The Queen and Her Army
The Queen and Her Army (Sequel to the Recruits)
By Crola_the_Snake
Emily is looking over a vast sea of green. It felt peaceful to her.The wind is blowing across the plains...
"Hey, Emily!"a voice called out. Emily looked to see a boy donning brown overalls and a flat cap.
"Andy! It's you!" Emily responded.
"How've you been? I haven't seen you in, like, forever."
"I'm... fine, thanks. How about you?"
"It was good and all. But, man, I'm gonna miss you."
"Why? I'm not leaving."
"Maybe because you're about to conquer Earth."
"What are you talking about?"
"Don't you remember? You became a monster." Emily looked at her hands to see them covered in green scales and nails replaced with white claws. Her dress is gone now, revealing the white scales on her front.Her feet are now covered in scales also, longer than what they should have been. She looked behind a saw two bat-like wings behind her back and a spiked tail above her buttocks, made of the same green scales on her body, as alive as every part in her body.
"But then, you have always been a monster, even after becoming a dragon," Andy continued, face bloodied and head lowered. How does he know?
"Maybe that's why I ended up like this," he slowly said looking up. His eyes are now gone.What's going on?!
"You know deep within you, right? That you have never atoned for your sins." Andy started to approach Emily. Emily, struck with fear, is unable to move.
"You have always been, and will always be, a monster. A monster that everyone will hate." The wind has stopped.
"What you have done to me? You could do worse to others, if you keep heading down this path." The sky has turned blood red. Andy is now a few steps from Emily.
"Especially know that the inner monster revealed itself." Andy is right in front of the green dragon. Fear stroke deep into Emily's heart. Unintentionally, she swiped her right claw, hoping she could push Andy away. Blood filled the air as a scream ringed the air. Emily looked and saw her mother, looking angry.
"Oh, dear Lord!" her mother said,"Look at the mess you have made! You have become naughty, girl! You have become very naughty!"
"No," Emily whispered, "It's not my fault..."
"Well, who else could have made this? The gardener? You have become a liar, as well. It's time for your beating," her mother is now sporting a whip, "Since you have been really naughty, maybe a bit more than a whip," Beside her, a servant is now carrying a bucket of boiling water.
"Do it," Emily's mother ordered. Slowly the servant approached, but Emily couldn't move. Slowly, the servant poured the hot water over Emily.
Emily screamed in pain. It burned. It burned too hot. It burned hotter than before. When the servant is done, her mother lashed the whip at her. Emily could do nothing but crouch and whimper.The pain grew stronger as the lashing continued.
===================================
Emily sat up the bed and saw herself at the lower bunk bed of her room.
Her room has white walls, floors, and ceilings. The amount of furniture in the room is limited, with only a table for two and the bunk beds for the two residents of the room, Emily and a woman named Demi, who is a muscular female red dragon standing by the doorway.
"Hey, sissy," Demi slowly whispered, "It seems that you're awake now." Emily looked at her body, which is still draconic in nature. She released a silent sigh and climbed out of bed. She stretched her appendages, her bat-like wings and spiked tail included.
"How long I've been out?" Emily asked.
"Just a couple of hours," Demi replied, "The other pal already went and talked to Queen Eryn. It's your turn now."
"Turn?"
"The queen specifically requested that she will talk to each of you separately. Have this." Demi tossed a slab of meat at Emily. Emily catches it with no trouble, which surprised her, given that she has always been clumsy. Shrugging, Emily ate the entire slab of meat in a matter of seconds.
"Looks like you're hungry," Demi commentated, "Come on." She opened the door and went outside. Emily followed along.
The hallways of the mothership Emily is on looked something out of a sci-fi movie. With metal gratings as a floor, two long lights at the corners of the floor illuminates the hallways. There are wiring beneath the gratings, as well as on the walls and the ceilings. The wires are sturdy; given that it never gave when Demi pulled Emily along the hallway with Emily clinging on the wires on the wall.
As Emily followed Demi, she thought of her mission to convert humans on Earth into female dragons. Then she thought of how absurd it is, given that a human is likely to run away from a dragon, if not kill it right there. How does she and Kendra are supposed to conquer Earth like this?
After a few minutes of walking, they reached the doors of the bridge, leading to the throne of the queen.
"We're here now," Demi said.
She looked at Emily, "Are you scared?" Emily nodded.
"Don't worry," Demi said, looking back at the doors, "Despite conquering 30% of the galaxy, Queen Eryn is still a nice person, letting her people address her as 'Queen Eryn'."
Demi looked at Emily, "So you go ahead and enter." Emily looked at the doors, just as they hummed and slid open.
====================================
Queen Eryn is looking over the huge bridge of the ship, sitting from her throne at the highest level of the room.She rubbed her forehead, dealing with the stress that the news came with.
She just received a report that their forces have been wiped out Sector Gamma-3. The anti-dragon alliance has taken one of her planets that has been fully conquered, which is in the sector Alpha 4.This might mean that the tides are turning against her now.
"Do we still have Alpha 4?" the white queen asked.
"Confirmed. The army assigned at Alpha 4 has lost 30% of its forces, but otherwise, it's fine."
Crap. Eryn never anticipated that her enemies will grow that fast. Her army needed morale and support from their queen.
"Can we get to them?" she asked.
"Given how much power our previous warp drive consumed, it might take a few more days before we could get have enough power to warp to Sector Alpha 4."
Eryn bit her claw. She might lose everything she worked hard for in those few days.
"My Queen!" a voice said. Eryn rotated her throne and saw an orange dragon kneeling down before her.
"What is it?" Eryn asked.
"The green one has arrived."
Eryn sighed, "Let her in." The doors opened and a green dragon entered. The dragon is lean, and looks like she's shy and anxious. Emily slowly walked towards the queen and kneeled.
"There's no need," Eryn said, "Rise." Emily slowly did so.
"What's your name?" the queen asked.
"Emily," the green dragon replied.
"Emily. Let me get to the issues. You see, one of the sectors have been attacked by the anti-dragon alliance. The soldiers there will need me for morale. You and Kendra will go to Earth in a few days' time, and you will be trained there by Lou and Demi."
"Why?"
"We need to prepare to go to warp drive, and we don't want to bring you two along."
"May I ask another question?"
"Anything reasonable is allowed."
"Why are there only female dragons here? I haven't seen a single male dragon in here."
"All of our men have been wiped out in a plague. With a genetic experiment, we've been able to lay dragon eggs, despite the absence of a male gene. This results to all dragons laid from then to this day being female."
"How did the plague wiped out only men?"
"It was a bioweapon designed to do such. We managed to avenge our men, and with the technology we acquired, gain the ability to lay fertile eggs.
"Is there anything else you might want to ask?"
After a while, Eryn spoke, "Did you conquer the galaxy for revenge?" The queen remained silent for a few seconds, but then she opened her mouth to speak.
"It was revenge at first," Eryn said,"but then it became defending our territory, then I decided to conquer the galaxy."
"Thank you for answering my questions, my queen."
"Then you may leave." Kneeling again, Emily stood up and exited the room. Eryn sighed deeply and rotated her throne to face the bridge.
====================================
Kendra woke up from bed to see the mattress above her. She thought she will wake up in some hospital after being found unconscious in the woods. Guess not. Too relaxed to get out of bed right now,she decided to recall her conversation with the queen earlier.
"What's your name, my child?" the white dragon said, seating on the throne. Unlike the queens on Earth, she doesn't where anything on. These shows her big breasts and hourglass figure. Which Eryn is secretly proud of.
"Kendra, Her Majesty." Kendra said, her blue scales blending in the metallic walls of the room.
"Kendra," Eryn repeated,"It's an honor for me to welcome you into the army."
"No, ma'am. It's my honor for me to join your majestic army."
"Now that we're done with greetings, why don't we talk about Earth?"
"What about it, my queen?"
"The original plan was for four former humans to convert the majority into dragons, but obviously, that went wrong. One of the eggs went into the sea, and the other one was found by the humans and is now under investigation.
"That's why I'm sending your mentors alongside you."
"Demi and Lou will be coming with us?"
"Indeed. You may have to teach them how to interact with humans properly, though."
"Yes, ma'am. But how are we going to get humans to become like us?" Eryn called one of her servants.
"Bring those armbands here," she commanded.
"Ma'am!" The response of the pink dragon servant as she left Eryn's presence. After a while, the pink dragon came back, carrying a suitcase. She opens and faces the suitcase to Eryn before she signaled the servant to face it at Kendra.
There are four armbands inside the white suitcase. They are metallic white, with beads at the center with each of the four basic colors, which are the colors of the Kendra's and the other three dragons' scales.
"These are camouflage bracelets," the queen said, "These will allow you to appear human among humans, but when someone touches your back, or touches your face, the effect will disappear, revealing your true identities."
"Which means..."
"Which means you can convert a number of people into dragons without letting them know your dragon yourselves, and when the time comes, you could remove those armbands and directly conquer Earth with power."
"But how about supplies?"
"I'll provide a self-sustaining station for you on Earth. It is transportable, as well, in case you want to advance your campaign."
"Thank you, my lady."
"You may leave now." And Kendra did so. She did not remember much of the way back, and instead woke up in her bed.
Many thoughts ran into her mind. Did she just agreed on a plan to conquer Earth? Then she remembered that she can't do anything about it, might as well jump in. But why did she just obey like that? Instinct to obey the queen? Kendra didn't know.
She lazily rolled over the bed and landed on her arms.
"Good morning," a voice said above her. Kendra looked up to see a yellow dragon sitting at the top bunk. She is the first dragon that Kendra met on the mothership, who introduced herself as Lou.
"Morning," Kendra gloomily replied.
"What's wrong?"
"I don't know. I just felt weird when I was in the bridge last night."
"Weird?"
"I, uh, feel like obeying everything the queen orders when I'm in front of her. I addressed her as queen, as if I've been since I was born."
"Oh, that. Queen Eryn herself explained it to us. It is her alpha aura taking effect. Although scientifically, it isn't an aura--more like pheromones--we learned to accept the term aura."
"Huh. So it affects converts, as well?" Kendra just thought out the term.
"Seems to be. Back when I was newly converted, I'm aware of the aura's effects, although my awareness faded overtime. I suppose that means you're fully a dragon by then. So I guess learn to accept the effects of being a dragon and live with it?" Lou jumped off her bunk bed and landed on the floor with a soft thump.
"Let's go grab some breakfast," she said. They headed out the hallways, which when Kendra walked through the first time, is silent and empty. Right now, it is bustling with activity, a rainbow of dragons walking to the right. Kendra could hear voices, which if you remove the fact they came from female two-legged dragons, would sound similar to a normal human conversation.
"Come on, girls," one of the dragons said,"I don't want to end up eating meat stew again."
"It's your fault for waking up late," another said.
"Shut up."
"You just spent all night impressing the girl next door, didn't you?"
"I said shut up!"
As Kendra and Lou followed along the flow of girls, Kendra could hear another conversation.
"I can't sleep last night," a dragon said, "I was busy fixing this."
"Ooh, is that the...?" another replied.
"Yep. I couldn't get it right, and I'm late, so I'll be fixing it in front of the meal."
"I could help you."
"Aw, thanks."
Kendra is in awe on how similar humans on Earth are with the dragons in here. She consulted Lou about this.
"Similar to Earth's? I don't really know. It's one of those 'unexplained phenomena of the galaxy' stuff.
"'Unexplained phenomena of the galaxy'?"
"A bunch of stuff in the galaxy that's beyond science to explain. One of those are the planets with similar races and/or similar culture. No one could explain how this came to be, but pretty much everyone accepted it."
"Huh. Are there others you know?"
"Another is the history of how warp drives are invented. Stellar Co. manufactures warp drives, but the credits for the product design is hidden. According to the company, they respect the designer's decision to remain private, but this brought controversies. Regardless, thanks to this/these unknown person/people/organization, we could travel to systems farther than a few hundred light years. Oh, here we go." They have reached the cafeteria, which is larger than a courtyard. A hundred tables for four have been set up in here. Most of them are filled with dragons of varying color.
"Hey, Lou!" A familiar voice called out. Kendra looked to see Demi and Emily. Emily is the other human from Earth that became a dragon.Yesterday, Emily is all against the Earth conquest thing. Today, she seems to be accepting her fate, although she's still shy about it.
"Over here!" Demi and Emily are sitting in a table at the corner of the cafeteria. Kendra and Lou walked towards them and took a seat.
"How's your dragon doing?" Demi asked.
"Totally fine, thank you," Lou replied, "She's totally adjusted now, although she can still notice the aura thing."
"Oh right, that. Emily didn't react back then, so surprisingly, Emily is making more progress."
"React? More progress? How..." Emily asked.
"For those who submit earlier in their dragon life, they don't notice this, but the alpha (yes, queen Eryn) releases a pheromone that makes the subject willing to obey her," Demi explained.
"I never noticed that."
"Then that means you're more of a dragon now."
"That's... a scary thought."
"Don't worry about it. Besides,think of it as an advantage to fit in here better."
"I'm not looking forward to have more friends. Besides, the queen said that we must prepare to head for Earth in a few days." Lou and Kendra looked at each other.
"Why?" both of them asked. Emily was about to speak, but the feedback of a microphone ringed in the cafeteria, then the buzz of the cafeteria died down and everyone looked at the speaker at the ceiling of the cafeteria. A voice came out of the speakers, which is the voice of the queen Eryn herself.
"My fellow dragons," she introduced, "As you may know, the supposed plan was to invade Earth and convert everyone into dragons. Well, that plan will change." A bunch of murmurs are heard all over the room before the queen spoke again, silencing the crowd.
"We lost Gamma 3 to the resistance, and Alpha 4 received severe repercussions," she continued, "Our women there will need our support as the largest squadron in our army. That's why we'll be returning to Alpha 4 in five days' time. Prepare yourselves during those five days. As for the two new recruits and their mentors," the four mentioned faced the speaker, "Head for the throne room for a meeting." After that, the murmurs continued as they dreadfully ate their breakfasts.
After the breakfast, the dragons went to their respective duties. Technicians went to the armories, while mechanics prepared the jets they will be using at war. As for the four dragons, they are in the throne room before the white dragon.
"I'm sorry you have to do this on your own," the queen said, "We'd like to support you as much as we can, but we can't afford to lend you more women."
"I think we'll be fine on our own," Lou said, "Although it will take a long time for us to convert Earth."
The queen spoke with a grimmer tone, "In case we lost, I'd like you four to continue conquering Earth."
"There's no way we would lose like that!" Demi shouted. One of the guards neared her.
"How dare yo--" she said before was signaled by Eryn to stop.
"Despite our power, we can't fight three civilizations all at once," Eryn continued, "That's why we will provide you two self-sustaining stations. So that even if we lost, you could still conquer Earth with enough supplies," she called one of her servants.
"Ready the stations," Eryn commanded her servant, who is the same pink dragon from before.
"Once again, I'm sorry you have to do this on your own. You may now leave."
Later that day, back at their rooms, Kendra lied down on her bed at the bottom of the bunk, Lou climbing to lie down on hers.
"Hey Kendra," Lou called her.
"What?" Kendra asked.
"How are you feeling?"
"I'm fine, thanks."
"I mean about the 'leaving for Earth in five days' thing."
"I, uh, I don't know what to say really. I'm so excited to leave for Earth, but at the same time, I feel bad about leaving these fellow dragons."
"Aw, you called us 'fellows'."
"I just feel that I'm part of the army now. But I don't know what I'm supposed to feel right now. Should I be happy about this new life? Should I be sad that I'm forcing everyone to become something they won't want to be?"
"It's okay. You have just been through much."
"Thanks, Lou."
"Why don't we get a good night's sleep? Perhaps that will freshen you up." Together, they slept.
============Five days later============
"It's about time, huh?" Demi said, standing in front of the carrier that will bring two of their stations to Earth. The carrier is about the size of a space shuttle, within its halls two 20-by-20-meter stations that will supply them for their conquest of Earth. It's complete from food to genetic serums.
"Yeah, it's time," Lou said, looking behind to see the Kendra and Emily talking to each other. They are currently in the landing bay of the mothership, which is five times the size of an airplane hangar.
"How are you feeling?" Kendra asked.
"I'm fine. It's just that I'm nervous. I mean, I'm going back to Earth as a dragon. How will people react?"
"With the right words, we could convince them to join us. Plus, we have these armbands so that we could blend among humans," Kendra pointed to the armband on Emily's lower arm.
"Wait, isn't that...?" Kendra looked to see a white dragon approaching them. Her majestic figure suggested that it is queen Eryn. Kendra and the other three kneeled as the queen approached them.
"Rise," Eryn commanded. So did they.
"I'm here for a final farewell, before the four of you head to Earth and the rest of us to Alpha 4," she continued, "Once again, I'm sorry about having you four do this on your own."
"Well, then," Lou said, "Farewell to you, ma'am."
"Farewell to you, as well," Eryn said. The other three said their farewells. After that, they silently entered the carrier, as it slowly closed and took off.