The Firefly (Mass Effect Andromeda)

Chapter 18

Hi everyone! I'm sorry for the delay in posting this chapter. I'm in the middle of planning my wedding and life got in the way of my writing. 

Eventually, Olivia was strong enough to move around on her own, working on Nexus stories for HNS. Nunok and her father had run a full complement of tests on her brain, but they couldn't see anything wrong. The technology had integrated, and could no longer be removed they said, not without killing her anyway. She'd gone to Tann's office, and he'd received her, to her surprise.

"I want to test it." Olivia told Tann without preamble, limping a little.

"You're still recovering from your injuries." He pointed out. "And we have no idea what exposing you to more Remnant technology will do to you."

"I'd like to try it regardless." Olivia insisted. "Send me out, and I'll try and do what Ryder does, activating monoliths." She didn't need him, she thought angrily. She'd show him who was a burden.

"You're not a soldier." Tann started flicking through reports. "Ryder served in the Alliance for years before coming the Pathfinder. He travels with soldiers and mercenaries with top of the range equipment and weaponry. You did well, Taylor. You completed your investigation, at great personal sacrifice, and you have been rewarded with credits in lieu of this. But there'll be a public outcry if I'm seen to send you into danger again."

"I'm aware of this." She tried to keep her voice even. "But I need to know what this does. It's in my brain!"

"And what do your parents think of this?"

"I'm an adult." Olivia replied. "They'll hate it. But I'm going crazy, not knowing." She sighed, "Give me a team, and I won't disappoint. If I fail, I won't tell anyone I tried. If we succeed, it'll be a massive coup."

She could see him considering. He was always one to work the angles, and play to his advantage. "Who were you thinking for this team?"

"Dr Gaari, Dr Calon and Officer Octatus. I know and trust them, they know about Firefly already, and they can handle themselves. My sister Nina is a former soldier and biotic, and she's in the loop. She'd be a valuable asset."

"So the five of you?" Tann considered it. "I'll let you know. I'll have to speak with the others first."

They thought that she was absolutely mad. They made valid points about safety, but she could see the anticipation in the eyes of the scientists. They wanted to know what the tech was doing just as much as her. Her sister was harder to convince, though it was the promise of going off-world that tempted her in.

He sent her to Havarl, a planet in Faroang System. It was the ancestral home of the angara, and a lush jungle planet. The plant life had become strange, maladaptive and growing in an unsustainable pattern. The mutation of the plants was abnormal. The ruins of the great angaran cities drew in researchers, looters and angara, defying the kett on the planet to make pilgrimages. Furthermore, the Roekaar, the xenophobic angara who fiercely opposed any outsider aliens were abundant on the planet.

When the Initiative had first scanned the planet, they had seen a lush world, a 'Golden World', and they had hoped it would be Habitat 3. The jungles had spread across to dominate the planet's surface. The plants were hardy and now hazardous for consumption. The huge shift in the planet's ecology was concerning.

The world felt as if it lingered in perpetual twilight, hued in purples and blues and greens. They had landed near the Pelaav Research Station, and wandered up to it together, cautious at the reception they would receive from the Angaran scientists.