Year 60

Eighteen years ago the Children of Tor launched an all out assault on you and while it was a fierce battle, it was the beginning of the end for them as an effective fighting force.

You hope that the Iznac are going to suffer a similar situation here today, because if not, it's going to be the beginning of the end for the Empire. Only one civilization is going to come out of this alive from this conflict.

You're currently holding the line at Fort Canopy, but it isn't the only major battle going on right now. You know only a few miles away Decena is undoubtedly doing his best to defend Fort Tangle and General Flevas is taking the fight to the Iznac in the jungles.

High in the air through the rain and in the near distance you see a multi-colored dragon unleash a gout of flame from its mouth, which engulfs the Tornado. Already heavily damaged the flying fortress can't take anymore and begins to explode. Minor ones at first, then one large one. Flaming pieces of the machine fall from the sky.

The Storm II fires another volley of cannon fire at the dragon wounding the great beast, but it isn't enough to kill it. The dragon bellows and turns its great body around to focus its attack on the Storm II. It isn't going to die easy like its two siblings did over the past few years. It's going to fight with everything it has.

You look over the battlements and see several Iznacs climbing the walls of the fort like an army of ants. They aren't even using ladders, they're just scaling the fort with their bare hands. It's actually rather impressive, until you unleash a chain of lightning to zap all of them. The shock is enough to at least cause most of them to fall off if not outright kill them immediately.

"Slaughter the four armed spider eyed bastards! Make them realize that their domination of this continent has passed! This is the time of the Empire!" you shout to the Eternals defending the fort.

Your people are doing their best though they can't stop every Iznac from scaling the fort. Soon the gunfire is replaced by sounds of close combat weaponry. No matter how far the advances in technology, it always eventually comes down to looking your opponent in the eye and feeling their blood splatter as you end their life.

While you're busy hacking off the limbs of an Iznac warrior, another loud explosion in the distance is heard followed by a bright flash in the sky. It's not lightning from the storm, but rather the demise of your Storm. The Storm II joins the Tornado in crashing to the ground after losing its skirmish with the dragon. Hopefully the rain is making the jungle wet enough or else the flames from the wreckage of these downed airships are going to cause an inferno throughout the jungle.

Several small frog like beings eventually make their way in by scaling the walls with their masters. They're generally just referred to as "frogs" but their formal name is the Glip. The Glip almost remind you of the kobolds. Despite being under the harsh dominion of the Iznac for who knows how long, none of the villages ever joined the Empire when the war broke out. Didn't matter that the Iznac used to (and probably still do) sacrifice and eat the Glip, they ultimately still remained loyal to them.

While they've certainly had their moments, mostly due to ambushes with blowguns and poisonous darts and their camouflage abilities. The Glip are not close combat warriors by any means. It isn't surprising that you've not had to fight many of them. Even the Iznac know their skills are better suited elsewhere. The fact that you've started to face a lot of them does give you an indication of how desperate the Iznac have become.

A group of orcs smash through the barricades of the fort. You sometimes shake your head at the stupidity of that situation. You have no idea how the Iznac managed to come to accept the rebellious orcs as allies, but you guarantee it wasn't for any reasons other than convenience. Did the greenskins actually believe that Iznac saw them as anything than handy fodder for this conflict? If they broke away from the Empire because they didn't like being used in such a way, then they completely missed the point.

Then again being orcs they probably didn't think that far ahead or perhaps they just wanted to fight the Empire and didn't care about the reasons. In any case, no matter who wins this conflict, the orcs lose. The Iznac have a habit of ritually sacrificing their "neighbors and allies" to their gods.

It doesn't matter in the scheme of things because even with overwhelming odds, your Eternals are still holding their own against all attackers. The only thing that concerns you slightly is…

You hear a roaring sound getting closer to your position and the sounds of great wings flapping.

It would appear your concerns will be arriving soon. You just hope that the Storm II and the Tornado did enough damage to it before they both went down. You don't have the advantage of Decena helping you take it down like you did with the last two dragons.

You shout a general command for the still working cannons to be pointed towards the dragon and to prepare to fire when the beast is in range. In the meantime you try to keep that side of the fort relatively free of invading forces.

The dragon gets closer and you give the order to fire and unleash your own magic bolts at the creature. It's definitely wounded from its ordeal with the two airships, but given your experience with the other two dragons, you know it's far from being out the fight.

In fact it's so determined that it doesn't distinguish friend from foe when it blasts its flame breath on the fort. You manage to protect most of your people with a magic barrier, but for those outside its protection, most are set on fire if not incinerated immediately. On the positive side, it reduces your enemies, on the negative it ignites the gunpowder barrels for the cannons causing a massive explosion and completely destroying one side of the fort.

While the barrier still protects you and everyone within initially, its still a lot of strain on your energy and you begin to feel the fatigue setting in.

"No! Damnit! Fight through it!" you mutter to yourself hating your weakness.

When the dragon passes you temporarily put down the barrier to take a small breather seeing as you aren't immediately being attacked by Iznac ground forces anymore (Which have mostly been killed or broke and run by this point)

Several soldiers point up and announce that the dragon is slowly turning around for a second pass.

"Everyone spread out and find your own cover! Shoot the overgrown lizard when in range!" you shout and make your way back up to the battlements (Those that are still intact that is).

You stand on top of the battlements and see the dragon coming straight at you. Almost as if it was personal and who knows maybe it is. This creature may very well want you dead for killing its only two companions. Or perhaps it's just intelligent enough to recognize you as a genuine threat.

You summon up all your energy and unleash a stream of lightning at the dragon just as it's beginning to open its mouth to breath fire. It doesn't stop. It doesn't even slow down despite the fact that you've undoubtedly just shocked the hell of its brain.

A gout of flame comes directly at you.

"Shit!" you shout and put up your own personal barrier to block the flames. Which succeeds, but it does nothing to stop the dragon's approach. It's fully intent on ramming you at this point.

You no idea what would happen if you just stood there with your barrier up. It's possible the dragon would severely smash its own face in from the force, maybe even breaking its neck, however its also possible that it would hit with enough force that it could actually move you. In this case, right off the battlements on to the ground several feet behind you.

Your Eternals unleash gunfire as the dragon gets closer and you're left to wonder if this high-risk plan could potentially end this dragon threat once and for all.

You get out of the way

Even behind a barrier there is no way you're going to withstand the full force of a dragon flying directly at you, you need to get the hell out of the way.

As the dragon approaches you run to one of the battlement towers, unfortunately in your haste, you temporarily drop your barrier and that's all the time the dragon needs to sense your vulnerability, even worse your expended fatigue doesn't allow you to react quick enough to get to the shelter you need.

The dragon unleashes another great blast of fire, which completely envelops the top of the battlements and you along with it. The fire causes your flesh to burn, bubble and literally melt off your bones. You're already dead by the time the dragon's open maw swallows you whole as it continue to glide in your direction.