Nightmares

To: Akksul

From: Thaldyr

I dreamt of the camps again. I thought one couldn't feel pain in dreams, but I did. My back ached from exhaustion. And my skin stung from where they cut me. Even after I awoke, I could feel the kett in my scars.

All I want is to sleep.

Joven,

Thaldyr

He slammed his palms against the desk and pushed himself away, leaving the datapad where he'd dropped it. Thaldyr was being reckless and she knew it! The idea of her getting hurt after all they'd been through angered him. If she would have just come with them! He would have kept her safe. He would find her a place on Aya, a good home. A safe one.

He turned to the window and stared out at the stars. There were so many. And they were lost to the Angara. There were few star charts beyond their three established planets. Angara once traveled, they were once a strong people. And now they cowered, now they were limited because of the kett... and the scourge. Akksul grit his teeth, watching the way the scourge twisted through their existence. It had been a part of their systems for as long as he could remember, but it was only recently that it turned from a curiosity to an annoyance. He was no longer interested in the Remnant or any of the discoveries he'd made while learning from the Moshae. What good was discovery when his people were being kidnapped at every turn? When the kett destroyed anything good in the world?

The Roekaar's numbers had increased drastically since the arrival of the new aliens. Akksul didn't trust them, but they were hardly a concern of his. He had devoted his focus to wiping out the kett, something the Resistance constantly failed to do. He could not afford to be distracted by these newcomers. They would see in time if the aliens were like the kett.

Akksul knew what the recruits thought of the aliens, xenophobia was widespread, but if it bolstered their numbers, then he didn't care.

He placed a hand against the glass, watching as his home planet grew smaller in the distance. He tried to persuade Thaldyr to join him again, but she always refused. She was stubborn, that woman. He left a troop to protect her, but there wasn't much else he could do to help. Not when the kett drew his attention elsewhere. They were rampant on Kadara, and he'd gotten word of more of these…. Humans coming, claiming they could be rid of them.

"We'll see."

"See what, little brother?"

His brother's voice startled him, but Akksul remained still. After a pause, he turned to look at Jivfra. He stood in the doorway, a smirk on his lips, amused at having caught his brother talking to himself. Akksul shook his head. "How long until we reach Kadara Port?"

"Taak says within the hour, but you did not answer my question."

"These humans, I'm curious to see if they are just like the kett. They battle amongst themselves like adhi, but their 'Initiative' claims to be different. I would just as soon avoid them."

Jivfra nodded, his lips pursed. He walked further into the room, moving to stand by Akksul's desk. His webbed fingers brushed against a datapad, and the screen flickered to life. "What will you tell the others, kill on sight?" he asked, lifting the datapad close enough to read the words. A glance over his shoulder told Jivfra that Akksul was staring out the window again, unaware of Jivfra's nosing.

Akksul hummed, thinking to himself. "Only if they get in the way, we do not need to fight two wars."

Jivfra left silently, his disapproval of Akksul's leniency towards the humans evident in the way he hunched his shoulders. But Akksul's attention was still turned towards the stars, his thoughts focused on gaining a foothold in Kadara. There were already plenty of angara on the planet, but he needed a strong force to combat the kett and a reserve in case the aliens proved to be more trouble.

Akkusl moved back towards his computer, typing up a reply to Thaldyr. There was at least something he could do for her. He placed a small bottle into a package, sending both to Havarl.

Re: Nightmares

To: Thaldyr

From: Akksul

Tarashay,

I'm sending you a bottle of dremaagry - it should help with the nightmares. I use it myself from time to time.

I know I promised not to bring it up again, but I wish you would come stay at one of our camps. Havarl's jungles are dangerous. I don't like the idea of you alone out there. And it would be nice to have you near. Please, think about it again.

Joven,

Akksul

xxx

Hello, Traveler, and welcome to your first day in Andromeda! This is the dawn of a new era for all of us. As you recover from stasis, know that you're in good hands. In a few short hours, you'll be leaving the Nexus and joining thousands of your fellow colonists as you chase your fortunes and build the new life you've always dreamed about. It's been a long wait - but I promise you it will be worth it.

Jien Garson

Founder, Andromeda Initiative

Lilja wasn't entirely sure why she'd kept the message. She'd been woken up early, the Nexus wasn't even complete, and there were no 'Golden Worlds' to chase their fortunes or build new lives on, and Lilja still felt a little lost. Adain, her brother, had pulled strings to get her woken up when it was evident that the Hyperion, and the other arks, weren't coming. Just over a year in Andromeda.

Everything went to hell shortly after that.

There was something strange about holding a weapon that wasn't alliance issue. Lilja knew why it unsettled her, in the alliance she knew who she was, that she was doing good. Now she was in the middle of an unknown galaxy surrounded by mercenaries… well, she supposed she was a mercenary now. After the exile.

Lilja sighed.

This wasn't what she'd expected coming to Andromeda, but when her brother was going to be exiled she'd acted rashly. Now they were both in the middle of nowhere. Hopefully Kadara would prove to be more of a home to her than the Nexus had. But by the way the angara were angrily staring at her, she didn't think that was going to be the case.

"Come on, Sis. You're wasting daylight."

Adain nudged Lilja's shoulder and she pushed back. He was right though. She didn't have time to contemplate the universe. Not when there were kett to hunt. "Where's Sloane sending us now?"

"There's a group of kett just outside the slums. It's our job to chase them off," Adain explained as the rest of the team grabbed their weapons and made for the gate.

There was a rover waiting for them, and all six of the team climbed inside. Lilja found herself squished between Erick and Kyle in the back with Mason, while Adain and Jemimah were comfortably sitting in the front. Jemimah pulled out a rough map of the terrain, and pointed Adain North, Northeast.

"There's a cave, not too far, where we think they're holed up. Sloane said to wait and observe, see if they're based anywhere else, and then strike."

Adain stepped on the gas, sending them flying down the road. "Let's do this."

They twisted down the road, coming to a sharp stop in front of the aforementioned cave. Lilja pushed the others to move faster as they piled out of the rover. Once out, she brushed herself off, and readied her rifle. "Jemi, Mason, you wait by the entrance, we'll signal if we need help, but we don't want any kett returning and taking us by surprise." They nodded their acceptance and took posts on either side. Lilja smiled. "Alright, the rest of you...let's go kick some kett ass."

They made their way into the cave, slow and quiet progress. This wasn't exactly a recon mission, but Lilja knew that Sloane liked extra information. It was the easiest way to escape patrol duty; be useful. Adain had been working on a device to track different kett transponders, but it all went over Lilja's head. She was a down in the dirt kind of girl. All she needed was a gun and her biotics to keep going. Adain was all about the gadgets.

Lilja crouched behind a crate. The kett were not thirty yards away, but they were clearly distracted with something. It looked like they were loading crates onto a ship. Big crates. The sound of comms crackled in Lilja's ear. ::Tomasson, we have a problem.::

::What?:: Lilja and Adain responded in unison.

::Dropship,:: Mason explained.

Lilja raised an eyebrow, lowering herself further behind the crate. ::More kett?:: she whispered.

::No, angara.::

She frowned, knowing that the angara were barely tolerating them, and if it was one of those extremists, then things were about to get interesting. ::Shit, well, tell them we've got this covered.::

The sounds of gunfire came over comms, and Lilja swore. Again.

::Sorry, Commander, looks like diplomacy isn't an option here.::

::Just get -

The line went dead.

"Damnit!" Lilja hissed. She turned her attention back to the kett they were observing. One of the crates they were lifting rattled.

"Let me out!"

Lilja gaped, they had people in those cages! As much as she wanted to turn back for Jemimah and Mason, her conscience wouldn't let her. She shook her head, "We stick to the plan. I'm not letting those kett bastards take anyone."

Adain nodded, and signaled to Kyle and Erick that operations were 'Go'. Lilja rolled out of cover just in time to hear the sounds of gunfire behind her. She ducked to the left when kett began firing. Mason and Jemimah were running towards her, with angara hard on their heels. Lilja spun around, firing at the kett. No way was her team going to be able to fight on two fronts for long. There were only six of them for goodness sake.

She ran further into the base, placing Adain's special explosives around. If they weren't going to make it out of here, then the kett sure as hell weren't going to have use of this base. Using her biotics to lift her into the air, Lilja slammed back onto the ground in a nova. The kett around her went flying and she used that time to start breaking open the cages.

Behind her, Adain and Kyle were moving in to help Mason and Jemimah. She fumbled with the locks, using biotics to tear them off. Her barrier pulsed, protecting her against gunfire. She had a minute, at most, to get the captives out of the way before her barrier failed.

"Lilja!"

She turned towards the sound of her brother's voice, spotting him across the cavern. That was when the explosives went off. Lilja flinched, leaping into cover. When the dust settled she looked for Adain, the kett began moving again, and by the sounds of it they had reinforcements. She heard the angara shout in their foreign language, her translator glitching in and out.

"Kett ...coming…. need evacuation…. base destroyed."

Lilja pushed herself to her feet, and reached for her rifle. Another squad of kett moved into the cavern and the angara began firing. She glanced behind her, happy to see that the caged angara were still alive. Then she started moving, checking about the rubble for her brother. "Adain!"

"Over here!"

Lilja ran towards him, a half smile on her face when she caught up to him. "I thought you were a goner for a second there."

He chuckled. "Someone placed the explosives early."

She shrugged. "Couldn't risk it. You saw what they were trying to do."

"Fair enough," he muttered, "but how are we getting out of here."

"That's a great question," Kyle said, moving in from behind. Next to him was the rest of her squad.

Lilja grinned. "Glad to see you could all make it."

"You mean glad your impatience didn't get us all killed?" Erick asked with a frown.

"Close enough." Lilja scanned the area. The entrance was blocked, which meant the only way they were getting out was with a whole lot of bullets. "Alright, everyone, take a breath and reload. We're blitzing to the entrance."

xxx

Lilja checked her clip, three left and more kett than she could count. She didn't know how they could get so many reinforcements in such a short time, but they did. Erick was unconscious and she was pretty sure that Mason was dead. In that moment, she hated the kett more than anything in the world. She charged into the fray, taking down three right away.

She tossed her rifle to the side, using her biotics to push through. She was not going down without a fight. She could hear some of the angara still fighting, until the only ones left who had bullets were the kett. They tore through her barrier, knocking her to the ground.

Lilja coughed, spitting out blood. Above her, one of the kett approached, but instead of shooting her, he hit her in the head with the butt of his gun, knocking her out.

She awoke in a different room, in one of the cages that she'd tried to save the angara from. The room was dark, and the doors looked like kett technology. A base that had been built into the side of a mountain by the looks of it. Her floor was dirt, and there was only one light, a small heat lamp that kept the room at a barely livable temperature. Wherever they were, it wasn't Kadara. It was cold, and damp.

The cage beside hers rattled. "Lil, you awake?"

She rolled onto her side. "Mason? I thought you were dead."

He coughed out a bitter laugh. "No, they took us all alive. I think they're experimenting on us. They took Erick and Jemimah."

"Haven't seen them in hours," Kyle pitched in. "We all thought you were dead. You hadn't moved since they brought you in, and they wouldn't let us check on you."

She nodded slowly. "Where's Adain?"

"Next cage over," Mason said, "They just brought him back in… he's resting."

"What'd they do to him?" Lilja asked angrily.

"Don't worry, he's alright, just exhausted. Said they were running scans, that's all."

"But he saw things," Mason said, fear tinging his voice.

Lilja frowned. "Like what?"

xxx

"What do you mean Kedh did not return?" Akksul said, his calm beginning to shatter. He glared down at the scout, whose name he had forgotten. In that moment, he didn't care, all of his focus was on staying calm. Kedh was one of his best men, one of the most loyal. He'd been with Akksul and the Roekaar from the beginning.

"They went to the base, like you ordered. There were humans already there, and then the kett sent in more troops. They were overwhelmed."

Akksul clenched his hands, he would kill the kett with his bare hands if Kedh did not return alive. The scout quivered in front of Akksul, afraid of his wrath. Most days Akksul kept it contained, but the few occasions that he had not caused stories to spread. He was not an angara that you wanted to be on the bad side of, and this scout thought no different.

"Go," Akksul gritted out.

The scout scampered off, and Akksul turned in the space of his cabin. They needed a way to track the kett. The scout said the base was destroyed, but there was kett among the wreckage, attempting to salvage all they could; they were not done with Kadara.

Akksul stalked out of his room and to the cockpit. "Taak, take us to Haarfel."

"Sir?"

He stared out the window. "We're going after Kedh's team."

"Yes, brother."

xxx

She was strapped to a table. Lilja struggled against the restraints. She couldn't remember how she got there, and knew she must have been drugged. A bright light shined down on her, illuminating the sterilized table she was laid out on, a tray of medical instruments to her left.

"Fuck. Why does Adain always have to be right?"

"Zul chem soned!"

Lilja flinched away from the boney kett face. "Hey bonehead, I can't understand you."

"Khan no volhkned hesh... what…are you?"

"What am I? Well, for starters, I'm prettier than you." She expected the slap, but his boney structure made it sting more than a typical one. Lilja licked her busted lip, and glared. "I'm a human, dumbass."

"Hooman."

Lilja rolled her eyes. "Yeah, sure, close enough."

"Tho nov hesh. Not like others."

She furrowed her brow. Was that a question? "Not like who?"

The kett stuck out a long finger, pointing across the room. On a similar slab was Erick's naked body. His chest was cut open, ribs snapped back so they could see all of his organs. Lilja clenched her hands, her stomach rolling dangerously. "Ah, hell, Erick. I'm so sorry."

She could feel the tears brimming, but tried to resist. She didn't want to get the kett the satisfaction. Instead she gritted her teeth and glared at it in defiance.

It growled and raised its hand to hit her again. "Why? Not like others."

"I've got jiggly bits," she retorted, closing her eyes and waiting for the hit. But it didn't come. The tray clattered as it picked up a long thin blade. The blade pressed against her side.

"Tell!" the kett shouted.

"Go fuck yourself."

The blade moved faster than she expected, stabbing into her side and twisting downward. The kett watched the blood pour out and tore further. The wound was nearly five inches long, but not so deep. Lilja wondered if he did it on purpose, wondered how much they learned of human physiology through dissecting Erick.

Her biotics flared in her anger, and the kett stepped away, seemingly satisfied with her response to the pain. Lilja struggled again, using her biotics to snap the restraints off. She threw the kett across the room, but the blue glow died down quickly as she lost strength. Everything was fuzzy... dim. Her stomach flopped and it was as if all the blood in her body had been drained, her limbs losing the strength to hold her.

Lilja made three more steps towards the door before all control left her. She tripped forward, the light was quickly fading. A force slammed her into wall. Lilja pawed at the floor weakly. All of her strength was focused on staying conscious, but she could feel it slipping through her fingers. A cold claw grasped her around the neck, and she forced her eyes open.

Of course, a kett.

"Bite... me," she managed to spit out before falling unconscious.