Alexander The Great Mage

"What sort of units are we dealing with?" I asked calmly.

"Mostly exo-suits, a smattering of cheap mechas, as well as a few battered looking frigates." Came the reply.

I glanced at my hologram map of our surroundings. The ten battleships and fourteen destroyers were slowly distancing themselves from us, giving me the space I needed to maneuver if I had to, without having to enter their range of fire.

Apart from the twenty four ships of our mercenary group, there was nobody else.

Just light years of empty space.

My sixth sense was tingling slightly, feeling totally uncomfortable and suspicious over the absence of all the people who should be crowding planet Deep Blue. But I had over a million bloodthirsty pirates coming down on me, and I quickly shook that feeling of discomfort and suspicion away.

Aragosh Dragonos can deal with such questions. Me, I just had to make sure I break those damned pirates and not let a single one pass me.

The other regimental commanders would probably tease me all about it if I failed.

The lack of other groups worked well for me. That way I could unleash every thing I had and not have to worry about collateral damage.

It was also probably the reason why the pirate coalition was so blatantly daring as to attack us right above planet Deep Blue. They were probably thinking of doing a quick hit with overwhelming numbers, rob and then run.

Not on my watch.

"We can take them." I said. "You guys heard it?

"Yeah. A few million walking dead. Easy." Came a deep masculine voice.

"Uh-uh. We'll clean them up. Might be late for dinner, but I had a big lunch so I'm good." Came a girly voice.

"I uh, don't think this is a good idea…" A meek girly voice sounded.

"SHUT UP LOSER! YOU'RE THE BIGGEST, STRONGEST DRAGON HERE! GROW SOME BALLS!" The first girly voice exploded on the group communication system.

"She's a girl, she can't grow balls." A lazy voice sounded.

"Ok, ok enough. We'll take them on." I chuckled. My battalion commanders were a crazy bunch of dragons. But crazy as they were, they were all competent and they always got their jobs done.

"We'll have tweak our strategies a little bit though. We don't have to worry about them by-passing us and going straight to the main fleet. We're a juicy target on our own, and the main fleet is too tough a nut to crack with half-measures. They would want to quickly run us down, then attack the main fleet at full force. So we should have their full attention at first. Let's make sure we keep them interested.

However, that said, we also can't have all of them come at us at the same time. We need to stagger their approach. So, Skirmishers from battalions one through four, I want you to lead them on a ten minute chase. Battalions five through eight, lead them on a twenty minute chase. We'll save the big bomb for the finale. Any questions?" I asked.

"I have a question." A calm sounding female voice came on.

"Go ahead Amelia."

"Can we join in the fun? Personally?"

"Yes. That would be a great idea. However, make sure you guys enter AFTER the heavy mechas finish their volleys. I don't want you guys messing up their lines and reducing the damage we can do with our heavy cannons." I reminded them.

"Acknowledged."

"Yippee!!!"

"Can we not join the battle personally?" Came the meek girl's voice.

"YOU LAZY GIRL! YOU BETTER JOIN IN THE FIGHT! IF I DON'T SEE YOU IN THE BATTLEFIELD, I WILL GO TO YOUR ROOM TONIGHT AND ****** ****** ****** *******"

"IF THERE ARE NO FURTHER QUESTIONS, TO YOUR POSITIONS!" I shouted, unwilling to listen to them bicker any longer.

Very quickly, nine massive dragons in all sorts of armor appeared and positioned themselves near the heavy mechas of each respective battalion.

As instructed, the skirmishers split into two groups and began unleashing volleys of rockets and medium energy cannon fire at the pirate vanguard, all the while moving towards the flanks.

Predictably, the pirate vanguard became absolutely enraged at the vicious missile and energy cannon fire which shredded their frontlines. The vanguard split into two and began to chase after the skirmishers.

Success! The skirmishers would easily outpace the badly equipped pirate vanguard. The few hundred thousand pirates currently chasing after a few thousand medium mechas would be out of the main action for the next few minutes.

Behind the pirate vanguard was the 'smattering of cheap mechas' which the first skirmisher had said when he reported back to me.

I almost puked blood when the 'smattering of mechas' came into view.

"Someone give that damned skirmisher who reported back the numbers a good thrashing tonight!" I said while gnashing my teeth in anger.

"I'll do that." The deep masculine voice said grimly.

"Good." I was slightly mollified. That deep masculine voice was a fearsome White Dragon. If you're looking to inflict pain on someone until they go mad, a White Dragon would be the best candidate. They are really good at it.

I digress.

Anyway, the 'smattering' of mechas turned out to be an entire host! Yes, they certainly looked cheap, I had to give him that. But there were at least a few hundred thousand of them! I had less than ten thousand!

"Commanders. Change of plans." I announced. "Your longest range magic attacks please. And keep them coming. Against so many mechas, it doesn't matter if you're attacking or not, the heavy mechas would deal full damage anyway."

I had barely finished speaking when a streak of orange energy shot out from a beautiful red dragon.

As though it was the signal to attack, the other dragons also released their long range attacks. Black, white, red, green, blue, yellow streaks of energy shot out from the dragons every few seconds. I, too, released my own long range black energy.

For almost an entire minute, there was silence and monotony as our energy attacks filled the space between us and the incoming pirates.

And then the first volley hit the mechas.

BA-BOOOOMMM!!!!!!

BO-BOO-BOO-BOOOOMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our first volley took down thousands of mechas.

BOOOOM!! BOOOM!!! BOOM!!!!

Our second volley took down slightly less as the mechas tried their very best to dodge. But their ranks were too tightly packed. Thousands still died, and many others were damaged.

Our third, fourth and consecutive volleys did much less damage, but it was still deadly.

By the time the tenth volley hit them, they were finally within range of our extra-long range light mechas.

Hundreds fell. Then thousands.

However, the pirates were no fools. They immediately gave the order for a full charge.

All the mechas burned their boosters and surged forward towards us with incredible speed. Very quickly, they entered our medium range.

"Heavy mecha magical bombard!" I shouted heavily. "Fire at will!"

BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BOOOOOOMMM!!!!!

Powerful magical beams shot out from the thousand heavy mechas. Each beam pierced through tens of mechas each before running out of energy.

But that was just one beam.

Magical bombards can fire many beams.

BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BOOOOOOMMM!!!!!

BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BOOOOOOMMM!!!!!

"Commanders, switch to medium range attacks." I instructed.

"We know, we know." Grumbled the fierce girly voice.

Large fireballs were engulfing hundreds of mechas. Whatever our main affinity was, all dragons are capable of unleashing fire. And in space battles, fire is the most effective. All machines have to deal with overheating, you see. And our fire attacks will hasten that process.

Yes, Your Majesty. Our own mechas would be affected as well. But the most crucial heavy mechas all have mages piloting them. Heat management is not an issue for them. The light mechas are all too far back to experience the heat in the middle range. So they're fine. Usually, it's only the medium skirmishers that have to deal with the heat of the battlefield. But by the nature of their job, by the time the battlefield is heated up, all they are doing usually is trying their best to disengage and run behind our heavy mechas.

Anyway, back to my story.

The enemy mechas charged forward maniacally, desperately trying to close the distance between us and get out of range of those infernal long and medium range weapons.

The first elements of the enemy mechas finally got within range of our heavy mechas.

"Heavy mechas, HOLD YOUR FIRE!" I ordered. "Light mechas, take care of the ones in our short range."

PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW!

Laser cannons ripped the few hundred mechas that had managed to get away from the horrifying middle range death zone. Too bad for them, the short range was just as deadly as the middle range.

In fact, the short range was MORE deadly, but they did not get the privilege of knowing just how much more deadly it was.

The next wave would get all the honor of tasting our heavy mechas' main weapon discharge.

Very soon, the main body of surviving enemy mechas finally reached our short range.. They had been heavily mangled by our long and medium range weapons, but they still numbered in the hundreds of thousands.