[Author's Note: shout-out to my good friend Walkeroflonelyroads, who prodded and helped me greatly, until I finally finished this chapter! Go read his stuff!]
Chapter 9: Moments
"Where is a Roekaar when you actually need one?" Ryder grumbled, chest tight and knuckles white as she gripped her gun. She coughed from the grit coating her throat the moment she opened her mouth, the air leaving an acrid taste on her tongue.
Based on the allocation of Initiative people it is likely that Akksul was aboard a vanguard shuttle with the Resistance, SAM intoned.
Ryder let out a shaky laugh that almost turned into a sob. "Not helping, SAM," she replied. "Can you map what happened? Where each shuttle went down?" Her eyes went to the wreckage she saw in the distance near the silos; all the men and women those shuttles had been carrying were either dead or locked in combat with RemTech bots likely none of them had ever seen before.
It will take me a moment. Please continue surveying the area to reconstruct the attack.
"I can already tell where some of the Resistance landed," Ryder nodded in the direction of the silos, "he could be there in the thick of it. He might already be dead for all we know!"
It is a possibility, Pathfinder. I will be able to tell more with a completed map.
Holding her weapon as steady as she could, Ryder carefully walked around the shuttle's immediate vicinity and began her scans as SAM requested, keeping one eye on the battle nearby in case one of the bots spotted her, but she didn't go very far; the Moshae was still in the shuttle, unconscious and helpless. Noxious fumes swirled red and blue as the jungle around the silos burned, making visibility dodgy at best, but even if it made her lungs sting Ryder was grateful for it; probably the smoke was the only thing that kept her alive at the moment. After the quick sweep, she determined the perimeter was clear and decided she could risk taking a moment to consider what to do next while SAM compiled the data she'd gathered.
Analyzing, SAM said, then fell silent.
None of the bots were close enough to see her where she had stopped, but she was sure that if this was the targeted strike she suspected, sooner or later the bots would notice not all the shuttles successfully brought down short of the silos had been destroyed; getting the Moshae out and away as quickly as possible was imperative. Only… the tightness in her chest increased as her eyes strayed to the smoldering piles of debris again littered all around the field where the bulk of the escort shuttles had gone down. A light rain began to sprinkle over them, the pleasantly cool droplets on her face making her wonder how long it would take for those fires to go out if it rained proper. After a moment she wiped water out of her eyes, hand shaking as she started to shiver; the cooler air clung to her armor, chilling it.
I recommend we wait here, SAM said finally.
"What?" Ryder asked, frowning. "SAM, I can't protect the Moshae from that, not alone," she gestured to the battle, though she felt foolish for doing it. If Akksul saw her now, he'd probably start a derisive monologue about anthropomorphizing the AI in her head, or something to that effect. Suddenly the volume of the yells and screams of human and angara alike seemed to drop noticeably; that definitely wasn't a good sign. "What's to say the bots won't sweep the area and eliminate all organics or something? Sounds like they're doing a good job of it already," she added grimly.
It is likely that in the event of his survival, Akksul will forego the main battle to search for the Moshae, and this is the most likely place for the shuttle to have gone down based on the available trajectory data. In your current condition I would not advise confronting a force this powerful, waiting is preferable for the moment.
"Right," Ryder nodded, buoyed by sudden hope bubbling in her chest. He could find me still, she thought with relief. The tightness eased a little and she suddenly had to contend with tears in the back of her throat, but she managed to swallow them; SAM hadn't promised her anything, but somehow the way the AI had phrased it, she could draw strength from it. "Right. The shuttle is useless, it might as well have been wet tissue paper against whatever it was that hit us and an intact shuttle is a target. We need to get the Moshae out and ready her for transport when Akksul gets here." It was when and not if; the former Roekaar leader was nothing if not too stubborn to die.
I would recommend waiting only a short amount of time, however. The Resistance and Initiative engaged with the enemy will not last much longer.
"Is it safe to stay here? Do you think we'd be targets around debris?"
Much less so than an intact shuttle. The kinetic barriers failed the moment we were hit, I do not believe it will come online again unless we repair it, but it would be time consuming.
"Then a soggy safe spot will have to do."
Ryder closed her eyes for a moment, straining her ears and praying that the silence gradually settling over the area like an uneasy sunset meant the enemy had either moved on or her people and the Resistance had managed to disengage and retreat. Even if that were true though, the casualties were already high the moment they were shot out of the sky; the butcher's bill was going to be hard to swallow no matter what.
"We lead them into a slaughter…" she said softly, opening her eyes again before climbing into the shuttle to retrieve the Moshae. It made her feel sick, but she could only spare a bare moment to mourn the dead; she had to focus on who she could save. Moving Sjefa as gently as she could, Ryder tried to carry her out in such a way that her injuries didn't get worse from all the tussle, but some bumps here and there were inevitable; she hoped she wasn't making the situation worse by moving her. On her way out she clumsily extracted a blanket from one of the shuttle's compartments, but she couldn't quite reach the med kit with her burden.
There was nothing to indicate this would be the result of our actions, Pathfinder, SAM said.
"Those bots never saw the light of day before we released them," Ryder snapped, not willing to partake of the comfort SAM offered. "Just… don't try to make me feel better, SAM."
Yes, Pathfinder.
She laid the angaran scientist on the ground hidden in a bed of mist behind a hollow carved out by bits of another shuttle and draped the blanket over the area to shelter Sjefa from the rain, but before she could retrieve the med kit to treat the angaran's wounds, a noise made her draw her weapon, focus flooding her mind. Surely a bot would not creep up on her stealthily, they had all the advantage here, in numbers if nothing else, so it would have likely resorted to a direct attack; however, it was just as dangerous for her allies to come up on her unawares in the increasingly poor visibility, so she crouched low in front of the Moshae, shielded by the earth bank dug up during the crash and waited quietly.
Another snap.
Slowly counting the seconds in her head as no one and nothing emerged from the thickening smoke, Ryder finally took a steadying breath, slowly getting up from her crouch before moving towards where the noise had come from. The light sprinkle turned into a steady downpour that battled the flames around the field, smoke roiling in response like coiled serpents lashing out in anger at the sky. It stung her eyes a little and the air burned in her lungs, each painful breath misted before her and her hands trembled from the cold, every exposed part of her soaking, but she ignored her discomfort. After walking the perimeter one more time, she began to relax, heading back to the Moshae's side. It must have been an animal, frightened away by something in the increasingly inhospitable field.
Without warning, a figure emerged directly in front of her and her gun was up and aimed in seconds, but she let her arms drop again almost immediately: Akksul was there, blue blood smeared across his face and chest, expression grim, though in his eyes Ryder saw the same surprise she herself felt; he must not have expected to stumble across her and the Moshae so quickly, or at least not in this particular spot.
"Akksul," Ryder gasped with relief, barely stopping herself from rushing up to him. Instead she looked him up and down, looking for injuries to account for all the blood on him, but it must not have all been his; there wasn't a visible wound on him anywhere apart from a small gash across his brow, but that certainly wasn't large or deep enough to account for it all.
"The Moshae?" the former Roekaar leader asked in a tight voice.
"Alive but injured," Ryder replied, looking over her shoulder to where the angaran scientist lay. "I haven't had a chance to do more than bring her out of the shuttle, in case the bots would target ."
Akksul growled deep in his throat as he approached the unconscious woman and touched the blood on her, and Ryder, suddenly wary of him, kept her distance. There was no telling how he would react to his mentor's injury sustained in her company, and she wasn't at all confident that he would stay his hand from harming her if he thought her somehow responsible. It was idiotic, just looking around clearly showed that something – someone – else was responsible for their crash, but she would never accuse Akksul of being overly rational that way, not with his history. Her heart went out to him as she thought it, though; he had gone through so much, and no matter how confident he was now she knew that inside he was still broken. It was why he was unstable in the first place, why he had turned xenophobic – and who could blame him really? She didn't forgive him for what he had done, but she understood and sympathized with the wounded soul inside him.
"When I get my hands on her," Akksul said venomously, straightening and looking around the devastated field; theirs wasn't the only ship to scar the soil with deep gouges, leaving all manner of flora flattened and smoldering in its wake. "All this for what? To make me become a better leader? Why they even bother with the fiction that they're after the Moshae for my sake, I don't know, but this," he nodded at the wrecked shuttle, "this would never have happened if they hadn't locked us down there. Did they think I would just sit still? After threatening the Moshae?"
Ryder almost swallowed her tongue in surprise. For once in his life, the man blamed the real enemy instead of the entirety of all aliens. She narrowed her eyes as she studied him surreptitiously; was it possible that she'd actually made an impression on him, changed his mind about more than just herself? Or was he struggling to change his attitude because of her? Either way, she wasn't about to put this newfound understanding between them to the test by diving into the subject of Zivrel and her role in the death and destruction cascading all around them; she decided keeping the ball rolling was the right play here.
"We need to get the Moshae to safety, Akksul," she said. "Did anyone come with you? Is your shuttle intact?" she asked, not really believing either thing possible, but hoping all the same.
Akksul shook his head. "The Resistance engaged the enemy; I volunteered to find the Moshae. My shuttle, along with our pilot, is in pieces."
"Of course they did… and of course you did," Ryder sighed.
"Don't forget 'of course it is'," Akksul continued the thought, surprisingly wry for the solemnity of the moment.
"Funny," Ryder smiled slightly, but her flicker of good humor was quick in passing. The problem was, moving was increasingly urgent and the jungle was definitely not much safer than lingering here in a field of wreckage. A stretcher would have been a nice idea, but with only the two of them, they would be defenseless for precious moments while one of them dropped the handles and reached for a weapon; after meeting some of the native species in this fluorescent jungle, she didn't want to chance being out there without one of them going guns ready.
"I wanted to find you as well, though I did not say it," Akksul said abruptly. Ryder opened her mouth, perplexed, but he continued before she could utter a sound. "Don't think too much on it."
Ryder compressed her lips, but she did not pursue it. "Help me with her, I'll cover you," she said instead, approaching the Moshae, while trying not to sound like she felt, which at the moment was infuriated, confused and alone. Perhaps his intention had been to reassure her that she was important, too, but then he had to invalidate it like it meant nothing; was he toying with her?
Akksul frowned. "I know this terrain better than you, I should be the one guarding."
Perhaps 'understanding' was too strong a word to apply to their changed relationship, Ryder thought bitterly. More like they were still temporary allies in a forced partnership; the more time passed the more she did not like it. After this whole episode ended and they reached the daar perhaps she would let Akksul take over and go find her people by herself. She very much wanted to go home to a place where she was in control; she would have access to resources and hot showers alike, Lexi would fix her up under SAM's guidance and then the Roekaar would truly feel the honored distinction of being in the crosshairs of the human Pathfinding Team.
For the moment though, her reality was that she was still cold, miserable and destined for possibly hours' worth of relentless arguments with Akksul unless one of them relented to the other. Ryder gritted her teeth, returning her eyes to the Moshae helplessly. Now that she was so close, Ryder noticed Sjefa's tunic had shifted from all the movement earlier to reveal several bloodstains that seemed worse now than before in the shuttle. Biting her lip, she thought through the situation and finally came to a decision.
"Fine!" she said to Akksul, looking anywhere but at the man. "But I don't think we should move her before treating that wound," she nodded to Sjefa's left side, where her tunic was dampest from blood. When Akksul didn't move, she glared back up at him. "That was an invitation to help me," she said pointedly.
Thankfully, Akksul didn't need telling twice; in fact, he quietly handed her everything she asked for as she tended the Moshae's wounds. Glancing around, risk calculations started whirring in the back of her mind and by the time she was done with the wound, she decided they were safe enough for the moment to check for any other serious wounds and treat them. She could feel Akksul's disapproval at her slowness as she began feeling for broken bones, but to her relief she didn't have to delay them any longer – the Moshae was in as good a condition as could be expected, considering that she still hadn't regained consciousness. That worried her, but she didn't dawdle in scrambling to her feet, lifting the angaran scientist over her shoulder with Akksul's help.
"Make sure you follow my footsteps exactly," Akksul said, hurriedly stuffing the medical equipment they had unpacked into a startling amount of pockets he had on his person – including her gelpacks. She decided to let it slide for the time being.
Ryder clenched her jaw. "I'll try," she said in a tight voice, then firmly started off without him.
Muttering, the former Roekaar leader caught up with her quickly and took the lead, but not before giving her a flat look. There was a hint of dryness about him, though; Ryder rather thought that she was finally rubbing off on him. Or at least, he knew her well enough by now to know that arguing with her would only end with him having to admit – at least to himself – that he was wrong; clearly the man learned from stepping in that particular pit several times now with her.
It didn't take long for the Pathfinder's and the former Roekaar leader's quiet cooperation to begin to fray, unfortunately; it was hard to keep in step with the angaran while staggering under the Moshae's weight after they had been walking – and dodging carnivorous beasts every other minute it seemed like – for over an hour, if Ryder judged the passage of time correctly; it was hard to tell from the ground. The sounds of the tail end of the battle were long faded behind them, and the only evidence that there was something amiss in the jungle were the plumes of smoke rising off in the distance and the occasional distant cry; and they only even glimpsed that the few times they reached a break in the dazzling deep blueish-purple canopy.
Craning her head skyward, she glimpsed a dirty silver stream again, much smaller against the yawing stars than the last time she'd seen one. "Alright," Ryder gasped, unsteadily approaching a giant glowing mushroom before slinging the Moshe down as gently as she could to lean against it, the older woman's chin falling to her chest limply. "That's far enough, we're stopping now." Before Akksul could even growl in protest, she sank the rest of the way to the ground beside the Moshae, then rolled on her back, groaning.
"Those are poisonous!" Akksul exclaimed, rushing over and pulling the Moshae away.
"Not sure I care," Ryder said hoarsely, gripping her ribs in agony. She felt oddly compressed after jumping around with someone on her shoulder, but already she felt better, feeling the relaxation of being free of her burden run numbly over her, making her feel drowsy.
"You could have killed her," the irritating man grumbled, a voice that strangely lulled her in that moment; it didn't matter what he was saying, so long as he was saying something. She let the sounds of the jungle wash over her, the strange calls of wild animals native to this strange place out of a fantasy, the feel of the gentle evening breeze on her cheeks, rustling her hair...
Surprising, cool fingers found hers as her arm was lifted around Akksul's shoulders and that jolted her awake well enough. She gasped when he suddenly pulled her up, then helped her a few feet away, before setting her down, a little unceremoniously, beside where he'd already lain the Moshae in the hollow of a giant tree that looked like dripped wax, all melted together with holes in between.
"Thanks," she muttered, remaining sitting up as best she could to keep from falling asleep. The ground seemed so invitingly soft at that moment that she wondered at how she had never observed that before about it, but in the back of her mind she knew it was her body screaming for rest and fooling her mind into thinking anything was comfortable enough for a little sleep right then.
"You could have killed yourself, too," Akksul said hesitantly, trying to inject severity into his voice but not entirely succeeding in the venture. He was going soft on her!
Ryder smiled wryly. "You're just used to helping me now," she said.
Akksul snorted, but didn't deny it; and then, a silence began to settle between them – an uncomfortable one. Ryder's eyes slid to the Moshae, feeling hesitant to speak in front of the woman about what she really wanted to find out, even though the woman was clearly unconscious. A glance at Akksul told her that he was just as uncomfortable with the idea.
"So," Ryder said after a long moment, finally unable to bear the unspoken questions any longer. "You said…" she tried to make herself continue, but she quickly gave up and just hoped he would infer what she was asking.
A muscle twitched in Akksul's jaw. "So," he repeated slowly, looking a little unsure, clearly as if he didn't know what she was getting at and just as clearly determined to wait her out, judging by his expression.
Ryder sighed in frustration. "Well, you're not much of a conversationalist," she forced out a laugh.
"And you are good at deflecting your inability to speak to me," Akksul pointed out.
"I wasn't!" Ryder exclaimed, laughter vanishing. She rather felt like she'd just been goosed of all things, but surely he wasn't right. Was he? "How..?" she furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, but anger quickly replaced it. "Oh, so suddenly you pay attention and have mapped the human psyche? You think I'm evading?" she scoffed. "You're one to talk."
"You're doing it again," he said simply, smirking.
Ryder glared. "Well I don't see you bringing up anything without prodding," she snapped.
"I will carry the Moshae from now on, but we must move." He got up and she copied him with some difficulty.
"That's it?" Ryder frowned at him. "We're not talking?"
"You may talk if you wish," Akksul replied with a nonchalant shrug.
"Now who's changing the subject and evading?" she crossed her arms. Instead of arguing like she expected however, the infuriating man clearly began to politely wait for her to do all the talking. It wasn't fair, she decided. Of all the times to start being an attentive listener like she had wished so many times, it had to be now? She sighed wearily. "Fine, just… let's rest for a few more minutes."
Abruptly he stepped closer before she could move to sit by the Moshae again, gazing down at her seriously and letting an entirely unexpected worry show in his expression. Ryder realized she must have looked beat; she felt pretty used up. Perhaps she should ignore her aching body and just push through, but just the thought of fighting their way through the jungle the rest of the way to the daar made her want to curl up and fall asleep, even if she wasn't the one carrying Sjefa the rest of the way. Trying to reassure Akksul that she was fine, she gave him a small smile and started to turn away, but he caught her arm, pulling her back and even closer than she had been before; his eyes were on her lips, and suddenly she felt it – the kiss that had not yet happened, but that he was definitely thinking about. She swooned a little closer, unable to stop herself even had she wanted to, surprised at how ready she was to give herself over to whatever it was sparking between them. She reached up to touch his face, but hesitated.
"Neither one of you… knows how to talk... about feelings," the Moshae said weakly into the moment, startling both of them. They jumped apart, though on his part Ryder thought Akksul was not nearly as embarrassed as she was; by his expression, he was merely happy to see Sjefa awake again.
"Shovaan!" Akksul exclaimed, going to her and taking her hand. "Are you alright? Where does it hurt?"
"Everywhere," Sjefa replied, using Akksul's arm to sit herself up despite his grunt of protest. "But I will live, I think."
"Professor, you hit your head pretty hard, it would be best if you stayed lying down," Ryder said, going to the angaran scientist's other side to crouch beside her.
"Nonsense," the Moshae shook her head, though a wince of pain gave her the lie. "Where are we?" she looked around at the jungle, blinking a little groggily as she fully regained consciousness.
Ryder's eyes caught Akksul's and she felt herself react involuntarily, nostrils flaring as her heartbeat quickened, but she quickly broke eye contact. That seemed to fix the problem of the unbidden, shockingly salacious thoughts that the former Roekaar leader evoked in her in that moment – for the time being, at least. She couldn't do anything about her suddenly burning face, though. Why did he have to addle her senses just when the Moshae woke up? She needed to keep her wits about her around the angaran scientist and thinking about Akksul's warm, electric touch or the hunger in his eyes – just like they had been on the night they had spent together – was not helping. She almost groaned, realizing that she was thinking about what almost happened anyway; getting lost in the details, in fact. She cleared her throat.
"We were attacked," she said calmly. "Whatever we unleashed, it's… it's far worse than we feared. Hundreds, if not thousands, of bots were pouring out of the silos when I last saw them, killing our people who were shot down closer to doors than we were."
"From the silos – from the inside?" Sjefa asked, startled. "Are you sure?"
"It's a little hard to miss," Ryder said wryly, but her momentary humor evaporated instantly as she recalled what she had witnessed.
"I must see it," the angaran woman said firmly.
"Moshae, I don't think you understand what I'm saying," Ryder replied a little reluctantly. She didn't want to be put in a position, again, where she got on Sjefa's bad side, but this whole expedition had been a terrible idea to start with; continuing on despite everything going wrong already seemed like an even worse idea. "If we go anywhere near those things the only thing that will remain of us are stains to be trampled into fertilizer underfoot to that horde."
"You said they were emptying out – that will eventually stop, if it hasn't already," the Moshae insisted.
Akksul buried his face in one of his large hands. "You have been seriously injured, Shovaan," he said pleadingly.
"You will help me if I need it I imagine," she looked around herself as if looking for something. "I still have perfectly good legs that can walk."
"It's a war zone back there!" Ryder tried again.
"Pathfinder," Sjefa pinned her down with a sharp, clear stare. "Enough excuses. From both of you," she added, glancing at Akksul. "I always knew there would be danger, one does not study the Remnant without expecting the worst – I may be old compared to you, but I am not as frail as you seem to think."
"We just went to all the trouble of carrying you away from there," Ryder said weakly. Just remembering the experience made her muscles bunch up painfully; the woman wasn't exactly easy to balance on her shoulders while avoiding having her ankles bitten off.
The Moshae didn't even deign to reply to such a pathetic argument, she merely gave her a flat look, and Ryder couldn't really blame her for it. She had been unconscious at the time, and therefore unable to make her wishes clear; though truthfully, the thought had likely crossed both their minds that she would have wanted to stay, they had wanted her spirited away back behind the safety of Daar Toshaar's impressive walls. Akksul looked away for a long moment, evidently contemplating.
"The both of you have turned insufferable since this foolishness with the Roekaar," Sjefa broke the silence. "Before this neither one of you treated me like an invalid. So what has changed?"
Akksul looked troubled by her words. "It is different now," he said finally.
"How?" Sjefa demanded.
He shrugged uncomfortably, eyes fixing on the ground in shame. "I created them, Moshae… and now they are coming for you. It would break me if something happened to you because of what I have done."
"You're already broken, Akksul," the Moshae said gently. "Do not let that guide you. You've learned better than that by now."
Finally he nodded, shoulders relaxing visibly. "You are right, Shovaan. I will double back and make sure the bots are gone. If I'm not back by dusk, do not follow." Without another word or even a glance in Ryder's direction to get her input, he left.
"As to you," the Moshae said once Akksul's light footsteps faded away, piercing gaze once more on Ryder, "why do you feel it your personal responsibility to take care of me?"
Ryder felt like squirming, but she schooled herself to stillness. "I would take care of anyone injured under my command – not to say I have authority over you," she amended hastily at the dangerous flashing in the Moshae's eyes, "I mean to say, I try to look out for people on my team." That wasn't much better, but at least she didn't feel like the angaran was going to skewer her with her gaze any longer.
"You do it for him," Sjefa said speculatively after a moment. "I wonder what he would say to that?"
"No," Ryder spluttered, mortified. "No! I act on my conscience alone, I do not pander to others like that."
"I never said you did that," the angaran scientist replied. "I do not blame you for trying to connect with him through me, but you should know that there are far deeper things in his heart where I have no place, I am no key to him. I know I told you earlier to help him if you can, but you must be careful not to lose yourself in the process – be wary when exploring those depths, they are treacherous, even if he is not, at least not intentionally."
Ryder let out an incredulous laugh. "There isn't anything I could say to the contrary that will convince you I'm not interested, is there?"
"Do not insult my intelligence," Sjefa said sternly. "He is like a son to me – I know when someone holds his heart."
Ryder stared, not sure how to respond to that. Holds his heart? she wondered inwardly, then felt something inside her loosen in defeat, eliciting a long sigh. "I… don't know what to make of the situation," she said despondently. "One minute he's my enemy to the death, the next I find myself in his arms, and ever since then I haven't been able to make sense of anything at all. I don't know what I feel, let alone what he feels – I don't even know if he's still my enemy or not sometimes!"
The Moshae smiled, rather smugly. "He's not your enemy anymore, I should think. I had no idea things had gone that far!" The delight in her voice made Ryder blush furiously; she hadn't intended to be so forward about it, but she realized she desperately wanted to talk about the whole relationship with someone who understood Akksul. The Moshae didn't have to sound so pleased about it, though, as if Ryder was a much groomed child who recited her lesson perfectly. "He has many flaws," Sjefa continued, "but disloyalty is not one of them. If he managed to see past the fact that you are human and if he bonded to you, he will consider you in that light from now on."
Ryder snorted. "He sure has a funny way of showing it sometimes."
She remembered again the almost kiss that had passed between them earlier; maybe the Moshae was right, maybe he did see themselves as being… what? They had been in a hopeless situation, locked together and desperate; it hadn't exactly been a romantic moment of realization that they felt something toward one another. Now that she thought about it though, he had been acting differently around her, though; as if he struggled as much with where to place her in his life as she struggled with him. Could he think that now they were in a relationship? What even constituted an angaran relationship? She felt like her head was going to explode from the burning questions dodging around her mind like mad pinballs.
"What do you suggest I do?" Ryder asked finally.
"Be patient," Sjefa replied. "These things tend to work themselves out."
Ryder nodded. It wasn't what she wanted to hear, but she also happened to agree.
A comfortable silence settled between them, the Moshae settling back into the hollow to rest while Ryder stood and walked around, weapon ready, making sure nothing snuck up on them while they waited, but she stopped frequently to watch the angaran breathe. The medigel was doing its work on Sjefa's wounds, but Ryder still wasn't sure whether the blow to her head had been bad enough to warrant concern. The tightness around the scientist's eyes indicated that at the very least she had a headache, but she had seemed alert during their conversation and her words hadn't been slurred, so perhaps she had been spared a serious concussion. Or maybe angaran physiology was different that way; she would have to ask Akksul about it privately and figure out how to treat someone who was so adamantly opposed to doing anything that hindered her work.
When Akksul finally returned in what seemed like an eternity later, Ryder glanced at the sky, noting that he had cut it fairly close; the light was fading fast, entering the twilight hour. Looking over her shoulder at where the Moshae was resting, it was obvious she had fallen asleep; that afforded them a moment to themselves, but disappointingly Akksul merely looked vaguely uncomfortable as he approached her, finally just giving her a nod that the coast was clear before going to Sjefa's side to wake her. Ryder holstered her weapon and with a sigh approached the two angarans. Undoubtedly Akksul would insist on taking point again and she would have to assist the Moshae; but when the angaran woman stood, she waved Ryder's help away, so instead she took rear guard.
"SAM, can you detect the bots?" Ryder asked quietly, ignoring the disapproving frown Akksul shot her over his shoulder.
Not directly, but I may be able to track them if you interface with a Remnant terminal at the silos. There may be information on their destination and purpose recorded there, SAM replied.
"Right, well, lucky for you that's exactly where we're going."
The three of them made their way back slowly and cautiously, listening and watching for any indications that bots were nearby, but nothing stirred – nothing at all, not even the usual wildlife roaming the jungle. That made Ryder nervous; when the animals went silent, danger was always close behind. As they drew closer they finally did hear something: distant screams, roughly from the direction the bots had entered the jungle, which gave Ryder a rough idea of their movements at least, but she still wished SAM could detect their immediate presence so she could make absolutely sure they weren't being tracked. She would not like to meet one of those arachnid bots in the increasingly dark jungle armed with weapons that evidently weren't effective enough against them; the battle from earlier in the day was indication enough of that.
"The silo doors are closed again," Ryder remarked as they finally entered the field where their shuttles had been shot down, squinting at the massive structures. The smoke had dissipated by now, but the smell of ash and burning synthetic materials were still thick in the air, with hints of the sickening, sweetish smell of burning flesh that made her want to gag.
"Yes, they were already closed when I came," Akksul said.
Ryder gave him a flat look. "You didn't think to mention that?" she asked dryly. "That's a pretty significant change."
"You would have seen it sooner or later," he replied in much the same tone.
"Come, children, no more bickering," Sjefa said before Ryder even opened her mouth to reply.
By the time they reached the silos and climbed up the massive roots seemingly swallowing the structure to where the angaran scientists had previously opened what looked like a maintenance entrance on the rim of the giant doors, the jungle was bathed in a blanket comforting shadows that hid the scars left by the battle that had raged there hours ago, the luminescence of the plants dappling the landscape like a sea of fairies. From as high up as they were, Ryder thought she could have made out the closest daar had there been more light, although the jungle likely still obscured much of what the angarans had built. Even though Havarl was healing again since her team had landed here, the jungle had had a lot of time to grow right over everything, against all attempts to hold the diseased flora and fauna at bay.
"Any sign of activity?" Ryder called out softly to Akksul, who had entered first to make sure nothing was lurking in wait.
A long moment passed.
"Nothing," he finally called out, and without waiting the Moshae immediately stepped in after him.
The first thing Ryder noticed was the frosty blue snaking along the walls and the architecture of the place: again, there was something rigid about the way the hallway they entered bended, as if someone had painstakingly measured every degree of every block to make sure that it was a perfect zig-zag. It wasn't exactly unexpected, Ryder had been in Remnant sites that were unlike any others she had seen and she thought it foolish to assume that the Jardaan were a single body without any differences or even cultures, maybe even species; after all, humanity itself was far from homogenous and every age they lived and built things produced designs and styles that varied greatly from that of the previous eras. There was something very different about the dead sites, though, she was increasingly certain of it; she wasn't sure she could put her finger on it exactly, but there was a difference.
Akksul noticed, too; he gave her a meaningfully grim stare before moving deeper inside. The Moshae took the lead after a few steps to guide them to where her team had been researching the site, which she explained was the closest room to where she approximated the doors to be, though there were no windows or exits to indicate that anything was beyond that point except for what their own eyes saw from the outside. Ryder expected more of the same oddness once they reached it, but instead what greeted her was a room almost exactly like the one Akksul and she had visited before the flooding began, with a single green-lit pillar pulsing in the center; the only difference was, this one wasn't broken and it wasn't blocking anything. Instead, she saw the floor had been designed to cut away around it and the pillar went down a very long way.
"The symbols," Akksul said, reaching out a hand to the pillar but stopping short of touching it. Touching unfamiliar RemTech in dead sites was something they had both learned to be extra cautious about.
"Are they the same?" Ryder asked.
Analyzing, SAM answered.
"I think so," Akksul said.
Ryder, I believe I have part of the puzzle.
"What?" Ryder demanded, holding up a hand to Akksul when he opened his mouth in confusion. He understood suddenly that she was conversing with SAM and snorted softly, shaking his head.
Based on the similarities to angaran languages and Remnant data you have gathered, these inscriptions might translate as 'mother of vengeance', or perhaps 'return' may be a closer word.
"It says 'mother of vengeance' of all things," Ryder repeated in bemusement to her companions.
"You can interpret this dialect?" the Moshae asked, brow lifting in surprise and perhaps a hint of respect.
"It's that thing in her head, not her," Akksul said before Ryder could respond.
"Either way," Ryder gritted her teeth, "I think it means we are all in a lot more trouble than we thought before."
"Extraordinary," the Moshae said, studying the room.