Mass Effect Andromeda Abridged
Chapter Three: Habitat 7
Was Scott Ryder afraid as he tumbled through the air toward the surface of Habitat 7? Yes, he was, and shrieking like a banshee until remembering one of the other features of the Pathfinder team's environmental suits; the built in thrusters inside the back and legs, which the young man's father had called jump jets. Normally used to navigate hostile terrain by giving the wearer the ability to jump several times higher than a normal person as well as dash much more quickly, a few boosts from the jump jets would have been all Scott needed in order to slow himself down enough to not get smeared across the rocks below.
"Warning: I detect a malfunction in the jump jets." SAM's voice said after a couple unsuccessful attempts to fire them. "This application needs to be closed. Would you like to send an error report to help us improve your experience?"
"No, just restart the jump jets!" Scott screamed as the ground continued to get closer. "SAM, restart the God damn jump jets right the hell…
Suddenly there was solid ground a lot closer as one of the floating mountains passed underneath him, causing the young man to bounce hard, and then begin rolling down its steep, gravelly slope. The whole world was spinning now as he rolled and bounced, feeling every impact even through the armored recon suit, but then he was falling again. Realizing that he was in freefall once again, Scott had just started to scream, when it was cut off by the sideways impact of another floating mountain. Now rolling in the opposite direction on an even steeper slope, rocks and loose gravel came rolling along with him as he reached the edge of the floating mass, and managing to stop himself by grabbing onto a rock that was sticking out… until that broke off in his hand.
Letting go of the rock as he flipped over backwards, Scott got a glimpse of what looked like some kind of giant, glowing mushroom, before he slammed into it at full speed, only to be bounced back up into the air. Unfortunately, the young man was bounced slightly to the left, causing him to miss the mushroom on the way back down, making him crash hard down onto the surface of the planet. Dazed and dizzy, for a minute or two Scott was unable to even sit up, but when he finally managed to roll over onto his back, he realized that it was suddenly hard to breathe. No, he hadn't broken his ribs or anything, there was a small crack in the visor of his helmet, but that was easily fixed with a few taps on the old omni-tool.
"Your error has been resolved." SAM's voice said, startling him as the crack was fixed. "Now firing jump jets."
"What?" Scott asked as he felt the thrusters power up. "No, wait, SAM, don't fire the…
Suddenly the thrusters in his back and legs ignited, making the young man scream again as he was launched across the terrain. Dragged face first through some heavily graveled mud, Scott flipped forward right over the edge of the nearest cliff, but thankfully it was only about a three meter drop to another one of those giant glowing mushrooms… which he missed by only a couple feet before landing on the rocks. Now the jump jets cooled down, allowing the dazed, startled young man to finally sit up just as some thunder was heard crackling above. Tilting his head upward, Scott's eyes widened when he saw a very black cloud gathering right above his personal crash site.
"You have got to be kidding me?" He said as the cloud started to crackle. "SAM, locate possible shelter… SAM?"
There was no response from the super computer, but thankfully it really had fixed the jump jets because a burst from them was all that saved the young man from getting fried by the lightning that came a moment later. Dashing forward into an awkward kind of crawling motion, Scott had to roll and jump in order to avoid the lightning strikes that almost seemed to be after him specifically. However, the cloud was rolling in faster than he could dash, and him going right underneath one of the giant mushrooms, and causing it to be fried in the process, was all that kept the young man alive long enough to reach the mouth of a nearby cave. The lightning didn't seem to like that, striking at the mouth several times before moving on, but now what was Scott supposed to do?
Activating the floodlights on the armored suit, he turned around and walked right into a shadowy figure, causing both him and the intruder to scream, both of them jumping back and drawing their weapons while each was blinded by the others floodlights. The intruder fired a couple shots, hitting the walls nowhere near where Scott was standing, the intruder was still screaming, even after the young man had taken cover. The intruder was now shooting at any shadow that moved, even his own at one point, but then he ran out of ammo, and the young man was about to make his ow move, when his floodlights were finally able to, well, shine some light on his attacker's identity.
"Kosta?" Scott asked as he stood up. "Liam Kosta, is that you?"
"Ryder?! Oh, thank God!" His friend exclaimed, running up to him and hugging him. "There was a monster here a second ago, but I scared him off, and uh… well, I don't mean to be negative, but this planet sucks. I mean, like, it really, really sucks."
Between the lightning storms, the floating mountains, and that dark energy event, the young man wasn't about to argue with his assessment of Habitat 7, but what happened to the others? It was easy to guess what happened to the shuttle he and Kosta were on, but what about the other one? SAM was still not responding, but Scott's omni-tool was showing a life sign up ahead, so the two of them continued walking deeper into the cave. The muffled sounds of the continuing thunderstorm could be heard through the rock above, but at least the lightning couldn't get to them down there, and more of those glowing mushrooms were providing enough light to where they didn't need any other kind of illumination.
"Hey Ryder, look at this." Kosta said, pointing to more of the plants. "Is it just me, or is the plant life starting to look healthier the farther underground we go?"
It was true, the mushrooms and other plants were getting larger, with more leaves, and there were even some small animals running around when they got into the lowest part of the cave, before the chamber started to go back up on the other side. There was a big, vibrant tree along with a flowing stream of water, but this small moment in paradise was quickly forgotten with what was discovered when they exited the cave on the other side. Immediately outside the cave's entrance there was some shuttle wreckage strewn across the ground, and more importantly there was a survivor sitting up against one of the larger metal pieces. His armor suit looked mostly intact, but his leg was bent in an angle that was… not good.
"Hey, is that Fisher?" Scott asked, starting to step forward. "Hey, come on, we gotta help him."
"Hey, hey, hold on a second." Kosta replied, grabbing his arm to stop him. "Don't look now, but I think he might have already found some help."
Following his friend's lead to take cover behind some rocks, the young man watched as two, uh… creatures walked into view from the opposite direction, carrying what looked like rifles. They were green skinned, a bit taller and stockier than a human, but instead of wearing an environmental suit, they looked like they were covered in some kind of natural armor, or bones, or something. One of them started going through one of the supply boxes from the shuttle, but the other walked right up to Fisher, saying something in an alien language, deep voiced and growling, while also kicking him.
"Ow, dick! I said I can't understand you!" The wounded survivor yelled after being kicked again. "Ow, cut it out, fart-knocker!"
The kicking was stopped when the second creature called out for the first one's attention, causing him to stop kicking Fisher long enough to turn around and see that his companion had a spare set of jump jets in his hand. Still growling and grunting as he pushed a button, both creatures cried out in surprise as the thrusters ignited, flinging the second creature up into the air, screaming as he went over the edge of a nearby, and really tall cliff. The first creature laughed, shaking his head before turning back to Fisher and kicking him again, before saying something with a tone that seemed annoyed, and then kicking him again.
"All right, I say we go in guns-a-blazin'." Kosta suggested, reloading his sidearm. "I used the same tactic during a hostage rescue when I was in Crisis Response, and out of all six hostages… two of them almost made it. Ready?"
"Wait, wait, just a second." Scott replied. "All right, now we're in a new galaxy, and this is a whole new species, so we only got one chance at a first impression here. That creature over there is probably even more scared of us than we are of him, so I'm gonna go out all nice and easy, and show him we mean no harm."
Yeah, he was just gonna walk out there, sidearm holstered, hands out where the creature could see them… and in a hundred years people were gonna look back and say yeah, it was Scott 'Iron-Balls' Ryder who made first contact with this species. The green skinned creature had found a can of soda from one of the crates, not seeming to notice the young man's slow approach while he was shaking up the can, and opening it so that the contents sprayed all over Fisher. The creature then tossed the empty can so it bounced off the wounded survivor's helmet, and chuckled a bit, before finally noticing what was going on.
"Greetings… from… the… Andromeda… Initiative!" Scott said loudly and slowly as if it would help the creature understand. "We… have… come… here… on… a… mission… of… peaceful… exploration! My… name… is… Scott… Ryder… and… I… hope… we… can… be… friends!"
"Yeah, Scotty's a real stand up dude!" Kosta called from behind the rocks. "I know his people got a bad rap for dicking over the natives, like everywhere they go, but hey, maybe it'll be different this time, yeah?!"
For a moment the creature just stood there, but then the young man felt a glimmer of hope as the creature positioned its body to mirror his stance with arms out and everything… until it started to growl and grunt in what sounded like a high-pitch mockery of what he had been saying. Scott was about to say something else, but the creature raised its armored foot to kick him in the groin before he could, taking the sidearm from his holster while he was doubled over in pain, and then pushing him down to join Fisher, before kicking both of them and yelling again in that strange language.
"I'll save you, Scott!" Kosta yelled, jumping out of cover, and running toward them while firing his weapon. "Die, you alien shithead!"
He kept screaming as he fired again and again, hitting the metal wreckage and a bunch of supply crates, but not even coming close to hitting the creature until his sidearm finally clicked empty… when Kosta was standing right in front of him. The green skinned creature grunted as if it were confused, before putting its clawed hands on Kosta's shoulders and kneeing him in the groin. The creature then smacked the empty gun out of his hand, and punched him in the helmet several times until all three survivors were sitting on the ground together… while the strange creature kept yelling at them and kicking them.