Personal Log - 004 - Sara Ryder, Andromeda Galaxy / Date: 2819 (CE, 0 1:09:06, AA - After Arrival) Continued. Pebee, Drack and a huge discovery.
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Okay SAM, „ambushed“ may be a strong word for what happened but …
Well, Pebee happened.
Cora and Liam immediately trained their weapons on the assailant. Who turned out to be a rather agitated Assari, with weird black warpaint over her eyes. She looked like a cute, blue raccoon. She straddled me and after glibly talking down Cora and Liam looked at me beneath her and explained that the „glyphs had to cycle through their channels“ first. I’ve no idea what that means. Please spare me the Tech-Babble SAM, thanks. I still can’t even figure out where she came from and how she had avoided our initial search of the perimeter. Gotta ask her about that sometime.
Anyway, as she got up she explained that she’d been studying this tech for months now and didn’t even come close to interacting with it directly. She seemed genuinely surprised to see a Pathfinder. Thought Dad, … I was just a propaganda Spiel by the Initiative. She called herself the „answer to all our problems“, cocky raccoon. My very short contact with the console must have triggered something though. As we talked, the whole site shuddered and two bright beams of light shot out from the top of the northernmost monolith and vanished into the hazy distance in different directions. The Assaris eyes gleamed with wonder and fascination and I must admit that I too was in awe.
I had activated alien machinery. Wow.
Yeah, of course SAM, you did most of the brain-work but I got shot at by alien robots.
Anyway, the Assari then muttered an oath as she turned back to me, proceeded to aim her gun at me and shoot.
My left ear kept ringing for minutes afterwards. She hadn’t aimed at me but at a floating drone that had crept up right behind me. Some other floaters and a few of the walking robots we’d encountered at the abandoned dig site on Habitat 7 were suddenly attacking us. Between the four of us, we made short work of them. The Assar called them „Remnant“, a term she’d come up with. The floating, round ones were „Observers“, they shoot a nasty particle beam. The walkers, that shot short particle bursts, she called „Assemblers“, because they were somehow able to rapidly construct and deploy smaller, aggressive floating drones that attacked in close combat with sharp pincers. Those she called „Breachers“. Probably none of this protective combat behavior came even near their originally intended functions, but we must have triggered some Defense-Protokoll. That was annoying.
According to Pebee, what she finally deigned to give as her name, these robots and monoliths were part of something much larger. Remnants of a lost civilization. Like we had suspected.
She gave us the navigation points to two other, similar sites she’d found and I decided to follow this lead. Maybe we could clear the atmosphere on Eos too, like the Tower did. on Habitat 7. She would stay behind to study the activated console and collect her gear.
Liam, Cora and I would take a look at the other two sites.
On our way to the second site we’d picked, we saw some Kett shuttles land and take off from camps near a lake in the middle of the valley the monoliths were arranged around. Even with the radiaoactive mist it was quite a nice view. As we drove on I couldn’t help but admire the awesome rock formations that had formed in the mountains and hills surrounding the valley. Tall arches of pure rock spanned some of the landscape, like bridges to nowhere. It reminded me of Monument Valley back home on earth. In a smaller valley, divided from the main depression by a sheer cliff, we found an ideal site for a future outpost. Safe ground, with a smaller lake in the middle and lower radiation counts than anywhere else we’d encountered yet. Not far off from this, build right into the side of another cliff, the second monolith was located. It too was surrounded by Initiative radiation shielding that had seen better day but was still functional, lucky for us.
We had to climb a few rocks and some of the weird green/gray glowing columns to get up to the main site and encountered some active remnant bots. They weren’t hostile though. My first thought was, that they’d probably turn on us the second we’d activate the site. But as soon as Cora stepped a bit too near one of the assemblers it gave an electronic whine and attacked. The other bots reacted instantly and we had to take cover from a hail of particle bursts and beams. Liam got zapped by an Assembler and while I patched him up with medi-gel, one of Pebees “Breachers” came dangerously close to us. I got it shot down just in time before it was able to cut me with its sharp appendages. Liam shook his head dizzily but was soon back in action. Cora got into an in-fight with one of the “Assemblers”, while I took out the “Observers” from behind cover. Man, I was glad I had packed some emergency shield power packs. Those particle beams melted my suits shields like butter in the sun. SAM, remind me to get some Disruptor Ammo, next time we fight bots. The shields on these things need to go down faster and I guess that their electronics won’t like the electrical charge too.
After we’d destroyed the Remnant we searched the site for glyphs, at SAMs suggestion. Again we found them atop some of the monoliths. To climb these, I had to activate, or rather unfold or extend some more columns from the ground, by two consoles, separate from the one in the middle. I then had to climb and jump onto these and from there onto the monoliths. Who the hell builds something like this? And why?
As I plugged in the glyphs, something like an old Sudoku popped up. Funny way to encrypt your Tech. I hope this wasn’t just done by some alien technician with a sense of humor and that further sites don’t have these. It was pretty easy to solve though. As the site rumbled to life, a Kett shuttle dropped in and unloaded its life cargo unto the site. These guys seem to crop up everywhere we find this remnant technology. Maybe they too are trying to get the planets viable? I hope we’re not doing them any favors. They don’t seem to be bothered much by the radiation though. Weird. Cora again got into close combat with one of them and took him out with a well aimed shot from her shotgun. Liam and I preferred to shoot from cover and quickly dispatched the -expletive deleted-. Especially after SAM informed me that another console on the higher platform controlled the cover they were hiding behind and I was able to retract it. Thanks for the heads up SAM.
Two down, one to go.
As we drove up to the third monolith site we saw that it too was occupied by Kett. Just like the tower on Habitat 7. It was heavily fortified and surrounded by what was probably a radiation shield of Kett design. Maybe they are just able to withstand its effects longer than humans and other Milky-Way species but would eventually become ill too? It was no use speculating, we had no choice but to go in by the front door. We fought or way into the base up a ramp and dispatched any Kett soldiers we encountered. The Knuckleheads again sent some -expletive deleted- with Gatling Guns against us. It was a pretty hard fight, but we prevailed. Unfortunately the base was protected by multiple force fields but after some poking around and scanning I found machines that turned out to be power generators, similar to the one back in the abandoned dig site. I disabled one and some of the outside shields that had served us and the Kett as cover in our fight fell. So I guessed we had to find the right generator that served the main buildings shields. After climbing on top of the one story base building I noticed a generator set up very close to the back of the building and almost flush withe the shield. I hit the switch SAM indicated and it turned off. The main compound lay open.
As we entered, a bloodcurdling, low scream echoed through the hall and a second later one of the Ketts pet lizards came crashing through an interior view-screen from an adjacent room. The beast thumbed to the floor and came to rest on its back, its long tongue flopping lifelessly from its huge maw. This one didn’t turn to sludge. Must’ve been a side effect of the toxic atmosphere on Habitat 7.
A moment later the largest and most vicious looking Krogan I’ve ever seen jumped through the broken screen behind the creature. The impact of his huge body shook the floor and he stared at us grumpily from yellow, lizard like eyes. He wore black and yellow armor, his right arm was an obvious cybernetic replacement. Several bones, teeth and huge tusks had been affixed decoratively and rather intimidatingly to his armor. His scrunched up face, under an impressively scarred and tough crest, regarded us for a second, then he marched right over the carcass of the beast towards us. The corpse making a squelching noise as the Krogan's heavy foot broke its rib-cage. Knowing Krogan respected strength more than anything else I stood my ground, though on the inside I knew that he could easily rip me limb from limb if he wanted to. I hoped I didn't need a change of pants after this encounter. He came to a stop, only a step away and demanded to know who we were. I complimented his cool entrance. He seemed a bit taken aback by this, but with a speed that belied his huge frame grabbed me by the collar and dragged me close to him. His flat nose was only inches away from mine as he stooped low and demanded again to get my name. I told him my name and position as Pathfinder. This didn't impress him at all. He understandably did not trust Nexus crew even as far as he could have thrown us. While talking shop about killing Kett and telling of his battles against them, he whipped out a huge knife and proceeded to cut a large tooth from the maw of the dead beast.
We proceeded to the monolith site and this time did not have to deal with any remnant as the Kett probably had already eradicated them in their futile attempts to activate the tech. After a few moments we found the required glyphs and I was able to activate this site without any puzzle or other hitch. As it powered up, Pebee called over the radio that something was happening in the middle of the lake and that she would meet us there.
We hastily made our way back to the Mako and I drove at a breakneck speed down into the valley. On the way SAM activated another Forward Station. We saw Pebees shuttle swoop in on the small island in the middle of the big lake and Cora spotted a remnant console on its opposite side on a tiny peninsula as we drove by. I did a 180 and drove to the shore. Ha, its fun driving this thing!
As we stepped out of the vehicle the radiation alarms on my suit nearly went bonkers but we had some minutes of safety. I tried my hand at the console and as it activated, a huge, low, groaning sound filled the air and two more, huge monoliths rose from the lake. Big waves sloshed ashore and the sound of rushing water was nearly deafening. On the island itself, dust whirled up in a cloud and from the sand rose something like a metal roof on four struts. Pebee was running around excitedly, heedless of the potential danger. I think I actually saw her bounce a bit while the dust settled.
On our side of the lake what must be some sort of Nano-Tech activated. As right before our eyes tiles began to form on the shore, from thin air. As I cautiously stepped on them, they extended forward and formed a bridge, over to the small island. Row by row these octagonal tiles formed, with a tinkling, metallic sound and held as fast as the best concrete and steel construction. Amazing.
Cora expressed some doubt about this phenomenon and told us to be prepared to swim, but we safely made it to the island.
Pebee stood at the entrance to an underground compound, with a huge grin on her face and yes, she was bouncing on the balls of her feet a bit. The entrance that had been revealed by what I had taken for a roof but actually was a kind of lid on a bunker or vault of some sort. A steep ramp led down into the ground beneath the lake.
We looked at each other and after a moments hesitation went inside.
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