Dragon Girl in her Natural Habitat

Yangtze River
1 hour away from Nanjing, China

Two weeks of flying left Xia hungry and exhausted, as she made her way back home to her rural home town by following the waters of the mighty Yangtze River, over the 3 Gorges Dam and towards that quiet rural town she was raised in. She had no possessions on her, as she had left her phone- the cause for all those alien attacks- back on the ship in the Atlantic.

Too tired to go on, she lowered herself into the life-rich water of her home river, entering the water like it was liquid bliss. She swam for many minutes before dragging herself onto a remote bank, a large fish in her mouth. She had left her dragon form, but did not return to her human form either; she was locked in between, neither fully human nor fully dragon. She didn't know this though, and fed herself the raw fish, satisfying one of her primal needs to be home...

On a nearby hilltop the smooth silver shell of Epsilon Sigma Tau's reconnaissance mech shimmers slightly. The machine detects an anomaly and locks on. A human, the dominant species upon the planet had many defining features that this creature shared, hair atop the head, two hands with opposable thumbs, two legs, and an autumnal tone to the skin. However this one also shared reptilian and aviary traits, scales on the forelimbs and down the spine, as well as wings.

Epsilon decides to move closer as the anomaly dives into the water. The mech hops forward and down, landing with a muffled thump upon the thick mats of grass, moving closer as stealthily as the four ton piece of metal can. Due to the sub-par ability of a human eardrum to accurately identify noises in the water, Xia has no idea until she surfaces, and looks over to see a massive tiger-like machine less than fifty feet away, just across the river...

The machine hisses slightly as its hydraulics stabilize on the rocky surface of the river bank

Xia finished the fish, bones and all, wiping the blood from her mouth with the water from the river. She scooped up a handful to drink but seemed to hesitate. She sat there for a long moment, simply staring at the water she clasped. Her thoughts were of her current state of being, and of the people she left, but this would not be apparent of course.

Once she had eaten properly, her predatory senses picked up on Epsilon, and, like a startled wild animal, fled into the dense, sloped forest. Xia leapt into the brush and fled, running on all fours, making great speed through the foliage. Sunlight was fading fast. Would Epsilon dare chase a predator into the wilds?

The first instinct Epsilon had was to allow the unique being to get away, and merely document a small note about the possibility of another type of sentient creature that had yet to evolve to the point of humans, but after the microsecond that Epsilon processed this he thought about how disappointing he would be to never see this unique breed again.

Rotating his finger within the specially formed gauntlets, he stimulates two thousand tiny orbs, which intemperate the gesture, and send the instruction to pursue the fleeing creature across the river and into the brush.

The robot leaps into the air and skids slightly on the wet stones as it lands. hydraulics fire, pistons push, and the mechanical suit accelerates, long leaps that throw up astonishing amounts of dirt and vegetation on every stride, the category three sensors detect body heat and keep a continuous lock on for Epsilon to follow.

Xia fled from the thing, thinking it was another alien, but so far it hadn't attacked... she was bitter and extremely tired, and by her stumbling through the woods, she was clearly tired now. She reached a natural waterfall and hid inside the cavern, but saw . She peeked from behind the waterfall at the robot chasing her. It was not the same kind of alien that was making her life hard, but Xia was already thinking of destroying it.

"Go away!" She said, a mixture of tired and angry in her tone. She tensed in her crouching form, much like a predatory cat would right before it attacked.

The mech stops at the base of the lake, looking up at the waterfall, and the creature that produced an abnormally loud noise for its size and build... Thinking back to other planets where things like this had happened, Epsilon comes to the conclusion that he is intimidating the creature. He initiates the protocol for exiting the mechanized exosuit and the back of the mech hisses loudly with depressurization, the shoulder area lifts up, revealing four holes where pistons had retracted.

Sunlight was now replaced by darkness, and it started to rain in the forest as well. Tired, stressed, and extremely short tempered, Xia misinterpreted the mech's exit protocol for an attack and swiftly pounced on the Mech, her eyes now filled with fury.

"ROOOOAAAAAR!!!" Her immensely powerful claws and teeth (str 9) rip into the supposed 'weapon' systems, Xia wanting nothing more than to disable it and kill the offending Lobsterman inside.

Whilst distracted by the preparation of the exit protocols, Epsilon doesn't see the dragon-girl leap. The warning lights scream, a mechanical whine fills Epsilon's brain. A distress signal, automatically activated by the recon mech taking severe damage, buzzes into the heart of the Olympus, activating the construction of the Assault mech. The machine is constructed and launched to the coordinates of the damage.

The Heads-Up-Display showing the physical integrity of the exosuit flashes, instantly marking the damaged areas with a bright red, and the hydraulic systems of the machine reroutes under the direction of Epsilon, supercharging the machine's lifting power, Launching the piece high into the air.... After restoring the hydraulic systems to normal, his mech accelerates to maximum speed. The robot flies straight toward the cliff face, while activating the anti-gravetic generator he shoots straight up the vertical surface, latching onto the top of the waterfall.

The pale sleek form of Epsilon is quite visible to Xia.

Xia rips through the hull at frightening speed, ripping up the removed mecha plating like paper. Before she could reach the mech's squishy, meaty parts she found herself launched into the air, and she stayed there by hovering, staying aloft by flapping her wings. Well, it seemed it wasn't a weapon system after all, and Xia could barely make out the thing flying the mecha. Still not human, but definitely not Lobsterman either.

She lands near the mecha, ceasing her attacks for now, but still in a crouched stance. She took a whiff of Epsilon's scent now that he was slightly exposed. "...Sniff... alien... but not Lobstermen." She muttered, circling around the Mecha, showing she wasn't a mindless predator. She gave the mecha the chance to do the same.

with the gentle whirr of thousands and thousands of gears working in perfect harmony, the controlling mechanisms that encase his forearms open up, and the helmet around his head retracts...

He turns and sits up, trying to get a better look at the creature, his cybernetic blue eyes follow her form, trying to predict her next movement, so that he may be able to operate fast enough to dodge those horrendously powerful jaws and claws.

"Nekkgaiknls, Einshiopwek tyyyrksoiesq" it says slowly, trying to sooth the beast with a short and quiet message of peace....

Xia manages to relax. The humanoid alien seemed to be initiating dialogue, and thus far, keeping weapons out of it. However, he didn't speak any language Xia understood. She slowly got to her feet, dusting herself off.

"...Um, you don't speak english do you?" She asked.

Watching the primitive creature rear up and remain in human posture is intensely fascinating to Epsilon Sigma Tau, and Epsilon even recognizes a few of the noises the creature makes, though total meaning has yet to be attained...

He decides that the best course is mimicry, he dismounts the mechsuit and stands facing Xia, staring, unblinking at her.

"Okay then... what now?" Xia asked, looking at Epsilon. Now that the feelings of intimidation had subsided, Xia was able to appreciate the place they were in; a forest preserve, yet untouched by the encroaching development of China's endless need for resources. It was a familiar place indeed, for these were the forests and rivers and falls of her childhood. Nocturnal animals, birds and insects filled the air with familiar evening sounds.

The rain, feeling quite ignored in the last few posts, decided to make its presence more known to the duo. Water crashed down onto the forest, drowning out the forest's sounds, getting everything drenched. The forest floor became slick and muddy where there were no thick deposits of leaves. Xia reflexively raises her hand to shield herself, finding the extra layer of wing quite convenient. Xia thought for a moment what to do next, and decided she had enough of acting like a wild animal.

She made basic hand gestures, clasping her hands together above her head, then pointing to the nearby ridge. She gestures him to follow, and, once they had a better vantage point, she pointed down to her old home village, which had even fewer lights now it seemed, than when she left. She gestured again, trying to convey the concept of shelter, as well as eating.

Epsilon easily realizes that his attempt at language is completely not understood, and ceases trying for the moment...

Precipitation splashes against the mesh suit of Epsilon Sigma Tau, and he touches the wet globules. A brief emotion crosses his face, but the way he composes his features is not humanlike at all, as if muscles that humans don't have are flexing... he follows the creature as it makes motions... wanting him to follow... He walks quickly and quietly, the torn and exposed mech activates a retrieval and repair protocol.

The town he looks down upon is very tiny, simple wooden and stone huts bordering a body of liquid, the being makes gestures to follow, and shelter? Perhaps... and some other function, covering of the face, possibly.

Epsilon tries to mimic her gestures, pointing to the village and bobbing his head as she did..

The rain was pretty angry now at being ignored in the last few posts, and was increasing in intensity as the sky was filled with lightning and thunder. Xia leads Epsilon down the steep mountain, and they eventually find themselves within the village.

It felt strange to come here, returning to her place of origin after thinking perhaps she could never do so again. It seemed the demolition work originally intended was not pushed through; still, it was much more depressing with so many stores closed down and homes abandoned. The housing development was quiet, with only a few street lights turned on, the houses dark. The river was fenced off five meters from the bank, and a dike had been built up. The elegant, traditional river houses were now condemned structures despite being in fairly good condition, replaced by socialized housing. Xia leapt over the fence to reach her village.

Xia reached her house, the last house at the end of a long rowhouse cluster. She paused a long while to look at it; even compared to her small apartment building in Chicago, she never remembered the house being so small, with its meter wide ‘yard’ in front, the grass still maintained. The whole property was about as wide as Xia’s wingspan of about six meters, not even having a view of the river. She lifted up a particular rock, fumbled about with her large, ungainly digits remaining on her hybrid wing-arms and after smearing her hands with mud found the key.

Xia invited Epsilon to follow, and then entered her house, her massive frame sliding in through the door. The house smelled of age indeed, dust having collected over the year she was gone. Dark as it was she felt everything was familiar, using echolocation to get around, finding the large pile of boxes containing their possessions that never quite got shipped to Shanghai.

In a few minutes Xia had a few oil lamps bathing the house in a dim orange light, and she sat at the dining table, the block chairs holding up well to support her weight. Xia also found a small book, an english-chinese dictionary, and handed it to Epsilon, thinking maybe he could do something with it. She even found her old doll from her childhood, smelly as ever. She wondered what was going to be next...