Chapter 11
General Azlo Bron
I had bonded with Sheila, but she still would not let me in. She was angry with me, and she had every right to be. I did keep the plague secret from her, but it wasn't because I was trying to use her to heal me. It was because I did not want her to think that I only wanted to use her; I wanted her to want to me without suspicion. But I had ruined all of it. I should've been honest with her from the start. Now I had made a mess of things. It was wrong. But now we were bonded, and I did not want to live without her. Now more than ever. I could feel her inside of me. I felt extreme joy. I had the strength of three Veruka. I have never felt better in my one hundred years of life, and it was all because of her.
“General, we intercepted radio static,” Lieutenant Reqan said as he came into my office.
“Humans?” I asked as I stood up.
“We don't think so,” he said.
“Clenok… We need to find out where it is coming from,” I said.
“Should we send out a scouting party?” he asked.
“Yes, but I want to go myself,” I said.
“I will prepare a ship,” he said.
“No, we should fly as Dragon. We cannot be detected.”
“Is that wise? We cannot have you injured,” he said.
“That is up to me. You will stay here. If I do not return I leave you in charge. Sergeant Sheila has one copy of the virus; you know where the rest are. You will continue this mission,” I said.
“But, General—”
“Enough. I want ten soldiers with me prepared to leave in fifteen minutes. I want coordinates of the radio transmission,” I said.
“Yes, right away,” he said.
I stretched and prepared to go on the scouting journey. I walked to the roof of the tower building. I had still been thinking about the drones dropping the cyborgs onto the bank building. It was obvious that they had somehow connected to the keddle panel after we turned it on. I feared that they had our location locked and that a bigger army would be coming. The cyborgs that we battled with were only the beginning. So I had to know for myself. If there was a Clenok army out there mobilizing toward us, then we would need to plan for it. I was ready to stretch my wings and get out there in the thick of it. I shifted into weredragon form. I stretched my emerald wings out behind me. I needed to let go of some of this energy that had built up inside of me since being with Sheila. It was itching to explode.
I looked and saw several dragons flying toward me. They were flying from the base camp and landing on the roof.
“Reporting for duty, scout team,” a captain said.
“Good. Do you have the radio transmission coordinates?” I said.
He walked to my side and pressed on his armband. A hologram appeared floating above his arm with a map and the coordinates of the transmission.
“Good, swipe those to every armband here, including my own,” I said. He swiped, and the hologram information traveled and copied itself to every armband of the scout party.
“Team, listen up. We are going to scout in this direction. We are going to fly at our vertical capacity to be high above the cyborgs. We are hoping they will not even know we are there. When we come in range of this coordinate, all radio communication between us shall be silenced. We do not want them picking up on our transmissions. This is scouting only. We do not engage. If we see an army, we are trying to get a headcount. We want to see which direction they are moving. That is all the information that we need. Then we turn and head back. Is that understood?” I said as I walked back-and-forth in front of the team.
“Yes, General, sir!” they shouted.
“Good. Let's scout. After me!” I shouted and then ran off of the roof and flew into the air. My wings stretched out behind me, and I dove over the base camp. The weredragons below cheered and whistled as the team flew over them. Then we flew straight up toward the sky and flew out over the fence lines toward the coordinates. It felt good to fly and to be reckless again.