Mass Effect: Andromeda is owned by BioWare Montreal/Electronic Arts. Credit goes to "SpaceCowboy" for the concept.

Unknown Location, Voeld, Nol System, Heleus Cluster, M31 Andromeda, June 24, 2819 CE/Day 532 Nexus Arrival

It's official; this day sucks.

Chief Logistics' Mate Vetra Danixius Nyx was sitting in her crash seat as if she could go anywhere else, a spar of metal having impaled through her Devlon Industries' Medium Liberator Armor, herself, out her back, and into the hull of the Angaran-repurposed Kett Troop Transport Vessel. She only needed to look down to see the piece of support rod that went right through her side, probably taking a kidney or something else with it. The metal in question was sadly not a smooth piece of equipment that, while painful to extract, would likely result in little extra injury. No, it was slightly twisted and bent from the attack and the impact, and there were most certainly barbed edges from whatever the rod had been ripped off before inviting itself into Nyx's waist.

At the least the impalement would limit the bleeding, there was that.

The Turian female heard a grunt beside her and she looked over to see Commander Sara Elaine Ryder sitting next to her, her fleshy soft face-plates wincing as she bit at her malleable horizontal lower mandible that Humans and Asari called 'lips', obviously trying not to move too much either. Vetra had heard the diagnostic given by Angara Heskaarl member Irvam De Sjon; the Pathfinder had been incredibly close to having broken her spinal column. Now the short Human woman was suffering that malady, any kind of movement likely sending explosive ripples of pain up and down her body. A broken limb was bad, but generally one avoided using it and the majority of the pain subsided as the body realized that there was an injury and corrected itself by numbing the nerves with natural chemicals and avoiding usage. Sara didn't have that luxury; one simply couldn't forgo using their back, after all. Just sitting still was putting pressure on the injury, no doubt causing her constant agony. In that Vetra was lucky. Yes, she had a spar of metal that was sticking out of her waist, but thirty or so minutes had the worst of the pain subside as long as she didn't move around and inflame the site. Sara didn't have that option.

"You could lie down, Sara, take the pressure off your back." Nyx offered, looking to the Human female, whose face showed agony contained.

"Can't." Ryder said, her dull voice tinged with pain, the lack of sub-harmonics making her voice sound so… inferior. "I lie down, I might pass out. Can't afford that." Vetra knew what the Pathfinder was doing; keeping herself away for the both of them. Vetra could really only move her arms to a limited degree, having to do it slowly so as not to rip own her wound. Sara, despite her injury, actually was mobile, and could keep them supplied and alive as they bunkered down in the downed Kett shuttle, sheltering them from the ravages of the blizzard they could hear through the hull. The inside of the vessel was cold, and brutally so. Temperatures were near sixty below zero on the Human Celsius scale from the wind and the storm, and the interior wasn't much better. The only thing that kept them from an eventual death from freezing was the thermal regulators inside of their suits, powered by the Salarian-invented Universal Power Cells that everyone used back in the Milky Way (and yes, the Andromeda Galaxy, now) as well as the tiny Angara heating unit that Sara insisted they packed for missions in case they rescued Angara from Kett bases. Vetra hadn't voiced her opinion of that matter before, a decision made some two weeks prior when they had, in fact, rescued about half a dozen prisoners from a small base that was a mere waystation. Two of the Angara prisoners were 'near dark' (and she still didn't get exactly what 'going dark' meant) and were rushed back to Techiix for medical evaluation as well as recovery. Most shuttle rides weren't more than an hour or two, and the Heskaarl that they brought on missions were more than good enough to keep an Angara alive for that time for a MEDEVAC. Sara had wanted the units, and Vetra had supplied them, thinking them a waste of space and supply.

Nope, Sara was right. Without that unit, they would be dead in an hour. Easily.

The both of them had already pulled out their spare Universal Power Cells from their armor, knowing they would be more efficient for use for the small heating unit than squandering them in their armors. The armors themselves were sealed and would help trap natural body heat for their respective species; endothermic Humans would generated their own through calories, and exothermic Turians whom never needed it due to their evolution on a planet with a weak magnetosphere like Palaven, and only required a little bit of warmth or sunlight. Because of that nice little evolutionary fact, Turians saw 'cold' at a much higher temperature than most species, and absolutely hated places where frozen water fell from the sky and collected on the ground.

Why couldn't have we been shot down on Eos where we could have pretended this was a vacation beside a lake?, Vetra thought to herself as she winced, having moved slightly and the pain in her waist flaring for a moment before subsiding.

Sara preoccupied her time with math on herSpecial Tasks Group-crafted OmniTool; despite it all, the Pathfinder was still hard at work. Nyx knew what she was doing, 'resource allocation' being the nice term for 'rationing for the worst case scenario'. She had already figured out the power usage needed for the heating unit to keep the both of them just warm enough that hypothermia wouldn't be an issue to stretch out the UPC's for as long as possible. Zero Celsius was not a temperature that Vetra preferred, but Sara had talked it over with her so as to make sure that they both understood what was going to happen before modifying the settings for the heater to consume a certain level of temperature for a certain length of time, cycling for on/off phases instead of being constantly on. That would mean it would always be uncomfortably cold inside the cabin of the shuttle, but it would also extend their power supply by an extra forty percent. That was nice.

Especially if rescue was… not timely. Vetra didn't want to think about that.

"Okay," Sara said out loud, queuing off her OmniTool and leaning her head back against the bulkhead, taking deep, steady breaths. "I've got the settings and the power usage for the Cells at our current temperature at freezing." Vetra merely grunted at the word freezing; there was no Turian word for it, but the closest was cold death. "Keeping the immediate vicinity at zero degrees Celsius, with our ballistic bodysuits and armor with their insulation, we can push a UPC to about eighty-four minutes before it drains. That's an hour and twenty-four minutes." The Human looked at her. "Humans are endothermic; we produce body heat through homeostasis and caloric output. As long as I have calories to keep my core body temperature up in the mid-thirties and there's no major loss of body heat," she already had her damaged helmet on her lap, "I can survive a substantial length of time since there's no wind chill. Inuit Eskimos live in ice houses called 'igloos' that insulate the warm inside while keeping the cold and wind out. We have a heat source and a shelter. We keep the heat up at freezing, we keep ourselves from freezing."

"That's Humans." Nyx said simply.

"Then there are Turians." Sara nodded, turning her head to look at her, her face wincing in pain. "Turians are exothermic; you need a constant source of heat since you can't generate your own. This has some advantages for you, actually. You don't shiver or sweat, so you're less likely to suffer caloric depletion and hypothermia, and you're also not going to dehydrate any time soon. You're covered from the active snow and wind chill, and your armor is insulated to reflect your body heat back to you. We keep the heating unit near you, and you will stay warm for as long as we have power, same as me. Your only real concern is your injury." The Quartermaster grunted at that. "You obviously have blood loss, your armor and undersuit are punctured, and any real movement will put you further in pain and increase the damage. But a suit rupture in a warm spot," Sara patted her own armored thigh to indicate the small heating unit that was set on top of a crate in between them, at arm's length, "will not debilitate you like it would me. We keep ourselves covered, myself especially, we keep the power going until we are rescued, and we take it light on the food and drinks, and we can easily hold out until nightfall."

Sara wasn't factoring in nightfall. Vetra didn't want to think about it, either.

"So know of a few ways to kill a couple of hours?" The Turian female asked, looking to her injured companion. "No communications, no entertainment, and me without my vidplayer."

"I could start singing." That had Nyx guffaw, making Ryder giggle a little, wincing as she did so. "There's always story time where we can tell bad lies, worse embellishments, and bash the Directorate mercilessly. I promise not to tell Tann you secretly despise him." That had the former smuggler snort and shake her head. Everyone on the Tempest knew Sara's opinion on Director Jaren Tann and Doctor Foster Addison. It was only marginally worse than Vetra's own opinions.

"He'll probably want a status report and a logistical update." The Turian supplied, making it Sara's turn to snort. "One Turian, check. One Human, check. One shuttle… half-check."

"Yeah, my job is to pull the Initiative's head out of its ass, not be a sycophant to some number-crunching spineless toad." Sara's eyes went wide a moment later. "Please don't tell Jallo I called a Salarian a toad, even if it was directed towards Tann. It's just… he fucking infuriates me to no end."

"Actually, Kath calls him something worse." That elicited a dark chuckle from the Pathfinder. Vetra found herself staring at the bulkhead in front of her, the Kett-manufactured hull, protecting them from the elements. "Sara, can I ask you something… personal?"

"Okay."

"Do you remember your last real words to your brother?"

That had the Commanding Officer of the AISS-2527 Tempest turn her head to look at Vetra.

"I very much remember." That was right, Sara had near-perfect memory recall, able to 'relive' events if necessary. As she understood it, she could also remember the emotions behind it too, sometimes causing her to 'emote' in an otherwise benign situation. Salarians and Drell were known for the eidetic memory recall, and as she understood it, Sara had something similar that Humans called 'photographic memory'. Recall for her went quickly, but sometimes left her agitated or despondant or… whatever emotion she had been feeling at the time, basically reliving the same event again and returning those feelings to present day. Everyone learned quickly not to bring up the death of her father, Captain Alec Clancy Ryder. "It was when we were being loaded into the Hyperion, going to our stasis pods." A tear trickled down her cheek as Sara stared in front of her, stared at nothing but seeing the past. "We were both excited; excited to go exploring, excited to work with our Dad, to do something with our lives."

Vetra knew that Ryder had spent a four year volunteer enlistment in the Systems Alliance Navy Core of Engineers as a Structural Engineer known as a 'Steelworker'; she built outposts, bases, strongholds, and forward camps for her species' Marines and colonial efforts. She had been 'attached' to some Marine unit known as the 17th Frontier Marine Regiment as part of the 19th Naval Construction Battalion. Her brother Scott had spent four years in the Systems Alliance Marine Corps as a Rifleman, doing Watches on a Nathan James-Class Destroyer that was part of a Defense Battle Group that protected Relay 202; a Relay that entered the Arcturus Stream, Mankind's celestial pinch point and main defensive effort for her colonies. Sara claimed that the both of them, with a total of eight years of service between them, had done not much more than plant buildings or man a deck despite the Geth War and the disappearing independent colonies that started a few months after the Battle of the Citadel.

"So we're on the Hyperion," she continued, "and we're in line for our pods, right next to one another." There was a smile on her face now. "Scottie insisted I go first, being that I was a woman and the first one born, that I could test drive the ice boxes first." That had Vetra snort. "We both laying down in our pods right next to one another, D-Dad watching over us with a smile," her strangely rounded eyessnapped shut as she remembered, both the memory and the emotion, "and I'm looking over to Scottie and I say the silliest thing that comes to mind. 'See you in a few centuries, Silver Medal', I'm telling him, and he looks to me with a smile and s-says 'Not if I see you first, Minute Rice'." Vetra could see drops of water coming down Sara's fleshy cheeks, trailing down her mandibleless mouth. "We were betting one who would do what first; first to land on a planet, scale a mountain, find wildlife, airtime on a sweet jump. That one was all Scottie." The Pathfinder's body vibrated softly as she bit back a sob. "Being an Andromeda with my family is why I came. Exploration and fun was nice, but to be with my father and brother again?" Nyx slipped her talons into Sara's multifingered hand. "I came for family. I-I think you get that."

"I do." The Turian female replied softly as she heard the Pathfinder finish her grief, the woman who had already lost her father to this expedition, and whose brother remained in a coma, no telling when Scott Michael Ryder would (or if, though no one said that) wake up. "I was thinking about Sid." Her duel-toned flanged voice said softly, thinking of her own sixteen year old sister. "We've been… arguing lately. Sid wants to do so much, she wants to be like me." Was it any real surprise that her oh-so-young baby sister would want to be with he female-sister-mother that Vetra was to her? She had raised her hatchling sister when their mother left. She had become both sister and parent when their sire never returned home. Sid didn't remember their mother, and barely remembered their sire. All her memories were of Vetra being there for her, doing the things a parent should. "She doesn't know the heartache and pain I went through to make sure she had a better life than I did, hat she would get more opportunities. She doesn't know about the bad jobs that felt wrong but I really needed the Credits because how can one tell a seven-year old they're about to go hungry? The deals that went wrong, the pay days where I was cut from my proper wages, the crimes I committed because I have this beautiful, precious thing so dependent on me but the Hierarchy won't take me in due to the things that my sire did." Vetra had to stop herself from say to much. It didn't matter now, but it was such an old habit not to talk about either her mother or sire. "I had to make do, and all Sid sees are the successes, not the heartache or near-death situations where survival wasn't at a good percentage."

"You had a fight with Sid, didn't you?" Sara asked softly a moment later.

"Yeah." Spirits, that was weighing in on her mind hard. "She wants to fix everything like we are, but she doesn't realize that it pisses people off when you do better than everyone else. People want it on their terms, not the right way. Just making it work is somehow not good enough for most, and people will bring you down for doing what they can't or won't. Saw that all too well in the Insurrection, and certainly want happened after." Sara didn't know much about those months and months after the Uprising and before the Hyperion came. She didn't know because no one talked about it. "Sid wanted to contact some of the 'independent' flyers and movers out there, to get them back into helping out the Initiative. Some of those people are still quite bitter about what happened, and have every reason to be. I just…"

Vetra lapsed to silence.

"I know what it feels like to do everything to help keep a sibling safe, Vetty." That was the Pathfinder's nickname for her, when it was just the two of them. It wasn't one that Vetra actually liked, but she understood that Humans did that to show friendship and care. For that, she let it slide. "Sometimes you have to say the things you don't want to in order to keep them safe because you love them and you can't imagine life without them. I… talk to Scott whenever we visit the Hyperion, tell him about the things that are going on, because I know that's what I'd do if he were awake. There are days I just want to shake him until he wakes up, and I hate that feeling." Sara went silent for a moment, her helmeted head yet unprotected face looking to her.

"I'm going to make sure that you have more arguments with your sister."

Ruminations: Chief Logistics' Mate Vetra Danixius Nyx

[Well, why can't I be on the Tempest?] This wasn't the first conversation that started this way, and likely it wouldn't be the last.

"Sid, without trying to make you feel bad about yourself," Chief Logistics' Mate Vetra Danixius Nyx said over the communicator, connecting the AISS-2527 Tempest (AIV-1) with the Nexus Station thanks to Communications Technician Sidera Olivius Nyx being able to bend signals through the Scourge and interstellar resistances with flare, "the Nexus needs you a great deal more than the Tempest does. You're one of the best they got, and yes, usually that puts you on the map for such operations as this. But there's a hundred efforts going on that need someone on the comms to pluck their transmissions and needs through that maelstrom, and you are one of the best. On the Tempest, you're realistically only doing it for a local area and getting connectivity to the Nexus. We have SAM and Suvi for that. You would be underutilized."

[That's not very fair,] the sixteen year old Turian female grumped, obviously not pleased. Vetra didn't want to say the truth out loud; Sid would accept it even less even though ever word the former smuggler had said was factually correct. Sid had a gift with communication protocols and obstacles, able to pull and retrieve degraded signals and make sense of them better than just about everyone else aboard the Nexus. If they had been Hierarchy, Sid would have been recognized for her proficiency and likely tailored towards Special Warfare Services, being the communications specialist for the Blackwatch or some other effort in the Hierarchy Military, a proud citizen making her efforts known and risking high in the meritocracy. Sadly, that card would never have come to fruition in the Milky Way.

"Sid, you're damn good at what you do, and many more people than just a dozen need you exactly where you're at." The older Nyx sister reminded her younger sibling. "We're establishing literal groundwork, setting up resource outposts and colonial efforts. Men and women are going to need you right where you're at when things need to be shipped, when orders come in, or when the Kett decide to come out and play. You are just as important at what you do as what Commander Ryder is doing. She breaks the ground to build us up, and you're the one that ties it all together and makes it work. Don't think that just because you are on the Nexus that you aren't contributing equally."

[I know that, it's just…], there was a long sigh and a pause, [I miss seeing you, Vetra. I don't need you holding my talons, but after everything that happened here, it's good to have some comfort and family. We're both working so tarsh much that I never really get to see you anymore.] That had Vetra close her eyes as she sat in the Quartermaster's Office in the Tempest, knowing what Sidera was referring to. People had lost family members oh so easily in Andromeda, be it through the Scourge, the Insurrection and Uprising, exile, the Kett, or other means. Vetra was all that Sid had left, and it wasn't a surprise that the young Turian female was desperate to feel like she was making a difference to look after her older sister as Vetra did for her. The Chief Logistics' Mate had been both parent and sibling for her younger sister, the one that had been there for her her entire life, unlike their mother and sire. The older Nyx sister only had to think of Commander Ryder and all she had suffered on a singular day to know that the possible scenario of losing her only living kin had Sidera afraid.

"That's a good point, little one." Vetra replied softly, touching the screen that represented the interstellar communicator, as if she could push her talons through and touch her sister's faceplates to comfort her. "It has been busy, I've been lost in my work, and we're both giving it our all to make this succeed. And I'm proud of you." That was the truth, full and complete. "You have a gift, and that saves lives. I could never do what you do, Sidera, nowhere near as good. You're the voice that people are most desperate to hear in their time of need. That's a powerful thing and something you should think about. People come to me with their needs, and people call to you with their needs. Look at us! We're the problem-solvers."

[Does this mean I get my next-tier promotion and raise?] That was a joke that had Vetra laughing outloud; neither one of them had every been in the meritocracy or the 'proper' Hierarchy due to their family name. That had always been a bit of a joke between them, and it felt good to laugh as Vetra Nyx juggled resources management, supply allocation, smugglers' requests, and areas of exploitation to fund and fuel TEAM PATHFINDER. The arrival of the Hyperion had changed things, and it was Commander Sara Elaine Ryder that was leading the charge. Vetra promised to do absolutely anything she could to make sure that the Pathfinder got what she needed, be it from weapons parts to entire pre-fabs. The only way they were going to survive was by colonizing, growing food, purifying water, digging for resources, and giving the people hope. Thankfully, Vetra could supply most everything oriented towards that by badgering, cajoling, smuggling, bribing, begging, or outright stealing. She was the best at what she did because she was a sapients' sapient; she could judge a male or female in a wide variety of species and know just how to push and by how much. Sometimes it was a favor. Sometimes it was a threat. But Vetra always got what she needed; she had years of experience on her side doing just that.

"I'll put the request to Director Tann so he can give off some long-winded speech on how the rewards of the individual are spread through the sapients of the Initiative." The Turian replied dryly, getting Sid to chuckle. No one on the Nexus liked Director Jarun Tann. Well, while it wasn't exactly a leaders' job to be 'liked', it certainly seemed to be that the Salarian got off on being absolutely odious and caustic. How he hadn't woken up with a bullet in between his horns sometime in the past fourteen plus months was really a wonder. "I'll push something to Kesh, though. You're busting your plates, and you should be recognized by the people that actually give a s'kak about such things. You know Nakmor Kesh keeps an eye out for you while I'm out here. Some days I wonder if she's really a Turian in disguise." Vetra trusted Kesh, and Vetra didn't trust easily. Yet Kesh was probably the only Director-level sapient that actually did their job properly, the Nexus Superintendent keeping the station powered and functional as things were pushed ahead despite the dogged stupidity of the other three Directors, Jarum Tann, Foster Addison, and Tiran Kandros. Kandros was such a plate-kisser that it almost made Nyx physically upchuck her gizzard. "So how are you actually holding up, little sister?"

[Long hours, hard work, no pay, and bad food. Which is still better than two months ago.] Yes, that was certainly the truth. Back then, it had been impossibly long hours, plate-breaking hard work, no pay, and no food. Vetra didn't miss that countdown that Ryder was dead determined to push further and further to the right, the we're going to starve countdown that had jumped at least six weeks since the arrival of the Hyperion thanks to its power supply and personnel. Hydroponics had grown and improved, the Tempest was finding deposits of raw materials to use for building, and Eos was about to be cracked open once they figured out those strange Remnant Monoliths that Sara and Peebee theorized were likely a part of a terraforming process. If that were true, and they could actually get it to work in a limited capacity, things would change for the better quite quickly. [How about you? The Human aren't trying to feed you levo, are they?]

"Pretty lucky, they're good folk." Vetra ended up liking the Humans on board. Commander Sara Ryder was about as full-speed ahead as a Boot Camp Drill Instructor, but in a cheerful sort of way. Lieutenant Commander Cora Harper had a bit of a stick up her clochea, but otherwise pretty easy to get along with. Her and Lieutenant Liam Kosta sniped and bickered with one another, but she had seen the man in action; despite his opinions of her, he had no issues watching her back and coming to her aid, be it in combat or heavy-lifting. Chief Gil Brodie was a little full of himself but a brilliant Engineer, and Doctor Suvi Anwar was likely smarter than all of them put together, a sweet personality driving an incredible mind. Kallo Jath was good for pulling a few pranks on the Humans (three-fingered folk needed to stick together, after all), and Doctor Lessus 'Lexi' T'Perro was a bit of an odd-tork of a Medical Doctor that seemed a little too eager to start cutting. Vrack, Vetra had been with smugglers' crews and pirate crews where practically everyone was a backstabbing son of a kork that might plug someone in the backplates for a bigger take. On the Tempest, most everyone got along pretty well, and working together wasn't forced. Ryder had even enforced movie night so that crew members could take some time off every few days to bond, relax, and make fun of whatever randomly picked vid was playing in the Rec Room. "I won't lie, it certainly beats the Operations Deck on the Nexus. I certainly understand why you want to be away from the stupidity."

[It's just sickening how Tann and Addison try to foist all the credit on themselves for all of your hard work.] The younger Turian female said, her duel-toned flanged voice a little quieter. Things weren't so well on the Nexus that publicly disagreeing with the Directorate was a safe thing to do. [It's like they think everyone forgot what they did during the Uprising and how they practically shuttered us in here for a year with no other hopes or prospects other than 'wait for the next available Ark'! They got an Ark, they got a Pathfinder, and now they just… ugh!] Vetra knew what Sid was saying. She had heard the same things, too.

"I know this sounds demeaning, Sid, but it is good advice." Vetra said softly, wishing she were standing in front of her sister. "Stick to your job for now. Things are a bit in upheaval for now, so stick with what you're good at and look out for the people who need someone like you at the helm. The Directorate might have forgotten… but we haven't. You be the sapient that others need you to be so you can look back and say that you were better than them when the questions get asked out loud and the answers sound so contrite." Nyx knew why Sara hadn't taken a shotgun to the Directorate… yet. Vetra had been included in that conversation between Ryder, Harper, and Doctor Anwar, and they knew another Uprising or some sort of coup would bring disaster to the Initiative no matter how well-meaning. Sara was waiting for news for the other Arks, their Captains and Pathfinders. When that happened, there would be formal charges and a very real trial for the Directorate, one and all. Nyx knew that Kesh would be exonerated and showed publicly that she had nothing to do with the turmoil that the Uprising had, and the public showing would give people the knowledge that not everyone in the Directorate was an idiot. Kandros might get out of it, but he was such a typical 'yessir' plate-kissing tork that he might not. Tann and Addison would likely find themselves discovering if the Initiative would support capital punishment or not. "Proud of you, little sister. I really am."

[Thank you, Vetra.] Nyx smiled, knowing what her gratitude meant to Sid. In that, she would be different from their sire; Sid would always know how Vetra felt about her.