Personal Log - 001 - Sara Ryder, Andromeda Galaxy / Date: 2819 CE, 00:09:43 AA - After Arrival

Disclaimer:

This is a work of fiction, using the characters, places and names from BioWares Mass Effect Andromeda. It is not intended to be monetized or to make any profit whatsoever from it. It’s just a bit of fun. I'll correct typo's as I re-read it. Sorry, my english isn't the best. ;) Have fun reading! :)

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Damn, what a -expletive deleted- first day in a new life and a new Galaxy!

The Ark hits some weird energy cloud, Scott can’t wake up from his 600 years slumber, I fall out of a shuttle and nearly get splattered on a mountainside, the so called „golden world“ we were supposed to inhabit and make a new start for humanity on is out to murder us, aliens attack and kill a teammate and then …

Dad dies.

-pause detected-

-expletive Deleted-

He’s dead!

And … apparently I’m the one he wanted to replace him, in a case like this.

I can't believe it!

Well, thanks for your confidence in me Dad. But I don’t think I can live up to it, at the moment.

Yes, I trained and worked as a reckon specialist for the Earth Alliance Military and I’ve seen my share of missions and action and even some firefights with pirates and relic hunters while protecting Archeological Surveys, but nothing can compare to the mess the Andromeda Initiative is in right now. And I’m supposed to fix it. Again, thanks Dad.

Why did you have to go and die on us? 

-pause detected-

Okay, I’m allright. Sorry ...
Let me start at the beginning. I have to get this all sorted in my head. Better to get it all out, dictate it to SAM and conserve it for posterity, as he so aptly put it. For me, it’s just to make sure it really happened. It all still feels like a bad dream. God, I hope I’m gonna wake up soon.

-Expletive Deleted-

Yeah, sorry SAM.

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“We made it.”

That was my first thought, after waking up in the Andromeda Galaxy. I sat up and blinked in the cold, white light of the clinically clean corridor. I was surrounded by a host of still active stasis pods, so - Okay, I couldn't really be sure without checking in with command, but my guts told me that it was true.
I was amazed that my body hasn't changed a bit during the 600 plus years of stasis. I’d read about early stasis experiments and how the hair and nails of participants kept on growing until they left their stasis units looking like Yetis and their muscles atrophying so that they could barely walk after being thawed. Yet my hair’s still freshly cut short and dyed my favorite bright red and I felt pretty good. A bit “hungover” maybe.

The two technicians that came up to help me out of my pod and onto the examination bed, assured me that it was all real and that yes, we’d arrived in Andromeda.

The guy seemed a bit awed or intimidated by me, as our Dad is … was “The Pathfinder'' for the Human Ark, Hyperion. Scott and I are on his team. Me as a recon specialist and Scott as an engineer, he was always the brains of the outfit. We are responsible to check out our target planet for habitable environments that the long range scans, over 600 years ago, could only “guess at”. 

Habitat 7, the planet we were headed for, had been chosen for the human settlers, as it seemed to have all the requirements needed to be a second earth. Still someone had to make sure this was correct and that no hostile inhabitants were there to drive us right back, off planet. And even if the locals were friendly but just didn't want any new neighbors we would be off again, looking for somewhere new to settle.

The female Tech joked about finding us a nice, warm, preferably tropical planet to settle on.
Not taking any advance reservations, sorry.

Then everything went sideways, fast. Almost literally so.
Just as I got my physical behind me and had finished my first coffee in a new galaxy, something cut out the gravity generators and everyone and everything started to fly around the Cryo-Bay.
I hate Zero Gravity! I just hate that feeling of helplessness when you get caught with your pants down. Or in that case, without any form of handhold or propulsion, with no gravity. My pants luckily were still firmly in their usual place. I nearly lost my coffee again right then and there. Zero Gravity does that to me. 

Dr. T’Perro, the Asari Physician that had checked on me post-awakening, floated right beside me.
One second we were talking about waking up my still sleeping brother, the next an eerie sound, a boom and the whole ship shook like it’d been hit with a giant hammer. Bulkheads groaned and the lights flickered. The floor bucked like a horse, Doc and I hitting the deck painfully, then it tilted and Scott's Cryo-Capsule came sliding towards us. The Gravity Generators took that exact moment to cut out and lucky for us, the big freezer with my brother inside hit something at an angle and flew right over our heads, crashing into the wall. Things floated free and a nurse called out to be careful with the syringes. Yeah, those were floating around too. Just what you need.

While I was trying to get my bearings, the door to the Cryo-Bay opened.
Lieutenant Cora Harper, Dad's second in command on the Pathfinder Team floated in. All graceful and sure as a fish in the sea. If she hadn’t been such a welcome sight, I'd have been a bit jealous. Like I said, I hate Zero-G. She reached the panel with the Grav-Generator units for the Cryo-Bay and managed to reset them, landing on her feet as gravity kicked in again. Everything else just hit the ground and I heard a painful groan from the guy who’d been sitting on the bed across mine just a few moments ago. A bleeding cut on his forehead, under his wild, frizzy, dark hair spoke of a hard hit on some edge. I myself felt a painful jolt go through my knees, but picked myself up and looked around.
The Bay was in shambles. Equipment had been tossed around everywhere, it looked like a tornado had rushed through. Cora gave me an update on our situation. Dad wanted us to meet him at the bridge as soon as possibleJust as I turned to go, a med-technician called us over to Scott's Cryo-Capsule. It had been damaged. 

We rushed over and Dr. T'Perro examined it. Harry, Dr. Carlyle, an old friend of our father and also a member of his Pathfinder Team, stepped up too from where he'd been examining the dark skinned guy with the frizzy hair a moment before. Harry looked concerned. My insides knotted up in worry for Scott but the blue Doc and SAM said everything was fine with him. It was just that the automated Wake-Up-Cycle had been interrupted and he'd need to come to his senses the natural way. Which would take a bit longer than by the carefully administered chemicals and stimulants, the machine normally used. Sensing my concern, both Doctors, T'Perro and Carlyle, assured me he'd be fine.

Not quite as relieved as I would have liked to be, I left the Cryo-Bay behind. Just beyond the door chaos reigned. An energy conduit or something was about to blow, luckily my Omnitool had a scanning function, so I was able to find the broken part and the techs could fix it, after a quick reboot.

That emergency contained, I happened to glance up at the skylight over the lobby and froze. Something beautiful and yet terrifying was out there. It looked a bit like a gigantic tangle of Christmas-lights. A cloud or cluster of millions of lights, connected by some sort of glowing energy. A chill ran down my spine but then Cora called out to me. We had to get to the bridge.
As we went our way to the tram-station that connects the medical wing to command, we passed several wounded people and some others who were already administering first aid. There seemed to be no casualties and no severe injuries, a few broken bones probably. I was glad to see that this incident was handled so well by the crew.

Someone had dropped a Data-pad or it had floated here during the grav-out and as I picked it up I couldn't help but notice its readout.

Our journey had started in 2185, with everything in order.
In 2186 some anomalous sensor readings had been reported.
Then, in 2347 our trajectory had to be corrected due to drift. Which was no cause for alarm, but a bit weird nonetheless.
In 2411 all Arks reported in, condition: green.
Some sensor had failed in 2497 and had been repaired by the automated systems
Now it was 2819 AD, we had arrived in Andromeda, something had knocked out our sensors and there was no sign from the other Arks yet.
Each with 20.000 souls aboard. Settlers from all council-space races. I hoped they would turn up at the Nexus, our central hub, but …

-expletive Deleted- (sorry, again.)

On the tram some crew members talked about many systems being on the frizz and the captain being in quite a worry, such as they had never seen her before. Great, I knew captain Nozomi Dunn and I too had not seen her overly worried before. That did not bode well and my guts again convulsed with anxiety.

As we arrived at the command station my gut was proven right.
Dad and captain Dunn were at the helm, looking at whatever was happening out there before us in space. They were in a heated debate whether to explore and seek a place to land or to wait for the Nexus to find us and send help. The Nexus being the main station and/or traffic hub for our initiative. Sent here before the Arks and built while we were under way. The Andromeda Initiative had it all planned out. Well, not everything, it seems. A giant space-cloud or whatever it was that blocked our pre-calculated trajectory and had fried Hyperions Systems was something no-one could have foreseen. I urged caution and agreed with the captain to wait, but that just bought me a stern look and an even sterner reminder why we were here from dad. Yeah, I cracked a joke about how he must have inherited his stubbornness from me as he left to captain Dunn but inside I was seething with anger. Scott was in danger and all the old man could think about was his rank and mission as Pathfinder!

But then, he'd never much cared for us. Always away on some mission and later on Initiative business. A career soldier, one of the first N7 Operatives in the Earth Alliance Forces and part of the team that first ventured through the Charon Mass Relay to find (and start the first contact war with) the Turians. He's a hero in many people's eyes. Chosen to be the man who would assure humanities survival in the Andromeda Galaxy. The Pathfinder.
And a massive -expletive deleted-. Sometimes … Damn, I miss him.
If only I had … done something …

-pause detected-

Allright, lets continue with this.

After we'd dressed in our Environmental Suits, grabbed our gear and weapons (just in case), Cora and I made our way to the shuttles that would take us to the surface of Habitat 7. From space it had looked very, very unfriendly. A nasty “scar” of volcanic activity dominated the eastern part of what we could see of its globe and massive storm fronts rushed over its surface. It had oceans and green continents but it did not look anything like a ”New Earth”.
Before we departed the Hyperion, Dad held a speech. I have to admit, it was inspiring. The man could grab your sense of duty by the waist and run with it. You just had to come along for the ride. No matter how rough.

And speaking of a rough ride.
The drop down to the surface of Habitat 7, or “New Hell” as I've come to think of it, was a disaster. Half way through the atmosphere, just after the guy with the frizzy hair had introduced himself as Liam Kosta , an Ex-Cop of all things, we spotted some huge floating rock formations and alien architecture. Just then the sky suddenly darkened and lightning hit the shuttle. The portside door blew off and Liam and I got sucked out of the vehicle.

I very nearly shit my suit as SAM coolly informed me about terminal velocity and my jump-jets malfunctioning. That's what you want to hear when you're falling from the sky on a strange planet, surrounded by floating rocks and lightning. My untimely end as a mostly red smear in a mountainside was prevented by the thrusters on my suit finally kicking in and slowing down my fall. I only gained some severe bruising and a cracked visor from tumbling down the steep slope.
The air tasted foul and metallic somehow, my throat constricted and my lungs burned as I choked on it. Definitely not habitable!
A generous dose of emergency polymer from my Omni-Tool took care of the problem and after a few seconds the air scrubbers in my suit had done their job and I was able to breathe normally again.
As I looked up I beheld a completely alien world and I was sure we'd have a long way to go before we'd find a true settlement in Andromeda.
In a way the view from the outcropping that had broken my fall was spectacular. But also terrifying. Huge rocks floated in a sky that was of a much lighter blue than earths and I was looking down a gorge that’d put the Grand Canyon to shame. In the distance some tall alien tower seemed to either attract or generate wispy clouds of “stuff” that I couldn’t identify and a huge storm centered around it. It looked like it was either transmitting or receiving energy into space. Back on the bridge Captain Dunn had said something about “dark energy”. Scott would’ve had a field day with this.
At the edge of the precipice weird alien plants grew, looking for all the world like curled up tentacles sprouting from the rocky ground. Which was covered in patches of some kind of moss like plant structure that sported tiny, yellow blossoms. It was quite pretty actually. There were puddles of water everywhere like a rainstorm had just passed by and at a short distance I could see some burning wreckage from our shuttle. As I turned to look it over, Kosta came scrambling down the slope. Panting, he informed me that the Comms were down and he hadn’t spotted any other members of the team.
We decided to check out the wreckage and then continue on to look for the rest of the team. As we splashed through the puddles I tried to scan some of the plants and the cool glowing giant mushrooms that grew inside a cove but with communications down I couldn’t make heads or tails of the numbers the scanner showed me. The connection to SAM was lost so there was no way to compile and analyze the data.
We turned our attention to the wreckage and found our broken com unit. It was in a mess and maybe Scott could’ve brought it back online but me and “frizzy hair guy”, no way.
As we walked on, lightning activity suddenly increased by a thousand. A constant barrage of lightning bolts hit the ground all around us and we sprinted to the safety of a cave tunnel ahead of us. I noticed inside there were some floating, small rocks crackling with energy. Neither of us wanted to touch one of those. Outside the bare ground crackled with electricity in some spots, a few seconds later lightning hit right there. Good to know.
On the other side of the short tunnel the ground was covered in moss again, with no lightning strikes. Interesting. As we walked Kosta spotted flares going up in the distance, about one or two klicks ahead of us. Probably the rest of the team. Our spirits lifted a bit, we fell into a jog and continued our way along the wide ridge we had fortunately landed on. Though soon we had to jump over the narrowing gorge to continue. Boy was I glad for the jump jets in my suit. We pressed on and after climbing a solid rock wall we made first contact.
Ahead of us someone was shouting in an alien language and I dragged Kosta into cover before he could blunder into a very sensitive situation.
One of our crew, a shuttle pilot named Fisher, was sitting on the ground, leaning against a broken off part of the shuttle's fuselage. He was stammering in fear and pain at the two bipedal aliens towering above him, threatening him with raised guns. Just as I had convinced Kosta to go by the book into this situation and not with guns blazing, one of the two aliens started to beat Fisher with his or her gunstock. The other noticed me coming at them with my hands held in what I hoped was a universal placating gesture.
It fired upon me with no discernible hesitation. I was stunned for a moment but Kosta immediately retaliated and layed down covering fire, so I could take shelter behind a large boulder and get my own gun into play. It was a rather quick exchange as gunfights go but still these guys were no slouches. My shields got depleted surprisingly quickly and it took me a full magazine to bring my adversary to the ground. Kosta finished off the other hostile with a few bursts from his machine gun. Why had I been issued just a pistol?

Luckily Fisher was alive, though his right leg was broken. He told us that Greer and Kirkland had gone in search of the others and shortly after these aliens had shown up and unsuccessfully tried to interrogate him. I apologized to him for hesitating when they opened fire. It could have cost his life. I told myself that this wouldn’t happen again and picked up an M8 Rifle I found in the wreckage. A crate with spare clips lay about too so I picked up a few of those and threw some to Kosta who took them gratefully. The weapons locker must have come apart in the crash.
I took a minute to examine and scan the dead aliens, though without functioning Long Range Comms the effort was nearly futile. They were humanoid, about the same stature, height and weight of an adult, tallish human male. But that’s where the similarities ended. Their skin was grey and leathery, no discernible hair but bony growths covered large parts of their bodies, like a carapace. Very tough stuff, leaving only the face uncovered and the joints flexible. In addition to this natural armor they wore dark green and black harnesses, made of some kind of polymer or metal alloy. The scanner helpfully informed me that it was at a loss as to what the stuff was composed of and that the genetics of the two dead hostiles were all over the place. Life really had taken a strange turn in this galaxy.
Fisher promised to stay low and out of trouble as much as possible, so we left him with a promise of ours to pick him up after we’d found the others and had hopefully had a chance to organize a rescue for all of us. 

Only a few minutes out we were attacked by some other native creature. I first heard it growling but couldn’t see anything, then I noticed a strange shimmer in the foliage ahead. Suddenly something rushed at me and slammed into my shields. Kosta fired at it as I reeled back from the force of the blow. Under fire the critter became visible. It looked like a big, greenish lizard crossed with a lion or other, massive predatory cat. Similar to the aliens we’d just killed, it was covered in bony carapace up to its v-shaped head. It’s mouth was filled with viscous teeth and it’s claws looked capable of disemboweling any unprotected prey with ease. Paired with this weird cloaking or mimicry ability it surely was one of the apex predators of this ecosystem. At least until it encountered people with high caliber guns, that is. We took it down and before I was able to examine it any further it disintegrated into some kind of black sludge that quickly evaporated. This world kept getting weirder and weirder.

A short walk later we heard someone shouting and gruff, alien responses. It was Kirkland and he was standing before two more aliens, his hands behind his head, gun on the ground. His back to another part of our downed shuttle. The alien soldiers had their weapons raised and were shouting at him. Kirkland was just standing there, talking to them, agitated sure, but none threatening. Suddenly one of them shot him, point blank in the visor. Kosta screamed in rage and I too just started to fire. Those -expletive deleted- had just killed an unarmed man, about to surrender. We made short work of them and took what little care we could for Kirklands corpse. Kosta angrily remarked that he’d just as soon shoot any other aliens on sight and I reminded him that we’d probably react in much the same way, if aliens showed up to earth unannounced and armed to the teeth. He grudgingly conceded but I could tell his heart wasn’t in it. And I admit that I could hardly blame him. First contact thoroughly botched. Yay us!

A few minutes later, as we pressed on in the general direction of the flares we had seen earlier, even the terrain gradually became, well … even more weird. If that was possible. We spotted giant monolithic alien structures that rose from underground and others looking like they had been placed on the mountain for some indiscernible purpose. The scanner revealed those to be about 300 years old. Though it wasn’t able to tell me anything about their molecular composition beyond some basic facts. The heptagonal monoliths or columns that rose from the depth at irregular intervals were composed of an unknown black material with greenish, glowing conduits running through them vertically. Each ended in a smooth surface with no discernible weathering or other damage or growth on it by the elements or the environment. If those bony critters back at the shuttle had built these they were a lot more advanced than us. A very worrisome thought.
As we made our way, jumping from the natural rock to the first of the humming columns and on, thanks to our jump jets, I looked down and saw huge arcs of energy flickering between the monoliths, down in the depth. Some even reached very near the surface. Better not get caught up in these and get fried to a crisp. At last we landed on a platform, the purpose of it is unknown and hopped over to another part of the natural mountain. There was an eerie green glow coming from a cave opening that I wanted to investigate.
As we cautiously walked into the cave I was stunned to find myself looking at a small oasis. A large fern-like tree grew in the middle of the cave, surrounded by shrubs and grass-like plants. It seemed to be some kind of micro biome that receives sunlight and rain through an opening in the cave's roof. So it was able to grow despite the cataclysmic storms outside and survive relatively unscathed. Right behind the tree lay a game-trap of some kind, with a large, dead, crustacean-like critter inside a force field. If our bony friends, which I resolved to call “knuckleheads” from now on, had trapped this thing to eat or to inspect, we didn’t know. 

Beyond the cave some industrial sized pipelines crossed the ground and a tall structure of a dark greenish tint, similar to the hostiles armor loomed above us. From our limited vantage point beneath it, it looked to me like a landing platform. It was too tall to reach, even with our jump jets so we continued on foot and held our guns at the ready.
Slight tremors shook the ground as we crept forward. Just about 50 meters up a slight slope we spotted more wreckage and some knuckleheads milling about. There were 6 of them, rummaging around in what was left of what must have been a mid-sized shuttle craft. So the bad weather was affecting them too. This could mean they were not native to this world or just from another part of it. Either way, they didn’t belong here as much as we did. I debated another try at a peaceful approach but sadly as soon as one of them spotted us he and his buddies let loose a hail of bullets in our direction. One of the lizard creatures decloaked right in front of my cover behind some crates and attacked. Kosta speculated that it must be the knuckleheads pet or attack dog. A few well placed rounds made short work of it. The hostiles were another matter. They kept trying to flank us and we had a hard time taking them down, but eventually we managed.
Their craft had crashed right in front of a huge double-door of some kind, constructed of the same dark material as the other structures we had seen back at the gorge, accompanying those weird columns. My scanner was unable to tell me anything about the oddly shaped, hangar-like doors that had been built right into the natural rock. We had no way of opening them so we continued our search for the rest of the team.

As we made our way through the rough terrain the ground kept rumbling and at first I didn’t notice but something clicked in my headphones. I thought it was static from those weird lightning strikes that kept hitting our surroundings in the distance. But then I noticed a pattern in the static. Three short clicks, three long clicks, three short clicks. - Kosta kept babbling in my ear, that guy really can’t keep his mouth shut for more than a minute. Despite that, I was sure it was an SOS Morse CodeI was hearing. We followed the signal and cautiously entered another cave. It was lit by some light sources of alien design in an eerie yellowish light. Steam rose from the pipeline running through it and a viscous liquid leaked from some damaged seams. Probably warped by the tremors. We heard a gruff alien voice and a human male talking. It was Greer and damned if those bastards could shoot him too, like poor Kirkland! I ran forward and stepped right into a deep puddle of grade A industrial waste that knocked my shields out like a punch to the face from a heavyweight champion. Damn rookie mistake. My suit’s left foot actually sizzled and the material corroded a bit but I had no time to worry about that. I jump-rolled out of that damn puddle and crouched behind a smallish rock, firing overhead in the general direction of the hostiles. Peeking from behind cover to assess the situation, I noticed that Greer had taken cover behind some crates stacked in the cave by the aliens. I was able to take out one of the hostiles with two or three bullets to its bony head. Kosta and I then took down the other knucklehead after Greer had kicked the -expletives deleted- in the back.
We got a sit-rep from Greer and gave him the news about Kirklands death and the flares. He’s a smart cookie. He’d tapped his coms in the SOS pattern, hoping that someone would notice. After a short discussion he agreed to head back to Fisher and wait for evac with him. We left the cave and parted ways again. I was glad that we had been able to save him from the same fate as Kirkland but at the same time I was angry with myself for losing my cool. This day was taking its toll on my nerves. I took a few deep breaths and we continued. 

It was in a twisted maze of paths framed by mountain slopes on each side that we came upon another alien installation. Lightning hammered the site and the ground still shook with slight tremors. We quickly ducked under the awning of what looked to me like a research facility or a base camp built right up to another set of those huge, dark hangar doors. Those had been forced open and the green structure had been built inside the space behind it too. The open space in front was strewn with rubble, crates and random, unidentifiable equipment. It looked like the knuckleheads had left in a great hurry. Why?
As we entered the gloom beyond the doors a chill ran down my spine. We were the first humans ever to enter this structure, no matter which of the two alien species it belonged to. This was what I had come to Andromeda for. The discovery of new things, new technology, new species, new planets and hopefully new friends. Heaven knows, at this point I've had enough of new enemies. The strange facility was completely dark and we used the flashlights attached to our rifles to find our way around the quiet rooms. Inside it did not look much better than on the outside. Walls had caved in and the floor slanted a bit to different sides, probably a big earthquake had driven the researchers out, fearing that the cave would collapse around their bony knuckleheads. I suppressed a grin of pure Schadenfreude and kept on clearing the perimeter. One room had some weird looking machinery inside and I flipped switches at random to see what would happen. Kosta wasn’t amused but I didn’t care. After a few tries I got lucky and aktivated a power generator. Lights came on and we heard a whooshing sound that could just have been a door opening. Carefully we made our way back to the front of the facility and lo’ and behold, a door had opened in the second room from the front. It lead deeper inside the mountain.
To me it looked very similar to some of the Prothean dig sites I had protected back in the Milky Way. Granted the equipment was a bit different but the way the site was structured and centered on another set of oddly shaped doors at the back of the cave gave me an eerie feeling of familiarity. It too had obviously been abandoned during the earthquake as rubble lay around. Cold bluish white light shone through a crack and by its glow I spotted a prone figure lying on the ground surrounded by some debris. As we slowly crept forward the debris came alive.
A technological construct, a robot of about my own height, unfolded itself in one fluid motion from the ground, where it had lain inactive. It immediately opened fire on us with some kind of energy weapon. We had to retaliate and destroy it.
Hostile Aliens. Killer Robots. Yeah, this place really had it out for us, as Kosta said. I couldn’t help but quip about the Geth loving this place though. Scanning the place, it turned out that the alien had been killed by the robot's energy weapon. So they were trespassers here too. Behind the cracked open door a massive amount of energy was stored, nothing more could be gleaned without SAM online. 

As we stepped back into the sunlight onto the front porch of the facility we were attacked by a group of four alien soldiers and two of the lizards. Either we had triggered some sort of silent alarm, or they were just coming to reclaim the place. Anyway, bad luck. I guess we could count ourselves lucky though, that they hadn’t caught us inside the building. For they had taken the time to erect a lightning rod right in front of the building. It did a good job of keeping the electrical storm under control during our shootout. These guys are tough and these damn lizard things seem to be trained to drive you from cover. Shoot these first, as soon as you see some weird shimmer in the air. Just aim for it and don’t let up until the beast is sludge.
Anyway, we were able to dispatch these hostiles and got the hell outta there. In time though we again heard gunfire and Lt. Harper over Short Range Comms calling out for us. They were with the second shuttle and their position was under fire from a squad of hostiles. So we flanked and snuck up on the -expletive deleted-. We made short work of them. Luckily everyone was okay and accounted for but the shuttle had sustained irreparable damage and their Long Range Comms were down too. We exchanged SitReps and Lt. Harper was  just about to explain where Dad had gone off to when an alien shuttle craft dropped in another squad of troopers. As Kosta put it, these guys had balls to try and air-drop. And yes, these soldiers were quite a bit tougher and better equipped than the others we had encountered so far. They had sheilds. One of them hefted some kind of Gatling Gun that mowed down anything in its range. A terrible weapon.
Over the Comms I heard Harry gleefully exulting about their shuttle getting downed by lightning but I was too occupied with fighting for our survival to really take notice. Right in the middle of the fight another shuttle brought reinforcements for our attackers and the battle turned really nasty. Outnumbered at least two to one, with cloaked lizard things prowling about and bullets and plasma whizzing everywhere it was one of the toughest battles of my life. Once I had to administer a hefty dose of medigel to Kosta , huddled behind a supply crate. He had taken a shot to the shoulder and got quite the burn. In turn he pushed one of the lizards off my ass when it came at me from behind. Man, I hate these things! 

After a pretty drawn out fight we were able to dispatch the last of the hostiles. Hayes had been shot in the gut though. Fortunately Harry was able to stabilize her and she informed us that just before the first attack she’d been able to fix the LRC. Suddenly some rocks started to float about, just where Hayes and Harry huddled on the ground. We all new what that meant. Quick as a cat Harper stepped up an threw a biotic bubble around them, that caught the lightning as if it was nothing but rain. Great job! I didn’t know she was biotic but it’s a perfect thing to have on a Pathfinder Team. She gave Kosta a snide retort after his incredulous outburst. Yeah, that man talks too much. Harper then got on the Comms and informed me that my father had just reported in and wanted to talk to me.
I took his call more than a little apprehensive. I was still jumpy with adrenaline from the last two hours of nearly constant danger and firefights and I didn’t know what to expect from him. It’s typical of him to run off on his own. But we’ll, he’s … he was N7, that’s what they do. He informed us that he’d found the aliens base and had discovered something to help us get off that damned planet. He wanted to „turn off the lightning“. Whatever that meant.

Lt. Harper, Kosta and I went out to meet him at his coordinates, while the others would wait for the rescuers to arrive. Hopefully there’d be no more attacks by the aliens.
As we climbed over the edge of the precipice my father was hiding out on, he pointed out a big facility in a depression a little below us, about 50 meters away. It was built around the foot of the huge alien tower that was somehow responsible for the deadly weather. SAM talked about a feedback loop with the dark energy cloud in orbit, but I tuned out the rest of his tech-babble to concentrate on the small fortress in front of us. It consisted of several dark green, boxlike structures with rounded edges and lots of little boxes, antennas and other technical doodads. Connected by curved walkways, two stories high and leading up to a set of doors similar to those we had seen earlier in the mountainside. It was surrounded by guards, some kind of blue energy field and several lightning rods. I had my doubts about the four of us being able to attack such a fortified position. We were massively outnumbered and that force field looked pretty solid. But Dad being Dad already had a solution. Prepped and ready to deliver. He punched a button on his Omni-Tool and several charges exploded at the bases of some of the lightning rods. Causing the lightning to hit the energy barrier, the barrier to overload and in doing so coming down and zapping some of the guards too. I have to admit I was impressed. 

We charged forward, Dad in the lead. I had never seen him fight like that before. Or make that, I had never seen anyone fight like that before. Even Kosta remarked that he was “like a machine.“. Precise, fast, deadly and shrugging of direct hits like the aliens were using pea-shooters. On occasion he shouted to SAM to give him “Profiles”, which puzzled all of us. But there wasn’t time to think about this, as we had our own hands full with those hostiles he left alive. And here I was, thinking that the fight at the downed shuttle had been hard and nasty. Battling these aliens on their own home turf was grueling. Green alien blood made the ground slippery and it took all of my concentration to stay alive and more than once I wished myself back into my nice, cozy stasis pod. As we charged over the final walkway up to the tower Dad was already working on some kind of console to open its doors. SAM seemed to be able to assist him in this task. He’s a remarkable V.I.
Kosta was constantly babbling away, I wish he would just shut up!

As we fought off the last alien troops trying to keep us from entering the tower, Dad did whatever it was he was doing and finally got the doors partially open. He called me over and together we heaved the upper part higher and the lower part slid into the floor. Lt. Harper and Kosta kept watch while we entered the gloomy hall beyond the entrance.

Wow, another first. The first humans ever to enter this kind of structure. And it was worth the hustle, so to speak. Like Dad said: „These are the moments that make it all worth it.“
The first thing I noticed was a big glowing triangle floating in the twilight. I don’t know if it was holographic or just some trick of the light. Inside the big triangle was a smaller slightly brighter triangle that got „fed“ energy through glowing conduits from the points at the big triangle. It glowed and flickered. Like I said, Scott is the tech guy, he’d be far better at describing this stuff. Sorry.
Anyway, Dad approached this construct and ordered SAM to begin translating. I couldn’t see what needed a translation, but I assume it was some kind of data stream or something like that. After a few seconds SAM confirmed that he was finished and Dad raised his right hand to the construct. His Omni-Tool reacted in a way I’d never seen before. Constructing orange-red conduits and connections with the glowing blue edges of the unknown machine. It was beautiful … like a three dimensional map of some kind. A starfield, with twisted pathways or strands of energy flowing through space. I was in awe of what my father had accomplished, I admit. And in that moment I was most thankful for him convincing me to come with him to Andromeda.

-pause detected-

Sorry, I needed to cry. 

Ugh, -expletive deleted- let’s get on with it. 

We had no idea what Dad had just done but when we left the tower, Kosta remarked that the storms had stopped. The energy cloud above the tower had dissipated and the sun was setting over the horizon. Dad made a funny comment on that. … I couldn’t see his mouth due to his helmet but I saw it in his eyes. He smiled. 

The first and last time I’ve seen him smile in Andromeda. 

For just then, a weird whooshing sound made us turn and there was this great cloud of smoke or gas rushing towards us. Like a pyroclastic blast at a volcano's eruption. It’s gale force wind blew us off our feet and we slid toward the edge of the platform we‘d been standing on. I managed to hang on for a second or two but then something hit me in the head and I fell. Everything went dark.

When I came too I was lying on the floor.
I couldn’t breathe.
My visor was completely shattered.
I tried to get up but fell right back to my knees again, choking and gagging.
My lungs ached and my eyes watered. Through the blur I saw Dad coming towards me, dragging his right leg a bit, shouting my name. He knelt down before me, looked at my destroyed visor, took a deep breath and removed his helmet.
He was talking to me but I couldn’t understand. Everything was muffled and my eardrums hurt like hell. Then his helmet connected to my suit. The last thing I remember is him talking with great effort and typing something on his Omni-Tool. His face was strained, full of sorrow and determination. But his eyes never left mine.

Then everything went dark again.

-pause detected-

Sorry. Cried again. Have to. - I can’t just put it all away, just like that.
The others have left me here alone in SAM-Node. The place where SAMs main processors reside. So, alone apart from SAM, that is.
They apparently brought me here for some kind of emergency procedure on my brain implant. I remember bits and pieces of Harry and Dr. T'Perro trying to revive me. They said that SAM had to be hardwired to my implant for whatever it is that they did to me.

Harper said I’ve got two hours to rest and then I’m expected on the bridge. Apparently we reached the Nexus while I was out cold. SAM informed me that I was clinically dead for 22 seconds. - Another first. Yay me ...

Sorry, everything’s still a jumble inside my head.
SAM‘s connected directly to my brain implant now. I don’t have the faintest idea how that works but Dad built it so it can’t be that bad. Sorry, Sam.

When I woke up Kosta was lying rolled up on the floor like a puppy. He obviously was very happy to see me conscious. At his call Lt. Harper and Dr. T'Perro came rushing in. Harper then informed me that Dad had given his life for me and by switching SAM over to me, he had effectively made me the new Pathfinder. Cora, (she allowed me to call her that) was all business, back military straight and said that she would stand by the last wish of my father. Despite her being his second in command and the natural choice for his replacement. -expletive deleted- Replacement, what a word. How can I replace my father as The Pathfinder? I’m just a lowly soldier. I guess I’ll have to deal with it. Somehow. And make everything up as I go. Have to keep an eye on Cora. It can’t be easy to be just left by the wayside if you’ve trained for a position for such a long time as she has.

I have to think about this.

Kosta , … Liam said that he’d asked about Scott while I was unconscious. My brother's condition is unchanged. Harry says he’ll wake up eventually.
If „frizzy hair guy“ would just shut for a few minutes, he could actually be kinda cute

Okay SAM, I gotta shower and find some coffee now. 

End log entry. 

-end of record-