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Professor Perry, who was also the ship's commander and head of mission, assembled a military team with two assistant interpreters and ecologists.

He had the shuttle loaded with titans. All-terrain bipedal tanks that can knock out a T-Rex with a punch.

The passengers boarded the shuttle in battle suits. They were equipped with force shields and bulletproof and fireproof. Of course with video transmission and health report. The ultimate in armor and suit. All while being light and comfortable.

Perry came in last to make the final recommendations.

The cosmonauts docked and the cargo bay closed.

The Launch Bay lit up and the shuttle entered the atmosphere.

The temperature and gas composition was only half a percent different than Earth's. It was cloudy and it was ideal for a discreet descent without attracting half the kingdom.

After a well-considered angle the shuttle landed on a plateau close to the den, but it was an upper plateau and therefore defensible.

The landing gears were shock absorber plates and the shuttle landed vertically.

I was about to greet our guests who had just returned from hunting and pillaging human food.

Auberone made all the preparations.

The shuttle was beautiful and all these technical details, I felt a military shield deployed and my trained eyes were not missing any details. I immediately recognized the galloon system with the commander and his subordinates and a being, how shall I say, an android? Whoa, I want one, but it might be the other way around.

Live first and since we've got time on our hands, we'll see, we'll manage while we're alive.

That was priority number one for all of us! The rest was irrelevant. We all knew our days were numbered.

I waited patiently for the airlock to open and when nothing happened, I moved a good 100 meters away. and I laid down.

Then the airlock opened and 2 Mecha came out with a kind of all-terrain tank that should serve as a temporary base and camper.

A pilot stayed on board, the engines running.

Once the vehicle was out, the elevator/airlock closed and the tank moved slowly, turning its turret and radars. I could obviously feel the waves reflecting off our wings, but we took no risks. The 2 mechas were in an inverted triangle formation and went towards the den. They passed within 10 meters of me and I lowered my head like a king. I was trembling with fear.

The 2 robots moved into bodyguard position and a door opened on the side and a plastic man, probably an android, got out of the vehicle.

He approached me and stopped about 1 meter away, to probe me and see my reaction.

I did a dog-like IIiii and when he wanted to touch my snout I closed my eyes, terrified. He immediately felt that I was terrified and he put one knee on the floor to be less imposing and he caressed the underside of my jaw. I did not move and he went around my body and saw that I had rings set in my scales and that they were decorative gold jewels with an art of our own. He stepped aside and went to the tank. I turned my back and walked slowly towards the den, and they followed me.

It was an explosive and very stressful situation. The path was clear and I joined my nine other companions and we lined up as if in front of a leader. and we flattened out. The tanks stopped in front of us and the mecha entered the cave. The passageway was clean and free of rocks.

They then arrived in a large room where a large stone table and chairs were set up and food, wine, wine glasses, bread, delicacies of the cutlery and a semblance of a table was set up for our guests.

Perry then opened the cockpit of the mecha which he put on automatic AI defense and rushed to the set table. Even the cutlery was properly set.

Human food prepared by beasts! A fire pit heated the cave and the cutlery was all flanked by the swastika symbol. A portrait of Hitler watched over the table at the top of the chimney or a prepared pig cooked on a spit.

A centrepiece of the table, a quartz stone, a manacom was set in a silver goblet.

Unbelievable, unbelievable. What an art! What nobility!

We still didn't move and waited outside. It was up to them to take the initiative now.

Some men came out of the tank and one of the crewmembers came out and it was a woman. The linguist.

They walked past us and we didn't move, all of us terrified. Obviously they weren't savages, but they must have been scientists, civilized people. Let's pray that they're not the executioners of the 20th and 21st century.

Their leader came up to me and said: "Majestic creature, my name is Perry, I am the leader of this mission. Who are you, do you understand what you're being told?

That you've arrived? Are you afraid?

We're not gonna hurt you!"

I turned my head but obviously he's a reptile specialist and often a friendly sign of a reptile is the first sign of an attack.

But I broke the pattern by turning my eyes and I walked to another cave nearby and he followed me then I rolled over a cylindrical rock on my side which revealed grooves in the ground. I entered the complex and a rolling sound was heard from outside.

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And I pushed a wagon rolling on grooves parallel to the ground and in daylight I took out our last V2 with the Nazi insignia on it.

This V2 was monstrous, we should have called it V3. It was on a launch pad.

He inspected the weapon.

We actually offered him our gun as a sign of surrender.

I had the firing remote of the missile and I knelt down in front of him and I offered him the firing remote of the missile in total surrender.

Museum pieces for them but which were in perfect working order were laid out:

Bombs, panzerfaust (bazooka), and mash press grenades.

I left Ignar his gramophone so that he wouldn't have a crisis, especially with his worn-out records.

Of course, the idiot drew attention to himself in a nearby cave. The men arrived near Ignar, wrapped around the gramophone. He had turned it on for fear that it would be taken from him and that it would be the last time he would hear the music. It was a collection of military marches from the Third Reich and Perry was surprised to see his wings tattooed with a red baron.

He grinned at the sight of the beast draped in bad taste. He watched Ignar whimper at his feet, without pride, and then turned the disc over.

The other dragons kept their dignity as a poisonous tribe. I warned Perry that the air there was poisonous from the fumes of poisons oozing from the dragons. But they stood at attention. Ignar did the same to regain his poise. But he looked more like a serious clown.

Apart from a flag, and the gramophone, nothing much to look at except the smoking room and tanned hides and a portrait of Ignar's father. A few human war grips and a lot of armor and metal. Loose.

The linguist tried to talk to me, but I played the beast, at last the trained dog.

She put her hand on her chest and said Heater, my name is Heater.

Then she picked up a wand and started writing symbols on the floor.

But I did the beautiful thing and looked like soldiers.

Then Perry looked: These creatures guard a Nazi treasure and believe that we are the relief and they serve us as they served their masters. But what I don't understand is the perfect state of the missile and it's ready to go. I press the button and it's ready to go. It's a marvel. It has two decks and could even reach our mothership in orbit. And given the 3-ton explosive charge, the damage could be immense. But their leader seems to be imposing military discipline on the other dragons and...

He was cut off by a mana com beep:

GROOOWWAAA rgrrooooo froooo. And all the dragons began to move.

The 10 dragons in the other lair surrounded the visitors' ship and turned their backs on it, as if to protect it.

I stood up and totally ignored the humans here and signaled the commander to go into the cave, but they took refuge in the tank and ran to their ship. We ignored them and they were astonished that we were not attacking them but rather escorting them.

On their radar they could see nothing but we had spotted the smell of incense from the human magic rituals from afar and they had cloaks of invisibility and a garrison of knights and balists. But what was most disturbing was the great golem that followed them. It looked like a 50-metre high mountain with a huge stone hammer. Everything was made of stone and nothing seemed to be able to stop it.

BOOOM BOOOM took every step he took and on top of the golem, a platform with magi and archers.

We flew away and stuck a manacom on the golem. It was at the cost of dozens of arrows planted all over Falkor's body. I distributed clay bombs to each wyverne and they took off. Molotov cocktails set the ground troops on fire, but the golem didn't care and headed for the shuttle. They would never have time to come back, open the cargo hold and leave again.

The shuttle fired rockets at the golem, but the magic shield held and it was intact.

Retreat!

Two dragons then caught one mecca and carried it up the mountain and back down to get the other. Then four dragons took the tank

And then the 10 of us roped the shuttle further away. I bent down and invited the linguist and Perry, who didn't have time to join his mecca, to climb on my back.

What they did, seeing that traditional weapons could not destroy the golem.

Ignar carried his gramophone. I think that to avenge mom, one of these days I'll break his toy just to see his head!

The golem reached the level of the V2/3 and hit the structure of his axe. A huge explosion followed, pulverizing men, horses, magi and the golem in a fine rain of blood, stones and pieces of flesh. They had killed themselves. The violence caused the cave to collapse and we all began to cry. The visitors were delighted with the cleverness of the retreat, and then they watched the care I was giving to Falkor. A few tender licks and hugs to all my companions. We showed that we were more than beasts and capable of empathy and feeling. I gently withdrew the arrows, using my flammable saliva to cauterize the wounds, and I practiced minor healing and the wounds closed to the great amazement of the earthlings. We scraped the ground and put the shuttle and tank back in place so that it could fit inside.

Then the linguist explained to Perry that our grunts were a structured language of military command.

They didn't understand how we detected danger, sacrificed our weapons to save our lives, and he suddenly understood:

"Look around you: we have different dragons, different species and subspecies.

They are not fighting each other.

They obey a leader, a military structure. They are warriors.

But one thing is obvious:

They're being attacked with crazy means.

On the planet they are all exterminated.

A veritable forced extinction.

But the most terrible thing is the absence of young ones.

They know that every individual counts.

They've banded together to survive a siege.

This was their last stronghold with their culture. But they preferred to live and lose everything because they can, alive, start all over again.

They sacrificed themselves to protect us so we wouldn't be collateral damage.

The empire here seems to have more resources than we could ever imagine.

We're going to have to rethink our strategy.

But when the shuttle was about to leave and before the airlock closed, Fuchur was pushed toward them all crying.

Me, in draconian: "Fuchur, we love you, we won't forget you go with them! and above all, shut up!

I hugged my Fuchur one last time and he was pushed towards Perry.

Fuchur cried very hard!

Perry: "I can't believe they're all sacrificing themselves so we can take their kid with us."

They don't deserve this sad fate. I can be blamed for displacing a population with criticism, but I couldn't accept being accused of sacrificing the last members of an intelligent species. One cannot study with permanent aggression. It's very unhealthy when you're negotiating. Besides, they want the dragons dead. That could be a bargaining chip in our favour if we get rid of them. Besides, we owe them a debt of gratitude.

Take the boy with us and we'll see how he behaves.

Fuchur disappeared into the belly of the shuttle and Auberone and I, Aqua and Falkor held us together, torn to see our little one go like that. Fuchur had with him a ring with the eggs in it. The last eggs.

He did not move at all during the flight and Heater reassured him by caressing him and he answered with a sad purr. and he licked Heater with kisses as a sign of affection.

He didn't understand anything, but he knew how to behave like a human. And he should be all right.

The shuttle arrived at the Vulcanus and they unloaded Fuchur, who, although untied and collarless, followed Heater assiduously.

Perry: "I see you have a new friend now. Take care of him and make sure he doesn't do anything foolish". Fuchur was put in an empty room where he lay down and continued to cry when the distracting elements ceased. Fuchur's grunts sounded like human words to their surprise, but Heater didn't understand. but a word common to almost every culture:

Fuchur cried, "Mother, mother...."

Heater shed a tear when she repeated the word mama???

Fuchur said, " Mom, mom, mom," and he threw himself at Heater's feet and shouted, "DOUDOUUUUUUUUU" and curled up in a ball and squeezed Heater's foot, waiting for a hug or something.

His foot was soaked with tears. And then she began to console him.

She looked at the hidden camera and said, "He's still a teenager, but he's still drooping like a child! They are much closer to us than we thought. Your decision is right!

This isn't a hunt. It's ethnic cleansing and we must intervene!."