Several bright lights connected by a single beam of light were observed traveling East-North East at my viewing location.

At 5:40 am on 2-8-2021 I exiting my residence facing east, I looked up into the Easterly sky thinking I was seeing a star lite sky after a recent snow event, actually realized within a few seconds the bright lights I was seeing were positioned below the upper cloud deck.
 The bright lights (between 10-12 est.) were all connected by a single strand of bright light as if they were pearls on a neckless. The lights were not positioned on the strand in equal distances, a few lights got brighter than others for just brief seconds in a random flashing sequence.
 All the lights then disappeared from front to rear into what seemed like heavy cloud cover as they moved East-North-East away from my viewing position.