The Nomad drifted lazily over the powdery grey surface, momentarily gaining air as it sailed over the lip of a small crater.
"This is way more fun than Eos" Sara exclaimed as the nomad landed, swung into a half controlled fishtail, and then straightened out.
The low gravity made driving here even more of an adventure, but one Sara thought she was up for. She wondered if it had ever had a proper name, not just the H-047c that had been assigned to it. Jaal and Drack were again in the back of the Nomad and while Drack seemed be copacetic with the mission so far, Jaal seemed on edge, again.
"I'll never take him on a roller coaster ride" she muttered, wondering if they would ever get to the point where they could devote time to building such carefree non critical items.
"There seems to be a far larger amount of obstructions compared to Eos" Jaal stated, hoping that Ryder would take the hint and at least take the Nomad down to a more sedate rate of travel. Usually when the Angaran needed to calm his mind he would meditate or take apart and clean his rifle, but neither activity seemed a good fit right now.
"Roger tha…." The words weren't even out of her mouth when the Nomad glided over the crest of another hill only to find that, instead of a road beneath them, a deep crevasse waited for them, the ugly jagged split leering up at them like an evil grin.
"SHHHIIIITTT!" Jaal yelled from the back, as the Nomad bounced down the side. "Shit!" Ryder echoed, while Drack's deep growl of warning was almost lost within their joined cacophony of the swear word. The Pathfinder slammed the vehicle into 6WD and pounded her fist down on the button that activated the microthrusters. The Nomad slid, found purchase, and roared up the edge of the deep abyss like a bat out of hell, just managing to pull itself onto solid ground as the thrusters deactivated.
"That…. That was close" she breathed as they all sat there trying to believe that they were, in fact, still alive.
"Are you guys ok?"
The Pathfinder leaned around in her seat to put two wide eyes on her crewmembers. Drack just gave her a look, one ridge above his eye lifted high in an expression that she thought might have been disapproval, but could have been anything from indigestion to the after effects of an accident induced wedgie. It was hard to tell with a Krogan sometimes.
"Do they actually test you on your driving skills? Jaal remarked, angrily, as he attempted to uncurl his fingers from their death grip around the handholds. "I think your approval to drive this vehicle is at least six hundred years out of date." Sara had seen Jaal this upset only one other time and that had not been a pretty sight either. Livid spots of darker purple dotted his cheeks as his eyes narrowed into an expression that was close to the unwavering stare she had received when they had first arrived on Aya.
"I'm sorry, truly" she replied, knowing full well she deserved his angry comments. "We'll stick to the existing tire marks from now on, ok? At least we know those are safe pathways"
Her sincere apology went a long way to calming Jaal down, but they were all more than relived when the rest of the trip, made in complete silence, ended safely at the entrance to another orange domed campsite. They rolled through the airlock, the doors activating automatically as the sensors picked up the vehicle.
"This is the location of the Remnant Tiller?" Jaal asked as Ryder confirmed the readout on the Nomads console that radiation levels were within safety parameters.
"Yes. This would be a great accomplishment if we can get this up and running again." Ryder answered as they all piled out of the Nomad and made their way to the entrance. Even though someone had set up a camp here and had taken the time to cover the area with a shield bubble the whole site seemed unoccupied. Even so all weapons were out and at the ready as they walked down the angled entryway and through the doors that led into the vault.
At the center of the small chamber they found an orb that pulsated blue shafts of light as it revolved over a portion of the floor.
"Another gravity well" Sara announced, somewhat redundantly, as both Jaal and Drack had used them before to explore other vaults with her.
"Ready?" She reached out to touch the orb, SAMS interface allowing connection to the ancient technology. The floor beneath them slid back and instantly they were floating quickly downwards towards the interior of the vault. The anti gravity field deposited them into a new chamber, the floor panels beneath them firmly closing as the field dissipated.
Sara let a soft whistle escape from her lips. "Well, whoever built these definitely went for the shock and awe factor" The chamber was as massive as all the others. From where they were standing she couldn't see the far end, let alone up to the ceiling.
The Pathfinder jump-jetted up the nearest console, quickly interfacing with it. A familiar pulse of light emitted from it, ending at a piece of Remnant technology further down the room.
"Remnant!" Drack's shout alerted them, as an observer materialized upon the flush platform of the technology. All guns were drawn instantly but the anticipated red scanning wave never came.
"Wait!" Sara lowered her gun and cautiously stepped up to the hovering Remnant. "It's not attacking" The Observer seemed to orbit another remnant console, this one sans a keyboard to interface with.
As she stood there, wondering how to proceed, SAMS voice filled the room.
Pathfinder. Protocols are limited but it will perform simple tasks for you via your scanner.
"Thanks SAM"
Sara activated the scanner on her omni tool.
Remnant Console
DATA:
Remnant data console
Unknown configuration
No manual input
ANALYSIS:
A console that appears designed only to respond to Remnant input.
Specifically the Observer kind.
Nothing happened for a long moment until she took a few steps away from the display, her scanner still active. Suddenly a white beam of light shot from the hovering Observer and onto the panel, a keypad momentarily appearing before the whole console receded into the floor and the door at the end of the chamber slid open.
"Neat trick" Sara eyed the next chamber, even larger than the last. "And one I haven't seen before."
"Eyes on Remnant" Drack warned, echoed seconds later by Jaal's caution of "Remnant!"
"No shit, Sherlock" she muttered under her breath as she trained her rifle on the nearest Remnant. She hated these Remnant vaults. They were awe inspiring and beautiful in an alien way but she knew at the end of every one would be a reboot process that might well be the death of them if they didn't run fast enough. It made her just a little jumpy and irritable each time they ventured underground.
The room they entered was full of energy bubbles that enclosed some sort of consoles, although not like the ones that Sara was used to. These were more angular with no room for a keyboard. About a half dozen assemblers rushed to greet them, their welcome in the form of red waved scans followed by attacks.
They took then down the mechs with little effort and cautiously made their way to the back of the room, skirting the half domed force fields that instantly started to drain their shields if touched or entered.
Their way forward was blocked by a deep expanse. Remembering one of the gravity wells she had encountered on Havarl, the Pathfinder glanced around for a hovering blue orb that might propel them sideways, and across, but she found nothing.
Pacing across the length of the edge several times she finally admitted. "It's far too wide to jet across. And much too deep to jump down into."
Admitting temporary defeat, they backtracked into the last room, searching each darkened area they came across before finally finding a side chamber that housed another Remnant operated console at its far end.
"Where did our friendly Observer go off to?" Sara asked as she scanned the console hoping that the Remnant might magically appear.
Nothing happened, magical or otherwise, so they once again made their way back into the larger chamber and explored the other side of the wide room. Almost directly across from the previously discovered side chamber they found one force field that, surprisingly, did not damage their shields and immediately beyond that, tucked away into the corner, they found another room. This one had a Nullifier in it. They were much more a pain in the ass to defeat as they not only had a shield surrounding most of their bodies but they could also cancel out their opponents shields with a powerful blast.
Their reward for killing that room's occupants was another console, this one too operated by Remnant control.
"Looks like we need another Observer for this too"
Swinging off into a small antechamber they followed the metallic growls and clicks associated with the tech to find another console, this one with a keyboard integrated within it. Sara had SAM interface with it and a door opened on their right as a result. They slogged through another draining force field to find, not the friendly observer they were hoping for, but a group of Assemblers and one Observer that was definitely not in a helpful mood.
"Well this is turning out to be quite a puzzle" she muttered, the beginnings of a headache niggling behind her eyes, vying for her attention. Most of the other vaults up till now had been pretty straight forward. Run in, kill everything, and reboot the system will not getting killed in the process. Nothing about this mission was the norm so far.
A pathway had formed before them as they moved into the next area and they took it across to find they were now standing on a platform in the middle of the abyss.
"It looks like we are one step closer" Jaal confirmed as they took in their position.
Another set of steps formed off to one side of the platform, followed by another set of assemblers and a Nullifier.
"Didn't we just do this?" Ryder complained as they dispatched them. They took the bend around the corner and out of the room to find themselves… back where they had started from.
"What the fuck?"
They had been in the vault for what seemed like a long ass time now and had accomplished very little. True, they were closer to the goal, or what she assumed to be the goal. Four large, loud fountains of purple flames that reminded her of a drunken Fourth of July gone very bad.
She was getting tired of this monochromatic world. First the dreary ashy blue colors of the surface, punctuated by the camps surrounded in a unnatural orange glow. Then down below to more shadowy blue darkness.
"What do you think?" she asked, the exasperation showing in her voice.
She glanced over to Jaal. The Angaran was still poised for a fight, in a battle stance so wide it would have given a human male an uncomfortable case of groinal strain.
'He has strong, powerful thighs' The thought popped in unbidden as she assessed his form. Blushing underneath her helmet she tore her gaze away from Jaal and over to Drack. Although the old Krogan belonged to the powerful thigh club as well he was definitely the lesser distraction.
"You sure this aint' some kind of wild pyjak chase?" Drack grunted, shifting from foot to foot.
"There must be something we have missed along the way" Jaal offered.
Sara swung her head back around to look at the Angaran, who had thankfully put away his weapon although the observation about the fitness of his legs still swirled around her mind.
"Let's look over here!" she suggested, a little too brightly, as her cheeks continued to burn.
They went over every inch of the main room and its side chambers before discovering, finally, a console that produced another helpful Observer. That Observer activated a console which led to two panels being opened in the side walls.
"There seems to be some sort of trick to these panels"
Interfacing with either panel did nothing, a fact that added to her irritation.
After more exploration and activating random consoles it finally dawned on her that a series of side panels were opening up, running parallel to the unnavigable chasm. They followed the growing hallway until they came into a chamber that housed a…
"SHIT!"
"Heads up, guys!" Sara, yelled, taking a defensive position behind a semi opaque partition. "ELITE DESTROYER!"
These were the bad boys of the vaults, not the 'got caught in the school bathroom smoking' kind of bad boys but the 'kidnap you and steal your car after they kill your grandmother' kind of bad boys.
"SHIT!" Sara roared again, glancing around the room. It was a tight fit with not much maneuverability.
"All fire power on that bastard, NOW!" she ordered as she threw everything she had at the behemoth. It kept approaching, closer and closer until it was almost on top of them.
"MOVE!" she yelled, racing underneath to change her cover to the opposite side of the room. She barely had a second to register that both Jaal and Drack had safely followed her before she was once again peppering the mech with everything she could. It moved towards them again, displaying too much speed and agility for such a large foe. The pathfinder was just about ready to change position once again, to risk the mad dash underneath it to the other side of the room, when a massive discharge punctured the air around her, taking her shields and health to almost nothing.
"FUCK! MOVE NOW!" she screamed hoarsely, praying the guys were safe behind her. She barely made it to safety behind another partition on the original side of the room. That shot had almost killed her, and even now she could barely catch her breath. Each jagged, painful wheeze jerked her rifle off mark, enough to make a difference in the damage she was doing to the destroyer. She took her eye away from the scope, scanning the room for Drack and Jaal, only to find that they were up close and in melee mode with the beast.
"GET BACK" she tried to yell, the words escaping from her lungs with all the force of a ten pack a day geriatric smoker. She was all out of grenades and the thing was headed their way again but at least her squad was pulling back to her position. She heard the tell tale sign of another massive power charge directed at them just as the air in front of her went red. She jump jetted away, shooting over her defensive cover and sailing past the head of the Destroyer before coming back down on other side of the room. The evasive maneuverer had left her with a little more health this time but before she caught her breath again she found that she was being peppered from behind by an assembler.
"Great, just great!" she wheezed, desperately trying to activate a shield capacitor, her gloved fingers clumsy and thick on her omnitool. "I'm going to die by being mechanically barfed on!"
Foggy with fatigue and several minor wounds she finally activated the extra shield protection and blew the assembler away. She jerked her head to the right to find Jaal beside her, hunkering down, seemingly unhurt. Giving him what passed for a one second battlefield smile she jerked her attention front and center to what was left of the Destroyer. Drack was up in its face again, or at least up in its waist, as he jabbed at it with his Krogan knife. He was doing some good damage but Sara knew he couldn't keep it up indefinitely.
She cycled her rifle to concussive shot and gave it all she had, not really caring where her bullets landed as long as they didn't find a mark in the Krogan.
The destroyer suddenly turned a shuddering, pulsing shade of blue and exploded violently causing the Pathfinder to duck low for cover.
"OH FUCK, that was close" she gasped as she eyed the area for any other activity. Jaal was still crouched down beside her, his head tucked down low. "You ok? She asked, overly loud, her hearing suffering slightly from the explosion. He lifted his head and nodded once, slowly, and then again placing his hand on her armored shoulder. "You?" she saw him mouth, the words muffled. "I'm good" she answered, taking comfort in his touch, a reassurance in this cold dark pit. "Where's Drack?"
The Krogan suddenly popped up from behind the wreckage of the destroyer, arms and legs akimbo, chest thrust out as he shouted a Krogan war cry of victory, the sound clearly audible to even Ryder's temporarily impaired ears.
"Drack!" Thank God you're alright" she yelled, rushing over to him.
She finally gave herself permission to search the area now that the most important items were checked off her post battle list. They had finally made it to the far side, to the crazy purple flaming fireworks.
"Looks like the console to start the tiller" she said, surprised at how calm and steady her voice sounded after what they had just gone through.
She activated the console to find a decryption panel blocking the entrance to the interface. She was in no mood to stand there playing puzzle games all day. She just wanted to escape from this damn vault and leave this fucking planet.
"SAM, can you help me out here?" she asked, staring at the console, her mind sluggish.
"Of course, Pathfinder" SAM answered instantly, using one of the two Remnant Decryption Keys he had access to.
There was a horrible whirring noise as the code was accepted and Ryder thought for a minute they were going to have to make a run for it. She stood there, poised for movement, but knew they would never make it back to the entrance in time. Just when she was on the brink of sinking to the floor and letting whatever energy field that she had just activated wash over her exhausted body, the high-pitched noise stopped to be replaced with a deeper, floor vibrating whooshing sound.
They had done it.
The tiller had been activated.