Sara had seen many strange things during her time in Andromeda. Many unsettling and horrific things. Havarl, though, was different. It was as beautiful as it was deadly, and she loved to wander its tangled jungle. It was just so vastly different from anything else she had seen before. Growing up on the Citadel her experience of nature had been incredibly tame, and while she had visited other planets nothing had ever seemed so wild and fantastic as the Angara homeworld. Strange plants with purple leaves spread across the grass at her feet in a thick carpet, clustering around rough grey rocks and feathery pink ferns. Trees with thick twisting trunks reached for the twilight sky, creeping vines coiled about their boughs and hanging low, some brushing the ground. Glowing fungus sprouted from their trunks. Huge luminous pink mushrooms stood chest high amongst bushes with blade-shaped leaves that shone blue.
Creatures shrieked and chirped and warbled and chattered, rustling unseen through the undergrowth around them, mostly harmless. Sara knew predators lurked out there somewhere. For now, though, they were safe.
"I'm bored," Peebee sighed suddenly from behind Sara, breaking through her reverie. "We've been walking all day and found nothing. Zero. Zip."
"I'm familiar with the term 'nothing'," Sara said and glanced back over her shoulder to frown at the asari. "You did volunteer to come along, you know?"
"I know, but I thought it would be more exciting," Peebee complained, swatting a vine aside as she ducked beneath a low-hanging tree branch. "A walk in the park would turn into a guns-blazing adventure when you're involved."
Sara lifted an eyebrow. Chaos did seem to always find her…
"I'm sorry searching for my people is such a chore," Vetra said tersely. Sara faced front, looking at the bony back of Vetra's head. They had been wandering around the jungle for most of the day with nothing to show for their troubles. They were now heading through the fourth sector Torvar claimed turians had been sighted in. Or maybe it was the fifth...?
Peebee heaved a world-weary sigh and Sara saw Vetra's shoulders tense, but instead of snapping the turian simply increased her pace and strode further ahead.
"Peebee, maybe consider the effect this is having on our turian friend?" Sara hissed at the asari.
"What?" Peebee asked loudly. "I get that it's stressful but that doesn't mean I can't be bored! We've been traipsing all over Havarl and we haven't seen any sign of 'spiky grey aliens'," she continued. "We're wasting our time. Havarl is huge, those aliens could be anywhere.Until we have more to go on, we should head back to Kadara and-"
"Look, the anagra saw Something," Sara interrupted, catching Peebee's elbow and forcing her to stop and face the Pathfinder. Vetra realized they had stopped following her and stopped to turn back and look. "Something they've never seen before, something that sounds a lot like turians. Now, isn't it even remotely possible that the turian ark, like us, ran into trouble when they reached Andromeda? And maybe they evacuated? And maybe they're here," Sara paused and saw she had Peebee's attention now, the asari was clearly considering her words. "And maybe they're not. But I'm going to look and try my hardest to get to the bottom of this, because if our roles were reversed and we were stranded here I'd sure as hell hope the turians would exhaust all possibilities trying to find us."
"Thank you, Ryder," Vetra said, shooting Peebee a cool look that the asari completely missed as she sauntered off ahead.
"I feel ya," Peebee told them. "But I really feel like we're wasting our time when we cou-dah!" She tripped on something hidden in the undergrowth and went down face-first amongst a blanket of purple leafy plants.
"What is that...?" Vetra asked, keen eyes on something hidden beneath the purple leaves. She crouched beside her fallen comrade and carefully pulled foliage away to reveal a scorched panel of thick grey metal, half buried in dirt, half concealed by plants. It didn't look remnant or angaran. She ran a hand over the scratched surface.
Sara dialled up her omni tool and held it over the metal to scan it as Peebee rolled onto her back and raised herself up on her elbows to watch curiously. "SAM?"
"This is debris from the turian ark Natanus," SAM informed them through their comm link.
Vetra glanced at Peebee, then hurriedly turned away to hide a snigger, getting to her feet and dusting her hands off on her trousers.
A slow smirk spread across Sara's face as her eyes, bright with mischief, sought out Peebee's.
Peebee narrowed her own eyes in warning. "Don't you dare..."
Sara paused to savour the moment, looking smug. "You were saying?"
"Dammit, Ryder!" Peebee leaped angrily to her feet.
"I think the humans call that 'karma'," Vetra said lightly, turning back to her companions. She reached out and brushed moss from Peebee's shoulder. "You didn't get any of those plants in your mouth, did you?"
"No," Peebee said haughtily, embarrassed at making a fool of herself. "I'm fine, thanks for asking."
"Oh, I didn't ask," Vetra teased and pushed passed her to continue their search.
Sara grinned at Peebee and patted her shoulder. "You deserved that."
"I hate you both," Peebee grumbled.
"Aw, no you don't," Sara said playfully, brushing a finger beneath Peebee's chin and winking at her before turning and striding after Vetra.
"You can flirt all you want, I still hate you!" Peebee called after her. Sara just laughed.
Vetra had halted and was surveying the way ahead, listening to the sounds of the jungle. "Everything grows so fast here," she said to Sara, still peering into the undergrowth. "If there was ever a trail to follow, we'll never pick it up. And that's if anyone made it out alive."
"That's not as big an 'if' as you might think," Sara replied. Vetra looked sideways at her.
"Ryder's right," Peebee spoke up as she caught up to them. "The angara saw something, right?" She flashed a grin, propped a hand on her hip.
"Oh, so now you come around to our way of thinking?" Vetra asked with humour.
"Maybe faceplanting the ground knocked some sense into her," Sara said casually.
Peebee rolled her eyes. "You're never letting that go, are you?"
"Never," Sara said, a smirk tugging at the corner of her mouth as she swiped her omni-tool on. "I'll get SAM to scan for more Natanus debris, it might help us to-"
Gunfire. Easily recognizable amongst the natural sounds of their surroundings, and close by. The trio sprang into action, weapons finding their way into hands in the blink of a practiced eye.
"Where did that come from?" Sara demanded. She knew it had been towards her right, but that encompassed a vast area.
"This way," Vetra replied, already jogging off to one side as the chatter of more automatic gunfire disturbed the usual sounds of the jungle, and Sara's ears managed to pinpoint the exact direction.
"Ever noticed how trouble always seems to find us?" Peebee commented as they rushed towards the sound of fighting.
They could hear startled shouting, the crack of weapons firing, growing nearer and nearer as they ran. It could be a Roekar attack, it could be kett. It could be someone that needed help, or it could be someone they should steer well clear of. Or it could be the very people they were searching for.
Sara leaped over gnarled tree roots that twisted across the ground, knocked aside hanging vines and dodged beneath low-hanging branches. She saw muzzle flash through the trees ahead, heard the chatter of auto fire and shouting much closer now. She motioned for Peebee and Vetra to halt, then brought her rifle to her shoulder and peered through the scope, aiming through the sliver of space between blue leafy glowing bushes and dense black tree trunks. She could hear her companions breathing hard behind her as she tried to get a glimpse of the combatants through the trees. There; someone dashed passed the gap, rifle firing. Sara blinked in surprise, feeling elation swell in her chest as she lowered the weapon and charged forwards.
"What do you see?" Vetra asked, as she and Peebee hurried after the Pathfinder.
"Turians!" Sara cried and picked up the pace.
They burst through the trees into a wide clearing, finding themselves in a scene of utter chaos. Trees bordered a large rocky area, their branches reaching across overhead and knitting together to form a natural roof through which a deep purple sky was just visible.
Ramshackle shelters had been built around one edge of the clearing from the scavenged remains of escape pods and metal plating, most likely from more Natanus debris. And through it all a handful of turians raced with guns blazing, or crouched amongst the shelters taking pot shots, as a pack of challyrion ran rampant, charging through the camp with their camouflage active and then pouncing seemingly from nowhere, suddenly visible. It was clear the turians had never seen such things before and were in a state of panic.
A male turian was sprawled on his back with one of the beasts pinning him down. He held it off with both hands as its jaws snapped at his face. Sara tossed her rifle into the air as she ran, grabbed it by its barrel and swung it like a club with all her might. The stock smashed into the challyrions head and knocked it from the turian. She pinned it beneath a boot, switched her grip on her gun again and fired several rounds into it. Vetra hauled the turian to his feet before sprinting off to help someone else.
A ripple of biotic energy launched two challyrion into the air as Peebee swept through the clearing, throwing shimmering blue energy and firing her pistol.
Silence as the threat was ended, and the group caught their breath.
"You okay?" Sara asked no one in particular, blue eyes jumping from face to face.
"This planet is... Awful," a turian replied, shaking her head mournfully. They all looked exhausted, their clothes and armour scuffed and muddy.
"Eh, you get used to it," Sara said, giving a half smile while holstering her rifle over her shoulder.
A male turian stepped forwards, holding out a hand to her as he returned a pistol to its place at his hip. "Avitus Rix," he introduced himself.
Sara clasped his hand in hers and shook. "Sara Ryder, human Pathfinder."
Avitus' eyes lingered, as though hardly daring to believe she was really there. "You arrived just in time," he said, glancing across the clearing as Peebee and Vetra helped those injured in the attack.
"We found Natanus debris nearby, heard the fighting," Sara explained. She waited a beat, then, "what happened? Where's the ark?"
Avitus sighed and shook his head, holding his arms out at his sides as he shrugged. "No idea. I had to break out of my own damn stasis pod, now I'm here."
"A fall like that should've killed you," Sara said in awe.
"Hah!" Peebee laughed from across the clearing and Sara and Avitus looked her way. She was grinning at Sara. "You're one to talk!" Sara arched an eyebrow, but Peebee was right. She had already died once while in Andromeda. Hopefully she wouldn't make a habit of it…
Avitus chose to ignore the remark. "Those pods are sturdier than they look," he said. "I've rounded up everyone that dropped near me, but most of the turian population is missing- including Macen, our Pathfinder. SAM hasn't transferred to me, so he's still alive. Just don't know where."
"He hasn't made his way to the Nexus," Sara said regretfully.
Avitus nodded. He had expected as much. "Knowing Macen, he's out there looking for me. He dedicated his life to Andromeda. He's too stubborn to die now."
"We need every Pathfinder we can get. We'll find him." Sara placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, keeping her expression stoic though inside she was fighting a smile. She sounded so damn professional right now, Cora would be so proud.
"Appreciate it."
Sara turned away to survey the ragtag group of turians in their camp. "Well, I guess we should formally introduce you to the angara and get you to the Nexus." She turned back to Avitus and grinned.
She couldn't wait to relay this one to Tann.