 4th 2000
0100 Hours
The sun made its way across the sky, the zeppelin known as The Winged Chariot. The largest Zeppelin in the Griffin Armada. Two, smaller Zeppelins followed in the wake of the Chariot. The Castaway and the Wry Feather. The Chariot had 6 fighters that could be stored in it’s hangers. The Wry Feather and the Castaway each had 4 fighters on them. The Winged Chariot was silver with a golden trimmed fuselage with the symbol of the Griffin Kingdom embroidered on the blimp.
Explosions ravaged the sky as gun fire spread across the plains below. Every shot was aimed up at the 3 Zeppelins. It took not long for the Captains figure out what the hell was happening. Zebra. Zebra weaponry were not as advanced as the Griffins but their stealth was unmatched. They had captured weaponry. The Griffin’s own artillery was being used against them! One of the short fuse shells exploded right next to the cabin of the Chariot, causing the entire craft to shake. Hanger doors opened as Bi-planes were dropped from the flying fortresses.
An eager young soldier rushed to his bunk and grabbed his repeating rifle and goggles, he put the brown strap around the back of his head and fitted the gold frame goggles around his eyes. He then put his cap on his head and his rifle around his body. He ran along the halls of the ship to one of the exits. A superior didn’t even spare him a second glance as he ordered him to jump. Private Ranger J. Dowatta did with energy, an actual battle? Awesome!
The air rushed past Dowatta’s feathers as he dive bombed toward Equus. Explosions batted at the sky and bullets ripped past. He grabbed his rifle and pulled the hammer back, his eyes stared at the ground as it quickly neared, the wind weaving its way past each feather. He watched the ground nearing rapidly then spread his wings, pulling up. The wind caught his wings and changed his path of flight, his fore and rear legs barely brushed the ground as he soared across the planet. His eyes set on a zebra that manned an artillery cannon. He had a lot of momentum behind him right now and he was aiming himself right at that zebra.
The soon to be victim to Dowatta’s attack noticed the griffin approaching him unnervingly fast and reached for his side arm, but it was too late, Dowatta swung himself around and put all his momentum into a kick right into the side of the zebra, which launched it into a stack of artillery shells. That’ll give you some internal bleeding. How ever it does take more than one to man an artillery battery. Dowatta wasn’t thinking that far ahead as he fangirled a bit over how fucking cool this is before a bullet hit him in the hip. He yelped in pain and turned his attention to the attacking assailant. He lifted his rifle at the zebra who had a griffin pistol held in his mouth.
They both fired at the same time and there were two yelps of pain in the battlefield of death, Dowatta fell to the ground, as did the zebra who fell on his side. The Zebra’s shot went through Dowatta’s stomach. Dowatta’s shot went through the zebra’s neck. Dowatta grunted as he used his rifle as a crutch to get back to his hooves. He glanced up in enough time to dodge to the side as a zebra’s sword tinged off the barrel of Dowatta’s rifle. Dowatta, however, did not think to keep hold of his rifle and ended up dropping it. He was limping a little bit thanks to his bleeding hip. The Sword Wielder looked at Dowatta and rushed at him, Dowatta ducked back and tripped over… Something, falling on his ass and almost getting his head cut off. Luckly the sword just barely knicked Dowatta’s beak and put a small scratch on it. Dowatta however planned on doing much more damage.
He glanced down to what he tripped over quickly, his eyes widened and he glanced up, using his good leg to kick the zebra in the chest and push him back, he reached down with his foreleg and grabbed the pistol of the first Artillery gunner. He lifted it up and tried to pull the trigger as the Zebra got back up but nothing happened. The Zebra smiled and muttered around the hilt.
“Haimar ke aage dambaas~” He then lunged forward at Dowatta, who covered his face. There was a rifle blast and he felt the faintest scratch on his foreleg, removing his face cover he saw another griffin standing there with a double-barrel shotgun. The zebra laid on his side bleeding out from the buckshot. He turned his attention to the Griffin, who smiled.
“Guten Tag Private. Zu’re going to let zes damned Stripes get za better of zu? C’mon let’s see if ve can’t get zis Artillery Gun used ‘gainst zes bastards.” He offered a talon to Dowatta. “Zi’m Sergeant Sarge.” Dowatta smiled and took Sarge’s talon as he nodded. Sarge walked over to Dowatta’s rifle and tossed it to him. “Zu should pull ze hammer back on zat pistol, Private.” Dowatta’s eyes widened a bit as he looked at the revolver. He blushed softly as he realized why the pistol didn’t fire earlier. And probably what that zebra said. He pulled the hammer back then trotted over to Sgt. Sarge who was in the process of aiming the cannon.
Dowatta looked at the pile of shells that he kicked his first victim into. He smiled and grabbed it, shoving it into the cannon and looking at Sarge. He gave an evil smile and nodded. Dowatta returned the smile.
“FEUER IM LOCH!"