16 – Priority: Eden Prime (2)

Veronica turned on the ship, which still had no name, and began to fly. She noticed that no communication with the Alliance had been made, meaning that Samael's cloaking device was working.

'He surprises me more and more.'

Quickly taking altitude, everyone on board the ship looked out of the window and into space with awe in their eyes.

This was the first space travel for all of them, except Samael, who smiled seeing the vast galaxy up close once more, 'I came, I saw, and I will conquer! The Reapers will pay for targeting my home.'

He lost count of how many years he spent traveling around the space, but it was always a somehow nice feeling seeing it so close once again. It was one of the few reasons he didn't lose his mind experiencing so many cycles.

It got close a lot of times, and he was broken too, but he always grabbed his pieces and put himself back up, in the hopes of escaping that hell.

The space always calmed him and helped him cope with all.

After a few minutes of silence, Veronica rushed to the Mass Relay closest to Earth. Once more, she remembered they had to ask for permission from the Alliance to use it, but when she looked at Samuel, she noticed he was also looking at her.

'' Don't worry about it, and just use it. RR, hack into it, and program it to the Mass Relay closest to Eden Prime.''

Samael didn't care if they somehow found traces of RR in their system afterward, which was something close to impossible, by the way. He wasn't afraid of the consequences of people finding out about the AI as the ship was in stealth mode, and, in the rare cases they find about it, the consequences were just an inconvenience to Samael.

He already lived on the run in other cycles, from forces even bigger than what the galaxy can muster right now.

" Got it!'' Veronica and RR said at the same time.

Soon enough, the ship was ready to go through the Mass Relay into the galaxy. Samael took this opportunity to say, '' Guys, take a good look at home. It will be some time until we see it again.''

The mass relay started to work as soon as Samael finished saying that, and a countdown began thanks to RR: '' 10, 9, 8, 7 ...''

By now, Alliance personnel in charge of the Mass Relay must be panicking because of this unknown situation. Everything was in order just a few moments ago, but suddenly the Mass Relay started to work without anyone doing anything. The strange part was that there was not a single ship in sight or caught on the sensor.

It was also like the Mass Relay was activated for no reason at all.

'' 6, 5, 4,...''

Samael looked at Earth one last time, ' In my past cycles, I managed to save my friends, and we won, but the galaxy paid a huge price. Now, I'll make sure I will do things flawlessly, or at least close to that. I have everything I need, I just need time and a little bit of luck on the side. But I can do this... I will do this. It's a promise.'

To whom no one knew.

'' 3, 2, 1....''

'Until we meet again, Earth.'

''0.''

The Mass Relay then launched the ship across space, in the direction of Eden Prime. Even with the mass relay, it would take up to 10–20 hours to reach the planet.

EDEN PRIME

Life was good at Eden Prime. It was one of the first planets colonized by humans since they went to space, and it had a lot of potential that, to some, had already been reached. There were plants, plantations, and other good things on the planet, considered to some a safe haven.

It was a good place to live, the almost 4 million residents of the planet could attest to that, but today, the residents in a certain area of the planet were raising their eyebrows at the newly arrived people.

Those new people arrived a few days ago and started digging through an area that belonged to others. Or so the residents thought.

They went to ask those people to stop when suddenly a young man came out of the houses where those new people were residing. He was smiling at everyone and saying, '' Good day to you all. How can I help you today?''

The leader of the group of people who came to ask them to stop gained some confidence seeing he was dealing with a young man. So he took a deep breath and started spewing nonsense nonstop. '' Good day, my ass. Who gave you the right to dig here? Let me remind you that blablablablablablabla....'

The young man wanted to say he had the authorization, but when he saw the meltdown the man in front of him was having, he just nodded and smiled at what the man was saying.

The leader continued talking, '' If you don't leave now, I'll have to call Alliance personnel to escort you out of here.''

HUFHUF

He was out of breath after speaking so much, so fast, and in so little time. The leader looked smug, as he just showed the 'power' he had as leader of the people in Eden Prime.

'' I have the authorization.'' The young man said it in a calm voice, but everyone could hear the laughter behind it.

''... What?'' Hoping he heard it wrong, the leader of the group asked in a low voice.

But his hopes were shattered as the young man, or Samael to friends, said once more, '' Not only do I have the authorization to dig in my own property, I would kindly ask you to leave now. You are interrupting our work.''

He then showed them his documents, showing them that he was indeed the owner and the authorization he had to make some 'renovations' around the area.

By the way, the land was bought ages ago ( AN: check chapter 8), and the permit was legit too, as he had asked RR to do both.

Grasping at straws, the leader said in a hurry, '' You can't make loud noises after 8 p.m. It's on the rules.''

'' We never made a sound after that time. You can ask anyone to see if it's true.''

The leader knew it was true. While they were loud and looked bad in this otherwise prismatic place, they were following the rules. Defeated, he just sighed, '' Just... follow the rules.''

Samael nodded and sounded naive, but everyone knew it was fake. '' Of course, I'll follow the rules! Who would be crazy enough to not follow the rules? Guys, '' He asked the crew, who was digging using a few machines and a power armor he bought earlier, '' Do we break the rules?!''

'' NO-YES!''

'' Who said yes?! Are you trying to embarrass me here?!'' Samael looked offended that someone said yes. When no one came forward to take the blame, he sighed and said to the leader, '' See how difficult it is to manage those people? Imagine what would happen if people continued to interrupt their work. '' He then screamed this last part, '' WHICH IS NOW DOUBLED THANKS TO SOMEONE WHO SHOUTED YES.''

''BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHH.'' The crew started to throw their food at Samael, but for some reason, it was only hitting the people who came to complain.

When Samael saw that, he hurried and went to clean the face of the leader, who was hit by an egg in the face. '' Oh no! I'm sorry!'' He started to wipe the man's head so hard that it started to hurt, and a few hairs started to fall.

When the man noticed that, he hurried and screamed,'' STOP! STOP! STOP!!!!!''

Samael only stopped after he made sure no egg was in the man's face or some parts of his hair.

''Done! You're free to go now! You're welcome to watch us work any time of the day!''

The leader and the rest of the people ran out of the digging site, as they didn't want to be involved with those people. They clearly looked like ruffians, but they could not be charged with any crime as they did not commit any. So, everyone knew they didn't have a way to make them stop the digging and could only hope the escalation stopped soon.

After everyone left, Miranda approached Samael and said,'' Good job.''

'' Thanks. I made sure they wouldn't bother us again. By the way, who the fuck hit me with an egg?'' While he dodged almost all of them, one of the eggs hit Samael.

No one came forward again, so he could only accept defeat. '' Don't let me find out!''

Miranda smiled, seeing the carefree attitude everyone had at the moment. But she still wasn't sure why they were there, on this planet.

Don't get her wrong, as she didn't mind leaving Earth, but she had just started her job as CEO of LD, just for her to be now on the other side of the galaxy ... digging.

For what purpose, she had no idea.

---

DAYS EARLIER

It was the same day they arrived at Eden Prime. As Samael had already bought a few pieces of land on the planet, they went straight at it.

To the crew's surprise, there were already people there waiting for them there. They looked a little rough, and based on the heavy machinery behind them, they were construction workers, a rare professed thanks to the machines taking over,'' Are you the buyer?''

Samael nodded and went to talk with the man, saying, ''Yes. I take everything I ordered is here?''

'' You can check yourself.'' The man pointed behind him, and Samael discretely asked RR, who was at his side, to make the count. Seconds later, she nodded.

Satisfied, Samael transferred a little tip to the seller, '' Thanks.''

'' It was a pleasure doing business with you. Man, we are leaving.'' Everyone got out, and Samael's crew looked confused.

John gathered courage and went to talk with Samael. ''What exactly are we doing here?"

''Digging.''

''... But won't we need them for that?''

Samael looked at John with a shocked face and said, ''Why do we need them if we have us?''

John's face twitched. ''We don't know how to use those machines.''

Samael laughed, '' Don't worry, RR will help you guys with that! Right, RR?''

RR 'smiled' at the crew, '' Trust me, by the time I'm done with your training, you will be better than those people who just left.''

The crew cursed their luck. They just left Earth to dig Earth on another planet, and for reasons they didn't even know.

Regardless, two days later, everyone in the crew, including Miranda and Veronica, knew how to dig. Samael didn't take the lesson because he knew it already, thanks to his travels with Liara in the past.

It was the fifth day since they arrived when the people showed up.

--

PRESENT

'' Can I ask why we are digging?'' Miranda didn't manage to hold back her curiosity. Her genius gene or whatever prevented her from acting normally regarding things she didn't know.

She always wanted to get to the bottom of things, and the situation was no different.

Samael looked at the progress of the dig and knew it would take at most a day to reach the place where Javik was. '' You will soon know... By the way, I have an errand to do on this planet. I'll let you handle things here.''

He then said while looking at RR, '' If you need help, ask her.''

Miranda nodded. She wanted to ask so badly what he was going to do, but held herself back, '' Good luck.''

'' Thanks.''

Samael then left the digging site, to meet with someone.

A few moments later, Samael was stalking a woman—Jack's mother, to be precise. He didn't forget the tragic tale of her and her daughter's lives.

Jack was kidnapped as an infant, and her mother was told Jack had died thanks to her huge exposure to element zero.

Remember that it was this same element that gave biotic powers to people, and Jack was one of the best, if not the best, human biotics that would ever exist.

Maybe Miranda could face her, as they were evenly matched in other cycles too.

Anyway, Samael wanted to bring her mom to see her and somehow save the last few remains of humanity Jack had left. He wasn't going to lie, while leaving her to be tortured was the only way to guarantee her survival, he still felt sorry for her.

So, he wanted to at least try and help the young woman deal with her past by bringing her mom to meet her. By the way, this was the first time in Samael's life that he was doing something like that. It was uncharted territory for him, and that brought joy to him.

But the fact that he couldn't just go there and say to the woman, '' Hey, just for your information, your daughter was kidnapped by an evil organization and didn't die in your labor. You were lied to, and she is still alive today. I know this might sound weird right now, but it's true. I have proof of it.''

Samael then passed a photo of Jack to the bewildered woman alongside a few more information he had on her.

When she saw the photo on her Omni-tool, she paled. She then started to read the files Samael passed her and she was convinced soon after.

Then she started to cry a little and said in a hurry, '' Are you for real!? WE HAVE TO SAVE HER NOW! No, we have to call the police! The press! Everyone''

Samael was still thinking about his plan when he realized he just went and did it.

''... OH shit.''