They returned to the Tempest and left Eos and Scott got a message from Peebee and judging from how she wrote it she was extremely excited.

"Hey there, what's new?" Scott asked as he ended her quarters.

"Ha—funny you should ask," said Peebee smiling broadly. "I need to know: if I had something really important to do, could I count on you to help? To come along?"

"If it's as exciting as you make it sound…"

"It's pretty damned exciting. Thanks to my new Remnant-augmented scanner, I'm onto something big…" She then guided Scott towards her desk and just to a signal on her console. "Here that signal? Best I can tell, it's coming from a piece of raw Remnant programming tech. A building block in an unused state. My eyes bulged thinking what we might be able to learn from it—do with it! It's like a rem-tech wild card. The kind of mystery I live for. I have to get it. There's no time to waste, right?"

"What are the implications of this device, whatever it is?" Scott asked curiously.

"At the very least, it'll strengthen our bridge to Remnant technology. Even just getting closer data readings could help us break down Remnant programming, using their tech more efficiently. I need to find it. Like, now. Well, now that's now's gone, so… now."

"Okay," said Scott simply.

"That's it?" Peebee blinked. "No preamble, no further investigations, just 'okay'? You're in?"

"I'm in."

"Yes!" Peebee cheered. "That you're game means the world to me." She then immediately accessed her console. "Loading the coordinates into the galaxy map. Consider me primed and ready."


Scott wasted no time to get the bridge and immediately plotted a course to the Inalaara System.

"The Inalaara System," said Suvi as they exited FTL. "Was that someone's name, Jaal?"

"Inalaara is a virtue," Jaal explained. "To know your map, your course, right down to the blood. It's a good name for the brink of the unknown."

They began scanning the system and located a comet that contained a vanadium deposit. They then began to scan the planet Pas-88 and located a kett scout ship that had crashed in an ammonia glacial and the heat from the ships core had melted into a very large river. On the planet, Tobonoor, and they found a kett satellite hovering over the planet scanning the remains of a research outpost and the immediately disabled it.


Once all that was done they finally headed towards the planet Pas-10, which was the location of the Remnant signal.

"Ryder, signal source is near a violent volcano," Kallo informed him. "I don't see a clear place to land."

"Wow. Peebee's right," said Suvi looking over her instruments. "Whatever's giving off that signal is special."

"Prep your team. I'll try to find a safe spot," said Kallo.


Scott, Cora, Vetra and Jaal were all prepping themselves in the locker room, but there was no sign of Peebee which was strange given the fact that they would doing this for her.

"Where's Peebee?" Scott asked.

"I thought she'd be here," Jaal frowned.

"Wake up, Peebee. Your mystery signal awaits," said Scott over their radio.

"Uh, right, okay, yeah," said Peebee, not sounding like her enthusiastic self. "Actually, could you come here, please? My place. Straightaway."

Scott sighed and made his way out of the locker room. "Kallo…" Once he poked his head out he looked at Kallo. "Hey, any luck finding a place to land?"

"Nothing yet. Might take a while."

Scott then turned his eyes towards Peebee's quarters. "Okay, Peebee. Be right there."

"You grab her hands. I'll grab her feet," said Cora as all them made their way to the escape pods.

"Peebee?" Scott frowned not seen her anywhere near her equipment.

"Back here. I won't bite," said Peebee from the escape pod.

"What's this about?" Scott asked as they climbed their way into the escape pod.

"Kallo won't find a safe place to land the Tempest…" she said with her back to them.

Then the moment that they were all inside the escape pod she pressed down on a button and they heard an alarm. A split second later the escape pod sealed behind them and they will launched out of the Tempest and straight down towards the planet.

"And safety first," said Peebee as she sat down.

Scott couldn't believe this was happening. "Safety first? You've got to be kidding me," said Scott as he sat down next to her. "This crosses the line, Peebee!"

"And then some," said Vetra as she and the others sat down opposite them and the harnesses lower themselves.

"There was no other choice…" said Peebee. "The Tempest can't where we need to be, and you can't get there from the ground. This is the only way in."

"In?" Scott questioned. "Where exactly are we going?" Peebee winced, she clearly wished that Scott hadn't asked to that question which meant they were going somewhere dangerous. "Peebee, where are we going?"

"It's not my fault the signal's coming from inside a volcano. And we should land on stable ground, assuming my subterranean scans are accurate. And the impact doesn't alter trajectory to severely. And—"

"And tell me you have a plan for getting back onto the Tempest," Jaal interrupted.

"Is that thing?" she said with an innocent smile. "We came all the way to another galaxy with no 'plan' for getting back home. All right—brace for impact!"

Then suddenly the escape pod landed violently on the planet surface began bouncing around and seconds later everything stopped. Scott still had some ringing in his ears and the escape pod would badly damaged, but otherwise everything seemed fine.

"So, uh… are you mad, Ryder?" Peebee asked looking at him.

Scott was trying very hard not to explode with fury, this is not how he planned on getting down to the planet. "Mad is the smallest word for what I am."


They eventually freed themselves from the harnesses and began to crawl out of the escape pod. That's when they discover that the escape pod had landed a few feet away from some red-hot lava, if Peebee's calculations had been off by even a meter they would have been cooked.

"Close one," said Jaal.

"Any landing you can walk away from, right?" Peebee smiled awkwardly.

"Ryder, come in… are you… all right?" said Kallo voice over their radios.

Scott had a feeling that Kallo won't be able to pick up their transmissions, especially not since the escape pod was badly damaged. Fortunately they had other methods of communication.

"SAM relay to the Tempest that we're fine," said Scott. "Investigating Peebee's signal."

"Right away," said SAM.

Since now they were stuck on the planet they might as well begin searching for the signal Peebee had located. They had use their jump jets in order to avoid the river of lava and they could see some Remnant ruins sticking out the bedrock.

"And picking up the signal," said Peebee activating her omni-tool. "It's housed within a Remnant structure not far from here."

"SAM, plot our trajectory," Scott ordered.

"Plotted," said SAM.


They soon entered a series of caverns and saw more Rremnant tech sticking out of the walls, some of them were even blocking several of the tunnels.

"We'll need to find a way to the surface," said Peebee.

Unfortunately they couldn't get any further due to it being blocked by Remnant.

"Need to get through that obstacle," said Peebee pondering. "Maybe there's a console buried here somewhere."

Scott used his scan in order to locate the console needed to operate the obstacle in front of them and found it located in some rock. He immediately pulled out his rifle and began blasting the rock and within seconds freed the console.

"Well, what do you know," Scott smiled and immediately began to access it.

"The network you're accessing seems to be a production system," SAM informed him as the gate blocking the tunnel began to retract.

"Production of what?" Scott asked as they continued making their way through the tunnel.

"Remnant hardware."

"Good. The gates opening," said Peebee.

"You've opened more than that. I'm picking up structural shifts throughout the cavern area."

They didn't get far when they encountered an Observer floating above them, but unlike the others they've encountered this one didn't seem hostile.

"Interesting," said SAM. "The Observer is in a persistent idle state. Its natural pathways are blank."

"It's like Poc when I stripped out its Remnant protocols," said Peebee. "It has no programming."


They continued moving forward and everything started to shake, but they pressed on. They found more crushed Observers littering the tunnel floor and according to SAM this had once been assembly line before the equipment was crushed by falling rubble.

Scott then found a console which was operating a still working assembly-line.

"You are identifying yourself as an ally to unprogrammed Observers in the assembly-line," SAM informed him.

"Hey there, little guy," said Peebee waving at the Observer that had just been created. "Nice to have you on the team."

"It's protocols are limited, but it will perform simple tasks for you via your scanner," SAM informed him.

They continued to make their way through the tunnel, but found it blocked by another Remant gate.

"Another gate," Peebe frowned. "Have to get through." She began looking for anything that might help them then immediately pointed above them. "Look. Up there above the gate. Another node. Try scanning it."

Scott raised his scan and scanned the node and saw a conduit running from it into the gate.

"That node controls the gate, but it's disabled," said SAM.

"Too high to access," Scott frowned.

The Observer they activated then immediately fired a beam at the node.

"Our new friend knows what to do!" Peebee smiled.

A few seconds later, the node flashed green and the gate began to lower itself.

"And… voila! Thanks, buddy," Peebee smiled.

"Let's push on," said Scott.


They continued making their way through the tunnel and SAM contact them with a report from Kallo.

"Pathfinder," said SAM. "Kallo reports finding no safe area to land. Retrieval may be impossible."

Scott and the others immediately turned to Peebee who gave them a nervous smile.

"Uh, oops?" she said.

"He has detected a smaller number of vessels making their way to the surface, however," SAM continued.

"Friend or foe?" Scott asked.

"Unknown."

Scott didn't like the sound of this, but this sudden arrival might actually be a blessing in disguise. The Tempest was too big to land in the general area, but if they grabbed a shuttle that gave them a few more options.


They soon made their way out of the tunnel and that when they saw a shuttle heading towards them and Peebee grimaced upon seen them.

"Uh-oh. I know that shuttle…" she said.

"Pelessaria, are you tracking that sweet signal too?" said Kalinda's voice as the shuttle flew past them.

"Ugh, Kalinda," Peebee groaned. "Back off—it's mine."

Kalinda laughed.

Peebee turned and looked at Scott. "Let's hurry. We have to get to the signal source before Kalinda."

They then began scaling down the cliff and soon they ran across more Observers and unfortunately these ones were programmed to see them as enemies rather than friends.

Also their access was blocked by yet another remnant gate so they had to fight their way through the Observers and Assemblers stationed near the gate. Unfortunately the moment the engage them more Observers appeared and immediately they took up defensive positions.

"All clear," said Scott as he took out the last Assembler.

"All right, now let's find some way to open that gate," said Peebee.

They began looking around the area and eventually found a console and when Scott accessed it it lowered the gate.

"Good. That gate's starting to open," said Peebee.

They were about to cross over the threshold when Kalinda contacted them over the radio.

"Ah, thank you, Ryder," she said graciously. "You open the gate up here too. Come on, boys—we're in."

"She must be on a ridge above us," Scott concluded.

"Shit shit shit," Peebee cursed.

"Pelessaria, the high road is much more direct," said Kalinda.

"How the hell did you find us here, Kalinda?" Peebee asked.

"Guess you didn't notice the little transmitter I hid in Poc. So sloppy. Tas."

Scott had wondered why Kalinda had ditched Poc, it was the oldest trick in the book. Make someone else do the hard work and then take the credit at the last possible second.

"Ugh!" Peebee growled frustratingly. "That… Ryder, we need to pick up the pace."


They soon reached the ridge, but they can proceed any further unless they wanted a hot lava bath.

"We have to make it across to the next ridge," said Peebee.

"Chasms too far to jump," said Vetra.

"There may be a way to extend that antenna," said SAM.

They began looking around for console and Scott was able to find it and he wasted no time accessing it.

"Whoa. Major activity," said Peebee looking down at her omni-tool.

"I can complete the hack, but you'll have to stay close," said SAM.

Remnant bots then immediately began to descend on them and Scott quickly activated a nearby tour to provide them with some extra firepower. Unfortunately SAM's hack was lowering the remnant structures that were providing them with excellent cover.

"Still working on it," said SAM. "Rewriting power from those other structures."

"And reducing our cover," Scott added.

"Shit," Peebee cursed. "We'll never catch Kalinda!"

"Hunker down—more Remnant," Scott warned.

They kept on fighting as more Remnant appeared and with SAM decreasing their cover it was in making things easier. However, they managed to endure these hardships and eventually SAM was able to complete his hack.

"The Intel is extending—let's go!" said Peebee as she dashed over the antenna before anyone could stop.

And they cross the antenna and made their way over to the other ridge. They then entered a chasm and saw movement on the rocks above them.

"Kalinda's men spotted on the upper ridge," said Jaal.

Scott frowned. "Hmm, they're in sniper range."

"Who cares," said Peebee. "What matters is that that mountain of rocks between us and the signal source."

They began to descend into the chasm and began searching for way to press forwards. Scott managed to destroy some molten rocks and found a Remnant console, which he immediately began to activate.

"Now we are in business," said Scott.

"Activating could draw hostile Remnant," SAM warned.

Scott knew that was the distinct possibility, but it won't be able to go anywhere unless Scott access the console. The moment he did they saw the assembly creating a friendly Observer.

"Anyone order a friendly Observer?" Scott asked.

Unfortunately, SAM had been correct in his assessment as immediately appearing in front of them were remnant bots appeared including a Destroyer.

"SAM was right—it comes word ton of angry bots!" said Peebee as they began to hunker down.

"At least I knew friend is fighting for us," Scott pointed out as their Observer began firing it energy beam at the enemy bots.

Scott quickly managed to locate a Remnant tablet and potted operational, giving them a little extra firepower. He also had Zap join the fray and they soon began to flank the Destroyer eliminating its turrets.

It took some doing but eventually they managed to destroy the Destroyer and the other Remnant bots that had joined in the battle.

"Pathfinder, interfacing is escalating tectonic activity," SAM warned him. "The area is becoming increasingly unstable."

Made sense they were practically standing in an active volcano and the Remnant operated underground. He could only imagine how much movement was being caused when the access to these consoles.

"Come on, we have to get past that boulder," said Peebee pointing to the large bold in front of them. "Try to destroy it."

"The rock is too dense for your weapons, but there is a deep fissure that an Observer's beam might be able to exploit," said SAM.

"So scan the fissure and tell the bot to attack it," said Peebee.

Scott wanted to remind her that he was the one who gave orders, but he knew that she was just very annoyed with Kalinda butting in. So without any arguments, Scott made his way to the fissure and began to scan it. The Observer then immediately approached the boulder and then began firing its beam into the fissure.

"Observer to the rescue," said Peebee.

Within seconds the entire boulder collapsed creating an entrance for them, but the Observer was just too close and got pulled into the lava along with the fallen rocks.

"All right! Let's get across and over that ridge!" said Peebee.


Using their jump jets they began to scale the rich until they finally reached the top and they found that Kalinda was already at the base of the Remnant tower.

"Make sure they don't get inside!" she ordered. "A triple share to whoever brings me their sweet implants!"

"Man, I hate her!" said Peebee as she went for cover.

They began firing at the outlaws as Kalinda ran into the tower.

"We've got the follow her inside!" said Peebee.

"Her outlaws might have something to say about that," said Cora.

"Take them out!" Scott yelled.

Fortunately there was only a handful of them so it in take them long to eliminate them, especially with biotics on their side.

"Let's go!" said Peebee rushing towards the tower.


They entered the tower and found themselves going underground and apparently Kalinda was aware that they took care of her men outside, because they could hear her.

"Hold them here, Krannit!" she ordered. "I'm making sure they can't follow!"

"Shit, what's she up to?" Peebee frowned.

"Krannit's that krogan outlaw we keep running into," said Scott.

"Looks like we'll run into him one more time."

They began to step into a chamber when suddenly everything shook violently.

"Hahaha! So long, loses!" said Kalinda over the comms.

They soon discovered that Kalinda had collapsed the entrance behind her with explosives.

"No, no, no!" Peebee cried. "Kalinda's barred the way."

Unfortunately before they could think of a way out of this situation Krannit and about the outlaws immediately attacked them.

"Boom! Come to your doom, Pathfinder," said Krannit as he advanced towards Scott.

"Reception committee!" Vetra warned as they hunker down.

Krannit made a beeline straight to Scott, but he activated his Engineer profile and unleash some turrets. They immediately fired upon the krogan capturing him in a pincer movement and he then unleashed a powerful electoral combination which overwhelmed the krogan.

Eventually they managed to clear out the outlaws now they were left with the difficult task of catching up with Kalinda.

"Up there, above the gate," Peebee pointed above them. "Another power node. There's got to be a console for the dispenser around here."

Scott looked around and eventually found the console and began to access it. Then appearing before them was a friendly Observer and by using his scanner Scott guided towards the power node. The Observer then immediately made its way to the power node and began to repair it and it opened the side door.

"All right!" Peebee cheered. "We're back in the game."


They then began making their way down the passageway.

"This is it—the signal source is in the next chamber," said Peebee looking down at her omni-tool."

"I'm reading more dispensers for allied Observers," SAM informed them.

"I'll keep that in mind," said Scott as the entered the next chamber.

Peebee shook ahead at her omni-tool. "Can't get a bead on the device. Let's drop to the cavern floor."

They jumped down towards the floor and began looking around.

,"Good place for an ambush," Jaal noted.

Then suddenly appearing from out of every nook and cranny were outlaws and their pet adhi.

"Funny, that's exactly what I thought," said Kalinda over the comm.

"Kalinda, you ass!" Peebee yelled as she began shooting the outlaws. "Just give it up."

"There's a piece of pure unprogramming tech in her. Plus—you want it, so there's no way I'm giving up."

Scott immediately began accessing the dispensers in order to give them a bit of backup with friendly Observers. Once they appear they began firing down upon the outlaws, giving them a little bit of breathing space.

"Ugh, you really are annoying," said Kalinda, who was starting to sound frustrated.

"Finished yet?" Peebee asked.

"Not even close. But I will have to go on a recruitment spree after this."

Kalinda obviously wanted them dead badly, because she had sent in some Hydra mechs, two of them to be more precise. They had to perform flanking manoeuvres in order to confuse the mechs and laid out a few traps. Though with their friendly Observers flying overhead they had more options and much more cover.

"You see Kalinda, it's fruitless," said Peebee when they took down the last mech.

Peebee frowned when there was no reply. "Silence? Don't like the sound of that."

"The signal source is beyond the next rise," said SAM.

"Let's go get it," said Scott.

Unfortunately in order to get to the next rise they had to cross a lake of lava and the gap was far too wide to use jump jets.

"Look!" Peebee pointed. "Over that pool of lava—another power node! Scan it to our friendly Observer will enable it."

Scott scanned it and one of the observers flew towards it and began to access it with its beam and then suddenly emerging from the lava pool were Remnant platforms.

"Yes!" Peebee smiled. "We're in business. Let's cross it and reach Kalinda."

They had to wait slightly until the platform is cooled down, it had been underneath lava for who knows how long.

"Kalinda's already there. We've got to get across," said Peebee dashing over the platform before anyone could stop her.


They began making their way over the platforms and began to climb to the next rise, but they found that Kalinda was already at the source of the signal. The last remnant of her outlaws again firing upon them, pinning them down to allow Kalinda access to the Remnant signal and to make matters worse the entire cavern started to shake violently.

"Are you kidding me?" Scott groaned. "How many guys do she have?"

Peebee then saw Kalinda making a dash towards the Remnant signal. "Kalinda's about to get the device!"

She then started chasing after her, despite the fact bullets were flying above them.

"There goes Peebee," said Vetra.

Scott and the others then immediately lay down some covering fire to allow Peebee to catch up with Kalinda.

"You won't make it, Kalinda!"

"Too late, gal. It's mine!"

Kalinda spoke too soon, because the bridge that led to the platform containing the device was not active.

"Damn it!" she cursed.

She then moved back and then performed a long jump to get to the platform, she managed to grab hold of the platform but she was hanging off the edge. Peebee on the other hand had no such problems thanks to her jump jet and mandala platform safely and grab the device.

Suddenly the platform shook as the supports holding this began to break and began to tip into the lava. The sudden shift caused Peebee to topple over and she dropped the device, Kalinda was in a worse position as she was hanging off the edge by her fingertips.

"Shit!" said Scott seen the situation.

"We're good!" Cora yelled. "Get her!"

Scott then immediately rushed towards the platform while Cora and the others lay down some covering fire against the remnants of Kalinda's men.

"Peebee, help!" Kalinda begged. "I'll give you everything I've got—all the relics, everything worth anything…" Peebee looked at Kalinda and then towards the device which was now rolling towards the edge. "Please, I… don't want to die…"

"Aw, crap," Peebee cursed as she rose to her feet.

"Aw crap, what?" Scott asked.

"I don't want her to die, Ryder!" she said and dashed off towards Kalinda.

"But the device…!"

"It's not worth her life!"

Scott admit that he was very tempted to shoot Kalinda, especially after all the trouble she put them through. However, he restrained himself, knowing that this was Peebee's choice and respected her decision.

Peebee bent down and pulled Kalinda onto the platform and as she did the device rolled off the platform and into the hot lava below. Once the platform was close enough to the ridge the two of them jumped and landed and almost toppled over if Scott hadn't grabbed them in time.

"Wow, that was close," said Peebee.

"We need to get out of here," said Vetra as she and the others approach them.

No one argued and they immediately made a run for it, because it was very clear that the volcano was about to erupt.

"Peebee, thank you," said Kalinda gratefully to her. "Listen, no hard—" Peebee then back fist her in the face. "Ow! Fuck!"

"Finally beat you to the punch," Peebee smirked.

"I've got two shuttles waiting," said Kalinda rubbing her nose. "Follow me."


They made their way through a side entrance and managed to get outside of the tower.

"Let's get out of here!" Peebee yelled.

"Hurry, this way!" Kalinda gestured. "Move it, slowpokes! You didn't save my life just to watch me die, did you?"

"Was she always like this?" Jaal asked looking at Peebee.

"Always," Peebee nodded.

They entered the cavern which was crumbling around them.

"The valley is submerged in lava!" Peebee yelled she then pointed towards the escape pod. "Hey look, the escape pod—" seconds later was completely submerged in lava. "Well, there goes my bedroom."

They soon came into sight the two shuttles that Kalinda mentioned and the immediately got in them and took off just before the volcano erupted consuming the Remnant ruins in lava.


Adam was now giving the Nexus leadership his report on the kett, he had been spending the past few months trying to get some idea of how their culture worked.

"I would like to point out before I explain this report that everything that I have gathered is only from what I've seen of their military," Adam began. "I am lacking crucial information, more specifically how the society works for an everyday life."

"Understood," said Tann. "So tell us what you have been able to put together."

Adam nodded. "I have been using cultural references in order to get the true determination of how the kett may operate both militarily and in severe in life. I have been able to find two references of human knowledge."

"Why human?" Kesh questioned.

"As we all know we humans are a very diverse people which means that we have multiple religions and societies. To put it simply needs an excellent think tank in order to put together foreign cultures."

"I am inclined to agree," said Addison.

"For their militarily I believe it works similar to that of the Roman Empire, in sense of duty and how they operate. Also we know that they have an Empire and the Senate and I believe that the Senate sends an Archon to take control over a cluster of stars."

"Makes sense," Kandros. "And they certainly have the discipline, but I am more concerned about this ideology of theirs. Surely I have not seen a species is arrogant enough as this."

"Actually you'll find that there was a time when we humans were so arrogant is that, which brings me to my next reference," said Adam. "They are under the impression that they are the superior species and the exaltation is away for them to stay pure, plus there slave camps put captives too hard gruelling work. In that regard they resembled that of Nazi Germany."

Addison looked up. "Now there's a dark chapter in human history."

Kandros frowned. "Yes, I read enough of Earth history to know that they were the worst of humanity."

Adam nodded. "If the Allies hadn't won World War II, our little scuffle would have escalated unimaginably."

Tann frowned. "I hope that you're not using this to try and push us to have a confrontation with the kett."

Adam narrowed his eyes. "You sure you that I am being honest in my assessment, Director. I'm nearly suggesting that we cannot ignore them, in their minds with you're already at war with them and so far we have been lucky because the Archon has been more focused on Remnant than completing his mission."

"You have already reported that the kett are in the midst of some infighting, I suggest that we stay out of it and allow them to destroy themselves," said Tann as he rose to his feet. "I appreciate all the time and effort you have put into this report, but my views stay the same."

"We'll see how long that lasts," said Adam looking deeply annoyed.