They were driving around the central lake after putting up beacons, satellite towers and investigating missing supplies apparently carried away by Eos' surviving giant green beetles when they suddenly heard gunfire behind them. SAM informed them of the alien's dropship nearby and that the aliens seem to be attacking somebody. Marcus turned the Nomad around to see if it was one of their people and parked close to pillars of rocks, where they went into position to observe.
Scott perched his Valkyrie on a rock and peered through his scope to see the fighting before them. There was a lone figure running away from a group of the aliens they knew. He focused on the one, who seemed to have the same body type as the aliens in pursuit. However, it had a different colored armor with a flowing…cape?
He adjusted his scope to see closer when the figure…vanished.
He drew back, blinked then returned to watch, looking for it until he saw it appear behind one of the aliens. Its friends opened their mouths to screech and then they bounded after it, guns spraying, as their friend fell with green blood spurting from its back.
"I detect no Milky way races present. However, I observe that the configuration of the hands of the new alien correspond to the marks on the console back at the vault," SAM said, analyzing the scene through Scott's eyes.
Marcus looked up from his Revenant's scope. "You mean down there's our mysterious alien?"
"That is probable."
Scott looked at Marcus and Cora. "Should we?" Cora asked, titling her head at it.
Scott handed Marcus his Black Widow and said to Cora, "Let's go."
They went back in the Nomad and raced to the scene of the fighting. The dropship turned towards them and fired missiles. The Nomad swerved and swayed, evading it, until it was close enough and Scott opened his door and aimed the Cobra missile at it. The disk spun towards the dropship where it emitted a cloud over itself as it veered away but the missile curved, following it. It crashed into its underbelly, tearing it in half. The dropship exploded, its parts raining down.
The Nomad circled back, and they parked it near to the lake's edge and disembarked. They started shooting at the aliens, using the Nomad as cover. The aliens turned to shoot at them but the unknown one suddenly appeared and buried its knife on its back. Then it threw a handful of grenades at the others and leaped away as the ground burst in explosions.
Scot and Cora helped the new alien overcome its attackers. Cora went ahead and charged, sending one of them flying as she turned her Disciple shotgun to the face of the other and fired. Scott peeked on the side of the Nomad, raised his rifle, aimed at the alien in the air and fired. The alien dropped and did not stand again. The last one tried to run but was shot dead by the three of them. With their last enemy dead, they turned their weapons at each other.
"Whoa!" Scott said, raising his weapon as the alien pointed it at him. "We meant no harm."
The alien looked at him with its pair of eyes, one covered with visor much like a monocle. It was bipedal and similar to the body type of human males, with wide shoulders & narrow hips. Its head was covered with a reinforced dome, with sort of cowl like a cobra's ran from its head, down to the sides of its neck and ending inside its chest. Its legs were slightly splayed and the calves bent back.
It was also very colorful. Its skin was rubbery looking and translucent, similar to salarian skin but colored light purple with speckles of light. It was wearing a sort of blue silk caftan over its dark blue armor, softly floating and shimmering every time the wind passed through it. Its face reminded them of a cat: eyes a brilliant sky blue with slits for pupils but with a dark sclera and a broad straight, feline nose.
And it's staring at them like it caught a mouse.
Scott glanced at Cora, who answered with a tiny nod. Then he turned his gun so he held on it by its middle then slowly held it out. The alien shifted uncomfortably, glancing at him and Cora until Scott dropped his gun.
He wasn't sure if the alien might interpret it as a challenge, but he hoped it wouldn't. He hoped that the alien will interpret it as a sign of peace.
The alien looked at the gun at his feet, sniffed at it then turned its attention back to them. Then it spoke. "What…are you doing?" it asked.
Scott's jaw dropped inside his helmet. "You…speak our language?"
"My translator does," it said, its voice sounding like a deep purr. "We have met your people before."
Scott looked at Cora, who looked as baffled as he was. Scott made as if to scratch his head, but remembered he's wearing a helmet and so put it down quickly. "Then you understand that we meant you no harm."
"No."
Scott blinked at the alien. Surely if they met their people before, then they would understand that dropping their weapon or holding their empty hands up were signs of non-aggression. "I…am not sure I understand."
"Your people came here without warning, then go from world to world taking what you can. So I do not believe you when you say you meant us no harm."
Scott shut his eyes and mentally cursed the exiles. It was very likely now that their first contact had not gone peacefully. "I can explain," he said, looking earnestly at the alien. "The people you've met? They're not us. They're different."
"Are they?" It examined them again, its eye glinting behind the monocle.
"Yes. Those were desperate people and some bad ones. While we came in peace and are willing to work with you."
The alien did not answer and still looked suspiciously at them, so Scott changed tack. "Are you alone? Where are your people?"
The alien hesitated. "I am not from here."
"From another world then?"
"Yes."
"Then can you take us to your leader and let them see us for themselves? So we can explain that we really meant no harm?"
"Yes. But if you do, you must come without your people knowing," it said, waving its gun at the direction of Podromos then at the sky. It knew about the Nexus.
Cora turned to Scott. "Scott…." she warned, the rest of her sentence completed with a look.
Scott acknowledged it and turned back to the alien. "There must be some way we can talk about this. If we're gone, they'll worry. Can we leave something to tell them we're gone for a while we're gone so they won't worry at least?"
"No. if your intentions are pure, then you will do it. If not, then there is nothing more to talk about and I leave," it insisted.
Scott stared at him, looking to see if it would back down. It didn't.
"If you really came in peace, then you will come," it said with a finality.
Scott looked at him some more and said, "Fine." He opened his channel. "Marcus, you can come out now," he said, where Marcus popped out from his hiding place, ready to provide them cover should the alien prove hostile. "We need to go on a detour."
The alien lowered its gun. "My name is Jaal Ama Derav and I am of the Angara."
"I'm Scott Ryder, a human. This is Marcus Zola and Cora Harper," he said, nodding at the two.
The alien looked over them all. It was hard to tell what it thought as it examined them, its pupils shrunk to slits and its body still, as its caftan fluttered softly behind it. Then it said, "Follow me then, humans," and turned his back to walk away.
Scott wondered whether it was being naive or it decided to trust them when it turned its back to them. But they followed behind it. "Where are we going?" Scott asked as he jogged to be alongside it, matching its lunging gait.
"To the place of our people. Aya."
The alien led them to its shuttle. Along the way, it clarified that he was male and the aliens they were fighting against were called Kett. Scott asked what Kett meant and Jaal answered that they don't know; the Kett called themselves that when they met their people and never explained it.
They arrived at a plateau above the lake and where his shuttle, a black and white thing with a rounded body, small fins at the back and thrusters at the front, was hidden. Scott looked below them and saw the place was a good vantage point for observing them. He could see miles and miles of the land before them and to his right, the opening to Podromos. Jaal called his attention to them and said they should board, but Scott argued with him that he needed his whole team and ship. They argued back and forth until finally, the alien agreed to lead his ship to Aya.
They left Eos and sailed towards the Onaon system, thinking with a pang that they'd be passing the Nexus without so much as a greeting. When Kallo announced that they're just within one light year of the system, Cora quietly sidled near Scott.
"I don't feel good about this, Scott," Cora said to him. "Are you sure we're not walking into a trap?"
"We did aim to have peaceful contact with possible natives here," Scott answered. "These are their terms."
"I know, but-is this important enough to risk our safety?"
"If we don't follow him, then we might have made enemies which we can't afford to have since we don't know much about here. And besides, they may be the ones who left traces back at the Eos vault. Maybe they were the builders and they can tell us more about it?"
Cora just shook her head, her fringe sweeping across her nose. "I don't know," she confessed and sighed. "But we're here now so I guess we should prepare for anything that might happen."
"Good idea."
"Uh, Ryder?" Kallo interrupted, a little panic stricken. "Further on is the…Shroud."
Scott stared at the screen where the twinkling, distorted star field typical of the Shroud's presence greeted them. "Suvi, open a channel to the alien shuttle," he instructed sharply.
She tapped on her console and said, "Channel opened."
"Yes?" Jaal answered.
Scott rounded on him. "You've led us into a trap!"
"No. Our destination is beyond that cloud," Jaal answered calmly.
"We can't get through that!"
There was a pause. "You…can't?" he asked, surprised. "Then how did you get here then?"
"Long story but our ships didn't arrive here intact. Look, I don't know what tech you have, but ours cannot get through that."
There was another pause. "Then we have a problem. Wait for my instructions," he said and closed the line.
"Yellow alert," Scott said, and the klaxon blared. His crew was scrambling behind the bridge and Marcus later reported that all stations were ready.
They waited for minutes in tense silence. Finally, Jaal's shuttle hailed them and his face appeared on the screen. "I will ask an escort to come here shortly and help you pass. We'll have to surround you with our ships so we can continue on to Aya."
"Surround us?" Scott asked, fear tickling in. "And that will help us pass through it? How?"
"You will see," Jaal said simply and confidently.
Scott fell silent, still eyeing the screen with suspicion.
"This isn't what we talked about, Jaal," he said.
"Your inability to move through the Shroud isn't what we expected."
Scott went silent as he weighed his proposal. He started to doubt the whole thing. It seemed Jaal did not tell them everything and he regretted going with him, now that he said more of his people will be coming. The reason why he insisted on taking his own ship was that if worse came to worst, they wouldn't have to depend on working on an alien ship to escape. But his precaution was now rendered deficient since they will be outnumbered if it led to a fight. "Alright, Jaal," he decided, chewing his lip as he thought about what they could do if this becomes a worst-case scenario.
Jaal closed the line then the screen showed his shuttle move forward to the Shroud. They felt a brief sense of alarm as it shot through it then awe when they saw a field surround it, showing normal starlight around the shuttle. Then the Shroud enveloped it completely, until the space returned to its distorted form once more.
"Is he…dead?" Suvi whispered as they stared at the empty screen. They waited for Jaal to appear again and as the time lengthened with no shuttle in sight, Scott wondered if the alien was just playing a game with them.
Spots appeared on the Shroud, where the light passing through was not distorted and showing clearly the other end of the galaxy. Then it vanished then Kallo informed them that unknown ships had decloaked and surrounded them. One of them hailed the Tempest.
"Tove jagalesh do!" a voice harshly demanded which Kallo said was from the foremost frigate, its outline roughly that of a whale shark. Their hulls were painted black and white, but the colors were shimmering as if about to transform into other colors.
"We're visitors from another galaxy. Our intentions are peaceful," Scott answered. He heard Jaal explain something in their language.
There was a brief silence before they heard the voice again. Jaal said that they should prepare to be surrounded as agreed.
The screen showed the frigates coming closer to them, then aligning alongside them. The ships were placed with one each at their top, bottom and sides roughly abreast of them then another group at the tail end but placed diametrically at the sides. The frigate at the topmost of the formation barked an instruction to move forward and keep up with their speed. Kallo glanced worriedly at Scott, who nodded. The salarian muttered something under his breath as he tapped on his console. The group moved forward slowly, until the whole screen was filled with the distorted star field, the only sign showing the presence of the Shroud.
As the foremost ship went nearer to it, they instinctively leaned back, expecting immediate disintegration as it approached, only to find it parting before them. The alien ship seemed to generate a negating field around it which overlapped with the next ship and so on. The overlapping fields also covered the Tempest, so not a particle of the Shroud (or whatever it was made of) had touched their ship.
After clearing the Shroud, the ships spread out from the Tempest. They had just enough time for the wonder to subside, when they beheld before them a dark gray colored planet with angry red streaks like spiderwebs running on it. When they were close enough to see the surface, they found that the red streaks were lava flows and realized that the planet was highly volcanic. Their shuttle flew around it, getting closer to a moon where ships like little bees swarmed. They thought this was Aya, until their escort passed it by. They were close enough to see artificial structures on the surface, which Scott guessed to be defense installations with the moon serving as the planet's defense system.
He turned his attention back to the planet. He was puzzled as to why they chose an apparently barren and volatile planet as their place, until they arrived at the light side of the planet and saw a little bubble shining on one side, like a mole ringed by ring of mountains and partly hidden by low hanging clouds. They followed their escorts as it descended to this patch. When they broke through the dark clouds, they saw a giant… tree?
Trees, actually, they saw as they moved closer. A forest covered by a shield bubble. The bubble then formed an opening on the side for them to pass through. Jaal was on the line again and advised them to drop lower and in line with the opening. They went inside and passed through the narrow pillars generating the bubble. There was another bubble they had to pass through and as they came nearer to the city, they saw it was not trees at all, but towers in the shape of trees. The towers were cylindrical unlike the rectangular shapes their skyscrapers had or Illium's sharp and narrow ones. There were interweaving branches that were actually highways, canopies that were roofs like overturned leaves on roads that looked like flat branches which were held up with supports underneath or else suspended with arches and wires to the main beam.
The city was dappled, with shade and light playing on its interior. There was light running on the sides while the towers in shadow glowed soft cool colors and towers in sunlight glowed a pearly white with traces of color underneath. There were also brightly colored holograms hanging in the air showing what looked like advertisements with faces or figures of Angara moving on its surface while an alien language scrolled.
It was breathtaking.
"It's… beautiful," Scott said in awe, forgetting the fear they felt at being taken to an unknown place. Suvi and Kallo agreed silently, looking just as enthralled as he as they looked at the screen.
Jaal went online again and told them to set down to a landing pads atop one of the towers before the inner entrance.
Scott cast one last look at the city, then turned to go. "Here's to hoping they are friendly," he said with a shrug to those assembled at the research station before the cargo bay. He was about to pass through the door when Vetra suddenly blocked his way. "Please, you're not really going out there on your own," she said, arms crossed. Cora followed and said from behind, "We can't risk our Pathfinder alone out there. What if something happens to you? What will happen to our mission then?" She shook her head then held out her hands in front of her, as if to block him. "It's too risky. No, it's better if anyone goes on your behalf. I'm willing to do that."
"Thanks for your concern, Cora but this is our first interaction with the Angara. We shouldn't act as if we're not treating them seriously. Besides, Jaal said I can take two people with me so if it turns ass up, we could at least fight our way out," Scott said.
"Who are you going to take?" Cora asked.
"I'm taking Marcus and Vetra. It's best if you stay, Cora, in case something happens. If it does, I trust you to act as the situation demands."
She searched his face and saw his conviction there, so she nodded. Marcus and Vetra joined him as he went down onto the loading area. Gil poked his head from the engineering doors and as they passed and he whispered, "Be careful Ryder. We don't know what they will do."