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| - A tranquil silence dominated the hull of the Aetherius, it was so muted you could hear a pin drop. Footsteps echoed through the silence as the ship’s captain, Kasper strolled up from the deck 2 stairwell and into the main corridor of the bridge. He could hear the faint sound of voices and laughter coming from the bridge and as he passed the adjacent corridor, he peaked towards the helm and the reverberations of noise. Eliae and Erinn were still there, talking the night away, despite most of the rest of the crew being asleep. Eliae was never one to leave the helm, and didn’t trust leaving the Aetherius on auto-pilot, as for the new boy, he too seemed to have no interest in sleeping. Kasper continued in the opposite direction before reaching the the research crew’s quarters. He gave a tempered knock on the door incase they too were in their cots for the night. A man’s voice answered back almost immediately, toned with a slight English accent, “Come in.” Kasper opened the door and stepped into the room, it was brightly lit, books and computers opened across the room as several members of the research team were busy at work, no rest for the book jockeys. One approached, he was taller, strong in appearance, not what you’d think your average Prothean archaeologist to be. He had a thin disheveled beard across his strong jawline, green eyes and a short combed over brown hair. “Kasper.” he remarked as he shook the captain’s hand, it was the same voice as the man who answered the knock, “It was so hectic leaving the station I forgot to catch up to you, what brings you to our little slice of Aetherius?” “Just wanted to see how you were settling in Roy” Kasper informed as he glanced around the room, it was somewhat of a mess. “Looks to me as if you still are.” “Ha” Roy responded with a laugh, “Well, some great minds are quite hectic. Though it is a mess in here we’re as organized as we want to be.” Another of the researchers approached, an asari, with deep ocean blue skin, pale green eyes, and near luminescent markings on her soft round face. “Ah, the Captain I presume?” she asked kindly as she approached to shake Kasper’s hand. “That would be me.” Kasper answered with a smile as he greeted the Asari, “I’m afraid we haven’t met, you are?” “Professor Olassia Amore, I am the, cofounder of this expedition.” She announced smirking, not to take any credit away from Doctor Albrighton next to her. The captain had known of another prominent researcher working on the expedition, but hadn’t had the chance to meet her, “Well it’s nice to make your acquaintance. I had some other news however, we’re two hours out from Zerxia. The navpoint you gave us is smack in the middle of a massive whiteout. We can’t land the Aetherius anywhere near it.” Roy pondered to himself bringing his hand to his chin and shrugged, “Well Captain, we may be lab rats but I assure you no bit of snow will deter us. We can use the rovers, yes?” “Affirmative.” The captain confirmed, still maintaining his lawful demeanor, “I just wanted you to know. But also, I have questions, about this expedition.” “Ah of course you do.” Roy put his glasses on and began to make his way towards the other side of the room, beckoning the captain as he did, “Come.” Kasper followed him across the room to a desk, where they both sat down at one of the room’s disorganized stations. “So this expedition, I’m hazy on the details, I read you brief obviously, you’re looking for this legend, but from what I understand, Zerxia isn’t the location of this treasure...you’re going after.” The doctor was gliding through his research papers, “Correct Captain, Zerxia holds the answers we need. Now I know what you’re thinking, these excavations take months, but we have found information that will lead us directly to where we need to go on the planet.” He pulled an old book from under his desk, a hardback physical copy, rare to see in this day and age “Now before I go too far, have you heard of the legend of Vey’Kosa?” “Can’t say that I have. Outside of knowing it’s the subject of your expedition.” Kasper answered, he wasn’t a man of legends. Roy shot an expression of excitement and leaned back in his chair, “For the longest time, going through what intact information we had about the Protheans, there seemed to be a common mythological tale, about a God named Vey’Kosa, the subject of many religious studies. A conquerer of sorts, that went against their pantheon, and that he had a heart of pure darkness. Well, some findings, I, and Professor Amore have made, imply that this may be more than just a myth.” “So you think this God was real?” Kasper picked at the Doctor’s brain, sarcastically challenging his view of mythology, hoping that this expedition wasn’t thrown together over a myth. Scoffing, Roy rebuked him, “Of course not, preposterous. The more and more I’ve studied this, the more I have come to the conclusion that this Vey’Kosa myth wasn’t engineered by the Prothean’s themselves, but the primitive preflight species the Protheans had contact with. That Vey’Kosa, was a leader of one of these other space-faring races that existed simultaneously with the early Prothean Empire.” He flipped through his papers before stopping at one page in particular, liking his finger before pressing the page down “There are numerous recordings of a galactic war the Protheans fought, before the arrival of the Reapers, in the early flight era of the Prothean Empire. As many would expect, there were obviously a multitude of other species that thrived during the Prothean era, however, some of these conflicts had numerous similarities to the myth of Vey’Kosa. Then, via the Professor here” he added as Olassia returned to sit by the two, “We found the missing link, between her studies, and my excavation of Kor’Lithae.” “I had been researching ancient religion for years, and upon reading Roy’s logs in regards to his expeditions, I saw too many key similarities.” Olassia too began going through her papers, much to the disdain of the Captain, who just wanted a simple answer. “So we opted to work together on this research and” Roy continued on a path of thoroughness only to be interrupted by Kasper. “I hate to cut you short, but we need to wrap this up.” the captain was growing impatient, but not rude, as always he just sought to get to the point. Roy seemed to snap out of his focus and laughed, “Ah yes, excuse me. Well, across several excavations we have found evidence pointing to a war, fought between the Protheans and a force led by none other than Vey’Kosa himself. Now clearly he was no God, but according to the records he commanded a tremendous biotic force, and he himself, was said to have superior biotic ability. By all accounts it was not natural, he had ungodly abilities, like nothing we’ve ever seen. Now Vey’Kosa and his people were defeated, but it’s believed Vey’Kosa sealed the secret to his abilities away with him, inside of his massive fortress, known as the Heart of Vey’Kosa. We believe this forgotten city exist, and within, who knows what possible discoveries will await, it could be the biggest discovery since the Mass Effect Relays.” He paused, taking off his glasses and leaning towards Kasper. “Prothean records suggest, that the Heart is still intact, lost somewhere out there in the Terminus Systems. Zerxia holds a key, a clue of sorts to the Heart’s location.” Kasper leaned in, and rubbed his chin as he thought to himself, “Well then let’s hope it doesn’t bring ancient machines out of dark space. But regardless, I hope this pays off.” Roy chuckled once again, before awkwardly putting on a serious face, “I’m sure that won’t happen, but cheers to discovery Captain, in a few months time we’ll all be a part of a historic discovery.” With a smile and a nod of approval Kasper stood up, “Indeed. Well doctor, have whoever you want on the ground with you ready to go within the hour.” Down within the confines of the Taylor and Lance’s quarters…. Taylor sat at the edge of his bunk, his right foot pumping in place while he glared out into space through his cabin window with a calm, emotionless expression, as restlessness ran through his body. He was just lost in the beauty of the stars, not thinking, just watching, admiring, when a knock on his door broke his focus. He shot his eyes over and there stood Lance, half equipped in his hard suit. “Up early huh?” he asked, with a smile and a short wave. “Interrupting anything?” “Yeah, no you’re okay.” Taylor answered quietly with a nod before wiping his eyes, “Couldn’t sleep you know.” He was in odd state of exhaustion and adrenaline. Lance smirked, “Yeah I get that. Well we’ll be making planetfall within the next two hours, there’s some poor weather conditions out there so we’re deploying in the rovers, small team. Saddle up, you’re on board for this one.” His friend gave a smack to the side of the door frame before turning around and leaving. Taylor smiled at the thought of seeing an entire new world, something he had always fascinated about, poor weather or not, he was ready to take it in, and whatever sense of lack of sleep he had evaporated in a second. He truly felt the feeling light up his entire body. With the adrenaline running through his veins he headed towards the armory on the top deck, just to get a head start, running through his gear and equipping his hardsuit, compulsively running through the checklist in his head. The ship was slowly waking up, more of the crew were circling around preparing for landing, so Taylor headed for the bridge. There Eliae and Erinn still remained. Erinn looked back to him quickly, before looking forward into space again, “Oh what’s up?” “Made your way back to us, you missed all the bonding.” Eliae added, as snobbishly as ever. Taylor stepped forward, dead ahead was a massive grey world, covered in swirling clouds clearly visible in space. “Yeah yeah.” he muttered, as he was lost in the moment, leaving Earth was one thing, but seeing an entirely new world, it was surreal. “This is something else.” The sight of this massive grey planet took him by surprise, he just grinned and stared forward. Eliae looked back at him, and then over to Erinn who was also lost in a gaze, “Oh yeah, first timers, you’ll love the entering the atmosphere.” He leaned over, activating the ships comms and making an announcement. “We are approaching Zerxia, prepare for atmospheric entry. The LZ is green.” Eliae, though always focused on his business still managed to put some life in his words, it was difficult to tell if he was serious or not. As the planet drew closer, they hit the top of the atmosphere, plummeting through the hot as the view in front of them turned to a vortex of heat engulfing the ship. Some slight turbulence shook the ship but Eliae was unfazed as he pressed the Aetherius onward. Taylor had a cheeky smile across his face still, his eyes bright as the ship passed through the troposphere, and then through the sheets of massive fluffy white clouds, almost like flying through layers of snow. “Looks like a lot of snow.” Erinn coughed out, as he too was so focused on the descent, they could be crashing for all he knew and it wouldn’t of fazed him. “Clouds.” Eliae corrected him, “But yeah, a lot of snow underneath too. Just snow. That’s all this place is.” The Aetherius broke through the final layer of clouds and Eliae brought the ship up lightly, coasting forward as sheets of snowfall pelted the vessel. “Hope you boys are ready for the landing.” The ship slowly came to a halt as it hovered over the earth, you couldn’t see even just a few feet outside of the main view as the snowstorm blocked all sight, and you could hear the landing gear deploying through at the ship, as it landed with a slight jolt, like when the elevator comes to a sudden stop. “Welcome to the winter wonderland.” Taylor stepped back from the two, clinching his fist in an excitement and turned for the corridor, “I’m gonna go roll in it!” he exclaimed. The hair was standing on the back of his neck. “You act like you’ve never see snow.” Eliae suggested. Pivoting and coasting backwards as he walk he shouted out to answer the drell helmsman, “Because I haven't!” he headed back down the hallway and turned for the armory once again deja vu occurred, as he and Iyra nearly collided with each other once again, startling each other. “Two times now, if I didn’t know any better I’d say you’re planning this.” He professed with a smile, no shades of the awkwardness he felt before, as the adrenaline had him operating on his instincts instead of thoughts. “Don’t press your luck cowboy.” She countered with a bat of her eyes and a grin, “Someone is full of energy today.” Iyra noticed Taylor’s clear aura of excitement. Still running on the feeling Taylor answered her, jubilantly, “I’m about to go out there and make a snowman or something.” He noticed Iyra was also wearing most of her hardsuit. “Are you going out there too?” Even in this moment, he was still hoping the Asari was, despite hardly knowing her, he couldn’t help but be interested. She nodded, still charmed by Taylor’s upbeat attitude at the moment, “Sure am, one of the chief officers of the crew always has to go. And I drew the short stick, Kasper isn’t too fond of the cold. And it is very cold, so bundle up.” “Bundle up, really? I was thinking of wearing just my underwear.” Taylor remarked at an attempt to knock Iyra dead with some laughter. Iyra laughed, but with a bit of sarcasm in her chuckle, “Please show us some mercy and don’t do that.” She joshed him, intent on testing his reactions. Taylor jokingly placed his hand to his heart and made a forced expression of sadness, “Oh that hurt, that was deep.” he said as he backed away towards the armory, over dramatically portraying sorrow. “You’ll survive.” Iyra assured him with a wink, “Now get ready. I’ll catch you on the flipside cowboy.” Smiling as Iyra walked away Taylor turned for the armory and headed in, several of the members of the security team were gearing up, including Saelian. The Turian looked up to him and smirked, with an aggressive expression. “Well look who’s joining us.” he remarked combatively as he fastened his helmet on. He headed for the door Taylor was standing in before stopping just beside him, sizing him up in an attempt to intimidate him, as they stood shoulder to shoulder, the Turian glared down on the human. “You’re not going to do anything out there to get us killed are you?” Taylor was unfazed by the Saelian’s attempts to make digs about his past, he’d dealt with it plenty of times from plenty of people, “I really don’t care what you have to say man. I’m here to work, so you can take you passive aggressive ass outside.” He stared right into the Turian’s eyes as the two faced off for a moment. Saelian stepped closer to him as if he was going to do something, but a shove from behind urged him forward as Rhoen stood there to intervene. “Let’s go Saelian, quit the bullshit.” The Turian gave another glance at Taylor and a scoff before walking away. As Rhoen walked by he gave Taylor as sort of apologetic shrug, but didn’t say anything. He too was questionable of Taylor, but he wasn’t about to make him his enemy like Saelian was. “Don’t worry about Saelian.” a high pitch voice spoke out, as Nidel, the salarian on the team walked towards Taylor. “He thinks he’s a hard ass, don’t let him intimidate you. He’s a nice guy once you get to know him.” An interesting statement that Taylor had trouble believing. The Salarian, like most of his kind was tall, lean, and stood several inches over Taylor. A friendlier face was always welcomed, and Taylor somewhat laughed, “Please, I’m not intimidated by big ass birds. I’m just here to focus on the task at hand.” He reached out to shake Nidel’s hand, “Taylor McClellan, I don’t think I introduced myself earlier.” It was nice to meet someone on his team that wasn’t a total ass. “Nidel Aekso!” he exclaimed, “At your service. One of the friendlier faces out here.” His massive black eyes were encircled by red markings on his dark grey skin. “Friendly is always good. Anythings better than that exoskeleton of joy walking around here.” Taylor added, in reference to Saelian, still rather mad at the turian’s attempt to get under his skin. “So do you have any details on what we’re doing here?” Nidel fiddled through his locker, grabbing his gear and equipment. “No too much, slightly fuzzy on the details. We’re just providing escort for the research team. The snow storm has us bogged down so we can’t take the shuttles. Should be a routine mission, they seem to know where they’re going.” “And any idea what they’re after?” Taylor genuinely wondered, he just took this job with no questions asked, like many in the security team did. He put his helmet on and looked over to Taylor, “Not a clue, you’d be better off asking one of them.” He was just as clueless on the subject as Taylor was. Nidel equipped his phalanx pistol, and then withdrew a large case from underneath the center table in the room. He opened and inside sat a large particle cannon. “Are you expecting to face and army or something?” Taylor asked, in awe at the size of the weapon, it must of weighed over 70 pounds. “What?” Nidel looked at the cannon as he realized what the human was referring to, “Oh this, the Raptor IX-7. Heavy duty, but excellent at blasting through ice formations and what have you. Just a precaution incase we need it.” He smiled as he the gun up and posed for a minute. Taylor flashed a look of amusement, “What ever gets the job done I guess.” Nidel stopped by Taylor as he headed for the door, “Indeed. See you on the ground McClellan.” As he walked into the armory Taylor took a look around, and headed towards the weapons locker. As he slid it open he looked over the armament, before a pistol caught his eye. An old school, M-6 Carnifex Heavy Pistol. He grabbed it, gazing over before grabbing some ammunition for the weapon. He then grabbed his helmet and put it on, securing the latches, and running through the life support systems. It was always a strange, but interested feeling to be breathing through a suit to him. He headed for the outside, eager to embark on this adventure, the chills were coursing through him and he wasn’t even in the cold yet. Outside on the surface of Zerxia…. Erinn and Eliae trotted out, the two bundled to the extreme over top of their hardsuits, hands tucked firmly under their arms as they shook in the cold. Crew members of the ship were unloading massive heat lamps from the Aetherius as the snow crashed down. The tempature was beyond frigid, even through their gear the two were shivering. “St-st-ill excited?” Eliae asked erinn as his teeth chattered. “Any..anything is bet-t-t-ter than my old job.” Erinn answered back as he too was shivering in the storm. He knelt down at the communications relay the crew had brought out and began to run diagnostics on it, his hands, though numb still managed to work away at the device. Trotting out from the boarding ramp of the ship came Taylor, still grinning ambitiously as he looked into the snow covered horizon. Eliae noticed him and called out, “Well look who’s finally made it out. Why th-the hell do you look so happy?” Throwing his hands up and looking to the sky Taylor bellowed out, “This, this is all beautiful!” He didn’t even notice the cold. “Are fucking retarded?” Erinn chastised, jokingly. Taylor continued to walk towards the two, he joked, not taking Erinn’s quip personally, “Well that’s a tad rude.” He muttered with an oversold sad look on his face. “Oh let me rephrase that.” Erinn said as he continued to work, looking up from the relay “Are you fucking retarded?” he griped again. “You know, I probably am a little.” Taylor answered back with a laugh, he was just too happy in the moment, the energy was pumping through him. Eliae chimed in, “You’re out-t-t here all giddish like a damn school girl. In a fuck, a fuck, FUCK” he yelled as he continued to shiver, “A fucking snow storm.” He was growing agitated at his inability to finish a sentence without chattering. “God damn barbarian.” Erinn added. Taylor humorously shrugged, “It’s new, and exciting, what’s not to love?” Erinn had one more shot, “That’s just what I’d expect a psychopath say about the final layer of Hell.” Out from the boarding ramp emerged Iyra, in her full hardsuit and gear as she strolled down frivolously towards Taylor and the others. “Wow! I half expected the minute you’d get out in this cold you’d be breaking down and chickening out.” She jested, her light-hearted bullying of Taylor would continue. “Please” Taylor cried out with a smile, “I’m here for the adventure, the thrills, spills, and chills. Literal chills.” He added as he pivoted in a circle in the snowy ground, his hand held to the sky as he drank in the aesthetic. “Awh, a man after my own heart.” Iyra’s friendly yet borderline flirty behaviour felt like a curveball for Taylor, but he took it in stride, she was nice to him, unlike some people on the ship, and Iyra herself was thinking the same thing about him. “Tell you what, I’ll let you drive the rover if youuu can BEAT ME THERE!” before she even finished speaking she bolted for one of the rovers. “Hey!” Taylor shouted as he darted after her, leaving Erinn and Eliae behind without a word. “You cheater!” as he pursued the Asari. Eliae yelled out to him as the two faded into the snow storm, “Go get her Taylor!” he looked over to Erinn, “Man he’s a definitely a weeablue.” Implied because of Taylor’s clear attraction to asari. “Aren’t we all?” Erinn asked plainly as he continued to work on the communications relay. “Alright! It’s all done over here! Let’s get out of this fucking cold.” “Not so fast!” Kasper’s voiced boomed out as he approached the two. “The storms going to keep interfering with the relay, I’m afraid I need you out here for the duration.” Erinn stared at him, absolutely destroyed by the thought of staying in the cold. “You’re kidding right?” The Captain smiled and laughed, “Afraid not, Winters. Besides, with a name like that you’ll do just fine.” He strolled off without another word, leaving Erinn to his disappointment. “That’s not how it works…” Erinn muttered, he looked up at Eliae who was chuckling under his breath at him. “You’re staying right?” He hoped the Drell wouldn’t be leaving too. “Oh…” Eliae spoke quietly, “No. This weather is terrible for my skin.. So yeah.” He muttered as he backed away towards the boarding ramp. Erinn was now beside himself, “Are you serious?!” Eliae continued to back away, just flashing finger guns at the unlucky technician. “You piece of shit.” He took a look around and let out a sigh, dropping his head realizing it’s not going to get any warmer. Taylor chased after Iyra, but as he reached the rovers he could see her, standing triumphantly on top of one of them. “Well well, took you long enough.” “Somebody took a little unfair head start.” He jested, his heartbeat pounding away, he could feel the tightness in his chest, maybe the cold was starting to be felt finally. Iyra grinned, hopping off the roof of the rover and down to the snowy ground. “Hey, I know it’s cold out, but you still have to stay frosty.” She slung out a corny line with a snap of her fingers and a flash of the finger guns. Taylor laughed, “Wow good joke.” He remarked, picking fun at the Asari as she had with him all day. “Only joke here is your sorry ass excuse for a sprint.” She countered, much to the amusement of Taylor, “Now saddle up, you can ride shotgun.” He glanced around looking for others, but saw no one near by, “Who else is coming with us?” “That would be me!” Nidel yelled as he emerged from the snowstorm, “At your service once more.” Taylor smiled, he was half worried it would of been Saelian. “Great, we got the fun team. I’m sure it’s going to be a wild ride.” Nidel seemed like a good man, and Taylor was happy to ride with him. Nidel looked around whimsically, “Oh joy, let’s not get any of us killed.” Pointing out the other two’s over excitement in the moment. The blizzard began to come down even harder and the temperature was dropping, Iyra scanned the horizon but couldn’t even see far enough to make out a horizon. The others were gearing up for the drive, in one rover was Saelian, Rhoen, and another guard. The other was researchers and Lance. She smiled, “What’s the worse that can happen, everyone loves a blizzard.” She declared as she heaved herself into the driver's seat of her rover. She had no worries, getting off the ship and onto the ground was what she lived for, Iyra was ready for another adventure.
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