Dragons

''The first dragons were as deaf and dumb as the trees before the Awakening. Except, unlike the trees, one could use a dragon'' The dragons were built by the dwarves. They had their names before the dwarves had theirs. Originally rough constructs built with limited use of nano-metal (or living metal, as it came to be called), the flying defense systems were modeled on old Earth legends that had managed to survive the years. Piloted both by people and as unmanned vehicles, depending on the size and terrain.

As the years went on, the dwarves settled in to their mountain caves and strongholds, they honed the dragons, upgrading both design and means of operation. Fewer and fewer were manned. Drones too, were replaced. Rudimentary AI were installed, then upgraded. Eventually, the AI became sophisticated enough that the dragons were nearly self aware. And then one became aware. It used the links between its programming and the control center to take control of the dragons stationed around one of the dwarven mountains and left, vanishing into the wilds where few lived.

After that, the programmers purposely crippled the AI before installing, leaving the dragons little more than animals. They were used again as guards, but kept closer to the the mountain cities and mines. Some were set to guard leftover tech from before the wars. Other to guard the new tech being made by the dwarves for the occasional Changed who returned to Underhill. One day, a dragon returned to the city that had lost their flight to the AI. It was maddened, self-destructive, and once the programmers and engineers managed to contain and de-power it, they realized what had happened. It was one of the lost flight, and it had gotten too close to one of the Soul Graveyards. A shattered mind, confused and unaware of what had happened to it.

The dwarves realized they had an opportunity on their hands. After they managed to reverse the process of the mind entering the dragon, they built more proto-AI dragons, using more and more nano-metal for greater movement, and offered their bodies to certain people whose knowledge or skills needed to be preserved, although their bodies were failing. A new flight was created, of reborn people, dwarves and other leftover changed alike, that could stand guard and carry out the more complicated tasks that the original true-AI dragon was meant for. Including leaving the atmosphere and returning to the ships and satellites left in orbit over the planet.