The Firefly (Mass Effect Andromeda)

Chapter 39

They were just emerging from the ruins, dusty and tired when they saw the ship come through the atmosphere. "That's the Tempest, isn't it?" Vee asked. "Wonder what Ryder's doing here?"

"He was still on Kadara the other day." Sara said. "Ending a civil war." She looked wistfully at the ship disappearing to land behind the cliffs. "The big show-off."

Olivia grinned. "Well he can come and find us if he wants us." She wandered off with Nina to start sharing out the day's rations. She felt tired to the bone, but satisfied. The work they were doing here wasn't the most exciting, it wouldn't change the future of the world. It wasn't fighting Kett or activating Remant vaults. But it was making these ruins safe for the researchers like Lyora and Nunok, whose Firefly team were now busy making progress.

Less than two hours later they heard engines in the distance. "Could be supplies from Prodromos?" Nina suggested, "We're getting low."

"Doesn't seem likely." Nunok said, "They'd have contacted us."

"Non-military personnel inside please." Nina barked out the command, ushering the researchers from Prodromos and Lyora's scientists back into the defensible ruins. The few guards reached for their weapons, along with Nina, Vee and Lyora herself.

Sara and Olivia made a move for weapons only to be glared at. "No way." Lyora said, "Inside, both of you."

Grumbling, the two of them took pistols anyway but crouched inside the entrance. Olivia was shaking. "What if it's Kett?" She asked nervously.

"It won't be." Sara replied, "And if it is then it's payback time."

The tension in the camp was taut like a tightrope. Finally, Vee shouted in, "False alarm. It's the bloody Pathfinder."

As they emerged once more, the sky turning dark, Olivia spotted Scott climbing from the Nomad, followed by Drack and Cora. Sara ran to him immediately and he threw his arms around her in an embrace. She couldn't hear them but she smiled at the sight of their glowing faces, so alike in appearance.

"Liv!" He shouted over the campsite, beckoning. She grinned, strolling over. "Shouldn't you still be resting?"

"What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you, actually." His smile was a little tense and it made her pause.

"What's happened?"

"We should talk. It's to do with Kendra."

"I'll get the others." Olivia frowned, "They need to hear this."

Together, they huddled on the rocks. Scott described how SAM had managed to track Kendra leaving Kadara. They'd found footage of her on the docks, not long after Olivia had sent her the Meridian location. "She must have thought she might be compromised." Scott said, "If we'd traced the message. It's taken a lot of work, but we traced her to here, to Eos. I've been in communication with a few settlements here before we landed. There's one called Advent and they recognised her description. They said she'd been there six days ago."

Olivia didn't miss the way Nina shuffled close to her, her hand leaping involuntarily to her gun.

"Where was she headed?" Nunok asked.

"To a Remnant ruin not far from them." Scott told her. "But then they told me from Prodromos that you were on the planet. I needed to make sure she didn't find you first."