The existence of the of the Dragon Amazon Brigade had been kept secret as long it could, but rumors had spread like wildfire, and independent news groups had slowly caught glimpses of the truth. The government denied the existence of their new weapon as long as possible, before having to come clean. And when they did, they failed their draconic amazons as the next step in modern warfare, and the newest weapon in the arsenals of freedom.
As their creation had intended, the fact they were all female, was a truly bone rattling thing to their enemies, both those who thought women had no place on the battle field (making them hate the foreign devils more) and the sheer humiliation of being bested time and again by weapon who were like a bat out of hell. Well, more like a drakaina out of Tiamat and Bahamut (the goddess of the random destructive ocean and the great fish that carried all the world on his back according to mythology supposedly being the parents of dragons the way Jehovah according to the Jews created humans).
Of course a lot thought they were abominations or sins against nature... but their affect on the battlefield couldn't be argued. And interviews did show them to have emotions rather than being mindless weapons.
There were many who figured rightfully so they hadn't been told the whole story of these warrior women, after all, the process itself was still a mystery. Some wondered if they were clones or something, but all investigations at least proved that rumor was just a fantasy at least.
Amber understood that she'd have no luck in integrating with civilian, let alone human society again, but she didn't care either way. This would be wonderful. Right? But this hadn't been spur of the moment, Major Tom was right, she had signed all the paper work, and had come here of her own free will.
As the needle pierced her skin, she didn't feel pain, but she did feel a burning, a fire inside her, an intense heat rising higher and higher, and she began to sweat profusely. None seemed at all worried.
She felt every muscle in her body tighten at once, the intense switching away to suddenly feeling too cold, so cold, she started shivering. She didn't notice when the next needle was pumped into her.
The doctors and Major Tom kept close attention on their new recruit, checking every step of the transformation as the retro-virus' spread through her body, rewriting her DNA into something other than human.
Then all fire and rain broke loose from within. Her body began to turn a beautiful dusty bronze, scales as tough as armor. Darker on her back and sides, but lighter on her front and underside. She dimly wondered about missions in areas where her scale color would give her away... could her colors change depending on her environment?
She did notice how her maternal material didn't really vanish in spite of her nipples going bye-bye, she wondered what purpose they still served.
before her scale had fully formed, she felt a fine -blow torched- applied to her body somewhere. Oddly... it didn't actually hurt, if anything, it just sort of tingled. Soon the identification: DAB 23X9, was 'tattooed (more like engraved) onto her body. Small enough to not be seen at a distance, but big enough to not seen a magnifying glass to read it.
DAB 23X9.
She felt her spine stretched out, her neck got longer, letting her see clearly behind her back like it was nothing, giving her head a much freer range of movements and angles, and she felt her spine actually pull out of her butt, with skin and muscles, so much muscle, it felt like she could break stone with her new limb as it got longer, she unconsciously twitched it, and felt herself able to move her new limb like she'd had it all her life.
Her finger nails grew in size, and so did she, the straps snapping open, like they'd been design to, to prevent them from breaking, she got taller and taller, she could look down on a six foot man, and that wasn't counting her neck length. Her feet began digigrated, with three claws that looked like they could pierce kevlar and a back claw on her heel to boot.
Her hands were larger and sharper.
Her ears grew and flattened into fins held by spines. Oh... and all her hair fell over... but she'd known that one was coming. Her muscle mass tripled, and tripled again, but seemed to densify the more the increased, becoming more compact than a human being's could ever hope to be.
A hair of horns grew out of her head above her eyebrows, pointing backwards, but not in anyway that she could accidentally stab herself by looking the wrong way wrong.
Her teeth fell over, and scooped up... and in their face, fangs that were like little daggers, her face stretched out into a muzzle. Her eyes she knew became golden and slited, and the whole room looked much brighter and details more fine, like she had telescopic vision. And she could SMELL things she didn't even think she could smell before, she could smell for instance the disinfectant that was used on the floor earlier that day, and the after-shave of Major Tom. If she relaxed and focus, she could hear the heartbeat of those around her.
Then came her wings... she torn out of her back, but it was like they were just spread out from dead skin... she now had seven limbs... they were like a bat's, but the membrane she could could within a shot form a bullet. They were huge... she could wrap herself up like a coccoon with those... or as a shield.
And... she FELT her stomach... it was like she could eat NEARLY ANYTHING and turn it into fuel for her body, she had a dim wonder of what it might be like to try rocks. And... she felt a third long form in her body... her fire lung, and all the valves in her throat that let her control the force and spread.
And like a snap of a hypnotist, and she knew it was over... she slowly got up, shaking her head of non-existent cobwebs. She got up off the chair that was now rather too small for her, and regarded the humans in the room.
"Alright dear, can you understand me?" The blond bombshell doctor asked.
"Yes," she said in a surprising gravel voice.
"Alright, we're just going to runs some quick tests to make sure you came through the transformation alright."
The new drakaina nodded. The doctors checked her heart rate (slower than a human's would be), and her body temperature (higher than even the most scorching dry fever), her reflexes, they tried piercing her scales with some disposable scalpels and needles and they broke.
They then offered a scorched metal breathing mask that led to a blackened metal container.
"Now, clench your chest, and relax your throat, and think angry thoughts, and breath out hard."
The drakaina thought of everyone who said she was too weak to be a solider, and did as instructed, the inside filled with flames, turning red hot.
"Okay stop."
She obeyed.
She was offered along one, this one was part of a long tube that went across the room.
"Now this time clench your throat as your breath out."
This time the flame traveled down the tube like an arrow, leaving a burning hole in the concrete block at the end of the metal tube which was not nearly as heated up as the previous container had been.
"Good!"
Next they carried over some heavy weight on a trolly, too heavy for them to even be moved by hand.
She led to a spot where the ceiling was rather high.
"Now, flap up, using her ears and tail to keep balance, remember, it's not the heavy air below, but the lighter air above that gives lift. Squat down first." The doctor said.
The dusty bronze dragoness knelt down, and then jumped up, flapping her wings, nearly sending some of the staff off their feet, she spread her wings to do a basic hover on instinct. She saw claw marked stone slabs along the walls, and knew what came next, and easily grabbed into place, her claws digging right into the stone.
The doctor looked surprised. "Yes... that came next dear, excellent initiative."
"Thank you," the dusty bronze dragoness said in her gravy voice at the human.
"Well?" Major Tom asked.
"She's in perfect health," the bombshell doctor said.
"Standing at attention DAB 23X9." Major Tom said.
The new drakaina didn't even think about it as she obeyed.
"Good solider," Major Tom said in genuine praise. A lab assistant handed the new drakaina her new dog-tag, showing her serial number, the drakaina put it down her long neck.
"Alright dear." The doctor said. "We one or two other new recruits, they'll be part of your flight. Along with some veterans who will be serving as your senior officers. The actual size of your flight will be decided later."
Flight, the plural for a group of dragons.
A young army officer came up to the drakaina and said, "This way madam." He said looking up to her, then again, she was now the tallest in the room.
The new drakaina obeyed, following behind the young solider, through the lab, and through corridors. She could hear people on other sides of the wall, she could smell the others of her kind who had gone through her recently. She every fine hair on the back of the young man's neck.
She could tell the human had gone through this routine before, since his heart wasn't racing as high as it should have being in a room with a creature that could have broken every bone in his body, roasted him, and eaten him bones and all in the span of two minutes. But he still had some tension in his muscles, he still knew what he was dealing with. That gave the dragoness some satisfaction.
"Right through here madam... the solider said bowing his head, and hastily getting to one side. The door wasn't locked, not that she couldn't have torn it off its hinges anyway.
The dusty bronze dragoness entered. Inside, she found creatures like herself, beautiful, majestic, powerful, deadly, it was a little awe inspiring, and she didn't realize how good it felt to be among her own kind. The humans around her had felt fragile.
Only three other dragonoids were inside the well lit room, with benches and tables all clearly made for them (the tail holes in the chairs being obvious).
The tallest one was a reddish gold color and was directly opposite of her with a friendly smirk.
On one side was a dragoness who was a pale red like blood mixed with milk (better than saying pink).
And the last one a color of copper with greenish shades. All of them sitting causally, with smiles on their muzzles, looking totally relaxed. The greenish copper one had been reading a magazine. They were all naked except for their dog-tags, like her.
"Welcome kiddo!" Boomed the big reddish gold one. "Nice to have you join the family!"
The new dragoness couldn't stop from tilting her head. "We look about the same age."
The new dragon started at talking back to her superior.
"Heh... looks can be deceiving little girl," the big one chuckled. "Since they clearly didn't tell you, dragons live a LONG time... ever heard of Vietnam? You're looking at a Veteran!"
"You were a dragoness that long ago, I didn't think-"
"I wasn't. The re-hatching (yeah that's what we call it I didn't come up with it, deal), will take anyone over the hill and restore them to their prime, though it doesn't work on the opposite end of the spectrum. Then you'd have to grow into it, and being a dragon, that'll a lot longer than a human."
"So," greenish copper asked, "Boy or girl?"
Reddish white cringed at the remark even if it wasn't directed at her.
"HUH?!" The new dragon asked.
Red gold snarled, nearly making the table in the center of the room rattle. "We do NOT ask our sisters that question hatchling!"
Greenish copper shrank away under the fiery (not literally) gaze of her obvious superior officer.
"Well," reddish gold rubbed the back of her head. "Was hoping to tell you about that later new girl. But the truth is, which you aren't to go blabbing by the way... is we do have male volunteers for the brigade."
"But... but only women can join."
"Correction, the brigade only has female dragonoids. So yeah... we actually have a good deal of former male soldiers in this outfit, it's kinda what you'd call a public secret. It's not -technically- top secret, but those in charge don't want it spread around."
"Oh... " Then an odd though occurred to the dragoness marked DAB 23X9. "So, what are your names?"
Reddish gold shook her head, "Oh no, not happening girl, some of us might bend the rules a little with our old names and maybe get a nickname, or share our old first name, but we do NOT give out family names, ever. It's for their sakes as well as ours. Even if you told family members about coming here, it's kept private who we used to be, so we can't be blackmailed with their safety. The pure blind greed dragon instinct was removed so we can't be bribed. "
"Oh! I understand." The dragonness marked DAB 23X9 nodded.
"Another little fact you should know," greenish copper remarked, turning the pages of her magazine. "We aren't really human/dragon hybrids. I have a collage education in genetics, trust me on this. It's more like they used human DNA as a series of road signs. We're if dragons had evolved as social rather than solitary animals, and small enough that it doesn't take a friggin' cattle ranch to feed one and we can stand without our head going through the ceiling. They say the hybrid thing just so people aren't scared of us."
She assimilate this information rather well.
"You'll have to excuse her." Reddish gold said putting a claw on greenish copper's shoulder. "She's a real thinker, that comes REAL handy on the battle field, makes her the second most deadly creature in this room. Even if she can be curt."
"Oh you haven't heard my best stuff," green copper said. Milky red stayed quiet. "Have you thought about how, if they tested the female form against the male form, means a few male dragonoids had to have been created as a test group?"
The new dragon startled, she HADN'T thought about that!
"Personally I wonder if it's like Jurassic Park, keep us all female so we can't reproduce on our own. So we don't outpace or out-compete the human race. And to make sure the government sustains the monopoly on us."
"Couldn't they uh, 'fix' them? Or worse?" Milky white asked with a morbid worry at the thought, apparently she as a hatchling too.
"Trust me, that's a lot harder than it sounds even if you tried to do it to a willing dragon trying not to fight back, and you'd be surprised what dragons can heal from. Just don't expect to regrow a lost head. And realistically, 'waste not, want not', no way they'd simply off them."
The new dragoness tried her best NOT to think about that.
"What would you do if you ever met one? Just have sex with them?" Milky white asked.
"Well, I'd get to know'em first, and I'd prefer to get married." Greenish copper responded.
DAB 23X9 rolled her eyes, of all the things she wanted out of life, starting a family was at the BOTTOM of the list. She didn't need to lay eggs to have a meaningful happy life.
"So... you notice the conditioning yet?"
"Eh?"
"Don't worry, it's not anything that makes you never question in orders, in fact, the guy who came up with it (yeah it was a guy, go figure) came up with it so we wouldn't unquestioningly slaughter civilians and non-combatants who couldn't fight back. Guy said how many weapons made to enforce peace like mustard gas and the gatling gun just made war WORSE. He said he wasn't going to make the same mistakes.
He made it intricate to the DAB process before they could ferret it out. Don't worry, it doesn't strip you of your personality. We still respond to any threat decisively like good soldiers, but you shouldn't be able to bring yourself to kill someone who isn't even an enemy solider and isn't a threat like a sociopath.
"A few suicide bombers who began to suspect what's up have tried to abuse that ... but the killing intent is still there, we can smell it in their scent, see it in body language, tone of voice, by the time they're done covering it up, bomb drones are more likely to work.
"It's not prefect, nothing is, I'm sure there are way around it, but it gets the job done the guy wanted of us not being unquestioning death machines, even if violence is pretty much in our blood now, even more so than any little human. It's Tiamat's blood that flows in us now, and she is savage indeed."