Homeworld Conflict

by Lily Lain

Dragonlands

Next presumed course: the Dragonlands. Apparently the hostile fauna species we have encountered are of the Dragon origin, but are a wild race that hasn’t been able to form a society.

“Provide strike craft escort until the Ambassador reaches their territory.”

Once again the ambassador unit found itself traversing the skies with the escort of spherically-aligned, armed scouts. While it wasn’t sure whether the small, automatically navigated ships would be enough against a dragon, they would hopefully provide enough diversion for the manned Corvette to retreat.

Thankfully, no wild Dragons attacked on the way, and as the group entered the Draconic airspace, the Fighters pulled back. Almost as fast as they left they were replaced by a patrol of Dragons, beating their huge wings fast to keep up with the speeding ambassador unit. Their scales gleamed in the sun like the titan hull did, but it was unknown whether they could stop a barrage of bullets.

The Corvette landed, as designated, by the slope of a mountain. The Dragons must’ve taken a liking to mountain peaks, as a slumbering volcano they had passed before had also been populated with these enormous, fire-breathing structures of gleaming scales.

There was a stir when they landed and exited the ship. There weren’t that many Dragons here; the mountain was presumably only for the highest echelons and their servants. While the guards weren’t many times bigger than the visitors, the entrance to the cavern was enormous.

The entrance to the presumably royal cavern could fit a few Corvette-class ships, if not an Ion Cannon Frigate. It could’ve been modelled after the size of the resident.

The feeling of abandonment intensified with each second as from the wide corridor they passed into an even wider, completely dark hall. There they waited. The clawsteps echoing behind told the Kushan the guards were leaving. None of the Dragons from the outside entered the cavern. They were completely alone.

The halls beamed with light, stinging their eyes, blinding them.

“Terribly sorry for that. I can’t get the lights working right these days.”

The owner of the voice could soon enough be seen in the light of small hovering supernovae he called ‘lights.’ They almost immediately caught the undivided attention of the engineers, who set up their equipment before one of them, hoping a fool’s hope that they will not be punished for trying to tamper with the forces they didn’t understand.

The owner of the voice was a dragon, an enormous one, gazing at the newcomers with an educated curiosity.

There is some sort of psychic field keeping these orbs of light in place. Its source appears to be the dragon.

“We are glad to meet you, uh, sir,” started the speaker. “We are a fairly new species on this world.”

“You don’t even know my title, do you?” The dragon’s lips curled up slightly. “It doesn’t matter at all. I’m just too used to them trembling when they come here. It was amusing at first, but got dull fast. Just because a dragon’s big doesn’t mean he must be scary and not fluffy.”

Scale hardness analysis shows that this dragon is most certainly not fluffy.

“While we chat here, the barkers in your ears tell you how to slay me, don’t they?” asked the dragon.

The speaker was far too baffled by the absurdity of the situation to perform his duties, and the advisor stepped forth. “Quite frankly, excuse our curiosity, but we are simply explorers and scientists, not destroyers or robbers. Let alone killers.” He shot a quick glance at the engineers, who frowned at the spheres of light hovering in front of them. One poked it with his finger only to find, to his great disappointment, that it passed through, with no bright and colourful explosions involved.

“Most certainly not. You are aliens, but you are strangely familiar. I am old, very old, and there are things I don’t remember. Or perhaps don’t want to remember.” He looked through them, searching his mind. “Don’t want to remember...” he muttered.

“What is the legal status of your nation?” the advisor asked. “Are you a part of Equestria or on your own?”

“Politics, always politics. Why are you here? Why do you even ask? Why do you care? You are travellers, aren’t you? What makes you think this is the end of your travel?”

The speaker and his advisor shared a glance. It was the former this time, who stepped forth. “Our records point to this place as the one being our homeworld, the place we have originated from.”

“Where would that place us then? And where are the others of your species here?” The dragon’s voice was stern and demanding, but it wasn’t anger that the depths of his eyes showed.

“We assume that our species have either moved or gone extinct here,” said the speaker.

“What if they haven’t been here in the first place?” The dragon closed his eyes and sighed. “It doesn’t matter. You are welcome here, as long as you don’t interfere with our species, or anyone else. You see, we are the guardians of this world, appointed by the gods, as the tradition says. Unless you can prove your undoubted right to this place, you will not be allowed to destroy anything here without retribution.

“But as for trading and settling, you are quite welcome.” The dragon smiled slightly.

“We have no hostile intentions, of that we can assure you,” the speaker said. “We wish to know whether your species is expansive, however, to find whether our nation will fit in here along with other species.”

“There will be enough place, but you will not expand as far as you wish. There is greed in your eyes, in the eyes of your comrades. If you act upon it, you will be destroyed. Or you’ll destroy yourselves.”

The speaker and his advisor shuddered at the sudden cold in the voice of the dragon, and so did the engineers, even though they missed the words. “We will find a way,” concluded the speaker. “Our technologies allow us to create little to no pollution and to sustain ourselves easily.” Fleet Command was silent as he said those words. They were too afraid of the dragon’s reaction.

“Ah, I know that. But the planet has limited resources, and you will not have access to their full extent. The question remains whether you will be content with your share.”

To that, the speaker and advisor had no answers. They felt the dragon could see through their diplomacy, through their eyes to their very souls. It unsettled them, made a chilly shiver run up their spines, made them shudder with unease and wish to be as far away as fast as possible. The speaker merely nodded humbly, the advisor refused to meet anyone’s eyes, and the engineers followed the pair hastily.

The legal matters were settled quickly. Proper documents were signed. All of that with Dragon commissars, diplomats, ministers, never with their king.

Comments

[thujone]

6200824

No problem, this is a really original concept and your doing a great job at writing. Keep it up!