Iron dragons are the main class of Ephlangar fighters.
Seven hundred years ago, the first iron dragon was created. The Ephlangar were jealous of the great works of technology devised by the Veliphlan, and wanted their own kind of space fighting machine. This machine was designed to look and move like robotic dragon, piloted by the best pilots of Ephlan. The very look of it on a battlefield should strike terror into the hearts of any enemy. This first one however did not work out so well. The joints were slow and had almost no articulation (or strength), the only weapons it had were mages inside who couldn't see due to there only being windows in the eyes, and to top it all off as soon as it left atmosphere the entire crew was sucked out of the tiny cracks in the joints that opened the interior of the ship to the vacuum of space. This discouraged many, but the Ephlangar would not take a hint give up so easily.
Luckily for the Heliphlein mages, Iron Dragon Technology (and they deny that it was due to stealing top mechanical designers in the Veliphlan division) has greatly improved. The Ephlangar have come up with dozens of tricks in the area of robotic technology to make the ships not only effective, but safe to fly in. Compact reinforcements along the joints allow them to move freely without breaking or letting the crew be exposed to the vacuum of space. Reinforcements and compounding of leverage over several gears allow the jaws to be able to bite through black platinum (although it would certainly damage the jaws beyond repair if it actually tried), and mechanics along all parts of the body allow it to move with the speed and grace of a falcon. In essance, they have created a powerful metal animal, with everything but a ind, or life, of it's own.
The dragon flied by having several anti-gravity fields on it's wings allowing the beast to tell downward forces no. Coupled with gravity pocket guns and other forms of artificial gravity projections, the hulking metal beast can fly with with grace and speed. Also, it's nearly impenetrable hide (as well as pretty much all of the rest of the body) of osigrandium allows it to be light enough to fly without it's weight being hindered, and the Ephlangar military boasts that it is more likely for the mages flying inside the ship to be shaken to death by the ship taking damage. Unfortunately this proved true during a freak accident when a comet came from outside the Aserical shadow and hit a patrolling Dragon. The ship took no damage, but most of the crew came out with serious injuries. One of them died instantly (he was also the only one not wearing his restraints at the time of impact) and one died a few days later in the hospital.
As far as weaponry goes, the newer designs of Iron Dragons can rely on more than just their teeth and claws. Artificial windows in the sides of the beast have been made through spellcasting areas of the osigrandium, making it transparent, but only to one side. Now magicians can sit in their well secured seats and cast spells from behind their safe wall of osigrandium. The windows will activate in the presence of a magical of emotion based magic, such as a Heliphlein, Paxan, or Aliskane. The dragons have also been fitted (mostly in the mouth) with Ephlangar Blood Capsule Launchers (Blood capsules being the projectiles filled with Heliphlein blood taken while feeling a specific emotion), so even a not so skilled mage can pilot the beast and fire magical projectiles at people.
The look of the dragon is essentially a small, slender robotic dragon. The interior contains a hallway that in most models is only about five and a half feet tall, and has two rows of five or six seats apice, there is barely room in front of each seat to walk, not to mention that immediately after take off the seats move forward to the windows. Comfort was not in the planning for the interior of the ship. The most comfortable seating would have to be the cockpit, where after taking a climb through a narrow hatch like tunnel through the neck, you reach the head. Most of the front-top portion of the head is treated with the transparency magic, and it allows the pilot's area, a place where there's is only enough room for him (or her) to see everything the dragon would see. Couple that with some rear view detection articles, and you have a super sensory being magical metal.
Not all Iron Dragons are this tiny though. Some are even tinyer, but some are slightly bigger as well. None of them would be convenient places to fight inside, and that leaves them at a disadvantage if someone teleports in. However, I'm pretty sure that would leave the teleporter at a disadvantage as well. Well, there you have it. I don't think I forgort about anything, but hey, all the paragraphs have four lines. look at that! Anyway, thanks for reading.
