Maddox

The captain of an exploration ship from the Sol System, Maddox and his crew had been sent to investigate strange energy readings from a planet in the Draco Sector. When they reached their mission, Maddox found his ship under attack by an amorphous dark energy. All the weapons fire they could put into seemed to only make it stronger, and soon the dark cloud attacked the ship, draining power even as helmsman Lieutenant Nantais tried to evade the all-surrounding dark thing.

Forced to abandon ship, Maddox and several members of his bridge crew plus a science officer and an ambassdor survived on an escape ship that was crashed on the planet below by continued attack by the dark energy.

Waking up on the escape ship's bridge, Maddox's first feeling was being huge. The captain's chair that had once perfectly fit six feet of human man seemed to have only his rear in it. And his head banged into the ceiling whenever he tried to move. His great size left him stuck on the bridge and responding only by roars to the sound of his crew, having come around from the crash trying to free him. Between himself and Dr. Garrison, Maddox managed to tear himself out of the ship, shocked by the strength of his claws even as he escaped the bridge in a fissure from the crash widened by the crew.

Meeting a tiny local woman named Selira, Maddox was quickkly informed of vital information by her and his crew. Namely, they had somehow been turned into the various local races on this planet, a world called Sornieth. Leading his no-longer-human crew, Maddox managed to find an empty cave, hollowed out and surprisingly livable. Selira declared it a "Fine place for a lair, Imperial."

And so the crew fights to survive on a world that despite being inhabited by what would otherwise seem like monsters, is more civilized than expected. But unfortunately, nowhere near advanced enough to repair a FTL ship.

And Eric is far from thrilled, already towering above his crew's new races, because based on what Selira told him, he's learned two disturbing facts. One, he's not even done growing. Two, he's a teenager.
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Captain's Log: Day 7 - Relying on our native guide Selira, myself and the surviving members of my crew have managed to bind our wounds the hole up in an empty cave system. According to Selira, it's an abandoned lair, outgrown by a previous clan. Further enthusiastic questioning by Lieutenant Snowblue established that "clans" are the dominant social unit for the Sorniethans, with the only apparent association seemingly above being a Sorniethan's "flight." Whereas lairs are the home of a clan. Most clans are apparently loyal to one flight, though me and my crew seem to have been associated with multiple "elements" among the flights since the transformation.

Have gotten longer and heavier since the crash, but healing. Current guess, based on comparing my new body to the escape ship, is a current head to tail length of about 22 meters. Myself and Harmeer have been identified by Selira as being adolescents of what races we have joined, ones that apparently have a far longer maturation period than most of the other dragon races.

Apparently this is also true about our Avril unit, who Selira says will grow by sevearl thousand more kilograms over the next two weeks. The territory we are in is called the Ashfall Waste, specifically a subsection known as the Great Furnace near a tectonically active area, within an entire area of tectonic and volcano activity. Supposedly this area is under the dominion of the planet's fire deity, a goddess figure called the Flamecaller. Looking at the land, it's not hard to see why the natives think so.

We went out for water and food today, being re-assured by Selira that despite her own dress and wing armor, it wouldn't be looked oddly for us to not be wearing the local's clothing. However Emmitt salvaged a great pile of his dressing robes from the escape ship and has managed to work them into clothing over his thick fur. Selira says apparel can be gained at the marketplace. Braving the Sornieth civilization will be our next mission.
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Captain's Log: Day 12 - After spending several days gathering food off the land and building up supplies, myself and several members of the crew headed for a local marketplace seeking and supplies. I am still growing as of this evening, almost 23 and a half meters. There has to be a point where this stops. Harmeer and our AVRIL unit are also still growing. At least the marketplace has clothing all the way from the size for Selira to well, me. Though there seemed to be very little shock at our undressed state when we walked to the marketplace (none of us have been willing to try our wings yet).

The sheer length of my new body means the vest I bought is a crop top but at least the pants fit and the satchel compensates for having to be on all fours to walk. The seller recommended linen wraps since both growing and walking on my hands is making my arms, front legs, hurt. My shockingly short legs. Lieutenant Nantais is much smaller but her new race is similar enough. According to Selira, the races myself and Nantais have joined were created by the same deity, the "Lightweaver." Snowblue is noting there seems to be a 1 to 1 ratio of the apparent "elements" that every Sorniethan seems to have from birth and the gods of their pantheon.

And these elements may be more than just the eyes, as I have noticed a color goes with each element and flight. There was a section at the marketplace that Selira discouraged us from walking through. The area was just labeled "Battle."
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Captain's Log: Day 140 - It has been months since I bothered with this, as our crew has grown a bit with Harmeer and Enya having children and most of us settling in as Sorniethans. With no apparent sign of rescue though we are still checking when we can, returning to the escape ship and checking for missed hails.

Nothing. I can only assume if any search was conducted, the wreckage of the capital ship was detected in the region of the Shade itself, and believed lost with all hands aboard. Never mind if rescue does come, would we even be able to identify ourselves to the other Fleet officers? Would they understand us? I've played back my captain's logs and while I understand them, I asked the computer to transcribe and it couldn't.

But the real thing that inspired this log entry was while I was bickering again with Aster when we traveled to visit with her parents and her birth clan. Rai mentioned a nearby clan of migrants from the Labyrinth had settled near them in the Hewn City and recently experienced a death in the clan, an elderly Imperial dragon had died. The discussion made several other Imperials in Rai's clan nervous and Orius expressed the wish that the body had been properly handled.

I asked what they meant and the gathering got very quiet. Finally, it was Onyxborn, Aster's mother, who said it, "You've never heard of," she whispered it, like saying it too loud would bring one, "Emperors?"

And so here I am, ridiculously, half my body on the escape ship's bridge making a log entry. Computer, please attach research notes document "Emperor" to this log entry. I would say it's just their local superstitions and myths, except that I traveled with Orius and Glow as close as they dared to the remaining destruction left by one. Among many other adjustments on this new world, this one might be the most alarming, as before Aster and I left, they shared with me Imperial death rituals, and the warning that while it might be okay, since none of my crew are other Imperials, when I die make sure Harmeer and the crew do it properly.
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Captain's Log - We've had another marriage and more children added to our crew. I've known Emmitt since I was a cadet and felt honored to perform a marriage ceremony even if our human concept of marraige doesn't seem to fully translate on Sornieth.

Close enough though, as Emmitt and Payakai are now married and had eggs, which have now produced Paylon, Jeffrey, and Arlia Garrison. I can almost get down to Emmitt and Paya's eye level if I lay flat and drop down half my neck and they aren't small dragons.

I was watching Paya tending them when they just hatched, three balls of fluff and I saw Aster staring at them too and remembered the scrying the Water dragon Abresa from the large old clan nearby did, showing Aster predictions of the children she'd have if they were my kids. And though what I know now about Imperials and Emperors is scary, most of the children we'd have would be Pearlcatchers like her, right? That's what Selira says, that I'd have to marry another Imperial, a Coatl or a Wildclaw. And definitely not interested in marrying my own executive officer's daughter regardless.