Overprotective (1) (Patreon)

As the major determinant of dragon status in the Corps was the size and beauty of one's crew, dragons tended to treat their more attractive female crew as particularly precious jewels. To the dragons' way of thinking, a beautiful female crew would attract more male crew members eager to seek a mate, and thus swell a dragon's ranks. Plus, the more attractive breeding females, the more chance of children which would become attached to long-lived dragons in the next generation. In fact, many dragons became amateur experts in "human husbandry," studying and appraising their crew for signs of health and fertility like large breasts, wide hips, and so on.

While ensuring dragon loyalty and interest in the outcome of the war, the dragons' predilection for viewing their female crew as valuable "collectibles" had the distressing side effect of dragons sometimes becoming overprotective of some of their crew when fighting. Some dragons developed the distressing habit of coiling themselves protectively around aviators in the midst of a firefight, sometimes spoiling their shot and often limiting their combat effectiveness. In rare cases, dragons were even known to grab their crew and beat a hasty retreat, if they felt their prized women overly threatened, abandoning their comrades in the midst of a battle. Given that once this happened, the Corps would respond by forcibly reassigning the crew of the jealous dragon, dragon captains were constantly trying to stamp out any signs of dragon overprotectiveness.