Aerial Mage

“What do you think? Can’t be just a raid or a territory grab.”

Valera glanced to her right, wind roaring in her ears even through the headphones. Claunan was slightly ahead of her in their formation. He always got chatty during flights and even more so when it was a combat sortie. Since she was his wingman, he was definitely talking to her.

“Keep comms discipline,” she chided. Then after a moment, “It’s too big for a raid. You heard the rumors coming out of Mothergreen?”

“Pfft, yeah. Some people need to learn how to read flags. No way those self-righteous humans would work together with the cats.”

They both fell silent as the flight began to descend, following their flight plan and the lead formations as they descended through the clouds. For all of the news coming out of Mothergreen and Jav, she had still expected a small human raiding force. Cavalry and maybe a paladin or two. But there were proper battle lines down there. She pulled out her binoculars to get a better look, the view jittering from the vibration of her staff cutting through the air. That was demon heavy infantry already looking to tangle with human spearmen and knights, she could see the banners. Mage battalions getting set up behind the human lines with what looked like archers and musketeers moving in as well. That was no raiding group.

But the real surprise when she panned her view to see what other forces the humans had brought with them and was startled to see Northi flags and banners flying. Catfolk light infantry, heavy cavalry, light artillery, and plenty of mages. Transport and combat airships lurked low and behind the back lines, waiting for any breakthroughs to exploit and move troops to, probably. They’d be a priority target for sure.

The demon lines had a good showing of house flags and dozens of family banners. But the big tide turners were going to be the aerial mages swooping down and the heavy artillery that was deploying behind the city of Mintel. She could just make out organized evacuations already in place…looked like the general down there didn’t want to risk losing any civilians if they could help it. She didn’t blame him. This was an army they never could have anticipated being brought to bear against them, especially so far away from Westria and Northi. Had they stripped their internal garrisons and patrols to get this many together? What about keeping their roads, farms, and cities safe?

Well, that didn’t matter. She wasn’t there to figure out why they were invading. She was there to help demonstrate, yet again, why no one invaded Sorthen.

“All Gale Flights. All Gale Flights. This is General Ar Golan. Welcome to the war. Begin your attack runs. Priority targets will be transmitted to flight leaders. Ar Golan, out.”

“Well, at least the general is an Ar,” she said to herself. Her headset crackled with static for a moment and the slightly distorted voice of her flight leader came through.

“Alright, we’re tasked with making our first runs on the combat airships. Pair up and let’s hit them. The sooner they’re down the sooner we can move on to suppressing the cat’s artillery. Acknowledge?”

“Acknolwedged, Captain,” Valera said followed by the rest of the flight. They began to adjust their formation with Claunan coming in at her side. He was geared up to strafe and suppress any anti-air fire and she was set up with heavy bombs and rockets. He’d make his run to draw fire and keep heads down and she’d come in with the heavy hits to knock the airship out.

The flicker of lights from the fighting flashed back and forth. Magical bolts and artillery sailing between both sides. Other aerial mage flights were already swooping down to disrupt attacks or harass the rear lines. Her flight was breaking up, each targeting a different airship and she and Claunan dove at theirs.

Cannon fire, magical bolts, arrows, and musket fire filled the air around them but the speed of their dive and small profiles made them nearly impossible to hit. Most airship crews (and ground forces in general) only trained for massed fire against things the size of drakes or wyverns. Aerial mages were just too small for that kind of tactic to work. Claunan’s guns and cannon began to return fire as he strafed the deck of the airship, sending the crew diving for cover. She pulled out her dive slightly to line up her shot, making her a slower, easier target, but that’s why Claunan was there. Rockets streaked from their launcher, crimson trails of magical energy marking their path. The exploded in rippling waves across the deck and rear of the airship, punching through the armor and damaging its lifters. Then she released her mana bombs. Her entire staff bobbed up into the air under the sudden release of weight and she was already accelerating and climbing away, faster and lighter. She twisted to look back to see the entire airship go up in an explosion.

“Target D is down, returning to staging for re-arm,” she announced through the comms once she was clear and away. Static was her answer. She looked around, trying to spot her flight leader. Maybe the bombs had disrupted her comms unit? Only the burning wreckage of a handful of airships told her that some of the attack runs had been as successful as hers.

“Valera to Captain Saige. Captain Saige, do you read?”

Static. And it wasn’t the static of a broken transmitter, her equipment looked fine.

And…where was Claunan? He hadn’t been caught in the explosion, had he? She knew he liked to get close but even he knew to keep his distance from her bombing runs.

She turned away from the front lines and pushed for more altitude, squinting to see any other mages up. There were specs over the front lines still strafing but as she watched, they seemed to lose control and dove straight into the ground. What the…

With her binoculars in shaking hands, she watched as another aerial mage was engulfed in swirling, magical winds and ripped from the sky. She could see the poor mage desperately pulling at the ejection system, saw the windbubble flicker to life, but it didn’t do anything to slow them down and they hit the ground with a small explosion. She panned her binoculars until she found a catfolk mage lowering their staff, wisps of magical wind curling around them.

What magic was that?

Valera looked around frantically and it became obvious that the dozens of aerial mages that had made their attack runs had been reduced to less than six. She tried to send the report of it but her comms still weren’t working.

She wouldn’t learn the name of this new magic until she joined the retreat from Mintel, reduced to a back line messenger in the face of jammed communications and lethal anti-air magic. Aeromancers. The catfolk had specifically developed a new magical technique just to bring aerial mages down.