Title: Another Hostile World
Fandom: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Characters: Female Ryder, SAM
Rating: G
Length: 327 words
Content Notes: no warnings apply
Author's Notes: set during Hunting the Archon, at the team's first arrival on Kadara
Summary: How could she not have smelled the sulfuric stench that rose from the pond?


She understood immediately why the outlaws had settled here. A lively port, bustling with commerce and opportunities... While she did not fully agree with the way they took over, she could not help but admire their survivability.

Everyone they met warned them about the outskirts, though. They talked about deadly creatures lurking in the mountains, ready to strike; about outlaws too violent, even for the Nexus' troublemakers, to allow them a place among the others; and about the way the world itself was struggling against every attempt to make it more liveable.

Once they left the slums, and moved into the open wilderness that was Kadara, Ryder was convinced they had exaggerated. Before her was a wondrous landscape, with plenty of flora and peaceful fauna everywhere she looked, gently ascending slopes, lush, inviting lakes, and a clear sky; by far the most alive world she had seen since she had woken up.

She had seen worse. She had been through worse. If it weren't for the raiders that might ambush them, this was the closest she got for a vacation.

"I advise you to not jump into those pools, Pathfinder."

SAM's calm voice came in over her implant, interrupting her thoughts, and snapping her out of her mesmerised fascination; she examined the ponds more closely. And, indeed, what she had taken for refreshing pools of water were anything but. She watched a dragonfly, its body as long as her forearm, fly across a lake, and be hit by a bubble popping at the pool's surface.

What little remained from its body dropped, and dissolved completely within seconds. With her eyes wide open, she abruptly drew back, much to the amusement of her squad mates.

How could she not have smelled the sulfuric stench that rose from the pond?

Gritting her teeth, she punched in the access code for the Nomad air drop command. Kadara was just another hostile world. Hopefully the vault could help to change that.