MEHR Snippet (Patreon)

“Never mind, joke's from way before your time.”

The three of them stared at Conrad. "Well, don't look at me!" he protested. "I'm just trying to get you all home!"

[h+]

They had been deceived.

"I don't understand it," said Steiner, transmitting to Symeon sub-vocally. "How could anyone breach our security?"

Steiner  hadn't found anything in the software, so it fell to Symeon to check  the hardware. He was knee deep in their craft's guts, to see if anyone  had installed some kind of bypass. He found nothing.

"Either  there's nothing wrong with our sensors," Symeon began, as the ship's  skin grew back over its exposed frame, "or we're dealing with a hacker  capable of completely erasing his tracks."

They  had spent the better part of a day chasing false leads – footprints  leading to the middle of the wilderness, and would have kept on flying  in circles if Symeon hadn't caught on to the ruse.

"The only one who could do that is the Maker himself," stated Steiner, as Symeon re-entered the ship. "You don't think—"

"Does it look like he's finally awake?" asked Symeon.

Steiner  linked up his visual processor to one of the ship's cameras and looked  up at the sky. The Sphere — the Maker's body — floated among the stars  at the center of the habitat ring his Legion has built around it, a  grand temple with millions of Synthetics  praying for their Father's  awakening.

Steiner sighed. “Nope, no activity.”

“What  a shame,” said Symeon, as he took the co-pilot's seat. “Fucking around  with our sensors is just the sort of thing he would do for a laugh.”

“What?...  oh. OH! That's right, you're old enough to remember a time when the  Maker walked among us!” Steiner beamed. “What was he like?”

“Complicated,” replied Symeon, tersely. “And definitely not like how the Triumvirate likes to portray him.” He'd probably hate their guts, he thought. Sometimes I wonder if they're the ones keeping him asleep. 

Three  quick tones ring out in their internal comm units, announcing 6O  incoming call. “Hey guys!” she began cheerfully, as her image appeared  on their holoprojector. “Got a status update for me?”

Their report, of course, was less than satisfactory.

“Hoo boy,” she said. “Remote diagnostics show nothing out of the ordinary...”

“We're keeping up the chase anyways,” transmitted Symeon. “But we're running a bit low, where's our drop?”

“Weeeeellll about that?” she started, sheepishly. “Damnedest thing just happened...”

Exasperated, Symeon called her by her chosen name: “Orchidée...”

“It's not my fault this time! Honest! I sent that supply drop request on time, after triple-checking it! But it got caught up in some kind of loop, and the robots only sent the drop only pod minutes ago!”

“Hey, as long as we're finally getting our Luciferase,” Steiner offered. “Right?”

“Wait for it,” warned Symeon.

6O wilted,“Well... I just checked its projected trajectory – it's going off course.”

“Which continent?” asked Symeon, sighing as he assumed the worst. This had happened before.

She pouted with her eyes: “Hey! It's not that bad...” Her hologram shifted, replacing her form with a miniature model of earth and the drop pod's course.  “It looks like it's headed for the outskirts to the Copied City.”

Steiner perked up. “Ooh, I've got friends there on the reconstruction team!”

“Hey, me too!” added 6O cheerfully, as her form reappeared on “Anyways, the pod will make landfall in a few hours. Might as well take it slow, right?”

Symeon  double-checked the location of the drop zone before inputting it on the  KG's navigation systems, and something about the location seemed odd...  “Hm, I could swear those breadcrumb trails we followed were meant to  keep us as far away from the city as possible.”

“And if I didn't know any better,” added Steiner. “I'd say those jacks down in logistics pointed us in the right direction. Almost as if...” the hand of the Maker was at work, he left unsaid.

“Mysterious ways, huh?” Symeon smirked.

“...I'm sorry?”

“Nevermind, joke's from way before your time.”

[h+]

“I just realized,” said Garrus. “We finally made good on our vacation time.”