"Don't you think this'll all be seen? Why'd they decide for us to set up here?" his friend asked.

Stanley didn't know the answer to that. After the... incident, they had sailed west along the coast until the rainforest ended, at which point management decided to stop there to establish an onshore base of operations. Being one of the more skilled technicians, as well as having his luck, he was roped into setting up the network infrastructure for it.

Well, I guess we don't really have any better options, assuming we do actually need an onshore base in the first place. Do we?

Whatever. It's not my decision to make.

"I don't know," Stanley shrugged. "I mean, I figure there aren't any better options for the location, but beyond that, I don't know. I don't know why we need this place at all. At least they've put a lot of thought into defense so we're ready for... well, the inevitable."

"Heh, you got that right. We got enough guns and guys willing to shoot those guns to take on whatever the hell this place throws at us."

That was certainly true. InterCons had to be one of the most well-defended businesses the world had ever seen--both the world they had come from and certainly the one they were in now.

InterCons, on top of having well-armed and adequately trained private security officers, made an effort to turn every employee they could into an additional layer of security. The group offered bonuses to employees who carried their personally owned guns on the job, at least where that was possible, and provided advice to employees who were first-time gun buyers.

Easiest money I've ever made.

"Aight, that should be a good solid connection now," his friend said, closing the access panel. "So, what danger do these things, uhh... dragons, you said, pose anyway?"

"They're dragons. What dangers do you think they would pose?"

"Are they gonna breathe fire on us or sumtin'?"

"That's a distinct possibility. They could also breathe ice on or spit corrosive venom at us if we're talking about their ranged attacks. It depends on what tribe it is."

"What now? How'd we get to tribes? They got those?"

Stanley chuckled, picking up the tools they had been using. "If this place is similar enough to that book series I told you about, then yes."

"Ah, whatever. Can we shoot 'em?"

"I'd rather not. They're sentient, y'know. If they do attack us, though, it would be the first test of our weapons against them, and I'm feeling pretty good about how that'd go for us."

"Ain't we supposed to be able to talk to 'em at some point? That what the eggheads are doin' with that scroll they found?"

Stanley stopped to think. "Maybe..."

Information relating to the dragons and the current research into them wasn't technically classified, but very little information had been released about it, and what was released was very vague. That didn't stop rumors spreading across the fleet. Stanley had no idea whether they were true.

He was about to respond further when his radio interrupted him. "Stanley, could you go to building A3 to assist electrical in diagnosing an issue there? They need access to the information systems room but don't have a key."

Stanley fumbled to get his radio off of his belt before he said, "Roger," in response. He waited for several seconds for another reply before beginning to put the radio back on his belt.

"Also, it'd be good for you to stay with them while they work, both in case they need access to something again and to make sure they don't screw up any of our stuff," the radio erupted again.

Stanley sighed. "Roger." He turned to his friend and handed him the portion of their tools that he was carrying. "Well, I've got to go. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Aight, see ya then." His friend responded before heading off towards the cargo crane that had been set up to act as a makeshift elevator from the ground to the ships.

I still don't really trust that thing.

He turned back and tried to remember where A3 had been built--if hastily throwing together spare lumber and sheet metal was considered "building," anyway.

Ah, fuck it. I'll find it eventually.

He headed off down the dirt path towards where he thought it may be, the sun beginning to set in the sky.

Ten minutes later, he made it to the correct building, which had in fact been in the opposite direction of where he had gone first.

"Oh, there you are... finally," the first electrician says, giving Stanley an annoyed look.

"I was lost. My name's Stanley, by the way. What are you doing anyway?"

The second electrician beat the first to respond. "We're measuring a really damn high voltage drop from this outlet box to the one on the other side of y'all's room here. We think the wire in the conduit between two or more outlet boxes in there might be severely undersized, or there's a loose connection somewhere along the way."

"And I'm Michael, and he's Robert since he can't introduce himself, apparently."

"I was answering the important question, dammit!" Robert retorted.

"I'll unlock the door for y'all," Stanley interrupted before stepping over to the door and flipping through his keys.

"Thanks," Michael said.

Stanley got the door unlocked and opened it not all that easily--again, hasty construction by people whose jobs weren't in facilities construction. Michael and Robert walked in with Stanley following them.

"Alright, it's that conduit run on the ceiling, or one of them at least. Get the infrared sensor out." Michael said to Robert.

This just happened to be the room with the most conduit running through it. Stanley knew that A3 housed not only the makeshift server and switch setup here in this room, but also the generators and main switchgear that powered all the buildings. It was a logical choice for them to be in the same building, since reliable power was important for their systems, but it did make this room cluttered, especially since it occupied the entire eastern wall of the building.

All the electrical conduits that ran to the buildings to the east ran across the ceiling in here, and the conduits for the network cables running to the server cabinets along the back wall joined them.

At least it's not going to be my ass that this room is a pain in this time.

"Ah, I'm opening the window," Stanley said.

The room had a vent over the door to release the heat from the servers, but it was still hot as hell in it. The company's super high-tech ventilation solution for cooling the room off further was a window and a portable fan to set in it, which Stanley promptly switched on to its highest setting once he got the window open.

"Thanks again," Michael said to Stanley. "Do you see anything yet, Robert?"

"Yeah, that run there looks more like a hot water main than conduit," Robert replied, looking up at the aforementioned span of conduit with their handheld infrared camera.

Michael stepped over to the outlet box on the wall that that conduit, along with a few other spans, originated from and opened it. Apparently, the cover hadn't even been screwed on in the first place.

Michael grabbed his own radio after seeing what the problem was. "Alright boss, we're gonna have to shut off circuits E12 and E13 for a while. See who was assigned to wire those through the A3 information systems room or worked on them after, because the idiot got the wires for them the wrong way around."

Robert looped a clamp meter around one of the wires, which had severely discolored insulation at this point, and turned the screen to Michael.

Michael continued into the radio, "Yeah, I've got 12-gauge wire here that was supposed to be for E12--which I think is the outside receptacle circuit if I remember correctly--connected to the 6-gauge wire of E13 carrying about 44 amps at the moment."

The conversation began to bore Stanley as he listened to the response from Michael's supervisor.

"Affirmative. E13 just runs to another subpanel for exterior floodlights, so you can shut it off now. From my documentation, E12 should already be off--y'know, because it's allegedly too hard to see our receptacle boxes when diving a truck in broad daylight when they have fucking caution tape wrapped around them--but just check first, and don't let Robert work on it live even if he wants to."

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Yes sir," Michael smirked at Robert, who crossed his arms and rolled his eyes.

Michael put his radio back on his belt and grabbed his lockout tags. "Alright, I'll be back. You heard what he said, Robert... Actually, no, come with me."

"Sure. Damn pussy management with their safety bullshit," Robert said, following Michael.

Stanley was now alone in the room with nothing to do. He looked over to the electricians' tools and noticed the infrared camera.

Hmm.

He picked it up and started to point it around the room before settling on using it to look out the window at the now-dark landscape. There wasn't much to see out there--just a bunch of grass and a few trees and bushes, for the most part.

He did notice some figures in the distance at about 99 degrees.

Maybe it's a security patrol.

He looked with his own eyes.

Huh, I don't see any flashlights, so maybe not.

I don't remember seeing any herds of animals here before.

Wait...

=== A few days prior ===

Unrelenting was flying with the rest of Darkstalker's--King Darkstalker's--followers on their way to the old Night Kingdom. Well, at least she was before the entire group came to a stop in midair.

What happened?

Darkstalker, along with many other NightWings, was looking down towards the ground. She followed their gaze.

Wh- what on Pyrrhia is that?

Many large objects were floating--maybe even moving--on the water near the coast below. They were completely unrecognizable to her--and from the looks on the other dragons' faces, including Darkstalker's, completely unrecognizable to them as well.

Darkstalker in particular was looking down with what seemed to be both intense curiosity and severe annoyance, even grumbling something to himself.

After a long moment of inaction, Darkstalker shouted at one of the dragons carrying fruit for the feast they were going to have. "You there! Toss me ten bananas!"

The dragon looked confused but obliged. One Darkstalker had the bananas, he looked down at them in concentration. Then, he looked up and pointed at several dragons, including Unrelenting.

"You ten! I have enchanted these bananas to make any NightWing that holds one of them invisible to anyone other than a NightWing. I have more urgent matters to attend to at the moment, so I cannot investigate whatever all that is. However, I do not want to leave a potential threat floating so close to our kingdom uninvestigated, so I am assigning you all to monitor it for me.

"You will watch them for a few days or until something of interest happens, then report back to me in our new kingdom. Hold one of the bananas while you investigate to remain hidden. I'm terribly sorry that you will not be able to see our kingdom in its glory today and enjoy the feast like the rest here will be able to, but this is necessary. Do you understand your assignment?"

"Yes, Your Majesty," Unrelenting and the other nine responded.

"And you," Darkstalker said, pointing a talon at Unrelenting. "You lead them."

Me?

"Y-yes, Your Majesty."

"Go now, then," Darkstalker ordered, and they did. Darkstalker then proceeded with the rest of his NightWings towards the Night Kingdom.

The ten NightWings assigned this task slowly made their way to the ground, bananas in hand, and discussed their newfound mission.

"Why'd he choose Bananas?" one of them asked.

"Because he didn't have anything better to enchant, of course," Unrelenting responded, rolling her eyes.

"Oh, I guess that's true. So, uhh, what's everyone's name? Mine's Brilliant."

"Oh, that's an oxymoronic one, I can already tell. My name is Celestial."

"Darkclaws."

"I'm Viperslayer."

Unrelenting was about to state her own, but Celestial interrupted to respond to Viperslayer. "Oooh, so are you going to keep us all safe from those dragonbite vipers?"

Viperslayer only glared at Celestial, so Unrelenting made her second attempt. "My name is Unrelenting."

"Ah, our great and fearless leader," Celestial once again interjected.

Yeah, and you're our celestially-sized bitch, it seems. Just shut up already.

The remainder of the dragons--Courageous, Thunderclaws, Merciless, Venturous, and Revenge--all introduced themselves, with a few more remarks from Celestial, annoyingly.

They landed about a 15-minute walk from the shore and settled down on a hill to observe these strange things from afar.

"Why don't we go over there now since we're invisible anyway?" Merciless asked.

"For one," Unrelenting said, gesturing towards Merciless' feet with a wing for emphasis, "our tracks would still be visible. There'd be footprints in the grass right where we would be standing. Two, we wouldn't be able to talk to each other without being heard if we were close, and three, there might be some other danger we don't know about yet near them. We have to watch first."

"Well, how long is this going to take?" Viperslayer interjected, looking towards the ocean at the strange floating objects that didn't seem to be doing anything.

"I don't know," Unrelenting responded. "At the moment, it looks like it might be a while."

"Well, I don't want to go hungry like we did on the island," Viperslayer said, the rest of them nodding in agreement. "What are we going to eat while we're just sitting around here?"

Unrelenting thought for a moment, but Courageous offered her own idea first.

"The rainforest is still close by," she said, nodding in its direction. "Why don't we just send someone over there every day or so to get fruit and bring it back here for all of us to eat? That way, most of us can bore ourselves watching those things without having to worry about getting food."

"Yeah, we can do that. Thanks, Courageous," Unrelenting replied.

"What about water?" Viperslayer asked.

Unrelenting scanned their immediate area. "There," she announced, extending a wing towards the base of the hill opposite the coast. "There's a pond down there we can drink from."

"I'd call that more of a muddy puddle than a pond," Celestial commented.

"Well, it's what we have. Viperslayer, since you brought up food, do you want to be the first to go to the rainforest and gather some?" Unrelenting suggested, turning to him.

"Sure. It beats sitting around doing nothing like some RainWing." He wasted no time in taking off towards the rainforest.

The rest of them sat or laid down to carry out their mission, as exciting as it was.

As it turned out, it would get much more exciting over the next few hours.

Unrelenting couldn't find the words to describe what saw that afternoon, and it didn't seem like the others could either, which evidently frustrated Viperslayer when he returned with their fruit.

"Just tell me what I missed. It can't be that complicated," he insisted.

"Well... Uhm..." Unrelenting tried to start again, taking a break from eating the mango she had been given.

I don't even know how to explain that to myself.

Alright, fine. If he wants an explanation, I'll give him one, even if neither of us understands a single part of it.

"Those big things floating on the water out there," she started, "they released smaller things that floated up the coast. And ya' wanna know what got out of them?"

"What did?" he asked, glancing at the coast and then back to her.

"Scavengers... A lot of scavengers. They started swarming over the coast and inland. I have no idea what they were doing and why they came out of those things. They eventually went back into the big floating things a little while before you got back," Unrelenting explained.

"Huh?" Viperslayer's jaw hung open as he looked back and forth between the coast and Unrelenting, before looking over at the others.

"It's true," Darkclaws commented, nodding. "You know as much about it as we do now, so don't bother asking more. None of us can wrap our heads around it."

Viperslayer shook his head and walked over to the far side of the hill where he could set down the banana without being seen. "I'm going to go to sleep. You can have some sort of night watch, but it won't be me after getting the fruit," he said, coiling himself up on the ground.

Fair enough.

"He brings up a good point. We need to establish shifts here. Darkclaws, Courageous, and I will stay up tonight to watch," she announced, earning groans from the other two. "The rest of you can go to sleep when you're done eating."

As the day faded to dusk, they first noticed that these weird objects were even weirder--they produced light.

It wasn't like they were illuminated by fire. No. This alien light was too bright and steady to be fire. Even weirder was that sometimes sections of it would illuminate or go out instantly.

This has to be some sort of animus creation.

But by who?

King Darkstalker and that SeaWing, Anemone, were the only ones she knew existed.

He'll know what to do when we report back to him.

Unrelenting had noticed that she felt somewhat differently--mentally, not physically--after she had been given the banana, but she brushed it off.

Maybe that's just what holding an enchanted object feels like.

Other than the weird light the objects were giving off, nothing eventful happened that night. Come morning, Unrelenting slumped onto the ground and fell asleep easily, despite the sun beginning to shine down on her.

She would, however, come to regret giving herself the first night watch soon.

"Unrelenting, wake up! Look at this!" Someone was trying to wake her up.

She groaned. "What?"

"The scavengers are back--"

"If they're doing the same thing they did before, I don't need to see it again," Unrelenting interrupted with a sigh, rolling over to face away from the other dragon.

"But they're not! They've got more... things. Different things!"

Unrelenting finally opened her eyes and looked back to see it was Thunderclaws talking to her.

"What do you mean?" she asked groggily. She shook her head, trying to wake up.

"You just have to see!" he said before scurrying up to the top of the hill where the others--the others who got to sleep that night--were.

She followed, leaving Darkclaws and Courageous where they were. When she reached the top of the hill, she once again saw something she would struggle to describe if she had to.

Wha- just what? What is happening?

The scavengers had some sort of larger creatures with them now. She could hear them making faint growling noises even though they were a considerable distance away. The dragons continued to watch the scene over the day, the looks on their muzzles growing no less incredulous as time went on.

Are they building something?

As that day went on, as well as the next, the answer to that question became clearer and clearer: yes. The scavengers and their weird, rumbling beasts were, in fact, building something.

Once again, the only explanation Unrelenting--or any of them, for that matter--could come up with was that all this was the result of some animus enchantment. She didn't know why an animus would want to do this, but it was the only thing that could explain any of this.

These objects were beyond what she knew dragons could construct.

They behaved in ways beyond what she thought possible.

The scavengers acted in ways they were never known to.

Perhaps we will investigate them closer tonight and report back to King Darkstalker tomorrow.

They could do that, of course, once they had something to fill their stomachs.

Where is that moons-blasted bitch?

Celestial was supposed to be back with fruit by that evening, but the sun was already starting to set. Unrelenting scanned the skies to the east but saw no sign of her.

She grumbled to herself in frustration and hunger.

After a while, she walked over to where the others were.

Wait.

This isn't everybody.

"Where are Brilliant, Revenge, and Viperslayer?" she urgently asked the dragons that were there.

"Uhh, I don't know. They said they were going down to the pond to drink a little while ago." Thunderclaws shrugged. "By the way, did you see any sign of Celestial coming back with the food? We're starving."

Unrelenting looked down and, sure enough, saw that they weren't at the pond. "Well, they're not there. Where are--"

There they are, dammit.

She saw them slowly making their way towards the coast...

To where the scavengers were.

And there's only one reason they'd be doing that.