Sara's ragged breathing sounded loud within the confines of her helmet as she sprinted across the scorching desert sand. Behind her, remtech gleamed black and shining in the blinding sunlight, smooth columns and slopes of iridescent stone and metal that clustered around a raised platform with a single console in the centre. The remnant bots had been perfectly docile until Sara had interfaced with that console. Awake, as evidenced by the glowing central 'eye' of the assemblers, and the hovering of the observers, but motionless. The second a connection sparked between the Pathfinder and the tech, the remnant had leapt to action, focusing on Sara, Drack and Liam and opening fire. They had been lucky to get off the platform alive and in one piece. Unfortunately, the remnant had pushed them in the opposite direction to the safety of the Nomad, parked on the other side of the ruins with several meters of open desert between the ruins and itself.
"Boulder!" Liam shouted, kicking up puffs of sand as he ran hell for leather towards a rock formation that seemed to have sprouted out of the sand like some bizarre plant. The rock was red and crumbling and Sara didn't have much hope for it holding up against remnant lasers and projectiles, looking as it did like a strong gust of wind would reduce it to dust. But it would have to do because there was absolutely nothing else nearby that even remotely resembled cover. Liam leaped up onto the top without breaking stride, landing on his stomach and clawing himself behind the rocks. Sara followed shortly after, landing awkwardly on her side and feeling the breath knocked from her lungs as she hit the ground. Drack heaved himself over and dropped down beside them as a bright crimson laser fired above them and slowly lowered until it was scorching rock. The trio looked up at it worriedly as they caught their breath. The laser shut off, leaving a band of rock blackened and steaming. They were safe for the moment.
"I said you shouldn't have touched the damn console," Drack growled at Sara, checking over his shotgun as he sat with his back to the rock. They were in the shade, though it didn't feel like it. The temperature amongst the shadows of Eos was perhaps a hair cooler than in the blazing starlight. They heard the awkward clattering steps of assemblers approaching across the platform they had just vacated.
Sara eyed up further rock formations in the near distance. Too far to run to, the remnant would blast them into confetti before they made it even half way. Besides, they needed to get to the Nomad, and that was the other way. "The remnant weren't doing anything, I thought it'd be okay," she grumbled back at him, feeling a pang of shame. If anyone was injured here then the blame could be placed squarely at her feet.
It was the nullifier that had appeared from behind a pillar that was really the problem. Drack and Liam had been poised to deal with the observers and assemblers should they awaken. They had barely brought down a bot each when the nullifier clanked out into the open, anchored itself and let rip with explosive projectiles. Sara had almost lost her shields there and then and had only been saved by Liam tackling her down to the ground.
"Assemblers are gonna start making the little bots soon," Liam warned, bracing his assault rifle against his shoulder and rising up enough to see over their cover and open fire. Sara heard bullets strike metal and the resultant muted explosion of a remnant bot being destroyed. Liam dropped back down as twin blue lasers flickered into life and aimed in his direction, the nullifier preparing to home in on him.
Sara grit her teeth in frustration. "Yes, okay, I'm a crappy leader who makes crappy decisions!" She snapped irritably. She had endangered her companions due to being overly curious, activating the remtech without considering the consequences. Jumping into the pool without checking to see how deep it was, so to speak. Exactly how her father had done back on Habitat-7, and how did that turn out? Lexi would probably give her a grilling even if they all returned to the Tempest in one piece.
"That's not what I meant," Liam said, looking at her sideways. "Though…We probably should have brought Peebee with us."
"What, so she can examine the bots to death?" Sara asked sulkily, worry translating to annoyance in an attempt to keep up her 'tough girl' persona. What had her father been thinking, making her the Pathfinder when Cora was so much better suited to the role? Alec Ryder knew his daughter wasn't a leader, and here she was proving just that.
"Hey, don't sass me!" Liam protested, dark eyes narrowed with offense. Drack gave an impatient growl and heaved himself upright to start firing his gun at the oncoming remnant.
Sara scowled petulantly at Liam, though the expression was mostly lost inside her helmet. He was right, she supposed. Peebee seemed to have the bots figured, mostly. "I'm the boss!"
"That doesn't mean you can sass me!"
Sara arched one eyebrow at him, then realised, again, he couldn't see the motion through her tinted faceplate. "It does, and I can fire you too."
"What?" Liam's voice went high with disbelief. "No, you can't!"
Drack shoved Sara's shoulder with one leg, firing shot after shot over their rock. "Will you kids shut up and fight the bots?" He snarled.
"Sorry Drack…" They chorused meekly.
"We should probably just always have Cora with us," Sara grumbled bitterly. "She's so much better at this than me. Hell, she trained for it hard enough!"
"Hey, you're doing great!" Liam insisted, bringing up his AR and shifting side-on to the rock. He frowned at Sara and reached out a hand to give her shoulder a comforting squeeze. Sara barely felt it through the armour, though the gesture was appreciated. She flashed him an unseen smile, though Liam must have understood because he smiled back at her.
"Learn by doing," Drack told her, crouching down to avoid a laser beam slicing through the air towards them.
"I don't want to learn by getting you all killed!" Sara cried, unable to understand why they just didn't seem to get it. She had thrown them into a life or death situation, but they were decidedly unconcerned. Instead, they were encouraging her to assess the situation and apply it to future endeavours.
"You're not going to get us killed," Drack replied simply, standing and dropping his shotgun to snatch a breacher out of the air and tearing it in half with a roar. Metal screamed, and circuitry spat sparks as wires split. The krogan tossed the useless pieces aside and bent down to retrieve his weapon.
"Breachers," Liam said drily.
"Right," Sara muttered, bringing her sniper rifle over her shoulder and into her hands. She rested the gun against the warm rock, took aim, and fired, bringing down an assembler with a precision hit straight through its gleaming red eye as it hopped down from the ruins into the sand. Glass and metal sprayed across the sand as the dead machinery crumpled.
"Nice shot, kid!" Drack exclaimed beside her and Sara felt a swell of pride. Liam let out several bursts from his gun, dropping approaching breachers and forcing another assembler into cover. The trio ducked as the nullifier began to fire on them again.
"I have an idea," Sara announced suddenly, sat with her shoulders against the rock. She could feel the impact of the nullifier's energy projectiles slamming into their cover and vibrating through her armour. Tiny stone chips rained down upon the three of them and then the barrage halted. The rock was doing remarkably well at holding up against the onslaught. Sara leaned forwards and holstered her sniper over her shoulder, switched it for the heavy pistol at her hip. Drack eyed the weapon change with dismay, as though she had instead opted to switch her sniper for a water pistol.
"What're you gunna do with that?"
Sara checked her ammo and released the safety. "I need you two to keep firing. I'm going to get rid of the nullifier."
"Uh, how exactly?" Liam asked nervously, but, rather than answer, Sara shoved off from the rock and sprinted with her head down back towards the ruins. "Ryder!" He cried in alarm, lunging around the rock to stare after her.
"Shut up and shoot!" Drack roared, leaping up and firing blindly, making as much noise as he could, presenting a larger target than Sara as she dodged and wove across the sand. Liam let out a frustrated growl and stood up, immediately bringing down an observer that had turned to take aim at her.
Sara's heart leaped into her throat as she charged straight at the remnant. There was no cover to scramble to should she trip and fall. If she went down, if she faltered, she was dead. She was beyond the point of no return, this had to work. She swallowed her fear and pushed herself to the limit, focussed with laser precision on the task at hand.
An assembler moved out of cover up on the platform ahead of the nullifier. She raised her pistol and squeezed the trigger, blasting shot after shot into the heavy black armour without breaking stride. The bot was still falling even as she leaped up onto the platform, legs pounding like pistons.
The nullifier still had its shields up, Liam and Drack were focussing fire on the shimmering energy field, trying to keep the bots attention on them. She could see ripples spreading outwards from the sites of their shots, like rings of water spreading outwards from stones thrown into ponds.
Sara reached down, fingers closing around the small metal disk attached to her belt, tugging the mine free, trying not to think about how incredibly stupid she was. It felt heavy in her hand as she depressed the timer with her thumb, eyes on the nullifier as it began to turn towards her, the only bot left now. She saw the targeting lasers beginning to move, to zero in on her, sweeping across the platform as the nullifier took one step after the other to face her. She put on a burst of extra speed, closing the gap between them and threw herself upwards and over the nullifier, curled her knees into her chest and twisted in mid-air to slap the mine onto the bot. She felt the magnet engage, landed on her feet and kept running, hurling herself behind a pillar just as the mine detonated. At such close range the sound was almost deafening. Burning shrapnel pelted her hiding place, skittering past her, then silence, broken only by Liam's crow of triumph from behind their rock.
Sara slid slowly down the pillar on legs like jelly until she was sitting, let her head fall back against the smooth surface with a faint clack as her helmet struck it. Her chest heaved as she gasped for breath, heart raging against her ribs, and her legs burned with exertion. She didn't move as she heard Drack and Liam climbing onto the platform and making their way over to her.
"That is exactly the sort of badarse move we need to record and send to the Nexus!" Liam told her excitedly, crouching beside her and punching her shoulder good-naturedly.
Sara gave a weary laugh. "Well, I'm not doing it again," she said between breaths, feeling the trembling after effects of adrenaline flooding her body. She clenched her fists to hide it, but Liam was far too excited to notice anyway.
"It was reckless," Drack growled. Sara wasn't sure if he was scolding her or complimenting her. He reached down a three-clawed hand to her and she took it gratefully, allowing the krogan to haul her up onto her feet with enough strength to make her shoulder pop in protest.
"Come on," she said, making her way on shaky legs across the ruins towards the Nomad, "let's get back to Prodromos."
Sara sat cross legged atop one of the workbenches in the cargo bay of the Tempest surrounded by the components of her sniper rifle. Her hair was still damp from her shower, loose about her shoulders as it dried. Her body ached faintly from its ordeal, but she was buzzing. Rushing the nullifier had been idiotic, but it had worked. Liam thought the whole thing had been awesome and, though he hadn't said anything about it on the drive back to Prodromos, Sara sensed Drack had quietly approved of the heroics. She had been utterly terrified as she charged across the sand towards danger, but afterwards? After the fear dissipated she was left feeling indestructible, like she could take on the whole of Heleus single-handedly. She smirked to herself as she lifted the scope of her gun to one eye and peered through it.
"There you are!"
Sara's eyes flicked up to meet the hazel gaze of Cora as she crossed the cargo bay towards her, Initiative-issue magnetic mug in hand. Steam drifted upwards from whatever she was drinking. Coffee, Sara noted as Cora halted in front of her and she caught the scent of it. She lowered the scope and cocked her head in question.
"Here I am," she agreed.
"I hear you charged a nullifier?" Cora lifted one eyebrow, expression half amused, half concerned.
Sara paused. How had Cora heard that…? "Uh…"
"I overheard Liam telling Peebee about your heroics at the ruins," Cora explained as though reading her mind, trying to discreetly check Sara over for injuries. "Sounds like you had quite the adventure."
The cocky grin faded almost instantly from Sara's face. If Liam had told Peebee, and Cora had overheard, then it wouldn't be long before-
The intercom crackled and Lexi's voice was heard across the ship, tone definitely frosty. "Pathfinder to medbay, please."
Sara tipped her head back and groaned in dismay as Cora hid a snort in her mug of coffee. "Goddammit, Liam!"