[Book Four] Chapter 26: First landing

Chapter 26: First landing

Depending on what kind of person you were, the two months passed by very quickly or very slowly. For the people that felt the journey was long, they were often seen in the recreational area of the Cassiopeia outside of working hours. It wasn’t like that at first but with nothing to really do and with the obligation to exercise, people just went along with going to the gym or the pool or any other location providing physical activity. There have not been many incidents and all were just some shouting for something or other that turned out irrelevant. With no surprise, Krogans and Turians were the one using the facilities the most. More often than not any dispute was resolved in one of the fighting rings. So far, Rick has spent his time between overseeing the science department, spending time with his family, most notably his children and keeping on testing his latest project.

Nanomachines. At first, his objective was to make an armor out of them. A bracelet full of them would recover the whole arm. That was only the first test, the final step was to recreate his helmet with them at any time. Was being the operative word. He supposed that the nanomachines could be injected into an organic body and, depending on their programming, could support it. Stopping a bleeding, repairing broken bones, communicating with others with short distance transmissions. So far, he only succeeded in making an accurate report of the body’ state and sending the results to EDI. Communicating through voice was in progress and would be done soon. The only worry he had was the possibility of hacking them and making them harm the host.

From EDI’s estimate, ETA was seven days. As such, it was time to share with the department heads what was going to happen and why they were gathered in the meeting room when they had been there only three days before.

“From what EDI told me we’re going to be out of hyperspace in a week. I want the personnel temporarily transferred to other departments to gradually go back to their own. Each one must be ready at their post before we arrive in Andromeda. Just in case something goes wrong. I know the chances are slim to none but just in case…Once we’re in, our first objective is to orbit Cassiopeia to one of the golden worlds and to send one of the scouting ships to have a look at the planet. Once we’ve determined the viability of the world, we’ll build a base there. Take root. Then make a city.”

A hologram of a city appeared in the middle of the round table they were gathered around. It was focused on a central point where a tower was erected, a bit like how Celeste Academy was built but the difference was that it wasn’t shaped like a star, more like a pizza.

“What about communication with the Milky Way and the ability to go back?” asked the head of exploration, a salarian.
“Excellent question. Cassiopeia will try to establish communication with our home galaxy. Thanks to the Rachnis’ help we believe it’s possible to send a message that would take only half the time we made to get to Andromeda. As for going back… The Normandy, as the smallest ship currently in our possession by far, will be upgraded with a new type of YELLOW that would allow them to sustain the Mass effect field it would get by using the Cassiopeia as a Mass Relay. That’s for the future. The Andromeda Mass Relay is not done yet on the other side and I don’t want the Normandy to be stuck there when we may need it for exploration.”
“What about the Andromeda Initiative? Will we just wait for them to come here?”
“No. Once we can freely travel back and forth between the Galaxy. A small ship will depart from the Milky way, use the Mass relay to reach the current location of their ships, accoast them, wake the few people in charge and install a Mass Relay drive on them.”

After that, there were no more questions and the meeting was wrapped up.

__________________________________________________________

Excitement was in the air, in a few minutes they would leave hyperspace and be in the Andromeda Galaxy. Everyone was ready and at their posts. Rick and Jane in the command room were looking at the screen showing what the camera in front of the ship was getting.

“Exit of hyperspace in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…”

The sudden streaks of blue lights of the Mass Effect corridor subsided and the view was replaced by stars. Everyone celebrated for the success of the Journey, cheering loudly. Rick however, while happy, was looking at what the results the scanners, that were activated the moment they were out of hyperspace, were giving him. Not far from their entry point on Andromeda was an habitable planet. The data he had recovered from the Andromeda Initiative was paying off. It was easy to get access to it though the people who had stayed behind were told that with this information they could establish colonies in the foreseeable future but also help the ships traveling through the dark space. At that, they relented and shared everything they had.
Habitat-7 or rather Ryder in homage to the man having discovered it, was displayed by EDI on the holo just in front of him.

“EDI, situation?”
“The planet’s results from the scans are showing that it’s habitable though there is an increase of neon gas in the air. It’s breathable for now but with time it won't.”

“How much time are we talking about?” asked Jane.
“Thousands of years, maybe more. Exploration of the planet is necessary for more detailed data.”
“Plenty of time to stop the air from changing.” Rick said aloud his thoughts before asking EDI to open the coms from everywhere on Cass. “This is Wald, speaking. I have the pleasure to announce that we are finally in the Andromeda Galaxy. It’s a big step not only for us but also for the many species of the Milky Way. Our travel is over but our journey is only beginning; golden words for colonies need to be found and this will take time. Or not. We’re close to one of the seven livable habitats Alec Ryder had discovered back in the 80s’. We will soon send exploration teams there.” he cut the coms there and spoke to EDI. “Send a message to the Milky Way about our situation, please.”

The teams had already been made weeks ago. They were made of six people; twoo soldiers, one tech expert, one biology expert, one exploration expert and one medic. Rick’s team was composed of him as a tech expert, naturally, Jane and Dorothea as soldiers, Arianna as an expert, a Krogan named Olkar as the exploration expert and a salarian as biology expert. He checked with his daughter if that was alright with her or if she wanted to change teams; to not be in her parents shadow but the redhead said she was alright with it. What mattered to her was to be part of a team and nothing else.

In both Rick’s and Jane’s absence, such as presently, Ashley was in command of Cassiopeia. Giving her one last kiss he left the Command Room to go to the Alteralek, the Turian ship they would take to get on Ryder. It was a bigger ship than the Normandy as it was made for transport of troops and as a result could hold ten shuttles in its Cargo Deck. The trip to Ryder lasted less than a minute thanks to the BLUE and the new thrusters Rick’s had created a few years back. As they went on the shuttle to depart, Jane opened up the conversation.

“Olark, right? Nice to meet you.”

Commander Jane Rosalind Shepard may have been fifty one but she never lost her open attitude towards people. That surprised the krogan a bit.

“Nice to meet you too, Commander.”
“I’m surprised you’re a member of the exploration team. Krogan are usually more… battle oriented.”
“We are.” Olark replied with a chuckle. “Though ever since the genophage was cured and that krogans came back on Tuchanka after being educated, things had started to change for the better. As for me, I was always a curious child, wanting to see what was beyond the Kepic Valley. My name was brought up to Urdnot Wrex when he was searching for people for the project. He asked, I accepted and here I am. Don’t worry though, I’m a Krogan, fighting is in my blood.”
“I didn’t expect any less.” she replied with a smirk.

The journey with the shuttle was short, only a few minutes. They were supposed to land near a lake situated in a valley. The area was circled by a vast forest and in anticipation of any dangers like wild beasts, they stood aware of their surroundings. The team was split in two, One team, lead by Jane went to explore the forest, supported by drones that Olark had deployed to help with surveying. The other team stayed behind near the shuttle to scan everything they could. Usually, they would not have separated but considering who was on the team they went with him. Rick was a powerhouse by himself and could protect Arianna and Andol, the salarian. To be fair, Arianna was her own power house too biotic wise, and her experience on the field was not inexistant. She had asked to be part of the military course when she turned sixteen and Javik took pleasure in training her. She had demonstrated a determination that the prothean had only seen in her parents and she quickly became a favorite student of his.

Air is breathable but I would not recommend removing our mask without proper analysis. Who knows what’s in the air…”
“Duly noted. Anything else?” Rick asked as he was scanning the topology of the area.
“Flora is indicative of levo life, and the soil is rich. Agriculture is possible.”
“Good, we’ll be able to feed everyone but the Turian and Quarian.”
“It may be possible to alter the ground for dextro food. I would not recommend it at least at first.”
“The ground here is not strong enough to start building a colony, we’re going to need to check the whole Lake.” replied Rick as he looked at his daughter getting close to the edge of the Lake.

“Rick? It’s Jane. Olark found traces of wild life. It’s rather big… about the size of a varren from its footprints he said.”
“Was it a single trail or are there many?”
“He’s busy checking things but he said that… Wait a sec… Okaaay.. So one of the drones found a mangle corpse, an animal. It’s not pretty, Olark says it was hunted down by a group who are the owners of the footprints.”
“Be careful Jane. It means they are predators and have a pack mentality, you may be in their territory and they won’t like that if that’s the case.”
“Olark already warned us. We’re alert, the corpse is a day old, so they may still be around.”
“What I don’t understand is why you didn’t find any footprints here, the water has a neutral pH, they should have…” A sudden thought crossed his mind and stopped what he was saying to yell at his daughter. “ARI, GET AWAY FROM THE WATER!”

Just as she turned around to look at her father, a gigantic snake leaped from under the water surface from fifteen away. Rick had just the time to charge her and push her away before being gobbled up entirely. Arianna immediately stood up from the ground and began to shoot at the snake’s head with her assault rifle. Damage was done but its skin was way too thick to do anything devastating. As the beast reddied to lunge again, he let out a scream and straightened up when a blue light pierced its body and cut right through its flesh horizontally. The light moved, severed the beast's spine before coming back toward the puncture wound. As most of its body was carved out the weight of the upper part was so big that it ripped itself from the lower part effectively cutting the predator in two. From its corpse crawled out a very disgusting Rick with his lightsaber in hand.

“DAD!” Arianna yelled as she ran towards her father who was trying to stand up on his feet.

In no time she was by her side and began to examine him. He was covered in green goods that were attacking his armor and she concluded that it was the beast's stomach’s acid. Noticing that one of his legs was wounded she used her biotics to carry him and rinsed him in the shallow water. Quickly bringing back towards the ground and far away from the shore she checked his wound. The flesh was turning black around the puncture and the veins from there began to darken too, spreading. Immediately she made a tourniquet to stop the blood just above the area where the poison didn’t reach and began working on extracting it.

“Andol! Bring me…” She began to shoot as  she began to scan the wound and poison when the Salarian was already by her side with the medi-kit from the shuttle.
“Here.”
“Thank you.” she replied as she opened the box and picked up a vial of anti-venom. It was all purpose for levo DNA and she hoped that it would have at least a delaying effect since it was an Andromeda venom she was now dealing with. Puting the vial into a pistol syringe, she injected the appropriate dosage right into her father’s leg.

“Baby girl, if that doesn’t work, don’t hesitate to cut.”
“I know! It won’t come to that!” she said as she began to remove the necrosed flesh. “And don’t call me ‘baby girl’ on a mission.”
“Alright my baaaaaad. Shit that hurts.”
“Yeah, well, I need to cut a bit of your healthy flesh to be sure that it’s not contaminated. Wait, you didn’t feel pain until now?”
“Besides the fire burning into my veins? No.”
“That’s … nevermind, questions for later.”

Once she removed the whole dead flesh she took a look at the spreading of the poison. Her helmet displayed the current situation and she was glad to see that it had an effect though only a delaying one, she would need to study the venom and create an antidote fast before she’d have to cut her father’s leg off.”

“Mom, Do you copy?”
“I do, Arianna, what is it?”
“We have a problem.”
“...What did your father do this time?”
“Saved my life, got eaten by a giant snake, killed it from the inside with his lightsaber and got poisoned. We need to go back to Alteralek, I can’t synthesize an antidote here.”
“I’ll share the word, we’re on our way.”

Ten minutes later and the scouting team came back running fast. Arianna had brought back her father to the shuttle. To be exact, she made him levitate and Andol just pushed him to the shuttle while Arianna was with her AR drawn looking around to any more threats. When Jane saw the body of the giant snake, she was dumbfounded and Olark whistled, clearly impressed. That thing wasn’t as big as a thresher maw but was plenty big enough.

‘Hey! Like my new trophy?” Rick said from the shuttle’s floor. He was joking but it was an act, he felt very weak and hot.
“Butt ugly but I’ve seen worse.” she replied without a smile as she sat beside him taking his hand in hers.
“I’m sorry, I…”
“You… did your job, Olark.” Rick interjected
“Yeah. As far as you knew, we were in possibly immediate danger and you focused on it.” added Jane as Dorothea took the shuttle off.

The krogan didn’t say anything else, choosing to stay quiet. Arianna was the one who spoke as she warned the Alteralek of the situation and to have their med-bay and lab ready.

“We’re going back?” asked Jane, though it was more of a statement.
“And slaughter every single one of those assholes.” answered her brother.
“The ground around the lake is very fertile for levo food, we can’t grow any with monsters like that lurking around.” Andol announced.
“Let’s hope it doesn’t fuck up the entire lake’ eco system.” said Jane.
“The snake is hunting the shore, so… anything down there that could be used for food is probably long gone or hiding really well. The leg is big though, so maybe not.” Olark explained.

With Arianna keeping a watchful eye over her father, the shuttle entered the Alteralek.