PLEASE REVIEW ANY FEEDBACK MUCH APPRECIATED. THIS WILL BE UPDATED EVERY FRIDAY STARTING NEXT WEEK AND WILL BE A STORY SPANNING ROUGHLY 100,000 WORDS.
"You look nervous," she glanced up suddenly from examining her pistol, which seemed less and less adequate the closer they got to their destination. The speaker was a very young man sitting across from her, in his lap was a mean looking rifle. "First time out in Kadara?"
"That obvious huh?" She gave a wry smile to try and hide the fact that her stomach felt as though I were doing loops while simultaneously tying her intestines into knots.
"Well you're the only person here who looks about as nervous as I feel, so yeah." He gave a smile back, nervous just like hers. "My name's Jack, it's good to meet you."
"Jelyphia T'kaari," she was going to hold her hand out for a customary shake, but somehow among this ship full of mercenaries the pleasantry seemed inappropriate, "but my friends call me Phia. Or at least they did back in the Milky way."
"You didn't come over with anyone? I thought I was the only one with no one who loved them." Jack chuckled dryly at the joke, Phia didn't bother smiling at the joke, it seemed like it was more for him than for her anyway.
They sat in silence for a few more minutes, the rocking of the cabin would have been almost soothing in any other context. Eventually her need to fill the silence overcame her nervousness and Phia probed him further. "So, you have any idea what it is we're heading out for?"
"From what I heard it's some intact remnant tech that landed here out of nowhere. Everyone's eager to get their hands on it: Charlatan, Sloane, New Tuchunka, even the Initiative is talking about sending people out. We're gonna be the first there." Jack's left knee bounced sporadically as he spoke, causing his rifle barrel to jerk around ominously. "They told me there would be little if any resistance.".
"They still hired a bunch of guns," Phia pointed out and Jack gave a grunt of acknowledgement at that. "Any particular reason you took the job?"
"Need the credits, I haven't eaten in more than a few days." Phia gave a nod off sympathy, her last meal had been at the Vortex and the gruel hardly qualified. "And you?"
"Not a lot of jobs for an ninety-seven year old Asari with no military or tech experience. This is the only job where bringing your own gun was the only requirement."
"Ninety seven? What is that in human years nineteen?"
"About that yeah."
More silence for a while, this time it was Jack who broke it. "You know back in the Milky Way I," he was unceremoniously cut off by the disgusted roar of a Krogan who stood up to glare at them.
"Listen here you little turds, no one gives a damn about any of this shit so both of you keep your damn mouths shut before I bite your heads off," he growled. Jack and Phia both dropped their gaze at this with a mix of fear and shame. At this the Krogan let out a grunt of what might be construed as approval. The rumbling of the cabin stopped, and the behemoth of a specimen drew his weapon in a fluid motion that would be construed as graceful on any other species. "Besides there's no point in getting to know someone on these trips before you know they're going to survive." He flashed his teeth in what only the Krogan might construe as a smile, before walking towards the hangar door which was just completing it's opening sequence. "Let's do this!" He let out a roar that the rest of the cabin imitated before running out the shuttle door.
Three steps out of the shuttle door the Krogan was blasted to pieces by high powered Observer and Constructor beams, all that remained was chunks of flesh and the rancid smell of burnt Krogan. Jack and Phia both too stunned to react could only watch as everyone else in the cabin, most former gang members or veteran of some war or other, all ran to the door, using the ship as cover.
Once again it was Jack who broke the silence, after glancing over at Phia. "Hey," she locked eyes with him and for a moment he wished he hadn't spoken. "You cover me and I cover you. Good?" She took a second to consider and then nodded wrapping both hands around her pistol, the sturdy grip steadying her nerves.
"Let's go," she was on her feet, and he followed right behind, his rifle already to his shoulder.
By now the cargo team had gained ground on the Remnant Tech and seemed to be slowly advancing toward the Remnant Ship. The duo ran out and took cover behind a moss, or at least something resembling moss, covered Boulder. Lasers and plasma flew overhead as they crouched there leaving the air scorched with the smell of ozone and poison. Jack popped up with his rifle at the ready and fired off two shots before ducking back down. "I count two Observers and three Assemblers," an explosion, "make that two Assemblers. They're on our ten, two, and twelve."
"Got it!" Phia jumped up on the boulder and fired a dozen rounds. Six made their way into the ground uselessly, but the others landed squarely in the Assembler's chassis and forced them to retreat behind a large piece of Remnant Scrap where they could do nothing. "Observers are drifting towards your eight o'clock."
Jack jumped up and took a second to aim before firing at the two Observers which shook the shots off seemingly none the worse for wear. A second later their beam trained on them and they had to duck back behind their boulder. "Damn it," he said checking his thermal clip. "What if we split up to distract them?" The buzzing of the beam being fired ended and several shots rang out as the other mercenaries tried taking down the shielded Observers.
"There are two of them, they'd each just follow one of us." Phia glanced at the pistol in her hand and cursed herself for not having the credits to buy a higher caliber weapon. The ground shook as one of the Assembler's leapt from its hiding place to crush a Turian that was getting too bold underfoot. Another Assembler stomped out from behind its cover and began shooting at a group of six who were preforming a half-hearted attempt at flanking. It made short work of them.
As the tide of battle turned a Krogan let out a guttural roar, Observer beams bore down on his tough hide tearing chunks of him from his body. A Salarian yelled as his sinew and tissue melted under the Assemblers' hell-fire. An Angaran decided the credits were not worth his life and dropped his weapon intending to flee as fast as he could. He didn't make it more than two steps before a bolt of molten plasma tore through his skull and left it with a chunk torn out, allowing he flesh of his brain to spill out. The beam that did it though hadn't come from a Collector or Assembler, it had come from the gun of a pissed off Turian.
"Everyone," he yelled out, his voice, deep and imposing like most Turians', rang out across the battlefield causing everyone to stop firing and look in his direction. "If there's one thing Turians aren't, it's cowards, and we don't fight with any either. Anyone retreats I shoot you myself. You two to my right," Jack and Phia glanced at each other nervously as he said this, "You shoot everything you got at this Remnant and make sure they're on you! Don't give them a chance to look away. The rest of you take the Assemblers then focus all your fire on those Observers, now go."
Phia took the lead, firing her pistol without aiming in the general direction of the Remnant with Jack doing the same behind her. They ran fast and hard their chests heaving as they ran, barely avoiding the barrage of artillery. "Pick it up slow poke," Phia yelled at Jack who was a few steps behind her.
"When we get back to the slums, drinks are on you" Jack managed to scream back between gasps of air as he overtook Phia with a sudden burst of speed leaving her with the brunt of the attack.
"Attack," the Turian called and everyone, rallied by the war cry, came out from their cover, firing every weapon they had at the distracted bots. Under this onslaught the Observer shields quickly failed and the Assemblers failed soon after leaving a team of forty left from the original fifty that had signed up for the voyage.
"Did we do it?" Jack questioned doubled over and trying to catch his breath.
"I think we did, thank the Goddess." Phia said gasping for air herself.
"You're damn right we did." The Turians said resting his rifle over his shoulder. "Now everyone let's strip this ship for all she's worth."
A shout of agreement rang out from the crew, exhausted and battle-worn as they were.
CRACK, CRACK, CRASH, KAKOOM.
"Ah shit."
From the doors of the Remnant ship, a four-legged, Goliath-sized, double turreted Destroyer emerged its heavy guns spinning up to ready position within seconds. So dark was it that not a single beam of light reflected off its hull despite it being the middle of the day. Red targeting lights from each of its cannons danced across the group and focused on them menacingly. The sound of whirring machinations echoed out from the Destroyer like a beast's low grumble.
"Everyone pull back." By the time it was said, it was already too late. The guns fired and wiped out thirty of the crew before anyone could move.
"Son of a bitch." Jack cried taking off at full speed.
"You said it." Phia yelled, on his right side now.
The whirring grumble of the machine began again. "We're not gonna make it." Jack said, by it he meant back to drop ship which was their only chance at surviving.
"Get behind me!" Phia screamed stopping suddenly and spinning around to face the Destroyer, raising her hands in defense. A biotic barrier began to form in the shape of a bubble around the pair, slowly at first, but quicker every second. Jack immediately stepped within it's safe confines grateful for the shelter from the oncoming onslaught.
The Turian who had rallied the group into combat, turned his head for just a moment and saw the makeshift bunker being created. A split second was all it took for him to adjust his course, so that he was running towards it instead of the dropship which he realized no one would reach alive. Phia glanced around briefly and saw the desperate Turian legging it and slowed the dome's creation, but not stopping its formation. It had to go up before the guns started or else the structural integrity of the shield would be compromised, which would mean the death of everyone.
"Come on, come on, damn it!" the Turian screamed. The gap in the barrier was already too small to run through, so he threw down his rifle and slid to safety just milliseconds before it sealed completely.
"Welcome to the party," Jack said. He pointed to Phia, "That's Phia. I'm Jack."
"Stranianus," the Turian said with a nod.
Phia could feel every muscle in her body clenched, with the effort it took to maintain a shield of this size and durability. The pounding of the Destroyer's artillery on the shield felt like a sledge hammer on the inside of her skull, each one closer to cracking her open than the last. Still, she endured beads of sweat dripping down the frills on her skull. "If you could two could speed the process of finding us a way out of this situation, that would be great," she yelled at the two cowering behind her.
"Right," Stranianus said. The world around them was muffled by the barrier: the screams of those not quite dead but almost there could not be heard, the crackling of the fire started by destroying the Observers only barely made it through, even the sound of the Destroyer's guns was reduced to a dull droning. "I've got this grenade."
"A grenade will not bring that thing down." Jack said looking at the petty thing in Stranianus's hand.
"It's not a regular grenade, it's made with remnant tech. It'll take down that thing sure enough, but it's got a range of ten feet. Once those cannons stop to cool down one of us takes it, drops it off, and runs like hell."
"And just who the hell is going to do that?" Jack asked incredulously.
"That'll be you kid."
"You are the faster runner." Phia said recalling earlier when Jack had overtaken her.
"And I broke my leg during that little power slide." Stranianus said, holding out the grenade.
Jack looked down at the small black parcel and considered it for a moment. It wasn't just risky, it was suicide. Being even a second too slow would mean getting torn apart by cannon fire, or the alternative getting blasted with a kind of grenade he couldn't even begin to fathom. He felt ... oddly calm. In light of everything that had happened to him since coming to Andromeda this felt like the most secure, he'd either succeed or he wouldn't, and it would all be determined by whether or not he could put one foot in front of the other fast enough. "Let's do it." He grabbed the grenade out of Stranianus's hand and held it in his palm, it was surprisingly small for something supposedly so powerful. Also it was frigid, it actually seemed to be sucking the warmth right out of his hand.
"All you got to do is press this button and drop it." Stranianus pointed to a bright red button on the side of the square grenade.
"And run like hell," Jack said.
"Yeah, don't forget that step, it's an important one."
"Now," Phia dropped the barrier and managed to stay upright for all of three seconds before she dropped to the floor exhausted to a point she had never previously thought possible.
Jack was running towards the Destroyer before she hit the ground, his arms pumping as hard as his legs. Each foot fall sent a jolt up his already aching legs, but he pressed on none the less refusing to let this be the end.
Fifteen meters, the whirring of the machine's guns started again.
Ten meters, the lasers locked onto him and prepared to fire.
Five meters, they opened fire on his vulnerable form.
Instead of shredding him to bits however, the projectiles bounced around inside of a biotic field taking chunks out of the weapon. It continued firing until it was almost completely destroyed.
He looked behind and saw Phia with her arm out and a pained look on her face, he had just enough time to spare a thought of gratitude before pressing the button and dropping the grenade. It let out a loud high-pitched whine as he dove out of the way.
Jack felt like the temperature had dropped about ten degrees right behind him. He couldn't hear or see the bomb lying face down as he was, but Phia had no such problems. At first it seemed as though everything went quiet, like the sound had been sucked out of the world, she couldn't even hear herself breathe. Then it got cold, very cold, her breath fogged up the air in front of her for just a second before that too disappeared. It took about a second for the Destroyer to be consumed in ice, then a flash. Suddenly the bottom half of the Destroyer was gone, blinked out of existence like the goddess had taken the universe's best eraser and gone through it.
The top half the destroyer fell to the ground, now a useless husk. Sound returned to the world and she took a ragged breath before saying, "That was cool."
"Yeah, no kidding. I really got my credit's worth on that thing," Stranianus said, slightly stunned himself at the power of the object. "Good thing I didn't buy the big one. Would have taken us all out along with the Destroyer."
"Yeah, good thing." Phia stood up from her seated position and glanced around the battle field. It was strewn with random debris: weapons, limbs, a whole lot of limbs. She gagged slightly at that, but to her pride didn't vomit. Her pistol was on the ground a little ways behind Stranianus, no point in grabbing it now. There were much better weapons lying around, and if she didn't like any of those she would be able to buy anything she pleased from her cut of this salvage. It would be quite a substantial cut, she thought. Only herself, Jack, and Stranianus remained of the fifty-person crew.
Jack, once he was quite sure he wasn't dead stood up from his place in the dirt and looked around. Carnage and mayhem like he had never seen in his life, and somehow he had come out alive. Not only that, but almost unharmed. He felt invincible. Across the field was Phia and Stranianus speaking, about what he couldn't hear, but he was very eager to join the conversation. A light jog later he was standing a few feet away from them, their words reaching his ears now. Something about remnant bombs. "I can't believe we did it." Jack said calling their attention to him. He glanced down and noticed something odd, "Hey Stranianus, wasn't your leg hurt?" Confusion was evident in his voice.
"Yeah, about that." Stranianus unholstered a hip pistol and fired three shots into Jack's chest. He fell like a bag of stones. "I lied." The traitorous Turian spun back on Phia and cracked her across the face, knocking her back to the ground. "You idiots didn't think I was going to share a haul like this with a couple of kids, did you? The tech inside a ship like this will pull down enough credits to keep me in luxury for the rest of my long life."
Phia held her cheek, bleeding, and looked at Jack's corpse. She felt mortified and betrayed. He was about her age and must have been experiencing the same euphoria she had just moments before being shot dead. The fear that she was about to join him in wherever it was that alien souls went when they died was enough to make her vomit, it tasted like bile as there was not much more than that in her stomach.
"Jeez I know you're about to die, but there's no need to be a pussy about it."
After her stomach was empty Phia only felt rage, she glared at him and he only smiled. "How the hell are you even going to get that thing out of here before everyone else shows up for it? Only the Pathfinder can control Remnant tech."
"That's it Asari, try and buy yourself time for your biotics to recharge. Won't matter though, I see those hands move and I blow your brains out." Phia's face twitched at this. "Yeah, I've worked with your kind before, I know all the tactics. But I'm feeling merciful today, so I'll clue you in, so you don't go into the afterlife curious." He pulled a circular object from his belt, the same color as most remnant tech. "Got this while exploring some Remnant ruins. It's a key that opens up all functions of any Remnant tech including ships, had a GUI put in for mortal usage. It's pretty impressive if I do say so myself." He stared at his seemingly marveling at his own cleverness. "Anyway, time to die." He raised the pistol and Phia closed her eyes preferring not to look at him as he took her life.
BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG
Phia opened her eyes and saw that she was clearly not dead, not even scratched in fact. She checked herself over briefly and found no blood or bullet holes. In front of her was Stranianus riddled with holes and blood. Behind him was Jack, lying in the dirt holding her pistol up, it's barrel smoldering.
Jack had come back to consciousness towards the end of Stranianus's monologue, just before the Turian raised his sidearm to fire upon the vulnerable Phia, who to her credit looked more pissed off than anything. He reacted mostly on instinct grabbing blindly for anything that might resemble a weapon. His had had grabbed a hold of a pistol which he immediately brought up and fired at Stranianus. The first shot managed to only stun him, the next pierced his exoskeleton, the next five were what really did him in as the laser essentially liquidated his insides and allowed them to pour put through the entry wound. Jack stood up slowly, dusting himself off gently. "You okay," he asked of Phia who nodded.
"Am I okay," she asked incredulously. She went over to him and helped him to his feet, examining the place in his chest where gun shot wounds should have been. "Are you okay? He shot you three times center chest. You should be dead. How are you not dead?"
"I had a shield," Jack said dismissively.
"You can afford a personal shield, but not food? I don't think so." Phia gave Jack an angry glower that demanded explanation, he opened his mouth a few times but the lie that was bound to come out died in his throat when he met her gaze. "I want the truth."
"Do you hear that?" Jack turned his head.
"Don't change the subject," Phia said.
"No, no, shut up. Listen." Phia glared at him but did so, sure enough there was a low hum in the air. "What does that sound like to you?"
"Drop ships, and lots of them." Phia scanned the sky and saw the source of the noise on the horizon. A dozen or so ships: flying Initiative, Angara, Sloane, and Charlatan colors. They seemed to be firing on each other which was the only reason they weren't already there. "We need to get out of here."
"We can take the drop ship, I can fly it." Jack said pointing to the still intact ship they had come on.
"That thing isn't fast enough to outrun them." Phia looked around desperately, they would be shot on sight just for being here and neither running nor hiding would help with that. "We've got to take the remnant ship," she muttered almost to herself.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Jack demanded.
Phia went over to Stranianus body and pulled out the orb he had been showing off just a few minutes before. She tossed it to Jack who caught him clumsily. "He said that thing is a key to just about all Remnant tech, and he added a GUI." Compression dawned on Jack's face as he glanced over at the Remnant ship that they had come out here for. "You think you can fly it?"
"Yeah, probably." Probably was an overestimation, Jack had never been the best pilot. He had never crashed simulators about thirty percent of the time and that was with a very familiar system that he had trained with many times. This ship was not that. "Let's go."
They took off running towards the ship, entering where the Destroyer had exited. Just as the pair crossed the threshold a hundred feet away the first of the drop ships, Initiative led, arrived unloading its package of a strike team. One of them pulled something off of her armor and held it to her face. "This is Pathfinder Sarah Ryder, on the authority of the Initiative I order you disembark the vessel and turn yourselves into our custody."
Jack and Phia looked at each other, and the look that crossed between them was not one of consideration but of affirmation. They had seen more death here than they ever had in their lives for this Remnant ship, and they had killed for it. It was theirs and no one was going to take it from them no matter what faction they represented. Without a word the two of them continued through the bowels of the ship until they came to a room with a large window that looked out into the field they had battled in moments earlier. "This looks as close to a cockpit as Remnant tech gets." Phia said glancing around what looked like the control panel. "I think this is where the key fits in." She slotted it into the panel and immediately a holographic display popped up, a single statement: "Start."
"That's a definite yes." Jack pressed it and the ship began to rumble to life beneath their feet. Outside they could see the other drop ships reach the field, and the Initiative team take defensive positions to account for this. "That's gonna be fun, I'm almost sorry we're gonna miss it."
"Be sorry later, get us out of here now," Phia demanded.
"Yeah ... I can do that." Jack scanned the text that was appearing on the halo-screen, most of it stats and figures he could never hope to understand. There was one word he recognized though: Ignition. "Here we go." He pressed it and the ship's engines came to life, not grumbling or growling but roaring like a majestic beast. "Oh yeah here we go." Another word he recognized: thrusters this time. Another press and the ship lurched forward ten feet causing every one out in the field to turn their guns toward the ship. He could feel Phia glare at him for this. "Hey this is complicated okay." He pressed the button right next to thrusters, a down arrow, then pressed the thrusters button again. This time the ship rose ten feet into the air and hovered there. "There we go," he said with a smile.
"Very impressive, now get us out of here." Jack nodded and typed out a quick sequence of buttons which caused the ship to not rise, but to ascend. Fifty, then a hundred, then a thousand feet into the sky with those on the ground gazing at it shocked with the speed at which it accelerated.
Inside of the ship Jack and Phia were on the ground, their faces stretched by the g-force the ascent had put upon their bodies. "I am going to kill you!" Phia managed to scream.
"I welcome it!" Jack screamed back the pain behind his eyes overwhelming.
Very suddenly the ship stopped, so suddenly in fact that Jack and Phia were launched into the air and we're only stopped by the ceiling of the cockpit, which was unforgivingly hard. Just as hard as the floor was when they hit that right after. They both lay there staring at the ceiling dazed and possibly concussed for what felt like an eternity before Phia finally spoke up. "Should we be worried about them following us?"
"No, they're too busy fighting each other and even if they weren't I'm pretty sure that we're above the clouds and that's too high up for drop ships to follow," Jack responded breathless. "You know we're pretty badass." Phia snorted at this, then laughed, then broke down in an almost senile bout of giggles. Jack too, broke down in guffaw.
By the time their laughter finally died down they had tears running down their ribs ached and tears were running down their cheeks. Still smiling like a loon Phia stood up and glanced around the cockpit, it was filled with technology that she couldn't even begin to guess the meaning of. Any of these pieces would undoubtedly go for tens of thousands of credits to the right trader, and they had a ship full of parts to sell. She glanced at Jack who was sitting up, his back to the Remnant control panel. "So ..." she said. "You want to explain why you're not dead right now?"
"Not really," Jack responded.
Phia was standing right over him now giving him a slightly annoyed look, which he returned. Finally, she gave up and sat down next to him. "Listen, I didn't come with anyone and I've been pretty much alone since I woke up. Hell, I talked with you on the drop ship more than I talked to anyone else since I got out of cryo." Jack nodded in agreement, he had never been good at making friends even back in the Milky Way and here where everyone was more concerned about survival than getting along wasn't any easier. "But this will only work if we're honest with each other; I hate with lies. If you don't tell me then we stop this ship at the nearest trader, I take all I can carry, and we never see each other again."
Jack looked at his hands and then at Phia who gave him an empathetic look back. He wanted to tell her, but it was a long story. "You know that little panel you have to meet with before they let you on the ship?" Phia nodded. "Well ..."