"Stay low," Alec said. They were on a cliff, under the shadow of two adjacent, much taller cliffs. Their jump jets had come in handy making it this far. They were close the tower, and had not encountered anymore aliens, but Alec's body language signaled that was about to change.
The sight was both promising and foreboding.
The entrance to the tower was not visible, but two paths coiling up either side provided obvious direction. Strange, green, luminescent veins were running through certain narrow segments of the walkways. The construction was sleek, yet heavy, angular and chunky, but not crude. Then there were the threats: at the base of the tower were two more ugly aliens, standing behind what appeared to be portable cover. Among them were some boxes, against which a third alien leaned. Lightening struck nearby and was absorbed into some sort of antenna: a lightening rod.
"Looks like we've got more company: those hostiles have to die if we're going to get into the tower."
"I bet there's even more at the entrance," Liam said. It was a sober assumption.
Scott did not like any of this. "We're banking on science we don't really understand, what if the theory's wrong?"
"Then we stay here and die of thirst, oxygen starvation, or get fried by lightening. Hell, maybe one of those aliens will kills us like they did the rest of the shuttle."
"I'm sold," Liam said. "Those bastards killed Kirkland. I intend to make them pay."
It seemed Scott was the only one with any reluctance.
"Once again, we're going to start shooting at the count of three. Scott, you take the one in the center. Liam, you go for the one on the right. I'll handle the one on the left."
Despite his reservations, the Alliance taught him to respect his superiors, and he knew his father was no gun happy maniac.
"Take aim. Now, on the count of three."
They were about to take more lives.
"Three."
"Two."
"One!"
They each unleashed their personal barrage of bullets. The Ryders were right on target. Liam's fire was clumsier, and the alien managed to return a shot, chipping a nearby rock, before going down. That gave Scott a rough idea of the power of their bullets.
"We have to move quickly!"
His father jumped down from the ledge, activating his jump jets to break the fall. Scott and Liam followed.
They landed amongst more dry brush and yellow-bulbed grass. Scott looked at the dead. He wondered if this was their architecture. If so, they controlled this tower, so why were they keeping it stormy? If not, were they trying to shut it down too, and failing?
Scott hated nearly everything about this situation, but they began up the walkway. They were the first humans to set foot on this species' architecture, whatever species it was.
They turned a corner on the walkway, heading up another incline. There were two more of the portable barriers ahead. He could only hope-
His fears were realized! Two hostiles ran on the scene, taking cover!
"Go prone!" Alec shouted, diving onto the metal path with a clank. The creatures popped back up to spray them with volleys of fire, which barely dented the surprisingly resilient walkway. The humans retaliated. Scott's bullets sailed past the target, but his father finished his work.
"Both targets down, move up!"
Scott was rattled, but he dreaded what they would find at the top even more. For all the dangers starting a colony in a new galaxy presented, he had thought he had left war behind. He was wrong.
As the top platform presented itself, Scott nearly tingled, but no aliens were yet visible. There was a tremendous door, maybe twenty meters tall.
Scott remembered what his father had said yesterday: or rather, six centuries ago: 'If your advance is going well, you're walking into an ambush.'
"Stay frosty. We can't let our guard down until we at least-"
A hostile emerged from behind a crate! A couple of shots hit his father with an electric splash before Scott returned fire. The avenging shots drilled into the alien's skull.
"Dad! Are you alright?"
His father rolled his shoulder.
"Yeah. My kinetic barriers absorbed most of the impact. I'm fine."
He brought his gun back forward.
"Perks of being N7. I'll be okay."
Scott wondered if there were more behind those ominous crates: it would be strangely uncoordinated if-
A weapon skidded out across the floor, followed by some strange chatter: deep and with a metallic, almost turian sound.
Emerging were two more creatures, their hands up, babbling in their own language. Even across two and a half million light-years of dark space, one could still understand the language of surrender. The shorter alien, Scott noticed, was unarmored: a scientist, maybe.
For a brief second he wondered how his father would react. Alec gave a nod, signalling the creatures to leave. They took a couple of seconds cautiously stewing over the message. Alec nodded again, and they ran.
The younger Ryder felt a strange pride in ho his father had handled that.
"We can't be sure that's the last of them, but let's look around and see if they left anything behind worth bringing back to the Hyperion. Liam, watch left. Scott, watch right. Then we'll see if we can shut off this tower."
They cautiously advanced, Scott's eyes darting between every place another enemy could pop up. There were crates, lightening rods, and many devices Scott could not decipher.
"Look," Liam said. They all turned to him. He was holding some kind tablet. "Looks like a map of some kind."
The elder Ryder leaned over to take a closer look.
"That looks like Habitat 6! Don't touch anything." He pressed some buttons on his omnitool and snapped a picture.
"We're bringing that back to the Hyperion."
Scott got back to surveying the area. He figured if there was to be an ambush, it would have happened by now, although he could not be certain.
He glanced over at the tower. The entrance portal was tremendous, its design awe inspiring. The doors were opened a crack, as if jammed, and inside was a captivating sight: a bright, glowing triangle in a hallway of darkness.
"I think the aliens were trying to open those doors. Doesn't look like they had much luck."
"Our odds don't seem very good, then."
Alec walked over to the doors.
"We came here to destroy the tower," his father said huskily. "That doesn't mean we need to get inside."
The elder Ryder readied his gun, pointing it through the narrow passage. Lightening struck angrily around them.
"What are you doing?"
"Uh...that looks dangerous."
"I won't deny it is, but not as dangerous as trying to figure out how to operate this technology while surrounded by hostile aliens. They're bound to send reinforcements soon. Honestly, I'm surprised we didn't have more to deal with."
Scott hated to concede, but it was solid reasoning. Of all the risks they had braved getting here, this would not be the worst.
Alec fired.
Sparks flew and a sound like broken glass followed, and the light of the triangle was extinguished.
"That didn't seem to-"
The doors flew opened and a blast of furious white mist poured out!
Before Scott could react, it knocked them into the air. They went twirling through the sea of white smoke! Amidst the confusion, Scott managed to grab the edge of some sort of balcony. He held with all mite before a metal crate smashed into his face plate, shattering it, and sent him flying off the edge of the walkway.
He was almost certain had been their final mistake, that this would be the end of Scott Ryder.