Editing Deployment of Ascalon (section)

== Aftermath ==
Immediately, all Dragon craft that were currently on a mission went into standby mode, becoming effectively grounded with the loss of all of Dragon's subsystems. The delay that resulted from the Azazel units being grounded allowed Jack to enter Ellisburg and contact [[Nilbog]].

Defiant immediately contacted Saint and demanded to know what he had done, swearing to kill him. Saint and Defiant argued, with Saint insulting the relationship between Defiant and Dragon. Saint then contacted Teacher and informed him that "the dragon is slain" while Defiant assumed direct command of the [[Dragon's Teeth]]<ref name=":0" />. Defiant remained silent on the issue, although Weaver was able to infer that something serious had happened to Dragon by the unusual level of emotion in Defiant's voice<ref>[[Sting 26.4]]</ref>.

Saint assumed control of many of Dragon's primary systems and communications infrastructure with Dobrynja and Mags being assigned to monitor some of the smaller-scale AIs. Because of this, most people only assumed that Dragon had suffered a momentary setback for an unknown reason. However, Saint's control over Dragon's systems would result in catastrophe over the coming days in the wake of the opening hours of the [[Gold Morning]]. He would also fail to provide Azazel support during the [[Nilbog's creatures vs. the Protectorate|battle between Nilbog's&nbsp;creatures and&nbsp;the Protectorate]].

A report from [[Dinah Alcott]] indicated that while the overall casualty estimate for the next three days had increased, the world-ending chance had decreased. Similarly, the chance of success in the day's operation had tripled. Dinah did not, however, know the reason why.<ref name=":0" />
<!--possibly tied to saint being willing to contact nortons successor-->