Chapter 2: Falling Stars

"I am not your hostage," Ryder glared up at Akksul, trying to hide the tremors that rippled through her. "You don't get to just shout at me and expect a miracle!"

"I need a way out, now," Akksul glared right back. "If you won't help me I will do it alone!"

Ryder shook her head emphatically. "Splitting up will get us both killed." She tried to speak calmly, hoping to evoke the scientist in him to rationally think the situation through, but he was so infuriating that she caught herself shouting right back at him more than once now. "We need a strategy, I don't have the same advantages now that I had when I was using the vaults, but at least I have experience using RemTech."

"Exploring is the only way we will know if there is another way out," Akksul replied, clearly exasperated. "And you call yourself an expert at this," he scoffed. "How have your people even survived in Andromeda if you are this timid?"

She clenched her jaw. "It's called 'common sense', something you of all people should know is essential when dealing with anything involving RemTech."

"So you plan out every step you take?" Akksul sneered. "Had I known that beforehand I would have defeated you long ago."

"That just goes to show that you should actually bother to get to know the enemies you fight," Ryder smiled humorlessly.

"You only won because you used the Resistance to get to us," Akksul retorted.

"Are we really going to nitpick how I defeated your insane plan?"

Akksul hesitated, but the burn in his eyes never faded even by a hair. "No, I am going to do something about the situation while you waste time," he said with a grimace. Clearly his defeat still smarted; but there was also a surprising amount of doubt in his eyes mixed with that fire and that intrigued Ryder. Still, his constant needling infuriated her too much for her to pay attention to anything else except how much she wanted to do something painful to him.

"We agreed on a truce, remember? That means we should agree on how to proceed," she gritted her teeth.

"A truce means that I don't kill you where you stand, I do not have to agree with you," he scowled.

"But since we're both stuck here, we should work together."

"I don't need your help, human, I will do this alone if you don't cooperate."

"You don't have dozens of Roekaar at your back to protect you down here! Or have you been playing at being the 'savior of the angara' too long to remember that RemTech is incredibly dangerous? We need to figure out this place before we go anywhere."

"So your plan is to just wait around until they succeed in killing the Moshae?" he demanded.

"My connection to SAM is weak," Ryder said flatly, "you need to be patient while he works out how to break through that dampening field, or whatever it is. The Moshae has all the protection the Initiative and the Resistance can muster, running headlong into Remnant bots and getting yourself killed is not going to help save anyone."

"According to you," Akksul scoffed. "You keep saying that as if your protection mattered."

Ryder shook her head. "Believe it or not, it's the truth. Now, we need to sit down and think this through," she added; she very much wanted to take a moment to evaluate the situation properly, if only Akksul could sit still long enough for her to make use of his supposed knowledge, but the suggestion definitely came in large part from an intense desire to curl up into a ball right there on the spot and just die.

Hours had passed since Zivrel had tossed them down the gravity well, but unfortunately her assessment of how well she adjusted to SAM's absence was proving to be inaccurate; the pain hadn't dulled even a little and though her nerves weren't exactly on fire as the first time, it was close enough that it put her on edge. Moving carefully, she suited her words and approached one of the containers, sinking down onto it gratefully and trying to appear at ease while feeling not even close to it.

"What is wrong with you?" Akksul frowned at her, tilting his head speculatively. It wasn't exactly concern in his voice, but Ryder had the feeling that he was a little fascinated despite himself. At least, this was the first time that his expression wasn't disdainful, arrogant or hostile; perhaps for the first time she was catching a glimpse of the Moshae's beloved student.

"It's nothing," Ryder answered, trying to smooth the suffering from her features, though nothing could smooth away the unbearably itching desire to do anything to stop that pain. If SAM didn't break through that barrier soon, she might just abandon dignity after a time and just thrash on the floor; but then again, if there was one thing that would keep her collected, it was the idea of Akksul watching such a display. He would not be given the satisfaction even if it killed her.

Akksul sneered. "You speak of truces and logic, yet you lie to my face. This is why I do not trust your kind, human."

Ryder closed her eyes for a moment. This was going to be a very long wait. "SAM is intrinsically connected to my physiology. That dampening field is partially cutting him off and therefore I am in incredible pain. Happy?"

Perhaps she shouldn't have revealed that to him; after all, it could be used against her, especially with the Roekaar in possession of that device, but she wasn't exactly thinking clearly at the moment. I hope I don't regret trusting you, she thought as she frowned at him, sure that he would start ranting about her weakness or humanity's lack of elegant and efficient designs or some other nonsense. To her surprise however, Akksul began to study her rather than making the smart remark she expected. It didn't last, of course, the moment he realized he had shown genuine interest in her unique connection to the AI he blinked at her, gave a noise of disgust and walked away from her, heading towards the inner chamber again. It had been the first thing he tried to do once their standoff ended, but this time she was afraid simple words wouldn't stop him.

"Akksul!" Ryder called after him. "Damn you, I'm not saving you if a bot tries to kill you!"

As expected, he ignored her.

Stubbornly she waited there for minutes that took an eternity to pass, determined to be the better woman and remain calm, ready to discuss strategy when he came crawling back once he realized there was only one way out. She tried passing the time by peering around at the containers, wondering what they held, then she tried to work out what possible function this structure could serve, since it clearly wasn't a vault based on the more uniform, spherical design, but every time a theory occurred to her she inevitably ran into the conclusion that she did need to explore the place to have any real answers. The thought infuriated her, imagining the mocking smile Akksul would flash at her the moment she turned up on his heels, but no matter how she looked at it she kept realizing that staying there was foolish.

There was no helping it; for all she knew, Akksul might have already been picked off by a bot or some trap he was sure to forget to check for, but one thing was certain: she couldn't sit still and hope for him to turn up alive. Not to mention that if he did find another way out by some miracle, she was certain he wouldn't come back for her. Muttering imprecations under her breath, she slid off the container and braced herself for the wash of aching pain that inevitably came every time she moved a muscle and hobbled after him. He was going to get himself killed and probably her along with him; she had no intention of letting that happen without at least putting up a fight.

I recomm— SAM's grating voice suddenly spoke in her mind, a painful slice that sent her hands to her head.

Once the agony finally stopped, Ryder opened her eyes and blinked, trying to clear her vision and reorient herself. How she was supposed to do anything except suffer in this condition she didn't know, only that she had to try even if it left her whimpering. When her breath came less forced and she felt a little more in control again, she started out on Akksul's trail again, eyes roaming over everything. Clearly SAM had been trying to say something significant to her; if he had tried to recommend that she do or make note of something down here, that meant that his sensory input was still intact and that there was something worth paying attention to. That could be useful, provided that he worked out how to talk to her again without giving her a splitting headache; at the moment, however, he hadn't said enough for her to understand.

"What did you want me to see, SAM?" she muttered, eyes travelling up the glowing pillars, watching their etchings pulse with a glow that made them seem alive. There was something rigidly symmetrical in the way they were organized here which she hadn't seen in vaults before, but then, there was no telling if that had any significance whatsoever. She did notice, however, that the odd lights that kept popping up in the vaults seemed to be absent here, as if the place had been completely stripped of everything but the walls themselves.

Gunfire.

Ryder stared for a moment before breaking into a run as best she could, trying to accept the pain and ignore it. Twice she started down a corridor and she began to hear a subtle difference in the sound of gunfire that told her she was leaving it behind and she backtracked, gritting her teeth and promising herself things she would do to Akksul for forcing her to exert herself this much. The third time she turned around she skidded to a halt in the connecting chamber she had been trying to get out of since minutes, cautiously eyeing the silvery ferrofluid coursing around the sides gently gurgling like mystical rivers, but when faced with three identical passageways across from her she suddenly realized that she had no idea which one she had emerged from originally.

"I'm going to strangle that man," Ryder said, picking one at random and hoping that this time it was the right one.

To her relief, it was indeed the right corridor, which she learned as a something sheared through the edge of her shields only to burn its way into a pillar behind her where the corridor bended and she rolled to the side. Tried to roll at least; she ended up an aching, tangled mess, but she made the most of it and approached the meager shelter the chamber's archway offered, unholstering her weapon. Where were those convenient hiding places? Her experiences so far suggested that every Remnant structure seemed to have military function in that way, with choke points, shields and blast panels, although she was ready to admit that they might have served an entirely different purpose originally. Still, their absence here bothered her.

Akksul was just ahead on the opposite side, also hiding behind the edge of the archway that let into the neighboring chamber, firing shots at what looked like a writhing multitude of bots that occasionally coiled in his direction. She couldn't see much from where she was, but from what she did see the chamber was identical to the room she just left, except maybe the light coming from the pillars was slightly different. She groaned softly; navigating this particular structure would be even worse than finding her way in the vaults.

As she cautiously moved closer she couldn't help but study the archway itself; it was unlike any Remnant architecture she had seen before, though she wasn't sure exactly what it was about it that was so different. She didn't have time to contemplate it as a snakelike bot with a myriad of oddly positioned legs suddenly broke off from the mass and rushed at her; she shot it, but to her surprise the pieces broke apart and the swarm kept on crawling towards her. Worse, those 'legs' abruptly twisted as if alive and began to pellet her with looked like needles; it seemed perplexingly harmless as a weapon, but to her astonishment her shields began to buckle almost instantly and she rolled away again, trying to get out of its line of fire.

"Shoot the head!" Akksul shouted at her.

"Where is its head?" Ryder demanded irritably, dodging around painfully as the pieces of the snake bot tried to swarm her, heart racing from the effort and breath coming shorter each time she had to jump away or roll to the side. Why wasn't any of it attacking Akksul?

Akksul scoffed. "The one with the eye, what did you think?"

Grimacing, she spotted one with an unusual round marking on it and shot, but missed, hand still too unsteady to aim at such a quick target properly. Dancing back to stay out of reach, eventually a bullet did find the eye and abruptly all the pieces clattered and rolled away lifelessly, the faint glow along its body fading. Gasping for air, she hobbled back to the side to avoid those needles and whatever else kept firing at them; it wasn't a turret, but something in that room was intent on keeping them out. Every millimeter of her screamed for her to sit down and rest for a spell, but she gritted her teeth and took cover opposite Akksul, trying to lay down suppressive fire to keep more of the bots from crawling out.

"I've never seen these before," she said a little breathlessly, glancing at him. She did a double take as she saw another, much larger snake bot ghosting along the walls above, aiming straight for Akksul; without thinking her weapon rose to it and she unloaded as many bullets into it as she could, hoping that at least one hit its mark, but to her horror the bullets just glanced off its plating.

"What are you doing?" Akksul demanded, glaring at her, but he didn't have time to react before the bot struck, coiling itself around him so fast it seemed as though one instant he was free, the next he was buried in darkly metallic coils that appeared far too supple compared to how resistant it was to bullets.

"Shit!" Ryder exclaimed, leaping from her cover to run to him, firing blindly into the room and ducking her head as best she could.

Akksul was gasping for air, struggling with all his strength but the bot kept coiling and tightening around him. There wasn't a moment to lose; ignoring the risk to herself, she reached out a hand and tried to summon the same control that coursed through her when SAM manipulated RemTech, hoping enough of SAM's connection was in her to pull it off. A fresh wave of agony washed through her and she felt something strain…

With a keening noise and a crash that made the floor vibrate the bot fell lifelessly to the floor and Akksul scrambled out, stepping away gingerly but without delay. Ryder sank to her knees, consumed by the molten fire in her veins and the sizzling, brittle ice of her bones, trembling like a leaf. Her breath was labored and spots danced before her eyes; she couldn't have moved if her life depended on it. She mustered energy enough to raise her head and looked into the chamber, expecting to see five more of those monstrous snake things going straight for her along with a dozen smaller ones with their needles, but all she saw was the roiling mass converging on that one central spot. She was in plain sight of all of them but to her dizzying relief they completely ignored her.

"Something got their attention," Ryder said weakly, then cleared her throat, forcing herself to get off her hands and knees. She only managed to sit back on her heels, but at least it was more dignified; moving too much made her nauseous and the last thing she needed was to embarrass herself by emptying her stomach.

"They're reassembling that one," Akksul said, nodding at the bot Ryder had disabled. He looked vaguely uncomfortable, but clearly he wasn't about to thank her. "If my assumption is correct that bot was connected to the smaller ones in some way, only a few came at me after a while… now I know why."

"Then I suggest we get out of here before they succeed," Ryder said, glaring at him. She risked her life for the man and all he could do was coolly analyze the situation? "Now will you listen and not run around without a plan?" She wouldn't say anything, but both of them knew she had the leverage of having saved his life and she didn't hesitate to press her advantage.

"While you plan and coddle yourself the Moshae could be in danger," Akksul snarled at her, "I will not sit around and let that happen!"

"Danger you put her in," Ryder pointed out. I can't do that again, she thought to herself, examining her handiwork before looking down at her shaking hands. Well, she hadn't really expected Akksul to honor the unspoken bond of saving him; considering that, next time she was determined to just let him die, even if the thought of being trapped down here alone made her shiver.

"There is a way out of here and I will find it," Akksul continued as if she hadn't spoken, eyes roaming over the bots, the walls and finally the bot that had almost crushed him. "Since you are no help," he ignored Ryder's splutter of indignation, "I have to rely on my own knowledge of the Remnant."

"You really are a piece of work," Ryder muttered, trying to summon the strength to stand. She managed it, feeling a little stronger now that the nausea had subsided and her nerves felt less like live wires.

Akksul scowled, turned on his heel and walked away without another word.

Ryder grimaced. "Damn you, Akksul," she said, but his footsteps were already fading. Gritting her teeth, she glanced one last time over her shoulder to make sure nothing was following them and tried to catch up to the insufferable man, clutching her stomach and taking deep, steady breaths.

Just as she reached the outer chamber she glimpsed him striding confidently down another corridor, weapon only casually held ready. Careful to step wide of the ferrofluid, she started after him, wondering if he had any idea where he was going or if he was just as lost as she was. She paused a moment and counted nine archways in total. All of them looked identical as far as she could tell; she dearly wished for SAM and his navigation right then, but she was beginning to suspect that she shouldn't expect his return any time soon. Not knowing what else to do, she fired a bullet by the entrance to the corridor she had just emerged from to mark the spot. Finally she caught up to Akksul where he was cautiously creeping along the side of the wall, the silvery glow from the ferrofluid conduits behind him dappling his features with a surprising softness.

"What kind of idiot strategy is this?" Ryder demanded in a low hiss, joining him in his creep forward. "You're just going to provoke every bot down here until we have a horde out to kill us?"

"I'm finding a way out and you're not stopping me, human," Akksul retorted, but he also kept his voice low.

"You realize that most Remnant structures that are underground like this one have one exit, right? That means your only way out of here is the gravity well!"

Akksul rounded on her. "Then why aren't you there trying to make your AI work?"

She met his granite-gray glare with one of her own. "Because you ran off and got yourself pinned down in a firefight!"

"I do not require your help," he said irritably, but not as forcefully as before. Not even he could deny the fact that he likely would be dead by now without her; then again, knowing him he probably could and did.

"Well remind me next time not to save you from being crushed alive so I can save my strength," Ryder snapped, moving past him.

"Now who is rushing ahead?" Akksul asked and Ryder closed her eyes for a moment, gritting her teeth. "You talk about strategy yet you waste whatever power remains to you on killing Remnant bots instead of activating the well," he added and this time Ryder rounded on him.

"Yes! And I wouldn't have had to waste it if you had waited like I said you should!"

"And trust you?" Akksul narrowed his eyes. "If I hadn't come here you would have wasted away there without lifting a finger! Like all your kind you wait for others to serve you and fix everything."

"Who exactly do you think I'm waiting for?" Ryder asked angrily, confused.

"Your pet AI," he replied.

"SAM is not my pet!" Ryder glared.

A distant booming sound made them both cut off and look behind them. They exchanged a puzzled look, but both averted their eyes when they realized it. Ryder moved ahead and Akksul followed silently. She suspected that like her, he was wondering if they had inadvertently triggered something by killing that monstrous bot; either way, it suddenly seemed very sensible to keep pressing on.

It didn't take them long to reach another archway that lead into yet another chamber, except this one was much larger than any of the ones they had seen before. Cautiously entering and looking around, she thought even her ship could fit into it lengthwise, though maybe the circumference of the chamber wasn't quite large enough. All around there were pillars rigidly arranged equidistant to each other, glowing with a faint blueish light she had never seen on a Remnant pillar before. In the center of the room there was some sort of dais that reminded her of the entrances to the vaults, but something about this place made her uneasy in a way that no vault ever had.

"I don't see a gravity well controller here," Ryder said softly. Not that it mattered; if she wasn't strong enough to operate the first one, she certainly couldn't have used another, especially after what she had done to that bot.

"Clearly this works differently," Akksul said, moving past her.

"Wait! You don't know what it does," Ryder grabbed his arm, but he slipped through her fingers easily.

Before Akksul could reply, a rumble deep underground made the floor vibrate beneath their feet and the dais began to split open, a loud whirring building in power as the doors grew farther apart. Before either of them could react, what looked like a shimmering swarm emerged from below, a milling mass of sparking light that danced with amazing precision, drawing geometrical patterns in the air.

"I don't like this," Ryder said uneasily; as the words left her lips the swarm expanded to fill the entire room and like a storm of comets, they fell.