Prompt fill for "Setting a Broken Bone" - Skye Ryder and Evfra for Naeviss
"Hey," Ryder said, her voice heavy and husky in the best way possible. She rolled over onto her belly, propping herself up on her elbow as she smiled.
Evfra reached out and brushed against her blonde hair. It had grown out enough that it covered the scar, that traced the arc of her skull, and then some. "You're beautiful you know that?"
She chuckled. Her skin gleamed in the moonlit room. Freckles danced across her naked skin as she curled towards him. "I wasn't fishing for a compliment."
He snorted. She enjoyed his declarations if the broadening smile was any indication. A smile of his own curved his lips, an expression that seldom graced his face. After all, the leader of the Resistance couldn't exactly smile the kett to death. These tiny concessions were reserved for quiet moments with Ryder. He could admit it now, this remarkable woman from a galaxy 600 years away held his heart. Evfra had loved before but never this way, not since he stepped up as the Commander of the resistance effort. What had started as an alliance, a mutual desire to explore what the other could offer turned into something he never could possibily expect. Ryder was a safe harbour, a confidant, a partner.
"What's that look on your face?" she asked, an eyebrow arching. She looked at him like she had discovered some delicious morsel of food. "Are you thinking good thoughts of me?"
He laughed, short, sharp but genuine. "You'd know, wouldn't you?" he mock growled as he surged towards her, flipping her onto her back as he loomed over her, hands pressing into the soft mattress on either side of her head.
"I knew it!" She reached up and dragged him down for a kiss. Soft and tentative at first, so at odds with her personality but utterly designed to drive him wild. Pecks more than kisses, concentrating at the corners of his mouth. He growled, trying to capture her mouth with his own. But a stray hand traced a path over his cowl, scratching at it. Just like that, his attention turned downwards. Down, down, down. Heat pooled in his loins and he groaned. "You'll be the death of me, Ryder."
She smiled against his lips, amusement dancing in her eyes. "In the best possible ways," she purred.
Evfra's eyes snapped opened. Years of being at war with the kett taught him to be always ready. It didn't matter if he was on Havarl, where they were supposed to be safe, it didn't matter if he was sleeping in his own bed, not a room in the barracks, for the first time in months, battle honed instincts stood at the ready. He flipped the covers away and reached for the pistol in the drawer next to his bed.
Never mind, he's naked. Never mind, he's still sore in all the best possible ways. Never mind, he's had only just began to unwrap the man from the job. He rushed towards the door and stepped out into the night air. Noise of a smaller, lighter frame human rousing and stumbling through the dark apartment came from behind. Ryder was well capable of taking care of herself. She didn't need him hovering. She was the Pathfinder after all.
Standing out in the cold night air, he shivered slightly as he scanned the surroundings for what woke him. The ground shook. He frowned, his grip tightening on his pistol. A kett invasion? Why hadn't been the alarm raised?
"Earthquake?" Ryder asked as she strode out from his apartment. He blinked, that wasn't something he had considered. She wasn't standing naked like him, she had one of his night shirt on and a rifle in her hand.
Evfra shook his head. "Havarl is not tectonically active. At least not in daar Nilvaa."
"Resistance Leader de Tershaav is correct. Though I detect some minor seismic activity towards the north," SAM replied via Ryder's omni-tool.
As Ryder spoke to SAM, Evfra turned his attention to his neighbours as they rushed out to see if they were attacked. Everyone was a war veteran whether they were soldiers or not, a grim fact of angaras of an entire generation. He calmed them as best as he could while enduring many curious looks at his state of undress. Though it's common to share communal baths and shower facilities regardless of gender, it was far less common to find an angara running around butt naked trying to speak authoritatively. There were more than one thinly veiled question about mingling bio-electricity with a human. Those were shot down with a glare, but the amusement lingered.
"Evfra, the scientists back at the landing zone detected seismic activity over at Old Pelavv," Ryder said as she strode up to him. "We should check it out."
She glanced at the latest enquirer about their night time activities. Her olive eyes took in the scene and understood instantly. He was tempted to use the pistol on the latest noisy asshole to spare her the questions but before he could act, she glanced over his shoulder and waved. "Sahuna!"
If Evfra could on the spot as Jaal's true mother walked over, he would have. Her eyes raked over his naked form once and she carefully re-arranged her face into one of neutrality. He straightened despite wanting to just slink away and die.
"Yes Ryder?" she asked. "You felt the rumble, didn't you?"
Ryder nodded. "Yes, me and Evfra are about to go check it. I think this man here needs your assistance."
The angara, one of his many neighbours but Evfra never lived on Havarl long enough to remember their names, opened his mouth, a question hanging off his lips. But Sahuna took one look at the situation and understood. "Gamal, come with me. I have someone to introduce to you."
Gamal blinked and dumbly got led away by the Ama Darav Matriarch.
"Evfra," Ryder called, as she headed back into his apartment. "Come on, let's go. I'd rather you not flaunt your naked form like this. I don't like sharing."
Just like that the irritation that was building across his shoulder eased instantly. He snorted and followed.
Evfra stared at the sight before him. Old Pelavv had collapsed. The structures that remained after Ryder rooted out the Roekaar entrenched there had half crumpled into the ground. Reconstruction work was going on to restore the daar when the collapse happened. But now maybe it was better to start again elsewhere. Perhaps the land was cursed.
Jaw tight, he watched as the troops unfurled lengths of hose to fight the fire. A hidden cache of explosives had apparently went off, triggering the collapse. Thankfully this happened in the night and not while the work was going on where more might be trapped under the collapse.
His gaze drifted over to Ryder. She was scanning the environment, planting hi-vis flags to mark where it was safe to walk on, conferring with SAM as she did so. He sighed. It was incredibly difficult for their leave to match up without some disaster cropping up to derail their plans. This one was months in the planning and now just two days in, a whole daar had collapsed.
"I can hear you sighing from here," Ryder said without turning. She glanced at him and offered him a smile. "Come on big guy, let's make you useful."
He walked over and took the flags from her. "I'm already useful. I've co-ordinated the task force. And look," he pointed, "they are working flawlessly."
She rolled her eyes at him. "Be more helpful then."
They worked. Side by side, she scanned and held out a hand. He'd thrust a flag into her waiting hand. The flags linked up to the network, updating a map back in the command post. It also formed a cordon to keep people off the danger zones. He kept a keen eye on the work, issuing instructions when needed but the people were well trained albeit inexperienced with handling a collapse of this nature. As they worked their way around the perimeter, one of his soldiers approached, flagging them down.
"Evfra, Pathfinder," Damia greeted as she jogged over. Her leathers were soot coated black from the fires they were fighting to put out.
"Report."
"The fire in the northeast is under the control and the fire in the west has been put out. But survivors reported a handful of their colleagues were still missing," Damia said, gesturing towards a group huddled under blankets, sticking close to one of the portable sun lamps they had set up.
"Ancestors," he cursed under his breath before turning his attention back to Damia. "Do you have the name list?"
She grimaced. "There were a few who opted to sleep on site rather than returning home, against regulations, saving themselves the commute. They were bedding down in the lower levels of the western structure."
Damia's eyes darted over to Ryder who had just finished up scanning the immediate area and was approaching. "Do you need me to go scan for survivors? SAM can tell if the ground is stable enough for us."
Damia looked at him as if waiting for instructions. Evfra sighed. "Gather a team, keep it small." She nodded gratefully and headed off. He turned back to Ryder, rubbing at the ridge of his brow. "Sorry."
Ryder blinked. "What for?"
"This wasn't supposed to turn into work," Evfra growled, his voice strained.
She laughed, it's a soft huffing sound, but it warmed his chest. "It's just like you to want things to go perfectly. Well, reality does work that way and it's fine, you know? Much as I prefer for this to not happen, I'm glad we're here to help. SAM can do a lot of good. Besides it's just going inside some unstable structure that has a danger of falling in on me and the others. What's not to love?"
Evfra frowned, reaching out to hold her arm. "You're not helping."
"I know," she snorted, pulling him along. "Come on, I'll go get some supplies, and I'll head out with the team."
His mouth grew pinched as his grip tightened, and he planted his feet. She sighed when she was tugged to a halt. Turning to properly face him, she reached up to cup his face.
It took him two days to shed the hard shell of the Resistance Leader, to reveal his true self and properly enjoy this time of rest with Ryder. And now he found it difficult pulling the persona back on. Caught between two states, he remained stiff. Ryder punched him in the arm. It actually hurt but it helped. He took a deep breath to master himself, shoving his disappointment and worry aside. "Promise me you'll be careful."
Ryder smiled. "SAM," she called out. "Could you share my vitals with Evfra?"
"With his permission, I can access his global tool and keep the transmission live for the duration of the mission."
"Yes, please do," Evfra couldn't say fast enough.
Within mere seconds, he felt a buzz on his ushataliin. He accepted it and saw a graphic display of Ryder's vitals. Her pulse, breathing rate, blood pressure and body temperature were all in the optimum range, helpfully highlighted in green.
"Does that help?" she asked.
He smiled, a slight pulling back of the mask, a small one in the face of the mission ahead. "Yes, thank you."
She chuckled and headed off.
"Send in all the personnel you can spare," Evfra said.
"Understood, they will be with you within the hour."
He sighed and terminated the connection. The fires in the northeast were still raging but thankfully it wasn't spreading. Still, he didn't like how close they were to the section Ryder and her team of four had entered. To watch them venture underground, the ground swallowing them up and not being able to follow made him antsy. He knew how capable Ryder was, she had killed the Archon, and he had watched her survived the impossible. This was just a simple search and rescue. It wasn't as if she was venturing into the heart of a kett base alone.
He growled wordlessly at himself. Stop worrying. It was a futile gesture. Now that he had stripped off the mask, he found it ill-fitting to put it on again. This was yet another way Ryder had changed him. It took Ryder getting badly hurt for both of them to realise that their relationship had gone beyond mere stress relief. Even then, their work had to come first. They talked via vid-call most of time. It was rare she found time to surprise him with a visit. Somehow in between all that, she had wrought a fundamental change in him. Waking up parts of himself he had long forgotten.
Glancing at his omni-tool, he could reassure himself everything was fine. Ryder's pulse was elevated, breathing rate raised but that's normal for anyone on a dangerous mission. He forced himself to look away, maybe having access to her vitals was a bad idea. Time and time again, he found himself looking back at it when he had a moment of rest. It's like things would go wrong, if he didn't kept an eye on it
"Ev—," a voice crackled through his ushataliin. "—fra."
Frowning, he ran the transmission through some algorithms to clear up the interference. The static faded, and Ryder's voice came through.
"Evfra, come in. Fuck, do you think the signal can penetrate the rock?"
"We should still be in range."
"He is going to throw a fit if I didn't report in before we head down."
"I'm receiving you and all your complaints loud and clear," Evfra snapped.
"Oh fuck, he heard me," Ryder hissed.
He was sure he caught sniggering in the background. But instead of addressing it, he cleared his throat and said, "So what is this about? Have you located the survivors?"
"No, we haven't but the cave in is more extensive than we had initially expected. SAM says the ground is stable so far so we'll keep going. The collapse has revealed some caves underneath the daar. They are all dead ends so far."
"Caves?" There were no known caves below Old Pelavv as far as he knew.
"Yup, that's what Damia and the others say too," Ryder cut in. "So the rocks might interfere with the signal. Don't be surprised if comms gets cut and well, my vitals will go too."
Evfra grunted. He didn't like the sound of this, but he understood the logic behind it. "I appreciate the report."
"All right, over and—"
"Wait, I'm not done," he snapped as he started pacing. The sound of a couple of rovers approaching caught his attention. The reinforcements were here. He had to go. "Three hours, if you're not out in three hours I'm sending a team after you."
"Got it, boss. Three hours, you heard him," Ryder acknowledged.
"And Ryder," he added. "Watch yourself."
There was a pause, silence filled only by the crunch of grit under boots as her breath puffed in and out. "I will," she whispered before the connection was terminated.
These words were only meant for him and he cherished them. He took a deep breath and fought the urge to check her vitals again. Instead, he turned to meet the commander of his reinforcements and dragged on the mask again.
Sweat beaded across Evfra's forehead. The survivors' condition were assessed onsite and were found to be mostly unharmed, but to be sure, they were being transported to the nearest medical centre. The sun was rising, peaking through the dense Havarl jungle. The night fauna retreated to their dens, bio-luminous mushrooms grew dull under the chill morning air. Condensation pulled the blue-green heavy leaves of their native trees low. Songbirds called and sang to greet the dawn of a new day.
He straightened and felt his back protesting against the abuse he had put it through. Checking on the time, it was nearing the 90 minutes mark. If Ryder and her team were to turn back, this was when they would do so. That also meant this was as far and deep as they were from safety. Ryder's vitals had been cutting in and out for a while now. The signal was valiantly trying to come through layers of pre-fab material, ground and ancestors knew what to get to him. Before he could think better of it, he quickly typed up a message, with luck it would make it through before the signal dropped completely.
His finger hovered over the screen after the message zoomed off. His breath hitched, his chest tightened as he watched Ryder's vitals spiked, colouring the screen entirely in red. Pulse and blood pressure raised, breathing rate quick, even her body temperature was elevated. Then, it cut out.
Evfra waited and waited. The signal never came back again.
Ryder groaned. Bits and pieces of rock were still settling around her. Her head throbbed in time to her pulse, pounding hard and fast against her temples. "What the fuck?" she cursed.
Everything was dark, a black utterly impenetrable by her eyes. She had her eyes opened, or not? Stopping short of actually poking herself in the eyes, she settled for triggering her light mod on her armour. A tight beam of light pierced the void. She squeezed her eyes shut, wincing as her eyes adjusted.
"Sound off," she called. Silence greeted her command. "Shit."
They were scanning and moving slowly just minutes before. The tilted structure made for difficult terrain because one false step, they could fall.
And well, they did. Why didn't SAM warn me?
But not before they found unexploded charges. Duds thankfully. While Damia and the others didn't know what to make of the unmarked explosives, Ryder had a sinking feeling about them. The explosives didn't looked like they had been left unattended for months, these were more likely deliberately placed and got displaced by the collapse. The collapse was orchestrated. But she kept her suspicions to herself. Their goal to find and rescue the remaining survivors hadn't changed. But what if they were the ones who planted the explosives?
Well that went out the door when the floor opened up under them. "SAM, what the fuck?" Why wasn't there any warning?"
"The floor should have held," SAM replied, they sounded confused.
"Is there something disrupting your ability to analyse?"
SAM paused, unsure of themselves. "I will run a diagnostic."
"Before you do that," shaking her head, she turned her attention to the immediate problem, "how long was I out?"
"No more than a couple of minutes," came the answer. "I detect no serious injuries."
"Any minor ones I need to know about?"
"There is a contusion developing across your back from the fall, some scratches along your shoulder blades from the night before, some chaffing against your inner thighs—"
"All right, all right, SAM you made your point. No need to get tetchy when you got a bug in your software."
"It is not a bug," SAM muttered, but given how intertwined they were there was no way she couldn't hear it.
Ryder let it go. She stood, dusting the stray bits of rock and dirt from her armour. Looking up, she could still make out where the pre-fab flooring failed them if she cast her light up. "I could try jumping up with my jump jets."
"I'll not advise that, Pathfinder."
"My biotics?"
"The structure is too unstable after the collapse."
She sighed, "Spoil sport."
SAM was, unlike her, an adult and refrained from retorting. She kicked her busted helmet aside. It had done its job keeping her head from cracking open. Her armour had taken the brunt of the impact. Tapping her omni-tool, she prayed the signal was still strong enough to reached through. She needed to warn Evfra.
"Evfra, do you read?" Nothing but static came through. "Well that answers things."
"I could have told you that," SAM replied.
"Not when you can't figure out how you got fooled," she muttered.
She started navigating her way through the rubble, scanning for signs of the others, but dread was squeezing her chest. Explosives and then a collapse and fires, this were all ingredients of an attack. And here she was armed with nothing but her armour and biotics. Her back felt cold without someone watching it.
Ryder stiffened, raising a closed fist, signalling the others to stop, but Damia bumped into her back.
"Shit," she cursed. "Sorry. I didn't—"
Ryder whirled around and pressed a gloved palm over Damia's mouth. Eyes keen, ears pricked, she listened.
There! The telltale sound of boots against dirt. They were steady and even. She heaved a sigh of relief. It seemed whoever they were hadn't realised they weren't alone. But Ryder and the others weren't out of the woods.
Things were far worse than she had suspected. It didn't take her long to locate the others. Damia and the others had fallen into another chamber adjacent to hers. It took a little work, but she managed to find her way to them. Orsay had broken his ankle in the fall and Amae was tending to him. It wasn't quite what they had intended but Ryder was grateful they had a medic with them. Getting out of here would be easier said than done.
Orsay hobbled along as best he could with Amae's help while Ryder took point with Damia just slightly behind her. Dread made her mouth go dry and no amount of licking her lips was going to take the edge off. The further they walked, the less right things looked. The caves showed signs of use.
Orsay hissed, sweat beading across his forehead, his skin ashen. "Why are we stopping?"
Ryder glared at him. She kept forgetting they weren't all soldiers. None of them were even militia. Damia and Orsay were search and rescue while Amae was a medic.
The boots scuffed and came to a stop. Breath held, she motioned for them to take cover. Damia realised what was going on. Angara could see better in the dim light, much better than the shitty human eyes she was blessed with.
Damia gripped the back of her armour, pulling her back urgently. "Someone's coming," she whispered. Her voice sliced through by fear. "They're armed. I think the collapse isn't natural."
"No kidding," she muttered, her jaw tight, but she took hold of Damia's hand and squeezed. She hoped it was as assuring a gesture she wanted it to be. "Hide."
The boots shifted and headed in their direction. As far as she could tell, it was only one person. Ryder took a deep breath, one potential enemy she could deal with. A vague figure materialised through dim light ahead.
"Angara," Damia whispered.
Ryder nodded, she could make out an outline where the light hit the edges of the person's leather armour. She missed her rifle and pistol intensely. Her leather gloves creaked lightly as she clenched her fists.
As the angara turned, the light traced the length of a rifle. Evfra's people weren't armed, at least not those who were actively doing search and rescue. Eyes narrowed, she yearned to tug at her core, pulling her only defence to the fore, but flaring would give them away. With Orsay hurt, they wouldn't be able to escape once the alarm was raised. She had the element of surprise and fuck was she going to lean on it.
Her heart thudded against her chest so hard she wondered why the newcomer couldn't hear it. Waiting, breath trapped in her chest. Waiting, muscles tight and ready. Waiting, biotics buzzing under her skin.
Ryder judged the distance and burst out from cover. Her hands a solid blue as she threw a Stasis over the angara. As azure lights flashed across the small space they were cramped in, she could see the fear that filled the angara's eyes.
He wasn't wearing any uniform she recognised but still she didn't want to accidentally hurt anyone who didn't deserve it. His hands fought to raise his rifle as his eyes darted to take in the situation. Fear was rapidly replaced by anger and outrage.
"Vesagara!"
That decided it. Roekaar, just like she had suspected, just as she had feared. Ryder risked a look behind her. She was expecting shock and fear but all she found was sadness, a deep abiding grief at a people torn apart at the seams. Jaw tight, she turned back and sent the Roekaar smashing against the solid rock wall. He crumpled into a pile, unconscious and concussed.
"We have to go, now!"
Lungs burning, thighs screaming, Ryder herded them along. She held herself back, firing with the rifle she'd stole up.
"Go! The exit is straight ahead," she shouted, pulling up the barrier, keeping it solid. Bullet after bullet thudded into it, she winced, feeling each impact in her teeth. SAM had hacked into their system and the map if the Roekaar base was invaluable.
"What about you?" Damia shouted as she rushed past, holding her arm tight against her chest. Blue blood stained her leathers. Ryder couldn't help but feel the flush of guilt running up her face. She had been too slow yanking Damia into cover, too slow with her barrier, too slow killing Roekaar.
"Do not let them escape! Kill them!" the shouts came from the Roekaar troops firing upon them.
There was no time now, the exit was just ahead. They had been hiding and dodging for hours, but Orsay's injuries were taking a toll. It was inevitable the alarm went up. The Roekaar had not expected their hideout to be found. Rescuing any survivors, if there were survivors in the first place, was out of the question. The important thing was to get the intel back to Evfra.
"Go! I'll hold them back," she growled. "I'll follow right after!"
Amae panted as he took on most of Orsay's weight. He laboured to keep his partner up right and moving. Orsay's face was all grey now, hopefully the broken ankle wasn't too damage to heal properly.
Ryder's amp sent a spike of heat up her head, reminding her time was tight. And she couldn't keep the barrier up indefinitely. "Go!"
Damia didn't need her to shout again. She turned and pulled Orsay's arm over her shoulder. Ryder couldn't spare them a second glance, her focus was wholly on maintaining the barrier for as long as she could. Step by step, she fell back. The barrier was flickering and wavering. It was on its last legs. She was.
But rather than letting it shatter, she gathered the last of her strength and sent a Push down the length of the tunnel. Crying out as a lightning bolt ran up her neck and into her head. Her vision flashed white and grew fuzzy at the edges. Staggering backwards, she stumbled to follow. The Roekaar were all thrown on their collectively asses, but not taking anything for granted, she forced her legs to corporate.
It was amazing she hadn't tripped with how unsteady her legs were. Shoving her way through a set of double doors, following a trail of blue angara blood, she prayed she hadn't sent the others ahead into resistance too much for them to handle. "Evfra's going to kill me," she growled through laboured breaths.
"The Roekaar are more likely to kill you first," SAM pointed out helpfully.
"Not now."
Beyond the doors was a large room with an elevator shaft dominating it. This was a holding area for supplies before they got hauled deeper into this underground Roekaar base. The shaft was wrapped in a transparent tube. Machinery whirled and hummed inside. The trail led into the shaft, and presumably a platform which was missing. Relief warred with worry. She had to believe that they had made it up.
All she needed now was time. Time for the platform to get back to her level. Time for her to recover her breath. Time—
"There she is!"
Ryder had but a moment's notice. She dove for cover. A flimsy excuse of a table turned on its side. Bullets punched holes into it like it's made of paper. "Fuck, fuck, fuck," she hissed.
Eyes darting, she scanned the room. There was only way in and out of the room and that wasn't the elevator wasn't here. Teeth gritted, jaws tight, she refused to roll over and die here. Then her eyes caught on something in the labels of the crates. She didn't recognise the Shelesh words, despite trying to learn. She just didn't have the time to sit down to study the language properly. But some symbols were universal. The jagged edged starburst sign meant one thing — explosive.
There was no time to waste. One last glance at the elevator shaft. The humming had stopped. The platform had reached wherever it was going. Pulling up her barrier again, gasping as pain rode her skull, she levelled the rifle not at the incoming Roekaar but at the crates. With the trigger depressed, heedless of how many bullets she fired into the cluster of explosive, she screamed her defiance.
The light came first, searing her retinas before she squeezed her eyes shut. Then, came the sound, earsplitting and head piecing, it filled her skull. The barrier shuddered and bowed under the pressure and she was thrown backwards. It flickered and died before the ground tilted at a sickening angle. A brand new hole was blown open and she was slipping towards it. No amount of scrambling or struggle helped.
For the second time in a single day, she fell.
Pain was what woke Ryder. Sharp and radiating, spiking and stabbing like needles lancing into flesh and bone. She opened her eyes only to close it again, the broken stone ceiling above her spun even as she laid on her back. Grey crept in at the edges of her vision as she tried to keep from puking. Despite the agony, there was an overriding sense of urgency to move, to go, to flee.
With a stifled groan, she peeled her eyes opened again. The ceiling had settled somewhat. There was a numbness, that she associated with medi-gel, running down her right arm. Taking a deep breath, she turned her head, half afraid of what she might find. Even the smallest motion of her neck turning, her head moving, waves of pain came crashing back. Whimpers escaped her clenched shut jaw.
When her vision no longer danced, she looked at her right arm. Her breath hitched. Unrecognisable, her arm was misshapen. The humerus was supposed to be straight, connecting upwards towards her shoulder and downwards towards her lower forearm. Passed the shattered pieces of her armour, under the torn under suit, she could see white bone puncturing through flesh and muscle. The sight made her sick and her gorge rose again.
She groaned as she squeezed her eyes shut.
"Pathfinder, please stay calm. I'm trying to manage your pain levels," SAM said, a calm and toneless voice in her ear.
Ryder almost wished he sounded as panicked as she felt. "I've got to move," she moaned as she tried to cradle her arm to her chest. But even turning her body woke a pain she didn't think she was capable of experiencing, not after what happened on Sansesyol. (See Irreplaceable)
"Please Pathfinder, there is a limit to how much pain I can block," SAM chided.
"But—" Pain overrode her mind when she tried again. The attempt was aborted when her lungs seized to function. It was all she could do, easing back against the hard rocks that formed her bed, as gently as possible to avoid jarring her arm. Her pulse throbbed wildly inside her skull as her vision flickered, threatening to cut out like a failed transmission.
"—finder." SAM's voice, normally loud, sounded far away.
Teeth biting down hard on her lips, she tried to swallow the cry ripping up her throat. Then a shot of coolness ran up her mangled arm, the sudden loss of pain felt her breathless. Eyes peeling open again to find her vision blurry with tears.
"Pathfinder, we have to work together if you're to get out of this alive."
"Yes," she managed to gasp in the end. Casting one more look at her arm before turning away. "I'll need to set my arm. I can't stay here," she gritted out through clenched teeth.
"I agree."
Ryder had no intention to lay down and die here. Gingerly, she got herself into a sitting position. What once took mere seconds before now took minutes. It left her sweat drenched blonde hair plastered against her brow. Leaning against the hard rock wall, feeling the sharp edges digging into her sore back. She didn't relish what she was about to do, but she wasn't going to half ass this. Reaching into the utility pocket strapped to her belt, she pulled her spare medi-gel packets and a roll of splint tape.
"I am not looking forward to doing this." That was an understatement. She hadn't started and her breath was already quick and shallow. Taking care to keep her suit's medical suite from deploying medi-gel immediately, she shoved fresh packs into her suit. She'd need it after she had set her arm.
At the back of her mind she had a clock ticking loudly, reminding her how much time she was wasting sitting here. Her jaw ached at how tightly she was already clenching it. It was only a matter of time before Roekaar came. She wagered her good arm she had less time than she really needed.
"Ready?" Ryder asked. The question was meant more for herself than SAM really.
"Yes, Pathfinder."
"Ok, ok," heat rushed from her head, making her lightheaded before she even began. "On three."
"Yes, Pathfinder," SAM replied again, infinitely patient and calm.
It was infuriating.
"One." Her heart lurched as she wrapped her left hand over the wrist of the broken one.
"Two." Her biotics leapt to her call, wrapping her broken arm in swirls of blue.
"Three." Ryder pulled her arm straight with a yank.
She screamed. There was no masking it. Tears streamed down her face. A sick crunching and grinding sensation shot across her entire arm as the broken bone retracted and shifted back into position. Her vision grew black at the edges as her eyes fluttered shut.
"SAM, SAM, SAM." A mantra she repeated in her head as her eyes rolled back into her head. The pain blanking out all other thoughts.
A jolt was delivered through to her head and her eyes snapped opened. Her pulse thundered in irregular beats against her chest. She gasped. There was no time to relax, she had to splint her arm and get her ass moving.
Biotics that normally swirled lazily around her skin leapt and jumped like static. With a grunt, she wrapped her arm in a tight Stasis, keeping still and in place. She tore lengths of the splint tape with her teeth and used the broken pieces of armour to stabilise the bone before wrapping the tape around it.
"SAM," she begged, "the medi-gel."
Her good arm was shaking and trembling, her biotics frayed and flickering, even her vision was tunnelling. She could feel the needle stabbing into her thigh, injecting medi-gel straight into her bloodstream. She groaned, bracing herself against the ground as she let her biotics go. Her broken arm fell limply by her side. The medi-gel countered most of her pain, leaving her dizzy, sick and faint.
Ryder gritted her teeth and forced herself to stand. Her legs were wobbly but they held her weight.
"Pathfinder, your blood pressure is dangerously low," SAM cautioned.
"Can't stay."
Ignoring SAM, she staggered forward. It wasn't safe to stay, her blood pressure be damned. Her armour's light mod casting a shaky beam of light ahead of her. If she was going to stay alive, she had to keep one step ahead of the Roekaar.
The tunnel split and split again, Ryder had no idea where she was going anymore. Hopefully, SAM was keeping tabs. They were the one with the map after all. She couldn't say how much distance she covered. Her arm was a throbbing mess that seared with agony. She tasted blood on her tongue, her lip chewed and bitten through as she laboured on. One foot in front of the other, good hand braced against the wall.
She stumbled through another set of doors. Hand slipping and missing her support as her knee buckled.
"Shit."
Ryder braced herself, twisting to keep her bad arm out of the way, allowing her good shoulder to take the brunt of the impact. Sheer fire erupted across her body as the ground surged up and plunged her into total darkness.