Cruel Red Dragons (TOME 5 of the TIAMAT'S WARS SERIE)

Another place, another time

The caravel arrived at the fortified port. This castle of Cuban origin has survived the centuries and, being a strategic point, was kept in full working order.

Others were built on the same model and thus protected the ports and ships from the tide, but also from storms and pirates that were rampant or simply from privateers wreaking havoc, supported by other hostile nations.

But the caravel had another commercial and logistical function, in addition to patrolling. This is how the shipwrecked and the survivors had a small chance of survival and return to civilization.

Immediately, the children were taken to the orphanage and the adults, almost slaves, were sent as servants or workers in the various noble houses.

The ancestral culture on these islands was sugar cane, cotton, and tobacco and for the most miserable the extraction of sulfur and saltpetre for the criminals.

Salt was extracted in salt marshes.

The climate was conducive to these ancestral crops and allowed the economy to flourish and export these products so that the community could survive.

Of course, the Lion on the flag was everywhere and statues of the various Midas kings flourished throughout the islands

Gold statues were also there to remind us of the overwhelming presence of the golden lion.

Rumors and legends told that King Midas and the Golden Lion were the same person, the lion being host to successive kings.

The power of the Lion was beyond imagination. He could be seen putting his paw on a table.

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Meanwhile... far away, in another world, a terrible war was going on between several clans to control intergalactic trade: Space mana cristals, a kind of crystal like Iberium but edible.

People in the stars have ingested this drug which has monstrously deformed them, but this is the price to pay for being able to teleport ships, resources and populations over immense distances.

The empire of the Star Guild, called the Merchants Guild, extends over several galaxies and at one point, a scientific expedition composed of humans and a few intelligent dragons united under the same banner managed by accident to penetrate other worlds that were inaccessible to them. Worse... they also crossed the time barrier. They came from a distant past, from a flourishing civilization that no longer exists, but crossing the boundaries of time no longer made sense.

N/A: Mordos of the Merchant Guild

What united this crew was the USA of Chaos banner. A world almost destroyed by war, where humans, demons and dragons came together under one banner, unified.

And even after their common goal was achieved, both humans and dragons were bloodless and subject to the infernal forces that, in return, protected them.

Of course, this did not apply to other humans, to other worlds. Demons are evil by nature....

The expedition aboard the Hood was captured by the guild and through subtle and skilful negotiations they were allowed to buy their freedom in the guild's economic hell.

Some were able to escape and return, but three war-mad dragons seized power from an overpowered enemy faction.

The Mordos, the ruling faction of the guild, let the dragons go, disinterested in a handful of economically unprofitable "Aliens". They were left to their fate like most of the mercenaries used in this endless conflict. They were to perish like the others in the immense desert that was the planet where spice crytals and Iberium were exploited.

But immediately after their departure, a cataclysm occurred. The armada of Baron Zergalor, a bloodthirsty brute, master of all plots and dirty tricks, disappeared shortly after the dragons. The Mordos knew little but that the dragons who had taken the spice were capable not only of piercing astronomical distances but also the continuum of space and time and of perforating the membrane or border separating the worlds....

The Zergian house was destroyed and the population made almost slave if not for the protection of the emperor watching over the 3 factions....

But the leader of the Mordos, Executrix did not want to lose such an opportunity.

Expeditions turned every corner to find traces of the dragons and...fortunately, or unfortunately...a couple of dragons who had perished in the fighting were found in the burning sand, unconsciously protected in a shell of ice...Seriously injured, they had sacrificed themselves to allow the others to escape. They were desperate, trapped and betrayed and were resigned to let themselves die.

The Mordos brought them back to their planet where the creature was nursed back to health, and to their surprise, it had an egg. It was a lava dragon, and his wife, an ice dragon.

They were put in a kind of reserve where they could live freely in exchange for being studied. But they didn't know how twisted the Mordos could be. If they found a goose that laid golden eggs, they would lay it at any price.

And the reserve was just a breeding farm in disguise. They knew how dangerous the dragons were and the carnage they had wrought against the Zergs troops. Of all the mercenaries, the dragons had managed to stay behind, to allow the evacuation of the Mordos before they were captured by the Zerg troops, some of them having managed to escape and leave with their ship Hood, extensively upgraded with the technologies on site. But not all were able to leave...

A few months later.

Phyrros: "Honey... I sabotaged their computer...The Order of the concubines will help us... We have a destroyer coming out of repair... They've located an open area... we can call for help."

Alltra: "Do you think our goddess will hear our cries for help?"

"Phyrros: The Matrons are never wrong... We are linked to the prophecy. And the Star of Death... You know well... will come to our rescue even if they have to exterminate the humans..."

Alltra: "With Sinistrar, everything was easier... "

"Yes, but even he submitted to the goddess of chaos. yet his antithesis... He was right. We are all still alive... Sometimes we have to learn to swallow our pride to live. And the one who lives is the one who is right..."

Alltra: "If anything should happen to me... will you look after our little one?"

"Phyrros: You can count on me!

A human, dressed in black, a Concubine, beckoned the two dragons to follow her out of the corpse-covered complex of Mordos.

Alarms were sounding everywhere...