Ryder returned to the Tempest, hopeful to find something of the trail of vaults Peebee had claimed to have found leading to an active one. It was in undiscovered space and the idea send tingles down her spine, ready for a new adventure. It could be a chance for a new outpost - a golden world even.
She made her way to the galaxy map, Kallo and Suvi in quiet chatter as she arrived.
"Kallo, you on that navpoint?"
He looked over and spoke quickly, "Ah, Ryder yes, the Onaon system."
She nodded and inhaled sharply. Who knew what was to be found out there, the thought of kett remained in the back of her head, knowing if they found the Remnant vault they were bound to be around as well.
Not longer after setting off towards the unknown planet, Kallo shouted.
"Ryder! We're coming into something big!"
She heard SAM chime out Collision is imminent pathfinder.
"Stop Kallo, now!" She shouted back before the sudden brake impacted them all, holding onto the bar in front of her to brace herself.
Out of the dark space a massive ship, alien in structure appeared staring back at them, other smaller ones on the outskirts.
"Shit.." she whispered to herself. SAM notified her it was several kett ships, second later a holographic screen popping up.
An ominous kett face, different to the others she had encountered already, no life in its eyes.
"Answer me." He spoke in a deep authoritative tone.
"Who are you? I'm Ryder."
He did not respond other than to command she come with him. Suvi exclaimed that the Tempest was locked in, causing Ryder to curse silently.
"What do you want?" She asked back, no hesitation in her voice.
"You cannot understand."
He showed no care in his words, staring lifelessly into her own eyes.
Pathfinder, I can regain control but I need more time.
"I'm not coming with you!"
Her response evoked nothing from the kett, "You cannot defy, enough time.."
Just in time Sam rerouted a path through the Scourge, leaving the kett ships behind in clouds of flame as they tried to follow through the destructive dark matter.
"That was too close.." Ryder exhaled.
From the bridge Drack thumped up chuckling, "Good work, kid." He said with a grin on his face.
It was cut off by Kallo's fast interjection stating problems on our landing. "What do you mean, is someone else here..?" She replies before the comm buzzed on with white noise before a foreign voice patched through, a language she could not understand repeating itself rather angrily.
She leaned in towards the comm, "Uhh..we're peaceful. We mean no harm?" Hoping they would understand their basic intentions.
After a long silence a navpoint was send through to Kallo, plotting our new landing point.
Through the dark clouds emerged a paradise looking land, green plants, blue water over cliffs.
She gasped. "Wow..it's amazing. A..golden world maybe?"
Liam chirped in from behind. "Yeah no pressure pathfinder, you better hope this first contact goes better than Habitat 7."
She ran a hand through her hair and sighed, "Come on guys, little support here."
She waved them off as she stepped off the tempest, a whole squad of..well, aliens running towards the ship heavily armed. With her hands up they scanned her whole body before stepping back and looking her to move foreword. A tall slender figure appeared at the top of a set of stairs. "I am Paaran Shie, governor of Aya" she gestured around. "We are the angara."
Ryder stepped forward slowly, keeping an eye on the guards surrounding her. "I'm Ryder, a pathfinder with the Initiative- we mean no harm."
The angara nodded knowingly. "We have heard, you crossed a long way, we know of your journey..'pathfinder'."
From behind her, a taller angara bustles though, larger, with a cape trailing from his back. The female angara put her hand out and mumbled "I am handling this Jaal.."
He turned back to her and spoke in a deep voice. "Efvra sent me to find out what is going on, this..ship arriving." He then ignored her and walked down the stairs slowly towards Ryder, reasonably taller than her he stared her down as he shadowed over her, getting right up close to her face. Paraan Shie spoke from behind. "Jaal - she is a human, a pathfinder. From another galaxy."
He stared at her for a second before speaking, unfazed.
"What do you want here, we are hidden and protected in Aya."
His tone suggested animosity towards her.
Yet Ryder puffed up her chest and spoke back in a calm voice. "We didn't know if anyone else here, we're just looking for technology. You have a vault we wanted to study that's all. Simple"
He scoffed quietly. "It is not simple."
He turned around abruptly and walked off the way he had come, halfway up he spoke without turning. "Efvra will be informed, he will want to meet you at the Resistance Headquarters, I will wait there." Then all of a sudden he was gone again. He had a mysterious presence and to Ryder he seemed not to care, this frustrated her but she wanted to keep the peace.
Then Paaran Shie spoke again, requesting that Ryder follow her, and only her. No crew were allowed within the city and the guards would use force if necessary. "So don't step out of line while you are here."
As Ryder walked with Paaran Shie through the city, so clean, surrounded in plant life, she could hear countless angara mumbling to each other. Things like "What is that.", "it shouldn't be here- lock it up". She felt slightly insecure but didn't let it show through. She asked the angara questions on their walk, finding out about her place and Efvra, the leader of the resistance.
As Ryder entered the Resistance Headquarters, she came face to face with the tall male angara from before. He still looked down on her, only this time holding a large alien rifle of sorts by his side. She inspected it warily and looked up and down.
"You understand, the kett we encountered makes us naturally defensive."
Ryder nodded slightly, "Yeah, we've run in with them as well."
He informed her of the angaras experience with the kett and abductions, but deflected her questions, telling her only to ask Efvra more. He led her into a room where another angara turned around after her announcement.
"A pathfinder..." Efvra spoke. "You made an aggressive move coming to Aya." He looked at her with distrust in his eyes.
They both talked for a while about the humans reasons for arrival and intentions. Speaking of the vault, leading Ryder to find out that it is shut.
"The Moshae..could help, she knows this technology." Jaal spike up but Efvra interjected explaining her loss to the kett.
Ryder bit her lip in thought and replied, trying to convince them that she could do things with the vault herself.
Ignored, Jaal and Efvra argued for a while over Ryder until Jaal offered to accompany her.
Efvra grunted but turned away. "Do what you will, but if she tries to kill you...be prepared to strike first." He left the room, only the tall angara and Ryder remained.
He introduced himself; "I am Jaal Ama Darav. I'll..accompany and assess you though angaran space." His tone seemed to have softened a little but she still sensed a little hostility and she was not going to back down easily.
"Well..make space for yourself aboard the tempest." He nodded and spoke again. "I hope I don't regret this." Ryder only rolled her eyes and started to walk off, murmuring in agreement.
When you returned to the Tempest, Jaal followed behind, inspecting the ship as he walked. The rest of the crew gathered in the meeting room asking why they couldn't enter the city, a certain resentment against the new crew member sitting in the shadows silently. Peebee piped up and looked over at the new alien. "Do the translators not work or something?"
Jaal looked up, slightly glowering. "They work" He spoke quickly and just as soon was silent again.
Ryder rubbed her brows and looked at everyone. "Can we just..focus please. No arguments."
After some more discussion the conversation turned to Jaal, explaining to the crew about the kett, their appearance into the Heleus system and their plan. Eventually Ryder had the choice to travel to two angaran planets, Voeld or Havarl, "Right well..I don't know yet, I'll tell you all when I decide" she spoke. The rest of the crew murmured and slowly dispersed.
Later on Ryder headed to the tech lab of the Tempest. She knocked on the door before entering, walking in to Jaal tinkering with his gun.
She stopped behind him, her footsteps almost silent.
"So..Jaal." She spoke up, he turned to face her face with the same expression as when he'd first met her, face to face.
"So." He replied. Ryder blinked, surprised at how blunt his response was, for some reason it irritated her. It was most as if he was determined to intimidate her perhaps, no, rival her?
"You don't seem all to friendly to me." She crossed her arms and eyed him up, trying to look a little larger in front of the tall alien. He chuckled in a sarcastic manner but didn't say anything. Ryder frowned and took a step forward leaning around the side of him. She looked at his rifle, it looked strange so she reached forward to pick it up, to inspect it but her wrist was sharply caught by a strong grip. She pulled her arm back quickly but his hands were stronger and he held on firmly. The lab door had shut behind her and the walls were fairly soundproof so no one tended to hear anything going on in desperate rooms.
He looked at her with a rather suspicious expression. "Do not."
Yet she didn't falter, Ryder didn't want to act scared in front of him, showing weakness was bad.
"Why should I trust you not to shoot me in the back anymore than you don't trust me?" She asked. As he was about to reply she swept her foot into his leg intending to knock him so he'd let go but his reflexes were quick and he only turned her over forcing her to fall onto one of the lab beds.
She looked up into his large cat-like eyes, breathing in sharply. When he stared down at her it almost looked like a slight smirk was on his face. It was strange for her to feel as powerless as she did in that second, but then he abruptly let go turning back to the desk and resuming his work like nothing had happened. Ryder gasped and stood up, brushing herself off before storming out of the room and heading to her room.
She sat on the edge of her bed, confused. She was struggling with her own head, she was a leader yet she almost felt a weakness in that moment. This alien was strange, she rather disliked him at the moment but there was something intriguing about him, like she was drawn in when she looked into his eyes. "Shake it off damn it.." she muttered to herself before scooting up the bed, and laying her head down, dozing off into a sleep.