Pact of Dragons

Prologue

At the end of the second century in the new reckoning of time, an elite group of mankind indulged in excess while many others died every day from hunger or the struggle for the bare essentials.
The wealthy were little concerned with the starving people who came to their door, hands outstretched. Even the violent rebellions of the poor were mercilessly crushed, driving the poorest to the outskirts of the land, where the soil and water were contaminated from overuse and they were consigned to a miserable existence.  But at the very time when nature's overexploitation attained a truly dangerous new level, threatening to destroy the plant and animal worlds irrevocably, the true master of the world came onto the scene. The seventh continent appeared one day on the satellite imaging of research stations in the Atlantic Ocean, in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle, when these beings dropped their camouflage, revealing themselves in all of their raw power and sheer muscle. They called themselves the Drakoniers and were evidently up to ninety percent human, capable of taking on that form and of morphing into those primeval, dinosaur-like beings with four legs and wings, with long necks and heads armed with pointed plates, which also ran all the way down their backs, right down to their sword tails. Members of the species were dangerous monsters, invulnerable, in their dragon form, to bullets and fire, lightning-fast, deadly—almost invincible.

But even when people initially categorized them slightly above animals, these were no savage, brainless beasts, as they are often portrayed in the old sagas and legends from the Middle Ages—no, quite the opposite; these were singularly intelligent beings. They spewed napalm-like fire with intention and considered aim, laying waste to everything and everyone they very consciously condemned.
In their first wave of attack on modern civilization, they tore down the lofty houses of wealth and elite prosperity, destroyed the ecologically unsound structures of modern infrastructure, such as coal-fired power plants and factories manufacturing or working with dangerous chemicals and pesticides, and, in a targeted manner and with the help of a completely new type of electromagnetic-pulse weapon, paralyzed all road traffic on the planet with one stroke, deeming vehicles responsible for the generally filthy air and for claiming tens of thousands of lives every year. Naturally, humans launched an ambitious counter-offensive on the foreign beings, which people in power insisted on calling "freaks of nature" and untamed, soulless beasts. Now with a jointly declared enemy, even the great nuclear powers formed an alliance to attack the mysterious continent of dragons, who hacked into their satellites and threatened people with severe consequences if they did not cooperate immediately. In fact, people were already cooperating with their second wave of destruction, in which the large corporations, which mined gold, diamonds and iron ore from the soil of the countries, were flattened in order to stop further environmental destruction and the decimation of rain forests. Within a matter of days, the entire global economy was crippled, for oil platforms and pipelines were also destroyed by the monsters and the source of so much elite wealth summarily quelled. Stock markets crashed, banks closed, but, after another counter-offensive against the Dragon Islands, which in fact did succeed in slaying some of the monsters, victory over the unknown was triumphantly announced—until the hammer dropped; the third wave of dragon attacks completely wiped out entire air and marine artillery across the world—without regard for populated areas or for life whatsoever. Over a billion people were killed and again as many injured, over the course of these three Days of Fire. Then, of course, it came time for the final solution: for the bombs—the atom bombs.
Russia, China, North Korea and the USA pledged to wipe from the earth the entire continent of dragons, along with their inhabitants, to avenge their dead and defeat the enemy in a single blow, and they were now cheered on by billions of angry, injured or deeply frightened people. What happened next was a disaster on an unimaginable scale. The atom bombs, once fired off from, were captured mid-flight by the dragons, easily superior in the air; once the dragons had them, they hacked their command codes, extended their countdowns, and made them inaccessible to the humans. Then, grasping the still-ticking bombs in their claws, the dragons flew them back to their countries of origin. In a matter of minutes, the ten largest cities on Earth were vaporized.
The one saving grace was that the beasts only obliterated the largest metropolises up to a radius of 50 miles, confining the enormous post-explosion radioactivity in a type of force field of unknown origin.
This prevented the radioactive fallout feared worldwide. Even so, the offensive cost over two billion people their lives before the dragons demonstrated the true scope of their abilities, destroying all armed forces in the countries that had launched bombs. The armies of those countries who still possessed the bomb were targeted, too, together with all barracks, bases, and bunkers in a war lasting a sum total of seven days.
Anyone who tried to stand in the dragons' way came in their crosshairs—this meant a wider disaster in America, China, Russia, and the Middle East in the subsequent weeks and months. And, as time passed, the dragons enacted a further punishment: they kidnapped thousands of people, exclusively women and teenaged girls, from all corners of the Earth. 
Under intense pressure from the public, the United Nations, all but crippled under the massive death toll and the loss of infrastructure and desperate to prevent the extinction of the human species, capitulated to the superior force: they entered peace talks with the monsters.
What that meant, in the end, was that the dragons dictated their demands for an ecologically sustainable life that did not involve the constant plundering of nature—and humans had to submit to this. The most important point, however, and the one that was most hotly debated and caused most concern amongst the human population, was this: the kidnapped humans would be returned if and only if the Dragon Islands were compensated for the attacks they'd sustained and the high-ranking dragons they'd lost—compensated with a tribute of at least 20 young women between the ages of 18 and 21 from each country in its turn.
Each year, the dragons would decide which countries were due; this was meant not to overtax the human population in the face of its current, substantial challenges. The fact remained that all nations were subject to the agreement, and so an unconquerable germ of fear was introduced into humanity—the fear of having a daughter who would then be lost to the dragons.
Thirty years passed in this manner. The world changed again; the contaminated areas were eventually resettled, for the dragons abetted renewal and the breakdown of the radioactivity. They rid the world of nuclear power and coal energy and forbid the exploitation of nature.
New technologies were developed, with solar energy making huge advances, including in powering vehicles; the economy recovered, people continued on—only now in the cold current of fear and under the ever-watchful and threatening eyes of the dragons, who hardly set foot on the other continents, not even to collect their tribute.
No, instead, they had the tribute brought to them, at the solstice, to one of Darkengaard's outlying islands, on the only plane that was allowed to enter that land. At first, it had been a computer's job to draw girls' names from a lottery, but at some point Darkengaard had issued new instructions. 
To ensure that the girls had tough constitutions, the dragons demanded only the criminal element, even girls who'd killed and committed other violent crimes. The countries were also obliged to consign women and girls to the island voluntarily—only those who chose this fate would go. But who was hopeless enough to choose this dragon hell?
What was bound to happen, did indeed: the consequences for crimes committed by young women became harsher; the death penalty was reintroduced in many countries. Those who did not opt for the island in question, when their nation was due to deliver and the authorities scoured the prisons, would remain in jail for life or would die.
So, it was in this year, as the revolution was beginning and the dragons were launching a completely new offensive, ushering in a new era.

... The New Age of Enlightenment.