The fact that he had a hangover was.... unusual, and frankly, just bad.

He didn't get hangovers anymore, and hadn't for so long he could barely remember what it felt like. All the energy he'd soaked up, the only time he suffered headaches was when he was suffering from some sort of actual damage, some real pain... and as he struggled into consciousness, the familiarity of the situation gave a certain level of irritation... as he gave a low sigh of disappointment.

He could remember the night before, and thought of it as he lay back, eyes closed. Svetlana was definitely fun, and certainly knew exactly what she wanted... and of course every moment his precognition was screaming at him that this was a terrible idea, while other parts were, of course, providing their own counter-argument.

He knew he wasn't in bed before he opened his eyes, he could see a wall mere inches away; there was a cushion, but it was a chair of some sort, straps securing him down... and he finally opened his eyes, as he heard a noise.

Eyeball heard the whistle of atmosphere outside of the coffin-shaped container he found himself in; and knew that if he broke it open, he'd see the open air around him, and a rapidly approaching ground far below. The answer was pretty obvious. He was in an escape pod. Svetlana had waited until he was asleep, or drugged him unconscious, and then simply loaded him up on a one-way trip to... wherever he was going.

He was wearing his helmet... and his armor. So this wasn't an attempt to kill him. His extradimensional storage space.... was mostly empty. His helmet connected to it and displayed an inventory count on his HUD; two hundred and seventy ration bars, two hundred and seventy MREs of multiple flavors, two thousand six hundred bottles of water. The classic Titanslayer handgun, with one hundred magazines of twenty rounds each.

And... a Pale One gun. A 40mm revolver that held six shells... and three hundred and sixty more in storage. All told, while it wouldn't be enough ammo for a year-long campaign of constant ground combat, considering he didn't need to eat, drink, or sleep as much as he used to, this could last him years. If they were descendant-level tech, this might be enough to take over a planet, or get offworld.

However.... "Ascension, are you active?" There'd been a pared-down, limited version of the AI in the helmet. And of course... no response whatsoever.

There was no copy of Ascension. And his HUD clearly had been modified, removing some but not all of the AI functions; he was... on his own.

He shook his head, and as a loud beeping sounded, tried to relax; bracing himself would be useless; and felt a sudden jerk.

He didn't know how this particular pod worked. Did a chute just open? Did thrusters just fire? Whatever it was, he wasn't going to be dead within the span he could foresee....

A loud crack.... as the pod slammed into the ground, with a surprisingly mild impact. He could see the door open before it actually did, revealing... a wide open forest. Blue-grey plants the size of a car, spaced out over a soft layer of what felt, when he stepped out, like some sort of squishy underlayer. Not a single building in sight... and while he could see some lights in the sky, they were falling; shooting stars, rather than any orbital infrastructure.

The sudden weight of gravity after the extended freefall in the pod made getting up a momentary struggle as he stretched and adjusted to moving around again. So.... had she decided to get rid of him long enough to prevent him from making a difference in whatever she was doing, and someone would be back to get him later? Or was this a permanent exile?

He looked back at the pod, as it lay in a surprisingly small hole in the moss-like ground, and shook his head as he approached. "System diagnostics check."

A soft beep came from the pod. ~Communications, offline. Sensors, offline. Life support, offline. All systems disabled. One saved message.~

Of course. "Play message."

A soft, feminine voice. ~Hi there, Jason! So, I'm taking this Founder vessel here, and I'm going to be making a galactic tour. By the time you read this, I've finished the modifications I want to make, and have already started moving; you've been out for a few days. Sorry for the headache! I didn't want you on the surface exposed to a possible attack before you wake up, so I put enough juice in there to be completely certain it got you up. Over the next two hundred and twelve days, I'm going to be destroying every major Founder-descended population center, and planting a new strain I've been working on everywhere I can reach so any survivors take out the rest. Extremely deadly, basically takes anyone with the core Founder-installed genetics and destroys their mind, turning them into violent monsters over the next few weeks as it liquifies their nervous system. I'll be coming to pick you up after, so don't worry about finding a way off-world; I've already destroyed all the orbital infrastructure, and any ships capable of reaching orbit.~

Eyeball pressed two fingers against his forehead. Was the headache getting worse?

~Feel free to just relax. You've got food and water to last, and by the time you see me, the problem will have been resolved. I already seeded the world you're on. I know you aren't capable of reaching orbit on your own, much less catching me, but if you manage to think of a way, I'll be impressed enough to give you a second date. If you want to see just why I'm doing this, feel free to go check out the locals. You should already know... but a little reminder won't hurt.~

Wonderful. She'd probably picked some place where a tier-4 species was being worked to death, or eaten, or ruthlessly butchered, by the Marrick, or some other species of the Republic. As if he hadn't seen that before.

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He sighed, looking at the pod. She was probably right, that he couldn't catch her without help. If he had a functioning copy of Ascension, maybe he could figure out a way to get the escape pod turned into an orbital craft, or send a signal, or build a hyperdrive to send a signal that way.

Without.... he was probably trapped here.

Just another reminder that it was really Ascension doing the lion's share of the work here, and he was mostly just useful at the start.

Eyeball looked out across the... trees? He'd call them trees, sure. No idea where the nearest settlement was. No idea if he could eat local food. No idea why Svetlana considered this place a prime example of what was so bad in Andromeda.

It seemed he'd just have to go for a walk and find out.

***

Eyeball had walked for two hours, watching the sun slowly crawl across the sky; the AI was barely functional, but when asked, it told him how long that meant the day was... and that he had about six more hours before the sun went down; likely a 28-hour day. The landscape seemed virtually identical; and while he could see some ground creatures; short, fat, eight-limbed crawlers; he had yet to see any tall plants, or anything with wings.

He had, however, finally seen something artificial in the distance... and come to an odd realization.

He felt... heavy. Tired. It wasn't really hard to move, and he wasn't struggling, but... he hadn't actually felt tired from physical exertion for quite a while. Was this place...

He picked up a rock, having to pry up a patch of blue-grey mass to reach the soil beneath and pry out a dirty chunk, extending his hand out. "Measure the falling time."

He dropped it from head height... and the helmet AI snapped; showing a 0.19 second fall time. It definitely fell faster than it should have. "Okay. Whats the gravity here?"

The helmet... didn't respond. He grimaced. Okay. This... was unfortunate. He was mediocre at math. That was maybe three times as fast as it normally fell. Did that mean this was 3Gs? Or higher, since it didn't have a whole second to accelerate?

Either way, if there were any sentient natives, they'd be much stronger than a Marrick.

As he approached the shiny metal object in the distance, he could see a building with an odd, vaguely pyramid shape... and layers of fences surrounding it... an outer one which appeared fairly normal... and then an inner one made up of odd, tall metal poles, each with a glowing blue orb on it. That.... looked like the sort of field emitters the marrick deployed to stop speedsters, like the Jernal; they weren't an exact match, but close enough to what he'd seen in the videos. Perhaps they had multiple purposes?

He stopped at the fence, giving a long sigh; he could feel the sweat dripping down his body before the suit absorbed it, his legs were tired, his back sore... he hated walking here. He looked past the fence... and saw a group of humanoids sitting around a rock. Short. Heavyset, maybe three or four feet tall, and just as wide. They had dull grey skin, a single massive cluster of eyes; at least nine of them; no apparent ears.... and were speaking to each other in soft tones.

"...Do I at least have a translator?"

After a few seconds, subtitles popped up. ~Food soon. Late?~ ~Late. Not long late.~ ~Feel long late.~

He stood there watching; the creatures seemed to completely ignore him, as if a stranger against their fence was a non-issue, just talking about their next meal being delayed... until the building inside the inner fence opened, and... a Shivan stepped out. The two clusters of eyes, the silvery-white skin... it was fairly obvious... carrying a bucket to the innermost fence, to an odd contraption that was attached between two of the fence-posts.

There was an empty bucket on the inside, on the ground... and when he set it down... the buckets swapped. The filled one moving to the outside, while the empty one was drawn to the inside. The cluster of short creatures gathered at the bucket... distributing whatever was inside among themselves, eating rapidly.

The Shivan stopped; he was wearing simple grey coveralls rather than a military uniform, and was staring at Eyeball. "....Klogshukin?"

~Who are you?~

Eyeball grimaced. "Eyeball. Yourself?" His helmet appeared to make a string of noises. Thank god, a two-way translator.

More of the nonsense. ~Shepard Stalwart. How... are you standing there, outside the field? If you can, walk over to the north. There's a gate. Do I need to call an ambulance?~ He was pointing towards a gate, leading to a walkway through the larger fenced-in area.

"No, no. Mind if I come in?"

~Hurry!~ The Shivan jogged over to the inner gate, and watched Eyeball as he headed over himself... and when he reached it, the pathway opened, allowing him to smoothly, easily walk forward to the inner gate... which snapped shut behind him. As he passed the row of energized poles, he suddenly felt.... lighter. Much, much lighter. As if he could practically float. He stretched, not realizing how sore he was after that walk.

"Thanks. Just crash-landed here, the... gravity protection field? Is appreciated."

~Of course! You must be made of strong stuff, most can only crawl for a bit, and then die, out there. If this field broke.... my transport, my shed, me... all be crushed flat by the roof!~

Eyeball nodded, studying the structure. It was a pyramid. The whole thing was roof. "Mind if I ask, whats the deal with those guys out there? Prisoners? Haven't seen their kind before."

The Shivan gave a short bark of what was probably laughter. ~No, no. Slaves. The locals here are undoubtedly descendants like us, but stupid. Weak-minded. Adapted to the horrible gravity. We use them to gather ore. We don't go anywhere here without a protective field. These creatures actually get sick and die after a while if they come inside.~

Was Svetlana trying to teach him a lesson by showing one race enslaving another? This was nothing new. Humans did it to members of their own race. Didn't mean they all needed to die, just that the slavery needed to stop. "Is there a way to get to the spaceport? Need to get back offworld if possible. I was helping with the recovery efforts back in the capital system, and frankly have no idea how I got here."

~Well, sure. But whoever shot your ship down shot down a bunch of others; I think everything with a warp drive has been cratered.~

Helpful enough. "Still, I bet if a ride out of system shows up, thats where it'll be... and maybe I can help get them off the ground."

The Shivan looked at him for a moment... and gave their species equivalent of a shrug, before gesturing at the pyramid. ~Well. Come on. The slaves will keep for a while, and we're not due back at the mines til tomorrow. Hop aboard.~

"Thanks, Shepard. Much appreciated." He checked his extradimensional space. No currency. Of course not. "Didn't come down with any money, but I was helping the Confederate forces. If they have an embassy or something they might be able to pay you for getting me?"

~We'll have to see. If not, no big deal.~

He extended an arm, elbow pointed forward; Eyeball thought for a moment; and pressed his own forearm against the Shivan's, copying the gesture. He had no idea he'd just doomed the slaver as he followed him into the pyramid.