I HATE being an essential worker, honestly: don't get me wrong, I'm happy that I'm helping people get through this whole COVID ordeal, but the company itself is treating us like hell, cutting our hours down significantly, having us do all sorts of odds and ends to make sure that the store is clean all the time, and if you aren't able to get anything done because of the amount of people that are coming through your store and you having to go behind them and make sure that they aren't A) stealing, B) making a mess, C) causing a scene, or even the infamous D) a combination of the three, then you'll get in trouble. (Infamous D lol)

Other than that fustercluck, my grandmother was sick with pneumonia recently, and with her suffering from COPD, I had volunteered to watch over her for a bit until she got better, but in my infinite wisdom, I forgot to bring my laptop with me to work on my stories, and since she has no internet or any cell service (from my cell provider, at least) at her home, I wasn't able to go online and get the documents from there.

FML, but better late than never, I suppose and this chapter is late by a fuck ton.

I guess as compensation, however, this chapter is literally longer than any other that I've written thus far: sitting at literally just under 11k words (the author's not not included)! I guess it doesn't help the fact that I basically threw two or three missions into this chapter thinking that they were small enough to fit in a 5k to 8k word count. Nope. So, there's that at least.

Review Time:

1Jesus: I appreciate that you enjoyed it thus far! But, honestly working on another fic entirely is going to way too much of a strain on me right now and I deeply apologize for that. Though I will say that you've got a lead on how it'd go, though for myself I find it easier to write crossovers because I can pull from two sources of material than just one. Other than that, I hope you enjoy this chapter and I'm sorry about not responding sooner.

GCU: The nanosuit wouldn't have the schematics for those weapons, but for the mike, SECOND could possibly find a way to bring a weapon that is very similar into Outcast's arsenal, but as with all things, the required materials and information needed to ensure that it doesn't explode will be very costly. As for the whole shapeshifting thing? All I have to say is this, :)

Blaze: Since Benjamin didn't see much of the war from the frontlines, he will be in second place next to Outcast, considering the man is a seasoned veteran who's been fighting aliens for a long time, and how he has more combat skill, knowledge, and training than Ben does. But don't be worried; Ben will still be a major character in this story. And Vetra would probably skin him and her sister if that happened, lol.

RageLord: Here's the more you requested! Sorry for not posting sooner, details are above, and thank you for supporting this story! And you are most certainly right about Outcast: he does not care about people's feelings and he most certainly does not like beating around the bush. You'll find out why in a later chapter.

PS: This chapter is over a third of the overall word count lol.

I hope you all enjoy the chapter!

Chapter Four: Trouble with the Neighbors

"What in the fuck are you?" Outcast asked the newcomer, his arms crossed over his chest as he leans against the hangar wall, looking at the newest addition to their crew who was currently inspecting the ship, seemingly familiarizing the interior so that he knows where he is going.

Jaal was startled from the sudden voice, turning to find a strange person in even stranger armor looking into his eyes with a blood red visor, his stance appearing at ease to the untrained eye, but was obviously ready to spring into action should something occur.

Clearing his throat, Jaal opened his mouth to answer the question, but was ultimately shut down as the man had shook his head, muttering to himself as he walked out of the area and elsewhere in the ship, leaving Jaal alone once again as he felt confusion from the attitude that he was just given.

"Hey Jaal, you doing okay there?" Came a feminine voice to the man's right, with it belonging to Vetra, the turian as they were called, her head tilted as she noticed his confusion.

"Yes… who was that man that was here? I've never seen anything like what he is wearing… Could it be some form of armor? Maybe an advanced exoskeleton of sorts… or an AI." He asked her, making a few observations and announcing his thoughts to the woman in case if she knew anything about the mysterious man.

"Sounds like you've encountered our local xenophobe; his name, or at least what he goes by, is Outcast. From what I know, he's a human wearing a set of legitimate power armor, or a suit of some sort, but he doesn't like talking about the specifics of it; only giving us a generalization of what it can do, which I feel is only scratching the surface. Honestly, I don't really trust the man, but as long as he doesn't try and kill us all while we're asleep, then I can at least be courteous."

"He hates aliens?"

"Big time, but I think he just hates everyone in general; nothing personal or anything, maybe, but he isn't the social type, especially with non-humans. I don't know the specifics, but he did mention something about fighting a race called the ceph, whatever that is, and I'm guessing that gave him a bad impression of what's out there." Vetra explained, leading the man throughout the ship, acting as a personal tour guide for Jaal as he soaked up all the information that he could about the ship and its crew.

So far, he thoroughly enjoyed traveling aboard the vessel and interacting with many of the crew within it and seeing what all they would do on their off time.

He liked the young human Benjamin, if he correctly recalls that being his name, and his lively and optimistic outlook on life and its finer intricacies.

However, this was the first time he had actually met the man named Outcast, who he was informed about by Ryder that the man was rather rude when it came to casual conversation and that he was probably hiding somewhere aboard the ship at the time.

That was yesterday, which involved him spending the day familiarizing himself with the crew and a guide for the basic introduction of the Milky Way species.

A fascinating read, if you were to ask him.

But not once during the time spent reading and conversing had he met the man that he had just seen within the hangar bay.

His initial thoughts on the man were that he was rude, jaded, brooding, and an individual that the Tempest crew needed to be wary of.

But the more he thought of it, the more that he came to the conclusion that he was… separating himself from the crew, becoming an outcast in society as he is in name.

Jaal decided that it was time to take a break from the touring, telling Vetra that he would like to rest for a brief time, but that she was more than welcome to spending the time resting to help him familiarize himself with the crew even more.

Taking the offer, Vetra shrugged her shoulders and motioned for the man to follow her into the kitchen area, telling him that she'd be glad to answer any other questions that he had for her.

Upon sitting down at the table, Jaal looked at the woman and cupped both of his hands together, taking in the woman's features as he looks her up and down, before beginning.

"What are your thoughts on the crew in its entirety?"

"Gil is alright, a little chatty at times but he's a good man, nonetheless. Liam was a cop, which keeps me on my toes at times, but he seems like a decent person. Peebee is… eccentric, to say the least. Drack is a big softie when you get to know him, don't let the tough exterior get to you. Cora is a hard ass, but I know that she's trying her best to keep things as organized as possible. Suvi is just plain weird. Lexi is a good woman and a good doctor, given how long she's been in the field it doesn't surprise me. Kallo has his moments. Benjamin is a good kid with a good head on his shoulders, but other than that, he can be a bit childish at times."

Jaal nodded at what he had been told, processing the information within his mind as seemed to think of his next question.

"And what of Outcast? You failed to mention your thoughts about him and even myself, for that matter."

"I don't trust the man, he's too much of an unknown for me to start trusting him, that and he absolutely hates anyone not human, shows complete disrespect to not only the Directors at the Nexus, which I don't really care about honestly, but to everyone here on the ship. Except towards Ben, but I'm guessing that's because he and Benjamin woke up in a remnant vault together. But… I guess it doesn't help due to the fact we kinda had a hostile interaction with each other, when we first met."

When asked to clarify on she had meant, Vetra explained that they had tried to apprehend Benjamin for questioning but was stopped when the man had held them at gunpoint, which then turned into an all-out brawl with the her, Liam, Peebee, and Ryder fighting against the man, but he had systematically disabled all of them with an advanced stealth cloak, extreme precision, and brute force.

"A dangerous force when used in tandem with one another, especially when it's paired with an effective cloak." Jaal commented, visualizing the fight within his head as Vetra could only nod in agreement.

"He picked Liam up by the helmet and threw him over twenty feet into Peebee, ripped my rifle from my hands, broke it over his knee and proceeded to kick me into a wall, which cracked not only the carapace on my chest, but a couple of my ribs in the process, and had restrained and captured Ryder and then used him a live shield and held a knife to his throat to stop us from doing anything in retaliation. From what I remember, the whole thing lasted like ten of twenty seconds total. Other than that, I don't really trust nor like the man."

"A strong and intelligent warrior, and he expertly and swiftly disarmed all of you and even identified and captured the commander as a hostage. You may have placed your mistrust in him from your hostile encounter, but a warrior of his skill and caliber is invaluable to any army. Perhaps you may become allies in the future? Even friends." Jaal commented, causing Vetra to scoff at the idea, with her telling him that she doubts that would happen any time soon, much less at all.

Jaal only could only chuckle at the remark, telling her that the best of friends and allies can be found in your enemies… or that's what Ryder had told him when he asked him about friendships and other social intricacies.

He said that he got into a fight with someone from school and that they became friends the day after.

Humans are strange.

"About you, well you seem like you know what you're doing against the kett and any type of remnant tech that we find and inevitably fight against. You've been here for a couple of days, but you seem like someone that I could get along with on a daily basis." Vetra finished, standing up from her seat and leaving the man to his own devices, telling him that she'll be in the back of the ship if he needed anything from her, to which he thanked her and wished her a good day.

From what he had learned about the enigmatic man, Jaal wondered what the other crew members thought of Outcast as an individual instead of a soldier.

Maybe he should ask them himself?

Turns out that most of them either didn't have an opinion on the man or didn't like him; with the exception of Benjamin and Ryder, of course.

At least he gets to be on a mission with both the man and Ryder when they finally land on Veold and reconnect with the resistance there, so that's a plus at least.

With his gear and weapons ready, Jaal meets up with both Ryder and Outcast, with the former talking to the latter about his weapon of choice.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to bring a bow to a gun fight? I mean, the draw weight on it is insane, yeah, but what if there's something that gets too close to you for a bow to handle?"

"Ryder, I understand your concerns, but I literally have this thing with me at all times and have used the airburst tipped arrows on targets that were within arms reaching distance from me. Besides, nine times out of ten, I would just grab the hostile and finish them off with my bare hands; I've done it several times before, after all." He tells the man, flexing his hands for emphasis as he raises them to him.

"Right, super strength and speed and whatnot. Well, if you know what you're doing then I won't stop you, but at least consider taking something that'll help against the cold; it's supposed to be well below negative forty degrees." He warns the man, holding out a data pad for the man to read as Outcast only shrugs him off, telling him that the suit guarantees protection from near absolute zero to several thousand-degree temperatures.

(Fun fact: Negative forty Celsius and Fahrenheit are actually the exact same temperatures. Weird.)

Hearing that made Jaal impressed at the multitude of functions that the suit had, from cloaking, super speed and strength, faster reaction times, and an insane amount of durability.

Maybe he should get one of them for himself, if it were possible that is; when he questioned the others about it, they told him that it was the only one of its kind in the galaxy.

That's a shame.

"Wow, Suvi was not joking when she said it was cold! We need to head inside the mountain where the resistance base is located, hopefully they have some heaters in there because I'm pretty sure that my ass is ice at this point." Ryder told his team, running along the path of lights that acted as markers with Jaal falling behind and Outcast casually jogging with the man.

"We'll need to speak with Commander Anjiik when we arrive, that way we can gain knowledge of current events and what all has happened to this planet since we've lost contact." Jaal tells them, climbing up a wall of ice as he explains what they needed to do, before explaining to the two guards about why he was with two aliens and that he needed to speak with the commander in charge.

Afterwards, Ryder had spoken with a mechanic about shield upgrades for the Nomad, Jaal spoke with a woman named Do Xeel, and Outcast just stayed quiet as his AI was scanning and cataloging everything in sight within its database (which is his brain).

"This is the alien that you believe could help us, Jaal? It's… not what I had imagined from the description that you gave in your report." She said, inspecting Outcast closely as she walked up to the man.

Had she have been paying attention, she'd have heard the rifle that Outcast was carrying to faintly groan from the amount of force that was putting stress onto the handle as he only gritted his teeth at being in close proximity to the unknown.

Ryder, upon seeing what would happen if she were to actually put a hand on him, cleared his throat to gain her attention and then explained to her that he was the one that Jaal had mentioned.

"My apologies, I had assumed that from the detail and looks of the armor that he is wearing was the one who was named Ryder. So, with that being said, you must be Ryder. I'm Anjiik Do Xeel; remember the name, because if you betray us, I'll kill you all myself."

"I'd like to see you try that, bitch; maybe after I'm done slaughtering your piss poor excuse of a hideout, I can go to the other bases and hunt down the angara who are hiding there for sport."

"Outcast! Sorry, my friend here doesn't take threats lightly, especially if they concern our lives. But we have no intention of betraying you; we just want to make peace with you all." Ryder immediately butted in, cutting off any more comments from the two as he looked apologetically at the woman and exasperatedly at Outcast who only shrugged in response.

"We'll see about that, Pathfinder; for now, if you do want to help, go speak with one of our lookouts who watch the valley. They'll know where we need the most help and where it'll be the most beneficial to us." She told him, stepping aside to let the three of them pass, before telling Jaal to be careful and that he should watch his back.

Ryder was happy to avoid a confrontation, Outcast was indifferent about the affair, and Jaal could only laugh as Ryder was trying to scold the man but was ultimately failing to do that due to the fact that he was essentially talking to a brick wall.

"Relax Ryder, Do Xeel took no offense to what was said to her back there; in fact, I think she's actually impressed that someone stood up to her so quickly after being threatened. That is high praise coming from her, Outcast; perhaps you're better at making friends than what you thought initially?"

"I'd rather have my organs torn to shreds and ejected through the windshield of a wrecked car… oh wait, I have." Came the dry remark, with the man stepping out of the cave, ignoring the question that came from Ryder, and inspecting the valley below, making sure to take time to switch between nano-vision and his tactical visor so that SECOND could map out any locations and points of interest.

It was a very good vantage point to see most of the area, that's for sure.

Maybe these angara weren't complete idiots and full of naïve leaders and soldiers.

Maybe.

He let Ryder and Jaal do the talking when they found the scouts, sharing information between both parties and updating any information that SECOND may have missed or thought was unimportant at the time.

Which wasn't a lot.

He wonders how Benjamin is doing on the Tempest, what with how different everything was to him and how alien the aliens were.

The kid reminds him of himself when he was young; before he left for the army and before he was bonded with the nanosuit.

He just hopes that the kid will keep that attitude for the rest of his life; lord knows that he doesn't want him to end up like he did.

"Any advice for taking on the kett, Jaal? What about you Outcast, what's your opinion on them?" Ryder asks, driving the Nomad over the various snow dunes that dot the landscape as Jaal started first.

"They are like any other fighter that you may have encountered, Ryder; there are different classes for different roles, from close quarters to long range, heavy to light infantry, and they utilize animals as a means to draw us out of cover. Fight them as you would any other combatant and you'll be fine." Jaal explained, Ryder nodding his head at the information as Outcast spoke up.

"From what all I've read and seen about them, they're the type to shoot first, not ask questions later. I haven't fought them myself, but from what I've gathered thus far is that the nanosuit is more than capable of taking anything that they can throw at it, maybe even more, depending if it gets overcharged. But other than that, I'm not worried in the slightest about them giving us too much trouble in a firefight; keep your head down, your mind clear, and your trigger finger ready at all times and we'll be back on the ship before you know it." Outcast told him, his visor looking at his left hand as he twitches his fingers at intermittent intervals, which caught Jaal's curiosity.

"Overcharged? Like a battery or a circuit?"

"You're on the right track, but wrong analogy… somewhat. Think of a battery that's been overcharged, but instead of exploding it far surpasses what it could normally do for a short period of time, perhaps powering more than what it should be capable of, then reverts back to being a normal battery. In my case, the nanosuit is overcharged when it absorbs an abundance of high energy in a very short time, I've experienced this several times when fighting the ceph, and it literally makes the suit incapable of taking damage, makes energy weapons stronger, makes me run faster and hit harder than normally. Normally, a devastator, which is a large and heavy ceph unit that essentially equals a heavily armored vehicle, wouldn't be able to be damaged from a nanosuit operator's punches; but, with the right modifications that can be activated at any time, an overcharged suit can easily kill one in seconds. Pretty nifty, shame it lasts like thirty seconds if there's a sufficient power source."

Ryder could only whistle at that, knowing what the suit could already do and learning that it could even do more than that is a mind-blowing thing to achieve.

Too bad that the price is too high.

"Damn impressive, but too high of a trade-off when it comes to having that thing on you at all times."

"That it is."

"I don't mean to intrude on your conversation, but what is it that you are doing with your hand? You seem to be… doing something with it." Jaal asked, looking at said hand as Outcast looked him for a moment before looking back at his hand.

"What I'm doing is cycling through my modifications and database that is housed within the suit, seeing what's been changed about it since I've been gone from Earth. Nothing you need to worry about."

Ryder, while both occupants in the back can't see it, was grinning as he heard Outcast talking to a nonhuman and not insulting him or acting hostile.

Sure he came off as a little rude with that last sentence, but he didn't call him an alien, didn't say anything rude, and actually answered his question. He just might be getting used to being around the nonhuman crew.

"And no, I'm not going to elaborate either, so stop staring and kindly forget any other questions that you may have."

Or not.

Jaal sat back into the seat and shifted his shoulders, getting comfortable in as he waited for the nomad to come to a stop at they're destination, silently contemplating on everything that he has seen and heard but couldn't understand why, after him showing courtesy and politeness to everyone aboard the Tempest, Outcast was hostile towards all non-humans.

"Who were, or are, the ceph?"

Ryder, upon hearing the question, slowed the nomad down a bit and switched the controls to all-wheel drive and waited for the answer that the man would give; whether it was an actual one, silence, or even violence remains unknown.

Just as he was about to say something to get everyone's attention off the subject, Outcast beat him to the punch.

"The ceph… the Charybdis for that matter, are a race of cephalopod-like creatures that originates from the M87 galaxy over fifty-three million light years away from Earth. They utilized an Einstein-Rosen Bridge, a complex wormhole really, to traverse this distance near instantaneously and have travelled to Earth, humanity's homeworld, in the distant past. Karl Rasch and Jacob Hargreave first found them at the Tunguska event site in the early 1900's and found their technology and used it to lengthen their lifespans, then used the rest to build up their companies so that they'd dominate the medical and technology fields. I believe that they were born in the 1860's or 70's and was still around back in 2023 and 2046."

"That would make them over a hundred and sixty, at the time. And fifty-three million light years? Damn; kinda wish we had that tech so that we can go to and from the Milky Way and here whenever we want." Ryder commented, earning a nod from Outcast as he continued on with his explanation.

"Indeed. If the ceph are in this universe, then I'm sure that their tech survived as well, considering that it was older than all of human history. Not only that, but the damn things can survive nuclear detonation and can turn any area that they are in into near absolute zero temperatures… Prophet damn near died when his suit, the first iteration of the nanosuit, malfunctioned from coming into contact with the ceph for the first time. After coming into contact with them, we lost Jester and Aztec, fellow nanosuit operators and close friends of ours, and we had to incinerate their suits so that we can deny the fucking Koreans getting ahold of it. Nomad, Psycho, Prophet, and I went through hell and back to ensure that these bastards would pay.

After the events on Lingshan was over, Cell Industries sent out their thugs to quarantine Manhattan after a ceph engineered virus swept through the city, infecting practically everyone and making it seem as if we were the ones spreading it. A lot of people died there… a lot of good people. The ceph were relentless: taking no prisoners, killing everyone, infecting the population, and awakening their technology to completely fuck over all of New York City, and we had to unfuck it. Twenty years later, we finally ended the damned war once and for all, after we killed the Alpha and destroyed an invading litho-ship."

After explaining everything, Outcast opened the door and exited the nomad, his weapons ready as he marched towards the outpost that Ryder was heading for, while Ryder and Jaal followed behind.

It seems as if they came to a partial understanding as to why he doesn't like aliens: he's been killing them for a long time and they've been killing humans equally as long.

'I wonder if that armor is made from some of their tech.' Ryder thought, remembering the names of Hargreave and Rasch and how they practically made the nanosuits, and with how they had used ceph tech to enhance themselves, he wouldn't be surprised.

The outpost that they arrived at seemed as if it was carved under the ice, or was made inside of a cave, with structures and supports spread out through the area, multiple angara staring at them as they walked by, some whispering to each other and others tensing up as they passed by.

From their interactions with the kett, he doesn't blame them.

At least they had Jaal with them to show that they were friendly, Ryder was sure that the interactions with any angara so far and throughout their time on the mission to hunt for their Moshae, things wouldn't have gone as courteous as he would've hoped.

Ryder came back from speaking with the outpost commander, talking to the man to gain more information about the area and what is of interest too. With the information shared with the man, Ryder motions for his companions to get back into the nomad, telling them that he has the location sent to him on his omni-tool and that there will be a group of angara waiting for them to arrive.

"So a rescue op? Fair enough, who are we going after?" Outcast commented, his fingers twitching as he goes through the data that the man gave to him and Jaal, looking over the details as he and his AI reviews the site location and how to traverse the interior.

"Yeah, hope you don't mind that; considering you're probably the type who'd want to go in the main base and clear it out as soon as possible, I agreed to rescue the man's uncle, that way he should be able to give what we need to get this assault on the road." Ryder told him, driving the nomad to the rendezvous point as Jaal makes sure that his gear is ready.

"If he's still alive."

With this being the first encounter that Outcast will have with the kett, Jaal and Ryder are curious to see what exactly the man has in store for them and, if what he has said about the suit is true, then he's sure that the kett will be more than apprehensive about engaging him up close.

If they even get close enough to do so, that is.

With Ryder closing in on the labor camp, the three men takes the time to look over everything once more before exiting the vehicle, Ryder's and Jaal's shield and life support systems reacting to the cold almost immediately as the below zero-degree temperature meets it.

Outcast on the other hand doesn't seem too bothered by it, shouldering his rifle as he steps in line with Ryder and Jaal as the trio makes their way to the camp, seeing various figures patrolling the area with several angara trapped within machines producing an orange forcefield to keep them from escaping.

"How many do you see?" Ryder asked, looking through the scope of his sniper rifle to see who were kett and who were not.

"Seven kett ground troops in total, one or two animals with them. All in all, nine hostiles, one outfitted with heavy weaponry and two who seems to be floating around every few seconds. Four or five standard infantry units." Outcast immediately answered, his visor tracking and marking any targets that he sees as SECOND sends the relevant data to SAM so that they can have the intel as well.

"Think you can take on the heavy troopers? They are armed with handheld machine guns after all and it has proven fatal if you were targeted." Jaal warned, seeing the man look back at him and shrug nonchalantly before disappearing from sight entirely, a small indicator from the man's IFF tag is the only thing that they see of him as they watched patiently as the marker drew closer to one kett who strayed to far from his group.

The lone kett was rewarded with the ability to see behind him, his head twisted suddenly and violently as the invisible figure methodically and expertly grabbed the bottom jaw and the back of the skull, snapping the bones, tendons, and muscles effortlessly.

"Tango down, ready for the assault to commence." Is the reply they heard from the man, his voice level and calm despite the fact that he had brutally killed someone not two seconds earlier.

It also sounded as if the man was bored or distant from the act; almost like he had done it numerous times before.

With Jaal and Ryder exiting their cover, the two of them begins firing their rifles into the other kett forces, drawing their attention as two more fell to their combined firepower.

Upon their discovery, the remaining forces begins their counterattack, sending out two animals to get them out from their cover, only to have one stop dead in its tracks as an arrow blows straight through its carapace, cutting through its insides and out the other side of it, embedding itself into a storage crate on the other side of the dead animal.

At the sight, Ryder immediately knew that Outcast was perched somewhere high and out of sight, using his bow to pick off targets as they appeared in his line of sight, providing overwatch for the two of them as they dealt with the last animal and focused on the remaining four kett.

The fast and agile ones were swiftly moving from cover to cover, avoiding rifle fire as they dived from cover to cover whilst the heavy trooper was firing at them with reckless abandon, intent on keeping them down and behind cover so that the others could get a shot off on them.

Only for his upper torso to explode violently as a small explosion happened only feet from him, SAM informing them that Outcast had most likely used an airburst arrow to take care of the hostile, much to their thanks as they gave the small marker of his tag a thumbs up, receiving two green beeps from their communicators as acknowledgment.

'It seems as if that bow really did come in handy after all.' Ryder thought to himself, taking time to aim at one of the kett as they moved back and forth between cover, much to Ryder's chagrin as he had to make a guess where it'd be next.

Eventually the man grew tired of it, opting to throw a frag grenade in its general direction and watching as it dived away, landing right in his line of fire, which the man took full advantage of.

After firing enough rounds into it that its blood type was probably replaced entirely, Ryder took one look at Jaal, seeing the man detonating an explosive barrel next to the other kett, sending it to the ground as the man finished it off with a headshot.

With only one kett ground troop remaining, Jaal and Ryder raise both of their weapons at it, seeing that it had returned their actions with haste, only for it stand upright abruptly, dropping its weapon to the ground as it stood in place.

Right when Ryder was about to say something, Outcast uncloaked right behind it, his knife deep into the back of its head as he pulls it out, dropping the body to the ground as he casually stepped over it.

"I advise that we leave the prisoners alone for now; we've got more drop ships inbound and having a bunch of unarmed POW's running around will complicate things fast." He told them, going back to the storage crate that had his arrow lodged within it, grabbing the shaft and forcefully pulling out as he puts it back into the auto-loader on his bow.

"We can give them weapons from fallen kett, that way they can help us." Jaal told him, receiving a headshake from the man, explaining to him that they most likely took their shields away from them when they were captured, leaving them vulnerable to gunfire.

They accepted the reasoning, knowing that the man had a point and that he was thinking logically about having unarmed and unshielded people in a warzone.

Jaal, as much as he didn't like to admit, knew that the prisoners needed to stay in their containment pods for a bit longer; knowing that they'd be more of a hindrance than a benefit to the three of them at this point.

Seems as if they're going to have to wait a little bit longer.

But on the flip side both him and Ryder gained a little bit of respect for him as well, knowing his attitude towards non-humans and how he views them, he had advised them to keep them locked up for their safety.

With their rifles in hand, the three of them took cover an waited patiently for the kett reinforcements to arrive, no doubt trying to keep them from escaping with the captured angara and, if they even knew about it, the data that they have.

The last angara was finally released, regrouping on the center platform with everyone else as the three of them waited for their target to finish speaking with the others before turning back to them.

"Just in time! I would've given us another day or two at most before the kett did who knows what to us; no thanks to Eraana's jabs towards their personal lives." He tells them, with Eraana retorting that if they couldn't take a few mean words, then that was their fault.

Rolling his eyes at the woman's remark, Eiilj looked back at the trio, asking them how'd they find him their and what were their intentions.

Ryder stepped up to answer the man's questions.

"Your nephew, Skeot, asked us to rescue you."

Eiilj nodded his head, understanding why they were sent there to rescue them, commenting that he was a good person but they needed to get the information that they had gathered back to a woman named Buxil so that she can get started on analyzing the data.

"Interesting; it seems as if we need to rely on our saviors for more than a rescue. Can you deliver this drive to Techiix? If we work together, no time will be wasted."

Ryder nodded his head at the request, accepting the data drive from the man as he asked what was on it, with the man informing him about that it housed kett codes that would, or should, allow them to bypass the shield around their main base.

After leaving, Jaal walked next to Ryder as they were headed back to the nomad, looking over at the man as he began speaking with him.

"This… this is big: liberating key resistance agents and recovering highly important and stealing vital kett information. This is huge for our cause. Even now, after all the theories and suspicions about you have been laid to rest and Evfra must be convinced of your cause." He told him, climbing into the vehicle as Ryder went to the driver's seat and Outcast being comfortable in the back.

"What about the data drive?"

"You can take it to Techiix now or speak with Evfra and update him on the situation. The choice is yours."

Ryder hummed in thought, looking at his omni-tool and selecting a destination, sending the coordinates to the navigation system and following the beacon that it had provided, telling Jaal that he'll talk to Evfra later and get the data drive to Techiix so that they can deal with the kett as soon as they could.

Jaal could only smile and nod at the man's decision, agreeing with him that Evfra could wait.

Now it was time for them to get that data to Buxil.

"I understand that you don't like talking about your past, Outcast, but what I don't understand is why you're still somewhat hostile towards nonhumans." Ryder asked the man, the nomad bouncing around and driving over dunes of snow and ice as the man in question looked back at him.

"That's a long story kid; short version is that I seen early on just how fragile and weak humanity really is compared to alien life, how much more advanced they are than us, and how much they don't care about us in general. I used to be hopeful about the subject of other life in the universe, when I was a kid, then I got in a car wreck and was placed in this suit. Not only that, but when we did encounter aliens, they wasted no time in killing us on sight." He explained, looking out the window as he watched the landscape pass by.

"Damn… do you still feel like that? Towards aliens, our aliens? I mean, if you used to-"

"Used to, Ryder… used to."

Ryder nodded grimly to himself, understanding what the man was saying as silence reigned over through the vehicle, the only sounds audible being those from outside and the engine powering the nomad.

After delivering the data to Buxil at Techiix, Ryder told his companions to come back aboard the Tempest, not wanting the two of them to stay out in the cold (even though both of them don't mind) while he speaks with Evfra, learning more information about the location of the angaran Moshae from the man so that they can finish the mission to strengthen relations between both factions.

Outcast was indifferent about the situation while Jaal went up with Ryder to talk to the man; most likely as an intermediary of some sort.

"Outcast!" The man hears to his right, turning his head to look at the slightly taller kid who was waving at him to come over and sit with him.

Shrugging his shoulders, Outcast obliged him and took the seat across from the kid; leaning back into the seat as Benjamin finished his lunch.

"What's it like down there? I heard it was cold."

"Not even the half of it, kid; well below negative forty in some places, and thirty in others. What are you eating there? Doesn't seem like anything I'm familiar with." He asked, pointing at the plate that Benjamin had finished as he was putting it in the sink.

"I don't even know what it was, something called… Earlixen; Kallo told me it was good and that our species can eat the same foods." He explained, shrugging his shoulders as he grabbed a glass for himself and his friend to drink out of, pouring water into both of them as he sets one down in front of the man.

"Benjamin…"

"Come on Outcast, please? You need to drink something, not just sit around and brood all day."

It took a few seconds for him to realize what he had said, looking sheepishly at the blank look that the man was probably giving him under the helmet, remembering the man's rather peculiar dietary and nutritional situation that made it to where it was completely optional for him to consume anything.

Sighing to himself, Outcast lifted the glass and inspected it for a brief moment, using his other hand to remove the helmet from his head so that he can swallow the liquid.

If nothing else, then the oxygen and hydrogen would give the suit some extra energy.

Benjamin felt accomplished that he had finally took his first look at the man's face, seeing how pale and different it seemed, compared to everyone else. That and the glowing eyes that seemed as if they were cybernetic entirely had caught his attention, knowing that they were different than any other human that he's ever met.

When he realized that he was staring, he let out a small apology, with the man waving him off and explaining that he doesn't mind the him being curious about his looks.

Considering that he never takes the helmet off, it would only come naturally that he'd want to get as much detail memorized.

Standing up and putting his helmet on, Outcast pats him on the back, telling him to not get in too much trouble while he's gone.

"Be safe out there."

"No promises kid; take care."

Now, with him headed back to the surface with Ryder and Jaal, Outcast could only wonder what they'd find inside the kett facility.

'Probably something of importance; hell, it could be nothing at all. Who knows at this point? No one that's been in there has ever come out, so it could be a form of labor or death camp, like those of Nazi Germany.' He thought to himself, walking through the doors and meeting up with Ryder and Jaal, patiently waiting for them to finish readying up so that they could head back out.

Maybe they can get finished with this mission within the next couple of hours?

"What the hell do you mean by 'I told them about our AI?' That was an advantage that we had over them." Outcast questioned, looking sideways at Ryder as they were being flown to the site.

After Ryder and Jaal was finished with conversing with the other angara in the shuttle, Ryder had told him about his conversation with Evfra and that he had told them an Initiative secret.

Ryder sighed and shook his head, looking at the man as he looked back silently, waiting for an explanation as to why he did what he did.

"I understand that we threw away one of our biggest cards here, Outcast; but I did it because if the Andromeda initiative is to survive and thrive out here, then we need allies who can trust us and we can trust in return. They needed the processing power of our AI to give them that push that they needed in order to crack the code that would allow us through the kett barrier. I'm sorry if this comes back to bite us in the ass later, but we need to show these people that we can be trustworthy, honest, and upfront with them when it comes to situations like this." He explained, frowning a little bit as the man only shrugged in response to his reasoning, telling him that he understood perfectly why he did what he did but told him to be careful about giving sensitive information to unknowns.

Nodding his head, they all waited patiently for the transport to land, the three of them checking their weapons to see if they were combat ready as they would most likely be going into a hot zone.

Not knowing what they'd encounter, the group's AI had gathered all relevant information from the Tempest's databases about the different types of ground troops that they have encountered, displaying the information onto Ryder's omni-tool and Outcasts visor, the two of them memorizing as much of the information as they could before the transport landed, the sounds of the engines dying off as the pilot looked back at the trio.

"This is as far as we can get before the anti-air batteries knock us out of the sky; that and the storm is getting worse by the minute." They were warned, everyone inside the shuttle making last minute checks on their gear as Ryder told them that once they were past the shield that they'd take point, while they look for Moshae Sjefa.

With that being said, the pilot told them to radio him once they were ready for extraction, dropping the group off before leaving the area.

"Do we even know what kind of force we should expect?"

"Not a clue."

Ryder sighed at the answer, grabbing his rifle and shouldering it, telling everyone to be careful about any ambush as they come up to the barrier blocking them from entering the facility.

"There are little signs of patrols out here, actually; the kett won't be expecting us to enter this place at all, meaning that they aren't expecting the shield to fall and giving us the advantage. There should be a system node somewhere nearby that we need to hack to gain entrance." Skaelv told them, looking through the scope of her rifle for any signs of kett.

Upon finishing the sentence, SECOND began speaking through the comms of the squad, telling them where the nearest node is.

[Kett relay node located; interface with device immediately.] It told them, startling Jaal and Ryder both as they flinch slightly at the sudden noise of the AI.

"Jesus… that's still unsettling to hear; completely unlike SAM and how smooth he sounds, compared to sounding like a robot."

Outcast shrugged at the comment, telling him that he'll get used to it eventually and that he's been with it for over twenty years.

Upon Ryder imputing the angaran codes into the node, telling SAM to not embarrass him in front of the others as he and SECOND worked together to open a small opening into the barrier, allowing the group to pass through with no effort before closing it behind them.

Just as they set foot through, the group was ambushed by two of the wraiths, the animals uncloaking as they began attacking the invaders, only to stop as one was shot to death and the other had the entirety of its head sunk into its barrel by Outcast who simply kicked it like he was breaching a door, the power behind the action killing to creature immediately.

"SAM, SECOND, I want to know everything about this place by the time we're done here; I don't want to leave a single stone unturned." Ryder told the AIs, receiving confirmations from both of them as they climbed their way through a side entrance that led through an exhaust vent.

When they made their way through the vent, they came into an open area with a few kett and more wraiths patrolling the area, but from the looks of how they were moving, they almost seemed bored, like they had no idea why they were there in the first place.

That was until the group fired upon the unaware kett, killing two immediately as the rest dived for cover to avoid sharing the fate of their comrades.

Taking the opportunity that was presented to him, Outcast motioned for Ryder to give him covering fired as he cloaked from sight, turning invisible from the group (which caught the other angara off guard as they had no idea he was capable of doing so) Ryder took his sniper rifle out and laid prone as the others were dropping onto ground floor.

Jaal knew that the armored human was using his cloak to not only work for him as a means to not be discovered during the fight, but as a means of psychological warfare; picking off anyone that was either far from a group or bold enough to try and flank them with lethal and extreme results.

He is interrupted from his thoughts as a kett body landed on top of the crate that he was using as cover, its neck, flesh, and bone-like carapace either twisted, broke or shattered with the head facing in a complete one-eighty, causing the man to look up and see the faint shimmer of the man moving swiftly and cautiously through the area before disappearing from sight once more.

"I'd hate to face this alien in one on one combat." Owwin told him, looking slightly taken back by the grotesque sight of the recently dead kett.

"Outcast is an exemplary warrior with skills and assets that would make him a very powerful ally or a feared enemy. I understand that this is new for you, young Owwin, but this is the harsh realities of war; expect to see gruesome displays of warfare just as this. Keep your head down, mind cleared, and weapon ready; your brothers will be proud to know that you helped us on this day." He told the younger angara, seeing the man nod his head as he fired back at the few remaining kett.

Jaal understood his hesitation; he himself felt that way once before, after all.

"How many is-" Skaelv is cut off, hearing the scream of a kett as it plummeted head first onto the hard metal floor from the top walk way, the screams dying almost immediately as Outcast uncloaked and jumped down and crushed his head as it tried to get back up.

Not bothering to stop and give the corpse a second glance, the man casually steps in front of Ryder, his weapon in low ready as spoke to the man.

"Situation resolved, all hostiles KIA. We've got a new player on the field," he tells them, motioning his head towards the dead body that he had crushed, "these guys can cloak while inside of a form of smokescreen that they deploy. Other than that, they seem to have a form of shield that is resistant to small arms fire, but once that goes down, they're as good dead. What's the sit-rep?"

Commander Heckt, the angaran group leader, took this as a chance to gather everyone together.

"We no longer have the element of surprise; you have the best chance of finding the Moshae while we'll attack them head-on and provide a distraction." He told them, looking at Ryder as the man seemed confused at the plan that he had come up with.

"That's not a plan of attack at all, more like suicide."

"We're ready for everything, now; kick in their front door." He tells them, acknowledging Ryder's request to stay in radio contact as the three of them go through the entrance that Skaelv opened, leaving him, Jaal, and Outcast to their own devices.

He hopes that they don't get themselves killed while they act as distraction.

With that in mind, Ryder motions for the group to follow him as they head deeper into the base.

If only they knew what horrors awaited them further within.

"We have to rescue them." Jaal looked to Ryder as the congregation below is evacuating as the distraction that Heckt and the others set off as Ryder quickly decided what needed be done.

"We'll help your people Jaal, Right Outcast?"

"It wasn't a part of the mission or the plans, but shit changes all the time. Sure, but the Moshae is our number one priority; if her safety is compromised, then I will abandon the rescue op. Her survival is critical." He told the man, receiving a nod of understanding form him as Jaal looked at the two of them.

"I understand clearly, Outcast. Thank you both for allowing this to happen and helping my people."

"Yeah, yeah let's get a move on or else we won't be able to save anyone." The man responded, walking by Jaal as Ryder nudged his head towards the door that Outcast was going through, silently telling him to follow as nodded his head and looked back at the scene below, before following his two squad-mates.

"Did you really have to do that to that guy?"

Ryder ducked back into cover as several rounds impacted the wall that he was using as cover, the four massive kett soldiers using their heavy weapons to keep the three of them in cover as more kett filed into the room.

"Shouldn't have looked at me like that." Outcast responded, shrugging his shoulders as he pulled his bow out and loaded an airburst arrow, seemingly not bothered in the slightest at what was currently happening at the moment.

Ryder took one look at the kett that was very much dead, his arm broken with the bone exposed and then proceeded to be used as a means to pin the kett soldier to the glass with it sticking through his head, and shook his head at the nonchalant reply.

"Think that fancy suit of yours can handle their weapons long enough for you to deal with them while Jaal and I take out the ones in the back?" He asked the man, receiving a nod in return as the suit visibly changed how it looked and felt, the man walking out of cover and directly into the line of fire as he let the drawstring go, sending the arrow downrange as he put his bow back on his back and drew a knife, charging the kett who were still alive.

Jaal and Ryder nodded as they used their jump jets to climb to the upper level, seeing as how they're friend was currently busy with the kett on the bottom floor to be worried about the ones currently shooting him from above.

With their weapons drawn, the two of them moves systematically from cover to cover, contacting each other, Commander Heckt's team, and SAM over the radio to keep up with mission details as Ryder and Jaal takes out the wraiths that were sent out to deal with them.

"How's things going for you down there?"

"Stupid fuckers don't realize that they can't hurt me when my armor mode is on."

"Is that bad?"

"No, it just gets aggravating after a short period of time."

Ryder snorted at that, peeking over the ledge to see that the man was crouching behind a crate before grabbing said crate and throwing it with all of his might into the big kett, crushing it between a wall as he ran past the corpse while Jaal finished the last kett off.

"We have to keep going or else we'll lose the Moshae and all these people." He told him, leaning over the edge and staring as Outcast had grabbed the ledge and pulled himself up, his head moving around as he scanned the environment.

"There," he told them, pointing at another set of vents similar to the ones that they had busted through when they entered the facility, "SECOND and SAM are getting a layout of the facility as we speak, and from preliminary data that they have gathered, cutting through here should save us some time."

"Your AI seems to be a little more sophisticated than SAM; why's that?" Ryder asked, his head tilted in curiosity as the man in question shrugged.

"SECOND was made to be a part of this suit from the get go; the people who made the suit made sure that they had put as much effort, if not more into creating him as they did the suit. That and SECOND was able to cure a ceph created bio-weapon in only a few days after obtaining a single live specimen of the disease. Besides, he isn't limited to a ship or a space station and is able to gather data while we're on field." He explained, breaking through the vents with relative ease as he physically ripped them off their supports, creating a pathway for the group to follow.

Ryder couldn't help but gawk at the sight that lied above them as they entered the room: there seemed to be hundreds, if not thousands of pods that housed angara within them lining the walls of the entire building, knowing that the person that they're after is inside one of them.

"Fuck that's a lot of them."

"What can you pull from this terminal, SAM, SECOND?" Ryder quickly asked, interfacing with a nearby kett terminal in hopes that they'll find the Moshae sooner than what was implied, due to the amount of time they have and the number of pods to search through being vastly different.

[The Chosen are logged by genetic information.]

"Hurry, please."

[I apologize for any delays, Jaal; SECOND and I are currently working at top velocity with an unknown and alien language, with alien technology, and finally checking against angaran databases. The Moshae was here, but her pod was pulled only moments ago.] SAM explained, getting through the kett databases as fast as he could with the help of an additional AI, but was unable to find the exact location that they had pulled her to.

"And where'd that be exactly?"

[Pods travel from here to rooms that encircle this core, as for her exact whereabouts; I am unsure.]

The comms flared to life as Skaelv's voice came through, causing Ryder to give his attention to it as the group traversed through dark corridors; Jaal and Ryder activating their lights so that they can see while Outcast activated nanovision.

"Reinforcements are arriving now, Pathfinder; doubling back to rendezvous now."

"We have a lead on your Moshae; found it in one of the terminals in the big pod rooms. And from what we've gathered thus far, she seems to be alive."

"Star's strength! That's good news to hear, especially during these trying times."

Ryder told her that he'd keep in touch if they learned anything else about her whereabouts, or anything new that arises.

When walking through the next set of doors, the group new that it was another decontamination room, but Outcast told Ryder and Jaal to take cover as there was activity in the next room.

Especially since the facility's leader was in the room as well.

"SAM, can you do anything about this yet?" Ryder asked hurriedly, not wanting or liking the idea of getting caught in a kill box that would get him and Jaal killed and Outcast probably captured.

Probably meaning; he does have the highest possibility and chance of surviving any kind of fight.

[Working on it.]

The group took this time to inspect what was happening inside, seeing a group of kett performing a form of ritual as one of their own levitates off the ground and stops in front of a pod as it opens, leaving an angaran in the air as the kett revealed two syringes and jammed them both into the man, injecting its contents into his body as his body began violently shaking and mutating, changing his body as he hit the ground in silent agony, still twitching as the effects of the syringe are coursing through his body.

The end result shocked all of them.

The angaran had turned into the enemy that they were all fighting: a kett.

Seeing this had shocked Jaal to his core and once the doors opened after the decontamination was completed, he had opened fire on all of them, screaming as he did so.

"Wait! Don't kill the angaran! We can still save him!" He pleaded to the others, seeing the recently turned kett firing back at them with the other kett following suit, driving the group into cover.

"Jaal he's shooting-"

"Not anymore he's not." Outcast told them, his bow collapsing back into its compact state as Ryder looked up and seen that the recently turned kett was currently pinned to the wall by an arrow through his leg, ultimately putting him out of the fight.

"Monsters! Villains! Time for you to all die for what you have done!" Jaal screamed, not bothering to go into cover as he and Outcast had both begun firing into anything that was currently moving, the two of them killing the kett with ruthless efficiency as Ryder followed suit.

It had turned into a bloodbath for them within seconds.

"Jaal, I'm sorry but there isn't anything we can do." Ryder tried explaining to the man, getting pushed away as he looked over the injured kett frantically, drawing a sigh form him as Outcast could only shake his head.

"There has to be something! We can't just leave him-"

Jaal is interrupted when Outcast had pulled his knife out and held it to the kett's throat, getting ready to slit it as Jaal had immediately grabbed his hand, causing him to look up.

"I'm sorry Jaal, but he isn't angaran anymore: the serum used can't be reversed and it completely rewrote everything about the angaran who was here before. Everything from memories, feelings, thoughts, and any other personal liberties were erased when this happened." He told him, looking back to the kett and getting ready to continue with his motions until he was stopped once more.

"Please… if anyone is going to do this, let it be a fellow angaran… he deserves that much, at least." Jaal begged him, his voice low almost to the point of him crying as Outcast didn't visibly react to his words, but slowly pulled the knife away and handed it to him, before walking off.

"Let's go Ryder; this is something personal that we don't need to be here for." He told the man, walking by him as he followed closely behind, leaving Jaal to put the kett out of its misery.

Outcast was pissed: seeing that the kett were using something to transform the angara into them and using them to fight their own people made something within the man to snap, his anger fueling his desire to kill as many of them as he can while they watched as the same event happen to the Moshae.

"SECOND… find me something that can overcharge me."

[Affirmative; standby… sufficient power source discovered within a panel at the end of the decontamination room.]

Without saying anything, Outcast pushed Ryder and Jaal to the side, interrupting one's attempts at bashing through the window and the other by having SAM hack the controls of the decontamination cycle.

Ripping the panel off the wall was simple enough for the man, and once that was accomplished he had found a glowing energy core that was probably acting as a form of power source for the barriers that protect the windows from being breached.

Too bad that it was going to be used for the complete opposite.

The sudden flash of light behind the two of them caught their eye, seeing that Outcast had dropped a device onto the ground, the entirety of his suit glowing with energy that caused the two of them to flinch at first from their eyes being adjusted to the dark.

Then the man casually walked in between them and reared his fist back and punched the glass, causing deep and viscous cracks to appear throughout the entire window, catching the two of them off guard as he hit it again, sending fragments of glass everywhere.

Without wasting time, the kett that was getting ready to turn the Moshae into one them had grabbed her, fleeing deeper within the facility as Outcast had ran after them, grabbing a nearby kett and literally crushing its head with a single hand and killing the other when he threw the body into it.

"What the fuck are you two waiting for? MOVE IT!" He tells them, running into the elevator as the other two followed quickly behind.

"Was that-"

"That was overcharge; it doesn't last long if the energy source is small." He told him, motioning towards the suit as it had lost it's effect while the elevator climbed upwards towards the docking area of the facility.

"You cannot take it!" The three of them hears from behind, turning to see the Cardinal standing behind them, holding her side ad she was hunched over.

"It is meant for the Archon himself!"

As she was preparing an attack, Outcast uncloaked beside her, his rifle barrel gently prodding the side of her head, causing her to lower her arm.

"She's coming with us, regardless of what your Archon thinks."

"Wait," the Moshae told him, looking at the Cardinal as she held onto both Ryder and Jaal for support, "I want to know why the Archon-"

The Cardinal growled at them, interrupting the Moshae as she demanded to know who they were to deny such a high and prestigious gift.

Ryder retorted with the fact that they turned their own kind against them, to which the Cardinal told him about how they were chosen to join them to become great and beyond their ability to understand.

"Like them, I was once wretched and the exalted DNA of our great Archon intwines with mine! I stand on the shoulders of his greatness. As they now do, and as one day, you all will."

"What the fuck are you? His sex toy or some shit? Listen bitch, you don't get to decide what's great; you hear me? Your greatness is nothing but a bunch of false propaganda to hide the insecurities of your overlord because he's probably on the lower end of the totem pole in this hierarchical structure that you all seem to follow. Try fighting ceph who are capable of wiping entire worlds in days, who are capable of travelling million of lightyears in an instant, who are capable of destroying everything you've got with little effort. Afterwards, then maybe you can call yourself great."

"You will all be exalted."

Having heard enough from the woman, Ryder asks SAM if there was a way to destroy the facility, to which SAM responded with that he could access the EM field to destroy everything, at the cost of killing all of the angara.

"You promised you would get our people out!" Jaal exclaimed, his face setting in panic as he looked at Ryder with worry.

"This facility needs to be destroyed, regardless if we save the angara or not." Outcast told him, his eyes focusing on the Cardinal as she looked between the three of them frantically.

"Wait! Leave my sacred temple intact and I will personally open all the pods and release the Chosen. Take them; just leave this holy place standing." She pleaded, looking Ryder deep in the eyes as she requested him to do this.

The Moshae demanded different, telling him that the facility needed to be destroyed, even if it killed her in the process, which Jaal told her that they could destroy it later.

After arguing with each other, Ryder stops the two of them from continuing on, looking at the Cardinal and ordering her to release the pods, much to the woman's relief.

"Jaal, have the Resistance free as many of them before the kett arrive."

"I will… and thank you."

When she had finished speaking and turned around to walk away, Outcast had simply walked behind her and grabbed the back of her head and the front of her jaw, violently snapping her neck and twisting her head a full one-eighty, leaving the last image that she will ever see being the look of the blood red visor and dark grey color of his helmet.

"I was prepared to say that she deserved much worse, but I'm glad that you went with a more hands-on approach." The Moshae told him, receiving a dark laugh from the man as he readied his rifle.

The man had much more in mind for this place than what any of them had suspected.

Much more.

That does it for this chapter. Not much else to say, other than I'm sorry for not getting this out sooner.

So, it seems as if the day was saved after all: the Moshae was rescued, the Cardinal was killed, the team seen how Outcast operates, and the angaran prisoners were saved as well.

"But the facility!" You may be asking. Trust me: next chapter, that will be taken care of. Permanently.

As always, tell me what you all think about this chapter, how I could improve it, what more I could add to later chapters, and anything else that you see fit.

I hope you all stay safe during these times and that you and your loved ones make it through this in one piece.

PS: For chapters that features more than one mission needing to be accomplished so that that the over lining mission (such as rescuing the guy's uncle to get information, taking it back to the Tempest, getting more information, going on a scouting run, then assaulting the kett base to rescue the Moshae) is completed, should I keep it as one big chapter, or break it up into two?