This logfile is imported from aitelogs2 and may contain errors or wrong timestamps.
#East – April 7, 2016
The trip east passes uneventfully, aside from a brief stop about halfway when the drill carriage got stuck. As the vehicle convoy gets closer to its destination the terrain starts to become broken up by mounds of snow, and small gulches where the top layers of ice have cracked and then started to fill with snow. The location where they stop is a flat area flanked to the south by an ice ridge several meters high, too steep to walk up. It
seems to be the first of the foothills of the mountains seen eariler in the distance, only to call them mountains would be questionable - massive, jagged ice cliffs stretching into the distance, weathered by wind but not rounded. To the north and east, the snowcover seems to become more irregular, with patches of exposed ice visible the further one looks. As soon as the vehicles stop Harmonia gets on the comms - she has remained more or
less completely quiet during the trip, aside from the brief stop. "Alright, this is the spot. Let's get everything parked and start setting up. Security - I assume you'll want to get the M29 into a defensive position?"
Yan Sun has remained fairly quiet during the trip, focused mostly on her omni-tool after the initial discussion. It's clear that their talk about geth made her a bit uneasy. Now that they're stopping she turns the tool off and looks around at the others.
Artullin has been quiet for the trip. His arms are folded across his chest. Now that they've stopped, his head rises slightly.
Jasper comes to a rolling stop near the tail end of the convoy. "Roger that, Rover." he says in response to Harmonia as he gives a glance over to Nathan. "Where ya want me to set 'er, Ten?" he asks, as Nathan has a much better view of the surrounding area.
Uvena has also remained quiet for most of the trip, trying to get a nap in. She managed to do so about twenty minutes ago, but the announcement ruins it.
Jessica has been mostly quiet, but a little restless. She's looked over her weapons. Studied her omni-tool. Went back to checking her weapons. Shifted and switched seats a few times. She seems at ease that they've arrived. "Finally." she groans, sucking in a deep breath.
Nathan observes the environment. "We need somewhere with 360 degrees of vision. Atop one of these mounds," he says before chiming in to Jason. "Boss, we'll set up on one of the mounds, unless you want it somewhere else?"
Jason has continued to discuss possible guard rotations, shifts and such with Ilyna for as long as she would allow it. At the announcement, he straightens up in his seat. "Sounds good to me, Ten. we can always move it if we have to."
Jasper gives a silent nod and begins to reorient the Grizzly to climb one of the mounds, taking it slow to test and make sure it can hold their weight.
Ilyna has allowed it for the entire trip, as she's too worried to close her eyes for any longer than a blink.
The Grizzly has little success climbing the mound of snow, more or less plowing right through it instead, managing only to get a tiny bit higher as the snow is compacted under the weight of the vehicle.
Jasper sighs and gives a shake of his head. "That ain't gon' happen." he announces, "Snow is way too soft." He looks towards the ridge, trying to gauge whether or not the incline would be too steep to drive up.
Harmonia parks the rover along the cliff and then steps out of the driver's seat, glancing at the others. "Alright, let's go." she says before opening the hatch on the side, near-blinding white light shining in as the sun pokes through the clouds in the far north, reflecting off of the snow. "Need to get those shelters built."
Jessica climbs to her feet, bringing a hand up to block the initial glare as her eyes struggle to readjust. She steps out of the vehicle and stands aside so the others can exit.
The incline is most definitely to steep for the tank to drive up. It's doubtful even the Mako could make it.
Jasper gives a sigh. "Alright. Welp, we're jus' gon' sit here, I suppose." he says, leaving it parked on the crushed mound of snow. A few swipes of the interface and the passenger's compartment hatch begins to open.
Uvena exits after the other three, also bringing up a hand while she gets used to the change in light. She looks around the scenery once she's used to it.
Jessica gives Yan Sun a nudge. "Seemed a bit spooked, kitty cat." she teases. "Afraid of a few geth? Don't worry-..." she winks from behind her visor, "...I won't let them hurt you."
Jason removes his harness and climbs to his feet. "Home sweet home?" he says, giving Ilyna a smirk. "Let's get out there and get a look." He steps out of the back of the Grizzly and begins his scan of the immediate surroundings.
Jasper nods over to Nathan. "Sure thing. I'm gon' stretch my legs, alright? You need anything, just holler."
Ilyna follows Jason out of the vehicle and stands beside him. She looks around for the other vehicle with Redrock people in it.
Yan Sun gains a goofy smile at Jessica's words, but doesn't say anything. She looks around at the terrain, turning until her gaze falls on the sharp blue cliffs that rise up high in the distance. "Wow..."
The remainder of the research team has already started unloading crates from the vehicles. The vorcha, along with Athassa and Pablo are wasting no time, starting to put up the frame for the prefab shelters.
Jessica gives a look around of her own. "So?" she asks, glancing briefly at Yan Sun once again as she drops to one knee, "What are we going to name it?" Her gaze falls to the ground as she begins dragging a gauntleted finger back and forth against the ice at her feet, scratching into it.
Uvena nods. "Yeah," she says. "The sunset would probably be great, it's a shame we won't get see it before we go home... I think."
Harmonia moves over to oversee the unloading of cargo, but not before instructing Nalota to get the Tritons off the cargo hauler.
Jason gives Korio and Tarkus a nod and points beyond the researchers furthest from the Grizzly. "Go keep watch just beyond them. If there does happen to be any wildlife out here, I'd prefer if it ran into us before getting a shot at any of the researchers." he says.
Korio bows his head and proceeds to follow instructions as he heads beyond the edge of where the researches are working with Tarkus to keep watch.
Nalota gives a sharp nod before hurrying over to the cargo hauler, walking as fast as she can in the borrowed suit.
Artullin raises his arm and his omni-tool activates. His recon drone materializes and he points up. It beeps once and ascends quite a ways up before pausing. It then rotates and snaps a few images, before coming back down and dissipating. Artullin looks at the omni-tool and swipes through some of the snapped images, nodding to himself. He then makes to transfer a pic
Jason turns back to Ilyna. "You mind handling the rest of them for now?" he asks, "I'm gonna have a quick word with Ten."
Yan Sun gains a small grin, looking down at Jessica. "I don't know... you should name it." she says as she crouches down next to her. "My ideas kinda suck. Unless you want it to be called Snowball."
Uvena smiles, or maybe she doesn't. Who knows. She enables her omni-tool to accept the transfer. "Thank you," she says. "I'm sure she'll appreciate that."
Jessica continues to scratch her name into the big chunk of ice. "Mmmm..." she hums as she considers a name. She glances upwards at the large crag of ice jutting from the terrain. "I'm going to name it-... The Icepick." she says with a satisfied nod. She stands back up, using her boot to brush away some of the chiseled ice. She points down at her name scrawled into the ice as she looks over at Yan Sun. "And now it is mine. You
Ilyna nods. "I can do that," she says before turning to the rest of them. "I can gather our team, but I'll wait for you to be back before I mention anything about shifts and so on."
Jason gives Ilyna a nod and moves back to the Grizzly, quickly mounting it and entering into the access hatch. He plops down into the driver's seat, giving Nathan a little wave. "How you doing, Ten?" he asks
Yan Sun 's grin widens and she rolls her eyes, reaching out with her own hand and trying to scratch at the ice, but there's little success without an armored gauntlet. She frowns. "Yep. Guess it's yours."
Nathan turns to look at Jason, switching the view back to his helmet's view. "Oh, hey Boss," he replies. "Wassap?"
A tiny avalanche of snow follows Jason's arrival into the driver's compartment, going all over the control panels
Jessica crosses her arms and gives another snicker. "Told you." After a moment she rolls her eyes and lets out a sigh as she lowers back down to one knee, using her gauntlet to scratch Yan Sun's name beneath her own. "Fine. I share. 70/30 split."
Jason winces slightly, giving Nathan a sheepish look as all of the snow comes tumbling in. He makes a show of wiping at it, but it's not doing much good with gauntlets on. Finally he just shrugs. "Ah, Jasper will clean it. Whatever." he sighs. He slaps a gauntleted hand against his leg and angles himself to better face Nathan. "Well, this is going to be our home for the next few days. I'm not
sure how possible it might be, but I had an idea about making things a bit safer around here. You and Jess rigged up a fuck-ton of EMP grenades. I don't know what it would require, but do you think you might be able to convert a handful of those for proximity detonation? It would need to be something we could flip on and off so teams could come and go without triggering them, but I figure it
might act as some sort of early warning system." he shrugs, "If any wildlife does happen to call this ice cube home, setting off one of those things would at least give us a heads up."
Yan Sun stands back up, narrowing her eyes at Jessica. "Hmh... that's more like it." she says, prodding her with her foot.
Jessica glances about at all of the researchers running around. "I know you have trouble tearing yourself away from me, but shouldn't you be, oh, I don't know.... working?"
Yan Sun winces slightly, looking around for Harmonia, and then turning back to Jessica. "Right. Yeah." She takes a few step back towards the rest of the research team. "Can we... can we talk? Later?" she says.
Two of the Tritons are loaded into the cargo hauler's bed, restrained with straps only now, the mass effect locks turned off.
Nathan hurms in thought, tapping his leg idly as he ponders. "I... might be able to do something," he sighs. "I dunno. Swapping out the explosive type is easy enough, but rigging them to proximity charges? I'd have enough trouble trying to do that with the latest MKV grenades, but with MKIs? I'd need some specialized equipment to do that...". He pauses again,
rubbing the bottom of his helmet as he ponders. "...If I could perhaps cannibalize a few of the sensors that the research team is using... then utilize the receivers of their drones-... hmm, yeah, yeah. I could make some proximity charges that can be linked to our omni-tools to allow for safe passage. That's the best I can do without IFF packages." He
shrugs. "Best I can do I'm afraid. And with how jury-rigged its going to be, I can't guarantee we can salvage them. Not without the right equipment anywho."
Yan Sun nods a few times, looking a bit distracted before she turns around and jogs off to join the others in setting up the shelters.
Jason stares off distantly, nodding the entire time as he has no idea what Ten is talking about. "Sooo.... You can do it.....? Maybe....?" he says, hoping that was the jist of it.
Nathan sighs. "Maybe, hinging on yes," he simplifies. "But I'll need certain parts from the drones used to recon the area. The sensors and the receivers, specifically."
Already a myriad of crates, metal frames and plastic panels surround the area where the camp is being set up.
Jason claps his gauntlets together. "Well, that's on you. You know what you need. See what you can scrounge up from the nerds. We're working on limited resources out here, so just give it a test run on one of Jasper's EMPs. He shouldn't be needing them anyway. If you're confident that you can get it working, we'll all pitch in one or two and set up a perimeter. Remember: It's important that
we're able to remotely deactivate them. The researchers and vehicles need to be able to pass through for any trips we might need to make."
Nathan blinks. "Annnnnnd why would the nerds listen to me?" he asks skeptically. "It was your idea," he says with a slightly irritated wave. "You are way more charismatic than me." He nods slightly. "But I do know what to do. Test, alter, deploy."
Harmonia is acting as overseer for the camp construction as well as the continuing off-loading of equipment from the vehicles, barking out instructions.
Yan Sun is standing by an isolated crate, a little away from the shelter assembly. She's looking at a screen, the same screen used earlier to monitor the drones.
Linora is using her biotics to assist in the construction, lifting panels into place as the first shelter starts to take form.
Jason groans, leaning his head back. "Alright. I'll go deal with the eggheads. If they're onboard, I'll have you go talk to them, alright?"
Jason frowns and goes to climb out of the hatch. Just before closing it, he whispers in: "If Jasper asks I'm telling him the snow was your fault." and slams it shut. He hops off the Grizzly and starts towards Harmonia, raising a hand to get her attention as he approaches.
Nathan splutters and grunts, reactivating the external cameras and linking them back to his HUD. "...son of a-".
Harmonia glances at Jason, but is distracted as Bort drops a crate. "Careful with that, you idiot!" she yells out before turning to him. "Yeah, what is it?"
Jason lowers his arm as he approaches the clearly-busy woman. "Just getting all of our people situated and assigned tasks while we secure the area. Having our backs against the cliff like this is a good start, but we're trying to come up with ways to keep the perimeter secure with so few numbers." He gestures back towards the Grizzly, "Our demo expert might be able to rig up a few EMPs for
proximity detonation. We could-..." he sweeps his hand across the open area at his back, "...set up a bit of a semi-circle. Would be an early-warning system of sorts if someone- or something- triggers them. They're just EMPs, so unless we're talking about geth or a quarian with a grudge, it probably won't do much damage. But the detonation and the sound alone should be enough to give us a heads
up." He pauses, crossing his arms across his chest as he returns his gaze to Harmonia, "Problem is we don't have the gear to repurpose the grenades out in the field. Any chance you could give a thumbs up on us borrowing a few things from the research team?"
Harmonia crosses her arms as she listens to Jason, and when he's done she raises an eyebrow. "Perhaps, depends on what you need."
Jason nods once. "Alright... Well, I don't exactly have those answers for you. How about you point me in the direction of whoever could authorize something like that, and I'll send my demo expert to meet with them?"
Jason gives the woman a lopsided grin. "Perfect. I'll send my guy over to have a little chit-chat with you, then." he says. "Don't bend over backwards for us. But if it's not going to hurt your workflow? It would be nice to have a system in place to give us a slight heads up."
Jason returns to the Grizzly and climbs back up it. Not particularly eager to draw Jasper's wrath, he's much careful when opening the hatch this time. "Already, Ten." he shouts in, not climbing into the vehicle himself, "I got you an in. As soon as we get a break, go have a talk with Harmonia."
Jason gives a chuckle, patting Nathan on the back. He gives a glance down into the hatch at the cannon interface. A grin crosses his face, "Well, if you insist...." he says before hopping down and taking a seat.
Nathan strides over to Harmonia and nods to her. "I take it Jason has laid the outline of the plan?" He asks, deciding to cut to the chase.
Harmonia raises an eyebrow. "He mentioned setting up a minefield of sorts... but said you needed something from us. I have to warn you, there's not much we can spare."
Harmonia looks a little impatient, glancing at the others before looking back at Nathan. "I'm going to need you to be more specific. Doubt we have what you need, unless you're looking to cannibalize our research gear, which is not an option."
Nathan huffs. "Sensors and receivers. Similar to those used on your drones. Are you telling me that you did not bring any spare parts for the drones in the event that they suffer a malfunction?" He sounds quite irked by the woman's attitude. It seems he has finally reached his limit with her.
Harmonia smiles politely, but it does nothing to hide her annoyance. "Of course we have spare parts. And we will be needing those if the probes break. I'm not giving up our spares so you can have mines do your job for you."
Nathan grits his teeth, hands clasped behind his back. "They are early warning detection systems," he says calmly. "They will cover areas we cannot, give us ample warning to react and possibly even finish the fight before it even starts." He looks to the researchers and snorts. "The mines are tools to -help- us do our job. Not letting us have them is like telling
your researchers to dig with their fingernails and not with the drill." He looks back to her. "So, miss Kozma, if you don't want the added security, then by all means, I'll go and explain to Wolfe that that is your wish. But I'll also make him acutely aware that any causalities sustained due to our limited FOV is down to us not being provided the materials
Harmonia lets out an unamused chuckle, a dismissive look on her face. "We're here to do research. And for that we need our probes up and running. There'll be no compromise on this. We have no need for your 'added security'. As far as I, and the rest of ExoGeni is concerned we could have made do with company security for this. This is no warzone. You're here because Matriarch Syranis requested it. So just be a good little hired gun
Nathan | His hand snatches up, his patience worn thin. He makes to grab her wrist and twist it, hard. Not to break it or cause any significant harm. But to prove a point. "Don't. Patronize. Me," he says calmly. If the wrist is grabbed, he would apply slightly more pressure. "If a single one of these people die because of your ineptitude at gauging a person's life
above research, then believe you me, I will see to it you get a first hand view of the water below the ice." He would release the wrist and casually brush off an imaginary speck of dust from his armour. "I hope the research goes... swimmingly," he says before turning sharply and walking back toward the tank, silently fuming. He chimes in the comms. "Boss, I
Harmonia looks briefly shocked as her wrist is twisted, but as soon as it's released her expression turns furious. She cradles her wrist as she watches Nathan walk away, and then activates her omni-tool, broadcasting to Redrock's channel. "Get your thugs under control, Wolfe! Maybe openly threatening and harming your clients is accepted practice on that Terminus hellhole you're all from, but I won't stand for any more behavior like
Jason pulls back from the cannon's interface, wincing as Nathan's voice comes through his helmet. "Not over comms, Ten..." he sighs, leaning back in his seat as he awaits Nathan's return and wonders how many credits whatever he did is going to cost. His fear is only heightened at the sound of Harmonia's voice. "Oh for fuck's sake..." he groans to himself. He begins climbing out of the Grizzly,
poking his top half out of the hatch. "What in the hell, Ten!?" he calls out, arms tossed out to his sides, "I said talk to her! Not threaten her!" He brings one hand to his forehead and stares as Nathan approaches the Grizzly, "What in the fuck happened?"
Nathan hands become animated. "I did! But the fucking woman doesn't care about the protection! She really doesn't give two flying fucks about the lives of anybody here! And then she just turned around, sneered at me, and then started to patronize me and I just lost my temper and told her that if any of these people die because we didn't get the additional security,
then it was on her head!... and maybe that she'd get a closer view of the water, but that's all!" He shoots off. He then sighs and hangs his head. "I'm sorry, boss... but such a casual disregard of innocents is just... I dunno, I'm sorry, it won't happen again."
Jason tilts his head back, staring up at the sky for a few moments as he tries to process everything. After a few moments, a loud sigh escapes him and he climbs the rest of the way out of the Grizzly, most likely knocking more snow inside of it in doing so. He scoots to the edge nearest Nathan and sits down. "You threatened to toss one of the people we were assigned to protect into the water..."
he muses aloud, nodding his head as he glances past Nathan at Harmonia. "...Great. Look-..." he continues, "It's pretty obvious that she hasn't cared much for us from the get go. All of her dirty looks and side-eyes... Just keep your distance, alright? And under no circumstances are you to throw her in the fucking water! Say it out loud with me now! I will not murder the people I was paid
Harmonia is seemingly back to supervising the construction, but she's shooting regular glances in Jason and Nathan's direction.
Nathan folds his arms across his chest, like a child who's receiving a scolding. "I will not murder the people I was paid to protect. Not even if they're total insufferable assholes," he repeats word for word and in a muttered tone. "...I hate Exo-Geni...".
Jason hops off the edge of the Grizzly and cocks a thumb over his shoulder at it. "Well, that's one thing we agree on..." he mutters. "Go on. Get back in. I'll see if I can smooth this over. And keep that thing pointing that way!" He rotates 180 degrees and sharply thrusts his finger in the opposite direction of the camp over, and over, as if trying to release his pent up frustration through
his index finger. "So help me, if she ends up on the recieving end of a Grizzly shell, I'm going to assume there's at least a 60% chance it wasn't an accident." He stomps off past Nathan towards Harmonia, muttering under his breath. "Fucking Exo-Geni...."
Harmonia turns to face Jason as he approaches, crossing her arms again and looking expectantly at him.
Nathan nods and climbs back into the tank, slipping down into the gunner's chair and linking the externals to his HUD once again. "...40% is still a hell of a margin," he muses to himself as he rotates the turret away from the camp.
Jason snorts at her posturing as if she's expecting an apology. "Don't give me that smug look. You're riling my people up. I've seen your dirty glares. You don't like us." He puts his hands up, palms towards her, "And that's fine, really! Because I don't like you, either. But that?" He points back at the Grizzly, "Talking your shit over an open comms channel? So all of my people can hear
you? Come on! Have a little class. You do realize we're assigned to protect you, right? Your safety is our only interest. Yet you want to piss us off? And before you go running at the mouth about threats, this is not a threat. Against my better judgement, I'm going to make sure, come hell or high water, that you make it back safely. But you need to keep your personal opinions to yourself.
None of you have told us shit. We're flying by the seat of our pants and making it up as we go along. We don't have the resources or manpower to handle this the way I'd like to, because you keep us in the dark about everything. And that's fine! But we're just trying to make due with what we have. Can't spare some shit? Fine, fuck it! We'll figure it out!" he continues to rant, "But the next
time you decide you want to talk down to one of my people, come voice your problem with me directly. Got it?"
Harmonia stands silently in place as she listens to Jason rant, an unaffected stare on her face. When he's finished she lets out a snort. "Sure... next time I'll talk to you in person. But there sure as hell better not be a next time. The asari, they vouched for your Agency... and now one of your people threatens me, attacks me... because I refuse to hand over important research equipment so you can build... bombs, or whatever it
is you do, to stop an enemy that isn't here. That's not acceptable. I expect you'll keep your people in line from now on."
Jason rolls his eyes. "I'll keep my people in line. But who do I talk to about keeping you in line? Because you obviously can't control yourself." He snorts and turns on his heels, starting away from her without awaiting a response. "And really? Thugs? Us?" he asks aloud as he stomps off, finding humor in the woman's insult, "You work for a company that's responsible for the loss of more lives
than you could count, yet we're the thugs. Riiiiight." He extends an arm out to his side, giving the woman a thumbs up as he continues to walk away.
Harmonia looks confused and frustrated as Jason walks away, making a 'What...?' gesture with her arms. After a while she shakes her head, letting out an annoyed sigh and going back to the construction.