Five dots crested the horizon in the early morning light as Alex stood atop the mountain he had chosen as the opening battlefield. The summit was lashed by violent crosswinds, strong enough to tear nests from cliff faces and keep most Pokémon from settling in the area. It was also sufficiently away from the base to allow interception, positioned at the exact approach corridor where the airships would be forced to reduce speed and begin their descent toward the target, since maintaining cruising velocity and altitude would cause them to overshoot Alex's base entirely.
According to the map, they were still distant, roughly over Route 24, with at least a few hours before they could reach the base. From this elevation, however, Alex could already make them out as specks against the sky, even with nothing more than his Champion ranked eyesight.
"They're still pretty far," Rhea said as she squinted, barely able to make it out given her Elite ranked eyesight.
She opened her phone and projected images captured by the League's satellites along with feeds from the long-range cameras she had installed. A full-color hologram materialized, rendering the vessels in precise detail. They were near-perfect ellipsoids, their smooth hulls broken only by three long-range cannons mounted beneath the chassis and roughly a hundred anti-air gun ports embedded along the circumference. Faint grooves traced the sides and underside, likely outlining concealed hangar bay doors and retractable landing gear designed to stabilize the structure upon descent.
"They're using anti-gravity propulsion for lift, and that ellipsoidal hull minimizes aerodynamic drag. The power output required to maneuver vessels of that mass so freely must be immense. What I still can't determine is what gives them the confidence to fly so openly over designated danger zones. Master ranked damage isn't a joke."
"We'll know soon enough," Alex replied. "They're passing directly over Cerulean Cave, and that airspace is restricted to Master ranked access only."
They didn't wait for long before movement rippled across the hologram. Without warning, thousands of energy beams lanced upward from the ground, converging on the five descending airships in a chaotic barrage. Moments later, swarms of Golbat, Venomoth, and Dodrio took to the skies, rising to meet the intruders head-on.
The airships responded instantly. A low hum vibrated through their frames as blue translucent energy shields flared to life, diffusing the initial bombardment before the attacks dispersed harmlessly against their Champion ranked hulls. It was immediately apparent that the vessels possessed more than enough defensive capacity to endure the wrath of a territorial nest.
Then the gunports rotated.
They opened fire in disciplined volleys, unleashing Elite ranked attacks that shredded the advancing aerial force from well beyond counter range. Simultaneously, segmented grooves along the side of the hull split apart as hangar bay doors retracted, deploying plane-like drones with 5-meter wingspans in staggered waves of 5 to intercept the remaining fliers.
Within seconds, the sky transformed into a layered kill zone, Pokémon, machine, and energy colliding in a sudden, sprawling aerial battle.
"The drones are remotely piloted," Rhea observed. "They haven't achieved reliable artificial intelligence for autonomous military deployment, so they're relying on human operators."
The drones' movements lacked the crisp synchronization of true machine autonomy, their maneuvers betraying a measurable latency between visual input and corrective action. Yet what they sacrificed in mechanical precision, they compensated for with instinct. They landed shots that no deterministic targeting algorithm would reasonably predict, anticipating erratic dodges and feints through pattern recognition shaped by experience. It was the human element, intuition refined over time, that allowed them to outperform simple automated systems in a live engagement.
"And they're capped at 200 drones per airship," she added.
Each time a drone was destroyed, another immediately took its place, though the total never exceeded 200 per airship. It was clear that each vessel carried only 200 pilots, each ready to respawn in a new drone as soon as their previous one was lost.
Suddenly, a gleaming streak of silver shot skyward from the ground, its energy signature unmistakably Master ranked. It tore through the chaotic swarm of drones, shrugged off the Elite ranked fire from the gunports, bypassed the energy shield entirely, and slammed directly into the hull of an airship.
BOOM!
The vessel shuddered violently, tilting to one side as the impact carved a massive crater into its frame. Explosions rippled across the hull, accompanied by arcs of electricity and bursts of flame from the breach, forcing the airship into a rapid, uncontrolled descent.
"Huh… I guess they weren't as tough as I thought," Rhea murmured, eyes fixed on the falling ship. "They've simply never faced a physical Master ranked Pokémon before. That means their energy shields are purely for Special attacks. It also explains why they rely so heavily on drones and gunports for defense."
The remaining four airships ignored their fallen comrade, pressing onward past the danger zone. Meanwhile, all the Pokémon converged on the crashing vessel like Sharpedo scenting blood in the water, diving relentlessly at the weakened target rather than continuing the fight with the others.
"Do you think there were more than five airships sent initially?" Rhea asked with a wry chuckle. "It would explain how they just barreled straight toward us instead of sticking to shipping routes that skirt powerful nests. Then again, they were cruising at a pretty comfortable altitude, too high for ground and sea-based Pokémon, yet low enough to stay under the Minior swarms above the atmosphere. Their only real hazard would've been flocks of migrating Flying type nests, but those rarely pick fights while migrating."
The four remaining airships pressed onward, gradually reducing speed and altitude according to plan while retrieving their drones, deactivating energy shields, and sealing their hangar bay doors. Aside from scorch marks marred across their hulls, they were largely unscathed and fully prepared for another engagement.
"What do you think, Rhea?" Alex asked, his tone serious. "Can your missiles take them down?"
"If they strike the hull exactly where that Master ranked Pokémon hit, then maybe," she replied. "The problem is getting them there. Even a glancing blow from a few Elite ranked attacks from the gunports, or a sacrificial drone, could destroy a missile before they reach their target. They'd need an escort."
"That doesn't sound very promising."
"I had only 12 hours to work on this with limited intel," she admitted, tapping one of the rockets on the side. "This is the best solution I could come up with."
"Grim will escort them," Alex said. "He should be fast enough to guide them, but I doubt it guarantees a hit on all four airships."
Soon, the battle descended upon them as the four remaining airships loomed closer. Alex mounted Mantine alongside his Pokémon, while Grim and Altaria led their flying teams into the skies. Rhea stayed on the ground, Butterfree perched on her shoulder, ready to teleport her back to the base once her mission was complete.
Alex and his team surged toward the airships as Rhea quickly programmed her missiles' flight paths. When she finished, she slammed a big red button. The rockets' boosters flared to life, propelling them toward the distant targets. She swiftly cleared the launch area, then patted Butterfree as the glow of teleportation enveloped her, whisking her back to the base.
The missiles streaked forward, accelerating rapidly before forming a wedge, two on each wing and one at the center, the tip conspicuously missing. Grim flew to the lead, surging ahead while spamming Dragon Dance to maximize speed, Knight clinging to its back. Hydreigon followed behind, struggling but determined to keep pace.
Grim fell into formation at the front of the wedge, synchronizing perfectly with the missiles as they bore straight toward their targets.
Predictably, the four airships switched to combat mode. Energy shields flared into place, gunports rotated to aim, and drones launched in waves of five. By the time Grim and the missiles came within range, a torrent of intercepting fire had already formed directly ahead.
Grim opened its jaws and unleashed a searing Heat Wave, while Knight on its back struck with Dazzling Gleam, both Champion ranked attacks detonating incoming fire before they could reach them. Still, the sheer volume of attacks forced evasive maneuvers, leaving the missiles vulnerable.
The central missile caught several stray shots, its booster damaged and veering off course. The remaining four fanned out, two on the left targeting two airships and two on the right focusing on a single vessel.
Grim realigned with the pair on the right and countered the next volley with a blast of fire. That was when the drones finally closed in, swarming all five targets and bombarding Grim and the missiles with relentless Elite ranked gunfire.
The two missiles on the left, undefended, were torn apart in fiery explosions as their chassis was compromised by the intercepting fire, while Grim bore the brunt of the assault on the right. A drone darted in close, its wing clipping Grim and sending them both into a spiraling fall.
The remaining two missiles surged forward, one following the other, racing toward a single airship. Another drone approached from the side, taking a direct hit from the lead missile and detonating. This cleared the way for the final missile, trailing just behind, to reach the edge of the airship's energy shield.
As Rhea had predicted, the shields were designed solely to repel Special attacks, allowing the missile to bypass them effortlessly. Just as another drone lunged to intercept, the missile detonated midair, cleaving in two with the back boosters smashing into the drone while the tip surged ahead. It struck the airship's hull, gleaming with Feint energy, pierced through, and exploded inside.
BOOM!
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