The Reclaimer Wars:The Reaper Crisis

Nox Aeterna

Yet another car ride led the team deeper into Tuchanka, this time, into Gatatog territory. Thankfully, Doctor Halsey had requested a pair of Warthogs be deployed so that she, the Commander and Blue Team could advance. Rolling in under the cover of darkness with active Night Vision and no vehicle lights, the team prepared.

Shepard was driving the leading Warthog, with Halsey in the side seat and Mordin in the back, though not manning the gun. That honor fell to Kelly, who was scanning the line around them as they advanced down a broken highway. One of their wheels crunched something underneath and bone fragments shot up by the vehicle's open side.

Shepard hummed, then said, "You know, this somehow handles better than the Mako..." in a murmur. Mordin, who was hanging onto the vehicle's roll cage for dear life, laughed a bit nervously. He had heard rumors of how Commander Shepard could drive. Mostly from Garrus, obviously, but regardless of that...

Kelly felt the wheel bounce over a piece of rubble and said, "Commander, with all due respect, please keep us on the road..." quietly. Though it was unspoken, all members of the away team felt an unease not exactly related to Shepard's apparently poor driving track record. No, something about this op was strange and it wasn't just the Gatatog territory.

The trip continued on in silence until Halsey signaled a stop. Next to a monolithic ruin that must've once been an important religious site, going by the few wall paintings the team could make out, there was a crater dug deep by bombs and orbital debris. The remnants of ancient ships, both Krogan and seemingly Citadel, lay strewn about in the distance, scrap-heap mountains rising high in the darkness.

Shepard heard her geiger counter spike, the chirping going from short clicks half a second apart to a long, constant chittering. She looked to Halsey, who nodded, expecting a pocket of radiation in this specific area as she activated her mask and what CBRN Defenses her new equipment, an armor and a MOPP-esque suit, had.

The Spartans dismounted from the vehicles, weapons at the ready while Halsey examined the drawings on the building. Mordin wasn't far behind, taking a knee beside the building's exterior and noting parts of the collapsed interior through a pair of shattered doors, both of which were drilled through by ancient gunfire.

He could even see some parts of the slugs that tore through it. Not important to the investigation at hand, but still. He looked at Halsey and asked, "Anything to help with?" as he stared at the insignias and symbols. Strangely, none of them were familiar to him and any anthropologist and archaeologist friends he might've had in the STG were lightyears away...

"Not yet..." Halsey murmured as she scanned one symbol in particular with heavy interest.

Shepard took a knee next to them as well, staring at the symbol, then said, "... It almost looks like someone put half a Jedi Order symbol next to a really, really old Republic symbol in there..." as she pulled up images General Tano and her Clone Troopers had shown her of home. Indeed, the left side of the strange symbol, a hexagonal shape containing two halves of two emblems, contained the strange, bird-like alien mark of the Jedi Order.

The right, though? It looked like a much simpler half-mark of the Republic. One half-arrow pointed up at twelve, one full arrow pointing at two, one at four and one half-arrow pointing at six o'clock. She also saw a strange cloaked figure next to it. Two, in fact. Halsey spoke, "Good observation... That is, indeed, a symbol of the old Jedi Order... Though I'm unsure of what it could mean."

"Presence of extragalactic religious order like Jedi here? Strange," Mordin spoke, "Perhaps best to inquire with General Tano?"

"We ordered radio silence so the entire Gatatog Clan doesn't come down on our heads," Shepard replied in a murmur, "So, probably not a good idea," before noticing Halsey visibly widening her eyes. She turned toward another symbol, flashing a beam of light from her flashlight on it. Shepard blinked as an alien rune, carved into the stone appeared.