Sonja watched as the dragon moved though the clouds mind whirring with thoughts. She faced all kinds of dinos on Ark, but dragons? Fucking dragons? That was not on her list for anything. Up until recently she thought that they were a myth. Seeing one for the first time was a sight though. Even from this distance she could make out green scales and a pale under belly. It would be quite the hunt and trophy.

"How do we fight that thing?" Ashley yelled. "Kuso it's big,"

"I have no idea," Shepard smiled, her fangs bared before she came back to her senses. "Noe now," she muttered to herself before yelling. "Joker, keep this speed an hight, let's see if it ignores us,"

Joker gave a grunt in the affirmative while Garrus and Jack moved to the ships turrets and kept their eyes on the dragon as it flew in the distance. Laira moved up to Sonja, her eyes not moving from the dragon in the distance.

"I'm not super familiar wit human mythology, but what's a dragon?" she asked.

"Well depends if we are talking about Asian or European dragons, but in a sense, they are fire breathing lizards," the commander shrugged. "And that's the traditional view,"

Tali gulped. "T…traditional view?" she asked.

"We have fantasy books, novels and games where dragons' breath something other than fire," Miranda answered. "Asian ones, for example, breathe water. But other breath acid, larva, rock, poison, ice…. And other elements,"

Both Liara and Tali went pale at the sounds of that with the latter squeaking 'oh'. "Those are fictional types," Zaeed said. "They're not likely going to be bloody real,"

"That we know of," Samara added.

The merc nodded and conceded the point. Sonja agreed as well. While a larva breathing dragon may sound fun on paper, it may not exist. But the others would. Given the fact that whoever, or whatever, ran the Ark had re-created dinosaurs from several different time periods anything was possible. So the dragon in front of them could very well be a poison breathing dragon who could turn them all into sludge. That was not a risk she was wiling to take until she had gotten more information about the threat in the area.

After a few more moments, the dragon left and after several minutes the team breathed a sigh of relief. "Ok keep an eye out, we don't want to get attacked," the others nodded and moved.

OOOOO

Oriana looked around at the village after Lilith and the others had cleaned it all up. With the dead and survivors gathered up, Alenko was taking stock on the resources he had to look after the survivors and bury the dead. Oriana was tasked with one of the other soldiers to get a look around Ironton to see about the damage and any available resources. The soldier, Ricktor, had done the same thing for several years so acted as her guide to point out. But to both of their surprise, the damage done was very little. It seemed that the bandits had been targeting people and doing as little damage to the buildings as possible.

"Why do you think that is?" Oriana asked.

Ricktor shrugged. "Not sure, normally, bandits destroy the villages to deny the people they attack a way to recover quickly so that they can escape,"

Oriana nodded at that. It made some sense. It was a form of asset denial with the added benefit of pursuit denial. But why didn't they do it here? Why didn't they tear down the settlement? As they ventured further into the mining sector of the settlement, they spotted more bodies that had yet to be picked up. The two of them examined them, but found nothing unusual. Bullet wounds and blade slashes were clear across their bodies, but Oriana frowned as she stood and began to look at the bodies around her.

Something felt off, wrong. As she took a step back, she saw what her subconscious was telling her she missed, what she didn't see but was obvious.

"They were shot from behind…." She muttered as began to move around the edges of the bodies and entrance picturing what could have happened. What did happen.

"Ricktor," she said making the soldier look up to her. "Does Scaled fang have any mining equipment? Like… I dunno drills?"

He paused but nodded. "Yeah, I mean they take a few resources to make but largely yes. It's a good trade as you get more resources for them,"

She nodded as she followed on with that train of thought. "What about other factions? Other groups?"

"I would assume that they would," he nodded. "But it would depend on how big their industry is. We, the Scaled Fang, have about…." He closed his eyes as he did some mental calculations. "500,000 across 25 settlements. And we are considered to be a medium sized nation,"

Again, she nodded as she took all the information in. "So, would it be possible for bandits to acquire a drill?"

He looked from her to the mine entrance and cocked his weapon. "Oh yes," he muttered before grabbing his radio. "Blade 3-6 to blade 3-1, we have a possible entrance for where the bandits came from,"

"Copy, sending Lilith and three more to join you," the scratchy voice of Alenko replied.

The scratching of his voice made Oriana wince as she was reminded how backwards this world was. Sure, they had computers, but they were too resource intensive to make and were complex. Very few could be made. But things like radios and tanks could be. Likely due to the fact that they didn't need much computing. But that didn't equal to quality. They were stuck in a world that forced them to use early 20th century tech.

No cars, no phones, nothing digital. From what she had heard, not even nuclear weapons were available which was something of a positive. But also negative as any group had to stick with fossil fuels and steam. It was an odd situation at best, but it was what they had to deal with. Lilith and two other soldiers made it up to them, rifles in hand. Shepard looked around and nodded towards Oriana.

"I see what you mean," Lilith said as she took the lead into the mine with Oriana and Ricktor followed.

One thing that Oriana somewhat noted is that unlike during World War 1 or 2, almost everyone used assault rifles similar to that of the AK 47 rather than bolt action rifles. Modern style of warfare mixed with older styles such as cavalry and dinosaurs. It was weird, but something she needed to adjust to. Turning on lights, the mine brightened as the group of five moved down the entrance way. As they moved deeper and deeper into the mine, something started to feel off again.

She pulled out her pistol and got a nod from Lilith as they moved on until they reached a junction. Spreading around the five moved to check the footprints on the floor, trying to get a feeling from where they came from. After a few moments they picked a passage but Lilith didn't look convicted. Oriana moved up to her and whispered.

"Something wrong," she quietly asked.

"This doesn't feel right, something feels… off," Lilith muttered.

Oriana nodded as they moved further down. They continued for another hour before finding nothing. Lilith called for a halt and raised her hand.

"Ok, we're leaving like that to there," she said as she turned to the group. "Let's head back,"

The group nodded as they turned but Oriana didn't. Instead, she moved further up. and reached out. Her hand passing though a hologram.

"Lilith," she called and brough the group back who looked in shock at the glowing blue circle around Oriana's arm.

Lilith reached out and pushed her hand though the hologram as well. The two looked at each other before pushing though, entering a sun lit campsite followed by the others.

"What the fuck?" Lilith muttered as she turned and looked around. "This shouldn't…" she moved into one of the tents to see a generator which sections that glowed blue. "What the fuck?"

It took about 4 hours until the area was cleared and secure with Scaled fang troopers creating a 1-mile perimeter around the camp. They quickly cut down several trees and set up watch towers with overlapping lanes of fire in case anyone got close. Snipers and machine gunners were set at the top keeping an eye out.

Given the situation a member of the Council of Fangs, an Asari by the name of Ki'ani, was there to oversee the situation. While the others of the Scaled Fang wore green, she wore a white coat indicating her scientific and engineer position on the council. While the troopers moved equipment to the main sight while she looked over the tech. She, like a few odd Asari, was a native to Ark.

Ki'ani was a rare breed on Ark. Unlike her Asari sister, she was always interested in science and technology and stories of outside Ark. That brought her to science and technology in order to improve life on Ark. But seeing it working, her mind buzzed with activity and possibilities. Anything more complex than a diesel engine, other than computers, couldn't be built due to a suppression field that prevented them from working. But now? Now she practically salivated over the glowing blue technology in front of her.

But she was here to see why it worked. Not recreate it, at least not yet. She looked at the devices and took pictures of them. Making notes, making diagrams. Getting all the information she could before she would pull them apart. As she worked Alenko walked in.

"Having fun, councillor?" he asked.

"A lot," she smiled as she finished a sketch and looked up. "But that's not what you are here for, right?"

He nodded as he let the flap to the tent fall. "The other Councillors want the tech to be removed as quickly as possible and brought to Ryozanpaku. They also want us to go after the bandits and find their base,"

"I don't disagree," she nodded. "But it is going to take time to get everything readied up,"

Alenko nodded. "How long?"

"Another 12 hours at least," she replied with him groaning. "Sorry, but you, among others, know how important this is to us and how complicated how it's going to take apart,"

Alenko nodded. "Doesn't mean I cannot moan about at least,"

Ki'ani chuckled. "Fair," she nodded. "I cannot argue that. Would any of you team like to help out?"

"I'm sure Abby would, she's the engineer," he muttered. "I'll go grab her," he left and sighed thinking about how Tali might have liked to do this.

He shook his head and continued on. But think about that young Quarrian only made him think about how much he missed the Normandy and the crew. He wasn't sure what became of them, but hoped that they killed Saren and survived. Being left to detonate the bomb and 'dying' at the scene wasn't the best way to 'die', but it wasn't the worst. At least it was quick until he found himself here.

Unlike Ashley, he wasn't a religious person. But being in this hell did make him think that there was something out there, until he got to know the place. He shook his head and wondered how Ashely would react to this place, or Tali, or any of the others. A sense of nostalgia filled him as he made his way to the others. He smiled as he took a seat inside the tent his platoon had set up. They ignored him as they chatted and cooked food.

He chuckled before grabbing some food for himself before looking up. "Abby, the…" he didn't manage to finish that comment as an explosion shook the camp.

Military training kicking in, they ran out to see an explosion in the distance. "Shit," Alenko muttered.