"Reverent feces, Sara!" Jaal growled. "Do you have to take every dune at one hundred and twenty?" Good thing the Nomand had been designed with several hand and foot holds because Jaal was utilizing most of them at the moment. The Krogan beside him, who stayed put mostly because of his size, flashed him a toothy smile, not the most reassuring gesture at the moment. Sara's smile mirrored the Krogan's up in the driver's seat of the vehicle.
"Ah, come on, Jaal!" They flew across another dune at a crazy angle. "This is fun!"
There had been little fun in Sara Ryder's life as of late. Mourning the loss of her father and the fact that her twin brother was still in a coma while trying to be everyone's hero of the hour left little time for frivolity. Jaal, lately, had been her rock, her strength through all the tribulations but he too had several issues that had been weighing heavily on his mind.
"You might redefine your definition of fun if you were the one being squished up against a Krogan at every turn!" Jaal retorted.
The Angaran was kind and generous and had a loving heart, but at times when he was uncomfortable or unhappy he could be downright peevish. The downside of having one's emotions up front and to the foreground, Sara thought.
"Hey! I thought you liked hugging on people!" Drack's voice boomed from the back.
'The path ahead contains Kett'SAMS voice intoned, cutting off whatever retort Jaal might have had in mind.
A dark plume of smoke billowed by the next dune the Nomad rolled over to find, indeed, Kett scurrying around to various vantage points within their small camp. All joking was laid aside in an instant. Sara tried not to hate anything in life but she was hard pressed not to put the Kett at the top of her mental list. After what they had discovered at the Kett facility and the effect that the shocking news had had on Jaal she had been more than happy to stamp out as many as she could find like the cockroaches that they were.
"Get ready to fight" she yelled, as she slid the Nomad in at an angle to provide cover, all softness in her voice gone. They jumped out of the vehicle, guns drawn and ready.
She fired a concussive shot at an anointed as it approached, the thugs of the Kett hierarchy. Behind him approached a Destined, who had the ability to cloak their presence, making it harder to get a good bead on them. A couple of Omni grenades worked wonders on him though. She risked a quick glance over at the purple and blue form that was Jaal as he reappeared from an Avenger strike to take down two Kett Chosen. He was well versed in combat, and had been for years before Sara had arrived, but she still kept an eye on him through any battle, the need to do so increasing as her feeling grew for the Angaran.
The last few Chosen were eliminated by combined firepower and the simple physics of shooting at volatile canisters that were under pressure. The Pathfinder wished that the Nomad was equipped with high powered missiles to blow the remains of the Kett camp into oblivion but sadly they had to leave the remainder of the equipment and vehicles intact. No doubt it would probably be swarming with new Kett in a few days.
"Targets eliminated" Jaal announced to the company at large with some satisfaction.
"Good job!" Ryder replied, as they sifted through the remains of the battle and made their way back to the Nomad. They piled in the small space making it smell like sweat, Kett blood, and overheated weapons almost instantly.
"There should be a drone around here somewhere."
The Pathfinder set off again at top speed, sliding over the dunes like a surfer on a good wave. They drove around and over the same bit of sand several times, not finding anything though.
"Damn! These things are like a finding a needle in a haystack!" The Nomad whipped around for another pass around the still smoldering Kett camp and on up to an outcropping of rocks.
"That means it is difficult to find?"
Jaal was slowly picking up on the meanings of the strange phrases know as idioms that the humans seemed fond of spouting, although some of the more colorful ones still left him baffled.
"Yes, extremely hard to find at times" growled Ryder in response. She knew field work like this was important to the advancement of the colony, and something the scientific outpost could not do in the still dangerous environment of Eos, but sometimes she felt that there were more pressing things that a pathfinder needed to be doing, like eradicating the threat of the Kett once and for all.
The sensor on her Omni tool let out a chirp as they approached another rock strewn sandy location, followed by ever increasing vibrations as they left the Nomad and searched on foot. The vibrations were almost constant as they climbed over the hundredth rocky outcropping of the day but still Sara could not see the missing drone.
"Dammit" she muttered, her patience wearing thin. The weather had improved exponentially on Eos since they had activated the vault but it was still a hot and sandy location and Sara, like Jaal, wanted only so much hot, sandy weather in her future. At least the kind where umbrellas and festive drinks were not included.
She came upon it almost by accident, half sliding down a grouping of dusty rocks before jetting to the sandy sheltered area at the center.
"Here is your needle!" Jaal shouted as she landed beside the non-functional drone. "Place your beacon so we can depart!" The Angaran heartily hoped that they would move on from the sandy planet soon. Why anyone would volunteer to live here was beyond his scope of understanding.
"I don't know why you guys are in such a hurry to leave" Drack drawled in his deep, gravelly voice. "It's a nice day, the sun is out, and there are lots of things to kill along the way"
She knew the Krogan had a somewhat negative opinion of the planet as well, so it seemed that his declaration was more for the benefit of pulling Jaal's chain.
"I can't argue with that kind of logic, Drack" Sara laughed as they re-entered the cool atmosphere of the Nomad. The Pathfinder shoved the vehicle's transmission into drive and three wheeled down the side of a small cliff before adding "That was the last of the drones. What say we head back to the Tempest for a drink. First one is on me."
Jaal once again grabbed on to any available handholds as he tried to picture Ryder wearing a drink. The idea seemed rather silly. Perhaps it was another strange human phrase. His confusing mental picture was interrupted as Ryder leaned back towards him with a large smile on his face.
"Oh, and I think the phrase you were looking for earlier is Holy Shit. That rolls off the tongue much better and I'm sure you'll be needing it again sooner than later."
With that she hit the button for extraction back to the Tempest, looking forward to a bit of unwinding and perhaps a bit more time to tease her favorite Angaran.