The Pathfinder squad had arrived into the familiar valley surrounded by grand rock formations with newly constructed scout towers and guard stations built upon the flattop plateaus following along the cliffs' surrounding rims. The structures of buildings that remained were reconstructed into hospitable apartments and merchant establishments as the reformed scavenger base had been overtaken into a flourishing city.

"Pathfinder," Sam's voice began over the squad's broadcast, "since the removal of the previous occupants, Elaaden's populace have come to reside here and have established this as an accommodation for civilian settlement. The name still retains it's predecessor title; The Flophouse. The majority of the Drell faction have migrated to this particular world for reason that this planet's arid temperatures are comparable to that of their fallen home world of Rakhana which provides genuine adaptation for the Drell."

Scott quipped, "Who knew that this place could make a turn around after evicting the local Raider group almost half a year ago? Well, it's good news for the Drell. What happened to the Hanar and Elcor? I'm curious, on the small scale, to know where the Vorcha and Batarians would have chosen to run amuck... I suppose having a general idea where both races are located will significantly reduce the amount of visits I have to make to the medical bay. Batarians are obviously hazardous to my health..."

The artificial intelligence started the elaboration as the Pathfinder group ventured between the groups of wondering crowds, "Both the Hanar and the Elcor have expanded their people between the planets of Meridian, Aya, Havarl, Kadara, and Eos. The bulk of the Hanar race have taken preferable akin to Meridian's and Havarl's sustainable humid and aqueous climates. The greater amount of the Elcor race have distinguished themselves on Eos, and Meridian as well, while few have been accepted into Aya's Vesaal exchange. There is a minority amount of Elcor and Hanar on Kadara. Few still remain on the Nexus."

A low-scratchy sound of a feminine voice called out from behind the group, "Whoa! That's some fancy armor that you've got there!"

The Pathfinder and squad whirled around swiftly diverting their focus onto the figure coming up behind. A female Drell with lightly blue-colored skin swiftly raced forward. Her deepened red frills expanded further out than the typical males of the Drell species with a expanded bust size in comparison to a human woman or an Asari. She was fully adorned in a shimmering very dark purple attire that appeared black without direct sunlight. The armor wear appeared fitted to her slender frame shape. The female Drell immediately stopped in front of Sky and studied over his armor as she moved her head up and down. "That IS really cool armor! It glows and it's shiny! Where did you get it?! I must know!" She tilted her body to the one side, looking passed Sky, and raised her attention onto the human man. "WAIT A MINUTE! I know you! You're the human Pathfinder! Scott Ryder?"

Scott slowly shrugged and quipped, "I believe so.. After a few whacks in the head kind of has that effect similar to memory loss..."

Zeemi crossed her arms under her chest and provided an unimpressed response, "Yes, he is the Pathfinder. No on the autographs!"

The female Drell zipped between the Quarian and the tall man in dark silver armor to suddenly appear in front of Pathfinder Ryder. The human man made a surprised look by the Drell's abrupt approach.

"My name is Nydra Devmorn." Nydra outstretched one of her hands out in greeting.

Scott gradually accepted the female Drell's offer into a handshake. He cordially nodded, "It's nice to see that the Drell have made Elaaden a good home. I'm kind of surprised that your people didn't want to live with the Hanar."

Nydra released the Pathfinder's grip and shrugged, "Many of us still share a Compact with the Hanar and continue to serve to their requests through messaging... it's a long distance relationship but we needed a world where our people could start their own beginning. That's what the Andromeda Initiative was for, correct? Start a new beginning."

The human Pathfinder smirked and proceeded into a curious manner, "Maybe you can help me, Nydra. I'm looking for a Turian named Velonia. I was pointed into this direction from Paradise."

The Drell quickly answered, "Velonia! Yes, I know her! She's running her own place at the Flophouse Information Center. This way!" The Drell brushed passed the human man to start into a particular direction.

Sam's voice instigated warning in the private channel, 'Pathfinder, one of your firearms has been taken into Miss Devmorn's possession.'

Scott cleared his throat and murmured loud enough for the Drell to hear him, "Ahem. May I have my weapon back?"

Nydra became rigid and very slowly spun around. The female Drell suddenly dashed into a nearby crowd making for a swift disappearance.

Zeemi shouted, "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING?! THAT LITTLE THIEF!"

Ryder grumbled under his breath, "Figures we find the first Drell pick-pocket..." He quickly wheeled on the Quarian and soothed, "Calm down, Zeemi. Sam can trace her movements." He turned around facing forward and asked aloud, "Sam? You do have a trace, right?"

"Of course, Pathfinder. Using your weapon as the tracker source you should soon find Miss Devmorn if you follow the tracer's signal."

Sky politely injected, "There is a very possible chance that an ambush awaits for us. My armor may conceive a highly profitable value to most of the lifeforms in this galaxy."

Pathfinder Ryder boldly stated, "I think we can handle a few muggers. Taking down Kett is a daily exercise. Let's catch up to her!"

The squad dashed through the crowds following after the human man as Scott guided the way through the Flophouse in pursuit of tracing the signal.

Zeemi muttered silent curses, "I'm going to kill that fucking Drell with my hands! After all of the shit my people went through to transport that little bitch into this galaxy... I'm going to make her pay!"

Scott made the traverse to the upper level located under the large gaped rock formation. The height of the grand-scale rock pillar reached almost as high as a skyscraper, with the sun's alignment, provided an overcast of cooling shade over a small portion of the city below. Pathfinder Ryder continued through the shadowed district until reappearing under the full sunlight into the area where the two-story building was stationed near to the edge of the cliff's drop-off. The stacked building had become converted into a Delivery Import Station for the Flophouse's source of incoming and outgoing needed supply trades. Ryder traveled with an even pace while winding around the station workers. The Pathfinder bypassed the stairs leading up to the second story and made a brisk jog across the first landing pad on the right side of the tall building. He crossed the metal walkway that had been constructed upon the solid stone cliff with waist-height railing bars in order to prevent an accidental plummet. Scott momentarily took glance over the edge to look upon the wide scale view of the flourishing city below. He had come to the reinforced bridge that connected to the adjacent cliff leading to the single-story building designated as the focal point for sending out cargo deliveries. The landing pad had been expanded with three additional landing pads that were constructed with reinforcement bars braced underside of each platform and firmly compressed into the rock face. The landing pads followed the ascending cliff side to the area behind the transport station allowing more delivery ships to make a touch down. Located behind the single-story structure the composition of the stacked rocks were broken down and carved out for the placement of an evenly ascending stairway compacted firmly into the rock's formation. The Pathfinder group raced around the dock workers to start for the stairway and began the climb. The tiered stairs led up to the newly constructed platforms built together with the three new landing pads.

"Look! There she is!" Zeemi hastily injected and motioned toward the transport ship, located on the furthest landing pad, that was preparing for liftoff.

Scott swiftly turned his attention onto the female Drell climbing into the shuttle with the doorway immediately sealing shut behind her. The shuttle's leverage thrusters loudly burst to raise the craft high above the landing platform prior its trajectory being spun into the north east direction. The transport craft rapidly made its ascend and vanished over the grand rock face.

The human Pathfinder quickly demanded, "Shit! Sam, can you get that ship's destination?!" Ryder whirled around and returned traverse through the upper city.

The artificial intelligence respectfully replied, "Working on it, Pathfinder. The transport shuttle's destination systems have been marked on the nav-point directly north west of the Northern Remnant Monolith."

"Let's return to the Nomad and get the drop on her! I want my gun back!"

.

.

Zeemi shouted, "SNIPERS!" The Quarian ducked behind the rear side of Nomad's large tread tires and firmly gripped her favored modified Geth shotgun into both hands. The singe of a bullet zipped over the vehicle's outer armor shell.

Scott stood upright with his backside facing the side of the vehicle's front wheel. He side-stepped to briefly come out of cover and swiftly peered around making a glance toward the location of building structures.

"Looks like the scavengers are at it again." Scott raised his voice to nearly shout, "Shooting at the one who saved this galaxy is a bad idea, guys!"

The Quarian expressed another shout out, "RYDER! THEY HAVE A RPG! GET OUT OF THE WAY NOW!"

The Pathfinder squad dashed into all different directions in the attempt for an escape as the anti-tank missile was launched.

The rocket grenade easily penetrated through the vehicle's armor shell and erupted, upon contact, into a rising explosion of metal being soundly ripped apart before being flung around the surrounding area. One after the other the Nomad's tread tires went off like the abrupt sounds of shotgun blasts thunderously exploding. The shockwave rapidly ruptured into a wide circular radius forcefully bashing against Ryder's backside and threw the human man into the air propelling his body to briefly soar over the desert's red sand. The Pathfinder ultimately landed hard and flatly onto his front side, upon the course sand, and had knocked the air out his lungs.

'Pathfinder, shielding systems have become rendered temporarily offline. The Nomad has sustained critical damage and can no longer be operated.'

Scott harshly coughed momentarily and slowly grunted, "Ow.. fuck.. that.. hurt." He gruelingly staggered in his movements for the attempt to stand upright. The human man wobbled in his stature, making a slow turn around, and directed his attention toward the Nomad to find the vehicle in a fire-consumed shamble of splintered blackened metal. Ryder cursed out loud, "Oh, shit. Vetra is going to kill me.. How the hell did they get a Rocket-propelled grenade launcher, more importantly, WHY don't I have one?"

Sky's voice came over the broadcast, "Pathfinder, I have found Zeemi. We shall soon be upon your coordinates." The shine of dark silver metal swiftly emerged around the spew of black smoke wildly wavering in the arid breeze. In his approach toward the Pathfinder's direction, Sky had stopped to take cover behind the thick cloud of smoke and knelt down with the Quarian's body laying within his arms. Sky gingerly outstretched his arms granting Zeemi to stand of her own accord.

Zeemi whispered gratitude, "Thanks, Sky." She braced one of her hands on the top of Sky's nearest shoulder in order to balance her wobbling steps.

Ryder dashed toward the squad members and stopped in front of Sky, swiftly diverting his look upon the Quarian's helmet. A crack had run across the dark yellow-colored visor. Scott offered a deeply concerned look in his eyes and demanded in desperate sound, "Zeemi?! Are you alright?!"

Zeemi's sound of voice uttered silent curses and painful-sounding grunts through her helmet's respirator. She firmly compressed her other hand upon the side of her hip where droplets of red started to seep out. The Quarian retort angrily, "Does it look like I'm alright?! A shrapnel ripped into my environmental suit and it fucking hurts!"

Sam's voice gave warning, "Pathfinder, I detect that the wound has deepened to the depth of internal muscle tissue. A surgical procedure will be required to repair the damage."

The gears of a firearm's mechanism softly clicked from directly behind Scott's helmet. Pathfinder Ryder expressed a drawn out sigh in his disgruntled statement, "There's a bad guy right behind me. Sam, you could have let me known."

The artificial intelligence's voice transmitted over to the private channel, 'Apologies, Scott. There is a low-frequency interference generating from within the compound that is disrupting my scanning range. The blocker distinguishes the similar properties as the device found in Kadara's port. I am unable to detect the enemy's approach.'

The human Pathfinder muttered under his breath, "And again with the AI blocking systems.. Who in the hell is passing these things out?"

"TURN AROUND, PATHFINDER!" The deep scratchy voice of a male Drell ordered from behind Scott Ryder.

Scott slowly eased up both of his arms into a surrendering gesture and very reluctantly turned his direction around to face toward a dark blue-colored Drell. The male figure was fully clad in a dark grey and black-colored scavenger's Exo-suit. He firmly gripped the stock of an assault rifle in his hand with the point of the barrel aiming point-blank toward Scott's chest armor.

Sky's echoing voice whispered with a stern manner, "Pathfinder."

An idea contemplated through the human Pathfinder's thoughts. Ryder's defensive training compelled the human man to suddenly lunge one of his hands down to shove away the gun's barrel away from his chest as Scott began for a body drop. In the Pathfinder's plunge, he started for a full spin, bending one of his legs at the knee, and forcefully expelled a roundhouse kick into the side of the Drell's kneecap immediately snapping the figure's leg in half causing an internal rend of muscle to soundly crack. The impact instantly disjointed the bones' placement, rendering both sides of the biceps femoris tendons to rupture, and compelled the Drell's snapped limb to suddenly give out from under him.

The male Drell beckoned a long scream of agony before toppling over, falling away from Ryder, and hard dropped onto his side on the ground. He had relinquished the firearm and quickly curled up the severely damaged appendage toward his chest. The Drell raged at the top of his lungs, "FUCK! YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE! YOU BROKE MY LEG!"

Scott half-turned at the waist, giving brief glance over his shoulder from the corner of his field of vision to witness a silver barrier that had taken spherical form around both figures of Sky and the wounded Quarian.

Zeemi quietly gasped, "I'm.. starting to feel.. light-headed.. and nauseated.. not good."

The Pathfinder loudly demanded, "Sky, can you do something for her?!"

Sky injected, "There are traces of a spreading infection. The Nano-nites can amplify her immune system and repair the damage that has been caused."

Scott quickly nodded his helmet, "Get her stabilized!"

The glowing shield dispersed before Sky gradually stood into an upright stance to fully face into Zeemi's direction and placed his left hand upon the Quarian's shoulder.

Zeemi cried out sharply, "OW!"

The human Pathfinder wheeled around, returning his focus onto the male Drell curled up in the sand. Pathfinder Ryder scooped up the assault rifle and threw it aside far from the Drell's reach. Scott took grip of another preferred handgun's stock into the grip of one of his hands, lifting the point of the barrel toward the moderately cloudy sky, and ordered out loud, "Sam, notify the Tempest of our position for a pick up. Since we're stuck here let's get my gun back. How are you feeling, Zeemi?"

The Quarian happily shouted, "I FEEL GREAT! LET'S KILL SOMETHING!"

Ryder lowly responded in questionable sound, "Um, okay. That's.. great? Let's get going then." Scott thought to himself, 'She reminds me of Peebee and Drack being spliced together and reborn into a new body which would be called Zeemi.' He quickly turned his helmet onto Sky, whom had returned face-forward to gaze upon Ryder with an unseen gaze. "Sky, take point. Use that barrier to give us cover from enemy fire while we move in. What's its threshold against a RPG, by the way?"

Sky acknowledged caution in his response, "We should not remain here to make that discovery." He passed the human Pathfinder and took lead in front of the team. Sky outstretched his left arm and brought down a full front-side glowing silver barrier. The barrier's circular shape rapidly expanded to accommodate a greater span of protection. The tall figure started the trek from behind the cover of the blackened smoke and began over the course sand in the approach toward the scavengers' base establishment. The building had been constructed upon into a third story. The placements of new structures were also constructed together and around into a forming a half ring, marking the area as a small settlement.

Gunfire immediately sputtered into a shower of red glowing bullets that swiftly came upon the surface of the glowing barrier and instantly dispersed upon contact. Sky pressed forward in hasty stride.

Scott ordered, "Get to the buildings for cover! They won't be able to use the RPG!"

The Pathfinder squad raced to the side of the three-story structure and braced their backsides into the solid wall taking protection from the enemy's rooftop position. The silver transparent barrier had rapidly faded.

"Sam, can you- AAAHH! FUCK!" Ryder dropped down to one knee and clenched his free hand against the side of his helmet. "What the fuck was that?! I felt a sharp pain in my head.."

"Apologies, Pathfinder. I had not intended to cause you a discomfort. There appears to be a malfunction starting to occur in our connection. The cause may have been triggered from the AI system blocker. I advise visiting Doctor T'Perro's medical lab as soon as ably."

"Not until I get my gun back.." Scott heavily sighed forcing himself into calm, "Just lie low for a while, Sam. I'll get this figured out on my own."

Sam replied, "Advisory tactics and scanning systems will be temporarily offline. Private channel will remain open."

Ryder spun his helmet into the Quarian's direction finding that Zeemi had began the charge from the squad's present location and zipped around the building.

"Zeemi?! Where are you going-" Scott's voice transmitted his demands over the broadcast communicator but was suddenly cut off as the sound of loud hissing shotgun blasts rapidly sounded off.

"DIE BOSH'TETS!"

The Pathfinder regained into a fully standing posture and quickly raced in pursuit of the frenzied Quarian. Sky followed after Ryder as the two men rounded the outer wall to come to an opening between the buildings. Scott rushed through the break, taking hold of his handgun with both hands.

The human Pathfinder swiftly raised the scope's sight to mark onto a humanoid target crouched upon the top of one of the single-story buildings. Ryder's index and middle finger pulled down together to release a deadly bullet to suddenly pierce through the figure's helmet immediately followed by a spray of red blood spewing out of the bullet's exit point. The humanoid's body crumbled into a hidden heap upon the rooftop. Scott carefully side-stepped to follow with his backside faced to the wall. He whipped his gun's point around toward one of the fully-clad scavengers in dark grey armor that had suddenly stepped out from her hiding place. Ryder instinctively marked the scope's sight upon the helmet's visor and pulled the trigger once more. A bullet throttled from the short gun barrel and suddenly punctured through the raider's visor leaving a serrated hole over the area of an eye's placement. The woman's body dropped to the ground without any further motions of movement.

Scott was caught into the spray of glowing bullets raining upon him from above and at ground level. The sudden barrage rapidly began to break through the integrity of the Pathfinder's crafted armor.

Ryder cursed, "FUCK! They already cut through my shields?!" The human Pathfinder ignited the jet system in order to swiftly propel himself out of the crossfire and found cover behind a pile of stacked crates.

The dark silver figure of Sky had come up directly behind Ryder and brought down the enlarged silver glowing spherical barrier around the two of them. The Pathfinder momentarily glanced up to the tall humanoid and loudly admitted gratitude, "Thanks, Sky!" He returned his sight onto Zeemi as the enraged Quarian charged into one of the buildings and launched multiple sprays of shotgun blasts that brilliantly flashed over the walls. "SHIT! ZEEMI!" Ryder swiftly ducked out of cover, hugging to the walls, and raced for the Quarian's direction. The rain of glowing projectiles immediately disintegrated once striking upon the silver glowing barrier leaving both the human Pathfinder and Sky unscathed. Ryder zipped into one of the structure's opened doorways and stopped within to swiftly glance back and forth. Opposing forces emerged on both sides with gun points taking aim upon Scott and the man in glowing armor. Ryder braced into an offensive stance and swiftly raised one of his fists into the air before forcibly dropping his clenched hand down against the floor suddenly dispersing a shockwave of pure Biotic energy that rapidly expanded into a wide radius. Enemy units that were caught into the powerful shockwave were suddenly thrown back. Pathfinder Ryder chanced the opportunity to hastily switch out weapons for his favored assault rifle. Scott firmly gripped one of his hands onto the weapon's stock and the other under the barrel. He braced the assault weapon, making a target out of one of the rising humanoid scavengers and launched a brightly orange glowing round that ignited a small explosive detonation after making contact. The proximity of the blast had scorched the scavenger's body armor leaving the figure sprawled upon the floor.

Pathfinder Ryder triggered another grenade to bounce once upon the ground before landing it between two scavengers. The orange fiery round erupted with a resounding explosion, instantaneously ripping through both figures' shielding layers, and pitched both bodies outward from the small explosion's range. Scott whirled his direction to track the Quarian's trail by following the sights of the shotgun's plasma burn marks left on the surfaces of walls, the flooring, and the battered lifeless bodies. The human man had taken glimpse upon two halves of a dark yellow-colored face visor upon the ground, taking in the realization that Zeemi had now become exposed to the open air.

"ZEEMI!" Scott shouted and charged through to the final room to find the Quarian berserker standing in the middle of the room with her backside faced direction to the Pathfinder's approach. The human slowed his pace, carefully stepping over the lifeless heaps of scavenger bodies scattered around the small room. Scott came to a standstill and offered his concern, "Zeemi? Are you alright? We found the broken face visor on the floor back there.. I don't think it's the new trend."

The Quarian lowered the point of the Geth shotgun toward the floor. The sound of Zeemi's voice took in a deep breath of fresh air and slowly expelled out a soft sigh.

"I'm alright, Ryder." Zeemi replied without the robotic echo from her helmet's transmitter. "For once I can actually breath outside air! Whatever that injection Sky had given to me has completely bolstered my immune system. I'm feeling like I have nothing to worry about anymore." The female Quarian slowly spun around, whirling her front side into facing the Pathfinder's direction, ultimately revealing the true appeal of the female Quarian.

Zeemi's hooded helmet remained in place to hide the Quarian's unseen hair and contoured elegantly around her face shape. The structure of the Quarian's pale green-colored face was very slender oval-shaped. Slightly darkened, and gradually faded, hued striping ran down both sides of her face providing a contour for her high cheek bones. Her long smooth nose was also slender sculpted and displayed very small nostril visibility. The Quarian's upturned long eyes were brightly amber-colored while the whites were replaced with dark blue color giving the iris color of Zeemi's eyes an outstanding vibrant appeal. Zeemi cocked one of her high arched eyebrows into a puzzled look. Her pale green wide lips expressed into a frown in her asking, "Why are you looking at me like that, Ryder?"

"Um.. uh.. you.." Scott stammered and slowly raised one of his hands to motion toward the female Quarian's face. "Never seen.. face.. Quarian."

Zeemi scoffed, "Well, obviously." She shifted her head's direction toward Sky and broadened a warming smile, "Sky! Whatever you did, I can't believe it! THIS is what my people need to finally be freed from our worries about dying from a simple cold virus! There's no traces of infection coming into my body! I'm BREATHING unfiltered air!"

Sky cordially bowed his head, offering a respectful manner, "I am relieved that you are feeling well, Zeemi."

The Quarian suddenly lifted the Geth shotgun into a firm brace with both hands in order to take aim upon the figures coming in from the other end of the building and shouted, "BEHIND YOU!"

Both the human Pathfinder and Sky swiftly whirled around, directing their battle focus onto the group of scavengers slinking into the long hallway and quickly made a dive behind walls and bulk-sized objects for coverage.

The silver glowing barrier broadened out from its spherical form into a full wall that took the brunt of red searing bullets zipping from the previous room.

Scott approached the transparent wall and shouted, "Come on, guys! I just want my gun back!"

Zeemi grumbled with an eye roll, "Seriously, Ryder? They purposely took your weapon to lure you into a trap.. which you obviously took the bait. You could have built a new weapon to AVOID all of this!"

The Pathfinder quipped dryly, "It's the matter of principle, Zeemi. It's my gun! What if they took your gun?"

Zeemi narrowed her eyes into a glared look and admitted defeat, "Alright, alright! I get it.."

Scott whipped around toward the doorway and loudly directed orders, "Sky, we're going to need your help on this! See if you locate that AI blocker and disable it from this location so we can get Sam's tactical back online. We're going to be pinned down if we stay here. We've gotta get the high ground!"

The Pathfinder and Quarian zipped out from behind the cover of the silver barrier and rounded to take placement on either sides of the metal framework that separated the rooms. The silver glowing shield dimmed before Sky side-stepped to take cover behind the wall's structure with the Quarian.

Red flashes of bullets briefly zipped passed the metal framework that Scott had taken for cover. He braced his backside to the frame and had begun to lean out in order to peer around but had abruptly shifted his head's direction forward to take glimpse upon the small room finding that another mob of enemy units had come in from the backside of the room.

Ryder demanded with the sound of surprise, "AH SHIT! They're behind us too?!"

Sky quickly stepped forward and flung a puck-sized disc across the room to stick upon the ground. The disc rapidly glowed into a brilliant blue light that suddenly unleashed jolts of bright blue-colored electrical currents that rapidly crawled across the metal flooring and slithered up each of the figures' bodies. The visible electrical volts set off blue-colored sparks as if disabling the scavengers' shielding systems and forcibly seized the humanoid figures into violent convulsions before they collapsed onto the floor.

The human man noted under his breath, "Those would have been handy a lot sooner." He returned his attention to the next room, bracing the assault rifle firmly in both hands, and swiftly rounded the wall's frame. His middle finger together with his index tightened onto the trigger quickly releasing an orange glowing grenade to launch and bounce into the room. The grenade's detonation soundly exploded followed up with the cries of enemy forces being caught into the small blast radius.

Zeemi knelt down to one knee and quickly leaned out to choose a target prior releasing the trigger to unleash a single impactful blast from the plasma shotgun. The brilliant light zipped through the air and collided against the selected opponent forcing the humanoid figure to become briefly knocked back from the plasma incendiary. The modified shotgun had prevented the kickback and had immediately initiated the coolant systems to prepare another plasma charge.

Scott gripped his firearm's stock into one hand and slung his free arm around to quickly pitch a powerful Biotic Shockwave into the next room. The glowing wave flashed across the floor that abruptly knocked enemy forces up and outward from its direct lined path. Ryder settled his gaze upon one of the stunned targets before making the charge into the room to shoulder bash into the humanoid figure. The Biotic Charge's full brunt force compelled the scavenger's body to suddenly propel through the air and collided against another comrade causing both figures to heavily fall together onto the floor. The blue glowing affects of the Pathfinder's Biotic power spontaneously unleashed a circular explosive radius as the human man clashed his fist against the floor. Pathfinder Ryder was quickly bubbled under the silver sphere which prevented the surprise of glowing strings of bullets raining upon him. The red projectiles dispersed upon contact with the silver barrier providing Scott with a mobile cover as he progressed through enemy lines launching several rounds of fiery orange grenades into the direction of the standing humanoids that retained at great distance. The detonations set off into a rapid sputter of small explosions offering Ryder the chance to swap out the assault rifle to the handgun.

The female Quarian pursued after the human Pathfinder and stood outside of the silver barrier. The two combatants picked off the remaining scavenger survivors with the few rounds of ammunition that was left in their guns' clips.

Scott slowly released the handgun into the grip of one hand and pointed the barrel's scope to the ceiling. The human man let out a heavy sigh, dipping his head down and muttered his sarcastic nature, "This was one hell of a party! I'm not too particularly fond of surprise parties, unless Drack is in charge. I like Krogan parties. There is, however, the tendency for a lot of head-butting contests involved.. and the occasional something blowing up." Scott Ryder holstered the handgun before fully turning into Sky's direction as the man in dark silver armor emerged into the room. Scott cocked an anxious look and inquired, "Did you find that device, Sky?"

The tall man extended a long metal object that resembled much likeness to a Scrambler Unit. Sky responded, "Found and disabled. Discovering its properties will prove useful to counter the interference frequency wave lengths that are disrupting Sam's scans."

The Quarian holstered the heavy shotgun. Zeemi casually approached, glancing between the two male figures and implied serious tone, "Not only that but find out who is making them. Whoever is building these damn things definitely knows something about Sam's capabilities."

The artificial intelligence supplied in robotic sound, "Katherine Nigh, the one responsible for the anti-Artificial Intelligence movement is experienced with AI technology and its capabilities. It's a probable theory that one of her subordinates progressed with the remaining resistance group into manufacturing the devices that have the technology to disrupt my scans."

Ryder expressed another drawn out sigh, "I really don't get this. Knight is in prison and Alain still lives on the Nexus.. Perhaps Knight's followers wanted to keep the crusade going. Anyway, this device may lead us on the track to find out who is building them." The human man wheeled into the direction of a figure emerging out from the shadows. The light blue-colored Drell quickly offered her hands up into a surrendering gesture and pleaded desperation, "Please don't kill me!"

Ryder coldly quipped, "You know, if you want to start a new beginning you might want to start by not stealing other people's belongings."

Nydra protested innocence, "I'm sorry but I had to do it!"

Scott shook his head and rolled his eyes. He expressed snide in his inquiry, "And how do I know that you're not going lie to me when I ask how you got yourself in this situation?"

The female Drell brought down her hands in order to quickly shuffle through her clothing garments and finally outstretched both hands together to hold out the stolen firearm. Nydra anxiously responded, "I can explain! It started when I came to Elaaden trying to look for decent work at the Flophouse. I know it's hard to believe that a Drell would want honest work. An opportunity opened up.. but it was an offer that was difficult to pass up when you get contracted a lump some of credits. Someone contacted me, via audio transmission.. it was impossible to distinguish the voice but they insisted that the human Pathfinder be rendered incapacitated and brought to a specified location. Not this particular location."

Scott stepped forward, warily accepting the handgun by gripping around the barrel, slowly turning it over to ensure that it was not a false fabrication, and slowly nodded his satisfaction. The weapon was holstered into its proper place.

Zeemi injected, "And I suppose all these others were also offered a large sum of the profit?" The Quarian motioned to the scavengers' lifeless bodies scattered throughout the room.

Nydra had lowered her arms to her sides into a slightly tensed posture. The female Drell glimpsed around and slowly nodded before diverting her attention toward the female Quarian, "Believe so. I never knew who they were before and didn't particularly take fond of them when they plotted for the capture of the human Pathfinder. I was used as the bait tactic.." Nydra momentarily narrowed her eyelids into an annoyed look and added, "We were all instructed to leave the body at the drop off point but not linger around otherwise we wouldn't get the other half of the agreed credits."

Zeemi persisted, "How much were you and your friends promised?"

Nydra dipped her head down in her reply, "A total of thirty thousand credits each. Each of us has received half now and will get the full payment after the drop."

Scott slowly shook his head showing the look of disbelief and implied bitter sound, "I don't think I really believe any of this."

The female Drell swiftly lifted her face glancing up to Ryder with a bewildered look. She pleaded, "Please believe me! I'll give you the coordinates if you want to find out for yourself."

Sky offered in suggestion, "You cannot go empty-handed, young Nydra. If you are going to drop off the Pathfinder's body then it must be believable."

The Quarian wheeled onto Sky and demanded, "What?! You're kidding, right, Sky? We're NOT going through with this!"

Sky explained, "This may lead us to the mysterious contact that wanted the Pathfinder out of commission."

Pathfinder Ryder crossed his arms over his chest armor and grumbled under his breath, "Yet, another trail to follow.. Can someone just point me into the direction to the bad guys' hideouts?"

.

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(*Disclaimer: Zeemi's appearance is a different variant from Tali Zorah's presumed appearance. (Presuming that Quarians have other skin color variations) I did not take example from Mass Effect 3's picture of Tali found in Shepard's quarters. I have instead glimpsed through concepts to try to come up with a rough idea to how the female Quarians might look. However, I'm not going to claim the idea as my own for the sake of, respectfully, avoiding plagiarizing another artist's (s') work.*)