Thoughts from Andromeda part 42

By ElementalsAdvocate

Year 2819. Shipboard Time 12:39, Day 36 after Arrival. Andromeda Galaxy, Heleus Cluster, En route to Zheng He System from Faroang System

SAM. Start recording please.

Phew. Turians are a tough crowd. That was fucking nuts.

Okay, where do I start? At the beginning. Yeah. In the galley, with a hangover, not even had my first cup of coffee in- in… jeez, how long was it SAM?

{Your last intake of coffee was one August 6, 2819, approximately three days ago.}

Son of a bitch….. Three days… that's… gotta be some kind of record for me. Scott takes a sip of coffee from the large mug he's holding, staring off into space.

Well. Anyway, half the ship busts in while I'm getting my coffee, and turns out that bad blood I was worrying about between the turians and Jaal was real. One of the turians, this hard-nosed bodger big-shot called Karethus, or to give him his full title: "First Talon Commander Karethus Varenthus of the Palaven Third Fleet, Herald of the Turian High Command, and Bearer of the Abyssal Shrike Badge of Honor." Which translates to what? SAM?

{A Marine Major.}

Oh, that's great.

{Sarcasm?}

Very. Huunh. Scott sighs. Liam was showing some of the turians around the Tempest, Commander Varenthus was one of them. When Liam showed off the Tech Lab, Varenthus noticed Jaal's gear tucked away at the back of the lab, and he got suspicious. He came back to the lab later and was going through Jaal's things. SAM of course alerted Jaal, and Jaal came back just as Varenthus discovered some of his – I guess the word would be knick-knacks. Bits and pieces of tech, things he brought with him from Aya, things he's picked up on Havaarl and here on the Tempest. Thing is, Jaal also had a spare communication device that he was using to send reports to Aya, reports I didn't know about. SAM? I assume you knew about this?

{Yes, Ryder. Given the fragile diplomatic situation with the angara, and the necessity of maintaining good relations with their observer, I chose to withhold this fact. However, on balance, the information translated to the device was of a more personal nature than a covert one; personal observations on the crew and yourself.}

Well, the report Varenthus found on the device wasn't just about me and the crew! It was about the turians, goddammit! How did Varenthus even manage to translate the thing anyway?

{Crisis Specialist Kosta suggested I update the translation matrixes on the turian's omni-tools. That is how Varenthus was able to translate the report from shelesh into palavanus.}

Just goes to show that no good deed goes unpunished. And I had to do some fast talking, getting almost Shakespearian, to settle everything and get to leave me alone long enough for me to get some breakfast. At least Drack cut me some slack and gave me one of his steaks. Even threw together a hang-over cure when I asked. That was nice of him. Then I had to go and give a sit-rep to the entire company so there wouldn't be any more misunderstandings. The way things are going so far today, I wouldn't bet on it.

SAM, delete that last sentence please? As a matter of fact, just delete this whole thing. Let's start over. Okay. SAM, start recording.

We've left Havarl, having successfully rescued the angaran scientists and reactivating the planet's vault. We've also rescued a small group of turian refugees from Ark Natanus. The Ark's location is still unknown, but finding them means that the Natanus did make it to Andromeda.

We are currently conveying the refugees back to the Nexus for medical aid and resupply. The turians time on Havaarl was… not kind to them. Of the thirty-odd turians who got to the planet, only fifteen now survive, and two are still in critical condition. Tempers are frayed all around, and it's showing. Our angaran observer has a run-in with one of the senior officers, Commander Karethus Varenthus. I've settled things down for now, but frankly, we can't get back to the Nexus fast enough.

{On that note Pathfinder, we received some updates to our star charts and Scourge patterns from Rashael Vier, as thanks for recovering Daar Pelaav's data back-ups.}

That's nice of her. Were they any help?

{Kallo was able to shave approxiamately12.6 hours off our travel time with the new data. The star charts also included observations of Scourge patterns over time in the Faroang System from the one-hundred and eighty years, which will be of great interest to the scientists on the Nexus.}

So… very good?

{Yes, Pathfinder.}

Good, that's good. Well, I need to knock together some kind of report for the Directors. Stop recording please, SAM.

….

Pathfinder's Official Report:

To the Director's:

-Mission to Havaarl a success. We rescued three Angaran scientists trapped in a Remnant ruin, and activated the planetary Remnant monoliths. Hopefully this will fix up the planet. Only time will tell.

We have also rescued fifteen turians from a shuttle belonging to the Ark Natanus, although we failed to recover any data from the wreckage that might have helped us to find the Natanus. Two of the refugees remain in critical condition, under the care of Doctor T'Perro, ships doctor. (Refer to Nexus Medical, information on tending older turian's with extensive injuries and levo-amino bacteria infection.)

One of the turians is Lieutenant Avitus Rix, second-in-command of the turian Pathfinder team and a former Council Spectre. He is extremely interested in finding Ark Natanus and the rest of the turians, and I recommend that he be given some kind of squad or task force to focus on finding the other arks, although I'll leave that in the hands of Director Kandros. (refer message to Tiran Kandros, Director of Security).

Havaarl is a temperate planet, featuring various climate zones similar to Earth. There is a lot of liquid water, as well as unique animal and plant life. Doctors Anwar and T'Perro should have already sent off reports to the science and medical departments by now on their initial findings. We've also collected a number of seeds and plants native to the planet for the Hydroponics and Agriculture specialists. Recommend that we reserve a quarantine-capable agriculture bay for planting and study. Again, refer to Doctors Suvi Anwar and Lexi T'Perro for more information.

Havaarl is considered the Angaran people's homeworld, and should be treated as such. Furthermore, Havaarl is only lightly populated due to the exodus after discovery that the planet was going poisonous. Large stretches of the planet are completely wilderness interspersed with ruins, angaran and Remnant, and most of those are contested (according to local reports) by the kett (although I didn't see any myself). Therefore as Pathfinder I strongly advise against any attempt to place an outpost on Havarl until some kind of official agreement is reached with the angara.

We have also collected a number of angaran tools and artifacts, including weapons that may be of interest to Director Kandros security forces and the science and engineering departments. First-hand experience says that these weapons are plasma based, and come in two varieties so far - a hand-cannon and a sniper rifle. Very powerful, but the in-built heat sink means that firing speed is limited. We may be able to modify them to use a thermal clip instead.

To the Arts and Science departments, I strongly recommend a trip to the Sages of Mithrava. They hold the oral histories of the Angaran people of Havaarl, (word: havaara), and it would be extremely worthwhile for Initiative records and the diplomatic corps to have some grasp of angaran stories and history. Warning: find someone patient and extremely polite for the job. Despite Havaarl being the angaran home world, the area is still dangerous. Someone with a background in survival would also be useful. (Cora would probably recommend a former asari huntress or commando as a body-guard. Again, emphasis on being patient and polite. The Angaran Sages are a conservative people, and will not react well to being pushed around or manipulated, even subtly.)

Also, Warning: Mithrava is a Remnant structure, and many Remnant constructs such as Observers, Builders, and Breakers are in the area. EXTREME CAUTION should be used whenever outside of the Sages outpost.

Warning: Not all angara are friendly. We encountered a group calling themselves the Roekaar, and have strong anti-alien sentiments. Anyone claiming to be Roekaar should be considered hostile. Roekaar may bbright yellow, orange, or red. The Roekaar are apparently taking inspiration from their history, trying to make a statement of strength. The leader of the Resistance, Evfra, apparently doesn't trust the Roekaar, although that's from a second-hand source. (Kandros, be on the lookout for these people. Most of the ones we fought were pretty poor tactically speaking, but they were absolutely vicious in a fight, and the ones who were good were very good, they're good with adapting tech, and they have no reason to love aliens after the dent my team put in their ranks. Be. On. Watch.

The Tempest is currently on route to the Nexus for refuel and resupply. I expect to be on station for no less than three days, but no more than seven, at which point we will head to planet designated Voeld by Jaal ama Darav. Voeld is an ice planet that once served as the Capital World for the angara, and is now the front lines for the battle between the kett and the Angaran Resistance. I don't know yet what Jaal expects us to do there, but it will likely include joint exercises with the local Resistance.

Yours in good health, Pathfinder Scott Ryder.

….

SAM, would you mind running this past some of Dad's old reports and cleaning it up a bit? The last thing I need now is some pencil-pusher getting on my case for proper format.

{Yes Pathfinder.}

And ask Vetra if she's gotten word from Kesh about how long the refits to the Nomad are going to take? And ask Mr. Brody if there's anything he needs, and… fuck! Just call the crew up to the Verandah and let's have a proper pow-wow about what we need.

{Yes Pathfinder. Will "Meet on the Verandah in one hour" be enough?}

Yeah, that'll do, unless something major comes up. And SAM-

{Yes Pathfinder?}

Thanks for everything. Really.

{Of course Scott. Logging you out.}

...