Queen Chrysalis watched the scene from a balcony close to the top of the central tower, the hive. Below her, a fleet of airships was forming. She could see various airships belong to her hive, other changeling hives, griffin mercenaries and clans that supported her or wanted to fight Equestria. In total, there were fifty airships ranging from smaller scout ships to a large dreadnought, the Caliph.
All were preparing for war against the Equestrians, who had allied themselves with the Gathering. The news that the celestial sisters had provided aid to the prince was shocking as Chrysalis did not expect them to fall for his lie easily but it had happened.
Her plan was simple. Launch an invasion into Equestria, hunt down the prince and come back home. The other hives and clans had different ambitions obviously and the mercenaries were there for the pay but Chrysalis didn't care much for that.
Right now, she was waiting for the Grand Duke's fleet to arrive. Till now, only ominous dark clouds had come with the wind. They were much higher than the clouds of ash that still came from the remnants of the towers that had been destroyed.
Suddenly, her hair stopped flowing in the wind and she looked up at the sky.
The wind had fallen.
She could see a trail of smoke high in the sky slowly coming towards them. A sound similar to a distant roar became clear and as time passed, louder. Below her, the soldiers who had gathered also noticed the change and were looking skyward.
Five metal birds came into view, flying in a diamond formation. They circled the towers three times and during that time, Chrysalis could feel eyes on her. After the third circle, they turned back to the direction and returned to where they came from.
The Grand Duke was coming.
It was afternoon but the temperature wasn't very high as it should be in the badlands. More dark clouds had drifted from the south and were blocking the sky.
All preparations had been made. The airships were combat ready and the soldiers ready for war. All were waiting for the arrival of the grand Duke's fleet and many were praying that they would come in peace. A low rumbling became audible as a trail of black smoke became visible over the distant mountain range.
Chrysalis was outside the hive with a spyglass, scanning the mountain range. What she would strike fear into anyone's heart. There were several ships and though she was far away, she could see that they were large and armoured.
A hour passed and the fleet was visible to the naked eye. There were a few smaller ships flying ahead of the main fleet, which was composed of large armoured ships that were like flying mountains. They were hovering in the air a kilometer away from them, probably making a decision about what to do.
Chrysalis gave an order, not able to wait longer.
"Send a scout ship to tell them to land!"
Aboard the Sevastopol's bridge, a heated discussion was taking place.
"They're unknowns! We can't land here and expect them to negotiate with us peacefully! How do we even know if they speak the same language as us?!" Admiral Daud said.
"You saw the images of the marks on the ground, the Gathering fleet had landed here earlier and left, probably after attacking them! We can get help or at least the direction in which they went if we talk!" General Pyotr argued.
Mark sat in his seat, looking out of the viewport and at the scene in front of the ship. There was a great tower surrounded by six smaller ones and what seemed to be the remains of another two. There was a fleet of airships at the base of the central tower which was a bit odd. Airships were used in ancient times to travel across the land, so long ago that only one airship was present in all of Elaat and that was in a museum in Salem.
Here, however, the locals seemed to not have progressed much technologically but besides that, there were some other anomalies.
In the photos taken by jets, there were no humans on the ground. Instead there were a multitude of four legged creatures, some of which were flying. First contact was something completely unexpected but Mark had reasons to believe it was to be done. The scorch marks on the ground paired with the prints of landing legs near the towers was enough evidence that the Gathering fleet had landed here and the remains of the two tower was evidence that they had fought with these unknown people.
They were potential allies who could help them in their fight and in navigating this unknown land.
"Sir, one of the smaller airships has detached from the main fleet and is heading towards us." one of the officers spoke up. The argument between Pyotr and Daud stopped as they both turned to look at a display which showed the airship in question approaching them.
"New contact on radar! North of us and speed of about a thousand kilometers per hour! Distance six hundred kilometers!" the radar operator spoke up before anyone else could say something.
A missile was coming for them.
"Scramble all T-7 interceptors! Send an order to Captain Ibrahim to detach from the fleet and move to intercept the missile!" Mark ordered immediately. As far as they knew, the missile was carrying a nuclear warhead and they had to act accordingly.
The jets took off quickly and the lightning was on its way to intercept the missile if the jets failed to take it down. There were about thirty minutes before the missile struck them and they had to make it count. From his own experience, Mark knew that it was almost impossible to stop nuclear missiles without the A100 missiles that they did not have. Only once he saw a nuclear missile stopped and that was because a mercenary captain flew his ship into the path and collided with it, destroying the ship and the missile.
He hoped that nothing similar would happen here.