[Dragon of the void]

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Bulletin to his enlightened Emperor, Rafzik the 57th, Golana II, stardate 2463.7

As always humbled by the foresight of our emperor, it is my great pleasure to report my mission to gather information about the spacefaring race called the “space dragons” an outstanding success.

Fully cloaked by the newest invention of the imperial shipyards, we could evade detection by the dragons and intercept their news broadcasts while in orbit of a planet called Jolantha VII for almost one year. These news seem to be directed at their slave races, in this case beings that call themselves “humans”.

We could not find out what the dragons hold this humans for, since there seem to be no labour camps, no detention centres or anything else normally associated with slavery. But there seems to be a curious connection between the size of a global “crust”, growing on any planet protected by the space dragons, and the slave population on this planet. Our first assumption that this “crust” is build artificially by the slaves was not correct. It grows. But on some planets that are under the influence of the dragons for a long time the crust is still relatively small (as is the slave population), and on other planets (with high population) the growth rate is incredibly fast. This crust is impenetrable by sensors, but seems to cover their mining facilities and the housing areas of the slaves. What we could learn from the transmission the slave population as well as dragons on planet or in space idolize their planet as “mother”, as if it was a being of independent thought. We have seen this cult in numerous primitive societies, but never with races so technologically advanced.

The dragons are very open about any military information in their news (the main reason for this report). Given the nature of their slave-slaver relationship to the humans, this seems very curious. Independent observation could confirm mayor parts of these news, so it seems genuine.

The dragon “military” consists of the complete population of spacefaring dragons. Any dragon has at least the offensive capability of a “Hunting bird”-class imperial escort, while surpassing this vessel in size by a factor of 3. Inside of each dragon, there is an organic live support area for slaves, but they have no combat value whatsoever. Their function on board is also still unclear. Apart from these similarities, there are several classes/varieties of dragons, named after the elements most intelligent species have used in their first attempt to science:
Fire, Water, Earth and Wind, colour coded, red, blue, green and white.

Fire dragons number surprisingly few when compared to the threat the space dragons pose to their opponents. They are the main mobile fighting force. It is very interesting to know that while they seem to be able to replicate the effects of almost any direct fire weapon, like ballistic cannons and beam weaponry, they completely ignore guided missiles or fighter craft. Although they clearly have great knowledge of the manipulation of organisms and crystals to suit their needs, they do not use organic or crystalline weapons as do other races. Their lack of communication in combat seems to indicate that they are psychic, but this, also, is never used offensively. But they are far from harmless. We have witnessed a minor skirmish with the Karuik, a minor race in the Hoplit-quadrant, and the dragons use their weaponry to the most deadly effect. They seem to hit their target even under the most adverse circumstances.
Rough estimating there are no more than 50 such space dragons, meaning only 50% of the complete population are ideally fitted for combat. What makes counting them very frustrating is their ability to completely change their appearance AND ability (with the help of the “water” dragons).
Their shape is adapted to the needs of combat, with large “wings” to dissipate heat and a compact body that houses all the vital parts. The name “space dragon” was clearly used with this variety in mind.

Water dragons are seen with any mayor gathering of red (fire) dragons. The best description we can give is they are the “medics” of the dragons. Their function comes close to our supply and maintenance corps, keeping the fighting force in perfect condition. Changing the shape seems to be a very strength-consuming effort, so almost no other dragon does so if no water dragon is near.
Their shape (if you can call it so) is that of a nebula, with only few dense mater. It is impossible to count them exactly, since we do not know if what we see is one big nebula or several smaller ones.

Earth dragons are similar to the “fire” variety, with the exception that they completely lack the ability to move on their own. Both on the surface of planets and in orbit or free space, they trade manoeuvrability for additional firepower. We can not preclude that they may be able to change into a moving variety, but strong indicators suggest that they either are not able or unwilling to do so. We are trying to confirm a thesis right now that defines them as dragons at the end of their life cycle (with the difficulties from constant change of individuals already mentioned).
They also resemble the fire dragons in shape if alone, with the habit of connecting into larger snowflake-like structures when close together. This makes them hard to count correctly, too.

Wind dragons are the least militaristic branch of the dragons. It is unlikely that they ever participate in any battle. They seem to transport population, resources, their “earth” brethren or troops of their slave races around. Since the dragons have a strong aVersion against ground combat (are they not trusting their slaves to perform well ?), troops are only used as peacekeeping forces when the battle is already over.
They look more like big fish than anything else. Although as able to change their shape as all other dragons, they seldom do. We estimate there are no more than 20 of this subspecies.

All this was confirmed by their own media reports, observations over the period of 1 year, and the interrogation of several captured slaves from Jolantha VII.

However, what is still a mystery to us is a very rare mentioned fifth variety of dragon:
We only know what these “black” dragons are NOT:
They have no military function whatsoever. Not once have we been able to see one of those. While the location of various other dragons, including strategically important ones, are openly transmitted by the news, the whereabouts of these black dragons are neither mentioned in the news nor known to our interrogated captives.
We first thought they were the immaterial “gods” of the dragons, but they are never revered. If anything fills that role, the “mother” comes close.
They are not the commanders, since every fleet of red dragons is almost independent from each other, and no overall high command is recognizable.
To sum it up, we do not know what this subspecies does. If the emperor will excuse this little yoke, we have a funny theory:

Maybe they are the storytellers ?