Marcus picked Scott up from the recovery bay and they ran to the docks where the team's shuttle was waiting.

"What the fuck is happening?" Scott asked as they ran. People were scrambling to get a foothold on the trembling ship. Equipment started bursting in sparks as their circuits overloaded from the stress, prompting the fire alarm to blare on top of the klaxon.

"Just keep moving," Marcus said and shoved him gently forward. They held on to the railings as they run, sometimes crawling the rest of the way to the docking bay.

The door opens and they arrived in the shuttle bay where some of their team were already prepping. As they went to their lockers and followed suit, the other door opened and their team leader, Alec Ryder walked in.

The former N7, now Pathfinder of the human ark Hyperion, with salt and pepper hair and has a grim face lined deep with experience. He walked towards the lockers with sprightliness despite his age. As he also took out his armor, he briefed them about their mission.

"Here are the facts: our ark is trapped by some unknown gravitational and electromagnetic fluctuations in this sector. The bridge informed me that it may have been triggered from the surface of Habitat 7," he said, putting on his boots. "A signal is coming from an artificial structure on the surface, causing a storm around it about a thousand kilometers in diameter. It's affecting the planet as well as the space above it, where unfortunately our ark is trapped. We'll have to drop in its eye and shut it down. Questions?"

Marcus raised a hand as he wiggled a glove on the other. "What else are we going to expect there, Sir?"

"The usual. No idea. That's all the people up there can give us," he said with a sharp nod at the closed doors were further on, the bridge is struggling to keep the ship together. "But if you remember your training, you'll be fine," he said. He was about to put his chest piece when he paused and looked around. "Where is my son?"

"Here," Scott answered from the back. He was helping the others prep because he did not expect to be deployed so soon from cryo.

His father stared hard at him. "Why aren't you prepped?"

"Alec, I think it's not a good idea to let him come with us," a woman with a short, blond pale hair intervened. "He just got out of cryo."

Alec looked at her with his black eyes, as impenetrable as obsidian. "He is part of my team and I expect everyone to be prepared for anything, Cora," he said coldly. He did not shout at her, but by her reaction, it was as if he did. He did not need to; his voice has that rare quality of gravitas that lend weight to his words and impact to his tone. It was not easy to say no to him.

He turned to his son with the same cold glare. "Get your kit. We'll move in five."

"Shit," Scott said under his breath as he frantically put on his armor. Marcus went over and got his rifle and pistol for him and put it beside him as he dressed. "Sucks to be you."

"Wanna trade?"

"Nah."

A grin appeared on Marcus' face, then it faded away. "Too bad your sister can't come, huh?"

"Yep." Scott finished strapping on his chest piece. "She's gonna be real sorry she'll miss this."

"So, let's go and make some stories to tell when she wakes up, huh?" Martin asked with a pat on the shoulder and he handed Scott his helmet. As he put it on, Marcus suddenly moved away for some reason, which was answered when he saw his father suddenly beside him.

"I heard what happened," Alec said quietly to him. "Your sister's strong. She'll make it."

Scott stared at him behind the visor of his helmet. As always, Alec's words were still formal even when discussing intimate family matters so Scott found it hard to believe him, especially since he knew he never visited them at the cryo bay. But Alec's his father as well as his commander so he just nodded politely.

"Don't let it get you down. I need you sharp."

Typical. "Yes, sir."

Alec looked at him longer, then was about to move away but changed his mind. He came back and added, "Your mother would have been proud of you. Of both of you."

Scott didn't know how to answer that. But he didn't need to because Alec passed him by to go to the head of the team before they board the ship. He turned around to address them all. "Alright, team," he called, in his deep, growling voice, "this isn't how our first mission is supposed to go but remember that we prepared for anything." He looked at them individually, making them feel as if they were not invisible, that no matter how small their achievements was, they matter even to a legend like Alec.

"I chose each of you for the Pathfinder team, not because you're talented and passionate, but because you're dreamers like me. We dream of exploring the unknown, of finding the edge of the map then discovering what lies beyond. When people look back on this-and they will-they'll remember we didn't give up. We kept dreaming. That our first few faltering steps in Andromeda were the beginning of everything they know. We only get one chance to be the first." He paused, and swept over them again. "So let's go make history."

The team cheered. Courage flowed into them as they thought about going into the unknown, defeating the fear it usually brings. This was why, despite Alec's faults, people willingly put their fate in his hands.

As soon as they entered the atmosphere, their equipment aboard their shuttle started flickering.

"Status!" Alec yelled at the pilots as their shuttle shuddered and they felt gravitational forces pressing down on them. Alec, Cora and Greer were seated just behind the pilots, while Scott and Marcus were seated opposite them.

"We're going through an ion storm, Alec!" Markland replied, his voice sounding flat due to his helmet's filters. Meanwhile, Fisher's fingers flew on his console to keep them airborne. "The unknown structure seems to be causing the planet's polarity to reverse itself, making this geomagnetic storm. It's frying our equipment and scrambling our sensors! We'll have to drop sharply!"

"Do it!"

"Copy," Fisher replied and warned them. "Prepare for fifteen g."

They all tapped on their consoles and instructed their suits to keep most of the gravitational forces they'd be getting off them, while preparing themselves mentally and physically. They tensed their leg and abdominal muscles as the ship dived like a bullet, spinning down through the storm towards the planet's surface.

Their heads cleared when Fisher pulled the ship to cruising altitude. The fluctuations became lesser and their equipment flickered to life then stayed on. They have arrived just near the edge of the storm.

"Holy shit," Greer murmured as they looked through their windows and saw a wall of a massive tornado surrounding their destination. As debris swirled around it wildly, boulders the size of mountains hang in the air, spinning around it as lightning arced between them. Just beyond, they could just barely see a calm area where they knew the unknown structure was located.

Carefully keeping it from being drawn in, Fisher had the shuttle circle the storm for a while to find safe passage through it. But they found none.

"We can't drop in the eye, Alec," Fisher informed them despite the roar of the wind. "We'll have to pass through the walls to get there."

"Something inside there is fighting the planet's gravity," Markland explained the floating boulders. He was still looking at his console. "If we go in there, we'd be shredded as well as get hit by the rocks."

Alec read Markland's scans from his omni-tool, then closed it. "If we don't go in there, the Hyperion is dead," he shouted. "It's the only way to get at the thing inside."

"Are you sure, Alec? If we go in there, the shuttle might not handle it. We might not come through alive!"

"We'll have to try. We're the only hope Hyperion has got!"

Greer turned away from the window sharply to stare at Alec. "Are we really going into that thing?" he yelled, looking wide-eyed.

"Yes, we are, Greer. Or everyone aboard the Hyperion will die," Alec answered, looking straight in his eyes. "Do you copy, soldier?"

Greer stopped gaping. "Yes, sir," he said somberly. He leaned back in his seat and squeezed his eyes shut, murmuring something.

The pilots looked at each other. Fisher hesitated, but he tapped on his console and steered the ship to the wall.

The ship veered to the right, following the direction of the storm's spin. Fisher kept the ship's speed the same as the storm's until he spotted a gap between the boulders and eased them in.

The ship's thrusters failed as the storm took it along with everything else but the pilots struggled to keep them moving towards the center as well as keeping abreast of the boulders and debris. Their shields pinged as small debris bounced off them and their hull screeched due to the gravitational distortions, but the ship kept on as it revolved along with the wind, creeping closer and closer into the center-

Lightning flashed and a boom ripped into their ears. Their shuttle shuddered and veered to the left. "We're hit!" Fisher yelled. Another flash of light and the metal on the other side of their shuttle screamed. Then a series of hits rocked them around, lights going off all around them, their shouts lost over roar of thunder going off simultaneously and one after the other.

Then a boulder hit their ship, tearing it in half. They yelled as the other part of the ship was flung from them, taking Alec, Cora and the pilots on course to another boulder as their part was flung onto the opposite direction. It hit another boulder, sending it plummeting inside the eye.

Martin did not faint from the impact and so unstrapped them both and their seats fell away from each other. As they fell through the air, he focused on Scott. He was acting prone so he grasped his arm and shook it gently. No response.

"Scott!" Marcus yelled, holding his face up at him and saw his eyes closed. He opened his omni-tool and tapped on it to instruct Scott's suit to jolt him awake. It worked and Scott kicked his legs, then yelled as they saw themselves plummeting to the ground.

"Calm down, Scott! I got you," Marcus said, holding on to him even as his friend's limbs wind-milled in the air. He gripped him firmly and pressed a button on his suit. Immediately, a parachute popped from his back and they jerked up as it caught.

"Shit!" Martin screamed as the parachute drew them towards the wall. He released it, setting it free flying back to the storm, and activated his jump jet. "Scott! I can't hold us up together! Use your jump jet or we'll crash!"

Scott looked at him blearily as Marcus dragged them away from the wall, jetting up then falling, up then falling, until he understood and helped him. It seems Marcus was heading to a ledge on a cliff so they alternate propelling each other. Scott jumped when the arc of Marcus's jump finished and they were about to fall and vice versa. They reached the cliff in this manner and they set down gently on a plain, among lavender grass and bright yellow green fern shoots.

Marcus moved closer to Scott and scanned him. "You've got a concussion. You may also have some whiplashes," he said from the readings. He instructed him to lie still. "Hold on, I'll start the med program." He tapped on his console. A little while later, Scott felt his headache lessening as his implants set to work. He rolled his shoulders testily as the strain disappeared.

Marcus waited for about fifteen minutes then asked Scott how he was doing. Scott answered he was fine, but Marcus made him do tests until he was satisfied that he had recovered enough to continue.

"Where are we?" Scott said, looking around. The grass stirred towards the wall just beyond them, where the boulders and debris still swirled as the wind howled. They had to stand firmly on the ground or else they'd be like the rocks, rolling towards the wall. But the air was calmer around them and the sky was clear around the beam of light from the object making the storm.

"It seems we've arrived. I'm not sure about the others, though." He tapped at his console again and listened at the comms.

Scott drew a ragged breath as he bent down and put his hands on his knees. "You think they're alive?" he asked.

"They may be at the other side. I don't know where we came from. The magnetic field of this planet's crazy, it's messing with our nav system. But I hope they are, or else, it's just us now." Marcus glanced up from his omni-tool and peered at him. "Scott," he called, his voice soft, "I know we've gone through pretty scary shit and we lost your old man but this isn't the time to panic. We'll think of that later. Right now, we-"

"I'm not panicking!" Scott protested. "And I know what the old man will say. He's my father. It's just…really tight in here." He turned away from Marcus' raised brow and looked around. After a moment, he stood up and asked as carelessly as he could, "Do you think the air's breathable?"

"There's a lot of oxygen around but there's also a lot of heavy gases," Marcus answered, his tone casual like his. "It's best not to take your helmet off for a whiff."

Scott looked at the wall of the storm at the distance, mountains of grey rock spinning around them. "And this is supposed to be our home?"

"We can't complain about that because the planet wasn't expecting us. Those long-range telescopes we got isn't equipped with sensors."

Scott looked around, taking in deeply their surroundings for the first time. The rocks around them were jagged and rough, like it's made of basalt. He craned his neck around and saw plants inside crevices, looking like glowing mushrooms and fern corals. It looked similar to the plants back on Earth, but he knew they weren't mushrooms and ferns. "Hard to believe we went here on a guess."

Marcus shrugged. "Well, we're here now." He tapped on his omni-tool a few more times then closed it. "No one's answering. I guess it's up to us now to shut whatever is causing this down," he said, looking at the beam of light just beyond them. He nodded at Scott and, with Marcus taking point, they started to climb the cliffs for a better view. At the summit, their omni-tool started crackling.

"The short range comm's working!" Marcus announced happily. "I think someone's nearby." He tapped at it. "Found a location," he said, pointing somewhere west of them.

They hurried over to the location, picking their way through the mountainside carefully, wary of the electrically charged rocks floating around them or passing through tunnels made by the clefts of the rocks, the giant glowing mushrooms on each side until they arrived at a gulley. As they went near, they heard someone speaking. Pleading.

Scott paused behind Marcus when he saw him raise a fist. He followed his lead, slinging his rifle in front of him as Marcus signaled them both to move forward silently. They arrived at a ledge where below, some strange equipment was scattered before a strange door. In the midst of them was someone wearing armor of white and blue stripes. One of their team.

"That's Greer, I think," Scott said. "But what is he doing?" He followed to where the man was staring and saw strange beings pointing something at him. They were barking at Greer in a strange language which the human answered by calmly repeating "I don't understand you. Help me understand you."

"Confirmed alien sighting," Marcus said, watching the aliens. They had their heads uncovered, showing grey skin, with some sort of greyish white bones protruding around their face and covering their head like a beret. Below the protruding forehead are two milky white eyes, a nose with a bony bridge and a thin mouth. They had their arms free, their armor looking like a vest and their legs bent backwards.

"Think it would get ugly?" Scott said, wiping the dew forming on his visor.

"Maybe. But we'll have to follow First Contact protocol." Marcus signaled him to take position to cover Greer, without alerting the aliens.

They watched as Greer pleaded at the aliens, hands raised up, insisting that he doesn't understand their language. "Should we help him out?" Scott whispered, looking warily at the front most alien. "We'll have to wait and see if they're hostile," Marcus said. "Watch out for their things. I think they're carrying guns."

They kept watch as Greer pleaded with the aliens. They barked louder, then one of them raised its weapon and pointed it toward Greer.

"Hostiles confirmed. Open fire," Marcus instructed, gunning down the one who raised its weapon. The aliens turned around at them and Greer dove out of sight. Scott and Marcus shot at the aliens from their vantage point, observing that they don't have shields. Marcus dropped a grenade at the midst of them and Scott sniped them as they attempted to jump away. "Like fish in a barrel," Marcus commented as he shot the last one who tried to run for Greer.

When the coast was clear, they moved down the ledge to join their team mate. Greer walked towards them with open arms. Marcus caught his hand, drew him close and hugged him. "Hey, man. Glad to see you survived," he said, their hands between them while his other hand tapped Greer on the back.

"Glad to see you two," Greer replied, and released him. "I thought for a minute there that I was a goner."

"Yep. Seems being a linguist isn't a help here," Marcus said, noting the ashy pallor of Greer's dark face.

"Lucky we're also fluent in guns, eh?" Greer said and grinned. "Dammit. A minute more and I would have picked up their language. But then, maybe I'd be dead." He glanced up and found Scott. He went to him and gave him a hug too. "Ah, Ryder junior. Thought you were a goner too."

"Yeah. Good thing Marcus here can't live without me," Scott answered and let him go.

"Yes. Marcus' always clingy that way," Greer said and grinned. Marcus raised his middle finger towards him. Then he looked down at the alien corpse before him. "First we go through some shit storm and now this. First Contact didn't go so well. At least it didn't go like the yahg."

"Could be worse," Marcus replied. "Remember the turians?"

Scott snorted. "Remember the batarians?"

Greer grinned. "Yeah. We humans just couldn't get the hang of First Contact, can't we? Oh, why can't we have a nice alien welcoming us warmly for once."

"Have you looked at your face?" Marcus teased.

"I had. Last time I checked, it's much better than yours." He opened his omni-tool and scanned the corpse. "Think they activated whatever's causing this storm?"

"What, like we did on relay 314?" Scott asked. He moved near the mysterious door and scanned it.

"Maybe. If we weren't careful, this may be a repeat of the First Contact War." He finished scanning and closed his omni-tool. "Anyway, we should get back with the others."

"Any idea where they are?" Martin asked, keeping watch as Scott finished with the mysterious door and moved on to the equipment scattered around.

The grin disappeared from Greer's face and he said solemnly, "Fisher and Markland are dead. The lightning blew up the console in their faces and last I saw; the shuttle didn't eject them."

They fell silent in their memory. "Shit," Scott cursed softly.

"We'll give them full honors later. Maybe right here in this motherfucking planet," Martin said and pointed at the sky, where two moons of Habitat 7 twinkled. "We'll call that Fisher and the other Markland."

Greer grinned as he too looked at it. "Yeah. The Balls of Fisher and Markland, whose balls are as big as the moons they are named for. They really 'hang a pair' over Habitat 7."

The mood restored, they got ready then Martin took point again.

"Where's Cora and Dad?" Scott asked as he brought up the rear. They followed the winding path of the mountains, careful not to overstep and lose their balance towards the abyss below.

"No idea. I got drifted away from them," Greer answered. "But our comm's coming online so one of them must be nearby." He tapped at his omni-tool and after a few tries someone answered.

"Harper here. I'm at a cliff overlooking the crash site," Cora said from the comms.

"Hey Cora. Glad to hear you're alive," Marcus answered as he fiddled with his omni-tool and pointed west.

"Me too. Glad to hear some of you made it."

"Yeah. Scott and Greer's here with me. But Fisher and Markland's gonna be missed."

"Greer? Greer survived?" she asked in surprise.

"I'm standing right here, sweetheart," Greer piped up. "Alive and kicking. And I ain't no fainting damsel," he reminded her petulantly.

Cora chuckled. "I'm sorry, Greer. Just that I didn't think anyone would survive after we got bounced around like that."

He accepted her apology then Scott cut in. "Cora, Scott here. Where's Alec?"

He felt fear like an icy finger of dread sliding on his back as seconds passed before Cora answered. "He's fine. He's off somewhere for a moment."

He exhaled softly the breath he didn't know he was holding, but Marcus did not feel as relieved as he was. He was frowning at the news. It was strange for their com specialist and troop leader to go off on his own without regrouping first.

"You need to come here and see this," Cora breathed.

The three exchanged looks. "Could be bad," Greer said. Marcus thought it over, then reluctantly answered Cora. "We'll be there in five. Marcus out."

AN: Sorry for the long absence. I was still fixing some things. Anyway, enjoy, and thanks to whitetiger62512 for looking this fic over.