They arrived at the site where their shuttle was laid to rest. They searched the smoking wreck for signs of their team mate, when Cora called through their comms. She was on a ledge up a cliff overlooking the crash site and waved her gun to get their attention. The glint of it alerted them and they found her waving at them, her white armor nearly blending in with the basalt cliff. They moved away and jumped up to her.
"Got any news for me?" Cora asked. Her armor had seen better days. As they do all.
"We have aliens," Greer said. He out up a holo of the corpses he's scanned. "And they're not friendly."
"I think we have two types of aliens," Scott said as he brought up holos of the contraptions and the strange door. "These ones seem to belong to our friends here," he said at the containers and wiring. Then he brought up the door, dark as obsidian. "And this one seems to be another."
Cora looked at the projections. Her mouth had upturned corners that made her look like she was perpetually amused, but they all know she was regarding their intel seriously.
"I don't know about the door but I know those ones," she said, nodding at the aliens. "We've run into some of them as soon as we touched down. I think they were going to take us somewhere, but Alec thought it was a bad idea and so we fought our way out of them. Anyway, that's not important right now. Alec isn't here because he found the structure causing the storm. We ran into it as we were on the way to the crash site. I was sent here to wait for you while he prepares something for it. He's waiting for us just beyond that ridge."
"How'd you two survive?" Marcus asked, curious. "As far as we know, you were thrown further in."
Cora picked herself up. "Yep. We got bounced around pretty badly. My biotics helped make it easier for us until luckily, we got thrown here. Alec and I bailed and we touched down at the other side," she said pointing somewhere behind them. "Fisher and Markland weren't so lucky."
"Was Fisher and Markland in there?" he asked, nodding at the shuttle.
"Yes. I got their badges out, don't worry." Cora said.
Marcus nodded. "We'll come back and give them a proper burial as soon as we're done."
They were about to jump down when they heard something roaring above. They looked out and up, where they saw a strange ship appear and hover near their crashed shuttle. Its doors opened and aliens dropped off, then started sweeping the area.
"Shit," Scott cursed as they moved to cover. He peered down as he asked, "What now?"
"Let's wait and not let our positions away," Marcus said as he picked up his rifle and pointed it towards the aliens below. They watched as the aliens reached the wreck and searched around it.
Then one of them looked up, saw one of them and yelled.
"They've found us! Open fire!" Greer yelled as he dropped the one who gave them away. The aliens scattered from the incoming fire, barking something. Their ship opened again and some sort of armored lizards bounded out. It had bone-like structure protruding from its head like those from a hammer head shark and they ran on four legs, their tails with a spike at the tip swishing behind them.
"They've got some sort of dogs," Scott said as he fired at them. The dog yelped as his bullets hit its flank and leap out of the way-
Then it vanished.
"What the-?" Scott said, staring at the place it had been moments before, but incoming fire made him duck back into cover. One bigger than the rest was holding a machine gun, and it was laying suppression fire on them. They shot back in retaliation, but their rounds just pinged off its shield.
Scott fired back on it when something rammed him from behind. He turned around and found himself face to face with the alien dog. He turned his attention to it, backing away, but it again lunged at him, showing sharp teeth as it snarled. Shots whizzed past him, past where his head had been as the dog tried to bowl him over. Worse, it brought a pack.
They were snapping at his legs as he shot them uselessly, the bullets bouncing off their armored hide, when one of them tried to lunge at his throat. But a singularity appeared at their midst and they went floating. Then they burst into bits of bone and flesh as Cora barreled into them, sending pieces of them back down onto their masters.
"Nice," Greer grunted as he wiped green blood off his visor. "Nothing like alien blood for your first bath."
"Think you can take care of that?" Marcus said, nodding at the one with the machine gun.
"You'll need to drop his shield first."
Scott fiddled with his omni-tool until it changed his ammo to a disruptor. Then he started firing until its shield fizzled. Cora threw a singularity at it and as it and its friends floated, Marcus and Greer picked them off.
They mopped up the rest and when everything was quiet once again, they went down and examined the corpses, with Scott taking particular attention to the dogs.
"Alec and SAM should be in range," Cora said, opening her omni-tool and tapped at it. "SAM, can you hear me?"
Static then the com crackled and they heard the AI answer. "Yes, Cora," it said as toneless as ever.
"We're sending you some samples of aliens we encountered. Can you make an analysis?"
"Information received. Analyzing now." They waited for a few moments for it to speak again. "Analysis complete. The samples are of organic origin, but I am detecting multiple and distinct genetic strands in both samples. Both of them has genetic data from other lifeforms. Do you need further analysis?"
"No. That's all we need to know right now. So, what does that mean?"
"It seems that their strange genetic make-up is making them adapt to the current environment."
Marcus raised a brow at SAM's conclusion. "Huh. I was wondering why they weren't wearing helmets," he said. Scott spoke into his omni-tool. "SAM, where's Dad?"
"Alec Ryder is 100 meters east of where you are. I'm sending the navpoint to you." All of them looked down as the navpoint simultaneously appeared on their maps.
"Well, I think there's nothing more to see here," Marcus said and closed his tool. "Get everything you can carry and let's move out."
They headed northeast of the wreck, heading downhill by dropping down ledges. They reached a gap and leaped across the chasm, then continued down, passing alien corpses as they did. Scott noted the burn marks by incendiary rounds. He was impressed that his father overcame them single-handed but that's what anyone would expect from an N7. They headed south until they arrived at a cliff and jumped to the ledge where Alec Ryder crouched. They moved carefully to his side. Alec gave no sign that he noticed them, not taking his eyes off where he was looking.
They followed his gaze and saw below them the tower. It was blocky, made of straight edges and an unknown dark material with glowing lines etched into its surface. The alien's facility was built around it, distinguished by its bulbous design and dull, dusty green color. Its openings were made of archways, where ramps connected them from one another. One of them led to platform near the tower.
But they could not just go in, for a force field stood around it and guards patrolled the field between it and them.
"Glad you made it," Alec said, his eyes still observing the facility.
"Us too, Sir," Greer answered while Scott stayed silent. Alec did not acknowledge it at first, then he looked to where Scott was. "You alright, son?"
"I'm fine," Scott said stiffly.
Alec looked him over, his dark eyes not giving his thoughts away. But Cora moved to his side and asked, "What's the plan, sir?"
Alec turned away from him and nodded below them. "The storm's coming from that tower," he said, pointing at the energy beam emanating from it, causing the sky to rumble and burst in lightning. "Somehow it's causing a storm even beyond the planet, trapping the Hyperion."
"Yes. That tower is caught in a feedback loop with the anomaly around the planet. Together, they're disrupting the atmosphere with undirected energy," SAM supplied.
Marcus looked from the top of the tower then up towards the sky. "Did this activate as soon as our ark came near this planet?"
Alec turned to him. The others followed his gesture with puzzled looks. "What are you thinking?"
"Just that it's really convenient that this activated as soon as we appeared. Maybe this is the aliens' weapon to keep us away."
"Maybe. Maybe not. But they made it clear the chance for diplomacy is over as soon as we landed. We have no other options but to take control of it by force." He paused, then added, "But I'll keep that in mind, Marcus."
Alec may still be skeptical about the cause of the Hyperion's problem, but Marcus' suggestion has only served to enhance the four's resolve. There was no question in their minds that the aliens meant harm to them and with doubt finally wiped away, their guns would be firing faster than before.
"We need to get in there and figure a way to shut it down," Alec added. "Or we won't be able to call for extraction and the Hyperion is dead." Who is speaking here?
Greer nodded at the aliens guarding the perimeter. "What about that force field?" he asked, noting the aliens patrolling outside and inside of it.
"See the generators over there?" Alec said, pointing at the alien's equipment. "It seems they're using it to generate the force field. I've rigged the foundations to blow. It should bring it down."
Scott was curious how he managed to sneak up past those aliens to plant bombs on their generators but there was a more pressing concern. The field was surrounded by electrically charged rocks. "It also means we're running into a lightning minefield. We'll also face incoming fire if we don't pick some of them off first," he said, pointing at the guards outside the fence.
"Which would give those inside time to prepare a counterattack," Alec replied. "If we go in, we go in fast and hard."
"I can take care of it," Cora said, confident of her biotics, which was stronger than Alec's artificially induced power. It was the only thing she can best Alec at. "So just run and gun, then?"
"We have no other options. The explosives are guaranteed to get their attention and we need to move, fast. Captain Dunn's informed me that the ark's about to break apart. We'll split into two teams. Cora, you'll lead one. Scott, you're with me. Are you ready?" They nodded, so Alec tapped his omni-tool and the generators exploded. They immediately jumped down and as Scott ran beside his father, he heard him say, "SAM, load biotic amp interface."
Cora produced a biotic shield as Marcus and Greer ran alongside her. Alec did the same for him and Scott.
The aliens turned to face them and opened fire at them as they ran. The biotic shields held, protecting them from the incoming fire as well as the electricity weaving through the ground, but halfway through Cora's barrier started collapsing.
"I can't hold on much longer!" she yelled as they were near the facility. Then the shield dropped and she tripped. Marcus dragged her up, yelling at her to go on when an explosion knocked them off into the building. The air smelled of fire and their shield generators emitted sparks. They tapped on their omni-tool to start the self-repair program. Their armor stopped smoking, then they looked back to where they were standing just a moment ago.
Greer was thrown far to their side. He did not move and his visor was clouded over with smoke. Marcus pointed his omni-tool at him and scanned him. "Shit, he's dead. Greer's dead."
On the other side, Alec and Scott reached the building. "Cora! Status!" Alec yelled as he jumped over the crates and into the building, with Scott just behind him. They crouched back to back as Alec said, "SAM, load combat profile," and fired away while Scott dealt with those inside.
"Greer's dead. Lightning got him!" Marcus answered, putting out his hand over the barrel and laid out suppression fire. As the aliens went to cover, Cora staggered up and then charged into a group. She then slammed on the ground, sending the aliens flying. She back away and fired at them with her shotgun as Marcus picked off the rest.
"Clear! Let's move!" Alec said. He took one second to look at where Greer's body lay, surrounded with static then gave a look at Cora. She nodded, drew a barrier around her and darted out towards his body to strip off his badge. Alec saw to it that she came back, then sprinted forward inside the building. "Don't let them catch us! Keep up!"
The three scrambled after him as Alec gunned their way further inside. They emerged on pathways over the cliff, with more aliens firing at them. They pushed forward until they reached the entrance to the tower.
Alec scanned around and found a strange console. It was dark colored, unlike the aliens' green tinged equipment and shaped roughly like an equilateral triangle, a point facing them, with octagons on the surface inscribed by an unknown language.
"What now, sir?" Cora asked as they assumed positions to look out for more aliens coming out from the building.
"I need to decipher the language," Alec said running his scanner over it and instructing SAM.
Marcus looked up and yelled. "There's more coming up from the ramp!"
"Cover me while SAM is decrypting!"
The three shot at the aliens coming from both paths as SAM informed them of the status of the decryption. Sweat formed on Scott's brow as he fired while SAM counted its progress. Aliens after aliens dropped and it seemed to be taking forever.
Finally, it was finished. Alec fiddled with it until the door opened…and got stuck.
"It's jammed! Scott, I need you here!" Alec yelled as he put his hands under it and started pulling up.
"Go! We'll take care of this!" Cora shouted over the firefight. She laid suppression fire as Scott ran towards his father. He took hold of the door and they pushed it upward until they can squeeze through. They ran inside to where another console was waiting.
As Alec instructed SAM to decode again, Scott looked around. Inside, the firefight became muted. It was dark, but the place was illuminated by the strange alien glyphs like the one on the console, glowing green against the obsidian walls. He felt like they had fallen in an alien cave.
Then a burst of light came from his side and Scott squinted at it. A holo of a big triangle was floating in front of his father.
Alec stepped back, the light of the holo shining on his shocked face. "It's not a weapon. It's just...an atmospheric regulator."
"Yes," SAM confirmed, seeing the same results Alec was seeing inside his head.
"What?" Scott asked. It seems an eternity passed as they stared at it but then their radio cackled. Amidst the sound of gunfire, Cora asked them how long are they going to take.
Alec shook his head and answered her. "Not long. We're almost done." He reached out, touching the holo where it broke into more glyphs. His hand searched around, the glyphs glowing as he touched them. He finally found what he was searching for and grasped it. The glyphs went solid, and the ground below them rumbled. Then it went silent.
Scott ran over to his father's side. "You did it, Dad!" he said, beaming.
Alec smiled at his son, the first time he did when they arrived at Andromeda. "SAM did the heavy lifting."
SAM explained that it has only partially decrypted the language, but Alec did not hear it. He kept looking at his son.
He looked so much like the little boy he remembered, the son who looked up to him as if he was the greatest that ever lived; not the surly young man who looked at him with eyes full of silent resentment. They may be family, yet they act like strangers around each other and he didn't know why. He wasn't around them when they were children he knew that much, and so he hoped that he would be so here. He was about to say something, perhaps, to try to start repairing their relationship; to bring back what should have been. To start over. That whatever happened between them, they can make a new start in this new galaxy, when something came whistling around them and before they could figure that out, they were thrown outside, past the platform and onto the cliffs below.