Just a few hours after the demonstrations, I was scrambling into my aircraft. Ten Sarroc ships had been detected heading towards Varra, and Bej and I had been sent to intercept. The Americans had also requested to join, and were sending 4 Super Hornets.

We spread out to search for the incoming fleet. We talked a bit on the manacomm, chatting to alleviate the boredom of flying for an hour straight. About 15 minutes before we would arrive at where the fleet was thought to currently be, Matt spoke up.

"It is interesting how many similarities there are between our cultures. For starters, we speak the same language."

I was surprised, "You speak Common natively? I thought you learned it for your mission here, and that you spoke a different language on your world."

"Oh no. We call it English, though, not Common. There are a few differences, but it's largely the same."

"That is very weird," I contemplated the situation for a moment, "maybe this is not the first contact between our worlds?"

There was a brief silence. "That would explain a lot of things," Matt said slowly, "such as our stories of dragons and magic and all that."

We were interrupted by one of the other American pilots. I recognized his voice as the one called Taylor who was… friends… with Bej. "Multiple surface returns just popped onto radar 105km out, bearing 35.”

Commander Lewis immediately went into command mode. "Size? Number?"

"Based on RCS, large wooden ships or small metal boats. Speed approximately 15 knots, heading almost directly for Ratern. There’s 1 large and 9 medium ones."

"Captain Hrett," called out Matt, "requesting permission to adjust course to intercept."

I blinked. If the radar was false, we could miss the actual fleet. However, if they were real then we would completely miss them on our current trajectory. I made a snap decision. "Permission granted."

We banked right to intercept, accelerating to 600 km/h. The Americans occasionally called out small corrections, and we drew closer. I could see about a dozen ships below, looking like toys from this height. They were far enough away, however, that I couldn't make out any details.

"Target confirmation on the Litening pod" called out one of the Americans. Jason maybe? "9 single mast ships and one mastless ship. Mastless one has a large thermal signature at the back, maybe an engine."

I decided to ignore how he could apparently see the ships so clearly. "Mastless ship with an engine at the back? Is it like 150 meters long and 40 wide?" I asked, thinking of what ship it could be.

"That is correct," was the response, giving me a not inconsiderable amount of anxiety.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"That is a dragon carrier," I stated, "it carries 10 to 15 dragons. The last time one of them was used, 10 towns were burned down before we fought them off."

"Can confirm," responded Jason, "I can see 8 dragons emerging onto the deck and taking off."

"Alright," Matt said, an edge in his voice, "so we have confirmation that those are Sarroc vessels?" I responded affirmatively and he continued, "Well then, let's remove them."

With that statement, all the American planes turned and dove at the ships. Bej and I hastily followed, slightly confused. What were they going to do to 8 dragons and 10 ships?

The engine of my aircraft started to vibrate from the speeds I was going, the propellers making a high pitched roar that ripped straight through my canopy and helmet. I watched as the American planes shot 8 rockets then broke off the attack run. I broke off also, not really knowing what else to do other than follow the Americans.

The dragons dodged to the side to avoid the rockets, then panicked as the rockets followed them. I watched the brilliant show of American ingenuity and power as each rocket hit home, killing their targets immediately. I saw some movement out of the corner of my eye, and turned to see 3 bombs dropping from Super Hornets. They all curved to hit squarely in the middle of the dragon carrier, splitting it clean in two.

The other ships tried to fight back, firing magically-assisted ballista bolts up at us, but we were far enough up that they were easy to dodge if they even made it up this far. Seven more bombs were dropped, and the once proud fleet was reduced to just 2 vessels and a massive amount of scrap. Bits of broken wood and cloth clogged the water, and some of the larger bits were burning.

“I don’t suppose you could try to get them to surrender?” asked Matt.

I shook my head, “They never do, but I’ll try.”

I switched over to manacomm channel 100, the universal public channel. "Attention Sarroc vessels," I announced, "your fleet has been destroyed. If you surrender now, you will be taken as prisoners of war. You will be housed, fed and watered. You will not be tortured, hurt or killed."

I was interrupted by one of the ships below. "Surrender to lesser beings? Absolutely not. Even if we die, we will still hurt you. Glory to Sarroc!”

I sighed, then switched back to the channel with the Americans. “I tried to get them to surrender, but they denied it. That’s about on par for them, they see almost everyone as lesser beings and anything that hurts ‘lesser beings’ is good.. Would you mind cleaning the rest of them up?”

"I do apologize, Captain," Matt replied, "but we don't have enough munitions to destroy the rest of the vessels. In fact, we are completely out of weapons apart from internal guns. Would you mind doing the honors?"

"I would be glad to," I smiled, "Bej, with me." We dived down close to the water and headed straight for the ships, constantly making irregular movements to avoid the incoming ballista bolts. When we got within the range drilled into us from day 1 of training, we each dropped a single B29. We pulled up, and saw blasts of fire and wreckage as the remaining ships were removed.

We rejoined the American aircraft, circled the wreckage once, then headed back towards the air base.

I let out a deep sigh, "that was so much easier than the previous time we encountered a dragon carrier. It was only stopped because someone got very lucky."

Bej piped up, "you forgot to mention that you were the one who was ‘lucky’, and that is why you are a captain now. Also, it wasn’t luck” He started to explain to the Americans how I had maneuvered a Mark 11 airplane overloaded with 4 B29s through a massive amount of incoming fire and dodged 3 dragons to get a good hit and cripple the carrier.

I rolled my eyes, "I do try to avoid bragging."

We continued flying back home.