Twelve days north of hopeless and a few degrees south of freezing to death, is the location of a cluster of large isles. These are the Isles of Maria. They harbour what is assumed to be the last of mankind, as man-eating monsters known as titans brought them close to extinction. To escape these nightmares of the mainland, the ten-thousand or so humans fled to the ocean and sailed in steamboats where the titans could not follow. They found the isles and made settlements there. And soon, after seven generations, a small thriving town survived. The humans worked together, making plans in which to fight back against titans and wipe them off the face of the Earth. However, another group of strange and advanced creatures existed in this world, and visited the Isles of Maria very often, much to the dismay of the humans. They were known as the dragons.
Four-legged beasts, covered in a soft downy fur and armed with huge talons and colossal feathered wings, stood taller than any human on average. Their sizes and shapes varied somewhat as did their colour pallets, but if you were to imagine one, you would see a slender creature with feathered feet and a long neck. The head is oval shaped and dons two long pointed ears that often give away what the beast is thinking. They harbour two more sets of 'wings'; a pair at the base of the tail, behind the hind legs and a final pair at the end of the tail. This particular pair help control the steering in flight and will be an important aspect later in the story. Speaking of flight, these dragons are masters of it, and no one is more in danger then when facing one ten or so metres above ground.
The dragons were considered not much better than titans by the humans, as every now and then, a horde of them would invade the town at night and attack. The first time it happened, nearly a hundred people were stolen. These dragons kidnapped helpless humans and flew away with them, across the sea, lost forever. The humans tried desperately to save their own, and sailed after the dragons in hopes of rescuing them. But the dragons vanished into a fog, infested with jagged rocks that shredded the boats as the dragons picked off more and more humans for the taking. The humans had no choice but to retreat, and leave the dragons' nest in peace.
It may have seemed bleak for humanity; titans on the mainland, dragons on the isles. But the humans were clever and determined not to be beaten. And so, to defend against the dragons of the isles, soldiers were born and raised to fight. They wielded dual blades and fought in a complex device called 3D Manoeuvre Gear. It was the brilliant mind and the undying will of humans that allowed them to create huge workshops that would produce the gas and metal while causing minimum damage to the environment. This gear allowed the soldiers to swing and jump from house to house at speed and fire themselves into the air where the dragons roamed. There, the soldiers would be able to strike the dragons down with their swords, either instantly killing or critically injuring them. Either way, the dragon wouldn't survive. Actually hitting the dragons was another matter, however. These beasts owned the sky and quickly adapted to evade attacks and strike the soldiers down instead, leaving them disemboweled or limbs almost severed. Dragon fighting is a dangerous task. Defending the island was a job most soldiers could do. Any more work than that, and it was a job only for the best. Soldiers who proved themselves worthy formed a large, elite squad called the Wings of Freedom. Almost every soldier aspired to be one. The Wings of Freedom were the only people qualified to set sail and explore the mainland, away from the safety of the ocean. This would be to survey the area and make tactical plans to take the land back from the titans. When they weren't doing this, they were trying to infiltrate the dragons nest and destroy it in hopes of making the Isles of Maria completely safe for humans.
At some point, someone thought that it would be a good idea to capture dragons alive to study them further and then use the healthy survivors in training for the new recruits and those still learning. A special net was designed to do the job. It had three corners and was wrapped around the soldier's torso. A mechanism was added to the 3D Manoeuvre Gear that allowed the soldier to launch the net at a flying dragon and capture it. The net, though small, was enough to immobilize a dragon's wings and most of its legs, and would send it crashing to the ground. The soldier would then finish the job by making sure the dragon was secure. Long ropes still attached to the soldier on one end and the now restrained dragon on the other, would be launched to wrap tightly around the beast further to keep human injuries to an absolute minimum. After that, the capture was a success and the dragons, when not simply slaughtered, would be taken away to be examined and sent to heavily fortified stables in the forest.
A world full of titans and dragons really seems against the survival of humanity, and if it weren't for the second thoughts of a particular soldier, mankind wouldn't likely have made it.
